Menu Foods is losing at least $45 million.

Menu Foods’ massive recall of pet food will cost the company at least $45 million, and that doesn’t take into account the drop in future sales or legal settlements not covered by insurance, the Ontario-based company estimates.

The projected loss is in the Streetsville company’s latest financial statement, which showed the recall cost it a third of its sales and all its profit in the first quarter.

But they still don’t get it.

“Menu, along with several other pet food manufacturers in the United States, were the victims of a terrible fraud, and the [Menu Foods Income] Fund’s results for this quarter reflect the costs,” the company said in a statement.

Once again they prove they are more concerned with the viability of “the fund” rather than the pets who died because people believed their product was safe.

Sure, Menu Foods had no idea their ingredients were tainted, but the real victims here are the thousands of pets who were poisoned, not the shareholders of the Menu Foods Income Fund.

Before too long, those share prices will be right back to where they were before the melamine contamination.

Where will the pets be?

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Apparently, our government thinks the border is secure enough to allow 2,000 of our finest immigration officers to serve with the U.S. Secret Service guarding all of the Presidential wanna-be’s.

GuardDog lists 5 big problems with the Amnesty Bill.

In his own bow to reality, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff admits the immigration bill provides amnesty,

Chertoff acknowledged there is “a fundamental unfairness” in legislation that permits illegal immigrants to remain in the United States but said trying to force them to leave would be impossible, USA Today reported.

and then goes on to warn what will happen if the amnesty bill does not survive.

Chertoff warned there would be more mass roundups of illegal workers if the workers do not get a chance to become legal.

“We’re going to enforce the law,” he said. “People all around the country will be seeing teary-eyed children whose parents are going to be deported.”

Why aren’t we doing that now? Why can’t we enforce the laws that are already on the books? The best implementation of “immigration reform” would come if we just started enforcing those laws. Don’t you think?

Laura Ingraham tells it like it is. She let loose with a rant on the President that is long overdue. You can listen to a three minute clip right here,

or you can head over to Hot Air and listen to the whole thing.

Joe at Techography has the MUST READ of the day. Four Freedoms. Part 2.

La Shawn Barber talks about the Culture of Illegal Aliens.

Kevin Ecker says President Bush has crossed the line, and I agree.

President Bush has placed this issue at the cornerstone of his legacy. By insulting his staunchest supporters and claiming they are unwilling to do “what’s right for America”, he has set in stone the very thing that most Americans will remember him for.

When critics of the Amnesty Bill have valid arguments about its content, he claims they are using empty rhetoric to scare people into opposing it. Why not come up with valid arguments to support it? Because there are none.

When critics of the Amnesty Bill point out how flawed it is, he insinuates they are being unpatriotic. He doesn’t even call Democrats unpatriotic. Selling out America, making our borders less secure, and giving amnesty to millions of people who have no intention of “assimilating” into our society. That’s what I call unpatriotic. But who’s name calling, right?

When critics of the Amnesty Bill quote the actual text included in the bill, he calls them intellectually dishonest. But he has no problem repeating that this bill is “a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect”. Where exactly in the 326 pages of the Amnesty Bill does it “fix” any problem? Unless of course your talking about neutering American values and tradition, then I suppose it is a quick “fix”.

I, like millions of other Americans, have supported the President through thick and thin, but I can no longer do that if this is the direction he is going to take. It’s my job as a husband, a father, and an American, to make sure my family and my country is secure. I can’t do that by supporting this bill. I cannot sit by and do nothing while he and the goof balls in the Senate try to sell out America’s future.

I do have one question though…

Ours is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. When it comes to this Amnesty Bill, exactly which people are the President and those in the Senate working for?

The Senate will resume the Amnesty Bill debate on June 4th. Don’t wait til the 4th to make your voice heard. Let your senator know exactly where you stand on the issue, and urge him/her to vote against this disastrous legislation. At least some members of the House will be ready to help squash it, if it makes it out of the Senate.

Another outstanding release from Nick Bradbury. Life is good.

By now, I am sure you have heard about the man with an extremely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.

He thinks he is a genius.

