Why did the chicken cross the road? To get on a ship in China

So, the U.S. Senate and House have agreed that it is now time to give consumers another Chinese product to help lower production costs, create more jobs overseas and increase corporate profits: chicken.

Chinese chicken imports had been banned for the past couple of years after Congress put the kibosh on a trade plan from the Bush administration in 2007. A U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of Chinese poultry plants in 2004 documented poor sanitary conditions.

But the Obama administration appears to have succeeded where Bush failed, convincing Congress that Chinese chickens are good for relations with our manufacturing friends in the Far East.

Politics is great for delivering examples of how failure can be a good thing.

Shouldn't the line be drawn somewhere? Processed chicken seems like a good place to start.

Let's be clear: Chinese products are with us everywhere and the lower prices that come with them have become addictive to consumers.

Electronic equipment, toys, and even candy comes here by the freighter load and consumers buy it by the truckload. Some of it -- not that China has cornered the market on it -- is utter junk. And products made in China tend not only dominate what we find in discount stores, but also the list of products that are recalled due to defects or violations of safety rules.