(from www.bushslastday.com)



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Something shady is going on that affects every American's day to day life (if not citizens of most countries in the world). It's called food politics.

How and why have we arrived at a point where the government can fine a farmer for growing fruits and vegetables on his own privately-owned land instead of the govt-approved corn, wheat, soy, rice and cotton only?

Could it be the huge hand that companies for whom corn= lifeblood are the ones writing farm bills? Corn is found in a full 1/4 of the 45,000 items in an average American supermarket (and inedible items such as diapers, too.thpaste, drywall, paper, wax on fruits, glue, etc). Govt policies encourage farmers to grow more and more corn, even when there's so much of it on the market that prices fall. In such cases, the corn/cotton/etc is dumped on poor countries like Kenya and India, putting farmers there out of business and messing up the prices and supply for everyone.

And no, it's not a good source for alternative energy. It takes more fossil fuels to produce one gallon of corn-based ethanol than the energy that ethanol can produce itself!

And if your food isn't grown locally, that means fossil fuels have been expended to bring it to wherever you are.

As a person who cannot find a decent fruit or vegetable (that's not rotten, dented, or slathered in pesticides and packaging) at her local supermarket, I hope and pray that writers will continue to talk about these issues in language that's easy for the public to understand. Who cares about farm bills otherwise?



NYT: My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)

By JACK HEDIN
Published: March 1, 2008


Excerpt:

"But consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.

...The commodity farm program effectively forbids farmers who usually grow corn or the other four federally subsidized commodity crops (soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton) from trying fruit and vegetables. Because my watermelons and tomatoes had been planted on “corn base” acres, the Farm Service said, my landlords were out of compliance with the commodity program.

I’ve discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future."



More Reading: The Omnivore's Dilemma- Michael Pollan

Wow. I was out of town for a couple days and come back to find Obama taking the lead, with Hillary's campaign manager and deputy manager resigned! McCain has promised no new taxes for his entire campaign, this just as the recession is looming, and the taxes in April will bring in less revenue than in years. The sub-prime mortgage crisis was not just a poor people's phenomenon- this type of behavior, of borrowing far more than one could ever expect to pay off, pervades the highest levels of government!


I have mixed feelings about MoveOn.org, but I really admire their new campaign "Iraq/Recession". They have a nice new email action that allows you to easily and automatically write an op-ed to your local newspaper (they send it, you write it) making the tie between the American recession and the Iraq spending. (A tie that is obvious, but few people actually realize!)


Some interesting facts:

"As of today, we've spent over $495 billion in Iraq.1 With the economy in the tank, think about what that money could do here at home: Cover millions of kids who don't have insurance, or help folks who're losing their jobs and homes.

Instead, it's supporting a failed occupation in Iraq.

More and more Americans are making the connection between the billions we've spent over there and the crumbling economy here at home. In fact, a new AP poll shows that most Americans think ending the war is the best way to help the economy.2 But pundits still talk about the war and the economy as two unrelated things.

* The recession is going to force states to cut back their budgets. Most likely, the cuts are going to affect the services that working families need and depend on.3
* Meanwhile, the war is costing Americans more than $338 million a day. 4 That money could be spent to help out the folks who're hurting most now. For less than what we're spending on the war, we could pay for affordable housing for hundreds of thousands of families, health care for children, or scholarships to help folks pay for education. 5
* Gas prices are close to double what they were before the war began. The cost of oil is still hovering around $100 barrel. 6
* We're borrowing $343 million every day to finance the war in Iraq. 7 Our skyrocketing debt will be a bigger and bigger drag on the economy—slowing recovery and burdening future generations.


Write an Op-Ed

If thousands of us write, we can get the media to stop ignoring the connection between the war and the recession. The opinion pages are the most widely read pages in the newspaper, so we can also make sure voters—who are growing increasingly concerned about the economy—know that any candidate who wants to stay in Iraq has no plan for the economy."

Gone are the days of boinking creatures on the head in Super Mario
Brothers. Today's popular games are all about gruesome murder and
violence.

I had the lovely experience of playing Halo, a video game which,
thankfully, I am terrible at, which involves killing people with guns,
lasers, nail-spewing killing machines, and other highly effective and
incredibly scary weapons. When you kill someone, your entire
controller shakes and vibrates much like, I imagine, a real machine
gun would do.

I can understand why this game is so popular with soldiers in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It must help them to dehumanize their colonial subjects,
and normalize the experience of killing. I can also see why it's
popular with American teens, who are inundated with graphic violence
through movies, television, and news networks. Ultimately it will lead
them to sign up, to "die for their country" and maybe kill off a few
Muslims here and there to boot.

To the point-

It seems the Church thinks this is a wonderful way to attract young
people to the church, and, in their words, to promote "fellowship."

Whatever happened to "Thou Shalt Not Kill"? Is non-violence pass??


New York Times
NATIONAL | October 7, 2007


Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church
By MATT RICHTEL
Ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants are
using an unusual recruiting tool: the violent video game Halo.

[ Note- YouthAIDS has since corrected some things on the blog.........]


New York Times Article on ThinkMTV


In the world of business, a company can use another's design, approach, membership, and just about anything else, with little redress.

However in the world of non-profit, especially non-profit that seeks to eradicate poverty and embrace global activism, we work collaboratively toward common objectives.

Therefore it's quite sad that MTV has morphed from its once progressive, underground, and radical youth beginnings, into just another corporate giant focused on global advertising, consumerism,
and competition. It's dishonest that they copied TakingITGlobal and even proposed to collaborate with them in order to gain information on how they operate, and then built their own new, for-profit site, ThinkMTV. (As if we need another social networking site!)

No doubt MTV, especially Staying Alive Foundation, has done great good in the world, especially regarding AIDS. However time and again we see that it's going down the road of self-serving, competitive initiatives that proliferate in the youth world.

Such groups may have a lot of money, but some know next to nothing about the issues they champion (for example, see YouthAIDS Executive Director's blog in which she claims "throughout Africa there is a 30% prevalence rate")

Kate Roberts' blog

I'm tempted to ask, what type of "civic engagement" can MTV really produce? The image I have in my mind is of superfluous paris-hilton type beauty queens who are hoping for "world peace." Is this
for-profit site going to achieve anything besides its advertising dollars?

The site is clearly geared toward US students who think it's cool to talk at the very most superficial level about global issues. To "Save" the Africans... It seems to have been written by Americans/ Westerners for Americans, yet claims to have a global scope. Their buzzwords that appear on the site are a dead giveaway- "Minority" presumably alludes to non-white populations (a.k.a. the majority of the world?) And the snippets from other sections focus on American celebrities such as Kanye West and on the health section, a feature on Jay Z.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the site is the "Get Rewarded" section. It is an uniquely American ethos that material gain is the only incentive for looking outside of oneself. The site does little to promote sharing or community, but rather promotion of the individual in a meaningless world of interactive media overload.

Great news- New York has finally acknowledged that abstinence-only sex education may not be the best idea in a state with rising HIV infection rates, teen pregnancy, and STIs.

Why are the Catholics still saying that giving young people condoms will increase "promiscuity" when numerous studies show that comprehensive sex education actually causes young people to delay first intercourse and to use condoms when they do have sex? (1)



New York Times: New York Just Says No to Abstinence Funding

NEW YORK REGION | September 21, 2007

By JENNIFER MEDINA
The decision puts New York in line with at least 10 other states
that have decided to forgo the federal money in recent years.


Excerpt:

"Dr. Daines's announcement came the same day that the New York Civil
Liberties Union, which opposes abstinence-only education, released a
report detailing the number of such programs in the state. The report
stated that roughly half of the groups teaching abstinence in the
state were religious groups and that the state had done almost nothing
to monitor them."

(NYCLU Report: http://www.nyclu.org/files/financing_ignorance_092007.pdf)
NYCLU Article: http://www.nyclu.org/node/1395




Calling Bush's teen education program on sex a failure, New York state
will forgo $3.7 million in federal aid

By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer

First published: Friday, September 21, 2007

Excerpt:

"The Bush administration's abstinence-only program is an example of a
failed national health-care policy directive, based on ideology rather
than on sound scientific-based evidence," Health Commissioner Richard
Daines said Thursday.

..


The New York Catholic Conference, which represents New York's bishops,
called the administration's decision unfortunate.

"Most people would agree that teenagers are too young to be having
sex, therefore the consistent message to them ought to be that this is
a behavior that is undesirable and you should refrain from it," said
Dennis Poust, spokesman for the conference. "The idea of so-called
comprehensive sex education sounds OK at first blush, but what the
children are being taught is instruction in condom usage which leads
to promotion of sexual activity."

Nearly half of all New York teenagers have sex before graduating high
school, according to the 2005 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey from
the U.S. Census. In Albany County, 427 girls between 15 and 19 became
pregnant in 2004 and 199 had abortions, according to state health
department statistics."


Citation:
(1) UNAIDS, 1997. "Impact of HIV and Sexual Health Education on the Sexual Behaviour of Young People: A Review."

"Only three out of 53 studies that evaluated specific interventions found increases in sexual behaviour associated with sexual health education. Twenty-two reported that HIV and/or sexual health education either delayed the onset of sexual activity, reduced the number of partners, or reduced unplanned pregnancy and STD rates."

ICAAP YOUTH STATEMENT – August 23, 2007

Delivered at the Closing Ceremony by Ari Yuda Laksmana

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of the youth who participated in the youth forum, I would like to make a statement.

I would like to ask young people in the room who participated in the Youth Forum of the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific to please stand, and remain standing during my remarks.

-To the rest of you who are seated, I have a question for you. // What is it like to live in a world without AIDS? // All the people standing were born after the pandemic. We do not know a world without AIDS. //

We are already responding in our own ways to HIV/AIDS. We are running programs, educating peers, pushing for social change and uniting in this fight around the world. //

The value of our response has to be recognized as necessary, and mainstreamed.

We strongly urge you to begin viewing us as equal partners in the response to HIV/AIDS and to move beyond the rhetoric of youth participation by funding youth-led initiatives, engaging in true youth-adult partnerships and meaningfully involving young people in policy that affects our lives. //

Therefore, we have laid out concrete steps to be taken to ensure the next ICAAP, held in my country of Indonesia, builds on the process started here over the next two years and beyond. //

We call upon those present here today to work with us to achieve the following in the next two years in Bali:

1. More than double the number of youth participants;
2. Include youth voices by providing space for a youth representative at the opening and closing ceremonies, ensuring a platform for youth to address all congress delegates. Future congresses should include representation for young people, including young people living with HIV/AIDS, in the different segments of the congress programme to provide for the youth perspectives on the different issues;
3. Develop a separate scholarship selection process for young people that addresses problems that youth face when applying to conferences of this nature;
4. Provide support for a youth committee comprised of members from the previous ICAAP youth forums to create a clear process of coordination, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and hand-over of the Youth Forum;
5. Facilitate the meeting of youth at the Congress with high-level decision makers to advocate for youth-specific policy and to seek funding for their work;
6. Have a two-day youth pre-conference to discuss youth-issues of the region, network efficiently and adequately prepare youth to get the most out of ICAAP.
7. Technically and financially support the creation of a regional network of youth-run organizations working with youth. //

Look around this room; what does that tell you about youth participation in this congress? Despite the fact that we comprise over half of all new infections, from the 19 plenary speakers at ICAAP, only ONE was a young person talking about youth issues. //

For all the youth issues in the region and around the world, we had ONE chance to meaningfully address the entire congress – me speaking to you right now. //

We were given only ONE day before the Congress to discuss, deliberate and strategize on all youth issues in all the countries that were represented here. //

We stand firmly united against being tokenized on panels, relegated to abstract sessions and poster presentations, and denied funding to carry out our initiatives.//

We hope that at the next ICAAP, we will not have to stand before you raising the same issues we are forced to raise again and again. We all know we need a great deal of CHANGE in the way we respond to AIDS in our region. Many people think SOMEONE is doing something about the needs and concerns of youth and youth involvement; I did too until I saw the reality.

Constructive ways to ensure the momentum and successes of the previous 3 ICAAP youth forums in Melbourne, Kobe and now Colombo are sustained and expanded upon have already been raised with key conference organizers.

We will do all in our power and effort to ensure that a clear structure for planning, implementing and handing over the future ICAAP youth forums and programs is actioned and supported in full partnership with ALL ICAAP stakeholders. We hope that you'll make it to the table; we will be there, waiting for you.

It is our hope that one day when we ask the youth of the room to rise, they will be the ones who have known a world without AIDS.

See you in Bali.


-Statement composed by youth from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Australia, PNG, Japan and from the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS



###



For press inquires:

Guruparan Kumaravadivel Ari Yuda Laksmana

rkguruparan@gmail.com ari@youthaidscoalition.org

(c)0773 704 178

Michel Kazatchi, Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, participated in a "Meet the Leaders" lunch at ICAAP's Asia Pacific Village.

Kazatchki spoke candidly in a lengthy Q & A session with audience members about how the Global Fund functions. Notable statements he made in response to questions included:

-Acknowledging the need to disseminate information about the Global Fund to communities, so more people can become involved and participate in Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs).

-Agreeing with an audience member that the grant guidelines are incredibly complex and should be simplified.

-Said he was "very concerned" about indications that the UN's World Food Programme(WFP) plans to pull-out support later this year for several of their HIV/AIDS projects; urged people to lobby and call the WFP.

-Hoped that the Global Fund will eventually have dual track funding, so money goes to governments and NGOs when they receive a Global Fund grant (currently, most of it goes directly to governments).

-Urged people to participate in their country's CCM process, to ensure their voice is heard and the Global Fund money reaches those most in need. If all attempts at becoming involved with the CCM fail, then it is possible to apply for money outside the CCM (but this should be in an exceptional situation).

-When the Global Fund suspends money from a country, it is only after seeing hard evidence that something has gone horribly wrong with the grant, ie corruption; "If we let dysfunction enter the world of the Global Fund, then the Global Fund will be looked at suspiciously be everyone," he said, "And the opportunity we have for universal access will...be lost."

I asked if the Global Fund made an effort to pressure countries to meaningfully involve young people in their CCMS, and he replied that they were now looking at unheard voices and considering new guidelines for representation on the CCMS.

Dear GYCA members -

I will be writing as frequently as possible about the 8th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. I arrived in Colombo Saturday afternoon (after flying all night from Karachi to Dubai to Colombo) and went straight to the Youth Forum. The YF was a one-day pre-conference organized by the Youth Committee of ICAAP.

ICAAP held its opening cermonies last night with much pomp and circumstance. Although we had planned to have a GYCA meeting before the opening cermony, we were unable to do so due to the high security in the conference center which prevented us from accessing a meeting room. The high security was apparently due to the imminent arrival of Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa made a bizarre speech at the cermony, in which he emphasized that drugs and alcohol were stepping stones to other drugs and thus to HIV infection. It wasn't clear if he was talking about alcohol abuse or consumption in general, but either way it's incredible that public leaders are still permitted to make such misleading statements surrounding HIV/AIDS!

GYCA members Frika Iskandar and Rachel Ong read a statement at the Opening Ceremony which had been prepared earlier that day in the Community Forum. They emphasized the need for govt's and institutions to work with community-based organizations, youth, injection drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers and other marginalized groups to effect change.

Deborah Landey, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, read a statement prepared by Peter Piot to the plenary that called for a shift in focus from short-term crisis mangement about the pandemic to a more sustainable, long-term response.

Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and Jokapeci Tuberi Cati from the Fiji Network for People Living with HIV, also delivered keynote addresses.

Yet again forcing the Surgeon General of the United States to be the mouthpiece for the Bush Administration's lies, a report calling for action on global health was suppressed by the administration because Carmona kept it a-political.

Steiger, with absolutely no qualifications in global health whatsoever, pulled the report because it did not laud the United States for its action against global health crises such as AIDS, TB and Malaria.

What is there to laud? The United States, the wealthiest country in the world, ranks last in the amount of money it spends on global health from among industrialized nations as a percentage of its GNP/ wealth. (Citation: USAID)

Congratulations to Carmona for speaking out about how his freedom of speech has been curtailed.



Bush Aide Blocked Report
Global Health Draft In 2006 Rejected for Not Being Political

By Christopher Lee and Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 29, 2007; Page A01

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post.

Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Stay tuned!

This is absolutely unbelievable! Bush pardoned Scooter Libby! Just look at the grin on his face- Justice evaded, one more time........

What is the lesson learned? Even if you're a diplomat and you question the Bush Adminstration's lies (by writing an op-ed that Iraq did not buy enriched Uranium from Niger), you and your family will be punished by the government. (They leaked the name of his wife, Valerie Wilson, for being an undercover CIA agent).

Bush is not pardoning Scooter, he's pardoning himself. With 18 months left in office, he can do whatever he wants pretty much, with no repercussion whatsoever.

Jesus now we've got the likes of Scooter Libby and Paris Hilton roaming free on the streets of America. Talk about dictatorships!


WASHINGTON | July 3, 2007

The great part of the new immigration bill that they are not mentioning- the lockup and die bit.

I thought after we put Japanese people in concentration camps in America in the 40s and 50s, we'd said goodbye to Nazi-style death camps? I guess not.



New Scrutiny as Immigrants Die in Custody
New York Times
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: June 26, 2007


[Excerpts:]

Sandra M. Kenley was returning home from her native Barbados in 2005 when she was swept into the United States’ fastest-growing form of incarceration, immigration detention.

...
Seven weeks later, Ms. Kenley died in a rural Virginia jail, where she had complained of not receiving medicine for high blood pressure. She was one of 62 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004, according to a new tally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that counted many more deaths than the 20 previously known.
...
In the case of Ms. Kenley, a legal permanent resident of the United States for more than 30 years, detention interrupted her medical care for high blood pressure, a fibroid tumor and uterine bleeding. An autopsy attributed her death to an enlarged heart from chronic hypertensive disease. But a report by emergency medical services said that she had fallen from a top bunk, and that a cellmate had pounded on the door for 20 minutes before guards responded.
........

The inspector general in the Department of Homeland Security recently announced a “special review” of two deaths, including that of a Korean woman at a privately run detention center in Albuquerque. Fellow detainees told a lawyer that the woman, Young Sook Kim, had pleaded for medical care for weeks, but received scant attention until her eyes yellowed and she stopped eating.

Ms. Kim died of pancreatic cancer in federal custody on Sept. 11, 2005, a day after she was taken to a hospital.

“We spend $98 million annually to provide medical care for people in our custody,” Ms. Zuieback said. “Anybody who violates our national immigration law is going to get the same treatment by I.C.E. regardless of their medical condition.” (Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security)

We're fighting two wars. We don't have enough troops, and they don't even have bullet proof vests or car armor. We definitely do not have enough Arabic translators, and what self-respecting person with Arab roots or Muslim would sign up to be a translator for the US anyway? How many Americans do you know who are fluent in Arabic?

Stephen Benjamin wrote an excellent Op-Ed in the NYtimes today. The military read through his instant messages and kicked them out for being gay. The other 68 heterosexual men's instant messages contained conversations about their sexual misconduct, mysoginistic comments, profanities, etc. They were not kicked out.

I bet some of them were the same types as the Abu Ghraib torturers whose sexual misconduct was a grotesque aberration. But Bush and his cronies defend torture. How on earth can the Bible be against homosexuality but pro Torture?

When will this country get its priorities straight?

Don’t Ask, Don’t Translate
By STEPHEN BENJAMIN
Published: June 8, 2007

"In response to difficult recruiting prospects, the Army has already taken a number of steps, lengthening soldiers’ deployments to 15 months from 12, enlisting felons and extending the age limit to 42. Why then won’t Congress pass a bill like the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell”? The bipartisan bill, by some analysts’ estimates, could add more than 41,000 soldiers — all gay, of course."

Lou Dobbs, television show host of “Lou Dobbs Tonight” and commentator of the Early Show, is drumming up anti-immigrant, racist hysteria by spreading false data that accuses immigrants of spreading disease in America.

Reflecting the current widespread trend of the government/media to create and flame public fears about non-whites and immigrants, the audience for his program has grown 72 percent since 2003.

Lou Dobbs and his peons stated multiple times that there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous 3 years, compared to 900 cases over the past 40 years.

Interestingly, according to the NYTimes,
"When Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it.

'Well, I can tell you this,' he replied. 'If we reported it, it’s a fact.'"

HOWEVER- official leprosy statistics show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three.

Sadly any white racist can spin lies as truth and before you know it, half of America accepts it as truth. We can only pray that Lou Dobbs soon goes the way of Jerry Falwell..........


Source:
Truth, Fiction and Lou Dobbs, NEW YORK TIMES

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: May 30, 2007