Free Republic

When the economy hit the skids a few years ago, we responded with tactics that have gotten us through previous recessions: We stopped eating out and traveling as much, curbed our discretionary spending and chose generic items for basics like groceries. But then something strange happened: We began to prefer many of those store brands. Increasingly, we’re willing to pay even more for them. What’s going on here? According to the Wall Street Journal, stores have raised the prices of private-label nonperishable food by 5.3%, compared to a 1.9% increase for goods made by national brands. Store-brand versions of perishable...

Princeton academic Cornel West attended the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington on Sunday, and then nipped over to the Supreme Court, where he joined 18 other members of “Occupy Wall Street” subsidiary “October 2011 / Stop the Machine” in getting arrested when they refused to obey police orders to clear the area. West is a fitfully amusing example of self-righteous academic incoherence, who can be counted on to produce memorable sound bites. He recently told black presidential candidate Herman Cain to “get off the symbolic crack pipe” because Cain is insufficiently cowed by the menace...

I think I have this election licked. All we need to do is find a Republican candidate with plain wrapping and a blue stripe: U.S. registered voters, by 46% to 38%, continue to say they are more likely to vote for the Republican presidential candidate than for Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election. The generic Republican led by the same eight-percentage-point margin in September, and also held a lead in July. The August update, conducted just after an agreement to raise the federal debt limit, had Obama with a slight edge.The current results are based on a Gallup poll...

A generic Republican candidate now holds a six-point advantage over President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds the generic Republican earning 48% of the vote, while the president picks up support from 42%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and another seven percent (7%) are undecided. Last week, the GOP candidate held a 46% to 43% edge over the incumbent.

As Doug Mataconis helpfully points out over at Outside the Beltway, a new Gallup poll has tested the waters of Republican hopefuls for next year’s election and the results are in. I know each of you may have your own preferred candidate who you’d like to see at the top of the ticket, but if you want to limit President Obama to a single term, it’s time for you to get on board with the winning combination. Are you ready? Forty-four percent of registered voters say they are more likely to vote for “the Republican Party’s candidate” and 39% for...

By 45 percent to 42 percent, likely U.S. voters said they would prefer a generic Republican candidate to President Barack Obama in a 2012 presidential matchup, according to a poll released this week by Rasmussen Reports. That’s the second week in a row Obama has “lost� to a faceless candidate.Men especially want a president from the Grand Old Party — they gave the generic candidate an eight-point boost over Obama. Middle-income voters also favored the Republican. Younger voters, not surprisingly, favored the incumbent, and the vast majority — 96 percent — of black voters also supported Obama.Importantly, though, in every...

For the second week in a row, Republicans hold a five-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, November 21, 2010. This is the smallest gap between the two parties since the beginning of October. New Rasmussen Reports polling finds that 44% of Likely Voters nationwide would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 39% prefer the Democrat.

Republican candidates now hold a three-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, October 3, 2010. This is the smallest gap between parties in roughly a year. Forty-five percent (45%) of respondents say they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 42% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. This is the first time during 2010 that the GOP edge has fallen below five points. Still, while the margin has varied somewhat from week-to-week, Republicans have been consistently ahead in the Generic Ballot for over a year, and it has run...

I appreciate Nate Silver’s characteristically thoughtful reply to my NRO critique of a post he made on the interplay between what the generic ballot says about the national House vote and the number of districts the GOP might be expected to gain on Election Day. Since he has agreed with the major thrust of my critique — that an individual candidate’s name ID greatly effects the result in any district — I presume he will not disagree with my subsidiary point, that we should take current polls showing better-known Democratic incumbents leading their GOP challengers at this point in the...

Republican candidates hold a six-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, September 26, 2010. This is the closest gap between the parties in a month. Forty-six percent (46%) of respondents say they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 40% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Still, while the margin has varied somewhat from week-to-week, Republicans have been consistently ahead in the Generic Ballot for over a year. During 2010, the GOP edge has never fallen below five points and has run as high as 12 points. When Barack...

Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 47%, Democrats 38% Republican candidates now hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, September 12, 2010. Forty-seven percent (47%) of respondents say they would voter for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Last week, Republicans held a 12-point lead, matching their largest advantage ever in Rasmussen Reports surveying.  Still, while the margin has varied somewhat from week-to-week, Republicans have been consistently ahead in the Generic Ballot for over a year. During 2010, the GOP edge has never fallen...

Republican candidates have jumped out to a record-setting 12-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, August 15, 2010. This is the biggest lead the GOP has held in over a decade of Rasmussen Reports surveying.

For the week ending Sunday, May 30, Republican candidates hold a seven-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot. That’s little changed from a week ago and broadly consistent with weekly results from the past year. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for their district's Republican congressional candidate, while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. While solid majorities of Democrats and Republicans support their own party, the plurality (45%) of voters not affiliated with either major party now prefer the Republican candidate, while 23% like the Democrat....

Gallup's generic polling shows the number of voters saying that they would vote for Republicans rising three points from last week, while the number saying they will vote for Democrats dropped four points. The 49%-43% lead for the Republicans is the largest that the pollster has ever recorded for the party. Moreover, Democratic enthusiasm for voting this fall fell a point, while enthusiasm among Republicans stayed about fifteen points higher. This indicates an even wider lead for Republicans once Gallup imposes a likely voter screen this fall.

