Category: Politics

Great Idea!

It’s about time somebody in Congress proposed something like this: the Food Safety Act of 2007.

Currently, 12 federal agencies and 35 laws govern food safety, often with overlapping jurisdictions and different priorities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration play the biggest roles in making sure the food Americans eat is safe. The USDA oversees meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for eggs and produce.

The lines are not always clear-cut. For example, cheese pizzas fall under the FDA, while pepperoni pizzas fall under the Department of Agriculture.

In January, the Government Accountability Office added federal oversight of food safety to its list of “high risk” programs in need of “broad-based transformation.” The GAO urged Congress to consider “a fundamental re-examination of the system … before public health and safety is compromised.”

Critics point to the FDA, in particular, as needing reform. The FDA oversees 80 percent of the food supply but receives only 20 percent of the funding.

But would Bush sign it?

Immigration Reform?

I’ve been following the immigration reform bill as it slowly winds it way through the legislation process. It’s starting to look like the bill’s final form is settling into place, but since there have been no formal votes nor a bill sent to the President, it’s a little early to start an in-depth dissection.

That said, I’m pretty much with Ezra on this one.

The worth of the new bill hinges on whether you think an effective amnesty for the country’s 12 million undocumented immigrants is worth a 400,000 to 600,000 person guest worker program. That’s the trade-off: A bad guest-worker program set against a broader path-to-citizenship program. My sense is that the system we’ve got right now is so bad, that even a regulated guest worker program is better than what we’re living with. And bringing the 12 million undocumented immigrants who currently live in this country into the light would be a huge boon. So my snap reaction is that the guest worker program is problematic, but this might nevertheless be a deal worth making.

I really don’t like guest worker programs: they’ve been problematic in other countries, and given the proclivities of many US employers, I don’t see that we’d be able to avoid similar problems.

I’m also a bit dubious about the whole “go back to where you came from to apply” part of the process for moving current illegals onto “the path to citizenship”. Why should someone have to make a multi-thousand mile round-trip just to file some papers? That seems wildly counterproductive and even a bit punitive.

And I know that some of my friends currently on the path towards citizenship are disappointed that they may not be able to bring their parents to America as easily, if at all.

At any rate, I’m reserving the right to change my mind on this issue if the final bill changes significantly and/or when more details emerge.

Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason”

Time has an excerpt. It’s worth a read, and will likely make you wonder yet again why this man is not our President.

Here’s a favorite graf or two to whet your whistle:

Many Americans now feel that our government is unresponsive and that no one in power listens to or cares what they think. They feel disconnected from democracy. They feel that one vote makes no difference, and that they, as individuals, have no practical means of participating in America’s self-government. Unfortunately, they are not entirely wrong. Voters are often viewed mainly as targets for easy manipulation by those seeking their “consent” to exercise power. By using focus groups and elaborate polling techniques, those who design these messages are able to derive the only information they’re interested in receiving from citizens—feedback useful in fine-tuning their efforts at manipulation. Over time, the lack of authenticity becomes obvious and takes its toll in the form of cynicism and alienation. And the more Americans disconnect from the democratic process, the less legitimate it becomes.

[snip]

So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way—a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response.

In short, the Internet. Well, so far it’s not getting taken all that seriously by the ‘real world’ of politics except as a means of raising money (and yes, that is the cynicism Gore referred to talking), but perhaps that will change with time.

PS: Welcome, Buzzfeed visitors!

Irony Alert

Skippy:

you know things are bad in wingerville when they are so desperate for good news about conservatives, they cheer france.

Heh, indeed.

Fun With GWB & Google AdWords

While double checking a definition this morning, I noticed something funny about the Google AdWords on the page. Click through for a bigger version of the image, if you can’t see it here.

[Bush, Coulter = Disingenuous]

Yes, that’s right. When you look up “Disingenuous” the first two Google AdWords that come up are for George W Bush and Ann Coulter.

Heeheehee.

Not sure about that “Are you gay?” item for #3 though.

Noteworthy: Obama and the Secret Service

This caught my eye today: Barack Obama is getting a Secret Service detail.

The Secret Service said Thursday that Democratic Sen. Barack Obama was being placed under its protection, the earliest ever for a presidential candidate.

Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff authorized Obama’s protection after consultations with the congressional advisory committee.

With more than 9 months to go before the first primary, the death threats he’s getting must be pretty bad for them to start protecting him now.