------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The LA Times reports: Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.
Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.
When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company's financial demands, senior officials replaced the government's lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.
When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.
Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a "sole-source" procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation's biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government's specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.
If there were an attack, the government could draw on $1 billion worth of smallpox vaccine it already owns to inoculate the entire U.S. population and quickly treat people exposed to the virus. The vaccine, which costs the government $3 per dose, can reliably prevent death when given within four days of exposure.
Siga's drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-smallpox-20111113,0,4293298.story
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Which is why I say, now and forever, I am the 1 percent. I won’t turn my back on my fellow Americans who have succeeded. I won’t let the mob take away my honor by turning me against those who have a better material existence than I do.
As Emerson explained succinctly, “Envy is ignorance.” Material success only matters to those who have lost their way spiritually. The 1 percent and the 99 percent are the same people with different clothes. And if I try to take the clothes off my brother’s back, just what kind of neighbor am I? What kind of human am I?
Wealth is not the issue; justice is. There will always be a 99 percent and a 1 percent, but that is not unjust. It is simply a fact of life. Injustice occurs when the 99 percent threaten the 1 percent because they outnumber them. Injustice occurs when the 99 percent use their majority status to commandeer the wealth of the 1 percent.
And if I stand by and let that happen, then I am unjust. So I will stand with the 1 percent. Even though I don’t have much money of my own, I cannot stand by and watch the wealth of my brethren be stolen. That is not the American way; it is the communist way. In America, what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours. So even though I have no money, I will proudly proclaim that I am a capitalist.
I will proudly proclaim that I am Dolores Broderson.
Do you know her? You should. She is the 78-year-old woman knocked down a flight of cement stairs in Washington, D.C., by a mob of “Occupy D.C.” protesters earlier this month. Her crime? Nothing. She was just collateral damage.
That’s scary, isn’t it? But it gets to the root of why Occupy Wall Street is a fundamentally anti-American movement. Targeting and dehumanizing a small group of people in order to motivate revolution is the stuff of Russia or Germany, not the United States of America. It usually starts small, like the attack in Washington, but eventually — if it is encouraged by those in power — it reaches the level of a pogrom or a mob attack on an entire population of people who are seen as dangerous to the interests of the majority. That mentality is fueled by anti-Semitic and incendiary rhetoric such as “Jewish bankers,” “Humanity vs. the Rothschilds,” “It’s Yom Kippur: Banks should atone!” and “One day the poor will have nothing left to eat but the rich.”
The sad news is that all of those slogans were found not at a 19th century pogrom and not in Nazi Germany, but at Occupy Wall Street events. One particularly vicious display of anger had a man dressed as Christ (complete with a crown of thorns) carrying a sign that read, “I threw out the moneylenders for a reason.” This is the original blood libel — combining the myth that the Jews had killed Jesus with the claim that Jewish bankers are evil, dangerous overlords.
So if you want to make a difference in this country, do yourself a favor. Step away from the 99 percent, and join the 1 percent. Stand with those who are being maligned. Stand with the Jews. Stand with Dolores Broderson. Stand up and be counted.
We are the 1 percent. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/frank/article_598d4e1e-0db7-11e1-8150-001cc4c002e0.html
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NBC writes: Downtown residents and business owners angry that their neighborhood has been occupied for two months by the Wall Street demonstration are staging a protest of the protest Monday, declaring that City Hall has let it get out of control.
Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message.
"Laws are clearly being violated and we simply want them enforced," Lower Manhattan resident Linda Gertsman told NBC New York.
Exasperated residents and businesses said they are "pursuing all options," including lawsuits against the city, the mayor and the private company that owns Zuccotti Plaza, the encampment headquarters. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Occupy-Wall-Street-Protest-of-the-Protest-Businesses-Residents-City-Hall-133796083.html
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According to the New York Post, since the Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park on September 17, protestors have cost surrounding businesses $479,400. Local jewelry shops, restaurants, and beauty salons complain that aggressive signs and reports of violence have dissuaded patrons from visiting their establishments – essentially driving struggling small companies out of business. Weekends, it seems, are even worse. Angry protestors invariably parade up and down Broadway, scaring tourists and preventing would-be shoppers from making any purchases.
There are also a myriad of unexpected expenses preventing small business owners from keeping their companies solvent. The rising costs of running water, toiletries, and repairs have skyrocketed in recent months as occupiers liberally use bathrooms as their own personal washrooms and destroy company property. Meanwhile, businesses are often required to stay open later – especially coffee shops – when intransigent protestors refuse to leave after closing. Alas, this leads inevitably to higher staffing costs. The expenditures are currently estimated at more than $9,000 a day! http://townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2011/11/13/ows_costs_local_businesses_in_nyc_nearly_$500,000
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The Gateway Pundit writes: City officials needed 70 dump trucks to clean up the filth after the Occupy Portland squatters were removed this weekend from two downtown parks.
Oregon Live reported:
A dozen city employees today plan to finish clearing Chapman and Lownsdale squares of debris and trash so engineers and horticulture experts can survey damage to the parks’ structures and trees. [The crew cleaning up the park were all wearing gas masks!] http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/11/portland-needs-70-dump-trucks-to-clean-up-filth-after-occupy-squatters-removed-from-park/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Reuters) - Protesters hope to shut down Wall Street on Thursday -- home to the New York Stock Exchange -- by holding a street carnival to mark the two-month anniversary of their campaign against economic inequality.
Protest organizers acknowledged that the "day of action" could be the group's most provocative yet, and could lead to mass arrests and further strain relations with city authorities.
"I think we're certainly going into this with our eyes wide open, but (the march is) to provoke ideas and discussion, not to provoke any violent reactions," said Occupy Wall Street spokesman Ed Needham.
"I think it is very difficult to do a day of action and not expect some sort of reaction from the (authorities)," he said. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/14/us-usa-protests-newyork-idUSTRE7AD20G20111114
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American Thinker writes: Calling America "lazy" last weekend was only the latest and broadest insult from President Obama. America has become accustomed to Obama's lashing out at entire groups of people. What has been all too little appreciated is his seeming delight in bullying, if not demeaning, individuals face-to-face. He is protected from angry responses not just by the Secret Service, but by the reverence his victims have for the office he holds.
This is a level of respect for the institution of the presidency that Obama does not share or hold dear. For him, the bully pulpit has taken an entirely different -- and disgraceful -- meaning from the one given to it by Teddy Roosevelt. What does it say about Barack Obama that he indulges in personal insults? What does this mean for America?
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