Truth and Traditions

Just what we need, more well-heeled pests throwing their money in the they lobbying pits:

In nearly two decades of research and advocacy on pesticides and human health, Environmental Working Group has never before seen the produce industry take a high-profile role in debates over pesticide policy and safety, as it has this year. Invariably, it was the trade association for the pesticide industry that took the lead.

That group, which began life as The Agricultural Insecticide and Fungicide Association and evolved into the National Agricultural Chemicals Association, most recently rebranded itself “CropLife America” after it became evident that even the mention of “pesticides” or “agricultural chemicals” evoked a negative public response, Similarly, most agribusinesses have adopted the pesticide industry’s defensive code words, “crop protection chemicals” or “tools.”

In the past year, however, EWG observed a striking change: an unprecedented, highly public lobbying and PR campaign by fresh produce organizations aimed at downplaying consumer concerns about pesticides.

via Best Friends Forever? Produce Growers and Pesticide Makers Deepen Their Bond | Environmental Working Group.

Government of our money, by Wall Street, for Fat Cats:

Pension savings, now estimated at nearly $3 trillion, could be invested in companies to finance productive growth, in bonds to fix bridges and build schools, in education loans and environmental protection. Instead, they have become rich fodder for Wall Street money managers. In the past three decades, partly because of this pension wealth, the financial services sector has increased its overall profits from 16 percent of total corporate profits to more than 40 percent.

via Protecting Retirement Funds From Wall Street Speculation | The Nation.

Does this make you feel safer? How about worried and angry?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention. . . .

“Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises the potential for abuse,” Mr. German said, pointing to complaints about the bureau’s surveillance of domestic political advocacy groups and mosques and to an inspector general’s findings in 2007 that the F.B.I. had frequently misused “national security letters,” which allow agents to obtain information like phone records without a court order.

via F.B.I. Giving Agents New Powers in Revised Manual – NYTimes.com.