President appoints a pesticide lobbyist
By Mark Crispin Miller
OpEdNews
Feeling his oats at last, Obama has named 15 top officials as recess appointments, thereby "end-running GOP obstruction," as Dan Froomkin puts it on HuffPost (see below).
It's surely nice to see the president no longer kowtowing to the ultra-rightist fringe in Congress. But before we start high-fiving each other, we ought to ask ourselves exactly who will now be working in Obama's government--because certain of his picks are actually bad news, even if the trogs obstructed their appointment.
Take Islam A. Siddiqui, who was no doubt blocked because of his "terroristic"-sounding name. That he will serve as the nation's Chief Agricultural Negotiator is, to say the least, unfortunate, as he's a veteran of the pesticide lobby.
I quote myself:
Obama has now named, as Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Islam A. Siddiqui, who is VP for "Science and Regulatory Affairs" at CropLife America-formerly the American Crop Protection Association, whose mission is to push the use of pesticides (or, as they put it, "ensuring safe and responsible use of crop protection products to improve food supplies").
It's no surprise that CropLife America's PAC supported Bush/Cheney in the last election: http://deltafarmpress.co /news/110104cla-endorse/.
And, considering their mission, it's no surprise that CropLife objected to Michelle Obama's garden, since she (or somebody) decided against using pesticides in that protected patch.
They sent her husband an indignant letter which included this great line: "Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical." ("Conventionally" means
"using chemical pesticides.") (http://www.slate.com/id/2219772/)
http://www.mail-archive.com/newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com/msg0212...
If that's the kind of move Obama makes when he "end-runs GOP obstruction,"
what's to cheer about (unless, as in this case, you're into pesticides)? So he's taking a page out of BushCo's book (as Bush, of course, made quite a few recess appointments). If he does so in furtherance of policies that BushCo also would have pushed, forgive me if I don't burst into tears of joy.
I welcome any further observations on these 15 new recess appointments.
Source: OpEdNews
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