A few days ago, the Central Vermont Localvores presented Montpelier with a plethora of culinary delights all cooked with local ingredients and prepared by some of Vermont’s esteemed chefs. The State House has lawn was flooded with hundreds of Vermonters including the Governor. The Governor as it seems was the case was there for his usual photo shoot and not for a genuine support for the next day he was in Berlin,  Vermont cutting the ribbon of the rebuilt Mc Donald’s. I guess you can say the proof was in the pudding.

The Governor either was meeting Ronald Mc Donald or he has decided that his respect for Vermont farmers and the health of the food supply is conditional to those he speaks with.

SuperSized article below the fold:

True to his nickname, Governor Scissorhands:

“It's an affordable place to have a meal. It provides dozens of jobs,” Douglas told a crowd gathered on hot black pavement outside the building. “And the good nutrition and fitness at your amenities here will help us with that as well,” the governor said before cutting a thick red ribbon with a giant pair of scissors.- From the Times Argus.

The governor spoke without mentioning that the majority of the Mc Donald’s menu consists of processed foods and its super-sized image has been attributed to the expansion of obesity rates in America to the level of epidemic proportions. The Mc Donald’s s system has thrived on squeezing out all facets of our food industry. Whether it is in the large scale feed lots, subsided corn fields or the roadside strip-malls diners, Mc Donald’s has a history of squashing small scale farming and family business in favor of non sustainable farming and a profit driven agenda. McDonald’s is not an affordable place to have a meal because we are now facing larger health risks from the Mc Donald’s super size image, greater environmental cleanup costs and taxpayers are continuing to pay billions in subsidies to support industrial corn which is used to feed the cattle it’s unnatural diet.

As for the faulty logic of job creation, this topic is a farce for the governor to hail. The McDonald’s corporation has received millions of dollars in tax breaks or subsidies under the guise of job creation and most employees are paid on or about minimum wage. The simplistic picture coded instruction manuals do not teach future job skills and is merely a dead end job proposition. While most employees of McDonalds are shortly employed politicians continually hail their job creation while forgetting that smaller in state and family owned restaurants fail to receive their market shares.

The American landscape has now become littered by fast food chains and in many locations the mom and pop shop has become a distant memory. As with the big-box store it is not job creation when jobs and businesses are removed from an already viable source, therefore a corporate business that extracts the dollars from the local economy and exploits the landscape should not be a model to praise. The Mc Donald’s corporation spends more money marketing to children than they do to paying wages, and therefore creating a whole new generation of malnourished consumers and under paid workers. While the Governor cuts another ribbon and fails to live past one day of hailing the triumphs of healthy local foods I hope that it becomes another nail in his political coffin. I can see through Governor Douglas’s phony smile and I just wonder when others will see through his deceit.

Peace

Robb Kidd

“Eating at fast food outlets …. is simply a manifestation of the commodification of time coupled with the relatively low value many Americans have placed on the food they eat.” Andrew F. Smith, ‘Encyclopedia of Junk food and Fast Food’ (2006)
 

A really big lie, if repeated consistently and loud enough, becomes a truth for people to act on. We've seen this, for example, in the (demonstrated non-existent) Iraqi WMD and the (demonstrated false) claims that nobody thought the New Orleans levies would fail. Another big lie meme is this continuous reference to the “1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” otherwise known as FISA (Senate passes Bush terrorism spy bill, Times Argus, 08/04/07).

Reality is FISA has been updated some 50 times since it came into existence including eight times since the attacks of Sept 9, 2001. It is not the 1978 version by any stretch of the imagination, yet opportunistic politicians and their pandering, obsequious national media continue to throw that phrase at us.

Click here for a Congressional Research Service list of FISA updates since 1996 as posted on the Federation of American Scientists website. The total number of 50 updates comes from the ACLU.

It would be nice for a change to see the national “news” media spend more time spreading the really big truth.

Over at the Rude Pundit, he has guest bloggers filling in for him this week, while he's on vacation. Have a look at guest blogger African American Political Pundit's latest rumination on Hillary, white bloggers at YKos, and Obama's Pakistan blunder.  Happy Saturday, everyone.

Cross posted from Rational Resistance.

You remember Rep. William Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat who was caught in a bribery sting with $90,000 in cold cash in his freezer?

Of course, that was a long time ago, so you may be wondering why the case is taking so long compared to other prosecutions, like that of Duke Cunningham. You would think they would have this guy locked up already, wouldn't you? Especially since he's a Democrat, which would make the Bushies even more interested in nailing him.

Well, you would think that, except that the people who were going to restore honor and integrity to the Oval Office can't even prosecute corruption right, and that's kept the case tied up since last year.

You see, the Justice Department had the FBI raid Jefferson's Congressional office, something that had never been done before, and Jefferson challenged the search in court. Today, the court ruled that even though the search was legal, the FBI violated the Constitution by searching his Congressional records and papers. The court said the Constitution insists that lawmakers must be free from any intrusion into their congressional duties. Such intrusion, even by a filter team, “may therefore chill the exchange of views with respect to legislative activity,” the court held.

This was an intrusion that was so egregious that it brought together Democrats and Republicans, with former House Speakers Newt Gingrich, a Republican, and Thomas Foley, a Democrat, fil[ing] legal documents opposing the raid, along with former House Minority Leader Bob Michel, a Republican.

Now they still have to litigate whether they can use anything they scooped up in the raid of his office, and there's no telling how long that will take.

Maybe Gonzalez has a new motto: “Sure we're corrupt, but we're incompetent, too!”