100%
Posted on 10/17/2015 11:02:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
In a pig’s eye.
Last week we told you about the menu change at federal prisons where pork products disappeared from the table back on October 1st. What was up with that? At the time I wondered whether it had to do with pressure from religious groups who don’t eat pork or perhaps some sort of political shenanigans between the administration and the pork industry. We don’t have all of those answers yet, but the resulting uproar spurred somebody to action and the ban on pork in prison has apparently been ended… at least in part. (Washington Post)
After a week of controversy surrounding its abrupt removal of pork dishes from the national menu for federal inmates, the government did an about-face Thursday and put pork roast back on the prison bill of fare.
The Bureau of Prisons disclosed the decision to The Post hours after a Republican Senate leader expressed dismay at what he implied was a wasteful survey of inmates’ food preferences and a lack of transparency in the decision.
“The pork industry is responsible for 547,800 jobs, which creates $22.3 billion in personal incomes and contributes $39 billion to the gross domestic product,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote in a letter Thursday to Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr.
It’s probably not going to shock anyone to find out that the pork industry lobby (yes, there is such a thing) was fighting this very hard and that Chuck Grassley was involved in getting it changed. Iowa has a lot of pig farms and the many people involved in that industry vote. It’s equally unsurprising that the chicken and beef lobby representatives were in there swinging in support of the ban. Some days you really don’t want to pick up the newspaper.
But is the ban over entirely? As Fox News pointed out, all the reporting so far indicates that “pork roast” is back on the menu in prison. It doesn’t say anything about bacon, sausage, pork chops or all the rest of those delightful pig products. (Did I already say bacon? Well, it bears repeating.) Were they just using the phrase pork roast generically or is bacon still off the menu? From the phrasing of the responses at the prison bureau it’s only pork roast.
Clear answers don’t seem to be forthcoming yet and beyond that, officials aren’t even saying why they changed their mind.
Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the prison bureau, could not explain what prompted the government’s quick turnaround. “I’m not cleared to say anything and I don’t have answers for you,” he said late Thursday. An explanation from senior prison officials could come Friday, he said.
Ross had explained last week that based on annual surveys of inmates’ food preferences, pork lost its appeal in the prison system years ago. In the last two years, the menu had dropped from bacon, pork chops and sausages to just one dish: Pork roast, the entree now back on federal prison dining halls.
The explanation that pork was “just not popular” is one of the least believable things ever to come out of the mouths of politicians or lawyers (which is really saying something) so there must be some other answer hiding in the weeds. Now that we know that three different farm lobby groups were weighing in on the fight, things begin to make a bit more sense. The next question to answer is who was responsible for making the final decision and what their ties are to the various interest groups pumping cash into Washington.
Can I be the first one to coin the term PorkGate?
The Poultry groups are on an insane push to make chicken breast part of breakfast. Really, a 300lb inmate wants tofu patties instead of sausage links and bacon strips with their eggs and toast and pancakes?
Exactly.
The ridiculous blather about dueling beef, chicken and pork lobbies was cobbled together after the fact. There was only one lobby being pandered to, the Muslims.
When Grassley asked for the surveys the prisoners supposedly filled out, suddenly pork is back on the menu. No doubt this was intended to satisfy Grassley and make him drop the request for the records. I hope he's not so easily fooled. "Thanks for putting pork roast on the menu. Now where are the surveys I asked for?" If they exist at all, they're certain to show how much this administration CAIRs for its prisoners.
LOL, I agree with your thoughts there.
I don’t want bacon every single day, but once or twice a week is nice.
Eating is about as fundamental a right was there could be.
The Democrats even want to control that? Yikes.
If they’ll step in there, what won’t they step in for?
I know Sen. Grassley and his staff. They aren’t going to let go of this until somebody working for Obama eats dirt.
So Grassley couldn’t save the babies but he could save the baby back ribs.
LOL!! and the bacon wasn’t INSANE!!!
nice to see a victory for commons sense every now and then.
100%
Top down Sharia Enforcement directly from the Executive.
I love bacon.
I can almost hear them oinking. ;-)
It’s the pictures that got small.
It took me awhile...but now I see the same connection...to the McRib.
ROTFLOL.
Did the applesauce lobby kick in?
Nobody in his right mind easts pork without applesauce.
My take on the whole thing: Prisons are known for their indoctrination of black moslem converts, there are also white supremacist groups in prisons. I think zer0bama wanted this implemented to start a race war in federal prisons which might spread to the 'un-prisoned'. Can any red blooded non-protected class American imagine breakfast without any pork products or filling out a survey declaring they would prefer something else? Bull 0bama.
This whole thing was a fabrication, sunni and shia heads in DC need to roll but alas, we don't have an opposition party to carry that out.
I hope Grassley stands up against the fake refugees from Syria whom Washington eagerly wants to force upon us.
Cold. Funny as all get out, but cold.
No—don’t eat any of that stuff.
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