Pet Food Recall News: Web Site Reports Nearly 2,000 Dogs and Cats Die From Contaminated Pet Food

Menu Foods is reporting the deaths of sixteen pets from contaminated pet food that was recalled on March 16th, but this number may be vastly under-reported.

One web site is reporting that nearly 2,000 pets are now deceased and base that number on the number of people who have registered with their web site and who have filed complaints with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Another report said 845 pets were deceased and over a thousand were sickened.

I'm sensing a cover-up here. If it isn't a cover-up, it's a severe misunderstanding of what's really going on in the veterinary clinics and animal hospitals on the part of Menu Foods.

My dad's neighbor up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula just lost his beloved dog after feeding it a can of Science Diet dog food, which he didn't realize was under recall. The dog suffered apparent kidney and pancreatic failure and died overnight while under the care of the vet.

The vet reported that there may have been another issue going on, but the timing between the dog eating the can of recalled dog food and it's death within 48 hours was too strange to be something else. It's possible, but the timing is highly suspicious.

Someone at Menu Foods needs to get out in front and take charge. And why the hell didn't their own chemists and scientists pinpoint the cause of the deaths before New York health officials did??! They should have lead the charge, instead of issuing this idiotic statement expressing relief that New York health officials had done Menu Foods' J-O-B in discovering why their product was killing dogs and cats! MORONS!

Menu Foods Recall is Troubling: Rat Poison Discovered in Wet Dog and Cat Foods

The Menu Foods recall of dozens of varieties of cat and dog food is very troubling. Rat poison contamination of pet food was discovered as the culprit in the deaths of an unknown number of cats and dogs.

Of particular concern to me is the recall of several types of Nutro dog food, specifically. I feed my dog Nutro Natural Choices Lamb Meal with Rice Formula, which he enjoys a great deal. It's a dry dog food, which are not part of this recall.

But it hasn't stopped me from checking the Menu Foods web site daily, to see if this problem gets any worse. They've recalled several varieties of the wet version of my dog's food.

I've already had a scare with the Diamond dog food recall, which was more than a little responsible for my switching my Jack Russell Terrier over to Nutro. They initially recalled Diamond dog foods in Michigan as well but later canceled it upon finding out where the foods from the affected plants were sent.

Upon hearing about the Diamond recall at work, I hurried home and checked the label to see if the bag was under recall--(it wasn't).

Now Nutro is under a cloud. Though this recall doesn't affect my dog's food (yet), I'm not a happy camper.

Iranian Capture of 15 British Troops is a Repeated Violation of the Iraqi Border: Iranian Troops Captured in Recent Months Were in Iraqi Territory Too

A lot of people are waiting for the British Navy to sink the entire Iranian Navy in reprisal for the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines in Iraqi waters by the Iranian Navy.

They apparently roared in on their gunboats and took an entire British boarding party prisoner while still on the Iraqi side of the maritime border.

The British were carrying out a U.N.-mandated inspection of a seagoing vessel when they were captured.

Iran apparently has a great deal of trouble determining where the Iran/Iraq border actually is. Members of their Revolutionary Guard have been caught aiding insurgents on the Iraqi side of the border--some of them as far into Iraq as Baghdad itself.

So it should come as no surprise that Iran is continuing to violate the sovereignty of Iraq's borders. But this hostage-taking maneuver is highly unusual. They were probably hoping that the men (and woman) that they seized were Americans to put pressure on Washington to release Iranian terror operatives who were captured in Iraq or "disappeared" while in third countries.

Should be interesting to see what comes of this.

Al Gore Just Doesn't Get It: His Climate Models Are All Wrong

Al Gore testified before Congress this morning, and continued to pretend that global warming never happened in the past. He's also ignoring billions of years of additional climate modeling which show that cold periods and warm periods in the Earth's past come and go; here's a sample of the research that he is wishing would go away.

And this was LONG before humanity came along, too.

Gore needs to shift gears and start talking about what we should be doing to prepare for the changes that will come with a warming period, and quit trying to defeat Mother Nature. She'll win, EVERY single time.

Gore fails to mention that climate change is going to happen even if we eliminated ALL sources of pollution and greenhouse gases immediately. His pretentious assertion that we can "stop" global warming is a boatload of crap.

Great News: Missing North Carolina Boy Scout Found After Three Days in the Wilderness

A story that had gripped not only the Scouting community but the nation came to a happy ending this morning when searchers found a missing 12-year-old Boy Scout in the mountains of North Carolina. He went missing three days ago and a massive search had been underway since Saturday afternoon.

