While we were fighting wars, here is what you should really be afraid of.

[Gregorian]

Someone come up with a better subject line. I don't scare easily, but this is truly a very big issue for us all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/health/policy/21food.html?_r=2

Not only from the standpoint of energy it takes to do so, we are shipping in the majority of our food and drugs from places outside our borders. Your aspirin may not be safe. Nor your vegetables and fruits. I recently had dental surgery whereupon I suffered a major headache for three days following. Was it due to drugs that may have been contaminated, or just normal for the procedure? I will never know. And the FDA is being cut while the military budget is sky high. This is a priority that far surpasses any war budget. Our biggest threat is not terrorism, but how we sustain our lives.

"A decade ago, the F.D.A. was responsible for policing six million shipments annually coming through 300 ports. This year, the number of shipments is expected to grow to 24 million, the report noted. Nearly two-thirds of all fruits and vegetables and three-quarters of all seafood consumed in the United States now come from outside the country. "

"The situation with drugs and medical devices is even more daunting. More than 80 percent of the active ingredients for drugs sold in the United States are made abroad — mostly in plants in China and India that are rarely inspected by the F.D.A. Half of all medical devices sold in the United States are made abroad. Many kinds of antibiotics, steroids, cancer medicines and even aspirin are no longer produced in the United States, or in many cases anywhere in the Western world. "

"Many popular over-the-counter medicines and vitamins are made almost entirely in Chinese plants that the F.D.A. has never inspected. Domestic suppliers often maintain that they test their imported ingredients rigorously, but such sampling is akin to testing a bucket of soil from a mountain, then declaring the entire mountain free of pollutants.

And once these products reach American shores, almost nothing is done. The F.D.A. has a few hundred inspectors — not even enough for every port. The most they know about the vast majority of imports is a brief description on a computer screen. They crack open a tiny fraction of all shipments and send to the agency’s laboratories an even tinier fraction. Less than one pound in a million of imported seafood even gets a visual inspection. "

[hifiguy]

1. This will not change

for it serves the wishes and wallets of the Corporate Overlords.

[Gregorian]

2. It shows where our priorities are as a country.

We are the captains of this ship. And we've given control over to some who want to go in their own direction. Of course we all know this now. But it's a shift in how we want to live. What kind of country we want. 200 years is a blink of an eye. Maybe we're about to mature and aim the country in a direction of higher quality living.

I guess the key is to kick the legs out from under the corporate overlords. How we do that is the key. Shifting the system is going to take some real effort.

[bvar22]

5. "We are the captains of this ship" ?

If WE were "the Captains of the Ship",
we would have a Public Option, if not Medicare for ALL,

we would NOT have "Bailed Out Wall Street,

we would have a massive JOBS program,

the RICH would NOT have gotten their tax break,

we would be OUT of Iraq and Afghanistan,

nobody in DC would dare to even mention MORE "Free Trade"

the Oil Corporations would NOT have subsidies,

....and more, but you get the picture.


But I agree in principle.
There IS a solution.
The Working Class & The Poor in Central/South America have shown US the way for real "change".
The Populist Reforms sweeping across Latin America are nothing short of (near) bloodless revolutions,
but you won't hear about it from our Media, or either Political party.
They are invested in protecting the Status Quo.

Look SOUTH for The Solution.

VIVA Democracy!!
I "hope" we get some here soon.

"The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that nation states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales

FDR said much the same thing in 1944 with his Economic Bill of Rights.

[Gregorian]

7. Very true.

Good comments. I think we're due for some shifting of priorities in this country. But only when we wake from our drunken stupor, and realize that we really are the captains of this ship. We gave control over to the pirates.

What scares me is that we're up against a ticking clock in more ways than one.

[CarmanK]

3. FTZ's are another problem-Foreign Free Trade Zones!!

In addition to the assault on our manufacturing from overseas, there is a new wave of attempts to expand across american FREE TRADE ZONES which compete with our redevelopment of american jobs. The expansions include, ownership of companies in free trade zones being compromised by govt involvement-Chinese govt owns 50% of companies expanding on US soil. Enlarging the amount of land being used to build warehouses for goods, plants for manufacturing, housing for foreign nationals working in the zones. This is not good for US taxpayers. Will these zones be under the protections of the WTO. Will the courts be on international levels and not US courts. The idea of SHARIA law doesn't seem so far fetched, if these free trade zones are governed by "international law". According to Ron Paul there are 257 of these zones and the states are so desperate they are vying for more. We need to pay attention to this.

[indepat]

4. Gutting funding for the FDA to better fund perpetual wars makes Americans

so much safer 'cause everyone knows people don't really have to eat. :patriot:

[postulater]

6. Thanks, I just put that into my weekly office newsletter.