Gallup's generic polling shows the number of voters saying that they would vote for Republicans rising three points from last week, while the number saying they will vote for Democrats dropped four points. The 49%-43% lead for the Republicans is the largest that the pollster has ever recorded for the party. Moreover, Democratic enthusiasm for voting this fall fell a point, while enthusiasm among Republicans stayed about fifteen points higher. This indicates an even wider lead for Republicans once Gallup imposes a likely voter screen this fall. http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2010/06/01/republicans-jump-out-to-historic-lead-in-gallup-generic-ballot/

NEW YORK—Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday announced that it would shut down eight manufacturing plants around the world, scale back production at several other sites, and slash 6,000 total jobs in its ongoing restructuring effort to cut down on payroll expense. The job cuts are related to its $68 billion acquisition of rival Wyeth last year and part of an announced 19,000 job cuts to be enacted by 2015. Such expense reductions were expected at Pfizer, based in New York, as the company braces itself to lose its patent on cholesterol drug Lipitor, which accounted for more than $11...

Republicans have opened up a nine-point lead over Democrats in the Generic Congressional Ballot according to the latest Rasmussen Poll. That is the largest lead Republicans have had in years, now standing at 44%-35%. This news just may push some more Democrats in the House to decide to retire or not run later this year: Republican candidates start the year by opening a nine-point lead over Democrats, the GOP's biggest in several years, in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate...

Republican candidates have bounced back to a seven-point lead over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot...Support for GOP candidates is up just one point over the past week, but support for Democrats slipped two points.

Almost 90 per cent of the world's population will not have timely access to affordable supplies of vaccines and antiviral agents in the current influenza pandemic, but it is possible that inexpensive generic drugs that are readily available, even in developing countries, could save millions of lives. > "At a scientific meeting in 2008 we heard that all of the people who developed bird flu in Indonesia, and did not receive antiviral treatment, died. This observation is terrifying. If this particular virus were to develop efficient human-to-human transmission we could see a global population collapse. >

Are Republicans winning the public relations battle over spending in the $800-billion-plus economic stimulus package? Democrats and Republicans are nearly even in this week's edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Democrats Lead by Eight on Generic Ballot Tuesday, August 12, 2008 The Republicans have tightened the gap somewhat in the Generic Congressional Ballot. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that, if given the choice, 45% of voters would choose their district’s Democratic candidate, while 37% would choose the Republican candidate. Support for the Democrats is down just two points from last week, but support for the GOP is up three points from last week.

Metal fragments found in generic 500-milligram caplets, maker says A major manufacturer of acetaminophen sold by Wal-Mart, CVS, Safeway and more than 100 other retailers found metal fragments in caplets during quality-control checks. The recall does not affect Tylenol brand pills. • Massive pill recall Nov. 9: More than 11 million bottles of the painkiller acetaminophen are being recalled by Perrigo. The maker of generic non-prescription drugs says they found metal bits during quality-control checks. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown reports. Updated: 9 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A major manufacturer of acetaminophen sold by Wal-Mart, CVS, Safeway and more than 100 other...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday that it will sell nearly 300 generic drugs at $4 a prescription beginning in Florida this week and spreading to as many states "as possible" next year. The program will be available to insured and uninsured consumers, a move that also will help stem criticism of Wal-Mart's employee health-care policies. The program, announced in Florida, will begin at 65 Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market stores in Tampa Bay. All other stores in Florida will be offering the program in January, the company said. Wal-Mart said the program also will fill the...

NEW YORK - It's a novel approach in the long battle between brand name drugs and their generic rivals: Merck & Co. is slashing the price of its cholesterol drug Zocor so low for one insurance plan that members will actually pay less for the original pills than for the generic. That tactic has some consumer advocates fearing the practice will spark a movement among Big Pharma, compounding other pressures they fear will weaken the generic industry and compromise the country's source of low-cost drugs. Under the deal, members of UnitedHealth Group Inc. will pay around $10 for a month's...

Reports in the national press that some modern megachurches are “closing” on Christmas in order to encourage families to “have a more personal experience on that day” have shocked many traditional Christians. The Chicago Tribune first reported this phenomenon on December 6, in an article about the godfather of megachurches, Willow Creek. Other articles followed, in USA Today and other papers, chronicling the trend throughout the United States. This is nothing new for Willow Creek, and the WillowCreeking of America is evidenced by the spread of this trend. Many, many churches, including Rockford’s Heartland Community Church (which recently purchased Colonial...

Abbas: Gaza pullout due to "Palestinian Sacrifices."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.N., World Bank (news - web sites), the Global Fund to fight AIDS (news - web sites), Tuberculosis and Malaria and former U.S. president Bill Clinton (news - web sites) said on Tuesday they had set up a joint plan to buy and distribute cheap, generic AIDS drugs in poor countries. In a clear jab at the U.S. government, they said they had negotiated discounts of 50 percent or more on HIV (news - web sites) diagnostic tests and on drugs whose safety has been questioned by the Bush Administration. "Simply put, the Clinton Foundation will...

Bush's Generic Move Seen Aiding India Drugmakers Saturday June 14, 11:31 pm ETBy Rosemary Arackaparambil BOMBAY (Reuters) - A U.S. move to bring low cost, generic drugs to the market faster and expand their use under a state-funded health insurance program for pensioners will make it easier for Indian firms to launch copy-cat drugs, analysts say.  U.S. President George Bush on Thursday announced final Food and Drug Administration ( - ) (FDA) rules limiting a patent-holder's ability to delay the introduction of cheaper generic versions of drugs. He also proposed to provide prescription drug coverage for elderly patients through...