¶ The end of the Dean?: With only $5 million left from a $43 million war chest and victories in neither Iowa nor New Hampshire, the Dean campaign regroups. At least Dean still leads in fund raising, organization, and delegates.

I confess that I never saw the meta issue of "electability" as the key to Democratic victory, but it appears to be the winning point for Sen. John Kerry, aka Captain Botox, in the Democratic primaries thus far. Some 75 percent of Iowa voters opposed the Iraq war that Kerry voted to support, but the vast majority of them voted for Kerry as nominee. Indeed, what we've seen is that issue-based voters go overwhelmingly for Dean but "electability" voters break sharply for Kerry. Many see him as the best shot at defeating Bush in November, and most rightly conclude that defeating Bush should be the central preoccupation of the coming political year.

This raises the interesting question: Why isn't Howard Dean electable? Although some will disagree with him on the issues, polling actually indicates the reverse tends to be true. Dean's issue profile is, for the most part, incredibly attractive to Democrats (and independents).

Is it his lack of military service? It certainly could be, though that never seemed a major hurdle within the Democratic Party for Bill Clinton. Kerry's got a stellar military resumé, to be sure, and the Democrats have longed for a strong military guy to help them foist off their "soft-on-defense" psychological complex. I don't think that's it, though. Most opposed the Iraq war, but it's not been a voting issue in the primaries. Kerry's military service seems to be just a nice bonus rather than some kind of necessary qualification.

Another idea is that the media-created firestorm about the Iowa "I-have-a-scream" concession speech ripped away in "presidential" veneer Dean might have had, but it fails to explain the Iowa results themselves. (One note on the Iowa speech: The place was raucous and Dean was using a noise-cancellation microphone. Those in attendance found nothing wrong with his energetic speech. Even his yell at the end was barely heard above all the crowd noise. Only because television distorts reality did any of this become a campaign issue. The real question is whether or not the networks did this intentionally.) There might be something to this—I hesitate to overestimate the intellect of the American public—but I like to think that most folks saw Dean's rah-rah speech for what it was. As I've said, if you're going to disqualify Dean from the oval office for that, then you deserve the president you get.

Could it be that Dean's "unelectability" is due to his position on gay civil unions? Most of the country opposes Dean on this particular issue (wrongly in my view). Ultimately, I don't know the answer, but I'm very curious to find out. "Electability," after all, if a meta issue. That is to say, that it's an overview of a candidate, not a specific issue itself, because no candidate is electable if you don't vote for them. Could all of this be a discomfiture with Dean's position on gay rights more palatably stated as "electability"? I hope we find out.

Meanwhile the campaign grinds on. After spending enormously in Iowa and New Hampshire with unsatisfactory results, Dean's conserving his cash (some $5 million cash on hand). He continues to raising big dollars—roughly $2.2 million since Iowa—and he is unconstrained by federal rules on the expenditure side of things since he did not take federal matching funds—something every other candidate except Kerry did.

Others do not have Dean's kind of fund raising power or cash on hand. Lieberman, who should drop out after the February 3 contests, has about $350,000 left. Clark, after raising $14 million, has $3 million. Kucinich has $1.1 million presently. I'm probably reading the FEC reports wrong because Kerry's filing looks like he only has $156,698 on hand. That can't be right. And presently Edwards' end-of-2003 report is nowhere to be seen. So who knows how it's going for him.

The germane point, however, is that all candidates except Dean and Kerry have accepted federal matching funds and are severely constrained in how much money they can spend. If any of these candidates should "break out" and achieve some measure of success, it will be relatively short-lived. Dean and Kerry will swamp them in organization and advertising by March 2, Super Tuesday, when over half of all delegates are decided.

Getting to Super Tuesday with some momentum and with some cash is now the Dean strategy. If he can hit 15 percent an any of the February 3 states—Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina—Dean can pick up some delegates, and he will do so without spending any more money than he already has. The theory, thus far untried and untested in presidential politics, is that if he can weather the losses on February 3 and make a go at Michigan and Washington which vote a week later (and in which Dean polls comparatively well), then Dean can use that momentum to challenge Kerry in New York and California on Super Tuesday. At that point, some of the other candidates—perhaps all of them—will be out of cash and the issue difference between Dean and Kerry will come into sharper focus. Since Dean wins on issues, so it goes, he'll have a shot at beating Kerry and winning the nomination.

