A Guest Post: “Margaret Mead* is on to something”

Editor’s Note: Esteemed regulars… unknown lurkers… random readers… Scott and I are pleased to present a Guest Post by someone who is well-known in the blogging community. Please give a warm TBWA welcome to Erin of Queen of Spain and BlogHer and read her insightful post about making a difference. Without further ado, read… and enjoy.

Being an American is exhausting.

I spent the first part of this week in tears. Hanging a yellow ribbon from the tree in our front yard and showing my children the stars on the American flag billowing below the ribbon. Their uncle has gone to war, again.

As I struggled to explain to a 4-year old exactly what a "soldier" does, I thought of all the families involved in this monstrosity of a war, the children left behind, the Iraqi's lives destroyed. Despite my 100% disagreement with this war and the idiots who started it, I found myself damn proud of our soldiers and their families. Of our stupid, stupid country and its stupid, stupid military.

So as I swelled with pride and wonder for my fellow Americans, imagine my disgust and bewilderment when I had to explain to a Canadian just how FUCKED up our government is when it comes to helping our children. Helping the poor. Helping one another.

It started simply enough, a post about us fat ass North Americans and our lazy, lazy, kids. I tried to explain socioeconomics. I tried to explain the lack of education. I tried to explain why a lard-ass Ogre, who shills for McDonalds, would be our spokesman for combating childhood obesity. I tried to explain that yes, Taco Bell can be found in our public school cafeterias and yes, our produce and healthy foods cost more than the average family can afford. They buy the shit, because the good stuff is more money and hey, it's got our government's stamp of approval.

The more I explained the more I shook my head. The more I explained the more embarrassed I became. The more I explained, the more I was moving to Switzerland.

Why does America do this to me? I don't expect to agree with everything that goes on in the great USofA at every single moment. I also don't expect to hide my head in shame when I think of the clusterfuck that are these 50 states lately.

Just when I had shaken my redhead so much it hurt, I saw a light. I got an email. I watched something I've been involved in since the start head in a new direction. One that made me swell with pride. One that reminded me it's not about the country. It’s not about the borders. Its not about who's government does what. It's about what we can do, together.

Ladies and gentleman, may I present BlogHer's ACT:

We are excited and honored to announce today, with Elisa, Jory and Lisa, the launch of BlogHers Act, a yearlong initiative to harness the incredible power of women online. That would be you.

BlogHers Act will take on two things –

1. Making a difference on a single global cause

2. Identifying the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win our votes in the ‘08 Election.

Imagine the opportunity that’s in all of our hands right now.

All of us know the positive, productive, monumental ACTION of bloggers, especially women bloggers, when rallying around a problem, an issue or an event. Since we started blogging a few years back, we’ve witnessed - and been so lucky to be a part of - countless moments, big and small, when bloggers worked together to make a difference.

Hell yes. Now get off your fat ass you lazy American, Canadian, or um, non-North American and do something.

*Editor’s Note: For those of you who don’t know who Margaret Mead is, she was an American cultural anthropologist who developed the field of culture and personality research and was a dominant influence in introducing the concept of culture into education, medicine, and public policy. Her ethnographic studies focused upon aspects of gender and culture in a variety of societies.

