Naughty, naughty, Monsanto

As U.S. multinational Monsanto appears to have the ear of Australian governments and seems determined to establish a strong GM crop presence in this country, perhaps it's time to look at the company's track record regarding corporate ethics.

Here is a list compiled from a cursory look using Google.

Oct 1998
Playing God in the garden article in The New York Times.
I thought about Maryanski's candid and wondrous explanations the next time I met Phil Angell, who again cited the critical role of the F.D.A. in assuring Americans that biotech food is safe. But this time he went even further. ''Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food,'' he said. ''Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.'s job.''

Aug 1999
Monsanto GM food ads found to mislead
Monsanto, the US based food company, has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading the public about its genetically modified food and crops. In a report published today, the authority has upheld four complaints made by environmental groups about Monsanto's 1998 UK advertising campaign.

Aug 2000
Philadelphia Jury Rules against Monsanto in Chemical Contamination Case
Aug. 24--A Philadelphia jury stunned the Monsanto Co. yesterday by ruling that the company should pay $90 million in damages to the state of Pennsylvania for selling defective and toxic PCBs that left PennDot's Harrisburg headquarters contaminated after a 1994 fire.

Mar 2001
Italian police raid Monsanto GM stockpile according to BBC News report.
Police in Italy have raided a warehouse of US biotech company Monsanto and seized 112 tonnes of genetically modified maize, the use of which is illegal in that country.

Feb 2002
Monsanto Held Liable For PCB Dumping article in The Washington Post.
An Alabama jury yesterday found that Monsanto Co. engaged in "outrageous" behavior by releasing tons of PCBs into the city of Anniston and covering up its actions for decades, handing 3,500 local residents a huge victory in a landmark environmental lawsuit.

Oct 2003
Monsanto Fined for Crop Tests; Modified Corn, Cotton Improperly Handled
Monsanto Co. and its research partners paid $63,000 in fines for previously undisclosed violations in 2001 in testing genetically modified crops, the government said yesterday.

Dec 2004
Monsanto 'cheated' farmers, India panel claims
More than two years after the controversy, a House panel has recommended compensation for the farmers from multinational seed company, Monsanto, holding the company responsible for the non-flowering of maize seeds supplied to farmers in the name of Cargill 900 M.

Jan. 2005
SEC SUES MONSANTO COMPANY FOR PAYING A BRIBE
MONSANTO SETTLES ACTION AND AGREES TO PAY A $500,000 PENALTY
MONSANTO ALSO ENTERS INTO DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENT WITH DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

2006
A Columnist Backed by Monsanto
Michael Fumento's failure to disclose payments to him in 1999 from the agribusiness giant has now caused Scripps Howard to sever its ties to him Scripps Howard News Service announced Jan. 13 that it's severing its business relationship with columnist Michael Fumento, who's also a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The move comes after inquiries from BusinessWeek Online about payments Fumento received from agribusiness giant Monsanto (MON ) -- a frequent subject of praise in Fumento's opinion columns and a book.

Dec 2007
Monsanto busted for contempt of Advertising Authority in South Africa
Transcript of the advertisement here.

Confession:

This list was ready for posting last Friday, but I decided to tease 'Mr. Monsanto' who twice clicked onto North Coast Voices early that morning in the obvious expectation of yet another mention.

On ya, Rudders!!

So said Rudders:
"KEVIN Rudd has challenged business leaders to accept the cost of combating climate change.
A day after the Business Council of Australia warned that companies would move offshore unless the Government fundamentally rethought its proposed emissions trading scheme, the Prime Minister declared himself ready for a "vigorous debate"."

On ya, Kev! But don't be a dope and enter into a 'debate' with big business - it's the Aussie voters who gave you the brief.

A new look for George Dubbya

Image found at New Matilda/PollieGraph - always an interesting read.

Thumbnail sketch of Senator Joe Biden drawn from the Antipodes

In the last few hours Joseph Robinette Biden Jnr. has given his first vice-presidential candidate speech.

The speech played heavily on his supposed hard work in the U.S. Senate since 1972 and his modest financial circumstances.

