Year: 2007

Genentech Chooses to Blind People for Profit

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Here is what is going on, Genentech makes two drugs, Avastin and Lucentis. The former is used to treat colon cancer, and the latter “wet” macular degeneration, one of the more common forms of blindness.

The drugs are very similar, but Avastin, when cut to a dosage for eye treatment, costs about $38.00/dose, as opposed to Lucentis, which wholesales for $1,950.00 a dose (no, I have not misplaced a decimal place.

So now Genentech is going to cut off pharmacists it believes are delivering the drug to ophthalmologists who use it in an off label application.

They claim that it’s safety concerns. Bullsh$#!

Charles Krauthammer Endorses Hillary Clinton

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Seeing as how this guy is wrong about everything, it does not bode well for Hillary’s possibilities. She will be unable to make the economic changes necessary to fix our economy, and she will not stand up to the “very serious people” in DC who think that we should use our military whenever possible.

As an aside, he also makes the comment, that her savings proposalss are “the perfect vehicle for a future conservative administration to use for shifting from the current, unsustainable government-controlled program to a privatized system such as the one in Chile.”

For those of you who don’t know, the privatized system in Chile is a disaster, which is why the military is still in a public one. Similar efforts in Argentina were the single largest cause of the collapse there.

Moron.

Jena 6 Defendant Ordered Back to Slammer

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The prosecutor (yes, the racist cracker who trumped this all up in the first place), and fellow traveller Judge J.P. Mauffrey that this entire mess is a parole violation.

I believe that the charge is “being an uppity n*****”. This is disgraceful, and Al Sharpton is right when he calls this “revenge”.

Disgraceful.

Unfortunately, under the Bush administration, there is no realistic chance of any of these folks being taken down for civil rights violations.

Money Supply Explodes, Hyper Inflation Inevitable

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Barry Ritholtz at the big picture has a post showing that the money supply grew at an astonishing 24.3% according to the St. Louis Fed’s financial data.

Note that this number does not include the Fed’s rate cut or the emergency injection of money by the world’s central banks to stabilize the dollar.

More dollars chasing the same amount of goods equals inflation, in this case, it looks like double digit inflation, and probably the dollar falling of a cliff in currency markets.

Bogus Patent Suit Instigated by Microsoft Against Linux Vendors

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A company by the name of IP Innovation LLC, a subsidiary of subsidiary of a company called Acacia (a well known patent troll) has filed suit against Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell.

The patent is for a “User interface with multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects”, something that existed in prior art and is obvious.

FWIW, Acacia also holds a patent on the “desktop”, no kidding, they just got Apple to pay money.

The recent supreme court cases which restricted patent remedies should make this interesting. Because Acacia is a patent troll, there is no damage that cannot be made right, and so there is no cause for an injunction, and here is a big surprise:

And Acacia has taken on a couple of former Microsoft employees in recent months, including Brad Brunell, who was general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft until he joined IP Innovation on 1 October — just eight days before the suit was filed

So much like SCO, Microsoft’s FUD hands are all over this.

Al Gore and the UN IPCC Win Nobel Peace Prize

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That sound that you hear ius wingnut heads exploding at the news. Heh.

Maybe they will turn their guns away from the Frost Family now, at least a bit.

That being said, I sand by my earlier prediction: Albert Gore will not be running for president in 2008. He’s happy doing what he’s doing right now, and he knows that the presstitutes will come after him if he runs.

Here is the picture, taken before the award, that convinced me that he is not running. This is not the face of Gore running for president:

US Marines Want to Leave Iraq

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The US Marines are suggesting that they be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan.

With about 25,000 Marines in Iraq, and about 26,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, this would seem a relatively straightforward swap, though the obvious question is, “why?”

I think that it is because the Marines as a group recognize that Iraq as a lie, and while they are willing to fight, they find that fighting for a lie is disheartening.

There is some push back on this, particularly from the USAF, because the Marines bring their own air capability, one that would probably seriously outperform the USAF, since a Marine air wing is more focused on the ground, with every pilot being a trained rifleman, which would mean less civilian casualties, and better coordination with ground troops.

