Meanwhile, in Joe LIEberman's Connecticut....

[Nikki Stone1]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/18-13

"...But to fully appreciate the license these industries have been given to run roughshod over the public interest, you have to take a trip to Connecticut. The state is a longtime home base for the insurance industry, with 72 companies and the nation's highest concentration of insurance jobs. It also has more than its share of drug and biotech companies. What luck then, for these industries, that the man who appears to hold a swing vote on health care reform is their own Senator Joe Lieberman, who has enjoyed enormous financial support from the insurance companies and plenty from Big Pharma, as well.

While Connecticut may be loyal to its health care companies, the opposite clearly is not true. This week the giant drugmaker Pfizer sent shock waves across the state when it announced its decision to shut down its huge research facility in New London. While some workers will be transferred to a facility in a nearby town, the closure represents a devastating loss of industry and tax base for this working-class coastal city. It also marks the disintegration of an elaborate publically financed urban development scheme that began a decade ago.

"They stole our home for economic development. It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away."

After the closure of a naval installation in the mid-1990s left New London in desperate economic straits, Pfizer swept in with promises to revitalize the city with a state-of-the-art R & D headquarters. To serve the company's interests, the state government decided to use eminent domain to seize private property, uproot residents, and destroy a neighborhood in order to revamp the surrounding area. The state won the right to do so in a landmark Supreme Court case, Kelo vs. New London. But it built nothing on the vacated land. And now Pfizer, as the Wall Street Journal put it, has decided to "bug out." One local resident told the New York Times, "They stole our home for economic development. It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away.

"...According to the Times, Pfizer said it was pulling out of New London and consolidating its operations as a "cost-cutting measure." As the AP reported last month, Pfizer has managed to boost its profits this year despite the recession by "slashing costs on everything from manufacturing and marketing to research and development" and cutting 6,500 jobs. ...."

(Read more at the link)

[wtbymark]

1. Karma Joe, Karma

maybe you gave em one too many bj's

[Nikki Stone1]

3. When LIEberman talks about filibustering remember those people whose homes were swindled

from them by Pfizer.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

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[Lebam in LA]

4. K&R

:kick:

[Nikki Stone1]

14. Thanks. The whole article is worth the read.

...

[Sparkly]

5. Wow. New London is my hometown.

I haven't been keeping track, but I can't imagine a "nearby town" being any cheaper for Pfizer than New London is. Sounds like more "exportation" to me.

I do remember the Kelo vs. New London case -- what an outrage all the way around!!

[Jennicut]

6. They are moving the jobs to Groton. It makes no sense at all.

I remember the New London case too. Really unbelievable as a CT resident to watch that happen.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. What is Groton like?

I am a West Coaster.

[Jennicut]

9. Groton is right next to New London! How much does one save by moving right next door?

Very odd. I am guessing they took off more then they could chew, after seizing people's land and did nothing with it. Now they are moving to the town next door. They messed this one up bad.

[Nikki Stone1]

10. They changed a nationwide precedent on eminent domain for nothing

Unbelievable.

[RagAss]

11. Like a garage with clouds.

[Nikki Stone1]

12. No kidding!

Why would Pfizer want to move there?

[Nikki Stone1]

7. It's amazing that they are allowed to get away with this.

A Supreme Court decision, changing property rights for all Americans, was pushed through for Pfizer and there's no way to rein them in at all.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[UTUSN]

15. K&R #9 n/t