Monday, September 29, 2003

Petition for an Independent Counsel Investigation If you think (as I do) that the investigation into the Wilson/Plame leaks should be done by an independent investigator (meaning independent from the White House and Karl Rove, meaning not John Ashcroft), there's a petition at People For the American Way that you can sign.  Thanks, Kriselda! 10:03:58 PM    Here's what I have to say about THAT! []

More questions on the Canadian Drug Importation According to the article in Salon today, here are some of the reasons for imported Canadian drugs to be seized by Customs: drugs that have been withdrawn from the U.S. market.  Okay, I might give them this one. animal drugs never approved for human use.  How do they know the drugs were not ordered for a pet or other animal?  I have had to give long-term medication to my cats in the past. counterfeit drugs.  I'll give them this one, too.  I remember an article recently about talked about generic drugs and how they are not necessarily exactly equivalent, so I can understand how counterfeit versions of legal drugs may be illegal. drugs with dangerous interactions - interactions with what?  Isn't that up to the patient's doctor to worry about that?  Wouldn't those same interactions occur if the drug was ordered in this country? drugs with dangerous side effects - side effects like what?  Nausea and vomiting, cramps, heart issues, etc?  Again, isn't this up to the doctors to be concerned about, and wouldn't those same side effects occur with the same drug if it were sold in the U.S.? and narcotics - and I'll give them this one, too. No matter how I add this up, only half of these reasons pertain to legality.  I'd like to see a breakdown of how many shipments are seized in each category - what percentage.  8:52:02 PM    Here's what I have to say about THAT! []

More sleazy tricks from the Bush-kissers One of the tactics for the neocon's "handling" of the frog-walk is this (quoted from Emphasis Added): - Suggest that Plame's identity as a CIA operative was not really a secret, or that revealing it wasn't really a crime. What a sleaze-bucket!  This guy's defense on behalf of his fellow journalists (he himself did not use her name) is that, when he was told her name, it was said in such an off-hand manner, that he just assumed it was common knowledge and not a secret.  My question to myself was, "when was he told her name?", because this article does not make it obvious.  But the ensuing text certainly implies it: "I chose not to include it (I wrote a second NRO piece on this issue on July 18) because it didn't seem particularly relevant to the question...".  Sounds to me like he was one of the journalists that received a call from the White House, and that he just doesn't understand subtle prodding (the "encouragement" must not have gotten through to him).  Somehow I doubt he is included in either the count of the four journalists that called Wilson to tell him about the cold-calls, or the "at least six" Washington-area journalists that admit to being called.  I repeat - what a sleazebucket.  He should be frog-marched out of somewhere, himself. 7:20:03 PM    Here's what I have to say about THAT! []

Can any of my Canadian friends help me with this? There's been lots of press recently about Americans (USians, precisely) fulfilling their prescriptions in Canada, where the cost of the drugs is much cheaper (and thus worth the extra time it takes to receive the medications).  Without going into the rights or wrongs of it as far as drug company profits, counterfeit drugs, etc., I'm wondering why no one has brought up the issue of the toll this takes on the Canadian socialized medicine system.  Does the government in any way subsidize the cost of these drugs, to bring down the expense for their citizens?  I would really like to know the answer to that question. I figure it must not, or else Canada would have started complaining about this as soon as it hit the news here in the US (and the internet).  But if not, how does the socialized medicine system work up there? 6:42:05 PM    Here's what I have to say about THAT! []

"To increase the intensity ... ... we slow down the cameras.  By slowing down the cameras, we increase the intensity of the action.  The intensity increases when the cameras slow down.  The intensity increases when the cameras slow down." -- The text of an important message, imparted to me by an, um, attendee at the Folsom St. Fair yesterday.  I have no idea what mind-altering substance he was on. What's up with cartoonists these days? Reading the funny pages has gotten a lot less entertaining in the past couple of years.  I stopped reading For Better or Worse probably about a year ago because of the soap-opera-ness, and now it looks like Luann's on her way out, too.  B.C.'s Christian rantings have been out for a long time.  Blondie and Dennis the Menace's 1950's idea of the role of women finally got to me, too.  And then there's the Family Circus, "just sitting down there, waiting to suck" (I wish I could remember where I read that quote!).  There are some bright spots, of course - Boondocks and Get Fuzzy tend to duke it out for first place in my heart, with Doonesbury a close third.  There's probably about half-time bits of whimsey from Non Sequitur, Rhymes with Orange, and Sally Forth.  If the comics page just had those six, I would not miss any of the others.  Think of the ink the Chronicle could save! 6:34:57 PM    Here's what I have to say about THAT! []

The Frog-walk / Frog-march "America and the Church of Baseball" made it to the front page of today's Chronicle.  The investigation into the frog-walk of whichever White House official leaked the name of Joseph Wilson's CIA-operative wife is on page 3.  I'm so not surprised. "CIA officials approached the Justice Department about a possible investigation within a week of the [Novak] column's publication."  Wilson stated that four reporters from three TV stations contacted him to tell him that "White House officials had contacted them to encourage stories that would include his wife's identity."  Yes, he is claiming not that they leaked her name, maybe just a slip of the tongue, but that they encouraged these articles.  That plus the fact that there were supposedly "cold calls" to six journalists in the DC area (counting these four, I assume, but then again, these four could have been in different areas of the country - I think I read that Novak is in Chicago).  So now, whoever this source is (Karl Rove?), he can't just claim that it "slipped out" - not if he encouraged this action.  There seems to be two sides to the reason for the story - one side is claiming that she approached the CIA and suggested her husband (for the trip to Niger to investigate the claim), and the other side is claiming that the CIA came up with his name and then asked her to approach her husband about it.  I would guess that whatever Robert Novak said in his column, that's the story that comes from the White House.  Based on everything else I've heard here, I will also guess that that is the fake story, the cover-up. 6:22:52 PM    Here's what I have to say about THAT! []