I see my editorial comment on Peter MacKay's secret surprise unannounced propaganda visit to Afghanistan has upset some partisan Blogging Tories, in particular BBS and Steve Janke. Hello its called editorial comment.
And Mr. Janke is concerned I am implying Peter MacKay is a pedophile. But child brides are ok in Afghanistan. That is the real crime. Which was my point, stated in a pointed way.
You can't be a pedophile if its ok in the country you are in to marry a child bride can you? And if it is pedophilia then I would expect Janke to be outraged, as I was, over the conditions of exploitation girls and women still suffer under the Karzai regime. But of course Janke wasn't nor was MacKay.
Janke would rather attack me personally and then attack the NDP as if I was a partisan blog for the NDP, which I am not. Missed my post on partisan blogging did we Steve. Missed Libertarian Communist Blog in my header did we.
The Harper government continues to prop up a misogynist anti-women regime that allows child brides. But the silence of the Harper government over the lack of womens rights in Afghanistan is deafening. But then they don't believe women's equality is important in Canada so why should it be important in Afghanistan.
Peter MacKay zooms over for a Harper propaganda photo op handing out some token funds to women, while avoiding the issue of the current famine and drought and families selling off child brides to survive.
Of course child brides are an offense to all right thinking folks, which was my point. But clearly my supposedly besmirching Mr. MacKays reputation is more important to a partisan hack like Janke than the condition of girls and women in Afghanistan.
Nothing new there, both BBS and Janke are Blogging Tories.
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Monday, January 08, 2007
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright
This is from my fellow News Now contributor Phil Davis.
There are only 4000-5000 Tigers in the wild,they are being poached at the rate of one per day.They are being killed for their skins,which people wear to show their wealth,also for their body parts being used in traditional chinese medicine.There is no proof to show that consuming Tiger parts cure anything,as there are alternative medicines.also we should not be killing TIGERS period.WE NEED WORLD HELP,PLEASE HELP THE TIGER,WE NEED TO ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.You can find out more about our projects at www.tigerawareness.co.uk.
There are half a million seals in Canadian waters that the Green NGO's will once again mobilize to protect from nasty brutish seal hunters.
But there are far less Tigers. Real endagered spiecies like Tigers, Wolves, Bears, and Primates that need protection and the worlds attention.
More than the cute cuddly poster seals who are commercially exploited by the Green NGO's to line their pocketbooks.
The Tiger
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake. 1757–1827
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Sunday, January 07, 2007
Kananaskis Protest Redux
Kananaskis likely meeting place for leaders of Canada, U.S. and Mexico
The G8 meeting in 2002 was held in Kananaskis and was met with mass protests, time to recycle those old protest signs and make this another memorable meeting.The protests did, however, manage to direct the media's attention to the issues of human rights, social justice and environmentalism that motivated the protesters; the small activist community in Calgary was also bolstered by the demonstrations, leading to the largest protests in the city's history the following year.
Given the current illegal government of Mexican President Calderon is continuing the oppression of the people of Mexico this will be an excellent opportunity to show our opposition to all Three Amigos of the Neo Con Agenda of Deep Integration and a North American Union.
See:
G8
Harper Supports Calderon
What About Mexican Human Rights Mr. Harper
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Peter MacKays Child Bride
So Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has made another of the governments surprise visits to Afghanistan.
Being a single guy I wonder if he was looking for a child bride.
See:
Our Allies In Afghanistan Oppress Women
Womens Oppression Continues In Afghanistan
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CN Song
A day can't go by without another story about CN.
No injuries, no environmental damage in Quebec derailment, says CN
High Hopes
With no apologies to Frank Sinatra.
Next time your found, with your train on the ground
There a lot to be learned, so look around
Just what makes E. Hunter Harrison,
Think he'll move
that that train down the track
Anyone knows CN, cant
Move that train down the track
But E. Hunter Harrison,
got high hopes,
hes got high hopes
Hes got high apple pie,
in the sky hopes
So any time your gettin low
stead of lettin go
Just remember that CN
Oops there goes another train off the track
Perhaps they should change their name to Canada's National Disaster.
