Buck Naked Politics

Does the FDA Even Try to Keep our Food & Drugs Safe?

by D. Cupples |  We pay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) billions each year.  In exchange, the FDA is supposed to protect us consumer-taxpayers from unsafe food, drugs, cosmetics, etc.

I didn't dream that up: the duty is stated on the FDA's Website.  

Despite that clearly articulated duty, the FDA's performance has been spotty for years--some would say due to over-friendliness with drug companies.

Maybe I'm putting it too nicely.  I'll try again.  For some years, the FDA seems to have promoted drug companies' interests over our interests.  

Still too watered down?  Okay.  Last try: evidence suggests that some of FDA's decision-makers have been downright corrupt.  

This month's Time Magazine has an article entitled, After Avandia: Does the FDA Have a Drug Problem?

In May 2007, we at Buck Naked Politics did a blog post entitled The FDA's Latest Pharma-Friendly Sins.  It addressed the FDA's highly questionable actions regarding the drugs Avandia, Vioxx, Ketek, and Viagra.

The FDA approved Ketek for public sale despite allegedly knowing that clinical-study results were fraudulent.  Despite studies linking Vioxx to heart attacks, the FDA waited two years before requiring a stronger warning label. 

Then there's the wildly popular Viagra, which was linked to a strange form of blindness: the FDA waited a whole year to require a stronger warning label.

Then there was our blog post in November 2008, which cited a Washington Post article stating that the FDA had learned about traces of melamine and cyanuric acid ( toxic chemicals) in baby food, yet the FDA inexplicably delayed informing the baby-feeding public about it.

I'm glad that after three-plus years, major media is again spotlighting the FDA's questionable reliability.  The health and safety of us consumer-taxpayers is, after all, in the FDA's hands.

New York Divorce Laws Enter the New Millennium

 Deb Cupples |  New Yorkers are celebrating (except certain religious leaders) because their governor finnnally signed into law a bill that provides for no-fault divorce.  

The State Assembly had passed the bill more than a month ago, and Governor David Paterson took his time signing it.

According to the New York Law Journal, the new law will take effect in October. 

Apparently, a divorce in New York was even more torturous than in the other 49 states because couples had a choice between 1) filing for an uncontested divorce, which took a year; or 2) having to prove that one spouse was at fault (e.g., adultery, cruelty, abandonment, or imprisonment).

Reportedly, Catholic leaders are not happy.  It's not their business anyway: they aren't married and, therefore, will not be subject to divorce laws.  

Said leaders might benefit from refraining from intruding into people's personal lives and instead tending to their own housekeeping issues (e.g., the sex scandals -- which, according to CNN, have gone global).

Coming from a Catholic family, I mean no disrespect to people of that faith generally.

Another Massively Distracting "Issue"

by Deb Cupples | Paying close attention to the news can be downright dispiriting.  For me, time to recharge was a must, so I took some weeks off from blogging.

Easing back into it, my first stop today was Memeorandum, a site reflecting topics folks find important enough to blog about.  At 5:40 pm (EST) the top story (and numerous stories below it) was about the Cordoba House Project (a Muslim community center that people wanted to build  near Ground Zero in New York).

If the placement and number of stories on Memorandum's front page indicate what has attracted people's focus, then it's safe to say that the Cordoba House is utmost on tonnns of people's minds.

This reminds me of a quote from Charlie Wilson's War.  The character Gust Avrakotos (exquisitely played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) says this: 

“As long as the press sees sex and drugs behind the left hand, you can park a battle carrier behind the right hand and no one's gonna … notice.

I edited out the gerund form of the F-word, but the point still remains: some political operatives and media execs are hell-bent on distracting us ordinary folks from serious issues that affect our daily lives and our nation's future.  Several come to mind:

- Children who aren't well fed, cared for, and educated.

- People who can't face a health problem without bankruptcy. 

- Adults who still need decent-paying jobs, despite stimulus packages.

- Corporate players who still routinely rob us taxpayers.

- All the people who will suffer due to BP's oil problem.

- The government players who repeatedly failed to protect us citizen-taxpayers from the fallout of bad corporate decision-making.

Is the Cordoba House yet another issue of mass distraction?  (It's not my phrase, but I forgot who generated it).  If airtime and column inches are being given to this so-called issue, then you can bet that some people are putting serious money into it.  

And this makes me wonder: just how many "battle carriers" are hiding behind the right hand?