Monday, February 28, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, February 28, 2011


Poor little Suzy...

(*SIGH*)
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9 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd9b4100-429b-11e0-8b34-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1FGRBHyeL

The head of one of the biggest U.S. industrial groups has launched a scathing attack on Barack Obama’s attempts to repair relations with companies, dubbing him “anti-business”.

* "REPAIR RELATIONS," THAT'S A LAUGH!

Manufacturers could shift production out of the U.S. to Canada or Mexico as a result, warned George Buckley, chief executive and chairman of 3M.

“I judge people by their feet, not their mouth,” he told the Financial Times. “We know what his instincts are - they are Robin Hood-esque. He is anti-business.”

* I'D SAY MORE AL CAPONE!

Mr. Buckley, who has run the diversified manufacturer since 2005, said: “There is a sense among companies that this is a difficult place to do business. It is about regulation, taxation, seemingly anti-business policies in Washington, attitudes towards science.”

(*NOD*)

He added: “Politicians forget that business has choice. We’re not indentured servants and we will do business where it’s good and friendly. If it’s hostile, incrementally, things will slip away. We’ve got a real choice between manufacturing in Canada and Mexico - which tend to be pro-business - or America.”

* FRANKLY, I WOULDN'T LOCATE A TACO STAND IN MEXICO. BUCKLEY SHOULDN'T LUMP MEXICO AND CANADA TOGETHER.

The 3M chief also criticized US immigration policy, saying the difficulty of obtaining visas was forcing companies to move research and development overseas. “About 68 per cent of our science PhD candidates are from outside the US,” he said.

* FOLKS... WHAT'S THAT TELL YA...???

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

[Buckley continued,] “Many want to stay here afterwards but we’re not allowed as many visas as we would like.”

* SO WE TRAIN 'EM... AND THEN SEND 'EM BACK - MANY TO CHINA! GREAT... JUST FRIGG'N GREAT.

“We are now exporting science overseas to China, India, Germany, building labs there. There’s a good strategic reason for it, but we also have no choice - if we can’t get the people here and we’re competing with the people there, we have no choice but to do it locally.”

(*SIGH*) AGAIN, FOLKS... BUCKLEY LUMPS CHINA, INDIA, AND GERMANY TOGETHER. RIDICULOUS. CHINA IS - AT BEST - OUR COMPETITOR... OUR ADVERSARY - AT WORST... OUR ENEMY.

Mr. Buckley struck a gloomy note on the US economy. “The macro numbers seem to be improving but when we look at the micro numbers - at what’s going on in housing, automotive, in manufacturing in general - it’s hard to get enthusiastic about it,” he said.

* FOLKS... THE ECONOMY IS NOT IMPROVING. THE U.S. IS IN STEEP DECLINE UNDER OBAMA. YES... WE WERE IN DECLINE UNDER BUSH... BUT A LEAKY FAUCET HAS BECOME A BURST PIPE SINCE 2007 WHEN NANCY PELOSI AND HARRY REID TOOK POWER FOR FOUR YEARS AND ESPECIALLY SINCE 2009 WHEN OBAMANOMICS TOOK CENTER STAGE.

February 28, 2011 at 9:45 AM
Anonymous said...

The economy is on the rocks, Obama can't even charter a ferry without screwing it up. NO hope left!

February 28, 2011 at 9:50 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/28/libya.protests/index.html?hpt=T1

A Libyan military jet bombed a base in eastern Libya on Monday, as embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi fought to hold onto his regime.

* WHY HAS LIBYA NOT BEEN DECLARED A NO-FLY ZONE? WHY IS GHADAFI BEING ALLOWED TO USE HIS AIRFORCE TO KILL HIS PEOPLE? IF THE U.N. WON'T DECLARE THE NO-FLY ZONE, WHY DOESN'T NATO?

* FOLKS... OBAMA IS INCOMPETENT... CLINTON IS INCOMPETENT... IT'S THAT FRIGG'N SIMPLE.

The international community launched new efforts Monday to pressure Gadhafi to halt the violence.

(*SNORT*)

Hillary Clinton, at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council, said, "Col. Gadhafi and those around him must be held accountable for these acts, which violate international legal obligations and common decency. Through their actions, they have lost the legitimacy to govern. And the people of Libya have made themselves clear: It is time for Gadhafi to go, now, without further violence or delay."

