CALL MITCH McCONNELL IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHICH RESTAURANTS SERVE TAINTED CHINESE SEAFOOD

I don't have Miss McConnell's (R-KY) private line and when I've tried to get through to him in the past, I've had no luck. So instead I called David LeFevre, executive chef for the past 3 years at the Water Grill in downtown L.A. Mostly I eat raw food and vegan raw food at that. Sometimes I go to Katsu Ya, a sushi place in the Valley and have some sashimi. But when I have fancy guests in town-- who are not of the raw or vegan persuasion-- I take them to Water Grill. It's far and away the best seafood restaurant in southern California. Zagat's just sums them up as "the best seafood in town." Their own website goes into it in greater depth:

"What sets Water Grill apart, I think, is our ingredients. We have the best fish in Los Angeles, period. There's no doubt about it in terms of quality of the raw materials. I think that's probably our biggest selling point. Then we prepare it in a simple way using the best ingredients so as not to mask the flavor of the fish. We don't do crusts or big spice mixes. It's more about presenting the fish in a simple way so that you can really enjoy what the fish actually tastes like."

That rings true; I've been eating there regularly for something like 20 years. I always feel I get a delicious meal and one that is healthful. Right now I'm planning a trip that's going to take me to India, Thailand and Cambodia and I'm starting to worry about tainted Chinese food in these places. I called the Water Grill and got David on the phone. He imports fish from all over the world, but none-- ever-- from China. "We do get a lot of seafood from Japan. The quality is superb, but in the 3 years I've been here we've never had anything from China."

I didn't ask him if he knows Miss McConnell or if he had any idea why McConnell is willing to risk the health and safety of Americans so he can line his pockets with Chinese lucre. Instead I asked him if he knew of any restaurants in L.A. serving seafood imported from China. He isn't sure but suggested Chinese restaurants might be a place to look or-- in my case-- not look. (My doctor already told me that the only absolutely deadly cuisine that I 100% must cut out is Chinese, but he said it is because the American Chinese restaurants use cheap, cancer-causing oils. I used to love Chinese food but I've only tried it once in the last 5 years and it was a bad experience.) What about the Red Lobster?

The Chicago Tribune doesn't mention Miss McConnell or Mrs. McConnell or any other members of congress or the Bush Regime who are on the take from Chinese business interests. But the picture they paint of poisonous Chinese products flooding into America has to cause you to think January, 2009 will not be soon enough to get rid of the toxic Bush Regime with it's "no can do" philosophy of government. Bush's FDA has let us down-- by ideology and by design-- just as the Bush FEMA, the Bush FCC, the Bush Department of Homeland Security, the Bush Pentagon, the Bush Supreme Court, the Bush rubber stamp Congress, the Bush obstructionist Senate, and the Bush everything else have all let us down.

Protected by McConnell and other high ranking Bush allies who have been the bagmen for millions of dollars in Chinese bribes, the Chinese have been immune from FDA scrutiny for years. And then peoples' dogs and cats started dying. Melamine, an industrial chemical was being intentionally mixed into pet food to make it seem more valuable, regardless of the fact that it was poison. There were reports "some may have" gotten into the human food chain too. Toothpaste-- but just bargain brands poor people use-- was suspected of using industrial poisons. Pressure began to mount. McConnell and his partners panicked.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday moved to block the sale of five types of Chinese farm-raised seafood found to be contaminated by unapproved drugs and additives. China did not hide its displeasure, calling the move "indiscriminate" and "unacceptable."

The partial food ban came after a string of reports in recent months about Chinese exports failing to meet safety standards on pet food additives, toothpaste, toy trains and tires.

But the seafood crackdown could be particularly troublesome for China, experts say. Not only is China the largest foreign source of U.S. seafood-- contributing more than a fifth of imports-- but seafood is a particularly vivid new reason for U.S. consumers to take notice.

"There will be significant damage in terms of American consumers' willingness to experiment with Chinese products," predicted Tom Doctoroff, chief executive of greater China for advertising agency JWT.

"If people are starting to ask, 'I don't know how they make products in China. I'm concerned about what goes into them,' that could be a big blow," Doctoroff said.

The head of the Chinese version of the FDA was sentenced to death for taking bribes from firms offering unsafe medicines. (One wonders if this was McConnell's suggestion and if he was paid a bonus for his consulting work.) Now, I'm all gung ho for the death penalty in cases of war criminals and for crimes against society, be it the drug firm heads who avoided being interviewed for Sicko, "royal" families, industrialists who dump toxic waste in public streams, or the government officials who let them get away with it (for a price). But the problem with Chinese imports goes way deeper than some schnook taking bribes in Beijing.

When is the U.S. media going to start seriously looking at the connections between Miss McConnell and China, connections that are putting all Americans in jeopardy? Thanks to McConnell and other paid lobbyists for the Chinese it's next to impossible to avoid tainted Chinese products in America even if you put energy into doing so. Meanwhile China is reacting to American pressure with a GOP style p.r. campaign and by seizing U.S. food on the way to Chinese markets calling it "substandard." Trade war? Or will Insiders work every out and smooth it all over-- business as usual-- with American consumers in jeopardy, even if exporters and importers aren't. At least not right away.


UPDATE: WHY DO REPUBLICANS INSIST ON TRYING TO POISON US? REALLY

Tomorrow's NY Times explains why supermarkets don't inform us where the meat, produce and nuts they sell come from, despite a law that says they must. Short version: Republicans take bribes from their pals on K Street.

Now, with Democrats in control of Congress and mounting questions about the safety of food imported from China, proponents of the labeling law say they believe that they finally have momentum on their side.

After all, they say, at a time when consumers are ever more concerned about where their food is coming from, why not just tell them on the package?

“No. 1, there’s a basic consumer right to know,” said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, an advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine and supports the labeling law. “People are more and more concerned about the food they eat.”

A typical Republican scumbag who couldn't give a damn if your whole family died from eating cheap, tainted Chinese imports-- so long as he got his payoffs and could buy the expensive homegrown stuff-- recently defeated Texas Congressman Henry Bonilla had the typical smart ass right wing answer: "No one was prohibited from putting labels on products. If consumers wanted this, they could have demanded it.” This pretty well sums up exactly why Republicans are unfit to be in government. They just don't get it. Instead they get payoffs, kickbacks and bribes.

After the labeling law passed, over GOP protests, in 2002, Bush's corrupt right-wing and batty Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman did everything she could to sabotage it for the lobbyists and corporate interests that finance the Republican Party. But it was Bonilla and other right-wing Republicans in Congress who were able to push through delay and after delay and to pass a bill prohibiting the Department of Agriculture from spending money to put into effect origin labeling until September 2007. "Bonilla received $158,328 in campaign funds in 2006 from the livestock industry, making him the top recipient in Congress. He was also the top recipient of campaign funds from the livestock industry in 2004, with $132,900, and ranked second in 2002, with $78,350."