POLITICS

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

EDWARDS PROPOSES LIMITS ON PHARMA ADVERTS

REUTERS - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Sunday
unveiled a plan to put controls on drug advertising, which he said were
misleading patients and driving up health care costs. The former North
Carolina senator, who has attacked lobbyists and championed the concerns
of the poor in his campaign, proposes delays on consumer advertising of
new drugs and tougher Food and Drug Administration oversight over drug
marketing. . .

Drug advertising revenues had quadrupled to over $4 billion a year in
the 10 years since rules were relaxed to allow firms to advertise
medicines directly to consumers, he said. But the FDA had reviewed only
a fraction of the ads, Edwards added. The Edwards plan would institute a
two-year delay on consumer advertising of all new drugs, and require FDA
approval before drug companies launch major ad campaigns. Firms would
also be required to disclose more information about side effects and
comparisons of drugs against placebos and alternatives.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=
politicsNews&storyid=2007-10-28T185404Z_01_N28439707_
RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-POLITICS-EDWARDS.xml


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

EDWARDS STRIKES BACK AT COLBERT

JOHN EDWARDS' SPOKESMAN ERIC SCHULTZ - For those who missed Stephen
Colbert's misleading attack on John Edwards in the State newspaper this
weekend, I wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to set the record
straight.

CLAIM: Edwards abandoned South Carolina when he was one year old.

FACT: Edwards was born in South Carolina, learned to walk in South
Carolina, learned to talk to in South Carolina, and will kick Stephen
Colbert's New York City butt in South Carolina.

Stephen Colbert claims to represent a new kind of politics, but today we
see he's participating in the slash and burn politics that has no place
in American discourse. The truthiness is, as the candidate of Doritos,
Colbert's hands are stained by corporate corruption and nacho cheese.
John Edwards has never taken a dime from salty food lobbyists and
America deserves a President who isn't in the pocket of the snack food
special interests.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

THE AUSTRALIAN RIGHT ISN'T MUCH BETTER THAN OURS

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AU - If you thought John Howard was having a bad
election campaign, spare a thought for Andrew Quah, a candidate for the
Family First Party. He has been dumped as its candidate for the western
Sydney seat of Reid after photos of him parading his private parts
appeared on gay websites and were emailed around the country.

Mr Quah, 21, has also admitted to looking at porn websites in the past
two weeks, which made his position untenable given his party's strong
commitment to protect children by making porn harder to access on the
internet.

Mr Quah told the Herald yesterday he thought it was possible that he had
posed for the compromising photographs. "I might have been drunk off my
face or my political enemies might have drugged me."

One photo shows him exposing his private parts as he takes a picture of
himself in a mirror. "But that's not my penis," he said. So whose was
it?

"Look, maybe somebody photoshopped it, and put another one on the
photo," he said. "I can tell you, it's not me. I know these things. But
really, I can't remember … All I know, I have been humiliated."

So too has Family First. Its leader, Steve Fielding, counseled Mr Quah
when the news surfaced at the weekend - then disendorsed him, dropped
him from the Family First NSW executive and expelled him.

Already Mr Quah is being called "Australia's smallest loser". The Other
Cheek blog even put up what it alleged were full-frontal close-ups of
him but used Family First stickers for optional modesty.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/family-firsts-
member-for-nowhere/2007/10/28/1193555533377.html?s_cid=rss_news


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||