“I’m a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person,” he told the paper. “This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I’ve cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing.”

Let’s review,

This man knew he had tuberculosis. He may not have known he was carrying a highly drug-resistant strain, but he knew he had some form of tuberculosis.

Even though his doctors told him they preferred he did not fly (he says they didn’t order him not to), he (and his bride to be) flew to Paris from Atlanta on May 12th.

From there he traveled to Greece for his wedding, and then to Rome. While he was in Rome, he was contacted by the CDC which told him to turn himself in to Italian authorities so he could be isolated and treated.

Even if he claims ignorance before that point in time, he knew right then and there that he was a danger to anyone who came into contact with him. But what did he do?

He then flew from Rome to Prague, to avoid Italian authorities. From Prague, he flew to Montreal, Canada, to avoid U.S. authorities, and then drove across the border and turned himself in.

If he intended to turn himself in, why didn’t he do so in Rome, and then request to be flown back to the United States on a medical flight of some kind? Why did he avoid authorities and possibly infect thousands of other people? Do these sound like the actions of a “very well-educated, successful, intelligent person” to you?

Think about the people he came into contact with. In Atlanta, at the airport with thousands of other passengers. Being packed into the train which stops at each concourse as it takes you to your gate. The hundreds of people waiting at the various gates surrounding the one for his flight. All of the people on flight 385 from Atlanta to Paris. Everyone he came into contact with while in Paris. All of the people he may have coughed on during his trip from Paris to Greece. How did he get there I wonder? Everyone who attended his wedding. All of the people he may have infected traveling from Greece to Rome, Italy. How exactly did he get there? Everyone he came into contact with while in Rome. The passengers on the plane from Rome to Prague (notice the media has no information on that flight number). All of the people he came into contact with while in Prague. All of the passengers on flight 0104 from Prague to Montreal. The Canadians he crossed paths with while he was in Montreal. The rental car agent who booked his return to the United States. The border guards who checked his identification at the border. Everyone he came into contact with up to the time he turned himself in at a New York hospital.

I think it’s safe to say there are potentially thousands of people who could be infected at this time. The worst part is, we won’t know exactly who might be infected for many years…

The World Health Organization said Wednesday the chances that the man infected fellow passengers was small, although officials noted that because of TB’s long incubation time, it may be years before anyone knows whether the man infected anyone while he was traveling.

I ask you again, do these sound like the actions of a “very well-educated, successful, intelligent person” to you?

An intelligent person would know the facts about tuberculosis. And even if the risk is seemingly low, would an intelligent person really want to risk killing others just so he didn’t have to postpone his “long-planned” wedding?

Tuberculosis is spread by aerosol droplets expelled by people with the active disease of the lungs when they cough, sneeze, speak, kiss, spit or use the unsterilized eating utensils of the infected person.

…

A person with untreated, active tuberculosis can infect 10–15 other people per year.

Transmission can only occur from people with active—not latent—TB disease. The probability of transmission from one person to another depends upon the quantity of the infectious droplets expelled by the patient, the effectiveness of ventilation, the duration of exposure, and the virulence of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain.

Heck, even intelligent people, like those who specialize in treatment of tuberculosis, are not even sure about the transmission rates from those infected with this strain of tuberculosis.

CDC officials have recommended immediate medical exams for cabin crew members and passengers who sat within two rows of the man on the flights.

The other passengers are not considered at high risk of infection because tests indicated the amount of TB bacteria in the man was low, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC’s division of global migration and quarantine.

But Gerberding noted that U.S. health officials have had little experience with this type of TB. It’s possible it may have different transmission patterns, she said.

This guy may think he is a “very well-educated, successful, intelligent person” but based on what I’ve read it sounds like he is a “very self-centered, careless, selfish person”. Some might even think he’s been acting like a terrorist.

Jason Calacanis launched Mahalo today.

Serial entrepreneur Jason McCabe Calacanis today launched Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine, at the Wall Street Journal’s D Conference. The site is currently being launched in Alpha with the Internet’s 4,000 most popular search terms completed. The Santa Monica-based company hopes to reach 10,000 search terms by the end of the year. At that point it will enter Beta, and launch shortly thereafter.

