The column published this morning here at The Recovering Politician by The RP and his No Labels co-founder, Mark McKinnon, headlines the influential Real Cleafr Policy web site. See below:
 |
|||
Carmen Catizone: Americans Can Protect Themselves from Web Sites Selling Dangerous Counterfeit DrugsFood and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned consumers about a potentially dangerous counterfeit version of Adderall tablets being sold on the Internet – the tablets contained the painkillers tramadol and acetaminophen rather than the active ingredients of the authentic ADHD drug, Adderall. In addition, thousands of packages containing unapproved and counterfeit drug products sold to unsuspecting Americans on Internet sites continue to be seized by US Customs and Border Protection. The Web sites peddling these products place Americans’ health at risk, distributing products that can cause more harm than good. The AWARXE consumer protection encourages consumers to make an informed choice when buying medications online by using resources provided by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy® (NABP®). As part of its mission to protect the public’s health, NABP has reviewed, more than 9,800 Web sites selling prescription drugs. AWARxE alerts consumers that only 3%, or 328, of these sites appear to be in compliance with state and federal laws and NABP patient safety and pharmacy practice standards. The other 97% of these sites are considered rogue sites and are listed as Not Recommended on the AWARxE Web site, www.AWARErx.org. Of the sites reviewed, those currently listed as Not Recommended are characterized as follows:
Lives have been lost due to people buying medicines from sites that send dangerous drugs without medical oversight that may have been tampered with, expired, or even fake. FDA regulations and federal and state laws help ensure a secure drug supply chain for products distributed within the US, such as those purchased by patients at the local community pharmacy. In fact, the US drug supply chain is one of the safest in the world. But what happens when consumers go outside of this safety net by purchasing drug products on the Internet that are shipped from locations around the world? Read the rest of… The RP and his fellow No Labels co-founder Mark McKinnon (George W. Bush’s campaign manager) offer the following thoughts on the presidential appointment process: This is what a broken government looks like. Over a year after the 2008 financial crisis, the Treasury Department still didn’t have an assistant secretary for financial markets. In the middle of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was no Secretary of the Army. And on 9/11, the Bush administration still didn’t have a full national security team in place. These are the consequences of a broken presidential appointments process. In recent years, the Senate is taking more time to confirm more people, and the problem is especially glaring at the beginning of new administrations. The number of positions requiring Senate confirmation has grown from 280 to 1,400 over the past 50 years, while the average length of time for confirmation has grown from two-and-a-half months to more than 10. The confirmation process has developed into an embarrassing charade, with highly qualified nominees often held up for petty or purely partisan reasons. No matter who the next president is, we need a smarter, more efficient system to ensure he can staff his administration with the best people in a timely fashion. No Labels has a three-part solution. 1. Reduce the number of appointees subject to Senate confirmation: The Senate’s “Advice and Consent” on nominations is an important check on presidential power, but it’s not needed for every mid-level official and presidential commission. We should give new presidents more authority to fill less urgent positions and let the Senate focus on the most important nominees who deal with more pressing matters. Encouragingly, a bipartisan bill to do just that has already passed the Senate and awaits action in the House. 2. Identify a “slate that can’t wait” of critical nominees for expedited confirmation: Within a few days of the election, the president should be prepared to name a group of nominees for especially crucial positions, who would be subject to both speedier background checks and Senate review and confirmation. 3. Up or down vote on presidential appointments: All presidential nominations should be confirmed or rejected within 90 days of the nomination being received by the Senate. This time frame includes both committee and floor action. If a nominee’s name is not confirmed or rejected within 90 days, the nominee would be confirmed by default. Our next president will have plenty of problems to deal with – and worrying about whether he can hire good people should not be one of them. It’s time to fix the presidential appointment process and fix it now. Click here to read the intro post to our Make the Presidency Work! action plan Until a health care decision is released Thursday, SCOTUS watchers will have to focus on the ruling in Arizona v. United States.
