Write Your Congressperson If You Want To Keep Your Organic Local Farms

This is what i wrote.

I am writing you to urge you to not sponsor H.R. 875 and to ask you to convince Oregon Congressman Peter Defazio to drop his co-sponsorship of this bill. This bill known as the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 is just another attempt by large agribusiness to shut down non-Genetically Modified farming and put organic and family farms out of business. This bill was basically written by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM and the other large agricultural-industrial corporations. The bills sponsor Rosa Delauro (D-CT) is married to Stanley Greenberg does corporate polling and research for Monsanto. Oregon is leading the cause of organic farming and farmer's markets, if this bill passes it is going to place severe restrictions small local farms and farmer's markets by instituting Federal fees, registrations, and all but requires farmers to use pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified seeds. If Oregon wants to continue to lead the way on sustainability we need our politicians to fight against the power of large agribusiness and stop the wolf in sheep's clothing that is the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.

Thank you for your time.

Dylan

Legalizing marijuana answer to government’s $ problems?

In Response to Legalizing marijuana answer to government’s $ problems?
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/07/is-legalizing-marijuana-the-answer-to-the-governments-money-problems/#comment-975956


From a straight-edge kid, YES!! Absolutely, YES!!! Drug legalization is a way to solve financial difficulties, a very good way. The European nations that have legalized or severely decriminalized marijuana have increased state revenues, had better luck at getting people into drug rehab that actually works, and they have not had the moral failings that American conservatives often eschew when talk about legalization comes up. If we legalized marijuana that would free many thousands of people from American prisons, primarily blacks and latinos, who's only crime was having some marijuana on them when they got pulled over and weren't rich or white enough to get a good lawyer or fair treatment. The cost of prisons would go down and there would be more money for education and health care, things that actually matter.

I don't have time to write as much as I'd like to on this subject at this time, but this is a lost cause. America will legalize marijuana it's just a matter of now, or when Gen Y finally takes the political reins away from the baby-boomers and yuppies from Gen X.

Reponse to Republican Commentary on CNN.com

Commentary on CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/04/rollins.republicans/index.html

Quote Mr. Rollins:
"We are a party that needs ideas, new leaders and an inroad into young people and their thinking. That doesn't mean we have to abandon our old ideas or quit fighting the president's policies when we don't believe in them."

Response:
If you want an inroad to young people you are going to need to abandon your old ideas and quit fighting the president's policies. Young people overwhelmingly vote progressively, and voted for President Obama. Young people these days have grown up in an increasingly diverse country, going to public schools where they learn from students with other cultural backgrounds. This leaves them with an affinity with those who are from a dissimilar background and provides them with the ability to accept others who are different than them. The Republican party has long been opposed to diversity issues and still uses the tactics of race-baiting and blaming minorities for this countries problems. When Republicans can bring something new to the table and give up their old ways of discrimination then maybe just maybe they may be able to split off a little of the youth vote from the Democrats.

In addition to the discrimination method that the Republican party likes to run with, there is the current ploy to call all of the plans the democrats have socialism. That worked in the 50's and 60's when people in this country were afraid of Communist Russia but in this day in age with the strongest communist dictatorship being North Korea and the only other one being Cuba this tactic isn't going to scare anyone. Also the fact that most of the things that Republicans are calling socialism, like national health care, social security, and welfare are already instituted and much more heavily funded in almost all other industrialized nations. What Republicans term socialism the youth of today see as equality and fairness, you know those things that you try to instill in your children when they are young so they don't grow up isolated, alone, and bitter. I think that Republicans have forgotten that. So when you outgrow your old and tired rants on "socialism", what we today call equity, fairness, and human rights, you may be able to get a few more youth votes. Until then good luck with trying to win future elections without becoming more moderate.

Darwin Day

This is what I wrote in regards to a story on CNN.com today.

It disgusts me to see how you try to balance the argument on evolution. The same thing is happening with evolution that happened with global climate change. 99.9999% of scientists, you know the people who do the actual science, say that evolution happens and that it isn't just a theory like something you came up with on your drive to work. Science and scientists made a decision on evolution years and years ago and they said it happens. Yet the media continues to make it appear that scientists are in disagreement, much like they did with global warming. The appalling thing is that evolution has been the foundation for the biological sciences and modern medicine for much longer than global warming has been around but it is treated more disgracefully in the media than climate change, which hasn't had a scientific consensus for nearly as long. I would like for CNN to stop trying to give equal share to both sides of the evolution debate. The scientists have spoken, give them their due.

The Stimulus Bill (write your senators)

Recently the republicans in the senate have been trying to get rid of as much of the spending in the stimulus bill as they can, they want to replace it with more tax cuts. We've had enough history of tax cuts and bad financial times to see they don't help they just make the gap between rich and poor widen. Yesterday, republican senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina presented an amendment to the stimulus bill that would have scrubbed all the spending in it and replaced them with tax cuts. I bet you are thinking only a handful of senators would be crazy enough to vote for that, well you are wrong, 36 out of the 41 republican senators voted for it. This shows you where their loyalties lie, with the corporations and with the already wealthy who don't need anymore help. In these increasingly difficult financial times when whole countries economies are collapsing we can not wait around and let republicans tear apart our only chance to get this country's economy going. Write your senators and tell them to vote for it if they are republicans and if they are democrats tell them to push for a vote now. If republicans aren't willing to vote to save this country from economic collapse let them vote no against the stimulus bill and we'll see if they get re-elected next time around.


Here is what i wrote to my senators:

I want to urge you to not allow the Senate Republicans to cut the spending budgets for the Sciences and "Green" technologies out of the stimulus bill. Science and new sustainable technologies are what drive this economy, there is nothing besides education that can compare to the ratio of dollars in and dollars out that you can get by investing in science and technology. Call for a vote on the stimulus bill as soon as possible. If republicans aren't willing to vote to save this country from economic collapse let them vote no against the stimulus bill and we'll see if they get re-elected next time around. Thank you.