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Saturday, February 7, 2009
What kind of moral midget sends out poisoned food?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“As far back as 2007, the South Georgia peanut plant linked to the salmonella outbreak shipped tainted products, even after tests showed contamination, according to inspection records released Friday.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials earlier had said that Peanut Corp. of America, after receiving a positive reading for salmonella, waited for a second test to clear peanut butter and peanut products before shipping them to customers.
But the agency amended its report Friday to say that the Blakely plant actually shipped some products before obtaining a second test. … Federal officials have identified the plant as the sole source of the national salmonella outbreak that has sickened some 575 people, including six Georgians, and has been linked to the eight deaths. More than 1,550 products have been recalled and the the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation.”
How does somebody knowingly, repeatedly do that? How do you NOT take the steps needed to correct such a serious problem? Various criminal investigations are reportedly under way in the case, and they ought to be. I have no idea what the law allows in such cases, but manslaughter charges come to mind. They ought to put the PCA decision-makers in the cell right next to that of Bernie Madoff.
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The hard political reality behind stimulus deal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lot of Republicans are upset at GOP senators Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins for negotiating a stimulus package with the White House and agreeing to provide the votes needed to get it passed. They are being attacked as RINOs — Republican in Name Only — and with far more vicious terms in the conservative blogs.
That anger and outrage helps to explain why the GOP is increasingly becoming a regional party, as even some of its leaders acknowledge. Much of the country just isn’t comfortable with the ideology that Republicans insist be obeyed.
Specter, for example, is up for re-election next year in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Obama, 55-44 percent, and went Democratic in ‘04 and ‘00 as well. Specter either compromises or he disappears, adding another D vote in the Senate.
In Maine, the home state of both Snowe and Collins, Obama’s victory margin was even larger than in Pennsylvania, 58-41 percent. But while Maine voters were embracing Obama, they re-elected the Republican Collins by an even larger margin, 61-39 percent, over a legitimate Democratic opponent.
Why? Because Collins had shown a willingness to buck her party. Without it, her career would be over.
To insist that Republicans everywhere have to toe the party line set by Republicans in states like Georgia and Alabama is to insist that the party get even smaller, and it’s already down to 41 votes in the Senate.
Along with Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Snowe, Collins and Spectre were the only GOP senators remaining north of North Carolina and east of Ohio. And Gregg is giving up his seat to serve as Commerce secretary because he’s up for re-election next year and knows that a Democrat is likely to win.
Those numbers and trends are impossible to deny. Yet still the GOP base fumes and rants, driving the party even further into irrelevance.
