Tainted tomatoes cleared; Bush still to blame?
Oh you can almost hear the Lou Dobbs indignation from here. Three months after blaming an outbreak of salmonella on the robust tomato, the Food and Drug Administration has apparently decided, according to the Associated Press, that it is OK for Americans to eat tomatoes again.
Not that the government still has any idea what started the outbreak -- the FDA allows as how it could have been those April and May tomatoes after all, it's just that they're no longer in the food chain. After costing the U.S. food industry an estimated $100 million in losses, the agency has now turned its attention to Mexico, sending a team of investigators to look into hot peppers in that country.
Investigators at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have been saying for weeks now that the culprit could be elsewhere in the nation's food chain.
"We continue to keep an open mind about the possible source of this outbreak," said Patricia Griffin, the branch chief of the CDC's enteric diseases epidemiology section. "It's very frustrating to all of us to be so far along in an investigation and to not have an answer."
CNN's Dobbs has been on a tear about it, suggesting that the FDA's incompetence should be grounds for George W. Bush's impeachment. On a recent show, the anchor of "Lou Dobbs Tonight" said:
"You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached. But for them to leave the Food and Drug Administration in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer -– that is alone to me sufficient reason to impeach a president who has made this agency possible and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer."
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Matt Rourke / Associated Press
The FDA announcement really cracks me up. The people who sell tomatoes and are losing money pressured them to put out a press release. This is really so transparent.
Even funnier is the new study proving too many empty carbs makes us fat. The FDA's (read Kraft, Nestle, Frito Lay, etc.) food pyramid is about ready for a new press release, too.
Sheeesh! Do they really think we're that dumb? Guess so.
Posted by: anonymous | July 17, 2008 at 03:31 PM
The LA Times has to include blame for President Bush in almost every emergency, even if it is tongue in cheek. President Bush allocated more than 10 times more money for research on hydrogen power than any other president, wanted to allow drilling in the continental shelf years ago, and has now dropped the price of oil single handedly by ending the Presidental prohabition against drilling off shore, yet the LA Times finds another way to smear him with the help of Lou Dobbs.
Posted by: George Douglas | July 17, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Oh, come on! I forgot Nabisco! Look at their packaging, fools! Eat it and be fat! 7-11 is in business. Slurpee, Sodas the size of a horse trough, hostess cakes, chips, candy bars, and hot dogs. Eat up America! Feed it and teach it to your kids. It's the American way. No wonder the only place you can find clothes to fit you is at Old Navy or Sams Club XXL.
Posted by: anonymous | July 17, 2008 at 07:28 PM
Smear King George!? How dare they! What an outrage! This is a job for Dobbs or George Douglas. George D. is really on the ball!
" And W has now dropped the price of oil single handedly by ending the Presidental prohabition against drilling off shore,"
Protect W from anyone with a brain.
Posted by: John Adams | July 20, 2008 at 08:53 AM