There was no health care ruling yesterday, but Constitutional scholars have plenty to talk about with Arizona’s win/loss on SB 1070. The Supreme Court struck down part of the highly controversial law, but invited further litigation to better establish the parameters of what enforcement is Constitutionally acceptable. Who “won” the decision is up for debate, but the Court has, of course, released the full decision for you to come to your own conclusions. [SCOTUS] Tonight’s marquee primary races are both in New York, and one in particular promises to be exciting– New York’s 13th Congressional District. Democrat Charlie Rangel, who has represented the Upper Manhatan-based district and its predecessors since 1971 is fighting for his political life against State Senator Adriano Espaillat. Espaillat is challenging Rangel in today’s primary and may have a demographic advantage as a popular legislator of Dominican descent in an increasingly Hispanic district, but Rangel has a major advantage in his incumbency and endorsements. [POLITICO] California’s budget problems and political dysfunction continue to have a negative impact on that state’s residents. Should a tax increase initiative fail in November, individual districts would be allowed to decrease the length of the school year by 15 days in each of the next two school years, down to 160 days. (Previous budget cuts already shortened the year from the traditional 180 days to 175.) This new school year would, of course, still be subject to collective bargaining. [Sacramento Bee]
One reason for poor turnout is that voters are often ignorant of the importance of primaries. For any office that is safe for a particular party, whoever wins the primary office contest has, in effect, already won the office. The office contest in the November general election is virtually meaningless. In the District of Columbia, almost all of the elected officials are Democrats. The primary election literally determines the DC government. The November DC election is a waste of time and money. Unfortunately many voters are unaware of this, and, by not showing up for the primary, they simply have no say in the selection of the candidate(s) who will represent them. A second reason for poor turnout is that voters don’t understand primaries and are intimidated by them. Each State can hold a primary election in numerous ways. And, each State has its own rules in the actual execution of its primary. For voters, this makes for a confusing mess. They don’t know what party primary they can vote in. They don’t know how many different ballots there will be. They don’t know what party ballot(s) they can request. They don’t know what will be on the ballot(s). They don’t know what party identification they need. They simply don’t know what is going to happen when they show up at the polls. Worst of all, they can’t even get answers to these questions in advance on the State’s election website. I challenge you to try!
Read the rest of… Were you aware that this coming week, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be taking a critical vote to divest from companies that do business in Israel? Many of my Presbyterian friends and family were not aware, and they strongly oppose such action. Please read my piece in today’s Huffington Post, and if you are moved to take action, I urge you to do so before the weekend’s convention:
Click here to read myfull column at The Huffington Post.
We just received our first child’s first college tuition bill. It’s a proud moment, to be sure. I smiled inwardly as I knelt down on the ground to steady myself and decided to stay down until the faint feeling and nausea subsided. It’s a feeling I won’t ever forget. Mixed with great parental pride was the initial thought that passed through my head like a loud chugging locomotive that could be heard over a mile away, “We’re going to have to sell the house!” Of course, I caught myself up, chuckled, and reminded myself of an age-old trick that always helped in situations like this, “Let it sink in before reacting” and then I knelt back down into a sitting position as the faint feeling and nausea came rushing back. So, I waited several minutes. In fact about 30 minutes and decided to reflect calmly on this momentous occasion. My second–calmer and more reflective reaction–was we need to sell the house and I’m going to have to pick up a second job delivering pizzas for the next 4 years. Phew!! Feeling much better now. Politics of Fashion
65 shades of nail polish! [The Cut] How Zara stays ahead of the style game: [Slate] Will your favorite brand still be here in 2013? [24/7 Wall St.] Have you ever wondered what Nicole Richie smells like? You will in the fall! [SheFinds] No, the RP hasn’t suddenly become a man of the cloth. The following beautiful words were part of a sermon delivered by Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama on June 24, 2012, delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham:  Rabbi Jonathan Miller I have a love affair with the State of Israel. I love its geography, from the sea to the desert to the mountains and hills. I love the orange groves and the high tech office parks. I love the oases and desert watercourses and the short lived blossoms on the hills after the rains. I love the golden city of Jerusalem, the city of such promise—the promise of the coming of the Lord and the coming together of all peoples. I love the people of Israel: the farmers and high tech innovators, the citizen soldiers and the doctors, the actors and the filmmakers, the mystics and the professors, the journalists and the scientists, the dancers and the store clerks and even the beggars on the street—they are mostly short tempered, quick to make decisions, overly generous, colorful and sweet. They will let you know their opinion before they have thought it out themselves. I love Hebrew. After two thousand years of lying in books read by scholars and holy people, it is now used on the street by cops and crooks and little children on the playground. Hebrew is the only dead language in human history that has been reinvented by a people to use in their everyday life. The resurrection of Hebrew represents the triumph of the human spirit over the hopelessness of human pessimism.
Read the rest of… Click here to purchase this book. NOW! It’s rare that I have the opportunity to recommend a book — much less have the time to read one — but I’ve just run across the best work of fiction that I’ve started to consume in some time. It’s called The Art of Fielding; it’s written by a first time novelist, Chad Harbach; and even after I was able to pry myself from the book to get a little writing done myself, I had a very difficult time trying to stop thinking about it. Indeed, that’s what the book is about. Although I have only completed half of it, I have never read anything that so brilliantly dissects and examines and illuminates that little voice in your head that won’t stop talking and that leads you do stupid things like insult a friend, run a red light, or throw an errant baseball. While the subtext of the book revolves around the baseball diamond — befitting today’s debate about Roger Clemens — it is a deeply introspective piece that tells many truths about human behavior and relationships that you don’t first expect. And it has done the impossible, by convincing me to pick up Moby Dick for the first time since I was my youngest daughter’s age. But first, I will finish The Art of Fielding, and I will have a more complete review when I’m actually done. But wanted to take this opportunity to encourage the RP Nation to read it and share your thoghts. Maybe we will even have an online book club. Join me. |
| ||
| Copyright © 2024 The Recovering Politician - All Rights Reserved | |||
