There are people like Grover Norquist who aim to return America to the years before Teddy Roosevelt even instituted conservation and consumer protection efforts.

But this is why people like Norquist have to be returned to the fringe and not anywhere near power. Hopefully after watching disasters like Hurricane Katrina and etc people have realized that they want government to function in the positive.

It’s a nasty job, but somebody’s got to do it. The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it had U.S. Marshals seize more than $1.5 million worth of food products, including herbs and botanicals used in supplements, from American Mercantile Corporation, of Memphis, TN, because they were being stored in filthy conditions.

The FDA inspection found that the ingredients, including cornstarch, licorice powder, salt, sarsaparilla, sassafras, spearmint leaves, and sweet orange peels powder, were being exposed to extensive insect and rodent infestation in the building. The “FDA will not tolerate a company’s failure to adequately control and prevent filth in its facility,” said Michael Chappell, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, in a statement.

Credit to the FDA where it’s due—nobody wants rodent feces in their spearmint tea. But the seizure comes shortly after USA Today, reported that the agency has been failing in its overall inspection efforts in recent years. The paper reported that “The FDA fell short of its goal in at least 17 of 39 states it paid to do inspections in the 2007-08 contract year.” And the FDA did no audits at all in five states.

If the FDA has been failing we have to look at who was in power and you’ll see that they didn’t want the FDA to succeed. I would hope the American Mercantile Corporation gets a deserving punishment as well.