Human Test Subjects
Posted by Michelle Moquin on February 21st, 2012
Good morning!
First, prey on the poor, and then guess who’s next. Does this sick tactic sound familiar? Big Pharma is no different. Here’s the latest:
This Revolting Practice Targets Poor Unsuspecting People First – And You Next
Posted By Dr. Mercola | February 19 2012
One of the most frustrating characteristics of multi-national drug corporations is their commitment to the corporate mantra of maximizing profits for their shareholders at any cost, including that of human lives.
The testing of dangerous drugs and vaccines on children is an area that is particularly risk-filled…
The Nuremberg Codei provides ethical guidelines for medical researchers to protect human test subjects in scientific experiments from injury, disability or death.
The first principle of the Nuremberg Code—that doctors must obtain voluntary informed consent from the person about to be experimented on—appears to be frequently ignored, especially when it comes to clinical trials of experimental vaccines.
In recent news, the Argentinean Federation of Health Professionals accused GlaxoSmithKline of misleading participants and pressuring impoverished, disadvantaged families into enrolling their children in clinical trials of the experimental Synflorix pediatric pneumonia vaccine.
Fourteen of the children participating in the experimental vaccine trial died. Glaxo Smith Kline denies the charges and says it will appeal the nearly $240,000 fine imposed on the company and two doctors. According to CNNii:
“The deaths of 14 children, who reportedly died after participating in the trials, have drawn widespread attention in Argentinean media… GlaxoSmithKline categorically denies that the vaccine caused the deaths… But the health professional federation pointed to the children’s deaths in its call for increased regulations on drug testing.”
The death of 14 children in a vaccine trial SHOULD draw widespread attention, but while it’s a major news item in Argentina, the US approach seems coldly indifferent, to say the least. Why is this? Why are U.S. health officials expressing concern when children die from other causes but are turning a blind eye to the tragedy of children being killed by both experimental and licensed drugs and vaccines? That makes no sense at all!
Preying on the Poor and Illiterate
This certainly is not the first time children have died during drug company trials. It’s also not the first time a pharmaceutical company has been accused of being less than completely honest about experimental vaccine or drug risks, when they want to persuade poor, under-educated people into signing up for clinical trials.
For example, according to Nigerian authorities, Pfizer illegally tested an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital in 1996. Eleven of the children died and dozens were disabled before the illegal activity was exposed.
Similarly, two years ago, the Indian government suspended Merck’s Gardasil study after they discovered that four of the young clinical trial participants had died after receiving Gardasil, and more than 120 girls suffered severe adverse reactions. A civil society-led investigation into the vaccine trial highlighted serious violations of ethical guidelines for clinical research and informed consent rights of study participants or their legal guardians.
Again and again we see how major drug companies scheme to enlist people, who do not have full information about experimental vaccine or drug risks and are effectively turned into human guinea pigs in scientific experiments. In fact, this almost seems to be more the rule than the exception.
Likewise, we see how conventional medicine, in general, downplays the inherent risks of drugs and vaccines. Fourteen children died in GSK’s pneumonia vaccine trial and, yet, we’re supposed to believe that every single one of those deaths was completely unrelated to the vaccine. Another case in point is the shocking lack of respect for individual human life in the approval of a pediatric anthrax vaccine trial by the National Biodefense Science Board!
Pediatric Anthrax Vaccine—A Disaster in the Making?
Last year, I interviewed Dr. Meryl Nass about anthrax, and she was the one who brought this terrible situation to my attention. The idea of public health officials promoting the testing of anthrax vaccine on children is truly unfathomable considering the fact that the military’s controversial mandatory anthrax vaccination program has already resulted in many reports of anthrax vaccine injuries and deaths in soldiers and civilian military personnel. Side effects occur in one to two percent of those given anthrax vaccine and 11 percent of all anthrax vaccine adverse event reports are considered serious.
The FDA’s definition of a “serious adverse reaction” to a vaccine includes a reaction that leads to:
- Hospitalization
- Permanent disability
- Life-threatening event
- Death
Anthrax vaccine was mandated by DOD for all soldiers deployed in the Gulf War to theoretically protect them against a bioterrorism attack using weaponized, inhalation anthrax. Since then, the anthrax vaccine has been implicated in the development of so-called Gulf War syndrome, and Dr. Nass believes it’s a viable candidate as one of the contributing factors. Meanwhile, animal studies have shown the vaccine to be rather ineffective against anthrax infection… So, what might the ramifications of giving anthrax vaccine to infants be? I shudder to even consider it! The very idea of subjecting infants to such a hazardous vaccine seems, quite frankly, unconscionable.
