Could this all be true?

[Terry Adams]

The Not So Altruistic Truth Behind Obama's Global Food Security Act

'Subtlety May Deceive You; Integrity Never Will.' - Oliver Cromwell

Yahoo! Contributor Network

By Patricia Campion | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 6 hrs ago

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COMMENTARY | There is something nefarious afoot. While half of the American population depends on entitlement programs, Obama has made efforts to "spread the wealth." America is running out of food to feed other people "around" the world. In May, Hillary Clinton promised the United Nations that America would "address the underlying causes of hunger, by investing in everything from research to better seeds." Surely this has no connection to Obama's efforts to deregulate a new variety of genetically modified yet untested corn created by Monsanto.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

As president in 2009, Barack Obama revealed his $3.5 billion global welfare program. Soon after, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Lugar (R-Ind.)-Casey (D-Penn.) Global Food Security Act (S. 384), which mandates federal funding for genetic food engineering research.

For some reason, idiocy seems more acceptable if it's a bipartisan effort.

Obama then appointed former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as the new secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack regulates the nation's food supply and the food stamp program. Under Vilsack's competent leadership, 44.5 million Americans are now being fed at taxpayer expense, according to ABC News. But I digress.

In 2010, a federal judge admonished the USDA for approving genetically modified seeds without first conducting the required environmental impact study. This is where Obama's efforts to deregulate use of Monsanto's genetically bastardized corn are accomplished. So who is the head of the USDA? Tom Vilsack! As head of the USDA, he gave companies like Amgen, Strategic Diagnostics, Monsanto and other members of the Biotechnology Industry Organization the authority to conduct those environmental impact studies themselves in order to approve their own products.

But the secretary's love affair with Monsanto didn't start there.

In 2001, while he was governor of Iowa - successfully creating the land of ethanol subsidies - Vilsack was named Governor of the Year by Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) for his creation of the Governors' Biotechnology Partnership. This brilliant enterprise was a coalition of governors who served as a clearinghouse for BIOs biotechnology propaganda. Monsanto, a member of BIO, was so thrilled with Vilsack's performance in cloaking its money-making scheme under the auspices of humanitarianism that it gave Vilsack regular use of the corporate private jet.

Big-time Obama supporter and financial contributor Bill Gates participated in the president's genetically modified food plan. Gates donated $20 million toward the development of "Golden Rice," an untested genetically engineered crop that critics say will bring ecological and economic disaster to Asian farmers, reports Daily Motion.

Golden Rice is a "Trojan horse," said Sarojeni V. Rengam, executive director of Pesticide Action Network Asia, FoodGroup.org reported. It amounts to nothing more than "a public relations stunt" designed "to make money," Rengam said.

Then there is the suspicious partnering of these genetically modified (GM) crops with the herbicide commonly known as RoundUp. Curiously, these crops have been genetically engineered to be resistant to the killing effects of RoundUp, which makes Monsanto's herbicide the perfect product for weed control.

On Jan. 17, Dr. Don M. Huber, professor emeritus from Purdue University, sent a letter to Secretary Vilsack. Huber warned of a previously unknown pathogen discovered in RoundUp that "should be treated as an emergency," which poses a serious threat to plants, animals and human health. Roundup is a product of Monsanto, reported Food-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

RoundUp also appears to infect plants with an AIDS-like syndrome that destroys their immunity, blocks their absorption of certain vitamins and minerals, and eventually kills them, according to Natural News. Additionally, RoundUp causes birth defects through the destruction of human cells.

Vilsack ignored Huber.

There is also Obama's appointment of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. As solicitor general, Kagan defended Monsanto's "right" to contaminate the environment with GM alfalfa in the case of Monsanto v. Geertson Seed. Monsanto cash played a big role in Kagan's nomination and placement to the Supreme Court, according to The People's Voice.

Obama Food Safety Czar Michael Taylor was an attorney at King & Spalding, a private-sector law firm representing Monsanto. Monsanto lobbyist Islam Siddiqui is Obama's U.S. Ag Trade representative.

As if inspired by the prediction of fruit-cake Professor Igor Panarin of "revolution, food riots and tax rebellions by 2012," Obama ordered the U.S. military in January to prepare for food riots in the spring, reports EU Times.

Even though none have been reported, Clinton insisted that, "Anger and frustration over food prices" have "sparked riots in dozens of countries."

Behold how the next "crisis," which will surely not "go to waste," was set into motion:

* 2009 - Barack Obama reveals his $3.5 billion global welfare program.

* Obama names Monsanto advocate Tom Vilsack as U.S. secretary of Agriculture.

* Bill Gates pumps $20 million into Golden Rice and puts Gerald Barry in charge of the project. Lobby Watch notes Barry was the former director of research for Monsanto.

* The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation purchases 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock.

* Elena Kagan, another Monsanto loyalist, is appointed a Supreme Court judge.

Where is the Monsanto connection to Hillary Clinton? Mark Penn. He was Hillary's campaign strategist and long-time adviser. Penn is CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the PR firm to Monsanto.

Want more Obama Monsanto connections?

* The Wall Street Journal reported that George Soros, Obama's uber-financial supporter, just happened to purchase 897,813 shares of Monsanto in 2010, an investment which is already valued at $312.6 million.

* Two of Obama's five advisers - Gilbert Omenn, a director of the biotech firm Amgen, and Sharon Long, who until a year ago was on the board of directors at Monsanto.

* Amgen is a "top-tier customer" of Strategic Diagnostics, Inc., which partnered with Monsanto to introduce the new Soya Test Kit used to detect the presence of Monsanto's Roundup in soya food ingredients , according to Business Wire.

* According to CNN, Amgen is one of Obama's "top 10" stock investments.

This formerly vague alliance is coming into focus. It defines the old saying "follow the money." Barack Obama, his cronies and this tangled web of friends in the Biotechnology Industry Organization would love for you to believe that the Global Food Security Act is a humanitarian effort to feed the world's poor people. However, the deeper we look into the shadows the more we see that it's nothing more than a reward program hosted by the Obama administration to place properly loyal people into positions of power so a select group of friends can become very rich -- at the risk of human lives all around the world.

Sources:

"Remarks at Food Security Event", U.S. Department of State

Ashley Fent, Phil Bereano, and Katie Talbot, "Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act, Genetic Engineering and the Gates Foundation", Food Freedom

Huma Khan, "Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program Amid Record Number of Recipients", ABC News

Kathy Gill, "Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack", About.com

Federal Register /Vol. 76, No. 67 /Thursday, April 7, 2011 /Notices

Press Release, "Monsanto Provides Information on Company's Field Trial Compliance Program For Biotechnology-Derived Crops", Monsanto

Howard Berkes, "Farm Groups Praise Choice of Centrist Vilsack", NPR

"Six Reasons Why Obama Appointing Monsanto's Buddy, Former Iowa Governor Vilsack, for USDA Head Would be a Terrible Idea", Organic Consumers Association

"Bill Gates Backs Genetically Modified FoodResearch", FORAtv

Judith McGeary, Esq., "Genetically Modified Crops in the Food Supply: The Threat to Your Health", Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Ethan A. Huff, "Monsanto pesticide found to infect plants with AIDS-like disease", Natural News

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Brett Cherry, "Death by Multiple Poisoning, Glyphosate and Roundup", Institute of Science in Society

Asher Miller, "Monsanto Planting Seeds In the White House?" Post Carbon Institute

Randy Ananda, "Pro-GMO chemical polluter becomes Obama's ag trade negotiator", The People's Voice

"Monsanto Company, ET AL., Petitioners v. Geerston Seed Farms, ET AL.", American Bar Association

Jonathan Benson, "Monsanto rated among worst corporate lobbyists", Natural News

Obama Orders Military To Prepare For Spring Food Riots", The European Union Times

Profiles, "Gerald Barry", LobbyWatch.org

Brett Philbin, "George Soros: What's His Fund Been Buying?", The Wall Street Journal

"GM Watch: Former Monsanto Director Advising Obama", Organic Consumers Association

Prospectus for Strategic Diagnostics, Inc.