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No injuries, no environmental damage in Quebec derailment, says CN
High HopesWith no apologies to Frank Sinatra.
Next time your found, with your train on the ground
There a lot to be learned, so look around
Just what makes E. Hunter Harrison,
Think he'll move
that that train down the track
Anyone knows CN, cant
Move that train down the track
But E. Hunter Harrison,
got high hopes,
hes got high hopes
Hes got high apple pie,
in the sky hopes
So any time your gettin low
stead of lettin go
Just remember that CN
Oops there goes another train off the track
Perhaps they should change their name to Canada's National Disaster.
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derailment, Montreal, Quebec, train,
Elizabeth May Closet Liberal
Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, interviewed on CTV's Question Period today spent most of her time attacking Jack Layton. Using Liberal talking points.
Like how the NDP brought down the government last year just when the International Climate Change Conference was happening, why that's straight off Scott Reids talking notes for the 2006 election. A challenge that the Liberals have used for the past year in attacking the NDP.
And how the NDP and Conservatives are collaborating on the Climate Change Accord in order to prop up the Harper government. Straight from the Liberal press clippings.
Clearly she see's Jack Layton and the NDP as her biggest threat.
She admited that the Greens took votes from the NDP and Conservatives in the London byelection. And she is thinking of running again there.
Is there a potential merger here between the Greens and Liberals......since they share the same talking points and share a common opponent; the NDP.
Luckily Jack and the NDP can take credit that they get things done in parliament, something neither Green Party or the Liberals can.
See:
Green Party
Elizabeth May
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Like how the NDP brought down the government last year just when the International Climate Change Conference was happening, why that's straight off Scott Reids talking notes for the 2006 election. A challenge that the Liberals have used for the past year in attacking the NDP.
And how the NDP and Conservatives are collaborating on the Climate Change Accord in order to prop up the Harper government. Straight from the Liberal press clippings.
Clearly she see's Jack Layton and the NDP as her biggest threat.
She admited that the Greens took votes from the NDP and Conservatives in the London byelection. And she is thinking of running again there.
Is there a potential merger here between the Greens and Liberals......since they share the same talking points and share a common opponent; the NDP.
Luckily Jack and the NDP can take credit that they get things done in parliament, something neither Green Party or the Liberals can.
See:
Green Party
Elizabeth May
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UKRAINITZKI RIZDVO
Merry Ukrainian Christmas. Z Rizdvom Khrystovym!
Well at least here in Western Canada, the largest North American Diaspora of Ukrainians, who kept and grew their identity while in exile. In the rest of the world it is Epiphany and the Orthodox Christmas.
Ukrainian Christmas is of course not a Christian celebration at all but rooted in the old pagan traditions. The twelve course dinner we eat is vegetarian, saving of the meat slaughtered at harvest, for the mid winter, late Feburary early March coinciding coincidentally with Easter/Spring. It represents the circle of the year quartered.
My relatives once explained the twelve seasons were the Apostles. A bit of syncretism if not outright recuperation by the dominant Religious State/State Religion.
In reality it is part of the pagan roots of all Ukrainian culture and its motifs.
The twelve course meal is celebrated with friends, relatives and the community, with local carolers visiting, not unlike Mummers in Newfoundland, and a priest blessing the house with water, salt and a evergreen branch.
The meal itself is part of the old pagan gift economy, where we shared the wealth of the harvest at this dark cold part of the year, feasting in preparation for the spring.
The symbolism of the birds on the babkas and paskas, the sacred breads of the sun which are made from the wheat, the life of the earth, are with us still and used at Christmas, Easter, for weddings and funerals.
Rich in pagan heritage, Ukrainians are again embracing their pagan past, and its vital link with today.
