Webloggin » Tuesday News - The FDA, Cuba, Iran, Russia and More

The FDA is claiming that they do not have enough man power to check the food imports and that less than 1% of imported food is inspected. They are also claiming that 7 out of 13 food inspection labs will be shut down.

July 17 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have enough staff to protect Americans from tainted food imports, lawmakers and congressional investigators said.

The FDA inspects less than 1 percent of imported food and takes samples of only a fraction of those products, said Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of a House panel holding a food-safety hearing today in Washington. The FDA plans to close seven of 13 labs that inspect food as well as other imports, posing new dangers, he said.

I have a few things to say about this:

I find it absolutely absurd that we are closing FDA labs at this time since this is when we need to be scrutinizing everything that comes into this country. The role of the government is to provide National Security and they are falling short when they decrease security measures when they ought to be increasing security measures.

If it is a matter of money, then those fat porky bastards in Washington should take a pay cut, stop giving welfare to illegal aliens, and do what is necessary to protect our nation.

Also in the news:

The United States wants to talk to Iran about making a more peaceful Iraq. The AP reports:

“We think that given the situation in Iraq and given Iran’s continued behavior that is leading to further instability in Iraq, that it would be appropriate to have another face-to-face meeting to directly convey to the Iranian authorities that if they wish to see a more stable, secure, peaceful Iraq, which is what they have said they would like to see, that they need to change their behavior,” spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

“They need to stop supporting sectarian militias that are exacerbating sectarian tensions, they need to stop supporting EFP networks that pose a direct threat to our troops,” he said, referring to Explosively Formed Penetrators, devices crafted to penetrate armored vehicles that Washington claims are being sent to insurgents by Iran.

Does any person with their heads out of their asses really think that Iran wants a peaceful Iraq and a successful U.S. mission? Ladies and Gentleman, when are we going to stop trying to negotiate with terrorist supporting nations? In essence, countries such as Iran are terrorist organizations. They support terrorists financially, militarily, and they allow them to train within their countries for the sole purpose of the Wests demise.

What the United States government needs to do is grow a backbone, hand the information over to the Pentagon and let the them tackle this very grave situation with a swift, tough, hard lined response. You can not negotiate with terrorists or the nutball factor. We have played this same tired movie over and over again with the same tired result; we have only placated terrorists and not helped ourselves.

MOSCOW - Russia on Tuesday vowed a “targeted and appropriate” response to Britain’s expulsion of four diplomats in a mounting confrontation over the probe into the radiation poisoning death of a former KGB officer.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko criticized Britain for demanding the extradition of the key suspect in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, emphasizing that Russia’s constitituion[sic] forbids it, and urged other European nations not to gang up against the Kremlin.

The dispute could derail recent American efforts to ease increasing tension between Russia and the West, and holds implications for crucial issues like energy security and the nuclear standoff with Iran.

No big surprise here. The Russian government has been doing all they can to go back to the days of being ruthless Communist leaders. The United States is essentially in a new Cold War and Putin has been a thorn in the United States side from the get go. Their stance against the Brits request and everything else seems to be par for the course.

Get those missile defense systems online because Russia is no friend to the West.

Afghanistan has record opium production.

Perhaps it would make sense to bomb the Poppy fields. Without the fields they can not make record sales.

On the Cuban front:

Cuba is criticizing the United States government for not getting Visas out faster.

HAVANA - Cuba chided the United States on Tuesday for being too slow to issue visas to Cubans wanting off the island.

The Foreign Relations Ministry indicated the dearth of visas for Cubans could be part of what it sees as President Bush’s efforts to destabilize the communist government and warned it could lead to a spike in illegal immigration.

Under a 1994 agreement, Washington uses a lottery system to grant up to 20,000 Cubans permission to emigrate to America each fiscal year ending Sept. 30. But Cuba’s government said Tuesday that through June 30, only 10,724 Cubans had been granted visas — just 53.6 percent of the annual minimum.

I love the fact that in 1994 we made an agreement with Fidel. I have an idea; those who want to come to America for a better life, please take a photo copy of our constitution and tell the Castro brothers that this is what you want.

As for the Cuban government, they can go take a powder. Until we can assess the current situation with regard to illegals and terrorists, we need to shut our borders down not keep them open.