Daily Enron reports that despite 7 deaths linked to Pilgrim's Pride meats, Ann Veneman's "USDA failed to warn schools that it had purchased and shipped to them nearly 2 million pounds of the ready-to-eat lunchmeats in question under the federal lunch program. That was not done until Sunday, October 13, eleven days after the outbreak was confirmed. 'Isn't it amazing that they didn't look for that (in schools) before now?' said Donna Rosenbaum [of] Safe Tables Our Priority. 'I find it unconscionable that they would not jump on that immediately after issuing the recall.' STOP said the situation was a national emergency and should have been treated as such by the administration. They point out that more than 20 people, including three pregnant women, have died in the past few weeks from this and other listeria outbreaks in theUS and that over 120 others have suffered serious illnesses...'We demand the administration take immediate steps to protect the American people,' said Rosenbaum."

From MSNBC: "The largest meat recall in U.S. history - 27.4 million pounds of cooked sandwich meat - was underway Monday as the manufacturer and consumer groups offered contrasting views on the latest foodborne illness scare. Poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride said the meat hadn't been linked to a recent listeriosis outbreak and that the recall was a 'precautionary step.' Consumer groups said the recall, and earlier ones, could have been avoided if the Bush administration hadn't been sitting on Clinton-era regulations for food inspections."

"Congressional negotiators announced today that they had reached agreement on a bill that would rewrite the bankruptcy laws, making it much harder for people to escape their debts when they declare bankruptcy. The agreement, a victory for credit card companies and other lenders, came late today after members of a conference committee reached a compromise on the language of an abortion-rights provision that had threatened to scuttle the overall bill. The compromise will restrict the ability of anti-abortion protesters to use the bankruptcy laws to shield themselves from paying court fines resulting from protests at abortion clinics. The overall bankruptcy bill…appears destined for final approval in the House and Senate, and the White House has suggested that President Bush will sign it. The House could vote on the measure as early as Friday, the day it is scheduled to begin a monthlong summer recess." Call your Rep and Senators at 202-224-3121 TODAY and Say NO to this Bill!

According to the NY Times, "If a last-minute provision in the Senate farm bill becomes law, irradiated hamburger could become known by a more appealing name: pasteurized beef. Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who heads the Senate Agriculture Committee, said today that he had inserted the provision in an effort to 'more clearly define pasteurization,' the process by which disease-producing bacteria have long been destroyed in some foods through heating. The Harkin change would define irradiation as a kind of pasteurization. It has been sought for several years by the growing irradiated-food industry, which argues that irradiation is a 'cold pasteurization' and deserves to be referred to as such." This outrageous bill is already in conference committee, so there will be no more debate! Call your Senators and Representatives (202-224-3121) and tell them you won't buy nuked hamburgers - or anything else!

The world is awash in toxic substances spewed out with greedy abandon by chemical corporations like Monsanto (which just LOVES the Bush administration and is VERY well represented among top-level appointees). These corporations have the conscience and creativity of a sociopathic slug and so spend millions on APPEARING responsible rather than spending a few more dollars to BE responsible. Now our hero, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream - the folks who shared many a guilty binge with most of us - has stepped to the plate. A non-profit venture fund established by Ben Cohen has purchased Sun & Earth, a line of natural, non-toxic household cleaning products. These products, from laundry soap to dishwashing detergent, are made from stuff like coconut and orange oil and are almost safe enough to drizzle on top of your next bowl of B&J's Phish Food.

"The controversial fat substitute that consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble once hoped would change the way people eat might, instead, change the way industrial pollutants are cleaned up. P&G has asked that a precursor of its olestra fat substitute be placed on the Environmental Protection Agency's list of industrial chemicals. The new chemical, made by rearranging fatty acids, might be used to soak up toxins at Superfund sites, heavily polluted areas designated by the EPA." Olestra is "used in Fat-Free Pringles and Frito-Lay's WOW! chips. Products made with olestra are required to carry a label that they might cause abdominal cramping and loose stools. The Food and Drug Administration is currently considering a P&G request to remove that label." Go ahead - just say that olestra works great on toxic waste. Sales of WOW! chips will skyrocket!

"Because Clinton vetoed this legislation, the banking industry weighed in heavily for Bush in the last election. MBNA employees accounted for $240,000 in donations to Bush, compared to $1,500 to Al Gore. The bank's chairman hosted a $1,000-a-plate dinner for Bush, and the bank contributed a nifty $100,000 to the Bush inaugural festivities. Financial institutions, which gave Republicans $26 million in the last election, have been rewarded with quick passage of the bankruptcy bill that Clinton rejected." So writes columnist Robert Scheer in the Los Angeles Times.

The Bankruptcy "Reform" bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate on Thursday. Of course, there's nothing in it that was needed in the first place, except that it "weakens an important protection available to people who fall on hard times as the economy slows. Its timing is as poor as are its merits," writes the New York Times. Bottom line: the Senate, like the House, shafted the consumer. As the NYT points out, major financial institutions gave the GOP $26 million in the last funding cycle. Need we say more? This is Exhibit A on the need for campaign finance reform to pass next week.

The Senate voted 80-19 to cut off debate on the bankruptcy sellout bill, over stinging denunciations of the credit card industry from Sen. Paul Wellston (D-MN). "They are big givers, heavy hitters, a huge and powerful lobbying coalition," Wellstone said. "They have way too much access, and they have way too much say. And I say that this is an institutional problem, because the people who are trying to rebuild their lives in bankruptcy, they don't have clout, the same economic resources."

"A lobbying campaign led by credit card companies and banks that gave millions of dollars in political donations to members of Congress and contributed generously to President [sic] Bush's 2000 campaign is close to its long-sought goal of overhauling the nation's bankruptcy system... Sponsors of the bill acknowledge that lawyers and lobbyists for the banks and credit card companies were involved in drafting it. The bill gives those industries most of what they have wanted since they began lobbying in earnest in the late 1990's, when the number of personal bankruptcies rose to record levels. In his final weeks in office, President Bill Clinton vetoed an identical bill, describing it as too tough on debtors. But with the election of Mr. Bush and other candidates who received their financial support, the banks and credit card industries saw an opportunity to quickly resurrect the measure." Once again, the average American is about to get the shaft from the GOP and some Democratic turncoats.

Congress is paying back credit card companies and banks for their lavish donations to the Republican party and Republican candidates. The House and Senate are hellbent on making sure that the average American can't have a chance of getting their financial house in order through bankruptcy. Even a few Democrats are jumping on the bandwagon.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary stopped the Republican bankruptcy bill railroad this week by offering an amendment limiting bankruptcies by the wealthy. Republicans threw a tantrum, calling this "obstructionism." Republicans want to reward credit card companies for their lousy business practices: indiscriminately offering credit cards to unworthy customers, then charging usurious interest rates that drive those customers into bankruptcy. Such practices were illegal until the Reagan administration, but now the powerful credit card companies operate like loan sharks.

Most people who file for bankruptcy are single women/heads of household, elderly people struggling with medical costs, people who have lost their jobs, or families going through divorce. But the Republicans want to make it impossible for individuals to get bankruptcy relief, as a payoff to the banks and credit card issuers who contributed millions to their campaigns. Bill Clinton vetoed this bill last year, but now Bush can't wait to sign it.