Late last month, the House Agriculture Committee -- which should perhaps be known as the House Big Ag Committee -- voted by a staggering 38-6 margin to get rid of country-of-origin labeling for chicken, pork, and beef, this not more than 48 hours after the World Trade Organization (or WTO) had ruled that American country-of-origin labels "unfairly discriminate" against imported meat. Soon the WTO will impose "retaliatory tariffs" against the U.S., which should make "free" trade even more unpopular, but n.b. that the WTO's ruling didn't say country-of-origin labeling is wrong, merely that America's implementation thereof unduly restricts free trade as per the Technical Barriers to Trade agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. After all, 60 other nations have COOL laws or regulations that don't bother the WTO, so repealing ours, rather than tweaking it, seems rather like overkill. So Food and Water Watch helps you tell your Congressfolk to reject the repeal of country-of-origin labeling -- even if it means we have to back out of certain "free" trade agreements.
Meanwhile, we may have helped stop the Comcast/Time-Warner merger, but now another corporation has emerged as a suitor for Time-Warner's name and resources: Charter, America's third-largest cable corporation, and it's a measure of how thoroughly the others have monopolized their respective areas of the nation that I'd never heard of them before. Charter also plans to buy the Tampa- and Orlando-based Bright House cable corporation, which, like, maybe should be left alone to succeed or fail on its own merits? Can we do that? Can we not treat every corporation as a money pit to be sucked dry? Anyway, allowing the second- and third-largest cable corporations in America to merge is little better than allowing the second- and first-largest cable corporations in America to merge, and a Charter/Time-Warner merger would allow the resulting behemoth to serve (such as they do) two out of every three broadband customers in America, which isn't the recipe for innovation, lower prices, or better customer service. So Free Press helps you tell the FCC to reject the proposed Charter/Time-Warner merger.
Finally, you know you should keep a wary eye on your private information when you're on your home computer or your cell phone, but, yes, here's one more thing to worry about: the two dozen-plus electronic systems in your automobile, and the newer the car, the less safe your data could be. The GPS device in your car you probably already guessed would be a problem, but think of all the things your car does that are now computerized or computer-aided: steering, accelerating, and braking could all be controlled from outside your driver's seat, at least in theory. Now we don't know of a single incident in which a car has been hacked in this way, but we know it can be done, and I'm pretty sure you won't be impressed if it's only been done once if it's been done to you. Moreover, all the wireless systems in your car sure could be transmitting your habits and routes to third parties without your consent. Consumers Union helps you tell Congress to mandate computer security for car drivers, which number includes most Americans.
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