helenofjoy wrote: 
No, regulations are NOT voted on at all! They are enacted at will by the FDA! They write their own laws and they are NOT state inspectors, but Federal from the FDA! The FDA ride roughshod over the state agencies all the time.

We both want the same outcome - but you have to understand, this is how big business works - they don't play by the rules - they MAKE them! Then they get to be exempt. All this is done by force under "regulations" they make up and enforce to get their monopoly on the market after they infiltrate and buy their way into high power positions.

AND - many of these are co-opts, which are Private! These organic farms are not selling to the public, they have private membership so yes, those private members should be allowed to drink fresh milk and organic veggies all they want because its voluntary and not sold on the supermarket shelf.

People need to stand up and vote with their dollars - support local and organic as much as possible! Starve the beast that is Monsanto!

 Romulus wrote: 
The inspectors who are inspecting the farms are local inspectors - usually state inspectors.  If the farmer is selling to the public, they are required to meet certain standards - usually health related.  These regulations do not come about through big corporate execs, but the people who have suffered as a consequence of bad practices.  I have looked into it for over forty years, and I too live in the farming community. The mega farms get the free pass because they are members of big business and have bought off Congress.  They are allowed to "farm" as an industry with big money behind everything they do in order to reap all of the profits.  Big business is killing the family farm, not regulations voted on by the people.

 Romulus wrote: 
I think you're with the 99%. You made it paifully obvious that big corporations own the government lock stock barrel. Its a revolving door and THEY made it that way. Before Reagan there were  a couple hundred lobbyists. Now there are thousands. We need to get big business and the top 1% out of government and the best way to start is to sign the petition for a Constitutional amendment to end this hi-jacking of the government by big money.   

 

 helenofjoy wrote: No, it is the Govt raiding family and organic farms. Please look into this. Inspectors come and drop the hammer on the little guys while the Mega Monsanto Farms get a free pass.. that is the fallacy with 'regulations'. They are protection for the big guys and punishment for their competition.

For God sakes, we can't drink FRESH milk but we can eat antibotic ecoli burgers! I am not anti-regulation but there needs a level playing field in terms of small business vs big business.

Yes it is all about the money. Ex Monsanto execs migrate to top FDA positions and write laws that small farms can not compete with.

I live in the middle small farm USA and these folks all use green, clean farming. They don't like the toxins either.. Visit any Farmers market and chat it up to get the story...

So that is the fallacy of govt 'regulations' - they are put in place by the big corporate execs who now work in govt to kill small business and control the market.

 marquemarx wrote: 
We tried that, it was called TARP and Stimulus and how is that working out for us? Special interest get all the "public money". And as a result, you can't force confidence on the market. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity.

BTW, the blame Bush game is pretty old. TARP was a Bi-partisan effort. Goldman Sachs bankrolled Obama into office and Geitner is a Goldman crony too, so lets not pretend Dems aren't in on this whole rigged game. Both sides screw us over and when the light is shined on them they just point the finger at each other.. let's wake up.

 ErikX wrote: 
I don't think that is true.  Wall Street might behave a little differently if it new that it was not going to get bailed out.  That is the other side of the coin that is not being discussed.

Businesses would behave differently if they new they would not be bailed out and rewarded for bad behaviour.  That is the culture part that is causing the problems.

Oh and on Bush ... didn't he say that Wall Street was drunk ?  Bush got hammered by everyone for uttering those words, even though it was the truth.  Bush tried over and over again to reign in Wall Street only to be thwarted by Congress.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
For the Republicans, running for prez is a career. Gingrich, Palin, Cain, all have books they are trying to sell, and speaking gigs they need to prop up. Gingrich's staff all walked out on him when they realized that he wasn't serious.

 Romulus wrote:
It's not the government that is raiding family farms.  Large industrial farming operations are raiding the family farms - no stealing the family farms, then due to lax environmental regulations, are poisoning the land and water that they are using in order to increase profits quickly.  Without some regulatory processes in place, we have seen for the last one hundred years that people (within industries large enough to have investors) who are focused on profits alone, will destroy the soil, the water, the air in order to cut costs and maintain high profits. Government is no longer of the people, but of Big Business - and not just in the US, but all over the world.  But we are leading the way.

We tend to think of the land that we "own" as ours to do with as we will, but it many times it comes at the expense of others, their health, their ability to earn a decent living.  In the midwest, our lawmakers believed it was not in the best interest of the farmer to trip up the farming operations with regulations - insisting that farmers will always protect their own land.  That has not been the case.  The application of herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers has literally killed the microorganisms in the soil that keep it healthy and in balance and able to produce healthy plants.  These chemicals have filtered down through the dead soil to our drinking water sources.  The large industrial farms will continue to fight regulations (gov't intereference).

The universities that provided the science to the farmers that lead to increased production and higher profits received the funding for their research from industrial giants like Monsanto.  They provided the toxic byproducts of other industrial operations to the farmer as pesticides and herbicides (toxins) at a reasonable price (the farmers are paying them to take their industrial waste and apply it to farmland).

It's all about the money.  It's ALL about the money.  Many of us have been conned into keeping up the good fight against government interference with a lot of bullshit.  We believe it because we want to believe it.  It's easier to believe it.  Let someone else handle the problems that arise from our laziness.  I don't believe a large federal presence is necessary if our state governments and local municipalities do their jobs, but they are dependent on the money it takes to provide protections to the people (mostly from other people who will do anything to profit at the expense of others).

