Not A Single Republican Voted For the Economic Recovery Plan

Not one Republican house member voted for the Presidents economic stimulus plan. Not one. These are the same guys that told Obama they were going to vote no BEFORE he went to the Hill seeking their input and bipartisan support. Their minds were made up...

This is the same group of Republicans that have presided for the last eight years over the largest deficit spending, and pork laden budgets of all time. Amazing nerve......lets hope they get an earful from their constituents....you know, the voters that said back in November, lets stop the partisan politics and work together to solve these serious problems.

The Employee Free Choice Act

Bernie Marcus, the CEO of Home Depot is on record stating that passage of the EFCA will mark the end of western civilization. EFCA basically allows a majority of employees to declare they are forming a union, and gives them protection against the heavy hand of management.

Here's an article with audio excerpts from a conference call between Marcus and other CEO's as they plot against passage of EFCA. It's worth a listen.

Here's an.....UPDATE.....Robert Rubin on why we need stronger unions.

Obama Meets With Republicans

Well good for Obama....why anyone would want to listen to a bunch of wealthy Republican Congressmen sing the same ol' tax cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts song, is beyond me.

Over the last 30 years this philosophy of cutting taxes for the wealthy has resulted in the greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of our nation....and look at the economic mess we're in....and these Republicans, who apparently have no other answers, want MORE TAX CUTS!!! Do any of these people even remotely have a clue when it comes to the economy? I heard one California Republican argue that tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations would put people to work, but fixing sidewalks, and building roads wouldn't. Now that is sheer genius!

Clue less...absolutely clue less.

****UP DATE****
The news services are reporting that the Republicans, who had their minds made up that they would vote NO before they even met with Obama, really worked him over during their meeting. Apparently, they feel there's too many "pet projects" and not enough tax cuts in the stimulus plan that the Democrats presented. One genius went so far as to say the ONLY THING this plan would stimulate was greater deficits and greater government spending. Yeah? Isn't the consensus amongst economist that we are going to have to live with some deficits if we are going to turn the economy around? Don't those Republican tax cuts lead to deficits? How do these guys think we'll get out of this recession?

Black Monday Continues

It looks like another 20,000 jobs on the block today....that makes 62,000 jobs world wide...gone....in the last 24 hours!

Do the Republicans really think tax cuts are going to solve this problem?

This problem is deep, it's going to be long lasting, and nothing short of a far reaching stimulus plan is going to work.

Going Global

What started with Thatcher and Reagan back in the early 1980's.....deregulate...privatize, cut taxes on the wealthy, and let business do it's thing....is meeting with a messy, noisy, and sudden death around the world.

It was called voodoo economics for a reason.

More Jobs Lost

This weekend companies as diverse as Caterpillar, Home Depot, and Nextel announced a round of lay offs and job cuts. That's 43,000 more jobs lost.....and 2.6 million jobs lost since December 2007.

But Rush Limbaugh still hopes the economic recovery plan fails. Maybe Rush does not know what economic stimulus is?

Climate Change

The Guardian has a sobering interview with James Hansen, the NASA climate scientist that was constantly having run ins with George Bush. Hansen say's Obama has four years to turn this whole global warming around, and if America leads the rest of the world will follow....if not...well....read the interview...

More Limbaugh

I hesitate to give this buffoon even five seconds of my time, but he keeps right on popping off....last week he said he hoped Obama failed because that would mean more electoral success for Republicans...and this week he's still chattering away. Rush figures if the stimulus plan works, the Democrats will be in power for an "eternity". So, he hopes it fails, right along with Obama. Yes, it's true, Rush cares more about getting Republicans elected than he does about your job, your health care, and the economic condition of our country! This guy is truly an unpatriotic swine. The years of abusing prescription drugs (that he forged prescriptions for) have turned his brain to mush.

But you know, Limbaugh is not alone...many Republicans do not want you to vote, many want you to be afraid and take your shoes off before boarding a plane, and many could care less that your wages are falling.

Limbaugh is a rich, fat guy.....and he feels his mortality. He has nothing left but his own greed, and a desire to remain in the spotlight. Obama is a major threat to taking that spotlight away, and his politics of inclusiveness is alien to Limbaugh. I'll go out on a limb and predict he is in the final days, and are witnessing the death of this giant dwarf star called Limbaugh.

Obama's Speech

Naomi Wolf summed up Obama's Inauguration speech nicely in this Guardian article. In essence, no more fake optimism. I think it's going to be refreshing to have a President firmly planted in reality.

Obama's Food Agenda

Christopher Cook, writing in the Christian Science Monitor last month, laid out why Obama needs a food agenda that leaves behind industrial farming and supports sustainable agriculture.

Where our food is grown, how it is grown, and who will be growing it, is without a doubt, going to become THE issue as we move into the next decade. Making sure that we have local choices when it comes to our food, is something we can all have a role in. When the economic stimulus money is being filtered down to the state and local levels, small and medium size family farms and those who work with local farmers.....packaging and marketing....deserve a share of this money. Local farms, and the businesses that support local agriculture, use to be a substantial portion of a local economy. I bet they will be once again.