So from a heathen and a pagan I say to you,
Recited After Caroling
vinchovanye from the Carpathian Mountains (rec. by Vol. Shukhevych. Hutsul'shchyna. Lviv: NTSh, 1904. v.4)
Wishing all of you health, wealth, happiness, bliss,
for you and your family, your garden, your farm animals,
even your bees, and may there be a wedding soon in your family!
U khati sytno, na dvir prybytno.
Dai zhe ty, Bozhe, na khati zilia,
Na khati zilia, v khati vesilia!
V pasitsi bzholy yz royechkamy,
Yz royechkamy, paroyechkamy!
Oi dai Bozhe!
Sh'ystiem-zdorovyym, Rizdvom Khrystovym!
Dai zhe ty bozhe, v horodi zelo,
V horodi zelo, v khati veselo!
Podai zhe, Bozhe, vsim zdorovyuchko,
Na khudobochku, na dvir sh'yst'ychko,
Na khudobochku, na rohovuyu,
Na chel'ydochku, na domovuyu!
Oi dai Bozhe!
It is always a lenten meal as there is a fasting time which leads up to the Feast of Christmas on the 7th. The most important food which must be present and usually sits in the center of the table is called "Kutia". It is a sweet pudding made of boiled wheat, honey, nuts and poppy seeds. The other traditional food is a fruit compote of simmered dried fruits called "Uzvar". These two foods symbolize the bounty of the harvest and offer a prayer for a plentiful harvest to come in the New Year.
A chair and place setting is usually left empty to symbolize the hope that the souls of deceased relatives will visit and partake of the holy meal along with the family. Pagan Ukrainians worshipped their ancestors and believed that their spirits could be propitiated in order to benefit the family.
These old Ukrainian fertility gods are located in Kyiv at the Ukraine History Museum, near St. Andrew’s church. (The statues are outdoors, and have been placed under the hoods in order to reduce wear from the elements.) Many--perhaps even most--religions and churches encourage fertility. Historically, fertility was an important way to maintain the continuity of the community. This tradition continues today, of course.
And the ancient godess returns in modern form;Yulia Tymoshenko: Goddess of the Orange Revolution As I also commented on here.
Christmas
Pagan
Ukraine
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Well at least here in Western Canada, the largest North American Diaspora of Ukrainians, who kept and grew their identity while in exile. In the rest of the world it is Epiphany and the Orthodox Christmas.
Ukrainian Christmas is of course not a Christian celebration at all but rooted in the old pagan traditions. The twelve course dinner we eat is vegetarian, saving of the meat slaughtered at harvest, for the mid winter, late Feburary early March coinciding coincidentally with Easter/Spring. It represents the circle of the year quartered.
My relatives once explained the twelve seasons were the Apostles. A bit of syncretism if not outright recuperation by the dominant Religious State/State Religion.
In reality it is part of the pagan roots of all Ukrainian culture and its motifs.
The twelve course meal is celebrated with friends, relatives and the community, with local carolers visiting, not unlike Mummers in Newfoundland, and a priest blessing the house with water, salt and a evergreen branch.
The meal itself is part of the old pagan gift economy, where we shared the wealth of the harvest at this dark cold part of the year, feasting in preparation for the spring.
The symbolism of the birds on the babkas and paskas, the sacred breads of the sun which are made from the wheat, the life of the earth, are with us still and used at Christmas, Easter, for weddings and funerals.
Rich in pagan heritage, Ukrainians are again embracing their pagan past, and its vital link with today.
So from a heathen and a pagan I say to you,
Recited After Caroling
vinchovanye from the Carpathian Mountains (rec. by Vol. Shukhevych. Hutsul'shchyna. Lviv: NTSh, 1904. v.4)
English Translation: (two separate very old greetings combined)
Wishing all of you health, wealth, happiness, bliss,
for you and your family, your garden, your farm animals,
even your bees, and may there be a wedding soon in your family!
Dai zhe ty, Bozhe, ta v khati sytno,
U khati sytno, na dvir prybytno.
Dai zhe ty, Bozhe, na khati zilia,
Na khati zilia, v khati vesilia!
