Food Not Bombs Continues to Ignite Controversy

clipped from eatdrinkbetter.com Food Not Bombs, a group dedicated to non-violent social change through feeding the needy, continues to find itself at the center of controversy as they enter their 30th year in existence. Groups in New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, and Connecticut have run afoul of local laws that seek to stop them from handing out free meals in public places to those in need.  Though all Food Not Bombs groups are independent, they share the common goals of feeding vegetarian meals to the hungry while also protesting war and poverty. Food Not Bombs finds food that would otherwise be discarded - from restaurants, grocery stores, and other sources and prepares meals to anyone and everyone. Regardless if you agree or disagree with their tactics, motives and politics, the group does provide an important service of serving meals to those who would otherwise go hungry. In the current economic climate the group is finding larger numbers of people who benefit from a free meal

What is wrong with feeding the hungry? This is a very noble cause these people are supporting. Why does our government force them to get permits for this? Food that would otherwise be thrown away is being eaten.

The chapter in New Mexico has attracted unwanted attention from law enforcement and the Environmental Health Division in their activities.

The Connecticut group was recently ticketed for ignoring a cease and desist order issued by local police for serving food form an unlicensed kitchen.

The Arizona group has been told by city hall that they will need a permit to continue their activities.

In Florida the group secured a legal victory when a judge ruled that handing out food in a public space was an activity protected by the First Amendment

Go to the clip to find more info on each group.

Food Safety Program Needs Restructuring, Not Another Agency

In the wake of the recent salmonella outbreak that killed 9 people and sickened over 600 others, food safety concerns have become a pressing issue.

The Food and Drug Administration takes the brunt of the responsibility and is the most pressured to find the cause and correct it.

However, at least 15 agencies are involved in making sure food is safe under at least 30 different laws, some of which date back to the early 1900s. it doesn’t matter how old a law is as long as it works. And if those 30 laws work then they should remain in place. However, it seems there needs to be some re-thinking as to how often food gets inspected and by whom.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have been proposing an overhaul of the nation's food safety structure for more than a decade. Food safety advocates agree.

I don’t believe we need another bureaucratic agency to add to the convoluted maze, just shore up practices already in place. The system will work if given enough inspectors with the proper guidelines and abilities.

The Department of Agriculture should inspect anything grown or raised on a farm, domestic and imported. The FDA should cover everything else that enters the human body (drugs, etc), domestic and imported. They need to agree on a schedule of inspections and they both need the ability to shutdown operations if a threat is discovered.

Obviously, an alert system needs to be in place to notify the general public of a possible contamination of food, possible source(s), and where the product was shipped. And this alert needs to take place within days of the discovery not months as is currently the case.

It seems reasonable that if any manufacturer has to face the possibility of a shutdown (cutting into their profits) then it would be in their best interest to ensure their product is safe.

Raw food inspections covered by USDA, this covers growers. Processed foods covered by FDA, this covers processors.

An additional safety net would be provided by the health department to inspect facilities and ensure workers are following safe food-handling procedures.

This means that some foods will be inspected more than once. The bottom line is that all possible sources of contamination needs to be inspected, as the source of all tainted food has come from mis-handling of food and/or contamination of facilities.

Too many ‘terrorists’?

A new government report says there are now more than three quarters of a million names on the U.S. government's terrorist "watch list," raising concerns the list may be becoming too large.

This is what is wrong with keeping lists. They get too cumbersome to be any good.

And how did this list get so long anyway? Is someone sitting at a desk just picking random names and throwing them on this list to justify Homeland Security personnel?

Can there really be this many terrorists? What criteria is needed to get on this list? Or, rather, these lists?

One group, the Government Accountability Office said the list is 755,000 people. Another group, the Terrorist Screening Center said the list is 300,000 people. Senate Homeland Security Committee says the number is 860,000. That is quite a discrepancy in numbers.

Boy, the 300,000 people who are on all three lists must be really worried.

Doesn’t it seem there needs to be a better screening method in place before everyone decides to make up their own lists? I can’t help but think that with such a large number the government must be racial profiling. Once again, the different government offices don’t talk to each other, they overlap their duties, they all come to differing conclusions. What the hell is our tax dollars paying for? We already knew we wasn’t getting our monies worth but this is ridiculous.

Aren’t Republicans the guys that keeps spouting off about a centralized government and cutting back on waste? Well this is a clear indication that this is not the case.

This government is out of control with all of its security departments each with their own list.

It seems the terrorists who stuck the Twin Towers achieved one goal, they got the U.S. so paranoid of another attack that we put everyone on a list and spend untold millions of dollars to watch them and create more bureaucratic departments to do so.

U.S. steals money from immigrant

Pedro Zapeta, living and working in this country illegally for the past 11 years, has managed to put together $59,000. That is an incredible amount of money to collect on a minimum wage salary of $5.50 an hour.

