The Return Of The e. Coli Republicans

Yum, yum?

Yesterday I came up with a new recipe for a sauce to go over my zucchini faux "pasta." Instead of something tomato-based, a standard around here, I opted for a raw cauliflower-dill sauce, which also included watercress, a cucumber, pomegranate seeds, pumpkinseed oil, and apple cider vinegar. The whole time I was preparing it I was yacking away on the phone with Digby about Pelosi's very natural decision to run for Democratic House leader and about the fact that there is no realistic opposition to her, just a handful of mangy Blue Dogs grandstanding for the rubes back in their districts. The preparation for the sauce was just cutting and blending so there was no need for a very long conversation like there would be if I was actually cooking something (and killing all the nutrients). But Digby mentioned in passing-- probably while we were laughing about Heath Shuler, Dan Boren and some other Blue Dog freak whose name I can't recall-- that the same way our politics has become so bifurcated, even Americans' eating habits have diverged to a point where our nation can hardly sit down for a meal together.

I try to eat as vegan and as raw as I can. At home I only eat raw vegan preparations. I buy organic food and when I go to restaurants with friends who have different eating habits we always go to places where it's easy to get healthy salads and simplied-prepared wild-caught fish. News yesterday that the cosmos marked the return of the e.coli Republicans to power with a widespread outbreak of... well, what else?-- e.coli, seemed almost pre-karmic.

An E. coli breakout in five states has been linked to Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda cheese sold at Costco. The cheese was not only available for sale, but also as free samples, and at in-store tasting events. Twenty-five people reported being infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) joined Costco to warn consumers to avoid the cheese. According to Costco, the cheese manufacturer, Bravo Farms is responsible for issuing a formal recall, because the product could have been sold in other states. Costco contacted consumers who bought the cheese directly to tell them about the possible outbreak. Customers can return the cheese for a refund.

People infected with E. coli can develop diarrhea, abdominal cramps and other longer lasting and more severe conditions. Most people, however, recover within a week. 

Unfortunately, it isn't just GOP voters who will be afflicted, but also poor people, who have little to no choice but to eat this kind of garbage food. And with the GOP ideologically determined to "let freedom ring," freedom, as Republican-Nazi Rich Iott, can explain, meaning the freedom of the wealthy corporate interests to exploit the poor and... well, society in general, expect plenty of more news like this. That means the newly electards like Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rand Paul (R-KY), Sandy Adams (R-FL), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Paul Labrador (R-ID), Justin Amash (R-MI), Taliban Dan (R-FL), Allen West (R-FL), and Tim Griffin (R-AR), to name a small handful of the worst of the worst, will be busily working on how to turn back the hands of time to when, for example, meatpackers didn't have to bother with pesky rules that impinged on their freedom (to kill their customers).

I've written many times that the House Agriculture Committee is one of the most despicable bastions of corruption in Washington. For the last 4 years it's been a de facto fully quorumed meeting of the Blue Dog caucus with Collin Peterson (MN)-- who has taken more money in thinly-veiled bribes from AgriBusiness than anyone else in the House... on either side of the aisle-- sitting at the head of the table. Peterson has stood in the way of health, organic food, family farms and consumer protections every step of the way. Frank Lucas (R-OK), another fave of AgriBusiness, and the recipient of $1,195,044 from the same pot of money, will be the new chairman-- and even worse than Peterson! A dozen filthy Blue Dogs currently on the House Agriculture Committee, all having spent years gobbling up AgriBusiness bribes, were defeated Tuesday: Travis Childers (MS), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Bobby Bright (AL), Jim Costa (CA), Frank Kratovil (MD), Jim Marshall (GA), Walt Minncik (ID), Betsy Markey (CO), Kathy Dahlkemper (PA), Zach Space (OH), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), and Earl Pomeroy (ND).

I wish I could cheer for this wonderful development and think about America with a rational agriculture policy. Instead, we're headed to an even worse situation, dominated by equally corrupt but certifiably insane holdovers led by Lucas, like Mean Jean Schmidt (OH), Randy Neugebauer (TX), Steve King (IA), Sam Graves (MO), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) and God-only-knows which drooling newly elected teabaggers. Remember this press release from last July?

Despite recent outbreaks of food borne illnesses such as E.coli and salmonella, today Representative David Dreier blocked an attempt to strengthen and modernize the way we protect America’s food supply.
 
“Americans worrying about when the next outbreak of E.coli or salmonella will strike their families deserve better than Representative Dreier blocking a plan to keep our food supply safe,” said Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“It’s outrageous that Representative Dreier is willing to block solutions to make sure the food Americans feed to children is healthy and safe.”

At the time, I wrote, "It is outrageous and Dreier should be defeated next year. But so should Minnick, Childers, Griffith and Kratovil, all of whom voted with Dreier and the Republicans and all of whom are on the Debbie Wasserman Schultz' DCCC Frontline Program." Dreier won again-- Republicans admire being poisoned on the alter of ideological purity-- but the others on my wish list were all defeated. The DCCC needs to get the message.