Shakesville

Rumsfeld: $5 Million Profit from Bird Flu

I know there are a lot of people who are extremely concerned about bird flu—many of whom, in fact, are concerned that we’re not getting worried enough about a possible pandemic. Suffice it to say, with less than 200 human cases worldwide, I’m not especially anxious about it, mainly because my particular paranoia directs me to wonder who profits off of health scares. In the case of the bird flu, I have my answer:

[Tamiflu] was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. It is now made and sold by the giant chemical company Roche, which pays it a royalty on every tablet sold, currently about a fifth of its price.

Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding.

The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled.

Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping - according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year - capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. Further details are not likely to become known, however, until Mr Rumsfeld makes his next disclosure in May.

Tamiflu is not a cure for bird flu, but is an antiviral which “can reduce [bird flu’s] severity” if taken soon after the appearance of symptoms. It is “the only oral medicine believed to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease,” and massive stocks have been ordered by more than 60 countries, based on the alarming predictions of a possible pandemic.

Color me cynical. Something tells me that Rumsfeld was no more randomly lucky in catching this break than I will be randomly unlucky in catching the bird flu.

McCain's Loving Embrace

Sometimes I don’t even need to show The Picture:

No one stole the show at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here this weekend, but Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) demonstrated why every other prospective 2008 presidential candidate must figure out how to get around him.

More than any of his potential rivals, McCain found a way to balance embracing a weakened President Bush -- at a time when many Republicans are running away from the president -- while appealing to those in and out of his party who believe Bush and other Washington Republicans have lost their way. No other candidate could claim to offer continuity and change almost simultaneously.

And even though that’s amusing for all the reasons Shakers know and love, it scares me to the very depths of my soul to think that after all the millions of times McCain has “embraced” the president’s policies, and all the times he’s shown himself to be an inveterate panderer to ultra-conservatism, and all the times he’s turned his back on his own reform issues, he still manages to retain the reputation for being someone who is both quantitatively and qualitatively different than George W. Bush.

And while I can certainly acknowledge that things might be very different (better) if McCain had secured the 2000 GOP nomination and won the presidency, his responses to the messes that Bush has made have been decidedly underwhelming. He has made the choices to pander to social conservatives, back off his own hardlines on torture and campaign finance reform, and ever more cautiously silence his own previously vocal criticisms of the administration. Bush altered the American landscape, and we need someone who can put it right again—not someone who’s simply learned to traverse the new terrain.

Sunday Morning Fun

As Misty notes below, Russ Feingold told George Stephanopoulos that he plans to introduce a resolution to censure President Bush tomorrow. I’m more and more impressed with Feingold every time I hear him speak.

Frist says Feingold is “dead wrong” and responds with fearmongering, including the old Feingold’s-helping-the-terrorists canard. Video; transcript.

George Allen does the abortion two-step on Meet the Press; LeMew’s got a great response.

Chris Matthews offers more support for the theory that he may well be the biggest plonker in the history of talking-head plonkers:

Matthews, moments ago:

George W. Bush won the presidency by a big popular vote victory by modern standards in 2004!
Yeah? Let's go to the tape:

1988: George H.W Bush wins by 7,077,121 votes.
1992: Bill Clinton wins by 5,805,256 votes.
1996: Bill Clinton wins by 8,201,370 votes.
2000: George W. Bush wins by negative 543,816 votes.
2004: George W. Bush wins by 3,012,499 votes.

So Bush racked up only the second lowest popular vote win of the past five elections. But that's okay: we can't expect Matthews to know everything. And a general understanding of how recent elections compare to each other is the sort of meaningless trivia a professional pundit shouldn't have to bother with.

Oy.

Feingold calls for Bush's censure

I wonder when they'll make this illegal too?

Anyway, check out the brass balls on Russ Feingold:

In an exclusive interview on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on the Senate to publicly admonish President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without first seeking a legally required court order.

"This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors," said Feingold, D-Wis., a three-term senator and potential presidential contender.

He said President Bush had, "openly and almost thumbing his nose at the American people," continued the NSA domestic wiretap program.

