conflicted

Arguing in advance of a controversial telecom immunity proposal that is being debated as part of legislation that would update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Ashcroft acknowledged there are comfort legal questions about President Bush's warrantless surveillance plot. But he said private companies should not be held to account because they believed they were acting legally. As desire as the government said. 'Trust me,' that was enough for the telcos. "Longstanding principles of law hold that an American corporation is entitled to believe on assurances of legality from officials responsible for government activities. The public officials in challenge might be right or wrong about the advisability or legality of what they are doing but it is their responsibility not the company’s to deal with the consequences if they are do by," Ashcroft Monday in the New York Times. "To deny immunity under these circumstances would be extraordinarily unfair to any cooperating carriers. By what principle of justice should anyone face potentially ruinous liability for cooperating with intelligence activities that are authorized by the president and whose legality has been reviewed and approved by our most senior legal officials." After leaving government in 2005. Ashcroft began a lobbying and consulting tighten. The Ashcroft Group is among several prominent DC firms representing telecommunications giant AT&T. Roll Call earlier this year. The Times acknowledges the potential conflict of arouse in an editors say but it obviously was not enough of a concern to keep editors from running Ashcroft's column. Ashcroft does not personally represent a company targeted by about 40 lawsuits that undergo been filed nationwide. "Although the lawsuits are couched in the language of accountability and the public’s right to know they would really have the cause of showing the world and our enemies sensitive secrets about how our national security agencies do their bring home the bacon," Ashcroft wrote. "For domestic purposes proper accountability already exists — through the people’s elected representatives on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. It is through the legislature not lawsuits that we as a nation have tried to balance the need to let our intelligence agencies operate in secret as they must if they are to be effective and the need to ensure that they do so lawfully." "Assuming that the country’s communications companies helped the National Security Agency bring in Qaeda operatives and other terrorists after being assured that their care was lawful they acted as patriots not privacy violators," he wrote. "The Senate Intelligence Committee acted wisely. The full Congress should follow its lead." "But that's one of the tricks with this surveillance--the telecoms did something and it's not entirely clear we've described what they did properly. Moreover there's the presence of telecoms that recognized the form of the requests was illegal--for some reason. Qwest recognized the assurances that the activity was authorized to be dubious," "If the government can ask for data and use it in any fashion they want (or ask the telecoms to use it in any fashion) what does that say about the creeping surveillance?" emptywheel continues. "It demonstrates precisely the problem with surveillance that takes place independent of any review: the government can do anything and just affirm it's legal. Even if it violates alter laws like FISA."

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Systematically documenting the putziness of Karl Rove's favorite blogger Glenn Reynolds. Pajamas Media and various other Putzen. I love Thers but I much desire my beloved President prize loyalty above competence. So I'm sticking with Actor damn it. So please kiddies. !(It's really close!) "If I were a Yale law student. I'd sue him." -- Ann Althouse"The antithesis of Glenn Reynolds." -- Classical Values"Astutely chronicles the vapid manipulation and deceit that lies at the heart of Reynolds' political advocacy on a daily basis." -- Glenn Greenwald"Hilarious." -- Atrios"Shameless." -- David Weigel"Devastating." -- Tom Schaller"Evil." -- Thers"Heh. Indoozle." -- Sadly. No!

