Don't Let Dubya Play With Our Food

I’m not sure I should ask what it says about Bushco’s murderous incompetence that many of us shrug our shoulders when we hear that both the FDA and EPA are dangerously under funded when it comes to enforcing laws to protect our food, drugs and the environment (as noted here). And, as noted here, the problem has the potential to grow much worse.

This story pertains to the known contamination at a Georgia peanut butter plant and a California spinach farm that led to the deaths of three people and the sickening of hundreds of others, all due to the cause cited previously.

And what did the Repugs do in response when they ran the now-mercifully-over 109th Congress?

Why, they passed some monstrosity called H.R. 4167, "The National Uniformity for Food Act of 2005" (and of course, Dubya signed it into law – more information available here). This bill effectively removed state and local governmental authority to regulate the food supply, no doubt getting that pesky “big government” off the backs of caring, concerned corporate citizens like ConAgra who, as noted here, donate overwhelmingly to the Republican Party over the Democrats.

Update 4/24/07: Please ignore my comment in response to the anonymous commenter, who is absolutely right - I misread the summary of actions on the govtrack link. Totally my bad on that one...

(By the way, I dare a Republican to tell me again that their party advocates states rights. I absolutely dare them.)I still do, just not pertaining to this issue.

Oh, and while a Repug sympathizer is trying to do what I just asked,Also, I’d like to ask also whether (any Repug sympathizer) or not you/he/she/them/it intends to hold Tommy Thompson’s feet to the fire, so to speak, as he is running for your party’s presidential nomination; it seems, according to this story, that though he is now part of a coalition trying to encourage spending more money on food inspection, he had a chance to advocate for that when he was health and human services secretary, but failed to do so, particularly concerning ephedra, a drug masquerading as a food supplement.