Food & Water’s Memory Lane: The Ben & Jerry’s Campaign

January 29, 2009 By M. Colby 3 Comments

Well, what do you say we continue the walk down Food & Water’s memory lane? As some of you will recall, after we secured our “popularity” in Vermont by highlighting Cabot’s use of rBGH, we turned our attention to Ben & Jerry’s refusal to go organic – a stand that they still hold to this day. Hmm, is there another “victory” lurking? I doubt it.

Food & Water held several meetings with Ben & Jerry (yes, the individuals), in 1996 and 1997 in an effort to convince them to single-handedly revolutionize Vermont agriculture by beginning the transition to organic dairy production. At the time, hundreds of Vermont farms supplied the popular corporation with the cream they required to meet their growing needs.

But Ben & Jerry refused to budge, claiming that they “couldn’t figure out a way to maximize their profits” via organic production. And so we gave them one more chance: Begin to move toward organic or Food & Water would publicize the fact that, despite the corporation’s rhetoric, it was sanctioning the use of toxic pesticides that threatened Vermont’s environment and the consumers of its ice cream.

Ben Cohen’s initial response was to offer me a job in their public relations department. I refused. Then he took us to a closet full of Ben & Jerry’s paraphernalia and told us to take whatever we wanted. I remember he was particularly proud of the “hippie ties” – yes neckties – that were recently made in his and the Grateful Dead’s honor. Take whatever you want, he declared.

“Thanks,” I remember replying, “but we’ve told you what we want: We want you to begin moving your farm suppliers toward organic dairy production.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Ben replied.

And so, the campaign was on. And so, too, was the liberal elite pushback. Big time. Whatever.

Our first shot across the Ben & Jerry’s bow was an ad that featured a cartoon family in a Vermont-like setting with a giant ice cream cloud lingering over them. The headline was blunt: “Ben & Jerry’s want to save the world. But who will save us from Ben & Jerry’s?”

The text below explained Ben & Jerry’s refusal to go organic and highlighted the thousands of pounds of carcinogenic Atrazine that was used on the Vermont dairy farms that supplied cream to the ice cream mavens.

Sure, we got our asses kicked in the media and within the nonprofit and funding community. I can remember one call I got from a significant funder and friend of Ben Cohen’s who began her conversation with, “You can’t do this.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because Ben’s a nice guy.”

Ben’s affability was never a part of the campaign, I pointed out to her. But I don’t think she ever heard me because the phone soon went dead, as did her support for our campaigns that she had previously declared as “visionary.” I’ll let you decide who went blind, however.

Shortly after the launch of our Ben & Jerry’s campaign, I was invited to speak at an anti-nuke rally in Brattleboro. The person inviting me, Deb Katz of the Citizens Awareness Network, wanted me to be a part of the rally but was nervous about the fact that Ben & Jerry’s had not only given money for the event but the two of them would also be speaking.

“I want you to speak, too,” Katz told me. “But you have to agree that you won’t mention Ben & Jerry’s.”

I told her I’d think about it. And after about ten minutes of thinking about it and laughing rather hysterically with my trusty colleague at the time, Michele Kirchner, I called Katz back: “It’s a deal.”

You see, we made a quick plan.  Sure, I’d appear at the rally – right before Ben & Jerry – and I wouldn’t “mention” the company.

And now, for the “rest of the story,” below is an excerpt from an article from the Boston Globe’s Sunday Magazine that featured the work of Food & Water. It was written by Sally West Johnson, who followed me around for days while researching her piece, including a trip to the Brattleboro anti-nuke rally. You can read the entire piece by clicking here.

We had fun. Because, as my activist mentor, Wally Burnstein, taught me: What’s the point of activism if you’re not having fun? Indeed. And people often thought we were devastated by the attacks we were so often under. Hardly. We were laughing. We believed in what we were doing and we were determined to have one hell of a good time in the process.

Here’s the Boston Globe’s description of our day at the Brattleboro rally:

Michael Colby’s time in the sun has arrived, and he’s ready for it. Striding up to the stage on this warm August afternoon, Colby, executive director of a political action group called Food & Water, has a small paper bag clutched in his left hand and mischief in his gray-blue eyes.

