You know how they like to remake British films with an American angle?
How about “The Kings Speech” remade with Mike Tyson and George Bush by Tyler Perry?
Here goes….
Tag Archives: politics
The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?
Scary stuff…
But then, I’m not a fan of Whole Foods…
They are Republicans in Green Clothing…
I’m just hoping Deep Roots does get their new store here in Greensboro and offers more local food options…
And there is still the Farmer’s Market….
And Earth Fare…
I really don’t trust Whole Foods or the Big Business Organic companies anymore…
In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America’s organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.
In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and “seed purity,” gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the “conditional deregulation” of Monsanto’s genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa. Beyond the regulatory euphemism of “conditional deregulation,” this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S.
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
We finally got to watch this documentary tonight…
It’s a “must see”….
I always wondered why Eliot Spitzer resigned and Diaper Dave Vitter is still in the Senate….
Now, I know…
This is now out on DVD, so please rent or buy it today!
Filed under Movies, New York, Politics, The Economy
How to Kill a Recovery – NYTimes.com
Another prescient, forewarning article from Paul Krugman at the New York Times…
I’m starting to feel really powerless that so many smart people are being ignored by the opportunistic folks in Washington…
There was a time we respected the thoughts of a Nobel Prize Winning Economist…
There was a time when we wanted the smartest, best educated people to run the country…
I’m afraid that time has passed….
Instead it’s being run by ruthless politicians more concerned with short term political gains and helping their Corporate and wealthy contributors than with doing their job as elected officials and guardians of the public good….
And the American people elected these fools…
Because too many people felt powerless and didn’t vote…
But I always remember, the famous quote from Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (and women) do nothing.”
The clear and present danger to recovery, however, comes from politics — specifically, the demand from House Republicans that the government immediately slash spending on infant nutrition, disease control, clean water and more. Quite aside from their negative long-run consequences, these cuts would lead, directly and indirectly, to the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs — and this could short-circuit the virtuous circle of rising incomes and improving finances.
Of course, Republicans believe, or at least pretend to believe, that the direct job-destroying effects of their proposals would be more than offset by a rise in business confidence. As I like to put it, they believe that the Confidence Fairy will make everything all right.
But there’s no reason for the rest of us to share that belief. For one thing, it’s hard to see how such an obviously irresponsible plan — since when does starving the I.R.S. for funds help reduce the deficit? — can improve confidence.
Beyond that, we have a lot of evidence from other countries about the prospects for “expansionary austerity” — and that evidence is all negative. Last October, a comprehensive study by the International Monetary Fund concluded that “the idea that fiscal austerity stimulates economic activity in the short term finds little support in the data.”
And do you remember the lavish praise heaped on Britain’s conservative government, which announced harsh austerity measures after it took office last May? How’s that going? Well, business confidence did not, in fact, rise when the plan was announced; it plunged, and has yet to recover. And recent surveys suggest that confidence has fallen even further among both businesses and consumers, indicating, as one report put it, that the private sector is “unprepared to fill the hole left by public sector cuts.”
Which brings us back to the U.S. budget debate.
Over the next few weeks, House Republicans will try to blackmail the Obama administration into accepting their proposed spending cuts, using the threat of a government shutdown. They’ll claim that those cuts would be good for America in both the short term and the long term.
But the truth is exactly the reverse: Republicans have managed to come up with spending cuts that would do double duty, both undermining America’s future and threatening to abort a nascent economic recovery.
Filed under Politics, The Economy
Clarence Thomas Faces Call For His Disbarment in Missouri Supreme Court | AlterNet
If only….
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should be disbarred for his failure to truthfully complete financial-disclosure forms over a 20-year period, according to a complaint filed by the watchdog group Protect Our Elections (POE). This would not affect his ability to sit on the Supreme Court, but it would add to mounting pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate Thomas.
via Clarence Thomas Faces Call For His Disbarment in Missouri Supreme Court | AlterNet.
Filed under Justice System, Politics
What the People Want | Mother Jones
Another great article from Kevin Drum at Mother Jones….
That the Democrats will probably ignore…
We know the GOP will…
A new NBC/WSJ poll tells us that Democrats, if they could manage to agree on a halfway coherent message, most likely hold all the cards in a budget showdown:
Filed under Politics, The Economy
The end of the New Deal? – The Week
Excellent article from Robert Shrum that I originally saw on David Mixner’s site….
Worth clicking the link to read the entire thing….
