Feeling Safer Yet?

Bu$hCo can't protect us from major terrorist attacks. He can't protect us from inchoherence. & now, her can't protect us from food contamination. The tainted pet food scare, which has swelled into a serious crisis for animal lovers, now has spread to humans.

California officials have revealed that the contamination got into the food chain: About 45 state residents ate pork from hogs that consumed animal feed laced with melamine from China. Melamine is used to make plastics, but it also artificially boosts the protein level—and thus the price—of the glutens that go into food.



It was already fatal for some pets: 17 cats and dogs are confirmed dead, more have likely died without being reported, thousands have suffered kidney problems, and 57 brands of cat food and 83 of dog food have been recalled. On top of that, roughly 6,000 hogs will be destroyed because they ate tainted feed.

Bu$hCo has claimed that his No. 1 priority is protecting America. If that's the case, why did he do this?

The federal agency that's been front and center in warning the public about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food safety inspections it did three years ago.



The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls.



"We have a food safety crisis on the horizon," said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.



Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press.



That's not all that's dropping at the FDA in terms of food safety. The analysis also shows:



-There are 12 percent fewer FDA employees in field offices who concentrate on food issues.



- Safety tests for U.S.-produced food have dropped nearly 75 percent, from 9,748 in 2003 to 2,455 last year, according to the agency's own statistics.



- After the Sept. 11 attacks, the FDA, at the urging of Congress, increased the number of food inspectors and inspections amid fears that the nation's food system was vulnerable to terrorists. Inspectors and inspections spiked in 2003, but now both have fallen enough to erase the gains.

My emphasis.

So, ReThugs, are you feeling safer yet? Or are you just feeling the freedom of less regulation?

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