In Dr. Nass’ words:
“It’s completely crazy, and it’s illegal. It can only be done because the Department of Health and Human Services is denying that there are serious adverse reactions. They have their National Biodefense Science Board, which by the way has two people who were very important in running the anthrax vaccine program in the military on that board, and their job is to protect the good name of the anthrax vaccine.
One is John Grabenstein. He ran the military vaccine program and ran the anthrax vaccine program first. He was instrumental in creating a whole series of scientific studies that were misrepresented and poorly done to try to show that the vaccine was safe when it wasn’t safe. He’s a very unethical researcher. He is a pharmacist with a PhD, and of course where did he go after he left the military? He went to Merck and works as a so-called scientist in their vaccine division… Merck knew that this guy was unethical; that he was cooking the books on the research, and they hired him anyway.”
Unethical Drug Trials Overseas: A Growing Problem
According to a 2011 investigative report published by Vanity Fairiii, 6,485 clinical drug trials were conducted overseas in 2008, up from just 271 overseas trials in 1990. And tracking of these trials is virtually non-existent. This can be a very serious problem when you consider that about 80 percent of the applications submitted to the US FDA for new drugs contain data from these foreign trials… Worse yet, drug companies are not required to report studies conducted overseas, which leaves the door wide open for studies with negative results to simply disappear.
There’s also very little accountability in terms of the accuracy of these trials because many of them are not performed by academic researchers but by independent contractors, who do everything from devising and performing the trial, to reporting on the results, ghostwriting technical articles and creating promotional campaigns for the drug. There can be no doubt that scientific experiments and clinical trials that do not contain adequate informed consent protections puts innocent human participants at risk for injury and death and is a violation of our most basic freedoms and human rights.
Is a Pneumonia Vaccine Even Necessary?
Getting back to GlaxoSmithKline’s pneumonia vaccine trial—in which 14 children died—a big question that really deserves an honest answer is whether such a vaccine is necessary. It is true that pneumonia, which is a severe form of acute lower respiratory infection that specifically affects your lungs, can have serious, life-threatening complications. According to the 2006 UNICEF report, Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Childreniv, complications from pneumonia kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
An estimated 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost 1 in 5 deaths of children under the age of five, worldwide, with South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa bearing the burden of more than half of the total number of pneumonia cases. That said, the debate is not about whether pneumonia is a serious infection or not—it is.
However, UNICEF has also detailed the most effective forms of prevention of pneumonia, which include:
- Exclusive breast feeding
- Promoting adequate nutrition and zinc supplementation
- Reducing indoor air pollution
- Expanding vaccine coverage
While vaccination is on the list, it’s by no means the most important prevention strategy. To highlight the effectiveness of simple and inexpensive nutritional intervention, consider this: After reviewing a total of 10 studies, investigators at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that zinc supplementation alone reduces the risk of pneumonia by 41 percent!
Some people, who prefer to use more natural holistic health approach to staying well, have used essential oils to help prevent respiratory infections like pneumonia. Some essential oils — oregano, thyme and rosewood oils in particular – appear to create an autolytic reaction in organisms, including Streptococcus pneumonia. One researcher found that spraying these essential oils on S. pneumonia cells in the laboratory setting prompted the cells to fall apart!
How to Reduce Your Risk of Infectious Disease Without a Vaccine …
Most people, who have become educated about vaccination and health, would be quite skeptical about voluntarily enrolling their child into a vaccine clinical trial. But, as discussed, many of these trials are conducted overseas, in underdeveloped countries, where families do not have the education to understand the risks they are taking or the means to protest being used as human guinea pigs in drug company sponsored scientific experiments. Some of these unsuspecting research subjects die and others are left with permanent health problems that can destroy their lives and their families.
This is a travesty. I long for the day our medical system will stop violating the informed consent rights of human subjects participating in clinical trials and drug companies will stop treating the people, who die and are injured in clinical trials, as the cost of doing business. Unfortunately, I don’t think the system will change on its own. It will only change once enough people see through it, and refuse to buy into the false promise that a pill will cure every ill and a vaccine will prevent every disease…
It’s so important to understand that, overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system. Vaccines can actually compromise healthy immune function and this is true, regardless of your age. Two of the most important factors influencing the health of your immune system are:
- Your gut flora, and
- Your vitamin D status
About 80 percent of your immune system resides in your gut, so maintaining a healthy gut flora is imperative for a fully functioning immune system. Also, if your child’s gut is populated with too many pathogens, he or she is likely to be more prone to vaccine damage. For more information about this, I highly recommend listening to my interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.
