Senate Democrat Trying to Block Access to Nutritional Supplements

                                     photo credit: Clean Wal-Mart via photopin cc

Longtime health freedom foe Dick Durbin, the Illinois senator, is at it again.

The Democrat is apparently trying to slip in an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S. 3187) under the radar that could take away your access to safe vitamins and other nutritional supplements. Organizations such as Citizens for Health and the Alliance for Natural Health USA are sounding the alarm about Durbin's latest effort to unfairly target dietary supplement makers (he tried and failed last year to get similar legislation passed).

The amendment in question, according to the Alliance for Natural Health, contains several onerous provisions including...

among other things, that supplement companies must register their products with the [Food and Drug Administration] within 30 days, or they will be considered "misbranded" and companies will be subject to outrageous financial penalties, possibly even jail time. To avoid this, many companies will simply remove their supplements from the shelves until they are able to comply with the new requirement.

Citizens for Health asks "why give the FDA, an agency that has shown an anti-supplement bias in the past, the power to arbitrarily amass a list of 'potentially dangerous' dietary ingredients, especially when there is already a system in place to ensure the safety of supplements?

These organizations and others are asking every health-conscious consumer to contact your U.S. Senators immediately to vote no on Durban amendment to S. 3187.

Sen. Durbin inspired the nickname "Dick Turban" for his offensive and absurd statement comparing the Guantanamo Bay detention center to Nazi death camps back in 2005.

Update: Good news--the Senate defeated the Durbin amendment by a vote of 77 to 20.

 

Judge to NLRB: No Quickie Elections For You

                                           photo credit: Vectorportal via photo pin cc

Earlier this month, an Obama-appointed federal judge tossed out on procedural grounds the National Labor Relations Board's latest power grab that would have shortened the period for collective bargaining elections from about 40 days to a union-friendly 10-21 days.

There were only three active Board members on the five-member Board at the time the rule was "enacted," and Republican Brian Hayes did not log in to the NLRB's electronic network or cast a vote in the proceeding.

The judge, James Boasberg, determined that there was no quorum and therefore the Board lacked the legal authority to go forward with the rule. Boasberg declined to address the merits of the rule, however. For now the rule is not in effect.

The Brody and Associates law firm explains:

The quickie elections rule substantially shortened the timeframe between when a union files a recognition petition and when an election is held.  The result was that unions could ambush employers and have an election before the employer could express its views to employees.  With the rule in abeyance, the regular timelines apply.

The NLRB could appeal Boasberg's finding or revote on the rule now that the Board is up to full strength. The problem there is that Obama's three NLRB recess appointments were made when the Senate was not in recess in January 2012, and as a result the appointments themselves are being challenged on constitutional grounds in federal court.

In April, after two conflicting lower court decisions, the U.S. Court of Appeals put on hold another NLRB rule that would have required virtually all employers to hang a placard about employee rights to unionize. The rule is in limbo until the D.C. Circuit rules on the appeal, which is expected this fall. The rule would have gone into effect on April 30.

One of the plaintiffs, the National Federation of Independent Business, had this to say:

By delaying the poster rule until the appellate court has time to consider the merits of NFIB’s appeal, small-business owners can breathe a temporary sigh of relief. Of course, real relief will not come until the court rules that NLRB does not have the power to issue edicts empowering Big Labor and hurting small business

Casey Anthony You've Been Served

Casey Anthony, American's non-sweetheart, will have to show up in court as a defendant in a civil defamation case brought by nanny Zenaida Gonzalez because Gonzalez's team finally served her with the necessary legal papers.

The woman Casey Anthony falsely accused of abducting her doomed 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, tracked Anthony down to her Florida hideout and slapped her with a subpoena...Anthony, the most hated mother in America, was acquitted of murder last year — even after her lawyers admitted she made up the bogus “Zanny the Nanny” story...

Gonzalez’s investigators staked out Anthony’s new home for days, but their target refused to appear and be served with a subpoena, they said. Anthony’s lawyers eventually gave up and agreed to accept the court papers for the defamation lawsuit that is scheduled to begin next January in Orlando.

Anthony has a January 2013 trial date assuming there is no settlement or postponement.

Presidential Election Voting Guide

For those of you still obsessed with (nonexistent) ideological purity, here is sample ballot for the 2012 presidential election:

[h/t Legal Insurrection]