Ottawa to ban some US beef

[HEyHEY]

HA! Payback's a bitch!

oops forgot link hang on!

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031224.wbmadcowcan1224a/BNStory/National/

[TrogL]

1. The irony doesn't escape me

But my suspicious are aroused by reports (if I understand them correctly) that the USDA's been sitting on this information for six months.

Isn't that around the time Canada was having its crisis?

[KansDem]

3. I wonder about the credibility of the US government...

How many countries have now banned US beef imports? Ten? And how is credibility going to be restored so these countries (and others) will feel confident about lifting the ban? Especially since the USDA has been keeping its MCD testing secret.

I mean, how will the Bush Administration explain this????

Bush to Unnamed Country who had placed ban on importing American beef:
Well, uh, yeah, we denied access to 6 months of testing data, but really, c'mon, the beef's good now. Really! Just do a test or two. Here, try this stuff. Mmmmm! Hey, c'mon out to my ranch for a bar-b-que. You'll see. Nothin' to worry about!

[HEyHEY]

5. Yeah I can't wait for all the beef cooking photo ops

n/t

[Malva Zebrina]

2. when I came over the border this summer

back into the USA, the border police went through the refrigerator in my travel van and removed every bit of beef that was in there. There was some ground beef and there was some sausage or pepperoni. If it was packaged in the US, they left it--as was the pepperoni. If it was simply in a supermarket package, they removed it. The guy did the whole thing with gloves on, also.

They explained it was because of the Canadian mad cow disease scare. I have not heard of any Canadian mad cow disease spreading--has anyone else? It did not seem to be as bad as the British event--in fact I heard nothing of it since the first trickle -- did it go away in Canada?

This news, plus the secrecy behind any of the reports is truly amazing and something I would not expect from my country--but then, everything Bush does is something I would not expect from a constitutional democracy.

[TrogL]

4. Canadian mad cow event

One cow was discovered. Its meat ended up as dog food and the batch was removed from circulation. Despite widespread testing, no other case of mad cow has been discovered.