America was rescued from the Great Depression by the New Deal — and then pushed back into recession when Franklin Roosevelt briefly and prematurely moved toward a balanced budget. Three-quarters of a century later, a second depression was averted by an act of government that did more and spent more to counter a collapse in consumer demand and the credit markets. It briefly seemed that we as a nation had learned the imperative that FDR expressed on Inauguration Day in 1933 — the necessity for “action, and action now.”
But FDR had come to office more than three years into a catastrophic downturn. Americans rallied to the hope he brought, but didn’t expect an instant turnaround.
Barack Obama entered his presidency only months into the financial crisis. Compounded by the pressures of a hyper-media age, the public mood didn’t accord him many months before punishing him and his party in the midterm elections for a recovery that was taking hold but not fast enough, a recovery still more a statistical artifact than a fact of people’s lives. There are now more convincing signs of economic revival, which could yield decisive and Democratic dividends in 2012 — if the results of the 2010 elections don’t stall a reverse in growth and job creation.
Filed under History, Politics, Social Justice, The Economy
Congress Blocks Ceremony For Frank Buckles, Last Surviving WWI Veteran
Not only are Congressional Republicans evil, they’re just plain tacky….
This isn’t just honoring one man. It’s recognition of history and the passing of a generation…
WASHINGTON — West Virginia’s two Democratic senators blamed House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday after their hopes of having the remains of World War I veteran Frank Buckles honored in the Capitol Rotunda were dashed, at least for now.
Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin III both released statements saying the Ohio Republican had blocked the Capitol honor. Asked if that were true, Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said the speaker and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would seek Defense Department permission for a ceremony for Buckles at Arlington National Cemetery.
Buckles died Sunday on his farm in Charles Town, W.Va., at the age of 110. He had been the last surviving American veteran of World War I.
The episode turned what West Virginia lawmakers had hoped would be easy approval for the rare honor for Buckles into a finger-pointing dispute with partisan overtones.
It was unclear late Thursday how the disagreement would end. Asked whether Boehner would be supportive if the Senate approved a resolution allowing Buckles’ remains to lie in the Rotunda, Steel said, “We’ll see what the Senate does.”
The honor requires a congressional resolution or the approval of congressional leaders, according to the office of the architect of the Capitol.
The bodies of prominent citizens have been displayed in the Rotunda on 30 occasions, starting in 1852 with Henry Clay, a Kentucky senator and congressman. Others include President Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, unknown soldiers from America’s wars and civil rights hero Rosa Parks.
via Congress Blocks Ceremony For Frank Buckles, Last Surviving WWI Veteran.
Filed under Politics
Boehner & GOP Aim to Cut Social Security – WSJ.com
This may just be it. The straw that breaks the camel’s back for the American electorate…
The Republicans may just be getting ready to reach too far…
That’s what usually happens.
It’s not possible to educate the electorate– only misinform them.
That’s worked so far, but I’ll be shocked if it works for Social Security.
Remember, there is nothing wrong with Social Security and it is not contributing to the deficit at all. It’s financially sound for years to come and could be sound forever with just a few tweaks- like removing the income cap on withholding.
God, I hope this blows up in their faces and they don’t succeed in ruining one of the best social safety net programs ever created.
The Polls say no one wants this…but that’s not stopped the GOP before.
It may finally be crowds in the street time in Washington….
WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he’s determined to offer a budget this spring that curbs Social Security and Medicare, despite the political risks, and that Republicans will try to persuade voters that sacrifices are needed.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Boehner said House Republicans would offer a budget for the next fiscal year that sets goals for bringing the programs’ costs under control. But he acknowledged that Americans aren’t yet ready to embrace far-reaching changes to Social Security and Medicare because they aren’t aware of the magnitude of the financial problems.
“People in Washington assume that Americans understand how big the problem is, but most Americans don’t have a clue,” Mr. Boehner said, speaking in his Capitol office. “I think it’s incumbent on us, if we are serious about dealing with the big challenges, that we go out and help Americans understand how big the problem is that faces us.”
He added, “Once they understand how big the problem is, I think people will be more receptive to what the possible solutions may be.”
Filed under Politics, Social Security, The Economy
Lost in the 21st Century 
Building Better Kids | Mother Jones
Fascinating article from Kevin Drum at Mother Jones….
via Building Better Kids | Mother Jones.
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Filed under Education, Politics, Social Commentary
Tagged as education, politics