V pasitsi bzholy yz royechkamy,
Yz royechkamy, paroyechkamy!
Oi dai Bozhe!
Vinchuyemo ty sh'ystiem-zdorovyym,
Sh'ystiem-zdorovyym, Rizdvom Khrystovym!
Dai zhe ty bozhe, v horodi zelo,
V horodi zelo, v khati veselo!
Podai zhe, Bozhe, vsim zdorovyuchko,
Na khudobochku, na dvir sh'yst'ychko,
Na khudobochku, na rohovuyu,
Na chel'ydochku, na domovuyu!
Oi dai Bozhe!
A Merry Ukrainian Christmas to all
On Christmas Eve, called "Sviat Vechir" (Holy Eve) in Ukrainian, the family gathers together to share a traditional meal and to sing carols. It is customary to wait until the evening star appears in the sky, as this is thought to represent the star of Bethlehem which guided the Wise Men to the Manger. The meal is called "Sviata Vecherya" which means "holy supper".It is always a lenten meal as there is a fasting time which leads up to the Feast of Christmas on the 7th. The most important food which must be present and usually sits in the center of the table is called "Kutia". It is a sweet pudding made of boiled wheat, honey, nuts and poppy seeds. The other traditional food is a fruit compote of simmered dried fruits called "Uzvar". These two foods symbolize the bounty of the harvest and offer a prayer for a plentiful harvest to come in the New Year.
A chair and place setting is usually left empty to symbolize the hope that the souls of deceased relatives will visit and partake of the holy meal along with the family. Pagan Ukrainians worshipped their ancestors and believed that their spirits could be propitiated in order to benefit the family.
Tree of Life
"The Tree of Life, the Sun, the Goddess: Symbolic Motifs in Ukrainian Folk Art," now at the new Ukrainian Museum, taught me how to "read" a bride’s costume. It allowed me to see symbols that evolved from at least as far back as the Linear and Trypillian cultures from 6000-3000 BCE.All these pagan symbols reside in textiles and ornaments dating from the late 19th to early 20th century from a country that was converted to Christianity in 988 CE.
The goddess motif, a torso, often vegetative with curved arms held on either side of the head, can be found on the bottom edge of a cream-colored coat (svyta) from the 1920s or recognized in more abstract forms on painted Easter eggs (pysanky). A goddess figure often shows up in textiles as rhomboids, where hook-like extensions take the place of uplifted arms. In the same manner, she appears in sashes and in the embroidery on the sleeves of women’s shirts and ritual cloths.
The tree-of-life designs play an important role in many cultures. A pillar or tree, an axis mundi, is seen as connecting the world above (gods or benevolent spirits), the earth (man’s domain) and the underground (ancestors or evil spirits).
In Ukrainian folk art, the tree-of-life is often found on ritual cloths, usually with red embroidery on a white ground. These cloths were found everywhere in traditional villages. Some were hung in houses at weddings and births; others were placed on coffins; still others were put atop markers at the edge of small towns to welcome visitors. One ritual cloth (rushnyk) from the 1930s is a riot of tree-of-life motifs along with other fertility symbols -- flowers, vines and birds.
Unveiling the Mother Goddess from her
It is awesome to think that while Sumerian culture had only begun developing and when the Egyptian pyramids were yet to be built, dozens of Trypilian towns in Ukraine had already sunk into oblivion and their ruins were covered with the grass of the forest-steppe stretching between the Dniester and Dnipro rivers.
Moist Mother Earth - Slavic Myth and Religion
These old Ukrainian fertility gods are located in Kyiv at the Ukraine History Museum, near St. Andrew’s church. (The statues are outdoors, and have been placed under the hoods in order to reduce wear from the elements.) Many--perhaps even most--religions and churches encourage fertility. Historically, fertility was an important way to maintain the continuity of the community. This tradition continues today, of course.