Prosecutor of Anti-Terror Trial to Go on Trial Himself for Obstruction of Justice, Making False Declarations, and Conspiracy Charges

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The involves the trial of four people accused of being a terrorist “cell” in Detroit. Richard Convertino suppressed documents that would help the defense during discovery, and then lied about it.

It was so egregious that he was outed by his staff, and the convictions were overturned at the request of the Justice Department.

According to the prosecution, Convertino was looking at converting a high profile conviction into a leg up in a run for Congress.

It’s good that he, and former State Department investigator Harry Smith III, are being put on trial.

As much as the Bush Administration thinks that the law is not worth the trouble, it’s the only thing protectinb us against corrupt overzealous members of the state security apparatus.

War On Terror Means More Crime in US

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Bill Bratton, current LAPD chief, and the man who cleaned up New Yorek (not Guiliani), is saying that the federal government is abandoning its commitment to fighting crime in the United States and diverting those resources to the “Total War Against Terror“*.

“The federal government is a one-eyed Cyclops – it can only focus on one thing at a time,” said Mr Bratton, in an interview with the Financial Times. “We have to fight a two-front war on terrorism internationally and on crime at home. You cannot fight terrorism at the expense of 16,000 homicides a year.”

FWIW, that is 5 times the total deaths from 911.

He’s right.

*Check out the acronym.

90 Congressmen Have Signed Letter to Defund Iraq War

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In July, it was 70 Congressmen, and now it’s “nearly 90”, and the letter is still being circulated.

The interesting thing is that with about 25 more signatures, over ½ of the Democratic members of congress will have signed this. What does the leadership do then, because it can only pass with Republican votes, and more Dems opposing than supporting.

What do the craven elements of the house leadership *cough* Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emmanuel *cough* do then?

This is a good sign.

Text of letter below:

The Honorable George W. Bush
President
United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Seventy House Members wrote in July to inform you that they will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of our troops out of Iraq before you leave office.

Now you are requesting an additional $45 billion to sustain your escalation of U.S. military operations in Iraq through next April, on top of the $145 billion you requested for military operations during FY08 in Iraq and Afghanistan. Accordingly, even more of us are writing anew to underscore our opposition to appropriating any additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq other than a time-bound, safe redeployment as stipulated above.

More than 3,742 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 27,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisors gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues.

We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Is Bands Moving to Online Distrubution of Their Music Part of a Trend?

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I hope so, as the record distributors are a group of contemptable greedheads who rip off both the fans and the artists, and who should be the first ones agaisnt the wall when the revolution comes.

As it stands now, Both Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have dumped record distributors completely.

Certainly, getting their tracks on iTunes®, or some similar service should be pretty easy, as the marginal cost of keeping a track in a virtual “warehouse” is fractions of a penny.

Considering the number of hits out there from 40 years ago that are still “not recouped” by the record labels, there is no reason today for bands to go with the lables.

SEC Is Looking Into Insider Abuse of Stock Plans

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A stock plan is an automatic stock trading scheme. It is frequently used by senior corporate officers, because (theoretically) it provides insulation from the temptations or accusations of insider trading.

The SEC is now looking into whether these plans are being manipulated by insiders.

Introduced in 2000 as part of a broader securities reform, these plans enable executives to buy and sell company stock virtually year-round, regardless of insider knowledge or trading “blackouts.” Financial planners and brokers tout the plans as a smart way for executives to take money off the table and diversify their portfolios.

The main stipulation is that executives must set up a written, systematic trading plan when they have no inside information, then hand off the actual trading to a broker or other third party.

But experts say the rules are so flexible that they have led to a wide spectrum of practices and disclosures. Some executives trade in consistent batches at recurring intervals, sometimes on a daily basis. Others trade stock based on undisclosed formulas that can be pegged to daily stock prices, moving averages or other variables.

Once again we are seeing that market deregulation frees the market to be corrupt to a far larger degree than it frees the market to be efficient. We need toi bring back all those FDR era laws that have been repealed starting in the mid 1970s.

This repeal has created nothing but corruption and pain for the little guy.

