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Seems the National Center for Public Policy has issued a paper calling a recent 60 Minutes report on the Big Pharma boondoggle within the Medicare Drug Plans a flat bunch of hooey:

…the CBS News program 60 Minutes broadcast a segment on prescription drug prices that relied heavily on a flawed report written by a group with a clear political motive. Producers of the program did so despite the repeated warnings of The National Center for Public Policy Research that the report could not reliably justify its conclusion.

"60 Minutes had its storyline," says David Hogberg, a senior policy analyst with The National Center for Public Policy Research, "and it wasn't going to let facts get in the way. If it was supposed to be an April Fool's Day prank, the producers of 60 Minutes never let viewers in on the joke. Instead, it provided yet another example as to why the American public increasingly does not and should not trust the mainstream media."

And who would the head of the National Center for Public Policy be?  Why our good friend, Amy Ridneour, nee Moritz, she of the College Republicans:

Back in 1981, Abramoff and his campaign manager, Norquist, promised their leading competitor, Amy Moritz, the job of crnc executive director if she dropped out of the race. Moritz took the bait, but it turned out that Abramoff had made the promise with his fingers crossed. Norquist took the executive director job and named Moritz his deputy. That demotion didn’t last long, either. After discovering the talented Ralph Reed, Norquist handed the Christian Coalition godfather Moritz’s responsibilities and her office space. They placed all of Moritz’s belongings in a box labeled "amy’s desk." Even 25 years later, she hasn’t shed her role as College Republican doormat. Abramoff used her think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research, to funnel nearly $1 million into a phony direct-mail firm with an address identical to his own.

When last seen around these parts, Amy was fleecing old people.  

In other news, the NYT has this to say about the new EPA decision by the Supreme Court:

The decision was unnervingly close, and some of the arguments in the dissent, written by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., were cause for concern — especially his comments about the “complexities” of the science of climate change, which is too close for comfort to the administration’s party line.

Chris Rock once said that as a new father, his job was to "keep my baby off the pole." I dunno, when I look at some things people are willing to do for a buck that pole starts to look pretty good.

(h/t TBogg, photo by RadioSpike)