Obama's Farm Agenda

Over at the new whitehouse.gov site I found Obama's farm agenda. On the surface this looks pretty good...

Ensure Economic Opportunity for Family Farmers

• Strong Safety Net for Family Farmers: Fight for farm programs that provide family farmers with stability and predictability. Implement a $250,000 payment limitation so we help family farmers -- not large corporate agribusiness. Close the loopholes that allow mega farms to get around payment limits.
• Prevent Anticompetitive Behavior Against Family Farms: Pass a packer ban. When meatpackers own livestock they can manipulate prices and discriminate against independent farmers. Strengthen anti-monopoly laws and strengthen producer protections to ensure independent farmers have fair access to markets, control over their production decisions, and transparency in prices.
• Regulate CAFOs: Strictly regulate pollution from large factory livestock farms, with fines for those that violate tough standards. Support meaningful local control.
• Establish Country of Origin Labeling: Implement Country of Origin Labeling so that American producers can distinguish their products from imported ones.
• Encourage Organic and Local Agriculture: Help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. Promote regional food systems.
• Encourage Young People to Become Farmers: Establish a new program to identify and train the next generation of farmers. Provide tax incentives to make it easier for new farmers to afford their first farm.
• Partner with Landowners to Conserve Private Lands: Increase incentives for farmers and private landowners to conduct sustainable agriculture and protect wetlands, grasslands, and forests.

"I Hope Obama Fails"

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh said he hopes Obama fails. How patriotic! He further went on to say that "liberalism " has brought on all the problems we face. As if Bush had nothing to do with it!

Well, Rush is a multi-millionaire, egotistical, drug addict, but I'm not sure that excuses his over the top angry man screes.

I have a feeling that Obama's Presidency, and the way Obama has reached out to the right, to bring this country together, is going to make Limbaugh's brand of hate, and divisiveness, less relevant. And there is nothing that scares a millionaire egomaniac more than becoming irrelevant.

What A Day!

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America,”

barack obama 1/20/2009

Lets do it!!!

john 'bluto' blutarsky animal house...1978

No Pardons?

Unless George Bush does something in the next couple of hours, there will be no blanket pardons for Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the other master minds of this disastorous eight years of war, and attacks on our civil liberties.

Did he work out some sort of deal with Obama on this?

Bush's Farewell

On Tuesday, at 11:59 am...Bush will be spending his final minute as President....I think we should send him off with a song...

So, at that moment...11:59 am...stop what you are doing and join with friends, and strangers, in singing.....the words go like this: Na, Na,Na, Na...hey, hey, hey, goodbye!

Rose Hayden-Smith on Montana Food Efforts

Last week the Huffington Post ran this article by Rose Hayden-Smith on the efforts being made in Montana to grow its local food economy...

Your request is being processed...

Rose Hayden-Smith

An academic with the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rose Hayden-Smith provides gardening/food systems education to youth, educators and communities. A U.S. historian, she is a national expert on Victory Gardens.

Posted January 6, 2009 | 12:22 PM (EST)

Montana Food Efforts a Good Model for Hard Times

Last fall, while the financial market experienced a kind of volatility that had nearly everyone drawing parallels with the Great Depression, I had the privilege of participating in the Western Regional Assembly on Farm-to-School, which was sponsored by Ecotrust. A large group gathered in Portland, Oregon to share information, develop strategies and network around the issues of good food for schools, institutions and communities.

To many people, farm-to-school/farm-to-cafeteria, school gardens and attempts to create local food systems are somewhat of a novelty. Here's the line of thinking...Sure, it's important to provide healthier food options to youth and communities, and to teach them about agriculture and the food system. And it's important to try to eat locally sourced foods as much as possible, for many reasons. But mostly, these activities lie largely outside of the "big-E" economic and the "big-A" agricultural system. They are simply too small in scale to make much of an impact.

What I learned about this topic has shifted my thinking in fundamental ways. Local food systems -- including farm-to-institution programs -- can mean real money for local farmers, local food processors and local/state economies.

And the state of Montana has an excellent model for this.

Mary Stein, who is on the faculty of Montana State University, recently shared information with me about what's going on in Montana in terms of needs and opportunities. She described an area of acute poverty that has developed on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, and in reservation counties. I did some research of my own and was astounded to learn that some of the poorest counties in the United States are in Montana. Rural residents have been struggling there for years. History repeating itself? Perhaps. While 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression for Main Street America, rural residents had been struggling for nearly ten years prior to that, since the conclusion of WWI. Then, as now, rural struggles too often go unnoticed in the United States.

Per Stein, through the 1950s, Montana produced about 70% of the food its residents consumed. That figure has fallen to 10%, and the state is perilously - some would argue dangerously - dependent upon food that is shipped in, much of it via trucks. A frequent observation is that Montana is one truck driver strike away from food insecurity.

Like many other states, Montana's attempts to recreate a more local and sustainable food system have been hampered because of the loss of nearly all the food processing infrastructure in the last fifty years. When we created a meta/mega food system in America, one of the casualties was local food processing. What Montanans grow has changed over the years, too, and the agricultural product is less diversified today than in the past. Montana has become a commodity-based agricultural system, producing mostly grains and beef cattle that are shipped out of state for processing and distribution. Ironically, Montanans probably import processed grains and meat that they produced initially.

