Oh the hypocrisy-"Rural Americans for Hillary"=MONSANTO LOBBYISTS

[mod mom]

Yee-haw

October 18, 2007 10:06 AM

So later this month, according to THIS INVITATION, the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, is holding a "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch and campaign briefing at the end of this month….

..but she's holding it in Washington, DC….

…at a lobbying firm…

… and specifically, though it's not mentioned in the invitation, at the lobbying firm Troutman Sanders Public Affairs…

…which just so happens to lobby for the controversial multinational agri-biotech Monsanto.

You read that right: Monsanto, about which there are serious questions about its culpability regarding 56 Superfund Sites,wanton and "outrageous" pollution, and the decidedly unkosher (and quite metaphoric) genetically-bred "Superpig."

-snip

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/10/yee-haw.html




"When I'm President, I'll have a department of agriculture, not simply a department of agri-business," Obama vowed.

-snip
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_8040.cfm


I believe this pertains to Indiana because of the huge increase of factory farms that have dotted the landscape over the last 25 years. I started traveling US-65 when I moved from Chicago to Ohio for graduate school in the 80's. The route between Indianapolis and Chicago has changed drastically over the years. Gone are many of the farm owned farms-replaced by mega factory farms. Mike Papantonio just did a great program on the devastion that these huge corporate factory farms cause on local populations. I hope folks will consider who is backing these two candidates on this issue.

[KittyWampus]

1. Is Indiana a farm state? These ads write themselves. Is Obama running them?

[mod mom]

4. It's now a MEGA Farm state. I'm from Ohio and I haven't seen the same change here.

Correct me if I'm wrong -I don't travel up Northeast too much but I haven't seen the huge influx as I have along the 65 route.

[KittyWampus]

18. I'm from a former potato-growing, fish-hauling community on Eastern LI, NY.

There's not much left of agriculture here. Just a few family farms hanging on although the Winery Industry has taken hold. Apparently they make enough to cover cost of land etc.

Grapes aren't a Monsato thing, IIUC.

And I just read an article that wine grape-growers tend to be much more respectful of the soil and organics.

[mod mom]

2. Ring of Fire on ecological and economical problems with factory farming:

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Missouri state congressman and Attorney General candidate Jeff Harris will tell us about the ecological and economical problems with factory farming.

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/

[mattclearing]

3. This is a big deal. Someone should run with this, but probably not Obama.

He's trying to get back on message and off attacking. But someone has to hit her with this.

[Armstead]

9. This is where Obama SHOULD be attacking

Hillary's achilles heel, if the media and otehrs ever bothered to deviate from the narrative, is the disconnect between The Clintons populist rhetoric and their pro-corporate, neoliberal ties.

[mattclearing]

11. Obama is trying to avoid that now. It does him no good.

He's finally back on message...the last thing he needs is to start stirring up shit.

[Armstead]

19. I think standing up to an unpopular multinational chemical company...

would do him good.

Unfortunately, despite her populist rhetoric, Hillary would keep the White House door open for the same oligarchs she criticizes in public.

[truedelphi]

21. Unless she has to conduct her Presidency from a bunker after her failed

Nuke attacks on Iran.

[futureliveshere]

5. Oh Wow!This is so typical of the Clintons. Make a noise about helping Americans, then shaft them!

Bloody Republicans in disguise, and the disguise is wearing THIN!!!

[EnviroBat]

7. Exactly.

If it stinks like a republican, and it screws the middle class like a republican, it should probable be locked up for LIFE!

[me b zola]

6. K&R

[Bigleaf]

8. Bought and paid for by one of the worst!

[blm]

10. This is EXACTLY how Bush operates - they believe their supporters ARE STUPID.

.

[Cassandra]

12. DLC... the gift that keeps on...

taking.

[berni_mccoy]

13. K&R!

[graycem]

14. These are the things

that he SHOULD be hitting her on. I don't think it's considered mudslinging if it's true. He has got to start making these types of contrasts, the ones that matter, on the issues that affect real people.

[Umbram]

15. Disgusting, but typically so. (nt)

[TragedyandHope]

16. The Goddess of Special Interests

Edwards for President communications director Chris Kofinis just issued a statement saying:

“John Edwards believes family-owned farms are critical to America’s future and that the corporate greed that’s killing the family farm is hurting America. Apparently, Hillary Clinton doesn’t feel the same way. While John Edwards has introduced policies to ensure family farmers can compete against big agribusiness, protect the food we eat and preserve farming communities, Hillary Clinton, beholden to Washington lobbyists, is tailoring her rural policy to reflect the needs of big agribusiness. While corporate America and lobbyists may want someone like Clinton in the White House, regular Americans are ready for someone who will stand up for them and fight for real change.”

