The Farm Bill And Other Stories

  As you are aware, Congress just passed a new farm bill which will most certainly bode well for our sugar growers, especially those in the state of Minnesota, which happens to be our largest sugar producing area.

  This bill pretty much sucks ass so far as the sugar consumer is concerned.

   There is a provision in this bill which would have the government buy the sugar surpluses and then sell that extra to the ethanol producers just in case we happen to have an over-abundance of sugar from imports. Can you see our sugar prices rising? As if we do not pay more than enough for our cane already.

  Associated Press

   The legislation calls for a gradual 5.2 percent increase in the loan rate for sugar beet growers, or guaranteed minimum price, through 2011, and a 4.2 percent increase for cane. That would be the first increase since 1985.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and the Bush administration has cited the sugar-to-ethanol provision as one of several elements to which it objected. But the Senate passed the farm bill last week by a veto-proof margin a day after the House did the same.

  Of course, all of the Senators from Minnesota ( R-Norm Coleman and D-Amy Klobuchar )  and North Dakota (D- Kent Conrad and  D-Byron Dorgan ) voted in favor of the bill.

The sugar-to-ethanol proposal has its critics. New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, both Republicans, were among 15 senators to vote against the $290 billion farm bill.
The legislation would make small cuts to direct payments that are distributed to some farmers no matter how much they grow, and would eliminate some federal payments to individuals with more than $750,000 in annual farm income.
But Sununu said overall it would leave massive subsides in place even as food prices soar.
"At a time when farms are experiencing record profit, there is absolutely no reason to provide price supports for sugar and extend the ethanol tariff," he said. "The bill is a continuation of bad economic policy that taxpayers in New Hampshire and across the country do not deserve."

  This is just more of the " screw the consumer " crowd at it once again.

 

A.P.

ATLANTA - In planning Jimmy Carter's climb to the White House, Hamilton Jordan pushed a strategy still popular with lesser-known candidates today: start campaigning years in advance and target early voting states to build support from early upsets.

Jordan, 63, died at his home in Atlanta about 7:30 p.m., said Gerald Rafshoon, who was Carter's chief of communications.

  Say what you will about the Carter administration, Jordan was a brilliant man and we could sure use more of him in the Democratic Party today.

Technorati Tags: Hamilton Jordan,Congress,Farm Bill,John Sununu

The Problem With Republicans

  You will not find any links in this post dealing with this subject as this comes straight from my own experiences with working for a few Republican business owners, both large and small.

  I work ( part-time ) for a die-hard Bush/GOP supporter who thinks that the Republicans can do no wrong. We do have some very intense discussions on politics at times. One thing that I have noticed during these talks is that my boss will throw out some fact or poll showing that the general population supports the conservative party and that the Democrats are going to lose not only the Presidential election in November, but also the House and the Senate. Talk about being in the state of denial! This man watches the evening FoxNews line-up every night and he just thinks that Mr. Bill and Hannity are the greatest folks on television, so you and I both know that he has to be pretty ignorant on the issues of the day and on were his beloved GOP is going.

  He'll spout off about some poll or another and when I look the poll up, as is usual, he only got part of it right. This man is a perfect " talking points memo " for the GOP. If he'd get past this Republican/conservative bullshit, he'd be a really smart man. In fact, he is very smart when it comes to most things, but he goes downhill when it come to reality and his Republican party. I do make it a point to tell him that he's living in the 51st state, the state of denial. As are most Republican supporters.

  My employers take on Universal health insurance

   Companies should not have to provide insurance for their workers. It should be the employees responsibility  to get their own coverage.

   Now, that would be fine with me if the employers would pay their hourly workers enough to be able to afford the high price premiums that the insurers charge these days. So we get past that, but, what about those employees with pre-existing conditions, of which I am one?  I am a 46 year old diabetic and have had the illness for 36 years and let me tell you that my premiums are through the roof. I put out over a grand a month for my coverage and the coverage is next to nothing. My employer pays me $10 an hour when I work for him. I couldn't afford the premiums if I worked for him full-time. much less anything else!

My employers take on workplace regulation

   Employers are over-regulated and those same employers should be left to regulate themselves. The government makes to many rules for business to follow. Unions have no place in the workplace

   Once again, it is not in those employees best interest if business is left to its own devices. We've seen more than enough examples during the Bush years to know that left alone, business will fuck anyone that they can,especially their own workers. I'm thinking of the mining industry, as one example.

   On the union subject. If it wasn't for the unions, most workers would have even less rights than they now have. Where the unions got off track was in demanding high pay for tasks that didn't warrant such pay and in paying union leadership more than they were worth. If it wasn't for OSHA and the Wage and Hour Division, many workers would be getting a royal fucking, not that they aren't already.

   I'll continue this in a later post, but right now I have to go and make my hourly wage for a few hours.

Technorati Tags: Republicans,Universal Health,OSHA,Wage and Hour Division