Scythia and the Scythians - Encyclopedia of Ukraine
The AnthropogeneThere was a time when cities were being built in the Southern Ukraine long before the kingship descended to Eridu in
Around 5400 BC there must have been a great forest in the Southern Ukraine and while this is pure speculation, the people of the Black Sea Diaspora must have made made their migratory ingress into these territiories, moving up the great rivers of the Danube, the
In case the term Black Sea Diaspora doesn't mean anything, we now know that around 5600 BC the
Yara's Forest Song Reviews
"Just as every tree is different in a forest and you have to learn to recognize it, so every person is different and has its own place, time and unique voice which you must also learn to recognize. The idea that today we are destroying the forest, uprooting trees, and uprooting humanity, is central to the production of Lesia Ukrainka's Forest Song, the Ukrainian-America collaborative project of the Yara Arts Group from La Mama Theatre in New York and the Kurbas Theatre from Lviv..Lesya Ukrainka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka (February 25, 1871 [O.S. February 13] – August 1, 1913 [O.S. July 19]) better known under her literary pseudonym Lesya Ukrainka , was one of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers and the foremost woman writer in Ukrainian literature. Ukrainka also wrote epic poems, prose dramas, prose, several articles of literary criticism, and a number of sociopolitical essays. She was best known Lisova pisnya (1912; The Forest Song), whose characters include mythological beings from Ukrainian folklore. Ukrainka actively opposed Russian tsarism and was a member of Ukrainian Marxist organizations. In 1902 she translated a Communist Manifesto into Ukrainian. She was briefly arrested in 1907 by tsarist police and remained under surveillance thereafter.And the ancient godess returns in modern form;Yulia Tymoshenko: Goddess of the Orange Revolution As I also commented on here.
See
Merry Ukrainian Christmas
Yes Colby Cosh there is such a thing as Ukrainian Christmas
Christmas
Pagan
Ukraine
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Palace Casino Strike
There is an ongoing strike at the Palace Casino in West Edmonton Mall. It is another strike in Alberta by workers for a 'FIRST' contract. We are one of the few provinces that does not automatically give workers a first contract once they successfully win union recognition. Nope, you can join the union and then have to fight to get a contract.
Which means that first contract strikes are dragged out by management, as they are in this case. The strike started back in September.
Well this is an ugly little strike because while the Palace is operated by a private company, in fact it is run by a tax avoiding Income Trust, it functions with State support and sanction. After all the Alberta government makes more money off gambling than off the Oil Sands.
B.C. Business Magazine says Gateway Income Trust, based in Burnaby, B.C., was the third most profitable business in that province last year, posting profit of close to $20 million in the first half of 2006. The company also operates the Baccarat Casino in Edmonton.
And UFCW the union involved is faced with non-profit groups and charities needing to use the casino to raise funds for things like school books, yep in Alberta the biggest users of casino fundraising are school parent groups trying to offset the provincial governments underfunding of public schools.
And it appears management at the Palace is googling Doug O'Halloran, who is President of UFCW. And how do I know this, well they visited my blog.
Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, 0 returning visits
| Date | Time | WebPage |
| 6th January 2007 | 15:40:16 | plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_plawiuk_archive.html www.google.ca/search?q=doug%2Bohalloran&hl=en&rls= SUNA%2CSUNA%3A2006-16% 2CSUNA%3Aen |
Instead of googling UFCW the Palace Casino management should be bargaining with their workers.
Once again this shows that the Alberta Labour Relations Board is the tool of the bosses, and labour should abandon it for Direct Action.
Every strike is a battle in the Class War!
The IWW Edmonton holds public solidarity pickets every Sunday afternoon at 2pm at West Edmonton Mall to support the striking workers, join them.
"The longer the picket line the shorter the strike."
See
Unions
UFCW
Strikes
Labour
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State Capitalism in the USSR
There are varying conflicting debates on the left as to when the Soviet Union became State Capitalist.
Of course amongst the Trotskyists it was always a Degenerated Workers State, even under Stalin.
The theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism, State Capitalism, etc. all evolved out of the debates with Trotsky in the Fourth International during the 1940's by various factions.
