Say Anything Blog

From Rick Moran, surely no fan of Rudy, Mitt, or Huckabee:

By the time the convention rolls around, McCain will be seen as a savior, just the right man to defeat Hillary Clinton. We can then be further amused as McCain loses handily to Clinton, admittedly as a result of factors largely beyond his control but which could have been mitigated by nominating someone who didn’t deliberately (and with apparent relish) piss off conservatives for much of his career. McCain’s questionable stands on core conservative issues are expertly covered up by his campaign. But Mark Levin exposed the senator’s record in a devastating piece in NRO that included these legislative measures with McCain’s name on them:

McCain-Feingold — the most brazen frontal assault on political speech since Buckley v. Valeo.

McCain-Kennedy — the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history.

McCain-Lieberman — the most onerous and intrusive attack on American industry — through reporting, regulating, and taxing authority of greenhouse gases — in American history.

McCain-Kennedy-Edwards — the biggest boon to the trial bar since the tobacco settlement, under the rubric of a patients’ bill of rights.

McCain-Reimportation of Drugs — a significant blow to pharmaceutical research and development, not to mention consumer safety…

McCain’s disdain for the party and for conservatives will almost surely come back to haunt him in November if he is the nominee.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

I’m afraid Bats got it right.

I thought McCain was distasteful and near evil tonite.

The Washington Post gave him 3 Pinocchios for his lying.

Straight Talk express indeed.

the AVATAR
Old Tigers are more dangerous when they believe this could be their last hunt.

From , “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”
Old tigers, sensing the end,
they’re at their most fierce. 
And they go down fighting.

Bat1, I;m simply blown away that you’re endorsing attempts to block free-trade (siding against a bill opening up the importation of drugs is exactly that).

This is pure protectionism, and I can only conclude that Rick Moran must be a closet Democrat.

Bat1, I;m simply blown away that you’re endorsing attempts to block free-trade (siding against a bill opening up the importation of drugs is exactly that).

This is pure protectionism, and I can only conclude that Rick Moran must be a closet Democrat.

Next thing you know, Bat will also oppose allowing Americans to reimport Chinese knock off copies of Microsoft software or perhaps reimport the far lower priced versions of Windows that microsoft sells to the third world so that they don’t simply engage in piracy of their own.

My second comment is that McCain-Feingold is not principally an affront on freedom of speech.  It is primarily an instrument for restoring equal assess to common citizens, by reducing the power of special interest groups via the regulation of soft money.  It is interesting that when McCain-Feingold is bought up, nobody mentions how many Republicans, including George Bush, supported and endorsed this legislation at the time. 

I’ll also not hide my complete distain for Donald Rumsfeld. And as far as I’m concerned, throwing Rumsfeld under the bus was a necessary prerequisite for success in Iraq.  His tenure as Secretary of Defense was a disaster, and it is no mystery that the successful change in strategy coinciding with his departure.  ... as to doing it under a wartime situation.  That;’s exactly the time it’s needed.

Justin:

Bat will also oppose allowing Americans to reimport Chinese knock off copies of Microsoft software or perhaps reimport the far lower priced versions of Windows that microsoft sells to the third world so that they don’t simply engage in piracy of their own.

Yeah, Justin.  Exact analogy.

Am I the only one who finds himself clicking on the McCain ads in a vain attempt to waste the campaign’s advertising dollars on someone who has no interest in voting for the man?

Yeah, I’m that disgruntled.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I’ve been watching McCain since the mid ‘90’s, or maybe the late ‘80’s, I forget which - but I think now it was the late 80’s, before Rush Limbaugh, I think.

Nothing could induce me to consider voting for McCain.

As for his “one strength”, the military - he was a primary in scandalizing Abu Ghraib and trying to close Gitmo, and trying to get CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS for the Gitmo prisoners.
Wrote and pushed through the “ANTI-TORTURE” bill at a point when it was NOTHING BUT A SLAP IN THE FACE OF OUR SODIERS in deployment.
Votes for EVERY DIM BILL that TIES THE HANDS of our soldiers in combat - and is always the first and loudest GOP to join in when a WHISPER of military scandal issues from any DIM LIBERAL.
In the late 90’s, he physically pushed around, yelled at and cursed the families of missing in action, killed in action and pows from Vietnam - ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE who chose the time of he and Hanoi John and Toady Chappaquiddick Kennedy trying to push through treaties with the NORTH VIETCONG which got hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese who were American allies SLAUGHTERED in the weeks following the signing of the treaties - which were pushed through so Hanoi John’s cousin could get some BUSINESS CONTRACTS with the North VietCONG for business in SOUTH VIETNAM.
The families were trying to present evidence they had gathered for decades that nobody in Washington would act on for them.

