In an already much-blogged story, a slaughterhouse in Kansas wants to test all its cattle for mad cow disease, as requested by Japanese customers, but the U.S. government will not allow it:

USDA officials say that they sympathize with Creekstone and similar operations hurt by the bans imposed by Japan and other nations, but that agreeing to the company's request could imply there is a safety issue with American beef ...

Looking at this, Dwight Meredith sees only typical Republican hypocrisy -- in this case, about letting the market decide what consumers actually want (or, in this case, not).

But I see instead a new form of outreach to Dubya's Republican base. The USDA insists that there is no safety issue -- but infected animals can appear totally normal, so how are we to know? It's faith-based food testing!