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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (441)	9/8/2006 5:51:33 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

I can't get your link to load so I can't comment about the specifics. I never thought or said there was a significant link between Saddam and Al Qaida. I still think the evidence shows minimal, perhaps insignificant links between Al Qaida and Saddam's regime, but I'm not sure there really is an important difference between insignificant links and no links. Now links between Saddam and terrorism? Yes they clearly existed.

To: Richnorth who wrote (441)	9/8/2006 6:39:31 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

Mississippi sues maker of prescription drug Zyprexa Associated Press OXFORD, Miss. - Mississippi filed a lawsuit Monday against Eli Lilly and Co., alleging improper sales and marketing of the anti-psychotic prescription drug Zyprexa. The lawsuit was filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court. Tim Balducci of the Langston Law Firm in Booneville, named a special assistant attorney general to handle the case, said the lawsuit seeks to recover money the state spent to purchase Zyprexa to treat symptoms for which the drug has not been approved. It also seeks money spent in providing health care to certain Medicaid recipients who allegedly suffered injuries or illnesses - such a diabetes - after taking the drug. The lawsuit also seeks injunctive relief. Terra Fox, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis-based company said: "Because we have not been served with the lawsuit, we cannot comment." Balducci said early estimates of the state's purchasing claim suggest damages in the range of $30 million. He said estimates of the state's claim for diabetes care of Zyprexa patients are much higher. He said the lawsuit also seeks civil penalties as well as punitive damages and litigation costs. "Damages could well be in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Balducci said. Sales of Lilly's top-selling Zyprexa in the second quarter totaled $1.12 billion, a 2 percent increase year-over-year. U.S. Zyprexa sales fell 1 percent to $542.9 million on lower demand, but the decline was partially offset by higher prices. Conversely, international sales of Zyprexa increased 5 percent. The drug is sold in more than 45 countries. Lafayette County is home to the North Mississippi Regional Center, an intermediate care facility for residents suffering from mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. Balducci said the hospital is historically one of the state's largest recipients of Medicaid funding, receiving on average between $25 and $30 million per year. Much of the state's Medicaid spending is for prescription drugs, and Zyprexa consistently ranks near the top of the list, he said. He said the lawsuit - which represents only one side of a legal argument - alleges that after receiving FDA approval of Zyprexa for treatment of patients with a diagnoses of schizophrenia or a bipolar disorder, Eli Lilly formed a scheme to increase the sales of the drug in Mississippi while avoiding the expense and delay of obtaining approval for other new, expanded or additional uses of the drug. It claims the scheme consisted of the promotion of Zyprexa for non-medically accepted problems that are excluded from payment under the Mississippi Medicaid Prescription Drug Program. Specifically, the lawsuit claims Eli Lilly trained and instructed its primary care sales force to attempt to expand the drug's market by convincing primary care physicians to prescribe the drug for mood, thought and behavioral disturbances. It also alleges the company established a consistent sales message to the primary care physicians "based on patients' symptoms and behaviors, rather than on their confirmed diagnoses." The drug maker, through its primary care sales force, presented the physicians with hypothetical patient profiles which included "patients complaining of symptoms such as anxiousness, irritability, mood swings and disturbed sleep, and submitting to physicians that such hypothetical patients would be medically indicated for treatment with Zyprexa." Eli Lilly also knew its drug increased the risk to patients of contracting diabetes, yet failed to warn of the danger, the lawsuit claims. It said that in April 2002, nearly a year and a half before Eli Lilly first warned of the risk of diabetes in this county, the company changed Zyprexa's labeling in the United Kingdom and Japan to include warnings about the association between the use of Zyprexa and diabetes-related injuries.

To: Richnorth who wrote (441)	9/8/2006 6:41:10 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