Colby is a scheduled speaker at an antinuclear gathering on the Brattleboro Common, a rally organized by the Citizens Awareness Network, based in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, in Washington, D.C.

He is well known in the leftist community for his sharp tongue and his no-sacred-cows approach to politics. In an age when much of mainstream political activism has adopted the vocabulary of mediation and compromise, Colby is a pit bull — one with wit, but a pit bull nonetheless.

His bark and his bite have drawn him national attention, including appearances on three network evening news shows, CNN, ABC’s 20/20, and Phil Donahue’s talk show.

Lately, one of the targets of Colby’s bark has been Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont ice cream makers who are known for their liberal activism.

Colby’s Vermont-based group demanded that Ben & Jerry’s stop buying milk from farmers who feed their cows grain treated with the herbicide atrazine, a suspected carcinogen.

Ben&Jerry’s argues, as do a number of environmental watchdog groups, that atrazine in cattle feed does not show up in the milk supply and that organic corn, raised without weed-killing chemicals, is too expensive to find a market.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s are at the rally today to join in the antinuclear speechmaking, and the organizers have extracted a promise from Colby that he will not say anything about Ben, Jerry, or the atrazine controversy, but will stick to nuclear reactors and nuclear waste.

Colby takes the stage along with his assistant, Michele Kirchner. He opens the bag, extracts a pint of nicely softened Chubby Hubby, one of Ben & Jerry’s best-known flavors, pulls out a spoon, and begins to eat.

“Doing bad and feeling good about it,” Colby intones between bites of ice cream. This is a phrase that appears often in the Food & Water advertising campaign against the ice cream maker, and many of the 100 or so activists in the audience appear to know that. Others seem intrigued.

“Doing bad and feeling good about it,” Colby says again, pausing for another spoonful of Chubby Hubby. “Doing real bad, and feeling real good about it.”

With that, his microphone goes dead. The audience begins to buzz; people ignore the next speaker’s arrival, flocking to Colby and Kirchner as they descend the steps at the back of the stage.

Was Colby deliberately cut off, people want to know. Yes, he was. Well, why? Doesn’t he have aright speak his mind? Colby now has the platform he was looking for, albeit not an official one.

“Six hundred farmers are using a carcinogenic herbicide,” Colby tells the crowd gathered around him offstage, “and Ben &Jerry’s won’t stop buying the milk made by cows that
eat that corn.”

Debbie Katz, president of the Citizens Awareness Network, defends the decision to shut Colby down. “We said that going after Ben & Jerry’s was unacceptable, and he agreed three times not to do that,” she says. “His issue is real and should be brought up in a different forum — just not here.”

Others aren’t so sure “I don’t believe in censorship,” says Bill Addington, an antinuclear activist who has come from Texas to speak against the location of a low-level nuclear waste dump – a destination for Maine and Vermont nuclear waste — in the remote Texas town of Sierra Blanca. And Mardie Ratheau, of Brattleboro, calls the episode a “serious infringement” of Colby’s right to free speech.

It has been a moment of pure street theater: short, punchy, and effective, just the way Michael Colby likes it.

Filed Under: activism, blog, vt politics

Victory! Cabot to Ban Bovine Growth Hormone!

January 28, 2009 By M. Colby 17 Comments

Yes, the news is true. And, yes, my tongue is firmly in my cheek.

For those who don’t know and/or forgot (like I almost did), Food & Water – under the direction of yours truly – launched a campaign against Vermont’s own Cabot Creamery in 1995 when we learned that they were about to allow their farmers to use the Monsanto corporations synthetic bovine growth hormone (rBGH), Posilac. And, last week, Cabot announced that it was, indeed, going to be “listening to its customers” and banning the use of the cow drug by August of this year. Like I said: Victory! Yeah right.

There was one grammatical error in Cabot’s announcement however: They said they were listening to their “customers.” But what they should have said was “customer.” Because Cabot’s nearly-fifteen years of flinging their noses at their real customers who were demanding an end to its rBGH use was really stopped by one, single “customer”: Wal-Mart. Yep, it was the mega-retailer who let Cabot know that they were looking for hormone-free dairy products. And when Wal-Mart said, “jump,” Cabot said, “how high?” – especially when, according to dairy industry insiders, Wal-Mart is now responsible for nearly 25% of Cabot’s sales.