Vitamin D is another crucial component for maintaining optimal health, so I urge you to get your children’s vitamin D levels tested, and, if found deficient, to follow my recommendations for optimizing their levels.
Artificially manipulating your immune system with a vaccine does not produce the same kind of immunity and sought after disease-fighting results that a healthy lifestyle can. It may actually make you less healthy in the long run. For more information, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a good place to start to do research and obtain information that you need to make intelligent, informed decisions about vaccination.
Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
The media is quick to warn about the dangers of infectious diseases but rarely discuss the dangers of the vaccines against those diseases. This has created a very lopsided view of the safety of vaccines. So please, if you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper, or make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
To learn more about informed consent, the six principles for protecting your vaccine choices, and a summary of the U.S. law pertaining to vaccine exemptions, please review the article, STOP! Read This Before Vaccinating for Anything.
I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:
- NVIC Advocacy Portal: Protect vaccine exemptions in YOUR state. Sign up to use the free online Advocacy Portal and stay informed about threats to your legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices so you can take immediate action by contacting your state legislators with the click of a mouse or touch on your SmartPhone screen.
- NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
- If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
- Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or government officials for making independent vaccine choices.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
*S*I*C*K*O*S*
Thoughts? Rants? Blog me.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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February 21st, 2012 at 10:14 am
Hi Mischa, that’s sick shit…
…and now you know why I won’t/don’t go to Western doctors at all, they’ve got no clue what it takes to help people, they are trained to treat symptoms which is vastly different than healing. They get aprox 2 weeks of nutrition training. Watch 2 documentaries if you want to make informed health decisions, I know of others and have researched exhaustively though these 2 give it a wrap in 3 hours that should/could impact the way you live bc ‘you are what you eat’ – the first is ‘Forks over Knives’ and the other is ‘Food Matters’ and this one speaks on the subject of big pharma quite a bit, it’s a 230 Billion dollar biz, they’ve got no vested interest in you feeling good, only you spending money to believe that you will, only you have the authority to make decisions that will make and keep you healthy. If they want their profits to increase they have to get ‘cteative’ as in make injections that you believe you need, or sell that idea to you – for profit – and if someone dies from it, or several die form it, it’s simply collateral damage and they minimize the press and pay off that family and carry on to the next profitable endeavor. Unfortunate, and sick and twisted, but that’s the short version of it, I will only urge you to take control of your own health. It isn’t always easy and sometimes I would rather just eat whatever I feel like eating and be blissfully ignorant but knowing what I know, I cannot…
Luv, Zen Lill
February 21st, 2012 at 10:48 am
Vitey D = sunshine without sunscreen, don’t be misled by that industry either : ) – ZL
February 22nd, 2012 at 7:58 am
I was not shocked after viewing a YouTube Video of two white Gainsville, Florida High School girls ranting for 14 minutes about their racist little lives as teenagers who feel they are better than all the OTW’s in their High School just because of the color of their skin and their upper muiddle class families They are both white, of course.
The two girls have been kicked out of their school since their YouTube went “Viral. They now fear for their lives and have written a formal apology which does not have the emotion in it that their rant had.
This was picked up by the News media and blasted across cyberspace.
Last week, eight police officers were brought to the campus because of death threats the girls were receiving in response to their videos. The videos included comments like, “You can understand what we are saying, our accents, we use actual words. Black people do not.”
Gainesville High School principal David Shelnutt did not go into detail on the extent of the disciplinary action taken against the girls, but did tell WCJB that their comments were not welcome at the school.
“There’s no place for comments like that video here at GHS,” Shelnutt told the station. “There’s no place for that in the Alachua County Public School System, and my opinion, no place for that in society in general.”
Since the video went viral last week, the girls have experienced harassment and said they feared for their safety. According to one report by the Gainesville Sun, one of the students involved was hiding out at a relative’s house while her mother was at work.
“Our lives have changed totally, 180 degrees,” her mother told the paper. “This has made her an adult really quick.”
The video contained typical stereotype racist banter about the supremacy of Whites and the inferiority of OTWs at the High School.
It opened my eyes that not only adults white are racist in America. Children and teenagers pick up on this garbage and carry it to the next generation.
Our society needs to be corrected and old racist views changed in order to have a future for this Nation. I am sick of hearing the same racial nonsense over and over from one generation to the next.
Are whites not capable of learning? Who are the ignorant ones in this situation.
