RIP Coco: It was a Clown Strike...And the Clowns Laid Down Their Tools.....Melamine in Our Food...Republicans Get ready to Rumble.....

Its Pandemonium!!....

Chris Matthews is so excited and nervous and thrilled to be there...at the Reagan library to host the clown show that will forever be known as the midpoint of the end for these fools; aka the Republican Debate on Thursday night. Matthews chirps on happily about how great of a tribute this debate will be to the legacy of the great Ronald Reagan...watch out Chris, you might actually have to climb up Nancy Reagan's ass, and its pretty tight in there! If I thought that Matthews could be a good moderator and really ask the hardball questions, I might buy that this is gonna be a good party, but Chris is just a little too impressed and happy and smiley....I don't trust it.
This beautiful wreck of a republican candidate field is surely a perfect tribute to the guy who brought us not only the launch of the neocon movement to dissolve the American Government and funnel all of the money available into the newly deregulated, large corporations, but the decimation of social services across the country at a time when we were entering into a catastrophic medical epidemic that HE was denying, even as his countrymen were dying at his feet.... and I personally watched people grow sick and die around me too. The numbers were astounding, and New York sank into a terrible state with homeless and sick people all over. No, Reagan was not a great President. I'm sorry, but he was an addled Alzheimer's victim who was run by the cabinet...Oh yeah, THEM!! The usual suspects!!

You know, I don't think that even Ronald Reagan would believe the shit that Bush/Cheney have gotten us into. I don't believe that Reagan could have ever imagined the American government doing so much damage to our constitution, rights, diplomatic standing, and environment....You'd have to be an idiot, brain-dead, or dead.....
That brings me to idiot-in-chief W, who vetoed the bill to put a limit on the war today, like we knew he would, saying that it would guarantee chaos.....and your point is? Thats different, like, how? Isn't it preferable to allow them their own chaos that will eventually form into their own order? Can't we allow them to try to heal themselves instead of insisting on "helping" until there is no them anymore. No matter how much we "help" them in ordering things in our imperial image, when we leave eventually (or never,) they will have some amount of chaos, forming into order again. How else will they right themselves after all that we've done to them?... its gonna take a long, long time...and its our fault. We have a responsibility to pour assistance into that country to help them rebuild and to finance social and medical programs, but not to stay as a military force, because its not working and it wont work...ever.
So, the clowns will line up on Thursday and hopefully get shot down. It could be a really good show if Matthews does his job. He is currently a little too giddy for my taste.
This is where Rudy starts unraveling and McCain implodes on TV, and Romny gets to try to explain it all away.
Why oh why cant we have ANY good commentators on AAR at this point? I could so use some sort of intelligent and snarky commentary. There is nothing...nothing at all...enough said...I have nothing left for that situation.

And in the same vein as deregulated big corporations, the deconstruction of our government, and the profit motive in this global economy....what the fuck is going on with our food supply? The melamine contamination controversy grows daily and its not just pet food, folks! Get this: I got worried about parrot food and the various chows and meats that I am feeding my way-too-many animals. I made some organic chicken and rice and veggie stew for the dogs and have been feeding them a kibble that seems O.K. for now...we'll see...but as this thing unfolds and it becomes clear that any farmer could feed livestock this cheaper feed with protein from china, then we all have to know that the stuff is in OUR food and most pet food...and FISH!! Its indirect exposure so how can it be traced?
So, doing my own research, I started to look around at different pet food companies and call some of them because I sometimes buy chew bones at the market or whatever, and I cant guarantee that all of the brands of snacks and food that I feed my animals is human grade, health food, and/or organic, not that any of those categories of food is let out of this unless and until the companies state where each of their ingredients come from.
Hartz features a disclaimer on their website that claims that they in no way have anything to do with the recalls, and that their wheat gluten is clear. But it doesn't address meats or rice or...what, if anything, they import from China. I called customer service and tried to get a straight answer about all of this....Well, the smoked pig's ears are actually from Brazil! There is no way to tease this all out.
What would a Brazilian farmer who grows pigs, and sells at least the ears to Hartz , feed their pigs? Probably the cheapest feed from China.
Well, from there I went to the big bag of chicken jerky from Costco that I just bought for my dogs. Where is it made?? China!!
What do they feed livestock in China? Melamine laced feed!
The Kaytee company, to its credit, uses American grown grains in their foods but there is some confusion in that Kaytee is also 8 in 1 (which makes the hedgehog chow we use here for Tumbleweed, and many bird snacks that I have used,) and though I was assured by Kaytee's web page and customer service that there was NO problem at all, I got an email today saying that the 8 in 1 chicken jerky was found to have salmonella in it...now that they're testing, you know, other problems are showing up.
Let me get this straight: You work with chicken that you are drying and smoking for pets to eat, and you don't spot test daily, every shift, for salmonella? It took a pet food crisis to get these companies testing? My god, what else will they find?

The really big issue here is not the pets, though they are very important to me, but the human food confusion and the F.D.A.'s insistence that this stuff is not dangerous, even though it causes sickness and death in dogs, cats, and mice. And what of birds, the actual canaries in the coal mine, who die all the time and, short of a necropsy, no one pays attention?...No, it takes a big jump in larger pet deaths to get this looked into...because we have no government oversight of anything anymore (and I can remember so clearly, Ronald Reagan saying how large corporations don't need the government to police them...they can police themselves!! yeah right...hows that working?) This is big and growing..but not in the M$M...no sir, the New York Times had a cover story on it yesterday, but its not really on the news much except for a small article in back of the paper here and there. Why is that? And why is at least one pet food company quietly paying the vet bills? What corporation ever started to pay a class quietly to head off a huge class action? I really cant believe that it has something to do with kindness and care...no, its to head off the hug payoff at the pass!

Right now I am trying to feed us all as much organic and US grain fed food as I can. I'm not sure if it even makes a difference because this feed thing is insidious, and this unregulated, uncontrolled globalism has made things too complicated...who can say what is going to happen next? But every day we are getting more and more reports of melamine getting into the American human food chain. Pigs yesterday, fish and chickens today, and a little too much assurance for agencies about how there is no danger to humans...but I don't see the studies. Where are the studies?
Send in the clowns......