Tuesday, June 04, 2013

4 June - Morning Surfing

Monsanto at Cereals 2009 Vine farm, Wendy - geograph.org.uk - 1350096 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A variety of foods made from wheat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oregon (Photo credit: B_Zedan)

Child Malnutrition Costs Global Economy Billions Yearly

Politics

Military chiefs to draw line on sexual assault law

By Phil Stewart and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON - America's top military officers are likely to advise Congress not to go too far overhauling the U.S. military's justice system to address the problem of sexual assault when they testify at a Senate hearing. Full Article

Obama administration disputes charge attorney general lied

This Should Be Required Viewing

GM wheat in Oregon may end Monsanto Madness

Genetically modified wheat: Discovery in Oregon field re-ignites a scientific dispute

A farmer's attempt to kill the plants with weedkiller had failed. Stunned researchers at Oregon State University couldn't help but question themselves. Once, twice, three times in early May -- in two different labs -- they analyzed DNA extracted from wheat plants grown on an eastern Oregon farm. With each test, the result was the same: The wheat had been genetically modified to resist glyphosate, the key ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.

But that didn't make sense. The last Oregon test plantings of a "Roundup Ready" variety of wheat developed by Monsanto, which makes the herbicide, had ended 12 years before.

After the studies, GM seeds were burned, buried six feet underground or shipped back to Monsanto, he said. Wide "no-plant" areas were maintained around test sites to prevent pollen movement from the GM wheat to other crops. Testing sites were checked two years after the trials for the presence of "volunteer" wheat plants that might have popped up.

A "gene flow" study done by OSU in 2005 showed it is possible for genetic traits to transfer from one wheat plant to another -- through pollen, for example -- but it occurred at a very low rate and the maximum range appeared to be 120 feet, he said. In addition, the GM wheat being tested was a spring-planted variety, while the wheat found in the Oregon field was a winter variety.

The Oregon wheat incident is a replay of 2006, when unapproved GM rice was found in a U.S. harvest.

The new Monsanto Protection Law says that GMO cultivars of any kind can be sold and grown anywhere without FDA approval or USDA restrictions and Monsanto (et al.) cannot be held liable if they later don't pass FDA approval (prove dangerous) or highly restricted by USDA (grow 'em anywhere, it's all good!).

Considering the shenanigans pulled to get this rider passed, I'd say Monsanto knew this was coming. So no, they won't be held liable for destroying the wheat export market. How nice for them. Farmers? Nobody gives a shit if they lose everything.

by Joieau

Protesters take on Monsanto and GMO foods in more 400 cities worldwide

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—Senator, VA Secretary Disrespect Troops on Memorial Day:

On Memorial Day weekend, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and VA Secretary James Peake stood side-by-side in Fairbanks, Alaska to showcase their opposition to--and lack of respect for--today’s newest veterans.

Speaking at the Disabled American Veterans’ 19th Annual Department Convention, Senator Stevens told the majority of America’s most recent war veterans that they had not yet sacrificed enough to have earned a GI Bill that would cover the full cost of their educations.

GMO Truthers need to be kicked out of the Progressive movement

A good tool that I used when I was in school for finding such studies and articles is PubMed, which is a search engine of sorts for scientific research. Just running a quick search myself I found this recent review which showed no health hazards for GMO products.

Claim: GMO causes cancer, autism, diabetes, allergies, etc.

The GMO truther movement was born out of the Natural Movement, which is promoted by the Natural News website. This movement has pushed every crackpot theory you can think of from fluoride-in-the-water to AIDS/HIV conspiracies. Some of their nonsense like anti-vaxer conspiracies have taken root among some in the left (i.e. Bill Maher). Because of this many of the GMO truther claims are strikingly similar to anti-vaxer crap. You now even have some GMO truthers claiming that GMO causes autism and diabetes. However, there is little to no scientific support for any of this (see here and here).

The more vaccines an infant receives in its first year, the higher the mortality rate

Heavy use of herbicide Roundup linked to health dangers

Backers of Klamath Basin dam removal and restoration rally in Portland

Oregon regulators issue first draft permits for coal export from the Northwest

U.S. blacklists global network of Iranian 'front' companies 11:25am EDT

WASHINGTON - A global network of private companies were blacklisted by the United States on Tuesday for providing revenue to the Iranian government and helping Tehran evade international sanctions on its nuclear program, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Bomb plot in Lahore: Journey of a young jihadist and the Portlander accused of helping him

thomas green

Plenty of 'good deeds' by Americans funding terrorists, and terrorism, have gone not only unpunished, but have been lauded,

'Memeber Charlie Wilson's War?

'Member Barrick Gold?

'Member supporting Menachem Begin?

No, you children don't seem to remember anything except what you've been told to remember.

opit

Let's add the Iran Contra crisis to really mess with their minds, where arms supplies were routed through Iran to American backed Contra 'rebels' in Central and South America under Ronald Reagan....around the time of the 'hostage crisis' where Iranians...protested U.S. meddling in their politics.

PDXtoNOLA

This is shameful, incendiary, conspiracy, Ms. Wilson. It is not your job to provide your readers with a prosecutorial, over-acted retelling of these two men's loosely-tied relationship. Save that for lawyers. Damn scary time to be a Muslim in America, or any Other western country for that matter. Its about time someone asked whose jihad this really is...

Timeline of U.S. Sanctions

Executive Order 13382 was issued on June 28, 2005. It applies to entities accused of supporting Iran’s nuclear proliferation and missile-related activities.

( Kindly note that Iran does not have and never has had the nuclear WMD devices which the US possesses by the thousand...but they support disarmament ! )

Iran defends post as chair of UN disarmament conference - Tehran ...
tehrantimes.com/.../107735-iran-defends-post-as-chair-of-un-disarmame...‎
May 15, 2013 – TEHRAN – Iran on Tuesday defended its election as the rotating chair of the world's sole multilateral disarmament forum after the United States ...
Top 5 Ways Senators Used Indian Affairs Hearing to Push Their Pet Projects

Read more athttps://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/17/top-5-ways-senators-used-indian-affairs-hearing-push-their-pet-projects-149393