Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Personal Injury Law Blogs -> Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Law

: Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer

Melamine Contaminated Milk Situation is Upsetting - The President's Schedule that is

By Steve Lombardi

This is a story about weaners, not whiners! Get it, stupid?

Let's begin with a fairy tale I made up, titled the Gee Dubbya Blues.

Once upon a time there was a President called Bush.

Who hadn't a clue about what to do?

So he stayed away, but took his pay,

And we held our breath till the day . he finally went away.

We'll sure miss ol Gee Dubbya.

Bush say's he's working hard on economic turmoil

"Bush was supposed to spend the day in Alabama and Florida raising money for Republicans and talking energy policy. But he canceled the trip to focus on what is unfolding as the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression." Seattle Times, September 18, 2008

Let me get this straight, his Wall Street buddies are having a credit problem so he reorganizes his schedule. But what about that contaminated baby formula? Wasn't that an issue high enough on your radar screen to send someone out to check on imported Chinese products? You know, just to make sure it wasn't coming into the United States. Huh? How about if we look at the numbers, it might save you some time.

Melamine contamination of baby formula is back in the news this morning with Beijing reporting the numbers. The Wall Street Journal reports:

• 22 - The number of producers that added melamine to baby formula.
• 6,244 - The number of babies believed to be sickened by drinking this contaminated milk.
• 158 - The number of babies with acute kidney failure.
• 69 - The number of batches of baby formula contaminated with melamine.
• 20% - The percentage of product tested for melamine that was positive for melamine.
• 4 - So far the number of dealers arrested.
• $3.45 billion - The 2008 sales revenue for milk formula in China.
• 191.7% - The increase in revenue since 2003 for milk formula sales.
• 43% - The percentage of Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., owned by a New Zealand dairy company, Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd.
• $107 million - The amount Fonterra paid to purchase it's 43% stake in Sanlu in 2005.
• $11.1 Billion - Fonterra's annual revenue.
• 120 - The number of markets around the world that Fonterra exports dairy to.
• #1 - The claim by Fonterra as to its position in the world for supplying industrial dairy ingredients.
• 11,000 - The number of dairy farmers Fonterra represents.
• 5 - The number of dairy companies larger than Fonterra worldwide.
• 2 - The number of known baby deaths associated with drinking melamine contaminated formula.
• 5 - The boy's age, in months, who first died from ingesting melamine contaminated formula.
• 8 - The girl's age, in months, who next died from ingesting melamine contaminate formula.
• 0 - The number of company executives likely to be prosecuted.
• 0 - The number of days any company executive is likely to spend in jail over this.
• 466 - The number of days President Bush has spent at his ranch. (As of August 2, 2008)
• 327- The number of days President Bush has spent attending fundraising events. (As of August 2, 2008)
• $800,000,000.00 - The minimum number of dollars Bush has raised at those 327 events.
• 95 - The number of sporting events President Bush has attended while a resident of the White House.
• 365 - The minimum number of days President Bush has spent at this Crawford Ranch.
• 450 - The minimum number of days President Bush has spent at Camp David. The Camp David trips total 142 or more, adding up to 450 days.
• 19 - The number of commencement speeches attended by President Bush.
• 3000 - The number of criminals asking for a pardon from President Bush.
• $68 million - The Wall Street Christmas bonus for Goldman Sach's Chairman and CEO.
• $16.5 billion - Total bonuses handed out by Goldman Sachs during 2007.
• $622,000 - The average wage paid to Goldman Sachs employees during 2007.
• 26,400 - The number of Goldman Sachs employees worldwide.
• $40 million - The bonus Sachs paid Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for 2006.
• $35 million - The bonus paid to Lehman Brother's CEO for 2007.
• $121.1 billion - The total amount of bonuses Wall Street paid out during the Bush Presidency.
• $154.9 billion - The total amount in bonuses Wall Street paid out from 1997 to 2006.
• $9,642,869,128,003.72 - You know what this is.
• 304,750,576 - The number of Americans on the hook for the National Debt.
• $31,641.84 - The amount each of us, even those sick babies, owe for the National Debt.
• $1.79 billion - The daily increase in our National Debt since September 28, 2007.

• _?_ - President Bush's golf handicap? (See below)

On the links

President Bush stopped play golf on Oct. 13, 2003. He said he gave it up because "I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf."

Before he gave up the game, Mark Knoller of CBS News documented some of the highlights.

Cape Arundel Country Club, Kennebunkport, Maine, Aug. 4, 2002: "Bush hops out of golf cart at first tee and makes statement on latest suicide bombings in Israel, describing himself as 'distressed' over it. Then says, 'Now watch this drive.' Round ends at 8:34 a.m."

Ridgewood County Club, Waco, Aug. 10, 2002: "After first tee shot, Bush confers with pool. Answers questions on Iraq. Bush calls it the 'enemy until proven otherwise.'"

Ridgewood, Aug. 29, 2003: "Receives call from Condi Rice informing him of bombing in Baghdad of UN headquarters hotel. Receives another call from Rice and cuts short round of golf during 12th hole."

More than 6,000 infants may have drunk the contaminated milk powder, and 1,253 become sick, with 53 in a serious condition, and two deaths: a 5-month-old boy and an 8-month-old girl from Gansu Province on May 1 and July 22 respectively-long before the incident become public.^{[10] [11]} Many of the sick babies had developed kidney stones.

Phil Gramm has been nice enough to diagnose our country's economic problems. His diagnosis: You're a whiner suffering from a mental recession. Or did he mean weaners? Phil, are those sick babies parents whiners too? But what about the weaners? You know wean them off the bottle? I know they can't vote but their parent's sure can. Are you Phil Gramm or Grimm, of Grimm's Fairy Tales?

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, a top economic adviser to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, referred to the economic slowdown as "a mental recession" and called the United States "a nation of whiners."

The comments, in an interview with The Washington Times, could hurt the campaign's efforts to convince working-class Americans that McCain feels their pain.

Hurt the McCain campaign effort with working class Americans? Ya Think!

MY FINAL QUESTION: Who or what is leading this country and to where? ©

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on September 18, 2008 (boomark / email).