[mod mom]

23. As a former Edwards supporter I don't understand why Edwards wouldn't renounce

just about everything that the Clintons stand for-the free trade (despite Hillary's populist rhetoric-having your husband & chief strategist making big bucks promoting free trade w Colombia says much more than any faux stump speech), the MF Trade status w China, the connections with lobbyists and big corporate interest (choosing Mark Penn as Chief Strategist speaks volumes!), the IWR & Kyl-Lieberman votes, Telecom Act of '96, banking mergers, this......

If ever there were Democrats pushing the corporate agenda, the Clintons would win.

[Wind Dancer]

17. Hillary never fails to disappoint.

This is not the least bit surprising. She was Sam Walton's favorite board member during her WalMart days! She just loves the corrupted corporations and vice versa.

Sigh.........................

[invictus]

20. Hillary is the biggest shill for every kind of lobbyist from the war profiteers to the frankenfood

manufacturers. Hillary is not the kind of person you trust with power. The Clintons either abuse it or use it to enrich themselves. The rest of America gets layed off( through NAFTA and job outsourcing "free trade"), killed (in wars Clintons voted for), or bankrupted (through the mortgage crisis made possible by Clinton's repeal of Glass-Stegal).

[truedelphi]

22. And yet we can't say what we won't do next election

If she is the candidate

Though I might do it with about eighteen nose plugs on me nose.

[southerncrone]

24. More like "Ruinist Americans for Hillary"

Monsanto's Round-up is thought to be one of the problems w/bees not returning to their hives.

[Melinda]

25. Oh yes, Troutman Sanders who ran the Bush-Cheney 2000 recount effort.

Long, long, LONG ties to the GOP. How CONvenient. :eyes:

[mod mom]

26. Thanks for that reminder-we need to cleanse the Money Party from the Democratic Party.

[Melinda]

27. And we need to start by unseating/defeating DLC officials/candidates!

I am consistently blown away by the number of posters on DU who refuse to see the DLC is not about democrats/progressive/liberal ideologies, but corporatist, republican ideals. For God sake, the DLC is a candyshop of supporters like Troutman Sanders, AT&T, Philip Morris, Goldman, Sachs, British Petroleum, Boeing, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, Dell, Eli Lilly, Federal Express, Glaxo Wellcome, Intel, Motorola, U.S. Tobacco, Union Carbide, and Xerox.

Trade associations ranging from the American Association of Health Plans to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, AOL, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Citigroup, Dow, GE, IBM, Oracle, UBS PacifiCare, PaineWebber, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn, TRW, Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, Verizon Communications.

And then there is Koch Industries (the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy) which has Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, sitting as members of the DLC's board of trustees and event committees.

The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola.

And some of Washington's most elite lobbyists, including representatives from the Dutko Group, Greenberg Traurig, the Wexler Group, Verner, Liipfert, and SVP Kessler and Associates, Chevron, Citigroup, Salomon Smith Barney, among others, are DLC committees members.

Then there is Hillary, who is not simply a DLC member, but on the DLC's Leadership Team. As leader of the "American Dream Initiative", HRC presented a plan calling "baby bonds". Then, after presenting this 'initiative' at the annual DLC conference almost two years ago, she abandoned the baby bond 'initiative' once polling showed it was a losing campaign proposal.

And finally, we can't forget that it was Bill Clinton's DLC that gave us NAFTA, the WTO, fast track for secret corporate trade agreements, media consolidation for Rupert Murdoch, and welfare reform for babies -- but not for corporations.

As someone more prolific than myself told me, and I quote:

"The only thing "progressive" about the DLC is the growth of its willingness to turn the Democratic Party into a lapdog for global corporatism at the expense of the old Democratic constituency. You know, us. The un-rich. The non-CEO's. The non-investment class. That effort "progresses" nicely as liberals and real progressives get minimalized and sidelined so as not to get in the way of the DLC's maniacal corporate fund-raising machinery".

The DLC as it stands today is the antithesis of everything I believe in as a liberal democrat. And it breaks my heart that people are so easily duped as to believe that Hillary Clinton is a liberal democrat too.

America has become a country of the elite, by the elite, and for the elite. And it will only continue if McCain or Clinton, both elite class politicians, becomes President. Thanks for letting me vent. :hug:

[libnnc]

28. kick

:kick: