Proving that he’s cut from the same cloth as his hypocritical father,and that the term “principled politics” truly is an oxymoron, President Bush has signed one of the largest money-for-votes bills ever – a $190 billion farm subsidy bill that will hugely benefit the richest corporate farmers at the expense of taxpayers across America. Like so many conservatives, Bush espouses free market rhetoric, but when it comes to winning the next election he’ll pay whatever it takes, just like any whore. The subsidies are an attempt to buy the voters of farmland states in the upcoming fall elections, and thus shift control of the senate back to the GOP. The bill also serves as a preemptive strike by Bush to secure his reelection in 2004.
“It’s not a perfect bill, I know that. But you know, no bill ever is,” Bush said with a chuckle and his usual asinine smirk. “There’s no such thing as a perfect bill. Or otherwise, I’d get to write every one of them.” We’re glad that Mr. Bush finds it so amusing, as he rapes the very people that voted for him, the fools that thought that values like self-reliance had some meaning. Bush preaching “fiscal restraint” now has all the credibility of Jesse Jackson and Ted Kennedy talking about the virtues of celibacy.
Not only is Bush not axing existing subsidies, many of which go to pay farmers to leave land fallow (read, farmers are paid to do nothing), but he’s actually increasing them by 80%, and adding new crops to the list of those that receive subsidies. Advocates of subsidies argue that, without them, many American farmers would go out of business. Yes, well, so what? “We have to have a safety net,” says Paul Junkans, a rancher in Henley, Mo. Really? And does everyone else get a “safety net”. Does the Korean couple working 16 hours a day running the corner grocery get a safety net? How about the struggling artist – is he or she guaranteed a minimum income? Now that the market has turned down, how about subsidies for computer programmers?
The fact is that America has way too many farms and farmers, and only an elaborate system of subsidies and price controls keeps them, not only in business, but wealthier than the average American from whom they steal. And let’s make no mistake about it – a farmer taking a subsidy is no better than a ghetto kid selling drugs. In fact, the kid selling drugs is, morally speaking, on much higher ground – there is a market for the drugs, but there is no economically viable market for the farmer’s crops. A kid selling drugs is a harassed entrepreneur. A farmer taking a subsidy is simply a thief.
It’s a real pity that kids from America’s urban centers waste their violence killing each other over drug deals and gang wars. The real stealing in America is done legally, and the thieves, like their accomplices the politicians, are rarely if ever caught. If the tough kids from America’s cities really wanted to vent their rage, they should head on out to the farm – and kill a few rich, white, fat farmers. But before they do that, they should drop by the White House and wipe the smirking grin off the man who’s the biggest thief of all.
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
To read about the farm subsidy bill see the Christian Science Monitor Story:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0514/p02s01-uspo.html
while you compare a farmer with someone running a convenience store, there is a growing shortage of farmers who are primary producers, and no shortage of convenience stores owners, who are middlemen who gouge the consumer with outrageous markups. Once a farm is gone, that’s it. Not so with convenience stores, which seem to be growing at an alarming rate.
I guess when a president ask the American farmer to plant fence row-to-fence row but turns arounds and bans the sale of wheat because of “human rights” that’s OK. Let’s take a look at the exports and see who is really purchasing all those fancy computer chips. I have a feeling it’s the American farmer selling his produce.
Sadly we will need every one of them to keep the House and regain the Senate. This is nothing new they have been receiving the taxpayers money for years and let’s not forget the dairy farmers in the northeast. I’m surprised you’re surprised.
Bush is buying votes and using “your money”.
This is the final straw. I can no longer support Bush Redeaux . The only question now is who conservatives can enlist to run against him!
I think the government needs to stay out of farming completely! Let them run their business like any other business, then maybe there wouldn’t be so much over production and low prices. Its pretty simple , the law of supply and demand and the survival of the fittest.
i don’t know about the farm bill yet, you’re probaly right about it helping the rich, not all farmers are rich or white but i know your an idiot and a racist for telling for telling kids to go kill white farmers
Farm subsidies help to keep the price of food within the reach of the Korean couple, struggling artist, and unemployed programmer. Am I the only one that remembers the French Revolution?
Jeff Bridges is right – without price controls on key items, we’d all suffer. Your Big Mac would cost $8. Your loaf of bread would be $5, if not more. I don’t think this bill is any worse than any other president would have done. Oh, and lets not forget, when the indpendent farmer goes out of business, Big Business can come in and buy him out. So without subsidies, wouldn’t one or two corporations eventually own all the farmland?
Which is more outrageous…a bad bill being signed in D.C.(name a good one!)or some idiot equating domestic terrorists with the people that are the soul of the country…I wonder if the Secret Service would be outraged at you encouraging punks to wipe off the smirk on the Presidents face…
All my life, and I am 72, I have watched the Democrats
in Congress take care of the Big Farmers. They were
the rich people in 1935, when I was picking their cotton for
$.50 per 100 and they are the very rich people throughout
the South today. This Bill is over a 60% increase in what
they have been getting. The little farmer, like most of the
rest of us, still gets the same old thing, a long fight with a
short stick. You can drive around is most any town or
city in the South and can tell the Houses of the Rich Farmers
Things haven’t changed for the real working stiffs since
FDR was dumping potatoes in the ocean to keep the
prices up, while we were all hungry. No program he ever
started ever worked, but he saw if he could get the
American people willing to fight in the WWII war things
would sure pick up. It took him 2 years, but he arranged
it. The people of this country didn’t want in another
“World War,” but Pearl Harbor changed our minds and
the rest is history. No telling what GWB got out of the
quick signing of the new farm bill, but it will come out in
the end. It always does. Thank God Prince Albert wasn’t
Pres. on 9/11, the war would be over and we would have
lost.
Bush and USA just do not get it!!! They are hypocrits. I cannot condone what happened on September 11 but unfortuantely the USA had it or something like it coming.
Stnd back and take a look at yourselves
Why don’t you dasmn democrats stop using wors like “rich” , :wealthy”, etc you known you use it to try to make othrs feel like they are a bunch of no-counts. we all know your loaded language but we all see through it.
Why don’t you dasmn democrats stop using wors like “rich” , :wealthy”, etc you known you use it to try to make othrs feel like they are a bunch of no-counts. we all know your loaded language but we all see through it.
Years ago, I visited the Department of Agriculture in Washington. I believe at that time it had 80,000 to 100,000 employees.
What I remember most is how cheap their in house cafeteria was. Dairy products were practically given away.
With all the increases in domestic spending plus the so-called search for “Warren Terrism”, how long will it be before increased taxes (hard for Shrub after papa Bush got slammed) or an inflated currency strip us of our income?
Charles Lamm
cfour@itsagreatplan.com
http://www.itsagreatplan.com
I agree the Farm subsidy is a joke, but telling kids to kill Farmers!!!!! and that it’s OK to sell drugs!!!!!!You have got to be kidding!!!
Such garbage!!!……please remove me from your list.
So much for free trade with the rest of the world as promised by Bush,These Subsidies will rock the rest of the world into anti US sentiments
I’m off your list. I’m for killing the author of this rasist ramble.
You guys are idiots and should be shut down for stupidity. The Left and liberalism is on it’s wat to it’s death bed.
It’s quite egalitarian to offer corporate welfare to the farmers as well as the “Rich Fat Cats”. Is this a great country or what?
I am not outraged. It is unfortunate that huge ag combines profit hightly from the subsidies, but it is a complex matter. The small farmer needs a safety net lest the entire ag business become controlled by one or two giants producing each product. The small farmer may suffer two or three years consectutive loss due to the whims of nature, govt controls of pesticides and fertilizers, competition from federal subsidised imports, federal manipulation of fuel prices, etc. These federal impositions on the farmer are to gain the votes of the metropolitan consumer while the farmer suffers. Subsidies may not be the answer, but if the govt meddles in everything else, some relief is needed.
Q:What is the difference between a democrat and a republican president?
A:ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Tax and spend Republicans? You put an honest man in politics and sooner or later, no matter who they are, they become corrupted. Eeesss true.
As an old misplaced ex-Iowa farmer, I think it is disgusting. I remember when I was around 14 years old the government buying our corn and then paying us to store it in our own crib. Granted, we did not have a large farm; only eighty acres. Even at that age I thought it was strange. This is just another subsidy bill to suck the very life out of the taxpayer. Looks like Mr. Bush has contracted Democraticitis and a severe case at that.
Talk about vote buying!
In my opinion family farmers should not be lumped in with corporate farmers. One big difference with farmers and all others is the fact that farmers feed us. Food does not just sprout on grocery store shelves. I AM OUTRAGED AT YOUR LANGUAGE IN THE LAST COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS. ADVOCATING VIOLENCE, PARTICULARY RACIAL VIOLENCE IS DESPICABLE. You lost me on this one!
Let McDonalds charge $8 for the bloody hamburger and
eliminate the handouts to the big fat corporate farmers.
Then the people can make their own choice as to support
the corporate moguls if they choose. As it is, we are taxed
(read extortion) to pay for these subsidies (read handouts)
to these fatcat corporations.
There is no one no way that can care for the land as well as
the traditional family farm period. Big corporate farming is just
another big business that is only concerned with the bottom
line thanks to the MBA beancounter. Corporate farming is just
another way of exerting control over the food supply in this
country and when any major industry is owned by the ‘Big 3 anything’,
we as Americans loose (just look at the ‘Big 3’ TV media and see
what we get).
Yes, President Bush is buying votes as much as Klintonov,
Geroge Herbert Walker Bush, Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Johnson,
Kennedy and all the ones before him…it is no different
whether there is a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ after he name.
Dave Larson
Sorry, you are off the mark on a ggod bit of this one.
Blame the Corp farming business and goverment for the
mess it is in. The small farmer is the one getting f****d.
Face it the big money, the vote, the big power
You wrote “If the tough
kids from America’s cities really wanted to vent their rage, they should
head on out to the farm – and kill a few rich, white, fat farmers. But before they do that, they should drop by the White House and wipe the
smirking grin off the man who’s the biggest thief of all”. You have gone too far, advocating violence against farmers as Mugabe’s “freedom fighters” in what I still refer to as Rhodesia. And then telling them go to the White House and “wipe the smirk” off of Bush’s face. ARE YOU PEOPLE AT OUTRAGE CRAZY??? I liked you for a time, but I am now taking my name off of your mailing list.
After Bush’s decision, Americans will again wonder « why the rest of the world hate us ? ».
Your President is talking double language: one to get the farmer’s vote, one pretending to defend the world free trade (only if it brings money to the USA! Not to the poor African farmer…)
I never knew collecting welfare was the american way. what ever happened to free enterprise? (free as in free of government meddling), the USA has more government meddling then most of the so called comunist countries.
The way I see it, the USA has far more comunist practice then they like to admit to.
CCG (cguillory@jam.rr.com) wrote:You have gone too far, advocating violence against farmers as Mugabe’s “freedom fighters” in what I still refer to as Rhodesia. And then telling them go to the White House and “wipe the smirk” off of Bush’s face.
Voting won’t change anything quickly. A bullet in the head of a politician will.
If the politicians had to worry about dieing for ripping off the people, they’ed be less likely to do it.
Point #1: It’s as unfair to say that all farmers are “rich, white farmers” as it is to say that all black men are “bankrupt crack dealers/users.” Bust your hump on a farm trying to produce enough to make a living and pay off your overhead, all the while praying the the weather is just right so that your crops will grow and then and only then may you tell me that farm subsidies are stealing. Farm subsidies are to provide temporary relief for farmers, most of which have a roof over their head and that’s about it, protecting the domestic food supply in the future while keeping them from going bankrupt.
Point #2: American farming is not “uneconomical,” it’s “more environmentally friendly.” Ok, so you want to import everything from a foreign country where the technology isn’t as advanced? Guess what? It takes fossil fuels to transport it, which means more of a drain on a non-renewable resource of energy, more CO2 in the air you breathe, more smog, and a contribution to the greenhouse effect. Aside from that, farming techniques in less advanced countries often rape the land of nutrients, while dumping more harmful pesticides which are not allowed in the states into a world-wide shared water supply.
Point #3: We need to eat. Tell me, would you rather be reliant on food imports from say, afghanistan than to pay 2 cents more for a lb of domestic flour? The last thing the United States needs is to be reliant on any other country for food.
Time and time again, the democrats and the republicans
are screwing the middle and lower classes. As long as
they keep getting into office, this kind of asinine rape of
the taxpayer is going to take place.
