Senate Votes 83-7 to Strip ACORN of Federal Funding

Now this is one show of Senate bipartisanship that makes me proud.

Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) introduced an amendment to the HUD and Transportation appropriation bill to strip ACORN of all federal funding. A week ago, Johanns wouldn�t have gotten the amendment to the floor. Today, however, after three straight days of BigGovernment.com�s video expos�s of ACORN offices in Washington DC, New York City, and Baltimore offering assistance to pimping, tax evasion, and trafficking in underage Salvadorean girls, Johanns not only got his vote � but he got an impressive bipartisan showing. The Senate passed the Johanns amendment 83-7.

I think ACORN's days are numbered now that they have been shown to support tax evasion, promotion of prostitution, and even human trafficking underage prostitutes. I think how they were laughing about the whole thing on the hidden video is what got people to turn on them so fast. It was as if they promote the exploitation of child sex workers day-in-and-day out or something. I'm glad these people are finally getting exposed. Now is time for Obama to throw them right under the bus.

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Obama Calls Kanye West a "Jack-ass"

Wow, now this is quite a powerful rebuke from the most powerful man in the world.

During a CNBC interview on Monday, President Obama called hip-hop artist Kanye West a "jackass" over his behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards.

It was a classless and idiotic move to grab the mic from Taylor Swift and I'm glad Obama is taking him to task for his behavior. Too bad he can't label Hugo Chavez or Ahmadinajoke a "jack-ass" as well. I'm kind of torn about Obama weighing in on the MTV Music Awards as kind of beneath the office of the President. However, it is nice to see him weighing in on pop culture stuff every once in a while.

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Buyout Rumors: Bayer Buying Spectrum Pharmaceuticals?

Also from that same article we have this other rumor:

And Bayer hearts Spectrum Pharmaceuticals.

This one looks like a pretty interesting deal because Spectrum Pharma (SPPI) is actually marketing two drugs already. In other words they aren't just a development stage company and have revenues coming in already. They are Zevalin and Fusilev.

-Zevalin is for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and has been recently approved for first line use in first-line consolidated therapy for NHL.

Spectrum said the Zevalin approval would expand the treatable population to about 43,000 patients annually.

I'm not sure of the revenue bump of that many new patients but it will be helping even more people and that cannot be bad. -Fusilev is for Osteosarcoma and is in FDA trials to deal with Colorectal Cancer as well.

On looking at Bayer's products we come up with a few Oncology drugs namely Viadur and Nexavar. Viadur- Is used to treat advanced Prostate Cancer. While Nexavar is used to treat Hepatocellular Carcinoma which is a kind of liver cancer. So a purchase of Spectrum will quickly add two new FDA approved oncology drugs to Bayers bench.

You have to add to this the fact that Bayer is currently marketing Zevalin in Europe. It would not be much of a stretch for Bayer to buy Spectrum and the American rights to Zevalin and add the revenue from Fusilev directly to their bottom line. Plus, Spectrum has a Phase 2 Prostate Cancer drug called Ozarelix that might be able to dovetail with Bayer's marketing of Viadur as well.

Also Spectrum has a market cap of only $314 million which is a very easy buy judging by the $1.8 billion that Bayer has in Cash as of the 2nd quarter of 2009. I can see this deal happening if Bayer actually pulls the trigger and decides to move further into the oncology field then they already are.

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Buyout Rumors: Roche Buying PDL BioPharma?

I was reading this article to figure out why Dendreon was up 15% today and decided to investigate some of the rumors:

Roche has its eye on PDL BioPharma(PDLI Quote).

So I decided to look into it and I can see the Roche buying that company out now that they completed the Genentech buyout. PDL BioPharma is a royalties generating company that collects fees for the use of their humanized antibodies technology. Currently they hold patent licenses for the following drugs:

• Genentech, Inc.: Herceptin� (trastuzumab), Xolair� (omalizumab), Raptiva� (efalizumab), Avastin� (bevacizumab), and Lucentis� (ranibizumab injection)
• MedImmune, LLC: Synagis� (palivizumab)
• Wyeth: Mylotarg� (gemtuzumab ozogamicin)
• Elan/Biogen Idec: Tysabri� (natalizumab)
• Chugai/Roche: Actemra (tocilizumab)
• UCB Celltech: Cimzia (certolizumab)

You notice that 5 of Genentech's top drugs are on that list. A buyout of this company by Roche would result in them saving quite a bit of money longterm by not having to pay out royalty payments on their top drugs. It would also allow them to bring in some revenue from other blockbuster biotech drugs from their competitors. It seems like an easy buyout but I ran across this quote from Roche's CFO Erich Hunziker:

On dealmaking, don't expect Roche to make any big buys anytime soon. When the deal was completed in March, CFO Erich Hunziker -- who retained his position -- said in a conference call the firm wouldn't make acquisitions valued at more than $60 million over the next two or three years. A few days after that statement, Roche acquired Innovatis AG of Bielefeld, Germany, for �15 million ($19.6 million).

