Month: July 2005

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning over the use of the abortion drug RU-486, or mifepristone, following the deaths of five women who used the drug. Mifepex (the brand name) has been available in the United States since 2000, more than 1 million women have taken it worldwide over the past decade and about 200,000 women in the U.S. have used it to end unwanted pregnancies without surgery.

Following four deaths from infection, the FDA has issued a warning, even though it admitted to not being able to tie the deaths directly to RU-486. Four of the deaths were attributed to a blood infection called sepsis, also known as toxic shock syndrome. The other death resulted from complications of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after Mifeprex was used. The FDA specifically advises that the drug not be used in the case of extra-uterine pregnancy because of the danger of infection.

These deaths were caused by the women using the drug in a manner not approved by the FDA:

The 4 deaths caused by bloodstream infections, or sepsis, all occurred in women who didn’t follow FDA-approved instructions for a pill-triggered abortion, said agency drug chief Dr Steven Galson. “We don’t know that this off-label use has caused the deaths,” he cautioned.

The action comes just 8 months after the FDA warned about 2 sepsis cases associated with Mifeprex, also called RU-486 or mifepristone. Additional sepsis cases were reported to the agency in April and June 2005.

The drug, sold by Danco Laboratories, is approved to terminate pregnancy up to 49 days after the beginning of the last menstrual cycle. It blocks a hormone required to sustain a pregnancy. When followed by another medicine, misoprostol, the pregnancy is terminated.

The FDA’s instructions call for women to swallow both pills, but most abortion clinics instead instruct that the misoprostol tablet be inserted into the vagina, Galson said. Studies have shown it can work that way, too. But the 4 sepsis deaths, all reported from California, came after this so-called off-label use. Galson couldn’t say whether the women had inserted the tablet vaginally themselves. In 2 of the infections, doctors identified a bacterium called _Clostridium sordellii_, a common germ not usually associated with illness, he said.

[…]

This is real, not Photoshopped – from Crooks & Liars:

In this photograph taken in June 2003, Karl Rove, senior advisor to President Bush and Robert Novak are pictured together at a party marking the 40th anniversary of Novak’s newspaper column at the Army Navy Club in Washington DC. At the event a number of people wore buttons reading, “I’m a source, not a target.” Rove is at the center of a controversy about the leaking of a CIA operative’s identity which originally appeared in Novak’s newspaper column. (AP Photo/Lauren Shay)

According to a recent Pew survey, one-word impressions of George Bush were slightly more negative than positive (40% vs. 36%); 12% were neutral or not clearly positive or negative. As with several previous surveys that have tapped this top-of-the-mind association with the president, the most frequent response was “honest.” Close behind were two negative (yet accurate) terms: “incompetent” and “arrogant.” Other frequently mentioned positive terms included “good,” “integrity” and “determined.” Other popular negative words included “liar,” “stupid” and “idiot.” Common neutral or ambiguous responses included “fair,” “aggressive,” and “adequate.”

I don¹t know what it means, but it’s interesting to note that “sucks” was in the February poll but is absent in the July survey. Personally, I still think Bush sucks.

Molly Ivins — you gotta love her:

Now it’s getting funnier and funnier. There is an elephant in the living room and we’re sitting around having a conversation about whether there’s an elephant in the living room.

“I think there’s an elephant in the living room.”

“Well, there’s a lot of elephant poop around, but that doesn’t prove there’s an elephant in the living room.”

The entire Republican Party is shocked (!) anyone would think that Karl Rove (!!) would leak a story to damage a political opponent. Oh, the horror. And Karl has always been such a sweet guy. Just to give you an idea, one time Rove was displeased with the job done by a political advance man and said, “We will f— him. Do you hear me? We will f— him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever f—ed him!” (From an article by Ron Suskind). And that was a guy who was on his side.

Read the rest on AlterNet.

We had several leaks last week in the Plame Name Blame Game scandal from an unnamed source who was described as being familiar with Karl Rove’s grand jury testimony.