Gang of 14
McCain Feingold THOMPSON
McCain Kennedy SHAMNESTY
McCain Edwards Patients Bill of Rights to expand medical lawsuits

Juan Hernandez

Jerry Perenchio

Aztlan

UNANIMOUSLY CENSURED by the ARIZONA REPUBLICAN CAUCUS - UNANIMOUSLY - because of Leftist tactics that won him the full support of the Arizona DIMS in his last Senate Re-election bid - WITHOUT WHICH HE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RE-ELECTED AT ALL.

Opposes overturning Roe v Wade

Opposes blocking EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH in the face of successful alternatives that DO NOT PRODUCE CANCER.

Opposes Marriage Protection Amendment

Is leftest enough that he was Hanoi John’s FIRST PICK for VEEP on Hanoi John’s Presidential ticket.

For me, there is no such thing as an option regarding John McCain. It simply does not exist.

Rob, that is BRILLIANT, clicking on the ads.

It comes down to this. Would you rather have John McCain nominating Justices, or Barack and Hillary? Senator McCain is not my favorite, but this election is about who will put the next 2 or 3 justices on the Supreme Court.

Would you rather have John McCain as Commander In Chief in the war on terrorist jihad or Barack and Hillary? This election is about the the future of our battle against radical Islam.

"Here lies, in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God.”

THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT TWO THINGS: WINNING THE WAR ON TERRORISM AND SAVING THE SUPREME COURT.

Heh.

Hot Air is reporting that Bob Novak confirms John Fund’s report that McCain declared Alito too conservative.

How about that strait talk, NOT.

Out Here
Rodney G. Graves

Persia delenda est.
Latin: “Persia (modern day Iran) should be destoyed”

I;m simply blown away that you’re endorsing attempts to block free-trade (siding against a bill opening up the importation of drugs is exactly that).

Carrick,

Please explain why it is that prices for prescription medication are so much lower in Canada than they are here in the US.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

Raw-Jaw Conservatives want Mitt to look good - they hate McCain.

I like the guy. I’m working and voting for him.

Mitt comes off - to this simple south side guy anyway - as Bill Clinton without ‘the common man’ schtik.  Ego-driven and not in theleast bit interested in service.

John McCain will be the President.

No Regrets here.

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2008/01/john-mccain-he-served-and-leads-mitt.html

Amnesty, shamnesty, or anything even close to resembling citizenship for illegals is an insult to the rule of law, and to the hallowed tradition of legal immigration in this country.

Yeah!  Except of course all of those illegal immigrants from Europe who came here and took the land from the Natives in the first place.  Oh, and of course the all of the illegal acts of ignoring treaties that also stole land and property of those that were there before them.

H:

Yeah! Except of course all of those illegal immigrants from Europe who came here and took the land from the Natives in the first place. Oh, and of course the all of the illegal acts of ignoring treaties that also stole
land and property of those that were there before them.

While you’re rolling back history, you might as well mention the illegal invasion of England by the Normans.

Dumbass.

Bat One:

Please explain why it is that prices for prescription medication are so much lower in Canada than they are here in the US.

Actually they’re not. You pay for part of them in your taxes in Canada.

Ken:

Hot Air is reporting that Bob Novak confirms John Fund’s report that McCain declared Alito too conservative.

You mean the Alito that McCain voted for?  That the same Alito?

No logical inconsistency here is there?

Heh.

Out Here
Rodney G. Graves

Persia delenda est.
Latin: “Persia (modern day Iran) should be destoyed”

About the only way I’ll pull the lever for McCain is if Hillary! is the democRATic candidate.

And all y’all should note that he’s a fellow alumnus…

Out Here
Rodney G. Graves

Persia delenda est.
Latin: “Persia (modern day Iran) should be destoyed”

Actually they’re not. You pay for part of them in your taxes in Canada.

Carrick,

In other words then, the prices for prescription medications are fixed by the government and the taxpayers are providing the subsidy.

If this is correct, please explain why those who have not contributed to the taxes that provide for the subsidy (American citizens) should enjoy the benefits of that for which they have not paid?  Is there any difference between this situation and, say, American liberals offering taxpayer subsidized tuition to illegal aliens who do not pay taxes here in the US?

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

In other words then, the prices for prescription medications are fixed by the government and the taxpayers are providing the subsidy.

Hence why Canada has consistently come out saying this is a bad idea for them.

