Monday, October 18, 2004
How Technology Failed In Iraq
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MIT Technology Review: How Technology Failed In Iraq
" “Next to the fall of Baghdad,” says Marcone, “that bridge was the most important piece of terrain in the theater, and no one can tell me what’s defending it. Not how many troops, what units, what tanks, anything. There is zero information getting to me. Someone may have known above me, but the information didn’t get to me on the ground.” Marcone’s men were ambushed repeatedly on the approach to the bridge. But the scale of the intelligence deficit was clear after Marcone took the bridge on April 2." "
FactCheck.org: Kerry Falsely Claims Bush Plans To Cut Social Security Benefits
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Kerry Falsely Claims Bush Plans To Cut Social Security Benefits
" "It's not Bush's plan, and it wouldn't cut benefits.
Summary
A Kerry ad claims "Bush has a plan to cut Social Security benefits by 30 to 45 percent." That's false. Bush has proposed no such plan, and the proposal Kerry refers to would only slow down the growth of benefits, and only for future retirees. It was one of three possible "reform models" detailed by a bipartisan commission in 2001.
The ad also says nothing about what Kerry would do to address the troubled state of Social Security finances. Unless taxes are increased, the system's trustees say currently scheduled benefits would have to be cut 32%." "
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Kerry Blames Bush For......Vaccine Shortage?
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I sense the Kerry campaign is growing desperate.
" "Kerry accused Bush of missing signs that a flu vaccine shortage was imminent." "
Okay, Senator, but only if you promise to accept responsibility for every bad outcome, drug shortage, and lack of promised savings on importing drugs from Canada.
[Via Yahoo News]
FactCheck.org: Kerry Exaggerates Role in Some Key Legislative Battles
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FactCheck.org Kerry Exaggerates Role in Some Key Legislative Battles
" "The Associated Press last July found that only eight laws had Kerry as their lead sponsor, five of them "ceremonial," two relating to the fishing industry, and one providing federal grants to support small businesses owned by women." "
Twenty years. Part of why Democrats are so upset is that their primary system left them with a loser like this. I'd be upset, too.
Bill Kristol: 'Fair Game'
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"Fair Game"
" "Does he really think they will believe that he singled out Mary Cheney because he "was trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue?" Does he think they will accept his claim that he was saying something about the Cheneys' "love of their daughter"? Of course, he wasn't. In his answer, he never mentioned or came close to mentioning the Cheney family, or the Cheneys' love. He merely brought up Mary Cheney as a lesbian, out of left field, in order to get her name and sexual orientation into an answer where no such citation was expected, called for, or remotely appropriate. His campaign manager let slip the truth when after the debate she told Fox News's Chris Wallace that Mary Cheney was "fair game." "
Just How Many Bills Has Kerry "Passed?"
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FactCheck.org:Bush said Kerry passed five bills. Kerry said he's passed 56. Who's right? That depends on the definition of "passed" and "bills."
Morning Java: Crop Circles, Space Aliens, and a Draft
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Morning Java: Crop Circles, Space Aliens, and a Draft:
""What do you say to someone who continues to believe that the sky is green, even when presented with a color wheel, a scientific explanation, and perhaps 264 signed affadavits to the contrary?
What do you say to someone who continues to defend his theory that crop circles are a warning system sent by aliens, even when presented with video evidence of "crop artists" caught in the act of creating said crop circles, admissions of guilt as to when, where, and how the circles were created, and perhaps 264 affadavits signed by witnesses to said crop circle creation?
What do you say to someone who continues to believe that a liar and a traitor is a "war hero," even when presented with documentation, audio and video recordings, numerous witness testimonials, and 264 signed affadavits to the contrary?
I think you'd have to say either "You obviously are not interested in the truth" or "You've obviously lost your marbles."""
[Via Shape of Days]
Retired Gen. Franks On The Violence In Iraq
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Yahoo! News - Retired Gen. Franks Criticizes Kerry:
""In an interview before the rally, Franks said he doesn't foresee an endless cycle of violence in Iraq, and he thinks violence will diminish after the Nov. 2 election.
"I believe they (insurgents) are influenced by what they see in our media," he told The Associated Press. "They see if they blow something up it's front-page news ... (and) the presidential candidates will talk about it.
"After Nov. 2, that dynamic will leave. The problem won't go away, but it'll be diminished ... This will be a long process, but there will come a time when the insurgents have less opportunity to create mischief for us," he said.""