The girls and one of their parents issued a formal apology in the paper Monday:
“I am one of the girls who were in the racist video that got posted. I’m writing this so that I can tell people how truly sorry I am. I could never, in a million years, have pictured this happening with me involved. I wasn’t raised to hate people for their race, and I still don’t. I made a horrible decision in being a part of this video … ”
The girl also writes that she won’t make excuses, but hopes the community will eventually forgive her.
In another apology, the second girl’s mother says her daughter has gone into a depression following the backlash of the video, and hopes that the community will forgive her and end the harassment:
“While we can never take back the words and actions that these two children have said, we have to start to heal and forgive IMMEDIATELY. Stop the violent threats to our homes and our children, stop the anger, because this will solve absolutely nothing, and most importantly, look at yourself for change and love.”
According to the Gainesville Sun, the high school will wear orange, the color of racial tolerance, this week as a sign of solidarity.
The response to the girls’ videos echoe sentiments of racial issues in school communities across the country.
When will we learn to get along with each other? Isn’t there enough trouble without this monkey-see, monkey-do racism children are carrying on to the next generation?
HOWIE
February 22nd, 2012 at 8:13 am
Michelle, I couldn’t get in all day yesterday. My search couldn’t hold to the 21st date. It kept switching to your Monday.
I can’t understand the cruelty that is tolerated towards animals.
Janet
February 22nd, 2012 at 8:16 am
Howie:
Kudos to you for your advice. I am a white mother of two. I try to teach them tolerance of all races. But it is very difficult where I live.
Most of the others here don’t want to see their neighborhoods “invaded by mongrels.”
I think it is horrible that people can think like that about other people, but it is an every day thing here.
The world needs more people like you, Howie.
Thank you.
Connie
February 22nd, 2012 at 8:49 am
Foods That Fight Memory Loss
There’s a new way to potentially prevent Alzheimer’s—a disease that we know frustratingly little about—and it’s not some exotic, expensive or potentially dangerous drug.
It’s actually an affordable, natural component that’s found in everyday foods. For the first time, there’s a human study that confirms an association between dietary choline, an amino acid found in eggs and some other foods, and better cognitive performance.
The study, from Boston University School of Medicine, appeared in the November 2011 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
BRAIN BOOSTER
Researchers investigated the dietary habits of 744 women and 647 men ranging from 36 to 83 years of age.
None had dementia when the study started. In the early 1990s and then again between 1998 and 2001, participants filled out a questionnaire about their diets—they were asked how often they had eaten particular foods in the past year.
After the second questionnaire was given, the researchers performed neuropsychological tests to evaluate the participants’ cognitive skills, including verbal memory (remembering a story) and visual memory (remembering images).
They also did MRI brain scans to see if there were any tell-tale lesions in the white matter areas called white-matter hyperintensities (WMH).
WMH in the brain is considered a marker of vascular disease and is strongly associated with cognitive impairments that precede Alzheimer’s disease.
The results: First, this study demonstrated that people who were currently eating the most choline performed better on tests of verbal and visual memory, compared with those who currently had the lowest choline intake.
Researchers also found that those who had eaten the highest amounts of choline years earlier (as demonstrated by the first questionnaire) were more likely to have little or no WMH.
In other words, eating lots of choline may make your memory sharper, and it also may reduce the risk for damage to the brain and even Alzheimer’s disease.
HOW THE NUTRIENT PROTECTS YOUR NOGGIN
To learn more, I called study coauthor Rhoda Au, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Boston University.
Dr. Au emphasized that this is an observational study, so it doesn’t prove cause and effect, but it does show a link between choline and memory.
Why? Choline’s crucial contribution to cognition, said Dr. Au, may be as a building block for a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is known to help transmit information between neurons faster.
DIET “DOs”
How much choline do you need each day? The recommendation from the Institute of Medicine for men is a daily intake of 550 mg and for women, 425 mg. The richest food sources are…
3.5 ounces of beef liver—430 mg
One large egg—126 mg
3.5 ounces of salmon—91 mg
3.5 ounces (just under one-half cup) of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower or navy beans—approximately 40 mg.
Other sources of choline include cod, almonds, tofu, milk and peanut butter.
Supplements of choline are available, but high doses (more than 3,500 mg per day for adults over age 18, according to Institute of Medicine) can cause symptoms like vomiting and excessive sweating.
So if you want to take a supplement, talk to your doctor first—discuss how much you eat in your diet already so you can figure out whether (and what amount of) a supplement is necessary.
What’s so exciting about this research, in my view, is that while most studies concerning dementia are performed with people who already show signs of it, this study set out to investigate what people can do that might prevent dementia—and the choline connection seems promising.
It’s so easy to get more choline in our diets—it’s in our refrigerators right now!
