Taiwan Bans Some U.S. Beef Imports

[alp227]

Source: Associated Press

Filed at 11:01 p.m. ET

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan lawmakers have voted to ban imports of some kinds of U.S. beef, reversing an earlier deal the government negotiated with Washington.

The move Tuesday to reinstate a ban on U.S. ground beef and offal comes amid public concern that the Taiwanese government lacks adequate safeguards against mad cow disease.

Long-running negotiations to drop the ban were concluded in October. Influential congressional representatives from beef producing states had pressed Taiwan to allow all kinds of U.S. beef to enter the island.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/04/business/AP-AS-Taiwan-USBeefBan.html

[valerief]

1. Taiwan lacks safeguards against our disease-causing beef. Damn, glad I stopped

eating the shit.

[Hekate]

2. Maybe they found out about the yummy ammonia additives

Bush's policies took our previously excellent food-safety laws and literally set us back a century by gutting them. The Japanese don't trust our beef, either.

Hekate

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

5. Yep, "pink slime"...

...of ammonia treated fat and trimmings added to ground beef and used by nearly all the fast food chains. Why? because it "saves 3 cents per pound" in costs. The NY Times had a big article about it.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=2>

[Demeter]

3. Hey, Maybe WE Can Do That, Too!

[defendandprotect]

4. kick

[RC]

6. What, if anything has the Obama administration done about Mad Cow

in our beef supply? I'm suspecting nothing.

[Hekate]

7. Starting at the top, by replacing Bush's political appointees in science and agriculture departments

That's how Bush did his destruction in the first place, and that is how it will have to be undone. Okay?

Now that Elaine Chao is gone from her Cabinet post as Labor Secretary, the new appointed-by-Obama Labor Sec is starting to revivify OSHA and a host of other worker-friendly agencies and policies.

Remember "Heckuva job Brownie"? He was a political appointee -- a friend of a friend, a crony. No qualifications other than that.

Bush did the same thing every place there was a political appointment to be made, and there are hundreds and hundreds of such slots, starting with the Cabinet and moving on to heads of all major departments such as Dept of Agriculture and down through a host of lesser slots.

Wherever Congress has to approve such an appointment, be assured the 40 Repubs who vote in a bloc will try to stall and gum up the works when it suits their fancy. No "straight up or down votes" for a Dem POTUS. That's why there's no head of TSA just now.

So when you say, "What if anything has Obama done about...." whatever, please bear the above in mind. He's done plenty, and when he's gotten his people in place, much more has gotten done.

Hekate