July 29, 2007 at 5:44 pm

And here was my response to that anonymous member (I think they bear repeating also):

“I would really like to thank the above poster for their very heartfelt post about the massively disappointing result today regarding the the “Fairness” Amendment to the Farm Bill.

If we, in ONE, are going to get ourdelves into dirty politics, then we are going to have to expect that we will not win every round for the world’s poorest people.

We will often be challenged and fought against – and we will “lose” a few along the way……like the vote today.

But, as the poster above mentions – we can’t give up or give in. We are not in this movement to make extreme poverty history for ourselves. We are in this movement for the millions of desparately poor people around the world who need us to speak up for their rights.

So, let’s continue our struggle with renewed hope and renewed vigor until justice is firmly established for the world’s poorest people.~

I love these words of the above poster:

This round we learned to to speak for and with the people of the world, together as ONE. No, we did not win all we had hoped. But we have forever changed the game. Next round, there will be millions more of us speaking with greater strength than ever before. We will not give up. We will not be drowned out. And we will triumph. Because our cause is to serve and honor our shared humanity. And in the end, if we keep up our courage, we will force our leaders and even our opponents to recognize the part of their own human spirit that knows none of us are really alone–and they will do the right thing.

We must not forget what we have learned. We must have faith. And we must fight on.

AMEN!!! ”

Take very good care, everyONE. Blessings – not just for those who kneel.

ALWAYS FOREVER, ONE, debbie

Leave a Reply

July 30, 2007 at 8:29 pm

Yes, Amen! Though the results were not what we needed, we made our presence truly felt, and for that we should be evry proud. With strong will, we CAN and WILL end extreme poverty. It is absolutely to be expected that politicians, no matter their party, will drag their heels at some point. But I have faith that our rumblings will prevail. We have reason and justice on our side.

Blessings,
Kathy

August 10, 2007 at 9:06 am

I have had an active part in writing my congressman in support of the farm bill. As you probably know he was one of the congressmen to actually draft the bill. I believe that the bill was unfairly misused by the democratic congress and they are the reason that the fairness ammendment did not get passed. This hurt our state as much as any other state, considering that Alabama is a farming state. In case you don’t know Congressman Bonner’s reasoning for voting no I have enclosed his letter to our people.

Congressman Bonner’s Response to the fairness ammendment:

After months of bipartisan work in the House Agriculture Committee, the House last week passed H.R. 2419, the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007. Unfortunately, due to a last-minute insertion of a controversial, highly partisan tax increase by the Democratic majority, I had to oppose the bill that I had worked months on in hopes of supporting.

With the 2002 farm bill set to expire later this year, the Agriculture Committee has been front and center working to write a farm bill that can be good for both America’s farmers and the hundreds of millions of Americans who depend on them.

Truth be told, I was very hopeful when the farm bill came out of the committee – in fact, it passed with near unanimous support. And given the financial constraints of the measure, both the chairman and the ranking member did the best they could to craft a bipartisan farm bill.

Traditionally, farm bills are bipartisan in nature breaking down more along regional lines than party lines. As you can appreciate, a 500-acre soybean farm in southwest Alabama is obviously a much different type of operation than a 250,000 acre cattle farm in Montana.

But the bill the Agriculture Committee passed was drastically changed right before it came to the House floor. Along the way, the hope for bipartisanship seemed to dissipate when the majority party included a $7.5 billion tax increase – couched as “closing the loophole on foreign investment.” In reality, however, this was nothing more than a huge new tax on foreign companies that operate in the United States and employ Americans – potentially driving away millions of American jobs.

As you know, there is no better example of where foreign investment can help turn around an economy than our state of Alabama. Today, Alabama has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation largely because of the foreign companies that have invested here over the past few years.

While foreign companies like Degussa, Ciba, Austal USA, IPSCO Steel and Mobile Aerospace – among many others – have helped to turn around south Alabama’s economy; the same can be said statewide for Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai.

And, who can discount the impact of ThyssenKrupp, the German steel giant that is building a $3.7 billion plant in south Alabama, employing thousands of people in the process? Friends, these are all foreign companies, yet when they invest and bring jobs to America, the last thing we should want to do is discourage them from signing up American workers.

Provisions were also added to the farm bill that will divert the deepwater royalties in the Gulf of Mexico to fund farm bill programs that have nothing to do with the environmental risks of producing energy from deepwater leases.

While this does not initially affect Alabama, it nevertheless sets a bad precedent for future royalty sharing debates. We must encourage energy production and, sadly, this farm bill does little to further our energy independence.

In the end, the majority chose to use the farm bill as a means to raise taxes, displace jobs, and hurt America’s global competitiveness. As such, on final passage, I had to vote against a bill that I felt would hurt our state’s prosperity and, in turn, Alabama’s farmers.

February 12, 2009 at 10:20 am

Прикольно написано и читать взахлеб)) ТС – вызывает море положительных эмоций!!

February 13, 2009 at 5:34 pm

Очень давно искал данную тему. Пасиба огромное!))

February 13, 2009 at 6:08 pm

Хорошо написано и читать легко!! Автор – вызывает только уважение))