Today's
St.Pete Times reported that Mike Bilirakis (R-FL09) recently introduced House Bill 3902: "Chamois Truthful Labeling Act of 2005."
The proposed legislation would make it illegal to label anything as chamois that is not from "inner split of a sheepskin which has been tanned in 100 percent fish oil.
A big proponent of this essential piece of legislature is the last surviving chamois manufacturer in the United States: Acme Sponge & Chamois Co. of Tarpon Springs. The same Acme Sponge & Chamois Co. that:
last spring moved its tanning operations to Turkey, in part to cut water and labor costs.
...but no mention of that on their website. And how many workers got let go then?
Anyway, it was awfully nice of Rep. Bilkirakis to take such as interest in Acme Sponge & Chamois Co., but not terribly suprising beacuse according to
OpenSecerts.org, Michael G. Cantonis, co-owner of Acme Sponge & Chamois Co. has given $6,607 to the GOP in the last two years (this doesn't count another $750 given by "Michael Cantonis", cause we can't be sure it the same guy...):
$500 to Gus Bilirakis- GOP congressional candidate in FL09 and son of Rep. Mike Bilirakis (gee, have you heard that name before?)
$300 to the National Republican Senatorial Cmte
$2,000 to George W. Bush
$606 to the National Republican Congressional Cmte
$3,201 to the Republican National Cmte
If I had only known it was that cheap to buy a Bill...or should we just call it the "Shameful Truth Labeling Act"?
Crossposted at
FlaPolitics.com