Crossposted, in edited form, at Lusty Bit of Nourishment.

Anybody who has read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation – except for representatives from the meat industry, that is – knows that the large, federally-inspected slaughterhouses where much of the country’s ground beef and steaks are produced are a worker and food safety nightmare.

Witness the recent recall of millions of pounds of frozen beef patties. Now Sen. Boxer is inserting herself into the Farm Bill debate, not complaining about subsidies or conservation, but meat safety. And I think she may be way off base. More after the jump...

(Crossposted in edited form at A Lusty Bit of Nourishment)

I don’t know enough about this behemoth piece of legislation commonly known as the Farm Bill to answer definitively, but in her diary from a week or so ago, Farm Bill Girl quickly made me question what just a day or two earlier I had felt was a good idea: to support and promote an amendment to the Farm Bill authored by Rep. Ron Kind, D-WI, called FARM 21 that has generated some serious noise on the Hill.

But before any more on that, there’s a reason why this is important. As Mark R. "Mental Masala" over at the absolutely excellent Ethicurean blog reported Monday, the House Agriculture Committee has already started 3 days of work on finalizing a farm bill to send on to the full House.

Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports on some of the goings on. Needless to say, the next two days will be crucial. But back to subsidies and Farm Bill Girl after the flip...

Let me state up front that I agree with many people that it was Rep. Murtha’s speaking out on Iraq that single-handedly changed the whole tenor of the debate and discussion on Iraq. If it were not for Murtha, I really don’t know if the Democrats would have done as well as they did in the last election.

That said, when I read this article on the Politico today – via a link from RedState – I was pissed.

In short, Murtha was angry that Mike Rogers, R-MI, was trying to buck him on what appears to be a questionable earmark – aka, taxpayer dollars -- and, in retaliation, threatened that he would kill any earmark Rogers ever tried to insert into intelligence appropriations.

In my view this is terribly inappropriate and unethical behavior, at a time when the Democrats have shown some serious chinks in their anti-corruption armor. More on the flip...

As at least one Kossack has diaried, John Bolton was on The Daily Show last night. Bolton and Jon Stewart had a civil debate that really placed a bright line on the different views conservatives and progressives—which I think Stewart can safely be called—have about this particular president and presidential powers in general.

On several occasions, Bolton declared that the cause of the problems Jon Stewart was raising—Plamegate, U.S. attorney purge, etc.—was not this current administration’s behavior, but the fabled "bureaucracy." The bureaucracy, you see, is failing to act like well-behaved school children and do exactly what they are told by their ultimate head honcho, and that is a threat to "Democratic theory."

Well, I only have an undergraduate degree in political science, but I have to suggest that perhaps Mr. Bolton just doesn’t quite understand Democratic theory, at least the way the average American does...

Carnacki's diary currently at the top of the rec list is wonderful and heartbreaking.

I work at NCI and I can tell you that the budget has a lot of people extremely concerned. Almost impossible decisions are being made about which programs to cut, which resarch grants not to fund. It's pretty bad.
Dubya  was on the NIH campus  not too long ago and actually had the nerve to say how proud he was of his administration's  support for cancer research - just as he was  proposing an '08 budget that actually had a $40 million  cut for NCI.

But this diary is about something else. I'd actually like to make a plea for everybody here who is committed to advocating for more research funding to also do something else to fight cancer: eat better and exercise.

Yes, it's a cliche, but be patient and follow me below for the why and how.

I’ll make this quick, because I need to do some work, but the L.A. Times reports some really good news today: bi-partisan legislation that would give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products has been introduced in the House and Senate and has a really good chance of getting through.

Details on the flip...

Courtland Milloy, a columnist for the Washington Post who covers local D.C. issues, penned a particularly ill-informed column in today’s paper about the new HPV vaccine.

In effect, he criticizes public health officials in Washington, D.C., for acting responsibly to protect public health! A new policy the D.C. Public Council is promulgating is apparently racist, according to Milloy. One of the biggest problems with his column – one of several biggies – is that the policy isn’t racist. In fact, it follows to the letter recommendations from a federal panel of immunization experts!

More below the fold...

An intense investigation into the strange odor that shook the nerves of Manhattanites this morning has turned up an unexpected source: the 109th Congress.

The tail of how the fetid stench of what many consider one of the most irresponsible and corrupt U.S. congresses in history polluted the already polluted air of Manhattan was revealed by a surprising source: Melania Trump.

The smell, Mrs. Trump revealed, had taken refuge in her husband’s hair.
(story continued on p. A 1,872)

To answer a question posed in a popular diary at the moment, I DO understand that I have a certain inherent privelege because I was born with white (slightly olive oilesque) skin. Now what?