Friday ‘BushWhack’ing

• The president’s nominee to “coordinate” the Iraq war was in front of the Senate yesterday for confirmation and gave a “dour assessment” about Iraq, which proves he has a brain. My question is this; if all the military and former military can see that Iraq is an un-winnable mess, why can’t Bush, Cheney, Lieberman, McCain, Petraeus, et al see it? Oh right… the rose-colored gop prescription glasses… I forgot about those.
• Last day of the G-8 Summit and so far Bush has not done anything to embarrass the country… who’d a thunk it? Sure, he had to skip some meetings because he had an "upset tummy" but that was probably best for everyone... lest he re-create his father's 1992 summit incident...
• Most people probably knew this, but just in case you didn’t. If Fred “L&O” Thompson (R-TN) decides to enter the gop presidential race, a good portion of his votes will be coming from those currently supporting John McCain (R-AZ)… at this point, McCain should just drop out of the race now and start kissing the other candidates asses in an attempt to become the VP nominee… though that seems HIGHLY unlikely…
• The immigration deal seems to be deader than Dubya’s approval ratings…
• And speaking of immigration, (okay, it doesn’t really have to do with immigration, but it made for a nice segue) The Bush(whacked) administration will be suspending a post-9/11 security initiative that required U.S. citizens to have passports to fly to and from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean, though they’ll still have to prove that a passport has been applied for, so it’s an inconvenience but not AS BIG OF an inconvenience as before… much like the administration itself…
• And have we mentioned? That the Alabama Senate chamber resembled a South Korean political chamber yesterday as two members, Sens. Charles Bishop (R) and Lowell Barron (D), started throwing fisticuffs because Barron, the Dem, called Bishop, the republican, a “son of a bitch.” (Uh… okay, I find it very hard to believe that this is the first time he has been called a son of a bitch… he’s a politician… he probably hears it twice a day) Bishop did eventually say he regretted throwing the punch because “that’s not the way grown men solve their problems.” But he didn’t apologize to Barron… which sort of sends out a mixed message. You can see video of the poli-grudge match HERE.

The House & Senate actually did something

A little bit of sanity has been returned to the country as the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill this morning that will restore habeas corpus, the sacrosanct Constitutional right to challenge government detention in court.

There was no debate… there were no amendments attached… it was a straight vote of eleven to eight, with Arlen Specter (R-PA) the ONLY republican to support the bill.

Scary isn’t it that 88.9% of republicans on the committee believe that following the Constitution is optional

The bill should reach the full Senate later this month where a major challenge still exists in getting the bill passed there… and another challenge by the House… and by “President” Bush.

And while the Senate Judiciary was passing this bill, the House, ignoring Bush’s constant threats of a veto, voted to expand stem cell research… thus defying “President” Bush’s wishes, which is always good to see. The unfortunate part of that is that the House and Senate do not have the two-thirds majority needed to override Bush’s crayon veto.

But for now, revel in the fact that a little bit of common sense has returned to this country… albeit for a short time.

Thursday ‘BushWhack’ing

• Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), currently under investigation for, well… we’ll call them ‘improprieties’ for now… has been told by the FBI to “preserve records” as the investigation into his political dealings widens… (Maybe he should take a cue from William Jefferson (D-LA) and put everything into a freezer…)
• Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey is talking again… and this time Vice President Dick “President” Cheney is his subject… who wants odds that Cheney will ‘suddenly’ have to check into a hospital to have his pacemaker examined?
• The immigration bill cleared a huge hurdle in the Senate… if you’re looking for my opinion on it… I don’t have one yet so stay tuned…
• Remember that Turkish raid into Northern Iraq that everyone was talking about yesterday? Yeah… it looks as though it never actually, you know… happened… so let’s all forget about it… mmmmkay?
• “President” Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduld to meet outside the official G-8 summit in a meeting that most believe will be very, how should I say it? Um…yeah… tense… personally, I don’t think ‘tense’ is strong enough to describe how the mood will be… but groin-grabbingly apprehensive doesn’t flow as well…
• Satirical newspaper ‘The Onion’ has a hilarious “interview” with George Washington and his thoughts about the Iraq war. Check it out HERE.
• And have we mentioned? That NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (“R”) doesn’t hold back his opinions. He told his constituents to go about their business and stop worrying about the “threat” to blow up JFK airport, saying;

  “"There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life.”

D-Day

Today is the anniversary of D-Day & the Battle of Normandy, still, 63 years later, the largest invasion from the sea ever mounted with more than three million men crossing the Channel to take part in Operation Overlord, an operation that helped turn the tide in the European theater.

Operation Overlord still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy, in what was then German-occupied France.

We salute all that took part in and lost their lives in this historic and world-changing battle...

