CARE Rejects $46 Million in Food Aid

American crops shipped and monitized for cash to third world countries, through CARE, that end up hurting the local economies by keeping the price of local crops down.

CARE joins a growing group of organizations who say U.S. agricultural surplus hurts local economies. The CARE decision to phase out grain donations began back in 2005 and is causing a stir as Congress debates the Farm Bill which is reauthorized every five years.

Or how Federal Aid to charities hurts local economies. Good for CARE for taking this step that encompasses a longer view or reviving the local economy as opposed to short term gains that essentially are a handout to the American Farming Industry.

I try to be fair and call hit pieces when I see them, and was a bit surprised when I saw this out of the Post this morning on the way in.

August 27, 2007 -- A former "die-hard" backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton says he switched his allegiance to Barack Obama after spending three weeks volunteering for the former first lady's Iowa office, and witnessing abusive higher-ups and crying campaigners.

Crying? Sorry, I may be a political geek, but no campaign is gonna bring me to tears because of how they treat me. I hope people realize that they can actually leave an unpleasant situation.

When asked to comment on when he had officially tendered his resignation, his answer was, "I don't recall.", a phrase that will likely go down in history as associated with his name.

Bush makes a Recess Appt right now to stick it to the Dems. Payback for the stupid witchhunts.

KABUL (Reuters) - Opium production has soared to "frightening record levels" in Afghanistan, which now has more land producing drugs than Columbia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations said on Monday.

Afghanistan is locked in a vicious circle where drug money feeds both the Taliban insurgency and official corruption which in turn weaken the government's hold of large parts of the country and allows more opium to be produced.

The area of Afghan land where opium poppies are grown rose by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares in 2007 from 165,000 last year and this year's harvest was 8,200 tonnes, up from 6,100 tonnes in 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, up from 92 percent last year, the annual UNODC report said.

"No other country has produced narcotics on such a deadly scale since China in the 19th century," a UNODC statement said.

Most Afghan opium is processed to make heroin and smuggled out of the country to Europe and the Middle East where it fuels addiction and crime.

Opium production in Afghanistan is concentrated in the south of the country where the Taliban insurgency is most virulent.

...

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar drastically reduced opium production in Afghanistan during his last year in power, issuing a religious edict banning the crop and threatening harsh punishments in areas the movement held under its strict control.

Now, the report said, the Taliban had reversed its policy.

"What used to be considered a sin is now being encouraged," Costa said.

story

Meeting tonight in Second Life

Tonight we start at 6pm SLT (Pacific Time) and go for two hours or until the last person leaves. Arrive early if you want to; I'll put the chessboard up.

Here's an online link to location. To use, get into SL, then click on this link and allow the code to run, then go back into SL. The world map will be displayed with this location. Click on the Teleport button on the map.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sifton/34/57/63

this blog raises an interesting possible out for us from Iraq.

If elements (allawi or other) stage a coup in Iraq we could then distance ourselves from the new government and basically claim that democracy is now impossible and get out, laying the blame on the new government.

Not a particularly honest manuever but one that I think could get broad support in congress since it involves both getting out and also allows war supporters to claim that they would have won "if only..."