“We’re in month five of a five-year project,” explained Calacanis, “but we wanted to get some real-world feedback, so we’re launching it early here at D Conference.”

The site is focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health. “Google’s mission is to index the world’s information; our mission is to curate that wonderful index,” said Calacanis. “It’s my belief that humans can play a significant role in the development of search results and we’re going to try to figure out exactly what that role is over the next couple of years. I am really looking forward to hearing what people think of the Alpha,” he added.

Imagine that… In a world full of computers, microchips, internet technology and Web 2.0, someone finally realized what was missing from search results. The human element. Someone to make sure the results you get are relevant to the information you seek.

I gave it a test run just a few moments ago and I must admit the results were quite pleasing. I didn’t have to wade through four pages of irrelevant results to find what I was looking for, and the way they break the results down into groups for news, blogs, videos and media is outstanding.

One thing I did notice though, is that some of the more current “newsie” related topics were much more generalized and the results were a bit dated, heck some of them didn’t return any results at all. I must remember, however, Mahalo is still “alpha” and we’re lucky we get to play with it this early on.

They have created 4,000 results pages thus far and plan to have 25,000 by the end of 2008. Wow. (I wonder if they’re hiring, I am a research junkie you know). I wonder how long it will be before they have an entry for “slobokan”? When they do, hopefully it won’t include the question “Did you mean Slobodan?”

I congratulate Jason and the entire team at Mahalo for bringing this awesome concept to life. I can hardly wait to see it grow.

Joe at Techography is done with the President.

John Hawkins conducted a special blogger poll on the Senate immigration bill.

I have no doubt that the conservative House member who derails the immigration bill, if it reaches the House, will forever be known as a hero.

Kevin Ecker reminds us what Senator Sessions had to say about the Amnesty Bill.

Here is some interesting information from NumbersUSA:

Failure #1: BUSH/KENNEDY BILL DOES NOT REQUIRE EXIT SYSTEM TO ENSURE AGAINST ‘OVERSTAYED’ ILLEGAL ALIENS IN FUTURE

If the tradeoff for giving legal status to 12-20 million illegal aliens is that this bill will ensure an end to illegal immigration in the future, the bill has to aggressively combat the problem of people entering the country legally on temporary visas and then failing to leave at the appointed time.

An estimated 40% of all illegal aliens came to this country legally on temporary visas as students, tourists and workers.

It was easy for them to stay because our government has no idea whether the millions of people entering for short-term visits each year ever leave.

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act called for an automated entry/exit (or check-in/check-out) system that would record the arrival into and the departure from the United States of every alien. In theory, when someone failed to check out on time, the computer would flag the person’s record so he could be apprehended the next time he came into contact with the government.

Failure #2: NO MONEY FOR ENFORCEMENT

Some of the relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks immediately pointed this out, noting that all the enforcement measures are subject to future appropriations.

The 9/11 Families for Secure America noted that Congress has been passing all kinds of enforcement measures through the years that never got implemented because the White House refuses to ask for funding and because the Congress routinely short-changes them.

Without appropriations, none of the talk about increased enforcement means much — based on the track record of the last three Administrations (including the first Bush) of ignoring immigration laws.

Failure #3: AMNESTY HAPPENS BEFORE ENFORCEMENT

Of course, the White House says this is not true. They point out that the part of the amnesty that puts illegal aliens on the path to green cards and citizenship doesn’t start until the enforcement triggers are met.

The triggers must be met before the Z-visas are given out to illegal aliens.

But the big hole in that argument is that illegal aliens get their legal status long before the z-visas. They get their “probationary” legal status, including a work permit and social security number, at the very beginning after the bill passes. If the z-visas are never offered (because the enforcement triggers aren’t met), the bill would allow the now-legal aliens to work and live in the U.S. the rest of their lives under the probationary status.

Failure #4: ENFORCEMENT TRIGGERS ARE ABOUT PROCEDURE BUT NOT ABOUT RESULTS

The enforcement triggers are tied to starting an expanded foreign guest worker program and to extending the rewards of amnesty from lifetime residence to getting on a path to U.S. citizenship.

