USDA pretends beef supply is safe

Background information —
Innoculating yourself from the lies about Mad Cow Disease

Excerpt:  ... current rules forbid the state or counties from telling consumers exactly where recalled meat was sold.

California Department of Health Services officials have begun notifying counties that meat from a recalled lot of 10,410 pounds of Washington state beef had been tracked to retailers, but also warned counties not to identify which stores or restaurants purchased it.

Who's protected by such a rule? And who's not?   =H&HH=

Banning sales of downer meat represents a change in policy
Identical measure was blocked in Congress just weeks ago

Excerpt:  The general found that Master Sgt. Lisa Marie Girman, 35, of Hazelton, Pa., knocked a prisoner to the ground, "repeatedly kicking him in the groin, abdomen, and head, and encouraging her subordinate soldiers to do the same," Harris said.

Girman received an "other-than-honorable conditions" discharge.

Why is this article in the cop section?

Because when Master Sgt. Girman isn't on active duty, she's a Pennsylvania State Trooper.   =H&HH=

Background information —
U.S. war crimes

Uh, what happens to the money found in the car of this person not charged with any crime?   =John C.=

... Police said the subject was released after an investigation.

It's like a study proving aspirin reduces headache pain. The research only proves the obvious. =H&HH=

From the archives, Dec. 28, 2003 —
Cops charged with stickup

Excerpt:  Former Police Officer T.J. Nowicki will be in Superior Court next week to fight a city appeal of an arbitrator’s decision to reinstate him to the force.

Nowicki was fired last December after it became clear he had taken illegal gambling wagers for convicted members of the Mello Organization, a far-reaching crime ring which specialized in gambling, extortion, witness intimidation, drug dealing and other racketeering activities.

Having been involved in assorted activisms for many years, I shake my head 'yes.' I've seen it half a dozen times: The new guy, the guy nobody really knows all that well, who repeatedly suggests actions that seem over the top ...

I vividly remember one guy who showed up at two planning meetings for protests against the 1991 Iraq massacre, and started offering ideas that were several notches beyond anyone else's. An old-timer from the 60s heard him out, and then said very plainly, "That's an interesting idea, officer." The cop went pale, excused himself, and was never seen at our meetings again ... =H&HH=

Excerpt:  Meet the fattest fat cats of the American labor movement, the bosses of the International Longshoremen's Association.

John Bowers, president since 1987, elected officer since 1956 and dockworker in New York Harbor since the 1940s, collects $390,825 a year on the international's payroll, and many members think that's his total compensation.

It's not.

The 79-year-old Bowers pulls down $160,296 more as head of the union's Atlantic Coast District. Grand tally: $551,121. His pay leaped 10% from $502,957 in 2001.

Neil's good with his own money, bad with other people's.   =Sander D.=

Excerpt:  In September, the U.S. General Accounting Office called the $7 billion program "a very risky endeavor" with high costs and details that had yet to be worked out.

Another way to strangle the economy. =H&HH=

Bystander killed as cops fire at moving car

Excerpt:  "There are occasions when officers are entitled to shoot at someone in a moving vehicle," the Police Chief said, adding that some of the bullets hit the car.

Excerpt:  Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, now being grilled by American investigators, has reportedly warned US authorities that he will expose Washington’s “political games” and its behind-the-scene role in the occupation of Kuwait.

“Saddam threatened that if they continue to pressure him he will reveal startling facts — about America’s political games with his country — that would shock the whole world,” Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted a high-level European source as saying.

Background information —
Saddam Hussein's brutal reign made in U.S.A.

This year's official vice-presidential Christmas card included this deeply disturbing quote from Ben Franklin: "And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Empire?? As in, colonizing, conquering, making-people-bend-to-your-will empire? Umm, wasn't the guy whose birth we're allegedly celebrating AGAINST that sort of thing??

=Madeline Zane=

The twelve days of Xmas: One Google too many by The Blue Rajah, Unknown News

Excerpt:  There are 5,000 Iraqi detainees the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) admits to holding, a number most suspect is a gross underestimate. Many of them are imprisoned indefinitely and without charges.

Excerpt:  American Christian missionaries have declared a "war for souls" in Iraq, telling supporters that the formal end of the US-led occupation next June will close an historic "window of opportunity".

Organizing in secrecy, and emphasising their humanitarian aid work, Christian groups are pouring into the country, which is 97 per cent Muslim, bearing Arabic Bibles, videos and religious tracts designed to "save" Muslims from their "false" religion.

New EPA chief Mike Leavitt refuses to release documents relating to his confirmation to that office. While potentially illegal, this refusal comes as no big surprise. Not only did the last EPA chief refuse to release many EPA documents, but Leavitt, the new EPA chief, was sued while serving as Governor of Utah for deleting e-mails that should have been preserved and made public under the Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act.

=Madeline Zane=

Background information —
Innoculating yourself from
the lies about Mad Cow Disease

Excerpt:  According to workers, meat at the plant is routinely contaminated with cattle feces because workers on the processing line are not give enough time to wash their hands. Under pressure from aggressive plant managers, meat that falls on the floor, which is often littered with meat byproducts and entrails, is often immediately placed back on the line without being cleansed. Cutting tools and conveyor belts, workers tell CounterPunch, are also regularly coated with pus from abscesses and tumors that haven't been properly cut out of the meat. Meat cutters at the plant also told me that often cows are not rendered unconscious before being sent down the line. Instead, workers say they often hear cows frantically mooing as they are skinned and dismembered alive.

Excerpt:  Rich Gibson of San Diego State University, April 2001, in a piece entitled, "The Fascist Origins of the SAT Test", points out that Carl C. Brigham created the SAT test by making a "few inconsequential" changes to the Army I.Q. test. The military industrial complex lives. This is the same Brigham, who in his book, A Study of American Intelligence concluded that "race mixture," would alter the gene pool downward while making society "dumber and weaker".

Excerpt:  For instance, eBay tracks searched words, which in turn are indicative of what buyers are looking for. Word searches for all of 2002 reflect a society still spending freely. Among the top 10 searches for the year were BMW, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Coach.

Similar terms dominated the top 10 into early 2003, until August, when there was a sudden shift. The Iraq war was dragging on. Companies were still cutting jobs and keeping raises flat. The blackout hit. California was in political chaos with its recall vote. And just then the luxury names dropped off eBay's top 10, replaced by more mundane words such as Ford, Chevy and diesel.

In September, 'salvage' made it to the top 10.