The nation’s pork producers, long under assault by the Humane Society of the United States over how momma pigs are housed, are going on offense, saying that the animal rights group’s charge that the sows are abused is really a bid to kill the industry.
“They are passionate about us not being in the business of producing meat,” said Ron Prestage, a South Carolina pork producer and incoming president of the National Pork Producers Council.
The Humane Society has run a successful campaign against pork producers housing sows in stalls called “gestation crates.” The Washington organization prefers that the pregnant pigs be allowed to socialize in more open “group housing.”
It has succeeded in getting several retailers to demand that pork come from farms that don’t use the crates and even talked many producers into changing to group housing.
But Prestage and other producers are mounting an education campaign on the crates, explaining that they keep the sows safer, make it easier to provide medical attention and protect farm workers who handle the female pigs.
What’s more, they argue that consumers really don’t care where their meat comes from and argue that companies like Costco are giving in to Humane Society demands out of concern that the group’s anti-crate campaign threatens their Image.
The Humane Society isn’t backing down. President Wayne Pacelle told the Washington Examiner, “Let me be subtle about this: These guys are living in a fantasy land.”
SPORTS MEDIA JOIN LIBERAL PARADE
News consumers upset with the liberal bias of the mainstream media have long turned to sports, considered too pure for politics or any bias other than hometown boosterism.
But just like the Walter Cronkite era, those days are kaput. And the host of radio’s “The Mighty Gwinn Show” on Yahoo Sports, Dylan Gwinn, is blowing the whistle in a new book titled Bias in the Booth.
It details a surge of liberal bias against conservatives in sports and he offered a reason for it to the Examiner. “There is no real difference between mainstream media and sports media. They have the same background, go to the same schools, have the same pedigree, but instead of news went into sports,” Gwinn said.
Among his examples: media attacks on conservative Rush Limbaugh when he considered buying a piece of the St. Louis Rams compared with praise when liberal Bill Maher eyed a share of the New York Mets. Another: a sports media assault on a Navajo Nation official who backed the name of the Washington Redskins.
“This book,” said Gwinn of his new release from Regnery Publishing, “is for all of us who find ourselves wanting to shout, ‘Shut up and give the box score.'”
DIPLOMATS SLAP OBAMA FOR TOO MANY POLITICAL HACKS
Career diplomats are finding that they can’t advance to top State Department posts such as ambassadorships because President Obama has stuffed political appointees into those jobs, the most ever.
“Yes, it’s a problem,” said Robert Silverman, president of the American Foreign Service Association. “This is an ongoing struggle. We need to maintain the ability for our top people to go straight to the top,” he said.
The issue is a big one: While the State Department has a good record for hiring a diverse workforce of diplomats and experts who often take hardship posts to move up the ladder, the Obama White House is keeping way too many of the best jobs for its political allies.
Just look at the numbers. Silverman’s group said that 40.6 percent of Obama’s ambassadorial positions, the top jobs, have gone to political hacks, with 59.4 to career foreign service members. Some Obama picks have been criticized for having no experience in or knowledge of the country they are being sent to.
That is the highest percentages since when the group started breaking down political versus career during the Gerald Ford administration. Under George W. Bush, political appointees took just 29.8 percent of ambassadorships and under Bill Clinton it was even lower, at 28 percent.
“We’re not against political appointees in the system,” said Silverman at a Wilson Center conference on the issue, “as long as there is career development for people coming into the system.”
QUOTE
“I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among 6-year-olds. So I decided to eat like a 6-year-old.”
Warren Buffett, explaining to Fortune Magazine that he thrives on Coke and potato sticks despite his friendship with Michelle Obama, the nation’s healthy-eating advocate.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
