Friday, February 06, 2004
Wow... I just found this article and had to post it:
Was diseased cow indeed a ‘downer?’
Cattle hand that killed animal disputes USDA's contention
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4198248/
Apparently the guy who killed the mad cow claims it was not sick... that even the new rules being adopted by the USDA won't protect aganist BSE/vCJD. He apparenly got fired for saying the same thing I did... that the goverment is lying to us about the safety of our food.
At that point, USDA agents started to stake out his house, including an armed agent.
Why does the USDA have armed agents?!? Their roll is to promote agricultrure... not law enforcement.
Monday, January 26, 2004
The Government is Lying to Us
One day
after a BSE or Mad-Cow was found in Washington State, Agricultural Secretary Ann
Veneman went on TV to reassure consumers that US Beef is safe:
BR> href="http://www.usda.gov/Newsroom/0433.03.html">PARTICIPANT: (inaudible) with
CNN. You said the health risks are minimal but what if someone did eat meat
contaminated with this. What are the health risks?
SECRETARY VENEMAN:
Well, again as Dr. Murano just indicated, there is virtually no chance that
the meat has been contaminated and the agents, that would be the high risk
agents in any animal have been removed from this particular animal so we
really don’t believe that there is—we believe that the risk of any kind of
human health effect is extremely low.
This is a lie. The truth is that what we know about Mad Cow
disease... BSE, or the human equivalent vCJD is precious little.
We know that it's related to prions, which are abnormally formed
proteins, that tend to collect in the brain tissue clogging up the blood flow
and causing 'rotting' spaces to form. We don't know how
contagious prions are... or if they really are the primary pathogens or
merely the effect of the disease. We also know that prions while found mostly in
the brain, spinal cord, and eyeballs... also are found in smaller amounts in the
blood and tissue.
We also don't know how widespread BSE or even vCJD. There could be
related diseases caused by BSE... we're not sure. We think that the gestation
period for vCJD is between 5 years and a couple decades.
While the US has taken some pre-cautions against BSE, most have
been much less than ones taken by the EU, Japan, and the UK. Most have not
been enforced or policed. We have no idea of the compliance of the
rules.
What we do know is that people don't seem to be dying from BSE
related illnesses in large numbers. We also haven't seen large numbers of cows
affected. This is what Secretary Veneman is basing her statement on. Large
numbers of people are not dying... so the risk to humans must be extremely
low.
I hope she's right... but to say that there is virtually no risk
to consumers.. is a lie.
I've lost faith that President Bush is a compassionate conservative, and I doubt that he'll listen to anyone but the conservative ideologues that have been his base of support.
If you really support equal right for gays and lesbians... Or rights for women... Or protecting the Environment... Or civil liberties... Or accessible health care... Or science free from politics... The only way to make your voice heard is to vote George Bush out of office.
With only 51.3% of the voting age public (http://www.fec.gov/pages/2000turnout/reg&to00.htm) actually voting, Bush was elected with only about 25% eligible people actually voting for him. It will not take a large number of people to swing the next election one way or another.
What can you do?
1. Make sure you're registered to vote. You can do by mail here: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/register.aspx.
2. Pick a candidate. None of the Democratic candidates support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Of the four leading candidates, Kerry, Dean, and Clark support Civil Unions. Edwards supports employment non-discrimination legislation for gays and lesbians. (Yes, it's still legal in America to fire or not hire someone just because they're gay.)
Howard Dean: http://www.deanforamerica.com/
Wesley Clark: http://www.clark04.com/
John Edwards : http://www.johnedwards2004.com/home.asp
John Kerry: http://www.johnkerry.com/
3. Vote. Because of a lawsuit, in Washington State this year the primaries will not count toward picking an nominee. Instead, the caucus system will be used.
They will be held at 10:00 am Saturday Feb 7. Go here for the location in King County: http://www.kcdems.org.
The one cool thing about the caucus is that you'll also have the opportunity to vote on the party platform.
4. Donate money. So far George Bush has raised more that $130 million dollars... More than all the democratic candidates combined. I haven't donated to any yet, but I plan to donate to the democratic nominee.
5. Convince someone you know to do 1-3 above.