As I say this is all untried in presidential politics, but the reality is that the supernova failure of the Iowa-New Hampshire strategy has made it the only reasonable alternative left to Dean. If he weren't the candidate he is and if he weren't delivering the message of change he is, his candidacy would already be dead. Maybe it is anyway, but at least this way he gets a second shot at it.

As for Kerry, I'm afraid the Botox brouhaha represents exactly the type of weasel-like behavior that turned me away from him originally. Does anyone really care if the man had Botox injections? No. I think he looks better, my dad thinks he looks worse. It's subjective. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that Kerry has denied not only receiving Botox treatments by also knowing anything about it. And I dare say that if somebody sticks a needle in your forehead, you'll know about it. So good Lord, man, why not just opt for the truth? Howard Dean has his faults, but he'll give it to you straight (and likely with both barrels).

Of course, Kerry's fib about Botox is nothing compared to Bush's lies about, well, virtually everything. Don't mistake me for saying that I think Kerry is less trustworthy than Bush—he's just less honest than Dean.

¶ Silver wings of morning: You know it makes me wonder, sitting in the quiet slipstream, rolling in the thunder.—Neil Young, Look Out For My Love

I am working in Portland again for a couple of days. These are long 10+ hour shifts with a client as we put together a catalog for his business. Certain elements of the work are fun, but I miss Erin and Jonah and the work usually isn't at such a pace that it can crowd out those feelings.

It seems strange—maybe even silly—to feel longing, since I'm not really gone for more than 48 hours. Fortunately, I can set up iPhoto's slideshow to run pictures of Jonah on Trin while I'm slogging through all the InDesign work on the client's G4. In those brief moments when I'm waiting for the Mac to save a file or finish sending to a print server, I can glance over at Jonah's happy mug. God, he's a beautiful boy.

I am in Battle Ground this evening staying as I frequently do with Joe and Carol, our friends and Jonah's Godparents. Sleeping over at their cozy home cuts over an hour of travel time, allowing me to stay up later and/or sleep longer. It also allows me the chance to see them, which is perhaps an even bigger advantage.

Today is the day after Carol's birthday, but she's feeling a little under the weather this evening and is heading to bed early, so I won't have the chance to ask her how it was. For a person who feels somewhat unwell, Carol looks radiant. (How come when I feel unwell I look very much a person who was hit by a car? Who do I talk to about this?) I hope she feels better soon.

Joe's had a problem receiving email for the last several days. Joe tries my troubleshooting suggestions while I gratefully chow down on a chicken and rice dinner Joe and Carol made for me. I finish the delicious meal. Joe's gone without email success in the meantime. I whip out Trinity and start combing the web. Solution on the Apple Discussion Boards (also on MacInTouch). The answer? Delete the PayPal email from the In Box on the Comcast email server. For whatever reason, PayPal emails cause the Mail.app in MacOS X 10.2 to bonk. Bizarre problem and unexpected solution. Cool that Joe and I got to futz around with MacOS X, though. Makes me wish I had more time to do so. Joe works tomorrow, so no all-night Carmaggedon or Aliens v. Predator games for us. Good thing, since I've probably got another 10 hour slog tomorrow.

After heading to bed I hop on the Kann Airport network and have a bit of an iChat with Dave. Jonah's not left me much time for chatting lately, so it's good to connect with Dave again online, however briefly. After logging off, I should've turned out the light, but I end up messing with iTunes and clicking some 50 songs into my shopping cart. Some day I may even buy them. Of course, I say that about the iPod too.

Thanks to everyone who helped make today a good day.

¶ A three-fer Friday: That's right, more on Jonah, Howard Dean, and the USDA.

The J-Man had a cold the last few days, moving more stuff out his nose than I'd ever care to see. It also means we've had relatively little sleep here at Davison HQ. Made the important discovery, at 2 AM, that the humidifer we've been using seems to keep him awake. No idea how that didn't dawn on us before. Did I mention the sleep deprivation?

Jonah's pulling himself up nicely nowadays and will even slide/walk along walls. I can leave him in an area for a few moments to grab a glass of water or answer a phone since he doesn't move all that quickly yet, but that's sure not to last too much longer. Given the amount of attention he requires, my days of Perry Mason are history. (I'll always have a thing for Della, though.)

