I thought I heard a parental "huzzah" go up across the country this week when the Senate passed a sweeping food safety bill that President Obama is expected to sign into law shortly. Over the last year, there have been increasing numbers of frightening news reports about children becoming sick after eating tainted spinach or bad burgers, as well as allegations of food buyers taking bribes to get moldy or otherwise defective food into our supermarkets. 

It's been something of a scary time to be the one doing the family food shopping. So fingers crossed that some additional authority for the FDA will mean safer food for our families.

But what good is food safety if there are still tens of thousands of children who go hungry every day in America?

Image via Amazon.comSarah Palin is out to get the 1990s.  At least that's what I have to assume from some cultural references she's trotted out in her new book, America By Heart.

According to excerpts from the book, she's got it in for Hillary Clinton and fictional newswoman Murphy Brown, two female icons of the 1990s. But why is Palin going all Back to the Future as she's plotting her 2012 strategy -- whatever that may be?

In the recent election, for the first time in decades, more women voters cast their ballots for Republicans than Democrats, hoping the GOP would make things better for their budgets and wallets.

So how did the GOP thank all those women for switching sides? By refusing to allow the Paycheck Fairness bill to come up for a vote in the Senate.

Nice way to say, "Thanks for your votes, ladies, but we still think you're worth less than men."

Wooing women voters with promises of looking out for their best interests and then refusing to allow even a fair debate on a bill that would help countless families in this stinky economy was the legislative equivalent of that guy in high school who promised if you put out, he'd take you to the prom. And then he took the head cheerleader like he was always planning, having played you for the fool.