What could be worse than McDonalds layoffs?

[JailForBush]

Since this is the year of McJobs - thanks largely to pResident Dumbass and outsourcing, how would Republicans fare in the polls if Mad Cow Disease forced McDonalds to lay off thousands of workers (many of them presumably former white-collar workers)?

I mean, would that give the Democrats ammunition, or WHAT?

And what would be the Republicans' defense? "I'm sick of Democrats rejoicing in America's misery, laughing at combat deaths in Iraq, our failure to find weapons of mass destruction, growing hatred of the U.S., our ruined economy, endless attacks on civil liberties and the Constitution, frightening environmental destruction - don't these idiots GET IT?!"

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Mad Cow

is political gold, as much as I hate what this is going to do to the
country

[Dagaz]

2. Not really

Cows usually contract the disase as a calf and it's only detected later. Experts think that this cow probably became infected 4 years ago since it's 4 1/2 now.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Yes, but guess who is hiding the records

USDA for 2001 and 2002

Also it is the LOBBY, BEEF LOBBY, who has prevented any and ALL
legislation from comhing through

We can prove that through voting records it has been the GOP, chiefly, (with some Democrats from the proper states) that prevented this from reaching the desk of the President

I tell you, this can be Political Gold.

Oh and for a historical parallel, this reminds me of the early 1900, and the horrors that led to a whole slew of Progressive legislation... this is coming in the next ten years

[Bolo Boffin]

9. I did not know that.

So of course the big deal when one cow is diagnosed. Jiminy Cricket.

[mouse7]

12. Ummm...

That may be one of those things that are better recognized silently, but not spoken. I'm not criticising you. I'm just pointing out that we don't want to be thought of as being cheering while this disaster crushes cattle country.

If we get off as lucky as the Canadians did, you're talking 11 figure damage estimates. If an apocalypse like hit the UK happens, it could seriously damage the US economy for decades.

[Cleita]

4. Those jobs could go too.

If no one can afford to eat even at McDonalds, their profits will go down.

[KFC]

5. This story is exactly squat

Just keeping the people scared. Now I am afraid of beef.

Talk about sheep.

[nolabels]

10. It came for from sheep, but it was man that made it spread ..........

into the Bovines (I know people know that). Just found it funny to find this article from FIVE YEARS AGO



http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98sep/madcow.htm

Britain's horrifying experience taught us a few things, but perhaps not enough to preclude an outbreak of our own

by Ellen Ruppel Shell

HE recent British epidemic of mad-cow disease, and the twenty-seven cases of fatal human disease associated with it, have led to the slaughter of 3.7 million cattle and the near destruction of Great Britain's cattle industry. Observers have suggested that the outbreak was a factor in the toppling of John Major's Tory government. Mad-cow disease continues to haunt Britain, and Europe in general, even though the European Community, having made extraordinary efforts, appears to have contained the outbreak. The latest figures show that the incidence of the disease in Britain is less than a tenth what it was at the epidemic's height, when more than a thousand new cases were being diagnosed in cattle every week. Still, the pummeling of the British beef industry continues. Last December the British government banned the sale of most cuts of beef on the bone, including ribs, T-bone steaks, and oxtails. With (as of this writing) a worldwide ban on British beef exports, and a severe decline in domestic sales, the price of British beef has fallen to its lowest level in twenty years. Cattle tainted by association with the disease are quickly disposed of.

A similar epidemic in the United States would be even more catastrophic. Britain before the outbreak had roughly 10 million cows; we have more than 100 million. Cattle and dairy farmers are at the heart of thousands of rural economies, and earn approximately $54 billion a year through meat and milk sales; more than $100 billion in additional revenue is generated by related industries and services. No wonder, then, that when the British epidemic hit the front pages, two and a half years ago, the U.S. government reacted emphatically. The Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Agriculture rallied to reassure us that there was no sign of the disease in this country. Yet most of the conditions thought to have led to the epidemic in Britain also existed here. Despite official protestations to the contrary, and despite regulatory changes recently implemented, some of them still do. Given current agricultural practices, avoiding an American outbreak of this disease may be only a matter of chance. The question is, how lucky do we feel?

As those who followed the horrifying unfolding of the British epidemic will recall, mad-cow disease is one in a category of progressive neurological disorders called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). The fatal human nervous-system disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, is also among these, and the panic in Britain began when a new variant of this gruesome affliction was discovered in association with mad-cow disease. Many things about TSE in general, and the relationship between mad-cow disease and CJD in particular, remain unclear. But that's hardly reassuring. The chain of reasoning that should make us worry begins with the fact that the economics of our modern meat and milk industries dictate that many farm animals get food supplements derived in part from rendered animal protein. The rendered animal protein they eat may expose them to the TSE infectious agent, which is thought to have the potential to cross the species barrier between animals, even into human beings. TSE is 100 percent fatal, and in human beings takes up to thirty years to manifest symptoms. Thus if, however unintentionally, we encourage the spread of TSE infection, a great deal of damage will be done before we have visible signs of the problem.

It makes sense, then, that if we make mistakes in our efforts to prevent a new variant of CJD in this country, they be mistakes on the side of caution -- perhaps a higher degree of caution than we have so far exhibited(snip)

[kentuck]

6. Did you just make this shit up??

Man, what a mind!

[JailForBush]

7. Why, thank you. N/T

[Ernesto]

8. Try this: McDonald-Douglas teaching China to build an AIR FORCE

Yes Boeing is out-sourcing wing constuction for it's next generation air liners to China. And of course McDonald-Douglas is now part of BOEING. How is that for a play on words?.... Hey, aren't repukes concerned about naional security issues?.. Money talks, repukes walk..... Merry Xmas!

[wanderingbear]

11. Micky Dee's is toast...

Along whith the entire beef industry..

[mouse7]

13. Not quite, but close.

"I'll have 4 orders of McNuggets, 2 Filet o' Fish, and 2 McSalads..."

Just doesn't have the same ring to it, huh?

[OneBlueSky]

14. now that's gotta be the depth of career failure . . .

getting laid off from Mickey D's . . . God, can you get any lower? . . . particularly bad if you're a career MacDonalds associate (or whatever the hell they're calling them these days) . . . I mean, what else can you do with a degree from Hamburger U? . . .