"Strategic Diagnostics Partners with Monsanto", All Business

"Obama's top 10 stocks", CNN Money

[Guest Tom Scully]

Not to worry, Terry. The author of the piece you've posted, Patricia Campion, is a right wing propagandist. Obama is giving every indication of delivering what amounts to a third Bush presidential term, with regard to the uncanny similarity in the way he has chosen to "govern". I am surprised Patricia Campion is not lauding the newest imperial criminal president.

To be convincing, this author would only have to make more misleading and inaccurate statements as Obama has, not a tall order, but if her "election fraud" propaganda piece is any indication, I would be inclined to vigorously verify every point she makes....

http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1061337/patricia_campion.html

....Although a firm Conservative, Patricia strives to be equally if not more critical of politicians in her own party. When pointing to the dirt on the other side of the isle your opinion will be more credible if you aren't sweeping yours under the carpet.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8220471/racism_and_voter_disenfranchisement.html?cat=37

Racism and Voter Disenfranchisement; Exposing the Liberal Myth - Again

It's as Predictable as a New Democrat Pre-election Entitlement Program

Patricia Campion, Yahoo! Contributor Network

Jul 10, 2011

It is as predictable as a new Democrat pre-election entitlement program. With the approach of every election cycle, Democrats begin their battle cries of Republican voter disenfranchisement to distract the American

populace from their behind-the-scenes efforts to engage in voter registration fraud and disenfranchisement.....

(Marc "Thor" Hearne was the 2004 Bush Cheney national campaign treasurer. His mother heads a tax dodge trust to which Porter Goss seems to have transferred the title of his San Marco, FL mansion to.... http://apps.leeclerk.org/OR/showdetails.aspx?Book=2851&Page=1380&BookType=O http://apps.leeclerk.org/OR/showdetails.aspx?cfn=2011000131670 http://apps.leeclerk.org/OR/showdetails.aspx?Book=4537&Page=3330&BookType=O )

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=17607&view=findpost&p=223757

...The Pillar Foundation is a right wing "christian" political organization with tax deductible donation status, founded by Donna Hearne and controlled by her son,

Marc "Thor" Hearne, national treasurer of the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign and since exposed "vote fraud" propagandist in chief. Porter Goss "donated" his mansion to

the Pillar Foundation.....

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2007/05/02/16224/2006-missouris-election-was-ground.html

U.S. attorneys 2006 Missouri's election was ground zero for GOP

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2007

...Joining the push to contain "voter fraud" were Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., who charged that votes by dogs and dead people had defeated Ashcroft, Missouri Republican Gov. Matt Blunt, whose stinging allegations of fraud were later debunked, and St. Louis lawyer Mark "Thor" Hearne, national counsel to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, who set up a nonprofit group to publicize allegations of voter fraud....

....Separately, Hearne helped establish the nonprofit Center for American Voting Rights in February 2005, which issued lengthy reports alleging voter fraud in states across the country, including Missouri. One director of the supposedly nonpartisan group was Brian Lunde, a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee who switched his allegiance in 2000 and headed Democrats for Bush in 2004.

Barnard's Minnite said the center's summary on Missouri consisted of "a litany of overblown allegations of fraud appearing in newspapers, most of which turn out to be minor problems or no problem at all."

Republican state Sen. Delbert Scott of Lowry, Mo., chief sponsor of the photo-ID bill last year, said Hearne had helped draft it and served as a key adviser.