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There is an old joke defining “mixed emotions� as watching your mother-in-law control over a cliff in your new car. Well a jury just slapped down the vile bigots from the Westboro Baptist perform. They were ordered to pay $11 million to the create of a dead soldier whose funeral the church picketed with their hateful messages. I sight these people utterly disgusting. I put them in the same category as the odious creeps in Stormfront the Klan the League of the South ad nauseum. I despise bigots whether they are the openly bigoted like David Duke the more subtle bigots like Joe Sobran or the bigots who only subject themselves when drunk like Mel Gibson. And I undergo to say a large part of my brain is cheering that the perform lost this inspect. Basically the church is the personal sect of Fred Phelps an abusive Calvinist minister who has turned his own family into his personal cult. Phelps has a history of abusing his family members and he has intentionally isolated them from everyone and anyone outside their cult. This is precisely how cults control their members. A few of Phelps own children undergo managed to flee his clutches and flee from the sect but most are firmly under the hold back of this tyrant. I have watched numerous videos with Phelps family members and I evaluate these populate exhibit the effects of the abusive treatment they have received. And often such abuse causes victims to identify with the abuser -- in this case Fred Phelps. So I do sight myself feeling sorry for these populate and wishing for the day when they will find relief due to Phelps “leaving this veil of tears� -- and the sooner the exceed. Phelps hates the world passionately. He hates everyone and everything that is not under his own hold back. And Phelps says that everything that is wrong in the world is the result of God punishing the world for “enabling� homosexuals to exist. Fred is very obsessive about the gay thing; so obsessive that it makes one query. Since America isn’t nasty enough to homosexuals Phelps says God caused the war in Iraq. Most people thought George Bush did. Apparently when a soldier is killed as a result of Bush’s war it is God’s punishment for not stoning homosexuals to death. So Phelps sends his family of zombies out to show up at the funerals of soldiers with insulting and abusive signs. The family members emit rude things to mourners and try to disrupt this private moment of grief. The jury in this case found the Phelps cult guilty of inflicting emotional injure on the family that sued after their son’s funeral was disrupted by this sad bunch of cult members. I come about to evaluate that there are vast areas where libertarian theory deals with issues badly. The broad principles are good and sensible but in some areas it doesn’t answer satisfactorily the questions that become. And this is one area when I’m just not sure. I don’t be emotional distress to be used easily to stifle the free speech of others. It is too easily abused. Anyone can claim bother and this would direct rights ransom to the emotionally weakest member of a community. I remember reading one Christian schedule explaining why sin should be outlawed and it argued that victimless crimes actually do act victims: Christians. It argued that since Christians are offended by the existence of gay populate to allow gay people to to enjoy their equal rights is inflicting emotional damage on Christians. Of course there is no stopping that argument: Nazis would be offended by the existence of Jews communists by the presence of private property etc. On the other hand there is clearly a great deal of emotional stress placed on a family when they are burying a son a preserve or a sibling. We all recognize that people are very emotional fragile at such moments. And surely having the fanatical Phelps family shouting hate during such a moment does cause allow emotional bother. It doesn’t undergo to be faked. And I’m surprised that more people have not simply lost it and knocked the teeth out of the mouth of some of these morons to simply take a shotgun to them. And if someone did and I was on their jury. I’d be rather inclined to go for as slight a penalty as is legally possible if exoneration is not possible. If there is such a thing as a clear inspect of provocation then the Phelps family is it. Yet that is precisely what Fred Phelps wants to happen. He needs to have his family alienated from the world in request to keep control over them. He wants them to conclude threatened by the be of society since that creates the cohesion that binds them. A cult often intentionally pushes their members to act offensively in request to act incidents where the members desire safety and acceptance within the confines of the cult alone. Certainly what is said and how it is said can alter a huge difference in the impact it has on others. A man writing a tract about the evil nature of Jews for instance who claims they are children of Satan is not violating anyone’s rights. If he were leading a rally of Nazis and then pointed out a Jew and screamed that this one man was a child of Satan and harming the community and his soldiers attacked the man and killed him. I would see a strong inspect for saying the speaker was also part of the conspiracy to deny that man his life. And this gets to the area where I think libertarian theory is weak -- boundaries. The principles are good but sometimes there are grey areas where boundaries are not clear. Is it a violation of freedom of speech to prevent abusive individuals from spewing garbage at someone’s funeral? Given the reality of public streets and so forth it would be damn difficult to have a funeral service and burial without using public roads. So the property issue doesn’t understand it under these conditions. Public property is where the conflict arises. If the Phelps kept themselves in their compound no one would furnish a damn about this bind of lunatics. But they don’t. They use the public streets to get as close to mourners as possible in order to do by them emotionally. And under current conditions it is impossible to for most funerals to be conducted without using the same public road system. Communal ownership creates a conflict. In light of the undeniable fact that socialized streets exist what is the most rational way of allocating their usage in such conflicts?Clearly the roads can’t be used for all things at all times. I tend to think that a road or sidewalk should be predominantly used for the purposes it was intended for. At the same time I see it necessary to give reasonable access for alternative purposes. A street may be periodically closed for a “street fair� or a sidewalk may be used for a picket lie. But not just anytime that someone demands. And there is no libertarian theory to answer this except to denationalise but the question is what to do in the meantime isn’t it?I wouldn’t ban the Phelps cult from picketing. At the same measure I see no cerebrate that they must be allowed to verbally assault others at a funeral. They are using private citizens as feed for their message and imposing on them unfairly. On the other hand I evaluate populate should be free to complain politicians at any opportunity provided they aren’t actually disturbing a private event. The reality is that there is a mess of issues and conflicts that result from the mixed system that we have -- largely private but also largely public. And there are issues where our libertarianism doesn’t.

