What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying, and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama–approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-gate.
This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a former union boss who was one of the White House’s most frequent visitors. They’re among the “1 percent” but with 100 percent immunity from the selectively outraged Occupier mobs that purport to oppose partisan government bailouts and handouts to privileged corporations.
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Ronald Perelman is the New York City–based leveraged-buyout wheeler-dealer who controls Siga Technologies. He has donated nearly $130,000, mostly to Democrats, over the past two election cycles alone, and he forked over $50,000 to pay for the president’s lavish inaugural parties. A Siga affiliate pitched in nearly half a million more in contributions — 65 percent of which went to Democrats — and the firms have spent millions on lobbying.
Perelman’s pharma company makes an experimental antiviral pill used by smallpox patients who are diagnosed too late to be treated with the existing smallpox vaccine. Smallpox experts cast doubt on the need for the drug, given ample vaccine stockpiles, the remote likelihood of a mass attack, and questions about its efficacy. But over the objections of federal contract negotiators, competitors, and scientists, the Obama administration approved a lucrative $433 million no-bid deal for Siga in May. No other manufacturers were able to compete for the “sole source” procurement, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The special arrangement was made after a competitor objected to the administration’s violating small-business rules during a first call for bids. That’s right: It’s yet another rigged giveaway from a Hope-and-Change champion who vowed on the 2008 campaign trail to “end the abuse of no-bid contracts once and for all.”
Intensifying the culture-of-corruption stench: the critical role of Andy Stern. He’s the profligate, corruption-coddling former head of the powerful Service Employees International Union — the 2.2-million-member public-employee-union powerhouse that he left in April 2010 with a mountain of debt and eroding rank-and-file pensions.
After pouring some $60 million of workers’ dues into Democratic coffers, Stern was rewarded by Obama with a cozy spot on the White House deficit panel and dozens of visits to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — including at least seven with the president, one with Vice President Joe Biden, and meetings with Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, OMB director Peter Orszag, health-czar aide Jennifer Cannistra, and Valerie Jarrett’s former high-powered aide and Chicago fundraiser Tina Tchen.
In a classic access-buying maneuver, Siga placed Stern on its board of directors in June 2010. Four months later, Siga nabbed an estimated $3 billion contract. By January of this year, Siga’s stock had skyrocketed. The House GOP has been investigating the deal for months, and its investigation comes amid separate allegations by investigative journalist Peter Schweizer of insider trading and political profiteering.
Crony Capitalism at it's worst. Obama is not only Clueless Nitwit-in-Chief, he's Beltway Reptile-in-Chief.
The Republicans in the House should bundle all of these Crony deals together and examine them in dedicated televised hearings to lay out all of the grease and sleaze.
Of course the MSM will then dig like crazy looking for similar skeletons in the Republicans closet. But no matter, if they really mean business this time, they gotta do what they gotta do.
So your remedy is what? Do nothing? How about we start to repeal some of these laws until we've eliminated about 75% of them and reduced congress's power by a corresponding amount.
captcha: get a better game. Good advice for UglyGov.
No, my remedy is not to do nothing. I said nothing about my remedy. But, I'm curious about your remedy. Who is going to do the repealing? Who do you trust that will actually do that? Both parties have proven to be incapable of reducing the size of government. Both parties have proven to be bought and paid for. They protect corporate interests over individual rights on a regular basis.
We need new people in government, not the same two parties that are nearly identical. Not in rhetoric, but in substance.
Let's not forget that Siga has a very ticked off competitor with some serious political clout behind it, so one has to wonder if this would still be an issue if the competitor didn't have a beef. I also wonder if negotiations from similar procurements from other companies would also hold up to such scrutiny. Let's also not forget that the process actually began under the Bush administration when funds were given to the company to develop the drug. Also, Perleman donates to both parties. And, look at the whole Board of Directors. It may surprise you that not long after Stern was appointed, Frances Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to President Bush, was added and she is an expert on bioterrorism.
While smallpox was eradicated, anyone with a basic biology degree can reverse engineer the virus from existing pox (cowpox etc.) viruses. An antiviral is needed for several reasons... First, smallpox in its early stages mimics cold/flu-like symptoms, so by the time it is discovered that a person may have spread smallpox it would be to late to administer the vaccine. The vaccine only has a four day window for use after a person is exposed. Second, not every person can tolerate the vaccine. About 20 to 25% of the population cannot be vaccinated due to health issues. I have eczema and cannot be vaccinated. Third, the vaccine itself is known to have serious side effects in those that are healthy. Interesting note is Siga's product was used successfully in three cases where the vaccine caused serious illness. The CDC considers just one case of smallpox to be a national emergency and cleanup would be economically devastating. A good read on the subject is Demon in the Freezer by the same author of the Hot Zone. Yes, I am posting similar posts on various websites. I think some important facts are missing.
No, actually. I just stated a fact. Project Bioshield, which was started under the Bush administration, funded development of this drug, as well as the development of other drugs to combat bioterrorism. I believe this would be the first drug developed under the program to be procured. Vaccines and drugs like Cipro have already been procured. The goal of Bioshield, however, was to encourage small biotechs to develop niche drugs with markets to small to entice big pharma.
And thank you, Ms. L, for your research.
But now I wonder. Is this a good-to-have government project? Certainly.
Is it a must-have? Perhaps, if we are going to war against an enemy known to have bio weapons.
Or if we were earlier, and the project had already been funded. But not another half billion dollars when Saddam Hussein has been dead for five years.
David, the project was funded back in 2004. The funds used for this procurement were allocated years ago. And while Saddam may be long gone, as it turned out, the bigger threats were/continue to be groups like AlQueda (I am sure I misspelled that), the Taliban and whatever other group that will pop up to fill a void or take on a cause.
Remember 9/11 wasn't Sadam. 19 of those terrorists came from Saudi Arabia, our ally. Linking Iraq/Sadam to 9/11 just downplayed where the real threat lies.
This type of corporate cronyism is why Cannabis continues to be a schedule 1 drug, even after nearly 20,000 studies have proven it to be an effective and relatively safe medication. It's being kept locked away until the friends of the Government can create patented, unsafe drugs out of it.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave... what a joke.
Perhaps I overestimated. How about 15,000 studies...
"Research on the chemistry and pharmacology of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids has reached enormous proportions, with approximately 15,000 articles on Cannabis sativa L. and cannabinoids "
Well, you have proven yourself a bit lazy in not doing some further research into the matter. You could also ask yourself why anyone would continue to study a plant, thousands of times over, if they never found that it had any medical value.
Let me help you out a bit. Go back to the link and type in 'Cannabis Arthritis' in the search... and then click search. That will get you started.
Not every study is a glowing testament of the medical benefits. But I think you will find the great majority to be very surprising if you have no background with this subject.
Obama is laying waste the Left's long-time meme that the Republican Party is the natural home of America's fat cats. Today's Democrat party is wall-to-wall with fat cats: Fannie & Freddie fat cats, "green energy" fat cats, Hollywood fat cats, Silicon Valley fat cats, Union fat cats, Wall Street fat cats. The list is endless.