But, for the sheer fun of it, let’s step back and look at how Food & Water secured this “victory.” In the spring of 1995 as Food & Water was preparing to unveil a similar anti-rBGH campaign against Land 0’Lakes, an employee of Cabot Creamery approached me with the news that he had obtained an internal memo from Cabot’s headquarters that he was certain I would be interested in. The Cabot employee was right: The memo acknowledged that Cabot farmers were not only being allowed to use rBGH but that its use was well underway. And this was a time when Cabot was publicly declaring a “wait and see” attitude about Monsanto’s cow drug.

After confirming the authenticity of the memo and a few phone calls with Cabot’s executives, a campaign was born. As we said at the time, we weren’t about to go after the Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes for its use of rBGH and then ignore the same consumer and animal welfare transgressions by our neighbors, Cabot Creamery (at the time, Food & Water was headquartered in Walden, Vermont, a mere five miles up the road from Cabot).

The campaign generated enormous attention both here in Vermont and throughout the United States. While most anti-rBGH activists at the time were focused on lobbying the Food & Drug Administration or Congress, Food & Water saw the writing on the wall and, instead, directed our campaigns at the corporations seeking to use the product. I wrote an article at the time, in fact, that described the legislators and regulators as the mere “puppets” in the battle, while the Monsantos and the food corporations like Cabot were the “puppeteers.” And so we aimed directly at the folks holding the strings.

It got mighty heated, too. While our campaign generated thousands of letters, postcards and phone calls to Cabot’s offices demanding that they reverse their decision based on human health and animal welfare considerations, Cabot dug in their heels and called in their favors from Vermont’s political, media and economic elite to help them fight off the big, bad Food & Water.

The facts regarding rBGH’s link to cancer and its known contribution to animal disease and even death were mostly discarded by the rescue squad called in by Cabot to fend us off. Governor Howard Dean held a press conference to condemn us. Newspapers editorialized about our “tactics” being suspect (boycotts?). And even our peers in the consumer and environmental movement (yes, VPIRG and Rural Vermont) came to Cabot’s defense, urging us to take our campaign someplace else. Chickens. But, then again, they’re still operating at full-strength…

After hearing about Cabot’s fifteen-year change of rBGH policy, I wandered out to my barn to peruse my old Food & Water archives (stored in a horse stall, where the horses have dutifully defecated on them and found a real use for them: scratching posts). Oh boy, let the memories flow.

Here are some of my favorite moments while walking down the Cabot campaign memory lane this morning:

• After Food & Water unveiled a radio commercial targeting Cabot’s use of rBGH, Governor Howard Dean held a press conference condemning Food & Water, calling us a “terrorist group” and, while holding up a package of Cabot’s cheese, urged all Vermonters “to go home and eat two Cabot grilled cheese sandwiches.”

• Another “liberal” politician, Elizabeth Ready, a state senator at the time but later the state’s auditor, had this to say to Food & Water via the media: “Either pack your bags and hit the road or change your tactics.” And, remember, this was when we were simply asking people to “call Cabot” and ask them to stop using rBGH.

• Cabot’s spokesperson at the time, Roberta McDonald, was good for more than a few whacky comments about Food & Water, too. Following the Dean “terrorist” analogy, McDonald compared Food & Water to the Unabomber before declaring that, “locking up the leaders of Food & Water would be a better way to protect the people.” Yikes. I guess we were getting on her nerves, huh?

Funny, though, that we don’t hear the same kind of language now about Wal-Mart. I mean, they simply asked for the same thing Food & Water asked for fifteen years ago: Stop using rBGH. Oh well, I guess it’s all a matter of how you ask….

I’ll be sharing some more stories about the early years of Food & Water now that I’ve jumped down the rabbit hole of opening the old files and bringing the memories bubbling up from yesteryear. They were good times. We were fighting the good fight. We were just a decade and a half ahead of the curve of change.

Go figure.

Filed Under: activism, blog, food & forest, vt media

Obama’s First Blood

January 26, 2009 By M. Colby 2 Comments

We interrupt the liberal-love-fest with this bit of news: Obama Orders First Air Strikes.

