Senate to Kill Monsanto Protection Act

(illustration: Occupy Monsanto)

Senate to Kill Monsanto Protection Act

By David Rogers, Politico

25 September 13

controversial legislative rider added by Monsanto to the Agriculture Department budget last spring will no longer be effective after Sept. 30 under a draft stopgap government funding bill being drafted by Senate Democrats.

The provision touched off a storm last spring as critics accused Monsanto of "court-stripping" to protect its sales of the genetically modified seeds for which the St. Louis-based giant is a pioneer in commercializing.

The continuing resolution approved by the House last week would extend the rider without comment for the first months of the new fiscal year. But the Senate substitute, to be unveiled Wednesday, will explicitly go back and make clear that that Monsanto-backed provision will end this month.

"That provision will be gone," said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), confirming the change to POLITICO. The Center for Food Safety, a Washington-based non-profit, welcomed the decision as "a major victory for the food movement" and "sea change in a political climate that all too often allows corporate earmarks to slide through must-pass legislation."

"Short-term appropriations bills are not an excuse for Congress to grandfather in bad policy," said Colin O'Neil, director of government affairs for the Center.

The whole dispute has been overshadowed by the larger fight over Republican efforts to use the same CR to cut off funding needed by President Barack Obama to implement his health care reforms. But for many environmental and food safety groups, the so-called "Monsanto Protection Act" -as the rider was called-became a major cause last spring, generating a huge amount of Internet traffic and calls on Obama to veto the agriculture budget.  READ MORE

Tom DeLay Conviction Overturned by Texas Court

By Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post

19 September 13

Former U.S. House Majority Leader and GOP heavyweight Tom DeLay. (photo: AP)

 
exas appellate court has overturned the conviction of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for allegedly scheming to influence Texas state elections with corporate money, his attorney told several news organizations early Thursday.

A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to overturn the conviction, calling the evidence "legally insufficient," according to the majority ruling. The decision formally acquits DeLay of all charges, but could still be appealed by the government.

DeLay, 66, was in Washington, meeting with prayer group at a Capitol Hill townhouse, when he heard the news.

"We were all basically on our knees praying and my lawyer calls and says you're a free man," he said.

DeLay was convicted in 2010 for allegedly trying to influence Texas elections by funneling corporate money to various candidates. Prosecutors said that the money helped the GOP win control of the Texas House and that the majority then pushed through a DeLay-organized congressional redistricting plan that sent more Republicans to Congress. Those maps have since been challenged by the Justice Department for unfairly drawing minority communities out of certain districts.  READ MORE

FBI calls half of populace with 9/11 doubts potential terrorists

The FBI is instructing local police departments and "communities against terrorism" to consider anyone who harbors "conspiracy theories" about 9/11 to be a potential terrorist, in a circular released to local police departments.

The memo thus adds 9/11-official-story skeptics to a growing list of targets described by federal law enforcement to be security threats, such as those who express "libertarian philosophies," "Second Amendment-oriented views," interest in "self-sufficiency," "fears of Big Brother or big government," and "Declarations of Constitutional rights and civil liberties." A newly released national poll shows that 48 percent of Americans either have some doubts about the official account of 9/11, or do not believe it at all. The FBI circular entitled "Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Sleepers" says that people who should be 'considered suspicious' of possible involvement in "terrorist activity" include those who hold the "attitude" described as " Conspiracy theories about Westerners." The circular continues: "e.g. (sic) the CIA arranged for 9/11 to legitimize the invasion of foreign lands."

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New Poll Finds Most Americans Open to Alternative 9/11 Theories

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220+ Senior Military, Intelligence Service, Law Enforcement, and Government Officials

1,500+ Engineers and Architects

250+ Pilots and Aviation Professionals

400+ Professors Question 9/11

300+ 9/11 Survivors and Family Members

200+ Artists, Entertainers, and Media Professionals

400+ Medical Professionals

 

Wattree’s Beneath the Spin: Bravo Mr. President!

IF BUSH COULD HAVE PULLED OFF IN IRAQ WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS DONE IN SYRIA, IT WOULD HAVE SAVED A MILLION LIVES AND OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS.

The exact same thing is true with respect to bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice.

While Bush spent seven years, a national fortune, and over four thousand American lives chasing Bin Laden, Obama brought him to justice with three helicopters and a handful of America's finest - and, while casually dragging Donald Trump through the mud at a dinner party in the process. READ MORE

Prosecute George W. Bush For Murder

Here's the site  enough said.

CORE: Making Children Stupider Around The World

Ok… Stupider is not really supposed to be a word. But with CORE, who needs proper grammar? Slang is the new English!!!

 I often tell people who want to research a company or government entity that they should seek out the audited “Annual Financial Report” for that corporation, association, etc. The fact is that all aggregate corporations, both public and private, are statutorily required to create, independently audit, and file with the U.S. Federal Government a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) (AFR), and that includes all governments from cities and counties (municipal corporations) to districts to states.

Though I had heard about the many issues with what is called “Common CORE” from many concerned but ill-informed parents and activists, I had never actually spent the time to research exactly what this thing is and how large it has become. As a friend in Texas was speaking of how her son’s homework in the CORE system of Texas involved a lesson about George Orwell’s 1984 as an learning exercise, I realized it was time to have a look.

Thanks to the efforts of a concerned mother who brought this travesty to the awareness of the people, here’s what that homework assignment looked like:

Here are the scanned images of the 3 pages for this school assignment:

Katy ISD, Texas – 1984 Experience (page 1)
Katy ISD, Texas – 1984 Experience (page 2)
Katy ISD, Texas – 1984 Experience (page 3)

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The first thing I usually look for when researching any corporation is its latest annual financial report (AFR). And so I did a simple search with the parameters of “Common CORE annual financial report”, and up came the following link:
http://www.core-edutech.com/investors/Financial-Reports.php

I instructed the finder to recover the “Annual Report 2011-12″, and up popped a (.pdf) file of that report.
It was so simple, and yet most people have no clue these reports even exist for their consumption…
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They should probably use these people in movies