Do you want more affirmative action programs? Ok. Do you want better funding for inner-city schools, more books, more after-school programs, more programs to help minority parents deal with the everday issues of life that many of us take for granted? Ok.

Do you want special programs in hospitals that help minority patients "navigate" through the care system, so that their chances of receiving the best care possible are increased? Ok.

I get race. I get that there are serious, serious, serious issues here, problems that have to be fixed. So... (more on the flip)

I don’t want to overreact here, and perhaps this is an off-base report by the Washington Post, but this is already looking like politics as usual:

But with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation's intelligence agencies. Instead, Democratic leaders may create a panel to look at the issue and produce recommendations, according to congressional aides and lawmakers.

As part of the first 100 hours, Pelosi pledged to implement all of the 9/11 panel recommendations. There were no caveats, no "Well, most of them, but we want to take a closer look at one or two of them."

More ranting on the flip...

As one of the currently recommended diaries is discussing right now, Glenn Beck did a whopper of an interview with a newly elected Democratic member of Congress last night.

I just had to let CNN know what a public service they are doing by having Glenn on the air. If you go here you, too, can sound off. Remember to check whether your comment is positive or negative. I, of course, chose positive.

Read my email after the flip...

The rage, on this particular topic, really started for me when I saw a clip of President Bush after the elections, responding to a question about why Republicans got stomped so mightily on Nov. 7. He said something to the effect of:

"I thought the American people understood the importance of the economy, of our security."

I've been watching the comments on the right-wing blogs since then, and have seen the rehash of the comments Dumbya, Cheney, Santorum, and other Republicans who were so distraught, so desperate to maintain power, made when all they had left was to expel whatever it took to scare people into voting R. Quotes like this gem from King George himself:

"However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."

But it was a little blog post that I ran across this morning that was the proverbial straw that drove me to write my first-ever DAILY KOS RANT!

Which you will hopefully read on the flip...

This will be quick. After steadfastly refusing to any debates, Rep. Melissa Hart will finally debate - well, sort of - her Democratic opponent Jason Altmire this morning on KDKA radio.

Those not in Western Pa. can stream the debate from the KDKA site. KDKA is home to some wingnuts, including Fred Honsberger, kind of a poor man's Hugh Hewitt, from what I can tell.

Some of the recent developments in this race on the flip...

I'll apologize if anybody else has already come to this conclusion and I missed it. I did some quick searches and nothing seemed to resemble this, so I figured I'd go ahead.

When I read about Karl Rove's "combative" interview with NPR's Robert Siegel, I wasn't necessarily surprised. It just seemed like Rove being uber-Rovian. And, then on Friday, as I was wrapping up some work, there was Lynne Cheney snarling at Wolf Blitzer and CNN for being biased.

And then it occurred to me...

An article in today's Wall Street Journal only goes to demonstrate once again whose bidding lil' Ricky Santorum and the rest of his GOP compatriots-in-craveness-and-corruption really heed.

John D. McKinnon does an excellent job of detailing (subscription req.) all of the dollars the pharmaceutical and oil & gas industries are dumping into this election, the vast majority of it to Republicans.

This is nothing new, really, but this is good information for anybody out there doing GOTV over the next two weeks. Kavita already covered some of this ground yesterday, but the WSJ article provided enough extra info that it seems worth repeating, on the flip...

I have to assume that the race in Pennsylvania's 4th District between Democrat Jason Altmire and the Republican incumbent Melissa Hart is as close as the Democrats think it is.

I'm a registered Independent, so perhaps this is why I've now been push-polled and robocalled by the NRCC.

More on the call and the pathetic ads by the NRCC and Melissa Hart -- and how you can hear Jason Altmire interviewed live tomorrow (he's a darn good interview) -- on the flip...

Man, these are some insane times. The Republicans are on the run in district after district all across this land. Democratic candidates nobody even heard of 12 months ago are ahead in some polls, slightly behind in others, and running vigorous campaigns, aided by volunteers, many of whom come to Daily Kos and other blogs to share their experiences, stay up-to-date on the most important events, and, as much as anything else, to vent their rage.

It's the last part that's got me concerned.

For the second time in about two weeks. I'll follow-up on another diary about the PA-04 race, again, only because I wanted to pass along some additional details that might be of interest to Kossacks.

To be certain, things are getting a might crazy here in western Pa. Aside from the pathetic attempt at Swiftboating Rep. Murtha a little further east of this particular district and the game of TV ad whack-a-mole being waged by Rick Santorum and Bob Casey, the race between the upstart Democrat Jason Altmire and the once seemingly unbeatable incumbent Rep. Melissa Hart is en fuego!

More on the flip...