[Via Beldar Blog]
Charles Krauthammer on Spinal Cord Injury and Campaigns
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Charles Krauthammer weighs in on the Edward's 'Promising the Sky':
" "In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Hope is good. False hope is bad. Deliberately, for personal gain, raising false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable." "
[Via PRESTOPUNDIT]
A Little Friendly Family Election Competition: Part II
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My Bush sign is basically a plastic bag with writing on it. My spouse's Kerry sign is made of cardboard and will likely not last through the first rain storm.
Advantage: Bush (again)
Friday, October 15, 2004
Pennsylvania: Court Strikes Nader From Pennsylvania Ballot
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The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Pennsylvania: Court Strikes Nader From Pennsylvania Ballot:
" "In reviewing signatures, it became apparent that in addition to signing names such as Mickey Mouse, Fred Flintstone, John Kerry and the ubiquitous Ralph Nader, there were thousands of names that were created at random and then randomly assigned either existent or nonexistent addresses by the circulators." "
Embarrassing for my state.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
New FactCheck.org Document
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New And Recycled Distortions At Final Presidential Debate
""The debates are over and the results are clear: both candidates are incorrigible fact-twisters.
"Bush said most of his tax cuts went to "low- and middle-income Americans" when independent calculations show most went to the richest 10 percent. Kerry claims Bush "cut the Pell Grants" when they've actually increased. Both men repeated misstatements made in earlier debates, and added a few new ones.""
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Two New Swiftvets Ads
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Swiftboat Veterans and POW's for Truth have released two more ads titled "They Served" and "Why" and both feature Bud Day. These are the most powerful ads to date.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Reminder: Afghanistan is free now
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Jeff Harrell reminds us that Afghanistan is free now!:
""[Afghanistan's free elections] is the kind of story that America is going to forget about quickly. There are no lurid pictures, there's no ongoing scandal … there's no angle at all, really. A bunch of people got together and elected their president. The fact that it's for the first time ever and that it couldn't have happened if not for the sacrifice of the men and women, both American and Afghan, who participated in Operation Enduring Freedom is just a footnote.
I don't think that's right. I think liberating — not "liberating" as a euphemism, but literally liberating, literally making free — a country of 20 million people is the sort of thing that we need to keep talking about for a while. I think it's something we need to remind ourselves of periodically, lest we forget about it.""
[Via The Shape of Days]
Promising the Sky
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Promising the sky just to get elected...
""When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.'
- --John Edwards, 11 October, 2004" "
And he knows this how, exactly? If, as Richard Feynman said, 'a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy', what about a medical malpractice attorney-turned-politician looking at a medical problem? I'll let you answer that for yourself. I knew when I heard that Christopher Reeve had died, that we'd be hearing about it from the Kerry/Edwards campaign somehow. I had no idea they would use the occasion to try to create such false hope.
I'm sure Charles Krauthammer will have plenty to say on this quote in an article I bet he's preparing right now.
10-15-2004: And here it is.
[Via Froggy Ruminations]
Project Vote Smart
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Project Vote Smart:
"" Thousands of candidates and elected officials. Who works for you? Who is seeking your vote? Project Vote Smart, a citizen's organization, has developed a Voter's Self-Defense system to provide you with the necessary tools to self-govern effectively: abundant, accurate, unbiased and relevant information. As a national library of factual information, Project Vote Smart covers your candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings. What would you like to know?" "
[Via The Shape of Days]
Monday, October 11, 2004
Swift Vets Lock and Load
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The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are preparing several more TV ads to feature Bud Day, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. If you haven't yet, read the book and make up your own mind about whether these guys have a point.
[Via Michelle Malkin]
Halliburton Speaks (at last)
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A Tough Job, and Halliburton Does It:
"" As the rhetoric heats up further in the few weeks before the election, we hope you will ask yourself: Do I have all the facts?
For instance, there are frequent references to our "no-bid" contract to support the U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The fact is that after a fully competitive and open bid process we were awarded a contract in 2001, well before the war in Iraq, to provide logistical support for U.S. soldiers wherever they might be deployed.
KBR did receive, at the outbreak of the war, a sole-source contract issued under urgent conditions to quickly restore the flow of Iraqi oil. But what you will not often read is that the independent General Accounting Office has since reviewed the contract and reported that it was "properly awarded … to the only contractor [the Defense Department] had determined was in a position to provide the services within the required time frame given classified prewar planning requirements." And you will almost never read that profit margins on these contracts are extremely low and that the oil contract was replaced early this year by one that was competitively bid.