He has been working six days a week, often more than the eight hours a day we Americans consider a standard working day, with one goal in mind. That goal was to earn enough money to buy land, in his native Guatemala, and build a house for his mother and sisters to live in.

Most Americans would have given up on this dream a long time ago under these conditions and bitched and complained about the wages every step of the way.

You have to agree this is a hard working man dedicated to his dream. An individual that any business would be privileged to employ.

Once he felt he had enough money to realize his dream he quit his jobs, stuffed his hard earned cash into a duffel bag and went to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and into the jaws of American bureaucracy.

It is understandable that airport security would, upon seeing this much cash in a duffel bag, think this is a drug runner. Albeit a very foolish drug runner for allowing cash to be so easily spotted. I’ll bet they got ‘real excited’ about busting an international drug ring and not allowing such a brazen criminal as this to sneak through ‘their line’.

Once Pedro showed them his pay stub receipts to prove that he earned the money, did they let him keep it. No! They sent him to U.S. Customs so he could legally declare the money under federal guidelines.

Did U.S. Customs help him declare the money so he could go on his way. No! They confiscated it for themselves! His attempts to explain his intentions fell on the deaf ears of a bunch of hard-nosed bureaucrats who obviously thought it best to take the adversarial role of believing he was a hardened criminal trying to pull something over on them. Instead of considering that he was telling the truth and simply giving him the proper form to fill out so he could keep his money and go on his way they decided to be criminals themselves. He has the proof that he earned that money and the U.S. government certainly does not need it.

Apparently, according the manner in which U.S. Customs handled this situation, if you are an illegal immigrant and you don’t speak English and you don’t understand America’s laws then you are an easy source of income for them.

U.S. Customs inspectors see their share of smuggling activity and they know all of the little tricks that smugglers use to sneak money past their scrutiny. Pedro Zapeta did not try to sneak this money past them nor did he try to deceive those inspectors in any way. Those inspectors know in their gut that Pedro Zapeta is not a drug smuggler. They know he simply did not understand that this money must be declared and they took advantage of him. They threw him into the teeth of the American legal system with a callousness that only a cold-hearted bureaucrat could muster. They should feel shame for their lack of compassion and for maintaining such a hardened stance toward this uneducated immigrant.

His own words sums this up: "They are treating me like a criminal when all I am is a working man," he said.

This is theft, pure and simple and the federal government found a way to get uglier still.

American citizens, upon learning of Pedro’s plight, donated $10,000, which sits in a trust in his name.

Federal prosecutors, the very people who should be trying to return the stolen money to him, instead offered him an underhanded, highly inadequate deal. In a typically underwhelming moment of ‘generosity’ they will ‘allow’ him to keep only $10,000 of his hard earned money and only $9,000 of the $10,000 that was donated in his name. They offered this with two stipulations, that he leave the country immediately and not talk publicly about what happened. Shame is running amok in the federal government! The audacity of these people knows no boundaries.

Ladies and gentlemen of the United States this is your federal government representatives at work, behind closed doors. They think it is okay to first tax his measly minimum wage income, then take that hard earned income from him because he did not know he had to fill some one page form and then use lawyers to kick him out of the country with only a small portion of it as long as he doesn’t tell the public about it.

This sounds like the behavior of backroom crime bosses.

Now an immigration court judge told him he has to leave the country by the end of January 2008.

Zapata’s response to all of this "I am desperate. I no longer feel good about this country."

The thing that all illegals need to learn from this is to send your money back home as soon as you earn it or the federal government will take it all from you.

Once again our government representatives have shown the world how petty and ugly they can be.

Way to go federal government for representing us so poorly and making yet another enemy of this country. Once again you shame us all with your uncaring, nonchalant treatment of the poor, uneducated, illegal immigrant.

CNN reported this story by saying some ‘mistake’ had been made. I did not read anything in this story that could be considered a ‘mistake’. I saw only wanton greed by an ever increasingly heartless government that doesn’t give a damn about the rights of a poor hard working man trying to make a living.

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for Pedro Zapeta to believe in the hype that he can come to America and earn his own way if he works hard enough?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for Pedro Zapeta to believe that once he earned his money that our federal government would not find it fitting that they should take it all away from him?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ that Pedro Zapeta did not try to hide the money better from security at that airport?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for U.S. Customs officials to assume Pedro Zapeta was a criminal?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for U.S. Customs officials to not give Pedro the necessary form to allow him to keep his money and therefore actually believe his story along with the proof that Pedro was not lying to them?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for the federal prosecutors to offer to pay Pedro off to keep him quiet about their crime?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for Pedro not to accept that obvious bribe?

Does CNN think it was a ‘mistake’ for Pedro, who knows the money is rightfully his, to stay and try to fight for it as any red-blooded American would do?

This is an awful lot of questions raised by a story from the most ‘trusted’ name in news.

Yet another question: don’t you think CNN should have worded the title of this story more truthfully, such as ‘U.S. government once again screws over the working man’?