Finally, some happy news on a disappearance. It appears that his Boy Scout wilderness survival training helped to save his life.

It all boiled down to a lot of prayers, hundreds of searchers, and a tracking dog named Gandalf. Thanks be to God for all of them.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is Reckless

I did not realize the tactics that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society employed when I wrote about their acid attack on a Japanese whaler earlier this evening.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on here. Their web site is full of news stories of their aggressiveness on the high seas--aggressive even to the point of hazarding both their ships and the Japanese whaling fleet during their confrontations. And hazarding dozens of human lives as well. And they openly admit to ramming whalers in the past to stop them.

I'm no fan of whaling, but for a group to take to causing accidents on the high seas and endangering human lives to disrupt an activity they don't like is more unacceptable than their opponents killing a FISH.

There are much better ways to deal with Japanese violations of international whaling law than engaging in eco-terrorism. The SSCS is no better than Earth First! blowing up buildings, cars and people.

Ingrates: Protestors Launch Acid Attack on Japanese Vessel That Rescued Them

Talk about no decency.

Two anti-whaling activists planned to disrupt a Japanese whaling ship in the Ross Sea by throwing glass bottles full of acid onto the ship's deck last month. But instead, they got lost in fog and bad weather that rolled in. They were forced to await rescue.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which the protesters were a part of, sent out a mayday on their behalf after they failed to return to their command ship on time, and vessels all over the region joined in the search for the missing protesters, including the Japanese whaler.

The whaler ended up spotting them and rescued them, providing them with warmth, food and shelter (according to one account). After a time, the protesters returned to their dinghy and went on their "way."

They began pursuing the vessel that had just rescued them, and proceeded to throw bottles of acid onto the deck of the whaler. Two Japanese nationals were injured in the attack.

The Japanese obeyed the law of the sea and provided humanitarian assistance to the distressed protesters. And their act of kindness and mercy was rewarded with an acid attack by the same people that they had just rescued.

No arrests were made.

If the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society doesn't denounce tactics like this, they should be added to the nation's foreign terrorist organization list. Some of their members are clearly out of control and willing to use extraordinary means to achieve their goals. Check out the criteria pertaining to what constitutes a terrorist act and the means of carrying them out after the list of current terror groups (Items III and V).

I don't like whaling, but I like terrorism even less. And I especially don't like it when someone goes out of their way to help a stranger and then gets hurt by the stranger who USES ACID on their rescuers. It doesn't matter how weak the acid was; people got hurt for no good reason.

Hooplah Over Federal Attorney Firings is Nonsense: EVERY President Has Dismissed Prosecutors so Why is This Time Any Different?

A political "firestorm" has erupted over the firings of eight federal prosecutors by the Bush Administration.

It's all over nothing.

The reason that the Democrats are making a stink out of this is that they've (finally) discovered that there is no unity in their own party over what to do about Iraq. This new issue has brought about a sense of unity of purpose in the Democratic ranks. (It won't last---there's too many divisions, interests and overriding issues at play).

And the Republicans seem to think that the situation was mishandled. Yet they didn't say anything when President Clinton fired all the attorneys to in his first term; nor did they say anything when George W. Bush fired all of Clinton's people at the start of his first term.

Those federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the President. He chose to fire eight of them. End of story.

And Alberto Gonzales is out to save his job. His credibility was stretched beyond belief long before this food fight started. He's been ordered to "patch things up" with Congress, but I don't think he can do it.

The bigger issue is the rampant FBI abuse of the Patriot Act. This other idiocy can wait.

The Hogs Are At the Trough Again: Congress Adds $20 Billion in Pork to Military Emergency Supplemental Bill

Why the &^%# do spinach farmers, peanut storage facilities, and lawmakers who are looking for more office space in Washington, DC, need emergency MILITARY money for??!

Congress has added $20 billion in pork spending to the $105 billion military supplemental bill for DEFINITE non-military uses.

What, is there a new type of peanut-based ammunition that is under development for the military? Spinach for Popeye the United States Marine?

ALL non-military pork should be removed from this bill immediately, and those Congress people who did this should be ashamed of themselves.

Katrina relief, port security, Veterans Administration affairs, national disaster preparedness, avian flu preparation and other important national issues DO deserve to be discussed and financed, but NOT as part of this military bill. They should be discussed under their OWN bills and free of additional non-related pork.

OINK!! OINK!! OINK!!

