MOMocrats

The 2008 Farm Bill: Food & Fuel

I'm no policy analyst, but I do eat and I try to give my child as many organic foods as we can afford, starting with organic milk (at $3.19 $3.49 $3.99!! a half gallon). For a lot of moms, organic milk is the "gateway drug", so to speak, that leads to more organic food in the overall family diet.

And I try to keep up with all the movements that have made me more politically aware about food, and eating: slow food, the organic food movement, locavores/eating locally (aka the 100-mile diet). It's our family's way of trying to eat more nutritiously, support local farmers, reward the use of fertilizers and insect control by means other than dangerous pesticides, and reduce the carbon footprint (miles traveled, for one) of the way our food gets produced.

Where individual consumer habits intersect with policy is the government's USDA Farm Bill (final version of the bill posted here, a summary of commentary here).

California Supremes Overturn Gay Marriage Ban

(From the SF Chronicle's Pride 2004 Wedding Album, a non-stop weep-for-joy fest. Aren't they a beautiful family?)

I melt at weddings. There's so much hope, promise, and happiness at a wedding. There's also no little amount of drama, but part of the pleasure is that the drama gets resolved pleasingly. (Mostly.) And it's often more fun to attend than it is to be one of the principle cast members, so to speak.

I got misty with joy when San Francisco legalized gay marriage and the town experienced a flurry of weddings after marriage licenses were issued at the city and county clerk's office, because a couple of friends had finally decided to tie the knot now that they could. (They aren't the ones pictured above, btw.) And I've always loved San Francisco's Gavin Newsom, aka Mayor McHottie, as fellow MOMocrat CityMama's dubbed him, for throwing open the door to people in the LGBT community who want to get married.

As you can imagine, as soon as the environmentally-correct millet was thrown, lawsuits were filed to define marriage as a union specifically between a man and a woman. It took about a month before that door was slammed shut. But recently, the Huffington Post reports that the California Supreme Court recently handed down a 4-3 decision saying that domestic partnerships are not equivalent to marriage (they are instead sort of "separate and unequal" to marriages, to borrow a phrase).

How to Explain the Presidential Choice to an Eight-Year-Old

Following Mr. PunditMom's explanation of what a "delegate" is to our eight-year-old, this conversation ensued:

PunditGirl: Daddy, when is there going to be a winner?  Why are people having a hard time choosing [between Clinton & Obama]?"

Mr. PunditMom: Well, sweetie, sometimes it's hard to make choices between two things you like -- like trying to choose between ice cream and cookies."

PunditGirl:  "What about John McCain?"

Mr. PunditMom:  "McCain is peas."

When Joanne is done thinking about what other yucky vegetables John McCain is like, you can find her over at PunditMom.

Genetic Nondiscrimination Bill Almost Law

On May 1, the House approved HR 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The bill would prohibit individual insurer from using genetic information to make enrollment or premium/co-insurance decisions. It also would prohibit employers from using genetic information in making hiring, promotion, or termination decisions.

The bill, Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter's (D-NY) baby -- or really, adolescent, since it has been 13 years since she first introduced the legislation -- passed the House, 420-3 on April 25.

Reps. Jeff Flake (R-AZ-6th), Ed Royce (R-CA-40th), and Ron Paul (R-TX-14th) were the three holdouts.  It passed the Senate 95-0.

Why is this bill so important?