We start with 100% beef jerky, and SEAR your contact information into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER. MEAT CARDS do not fit in a Rolodex, because their deliciousness CANNOT BE CONTAINED in a Rolodex.

Open Thread below...

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On Race To The White House with David Gregory Rachel Maddow takes the rest of the talking heads to task for deeming Barack Obama's comments at a San Francisco fundraiser damaging without tackling the truth behind the substance of what he said.

To a certain extent, I think we’re really commenting on the caricature of his comments. If you look at what he said, what he said was not that these values of small town America, and rural America and working class white America are the product of economic hardships. He’s saying that those folks in America do not believe they’re going to get any economic help from Washington so they don’t’ vote their economic interests when they vote, they instead vote these other things. It’s actually…we’re not actually taking this on as a political issue and debating whether or not that’s right or wrong. We’re debating the damage of the caricature of his comments. It’s this…become this meta-narrative about how he’s been described rather than actually taking on the meat of what he argued.

Cliff Schecter and Other Opinionated Talents: Apparently, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama agree about the polarizing effect of the standard GOP tactic of emphasizing cultural controversy over meat and potatos issues.

Beggars Can Be Choosers: Whatever happened to protest music?

All Hat No Cattle: This looks a good place for gunslingers Hillary & Mitt

The Reality-Based Community: Your tax dollars at work

The Carpetbagger Report: Steve Benen's closely guarded secret exposed

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: O Hell Nawl!, Cannibal Planet, Blazing Indiscretions, Beautiful Horizons

On a personal note, I want to congratulate my wife, Candy, and my brother Sean, on the release of their book!

Roger Ailes: Obammunists

Intel Dump: 3 to 5 round bursts

agitprop: Conservapedia page of the day

Common Cause Blog: On public financing in the presidential race

The Pump Handle: The wrong approach to meat

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Top 100 Economics Blogs, No Capital, PurpleMinded, Unspam Technologies

I swear to you I thought this was an article written by The Onion.

CFA-CommonSense:

Offered without comment. What is there possibly to say?

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.[..]

The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it.

Nice to see that the Feds' biggest concern is not the citizens, but false positives hurting the meat industry.

Reuters:

Pet food tainted with the chemical melamine was found in feed rations on a California hog farm and may show up on other U.S. farms, state and federal officials said on Friday.[..]

California officials said Diamond Pet Foods sold pet food to American Hog Co., which used it as a feed ingredient. Tests found melamine in feed at the farm and in urine from the hogs.

Richard Breitmeyer, the state veterinarian, said it was "not uncommon" for pet food makers to sell scrap material to feedlots.

"In the course of our investigation, we may find similar situations in other parts of the country," said Stephen Sundlof, head of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, referring to sales of scrap pet food.[..]

State and U.S. Agriculture Department officials said there was no evidence that pork products from the farm entered the food supply but that they were still tracking the whereabouts of all the hogs produced there since April 3. Some 126 of the hogs are known to have been slaughtered for meat

This story just gets worse and worse.

The hits just keep on coming on this story. There's a chance that this gluten will show up in human food now. It's telling that the FDA has yet to release the name of the US distributor of this gluten.

David Goldstein has more:

Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a "food grade" additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.

"Yes, it is food grade," Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query. Del Monte issued a voluntary recall Saturday for several products under the Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol' Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands.

Wheat gluten is sold in both "food grade" and "feed grade" varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only "food grade" gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption. Published reports have thus far focused on tainted pet food, but if the gluten in question entered the human food supply through a major food products supplier and processor, it could potentially contaminate thousands of products and hundreds of millions of units nationwide.

Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine said the FDA is not aware of any contaminated gluten that went into human food but said he could not confirm this "with 100 percent certainty." Wheat gluten is a common food additive used as a thickener, dough conditioner, and meat substitute. It is widely used as an additive in commercial bakery items and special purpose flours.

The FDA announced today that it has traced the contaminated wheat gluten to a single processor, Xuzhou Anying Biological Technology of Peixian, China, but has not released the name of the U.S. distributor who supplied the product to Del Monte, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina, and Hills Nutritional. In all, more than 70 brands and over 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food are now part of this massive recall, as well as at least one brand of dry cat food.

In related news, pet status as property may shift after recall (h/t Ilena Rose)

Continue reading »

It's only 356 days until the Iowa Caucus. Just saying.

Democracy NOW!: Bill Moyers: "The greatest challenge to the plantation mentality of the media giants is the innovation and expression made possible by the digital revolution." (H/t Largest Minority). And Shakes has a great vid from Geena Davis on gender and media.

Blah3: The final (?) smackdown for Dinesh D'Souza, but probably not for our favorite linebacker.

Orcinus: Rush and the new racism

HOLY CRAP: Holier than thou Senator Sam Brownback decides the day after announcing that he'll pull his money out of Sudan, a country engaging in genocide—a nation, by the way, that harbored Osama bin Laden! And we won't even mention that thing about the Virgin Mary appearing as an ice pop in a meat freezer in Morton, Texas.

Mike returns to the Round Up tomorrow. Finnsagain AT aol DOT com.

Blue Gal

"The Dodgeville School District, accused in December of launching an "attack on Christmas," has counterattacked the accusers. In a sharply worded letter from its lawyer, the district this week demanded a widely distributed apology, a retraction of claims the school's policies are "hostile" to the U.S. Constitution, and $23,899.48 in damages from the Liberty Counsel...read on"

The whole "Silent Night" claim was bogus. Liberty Counsel while acknowledging the misunderstanding-fund-raised and refused to pay...

"But why let the facts get in the way of a good raw meat outrage for right-wingers? Liberty Counsel is now blaming the school district for not being "more communicative" when the Florida minions expressed their original outrage, as if a school district in a small Wisconsin community ought to jump through hoops for a fringe outfit from Florida that specializes in trashing everything from gay marriage to wishing folks "happy holidays." It needs to be noted that coupled with its outright lies about Ridgeway, Liberty Counsel was busy soliciting donations so it could carry on its crusade....read on" (hat tip Shar)

What say you Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson? Remember-O'Reilly used this story against David Letterman and then complained that Letterman never watches his show. Maybe that's because your facts are so screwed up. Does anyone know if Gibson used this story?

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