Source: Rhoda Au, PhD, associate professor of neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, and director of neuropsychology, Framingham Heart Study.
February 22nd, 2012 at 8:51 am
Zen Lill, Your opinion mirrors mine. Money is the drive and the corporations will not let a few deaths get in the way of their profits.
Cindy
February 22nd, 2012 at 9:06 am
Allen Covert, the star of the laugh-out-loud comedy Grandma’s Boy, is out with a new venture. But this one doesn’t involve a movie about a middle-age “gamer” forced to live with his grandmother because his roommate blew the rent money on Filipino hookers.
Nope.
Covert’s latest project includes an eBook called Tex the T. Rex, a story about a dinosaur who is born on the Fourth of July and travels the country to understand why America is an exceptional national.
“I was taught that in this country if you work hard you can do anything, and I don’t see a lot of those principles in children’s books today,” Covert told HUMAN EVENTS. “So we put together stories about hard work and what it takes to get ahead, the American ideals we were all raised with.”
Covert will even speak to the Occupy Wall Street agitators. And here’s why.
—Jason Mattera
February 22nd, 2012 at 9:08 am
Michelle, I gave up after several tries to post to your blog. But seeing that today it is available again, I’m back.
My cousin is trapped in Lebanon. It seems their is a ground swell of hatred for americans building over there. I’m wondering if anyone reading your blog would like to share any information they may have.
Especially where it is coming from so strongly and so suddenly.
Larry
February 22nd, 2012 at 9:13 am
Those of us leaving in a hurry have no patience for the american jets that shadow us in the Guam area.
Suggestion do not get caught in our wake, we do not have the time we used in the past to keep from extinguishing the flow of power your primitive jet engines need to continue firing.
Your engines will shut down and you will crash or be forced to land without engine power. We will continue to use the corridor between Guam and Saipan.
//43e
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:13 am
The drug companies like the oil companies only care about profits Michelle. What we need is regulations that address the issue and that work because they have police power and fines that make such behavior economically prohibited and jail time for the offenders.
Brie
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:21 am
Larry, the problem is from the story of american solders burning copies of the Koran in Afghanistan.
Howie, pointed out the insensitivity of white solders to OTWs by their use of the Nazi flag symbols. It is the high command of the US military who is still filled with bigots, misogynists, racists, and sick old men.
If the top made it clear that they would not tolerate bigoted behavior by the troops, the white boys would not be making those types of insensitive errors.
This could really blow up in America’s face. Many will use it to undermine all the GOOD your country has done and is trying to do under Obama.
For the first time, the hate mongers have an opening to declare Obama evil. This is just not good because we in the Middle East need such a man to help lead us out of the dictatorial state of affairs we have been in for decades.
Asima
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:37 am
Larry, many innocent americans and europeans in the Middle East will suffer because of the american solders burning the Koran.
If they make it home without being killed, I will be surprised. Al Qaeda has begun a serious recruitment drive and propaganda campaign to smear the americans.
Fajr
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:39 am
President Barack Obama was forced to cancel the permit to construct the Keystone XL pipeline because the Republicans made him do it.
That’s the explanation coming out of the White House this week — Republicans played politics with the issue, and the president had no other choice, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
“In terms of Keystone, as you all know, the history here is pretty clear,” Carney told reporters Tuesday at his regular press briefing.
“And the fact is because Republicans decided to play political with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline,” Carney said.
Carney’s assertion was challenged by ABC News’ Jake Tapper, who questioned how Obama could claim to have an “all-of-the-above approach” to energy production if he “turned down” the pipeline permit. “And you blame the Republicans for making it political?” Tapper asked.
Carney’s response: “But the president didn’t turn down the Keystone pipeline. There was a process in place, with long precedent, run out of the State Department because of the issue of the pipeline crossing an international boundary, that required an amount of time for proper, for review, after an alternate route was deemed necessary through Nebraska at the request of the Republican governor of Nebraska and other stakeholders in Nebraska and the region that needed to play out, to be done appropriately. You can’t review and approve a pipeline, the route for which doesn’t even exist.”
The pipeline has been reviewed and delayed by the Obama administration for three years to make sure it met environmental safety standards and was in the country’s national interest. When the president tried to delay his final decision on the project for another year — and after his re-election campaign — Republicans forced the issue passing a law requiring that he make a decision before the end of February.
Obama, who has been under increasing pressure by the environmental community to stop the project, made his decision in January, and said “no.” It is not in the country’s best interest, it turns out, to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to Texas to bring oil to the U.S. and create 20,000 jobs.
And besides, it’s the Republicans’ fault Obama had to say no.
—Audrey Hudson