Bush Administration Doesn't Want a Safe Food Supply????

In a million years, I didn't think I'd regurgitate something from the John Edwards Blog, but this article demonstrates just how far the Republican Party and, more specifically, the Bush Administration have come from the ideal of small government.

In short, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef planned to test *ALL* of their cattle for Mad Cow disease. What did the Bush Administration do? They took Creekstone to court in an attempt to prevent them from performing the tests. The reason? Brace yourselves...a possible false positive. The real reason? Probably big meat companies not wanting to pay for tests to remain competitive. The Bush Administration lost in court, but they decided to...wait for it...appeal. Go figure...

Best Friends: Merck and Rick Perry

We all know shady things happen in American politics, but they're usually hidden well enough not to attract too much attention. Okay, that first sentence may not pass the laugh test, but read on...

It looks like Governor Rick Perry of Texas decided to throw caution to the wind. Reading between the lines in an article on Yahoo titled Texas Requiring Cervical Cancer Vaccine for Girls, you can't help but form the opinion that Merck bought an executive order. What would cause Governor Perry to side-step regular legislative process in the state? Why shouldn't the state representatives vote on the measure?

Beyond the executive order, even the title of the article shows the massive influence being exerted by Merck. This isn't a Cervical Cancer Vaccine...it's an HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) Vaccine, and only a vaccine for a subset of the strains of HPV at that. Some easy googling reveals nobody thinks this is a silver bullet. In fact, one site remarked that it might prevent 70% of all cases of Cervical Cancer.

Before you get the wrong opinion, I think the availability of this vaccine is wonderful. I'm certain 2-3 of my relatives would have benefited from this vaccine if it had been available years ago, but why does the government think they need to make the choice for them?

As the article states, the vaccine has been "shown" to be safe. How will Governor Perry feel when the first major side-effects start showing up in his state? How many deaths will result? Before you manage to say "FDA blah, blah, blah", tell me this. How many of the currently mandatory vaccines are 100% safe?