Thursday, July 19, 2007

a little irony?

I get my news eclectically, and perhaps in ways that might appear random, mainly from the radio and the internet, plus the tv for weather. I am frequently struck by what a huge proportion of it is about a) the middle east or b) celebrities I am not celebrating. Yesterday I was listening to a Robert Segal NPR interview with Colin Powell on the way home from somewhere, primarily about the war on Iraq and the senate's posturing with their overnight debate. Now here's the interesting part: toward the end of the segment, in identifying that legislators do have other things to deal with, Powell mentioned two farm bill issues! Interesting that a retired general and secretary of state notices - while almost no other newsmakers or newsbenders seem to.

And the push is on - to get a faux reform bill through the Congress. The California Coalition for Food and Farming is urging Californians to let Speaker Pelosi know how they feel about this.
There IS coverage of the issues in the print media.

1 comment:

John Leech said...

Faux Reform Bill - I like it. The big success is supposed to be adding more subsidies - for CA fruit and vegetable growers - while keeping in place all the midwestern grain subsidies Big Farma can consume. Meanwhile I plan to put enough miles on the Volvo to require acres of planting in the Brule River forests to offset the carbon effect. If indeed that helps. At least keeping an old and efficient (20+ MPG) car running uses less energy than the manufacture of a new car.