Viacom Sues Google/YouTube for $1 Billion for Copyright Infringement: Who is This Lawsuit Really Aimed At?

Viacom filed a lawsuit against Google and YouTube for $1 billion, claiming that some 160,000 pieces of their protected material ended up on the popular video website, and that Google/YouTube hasn't done anything fast enough to address their demands.

But who is this lawsuit really directed at? YouTube, for not removing the videos fast enough, or the people who posted the videos in the first place and actually broke copyright infringement laws while doing so?

I am of the opinion that it was filed to serve as a warning to the posters as well as YouTube. Viacom is notorious for suing everyone in sight for daring to tread on their copyrights.

Should be interesting to see if YouTube is the anchor that will weigh down Google as many experts predicted after Google bought YouTube.

French President Chirac Announces He Will Not Run For Re-Election: The Sooner This Man Leaves, the Better

French President Chirac announced that he won't be running for re-election.

GOOD RIDDANCE!

It takes two to make an argument, and he did more than his fair share of damage to U.S.-French relations during his tenure.

To disagree about ideas in the international community is a hallmark of U.S.-French relations, but Chirac's haughtiness and ill-tempered approach to dealing with President Bush made him a hypocrite (another one).

To hear him talk about U.S. arrogance was ridiculous, considering his own attitude.

Hopefully the next French President won't have the same corruption baggage and impulse control problems that Chirac had in dealing with people.

Bye bye, President Chirac.

FBI Admits Violating Patriot Act: A Blind Man Could Have Seen This Coming

The FBI has been caught violating the Patriot Act as was predicted.

Whenever you give unlimited power to any person or agency, unlimited abuses will follow. And that's exactly what's happened when the FBI got caught with its hand in the cookie jar by an audit.

"I told you so" doesn't seem to cover it. See my rants throughout 2005 and 2006 on the Patriot Act. I had dropped my overall opposition to the Act in December 2005, but warned that concerns remained about abuses of power.

The question now becomes: how many other agencies have done this too?

Time to start marking up the Patriot Act. It's overdue.

And they had better not think the bad publicity will go away if the FBI director resigns, either. It's going to make the FBI look even worse than it already does.

All This Talk of Sympathy for Libby in Jury Guarantees Some of the Convictions Will Be Overturned on Appeal

Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted on four of five counts against him, and a food fight has broken out between the left and right on whether or not he should be granted a Presidential pardon.

I have doubts it will get that far.

A number of the jurors who convicted Libby have virtually guaranteed that Libby will get an appeal. I predict that at least two of the convictions will be overturned; the reason why is that jurors have been expressing sympathy for Libby, saying that the convictions had nothing to do with the crime that started all of this: who outed the CIA operative?

One went on MSNBC and said "Pardon Libby."

That doesn't sound like a unanimous vote in the jury room to me. The defense will grab onto what's been said after the fact, and try to illustrate that there was confusion in that jury room.

The talk of a pardon is premature. The legal process needs time to sort all of this out.

NASA Relieves Astronaut of Duty and Transfers Her Back to Navy in Wake of Love Triangle Scandal

Astronaut Lisa Nowak was relieved of her duties at NASA and transferred back to the U.S. Navy following her arrest in Florida.

She had been accused of taking part in a love triangle, which lead her to stalk and threaten the other woman. Authorities charged her with attempted kidnapping.

NASA has no policy on what to do in the event of a case like this, so they transferred her back to the Navy, which deals with this kind of stuff on a more regular basis. In effect, they canned her.

She will be facing charges in a civilian court and probably in a JAG court too.

Hopefully NASA will develop policies to deal with stuff like this; it probably will happen again. While they've dealt with the current situation, what happens when something like this happens between civilian workers, and not military ones?

Government Seizes Four Retired F-14 Tomcats To Prevent Iran From Getting Its Hands on Spare Parts

The government seized four retired F-14 Tomcats today that were insufficiently prepared to be put on display this morning. Under the law, all military aircraft need to be demilitarized and be made incapable of flight. Apparently these four aircraft were not sufficiently dismantled enough.

One of the fighters was used as a prop for USA Network's popular "JAG" series. Another was said to still have military grade afterburners.

Iran is the only nation on earth that flies the F-14 as part of it's air force now; the U.S. retired it's entire fleet of F-14s last year due to the cost of operating them and the amount of time needed on the ground to keep them in the air. Government officials were worried that Iranian agents could acquire needed parts from the retired aircraft to service their F-14s.