It's not just a lack of processing infrastructure that hampers the effort to eat more locally sourced foods. It is also federal school lunch policy. "With the way the commodities programs are currently structured, there is a massive barrier for K-12 schools to source these commodity products locally," MSU's Stein says. "Montana is a beef state, and yet it's almost impossible for our schools to access locally-produced beef, because districts can't specify local beef within the federal commodities program." Nor can they get cash in lieu of commodities to buy local beef. (This is a policy area that incoming Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack could influence, by the way, as federal school lunch programs fall under the purview of the United States Department of Agriculture).

Grow Montana seeks to change this food system and revitalize the state's economy. Grow Montana is a broad-based coalition whose purpose is "to promote community economic development policies that support sustainable Montana-owned food production, processing, and distribution, and that improve all of our citizens' access to Montana foods." The coalition is coordinated by the National Center for Appropriate Technology, which is based in Butte, Montana, and which is also one of the coalition's partners.

Grow Montana Director Nancy Matheson says of their model, "We're looking to use the local food movement as a way to transform and revitalize Montana's economy, specifically the rural economy." She is particularly interested in hearing from others who are working on topics central to rural food systems and economic transformation.

Grow Montana works on multiple levels. It encourages conversations with communities, entrepreneurs, farmers and ranchers, identifying needs and opportunities. Matheson says, "The message is coming from the grassroots, and we take it on a collective basis to the state level." And Grow Montana's policy work is having real economic impacts, because its members recognize the real opportunities that exist. Unlocking the Food Buying Potential of Montana's Public Institutions - Towards a Montana-based Food Economy is a study that provides information about one Grow Montana strategy that impacts farm-to-school programs, and could inform this kind of work elsewhere.

On the ground, Grow Montana's work is equally impressive. The organization uses a FoodCorps to accomplish vital economic and human goals. FoodCorps members -- who are VISTA volunteers -- deploy to create and develop farm-to-cafeteria programs in local schools and colleges. Through these programs, K-12 schools and colleges buy locally-grown food. This strengthens Montana's agricultural economy, while also strengthening the prospect of community health by serving local, healthy and delicious food to youth.

The FoodCorps work is coordinated by Crissie McMullan, who traveled with this year's FoodCorps members (hundreds of miles via a van) to the Western Regional Assembly in Portland. One of the real "goose bump" moments at the gathering was when the Montana delegation was asked to stand. These incredible young volunteers -- who are doing such important and ground-breaking work in sustainable food systems -- earned an enormous and sustained round of applause.

Per Grow Montana Director Matheson, FoodCorps also enables the larger organization to "develop strategies that we can test in the real world, on the ground...strategies that inform our policy work." Food Corps volunteers track statistics about the amount and value of local food purchased for their programs; valuable information is being gained. And dollars are staying in Montana because of the program. The economic impact is real.

Department of Labor?

Pity the poor Republicans in Congress. For the last 35 years the Department of Labor has been anything but friendly toward working men and women. OSHA rules and regulations have gone unenforced, big business has been able to keep unions out of the work place, and box stores, like WalMart, have gotten away with not paying workers for overtime. Pretty much with the Department of Labor looking the other way.

Now along comes Obama and his appointment of Hilda Solis to head the Department of Labor. Apparently, Ms. Solis supports the Employee Free Choice Act, and this has Republican members of Congress recoiling in horror!

The current Labor Secretary is Elaine Chao, the wife of union hating Senator Mitch McConnell. I don't know about you, but I think it's high time we had a pro working person Secretary of Labor. Considering the anti American worker sentiment of the Republicans in this country, working people need all the friends they can get.

Happy New Year, Harry Reid Has to Go!

Happy New Year....

Let's get the New Year off to a good start and replace Harry Reid (Senate Majority Leader) with someone with brains, backbone, and a better sense of what "majority" means.

Can this guy do anything right?

In 2006 the country supported Democrats who pledged to end the war in Iraq. So what did Reid do with this majority in the Senate and anti-war sentiment in the country? He let the Republicans call the shots, backed down when they threatened to filibuster any bill that would end funding for the war, or set a time table for withdrawal.

Time and time again, on important legislation, he has been out maneuvered by the Republican minority, resulting in watered down legislation, or no legislation at all.

Now, along comes Roland Burris and the Obama Senate seat. Regardless of how you feel about Gov. Blagojevich, he is still the governor and has the powers and responsibilities that come with that office. He legally appointed Burris to fill that seat until an election in 2010. But Harry Reid says, oh no, he won't recognize the credentials of anyone appointed by Blogo...

That set up the scene yesterday in from of the Capital, Burris, standing in the rain, telling the press that Reid refused to seat him, but he was going to fight for the seat that is legally his....

Now, this morning, the AP is reporting that Reid has changed his mind and will seat Burris....or has he?

Regardless, the Republican minority has once again made the Democrats are look like fools and Harry Reid is wearing the dunce hat again....this guy has got to go if Obama is to have any hope of getting a stimulus plan, or any major piece of legislation, passed.