The triggers are all about process and nothing about results.

The bottom line for the American people is not that we want more enforcement but that we want less illegal immigration.

Without results, we couldn’t care less how many Border Patrol or detention beds we have. What we care about is reports that instead of adding a net of 500,000 (official numbers) to our illegal population each year we are adding a net of 100,000 or preferably zero.

None of the triggers are tied to numbers of illegal aliens getting across our borders or overstaying their visas or absconding after a court orders them removed.

The triggers can be met without any reduction in future illegal immigration at all.

You can find out even more information on Senate Bill 1348 (The Amnesty Bill), including amendment votes at the Senate Vote Day Action Center

Rep. Phil Gingrey from Georgia is conducting a poll, the results of which are anything but shocking.

Rasmussen has more numbers out. Only 16% of the people think the Amnesty Bill will reduce illegal immigration. 41% believe it will increase it.

Immigration math… It’s a lot like fuzzy math, only with more variables.

John Hawkins has confidence in the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The Senate will resume the Amnesty Bill debate when they return on June 4th. Don’t wait until then to contact your senator.

If you live in Georgia,

Chambliss (GA): (202) 224-3521
Isakson(GA): (202) 224-3643

You can also contact,

National Republican Senatorial Committee (202) 675-6000
Republican National Committee (202) 863-8500 (option 1)

Don’t forget the Republican leadership as well,

McConnell (KY): 202-224-2541
Lott (MS): 202-224-6253

Remember, the President doesn’t think we know what’s right for America. Let’s make those calls today, so our Senators will know better.

An off-duty New Haven police officer shot and critically wounded his 18-year-old daughter, apparently mistaking her for an intruder after she sneaked out of their Stratford home and re-entered through the basement.

…

Investigators said Tasha Scott left her home late Monday to meet a boyfriend. She triggered a backyard motion sensor light as she tried to enter through a basement door.

Awakened by the light, Eric Scott spotted someone moving in the basement bathroom, police said. He fired his department-issued pistol once, hitting the teen in the knee. The bullet traveled up her leg and lodged in her thigh area, police said.

Isn’t it common practice to warn an intruder before opening fire? Surely his daughter would have recognized his voice, and he hers. No?

Who knows? Lord knows I don’t.

Paul “Ed” Yost, considered the father of modern hot-air ballooning for a successful three-mile trip on a propane-powered balloon, has died. He was 87.

Yost died Sunday at his home in New Mexico, according to a statement from his son.

According to the National Balloon Museum in Indianola, Iowa, Yost piloted the first flight of a balloon using the envelope-and-propane burner system he developed. The 25-minute, three-mile flight departed from Bruning, Neb., in October 1960.

…

Yost helped found the Balloon Federation of America and helped organize the first U.S. National Ballooning Championship at Indianola. He was inducted into the U.S. Ballooning Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded the Lipton Trophy by the British Balloon and Airship Club in 2006.

Yost also is known for other balloon trips. In April 1963, he and Don Piccard made the first hot air balloon flight across the English channel, flying from Rye in England to Gravelines Nord, France in three hours, 17 minutes.

Rest In Peace, Paul.

I first posted about Laura Mallory on July 1st of last year when she attempted to force Harry Potter books from the shelves of Gwinnett County Schools.

Since then, she lost her case with the Gwinnett County School Board and then she lost her appeal to the Georgia Board of Education. Today, a Superior Court judge upheld the decision of the Georgia Board of Education.

The adventures of boy wizard Harry Potter can stay in Gwinnett County school libraries, despite a mother’s objections, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Laura Mallory, who argued the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft, said she still wants the best-selling books removed and may take her case to federal court.

She is so blind to her cause that she doesn’t even realize what she’s saying anymore. For example:

At Tuesday’s hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because reading them in school violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

But then, in the very next sentence she states,

“I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again,” Mallory said. “I think we need him.”

She can’t have it both ways. If she wants Harry Potter out because witchcraft is a religion, then she can’t have God back in the school either. Maybe she just supports separation of church and state when it’s not her church that seems to be involved?