Iran is scouring the globe for parts for the fighter; many are not airworthy anymore, and those that are need a lot of work. The U.S. recently banned selling of F-14 parts worldwide, partly out of concern that the parts could be transferred to Iran.

The four F-14s seized were at airports in California.

Death of a Comics Hero: Captain America Killed by Sniper in Today's Issue of "Captain America"

I'm going to take a little bit of time with this one.

Marvel Comics killed off one of their longest lasting icons in the final core issue of their controversial "Civil War" series.

Captain America bought the farm, felled by an assassin's bullets.

In 2006, the Civil War storyline opened in the Marvel Universe and took in many of the superheros, including Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Punisher, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and dozens of others.

In the first issue, a team of superheroes battles a group of villains and things go very badly. One of the villains blows apart and six hundred innocent lives--including many children--are lost in the explosion. The public demands the U.S. government take action.

In response, the government requires all superhumans to unmask and register with the government. The superheros break into two camps: one that supports the Superhuman Registration Act lead by Iron Man, and those who support civil liberties--lead by Captain America. All who refuse to unmask and register are declared fugitives by the U.S. government.

Many superhumans--some of them bad guys-- join Iron Man's side with promises of government pardons for their prior actions.

Spider-Man unmasks at a press conference to show his support for the Act; the shockwaves from that were/are still reverberating in the Marvel Universe. He eventually changed sides and was declared a renegade.

Several major battles between Iron Man's government faction and Captain America's Secret Avengers took place; casualties were taken by both sides. In the final issue, a hunted Captain America surrendered to Iron Man, throwing his mask to the ground--which the Punisher picked up. He ordered his troops to surrender, and is assassinated as he is brought in handcuffs to the courthouse.

The allegories to our post-9/11 world are unmistakable. The loss of civil liberties in exchange for security, an unpopular war--fought on our own soil in Marvel's case--in progress that kills as many civilians as it does combatants, the Patriot Act superseding (and duplicating) laws already on the books, secret trials, attacks on superhumans by ordinary citizens which mirror the unfortunate revenge attacks carried out on Muslims in the days following 9/11, superhumans being locked away without cause or trial, and many other reflections--of us.

Fortunately, many comic book heroes have this knack for surviving--even as they appear to die. The Death of Superman by DC Comics in 1993 was a classic example. It's unlikely that Marvel would kill off one of their most beloved comic characters for long--especially since he's still making money for them.

This has been one of Marvel's more fascinating storylines in recent memory.

More Political Hypocrisy: Critics Slam Coulter for Calling Edwards a Gay Slur, But It's OK for Them to Call Their Rivals "Nazis"

Mr. Pot, leave Mr. Kettle alone.

Ann Coulter turned a lot of heads by referring to John Edwards as a "faggot" and then followed up her remarks by saying she wouldn't denigrate gays by comparing them to John Edwards.

Demands from various individuals and groups have been for her to apologize for her remarks.

I don't think she should. Not until some others do first.

After all, some of these SAME people have nothing to say when THEY refer to their political opponents (or the U.S. military--SENATOR DURBIN) as "Nazis" or other foul expressions.

It's opposite sides of the same coin. Throw the thing out.

But these people shouldn't go crying foul while overlooking the use of the Nazi label against the other side. "Nazi" hurts just as much as the aforementioned gay slur.

It's just more of the "I'm going to hit you. Don't hit me back" routine.

California Town to Use Birth Control to Limit....SQUIRREL POPULATION??!

Only in California...

A California town council is concerned about a large squirrel population in a park and is going to use birth control to try and reduce their numbers.

SQUIRREL BIRTH CONTROL??!

Why don't they reduce the surplus animal-activist population first? They'll have to be shot, of course. (I'M KIDDING!!)

This is what happens when activists have more of a say than common-sense people do. Just declare a hunting season with bounties to be paid for each squirrel carcass and be done with it!

Squirrel birth control. Ay yi yi.

Is Alan Greenspan Retired, or Isn't He?

Stocks took a tumble late last week and early this week partly because former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told a financial newspaper that there was a "one in three chance of the U.S. economy slipping into a recession" in 2007.

Investors keep a close eye and ear out for any bad news whatsoever, and Greenspan still wields considerable influence over stock market happenings, though he retired from his old job.

Is Mr. Greenspan retired or not? His remarks are clearly undermining the current chair, which could adversely affect the markets.

Those two had better put their heads together.