I watched excerpts of Howard Dean's supposed "melt-down" Iowa concession speech from Monday night. I have no idea what the media hubbub is except that Dean represents a fundamental challenge to Big Business, and Big Media is Big Business. Since most of the media (particuarly cable commentators) are somewhere between right-wing and fascist, any chance they get to damage Dean's candidacy they'll take. Honestly, Monday night's rally—where Dean was thanking and exhorting his college-age volunteers for their three weeks in Iowa—if that's how you pick or reject your presidential candidates, I dare say you deserve the president you get. Dean was having a good time, the crowd was having a good time, and this is nothing but a media-created firestorm (which isn't to say, unfortunately, that it's irrelevant). He may not win New Hampshire, but he still has the money and organization to win the nomination.

Every time in the last few months when I've reflected on the worthlessness of the USDA to protect our food supply, I think, "Well, it can't get any worse." And then I read another story about the USDA and am amazed all over again. First, it was the finding that meat suppliers any many cases pick the meat that the USDA will test. Can you say conflict of interest? What are the odds that the suppliers are picking at random or picking some hunk of beef that looks particularly iffy? In other words, what good is an independent testing agency if the testing procedures aren't really independent? Indeed, the USDA's own meat inspectors have come forward to say that the testing procedures are indequate.

Second, is this story from The Oregonian, which begins, "More than a million head of cattle are shipped from Canada to the United States each year. But when Canadians discovered a case of mad cow disease in May, the U.S. response was swift and certain: We need no new precautions." See if you're not as appalled as I am. Obviously I think you ought to be.

Third, did you know that the USDA declared a state of emergency in Washington State? The didn't publicize it because, presumably, the don't want us to stop scarfing our Whoppers, but being secretive about bad news doesn't work in the long-term. (Mainly because it destroys your credibility. Maybe the USDA figured at this point that there was no downside.)

Finally, the issue of downer cows reemerged today. Set aside that the Bush administration waited until it was a major problem before removing downer cows from the human food chain. (The Democrats had a bill last year that would've removed downers. The Republicans killed it.) Today we read in the news that the Mad Cow that started this whole public relations mess for the beef industry wasn't a downer cow! The USDA classifed it as such, but three workers at the plant told The Oregonian that's wrong. The cow could walk just fine. So removing downers, while undoubtedly making the beef supply safer, turns out to be insufficient, a word that should be branded across the USDA logo.

Once again, I can only conclude that if you're trusting the USDA, you're trusting an organization that's gladly put the interests of the US beef industry ahead of your health and safety. I say buy organic beef or go vegetarian. The US beef supply may be relatively safe (or not!), but thanks to the USDA and the cattlemen's assocation, we have absolutely no way of knowing.

¶ The day after: There are multiple ways of being sore.

Wrapped up as I was in the Iowa caucus results, I neglected to mention that yesterday morning Joe and I had ourselves some very fine games of one-on-one basketball. Joe refused to play zone defense—a shocker since all my plans were predicated on it—and I'm certain I would've done much better had he simply chosen to guard, say, the top of the key and left me unmarked. Nonetheless, we again proved fairly evenly matched, which is my way of saying that I hope he's as sore as I am today or else I'm going to call the Battle Ground police department and accuse him of beating up on an old man. I haven't been this stiff since last soccer season at least.

Beside enjoying the game we both have the perculiar quality of not wanting to quit. We only played roughly an hour and half , but if I hadn't had to return to Salem, well, we'd probably both have died from exhaustion somewhere in the mid-afternoon. Good times, good times.

Once I got back to Salem, I met with Bob VanDeusen, our realtor from days of yore, to take a look at a local property. I had hopes that despite the lack of curb appeal this particular home would emerge as a diamond in the rough. The listing described it as "needing some TLC," a phrase that is a gross abuse of the word "some." Indeed, it became readily apparent that the word "some" had no business being anywhere near the "TLC" so needed. In short, the place was a disappointing hellhole of a meth house in need of either $100,000+ of fix it work or complete demolition (but not without an asbestos abatement crew!). I really enjoyed seeing Bob, though.

I confess to being as surprised and disappointed as anyone with Dean's third place Iowa finish. Dean HQ did a lousy job managing the expectations game. This does not mean that I think Kerry (or Edwards) will win New Hampshire. Despite having the Big Mo, neither will find New Hampshire much like Iowa in political temperment, and I think Dean's message will resonate more strongly there. A loss by Kerry in New Hampshire spells trouble for his campaign. For Edwards a third place finish is victory...if only he hadn't accepted federal matching funds he might have a better shot. Could make a decent Veep choice, though. So I've lost neither hope nor belief in Dean. Nonetheless, what I've said before stays true: I've got my guy and maybe you've got yours. If mine doesn't win the nomination, I'll happily support yours against the worst president this nation has seen in my lifetime. Anyone but Bush in '04.