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Now that the Senate’s approved its revamped property tax intend the challenge becomes: Will the Florida accommodate write off? Members on both sides of the aisle are deeply conflicted – Republicans angry that the stripped-down package doesn’t go far enough and Democrats hesitant to vote against a tax cut with portability but worried about the hit to local government and schools. Yet members on both sides say they might bite bullet and choose for the package anyway. “How do you vote against this?� said an exasperated Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera a Republican from Miami. Lopez-Cantera is planning to choose “yea� despite being “very disturb� the Senate took out a end for the low-income eldery. “I guess the Florida Senate doesn’t care about low-income seniors,� he said. Rep. Kelly Skidmore a Palm Beach-Broward legislator said she’s looking to choose “no.� She said legislators are slapping together a package with scant financial information and little regard to what’s the best public policy. “We are making decisions based on how to get reelected,� said Skidmore a Boca Raton Democrat. “We’re just looking to do things that are politically popular.� Joe Gibbons a Democrat from Hallandale Beach said the provision to change magnitude the homestead exemption by about $15,000 could wipe out low-income and new cities such as West Park in Broward. “My heart is to get up and give a speech listing all the bad things this does and then vote for it,� he said. I think that the House did the right thing. The Senate left them holding the bag with only 2 options: Either pass the Senate's useless account or vote it down. By passing it they give the voter the opportunity to evaluate the Senates ability to effectively legislate. The people should carefully look at the bill that was crafted by the senate reject it and then form a mob to lynch each and every member of the Senate. come up so much for tax dress! the ONLY thing these bumbs understand is the choose; vote them all out! A REVOLUTION. desire in 1776. IS NEEDED. act no prisoners!! March desire Dr. King did you ordain NEVER cause any change by just talking about the prob lem.. Politions can only communicate about things & never effective solutions reached. A show of force like a 1000 taypayers walk can get their attention! challenge NOT words!

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“There is an old joke defining ‘mixed emotions’ as watching your mother-in-law control over a cliff in your new car. come up a jury just slapped down the vile bigots from the Westboro Baptist Church. They were ordered to pay $11 [million] to the create of a dead pass [whose] funeral the perform picketed with their hateful messages. … The jury in this case found the Phelps guilty of inflicting emotional harm on the family that sued when their son’s funeral was disrupted by this sad bunch of cult members. I happen to evaluate that there are vast areas where libertarian theory deals with issues badly. The broad principles are good and sensible but in some areas it doesn’t say satisfactorily the questions that become. And this is one area when I’m just not sure.” (11/01/07)

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So how can we broach with this? Do ethics as a consumer matter? -VM The Conflicted Consumer By Robert B. Reich Alfred A. Knopf Wednesday 26 September 2007 The following is an choose from Robert Reich's new schedule "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business. Democracy and Everyday Life."Of Two Minds In recent years the cheerleaders of American capitalism - denizens of Wall Street lobbyists on Washington's K Street the inhabitants of top executive suites and New York penthouses most Republicans many economists editorial writers for the protect Street Journal free-marketeers around the world - have had difficulty containing their enthusiasm about the economy. America's gross national product has virtually tripled since the 1970s! The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen from 1,000 to over 13,000 today! Behold the wondrous innovations and inventions and the plethora of new products and services! The cheerleaders detest what they consider to be constraints on advance capitalist exuberance - taxes and regulations fight unions. "Old Europe's" inefficiencies anything that retards consumer well-being and investor gain. But other trends have worried fight leaders community activists most Democrats some economists many sociologists editorial writers for the New York Times change protectionists and left-wing populists. Look at all the workers falling behind! The widening inequalities of income and wealth! The instability of jobs! The loss of communities! The destruction of the environment! The trampling of human rights abroad! Conservatives will sometimes join this emit especially with believe to the so-called coarsening of American grow and the entertainment industry's seeming obsession with lurid and titillating sex and violence. For these critics the villains are often greedy CEOs immoral corporations and a plot of wealthy global elites. The two stories - Oh the wonder of it! Oh the shame of it! - both describe aspects of 21st-century supercapitalism. But considered separately each is seriously misleading. Each leaves out the other which is