"High crimes and misdemeanors"? Why, that sounds downright impeachable. The Senate calling for censure of a president has only happned once before against Andrew Jackson. Bill Frist stepped up to defend Bush in a most predictable way, besides saying Russ was "wrong, flat wrong, and dead wrong" he said something else about Russ' remarks. Can you guess what it was? If you said:

... a "terrible, terrible signal" to enemies of the U.S. abroad.

You WIN!

Christ on toast, how many times will they trot that bullshit out? Russ smacks him aside like the fuckwit he is:

"We, as a Congress, have to stand up to a president who acts like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were repealed on Sept 11, [2001]."

How long do you think it will take for other Dems to go running in the other direction? *sigh*

You can see the video of Russ at C&L and read the entire transcript here.

euthanizing the press

Mike DeWine (R-OH, of course) has written a bill that would criminalize reporters (or others) from publishing information on criminal government activity. The White House is all a-twitter and salivating over this new legislation, I’m sure.

E&P reports:

The draft would add to the criminal penalties for anyone who “intentionally discloses information identifying or describing” the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program or any other eavesdropping program conducted under a 1978 surveillance law.

Under the boosted penalties, those found guilty could face fines of up to $1 million, 15 years in jail or both.

The information published could be non-harmful, non-classified but it’d still be illegal to even say it exists. So, basically:

“The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact,” said [Kate] Martin, a civil liberties advocate.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, agrees:

...the language would allow anyone — “if you read a story in the paper and pass it along to your brother-in-law” — to be prosecuted.

“As a practical matter, would they use this to try to punish any newspaper or any broadcast? It essentially makes coverage of any of these surveillance programs illegal.”

DeWine’s office claims that “it in no way applies to reporters — in any way, shape or form”. WTF? Who, then? Bloggers? Oh, puh-lease. There are some other senators that have decided to co-sponsor this legislation: Olympia Snowe, Lindsey Graham and Chuck Hagel. Making it a crime to expose the criminals.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It was, like, getting so old anyway.

(good morning cross-post, how are ya?)

Troublemaker!

Possible troublemaker Grandma Betty.

Betty Willbraham, 82, was told to take off her hat if she wanted to be served at the Hereward pub in Ely, Cambs. Staff insisted everyone in the pub is asked to remove their hats so their faces are visible to CCTV cameras in the event of trouble.

Betty had popped in at lunchtime for a meal and half a pint of Guinness.

According to The Sun she said: "I've never heard of a hatless pub. How ridiculous. It's the first time I've ever been asked to remove it - and I've been in that pub several times before. I'm of a generation who would always wear a hat for lunch."

Think our Coalition of the Willing might be taking the security thing a bit too far? Yeesh.

Actually, it's not even that we're taking it too far; it's that our schizoid approach is just laughable. Port security...eh. But make sure that granny takes off her hat!!!

Cry Me a River

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the Butcher of the Balkans, was found dead today on his prison cell bed in a U.N. detention center in The Hague, Netherlands.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Jesus Uses His Noodle

The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ made a rare appearance in a plate of pasta this week in California. He projected his visage in a “a bubbling, burned portion of cheese” on Leo Williams’ plate of manicotti.

"I looked at the plate and before I started to eat it I thought, I'm not sure about this," Williams said. "So, we called the hostess. She came over and just got chills. The next thing you know you got the cameras coming out. You got people who are eating here coming to our table to see it. They just had chills. There were about 100 people taking pictures."

Williams said since the lunch, a chronic stomach problem he has had since birth has vanished.

Jesus could not be reached for comment.

It’s like a Rorschach test. That Jesus is such a rapscallion.

(Passed on by Holly, because she knows I’m a fan of holy folks presenting their visages on sheet metal, trees, more trees, wardrobes, water stains, grilled cheese sandwiches, potato chips, and all manner of everyday objects.)

True Love Knows No Bounds

And McHump really, really, really loves Da Preznit.

It's early on at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference down here, but already we've learned some big news.

