9 cases of mad cow in Idaho?

It sure looks like it. This is a classic example of the failures of self-regulation, a theme which the GOP always loves. In this case, it was Newt and his lot who couldn't take enough money from the cattle industry which broke with science and common sense and allowed the industry to police itself. The result has been outbreaks of e.coli and mad cow. The e.coli outbreaks have less to do with undercooking the meat and more to do with feces being spread in the meat due to the slaughterhouse conditions of self-regulation.

The mad cow problem is also connected to this new era of self-regulation, thanks to laws that allow the cattle industry to feed cattle, vegetarian animals by nature, leftover scraps of meat and ground bone (bone!) from animals including other cattle. One theory these days is that the sickness could have come from south Asia. How? Well, this modern technique of feeding cattle includes buying slop from anywhere in the world (it's cheaper than grain, easier than cattle roaming field eating natural grass) which includes dumps which are know to include dead human remains washed ashore after burials. The press has all too often talked about the problem in the UK and Europe, overlooking the reality that the same unhealthy and un-natural conditions that started this problem there are present and continue in the US.

Who would guess that the GOP turned the clock back 100 years on food safety for Americans? Self-regulation means no regulation. Why does the GOP hate Americans?