the Monsanto bastards know full well there will be litigation for their crimes & this is wonderful for them. Just one of the many who will not ever have to answer for outright criminality, add them to the Wall st. gang, banksters, war profiteers, etc. Nice list that's getting longer & longer.

Still think we live in a democracy? Crime pays, esp. when you can write laws designed by their very nature to protect your crimes. We are no longer a nation of laws, we are USA, Inc.

While some worry about party issues, I think your time would be better spent worrying about the criminality aided and abetted by the hijacked gov't.

...so they can frack our water supply with impugnity...

"A provison that protects the biotech giant from litigation passed Congress without many members knowing about it"

Proof that people will believe anything. The OP article is viral, and yet members of Congress tried to strip the provision from the bill. They knew it was there. In fact, they subsequently voted for labeling when the Democratic budget came up for a vote.

More information on the Monsanto rider. Also Democratic budget supports labeling.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022576338

I read the links. Still, I am mad. It just seems like that provision should not have been signed.

It's like being asked to sign a death sentence on an innocent man in order to pass a budget.

"ProSense are you saying we shouldn't be concerned?"

...I'm saying it's ludicrous to claim members of Congress didn't know the provision was in the bill when they tried to remove it.

I guess I am surprised to find out "Anonymous" was elected to Congress. Do you have any idea who this person might have been?

"I guess I am surprised to find out "Anonymous" was elected to Congress. Do you have any idea who this person might have been? "

...like voice votes and "anonymous" holds. Still, that doesn't change the fact that they knew it was there.

Doom and gloom and finger pointing won't get it done, only pressure across the board.

The show of "trying" to take it out is also of little importance since they put it in.

It is all a game of bullshit and winning the spin/blame game like all the rule by crisis tomfoolery that we've seen for a few years now.

'Line-item veto thingy' in Palin speak was a new idea, did you?

Damn omnibus spending bills.

What the hell is wrong with her?
Is this standard for her?

She was chairing the committee, but she did not insert the rider. It was inserted by someone else, and before she took over the committee.

She should have *caught* it, but she didn't put it there.

I feel better, but I hope she investigates and finds out who did this.

the legislators knew.

Yes, it sucks.

But

1. It was an amendment slipped into a must-pass budget bill. The president would have had to defund the entire federal government to defeat it, which is why they call things like this "poison pill" amendments.

2. As is clearly stated in the article you yourself posted above, the amendment only has the force of law for six months.

Everyone seems to be knocking themselves over to blame Obama for this, even though he really had no choice given the bill this thing came with.

Mmmm...how about going after the fuckwad who inserted the amendment into a must-pass bill? Or is dumping on the president just the easier thing to do?

Goddam shortcut to thinking. Facts are important.

Is it like an earmark? So if it was one person, who was it? That's what I want to know.

I am not dumping on Obama, but I am surprised he always takes the wrong side on an issue. I am even more surprised and disgusted that this bill got passed in this fashion. They act like drunken gamblers at a casino in Vegas. None of them vote their convictions except maybe the dishonest ones.

Allow me my moment of disgust.

in point of fact: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-mikulski-under-fire-for-monsanto-rider-in-funding-bill-20130328,0,7542852.story

The rider is dead in six months. The trick now is to convince her that trying this bullshit again will have consequences.

I want to know who (maybe how many) is so in Monsanto's pocket that they felt they had to include this amendment to a bill. That is not an incidental matter to be passed without discussion. When the interests of the people conflict with those of corporations, depend on the GOP to side with the bad guys. And then for the rest of us (Democrats included) to fall in line because it is expedient.

I feel like I am falling down a deep dark hole. I hope there aren't any genetically altered easter eggs down here!

That says that the democratic senator from Maryland was chairing the committee... but that the rider was inserted by someone else before she even took over. Just for the sake of clarity, since that seemed to suggest she had put it in there.

Still leaves us having to figure out who originally wrote it...

This is another example of weak fucking leadership.

are just raging cheap pot shots at the President. Guesss it makes you feel better but you really should have your facts down.

It was attached as a rider to a must pass bill that would have shut down the government if it hadn't gone through.

The president does not possess line item veto power.

The entire bill passed by a veto proof majority so the signature was an automatic formality regardless.


Obama had literally NOTHING TO DO with this. At all. Not in the teeny tiniest way. So save the snarky comments about what Michelle should be talking to her husband bout.

I know how my government works. Pretty much once it is signed in, it is never revoked. Like tax cuts for the rich.

Sorry, you see as snark my believing in certain concepts and principles. I choose not to constantly defend my own inconsistencies.

In fact, I am willing to believe a GOP shill put this rider in the bill. not Mikulski herself. I have been looking for evidence. Mikulski says the rider was on the bill when she took over the committee. Roy Blunt (R-MO), for example. He is on the committee and gets the most bribes -- uh I mean campaign contributions from pro-GMO PACs.

"But the biggest player may have been Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a battle-scarred veteran of the House GOP leadership who is now rebuilding his power base in the Senate.

Coming from Missouri, Blunt is a strong ally for both the poultry companies and Monsanto, and as the ranking Republican on the Ag appropriations subcommittee, he was a consistent and determined presence.

'Well, it’s in there and it works,' Blunt laughed, when asked about rescinding the poultry rules. 'Everybody knew it was going to be permanent,' Blunt told POLITICO."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/big-agriculture-tom-vilsack-monsanto-89268_Page2.html#ixzz2Os8EoN8j

So important in this climate.

the people rather than a right-wing corporatist government that protects corporations from liability for any damage their recklessness might cause.