¶ The Iowa caucus: Candidates with a viable campaign after the Iowa Caucus please step forward. Uh, not so fast Richie Gephardt.

Never before had I witnessed the messy democracy that is the Iowa caucus. I'm not convinced this is the best way to elect a president, but it sure made for exciting reality TV on C-SPAN. All this political horse trading was going on , and I didn't understand half of it. What I did understand, all too readily, were the results. My horse did not win this race.

John Kerry's 38% victory translates into 20 delegates. That resusitates his campaign for New Hampshire, and I dare say that he'll probably poll neck and neck with Dean there by the end of the week. John Edwards' 32% showing equals 17 delegates, and his campaign should likewise receive a big polling and fundraising boost. Howard Dean's surprisingly lackluster 18% finish still gives him 7 delegates which isn't bad considering Richard Gephardt's disappointing 11% finish gave him none. Rumor this evening has it that Gephardt will exit the race tomorrow. Conventional wisdom says this helps the Edwards' campaign mostly since they tend to appeal to the same voter demographic. [FYI on the delegate count: Dean leads in that tally thanks to unelected "super delegates" of which he's already claimed the majority. Current breakdown, assuming the Iowa numbers are solid, is Dean 142, Kerry 79, Clark 40.]

Although I like Dick Gephardt and think he's a class act, I confess to being happy that we're finally getting down to brass tacks. The remaining candidates (Dean, Kerry, Edwards, Kucinich, Clark, Sharpton, and Lieberman) still equate to too many bodies on a stage to hold an effective debate, so with luck we'll have Kucinich, Sharpton, and Lieberman drop soon. That'd be just fine by me.

The worst news of the evening was also the best: Dean's third place finish means a more extended political season. To junkies like me that's reason to rejoice even on a day when my guy didn't do so well. That said, I wonder if this doesn't mean a split convention for the Demos down the road. We've not really gotten Clark into the mix yet, and he has his own particular draws against all the candidates. (He's a war veteran like Kerry, he's anti-Iraq invasion like Dean, and he's a southerner like Edwards.) Perhaps the democratic electorate splits four ways and we go to the convention without a nominee.

If so, who's the candidate? Assuredly not Dean, who would oust the Clintonista-led DNC were it in his power (and given the animus they've displayed toward him, I'm not sure many would blame him for doing it). I suspect it would be a Kerry/Edwards ticket, which is fairly potent against Bush/Cheney. Not sure how they'd deal with Dean and supporters in that scenario, though, and given Dean's base, they'd have to come up with something.

But all that is fairly far afield. Iowa is one small Midwest state and the results, while important (especially to Gephardt), carry diminishing meaning as we move forward. New Hampshire should be a dogfight, but the real tale of the tape will come Feb. 3 as multiple states hold primaries. Look for more candidates—notably Lieberman—to drop out after that.

¶ Party time with Dr. Lucky: Joe and Carol host another great one!

Happy birthday wishes to Joe and Carol, who hosted an awesome get-together attended by Eileen and Dave; Susan; Matt, Ginger, and Laura; Dennis and Maria; and Erin, Jonah, and me. We ate a great chicken enchillada dinner, listened to various iTunes-based music selections, watched a couple photo slideshows, played a DVD-based party game (called Scene It, I think), and chatted about the wide variety of topics that get-togethers of this type tend to excite. Later in the evening, we played Kill Dr. Lucky, an abstract thinking board game that rapidly proved a whole lotta fun. I dare say that this is a game that will reappear at future get-togethers. It is a very good time.

Afterward, Erin, Jonah, and I spent a lovely night at Joe and Carol's, Jonah enjoying the best night's sleep he's had in a week or more. Our heartiest happy birthday wishes and continuing thanks to Joe and Carol!

¶ Bullet the blue sky: And anything else I think is worth talking about. That's right, bullet-points ahead.

Just so nobody thinks I'm slacking, I'll start by mentioning that it's been a busy week. Here's some of the stuff I wish I had more time to write about:

The Iowa caucus is less than a week away, and we're seeing the inevitable tightening as zero hour approaches. I think Dean will hold on for the win with Gephardt a close second, but a big story is that Kerry looks to be finishing strongly. I don't know that this would give him much boost into New Hampshire (where only Clark is making significant headway against Dean's once double-digit lead), but it may keep Kerry around longer than anticipated. Mosley-Braun's withdrawal from the race will help in future debates since, although she had some good things to say, the fewer people on stage, the better. Her endorsement of Dean is fine, but Dean's supporters plus Braun's supporters is roughly equivalent to Dean's supporters plus zero. Should Dean win, I'm sure she'll get to be Ambassador to New Zealand again or something.

