Bush Hearts Big Oil Profits and Mad Cow Disease

The Bush Administration doesn't want the Justice Department to go after oil companies for price gouging or to be able to sue OPEC under U.S. anti-trust laws. So what does the Bush Administration think the role of the federal government should be vis-a-vis the greedy and potentially dangerous practices of corporations v. the needs and safety of American citizens? Well...


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


The U.S. Department of Agriculture tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.


Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.[..]


The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it.


And no, this is not a joke.