Sources tell me that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., plans to shock his supporters tonight by asking them to NOT vote for him in the presidential straw poll that will be conducted by The Hotline on Saturday.

Instead, McCain will urge his followers to write in President Bush's name.

McCain will tell his supporters that this is not about 2008, but rather about 2006 and supporting the president.

According to McCain's supporters, he'll say: "I think we have bigger things to worry about. So if any friends here are thinking about voting for me, please don't. Just write in President Bush's name."

That’s beautiful. I can’t wait until they legalize gay marriage so these two crazy kids can get hitched once and for all.

Luckily, one of my secret informants managed to infiltrate the Southern Republican Leadership Conference and got me an advance copy of McHump’s ballot. If this isn’t the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen, you’ve got a heart of stone, you bastard.

Question of the Day

What's the worst book you've ever read, so bad you couldn't believe it got published?

Friday Cat Blogging: Part II

This is what Matilda and Olivia do all friggin’ day, in an ongoing effort to drive me totally berserk. They chase each other all over the house, which sounds like a herd of elephants rather than two cats, and inevitably end up in this crappy, broken-down beach chair that I leave set up in spite of its hideous ugliness because it’s their favorite lounging spot and because it keeps them from crawling all over me, which is what they resort to immediately if the beach chair is moved more than two feet away from mine. It’s annoying, but hilarious.

Then, it’s grooming time. After nine gazillion hours of wrestling with each other, they curl up in the beach chair and lick each other like they’re making a porno for at least seven gazillion more hours. Until Mr. Shakes gets home, at which time, the mania begins again, and lasts until bedtime, when licking resumes.

A Nation of Dodos

I was trying to find a way to put into words what I was feeling upon reading that 53% of Americans wholly reject evolution and believe that "God created human beings in present form,” and then I found Fix’s post:

Half of us believe Man was spat, fully-formed, on the face of this earth by God...literally. Someone please kill me.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

(And no, this isn’t an attack on religion; I know plenty of religious people who believe in both God and evolution.)

A Tale of Two Headlines: Tyrannosaurus of Turpitude Edition

Headline #1: Hastert Praises Jobs Growth

"Our nation's economic momentum is in full swing. We've had continuous job growth. Retail sales are up. Household wealth is increasing. And the 243,000 jobs created in February represent that many Americans are working and providing a better life for their families.

"The Democrats would rather talk down the economy with the hopes of winning in November so they can raise taxes and skyrocket spending. The House Republican Congress is committed to cutting spending and making the tax relief permanent so that American families will have more money in their pockets and businesses can hire more workers. In fact, House Republicans succeeded in preventing Democrats from adding $8 billion in new spending to the War on Terror and Disaster Supplemental during House Appropriations Committee consideration."

Headline #2: Unexpected Rise in Jobless Claims

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week, to 303,000, the highest level this year, a government report showed on Thursday.

The increase of 8,000 took the number of initial claims above 300,000 for the first time since the week of Jan. 7, the Labor Department said. Economists had expected claims to dip to 290,000 from the 294,000 initially reported for the week that ended Feb. 25.

Sandy, oh ,Sandy

Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor rips the repubs to bits and warns of a dictatorship:

I, said O’Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

“We should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings”? Hindsight must be 20/20, eh?

You can listen to the audio of her remarks here.

( cross-postin' happened so fast...)

Send This Guy Into the Cornfield...

Witness one of the most insane campaign commercials ever created.

And yes, it's real.

(Tip 'o the Energy Dome to my friend Grendel72.)

Fainting Couch Alert!

Pentagon admits errors in spying on protesters.

The Department of Defense admitted in a letter obtained by NBC News on Thursday that it had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators to a database of possible domestic terrorist threats. The letter followed an NBC report focusing on the Defense Department’s Threat and Local Observation Notice, or TALON, report.

Oh my, oh my, Martha-Ann. I just can’t believe such a thing would happen in our fine country. Bring me a fan and a mint julip, before I succumb to a vicious case of the vapors!

Friday Cat Blogging

Matilda and Olivia have a sit-in and refuse to be cute until they get fed.

