I guess my point is, on CAFO issues, Vilsack was far better than both the Repub that proceeded him (Branstad) and the Democrat that followed him (Culver)… I admit, however, those are not difficult beauty contests to win.

Vilsack was crucial in winning the passage of livestock market reform legislation in Iowa that I worked on in 1999. In fact, I still have one of the pens that he used to sign the bill.

Compared to the other folks on the short list, Vilsack is head and shoulders better than the field and past Secretaries of Ag. Vilsack has a mind, a voice and a pulse… might not always agree, but he’ll have something to say.

Glickman – lights on, no one home… talking, but no pulse
Veneman – total corporate sell out
Buis, Stenholm – how would these two be any different than Glickman, if not worse?

Or with news like this. Or news like this.

Strangely, life after Cuba is leading me to… Nebraska (rarely can two destinations promise equal opportunities of tropical appeal). As I was about to take you up on your offer of hospitality in the sandy state, I discovered that you are no longer with CFRA. However, the CFRA site kindly led me to your blog. Congrats on Graduate school in Ohio. What is the lucky subject of interest? I’m currently in your fellow battleground state of Missouri working with the Obama Campaign.
So, the aforementioned Omaha move is tentatively set for June. With seven months to job search, I would love your input on worthwhile organizations.

By the way, Arrested Development is my happiness in life.

Stay in touch – Lisa lisakissing@gmail.com

I think people have this type of reaction at local and state levels to specific issues (the CAFO fight around these parts comes to mind) but it is rare to have it on the national scale. I don’t think that it is just one specific pressure point — it’s a mix of factors coming together that are hard to recreate, but the key here I think is to either tie other issues (like ag and food) to issues that people care about (the economy), or/and see an opportunity when it comes and guide peoples’ emotions so that they are taking action that forwards the issues we fight for.

Maybe the take home message is to get people really mad, emotional, visceral, and use those reactions to political benefit. But that’s nothing new; the Republicans have that tactic down.

And more importantly, could we replicate the response with a select group of people who care about different issues besides this bailout?

Additionally, and I don’t have to tell you all this, but this instance aside, “experts” almost always reinforce the status quo or at least one or maybe two prevailing views. That’s how they got their privileged “expert” hat in the first place – by saying the same thing that all the other perceived experts say.

Finally, and I’ve said it before, it disgusts me that government money is further subsidizing the consolidation of the banking industry.

1 — So where does this leave your comment about leaving these types of decisions (financial bail out, climate change) in the hands of experts? What happens when people call their representatives, the representatives listen, and it flies in the face of ‘experts’ and the people in power? Some of the commentary I’ve heard was from representatives who supported the bailout and had this ‘well, if people had more information, really knew the details, then they would pass this bailout’ tone. But ‘the people’ won’t ever be as informed as people in power think they should be. Where’s the line? Where is the knowledge of the few and informed good enough to represent the best interest of the many?

2 — I had a conversation today with someone who works on ag policy issues in the midwest and got into the issue of the value of working on federal ag policy outside of the beltway. We agreed that it was both necessary and good and that the world does not only revolve around the inner workings of DC — although there is a place for that, too, obviously.

Just to let you know, my good friend Rob Hubler got put on the DCCC’s red to blue list for competitive races a few weeks back (he’s the guy running against Steve King). Now you know what I think of the DCCC, and calling them every week for the last three months has been a true test of friendship. But the reason they added Rob to their competitive races list is because he is polling within 5 points of King and closing. All about raising money now.