STOP
TERROR
STOP
TORTURE
OUT
OF IRAQ
 
 

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Now, THINK, Men -- THINK

The crack intellect -- as in, "intellect apparently damaged by crack" -- of BushCo:

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a speech Friday announcing his coming departure from the Bush Cabinet that he worries "every single night" about a possible terror attack on the food supply.

Despite dramatic increases in inspections of food imports, only "a very minute amount" of food is tested at ports and airports, Thompson said.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."

Asked to respond to Thompson's comments, Bush neither criticized them nor implied that the food supply is safer than Thompson asserted.

Hmmm. Let me think. You were, lessee, what's that title again -- a Cabinet member!? What the fuck did you do for three and a half years, play The Sims in an attempt to understand what life as a human might be like?

So you have this dread fear that you, personally, can conceivably do something about. You fret about it. You toss and turn, moaning under your sweaty sheets. And then you high-tail it out of town... but not before detailing to the international press (where, presumably, terrorists can read about it) what you perceive as a major vulnerability in our frickin' food supply.

Bright lad.

And then President Chimpy McWhistleAss says nothing. Doesn't criticize you, doesn't agree with you, doesn't disagree with you. I can only assume he was re-reading The Pet Goat, going for comprehension this time rather than speed.

Let's be very, very clear about this. A resigning Cabinet Secretary admits that he is terrified of an attack to an area that he's done nothing to secure. The President, by not forcefully denying it or pointing out that it might not be Thompson's province or saying "Tommy's had the vapours lately, pay him no mind" or doing anything... is effectively confirming that we've got this big-ass chink in our armor.

Do any of these people think through
anything they say or do? Do they really think "cause and effect" doesn't work anymore because they're in power? Jayzus, I've seen better political and security strategy from twelve-year-old D&D players. Much better, come to think of it.

Politicians, especially Repubs, are fond of justifying their actions by saying "9/11 changed everything". Well, that's turned out not quite to be the case. But one thing certainly did change after 9/11.

American "leadership" got fuckin' stupid.

Comments:
Ok, then...so now the Health and Human Services cabinet post is going to be absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security? Is this another example of departments not communicating with each other, just like the intelligence mess that led to 9/11? Come on, guys! We're all on the same team here!

The conspiracy theorist in the back of my addled brain keeps piping up after hearing his speach thinking "Didn't certain folks in the government warn the powers-that-be about extremists possibly crashing airplanes into buildings"? Is this foreshadowing to a future attack in mid-winter or early spring on US crops? (Hmmm...wonder if I could sell that story to PrisonPlanet...).

Or is this one of the government's way of trying to spur on the economy--driving everyone to stock up on food in the face of a terrorist attack? Anyone who's seen the price of produce that typically comes from Florida this time of year has already seen what can happen when a natural disaster wipes out crops.

And isn't the FDA involved with monitoring food shipments? Or am I really THAT naive to think that the Customs does this all on their own?
 
Hi, this is Lj's technocracygirl (just so that you don't think that I'm a random troll.) IIRC, the FDA controls the food safety of vegetarian products. The FDA is a part of HHS, and thus Tommy's ex-responsibility. But it's food cut from the flesh of a living animal (except maybe fish), then the safety responsibility lies with the USDA and ex-Secretary Veneman. And there are preliminary programs underway to get the USDA and the FDA to (gasp!) work together.

So it's not quite as bad as it may seem.
 
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