Here comes da judge, with the Scooter sentencing (w/updates)

2 updates below
The sentencing verdict is in…

Scooter Libby, the lap dog and patsy former aide to Vice President Dick “President” Cheney has been sentenced to…

Wait for it…

Thirty months in prison and fined $250,000…

More to come…

UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune’s political blog, ‘The Swamp’ reports that “President” Bush will not intervene in the Scooter Libby verdict… though I sincerely have my doubts about that…

UPDATE 2: In a new statement on Scooter’s sentencing, Vice President Dick “President” Cheney says that he is “deeply saddened by this tragedy.” The statement went on to say; “Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man.” (Wow… this almost makes Cheney look.. I dunno… like a person…)

Tuesday ‘BushWhack’ing

• Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family & friends of Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY) who lost his battle with leukemia Monday.
• Scooter Libby is scheduled to be sentenced today… we’ll keep you posted.
• “It’s as big as Vatican City and makes the foreign embassies dotting the tree-lined streets of Washington, D.C., look like carriage houses, but the barely-finished U.S. embassy in Baghdad is already primed for expansion.” (Sigh… I don’t even know where to begin with what’s wrong with this statement…)
• “President” Bush’s approval rating in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll sits at 35% while Congress’ approval rating in the same poll fell five points to 39% with a majority of the drop due to frustration among “strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats.” (Well, duh… remember that honeymoon the Democratically controlled Congress was enjoying? Yeah, it’s over…)
• Rep. William “cold hard cash” Jefferson (D-LA) was indicted yesterday and Freshman Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) issued a statement calling on him to “consider resigning for the good of Congress and for the good of the nation.” (Way to show some balls there Mr. Kagen… now if only Mr. Jefferson would listen…)
• George P. Bush (yes, there’s another one), a nephew of “President” Bush, has signed an email asking friends and associates to contribute to a possible Fred Thompson presidential campaign… (Wow… we really are starved to make news out of anything aren’t we?)
• And have we mentioned? “President” Bush is in Germany for the G-8 summit and has quite a bit of foreign butt kissing schmoozing to do. He’ trying to enhance U.S. influence on the “Climate Debate” (which is republican-speak for Global Warming), and is trying to ease ever-mounting ans straining tensions with Russia. And German Chancellor, and Bush back-rub target, Angela Merkel will be there as well. So it’s entirely possible that by the end of the week, the U.S. might have offended even more foreign countries and potentates…

Milligan = Dumbass

One wouldn’t think that the chairman of Arkansas’ republican party would ever say anything of note… let alone anything important enough to get him national attention…

Well he has… and it has to go down as one of the dumbest, insensitive, idiotic, moronic, ignorant things to ever be spoken by a politician (an impressive feat if you consider who has been in the Oval Office for the last seven years…)

From NWAnews.com, State Party Chairman Dennis Milligan said in an interview;

“At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country.”

Nice… so essentially his prescription for what America needs most right now is more terrorism and mass civilian casualties… he’s openly advocating a terrorist attack on U.S. citizens…

What a fucking tool.

So by his logic… if we were to have another attack like 9-11, it would miraculously bring “President” Bush and the gop back up in popularity???

First of all, another attack would not be worth it… and I would say that if it were the Democrats in need of help. It’s an insult to every citizen in this country… it’s an insult to the men and women who are currently fighting a war whose reason was predicated on 9-11….

And Milligan should also consider that the exact opposite would happen if this nation was attacked again.

For the last seven years, our president, vice president and every friggin’ gop pundit have all implied that it’s because of them that we’ve been kept safe since 9-11… another attack would destroy that belief and would further beat-down the republican party in this country.

And while I would love to see the republican party fall completely apart in this country, I would never, ever EVER suggest that we need another attack on our soil to achieve that.

Again… the man is a fucking tool.

Monday ‘BushWhack’ing

• “President” Bush leaves for the G-8 summit this morning on what will be a 6-country, 8-day visit… and the protesters are ready.
• The Democratic presidential candidates held their second debate (can we get out minds around that first? It’s June 2007 and we’ve already had two debates… how scary is that?). Lot of rhetoric… mudslinging… flip-flopping… disagreement on Iraq and delisions of grandeaur… though those primarily came from Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich.
• The debate about the immigration bill continues… and a new poll shows that Americans are deeply divided over the issue, so stay tuned.
• A Newsweek investigation has revealed that Vice President Dick “President” Cheney and his national security team have been been actively challenging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice Iran strategy. Let’s just hope this little fracas between Bush’s 2 lovers friends doesn’t hurt things in the bedroom cabinet…
• Apparently screwing the US and the Middle East with our collective pants on isn’t enough for Bush… now he’s aiming at Europe. ith the Bush(whacked) Administration’s plan to deploy a missile-defense shield in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retarget, some of his nation's nuclear arsenal on European cities… news that should make this week’s G-8 summit interesting…
• Progressive blogger Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of TheNewsBlog, passed away this past weekend at the young age of 41. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.
• And have we mentioned? That U.S. commanders in Iraq are saying that they control less than a third of Baghdad's neighborhoods, which is extremely short of its goals at this stage of the Iraq security surge. The failure comes primarily because Iraqi security forces are not being provided at the levels that were expected… couple that with the piss-poor performance of the Iraqi troops that have deployed and you have yourself one giant clusterfuck on your hands.

