{"id":190543,"date":"2009-11-15T20:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T01:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/11\/15\/our-parrots-in-congress\/"},"modified":"2009-11-15T20:28:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-16T01:28:00","slug":"our-parrots-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/11\/15\/our-parrots-in-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Parrots in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 0px 10px; width: 410px; float: right; text-align: center;\">Click for full size<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/img9.imageshack.us\/img9\/4449\/shulerforsen1121043.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img9.imageshack.us\/img9\/4449\/shulerforsen1121043.jpg\" bordercolor=\"white\" border=\"0\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a> <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">He was an overpriced rookie flameout with the brain of a turnip<sup>*<\/sup> then, and he&#8217;s an overpriced rookie flameout with the brain of a turnip<sup>*<\/sup> now.<\/span><\/div>\n<p>So, big pharma is trying to get a bill through Congress for draconian exclusivity periods for so called &#8220;biologics&#8221; drugs.  It&#8217;s 12 years, but with minor changes, snipping a hydroxyl, or adding a time released variant, they could drug companies could <a href=\"http:\/\/fdlaction.firedoglake.com\/2009\/10\/29\/house-health-care-bill-a-death-sentence-for-my-fellow-breast-cancer-survivors\/\">extend their government granted monopolies virtually infinitely<\/a>. (also <a href=\"http:\/\/fdlaction.firedoglake.com\/2009\/11\/02\/the-devil-in-anna-eshoos-details\/\">here<\/a>, both from Jane Hamshire)<\/p>\n<p>Well, in response to Jane&#8217;s push against these provisions, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) turned on their lobbyists, and wrote statements that 42 Congressmen read into the record, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/11\/15\/us\/politics\/15health.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss&amp;pagewanted=all\">almost verbatim<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The kicker is that there were two versions of their talking points, a Republican version and a Democratic version, so depending on party, they were using different cheat sheets&#8230;.Except, of course for Heath Shuler (DINO-Loser Land), who somehow or other managed to <a href=\"http:\/\/fdlaction.firedoglake.com\/2009\/11\/15\/eath-shuler-given-gop-talking-points-by-phrma\/\">use the Republican version of the talking points<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As a Washington Redskin&#8217;s fan, this wanker has been bedeviling me since 1994&#8230;..Please, make it stop!!!<\/p>\n<p>Monty Python&#8217;s dead parrot sketch after the break.<br \/><a name='more'><\/a><br \/><object height=\"295\" width=\"480\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" height=\"295\" width=\"480\"><\/embed><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/npjOSLCR2hE&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\"><\/a><\/object><\/p>\n<p><sup>*<\/sup><span style=\"font-size:78%;\">My apologies to anyone who fancies turnips.<\/span><sup>\u2020<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><sup>\u2020<\/sup><span style=\"font-size:78%;\">Like this guy.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img22.imageshack.us\/img22\/6121\/blackadderbaldrick203x1.jpg\" width=\"75\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Click for full size He was an overpriced rookie flameout with the brain of a turnip* then, and he&#8217;s an overpriced rookie flameout with the brain of a turnip* now. So, big pharma is trying to get a bill through Congress for draconian exclusivity periods for so called &#8220;biologics&#8221; drugs. It&#8217;s 12 years, but with &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[998,970,1046,1109,1020,1025,979],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress","category-corruption","category-healthcare","category-ip","category-legislation","category-technology","category-wanker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}