President Obama has had it up to here with poor FDA oversight, particularly of salmonella-infested peanut factories, and he’s called for a review of the underfunded organization, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Obama said Americans should be able to count on the government to keep children safe when they eat peanut butter, and that includes his 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, the AP reported.
“That’s what Sasha eats for lunch probably three times a week,” Obama said. “And you know, I don’t wanna have to worry about whether she’s gonna get sick as a consequence to having her lunch.”
“Obama Orders Review of FDA in Salmonella Outbreak” [U.S. News & World Report]
(Photo: lucianvenutian)
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I am sure the Secret Service would prevent that. What an idiot.
@Plates: seems someone missed the POINT OF THE COMMENT.
At least with Bush the hate had a point if someone getting old after a while. Obama has barely been in office and the hate just keeps rolling from the neo-cons.
@Jim Topoleski: @dollywould:
I’m going to HOPE that was sarcasm and you two missed the joke.
Otherwise I’ll have to hurt the OP.
@Sheogorath: I missed it too apparently…
@downwithmonstercable:
if it was sarcasm, it was poorly done. Very poorly done.
@Parapraxis: Indeed. I come from the land of Defamer, where about 99 percent of the comments are sarcastic, and this was not well done.
@dollywould: I know sarcasm. I’ve worked, sarcastically. Sarcasm is a friend of mine.
Plate – (imagine pained, yet avuncular expression on my face while I draw out the pause to milk the crowd) – you’re no sarcasm.
@Jim Topoleski:
hey, I read the Wired article about Comcast, and guess who I saw in it?
Congrats on being a barbershop quartet fan! Are you a fan of the B Sharps? ;D
@Plates: Is the jar of peanut butter going to shoot her?
@Plates: The Secret Service has tests for Salmonella? Or are they going to jump on the PB&J.
Is HE the idiot?
@Plates:
What, does the president’s daughter have a food taster?
@TechnoDestructo: And does she wait 24-72 hours after the tasting to see if he gets sick?
@Eyebrows McGee:
I could see doing that when they get a new jar of peanut butter…but what if only the bottom half were tainted?
Is he just gonna issue orders on issues that concern him personally?
@Vitaly N.: Or maybe he is pointing out that this effects all of us.
@Corporate_guy:
It affects us all when people in our community get sick from it, and we know that.
I get what he’s trying to do, but I think him always bringing it back to his family or friends kind of makes it seem that the president will only act when something affects him personally.
@Vitaly N.: I get what he’s trying to do, but I think him always bringing it back to his family or friends kind of makes it seem that the president will only act when something affects him personally.
And that’s why Jimmy Carter lost so much respect on the national stage – when he said during a debate or a Q/A (I forget which) that he had asked his daughter what she thought about some international conflict. He was a laughing stock for the rest of the term.
@Canino: I thought it was when he admitted to having lusted in his heart. Or when the savage rabbit attacked his boat. Or…
@Vitaly N.: Well previously, the presidents/politicians only did stuff that effected themselves directly. The problem was the only thing that effected them directly was money and corporate kickbacks. Now we have a president who has young children which brings him into more the realm of our average Joe in that that the kids will be kids and can be screwed by some of the same stuff that will screw us.
In other words, if Obama only did something about stuff that only effects him and his family, he’d still do 10x’s better then most other politicians….sadly.
I think the other aspect that has to be considered is what would the last guy have done in this situation? (There are several examples)
Yeah, didn’t think so.
@Corporate_guy: Agreed.
The post is meant to be a *bit* tongue-in-cheek, but I think the original headline was too tempting a bait for anti-Obama readers. I’ve edited it to restore neutrality.
@Chris Walters: To clarify: I welcome pro and con comments about politics. Just not dumb ones.
@Chris Walters: Excellent policy. Wish the Internet would implement it.
@Corporate_guy: I agree, I think Vitaly N. hasn’t read the extensive amount of products that are effected. That or maybe it was a weak attempt at a bash.
It effects everyone and to not have him say anything would be more concerning.