The Weekly Rewind

Hi folks! We have come to the end of another week, which brings us through the first 5 months of the year. Wow is the year flying by or is it just us here at TBWA? Ok enough small talk, you are here for one thing and one thing only…The Weekly Rewind…so let’s get to it!

Heckle: to a sad reality. 93.5. Is the percentage of Americans who “think U.S. troops would still be in Iraq when U.S. president George W. Bush leaves office.”

Heckle: to opening a blind eye. After announcing new economic sanctions against Sudan’s government, President Bush earlier this week called the bloodshed in Darfur a “genocide.” Last month, Bush’s Sudan ambassador Andrew Natsios resisted that label. The administration’s measures are considered too weak and too unilateral to significantly alter the calculations of the government of Sudan. Gee, we have all heard about this for a few years from the world press and the administration is just now grasping this? You have to wonder who tells George what day of the week it is when he wakes up every morning.

Applaud: to calling out the administration. Activists say President Bush’s Darfur sanctions announced yesterday are “too little, too late.” The sanctions “target three people with suspected links to the violence as well as about 30 companies” in Sudan. “Three people? After four years? And not one of them the real ringleader of the policy to divide and destroy Darfur?” asked John Prendergast of the Enough Project. Hey, isn’t that par for the course with this White House? All talk and little action.

Applaud: to cutting the cultural cord and finally seeing the big picture. Even though major Hispanic groups broke with other civil rights organizations and supported Alberto R. Gonzales’s nomination for attorney general two years ago, those same groups are now calling for his resignation. Janet Murguia, head of the National Council of La Raza, called Gonzales “a follower, not a leader.” Just to clarify, is anyone in this administration really a leader? More like followers and reactionists.

Heckle: to more of the same no matter who it is. After former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had withdrawn his name from consideration for World Bank president. Former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was nominated to replace Paul Wolfowitz. Ok, but we all realize no matter who it is, it’s cronyism and more of the same.

Applaud: to feeling the heat. The New York Times finds that some conservatives in Congress are “struggl[ing] to appease increasingly restless constituents” over Iraq. “I think this is the most expensive, stupidest thing ever done,” one Republican and former “staunch backer” of President Bush now says. Wow, maybe they are actually starting to listen to the people in their home districts as opposed to the corporate lobbyists. I mean hey come on this is only supposed to be a government "for the people”…

Heckle: to an evil M&A. The Taliban has merged its propaganda and field operations with those of the global al Qaeda network led by Osama bin Laden, enabling the Taliban to develop from a xenophobic, home-grown Islamist movement into a more outward looking force that is helping to advance al Qaeda’s global interests. As if either of these organizations needed help in their recruiting efforts. Am I the only one thinking Axis of Terror? Kind of like Germany and Japan during WWII…..

Heckle: to I see your lips moving but I don’t hear anything. More than a month after the Office of Special Counsel announced it will establish a task force to mount a government-wide investigation of alleged violations of the law that limits political activity in federal agencies, the group’s formation remains in the preliminary stages. Once again, is anyone really surprised?

Heckle: to being clueless. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) blames U.S. troop deaths on Congress’ Iraq debate. “Al-Qaida knows that we’ve got a lot of wimps in Congress,” DeMint said at a luncheon Tuesday. “I believe a lot of the casualties can be laid at the feet of all the talk in Congress about how we’ve got to get out, we’ve got to cut and run.” He later added that while Iraq has “gone badly and it’s a mess, it would have been worse if we hadn’t gone in.” Yes, Senator, it is a mess! And please explain to the vast majority of the nation how it would have been worse had we not gone in? Yet another person in Congress without a clue as to how we were all lied to and manipulated in order for Bush to seek some type of personal vendetta.

