Deirdre Schlunegger, the head of an organization named “STOP Food borne Illness,” warned recently on the Huffington Post website that the government won’t have enough money next year to implement the new safety inspections authorized by the Food Safety Modernization Act. That act was signed into law by President Obama last January, but the federal budget cuts demanded by Republicans may now prevent the food protection agencies from carrying it out.

Ms. Schlunegger says food safety should come first among our priorities, not after people have gotten sick. The Centers for Disease Control estimates 48 million cases of food-borne illness in this country each year, with 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. She says, “Farmers, food producers, transporters, and retailers of food products in this country need to be regulated by stricter laws that have deeper consequences.”

Considering that the National Basketball Association players individually make millions, it is hard to feel sorry for a bunch of guys who earn their living running back and forth trying to put a ball through a hoop.

Let me confess that I rarely watch any sport these days due to an extreme attention deficit problem brought on the by the endless commercials that interrupt the game. However, I am aware that the NBA and the players have reached an impasse in their negotiations. Their talks ended last Thursday despite or because of federal mediation efforts. Collective bargaining, as we have seen in Wisconsin and elsewhere, is an invitation to mayhem.

On November 9th, 2011 Americans will get an up close and personal demonstration of the new powers the US government has given itself over America’s broadcast services.

There will be a complete take over of the nation’s air waves, both television and radio – plus — cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers. The power to do this is now in the hands of the President. Only he has the authority to do this. (SOURCE)

On November 9th there will be a test of how effectively the system will work whenever the President decides he must speak to the American people reference an emergency that threatens the nation.

On February 19, 2009, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli put forth a marvelous patriotic rant for several minutes declaring that Americans should stand up and protest the Obama administration’s outrageous socialist policies. And he promised to organize a Chicago Tea Party to help publicize the cause later in July.

Little did he know at the time what he had wrought. He was cheered vehemently by millions of libertarians, conservatives, and independents throughout America. By April 15th “tea parties” in more than 750 cities held demonstrations. The fervor for revitalizing Samuel Adams’ 1773 Boston Tea Party rebellion against the oppressive English spread in waves across modern America. The call went out to stand against Washington’s domination of our lives just as the patriots of our founding era had done. And it was met magnificently. The protests swelled into July and culminated in a massive “taxpayers march on DC” on September 12, 2009 that numbered several hundred thousand marchers.

“Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.” – Philosopher Eric Hoffer

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is your President, Barack Hussein Obama, speaking to you on a very serious matter. I am coming to you on the newly established Emergency Alert System (ESA) that pre-empts all of radio, TV, cable and satellite networks and Internet communications so that your President can speak directly to all Americans at one time, on issues of national importance. I and I alone have the authority to determine what is a national emergency and I and I alone can shut down all forms of communication and speak to you from my thr ….. I mean the Oval Office.”

“It has come to my attention that the Tea Party movement and those who belong to Tea Party groups, along with rural landowners, are working against my policies and my rule and thus I have declared a national emergency to expunge this seditious movement from the ranks of compliant and obedient American citizens. Today, I have issued an executive order that declares all Tea Party members, or those who support the Tea Party with their donations, along with all rural landowners, as domestic terrorists and anarchists, subject to immediate arrest by all law enforcement officers and shot on sight if they resist. Those that survive will be incarcerated in the FEMA camps that we have established for this purpose and will receive no constitutional protections. These seditious radicals will be held without bail indefinitely and I have suspended their right of habeas corpus. President Lincoln got away with it. So can I!”

“If you see or know of a Tea Party member, you are required by my Executive Order No. 4333329576 to turn them into your local law enforcement. Not only that, it is your patriotic duty to do so. We are also calling on all of the “Occupy Wall Street” groups to do their part in getting these scoundrels off the streets and out of my hair. But I must warn you. Do not try to apprehend these criminals yourself. They will in all likelihood be carrying their bible, a rifle, a handgun and survival supplies. They are to be considered armed and dangerous. Take all appropriate precautions.”

“Until next time my loyal Americans, when once again I will be compelled to declare another national emergency and address you from the National Emergency Alert System, be strong, be brave, be faithful, be loyal and obey my rule without question, or you might just suffer the fate of the Tea Party.”

“THIS HAS BEEN A SPECIAL BROADCAST FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM. WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.”

When Goldman got huffy at a credit union honouring OWS and pulled its anniversary dinner funding, much more was at stake.

Mega-bank Goldman Sachs (assets $933 billion), has declared war on one of the smallest banks in New York (assets $30 million), the customer-owned community bank that happens to also be the banker for Friends of Liberty Plaza, Inc, also known as Occupy Wall Street. And you thought Goldman didn’t care.

The trouble began three weeks ago when the occupiers suddenly found their donation buckets filling with thousands of dollars, way more than needed for their pizza dinners. Suddenly, the anti-bank protesters needed a bank. Citibank and Chase certainly wouldn’t fit. So OWS opened an account at the not-for-profit Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union. Peoples has a unique federal charter – designated to open accounts for low-income folk from all over NewYork, available to those families earning less than $38,000 per year. (Disclosure: the CEO of the Peoples bank is my dearly beloved ex. But that’s another story.)

Goldman Sachs had also joined up with the Peoples bank. Goldman partners reportedly earn a bit more than $38k per annum, yet Goldman’s association so far was limited to giving the credit union $5,000 toward the little bank’s 25th anniversary celebration dinner. Goldman’s largesse was acknowledged on the dinner invites – along with the night’s honoree: Occupy Wall Street.

When a Goldman exec saw its gilded name next to Occupy Wall Street, the financial giant expressed much displeasure. In fact, my sources say, Goldman threatened legal action unless the credit union gave up the $5,000 and reprinted the invite sans the Sachs moniker. Goldman Sachs did not respond to our requests for comment on the affair.

So far, it’s a cute story: tiny bank uses Goldman’s money to fete some tent-dwellers who are denouncing Sachs as the Giant Vampire Squid.

But there’s a lot more at stake in this battle than a $5,000 donation gone wrong. Underneath, it’s a battle royal for control of tens of billions of dollars in government mandated “community reinvestment” funds.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are complaining about everything from corporations to having to repay student loans. Is America the victim of its own success? Have we created a generation of self-entitled cry babies?