[www.accessdata.fda.gov]
@Sorentso: Not only were many products (and people) affected, but we see how ineffective the FDA has become at its overseer role. We hope this review has good effect, and may it boost my depressed affect, and effect a new era of food safety, in which we audaciously hope our food is not . . . infected.
(gaah! make it stop! make it stop!)
@Sorentso: I agree that it would have been concerning if he had not said anything.
…I think a more appropriate wording for my original post would have been “why does it always come back to Michelle, Sasha or Malia”…It was a bit sarcastic…
In any case I like most of what Obama is saying/doing for now…not trying to start a political war here….’tevz..
@Vitaly N.: You know, with at least five hundred people sickened and eight people dead that we know of because of this contamination, you’d think some people could restrain their NOBAMA1!!! impulses out of common decency for, I don’t know, five seconds. Guess not.
It’s nice someone is paying attention to the FDA. Also, I kind of like that he *knows* what his daughters eat for lunch. How many dads, let alone presidents, can say that?
@sc2373:
62.3% of Dads know what their daughters eat for lunch, only 22% of Presidents can say the same.
I got those figures from someplace, but I forgot the name. A book maybe, or the interwebs.
@sebadoh128: 63% of statistics are made up on the spot.
@downwithmonstercable:
89% of the internet agrees with you, however, 11% do not and 5% voted in the wrong poll.
@sebadoh128: I am about 364% right about everything
@sebadoh128: http://www.pulledoutofmyass.com
@sc2373: He knows what his daughter has for lunch?!?! Is there anything this man can’t do? Say hallelujah!
@sc2373: Don’t they get any leftover Wagyu beef?
i think it’s about time someone show some concern for this “problem” that seems to have gotten out of hand because people let it get by. I’m upset it took the president saying something for it to be properly looked into.
@Ereshkigal234: will… not… walk… into… that… one…
@Jim Topoleski: hmm I meant this for the above comment, somehow it got posted to yours instead?
@Jim Topoleski: I’m glad you clarified, because I suddenly got nervous and was reading and re-reading that post to see if it was an obvious setup to a “that’s what she said” joke or something.
The FDA has been defunct for years. The government has previously taken a laissez-faire approach to the food industry. With the belief that unhealthy and dangerous producers would not gain market share over clean, safe companies.
Of course then they screw with the numbers, deceive us with “passing” test results, and the market doesn’t reject them until someone dies.
I’ll accept Obama’s hand in this one over the invisible hand.
@NodalPoint: Agreed! The FDA has needed review for a long time. Well, lots of government agencies have needed review, as we’ve seen in the past couple years. Hopefully the review amounts to something and isn’t just a simple query.
@downwithmonstercable: I’m hoping a review will uncover how woefully underfunded the FDA is. Mismanagement could be part of the problem, but an even larger one is the fact that the FDA has little in the way of resources and powers to keep food and drugs safe.
@NodalPoint: You really don’t want to know what the invisible hand has been doing and not washing before handling food.
Clearly, he’s taking this “very seriously.”
Oh GREAT!!! Just another example of Obama letting BIG GOVERNMENT run our lives and government agencies!!!
Open your eyes people!!!
Did you know that Obama has naked pictures of your sister and he shows them to his friends?
@se7a7n7: I have a sister? When did this happen!?
@Dafrety: Then who was phone?
@se7a7n7: I am guessing by your use of CAPS that you are trying to be sarcastic but then there was that sister comment.
At any rate, this goes to show that sometimes beauracracy has a purpose. As long as it is kept under control, government oversight is a good thing.
@sleze69: Especially with your food. If anything I want a shit-ton of oversight on my safe, non-toxic food, plz!
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Unless your local government is China…then god help you.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Apparently without the proper oversight, peanut butter isn’t safe and IS toxic. Hence this whole “Salmonella” article.
I am really interested in knowing whether or not I can eat the Little Debbie Nutty Bars in my pantry. I am holding off until the investigation is complete.
In all seriousness, my husband, 3 year old son, and myself had salmonella poisoning after the last peanut butter scare in January 2008, it’s not fun at all. I can barely eat peanut butter things anymore. Except Nutty Bars, those are still yum.