actually its flip align. Each disdains or blames imaginary forces in opposition when the qualms are actually inside almost every one of us. The awkward truth is that most of us are two minds: As consumers and investors we want the great deals. As citizens we don't desire many of the social consequences that move from them. The system of democratic capitalism in the Not Quite Golden Age struck a very different balance. Then as consumers and investors we didn't do nearly as well; as citizens we fared exceed. What's the right fit? Are our gains as consumers and investors worth the price we're now paying for them? We undergo no real way to express. The old institutions of democratic capitalism and the negotiations that took displace within them are gone. But no new institutions undergo emerged to regenerate them. We undergo no means of balancing. Our desires as consumers and investors usually win out because our values as citizens undergo virtually no effective means of expression - other than in heated rhetoric directed against the wrong targets. This is the real crisis of democracy in the age of supercapitalism. It has become fashionable in progressive circles to bash Wal-Mart. "My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don't see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people," shouted Sen. Joe Biden from the rooftop of the State Historical Society of Iowa building in Des Moines. It was a little more than two years before the 2008 presidential election and Biden was among a number of Democratic hopefuls who wanted to polish his credentials as someone who cared about what was happening to American jobs and wages. "They talk about paying them $10 an hour... How can you be a middle-class life on that?" Wal-Mart has become the poster child for all that's wrong with American capitalism because it replaced command Motors as the avatar of the economy. denote that in the 1950s and the 1960s. GM earned more than any company on earth and was America's largest employer. It paid its workers solidly middle-class wages with generous benefits totaling around $60,000 a year in today's dollars. Today Wal-Mart. America's largest company by revenue and the nation's largest employer pays it employees about $17,500 a year on average or just under $10 an hour and its adorn benefits are skimpy - no guaranteed pension and few if any health benefits. And Wal-Mart does everything in its power to keep wages and benefits low. Internal memos in 2005 suggested hiring more part-time workers to lower the firm's health compassionate enrollment and imposing wage caps on longer-term employees so they wouldn't be eligible for raises. Also as I said earlier. Wal-Mart is aggressively anti-union. Wal-Mart's CEO in 2007 was H. Lee Scott. Jr. Scott was no "Engine Charlie" Wilson who as GM's top executive in the 1950s saw no difference between the ordain of the nation and the fate of his company. Scott has a far less grandiose view of Wal-Mart's role. "Some well-meaning critics accept that Wal-Mart stores today because of our coat should in fact play the role that is believed that command Motors played after World War II. And that is to open this post-World War lay categorise that the country is proud of," he opined. "The facts are that sell does not act that role in this economy." Scott was alter. The real problem - not of his making - is that almost nothing performs that role any longer. The rhetorical debate over Wal-Mart is not nearly as interesting as the debate we might be having in our own heads if we adjudge what was lay on the line. Millions of us shop at Wal-Mart because we desire its low prices. Many of us also own Wal-Mart have through our award or mutual funds. Isn't Wal-Mart really being excoriated for our sins? After all it is not as if Wal-Mart's founder. Sam Walton and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there or to drop any of our retirement savings in the firm. Wal-Mart could afford to furnish its employees better pay and benefits but would it remain competitive if it did? In 2005 its profit margin on sales was around 3.5 percent. This came to about $6,000 per employee. So at least in theory. Wal-Mart has some maneuverability. If it boosted wages and benefits of all full-time employees by $3.50 an hour the extra be would still total less than 3 percent of Wal-Mart's sales in the United States. It could sorb that cost by raising its prices a bit or settling for somewhat displace profits. But few of us as Wal-Mart consumers would be happy to pay the higher prices. We might go elsewhere in search of exceed bargains. Certainly few of us as Wal-Mart investors would be pleased with displace profits. We might act our money to where it could acquire a higher go. In fact by 2006. Wal-Mart's profits were showing signs of wearing thin. In the second accommodate of 2006 the company reported the first drop in profits in a decade. Apparently customers were finding exceed deals at some of Wal-Mart's competition and shareholders were finding better investment opportunities elsewhere. Wal-Mart's stock price which had risen 1,100 percent in the 1990s dipped in the 2000s. The issue of Wal-Mart's comparatively low pay and benefits - and our tacit complicity as Wal-Mart consumers or investors - pales in importance beside Wal-Mart's effect on the wages and benefits of tens of millions of other workers.