Funny, but the starry-eyed masses don’t want to deal with this quite yet. But it’s true: Obama drew his first blood on his first week with his hand on the trigger of the world’s most bloated military enterprise. The result: At least 14 civilians dead, mostly women and children. So much for that bullshit rhetoric about “extending a hand.”

But the liberals gently sleep through the news of it all, still marshmallow-brained over the fuzzy-Obama-ness-of-being. Some things never change.

I found myself at a party over the weekend and mentioned these air strikes on Pakistan. The folks in attendance treated the news as if I were a leper: “Get away from me, I’m still celebrating,” their looks and body language told me.

That’s what happens with false idols. You start to ascribe qualities to them that are as far-fetched as Santa coming down the chimney.

But this is certainly one more step in Obama’s great plan to assure the still-ruling right wing that everything will be okay under his regime. The killing will continue. The Wall Street bailouts will continue. Health care will continue to be a privilege. Capitalism is king. And the undertow of society can join the fucking Army if they want a job.

Brother, can you spare some change?

Please, go to the link above and watch the video of the Pakistani people protesting the Obama administration’s missile strikes on their homes. And then, please, put away your delusions and get to work.

Or, since I know it’s all the rage, ask yourselves this: What would Rosa Parks do? [Hint: She wouldn’t ignore it.]

Filed Under: blog

Political Ninny Land

January 26, 2009 By M. Colby 2 Comments

Lucky you. I was all suited up and ready to head to the woods this morning when the phone rang. It was my daughter. She was sick and wanted me to come pick her up from school. But, before your mind goes too far down the “oh, poor girl” mode, let’s be clear: She’s suffering from what is clearly a wink, wink, nudge, nudge “illness” that could best be described as, “I hate Mondays.” And, lucky for her, she’s got a dad who hates Mondays and school enough to rather gleefully walk the two blocks to the school to “rescue” her from the grave illness that was lurking for both of us this morning: boredom.

So, lucky me. Because it was just stupid cold out there this morning. And I’d much rather be home tending to a “sick” daughter and sitting in my office communicating with you, dear readers, than pretending to be living the “good life” while being dragged around by a horse in search of more goddamn firewood. Good life, my ass. Well, at least not on some days.

So, here I am. I’m back, sort of. I was on a roll last week with this little correspondence we’ve got going. And thanks to my friends over at CounterPunch, a whole bunch more of you dropped in after they published my post-inaugural screed, “Ready. Aim. Organize.”

As a result, I got an email box full of comments from people that all basically said the same thing: Thanks, I don’t feel like I’m alone anymore. And that’s exactly how your emails made me feel. Whew.

But it still doesn’t take the sting out of the fact that this little nation of ours seems to be stuck in Ninny Land, that amorphous political space that is hijacked by pure silliness. Yeah, you know what I mean: The Republican hacks on one side jumping gleefully for Bush’s handling of the economy while the Democratic hacks on the other side jump just as gleefully for Obama. And that, of course, leaves those of us with our thinking caps still on seeing and understanding the vast nothingness of it all. Go team, go. Whatever.

Worse, the hacks of both parties can – faster than Brian Williams can declare a political winner on election night – switch sides and argue just as fervently on the total and complete opposite sides of a political argument.

The good Democrats, for example, are now defending Obama’s bombing of Pakistan over the weekend as some logical step toward national security. Nevermind, of course, that at least 14 civilians (women and children) were killed in the “surgical strikes.” Because this time their man, Obama, pulled the trigger. And these are the same people who would have sent the billion-dollar Obama campaign another contribution if Bush had done the same thing only a few short weeks ago.

Can you say “whiplash?” I knew you could. But, lucky for them, in America’s new political Ninny Land such dramatic changes in political beliefs/opinions are as frequent and acceptable as the channel changing during Sunday morning’s political television shows.

The Republicans are just as guilty of changing pom-poms in mid-political argument, too. Just consider the so-called financial bailout. For most Republicans, the bailout was totally acceptable for them when Bush’s treasury dunces were coming forward with two-page explanations for spending $700 billion. But, after Obama became “The Man,” those same Republicans did an about-face and decided that this was actually no time to be spending the government’s money.