Mischaracterizations and incomplete facts do a grave disservice to the employees and subcontractors who are working in Iraq. Never before has any contractor worked in as dangerous a situation as they are. Halliburton is providing jobs for Americans, and we are supporting the troops with the largest civilian workforce ever assembled in support of a military operation.""
[Via INTEL DUMP]
Sunday, October 10, 2004
That Dog Don't Hunt
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Huntin' Dawg:
" "If there is some kind of award given for the most derisive and biting political advertisement of the campaign, then this one from the NRA has my vote. " "
Warning: be sure your mouth does not have coffee in it before looking at the ad.
[Via Froggy Ruminations]
You Can Run But You Can't Hide
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Power Line explains the origin of the line Bush used on Kerry--'You Can Run But You Can't Hide'
""At one time, everyone would have known the source of that line; today I'm sure most people do, but probably not all... For those who may have forgotten, Joe Louis was preparing for a title bout against Billy Conn, and a reporter asked Louis how he planned to deal with Conn's speed. (Conn was, in fact, a terrific boxer.) Louis replied, unforgettably: "He can run, but he can't hide.""
Can We Learn Something From The Flu Vaccine Shortage?
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I hadn't thought of this until Michelle Malkin pointed it out in her excellent weblog:
""Why on earth does the U.S. get virtually all of its flu vaccine supply from just two manufacturers? Because federal bulk purchase of vaccines at government-controlled prices has made the vaccine market a market that few drug companies want to be in.
[snip]
...the flawed approach used by the CDC--that is, using its buying clout to extract deep discounts from manufacturers--is exactly the same approach that John Kerry thinks the Medicare program should use for all prescription drugs, not just vaccines. More on our flawed vaccine policy here and here.""
[Via Michelle Malkin]
JibJab: It's Good to be in DC
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It's Good to be in DC:
""The guys at JibJab have done it again: New JibJab film""
[Via Morning Java]
Saturday, October 9, 2004
Are Drug Company Profits Really That Fat?
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Drug companies are widely perceived by the public to make huge amounts of money for their investors. Is that true? Well, it depends....
New England Journal of Medicine, August 26, 2004, 'The Pharmaceutical Industry--Prices and Progress':
" "Year after year, the pharmaceutical industry has ranked at or near the top of Fortune magazine’s annual list of the most profitable American industries, which are rated in terms of accounting returns as a percentage of either stockholders’ equity or total assets. But here, too, there is an element of fallacy. Under standard accounting practice, outlays for research and development are written off in the year they occur. But, in fact, such expenditures are an investment, yielding fruit many years after they are incurred. They ought, in principle, to be included in the company’s assets and then depreciated over an appropriate time period. When they are not, the capital base to which profits are related in standard measures tends to be undervalued, and percentage returns on that capital base are overstated. A government study found that, when appropriate corrections were made, the true returns on investment by the pharmaceutical industry during the 1980s were only 2 to 3 percent higher, on average, than “normal” competitive rates of return, which were estimated to average roughly 10 percent (excluding the effects of inflation). 19,20 This differential of 2 to 3 percent might have been attributable, at least in part, to technological risks not readily avoided through the portfolio strategies available to financial market investors. 21 Whether the differential has remained within that range in recent years has not been tested by broadly accepted analyses."
--F.M. Scherer, Ph.D., Kennedy School of Government "
Given that the pharmaceutical industry does its R&D from private funds, is the most research intensive of all industries, and has improved our quality of life like few industries have or ever will.....'the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers'.
Media Underplaying Duelfer Report
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Michael Barone joins with David Brooks in...:
""U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons" read the headline on the October 7 Washington Post. "Report on Iraq Contradicts Bush Administration Claims" read the subhead. But these headlines conceal the real news in the report of Iraq Survey Group head Charles Duelfer. For the report makes it plain that George W. Bush had good reason to go to war in Iraq and end the regime of Saddam Hussein...."
[read the rest]"
Like I said, don't just be content to let some reporter tell you what is says. Go look for yourself...
[Via Instapundit.com]
David Brooks: The Report That Nails Saddam
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The Report That Nails Saddam:
"" ...I have never in my life seen a government report so distorted by partisan passions. The fact that Saddam had no W.M.D. in 2001 has been amply reported, but it's been isolated from the more important and complicated fact of Saddam's nature and intent.