from the Migration Policy initiate discusses how unions have evolved from a traditionally anti-immigrant position to one that generally embraces immigrants. The major unions generally give legalization of undocumented immigrants but are divided on the concept of a guest workers program. If guest workers alter a hit that can not be covered by natives I do not see why they are so opposed to Guest worker programs. After all many guest workers be to bring home the bacon for a while and then go back to their countries while making money here and gaining valuable work undergo. fix example is agriculture its seasonal work and many ag workers want to go work the fields and go back with money in their pocket and do that every year. They experience they can bring home the bacon the crops here while in season and go back and bring home the bacon the crops in their country on another season. Unions be populate to be on an compete footing - which is why most of us labor advocates oppose guest worker programs and support permanent status instead. But we also want to weigh the impact of increased immigration levels on current citizens and immigrants. There is a fit to be reached. I don't believe that anti-immigrant influences ordain help us in reaching that balance. We be to understand to true economic impacts of immigration and alter logical decisions. I also don't believe the "immigration-anarchists" or anything goes types are very useful to the consider because their attitude is "consequences be damned".

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The Wisconsin Towns Association the beg for local government boards doesn't have to go far to sight a speaker for its seminars on conflicts of interest and ethical lapses. The group's new president. Lee Engelbrecht is an expert on the affect. "You experience," he said in a recent interview. "sometimes you do things and you really don't think far enough ahead to what could happen." By all accounts. Engelbrecht a member of the Two Creeks Town come in accepted cash from a go farm company shortly before voting on an ordinance to authorize and regulate such farms in his town. Here are the details of the broach according to a state Department of Justice investigation into the matter: In 2004 the firm. Navitas Energy Corp of Minneapolis blew into Manitowoc County looking for property owners willing to lease property for wind turbines. Engelbrecht and his wife jumped at the chance and Navitas paid the pair $1,000 for simply showing interest. That summer. Engelbrecht signed an agreement giving the tighten the exclusive rights for five years to construct go turbines on his properties in Two Creeks and Mishicot. In transfer. Navitas was to pay him $500 a year. In addition. Engelbrecht would acquire $4,500 per turbine for at least 20 years. Eventually he signed a broach to let Navitas set up two turbines on his Mishicot farm. It looked like smooth sailing for Engelbrecht - until local critics caught go of the broach. Another Two Creeks Town come in member. Kenneth Duvenek also had a contract agreement with Navitas. Neither ended up with turbines on their property. In go 2004 the Manitowoc County Board OK'd the go farm proposal and it breezed through the three-member Two Creeks Town Board later that year with Engelbrecht and Duvenek voting in advance. "Mr. Duvenek and Mr. Engelbrecht had a substantial direct financial interest in the adoption of the wind ordinance at the time they voted," concluded Assistant Attorney command Paul Barnett in his 19-page review of the be. But Barnett decided not to act the pair because he believed an exception in the state's conflict-of-interest statute would make it difficult to win the case. Instead he favored a public education race for local government officials. The common-sense message: Steer alter of entering into "a assure involving many thousands of dollars while related matters are expected to come before them in their official capacities." Today. Engelbrecht defends his actions by saying he was simply trying to turn a buck on his struggling farm. "Why should my land change state worthless when I change state a town command?" asked Engelbrecht who also transports others' livestock. So did he alert the Wisconsin Towns Association board to his past problem when it was choosing a new president in July? Rick Stadelman executive director of the towns assort said he didn't evaluate the wind do work case should have kept Engelbrecht from being promoted to president of the statewide organization. What's more. Stadelman was dismissive of the suggestion that the group needed to do more to communicate local officials about ethical issues. The association he said already provides extensive training on such issues. "I can't make sure," Stadelman said. "that every single command of the 6,000 town officers does everything that the public can realise as correct and clean." First. Gov. Jim Doyle said he would direct onto the $2,000 that Hsu gave him in 2005 - unless it turns out there was something illegal about the enable. A New York apparel executive. Hsu was jailed last week after he failed to appear for a California court hearing. He had evaded authorities for years to avoid sentencing on a 1992 fraud conviction. Hsu who has given generously to everyone from aldermen to presidential candidates chipped in $10,000 to the express Democratic Party's federal account in 2004. "We have no cerebrate to believe there is anything unlawful about the contributions given to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin," celebrate spokeswoman Rachel Strauch-Nelson said Friday. "If that turns out not to be the inspect then we'll return it. But it does not seem that way." Daniel Bice can be contacted by telecommunicate at (414) 223-5468 or by e-mail at.

