Bad Deeds for 1-29-2009

Peanut Plant Knew Product was Tainted with Salmonella; Took No Action – The maker of peanut butter linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella shipped tainted product it knew had tested positive for the bacteria, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The FDA report said the Peanut Corporation of America’s own testing program found strains of salmonella 12 times in 2007 and 2008 at its Blakely, Georgia, plant. The problem does not appear to have been resolved. According to the inspection report, posted on the FDA’s Web site, the “firm’s own internal microbiological testing” found salmonella in peanut paste, peanut butter, peanut meal, peanut granules and oil-roasted, salted peanuts.

However, it added, “After the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was shipped.” That’s not the way it ought to have been handled, according to one expert. “They were lab shopping,” said Tommy Irvin, Georgia’s agriculture commissioner. “They were trying to find a way to clear their product, so they can ship their product out,” he told CNN.

[This is what happens when government’s moral responsibility to protect its citizens is left to the free market – death and no accountability to we the people.]

 

Halliburton Firm Responsible for 231 Electrical Shocks of Troops in Iraq in Two Years – U.S. troops in Iraq suffered electrical shocks about every three days in a two-year period — or 231 incidents in all, from a single company, the former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, according to an internal Defense Contract Management Agency report. Texas-based military contractor KBR Inc. failed to properly ground and bond its electrical systems. The report comes just a day after Halliburton was fined more than $500 million for bribery in Nigeria.

[Profiteering puts profit above citizen safety.]

 

Bill O’Reilly Thinks He’s Smarter Than Actress; Then He Proves Himself to be Dumber – BillO was obviously still smarting last week after Jessica Alba called him an a-hole. So he followed up on his Jan. 21 show by calling her a “pinhead” and painting her as just another one of those airheaded Hollywood elites. His reasoning? Well, when Alba was again cornered by one of Fox’s ambush-squad camera crews, she turned the tables by getting out her camera and asking questions of her inquisitor. When he refused to answer because he’s a “journalist” (note: this is a fake excuse) she asked, “Why not? Be neutral. Be Sweden about it.”

O’Reilly: “Be Sweden about it? Ah, that’s Switzerland, Jessica. Sweden is a very nice country but Switzerland is the land of neutrality.”

Ah, that’s also Sweden, BillO.

As Alba put it at her MySpace page:

I want to clear some things up that have been bothering me lately. I find it depressing that in the midst of perhaps the most salient time in our country’s history, individuals are taking it upon themselves to encourage negativity and stupidity. Last week, Mr. Bill O’Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people…it’s so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_during_World_War_II if you want to see what I was referring to. I appreciate the name calling and the accurate reporting. Keep it up!!

As MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett notes: “Although Switzerland is more frequently cited as an example of neutrality, Sweden did indeed follow a policy of neutrality during World War II. History point to Alba.” If Alba’s an airhead/pinhead, what does that make O’Reilly?

 

Bill O’Reilly Spreads Caroline Kennedy Rumors O’Reilly insists that he wouldn’t report on rumors about Caroline Kennedy, then he talks about rumors about Caroline Kennedy. What a hypocrite!

 

Bailout Recipients Urged to Send Money to Republican Candidates – Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call — including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG — were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

…Donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republican senatorial campaigns were needed, they argued…”If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs,” Marcus declared.

 

The Republicans Voted Against America Yesterday – The Republicans voted against their country yesterday. Their fellow citizens needed them to act on their behalf and instead they chose to abandon them. The American Society of Civil Engineers released a report today documenting the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. The GOP agenda of starving the public sector while spending lavishly on war and corporate welfare has allowed the nation’s bridges, roads, and levees to reach this sorry state. Here’s a little of what the report from the American Society of Civil Engineers had to say:

Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity. Our leaders are looking for solutions to the nation’s current economic crisis. Not only could investment in these critical foundations have a positive impact, but if done responsibly, it would also provide tangible benefits to the American people, such as reduced traffic congestion, improved air quality, clean and abundant water supplies and protection against natural hazards.

These Retro-Hooverites want to block President Barack Obama from undoing part of the damage thirty years of failed Republican economic policies has produced. If Republican economics worked we wouldn’t be in this predicament.

 

El Paso’s Resolution Asking for Honest, Open Debate Gets Nixed by the Feds – The drug-related violence in Juarez, Mexico has reached epic proportions, so in a show of solidarity with their sister city, the El Paso City Council voted in favor of a resolution that included “an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics.” Never mind that the resolution also called for clamping down on gun running and money laundering. It was the desire to debate, and perhaps focus less on incarceration for drug offenses that made the resolution go over like a lead Zeppelin. The Mayor vetoed it, and the council members started getting pressure from as high as the US Congress to shut up.

The standard means of the federal government to squash an open, honest debate about drugs and the laws which apply to them is to threaten state and local governments with withholding federal funds. El Paso was told, in no uncertain terms, that continuing with their call for debate jeopardized their slice of the bailout pie. The city council buckled and did not overturn the mayor’s veto of the resolution.

 

Bush’s Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Says Bush Okayed Torture to Outwit Defense Lawyers – John Yoo, the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, explained that the Bush administration’s torture programs, for which he co-authored the legal justifications, were initially designed to outwit crafty defense attorneys.

 

Cable News Has Republican Lawmakers On Air Twice as Much as Democratic Lawmakers In Stimulus Debate – On Sunday, conservatives began an all-out assault on President Obama’s economic recovery plan. The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week.

Regards,