Let’s take this argument out to its logical conclusion.  Drug companies, faced with having their own drugs imported back from Canada, see their US domestic resellers pissed that Walgreens and Walmart and CVS and so on cannot compete because of the far lower prices do to the Canadian subsidies.

So what do the drug companies do?  Lower wholesaler prices to every major drug chain in the US, thereby cutting their R&D budgets and reducing their profitability?  I don’t know if you are aware--Canada has 33M people.  The US has almost 10 times that.  So Drug companies are essentially cutting Canada a good deal because Canada buys in bulk.

Do drug companies lower prices to the 300M Americans to compete with cheaper Canadian reimports or do their raise prices and stick it Canada to preserve their profitability?  I am kinda betting on the latter.  And how is that good for Canada that already has a healthcare funding crisis on their hands?  Even a minor incremental rise in the cost of drugs due to McCain’s failed economic logic will have massive ramifications on Canada’s financial situation.  So then what that forces McCain to do is enact price caps and effectively tell drug companies what they can sell their product for, both domestically and overseas.  Again, how does that lower prices?  It simply adds more regulatory agencies.  And it is not just importing from Canada, but importing drugs from China and Mexico that may not even be what they are purported to be.

But then again, McCain Feingold didn’t stop 527s frim running ads and influencing elections allowing George Soros, Moveon, and others an unfair platform to issue attack ads, but did stiffle free speech for the rest of us.  At least McCain is consistent in his complete lack of logic.

Bat1:

If this is correct, please explain why those who have not contributed to the taxes that provide for the subsidy (American citizens) should enjoy the benefits of that for which they have not paid?  Is there any difference between this situation and, say, American liberals offering taxpayer subsidized tuition to illegal aliens who do not pay taxes here in the US?

It’s a fair question.  And it exposes the problems with subsides and international trade.

Think about farm subsidies and how much of that deflation in price that other countries pay comes out of our own pockets.  It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it?  We aren’t just the breadbasket for the world, we also spot them cash to eat.

Also, you have to also consider that we have a lot of front end subsidies in our system.  Almost all basic research and most of the applied research is pharmacology is paid for from American pocketbooks.

This is a very direct form of subsidy.

Beyond that, if the US had a true free-market system in pharmaceutics, then some of the other arguments presented by Justin would be unassailable.  The problem is, we don’t.  Even if you ignore the effect of government under writing of the R&D (which we apparently get nothing in return for, rather have to pay again when we purchase their products), the way our hideous bastardized semi-socialist medicine is set up, we are far from the place where free-market set price points.

As to whether the product is the same or not (Justin’s point), not to be snarky, but analytic chemistry is a fairly established field, and routine testing of imported products as a form of quality control isn’t that big of a deal.  Like with other products (e.g., cat food), it wouldn’t take many mistakes for their products to get dropped off the US market.

Frankly there is a lot that needs fixed in our medical and pharmaceutical industries.  Most of the problems are the result of prior interference by governments.  That said, I just don’t see that the the real solution is more of the same.  To me, dropping protectionist legislation is the first in a long series of steps needed to normalize the marketplace closer to a free market environment.

Justin:

But then again, McCain Feingold didn’t stop 527s frim running ads and influencing elections allowing George Soros, Moveon, and others an unfair platform to issue attack ads, but did stiffle free speech for the rest of us.  At least McCain is consistent in his complete lack of logic.

Swiftboat Vets for Truth was a 527 also.  A knife cuts both ways.

Swiftboat Vets for Truth was a 527 also.  A knife cuts both ways.

That isn’t a knife cutting both ways.  That is another illustration of how ludicrous McCain-Feingold was.  All you have done is offer another instance of how worthless the legislation was.  When one takes away the First Amendment rights of citizens, at least I would hope that the law would have the intended effect.  In this case, McCain abridged our free speech rights for absolutely no purpose other than political brownie points.

Frankly there is a lot that needs fixed in our medical and pharmaceutical industries.  Most of the problems are the result of prior interference by governments.  That said, I just don’t see that the the real solution is more of the same.  To me, dropping protectionist legislation is the first in a long series of steps needed to normalize the marketplace closer to a free market environment.

I take issue with the fact that our R&D subsidies are not being paid for by the foreign countries that use our product and pay drastically reduced prices due to our benevolence.  Things like offering AIDS drugs and Malaria and Polio vaccines for free to the Third World that our tax dollars subsidized the development of.  Things like giving massive amounts of free antibiotics to foreign nations to combat infections and keep people alive.

