This shows the need for the Federal Government to step in and negotiate directly with drug manufacturers.

Doctors are excited about the prospect of Avastin, a drug already widely used for colon cancer, as a crucial new treatment for breast and lung cancer, too. But doctors are cringing at the price the maker, Genentech, plans to charge for it: about $100,000 a year.

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The Nerdy Romeo of ‘Say Anything’ Still Has a Place in Women’s Hearts
This article is undoubtedly schmalzy, but on the other hand, it *is* kinda cute…

Heaps of devotional words have been written about Lloyd Dobler. The early stages of a popularized Internet seemed to exist for people to make Lloyd Dobler references, and Lloyd Dobler tribute pages that linger (”Last updated on July 1, 1997″). There’s a fairly successful Wheaton-based band called the Lloyd Dobler Effect, which has toured forever. (Sadly, a Hootie and the Blowfish comparison in a review of the Lloyd Dobler Effect’s work prevents us from going any further.)
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In lore, he will be forever holding his boombox tape player high above his head, solemnly blasting the Peter Gabriel ballad “In Your Eyes.” That’s his song, their song. She chooses him in the end, mostly because her father is convicted for tax fraud.

“Jake Ryan is dessert, and Lloyd Dobler is like the vegetables you need,” says Sasha Johnson, 29, a Washington TV producer. “Lloyd Dobler ruined men forever. I can’t take total credit for this, an ex-boyfriend said this to me once. He contended that Lloyd Dobler’s boombox moment became the pinnacle of romance — the standard that no man could ever meet no matter how hard he tried. I’ve always loved Lloyd Dobler and have grown to appreciate him more as the years have gone on . . . the guy in high school that no woman wanted but ultimately now the kind of man we want to marry.

“He had that right mix of self-assuredness, sensitivity and geekiness. He was willing to make an insanely bold gesture to get the woman of his dreams back — something every woman wishes could happen to her.”
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“Fake love is a very powerful thing,” Klosterman observes. “I once loved a girl who almost loved me, but not as much as she loved John Cusack. . . . It appears that countless women born between the years of 1965 and 1978 are in love with John Cusack. . . . But here’s what none of these upwardly mobile women seem to realize: They don’t love John Cusack. They love Lloyd Dobler. When they see Mr. Cusack, they are still seeing the optimistic, charmingly loquacious teenager he played in ‘Say Anything.’ . . .

“I miss that girl. I wish I was Lloyd Dobler. I don’t want anybody to step on a piece of broken glass. I want fake love. But that’s all I want, and that’s why I can’t have it.”

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HR 4694, ironicly called the “Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act”, is a bipartisan bill that would effectively bar third party congressional candidates from spending any money on their campaigns.

The bill would grant nominees of parties that had averaged 25% of the vote for House races in a given district in the last two elections full public funding. All others would be required to submit petitions signed by 10% of the last vote cast for partial funding, and 20% petitions for full funding, a prohibitively large number.

While third parties have raised the alarm about this bill, what has gone unnoticed is that it would effectively institutionalize incumbancy in the House. The 2004 election was the least competitive in history. The average margin of victory was 40%–meaning 70% to 30% in a two way race. Scores of races were uncontested.

The sponsors of this bill are attempting to establish permanent incumbancy, even to the point of deliberately cutting themselves out of uncompetative races. For all practical purposes, this would be the end of a democratic Hosue of Representatives.

If this bill becomes law, Greens should wage a massive civil disobedience campaign against it. We should stand candidates in every district we possible can, and each one of them should publicly take a $1 donation in violation of the bill.

Lets see if the Republocrats have the guts to face that kind of publicity.

This just goes to show you how conservative the National Democratic Party leadership is…

Hackett alleged that several party leaders — including Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) — had made calls to donors discouraging them from contributing to his campaign, an allegation that DSCC spokesman Phil Singer denied.

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