Secret Global Trade Pact Could Limit Access To Generic Drugs...

Republicans have to pass it so you can know what is in it...

Via NY Times:

Mark Grayson, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry trade group, said that the group was hopeful “that the House will pass the bill so it can get to the president’s desk.”

He declined to comment on the group’s position on the overall pact, saying it was still being negotiated. But he made clear that the pharmaceutical industry was hoping for what he called “strong” intellectual property provisions to be included in the trade pact.

He dismissed concerns that the pact could limit access to generic drugs, noting that the overwhelming majority of prescriptions filled in the United States were for generic medications, despite strong intellectual property laws in this country.

Generic drug industry officials hailed the vote, however.

Heather Bresch, the chief executive of Mylan, a generic drug maker, applauded the defeat on Friday by the House, saying it would give her more time to lobby against the trade pact.

She and other leaders in the generic drug industry have argued that the pact goes too far in protecting the patents of the brand-name drug industry and would block access to generic drugs around the world.

“I think it’s scary and dangerous that the president is looking for this kind of authority on a trade bill that I think has serious flaws in it,” she said. “It’s setting the global generic industry back 30 years.” Read more here...

Did Texas democrats buy votes with cocaine?

Not a smidgen of possible corruption here. Move along...

MCALLEN, Texas — A developing federal investigation has brought up allegations that a Hidalgo County Commissioner paid for votes with bags of cocaine while other politicians paid for votes also with cash, cigarettes, marijuana and beer.
Court records obtained by Breitbart Texas from the arrest of two women accused of buying votes show that during the democratic primaries in 2012, a campaign manager for a Hidalgo County Commissioner who said that during the campaign, he bought $50 worth of cocaine, commonly known as an 8-ball and split it up in order to give it to the two women so they could use it to entice voters.
Earlier this week Belinda Solis and Veronica Salazar went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby who formally charged them with vote buying and set their bond at $10,000.
The two women were part of a large year and a half long FBI investigation into election corruption in Hidalgo County.
Keep on reading…

Obamacare may cost you your drugs too...

It isn't just doctor and hospital choices that are being limited by Obamacare. Drugs are being limited too.

If the drug isn’t on this formulary list, then the patient could be responsible for its full cost (with little or no co-insurance to help offset that cost). Moreover, the money they spend won’t count against their deductibles or out of pocket limits ($12,700 for a family, $6,350 for an individual).
These are the ways that Obamacare cheapens the health coverage in order to pay for all of its expensive mandates. Obamacare is a throwback to the old HMO model of the 1990s, which promised a broad package of coverage for primary care benefits like vaccines, and routine doctor visits. But to pay for these benefits, the Obamacare plans skimp on other things – principally the number of doctors you’ll have access to, and also, the number of costlier branded drugs that make it onto formularies.
Many Americans rejected these restrictive HMO model plans in the 1990s, in favor of PPO-style plans that had higher cost sharing for routine health services, but offered broader access to doctors and have bigger drug formularies. What Obamacare says, in effect, is that Americans made the wrong choice when they rejected those HMO plans in favor of PPOs. The President thinks the more comprehensive, but restrictive HMOs were the better choice after all.

Drug dealers buying elections in Eastern Kentucky

There aren't a lot of jobs in Eastern Kentucky. You mostly either work in the coal industry, which Obama is trying to destroy, or you work for the government. Eastern Kentucky has a long history of vote buying and voter fraud. Government jobs are highly sought after and local elections are very important because they determine who does the hiring. In the last few decades drugs and social welfare programs have expanded their use and influence. If you don't have a job, you either grow a crop(marijuana) or get a check(from the government.) The grow a crop plan has expanded into meth, Oxycontin and other hard drugs, but the dealers understand the importance of being in favor with the politicians in power.

Voter fraud has a shocking new meaning in eastern Kentucky.

That is where in some cases, major cocaine and marijuana dealers admitted to buying votes to steal elections, and the result is the corruption of American democracy. The government continues to mete out justice in the scandal, as two people convicted in April in a vote-buying case face sentencing this week, and another public official pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy. 

"We believe that drug money did buy votes," Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said of a separate vote-buying case.

He described a stunning vote-buying scheme that includes "very extensive, organized criminal activity, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in many cases that involves drug money."

Harvey has led a recent string of federal prosecutions exposing the widespread and accepted practice of vote buying in eastern Kentucky. The soft-spoken federal prosecutor, along with his team and state authorities, are waging a battle against what he characterizes as a vote-buying culture embedded in many of the communities for generations.

Happy Hour Gets a Little Too Happy at The Tilted Kilt Pub

Several waitresses have been arrested. Allegedly, police had reports they were illegally selling prescription drugs while wearing push-up bras. The waitresses were arrested for illegal possession; not sale.

Demo Jack Conway Spent Two Years "Sippin on a Slurpee" While KY's Drug Problem Exploded (video)

Republicans aren't the only ones who can be accused of standing around and "sippin on a slurpee." KY Attorney General Jack Conway failed to get serious about Kentucky's drug abuse problem for two years. Under Conway's watch, meth labs more than doubled. Now, Jack Conway wants to take that failed record to Washington as a Senator.

Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling have been using drugs and watching porn

In addition to using drugs and surfing porn, staff at the Minerals Management Service accepted sporting event tickets, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies. What could go wrong? Oh...

In at least one case, an inspector for the Minerals Management Service admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug the next day at work, according to the report by the acting inspector general of the Interior Department.

The report cites a variety of violations of federal regulations and ethics rules at the agency's Louisiana office. Previous inspector general investigations have focused on inappropriate behavior by the royalty-collection staff in the agency's Denver office.

Many Retirees to Lose Private Drug Coverage Due to Obamacare

A key tax break that kept retirees on company prescription-medication plans will mean dumping millions of seniors onto Medicare. Companies will lose large amounts of money this year and be forced to change their benefit plans.

"As a result of this legislation, including the additional tax burden, AT&T will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company," AT&T said in a filing with the government on Friday

Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. have already announced this bill will cost them $100 million and $150 million respectively.

Arizona Governor wants Federal troops for border

The level of violence across the border in Mexico has become so alarming Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has requested the Federal Government to station more troops on the border. Mexico has deployed their Army to Juarez, across the border from Texas, to try to control the violent drug gangs that have taken over this border town. The situation is so bad in Juarez that the police chief has resigned and the Mayor moved out. Already this year there have been 1,000 people killed in Mexico along the border

Gov. Jan Brewer asks for federal troops to deal with violence at the Mexican border
Phoenix Business Journal

Drug wars and scores of murders in northern Mexico has prompted Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to ask the Pentagon for more troops along the state’s border with Mexico.

Brewer has written U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asking for an increase in National Guard troops from 150 to 400.

“Arizona communities and citizens are negatively affected by the impacts of the illegal drug trade and related border violence, and enforcement agencies in all jurisdictions are stretched as they attempt to address the enormity of the problems,” Brewer said Wednesday. “Our citizens must be protected from border violence. Arizona and other U.S./Mexico border states continue to be confronted by a number of unique and disproportionate challenges relative to other states and we bear significant unreimbursed costs in the public, nonprofit and business sectors associated with border related challenges.” (excerpt) read more at bizjournals.com

Disorder on the border

Mexico has deployed the Army to Juarez to try to control the violent drug gangs that have taken over this border town. Secretary of Defense Gates has offered assistance from the US military for training. The situation is so bad in Juarez that the police chief has resigned and the Mayor moved out. These drug gangs are heavily armed. If they decide to cross the border into the US, there is little to initially stop them.

Mexico drug violence crossing U.S. border
Jonathan Thompson , Marty Durlin, Jodi Peterson
Sunday, March 1, 2009

In February, police in Juarez, Mexico, found a smoldering body - the apparent victim of homicide by fire. The day before, they had found two men who had been decapitated, their heads in plastic bags nearby. As horrendous as this is, it is not uncommon: More than 300 have been murdered in Juarez this year. The police chief resigned after six cops were killed, and the mayor moved to El Paso for his own safety.(excerpt) read more at sfgate.com

Raw Video: Troops combat Mexican drug violence

The Mexican government ordered the deployment of army troops in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, the country's most dangerous city where drug cartel-related violence left 250 people dead this past month. (March 1)

Terrorist could use drug submarines

Terrorists could use drug submarines to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the the USA. Currently, these submersibles are very popular with drug runners. The Coast Guard encountered 27 of them in the last year. That is six times the previous years rates. These submarines are very difficult for aircraft and surface ships to detect. It is not known how many illegally enter US waters each year. I would guess that several times the number detected and found are missed each year.

The Boston Globe
For US, a terror threat lurks in drug smuggling subs
Shift of cargo to arms and people is feared

By Bryan Bender

KEY WEST, Fla. - Skimming just below the surface, they are extremely difficult to detect from surveillance aircraft or patrol boats. Their sleek design, up to 80 feet in length, can secretly carry several tons of cargo thousands of miles.

These "semi-submersibles," which exhibit some of the same characteristics as military submarines, mark a significant advancement in the ability of drug smugglers to slip past coastal defenses.

So far this year, the Coast Guard says it has encountered at least 27 such vessels headed toward the southern and western United States, more than in the previous six years combined, while far more are believed to have gone undetected, according to US military and law enforcement officials.

The growing number and increased sophistication of the vessels, officially designated "self-propelled semi-submersibles," has set off alarms at the highest levels of the US military and the federal Department of Homeland Security. Counterterrorism officials fear that what drug runners now use to deliver cocaine, terrorists could one day use to sneak personnel or massive weapons into the United States.

Navy Admiral James Stavridis, commander of the US Southern Command, the Miami-based military command that concentrates on Latin America, warned in a recent military journal article, "If drug cartels can ship up to 10 tons of cocaine in a semi-submersible, they can clearly ship or rent space...

Full story here.