Would You Like Sick Cow With Those Fries?

NYT:

A Humane Society video revealed the way workers beat or otherwise abused sick cows at the California company so they would appear well enough to be slaughtered. It is not for the faint of heart, but the gruesome evidence is here:

l

After viewing the footage and launching its own investigation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has shut down the California plant and assured consumers that these animals had not reached the market. That gives little comfort, however, given the department’s spotty record of identifying “non-ambulatory” cows. ...(more)

And then this (CBS News):

USDA Recalls 143M Pounds Of California Beef
California Slaughterhouse Already Under Investigation For Mistreating Cattle

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs. [...]

"Today marks the largest beef recall in U.S. history, and it involves the national school lunch program and other federal food and nutrition programs," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "This begs the question: how much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?"...(more)

H/T Jamie

What's News? July 14 2007

There's a good writeup in today's WaPo about how Republicans are starting to lose support for their continued occupation of Iraq now even in tradionally red-state small midwestern towns. That's not news to me, as I've witnessed the dwindling support for Bush here in Kansas for some time. This as Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that "Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave “any time they want.”" It's no wonder that each week brings us news of Republicans on the Hill who've had enough with their party's '"stay the course" right off the cliff' position. This time it's Senators John W. Warner (R-VA) and Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) who yesterday introduced a plan "that would require President Bush to present a strategy by October that began limiting the involvement of American forces." We'll see whether this is for real or just empty rhetoric to create the illusion of seperation by how they vote.

China, fresh from executing their former food safety chief "in an attempt to stem a crisis of consumer confidence in domestic produce" following tainted dog food and toothpaste scandals, has now turned the tables and has suspended some U.S. pork, chicken imports. To hell with actually addressing the consumer safety problem, China knows how to play the PR game hardcore.