If this was to help the single owner farms that needed it,
it wouldn’t be so bad. However, its the ones that deserve
it the least that will be getting the most.
America wonders why it is a target by the like of Bin Laden yet does
such selfish things as distort the international markets so that honest, hard working
farmers in the developing world cannot compete aginst subsidised production.
Well what would you expect froma country that hold one of our citizens in cuba without charge and without any legal
reason.
America has become so self centered it is doomed and will fast beome an irrelevance to the rest of the world.
The writer has no concept of farm operations and the profit margin. Does he/she know what he is talking about? Does he/she really want the family farm to be gone forever and to be taken over by large corporations?
Ok…so you don’t like Bush. That’s your god given right because you live in America. But you don’t have the right to tell kids to kill the farmers or to go to Washington and kill the president or anyone else. You’re an idiot and should rethink your position on this. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but should be responsible enough not to suggest such crap. We have enough unrest in this country. We don’t need you creating more problems. You’ve lost me on this one. And this is to you other idiots that agree with him. If you don’t like how this country is run…GET THE HELL OUT!!!!!!
As a graphic artist I am one of the first people hit by economic down turns or what ever you want to call them. I think graphic artist should be supported by the government, just like farmers.
Strong talk. Good words.
You said it well, and correctly. Accepting a subsidy is accepting stolen money. The recipient is, indeed, a thief.
OK. I think you may have bit off more than you can chew. Do your realize you have just strongly suggested to all of your readers that kids in the ghetto should go kill farmers instead of each other and then postulated that before they do this they should go to the White House to murder the president? Regardless of what opinion you may personally have, this is a line which ordered societies have stated should not be crossed. You have the freedom to disassociate from that which you believe is unacceptable practice. But you do NOT have the right to promote violent upheaval of the duly elected administrators of that system which has apparently become so abhorrent to you. Advocating the things you present in this last newsletter is unacceptable to ME. So I am disassociating from YOU.
I don’t disagree with your postion on farm subsidies, but I take stong exception with your advocation of violence. I realize that this is the “Outrage” and as such we must take what you say with a grain of salt. Even in jest, advocating violence is not acceptable. That being said, I feel strongly that business should be made to compete fairly. Those unable to compete economically are naturally elminated. Let the strong survive. This is capitolism. The higher cost of food production will invevitably even itself with lower taxes. The same goes for tariffs on steel and lumber. If Americans cannot find ways to compete with global products, so be it. If we are to trumpet capitolism and free markets around the world, then we must stay true to our words act accordingly. The world is laughing at us, they view us as hypocrites… democrats or rebuplicans it doesn’t matter becuase ideologically, the game is the same… pork for votes. In actuality, we all lose.
Until something is done about the OUTRAGE of all of the money, manpower and other assistace the unions of Ameerica give at all levels of politics, I see nothing wrong with Bush doing what he can to counteract this OUTRAGE by helping a faction that feeds the world and counts on God for survival. Until some one can do something about controlling the wesather the farmners in this are cannot even plant and it is into the second week of June.
The farmers are there for the people in every disaster no matter where it exists but get very little credit for any of it.
Big Farms, Big Busines, Big Government? I’ll take BIG Farms.
Where is your OUTRAGE when it comes to the UNIONS?
All you f*ckng hicks need to keep quiet. Get a real job and stop blaming the government your countrymen helped elect. You speak so harshly of terrorists. You are the real terrorists. Anti-government unibombing hicks! I doubt most Democrats would even listen to more than five minutes of your horse sh1t. Your words only tell me that you have a small town attitude, which in todays world gets you nowhere fast. Hey Billy Bob, put down the Budweiser, turn the TV off, tuck in your beer gut, wash the armpit stains out of your shirt, and come join the productive working force in America. Then you might appreciate free market capitalism a bit more. Without it you wouldn’t even be able to sit in your log cabin in the backwoods and watch B rate porn on DSS. You would be out hunting small mammals to keep yourself alive, much like your hick grandparents probably will. I fully expect to get a mail bomb sometime soon from this. I suppose it would just prove my point though!
Bush is a pure idiot .. much like his father and his father and probably his father as well .. I bet they have a lot of laughs when they throw parties with the bin ladens and hussein families .. laugh their asses off at the greatest rapes in history .. I wonder what they can do next to top the towers ?
find the bugs