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Secret USDA enforcement action revealed Aurora Farm’s certifier found to have willfully violated NOP rules

CORNUCOPIA: In a startling revelation today The Cornucopia Institute made public a document indicating that not only did the USDA find that the nation's largest organic factory-farm dairy operator "willfully" violated the federal organic standards, but that one of its certifiers, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, had, also, "willfully" failed to legally perform their oversight responsibilities under the federal regulations.

In a letter dated April 16, 2007, Mark Bradley, Director of the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP), notified Colorado of a formal Notice of Proposed Suspension of its accreditation as a certifying agent for organic livestock.

USDA investigations of both Aurora Organic Dairy, operating factory farms in Texas and Colorado, and their certifiers, were prompted by a formal legal complaint filed by The Cornucopia Institute in 2005. The USDA confirmed Cornucopia's allegations that the giant industrial-scale dairies, milking thousands of cows each, were not providing their cattle with pasture, as required by law, had illegally brought conventional cattle into their operations, and a committed a number of other serious improprieties.

Sanity in tiny nibbles

The abyss between “crime against humanity” and “we’ll have to look into this” may be all but unfathomable — deep as a mass grave — but sometimes we have to trust the process.

I fear that democratic progress is a mouse’s progress: justice — sanity — in tiny nibbles. This past Sept. 11, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a law that seems to promise this sort of progress — to evaluate the scope of an acute, ongoing, manmade calamity — and I find myself trying to curb my sense of impatience that it doesn’t do more.

The law authorizes the state to educate returning vets and National Guardsmen on their rights, as well as available testing and treatment, if they think they’ve been exposed to hazardous substances overseas, in particular, depleted uranium. It also sets up a task force through the Illinois Veterans Association to study the health effects of such exposure.

Can we talk? Day one of IVAW's "Truth in Recruiting" campaign

Washington – This began as a story about the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) "Truth in Recruiting" campaign.  But by the end, it seemed more like a story about whether or not we can still talk with each other in this country. 

In the early morning chill of September 17, on the plaza in front of Union Station, members of IVAW set out literature and donuts on a card table and waited for the young International A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition activists to arrive.  After a briefing, four-person teams left for various military recruiting offices and the campaign was underway.  In addition to handing flyers to people walking into recruiting offices, the effort includes "Befriend a Recruiter," a tactic intended to waste as much of a recruiter’s time as possible by talking with youth who have no intention of joining the military.      

Kerry's sense of timing

As police officers were torturing a University of Florida student with a taser in the back of a lecture hall as punishment for asking inconvenient questions of Senator John Kerry, the Senator chose not to order them to stop. Rather he calmly mumbled his non-answers to the questions and even joked about the young man's inability to come up on stage. Later, Kerry posted a statement on his website in which he chose not to answer the student's questions in a serious way, but rather expressed with full muddledness that he was for arresting the student before he was against it and even expressed concern that the police might have somehow been hurt.

Kerry's exquisite sense of timing was also on display in late 2004 when he speedily conceded an election that had been widely expected to witness Republican election fraud, many reports of which had already come in. I've been wanting to ask Kerry the same thing this student asked (why the hell he conceded so fast) ever since that day. On November 8, 2004, I published on Counter Punch a lengthy lament over Kerry's betrayal of all those prepared to fight for an honest recount, which included these points:

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New day in the anti-war movement?

Other demonstrations against the war in Iraq have been larger, but the one that happened in Washington, D.C. this past Saturday was significant in another way because of a very different feel about it.

Contingents of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW ) www.ivaw.org and Veterans for Peace www.veteransforpeace.org  lined up at the front of the march, sponsored by the International A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, stepping off on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House.  Hundreds of mostly youthful "marshalls" formed a long line on either side of the route, holding hands and placing themselves between the crowds filling the sidewalks and the marchers, later estimated by wire services at 100,000 people.

Student tasered for Armed Madhouse question to Kerry

We warned you: 'Armed Madhouse' is a dangerous book.  Yesterday, Andrew Meyers, a University of Florida student was attacked by five cops, zapped with tasers and arrested after demanding that Senator John Kerry answer the question.

Meyers, just released from jail and now facing five years in prison for resisting arrest, held up a copy of the book and began,

Student to John Kerry:  "I want to recommend a book to you. It's called 'Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast.'  He's the top investigative journalist in America."

Kerry:  "I have the book. I've already read it."

Student:  "... In this book, it says there were 5 million votes and you won the election.  ... How could you concede the election on the day?"

Meyers, a telecommunications student at the Gainesville campus, asked related questions including a query as to why Kerry refused to vote for impeachment.  When he passed his alloted one minute mic time, five cops jumped him, threw him to the ground, shot him with taser shockers. 

Kerry, true to character, stood immobile.

How many more...?

It should be obvious to all, at this point, that President Bush's "strategy" in Iraq consists of little more than passing the whole sordid mess on to his successor, be they Democrat or Republican. Once he is out of office, he can blame them for the failure that is Iraq. His "legacy" will be secure, at least in his own mind.

In the meantime, our blood and treasure continue to be spilled on the already bloody sands of Iraq and to just what end? It has been determined, by those whose business it is to study such matters, that a military victory in Iraq will not happen. Our troops are caught in the middle of a sectarian civil war, and the violence continues, essentially unabated, depending on whether one is shot in the front or back of the head. According to President Bush by July of 2008, well into the fifth year of his Iraq adventure, we will be at basically the same place we were well into the fourth year of his dirty little war. And by then, it will be readily passed on to the next occupant of the Oval Office.

Mayoral Candidate Bill Todd files lawsuit accusing State of Ohio and Columbus Public Schools of maintaining an unfair and inequitable system of education

COLUMBUS – Mayoral Candidate Bill Todd today filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Columbus City School residents accusing the Ohio Department of Education and the Columbus City School System of maintaining an unfair and inequitable system of education.  

“The State of Ohio and the Columbus City Schools have allowed wide disparities in per pupil funding inside the Columbus schools. This system is unconstitutional in that it falls in the face of the state mandate to maintain a thorough and efficient system of public schools that provide equal educational opportunities to all students,” Todd said.

Todd filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Columbus residents who live in the Columbus School system. He said-

*The average per pupil expenditure for elementary schools in Columbus is $10,684 (2005-06 School Year)

*One of the top spending elementary schools, Winterset Elementary School, spent $12,507 per pupil (2005-2006 School Year)

Bush’s fake sheik whacked: the Surge and the Al Qaeda bunny

A special investigative report from inside Iraq - Monday, September 17, 2007- Did you see George all choked up? In his surreal TV talk on Thursday, he got all emotional over the killing by Al Qaeda of Sheik Abu Risha, the leader of the new Sunni alliance with the US against the insurgents in Anbar Province, Iraq.

Bush shook Abu Risha's hand two weeks ago for the cameras. Bush can shake his hand again, but not the rest of him: Abu Risha was blown away just hours before Bush was to go on the air to praise his new friend.

Here's what you need to know that NPR won't tell you.

1. Sheik Abu Risha wasn't a sheik.
2. He wasn't killed by Al Qaeda.
3. The new alliance with former insurgents in Anbar is as fake as the sheik - and a murderous deceit.

How do I know this? You can see the film - of "Sheik" Abu Risha, of the guys who likely whacked him and of their other victims.

Just in case you think I've lost my mind and put my butt in insane danger to get this footage, don't worry. I was safe and dry in Budapest. It was my brilliant new cameraman, Rick Rowley, who went to Iraq to get the story on his own.

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