Farming in America

Here’s how Tyson Foods, one of the largest meat producers in America, buys its chickens.  The company has contracts with over 5000 chicken farmers to raise broilers.  Tyson supplies the baby chicks, the feed, and instructions on how to raise the birds.  The chicken farmers are paid according to how much weight the birds gain compared to the amount of feed provided.

According to an article in the January 29 issue of Lancaster Farming, when a farmer named Alton Terry tried to organize some of the farmers to get a better deal with Tyson, Tyson cancelled his contract.  Tyson said it was because the farm needed expensive upgrades.  That, in turn, meant that Mr. Terry couldn’t even sell his farm, and it went into foreclosure.

It’s probably illegal to urge you not to buy Tyson foods, so I won’t urge that.  

The party of "reform"?

Mike Morrill of Keystone Progress sent an email today detailing Republican plans to allow the Pennsylvania House Rules Committee to restrict amendments from the minority (i.e., Democratic) party and table amendments without cause.  The email also notes that the Republicans plan to change the House committees to 15 Republicans and 9 Democrats.  That is not even close to the ratio in the House, and it will make any Democratic proposal unlikely ever to reach the floor.

The new Republican majority was supposed to be reform-minded.  Some reform. 

The planned vote is tomorrow, January 31.  Doyle Heffley, the House member from Carbon County, can be reached at <dheffley@pahousegop.com>.  Tell him what you think of this power play.  I just did.

Man in the Street

“With the harsh winter we’re having, do you believe the world’s in danger of global warming?”  This question was asked of five people in a sort of “Man on the Street” column that Times News ran on January 29.

What a great idea, I thought.  I’ll ask a similar question and publish the results on my blog.  I picked five people at random in downtown Parryville and asked “Do you believe the sun revolves around the earth?”

The response:

Bob Rural, East Side:  Well, yeah.  You can see it come up every morning in the east and set every night in the west.  Don’t you think that is kind of a silly question?

Fred Weisenheimer, East Penn:  I believe that question was settled during Galileo’s trial.

Dag Largo, Little Gap,  I’ve heard that it does, but I think the scientific evidence isn’t clear.  There are lots of scientists who disagree.  

Warden Schmidt,  Long Run:  Why do you want to know?  Are you one of those liberals?

Fred Reinsoft, New Columbus:  That’s a toughie.  I think I saw something about that on Hannity.  Or was it Glenn Beck?

Have some faith

The idea that we need military tribunals to try suspected or accused terrorists is  common.  All sorts of reasons are advanced.  The terrorists are too dangerous to bring into a courtroom, or the American court system is too unwieldy or too prone to leniency, or too subject to slick attorneys confusing inexperienced jurors.

This past Tuesday in federal district court in Manhattan Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani to life imprisonment for his role in the bombing of American embassies in East Africa in 1996.  The jury found Mr. Ghailani not guilty on most counts, but did find him guilty on a conspiracy charge, and that was enough.  

Almost ten years after the 9/11 attacks, many citizens, including a majority of Congress, live in fear, willing to abandon centuries-long guarantees of fair trial procedures in favor of brutal confinement and a presumption of guilt.  I have heard  congress members say we must keep Guantanamo up and running to hold all of the terrorists we have there.  U.S. Senators and Representatives should have more faith in our institutions.

Rich People

Rich people don’t need government.  They don’t need police; they live in gated communities with private security guards.  They don’t need schools; they send their children to private academies.  They don’t need health care; they can afford excellent medical care whenever they need it.  They don’t need libraries; they can purchase books they want.  They don’t need national parks; they vacation in exclusive resorts.  They don’t need Social Security; they have millions socked away for their old age.  They don’t ride public transportation, don’t know how food stamps work, can’t imagine unemployment compensation.  

This is why the political party that caters to rich people can confidently call for ending health care reform, Social Security, public education, and just about every government program currently operating.  And this is why that party wants to cut taxes--why should its followers pay for programs they never need anyway?

This philosophy makes a positive of greed and selfishness. If you have money, you must deserve it, even if you inherited it.  If you don’t, you must somehow deserve your lower status.  Followers of Ayn Rand, Ronald Reagan, and the current House leadership believe this completely.  

Right now what we are seeing is class warfare, and I think you can guess which class is winning.

Living in a one-newspaper town

What does a liberal do when he or she lives in a one-newspaper town and that one newspaper is constantly printing reactionary claptrap, Tea Party ramblings, and anti-Obama commentary?  You could cancel your subscription, but then where would you find the news about the demise of Lehighton’s Bike Night, or the firing of the Palmerton basketball coach, or Lansford’s near bankruptcy? 

One possible answer to this problem is suggested in the latest issue of the New Yorker in an article by Peter J. Boyer entitled “Fox Among the Chickens.”  Mr. Boyer looks at recent events in Cold Springs, New York.

Cold Springs a small town 50 miles up river from Manhattan, was home to the Putnam County News @ Recorder, a small privately-owned newspaper that emphasized local news.  In July 2008 Roger Ailes, the chair of Fox News, bought the paper and gave it to his wife.  She, being the wife of Roger Ailes, turned the paper into a forum for anti-Obama editorials and nasty critiques of local activities that offended the Ailes’s sensibilities.  

Some residents, disgusted with the new tone of the paper, formed the “Full Moon Project” to discuss publishing an alternative newspaper.  The big problem was the cost, but another was finding people to report news--almost everybody wanted to write opinion columns only.

The alternative that finally developed was an online newspaper, Philipstown.info, funded by one man for $100,000 a year. Most of the e-paper’s reporters were hired away from the Fox newspaper.  The new paper did not replace the Fox paper, but citizens now have an alternative source of objective news.

Does anybody have $100,000 stuffed into a coffee can somewhere?

State of the Union

When you have lemons, you make lemonade, and right now President Obama is facing a truck load of lemons rolling right at him.  From a political standpoint, given the Congress that Obama has to work with, the speech was a rousing success, co-opting Republican rhetoric while advancing the Democratic agenda.

However, to quote my friend Debbie, “the speech was a little too centrist for me.”  First of all, we don’t have a deficit problem, we have a revenue problem, brought on by Republican tax cuts, recently extended, for the rich.  Decreased tax revenues because of  the Recession have exacerbated the problem.

Secondly, to talk about medical malpractice tort reform plays into Republican philosophy.  If the doctor amputates the wrong leg, I want to be able to sue.  On the other hand, it would almost be worth doing so the Republicans would just shut up.

I also want to know how this proposed freeze will work.  Will it be across the board?  I’ve already discussed the idiocy of across-the board-cuts in an earlier posting.  Since candidate Obama ridiculed McCain for proposing an across-the-board cut, I’m assuming the freeze is an overall limit.

The whole issue of earmarks is overblown; to hear the President say he would veto any bill with earmarks in it is an example of pandering to the conservatives for no advantage.  Earmarks are what a good member of Congress does to help his or her district.

Bottom line:  If the President had given the speech I would have given, he’d drop like a rock in the polls, get nothing done in the next two years, and lose 2012 election.  I’ve got to keep repeating to myself--don’t sacrifice the good for the perfect.