Feeling safer yet?

Your government at work.

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

The Agriculture Department tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

There's some solid fucking logic. To avoid false positives, don't test. Incidentally, that's also how to avoid real positives.

Of course, consumers' deaths and a massive recall also would harm the industry. But a one-time recall costs a lot less than ongoing widespread testing.

As for the people who die, fuck 'em, right BushCo?