Joe Sestak, Why Are You Anti-Organic?

Roll call... (4.00 / 2)

[pdf warning!] PDF link...

Truly amazing.  Yeesh, even the dim Rob Andrews (NJ-01) voted for it.  I mean really, what possible explanation can he have for voting against this?

Here's Sestak's ag page from his Senate campaign website...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 22:41:20 PM UTC

My guess is it's money (4.00 / 2)

either he didn't want to spend money on it, or he's anti-organics, one of the two. Or some combination of the two. The Republicans complained about the cost of giving organic foods to kids. One stood up and said he had an organic farm precisely BECAUSE he could charge more money for the crops and therefore he KNOWS it's more expensive and the kids shouldn't get that kind of money spent on them.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 23:40:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

which Republican asshole was that? (4.00 / 2)

And why WOULDN'T we want to give the best to our kids?

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by: LeeN @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 11:53:24 AM UTC

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Kline (4.00 / 1)

Ranking Member John Kline (MN-02), about 1:24 in, discussion of Woolsey-Kucinich amendment. He didn't actually stand up. Woolsey pointed out that Kline, with only 150 acres of organic products, is a piker in the industry, organics are becoming more cost-competitive, and organics are served in the schools of (California? Her district?) Kucinich pointed out the massive subsidies received by other foods in the schools programs. The amendment passed.

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by: count @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 21:49:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Piker my ass..... (4.00 / 1)

If Kline's a piker with 'only' 150 acres, what the hell am I, with only 1 - 1.5 acres in production????

I am so up to here with infighting in ag over organic vs conventional, big vs small, commodity vs artisinal. Makes me want to kick their asses all over into the next county!

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 22:56:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

telling the truth (4.00 / 1)

A couple of other differences between you and Kline leap to mind. One is, you are working 12 hours a day, whereas Kline hires someone to do the work. Another is, you aren't trying to determine national policy based on your own experience.

I listened to the hearing only once. Woolsey immediately responded to Kline with information about the large number of organic farmers over 400 acres. Telling the truth, I'm not positive what her point was, but I took it as justification for her assertion that prices are coming down, and I took it as a genteel slap at Kline, who is not a typical farmer.

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by: count @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 01:28:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'll agree with you on Kline being an absentee farmer (4.00 / 2)

using hired hands to do the work.

Wish I was making enough money to hire some hands.....

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 01:44:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

GE (4.00 / 1)

Does Sestak have a record of supporting genetic engineering, or does he receive much money from the biotech/ag chemical sectors?

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by: count @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 21:52:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

contributions (4.00 / 1)

From ARC's link below, not much money from agribusiness so far.

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by: count @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 22:08:01 PM UTC

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wow..I'm suprised...and I'm in PA (4.00 / 3)

I do volunteer work for him.
Why don't you ask Nate??? He's a friend of mine doing publicity for Joe S. He can be found on FB nathankleinman, I just wrote on the wall..

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by: LeeN @ Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 11:11:40 AM UTC

The problem with our politics... (4.00 / 2)

Liberals in the US only generally have a 'choice' between corporate conservatives (i.e. Democrats) or whack-a-fucking-doodle radical right-wing nutcases (Republicans).

Rarely do we stop and ask ourselves why a tiny 'pilot program' to wean our children off of cancerous chemical residues is something that even ever needs to be debated in the first place; and why even one vote against this is tolerated by any citizen, let alone lockstep opposition from an entire party and one of the so-called good guys.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 12:51:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Republicans (4.00 / 2)

Are Republicans whack-a-fucking-doodle radical right-wing nutcases because they think The Flintstones is a documentary, or because The Flintstones is their desired future?

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by: count @ Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 14:29:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I know him (4.00 / 4)

and really want to know why he voted against this. He is my daughter's Congressmen. I'll have her call his office.

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by: LeeN @ Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 17:12:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

While you're at it, you can have her ask him why he never came out (4.00 / 3)

.... for the public option in health care reform as a congressperson in the period between 2006 and 2009, in a verifiable manner, until he decided to run for the Senate and Senator Specter had to force him into it by going first and publicly endorsing it.  THEN he had staffers on line saying he was "for it," but in reality he was not one of the group of progs who would commit to insisting that it was in the health care bill, House, final version.

I specifically remember him giving really great, personalized speeches on the health care issue re his family,  but if you cannot translate that into actual universal coverage for other people's family's it's just all smoke and mirrors. Now we have an event, a free health clinic, that is going to happen on the Washington DC mall during the August break,  and I hear that the only congressperson with enough courage to show up for the invite is Donna Edwards.  Yet we still have how many million people uncovered in this country with no access to health care and the Party In Power is too busy to acknowledge this ?  Please don't talk to me about Massachusetts style being the national template,  because even the poor in Mass. can't afford to use their **** so called Romneycare health care "insurance."  

I have family and friends in the district, and convinced people to work for him in 2006, and now it's clear that the district, which was Republican for a very long time, is going to go back to being Republican after this election, because he basically abandoned the seat to go on to other things, and did not fight for those (working class, good solid) people in the district who tried giving a Democrat a chance after the Republican stranglehold of so many years.

Back to the organic lunch pilot program topic-
As a would- be Senator candidate in a state with a lot of Amish, Mennonite, and Penna. Dutch old older German family farms, who are not into the Farming By Industrial Chemicals Fed. Subsidized Agri- business, this was an especially lousy vote.

Besides being on the Educ and Labor Com. Sestak is also on the Armed Services and Small Businesses Committees.
Small sustainable farming is not a small business ?