Parents of infants take note: A new study out of the St. Louis University School of Medicine says that babies who sleep in adult beds are 40 times more likely to suffocate than babies who sleep in standard cribs. Says study author Dr. James Kemp: "The surfaces adults sleep on are chock-full of places where babies might get trapped. There are well-established standards for cribs, and that's where babies should be."

I've hopped back on the tread mill in training, believe it or not, for the soccer season that starts up in May. I've not trained for a soccer season since high school. I hope it makes a difference.

President Bush's support of NASA and moon and Mars exploration is perhaps the best thing to come out of his presidency. He's made such scientific endeavor utterly unaffordable, but if we're going to spend money, better that we push the human knowledge forward than illegally invade foreign countries.

I don't talk much about masculinity or the meaning of manhood, but I will say that in the past year I've never felt closer to being who I was meant to be than when I held Jonah in my arms and gently rocked him to sleep.

United Press International's Freedom of Information Act request for USDA records finally came through. The results are as appalling as many of us expected. What did UPI find out? (1) The USDA conducted no tests whatsoever during the 2002-2003 timeframe on any federally registered slaughterhouses in Washington State where the Mad Cow turned up. (2) The USDA tested at fewer than 100 of the 700 slaughterhouses nationwide. (3) Some of the biggest meat processing plants weren't tested at all. To all this I'd add: (4) The USDA is, in my opinion, next to worthless as a guarantor of meat safety. (5) If you're not convinced that organic meat or vegetarian is the way to go, I have no idea what it might take to convince you.

The problem with our Mazda 626 was the distributor not the alternator. So we've popped another $220 into the car, hoping it will last about 30 months until we can trade it in for a minivan. It will never leave Salem again so long as we own it unless it's headed for a demolition derby or a supporting role in a Monster Truck event.

Thanks to Dave for stopping by this evening. Great to see ya!

My SuperBowl picks: Carolina Panthers v. New England Patriots with the Patriots winning. I'd rather see the Colts or Panthers win, but if it's not the Steelers I don't care that much.

The US spent $276 billion on the military in 2003 excluding the Iraq misadventure. That roughly five times what China spends on it's military, and roughly equal to the next top nine countries military expenditures combined. When in 20 years people ask why the US declined as a country, this plus the Bush presidency is your answer.

If you're thinking that getting into web design would be a really interesting and cool thing to do, you're right. Just make sure the language you learn is XHTML. XHTML is a transitional language between HTML and XML, and while it's very similar to the older HTML, XHTML is backward and forward compatible whereas HTML is not. (If this doesn't makes sense yet, don't worry, it will.)

Jonah's really enjoying walking about. With my help, he takes little tours all over the upstairs and enjoys it immensely. This makes us both happy.

¶ He sits, crawls, stands, walks: A lot can happen in a week.

Some of this is just me being a proud parent, but Jonah's growth in the last week amazed me. I noticed the big increase in his feet first, but that's not the growth I'm talking about. When I left on Monday morning Jonah could sit and sort of get in and out of the position. He now does this readily. He could crawl forward a little bit, but usually he ended up going backward (much to his dismay). He crawls fine now. Before I left, Jonah would climb on a person laying down, that or sitting being about as close as he could go to getting vertical by himself. Today I watched him grab a table, hoist himself up, and start walking around it. In fact, given a hand to hold onto, Jonah can now walk unsteadily about. He may look like a drunken sailor doing it, but being a biped is a very impressive accomplishment.

The snow and ice of the last week that paralyzed the Northwest has mostly melted away. A lot of tree branches came down out front. Our neighbors Fred and Jeff saw huge branches litter their front yard, in one case splitting vertically a smaller dogwood tree. Although we were unaffected, they were without power for three days. (We ended up stringing an extension cord from our house to theirs so they could keep their freezers operating. Since we couldn't also supply enough power to heat their place, Fred and Jeff moved out and stayed with relatives.) I'm going to be talking again with the City of Salem about removing the big tree out front. Fred's writing a letter to the same effect. God knows, if the tree came down and damaged my house in any way I'd sue the City without blinking. But who knows? Maybe after this storm the City will get rid of the hideous thing.