Heckle: to making a stupid statement that will hopefully backfire. Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan declares today that President Bush “has torn the conservative coalition asunder,” with consequences “for the American future.” This White House “thinks its base is stupid,” she writes, while “conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome.” Ok, I understand all the comments with the exception of comparing party supporters to ‘battered wives’. I can’t believe how ignorant and insensitive she is to women who are victims of this unforgiveable crime…..what a tool.

Well there it is...kind of mixed with Applauds and Heckles. Which if you are a long time reader, for me is unusual.

Be good, stay informed....later.

Stayin' Alive

On the same day that saw one of “President” Bushes closest advisers, Dan Bartlett, flee the sinking ship resign, and heard an attorney for U.S. GSA chief Lurita “Cookies” Doan yesterday say her client didn’t violate the Hatch Act; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales decided to hold a quiet press conference where, according to CNN, reporters were kept away so he couldn’t be questioned.

And like a battered Energizer bunny, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales just keeps going, and going, and going… and like a bad SNL skit, this story just keeps going and going.

Yesterday the embattled, beleaguered, bewildered Gonzales vowed to remain in his post through the end of President Bush’s second term, despite a plethora of calls for his resignation and a looming no-confidence vote. Said Gonzales;

“I know that I only have 18 months left in my term as attorney general, and that really does not feel like a lot of time to accomplish all of the goals that are important to me. So often Washington seems to run at a marathon pace, but I intend to spend the next year and a half in a sprint to the finish line.”

What has become clear, especially since we seem to be treated to a press conference every week where “President” Bush comes out and gives Gonzo a vote of confidence is that Bush and Karl “President” Rove want him there… they need him there… they need him to continue to be their human shield from a full functioning Justice Department that seems to be getting tired of this administration’s actions. And because of that, Gonzales will be the AG until Bush and Rove decide they’re ready for him to go… or unless Congress decides to do something about it.

Stay tuned…

Friday ‘BushWhack’ing

• And the dominoes continue to fall… Dan Bartlett, a Counselor to “President” Bush, has submitted his resignation effective July 4. The official reason is to “begin a career outside of government.” (Uh-huh… sure it is. Will the last assistant in the White House please turn off the lights…)
• Backlashes from conservative pundits continue to flow in with conservative columnist Peggy Noonan be the latest to attack the Bush(whacked) Administration. In a column today she says Bush “has torn the conservative coalition asunder,” with consequences “for the American future.” She continued to write that this White House “thinks its base is stupid,” while “conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome.” (If Bush and his adminisration cronies had a conscience, that would probably hurt…)
• Yesterday “President” announced a “new international climate change framework,” that would set “aspirational goals” for reducing carbon emissions but failed to have benchmarks “no concrete targets or dates.” And no enforcement mechanism… and no penalties for noncompliance… (Can we say ‘toothless’?)
• Pay attention as there’s a storm brewing in regards to the seperation of church and state and tax exemption status. It could get ugly…
• This has nothing to do with politics, but today is the 40th Anniversary of the release of one THE most influential rock albums EVAH; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Go on... give it a listen…
• And have we mentioned? That Scooter Libby’s lawyers don’t want their meal ticket client to go to jail for obstructing the probe of Valerie Plame’s outing and are strongly campaigning for community service as Special Counsel Patrick “Suck it Starr” Fitzgerald is pushing for 30 months. (This could get interesting. Scooter is scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday, June 5th, and odds are starting to lean towards prison, with the length the only thing in the air. Stay tuned…)

Does this surprise anyone?

Gallup has taken an interesting approach to questioning the public about “President” Bush with their latest Gallup poll.

The poll gave respondents the open-ended question:

“If you could talk with President Bush for fifteen minutes about the situation in Iraq, what would you, personally, advise him to do?”

The responses were, as anyone with a brain would expect, not pro-Bush.

