Reason Morning Links: Pfizer Pays Record Fine, Curt Schilling May Run for Senate, Feds Need More Workers?

- Backers of climate change bill outspending opponents by 50 percent.

- Study says federal government in desperate need of . . . a hiring spree?

- Retired MLB pitcher Curt Schilling may run for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.

- Pfizer to pay $2.3 billion in fines for off-label drug marketing.

- Alberto Gonzales, the opera.

Comments

[robc]

Last pitcher in the senate:

Crazy but voted against TARP.

We need to verify his views on TARP, but sounds like a win-win, especially from the state that gave us an eternity of Kennedy.

[ConHugeCo]

Schilling should run, we haven't had a Legislative Enhancing Drug scandal in the senate for a while..

[Hugh Akston]

Comments to "Reason Morning Links: Pfizer Pays Record Pfine, Curt Schilling May Run for Senate, Feds Need More Workers?":

Fixed.

[_^___^_]

Maybe somebody should tell Curt that politics is more than just a bloody sock.

[John Thacker]

I dislike that the LA Times article about Pfizer refers to "fraudulent marketing." Most off-label marketing is for effects and uses that really exist, and are backed by independent scientific studies, but the FDA hasn't approved it yet or it would be very expensive to go through the approval process.

They're likely being fined for telling the truth but without FDA sanction, and for marketing that would be legal if they were selling herbal supplements for that matter.

[Nick]

It's too bad Pfizer doesn't use Thacker's defense to pfight the PFDA and tell them to pfuck off.

[hurlybuerhle]

Schilling should easy carry the "bandwagon Red Sox fan" vote, and if you've got that demographic you really can't lose an election in Mass.

[Meta4]

Rangel-ing: Charlie Pays 'Angels' In Ethics Probe

Harlem Congressman Gave Campaign Contributions To 3 Dems On Ethics Committee Charged With Investigating Him

CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

http://wcbstv.com/local/charles.rangel.ethics.2.1160326.html

[Meta4]

One more:

THOUSAND OAKS -- A 65-year-old man had his finger bitten off Wednesday evening at a health care rally in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's investigators were called to Hillcrest and Lynn Road at 7:26 p.m.

About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street.

A witness from the scene says a man was walking through the anti-reform group to get to the pro-reform side when he got into an altercation with the 65-year-old, who opposes health care reform.

The 65-year-old was apparently aggressive and hit the other man, who then retaliated by biting off his attacker's pinky, according to Karoli from DrumsnWhistles.

The man took his finger and walked to Los Robles hospital for treatment.

Neither man has been identified.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-finger-bitten-rally,0,7135717.story

[Meta4]

Last one. Promise

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6127514/Sentenced-to-death-on-the-NHS.html

[SugarFree]

The Georgetown Cuddler and Fingerbanging Thesaurus

[robc]

Hey Meta4,

Some reason you are posting stories that have their own threads?

[John Thacker]

It's too bad Pfizer doesn't use Thacker's defense to pfight the PFDA and tell them to pfuck off.

Oh, they'd lose. You don't have the right to advertise the truth about a drug or food if the FDA doesn't approve. It's the same thing as the Cheerios issue-- General Mills said that they stood behind the facts of their advertising (that clinical studies suggested it was good for cholesterol) but would change it since the FDA insisted.

[John Thacker]

My point is that I usually take the word "fraudulent" to mean attempting to deceive, not any attempt to communicate something not sanctioned by a government agency.

[SugarFree]

Oh, and a hearty fuck you to the drivelcunt cockgarglers at the World Wildfire Fund. Makes me want to rape a panda to death with a yard rake.

(Apologies if someone has already posted this, I've been busy at work.)

[Meta4]

"Some reason you are posting stories that have their own threads?"

Posted the finger story prior to H&R.

Don't see any postings on H&R about the NHS withholding treatment or Charlie Rangel paying money to the people on the ethics committee investigating his ethics.

[robc]

Posted the finger story prior to H&R.

In my universe, 9:17 is before 9:29.

[Meta4]

Gosh! 12 minutes! So sorry to have fucked up your day.

[The Gobbler]

Meta4, you ignorant slut.

[Rhywun]

So the whistleblower against pockets a cool $51,000,000. Not bad for what, 10 seconds work?

[Rhywun]

...against Pfizer...