Georgia Public Broadcasting's Lawmakers is an excellent resource to keep up with the goings-on under the Dome. It broadcasts nightly at 7:00pm (rebroadcast at 5:30am for you early birds) on your local PBS station.
You can also get a wild and wooly recap of the show here as I'll watch the show with my ID in high gear and spew forth whatever comes to mind.
DAY 1
*Audio is dead for the first two minutes. Not a good start.
*Newly elected Senate President Pro Tem has seen this meme.
*Rules, rules and more rules. This is the glue that holds it together but it's not very interesting.
*Now the already heavily reported capitulation of House Dems to the election of Glenn Richardson as Speaker. Although some might say they invoked Sun Tzu's maxim about not fighting battles you can't win.
*The "hawks" are back. Hawks allow the majority party to add extra members to attend committee votes. Republicans then talk about "engrossment". This is sausage making at its finest.
*Republican Jeff Mullis just invoked a future with high speed rail, light rail and passenger rail! Blow Joshua Blow! Walls be coming down!
*Lt. Gov Casey Cagle talks trauma. He points out $60 million went to trauma care last year but "not one new trauma center was opened". Wait a minute. Trauma centers are that cheap to open? Then why don't we have one in every metro area? Cagle also says we need to make sure "money allocated will really take care of our citizens". Interestingly, last week in an interview with Wilson Smith, Lt. Governor Cagle when asked about the the Governor's Go Fish program ($19 million) pshawed talking about programs that cost millions when we are talking about a budget of billions. Now, a program also involving mere millions that provides a critical service needs heavy scrutiny? Boat ramps vs. trauma care. One hardly bothers the larger picture while the other needs accountability. Figure that one out.
*Raise taxes on cigarettes and strippers. It could be a rough time in sin city but these things aren't going anywhere but they should fun to watch.
*It's the Casey Cagle show. He's up to four spots in the current episode. Handel and Ox need to court some GPB producers.
*TSPLOST is coming back. I doubt the House is going to be able to hold it up this time.
*And now everybody's singing Happy Birthday which means that's a wrap
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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Psst: did you see the guv's Eggs and Issues address from this AM? The guv we luv is proposing some, uh, interesting tort reforms. Including "legislation will say that companies with a significant presence in Georgia will not be subject to product liability claims within this state if the FDA approved the medical device, drug or the labeling along with it."
Because we all know that the FDA is absolutely infallible and would never, ever slip up. Right kids?
What is this "raise taxes on strippers" bullshit? Do they mean strip clubs? Entry fees for customers? The fees dances must pay when they register for their license (which is bullshit in and of itself)? I'm going to have to look into this, because no matter which way you cut it, it stinks.
I believe entry fees for strip club customers were proposed recently by some GA legislator. I read about it somewhere, I forget where.
Also, rptrcub, as someone who represents medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers I know you might doubt my objectivity. However, right now the state of the law is that state law product liability claims are preempted by federal law pursuant to the Supreme Court's April ruling in Riegel v. Medtronic. The only exception is for state law claims that create a private right of action against manufacturers that violate the terms of FDA approval of their products (a very narrow category of claims.) Purdue's proposal, essentially, would be ensuring that Georgia will not enact such a private right of action. It's not quite the radical change that most people might think it is.
Maybe read the Riegel decision about the FDA's oversight role and the intricate legislative scheme behind premarket approval before assuming they are a bunch of fuckups. If you have a problem with that scheme, it is up to Congress to change it...not courts.
eggs & issues breakfast-the tension was so thick on the GOP side, Lt Gov, Gov and Speaker wouldn't even stay on the same stage together...
The GOP unity thing will last 15 days, you'll see the cracks start to form fast as soon as some national policy folks start showing up here.
OOh and if we get any stimulus money it's going to be a blood bath on the floor to see who takes credit for it.
Here is the Riegel decision I mentioned earlier. It covers FDA-approved medical devices, and applies nationwide.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-179.ZS.html
The Supreme Court should be ruling on the Wyeth v. Levine case any day now, where they are expected to issue a virtually identical ruling for FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.
http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Wyeth_v._Levine
It sounds like Purdue's proposal would just basically instruct state courts to follow these decisions here in Georgia.
Sorry, second URL got cut off.
http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Wyeth_v._Levine
Thank you for the information, Sara.
Dammit, the URL keeps getting cut off for some reason. I give up. Go to scotusblog.com and search Wyeth for the wiki I keep trying to link to.
(1 glass of wine and I can't link worth a damn...)
Yep Sara, you're right, and I looked it up yesterday and remembered I'd heard of it before. It's the entry fee and then they're supposedly going to use the money to help child trafficking victims. Naturally this stinks nine ways to Sunday and I'm torn between blogging about everything that's wrong with it and saving my energy for something that doesn't feel so repetitive. *sigh*...
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