Speaking of hideous things, our Mazda 626 is headed to the mechanic again. I think it's another alternator problem which, almost unbelievably, would be good news since that particular piece is under a three year warranty. If it's the ignition switch or ignition module, I guess we'll pony up the cash to get it working but not happily. Whatever it is, the car is destined to stay within the confines of the Salem city limits for as long as we own it.

¶ Happy in the Bay: From MacWorld to Return of the King, a great three days in the Bay Area.

Dave and I spent Tuesday at MacWorld in San Francisco. Slightly smaller show than previous years, but we found lots of goodies to inspire techno-lust. For those interested, see the coverage in the Mac section.

On Wednesday we lunched at Habana Cuba, a client of mine in San Jose, then headed to East Palo Alto to check out the big, relatively new Ikea store and the more upscale Home Depot Expo. We were unimpressed on the whole with the Ikea store. Most of the items struck us as cheaply made, and many of the designs weren't anything we'd be interested in regardless. Glad we did the store tour once nonetheless. Afterward we went through Home Depot Expo, which holds a lot of high-end home furnishings. Always interesting.

On Thursday, we saw Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Viewing number two for me, number one for Dave. Terrific movie. Can't wait for the extended DVD. Prior to the movie, we drove up into Los Altos Hills to look at some of the multimillion dollar homes. Too bad we didn't find an open house. It would've been interesting to poke around the interior.

¶ #$@&! Barbra Streisand!: Neither rain nor sleet nor anything else will stop me from killing my Mazda dead, dead, dead when I get back from MacWorld. I blame Canada.

Snowy, icy conditions this morning made for a treacherous drive to Eugene to meet Dave so that we could jointly venture down to MacWorld SF 2004. Not so treacherous, however, that our Mazda 626 couldn't add more danger and unwanted excitement to the mix. We've confined Six to Willamette Vally-only excursions since it crapped out repeatedly on our Montana trip over the summer. Despite thousands of dollars in repairs since then, no matter. The Mazda died repeatedly about half an hour out of Salem. I won't bore you with the full, harrowing tale except to say that if I could afford to turn the car into a one inch cube I would gladly do so but only if I'm the one who gets to pull the lever. As it stands we'll confine it to Salem-area only driving and maybe see how much it costs to fix. If it can continue to get Erin to and from school that may be sufficient, but presently, I'm not liking the idea of anyone driving that car over 20 MPH without the hazards blinking. Who knows what we'll end up doing with it. I'll deal with it upon my return (after I retrieve it from the Subway Sandwich parklot where I left it, tongue hanging out).

As for the rest of the journey, Dave came up in his all-wheel-drive Impreza and we made Los Altos by 9:30 PM. A fun and impressive trip despite the lousy start. I'll have a MacWorld report sometime in the next few days.

¶ Safe at home: Sick, but safe and relatively sound we return to Salem where I launch another Mad Cow rant. Moo-ha-ha-ha.

Made it home alive and in one piece. Still a lot of snow everywhere but nothing that prevented us from getting anywhere or doing anything. Erin, Jonah, and I are all sick with colds, but last night we (finally!) got a full night's sleep, and the result may be that we're on the upswing. Not that we couldn't use a snow day at school, mind you.

I had a stack of newspapers to read upon our return from California. The Wall Street Journal had an interesting December 29, 2003 story called Scientific Data Offer No Proof of Beef Safety. Would it surprise anyone to learn that the USDA's assurances of a safe US beef supply are being challenged by the very scientist who won the Nobel for his mad cow disease work? I quote:

"They are making these sweeping statements for which they don't have the data," said Stanley Prusiner, the University of California, San Francisco, researcher who won a Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work on the malformed prion proteins linked to mad-cow and related ailments in humans, sheep and many other species.

...Today, scientists in Dr. Prusiner's laboratory say they think it's inevitable that beef cuts also will be shown to harbor mad-cow prions.

In short, the USDA has told everyone that the mad-cow-causing prions are only in brain matter and the spinal cord, which gets removed (theoretically—there could always be tissue splatter given the way the animals are killed) from the human food chain. Prusiner's group has found that the prions can also exist in muscle tissue. Is the risk high? Probably not. But it exists, despite USDA statements to the contrary, and provides yet another reason to question the information the Bush administration gives out.

On the brighter side, the Bush administration has reversed its position and now plans to exclude downer cattle from the food chain. Why they waited until it was an issue instead of supporting Democratic efforts to do this last Congress remains something of a mystery. (OK, not really: Bush is a cattleman himself. It's no surprise that he'd put the interests of the US beef industry ahead of consumer safety.)