We Can't Have you Keeping The Meat Clean! What If People Stop Getting Sick?

Best opening sentence to a news item evah.

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

"We're standing up for what we believe in! We're not going to let these femimeatpackers test to see if their product has infectious disease! That's not the American way! Some people said we shouldn't take this fight. It's too tough, nobody will think you're at all sane. Well, I say sometimes you have to stand up and fight, and I can think of no better fight to make than one on behalf of mad cow disease!"

If you read on, you'll see that one rogue meatpacking company (Al-Qaeda Meats?) wants to test their cattle, but that would mean all the other agribusiness conglomerates might have to test their cattle too, so the Bush Administration is boldly saying "No!" to testing for food safety. The great Rick Perlstein has more.

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.

Perlstein calls them "e.coli conservatives." That's being charitable.