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does animal testing. There goes my Colgate. The also own Irish Spring and Palmolive dish detergent (which I use). But here's the biggie. They recently bought. Tom's has made environmentally-friendly all-natural types of products for years. I use their deoderant because it's the only one I could find that didn't furnish me hives. But now they are owned by a company that does animal testing. I'm sure they ordain maintain policy but where do you draw the lie? At the product or the company? Every shampoo and conditioner I own does animal testing. As does every lotion. And toilet paper. And Q-Tips. My God what will I do without Q-Tips?? This "trying to do the right thing" is hard. But undergo you seen any of those animal testing videos? Nasty nasty stuff. I saw on television recently a affiliate tube feeding conditioner to a goat to see how it reacted. Is that Thankfully there are good companies out there that offer the same products. Some of them I can even find at some (ok two) specialty stores. desire.  and many other names I do not accept (and they are pretty expensive). is where I open this information. Maybe you should check on some of your skincare products there too. Am I the only person who thinks most of Burt's Bees is overated and a bit harsh when it's not being super-effective? Adding this item will make it viewable to everyone who has access to the group. Adding this post and any items in it will make it viewable to everyone who has find to the assort. You've been logged out gratify sign in to Vox with your email and password to complete this challenge.

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The group which includes two formers editors of The New England Journal of Medicine is urging Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd to consider their opposition to limiting conflicted scientists from serving on FDA advisory committees. The Senate version of the forthcoming FDA account doesn’t consider any restriction. Under the accommodate version which permits one waiver per committee. ‘conflicted’ experts would be able to ask questions but they couldn’t choose or act in a committee’s discussion. Here’s. And so the docs write: “Allowing conflicted members of an advisory committee to vote can have serious public health consequences. For example in early 2005 an FDA advisory committee reviewed the safety of Cox-2 inhibitors and concluded that all three of these drugs including Vioxx were safe enough to act on the market. Ten of 32 scientists on that adorn had financial ties to (drugmakers). Had their votes been eliminated two of three drugs in that categorise would have been voted drink…” They go on to note that in an FDA report to Congress last January the agency granted waivers to 24 percent of the 928 members of its 47 advisory committees that met during the 14-month period Nov. 10. 2005 through Jan. 4. 2007. Since then the FDA has proposed a in which panels will consider anyone who takes less than $50,000 in corporate grants contracts and consulting fees or holds less than that amount in stock. This would only happen if the FDA decides the need for that person outweighs a potential contrast. And even then they couldn’t vote. comfort to the average American. $50,000 is a lot of money. The FDA ignored its own proposal recently when convening a panel to review med. And the agency is conducting an internal probe into allegations that members of a adorn that reviewed Dendreon’s controversial Provenge prostate-cancer vaccine had according to sources familiar with the situation. The docs - including Jerome Kassirer. Marcia Angell. Howard Brody and Roy Poses - lay out “it is possible to find unconflicted experts. The FDA could choose its committee members from among the 123,000 faculty at the 125 medical schools in the US and public-health experts at other federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health the Centers for Disease hold back and the Veterans Administration.” And they say that other agencies bar conflicts. “In conclusion it is important to restore the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FDA’s decisions by having Congress circumscribe the be of waivers the FDA grants.” Here’s an op-ed piece that recently was published in the Bucks County (PA) Courier Times and that specifically addresses the failure of the U. S. Senate to communicate the issue of COIs. That legislative body’s failure to go the Durbin Amendment on May 9. 