DownWithTyranny!: GOP's Animal Farm War Against Regulations Is Toxic

First, here's how their war on regulations isn't toxic, just annoying. Have you ever been on the phone-- or in the middle of something important-- when you've been interrupted by a robocall? I signed up for that national opt out thing the GOP was so against and for a few years the number of annoying calls went way down. Now they're up again-- from robocalls. Republicans don't like the idea of telling businesses what they can or can't do. You need to dump toxic wastes into public drinking water to make a better profit-- well, of course you can. That's part of the American way-- or at least the Ayn Rand-Paul Ryan American way. As for the annoying robocalls, it looks like the FCC is getting enough pressure from irate voters to fix the loophole Republicans put in the rule.

The rule changes adopted at Wednesday's open meeting would make it more difficult for telemarketers to disturb consumers, by requiring consent before they can place automated robocalls to a home phone line. A previous exemption to the rule for established business relationships was also eliminated.

The rules also require telemarketers to provide consumers with an automated opt-out mechanism so they can stop receiving the calls, and limit the total number of dropped or "dead air" calls a firm can make within each calling campaign.

"Too many telemarketers, aided by autodialers and prerecorded messages, have continued to call consumers who don’t want to hear from them," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

"Consumers by the thousands have complained to us, letting us know that they remain unhappy with having their privacy invaded and their time wasted by these unwanted calls."

Toxic, however, is a story I heard about on the radio yesterday-- a crime severely in need of some regulations and enforcement. It's the story of fake Avastin on the U.S. market. The GOP's Law-of-the-Jungle/only-the-strong-survive "free market" capitalism postulates that a product that kills people will turn off consumers and they'll stop purchasing it and the culprit will go out of business and the whole world will be a happier, gayer place. Republicans are, clearly, insane and dangerous to normal people.

The maker of the widely used Avastin cancer drug said Tuesday that it is warning doctors, hospitals and patient groups that a counterfeit version of the medicine has been found in the U.S.

Tests of counterfeit vials of Avastin showed that they didn't contain the active ingredient in Roche Holding AG's intravenous drug, according to the Swiss company's Genentech unit.

It isn't clear how much of the counterfeit product was distributed in the U.S. or whether it has caused any harm. A Genentech spokeswoman said the company doesn't know if any patients were given the fake drug.

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating, and has sent letters to 19 medical practices in the U.S. that the agency says buy unapproved cancer medicines and might have bought the counterfeit Avastin.

An FDA spokeswoman said it hasn't received any reports of patient side effects that appear to be linked to the counterfeit product.

Most Americans don't question the integrity of the drugs they rely on. They view drug counterfeiting, if they are aware of it at all, as a problem for developing countries. But the latest incident, which follows the appearance of other fake drugs in the U.S.-- including counterfeits of the weight-loss treatment Alli and the influenza treatment Tamiflu-- suggests it is a growing risk, especially as more medicines and drug ingredients sold in the U.S. are made overseas.

In addition to the specter of fake medicines, U.S. drug makers are confronting their own shortcomings. Companies including Johnson & Johnson have had to shut down manufacturing plants due to quality problems. Earlier this month, Pfizer Inc. said it recalled about a million packs of birth-control pills because improper packaging could raise the risk of unplanned pregnancies.

...Experts say counterfeits are a relatively small but still serious problem for the nation's drug supply. In the U.S., most prescription medicines are distributed by authorized suppliers, who buy them from their manufacturers and assure their integrity. Pharmacies, too, put pressure on the distributors to ensure quality.

Still counterfeits can enter the drug supply through unauthorized distributors and Internet pharmacies that try to turn a quick profit selling the inauthentic products. Doctors and patients might not know they are using a counterfeit if it doesn't cause harm but simply fails to work.