Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas must be feeling pretty bummed – her proposed $1.5 billion in farm “aid” may be nixed by the White House after all.
Lincoln, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee who is gearing up for a tough re-election battle this fall, has been fighting for the funds since July when they were removed as a compromise deal from a small business stimulus bill. The Obama administration had promised to approve the package, which was designed to provide “disaster aid” to farmers who lost crops in 2009, by Aug. 31.
August has come and gone, and there’s no sign of the package. But before we get all sad for the poor farmers down the street whose crops were ruined, let’s examine this plan. America’s biggest, least sustainable farms — many of them in Blanche’s Arkansas — would benefit most from the plan, while smaller, more damaged farms would be left high and dry. Why? The funds would not be distributed based on losses, but on how much they received or should have received under a federal subsidy program based on farm size. As the New York Times explained last week, it’s an “unjustified” windfall, as farms with as little as five percent loss would receive an additional chunk of 90 percent of the subsidy in aid. Bigger, more profitable farms — the ones least damaged by rains — are far more likely to qualify. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the top 10 percent of wealthiest farmers would receive about two-thirds of the money, and about a quarter of the funds would (curiously) go to Arkansas farms.
The days of making clothes for the people who will buy them is long gone or, perhaps, never existed. Case-in-point: Levi’s has launched an ad campaign not-so-cleverly titled, “
Soldiers in Iraq are packing up their rucksacks, turning in their Kevlar and helmets, cleaning their guns, and piling into C-130 aircraft to fly home. On the long flight home many of the soldiers will pass the time on the flight talking about all the things they are going to do when they get home. Some will get married, many will start a family, go back to school, lay on the beach. Soldiers will salivate talking about grilling a steak with corn on the cob and washing it down with an ice-cold beer. There will be as many “when I get back home plans” as there are soldiers.
Mercy for Animals, the organization that brought you the undercover footage of sadistic animal abuse at 
The bald eagle, America’s symbol of national freedom, apparently doesn’t hold a candle to the gun lobby’s perceived freedom to poison this beautiful bird.
When it comes to the issue of marriage equality, 2010 is going to be an important election, particularly on the state level where a number of states may move forward marriage equality legislation depending on who is elected into office.