Well it seems that Biden (along with Obama and McCain) does not have an enviable record in the Senate.
During the current Congress he has missed 193 votes or 30% of all occasions on which he could have voted.
That makes him the fifth highest scoring senator on the current missed votes list.

The Washington Post has a list of all missed votes since he entered the Senate here.

As for his income, on his Senate webpage Biden admits to: $165,200 Senate salary and $20,500 from teaching. In a 2005 ranking of the 100 senators for wealth, he was 99th.

Interestingly he doesn't mention extra monies received for sitting on numerous Senate committees and we don't know whether that book deal brought home the bacon.
While his 2006 Senate financial disclosure report available online shows that he also has a personal investment portfolio, a pension plan and his wife draws a teaching salary.

Senator Biden unsuccessfully stood for Democratic pre-selection in the 2007 presidential race and withdrew from the 1998 race when it was reported that he had plagiarised a number of speeches, including a speech by U.K. Labor Party leader, Neil McKinnock.

According to Famous Plagarists:
Joe Biden’s history of plagiarism and “stressless scholarship” gave plenty of ammo to his enemies, one of them choosing to circulate a so-called “attack video” to demonstrate Biden’s outright plagiarism of a British politician’s speech. But this appropriation from Neal Kinnock was not the first occurrence of unacknowledged lifting by the senator from Delaware. In 1965 Biden plagiarized while writing a paper as a student at the Syracuse University Law School in a legal methods course which he failed because of that copied paper.

The senator also came to public attention for his behaviour during the Thomas-Hill hearings.

National Review online reports that Biden is also quite famous for being a lifelong sufferer of foot-in-mouth disease:
According to The New Republic, in October 2001, Biden encountered a group of airline pilots and flight attendants who wanted his help in passing emergency benefits for laid-off airline workers. "I hope you will support my work on Amtrak as much as I have supported you," Biden told them. "If not, I will screw you badly."

A list of his classic political slips here.

So to recap. Joe Biden is your typical candidate.
He massages his personal history by 'borrowing' the words and personal anecdotes of another, where possible avoids mentioning the real extent of his income, rewrites politcal history, turns up in the Senate when he wants to and generally tries to throw his weight around.

In other words - a 26-year political job horse who now relies on a wing and a prayer to get by in the U.S. Congress.
Definitely not the statesman with sound judgment praised by Obama in Springfield - more like the usual pitcher of warm spit.

A choice which offers little hope of change to the rest of the world.

Some more Northern Rivers art

Untitled
Debrah
Novak

Innocent
Trail
Joy
Ann
Jennings

Ooops! It just slipped out and got away: Obama

From one American on the world wide web (just before Press TV Iran posted a story leaking Biden as Obama's running mate, with Indian media not far behind):

"Obama hoodwinked people into giving him their address and phone number so he can build a larger database. It is 10 pm EST and no text message!! People could've just wait until a little bit longer until tomorrow morning to see who will be the VP in Springfield, IL.
WHAT A SHAM!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Krist Aug 22, 2008 10:00:54 PM"

Does this mean that Osama B. probably received the news before Krist? [smiles evilly]

And this from Seattlest:

Did you get a text message? Because we signed up for the damned text, and got nothing. Thank God for our internet addiction, though, because we got it from CNN.com as soon as we got home from being out. Obama chose Biden. We can all exhale.

I wonder how much all this cost the Obama campaign?

One view of Planet Iemma

"You can bet that Iemma and all those other foreign names down in Sydney have taken wads of money from the Chinese to privatise our electricity."

Longtime member of a local Australian Labor Party branch this week.

The Next Vice President: that infamous text message in email version

----- Original Message -----
From: Barack Obama
To: [edited]
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2008 7:29 PM
Subject: The Next Vice President

[edited] --

I have some important news that I want to make official.

I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone.

We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you're glad he's part of our team.

Share your personal welcome note and we'll make sure he gets it:

http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,

Barack

P.S. -- Make sure to turn on your TV at 2:00 p.m. Central Time to join us or watch online at http://www.BarackObama.com.