Oh boy, everything’s possible in political Ninny Land. Well, everything except honesty, values, intelligent dialogue and consistency.

So, thanks again to my daughter for keeping me out of the woods today. Stay tuned for more posts today. I’ve got a lot yet to unload on you.

Filed Under: blog

Between Hope and a Hard Place

January 21, 2009 By M. Colby 5 Comments

After the Barack Obama election they said the “hard work” was about to begin. And they said it again yesterday after the Inauguration. But no one’s asked me to do a damn thing. Worse, I don’t see anyone doing anything but walking around starry-eyed and shedding tears for some still-too-vague-to-understand notion of “hope.”

In fact, if you even ask the Obama worshipers to engage in activism right now they look at you like you just farted in church. Get that stench away from thee…

All praise Obama. Whatever.

No wonder Obama gave the speech he gave at his Inauguration. Yeah, you know what I mean: The toned down and push it back in our laps kind of speech that all but screamed: Get a clue, people.

Obama’s no dummy. He’s now getting the inside news on our nation’s military adventures and the economy. As a result, he clearly sees the mess we’re in and now he’s trying to talk the masses down from Hope Mountain.

I half expected him to drag Bob Dylan up to the podium to belt out a crusty old version of “It Ain’t Me Babe.” In case you forgot, it goes like this:

It Ain’t Me, Babe

Go ‘way from my window,
Leave at your own chosen speed.
I’m not the one you want, babe,
I’m not the one you need.
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Never weak but always strong,
To protect you an’ defend you
Whether you are right or wrong,
Someone to open each and every door,
But it ain’t me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe,
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.

Go lightly from the ledge, babe,
Go lightly on the ground.
I’m not the one you want, babe,
I will only let you down.
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who will promise never to part,
Someone to close his eyes for you,
Someone to close his heart,
Someone who will die for you an’ more,
But it ain’t me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe,
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.

Go melt back into the night, babe,
Everything inside is made of stone.
There’s nothing in here moving
An’ anyway I’m not alone.
You say you’re looking for someone
Who’ll pick you up each time you fall,
To gather flowers constantly
An’ to come each time you call,
A lover for your life an’ nothing more,
But it ain’t me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe,
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.

See what I mean? Besides, it would have been much better than the dreck we had to endure at the pre-Inaugural Lincoln Memorial concert. Garth Brooks? Are you kidding me? And Bon Jovi? Please. He was bad enough when he tried to sing as a stupid, white guy. But he’s simply intolerable while trying to be black.

But I digress. Music will do that to me.

Right now, the masses stuck on Hope Mountain just want to buy the next great Obama paraphernalia piece. I heard from those in attendance yesterday that they were selling everything from Obama sandals to Obama underwear at the Washington Mall. Yes, indeed, it was a mall. It was America, and everything was for sale – including your dreams, my friends.

But what about that hard work? Phooey. Who farted?

Again, Obama’s no dummy. He knows that it’s one thing to talk about all of us “taking responsibility,” but quite another to be specific about what responsibility means.

Notice, for example, that in his very forgettable little hot-potato speech he tried to throw the flaming vegetable back in our laps with nary a concrete suggestion about what “taking responsibility” meant. How very Ronald Reagan-like of him, huh? No wonder even the Fox News dunces were even admitting to inaugural tears. Ew.

Here’s a test: Name the one word that was not uttered yesterday that is usually (and logically) uttered when speaking about “democracy and responsibility”? Time’s up. The answer: Taxes. Imagine that.

Or, better yet, imagine the “outrage” from those in the “mall” who, while buying their Obama underwear, would be told that raising their taxes in this economically disastrous time was part of the new responsibility package. Can you say: One term? I knew you could.

Remember, there’s not much oxygen on Hope Mountain.

Besides, the people closest to him on that vaunted inaugural podium (millionaires, all of them) we’re the people who truly had his ear. And so Obama spoke, facing the masses but ever so mindful of the elite few ready and ever-so-willing to plunge the political dagger in his back if he so much as mentioned the most obvious solution to our economic troubles: Tax those with the money to buy the seats behind him.

And so Obama walked….the plank….between the masses in front of him and the elites behind him, seemingly saying nothing but “It Ain’t Me Babe,” hoping that he wouldn’t be crushed by either encroaching force.

