Those Damned American Leninists...

Check this out...

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

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
[...]

As Rick Perlstein notes:

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 wants 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.

Leninists, I say. Leninists!

How many goddamn times do I gotta say it before it will sink in and people will believe it?

• Capitalism can only be overthrown by revolutionary means? Check.


• Officials are elected democratically, but once they are elected, all party members must abide by their decisions? Check.


• Any attempt to reform capitalism by means other than state coercion are doomed to fail? Check.


• Orchestrating the overthrow of existing government by undemocratic means, seizing power on behalf of its rank and file constituents, and setting up a dictatorship of the C- students? Check.


• Using the powers of government to "educate" the electorate, so as to remove the various modes of "false consciousness" the "liberal elites" have instilled in them in order to make them more docile and easier to exploit economically? Check.

I'm getting pretty damned tired of having to point this out to people...