• The largest category of responses from the public -- offered by a stark 54% -- would advise Bush to focus on removing the troops from Iraq and exiting the country, leaving the situation in the control of the Iraqis.
• 39% of those say they would advise Bush to simply get U.S. troops out of Iraq now.
• Another group, representing one-fourth of Americans, would advise the president to “stay the course” or get more aggressive in Iraq’s military actions.
• A smaller category would advise the president to work with others in finding the best solution, including an advisory board or the United Nations (Yeah, like that’ll happen)
• 6% would advise the president to admit his past mistakes and apologize (Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. More chance of )

Granted, these numbers are nice… but they also make you wonder who the hell is more delusional; the one in four who think everything is hunky-dory in Iraq and we should stay the course or the gaggle of republicans (and republican-in-waiting Joe Lieberman) who think Bush’s current strategy is working.

And who in their right mind would think that Bush would ever admit his mistakes? In his world, he doesn't make mistakes, other people do.

Must be nice to live in such a delusional state...

Thursday ‘BushWhack’ing

• Candidate for gop Tool of the Week. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has decided to place blame for U.S. troop deaths on Congress’ Iraq debate. Said DeMint:

  “Al-Qaida knows that we’ve got a lot of wimps in Congress. I believe a lot of the casualties can be laid at the feet of all the talk in Congress about how we’ve got to get out, we’ve got to cut and run.”

  (Besides being incredibly callous to the troops and their families, this has to be one of the absolutly dumbest things I have heard said recently about the war. Attacks increased because of debate? Has DeMint been taking simplicity lessons from Bush??)

• Senator Joe “republican” Lieberman (I-CT) made a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday. And while he was strolling around saying things like “what I see here today is progress, significant progress,” troops that met with him were saying things 190 degrees different. Spc. David Williams collected questions for Lieberman from 30 other troops and the questions and statements included things like; “We don’t feel like we’re making any progress” and “When are we going to get out of here?” When Lieberman went to talk to the soliders again, he said we’re gonna do everything we can to get you guys out of here… yes, I’m lying… he actually said that leaving Iraq would be a

  “victory for al-Qaida and a victory for Iran.”

  (IRAN??? WTF)
• AttornyGate is getting bigger and wider. Just how much longer can Gonzales hold on??
• The Department of the Interior has been working hard on a vital issue for the last few months. No, not conservationsim…no, not the preservation of our National Parks… and no, not the monitoring of our wildlife… they’ve been coming up with a motto. (That’s a good use of their time and resources… hopefuly not everyone in the department was working on that one thing. But since it’s a part of this administration, they probably were…)
• Are you among the hundreds dozen people wondering what former Head of Arabian Horse Association FEMA Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown has been up to? (I know you weren’t wondering… no one has). He was on Hardball with Chris “Bill O’Reilly Lite” Matthews last night to talk about… are you ready for this… Homeland Security… insert your own snark here.
• And have we mentioned? That the next Democratic presidential debate is this Sunday night from 7 to 9 at Saint Anselm College. (Meh)

The Administration that cares more about big business

You are not going to believe this… oh wait, it’s from the Bush(whacked) Administration, so of course you will.

The administration said earlier this week that they will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

I typed that correctly… and you read that right…they will fight to keep meatpackers from testing their animals for mad cow disease.

What? The? Hell?

How did all of this start you ask, well, it seems that Creekstone Farms Premium Beef in Kansas, wants to test all of its cows for the disease.

Personally, I think that’s a fabulous idea… not only will it guarantee the meat is safe, it will be free enterprise at it’s finest because EVERYONE will want their meat from them because they’ll know it’s safe.

This administration has other ideas.. and one can look no further than their history of helping big business and screwing the average consumer to find the reason why.

Ya see… large meat companies worry that if Creekstone began testing all of its meat and advertised them as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well, so the the Agriculture Department decided to start regulating the tests by arguing that widespread testing could lead to false positives that would thus harm the meat industry.

Are you kidding me??

Rick Perlstein at Common Sense explains it perfectly:

“First, observe the contempt for liberty. When E. coli conservatives say self-regulation is preferable to government, they're even lying about that. Second, observe the contempt for small business. When a small company want to - voluntarily! - hold its product to a higher standard, the government blocks it, in part because bigger companies have to be protected from the competition, in part because a theoretical threat to the bottom line (false positives) trumps protection against a deadly disease. There's your conservatism, America: not extremism in defense of liberty. State socialism in defense of Mad Cow.”

How the hell do the people in this administration sleep at night??