Sheryl Crow & Eric Clapton
Merry Christmas Baby

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. - For decades, the fiercely independent fruit and vegetable growers of California, Florida and other states have been the only farmers in America who shunned federal subsidies, delivering produce to the tables of millions of Americans on their own.

But now, in the face of tough new competition primarily from China, even these proud groups are buckling. Produce farmers, their hands newly outstretched, have joined forces for the first time, forming a lobby group intended to pressure politicians over the farm bill to be debated in Congress in January.

Nobody disputes that competitive pressures from abroad are squeezing fruit and vegetable growers, whose garlic, broccoli, lettuce, strawberries and other products are a mainstay of world kitchens. But the issue of whether the United States ought to broaden farm subsidies beyond the commodity crops like corn and cotton, which have historically been protected, is a big flashpoint.

More at the NYTimes

I’ll give a listen to anyone who wants to cut the Pentagon budget!

PORTSMOUTH — Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream co-founder Ben Cohen is putting all his scoops in one cone: getting a 2008 presidential nominee who will cut the Pentagon budget and shift the money to social programs.

Reallocating the federal budget is the goal of Cohen’s nonprofit organization, Business Leaders for Sensible Practices. The group has started grassroots campaigns in New Hampshire and Iowa, and Cohen was in the city Thursday to spread the message of “common’sense budgeting.”

“People in New Hampshire are socially liberal, fiscally conservative and anti-tax. This is a perfect campaign for them. It meets all those social needs, but it doesn’t raise taxes,” Cohen told the Portsmouth Herald editorial board.

The group’s PrioritiesNH campaign wants to cut 13 percent — or $60 billion — from the Pentagon budget and use the money to fund education, health care, deficit reduction, job training and energy independence.

Read more here

From the Business Leaders for Sensible Practices Website:

Setting the Priorities Straight
The Priorities campaign believes that America can solve, or start to seriously address, many of the most difficult problems we face. We can create a national budget that is responsive to domestic and international needs. And we can do it without raising taxes or creating new ones.

How? By insisting that Congress create sensible budget priorities. By reducing government waste and using the savings to strengthen American families and communities.

Good God almighty…..between the Republicans, and now the oil industry, I need to buy violin strings by the gross….cause I’m wearing them out with all the whining that’s going on!!

BOSTON - Proposals by congressional Democrats to eliminate oil industry tax breaks and subsidies would set a bad example overseas and discourage new industry investments, Exxon Mobil’s top executive said Thursday.
Rex W. Tillerson said moves suggested by leaders of the incoming Democratic congressional majority would encourage similar steps by governments abroad, where Exxon Mobil Corp. generates the bulk of its profit.

“I think the bigger concern I have is not so much the economic direct effect of the fact that they want to take a tax break off here or there. But it’s the message it sends the rest of the world that you don’t have to provide stable (regulatory) frameworks,” Tillerson told reporters after a speech to the Boston College Chief Executives’ Club.

Read more of waaaa waaaaaa here

Oh what a shock…..

Gaza City, Dec 02: Palestinians accused Israel of violating a fragile Gaza Strip ceasefire today as Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was to see European diplomats for a string of meetings aimed at reviving stalled peace talks.

Palestinian security sources said an Israeli naval vessel dealt the truce a fresh blow when it fired at three Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Rafah in south Gaza.

But the Israeli military emphatically rejected the reports.

“We categorically deny the existence of this incident,” a spokeswoman told media persons. “There were no shootings by any Navy boat this morning.”

If the Palestinian allegations are true, it would be the first time Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement since it took effect last Sunday at dawn.

Read more here

Fair is fair……

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has enacted a law requiring American citizens visiting the country to be fingerprinted upon arrival, an official said Saturday.

Conservatives drafted the law in retaliation for the U.S. requirement that Iranian visitors be fingerprinted. The U.S. measure, which also applies to nationals of other countries, was implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A spokesman for the Guardian Council, an Iranian constitutional watchdog that must review all bills before they become law, announced its approval of the legislation Saturday, the official Iranian News Agency reported.

Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said the government now “is required to inspect and fingerprint all American nationals at entry ports and visa issuance centers in consistency with the U.S. behavior.”

More here

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) — Saudi security officials said Saturday they foiled a planned terrorist suicide attack and arrested 139 suspected Islamist militants who were in “sleeper cells” believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda.

A senior official in the Saudi Interior Ministry told CNN that the suspects, who are from several Arab nations, were monitored by Saudi security agents for several months. They rounded the men up just before the expected attack was launched.

The suspects, arrested in different areas of Saudi Arabia, were being interrogated Saturday, the official said.

In October 2005, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called the threat of al Qaeda in his country “madness and evil” and vowed to “eliminate this scourge” of terrorism. Fifteen of the 19 al Qaeda terrorists participating in the September 11, 2001, attacks were Saudis.

More at CNN.com

Papas got a brand new bag….of cash. Little georgie’s papa and his cohorts, it is said , have profited around 30 billion dollars since little georgie took office. Coincidence? I think not.
Bro

War Profiteering Starts at the Top
Corp. Watch
The Perpetual War Portfolio

Gee, I feel so safe ……..don’t you? Isn’t it comforting to know what a wonderful job Homeland Security has done to keep us safe at home?

KEY WEST - The U.S. Coast Guard, one of the key lines of defense in the Florida Straits on homeland security, drug smuggling and migrant interdictions, took eight of its 10 Key West-based patrol cutters out of action indefinitely Thursday because of structural problems.

The decision, announced by the Coast Guard’s top commander, Adm. Thad Allen, who flew to Key West to tell crews personally, will create a hole in surveillance and law enforcement of the Florida Straits at a potentially critical time, with the failing health of Fidel Castro.

”I would say there is no good time for this,” said Commander Brendan C. McPherson, a spokesman for the admiral.

More at the Miami Herald

Mike Mikula cartoon

CNN’s present CARTOON CLICKS - Your point of view is hilarious… Go vote! CNN Political Cartoon Bush Iraq