Obama Finally Starts Mentioning Clinton by Name

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I think that one of my concerns about Barack Obama is that he suffers from “Adlai Stevenson Syndrome”, where he thinks that the rough and tumble of politics is somehow beneath him.

There appears to be some signs of hope on this, Obama is now criticizing Hillary Clinton by name on her the Iran Revolutionary Guard resolution.

Additionally, I think that both Edwards and Obama have held off on attacking Clinton out of concern that it would drive primarily benefit the one not in the fight, though Elizabeth Edwards has wisely functioned as a proxy in this issue.

I think that Clinton is far to concerned about proving her toughness, and as such, it undermines her strength. Basically, she feels a need to act like one of those “very serious” people from the Council on Foreign Relations, who to this day say that we should stay in Iraq.

That would be her weakness as president, and I think that it can be shown to be her weakness as a candidate.

Why I Switched My Long Distance to Qwest.

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I blogged about this in June, but it bears repeating again.

Former Quest CEO is appealing his insider trading conviction, and a part of his defense was to be that he expected to win secret contracts, but that the CIA, NSA, etc. retaliated after Qwest refused illegal wiretapping requests.

The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

The documents indicate that likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio’s so-called “classified information” defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to present it.

…..

The documents suggest U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham refused to allow Nacchio to present the argument about retaliation. Nottingham also said Nacchio would have to take the stand to raise the classified defense.

…..

Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and May 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison. He’s free pending appeal.

The partially redacted documents were filed under seal before, during and after Nacchio’s trial. They were released Wednesday.

Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.

The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it.

The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to companies other than Qwest.

USA Today reported in May 2006 that Qwest, unlike AT&T and Verizon, balked at helping the NSA track phone calling patterns that may have indicated terrorist organizational activities. Nacchio’s attorney, Herbert Stern, confirmed that Nacchio refused to turn over customer telephone records because he didn’t think the NSA program had legal standing.

In the documents, Nacchio also asserts Qwest was in line to build a $2 billion private government network called GovNet and do other government business, including a network between the U.S. and South America.

I’ve also saved quite a bit of money too.

Quote of the Day, Rachael Maddow

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She said the following on Olbermann:

Maddow: “Twelve year old Graeme Frost, meet Cindy Sheehan, meet 9/11 widows, meet Staff Sgt. Brian McGough, meet Michael J. Fox, meet the kids who were targeted by Mark Foley, meet Jack Murtha. I mean, Graeme Frost as a twelve year old now joins an esteemed list of Americans who have been personally attacked, personally slimed, called liars and cowards and frauds, and threatened for daring to publicly espouse a view that the right disagrees with. I mean, just when you think you’ve found the person who they can’t possibly slime, I don’t know, say a twelve year old kid just out of a coma, turns out yeah, the bar does actually go that low, it’s just astonishing.”

We need to realize that there are elements on the right wing who are simply psychotic, and that they are very much in the mainstream.

Bad Desision on Special Education Access

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There is no precedent, as this was a 4-4 split decision, with Kennedy recusing himself for undisclosed reasons.

The basics are as follows: Tom Freston has a child with learning disabilities, and the New York school system evaluated him and placed him at their Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education.

Freston refused the placement, and placed him in a private school at significant expense, and then went to court for reimbursement.

I have a child in a non-public placement, Charlie, a human metronome and remarkably erudite 8-year old. He has Aspergers.

He is in the private placement, at county expense, because the local school was unwilling to make the necessary accommodations to deal with his disability.

Had the (thankfully now retired) principal at Timber Grove, Charlie’s school, been willing to make some relatively inexpensive accommodations, he would still be there, at less than one tenth the cost to the county.

Basically, if the aid assigned to him had been competent, or even willing to do the necessary training, he would still be there.

So I am in a very similar place to Mr. Freston. The difference is that we attempted to make the system work. The placement could have been appropriate, but the school administration was unwilling to make it so.

Mr. Freston did not give New York City Schools a chance. This is the part that I object too, as does my wife, who is a special education consultant (click here for her web page).

The environment in place at the Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education would most likely have been adequate to this child’s needs (a reading delay), and the local school system must be given a reasonable chance.