foraker

So now we're not allowed to comment on an issue unless we've actually been there (a la Iraq)? Maybe you shouldn't be allowed to comment on government until you've been to Washington DC.... AGRIBUSINESS REAPS BENEFITS OF FEDERAL FARM LAW The federal government’s biggest agricultural subsidy checks are going to the nation’s biggest farmers, according to a new report. More than sixty percent of almost $23 billion in federal farm subsidies provided under the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 went to farm operations that should be big enough to ride out the economy’s up and downs with far less help, charges a report by the Environmental Working Group. Farmers and landowners that make up that top 10 percent received nearly $14 billion in subsidies between 1996 and 1998 - an average of nearly $100,000 each. Some farms collected $1 million or more. The bottom 90 percent got an average of just over $6,900 for the three years. Farmers, investors, and agribusinesses that comprise the top 10 percent of Freedom to Farm subsidy beneficiaries were paid, on average, at least 27 times as much as the 700,000 farm subsidy recipients in the bottom 90 percent. Some states showed an especially high concentration of payments to the largest recipients. In Mississippi, subsidy inequities were the greatest. Ten percent of the participants took in 83 percent of all payments to the state – an average of $217,000 for every recipient over three years. Payments were also highly concentrated in Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. The study looked at 30 million USDA records for payments totaling $23 billion that cover the first three years of the Freedom to Farm Act. The subsidies included market transition payments, which were capped at $40,000 per farmer or landowner, and commodity price supports for grain and cotton, which were limited to $75,000 per recipient. Last year, Congress doubled those payment caps to $80,000 and $150,000 respectively. In February, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman loosened payment limits on large farms, allowing them to get an even larger share of federal subsidies. Under the Freedom to Farm policy, subsidy recipients are free to plant any crop they wanted, or no crop at all, and still are eligible to receive subsidies. This has allowed some recipients to stop farming entirely, while still retaining full eligibility for Freedom to Farm handouts. Overall, the study concluded that the 1996 law favors large, corporate farms and agribusiness partnerships and is biased against small and medium-sized producers. Farmers that really do need the help are eligible for only minimal subsidies. When the current farm bill expires in 2002, lawmakers should entirely rewrite the formula for farm subsidies. Congress should require farm subsidy recipients to document their financial need before they receive farm subsidy payments, and aid should be targeted to small and medium sized farms and sharply reduced for corporate agribusiness.

Try working at one of our vaunted National Labs......

Actually, it turns out that most of those government subsidies go to the large agribusinesses, and not to small family farms. So much for free market economics.

I'm just waiting for the Republicans to live up to this mantle of morality that they've assumed....... Still waiting..... OK, still waiting.... Well, guess I'll just go home.

and what would the Republicans do when he started chasing interns around the oval office? and you KNOW he would.... ;-)

Just in case you're under any kind of delusions that Schwarzengger would be different

If you were going for Australia, another fine choice, you should seriously look at Melbourne. Yah got yer rainy weather, just like the PNW, and yer Grampians and yer Arapiles. Granted, the skiing sucks ass and the mountaineering is non-existent... Still, Melbourne is probably the most European of cities you'll find down that way.

it's really sad that the quality of presidential candidates in this country has reached such abysmal lows that we are now forced to outsource the job.

New Zealand baby. Fabulous mountaineering but next to zero rock climbing. There is supposedly some down near Queenstown but I hear it too sucks.

Never let it be said that certain members of the Right are graceful winners. Of course, certain members of the Left aren't very graceful losers either.

Apparently Dru's not been to the south side of Chicago...

Read it with an open mind

1036.9

i'd be interested to know what parent's reactions are these days when their kids are acting up at school. i remember when parent's used to get the call from the principal and usually they gave 'the eye' to their kid, basically saying 'wtf have you done now?' am i wrong in thinking that now the parents give the eye to the principal, basically saying 'wtf do you think you're doing accusing my precious little snotleigh of being bad?'

The other thing that's ironic about the whole 'red v blue states' issue is that all of the red states are 'federal welfare states'. That is, that take in more money from the federal government than they pay into it. Thus, the blue states are paying the way for the red states....

how about any excess oil profits and Halliburton profits going to pay off the national debt?

Hmmm. Maybe that's Shrub's plan. Later, when we're broke, I bet all those grateful Iraqi's will help bail us out. It's so crazy, it just might work!

You mean the deficit? No. With another four years of Bush/Kleptocrat economics looming ahead, I hope certain people won't be complaining when we have to seriously raise taxes in order to pay for the little spending binge we're on. Hope ya'll don't mind when everyone holding our debts (e.g. the Chinese, the Japanese) come calling wanting to be paid back. I seem to recall the Kleptocrats being about fiscal responsibility. Oh well. Another illusion shattered along with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. (Patiently expecting someone to say "Oh, we'll take care of those trillions of dollars with an improved economy".......)

maybe they should try being a real university instead of a holding pen for 'student' athletes.

exactly!

Yeah, not like believing in angels, a 6000 year old Earth, that self-regulation of polluting industries can work, etc.

Good timing on this question. I'd like to hear too.

That's a better reply than any of the Australians gave when I used it on them. ;-) They usually just sputtered in righteous indignation. I guess that's why I only see them working your ski lifts. ;-)

Gee, Dru, I guess I'd feel that way too if I lived in a 3rd world country. ;-)

To make your fleece less permeable, forget your anniversary and tell it that it's butt does indeed look fat in those pants.