Showing posts with label graft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graft. Show all posts

July 13, 2008

Grassley Probes Psychiatrists Over Ties To Pharma

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exclusiveThe investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, where Chuck Grassley is the ranking Republican, into the ties between drugmakers and medicine is expanding. After targeting grants issued to academic psychiatrists, Grassley now wants the American Psychiatric Association to open its books for a look-see at pharma funding.

bribePsychiatrists, of course, prescribe antidepressants and antipsychotics, both of which have stirred controversy. And psychiatrists have frequently shown up at the top of lists of doctors receiving pharma money. This week, for instance, Vermont’s Attorney General released its annual report showing that, of the top 100 recipients, psychiatrists received the highest level of payments, and 11 psychiatrists received a total of about $626,000, or approximately 20 percent of the total value of payments. The average amount received by psychiatrists was nearly $57,000.

Not coincidentally, the Senate committee’s conflicts-of-interest probe into oversight of grants issued by drugmakers and the NIH has focused on three psychiatrists - Harvard University’s Joe Biederman, Stanford University’s Alan Schatzberg and the University of Cincinnati’s Melissa DelBello.

The following e-mail was sent to APA members

Date: 07/11/2008 11:07AM
Subject: Message from APA Leadership

Fellow Members of the APA:

The APA Office has just received a letter from Senator Grassley of Iowa, requesting a complete accounting of APA revenues, except those from advertising in our journals, from pharmaceutical companies, starting in 2003. We will, of course, provide this information, which had already been available to our members.

These monies have supported activities including symposia, program bags, buses, and exhibits at our annual meetings and research and leadership training for outstanding residents. Our compliance with the rules governing these revenues has earned us accolades from the accrediting agency.

We are not alone; recent public focus on relationships between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry is a challenge for the whole field of medicine. The APA fully endorses the concept of transparency in our relationships with pharma and other entities and has been in the forefront of the disclosure process. In March, 2008, long before this inquiry from Senator Grassley, your Board of Trustees empaneled a working group charged to review all APA pharmaceutical revenues, sort them into categories; and provide the Board with options for ending pharmaceutical support in each category and the implications for the activities they currently fund. We are proud of what we do.

We will continue to keep you informed about this and all matters of importance to members of the APA.

Nada Stotland, M.D., MPH
APA President

UPDATE: The New York Times now has a story about this in its Saturday paper.


March 16, 2008

HiLIARy blast of the day ACTION: Pass it on

Hillary hopes you have forgotten. Have you ?

(ps this only half of it!! Don't forget. I am part of The Great Secret that they keep myself. Thanks so much Hillary! I have such a lovely life!! Let's have a bit of a talk about Frank Giustra and Khazkhstan, too, shall we? How about Norman Hsu, peter f. paul .. oh, so much goes begging here, not least of which is SANCTIONS and dead children all over the globe.)

Hillary Clinton has been telling America that she is the most qualified candidate for president based on her "record," which she says includes her eight years in the White House as First Lady - or "co-president" - and her seven years in the Senate. Here is a reminder of what that record includes:

** As First Lady, Hillary assumed authority over Health Care Reform, a process that cost the taxpayers over $13 million. She told both Bill Bradley and Pat Moynahan, key votes needed to pass her legislation, that she would "demonize "anyone who opposed it. But it was opposed; she couldn't even get it to a vote in a Congress controlled by her own party. (And in the next election, her party lost control of both the House and Senate.)

** Hillary assumed authority over selecting a female Attorney General. Her first two recommendations (Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood) were forced to withdraw their names from consideration, and then she chose Janet Reno. Janet Reno has since been described by Bill himself as "my worst mistake."

** Hillary recommended Lani Guanier for head of the Civil Rights Commission. When Guanier's radical views became known, her name had to be withdrawn.

** Hillary recommended her former law partners, Web Hubbell, Vince Foster, and William Kennedy for positions in the Justice Department, White House staff, and the Treasury,respectively. Hubbell was later imprisoned, Foster committed suicide, and Kennedy was forced to resign.

** Hillary also recommended a close friend of the Clintons, Craig Livingstone, for the position of director of White House se! curity. When Livingstone was investigated for the improper access of up to 900 FBI files of Clinton enemies (Filegate) and the widespread use of drugs by White House staff, both Hillary and her husband denied knowing him. (FBI agent Dennis Sculimbrene Confirmed in a Senate Judiciary Committee in 1996 both the drug use and Hillary's involvement in hiring Livingst one. After that, the FBI closed its White House Liaison Office, after serving seven presidents for over thirty years.)

** In order to open "slots" in the White House for her friends the Harry Thomasons (to whom millions of dollars in travel contracts could be awarded), Hillary had the entire staff of the White House Travel Office fired; they were reported to the FBI for "gross mismanagement" and their reputations ruined. After a thirty-month investigation, only one, Billy Dale, was charged with a crime - mixing personal money with White House funds when he cashed checks. The jury acquitted him in less than two hours.

** Another of Hillary's assumed duties was directing the "bimbo eruption squad" and scandal defense: ---- She urged her husband not to settle the Pau! la Jones lawsuit ---- She refused to release the Whitewater documents, which led to the appointment of Ken Starr as Special Prosecutor After $80 million dollars of taxpayer money was spent, Starr's investigation led to Monica Lewinsky, which led to Bill lying about and later admitting his affairs.

** Then they had to settle with Paula Jones after all.

** And Bill lost his ! law license for lying to the grand jury.

** And Bill was impeached by the House.

** And Hillary almost got herself indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice (she avoided it mostly because she repeated, "I do not recall," "I have no recollection," and "I don't know" 56 times under oath).

** And don't forget her part in Vince Foster's "suicide".

** Hillary wrote "It Takes a Village," demonstrating her Socialist viewpoint.

** Hillary decided to s! eek election to the Senate in a state she had never lived in. Her husband pardoned FALN terrorists in order to get Latino support and the New Square Hassidim to get Jewish support. Hillary also had Bill pardon her brother's clients, for a small fee, to get financial support.

** Then Hillary left the White House, but later had to return $200,000 in White House furniture, china, and artwork she had stolen

** In the campaign for the Senate, Hillary played the "woman card" by portraying her opponent (Lazio) as a bully picking on her

** Hillary's husband further protected her by asking the National Archives to withhold from the public until 2012 many records of their time in the White House, including much of Hillary's correspondence and her calendars. (There are ongoing lawsuits to force the release of those records.)

** As the junior Senator from New York, Hillary has passed no major legislation. She has deferred to the senior Senator (Schumer) to tend to the needs of New Yorkers, even on the hot issue of medical problems of workers involved in the cleanup of Ground Zero after 9/11.

** Hillary's one notable vote, supporting the plan to invade Iraq, she has since disavowed.

Quite a resume, isn't it?

Sounds more like an organized crime family.

Make sure America remembers and Pass this on.

Respectfully,

Jim Newborn, EFHFI
Colonel, US Army Retired


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