Congressional backbone

In the ongoing story of the recall of 143 million pounds of beef originating from the Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse, it now appears that the meat from sick cows did enter the nation’s food supply. Brought before a congressional committee, the CEO of Westland/Hallmark has admitted that sick cows had indeed entered the food supply, contradicting prepared written testimony he had offered the panel. It’s amazing what the threat of a perjury prosecution can elicit. When presented with a video of exactly what was happening at his slaughterhouse, the clearly flummoxed Steve Mendell had to retract his written testimony. While Congress can clearly scare a beleaguered company president into telling the truth, it has yet to develop the spine to face down Mr. Bush and his illegal invasion/occupation of Iraq. Cowed by the fear of fear, our representatives have spent the past 14 months enabling the president’s destructive policies.

ne of many cases in point: this week, the House of Representatives failed to override a presidential veto of the Intelligence Authorization Bill of 2008, falling short by 51 votes. The president objects to the section of the bill which forces CIA or other intelligence agents to only use interrogation techniques listed in the Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations. The 110th Congress, elected in large part on a surge of voter disgust with the Iraq War, has so far failed to curtail the Bush administration’s disastrous policies, continuing to fund a war now slated to cost 3 trillion dollars, a price tag that necessarily includes taking care of the many wounded soldiers returning maimed in body and soul.

And so the illegality continues…

Of meat and mortgages

The current recall of 143 million pounds of meat has caused an uproar over the abuse of sick animals at a California slaughterhouse. Local and national news outlets have shown videos of cows unable to walk being kicked, pushed and otherwise coerced to move through the slaughter process. The abuse of sickly animals is naturally repugnant, but amidst all of the outrage we hear not a word about the cruelty inherent in the factory feedlot process, where cows are crammed together and fed an unnatural diet of corn, hormones and antibiotics, followed by a torturous end on a slaughterhouse killing floor. Whether the animal is sick or not, the life of the factory cow is one of continuous abuse.

Of course the fact that the animals in the video were “downer cows” brings up the issue of food safety and the ability and/or willingness of our regulatory agencies to police the industries before an emergency occurs. Of the beef under recall, 40 % has been consumed, and 30% has not yet been found. A February 21st report on NPR notes that much of the beef in question was shipped to wholesalers, who then bundled it with other meat to produce sausages, burritos, meatballs, and other meat byproducts. So far there have been no reports of illness, but prion diseases like mad cow disease can take months or years to show up. The Agriculture Secretary noted that he did not think any increase in inspection regimens was necessary at this point. But what can we expect from an administration so antithetical to regulation of industry.

This bundling reminds me of that other bundling fiasco, also aided by regulatory indifference – wherein subprime mortgages were bundled with prime ones into mortgage backed securities, now causing so much havoc with the US economy. The downer cows of the mortgage world cannot be traced back to their origins either, and just like mad cow disease, their full impact could take years to ascertain. I don’t expect the gang in Washington to start regulating the very same financial services conglomerates they so abundantly gifted with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Let’s hope that the next administration takes protection of the public more seriously than phony color coded alerts that divert our attention from real safety issues.