All of these federal people work for us and I say give that money back to him and allow him to go home and fulfill his dreams. He worked hard for it and should not be punished because the U.S. government did not deport him before he was able to earn that much money.

List of topics I will go on about

I am angry that U.S. couples go to foreign countries to adopt children when there are so many here in the U.S. that are just as deserving.

The bureaucratic nightmare in the U.S. is a large reason why Americans go overseas, but I believe it is also due to misplaced loyalties.

I am angry that I cannot drive on any street at the posted speed limit without having some fool rush up behind me because I am not ‘moving fast enough’.

And the police are not doing anything to curb this behavior.

I am angry that the U.S. federal government has turned its back on Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, two U.S. Border Patrol Agents who have been jailed for doing their job. They are facing 11-12 year sentences because an ‘illegal’ immigrant, drug-smuggling, looser was shot during an attempted arrest while carrying 743 pounds of marijuana.

I am angry that ‘illegal immigrants’ are given ‘free’ health care while my mother, an ‘American’ tax-paying citizen has to pay through the nose for health care that is draining her bank account and all future earnings.

I am angry that a drunken ‘illegal’ immigrant, who left his vehicle, smashed from a single-vehicle accident, laying on its side in the middle of the road, while he walked home, where a nurse who in a compassionate effort to check on the condition of its occupants was struck and killed by another vehicle who claims they ‘didn’t see the vehicle’.

(I am also angry that this driver of this second vehicle was not paying close enough attention to road conditions and allowed this second accident to happen.)

(I am also angry that this second driver will not face a stiff enough penalty for not putting the safety of everyone else on the road ahead of his or her own while driving on our public roads.)

(I am also angry that this ‘illegal’ dirt-bag who has done nothing toward the adding to the better quality of life of Americans, will not get a stiff enough penalty for taking away a selfless American citizen who dedicated her life to helping others. She was a nurse, what did this loosed ever give to society. Not a damn thing.)

I am angry that people try to weasel out of paying fines for breaking the law, and the cops that allow them to. If you break the law and get caught, be an adult and pay the fine!

I am angry that the FBI doesn’t care enough about our security to keep better control over their weapons and laptops.

On Feb 13, 07 it was reported that more than 320 weapons and laptops from around the country, from FBI offices no less, have ‘gone missing’ over a period of 44 months..

The laptops contained everything from software for creating identification badges to sensitive or classified information.

This indicates a general lack of care in protecting the general public.

Just put in your time and collect a paycheck.

Someone, an FBI employee is selling these to the highest bidder.

Feb 24, 07 FBI agents pose as mobsters, sting Florida cops.

I am angry that law enforcement can so callously throw away the laws they are sworn to uphold so they can make some extra money.

Mar 31, 07

Read a story yesterday about two 10 year old boys beating on a homeless man.

A 17 year old was walking down the street with these two 10 year olds and they saw a homeless man. The 17 year old began yelling at the man and throwing rocks at him knocking him to the ground.

He actually encouraged the 10 year olds to hit the man with rocks and sticks.

They beat this man because….why?

There are so many questions to insert here.

Why did this 17 year old think it was acceptable to belittle this man?

Why did this 17 year old think he could throw rocks at this man?

Why does this 17 year old have this prejudice in him?

Why does this 17 year old lack respect for human life?

Why is this 17 year old intolerant of other people?

Why did this 17 year old think that it was acceptable to teach his beliefs and prejudices to these 10 year olds?

Why was this 17 year old allowed to be a role model for anyone? I'm sure there was some indication that this looser was not a good role model for kids.

Why did this 17 year old not receive the guidance needed to teach him respect for human life?

Why was this 17 year old not taught tolerance of other people?

If he had been taught tolerance and respect then why were they not enforced?

Is the problem the responsibility of his parents or society as a whole?

Where did this 17 year old get the idea that this behavior is okay?

Did he receive a high school education, evidently not.

He may have had this education put in front of him but he did not accept it. Why not?

Did he receive any religious guidance, evidently not.

He may have had this guidance put in front of him but he did not accept it. Why not?

Has drugs once again interrupted the development of yet another childs’ social development?

These 10 year olds now think it is acceptable to hate another person because of that persons ‘life style’ or that persons condition.

This 17 year old interrupted the social development of these 10 year olds by teaching them hate, prejudice and intolerance.

None of these kids ever thought about the possibility that this man is this far down on his luck because of circumstances out of his control.

None of these kids ever thought that one day they may end up in this same situation as this man.

Where are these kids headed in life?

What is the future of our society if this is what is growing within our society?

I am angry that we as a whole have failed these kids, this homeless man and our future.

Learned today of another case of a drunk driving incident by an unlicensed low-life taking the life of someone who contributed to our society.

These scum-bags survive these accidents and do not get enough penalty to fit this totally avoidable asinine act!

When is this society going to do something meaningful to take these damn fools off of our streets?!?!?!