Outside of the Trotskyists, Council Communists or Left Communists, as Lenin called them, already defined Bolshevism as State Capitalism and in some cases Nationalist Socialism, as Otto Ruhle did.
Anarchists point out that Lenin himself described the Soviet Union as State Capitalism;"socialism is nothing but state capitalist monopoly made to benefit the whole people,"
Rosa Luxemburg herself a contemporary in the Social Democratic Movement with Lenin, accused the Bolsheviks of creating State Capitalism in the Soviet Union.
This new type of capitalism--properly called state-capitalism--persists to the present day in the ideological dress of 'socialism."
Well here is an interesting historical flashback from Time Magazine, I found on the web. We can officially date State Capitalism as being fully implemented under Stalin in the summer of 1931. Though it was already evolving from earlier decisions the Bolsheviks made.
TIME.com: Stalin Shifts the Helm -- Jul 13, 1931
Captain Lenin, Captain Trotsky and today Captain Stalin have never been afraid to alter Russia's course—the course of over one-seventh of the world—by a sudden titan's tug at the helm. Last week Captain Stalin tugged.
He issued no decree. He permitted the Press of Russia to disclose a speech he had made June 23 to a group of Soviet industrial executives. So awful is Comrade Stalin's power that not one of his many hearers had publicly breathed a syllable. His words, according to Moscow correspondents, will soon be law:
¶ "We have not yet reached our Communist goal," said Stalin with devastating simplicity. "Meanwhile emergency measures are necessary. ... It is unbearable to see a locomotive driver receiving the same wages as a bookkeeper!"
The wages of Soviet locomotive drivers and other skilled proletarians will be raised, Stalin indicated, above the wage level of unskilled proletarians and despised white collar yes-men. Up to last week the theory of Soviet wage scales (varied some-what in practice) was approximate wage equality between the skilled and the unskilled. With a mighty tug Stalin seemed to shift the whole Soviet wage structure —in a direction seemingly opposite to Communism.
¶"Break up the family!" was one of Russia's bywords when she went on the Five-Day Week (TIME, Oct. 7,1929). Factories began to run every day of the week with four-fifths of their personnel, the other one-fifth resting. Thus each man or woman has, under the present Five-Day week, one day of rest after each four of work; but the "rest day" of husband and wife may not be the same, thus tending to disrupt the family.
J. Stalin, happy family man, now said that factories in which the Five-Day Week does not seem to work well should return to the old system of five days' work and the same rest day for everyone at once.
¶. Still more striking was the Dictator's word that management of factories a la Soviet by voting councils of the workers must in some degree give way to management by a manager with power to manage and responsibility to show a profit. Obviously this is "State Capitalism." The State being the owner for whom the manager must earn a profit.
See:
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
BioFuel and The Wheat Board
Is there a connection between the Harper announcement promoting bio-fuels and the push to kill the Wheat Board. Why of course there is. Its called Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) who is a shareholder in Agricore the Alberta based Wheat and Barley exchange, and they are the largest processor of bio fuels. They also have Brian Mulroney as a board member. This article is from the U.S. but note the conclusion
Ethanol's roots in ADM lobbying
Grist features the origins of U.S. government subsidies for ethanol fuels and their benefits to Acher Daniels Midland (ADM) and its former CEO Dwayne Andreas (the man who provided the $25,000 for the Watergate 'plumbers'). Includes links to the 1995 Cato Institute study of Carter administration support to ADM, as well as this year's study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Biofuels - At What Cost? (Oct. 25, 2006).
The latter estimates federal support for ethanol to total between $5.5 billion and $7.3 billion each year, and the benefits to ADM which (according to the article) contols about 1/3 of the ethanol market.
The article suggests that the federal government could do more to fight greenhouse gases (GHG) if it used the money to buy carbon offsets. Of course, that's not the administration's goal in supporting ADM and ethanol, is it?
Also check out this World May Be Facing Highest Grain Prices in History
See
ADM
Wheat Board
Farmers
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