Come on, honey, let’s get out of here and dance the night away….

Filed Under: blog

Ready. Aim. Organize.

January 20, 2009 By M. Colby 6 Comments

Oh America, you celebrate better than most. But why must you always celebrate with your blinders on? Why must you celebrate the end to the “race wars” with a nasty kick at the queers? Why must you speak of toil while keeping the toilers at bay?

I’m confused, America. I want to attend your parties but I smell of horseshit and I wouldn’t be allowed in. Besides, I can’t stop thinking about the servers at your parties. How do they feel about your $200 million inauguration? Would you like my dignity with that?, they ask.

I want you to think about class. I want you to wonder why it takes a billion dollars to win the presidency. I want you to wonder why Steven Spielberg and not Cindy Sheehan gets a seat at your party.

I want to believe. I want to say, “Yes, we can.”

I want to cry with you, America, when you feel like you’ve reached the top step. But I see many, many more steps to come. And so I cry for the 40 million of us with no health insurance. Or for the 3 million of us who lost our jobs recently. Or for the soldiers like Vermont’s own, Thomas Hermann, who ran for Congress – unsuccessfully – to really (truly) stop the war but found out last week that he’s being called back to serve yet another tour in Iraq under Obama’s army.

I want to believe, America. I’d like to celebrate. I’d like to wear the proud smile of those who pretend they’ve crossed the finish line of democracy but I can’t be fooled. For it is only the finish line of privilege that they’ve crossed. They have won, for sure. But we have lost. For we have no insurance. We have no jobs. We have no economic equality. And we have no tickets to the glittering inaugural balls.

America, I want you to listen to all of Martin Luther King’s speeches. He was making demands. He was righteously angry. He was right.

Listen to his words:

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

And if “amen” can be said to anyone or anything, it is not to the Rick Warrens and his homophobic rants in the name of the Jesus in his mind, it is to the words of the people who have truly risked something, fought for something, and denied themselves something so that those with nothing had a seat at the table of basic human dignity.

This is no time to celebrate, America. This is a time to push forward with all our might. And to reject false prophets. And to demand what is truly ours: Dignity. Truth. And Happiness. For all, not just those who can afford it or a seat next to it.

Oh yes, I have a dream, too, America. And it’s all about a victory in our next, glorious war: The War on Class.

Ready. Aim. Organize.

Filed Under: blog, essays & columns

1.20.09 – A Big Day, Indeed.

January 20, 2009 By M. Colby Leave a Comment


Blaze, the colt who was birthed here on our farm, turns two today. It’s a big birthday for a draft horse. It’s the time marker used to start the training process with regards to wearing a harness and getting that first exposure to work. But training, of course, began from the moments he was born – beginning with “imprinting,” the process of handling him and touching him all over, and then halter training and simple leading. Blaze is well ahead of the curve, and training should be congruous with his personality: easy going.

Below is a photo of Blaze on the day he was born on 1.20.07.

Filed Under: blog

Pop Goes the Obama Balloon, part 1

January 16, 2009 By M. Colby Leave a Comment

Please people, no more invites to your little inaugural celebrations next week. I’m not interested. If I want to stand around with a bunch of doe-eyed believers, I’ll go to church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as the next semi-conscious citizen about the end to the national nightmare known as Bush II, but I don’t think it’s time for idolatry. It’s time to turn up the heat. And, thankfully, we’ve got many good folks out there who are trying to do just that despite the cold shoulder and news blackout they’re receiving from the true-believing masses. Case in point: Karl Grossman.

Grossman’s an old friend of mine from my activist days. He’s the real deal – a journalist like journalists should be: unafraid, unshackled and undeterred in his pursuit of the next great story. If you want an idea of how long – and how deeply – Grossman’s been digging, just check out his website . Lucky are his journalism students at SUNY/Old Westbury.

Below is part one in my “Popping the Obama Balloon” series, a fine piece by Grossman that originally appeared – I believe – on CounterPunch . Well, it’s actually just the introduction. If you want the entirety of it, click here and spread the linking love.

Nice work, Karl. And wake up, people.

