Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) continues to do the people's business in Washington, DC. This time he's looking out for the plight of dairy farmers. He's teamed up with Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to introduce a dairy country of original labeling bill, Dairy COOL Act.
On Oct. 14, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced the Dairy COOL Act, which would extend mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) to dairy products.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's current COOL law went into effect requiring Country of Origin labeling of meats, produce, and nuts. The Dairy COOL Act would extend COOL requirements to include dairy products-milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and butter.
"This legislation will help American dairy farmers stand out in a crowded marketplace," said Sen. Franken. "They need every tool at their disposal to weather the current dairy crisis. And this isn't just about helping our farmers. When Minnesota families fill their shopping carts, they have the right to know what country their milk and cheese came from."
(AG Weekly Online)
The deal is that multi-national ag conglomerates undercut American dairy farmers by importing milk, cheese and etc. from countries that subsidize their farmers. Furthermore, we have no idea about the safety standards or labor practices of wherever produced the product.
I took a look at Tarryl Clark's FEC filing and found some interesting things. The 18 PACs who gave only make up $48K of the $308K she raised. That's only 15.5%. It also shows who believes enough in her to donate. Pretty decent list.
Keith Ellison
Jim Oberstar
Collin Peterson
Progressive Patriot's Fund
What's that you say? You don't recognize Progressive Patriot's Fund? That's Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), one of our progressive heroes in the Senate. It's his leadership PAC. Here's what he said about his PAC.
"When we founded the Progressive Patriots Fund, we promised to support candidates and go around the country, playing a key role in the larger effort to build the Democratic Party throughout America," Feingold said. "The strides we made this cycle have been astounding and with the Democratic victories yesterday, we're one step closer to getting our country back on track."
...
"Throughout the country, we saw firsthand that people everywhere want a party that fights for health care for all Americans, works to protect and create jobs, takes the steps necessary to ensure fiscal responsibility, and does everything in their power to fight terrorism while also protecting our freedoms," Feingold said. "We believe in a 50-state strategy and although we came up short in a few races yesterday, we laid the groundwork for Democrats to win in the years to come. While many groups just targeted sure winners, we made sure to help candidates across the board. Some were a long shot but it wasn't that long ago that I was a long shot Senate candidate here in Wisconsin."
President Obama is unfortunately at it again. He's aiding and abetting Bush Administration crimes after the fact by attempting sweep them under the rug. New revelations have arisen that the Bush Administration's wiretapping was even more widespread than previously thought. Obama should be instructing the DOJ to investigate this.
Despite proclaiming that warrantless wiretapping was illegal, despite promising investigations, despite similar statements by his Attorney General Eric Holder, the Obama Administration is backtracking and no longer considers warrantless wiretapping illegal. Listen to Holder weasel around Sen. Russ Feingold's (D-WI) questions.
Here's how the cover up works.
Every time new revelations of illegal government spying arise, the same exact pattern repeats itself: (1) euphemisms are invented to obscure its illegality ("overcollection"; "circumvented legal guidelines"; "overstepped its authority"; "improperly obtained"); (2) assurances are issued that it was all strictly unintentional and caused by innocent procedural errors that are now being fixed; (3) the very same members of Congress who abdicate their oversight responsibilities and endlessly endorse expanded surveillance powers in the face of warnings of inevitable abuses (Jay Rockefeller, Dianne Feinstein, "Kit" Bond, Jane Harman) righteously announce how "troubled" they are and vow to hold hearings and take steps to end the abuses, none of which ever materialize; (4) nobody is ever held accountable in any way and no new oversight mechanisms are implemented; (5) Congress endorses new, expanded domestic surveillance powers; and then: (6) new revelations of illegal government spying emerge and the process repeats itself, beginning with step (1).
(Glenn Greenwald)
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) was briefly seen as a potential presidential candidate. But after the Democratic electoral tsunami of 2006, he decided instead to stay out of the race and put his new Progressive Patriots Fund to work helping to elect progressive Democrats across the country.
On Sunday he appeared at events in Minnesota to do just that, helping rally support DFL candidates Al Franken and Ashwin Madia. Earlier this year Madia and Franken won online grassroots votes for the PPF's support, showing a great deal of online organization and a national profile for their campaigns.
I spoke with Feingold outside the annual Vento Spaghetti Dinner in a brief exclusive interview. He declared succinctly (for all the worried readers out there) that Barack Obama is going to win the presidential race (MP3 audio):
We can't be overconfident, we have to be very focused, but things really couldn't be better...the timing of this whole financial disaster has gotten people to get away from thinking about personality stuff and trivia and they're thinking about the bottom line. So that puts the wind at our back in terms of the fact that people are focusing on the hardships that they're going through and they're asking themselves which candidate is likely to address the hardships that people are going through. There's really no serious contest on that.
More audio clips and interview highlights after the break
From Russ Feingold's leadership PAC, the Progressive Patriots Fund:
Dear [reader],
Thank you for voting in our latest 'Pick a Progressive Patriot' event, this time focusing on 10 House challengers. Choosing between 10 talented candidates was a tall order and I appreciate that you took the time to add your voice to our dedicated community of Progressive Patriots.
Now it's time to start campaigning. Send an eCard to friends and family asking them to vote as well. Be sure to tell them why you made your choice, and why the work of the Progressive Patriots Fund is so important.
The Progressive Patriots Fund is hard at work to ensure that we don't lose what we worked so hard to achieve in 2006. It's essential that we elect a Democratic president and increase our Democratic majority in Congress. Don't forget to send an eCard today and help us determine which campaign receives a $5,000 contribution from the Progressive Patriots Fund.
The voting will end on Wednesday at 5PM Central, and the winner will be announced this Thursday. Thank you for your participation in this important event.
Sincerely,
Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund
Don't forget to vote yourself, either -- I got this because I already voted, have you?
Think of it this way -- you're letting a great progressive leader (Feingold) keep in touch with you from time to time and make his contact list a stronger resource for Democratic candidates across America in exchange for Feingold cutting a very nice check for a great new leader for Minnesota.
On Sunday he appeared at events in Minnesota to do just that, helping rally support DFL candidates Al Franken and Ashwin Madia. Earlier this year Madia and Franken won online grassroots votes for the PPF's support, showing a great deal of online organization and a national profile for their campaigns.
