Meat recall in Louisiana

Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. recalled more than 40,000 lbs of ground beef today. The contaminated meat tested positive for signs of E. coli contamination at a Sherman, Texas plant. Louisiana is one of 12 states that have been affected. To find out more information about the recall, including which products have been recalled, go here.

Luckily no illnesses have been reported yet.

Situations like these bring to the forefront problems with our food industry such as how safe is our food and how much of our food gets inspected for problems such as E. coli. Large meat processors can spread food borne illnesses much more easily and meat from a single cow may contaminate a large batch of hamburger.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten that Big Mac for lunch today, but I digress …

The U.S. food inspection system is increasingly inefficient, leading to problems such as the peanut butter recall several months back or the pet food recall recently. And of course, there is a pretty good chance that the food will be consumed by the buyer before it has a chance to be recalled. I had two bottles of the recalled peanut butter in my cupboards, and by the time the recall was announced, each bottle was about half-way eaten already.

There have been big cuts in food and drug safety inspection that originated from the White House’s budget submissions. The White House has also fought to keep meatpackers from testing their cows for mad cow disease. In fact, when a small company called Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wanted to test their cows for mad cow disease, the USDA told them no, and refused to sell them testing kits for the cows. Large meat companies feared that the move would require them to test their larger herds as well and the USDA argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the industry.

Personally, I’d rather have my food safe to eat and the USDA should let Creekstone Farms test their meat if they want to. Let’s see if the American people prefer their meat to be safe and inspected, instead of having safety measures cut, particularly in the light of food recalls. Let the free enterprise system do its job.

The Hypocritical Jindal

Last night my friend in New Orleans called me up saying that Bobby Jindal was on the local television station, WDSU, discussing the indicted William Jefferson and apparently being two-faced as usual (more here). Jindal stated that he voted for the investigations and would vote to remove Jefferson if the Ethics committee made that recommendation. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. I want the corrupt congressmen out of there as much as the next guy. The problem I have with this statement is that Jindal is a hypocrite who wants relaxed ethical standards for his own party.

When Jindal was elected into Congress, one of his first votes was to relax and weaken the House ethics standard. Why did he do this? The leader of his party, the crooked Tom Delay, was under investigation and Delay fell so far short of the ethical standard that it was laughable. You may remember that Delay was charged with criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections, in order to gerrymander the state and give himself more power in Congress. So when Tom Delay asks Jindal to weaken ethics standards, Jindal said yes. This is exactly the wrong kind of man we need in the governor’s office.

If Jindal intends to improve ethics in Baton Rouge when he’s governor, he needs to hold everyone to a higher standard, including himself and people like Tom Delay, and not just the Democrats. Improving ethics begins at home, Mr. Jindal, and you need to hold yourself and your party to the same standard as you do Democrats.

Taylor Townsend

Taylor Townsend, running for the State Senate seat in District 23, has a website up, although it hasn't been fully launched yet. Check out the main page at Taylor Townsend for Senate. When the site is launched, I'll let you know here.

2008 Senate Race

The 2007 state elections haven’t even come to pass yet, but the 2008 Senate race for the seat held currently by Mary Landrieu is heating up. After the Democratic Party took control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections, the Republican Party seems to be desperate enough to even look at a Democrat with strong conservative leanings to take her place. Recently Karl Rove aka Turdblossom contacted State Treasurer John Kennedy who is currently a Democrat. Rumors abound suggesting that Kennedy might be considering a switch to the Republican Party. What is it with legislators who can’t pick a party and stick with it? But I digress …

Kennedy refuses to comment about what was said at the meeting.

Strangely enough, although Rove talked with a current Democrat about the Senate seat, Republican Secretary of State Jay Dardenne hasn’t spoken with Rove. Now Rove isn’t an idiot – corrupt, yes; an unethical and immoral bastard, of course – but he’s certainly not stupid. A moderate Democrat with conservative leanings might be the only way to unseat Landrieu. Then again, a moderate Democrat with conservative leanings can also be used to describe Landrieu herself. But Kennedy would have an extra appeal: moderate Democrats would be attracted to him based on his past history in the party, and Republicans would be attracted to him due to his conservative leanings and possible jump to the Republican Party.

No challengers have announced yet, but this seat is certainly vulnerable. The biggest problem might just be that post-Katrina, many Democratic voters have probably left the state when New Orleans was devastated.

Although Louisiana tends to vote Republican for the Presidential elections, it tends to be a toss-up in state races. The senate seats however have traditionally gone Democratic, with David Vitter being the first Republican elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. Landrieu has tremendous name recognition within the state, far more than any likely Republican (or Democratic) challenger. While I bet she will win re-election again with a slight margin, I don’t see any challenger that can effectively campaign against her at the moment. This is certainly a race to watch.

McCrery Returning to Shreveport

It seems that Rep. Jim McCrery has finally remembered that he’s the congressman from the Louisiana 4th district, not the congressman from Washington, D.C. After packing up and moving to D.C. based on the mistaken assumption that he was about to become the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (which would have required his party to win the 2006 midterm election), he is now slated to be coming back to the area within the next few months. Glad he finally remembered which area he was supposed to represent.

Dollar Bill Jefferson Indicted!

Although my intent is to mainly cover politics that concern northwest Louisiana, I just have to comment on William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson’s indictment.

From an article on CNN:

“WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly two years after federal agents reported finding $90,000 in a freezer in his Washington home, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been charged with a global campaign to solicit bribes, obstruct justice and engage in racketeering, Justice Department officials said Monday.

The veteran Louisiana Democrat faces 16 criminal counts, said Alice Fisher, assistant U.S. attorney general in the criminal division.

"This case is about greed, power and arrogance," said Joe Persichini, director of the FBI's Washington field office, which led the investigation.

In addition to the racketeering and solicitation charges, Jefferson has been charged with money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

All I have to say about this is: Finally! Jefferson was a blemish on the Democratic party and our government in general. At least Pelosi was able to take away his committee assignments since he won re-election in the 2006 elections. I will never understand how they could put him back into power.

But thank goodness he is finally indicted.

Welcome to Northwest Louisiana Politics!

Good evening and welcome to the first post on the all new Northwest Louisiana Politics. I originally ran the Louisiana 4th blog, but after that race ended I took some time off to consider exactly what I wanted to cover. LA-4th covered the race for the U.S. Congressional seat and, by extension, Jim McCrery. I wanted to expand the subjects that I covered, so I extended it to allow for more coverage of other political news in the area, and not just the U.S. House. This way I can cover the upcoming governor elections, state wide elections, basically anything my little heart desires. So welcome to the new Northwest Louisiana Politics blog, and I hope you introduce yourself! Feel free to comment and participate in discussions and I hope you might even learn a little bit here.