Hearne didn't respond to several requests for comment. His organization closed down its Internet site in March and has disappeared from view...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/us/politics/03voting.html

U.S. Judge Opposes Republicans on Elections

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

Published: December 2, 2009

The Republican National Committee will not be able to use election tactics that have been linked to suppression of voting by racial minorities without court supervision, a federal judge in New Jersey has ruled.

....In an opinion issued on Tuesday, Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise of Federal District Court ruled that the Republicans failed to show that conditions had changed enough to justify changing the agreement.

“It does not appear that the R.N.C.’s incentive to suppress minority votes has changed since 1982,” Judge Debevoise wrote, citing statistics showing that most minority voters support Democrats. “It appears that the R.N.C. has been largely unsuccessful in its efforts to attract minority voters. Until it is able to do so, it will have an incentive to engage in the type of voter suppression that it allegedly committed in the actions that led to the enactment and modification of the consent decree.”

The judge dismissed arguments by Republican advocates that voter fraud is a growing problem, and said suppression of minority voters was a more serious issue....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Center_for_Voting_Rights

....On March 22, 2005, a few days after the organization was formed, ACVR officials were called to testify by Republican members of Congress before a House Administration Committee hearing held by Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). Hearne was called as a witness to discuss election reform issues and the implementation of the federal Help America Vote Act during the 2004 Presidential election.[17]....

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_360812.html

'Study' is political fraud

By Dimitri Vassilaros, TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Monday, August 8, 2005

Read more: 'Study' is political fraud - Pittsburgh Tribune-

The supposedly nonpartisan American Center for Voting Rights -- which purports to expose voter fraud -- is a fraud.

The organization's 368-page study "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression in the 2004 Presidential Election," which was released last week, indicated that Democrats were the instigators in every case from Alabama to Wisconsin -- except two.

It also said that the two complaints regarding Republicans had no merit.....

....More disturbing than blatant partisanship in the guise of objectivity is that the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania shamelessly cites the study's findings to claim Philadelphia is No. 1 in election fraud. More disturbing still is that the committee claims it knew virtually nothing about the ACVR and yet stands by its decision to parrot its assertions.

"Quite frankly, I do not know who did the report," said Eileen Melvin, state GOP chair.

And most disturbing is that Mrs. Melvin admits she will use studies from other organizations that she knows virtually nothing about to support the party's positions.

"I did not know it existed prior to the study's release," said Josh Wilson, the state committee's media maven, about the ACVR.

Mr. Wilson also was unconcerned when informed about the staunch, well-connected Republican operatives running it...

http://www.slate.com/id/2166589/pagenum/all/

The Fraudulent Fraud Squad

The incredible, disappearing American Center for Voting Rights.

By Richard L. HasenPosted Friday, May 18, 2007, at 1:41 PM ET

....Not so for the American Center for Voting Rights, a group that has literally just disappeared as an organization, and for which it seems no replacement group will rise up. With no notice and little comment, ACVR—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark "Thor" Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. Hearne won't speak to the press about ACVR's demise. No other group has taken up the "voter fraud" mantra.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html

In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud - New York Times

Apr 12, 2007 – The Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections....

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/008580.html

May 31, 2007

"Voter Fraud" Scandal Update [updated]

The Los Angeles Times offers this front page report, "Minnesota case fits pattern in U.S. attorneys flap; A prosecutor apparently targeted for firing had supported Native American voters' rights." It begins: "For more than 15 years, clean-cut, square-jawed Tom Heffelfinger was the embodiment of a tough Republican prosecutor. Named U.S. attorney for Minnesota in 1991, he won a series of high-profile white-collar crime and gun and explosives cases. By the time Heffelfinger resigned last year, his office had collected a string of awards and commendations from the Justice Department. So it came as a surprise-- and something of a mystery -- when he turned up on a list of U.S. attorneys who had been targeted for firing. Part of the reason, government documents and other evidence suggest, is that he tried to protect voting rights for Native Americans. At a time when GOP activists wanted U.S. attorneys to concentrate on pursuing voter fraud cases, Heffelfinger's office was expressing deep concern about the effect of a state directive that could have the effect of discouraging Indians in Minnesota from casting ballots." Josh Marshall comments and Paul Kiel fills in the Schlozman/von Spakovsky details.

