Some people may die because they can't afford their medication, or go hungry because they can't afford to buy both food and meds. It's not the FDA, but your freedom loving, liberty lusting fellow travellers like kdwmson and Shooter. Nice people. At least "poor" people in America are "fat and have free schools". It's not government per se, Mona. It's the ass clowns that manage to "infiltrate it" and fuck it up on purpose. What kind of propagandist rag has direct links to The Heritage Institute and Club for Growth? Radical extremist ideologues.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0705080110may08,1,5591207.story?track=rss

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday effectively killed a measure that would have let Americans buy prescription medicines from foreign suppliers, which sponsors said could have saved consumers billions of dollars.

By a 49-40 vote, senators approved a provision requiring the government to certify that imports are safe -- a step the Bush administration is unlikely to take. The amendment, offered by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), was seen as a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry.

Cochran's caveat "is clearly a poison pill," said Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent and a strong supporter of allowing imports.

The action came during consideration of a major overhaul of the government's troubled drug safety system.

The drug import measure, tacked onto the larger bill, was opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, which argues that pharmacies risk being flooded with counterfeit drugs. And the White House, which also opposes importation, had threatened a veto of the drug safety bill if it eased restrictions.

That put the Senate's Democratic majority in a bind: Many favor direct drug importation, but the amendment threatened to stymie a reform of the Food and Drug Administration that is considered must-pass legislation. So some Democrats straddled the issue by voting for the drug-import amendment but also for a proviso requiring the government to certify that imports are safe.

"Today is a day of lost opportunity," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), author of the import proposal.

If it became law, U.S. pharmacies would be allowed to import prescription drugs produced in FDA-licensed facilities in other developed countries.

Dorgan accused the pharmaceutical industry of wanting to dictate prices to U.S. consumers.

"Yes, we have price controls in America," he said. "Not government price controls, but price controls by the pharmaceutical industry."

Review the last broadcast of Delay's visit with Matthews - it was Hero Worship 101 and probably one of the most embarrassing bits of journalism I have ever seen.

dw

I'm trying to articulate a national, cultural approach that will address questions not of how we run the government but of how we live our lives as citizens. I've always taken the 3-Cs approach to how America works -- capitalism, constitutionalism, and Christianity. -- kdwmsn

KD says he's a right-wing Catholic anarcho-capitalist from Texas. Mmm.... We've heard a lot from him here about capitalism, but not much about Christianity except for some specious-sounding pabulum about doctrinal variety in the Church, and virtually nothing about constitutionalism except that he thinks that the courts which have interpreted it for the past 70 years have been staffed by liberal tyrants.

Sounds like Herr Ratzinger to me, or perhaps Opus Dei. I ask you, KD, what kind of a cultural approach does an anarcho-capitalist think is appropriate for a country with a secular government, and a population which espouses a wide variety of religious beliefs including none-of-the-above?

When we eliminate the first (kdwmson), we can attend to the second. I use the term "eliminate" in the strongest most robust sense in relation to the former case. Here are some "poor" Americans. You will notice they not fat. They are all white and I'd wager most of them vote Republican.

http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/life/905W-000-039.html

I was skimming and I caught eye of someone saying "read some Dickens"

Back around Christmas NPR had on a libertarian economist who explained that Scrooge was actually a better contributing member of society before he had his Christmas reformation. I listened with jaw dropped, because at first I thought the guy was just doing some tongue in cheek self-deprecating humor, then realized he was being deadly serious.

A Rolls CarNerdy is a vehicle the media drive a one way road. It Rolls down a hill full-speed ahead. A Rolls car like that can barely make it up the next hill with a tank of bad gas..

...Off Topic- where does a bee pee? at the BP filling gas station.

"It could happen here." It is happening. Yesterday I had goat milk and corn flakes with a friend of a friend of a other person's friend, who makes $8.oo per hour. Most politicians know diddly and rob the hen-house and eat tainted dead hen's chicken meat. I blame the full-flock of feathered duck, duck, goose at the prestigious FDA.

A theme cheer song I sing is "Work crooks= Oh-humph Ah! work, work work, and boom boom ya! Ho! Oh, do a day's work and sleep, sleep, sleep rot. Stop to check the breaks on the car or we all crash into a steep, steep, slippery, poo poo. Work, work, work, work. Clean, clean, clean, up the yuck, yuck, yuck of the politico's ugh, ugh, Pugh's clown costumes.

Diddy, Toddy, diddly, Dada means who? The world is such one can make $8.oo smakakagcarcanaroo's and hope a tin tooth alligator don't munch ya up even though s/he may be, be, be the 3rd renown Early American Architectural craftsperson and best counsellor in the country.

O, it ain't enough Crazy, crazy crazy, for me/you too/ {?} huh, o, yep yes sir/mam...

...We've heard a lot from [kdwmson] here about capitalism, but not much about Christianity except for some specious-sounding pabulum about doctrinal variety in the Church....

Sounds like Herr Ratzinger to me, or perhaps Opus Dei.-- William Timberman

I can't tell you about the doctrinal stance of Opus Dei or the even the KofC, although I believe the latter are more likely to give humble respect to the true prevailing dictates of the Catholic church (whether they want to or not). The theory he mentioned is not doctrine.
Generally speaking, our duty towards the poor & helpless has been de-emphasized by the current pope, and fringe ideas dear to ultra-rightist have flourished since the death of John Paul II. John Paul II was socially rightwing/conservative in most regards, but he made a point of keeping the ultra-rightists in check during his tenure as pope.
Ultra-rightists are now freer to make arguments similar to those of kdwmson -- that they are actually "helping" the poor more by dismantling the "welfare state". However, this assertion is difficult to take from kdwmson; contempt for the (hypothetical) average person oozes out of half his posts. It's too convenient by half -- his notion that we "help" the myopic, fat, superstitious folks best by removing what? Funding for libraries, public transport, health clinics.... it's all "welfare" in their parlance. He's not just aiming to eliminate transfer payments.

I live in the greater New Orleans area. I've been watching what private religious groups can do to maintain and rebuild a society for ~2 years now. They do a great deal for individuals and small business owners -- but they don't rebuild the streets, the sewers or the rest of the critical basic infrastructure. If the ultra-rightists got their way and dismantled government, we would have a failed society, one incapable of much production of goods or services -- a cross between the Belgian Congo and contemporary Russia.