* WORDS. (*SIGH*) WORSE... EVEN THE WORDS ARE TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE. (HEY... YA THINK BIDEN IS GONNA DECLARE "GADHAFI ISN'T A DICTATOR"?) (*SNICKER*) (HEY... NOTICE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD ANYTHING FROM BIDEN LATELY..) (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

February 28, 2011 at 12:29 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703933404576170172920067878.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

* BY AHMED CHALABI

As we watch Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi lash out at his subjects with all the murderous force at his disposal, those of us in Iraq are reminded of another uprising and another dictator who butchered thousands to preserve his reign of terror.

In 1991, at the end of the first Gulf War, the Iraqi people heeded President George H.W. Bush's call to rid themselves of the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The regular Iraqi army had either disappeared or was in open mutiny, and Saddam's loyalist forces were in disarray. Within days, 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces were out of the regime's control, and more than half of Iraq's population had their first taste of freedom in a generation.

The noose was closing around Saddam's neck when a fateful decision was made in Washington.

(*SHAKING MY HEAD... KNOWING WHAT'S COMING*)

Prompted by foreign policy "realists" in his administration - such as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs Richard Haass - Mr. Bush allowed Saddam to fly military aircraft to put down the uprising.

* I REMEMBER AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY. I ACTUALLY WROTE GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH TO TELL HIM HIS ACTIONS MADE ME ASHAMED TO BE AN AMERICAN.

* OH... AND OF COURSE.. COLIN POWELL WAS THE MAJOR "POWER PLAYER" BEHIND PAPPY BUSH'S DECISION TO BETRAY AMERICA'S HONOR.

What followed was a massacre. Up to 330,000 Iraqi civilians were killed by Saddam's brutal tactics, which included using helicopter gunships to strafe neighborhoods and tanks to blast schools, hospitals and places of worship. While thousands of U.S. troops were still on Iraqi soil and in some cases were close enough to watch, the tyrant unleashed the power of modern weaponry against men, women and children.

The news from Libya is an all-too-chilling reminder of those dark days in Iraq.

(*FEELING SICK TO MY STOMACH*)

February 28, 2011 at 1:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703766704576009512990553104.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

[T]he FDA bureaucracy thinks it is too friendly to industry...[and]...thinks it is approving too many new drugs, especially for serious diseases like cancer.

(*HEADACHE*)

That's the message of this month's remarkable FDA hearing to grill six major drug makers on the alleged shortcomings of the "accelerated approval" process [that] Congress created [to] fast-track...promising drugs for unmet medical needs in 1992.

[Obama's] FDA is about to withdraw Avastin as a treatment for women with terminal breast cancer...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

[T]hen there's a drug that most readers probably haven't heard of, called pixantrone.

In May 2010, the FDA rejected pixantrone for treating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer that kills nearly 12,000 Americans a year. The agency's veto came not because pixantrone failed in a clinical trial - in fact, it was a qualified success. Instead, the FDA determined that the trial was not "flawlessly executed," as its regulations demand.

Pixantrone is targeted to patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who have already received two or more chemotherapy treatments. There is little recourse left for these patients. If disease returns, most receive palliative care, with life expectancy measured in weeks or months. The conventional drugs, called anthracyclines, cause cumulative heart damage that prevents further use.

Pixantrone is a next-generation anthracycline designed to be more effective and less toxic, allowing patients to continue therapy for longer. A Phase III randomized trial, the most rigorous kind, began in 2004: Patients either received pixantrone or were entered into a control arm where they received their physician's choice of existing therapies. The study tested "complete responses," or the disappearance of all signs of cancer. (That does not mean the disease has been cured.) Incredibly, 20% of patients receiving pixantrone showed a complete response, versus only 6% in the control arm. That rose to 24% versus 7% in a follow-up analysis. The data also show a trend toward overall survival, even if it was not statistically significant. These are unheard-of results for end-stage patients with very poor prognoses.

[As with the way the FDA dealt with] Avastin, [the pixantrone] story reveals an agency that cares more about its regulatory prerogatives than about the thousands of patients who might benefit and will die waiting.

[Obama's] FDA [even] went out of its way to railroad pixantrone and make an example of the drug's maker, Cell Therapeutics, in order to send another warning to the drug industry to jump through the right bureaucratic hoops.

If perfection is the standard for new cancer drugs, then we may as well give up hope of ever getting another one.

(*SIGH*)

Cell Therapeutics is now mounting another trial to gather more data, and enrollment is likely to be rapid given the intense interest the original trial has generated. But it could be years before pixantrone comes to market - and years more before doctors know if the drug is a real breakthrough for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, given that it is only being tested with the sickest patients.