Meanwhile, Murray Waas turns his attention to the Missouri angle in all of this, including a look at Thor Hearne, who is at the center of the collapse of the American Center for Voting Rights. Two snippets from the must-read article:

In the case involving ACORN, Hearne had urged the Justice Department long before the election to investigate the activist organization and similar groups that registered Democrats. When Hearne came to believe that the U.S. attorney for western Missouri, Todd Graves, was not taking seriously allegations that ACORN workers were registering people who did not qualify to vote, he took his complaints to senior officials in Justice's Civil Rights Division and to the White House, according to a former Justice official and a private attorney who worked with Hearne. The private attorney said in an interview that Hearne boasted to him about having discussions with administration officials who wanted Graves replaced. The White House declined to comment on any of its discussions with Hearne."

It is hard to imagine who that private attorney could be besides Jason Torchinsky. [uPDATE: Jason Torchinsky writes via email that he does not know who Waas's source was, but it was not him.]

And a stunning admission in the article:

Even Bryan Lunde, the former chairman of Hearne's Center for Voting Rights, said in an interview that allegations by both political parties of voting fraud and voter suppression are overblown. "It has become a new tool in campaigns to make a charge just for the sake of making a charge.... But don't ever let the facts get in the way of your accusation. Both sides seize on that one-hundredth of 1 percent of something that goes wrong in an election to make it something bigger. They try and make the anecdote the story. But there is very little voter fraud and very little voter suppression."

While Waas notes that ACVR "now appears to be defunct" he does not report what Lunde or anyone else had to say about its sudden disappearance. My earlier Slate piece on Hearne and ACVR is here.

UPDATE: Connecticut Republicans are pushing an amendment to an election day registration bill to require voter id in the name of preventing voter fraud.]

UPDATE 2: Even more on Missouri/Schlozman in this Boston Globe report and this McClatchy report.

UPDATE 3: Via comments to this TPMmuckraker post, I found this video interview with former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias. About halfway through the interview, Iglesias makes the claim that Pat Rogers, working for ACVR (which he incorrectly identifies as "American Citizens for Voting Reform"), pressured Iglesias to bring voter fraud prosecutions at the behest of Karl Rove. It is worth listening to the interview.

Posted by Rick Hasen at May 31, 2007 09:38 AM

If Patricia Campion is writing passionately and inaccurately about the fake right wing manufactured, "voter fraud" bogey man, how accurate do you think her Obama, "substitute GS and money" with the issue of food distribution and engineered seed" PLOT is going to turn out to be?

[Len Colby]

Not to worry, Terry. The author of the piece you've posted, Patricia Campion, is a right wing propagandist.

One does not have to look far to find her distortions. She wrote:

- “Big-time Obama supporter and financial contributor Bill Gates participated in the president's genetically modified food plan. Gates donated $20 million toward the development of "Golden Rice," an untested genetically engineered crop that critics say will bring ecological and economic disaster to Asian farmers, reports Daily Motion”

But Daily Motion is a video sharing/hosting site; this is no different than attributing something to YouTube.

http://www.dailymotion.com

- “According to CNN, Amgen is one of Obama's "top 10" stock investments.”

That’s true but what she omitted is that according to article he had over $1.3 million to over $5.7 million in financial instruments of which “$115,000 and $250,000” are in a mutual fund of which Amgen is the 8th largest holding. Even if 10% of the fund was invested in the company it would work out to a theoretical maximum of less than 2% of his investments (not including real estate etc.)

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/15/news/economy/obama-stocks/index.htm