Bush Administration Chooses New Nuclear Warhead Design; Critics Charge Hypocrisy in Move As Negotiations With North Korea and Iran Continue

The Bush Administration has chosen a new nuclear warhead design to replace aging warheads sitting atop ICBMs for more than twenty years.

The move is to match Russia’s announced upgrading of their entire nuclear missile inventory back in December of last year. The timing of the U.S. announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time.

With nuclear negotiations ongoing with North Korea and Iran, the move will undoubtedly be seen as hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. in upgrading its nuclear arsenal while talking to other nations about not developing their own nuclear arms.

There is a very fine line that Washington needs to walk at this moment, and announcing a new nuclear warhead design and plans to replace obsolete ICBMs with state-of-the-art ones isn’t a real smart idea.

North Korea’s already screaming about it; how far behind can Iran be?

Walter Reed Army Hospital Problems are Tip of Iceberg: Government is Really Screwing Up

The brew-ha-ha over the poor condition of Walter Reed Army Medical Center seems to have raised the public consciousness over the very bad condition that parts of the facility are in.

Defense Secretary Gates is angry; the Army secretary and the commanding officer of Walter Reed were sacked, and repairs are seemingly underway.

Big whoop. The resignations and firings are meaningless, unless something positive results.

Walter Reed Army Hospital is slated for closure, and a new Walter Reed hospital complex is to be built. There was a reason for the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) folks to do this. They said in their report that wounded soldiers and their families deserved a state-of-the-art 21st Century facility and that the current facility wasn't up to the task. It also said it would cost too much to repair the existing facility.

Instead of pumping millions into Walter Reed's highly publicized problem areas, why don't they close down Building 18, where the attention is focused? They're already renting hotel rooms or bed space at other hospitals for wounded and injured soldiers; they can handle doing that for the occupants of Building 18, too, until the new facilities are ready.

These soldiers were sent into hell to begin with; why are they going through hell back over here, too, in their own country? They don't deserve this.

Congress needs to make sure that all military medical facilities have the funding that they need; that includes access to mental health care and whatever else the soldier needs to recover, and banning medical co-pays for veterans wounded in combat.

Our government sent them there; it should be on the government's dime. Not one penny should be coming out of the pockets of the soldier or his/her family. Nightmare stories have been coming out about this for quite some time; soldiers are paying for government screw ups.

The soldier and the soldier's family should not see one page of paperwork; most are inundated with complex paperwork which, if not filled out properly, can deny the soldier his/her earned benefits.

The government needs to get this right, and soon. To allow this to happen is unthinkable.

Kerry Attacks Ambassadorial Nominee for Supporting Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004 Election: Sore Loser

Senator Kerry went after Ambassador to Belgium-nominee Sam Fox for his support of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group in his confirmation hearings yesterday.

That group went after Kerry's war record during the 2004 Presidential Elections after allegations arose that Kerry was distorting his military record and that he had refused to sign a Form 180 privacy waiver which would have allowed the Navy to release all of his records.

Kerry finally did sign the form in 2005, months after losing the Presidential Election. We'll skip his excuse for not signing the form earlier, but it is in the linked article.

He may have released the information in 2005 to avoid being attacked on the same issue if he decided to run for President in 2008 (he decided against running for now).

The records contained nothing new or explosive as some of the hard-core Swift Boat Veterans had been expecting. After-action reports of the battles that Kerry got decorated for are still missing, so the Swift Boat Veterans will continue to be a force to be considered.

Enter Sam Fox. Fox is a conservative St. Louis businessman who gave the Swift Boat Veterans $50,000 in 2004, during the height of the Kerry-Swift Boat Veterans fight. Kerry challenged Fox in the hearing, saying that Fox's decision makes him unfit to be a United States Ambassador.

I don't care about the Ambassadorship or who has it.

I'm not happy that Kerry is attacking Fox for supporting a conservative group and exercising his freedom of association, which is derived from the freedom of assembly clause and right to petition the government to redress grievances.

If we applied the same standard to Kerry that Kerry is applying to Fox, Kerry's membership in the Skull and Bones secret society would make him unfit to be a United States Senator.

The difference is that the Swift Boat for Veterans group operates in the open, where everyone can see them and what they're doing; S&B does not.

So who's more suspect: a businessman who gives $50,000 to a conservative group who wants to be an Ambassador, or a United States Senator who joined an elite secret society, wants everything both ways, engages in deception throughout the Presidential campaign, and refuses to allow the Navy to let his official military record to be released to the media--even thought the release would have helped his campaign against the Swift Boat Vets?

Senator Kerry ought to get over it.