Chu, Holdren and the Nuclear Lobby
Obama and the Military – Industrial – Scientific Complex

By KARL GROSSMAN

Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address as president 48 years ago is famous for his warning of the rise of a “military-industrial complex” in the United States. In fact, the original draft of the speech warned not only of a “military-industrial complex” but of the “military-industrial-scientific complex.” Only because of the plea of Eisenhower’s science advisor, James Killian, was the word “scientific” eliminated.

The “military-industrial-scientific complex” was the far more accurate description of the complex of vested interests manipulating the U.S. then—and now. As the incoming president, Barack Obama, draws from this federal scientific establishment for appointments, the warning needs to be sounded again.

Obama has named as his secretary of energy Dr. Steven Chu, a physicist and director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a staunch advocate of nuclear power—typical of the sentiment of those in the national nuclear laboratory system. At his confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Dr. Chu declared that nuclear power “is going to be an important part of our energy mix.” He also spoke for an $18.5 billion loan guarantee program for new nuclear power plants.

As his science advisor, Obama has appointed physicist John Holdren, who in 1970 “started my career working on nuclear fusion” at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he noted in a speech last year. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is where the hydrogen bomb, based on fusion, was developed. But, said Dr. Holdren in his January 17, 2008 talk on “Meeting the Climate-Change Challenge,” he “decided” that fusion “was not going to work by the time I died” in terms of non-military use. So he “started looking at approaches to meet our energy needs that could help more quickly.” He has long considered fission, how atomic bombs and nuclear power plants work, as a source of energy particularly to deal with global warming. This despite the overall “nuclear cycle”—which includes uranium mining and milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication and disposal of radioactive waste—having significant greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming.

Dr. Holdren, although he moved on to teaching positions at the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard and the directorship of the Woods Hole Research Center, remained “an active consultant until 1994” to Lawrence Livermore, stated a press release issued by Woods Hole upon his nomination by Obama last month as science advisor. (For more on Holdren see Jeffrey St. Clair’s profile of the scientist and his promotion of nuclear power in Born Under a Bad Sky.)

[Click here to read the rest of Grossman’s article.]

Filed Under: activism, blog, media & politics, us politics

Cold-Hearted Advice from Vermont’s Department of Labor

January 15, 2009 By M. Colby 3 Comments

Well, it turns out that there’s at least one place hiring in the State of Vermont: The Department of Labor. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the new jobs are in the department’s call centers. Yeah, the places that receive the growing number of calls from Vermonters who have lost their jobs and are seeking unemployment benefits.

The Vermont Press Bureau is reporting this morning that, according to Department of Labor Commissioner Patricia Moulton Powden, the number of weekly unemployment claims jumped from 7,300 in November to 16,000 by the end of December. And the avalanche of new calls have left most people either getting a busy signal or that annoying message indicating that “All circuits are busy right now.”

But that’s not the worst part of the story. That’s saved for Powden’s advice to the hard-luck workers seeking the state assistance they deserve but cannot attain due to the – ahem – Department of Labor’s staffing snafus. Here’s how Powden – via the Press Bureau – advised unemployment seekers to approach the frustrations of calling her department:

“Think of it as a radio contest. Just hit the redial button.”

Based on this comment, I can think of one more person who ought to be calling in for some unemployment benefits: Commissioner Powden.

There’s simply no excuse for her cavalier comments or the grossly inadequate staffing at her department. Trying to attain unemployment benefits isn’t a contest – it’s a lifeline. And getting through to the Department of Labor to secure that lifeline is what is standing between 16,000 Vermonters and the funds they need to keep food on their tables, fuel in their furnaces and roofs over their heads.

Instead of making light of the unfortunate situation of the callers and her own administrative failures, Powden should be nothing but contrite. Moreover, she and her boss, Governor Jim Douglas, should be working overtime to hire as many people as it takes to staff the unemployment calling centers adequately and appropriately in these tough times. And given that 16,000 unemployed people are calling her office every, it shouldn’t be hard to find workers.

If Powden doesn’t apologize for her cold-hearted comments and correct her department’s inadequate staffing soon, Douglas should see to it that Powden joins the ranks of the unemployed. And then, perhaps, she’ll see how unfunny, uncaring and unhelpful her little “radio contest” quip was.

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