Canadian drugs now a terrorist threat???

Now the FDA doesn’t want us to buy Canadian drugs because the FDA was briefed of terrorist plans to attack the domestic food and drug supply.

FDA fears drugs a terror target
Acting commissioner says imported drugs biggest concern

Thursday, August 12, 2004 Posted: 10:29 AM EDT (1429 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Cues from chatter” gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs, acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester M. Crawford says.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Crawford said Wednesday that he had been briefed about al-Qaeda plans uncovered during recent arrests and raids, but declined further comment about any possible threats.

“While we must assume that such a threat exists generally, we have no specific information now about any al-Qaeda threats to our food or drug supply,” said Brian Roehrkasse, spokesman for the Homeland Security Department.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/08/12/fda.terror.ap/index.html

[Note how the Homeland Security spokesperson contradicts the FDA commissioner but the CNN report plays up the “danger” as if it is specific.]

Of course this comes on the heels of the FDA starting their “Don’t buy Canadian drugs because they are unsafe” public service campaign here in Ohio.

FDA warns Ohioans not to cross border for prescriptions
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Anna Michael
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A federally funded campaign urging Americans to buy their prescription drugs strictly from pharmacies in the United States has been extended to Ohio.

The “Looks Can Be Deceiving” campaign warns consumers of potential safety problems with prescription drugs sold in Canada and other countries.

Driven by the high cost of prescription drugs in the United States, thousands of Americans go online or to Canada to purchase medicine.

In central Ohio, there are stores that fax prescriptions to pharmacies in Canada, which then ship drugs to the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration campaign, which has been presented in 14 other states, was presented yesterday in Columbus.

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2004/08/12/20040812-A1-03.html

Now such threats to drugs might be a real concern if Canada was a 3rd world back water. The fact is that Canada is a real country with similar standards for the sale of medications. They are also working hard to keep their country safe from terrorist incidents and that helps protect the US.

All of the major brands of medications sold here in the US are also sold in Canada and at least one major manufacture has their research and development lab in Ontario.

The FDA’s actions would be like the Federal Trade Commission warning people not to import Japanese steel because it can’t vouch for the strength of it. That would be a shock to the Japanese who have been the steel innovators for the past 30 years.

The FDA’s war on imported drugs is nothing more than a smoke screen to protect their friends in the medication industry.

I really hope most people see through the screen.

The Cucumber Incident

item used in The Cucumber Incident

I saw a good documentary on July 26th, on the Sundance Channel. It is called “The Cucumber Incident” and tells the story behind a true event that involved 3 women from Delaware, Ohio and one of the women’s estranged husband who was born and raised in McComb (about 10 miles west of Findlay). It happened in July 1997.

It seems that the husband, Randy, who had been convicted of child molestation of his young step daughter, was accused of further abuse of the girl shortly after getting out of prison. The main accusation was that he had french kissed the child.

Continue reading “The Cucumber Incident”

Why I can’t vote for President George W. Bush

Blurb from a new essay on my website Doug World!

I have decided that my vote will NOT go to George Bush. I will not vote for him and I am encouraging others not to vote for him. Of course one could say I am a just a liberal elitist who hates America, but I am not either of those things. In fact, my vote for the other candidate this year is not because Bush is a Republican. I am not voting for him because I love my country and I feel Bush’s administration is the one that is at odds with what America is all about.

Why I can’t vote for President George W. Bush

Stewart zings Blitzer – film at 11

I was watching The Daily Show tonight and Jon Stewart had on Wolf Blitzer from CNN. Stewart just hammered Blitzer about the 9/11 Senate Report released today.

The following exchange is from memory so the exact wording is iffy:

Stewart: So do you think that this Senate report should be the biggest political scandal ever?
Blitzer: You never made a mistake?

Stewart: So did the media go over what went wrong?
Blitzer: Yes we had meetings.
Stewart: I’m not talking about deciding what to put on the crawl (at the bottom of CNN’s picture) but did you look at what you could have done differently?
[funny bit about the crawl here]
Stewart: What could have the media done differently?
Blitzer: We should have been more skeptical.
[Stewart has a large facial reaction as if he was going to say “Isn’t that your job.”]
Stewart: So is it that the Republicans and Bush intimidated you guys not to ask the questions?
Blitzer: No. It wasn’t that. I’m not sure what happened. Look i went to Kuwait I got all the briefings the CIA, Defense Department, FBI, Congress, and everybody said he had huge stock piles of biological, chemical weapons and it was only a short time before he had a nuclear bomb….
Stewart: Right….
Blitzer: Condoleeza Rice said on my show ‘Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer’ [audience laughs at obvious plug] before the war, that she didn’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud….
Stewart: Right but we have since learned that Pakistan sold ‘mushroom’ material to every country in the area BUT Iraq. This is a crazy world…. whoooo….hoooooo. [then Stewart twirlls in his chair and waves his arms crazily]

COMEDY CENTRAL TV Shows: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart