Month: June 2012

They Will Be Back

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Small farmers in Mexico have managed to block a law to legalize Monsanto’s seed monopolies:

Progressive small farmer organizations in Mexico scored a victory over transnational corporations that seek to monopolize seed and food patents. When the corporations pushed their bill to modify the Federal Law on Plant Varieties through the Committee on Agriculture and Livestock of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies on March 14, organizations of farmers from across the country sounded the alarm. By organizing quickly, they joined together to pressure legislators and achieved an agreement with the legislative committee to remove the bill from the floor.

What’s at stake is free and open access to plant biodiversity in agriculture. The proposed modifications promote a privatizing model that uses patents and “Plant Breeders’ Rights” (PBR) to deprive farmers of the labor of centuries in developing seed. The small farmers who worked to create this foundation of modern agriculture never charged royalties for its use.

Although the current law, in effect since 1996, pays little heed to the rights of small farmers, the new law would be far worse. Present law tends to benefit private-sector plant breeders, allowing monopolies to obtain exclusive profits from the sale of seeds and other plant material for up to 15 years, or 18 in the case of perennial ornamental, forest, or orchard plants–even when the plants they used to develop the new varieties are in the public domain.

The legislative reform would extend exclusive rights from the sale of reproductive material to 25 years. Further, it seeks to restrict the rights of farmers to store or use for their own consumption any part of the harvest obtained from seeds or breeding material purchased from holders of PBRs.

The bill wasn’t defeated, it just didn’t pass, so this is a temporary victory.

Monsanto and its ilk will come back again … and again … and again until they get their bill.

And the Republican Establishment is Now Resorting to Beatdowns of Paulites

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As a result of good organization and a thorough knowledge of the rules, Ron Paul’s supporters have won significant numbers of delegates.

In Louisiana, they wan an outright majority, and response of the Republican establishment was ignore them and call in the police to administer a beat down on their elected leaders:

“I’m handicapped! I need a doctor!” “Sir, this is the chairman!” The Louisiana State Republican Convention descended into chaos Saturday morning, with several delegates being arrested and the convention chairman being thrown to the ground by police. Sources report that state party officials panicked when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates commanded a decisive majority of the delegates on the floor – at least 111 of 180 (62%).

The convention began peacefully with a prayer and invocation. Roger Villere, Chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, then attempted to recognize the former Chair of the Convention’s Rules Committee who had been ousted from his position last night. When Alex Helwig, the newly elected Rules Committee chair, rose to address the delegation, Mr. Villere ordered him removed from the floor. Video footage shows Shreveport police dragging Mr. Helwig out of the room despite his protests that he was a duly elected delegate.

Here’s hoping that the national convention Tampa will be bat-sh%$ insane as well.

h/t Vonners at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

A Yankees Fan Throws Out the First Pitch at the Detroit Game

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Star Wars villain Darth Vader throws out the ceremonial first pitch to the Detroit Tigers’ Duane Below before the game between the Tigers and New York Yankees at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan (Julian H. Gonzalez / Detroit Free Press/MCT)

There are two reasons to be a Yankees fan.

The first is, as my mother did, is to live a few blocks from the stadium.

You could look down into the stadium and catch parts of the game from the roof of her parent’s apartment.

The second reason is to be deeply evil.

To have turned to the dark side, as it were.

In memory of Steve Gilliard, let me say, F%$# the F%$#ing Yankees.

BTW, naming stadia after corporations is even more evil than the New York Yankees.

And I, For One, Welcome Our New Zombie Overlords

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Over the past few weeks, there has been an outbreak of zombie apocalypse sort of behaviors, we had the (all allegedly):

No wonder the CDC has issued a denial of the existence of any disease that causes zombiesim.

I don’t believe in the undead, but something weird is going one here. 

H/t CD at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

This Smells Like Karl Rove Punking Dan Rather

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We have a story that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker fathered a child out of wedlock, and was rather a cad about it, by noted brain injury specialist Dr. Bernadette Gillick, who said that it was her roommate.

There has since been a denial from the woman in question. (Actually, within hours of the publication of the story)

It smells to me a lot like the punking that Rove gave Dan Rather over George W. Bush’s Texas National Guard service (or lack thereof).

In the case of W, the stories were probably true, and the false story was likely floated in order to defuse the issue.

In the case of Scott Walker, I’m not sure if there is an actually baby that he abandoned, or this is an attempt to distract attention from the John Doe investigation which has already snared his closest political advisers, but it smells like a ‘Phant false flag operation.

In related news, the DoJ will be sending observers to monitor the elections.

I hope they bring cuffs to Waukesha county, because with county clerk Kathy Nickolaus running elections there, despite having been forced to delegate her duties to her deputy, I expect it to be an orgy of irregularities there.

In Other News, the Sky is Blue

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Gee, after a long history of blatantly political censorship in its reviews, the CIA is finally investigating its publications review board:

The CIA has begun an internal investigation into whether a process designed to screen books by former employees and protect national security secrets is being used in part to censor agency critics, U.S. officials said.

The investigation coincides with the publication of a flurry of books from CIA veterans, and it is largely aimed at determining whether some redactions have been politically motivated.

Among the publications expected to get particular scrutiny is a memoir by the former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who used his book, “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,” to mount a vigorous defense of interrogation methods that were widely condemned but that he asserts provided critical intelligence about al-Qaeda.

The target of the probe is the agency’s Publications Review Board. The PRB evaluates hundreds of submissions each year and is supposed to focus exclusively on whether publication of material would threaten national security interests.

The CIA declined to comment on the internal investigation or to answer questions about the composition and practices of the PRB.

U.S. officials familiar with the inquiry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that it reflects growing concern in the intelligence community that the review process is biased toward agency loyalists, particularly those from the executive ranks.

Gee, you think?

This process has been corrupt and self serving for at least a decade.

Bummer of a Birthmark, George

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Bummer of a birth mark

George Zimmerman’s bail has been revoked because the judge has determined that he lied about his finances at the bail hearing:

A Florida judge on Friday revoked the bond of George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, after state prosecutors argued that Mr. Zimmerman, with the help of his wife, had misled the court about his finances.

During an afternoon hearing in Sanford, Fla., a Seminole County Circuit Court judge, Kenneth R. Lester Jr., ordered Mr. Zimmerman, 28, a former neighborhood watch volunteer who himself aspired to be a judge, to surrender to authorities within 48 hours.

Judge Lester made his ruling shortly after an assistant state attorney, Bernardo de la Rionda, asserted that Mr. Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, during a bail hearing on April 20, had “lied” and “were very deceptive” about assets available to them. That hearing cleared the way for Mr. Zimmerman’s release from jail on $150,000 bond. He had to put up 10 percent, or $15,000, to make bail.

The judge determined that Mr. Zimmerman, who has been in hiding because of concerns about his safety, had engaged in “material falsehoods.” At issue is the roughly $200,000 Mr. Zimmerman raised through a legal defense Web site, money that Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark M. O’Mara, said he learned of several days after the bond hearing.

So, now in addition to going back to jail, the judge has just called him a liar.

His defense team has to be throwing a fit right now.

Some Good News From the Texas Primary

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Silvestres Reyes was defeated in the Tuesday primary by El Paso City Councelman Beta O’Rourke.

The district is overhwelmingly Democratic, so it means that O’Rourke is pretty much a shoe in for the general.

Why is this good news? Because Reyes was aggressively pro-drug war and pro drone, to the point of lobbying for drone stikes in Mexico, and O’Rourke supports Marijuana legalization.

It’s a big deal, and it shows that, as the NORML blog notes, the war on drugs is no longer the winning issue that it used to be.

Great Googly Moogly

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The latest monthly jobs report is out, and is sucks wet farts from dead pigeons. Only 68,000 new jobs were created, the March and April numbers were revised down to 78K, the unemployment rate (U-3) went up by a a tenth of a point to 8.2% (U-6 rose by .3% to 14.8%), and long term unemployment rose.

Note that while the private sectors payroll was a “Meh” +87K, but government payrolls fell by 19,000.

So, while we American governmental entities aren’t going austerity crazy like the Brits, we are kind of slow walking austerity. (Something that Obama’s campaign seems to be bragging about)

The Institute for Supply Management’s latest manufacturing index is headed in the wrong direction as well.

But at least we’re not Yurp which sucks a lot worseworse, with Euro zone unemployment climing to 11%. (Thanks Angela)