One more thing ...

By Jennifer J. Foster

... about the salmonella/tomato outbreak:

Lou Dobbs has been screaming about the length of time it’s taking the FDA to trace the source of the salmonella outbreak. But it seems that his anger is misplaced. If he’s dissatisfied with the speed of the investigation, perhaps he should be taking it up with the victims. Investigators have to rely heavily on the information given to them by sickened people—what they ate, when they ate it, where they got it, etc.—for leads into how the outbreak started, and as it turns out, the FDA hasn’t had great information from the public from the start.

Read this article from the Associated Press for more.

Not surprisingly, I found the article on the web site of the Bradenton Herald, Manatee County’s newspaper since 1922 ... not Lou Dobbs Tonight.

Loony loopy Lou

By Jennifer J. Foster

If you’re a fan of reasoned, evenhanded debate, you’ve probably never seen Lou Dobbs’ show on CNN.

Actually, I take that back. If you’re a fan of reasoned, evenhanded debate, you’ve probably seen the show, but you actively avoid it.

And if that’s true, then you likely missed Lou’s latest grandstanding stunt. From the Business & Media Institute:

The “Lou Dobbs Tonight” host placed the blame for the recent salmonella outbreak squarely on President George W. Bush, calling for his impeachment on the June 19 broadcast. Contaminated tomatoes from an unknown source or sources have sickened 383 people since April, according to the Associated Press.

According to the article, in the runup over the last few days to his groundbreaking agreement with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Dobbs was “visibly angry” and called the FDA leadership “excessively intellectually challenged,“ “complete moronic, unengaged incompetents” and “arrogant” “idiots.“ He added that the administration’s management of the salmonella outbreak was “insane.“

Name calling is easy. Actually solving a problem is significantly harder. It takes a lot of arrogance—it takes a special type of presumptive arrogance—to assume that one knows more, sitting on your economics degree on some television set, about the source and cause of the outbreak than the federal agency actively investigating it.

But Lou Dobbs is a special type of guy.

His tagline for his show on CNN end with him asking the rhetorical head-scratcher, “Doesn’t anybody deserve a government that works?“

No, Lou. We DESERVE government waste, incompetence, miscarriage of responsibility and fraud. In fact, I look forward to your reports wherein you engage in shameless pile-on for ratings at the expense of productive dialogue that could actually contribute to solving the problems in the government you pillory so pretentiously.

Here’s Lou’s tomato statement, along with the video of the report that aired on his show. More and better information about the outbreak? It must be because the FDA is deliberately lying about it; it couldn’t have anything to do with the ongoing investigation—right, Lou?

I’m originally from Bradenton, Fla. There are a good number of tomato operations—fewer than there used to be, for sure, but still a good number. Florida is the largest domestic producer of tomatoes, and the value of its crop is estimated to be around $500 million, according to this report in the Orlando Sentinel. The farms and people of Manatee County are a good part of that production. The fearmongering that Lou Dobbs is engaged in with regard to the salmonella outbreak is hurting people who work in the tomato industry—not just here, in Manatee County, but elsewhere in Florida and throughout the U.S. It’s hurting the middle class for which Lou Dobbs so sanctimoniously claims to speak.

Guess what I found?

June 22, MEXICO CITY—The U.S. has cleared tomatoes in 28 of 31 Mexican states from suspicion in a recent salmonella outbreak, a move that drew praise from Mexican officials Saturday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now appears to be narrowing its investigation into the outbreak, which has sickened more than 550 people, to some counties in Florida and three Mexican states: Jalisco, Coahuila and Sinaloa.

Hmm. I wonder if Lou will update us about that.

If you haven’t yet mortgaged your brain to Lou Dobbs and you’re still in the habit of thinking for yourself, here is the FDA’s page on the tomato investigation.

Lou Dobbs. He is self-aggrandizing, bombastic, pompous and obstinant (or “tough, relentless, independent,“ if you prefer his euphemisms).

Come to think of it, is the FDA hiring? I might have a guy for them.

Abigail Adams

By Jennifer J. Foster

I went to the Internet to grab the text of Abigail Adams’ “Remember the Ladies” letter for you, and I couldn’t resist providing the complete record of this exchange she had with her husband, the future president:

ABIGAIL ADAMS to JOHN ADAMS; Braintree, Mass.; March 31, 1776:

I long to hear that you have declared an independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire that you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

That your sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.

JOHN ADAMS to ABIGAIL ADAMS; April 14, 1776:

As to Declarations of Independancy, be patient. Read our Privateering Laws, and our Commercial Laws. What signifies a Word.

As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government every where. That Children and Apprentices were disobedient—that schools and Colledges were grown turbulent—that Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters. But your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown discontented. This is rather too coarse a Compliment but you are so saucy, I wont blot it out.

Depend upon it, We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems. Altho they are in Full Force, you know they are little more than Theory. We dare not exert our Power in its full Latitude. We are obliged to go fair, and softly, and in Practice you know We are the subjects. We have only the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would compleatly subject Us to the Despotism of the Peticoat, I hope General Washington, and all our brave Heroes would fight. I am sure every good Politician would plot, as long as he would against Despotism, Empire, Monarchy, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, or Ochlocracy.

(Ochlocracy: a form of government in which the common people rule; i.e, mob rule)

ABIGAIL ADAMS to JOHN ADAMS; Braintree, Mass.; May 7, 1776:

I can not say that I think you very generous to the Ladies, for whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives. But you must remember that Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken—and notwithstanding all your wise Laws and Maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our Masters, and without violence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet—-

“Charm by accepting, by submitting sway
Yet have our Humour most when we obey”.

(More here.)

Now, having read that, think about this: Was Abigail Adams more Nancy Reagan or Michelle Obama? Was she more Jackie or Hillary?

All I’m saying is, First Ladies have their own minds. It’s worse than a shame—it’s a travesty—that they aren’t expected to use them.

Abigail Adams was:

This nation’s first Second Lady;

This nation’s second First Lady;

Mother of the sixth president, John Quincy Adams;

One of the few voices calling for women’s rights and equality during the Revolutionary War period; and

Called “Mrs. President” because of her involvement with her husband’s presidency. (Who does that sound like?)

Read more about Abigail and her extraordinary life in her official White House bio and her National First Ladies Library bio.

Hillary on the Court?

By Jennifer J. Foster

Will Hillary Clinton’s price of reconciliation with Barack Obama be a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court?

USA Today’s Tony Mauro took an interesting look at the historical precedent such a deal would have in his column this week.

Really cool Google maps

By Jennifer J. Foster

I can’t tell you how much time I have wasted over the past few years on Google Maps. I just love to browse around, check things out, look at the satellite pictures, etc. I’ve been known to look up locations of places where big news stories happen—most recently, the YFZ Ranch in Texas during the polygamy case over the last few months.

I just like to know where things are, I guess.

Anyway, I headed over to Google Maps today to check something out, and I found these!!

You can break down election results from the primary season, by party, state and candidate; you can view nationwide results even down to the county. The trademark balloon graphic is color-coded by candidate.

Goodbye, an hour of productivity!