I will grant you that we have a system that isn’t close to a free market.  We export drugs that have no profit built in and no way of paying for our research subsidies to most of the developing world.  And when we send our most advanced drugs overseas, the Chinese and others use the basic chemistry that you described to reverse engineer our drugs and never pay us anything at all.  They consistently violate all intellectual property laws.  And on top of it, we even allow foreign countries to produce our drugs for domestic consumption because we know they will do it anyway. 

As to whether the product is the same or not (Justin’s point), not to be snarky, but analytic chemistry is a fairly established field, and routine testing of imported products as a form of quality control isn’t that big of a deal.  Like with other products (e.g., cat food), it wouldn’t take many mistakes for their products to get dropped off the US market.

I don’t dispute that foreign countries can reverse engineer our drugs and sell them for import cheaper.  I don’t dispute that we can test them.  I will point out that many of these knock offs violate our own rules on producing generics during the first seven years of a drug’s life and that is in large part why the price on the most expensive and newest drugs mimic what a comparable generic version will cost once the 7 years expires. 

We do have a free market model.  We have protectionist policies called patents and trademarks too that allow companies that invest in R&D to make a profit off of their products.  Microsoft faces these same problems every day as foreign governments thumb their noses to the WTO and allow rampant piracy and theft.  If we allow this to trickle back into the mainstream markets in the US, we effectively take away all incentive for R&D and create a system where the only R&D conducted will be government funded because other companies don’t see the ROI.

Justin, good comments.

I generally agree with your (as usual) well thoughout comments. However, I still don’t think the answer that a conservative should choose would be to favor protectionistic legislation.  Market reform, including addressing the issues with countries that are non-compliant with patent law should be favored.

WIsh I had more time to respond, but I have a boat load of work I have to fiinish.  However, I don’t think it would be fair to characterize import controls as a “no-brainer”.  Pharms are a complex market given all of the nationalistic controls and various subsidies and market restraints that are seen worldwide…

WIsh I had more time to respond, but I have a boat load of work I have to fiinish.

Hard work may have a future, but blogging pays off now.

The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.

Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Carrick, I thought that the graduate students were supposed to do the work.

The Debate is over!  Global Whining has been confirmed.

Whistler:

Carrick, I thought that the graduate students were supposed to do the work.

LOL.  That’s for academic professors.  The students do the work for them, because they end up spending all of their time doing administration and teaching.

I’m on the research side.  We’ve got an experiment set up in shared space, and I’m making sure that the data we got today was clean before dismantling it.

Data analysis for me is the “candy” part of my job anyway. More fun than a bowl of ice cream, at least as long as the experiment went cleanly!

I generally agree with your (as usual) well thoughout comments. However, I still don’t think the answer that a conservative should choose would be to favor protectionistic legislation.  Market reform, including addressing the issues with countries that are non-compliant with patent law should be favored.

I will note that I opposed Bush’s tariffs on imported steel.  I just don’t view steel the same way that I do intellectual property heavy items like pharmaceuticals and software.  Protectionism isn’t the answer, but in the case of drug reimports, I don’t think it is protectionism.

I would be interested in hearing what McCain has to say on the issue, but he doesn’t have a well thought out and researched plan or policy statement.  What he has is pandering.  He knows Americans want a “maverick” to fight against the evil drug companies and he is just that sort of maverick.  He knows Americans want a “maverick” to fight against rich people and corrupt politicians.  He is that maverick.  In neither case did he have a coherent plan, but his plan wasn’t to fix campaign finance or to cut drug prices--his plan was to be a populist “maverick”.  It is what he “reaches across the aisle”.  It is why he was part of the gang of 14. 

He is my senior senator.  I live in Arizona.  And he is a good enough senator because by and large, he is good for Arizona.  He alienated a lot of folks in his home state by supporting the Amnesty bill.  He has done other things that appear to be both contrary to the state that elected him’s wants and contrary to what is good for the country and the Republican Party.  That may make him a “maverick” but that doesn’t make him a good President.

Protectionism isn’t the answer, but in the case of drug reimports, I don’t think it is protectionism.

It’s not. Rather, it is economic bleeding and a redistribution of wealth. Canada doesn’t pay market value for their drugs.

Guess who makes up the difference? Americans. We subsidize Canada’s failing socialist liberal bullshit. You can thank our Congress, Canada’s piss poor excuses for citizens, and even the UN.

The drug market is anything but free. It’s all tangled up in the ugly grip of big government. We end up paying for this. There is no free lunch, contrary to the wishes of socialist lunatics everywhere.