What has gone barely noticed is that someone else leaked some information that is highly detrimental to Rove. It was published in the American Prospect:

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

Say WHAT?! Rove lied to federal investigators? Wait – isn’t that what Martha Stewart went to jail for?

[…]

With the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. today, Pres. Bush struck an historic note for straight, neoconservative, white men, a group whose voice is often vastly underrepresented in American society.

“I believe John Roberts will speak for ‘the rest of us,’” Bush said during his live televised announcement. “Men like me, men of privilege. Rich men who just keep getting richer, thanks to my tax breaks. Men who play golf in exclusive country clubs and duck hunt with guaranteed minimum kills.”

Bush noted that Roberts was yet another of the men he felt comfortable selecting because they previously served in the one-term administration of his father, Pres. George H.W. Bush.

“He has the qualities Americans expect in a judge: a penis, European ancestry, and firm, resolute opinions,” Bush said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he drives a Hummer. Not a Hummer 2, mind you, but a Hummer.”

Roberts is expected to gain easy confirmation, since so many members of Congress can relate.

TPM Cafe:

Tucker Carlson: Actually, I am objectively pro-France. You know, France blew up the Rainbow Warrior, that Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbor in the `80s. And I’ve always respected them…

GUEST: That made you like them?

Carlson: Yes. Yes. It won me over.

… The show is the much advertised “The Situation.” The network is MSNBC. No wonder they worked so hard to bring him over from CNN and PBS, attitude, bowtie, and all.

I guess state terrorism is OK when you’re blowing up some wussy peacenik green guys’ boat and killing the photographer on board.

Who can make this stuff up?

No doubt Neal Shapiro, the MSNBC president, would appreciate hearing from viewers about The Situation.

Team Bush is out of ways to deflect the Rove scandal. Not.

Tonight’s Supreme Court announcement will leave reporters and the public scrambling for details. Tomorrow’s papers will relegate Karl & Ko. to page 2 – or worse, to the abyss where the Downing Street Memo vaporized – and we’ll all have something else to talk about.

The big question in the days that follow is not what Bush will do, but how the press will respond. Will they drop Rove like a hot fried tater tot and go scampering off as directed, or will they stay on the job, sniffing out the truth? Will White House Spokestool (thanks, WTF Is It Now) Scott McClellan begin loving his job again, or will he continue to have good reason to phone it in?

The answer will tell us whether Bush’s recent troubles are a passing setback from which he will emerge stronger, or if they signal a true sea change. I’m cautiously optimistic that for Bush, the bad times are here to stay.

There’s only one aspect of the Bush presidency that renders me full of shock and awe – and it is a testament to why Bush must keep Karl Rove by his side. I’m continually amazed how, despite the lies and incompetence that led us into war where hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded, an anemic economy and his own bitter, inarticulate and pathologically indifferent personality, George Bush remains in good odor with nearly half of the Americans who take these polls.

In the new poll from Gallup, a whopping 47.4 percent of Americans gave him a positive job review. These people are obviously very easily led:

A Gallup poll analysis released today finds President Bush’s job approval rating at the lowest of his presidency and, at 47.4 percent, below 50 percent for only the second time.

This compares to the following at the same point in their time in office: Eisenhower 63.6 percent, Reagan 58.7 percent, Clinton 56.3 percent, Truman 48.7 percent Nixon 44 percent (during Watergate) and Johnson 42 percent (at a low point in the Vietnam war).

By Gallup’s chart, Bush’s current rating is 171st out of 236 for any quarter of a year, going back to Truman in the White House.

“Broadly speaking,” Gallup comments, “presidents who have had similar quarterly averages to Bush’s most recent one did not show much improvement going forward…

“Clearly, Bush is off to an inauspicious start to his second term in office. He had average a 62 percent approval rating during his first term in office.”

All I can say is, way to go, Karl! You apparently can fool half the people all the time.