PDL BioPharma has a market cap of $1.09 billion so it is way out of Roche's price range for two or three years. I mean they did just pay $70 billion for Genentech so they might wait a while before they reduce their costs with a buyout of PDL BioPharma. I can see it happening in a few years just so Roche doesn't have to pay out several million in royalties for the next several years.

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Spate of Takeover News Powers Dendreon Shares

It seems that more rumors persist of unnamed European firms sniffing around Dendreon. That $40 bid sounds suspiciously high though.

Dendreon is getting a $40 bid from some European Pharma giant. GlaxoSmithKline(GSK Quote) wants to buy Human Genome Sciences(HGSI Quote) -- again. Roche has its eye on PDL BioPharma(PDLI Quote). And Bayer hearts Spectrum Pharmaceuticals(SPPI Quote).

The thing that I can see is that these Pharma giants would rather pay to acquire the company that has already done the research and made it through the FDA minefield. They don't have to worry about failing in Type 2 trials or something because another company already took the risk.

In other words they are paying top dollar for research that they don't even have to do themselves. It sounds like a canny idea because biotech drugs have a longer patent period in which a Roche or whomever can make money.

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Sen. Olympia Snowe Sneaks some Good Stuff into the Baucus Healthcare Bill

It seems that since Snowe has insane power to kill any bill that comes along (assuming that the Dems don't destroy themselves and go to the reconciliation "nuclear option") I think her amendment might sneak into the bill that Obama eventually signs. It is quite a good amendment indeed:

Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), the moderate Republican in the group, proposed one major change, allowing insurers to offer national plans and to participate in state-based insurance exchanges. The Baucus proposal would permit states to form "health-care-choice compacts," allowing for the purchase of non-group health insurance across state lines.

Although this would really favor massive insurers like UnitedHealth (which I am long for the sake of full disclosure) this alone might make health insurance affordable. The idea of picking and choosing exactly what you want to have in your health insurance and shopping around for the best plan in the country would be awesome.

I look forward to the day where I can open the Wall Street Journal and read an article on the 5 best health insurance plans for 30 somethings and then compare it to HMSA. If I like the plan better I can just cancel my HMSA and sign up online for UnitedHealth Single Guy Plus with Vision Rider (or whatever it will be called.) I would then thank Senator Snowe for actual competition to come into the marketplace.

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Rep. Joe Wilson May Not Have Been Too Far off on "You Lie" Shout

It seems that he is facing some kind of backlash with his emotional outburst but he might not have been too far off think what he is thinking. He has since apologized though.

Ninety minutes after Obama finished his address, the South Carolina representative�who yelled out "You lie!" after the president said he had never proposed providing coverage to illegal immigrants�issued a statement explaining he "let my emotions get the best of me." According to the congressman's office, Wilson also made a personal phone call to the White House in hopes of apologizing to Obama himself, but instead had to express his apologies to gatekeeper Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

The problem is that the much touted 47 million without insurance includes 10 million illegals.

However, the Census Bureau report �Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the puts the initial number of uninsured living in the country at 46.577 million.

A closer look at that report reveals the Census data include 9.487 million people who are �not a citizen.� Subtracting the 10 million non-Americans, the number of uninsured Americans falls to roughly 37 million.

I did notice Obama started using a 30 million uninsured number instead of 47 million in his speech last night though.

We are the only advanced democracy on Earth � the only wealthy nation � that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.

I think this may have been deliberate change in the number in order to debunk the notion that illegals will be covered. I can see though how Wilson thought that illegals are covered when the President keeps insisting that he will get coverage for 47 million people when that 47 million included 10 million illegals. Too bad the CBO can't get control of the Census Bureau so we can have these numbers broken out for everyone to see.

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Obama's Speech Leaves Lots of Room for Compromise

Well his mighty speech to get health care on track seemed to be more of the same sort of thing but he is leaving room for compromise on the hated "government plan."

For example, some have suggested that that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. Others propose a co-op or another nonprofit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring. But I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice. And I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need.

I'm also glad that he let malpractice reform slip into the conversation in a kind of wishy-washy sort of way.

Finally, many in this chamber � particularly on the Republican side of the aisle � have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs. So I am proposing that we move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine. I know that the Bush Administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test these issues. It's a good idea, and I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today.

Yup demonstration projects led by HHS sounds pretty sad but is better then nothing. But I wanted him to say that he was proposing a cap on malpractice rewards of $250,000 or something similar. That would have set the groundwork for a bipartisan bill and would have eliminated a major argument against health care reform. Other then that, the speech didn't seem like the sort of home run that could get millions of Americans back on his side.

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Tastiest Ice Cream Sandwich in the World!

The winner was one I didn't even know existed. I must now try their top 3 in order to vet their choices.

Epi Top Pick: Turkey Hill Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Sandwich ($3.99 for a box of six)

Pros: The creamy ice cream with real vanilla flavor and the moist, spongy cakelike cookie won raves from the testers. "The ice cream is so fluffy and smooth!" said one editor. "The vanilla specks are not just for show, the ice cream tastes like it's made with a real vanilla pod; very natural," said another.

