USDA'S WEB OF LIES GROWS BIGGER, CLEARER

UPI's Steve Mitchell is once again rocking the house with new revelations - he's found documents showing that neither a test for illegal antibiotics nor a temperature reading - both required to be performed on all downer animals - were performed on the Mad Cow, which it's now quite clear was not a downer. Mitchell even spells it out for the slow-of-dot-connecting: "If the Washington cow was not a downer, it raises the question of how many other, seemingly healthy animals infected with mad cow went undetected and were approved for human consumption." Yes, it does.

Mitchell also identifies - or at least reports Louthan identifying - the USDA vet who inspected the cow in question: Rodney Thompson, who may be a) scapegoated by the USDA for neglect of duty or b) one of the organizers of this hoax, and thus due for a promotion. There's a strong case to be made, though, for "neglect of duty," and ex-USDA vets such as Lester Friedlander and Tom D'Amura go on record with it, using the phrase. In typical USDA fashion, Steve Cohen first evades questions about the discrepancies, then goes ahead with the outright lies: "It's not a requirement to get a temperature," Cohen said. But this is directly contradicted by a training course FSIS gives to its new meat inspectors to assist them in conducting inspection of live animals. "The course document, obtained by UPI, advises inspectors: 'You must take the temperature of all downers.'" Gosh, that seems pretty clear. The training documents also blow apart the No-Temp-Cause-the-Cow-Was-Lying-Down defense. To recap: USDA lied about cow being a downer, they lied about USDA procedure, they'll lie again tomorrow, most likely. What a country.
UPDATE 2/25: Now they're trying to fudge this crucial issue: DeHaven is floating the line that "both accounts [USDA's and Vern's] could in fact be true." Don't let him get away with that BS, Steve.