The wonder is how the Administration can wonder why there aren't enough new medicines, even as the FDA rolls back accelerated approval. The reason is that the agency regards drug makers as adversaries that must be punished, not partners in the anticancer fight. The real victims are the patients with no attractive options who needlessly suffer when the government delays drugs like pixantrone.

February 28, 2011 at 3:26 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8352954/Libya-Cameron-proposes-no-fly-zone-to-protect-Libyan-people-from-attacks-by-Gaddafi-loyalists.html

Britain will work allies on plans to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya to protect its people from military attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's government, David Cameron has told the House of Commons.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed today that it has formed a team to collect information about civilian deaths during the current uprising and has been in contact with members of Libya's army.

The ICC said it had been in contact with Libyan army officers to gather information about civilian deaths during the uprising against Col Gaddafi's regime. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, ICC's Chief Prosecutor. said he hoped to decide within days whether to open a formal investigation that could lead to indictments against those responsible.

"Information suggests that forces loyal to President Moammar Gadhafi are attacking civilians in Libya. This could constitute crimes against humanity and must stop," the Argentinian prosecutor said.

"There will be no impunity for leaders involved in commission of crimes," he [concluded].

* I BELIEVE "IMPUNITY" IS A TYPO; THE SENTENCE WOULD MAKE SENSE ONLY IF THE WORD "IMMUNITY" IS SUBSTITUTED. IN ANY CASE...

* SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT OBAMA AND CLINTON BEING ABSOLUTE INCOMPETENTS....?!?!

* I MEAN... UNLESS OBAMA AND CLINTON BELIEVE GADHAFI IS "INNOCENT" OR AT LEAST "NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR" THE CRIMES BEING CARRIED OUT BY HIS FORCES, HOW IN HELL DOES "EXILE" FIT IN WITH "THERE WILL BE NO IMMUNITY FOR LEADERS INVOLVED IN COMMISSION OF CRIMES"?

February 28, 2011 at 3:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/28/BAVP1HUSUD.DTL&tsp=1

San Francisco's big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

* EVERYONE KNOWS LOW-FLOW TOILETS ARE A POST CHILD FOR THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES WHEN IT COMES TO "ENVIRONMENTALISM."

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.

Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite - better known as bleach - to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city's treated water before it's dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.

(*BANGING MY HEAD DOWN ON THE DESK*)

That translates into 8.5 million pounds of bleach either being poured down city drains or into the drinking water supply every year.

* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP! (GET IT... THIS "SHIT" UP?!)

(*HUGE SHIT EATING GRIN*)

February 28, 2011 at 4:35 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014349566_rioters28m.html

A group of 25 to 30 people, most dressed in black and wearing bandannas or masks, wreaked mayhem Saturday night in Seattle on Capitol Hill and the Denny Triangle, painting anti-police slogans, throwing flares at patrol cars and trashing several businesses, police said.

* ANYONE THROWING A FLARE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SHOT. PERIOD. THERE'S A LINE THAT SHOULDN'T BE CROSSED.

* UTILIZE THE LINK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, BUT BOTTOM LINE... THIS SORT OF CRAP SIMPLY CAN'T BE TOLERATED. (THE FACT THAT IT IS SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME.)

February 28, 2011 at 4:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0211/On_call_officials_stress_public_options_in_health_care_shift.html

Jennifer Haberkorn [of Politico] reports that President Obama's move to allow states flexibility in spending health care funds is the "most significant change" since the law was enacted, and a potential gesture toward critics.

But a source on a White House conference call with liberal allies this morning says the Administration is presenting it to Democrats as an opportunity to offer more expansive health care plans than the one Congress passed.

(*SCOWL*)

* FOLKS... YOU SIMPLY CAN'T RUN A DEMOCRACY THIS WAY! IT'S NOT A QUESTION OF POLICY VS. POLICY. WHEN PUBLIC OFFICIALS (AND CANDIDATES) LIE AND MISLEAD THE PUBLIC CONCERNING THEIR GOALS THIS UNDERCUTS THE VERY CONCEPT BEHIND DEMOCRACY!

Health care advisers Nancy-Ann DeParle and Stephanie Cutter stressed on the off-record call that the rule change would allow states to implement single-payer health care plans - as Vermont seeks to - and true government-run plans, like Connecticut's Sustinet.

(*SIGH*)

* YES, VIRGINIA... OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST.

* FOLKS... THIS ISN'T A JOKE. IT'S NOT A QUESTION OF WHETHER YOU APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE OF OBAMA POLICIES; THE HARM HERE IS THAT OBAMA IS NOT HONEST ABOUT HIS GOALS AND POLICIES!

February 28, 2011 at 4:36 PM

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