Cons: Thin in comparison to other competitors.

It certainly looks pretty damn tasty to me. This pic is from their web page:

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Red Chinese to Double Nuclear Plant Construction

It is so strange to see the Red Chinese leading the US when it comes to actually reducing carbon without destroying their economy in the process.

More nukes means a slower growth rate in coal electric power plant construction. The total amount of CO2 emissions from Chinese plants will continue to rise. But it would rise as fast and as far as previously projected.

That high build rate should bring down costs and make China the low cost leader in nuclear power plant construction.

They could even have to opportunity to start shuttering those coal plants as more nuclear capacity comes online. That would reduce the total amount of coal that they would have to import. Too bad we couldn't get some of these Red Chinese to run our "green economy."

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Obama's Healthcare Disapproval at 52%

Now this is an AP poll so it should actually be in Obama's favor. Instead he is strait-up losing the message war.

Public disapproval of President Barack Obama's handling of health care has jumped to 52 percent, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released hours before he makes his case for overhaul in a prime-time address to Congress.

His disapproval rating meltdown is quite shocking as well. He was in the 60s just a few months ago. It seems that ObamaCare was a bridge too far.

With his health revamp moving slowly and unemployment edging ever higher, Obama's overall approval rating has also suffered a blow. The survey showed that 49 percent now disapprove of how he is handling his job as president, up from 42 percent who disapproved in July.

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It Might Cost you $3,800 To Go Without Health Insurance?

Now that is a fine with some teeth.

Just as auto coverage is now mandatory in nearly all states, Baucus would require that all Americans get health insurance once the system is overhauled. Penalties for failing to do so would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level � about $66,000 for a family of four � would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.

I have no idea how they will assess such a fine but it has suddenly made all college kids about $750 poorer unless their tax credits can cover that fine. I wonder if we will have to staple a copy of your health insurance card to your tax return in order to get out of the fine. Lots of moving parts but not a lot of answers. This part of the plan makes sense though.

The Baucus plan would require insurers to take all applicants, regardless of age or health. But smokers could be charged higher premiums. And 60-year-olds could be charged five times as much for a policy as 20-year-olds.

I think both smokers and overweight people should be charged higher premiums as well. If I could save several $100 a year on my premiums it gives me a financial incentive to avoid overeating. Also older people should pay more then younger people for insurance because they will actually be using the health care more often. It is only fair since they will have some of their costs covered by Medicare anyway. I think I can actually live with this Baucus plan the more I learn about it.

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Legal Wrangling over "the Hobbit" Settled

Now they can get to the business of movie making again without all the lawyers and courts.

The settlement was welcomed by J.R.R. Tolkien's youngest son, Christopher Tolkien, on behalf of the trust.

Tolkien said he and other trustees "regret that legal action was necessary, but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives."

"The trustees acknowledge that New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of 'The Hobbit,'" Tolkien said in a statement.

I think Warner Bros. just backed a truckload of money up to the Tolkien Trust offices and made it all go away. They should have done this in 2003 so we would already be on the 2nd Hobbit film now instead of merely waiting for them.

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What to Do About the Debt

This is a great article on some actual solutions to the US Government's debt problem.

However, the reinstatement of the president�s power of impoundment, taken away by the Budget Control Act of 1974, would give the president much the same power as a line-item and would certainly be constitutional.

Impoundment was the power that the President had earlier to just not spend certain funds that Congress had allocated. This would serve as a brake on certain spending like the "bridge to nowhere" and other wasteful crap. The President would just set aside the money that would have gone to the bridge to nowhere and it would be sent back to the treasury.

An independent accounting board, modeled on the Federal Reserve (which keeps the power to print money out of the hands of Congress) would accomplish that. It should have the power to set the rules of accounting for the federal government, �score� the costs of new programs (which the Congressional Budget Office does now), and monitor all federal programs for cost-effectiveness (something Congress often forbids government agencies to do, obviously fearing what it might learn).

This I think would be the reform we would need to fix the system. Take the spending out of the hands of the Congress and the White House and expand the powers of the CBO. Call it the Federal Spending Commission. The Congress and the White House would have to offer their budget to this agency who's sole job is to keep things cost-effective unless their recommendation is overturned with a 2/3s majority. Also give this group the power to audit the books of the Federal Reserve as well to maintain checks and balances.

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Obama's Speech to Kids Has a Little ObamaCare Thrown In

I'm not sure if this was a planted questions but a "stay in school" speech by Obama can't get by without a whiff of ObamaCare loaded in.

During his meeting inside, one young person asked why the country doesn't have universal health insurance. "I think we need it. I think we can do it," Obama replied. The president said the country can afford to insure all Americans and that doing so will save money in the long run.

That is far more then a government plan. Universal health insurance would be an end to the insurance companies as we know it. I guess a Canadian/English system is what he is pushing for again.

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