Ticking Minutemen

Ethnic Groups Rally for Immigration Rights
(All bolds mine)

Both sides of the debate over illegal immigration were bracing today for a massive march and rally, a multi-cultural mobilization expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters to the Loop in support of more humane immigration laws.

Busloads of immigrants from Mexico, Poland and Ireland streamed this morning to Union Park, at Ashland Avenue and Washington Boulevard on the city's West Side. Shortly after noon, they stepped off on a two-mile march to Federal Plaza, 230 S. Dearborn St., for a 2 p.m. rally.

Anticipating the big turnout, critics of illegal immigration held a preemptive news conference this morning in Grant Park. They predicted the rally would backfire on its organizers, stoking the anger of other Chicagoans that illegal immigrants were arrogant enough to demand increased rights.

I'm amazed they didn't use the word "uppity."

Sandra Gunn, government relations field associate for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, said she hoped politicians would ignore the "display of arrogance and intimidation" from protesters who she said flout immigration laws. "It is our voices that they must heed," Gunn said.

Carmen Mercer, vice president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national volunteer group opposed to illegal immigration, said the marchers were undercutting the interests of legal immigrants who play by the rules. She also said the threat of terrorism makes immigration enforcement more critical.

"We don't want another 9-11," said Mercer, a legal immigrant from Germany. "That is why we are demanding that our government secure our borders."

It always comes back to that, doesn't it?

Right now, I'm watching hundreds and hundreds of people streaming past my office. They're being dropped off by the busload in the grocery store parking lot. I'm really, really hoping that this doesn't get violent.

(Oh-oh-oh-oh... little China cross-post...)

Bush, Dubai, and the treacherous weapon

Fear. It's a real bitch.

In the immortal words of Gandalf the White, a treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand. That's all the moral we need to draw from the Dubai Ports World imbroglio - a political shipwreck that George Bush brought on himself in more ways than one. Even as the president seeks to distance itself from self-willed embarrassment and worries aloud about "the broader message" sent by the failed port deal, he ignores the true message, the real cause.

Succinctly: Fear, bitches!

This post-9/11 mantra has served as the Bush administration's one-note hallelujah chorus, providing the rationale for a trumped-up and ill-considered war, the impetus toward the president's reelection, and the political cover for the expansion of executive power and the accompanying rollback of the tenets of an open society. All of this in the promotion of personal and national insecurity, flogged without ceasing and exploited for gain at every opportunity. And now that this convenient and oft-used weapon has turned in Bush's hand to bite him, the president and his handlers and his apologists wring their hands over the possibility of America appearing xenophobic.

The irony is almost too rich for a balanced diet.

Mr. Bush should take care, lest he be accused by some of having a pre-9/11 mindset.

(Post, riposte, cross-post...)

Finally, Some Good News.... Sort Of

US to Close Abu Ghraib Military Prison

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib that became a symbol of shame for the U.S. occupation of Iraq is to close within months, the military said yesterday.

Its 4,500 inmates, held on suspicion of insurgent activity, will be transferred to a new facility at the nearby Baghdad airport military base and other camps, a spokesman said.

Purpose-built new cells at Camp Cropper, presently an exclusive compound for deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and 100 or so other high-security inmates, will provide better conditions, U.S. officials said.

In all, 14,589 people are held in four U.S. sites in Iraq, more than half of them at Camp Bucca in the southern desert.

-snip-

Critics, however, dismissed the significance of the closing since the detentions, criticized by both the Iraqi government and the United Nations, will continue as before.

Baby steps, baby steps...

Ultimately, this could be nothing but a symbolic gesture, and the torture and horrific treatment of the detainees could continue (and wouldn't surprise me if it did), business as usual. This could be nothing more than a steak for our black eye, but I'm hoping that we're finally making movements towards basic human rights for the people being detained.

"We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there," Lieutenant-Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry said.

"No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this within the next two to three months."

The buildings at Abu Ghraib will be handed over to the Iraqi government, which already operates part of the site as a prison, he said.

I hope they burn it to the ground.

(I'm an ord-i-nar-y guy... burnin' down the cross-posts)