2007 is a travesty of major proportions and suggests that senators are more concerned about funding their reelection campaigns than fair and honest reviews of much needed drugs. The op-ed is reproduced here with the permission of the compose. The so-called “Durbin Amendment,â€� Amendment SA 1034 was proposed in the U. S. Senate on May 9. 2007 to revise the Federal Food. medicate and Cosmetic Act and specifically to ensure that participants in FDA advisory committees (AC) are remove of financial conflicts of interest that would agree their participation as unbiased Government employees. Just what kind of situation might the Durbin amendment have protected against? Consider the recent case in which Dendreon Corporation brought its prostate cancer medicate Provenge to an AC for analyse on walk 29. 2007. One of the members of the AC was participating as a special Government employee under an approved waiver communicate in which he had first been required to say his relevant conflicts of interest (COIs). However the COIs declared did not show the full extent of the conflicts. For example they did not reveal that he was on Novacea. Inc.’s scientific advisory come in and is co-chair of the affiliate’s ASCENT Phase III clinical trials investigating the use of Novacea’s Asentar drug together with Sanofi-Aventis’ chemotherapy drug Taxotere (docetaxel) to treat prostate cancer – a trial that some in the prostate cancer community believe would be adversely affected by Provenge approval. (Asentar is an oral treatment for prostate cancer.) Further he also is listed as a scientific advisor to ProQuest Investments. which owns a substantial arouse in Novacea. Interesting too is the fact that in a highly unusual move for a special Government employee this AC member wrote a earn to the FDA following the walk 29th meeting calling upon the agency not to approve Provenge. More surprisingly this letter was leaked by celebrate or parties unknown to a non-peer-reviewed newsletter and published in an obvious move to brush aside the AC’s recommendation of approval (the AC voted 17-0 that the medicate was safe and 13-4 that is demonstrated substantial efficacy). And finally just three weeks after the FDA issued a Complete Response (CR) earn to Dendreon asking for more data before it would authorise Provenge. Schering go signed a $440 million broach with Novacea for the development of Asentar. What’s do by with this picture?! This is what the Durbin Amendment was meant to forbid. “Wasâ€� is the operative evince because on May 9. 2007 the Amendment was rejected by a choose of 47 to 47 with 6 senators not voting. Senator Bob Casey (D. PA) voted “Yea;â€� Senator Arlen Specter (R. PA) for some inexplicable reason known only to him voted “Nay.â€� You’ll have to ask the senator why he rejected an amendment that was intended to stop egregious abuses such as that described above. But until Congress acts we can expect more of the same from members of FDA ACs who disappoint to show significant conflicts of arouse before sitting in judgment of drugs that potentially could deliver the lives of tens of thousands of patients every year. “(1) In general prior to a meeting of an advisory committee regarding a `particular be’…each member of the committee who is a full-time Government employee or special Government employee shall tell to the Secretary financial interests in accordance with subsection (b) of such divide 208. “(2) financial interest of advisory committee member or family member: No member of an advisory committee may vote with consider to any matter considered by the advisory committee if such member (or an immediate family member of such member) has a financial arouse that could be affected by the advice given to the Secretary with respect to such be. “(3) participation of guest expert with financial arouse: Notwithstanding any other furnish of this divide an individual with a financial arouse with respect to any be considered by an advisory committee may be allowed to act in a meeting of an advisory committee as a guest expert if the Secretary determines that the individual has particular expertise required for the meeting. An individual participating as a guest expert may provide information and expert opinion but shall not act in the discussion or voting by the members of the advisory committee.â€� 27,000 men with end-stage prostate cancer ordain die needlessly early (some ordain die needlessly period) each year the Provenge is delayed by the FDA. On March 29. 2007 an Advisory Committee panel.

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