YoBimbo

Rotten eggs: Deregulation isn't the only problem.

On a Facebook page, someone asked, "Are food-borne illness outbreaks increasing?" and someone wrote, "YES! All of Bush's deregulation is coming back to haunt us!"

The thing is, deregulation isn't the only problem (although I agree it's part of it), but sidestepping the law time and time again is an even bigger problem. For instance, WHY hasn't Jack DeCoster been put in jail? Why is he still in business? He's a well-documented habitual offender and the latest egg recall comes directly from his sleazy operations. 

Why? Because he's rich. He bought his way out of everything from animal cruelty to unsafe working conditions to filthy factory farms to hiring illegal immigrants (and housing them like his chickens with feces-laden water to drink) to rape and sexual harassment by his managers.

He simply pays the fines or settles out of court. These fines are the cost of doing business for this guy.

And so he continues doing what he does and, to date, over 1300 people have been affected by this salmonella outbreak.

It's not the failure of regulations. The regulations are there. The problem is that the government is unable to enforce them, and the government is far too complacent. To me, the question should be, "With all these regulations in place, why is this guy still in business? Who weakened the penalties to the point where fines are simply a business expense?"

Google Jack DeCoster's name. You'll see.

dKosopedia

Teflon Chicken Don Agrees to Cruelty Plea

Wright County Egg Recall

Stop this silly shit.

The Supreme Court confirmation hearings, as they are performed these days, are not useful. In fact, I'll go farther and say they're a waste of time and money and serve no purpose other than to give politicians a(nother) forum for grandstanding. A wise candidate will never commit to a ruling on any subject.

It's an incredible waste of time and money. If they really want the hearings to be meaningful, they should toss all of the candidate's rulings into a big bingo ball cage, pull out 10 or so, and ask the candidate her reasoning behind the judgment.

But that's not the purpose of the circus, now is it?

I heard something on NPR about Thurgood Marshall's hearings. When asked how he might decide on certain topics, he kept saying, "I don't know. I won't make a decision without all the information in front of me."

I'm paraphrasing, of course, because my memory is like a sieve.

The point is that there's no point.

Most candidates who make it to the hearing level are bound to pass. Very few don't. The ones who are truly objectionable, either due to incompetence or politics, don't even get to the hearings. Harriet Miers is a great example.

And, the most recent one who made it onto the court who probably should have been tossed out on his backside was Clarence Thomas. But still - he passed.  Robert Bork is an exception, but don't forget that there was a lot of opposition to him before he was even in the picture. Dems were determined to fight just about anyone Reagan nominated.

But here - this says it better than I can:

National Journal Online -- The Ninth Justice -- Book Excerpt: 'The Next Justice'.

The poison of celebrity | Salon

The poison of celebrity | Salon.

Well said

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com Still, her cartoon understanding of these matters, expressed in the language and with the analytical ability of a (poorly prepared) junior high student, is quite noteworthy (and kudos to Couric for conducting a relatively excellent interview in general and for pressing Palin on her Israel views specifically).

Polit Tsk Tsk Tsk: Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

Polit Tsk Tsk Tsk: Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

And you know PALIN isn't any better.

"Eugene Robinson - Flunking Economics - washingtonpost.com John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn't his strong suit. In response to what many economists have called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Republican nominee has sounded -- and let's be honest here -- totally, embarrassingly and dangerously clueless." Click the op-ed title to read the entire article.

Ah, deregulation and conservative ideology (greed)

From: http://economics.about.com/od/governmenttheeconomy/a/savings_loan.htm "Savings and Loan Bailouts For a while, the system worked well. In the 1960s and 1970s, almost all Americans got S&L financing for buying their homes. Interest rates paid on deposits at S&Ls were kept low, but millions of Americans put their money in them because deposit insurance made them an extremely safe place to invest. Starting in the 1960s, however, general interest rate levels began rising with inflation. By the 1980s, many depositors started seeking higher returns by putting their savings into money market funds and other non-bank assets. This put banks and savings and loans in a dire financial squeeze, unable to attract new deposits to cover their large portfolios of long-term loans. Responding to their problems, the government in the 1980s began a gradual phasing out of interest rate ceilings on bank and S&L deposits. But while this helped the institutions attract deposits again, it produced large and widespread losses on S&Ls' mortgage portfolios, which were for the most part earning lower interest rates than S&Ls now were paying depositors. Again responding to complaints, Congress relaxed restrictions on lending so that S&Ls could make higher-earning investments. In particular, Congress allowed S&Ls to engage in consumer, business, and commercial real estate lending. They also liberalized some regulatory procedures governing how much capital S&Ls would have to hold. Fearful of becoming obsolete, S&Ls expanded into highly risky activities such as speculative real estate ventures. In many cases, these ventures proved to be unprofitable, especially when economic conditions turned unfavorable. Indeed, some S&Ls were taken over by unsavory people who plundered them. Many S&Ls ran up huge losses. Government was slow to detect the unfolding crisis because budgetary stringency and political pressures combined to shrink regulators' staffs. The S&L crisis in a few years mushroomed into the biggest national financial scandal in American history. By the end of the decade, large numbers of S&Ls had tumbled into insolvency; about half of the S&Ls that had been in business in 1970 no longer existed in 1989. The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, which insured depositors' money, itself became insolvent. In 1989, Congress and the president agreed on a taxpayer-financed bailout measure known as the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA). This act provided $50 billion to close failed S&Ls, totally changed the regulatory apparatus for savings institutions, and imposed new portfolio constraints. A new government agency called the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was set up to liquidate insolvent institutions. In March 1990, another $78,000 million was pumped into the RTC. But estimates of the total cost of the S&L cleanup continued to mount, topping the $200,000 million mark. --- Next Article: Lessons Learned From The Savings and Loan Crisis"

Why not? The victim was probably asking for it anyway.

"Palin's town used to bill victims for rape kits - USATODAY.com WASILLA, Alaska — In 2000, Alaska lawmakers learned that rural police agencies had been billing rape victims or their insurance companies $500 to $1,200 for the costs of the forensic medical examinations used to gather evidence. They quickly passed a law prohibiting the practice. According to the sponsor, Democrat Eric Croft, the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor. When it was signed, Wasilla's police chief expressed displeasure."

Molly Ivins would have loved this.

"Op-Ed Contributor - Bringing Pell Grants to My Eyes - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com When Barack Obama talks about an America as it should be, I’m guessing the best of all possible countries he imagines would look awfully similar to the ideal America just about every registered Democrat would dream up. Picture this: a wind-powered public school classroom of 19 multiracial 8-year-olds reading above grade level and answering the questions of their engaging, inspirational teacher before going home to a cancer-free or in remission parent or parents who have to work only eight hours a day in a country at war solely with the people who make war on us, where maybe Exxon Mobil can settle for, oh, $8 billion in quarterly profits instead of $11 billion, and the federal government’s point man for Biblical natural disasters is someone who knows more about emergency management than how to put on a horse show. Is that really too much to ask? Can we do that?" Click the article title to read the rest of this piece by Sarah Vowell.

You can watch Elaine Donnelly's obsession with sex at this link.

Gays and Lesbians in the Military 206528-1 : C-SPAN Video Library | Created by Cable. Offered as a Public Service. I mean, seriously. This woman thinks about sex much more than I do!