But we know where things were headed. Sanctions would have been lifted. Saddam, rich, triumphant and unbalanced, would have reconstituted his W.M.D. Perhaps he would have joined a nuclear arms race with Iran. Perhaps he would have left it all to his pathological heir Qusay.
We can argue about what would have been the best way to depose Saddam, but this report makes it crystal clear that this insatiable tyrant needed to be deposed. He was the menace, and, as the world dithered, he was winning his struggle. He was on the verge of greatness. We would all now be living in his nightmare." "
[Via Bush-Cheney '04 Blog]
Distortions Galore at Second Presidential Debate
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FactCheck.org: Distortions Galore at Second Presidential Debate
Friday, October 8, 2004
Importing drugs from Canada, which imports drugs from, where?
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Watching the second presidential debate tonight, one question the voters need more information on is importation of drugs from Canada. Allow me to quote a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine:
""Pharmaceuticals valued at approximately $300 million (all amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars) were imported into Canada in 2002 [reference] from countries without mutual-recognition agreements about manufacturing practices. [reference] Twenty-five such countries (including China, India, Brazil, Hungary, Slovenia, Ecuador, Thailand, Croatia, Chile, South Africa, Argentina, and Indonesia) each exported $300,000 to $59 million worth of pharmaceuticals to Canada. [reference] In 2002, the value of imports from Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil were 264 percent, 296 percent, 500 percent, 501 percent, 512 percent, and 3270 percent higher, respectively, than they were in 1999. In the first three quarters of 2003, the value of imports from Iran increased to $1.5 million (a 2372 percent increase over the total value in 2002).
"Because drugs from Internet suppliers may originate outside Canada and the United States, neither government takes responsibility for their safety. Canada should take prompt action to prevent large-scale, unregulated, cross-border sales to avoid any negative outcomes from drugs whose origin is unclear and whose quality is unknown.""
Contrary to what Senator Kerry would have you think, drugs purchases in Canada are not necessarily made in the Unites States. You're indirectly buying them from Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, and Iran.
Consider the following as well: is importation of drugs from Canada sustainable? There's good reason to think not:
""The mass exportation of prescription medication to the United States threatens the preferential pricing set by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.2 Companies may also choose not to market medication in Canada in order to protect the larger and more lucrative U.S. market.3 At risk is nothing less than the ability of countries to set their own policy regarding pharmaceuticals. The availability of Canadian medication is not a viable long-term solution to the problems of drug costs in the United States and represents a substantial threat to the access and affordability of drugs in Canada." [NEJM]"
12 October 2004: Brian Carnell responds here.
NEJM -- Prescription-Drug Prices
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NEJM -- Election 2004: Prescription-Drug Prices (available free):
""At first blush, Kerry's positions appear to be more "consumer friendly" than Bush's. Kerry supports policies that create stronger downward pressure on prescription-drug prices than Bush's policies do. This more aggressive stance toward controlling today's drug prices must be considered in light of the effect of lower prices on the flow of new drugs that will be available to the next generation of consumers. Bush supports policies that protect the existing drug-price structures in the name of ensuring adequate economic incentives to innovate.
"The United States is entering uncharted waters in both of these key areas — the importation of prescription drugs and the role of the government in controlling their cost. A voter's choice between the candidates might well be guided by philosophy and a sense of whether profits in the pharmaceutical industry are high enough so that reductions in drug prices would not substantially impede the development of future drugs.
"Importation would have some predictable consequences: U.S. prices would decrease, the world would move toward a single price for a given drug, and Canada and Europe would probably make larger contributions toward the cost of research and development. The magnitude of the financial gain in the United States, however, is uncertain; my guess is that there would be modest price reductions for consumers in the United States and substantial price increases for Europeans and Canadians." "
The fly in the ointment here is the American health consumer's desire to have the best medical care in the world, have it for free, and have it now. I think they like the idea that drugs will be cheaper---even if it means having fewer 'new' drugs going forward. There are great drugs in the pipeline. Great new ideas for how to better treat asthma and diabetes and heart disease. They'll still be there, but will it be as soon if we reduce the premium drug companies charge for new drugs? I don't think so. I personally would favor streamlining the drug approval process and shortening the time until generics are available first.
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Sep Nov
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