"When the investigation began more than two months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory, warning consumers against eating raw red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes unless they were grown and harvested in states that appeared on a safe-to-eat list.

"But as the investigation went on and consumers continued to become ill, investigators began to look elsewhere. The CDC and FDA expanded the investigation last week to include foods commonly served with tomatoes after noting clusters of people who became ill from eating at restaurants in Texas and other states.

"Since mid-April, almost 1,000 people in 40 states have been infected with salmonella poisoning, according to the CDC. Cases highly concentrated in Texas, New Mexico and Illinois account for more than half of those reported in the outbreak."

Under this failed, authoritarian Bush regime, departments and agencies that are supposed to protect consumers don't but as loyal Bushites only cover this administration's posterior and its corporate cronies.

As Jim Hightower reminds us about the Department of Agriculture:  "South Koreans want none of our steaks and burgers on their plates, because of worries that America's industrialized beef supply comes with a fatal dose of mad cow disease.

"The irony here is that American officials could easily assure the Korean people that our beef is free of mad cow disease by conducting a cheap and simple test on every cow that goes to slaughter. Europe and Japan already do this, thus certifying that their cattle are free of the deadly disease. But our own agriculture department refuses to allow such tests, instead arrogantly demanding that our international customers simply trust that every ounce of American beef is safe. Eat it and shut up, seems to be America’s marketing plan.

"One reason ag officials won’t test is that they’re afraid they’ll find a much bigger mad cow problem than they tell us exists. In Europe, for example, instead of finding only a couple of diseased cattle, testing revealed more than 1,100 cases of mad cow in seemingly healthy cattle that had been approved for slaughter.

"It’s not Korean consumers who are crazy – it’s our own public officials."

We aren't even guaranteed safe beef or vegetables.  These agencies under this incompetent administration believe in deregulation and no regulation, letting industry police itself.

That's the hallmark of the Bush regime which helped cause the economic, food, and oil crises and numerous other disasters.

Seven years of this criminal regime placing regular Americans in danger; we don't need four more years of it with McSame.