Someone NEEDS to look at the FDA. This crap keeps happening. It’s way past time for it to stop.
And if I had a 7-year-old who ate PB all the time, I’d be concerned too. The difference is that he can actually do something.
FUCK yeah. I never thought I’d say this, but: OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!
@TechnoDestructo:
Strength through discipline!
Strength through community!
Strength through action!
@MooseOfReason: you sound like someone I know from the 40s
@Bladefist: I believe he was trying to make a communist joke @Mr. Techno.
@MooseOfReason: I prefer:
“The beatings will continue, until moral improves”
@MooseOfReason: Nice A v is from vendetta line!
@TechnoDestructo: you’ve been saying that for a year
@Bladefist:
Only since Palin started talking. And I wasn’t this enthusiastic before.
More money will fix this.
@Bladefist: Actually, isn’t this one of those problems that could be fixed by more money?
There are some, surprisingly enough.
@CumaeanSibyl: While will help a lot, there will need to be a decent amount of oversight to make sure they’re using the money correctly.
If there’s one thing we have learned with these bailouts, money can’t be given without someone standing there with a big gun, making sure you don’t fuck it up.
@CumaeanSibyl: What part of “magic” in The Magic of the Marketplace do you not understand?! Sheesh!
They don’t have food tasters?
@nacoran: I’m sure he was just using his daughter as an example. Many children eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.
@nacoran: Well, he does have two daughters…
This is a serious situation that should be investigated, but it pales in comparison to the failures of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the SEC, much of Congress and others that have brought the country to the precipice of economic collapse.
Just remember, folks, when you eat untainted peanut butter, YOU’RE EATING COMMUNISM!!!
Remember, the market will solve all of this. What will happen is that the people who bought pb from this company will die, and the people who bought from another company will live. Then, the company with the tainted peanut butter will go out of business (or more likely change its name and continue in business…) and the others will stay in business. See, problem solved. Aren’t deaths better than regulation? Of course; George W. thought so.
@chris_d: If Peanut Butter = Communism, what does jelly equal? Dialectical materialism?
Bread with the crusts cut off is easy: bread = honest fruits of joyous toil while the cut-off crusts is surplus labor expropriated by the leeching Capitalists.
And a triple-decker with sliced bananas is, of course, so obviously European Socialism that I almost blush in mentioning it.
@Trai_Dep: But damned if I know what a tall glass of ice-cold milk is. Philosophy is HARD!
@chris_d: Silly rabbit, eating peanut butter is like you’re riding with Hitler.
Good to know President Jim Jones not only looks after our drinks but also our Peanut butter.
*goes to drink the Kool-Aid*
Well thats pretty badass of him. And isn’t that the point of the president, to “run our lives”.
Relax, its something good. Let him “run our lives” this once. Do you want to die from some peanut butter crackers in your brown sac lunch? I sure as fuck dont.
@boxiom: I’m not really sure how ordering the FDA to look into food processing practices that each person really has no power to protect themselves from is “running our lives”. Unless you grow all of your own food, you have to rely on other people to take care of some things for you – you would hope someone is in charge making sure the healthiest precautions are taken when you can’t supervise food production yourself.
@boxiom:
He’s not running our lives…no one’s forcing you to buy peanut butter. He’s running the lives of people who would carelessly ruin our lives.
Wow, finally someone getting the idea that businesses do not care about people – only profits- and that businesses with too much lobbying/influence in the process tend to circumvent it.
I’d order more than an investigation – I’d be busting down the FDA’s door and firing every single one of them.
They’re crooked as hell.
The FDA has been underfunded and understaffed for a long time. Ordering an investigation is pure pomp and circumstance unless he also plans on properly funding the agency.
For a while I was concerned that Conservatives might have to wait a while before they began to bash Obama’s each and every move. Then he proposed the new TARP stimulus and I breathed a sigh of relief because then I knew our Conservative friends would be alright after all.
First the Sod and now Peanut Butter!!!!!! Can’t we please get a president who focuses on problems!!
Like cutting my taxes $4 a week. Now thats action!