Suit blames bipolar depression drug for suicides Parents believe antidepressant Lexapro caused both sons to kill themselves 17 months apart By TRACEY WHEELER Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal In the span of 17 months, Mark and Lucy Bibbee lost two sons -- their only children -- to suicide. David Bibbee, who had been battling bipolar disorder, was 27 when he took his own life on Feb. 23, 2003, in his father's Stow home. Brian Bibbee, who sought medical help for attention deficit disorder, was 24 when he died on July 24, 2004, in his mother's Cuyahoga Falls home. In addition to being brothers, the two men had something else in common: Both were taking Lexapro, an antidepressant that has been linked to an increased risk of suicide. Last week, David and Brian Bibbee's father, Mark, filed suit in Summit County Common Pleas Court against the drug's manufacturer, New York-based Forest Laboratories Inc. The lawsuit claims that Forest Laboratories knew of the increased risk of suicide in a small subset of patients, yet failed to conduct tests to see how often the problem developed. The lawsuit also claims that the company failed to properly warn doctors, pharmacists and patients of the risk or provide ways to reduce the risk. Mark and Lucy Bibbee ``believe this drug was the cause of both of their sons' deaths,'' said attorney Charles E. Grisi. ``They're pursuing this... in hopes no other family will have to experience this tragedy.'' Lexapro is an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) drug. According to Forest Laboratories, it is used to treat both depression and generalized anxiety disorder in more than 12 million U.S. adults. In 2005, Lexapro sales accounted for $1.87 billion of Forest Laboratories' $2.96 billion in revenues. According to the lawsuit, a link between SSRIs and suicide was first noted in 1990 by Harvard psychiatrists. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn't issue a public health warning until March 2004 -- more than a year after David's death and about four months before Brian's. ``Strong warnings and instructions, coupled with reasonable effort to `get the word out' could still have saved Brian Bibbee's life,'' the lawsuit says. ``Unfortunately, Forest took the path of least resistance and greatest profits by doing only the minimum amount that the FDA urged it to do. Therefore, this warning was `too little, too late' for David and Brian Bibbee.'' The lawsuit contends that Forest could have strengthened the FDA warning -- as drug-maker Wyeth did in drawing attention to suicide risks in children taking Effexor -- but chose not to. ``Forest could and should have done the same about the risk of Lexapro-induced adult suicidality, long before David and Brian Bibbee began taking Lexapro,'' the suit says. Phone messages left with Forest Laboratories on Tuesday afternoon were not returned. Despite the FDA warning in 2004, the medical literature has been unclear on the question of SSRIs and suicide. An article in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry found that ``available data do not indicate a significant increase in the risk of suicide or serious suicide attempt after starting treatment with newer antidepressant drugs.'' However, an article in the July 21, 2004, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found the risk of suicidal behavior increased in the first month after starting antidepressants, especially during the first nine days. An FDA patient information sheet says: ``Persons taking Lexapro may be more likely to think about killing themselves or actually try to do so, especially when Lexapro is first started or the dose is changed. People close to persons taking Lexapro can help by paying attention to changes in user's moods or actions. Contact your health-care professional right away if someone using Lexapro talks about or shows signs of killing him or herself. If you are taking Lexapro yourself and you start thinking about killing yourself, tell your health-care professional about this side effect right away.''

To: Richnorth who wrote (441)	9/8/2006 6:55:37 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 10087

Lieberman Defends 1998 Rebuke of Clinton Sen. Joe Lieberman defends 1998 rebuke of Clinton's conduct in Monica Lewinsky sex scandal (AP) Sen. Joe Lieberman defended his reprimand of former President Clinton for his involvement with a White House intern, dismissing rival Ned Lamont's claim that he turned the 1998 rebuke into a spectacle. "It was important for someone who was a Democrat to stand up and call on him publicly to accept more responsibility for what he had done," Lieberman said Friday. "In that case, I stood up and did what I believed was right for our country." In September 1998, as the sex scandal raged, the Connecticut senator was the first prominent Democratic lawmaker to openly criticize Clinton's conduct with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the Senate floor, Lieberman spoke about being "personally angry because Clinton had, by his disgraceful behavior, jeopardized his administration's historic record of accomplishment." The senator said his personal dismay evolved into "a larger, graver sense of loss for our country, a reckoning of the damage that the president's conduct has done to the proud legacy of his presidency." Lamont, who defeated Lieberman in the Democratic primary Aug. 8, criticized the incumbent in an interview with The New York Times. "You don't go to the floor of the Senate and turn this into a media spectacle," Lamont told reporters and editors from the newspaper during a dinner meeting Wednesday night. "You go up there, you sit down with one of your oldest friends and say, 'You're embarrassing yourself, you're embarrassing your presidency, you're embarrassing your family, and it's got to stop,'" Lamont said. Lamont, campaigning in Naugatuck on Friday, said he would have told Clinton what he thought before he said anything publicly. "That's just the way I am," Lamont told The Associated Press. "I don't want to get into this issue anymore, though." Lieberman, who is running as an independent after losing to Lamont, said his speech helped diffuse what had been partisan divisions over the scandal. He called it one of the toughest decisions of his life, but said he has no regrets. Days before the Connecticut primary, Clinton joined Lieberman at a campaign rally. "It's time for Ned to stop running a negative campaign and start talking about what he would do for the people of Connecticut over the next six years," Lieberman said. "He had to go back to 1998. Hey Ned, it's 2006." Polls show Lieberman leading Lamont in a three-way race that includes Republican Alan Schlesinger.