"Health" starts with what you eat and drink besides what sort of exercise you do.  And our kids today, like the reality or not,  are getting a significant part of their daily food intake in the schools, and it's been proven that quality nutrients not only effect health but learning ability.

Given the guy's campaign donations,  it does not surprise me to see him voting much more like a right wing Republican than any of the liberal Dems who would be fooled into giving money to him, (over a million $ from Act Blue, but the other top donors are west coast real estate, nuclear, military/HS hardware, and a law firm that donates to a lot of Republicans)  but I'm not surprised.  The sad part is that once in the Senate, if he beats Toomey, he is likely going to tack much further to the right under the influence of the wretched "domestic deficit hawks" because it's SIX YEARS between Senate elections and the Senate is basically less responsive to the voters than anything else.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pol...

One of these bigger donors has a web page that says once elected he'll be a strong voice in the Senate on Foreign Policy.  It would be nice if we could just get a few Democratic Senators interested in domestic policy that did not involve helping us further along into that Third World Status they seem to be angling for.

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by: AmericanRiverCanyon @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 08:20:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Donna Edwards (4.00 / 3)

Congresswoman Edwards is using the front page of her congressional website to showcase tools that help people take advantage of new healthcare options.

Looking at the map of her district, I see that it is composed about 50-50 of parts of Montgomery County and Prince George's County. Interesting. I thought her district was mainly in PG County.

Edwards is a sweetie. I would love for her to replace Ben Cardin in the Senate, the sooner the better. I suppose she will have a better chance of taking Barbara Mikulski's seat when that opportunity arises.

Thanks for the info about the mall clinic, ARC. I need to find out something about that.

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by: count @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 16:11:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sestak's district (4.00 / 3)

I dunno, ARC. I'm not from there, but I note that the district was won by the Dem presidential candidate in 2000, 2004, and 2008, and the margin increased by a couple of points each time.

LeeN might have a better idea.

At least the district has a Dem candidate this year. I still can't believe the large number of districts the Dems are giving to the Barney Rubbles and Fred Flintstones this year.

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by: count @ Sun Jul 18, 2010 at 16:58:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

His position on health care changed.. (4.00 / 2)

My daughters college which is in his district (Swarthmore) put on a forum about health care.I was there. Almost everyone on the panel was for single payer. At the time he was really big on the MA plan. Boy the audience give him a hard time about that. So much that the moderator had to ask people to stop yelling.

Couldn't agree with you more about Senators and domestic policy

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by: LeeN @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 11:15:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm not trying... (4.00 / 1)

Not trying to be a dick here, honestly.  Any you know I love you, Lee.

But I really have to wonder - did his position just simply change out of convenience, especially since, just like the rest of us, he knows that (real) health care reform in the US now won't come up for at least another generation or so, if ever again?

His vote against organics really leads me to believe that he hasn't had any kind of change of heart or awakening whatsoever.

He's better than Toomey or the teabaggers, certainly.  I'm pulling for him this year.  But maybe it's just because I love PA as much as I do NJ - I know they can do much better.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 11:29:23 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

He's a unique man (4.00 / 2)

with core values.But he's also a politician with "competing" constituencies. I could tell you about sitting next to him at the CAIR dinner http://www.cair.com and the shit he took from Jews for being there. But here's my favorite Joe S story.

I worked for him during his first run as a Congressmen. There were a group of Dems running here in Montgomery County. There were told by the usual group of beltway Dems NOT to mention the war in Iraq. Lois Murphy listened and LOST.. Anyway I was in Sestaks office making GOTV calls and he was im the office next to me. The phone rang and the next thing I hear is Sestak screaming in the phone "T'll run my campaign anyway I f*****g want And you can't tell me not to not talk about the f*****g war"

He talked about the war and won

The person on the phone?
Rahm Emmanuel

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by: LeeN @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 13:11:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Anyone willing to cuss out Rahm Emmanuel gets a gold star in my book (4.00 / 2)

the competing constituencies issue is the main reason I don't what to have anything with politics, or being a politician. When you get that job, you put yourself in the middle of a tug of war between your constituents, and you're the rope.

Frankly, I don't see how anyone can do that type of work, but I am sure glad they do because I wouldn't touch a job like that for love nor money.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 14:32:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Rahm Emanuel... (0.00 / 0)

Having the opportunity to tell off that filthy prick would be one of the perks of the job, imo...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 14:53:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

SWEET! (4.00 / 3)

Please do. My hunch is it's the money. And I am disgusted with ANY Dem that buys the Republicans line that we need to cut spending right now.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 00:39:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sestak's District (4.00 / 2)

I live in Sestak's district and it's a pretty economically diverse district.  It includes Upper Darby, which is urban and mostly minority, the formerly Republican-now-trending-Democratic and largely white older suburbs in lower Delaware County, parts of the wealthy and white Main Line, King of Prussia Mall, a large Lockheed Martin facility, some large biotech firms, a lot of smaller companies.  It's a pretty good cross-section of Southeastern PA.  

None of which explains his vote, but just to answer some questions.  I volunteered for him in 2006 and 2008 and have been generally pleased with his performance.  With a couple notable exceptions.  And he is way, WAY better than Curt Weldon, who he replaced.

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by: Pansy P @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 18:30:53 PM UTC

I'm in the 13th Congressional district (4.00 / 2)

and my daughter goes to Swarthmore.

And yes he's better than Weldon.

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by: LeeN @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 20:14:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Universities (4.00 / 2)

Oh, yes. I forgot the universities/colleges.  Also unrelated to his vote, I would think, but adds to the diversity of the district.

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by: Pansy P @ Mon Jul 19, 2010 at 20:19:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]