I read in here somewhere in RP land that there are supposed to be "winners and losers."  It's not a game people.  There should not have to be losers for other to win.  It's not a win if it is won at the expense of the people who do the work that puts us in the winner's circle.  This should be about teamwork.

 sirdroseph wrote: 
 I suppose his colossal ego won't let him see this, tho.

 sirdroseph wrote: 
About damm time too!  If something does not change radically soon, I fear for this country and especially the workers of this country.

 kurtster wrote: 
Gingrich's time has passed. He does not have the personality, subtlety or demeanor to appeal to the general public. He also has built a lot of enemies and negatives over the years. GOP faithful had better hope Gingrich does not win the nomination (which he will not anyway) because he may fare the worst of all in a general against Obama.
The further this election season goes along, it looks like we are headed for another low turnout dissatisfied election where no one (at least not any independent thinker not consumed by the partisan game) is happy with the winner. I think it is the beginning of the end of the 2 party system, after this election we will be forced to fundamentally reexamine our campaign and electoral process.

 ErikX wrote: 
Well we disagree on what a Libertarian is then.. cause Greenspan abandoned anything of the sort as the Fed chair....

Tell Italy, Greece and Europe that spending and debit is not the problem. Debt is the problem.. Spending is the problem... if it wasn't the Fed could just print up 1000 trillion dollars and hand it out and everyone would be rich!

The govt is NOT the economy - it competes with the economy by taking money OUT of the economy to pick winners and losers. the consumers have 0 confidence plus their dollar buys LESS thanks to letting the Fed print $ out of thin air (in secrecy) to pay for the wars and other govt bureaucracy.

No one has faith in the free market anymore? That is why cell phones and electronics are cheap - No govt intervention! Yes we need some govt services and framework, but we don't need a wasteful, authoritarian bureaucracy sucking the economy dry by raiding family farms, gibson guitars and attacking the consumer while bailing out Wall St. People want the be pissed at Wall St... Govt bailed them out!

 Romulus wrote: 
Yes, Greenspan WAS a flamin Libertarian. He went to Ayn Rand's funeral with a giant $100 bill for God sake. And Greenspan had a total hands off attitude for the banks. He refused to let the authorites regulate derivatives which are still unregulated. They now stand at a value of $900 trillion!!  And the Republicans dont want to do anything about it. Ron Paul is the same.  I dont believe him if he says he would regulate Wall Street.   I've never heard him say that anyway.
'
The government has been bought by Wall Street so they do whatever they the  banksters tell them.  
And the govt slaries arent the problem. The Wall st salaries and bonuses DWARF them. A plush Wall Street lobbyist job at 5 times the salary  awaits the politician who does what they are told.   

And right now the debt is not the problem, its  the jobs. And contracting the economy by cutting spending will make the economy even worse. No country ever cut its way to prosperity. We need to EXPAND the economy-not contract it by more cuts.-in the short term anyway. 

 islander wrote: 



True.

Also if my entire staff quit en masse I'd have to seriously reconsider my management abilities.

 ErikX wrote: 
Greenspan was no Libertarian at the Fed.. not even close. No libertarians believe in the price fixing on interest rates that the Fed engages in. No, he would start regulation on Wall St.. not give them a free pass. He talks about this all the time...

The problem is not just Wall St though. Its the collusion of them, the Fed and the govt all as one. They are all in bed together ripping us off... and what do we owe, 15 trillion now? How many wars are we in. Bush sucked, Obama sucks and anyone but Paul will suck, because they will be more of the same. More wars, More Federal reserve secrecy and wall street rip offs. But lets blame Clinton too for getting rid of Glass Stegal to help the bankers inflate a housing bubble while we are at it...

Oh yeah, and under his plan he reduces the presidents salary to 39k a year, not $400k.

as far as departments...yes he would elimante 5 and eliminate the TSA (yay!!) Unless you thing beaurcacy is a good thing? But no, we have to be honest with ourselves.. we can't print and spend trillions and expect everything to fine.. we have a serious spending problem and people pretend it does not exist?

I know cutting spending back to 2006 levels is so radical!!! but I think a balanced budget is important..dont you?

 Romulus wrote: 
He would eliminate every department of government. He thinks they are all unConstitutional. And believe me. Wall street would be able to do anything they want with him in office. Look at Greenspan, another famous Libertarian. One could lay the blame for the WHOLE Wall Street meltdown on him. 

That's right. BUSH's SEC was on vacation the whole 8 years. Wall Street was out of control and BUSH's SEC helped them by the Bear Sterns exemption which gave them unlimited leverage.  

 ErikX wrote: 
No he is for regulating Wall St and all their fraud... But remember, the SEC was supposed to regulate and look what Maddoff did? So yes regulations are good if they are applied correctly on these money masters...

But no he would not abolish government as we know it. lol... Because you don't eat pork does that make you vegetarian?

He wants to bring the troops HOME and end these wars and balance the budget before we end up like Greece or Europe... Inflation and the economy is only going to get worse is we don't get our financial house in order.

 Romulus wrote: 
YEs, they should nationalize the Fed Reserve!   But he is anti-regulation of everything, especially Wall st.

He would abolish every governmental agencyand dept except for military. If it was a football game he would abolish the referee.
Epitome of dumb.  
Obama is too corporate. We need a Howard Dean or Kucinich. 

 hippiechick wrote: 
Well, he is an OBGYN so.....

but he defers that to the states not the federal govt..

 ErikX wrote: 
He's pro Constitutional govt, pro regulation on the Federal Reserve, govt and Wall St. He is the closest to the people... I don't understand the hate?

Romney and Gingrich are more of the same.. Big govt warmongers. Same as Obama.