White House Pressured on Beef Safeguards

[underpants]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20031229/bs_nm/madcow_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration faced growing pressure on Monday to roll out stricter regulations to prevent another case of mad cow disease as officials tried to convince Japan and other major buyers to resume buying billions of dollars worth of U.S. beef.

White House officials were worried about both the political fallout and the economic impact the disease could have at a time when the U.S. economy is showing signs of strength.

You gotta love them actually showing what their real concern is

The White House was looking at various regulatory options, but was wary of taking a dramatic step too quickly, an administration official said.

U.S. trade officials met with their Japanese counterparts on Monday in Tokyo, but failed to persuade them that U.S. safeguards were adequate and shipments should resume. Japan bought more than $1 billion worth of U.S. beef, veal and variety meats last year.

"I replied that safety issues come first," Japanese Agriculture Ministry official Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters.

Well somebody got it right

The U.S. trade team was expected to meet with other Asian buyers to emphasize the U.S. Agriculture Department's initial research showing the infected Holstein cow was imported from Canada. Canada reported its first case of mad cow disease in late May, in a Black Angus cow from Alberta.

:shrug: Are they trying to pass it off in a “Oh it’s not our fault it was the Canadians’ fault” kind of way? What difference does it make where it came from?

Canadian officials said there is no definitive evidence that the infected U.S. cow came from Canada.

REGULATORY CHANGES?
Uh-oh their “base” HATES regulation-another sticky little situation for W&Co. just like the steel tariffs.

[displacedtexan]

1. I miss Nixon's Reel-to-reel tape system!

Wouldn't you just love to hear the 'unvarnished' discussion of where the pResident's beef came from, the steps it took to verify its safety, and future presidential beef procurement protocol?

[underpants]

2. With W all you'd hear is bubble wrap popping

http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html

[TacticalPeek]

5. On the other hand,

would we really notice any difference with a sponge-brain Bush?

[judy]

3. This is all left wing propaganda by the liberal press, Underpants...

After all, Smirkolini as we have heard many times over the weekend, is eating cheeseburgers.
So what's all the fuss about ?

[underpants]

4. I must have missed that

Did they really report that he was eating cheeseburgers? He is proud that he doesn't read any newspapers so maybe he didn't know about it because the people who tell him everything he needs to know didn't tell him.

[tom_paine]

6. Of course the fix, as usual is in. Imperial Beef is highly screened, no

doubt.

The Emperor* doesn't eat what the pukesome commoners do, plus he has legions of food sniffers and tasters, just like any other Third-World Tyrant.

So he is undoubtedly safe.

[cliss]

7. Yup. They know where their bread & butter comes from.

Actually, scratch the butter. Could be questionable.

My take on this is: The Bush Administration has spent a lot of money to get us really worried about terrorists and surprise attacks and so on.

We DON'T NEED terrorists. We're doing the job all by ourselves, allowing people to die needlessly for the sake of corporate profits, and compromising the health of people. We would never allow terrorists to do what we do to each other.