Now you know.
78 United States Senators have gone on the record as being in support of the power crazed FDA arresting small farmers without a warrant, many times decked out with guns and other high powered firearms.
The vote yesterday was in response to an amendment to S. 3187 submitted by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky which would have stopped this egregious practice. The good news is that another amendment to the same bill submitted by FDA crony, Senator Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois was also voted down which would have greatly limited Americans’ access to nutritional supplements.
I was particularly surprised that one of my Senators, Mark Rubio (R) of Florida, did not vote for the amendment given that he is a so called “Tea Party” Senator who is for limiting government power and influence over people’s lives. Perhaps the rumors that he is the likely VP candidate for Mitt Romney are true and part of his establishment hazing is to break his campaign promises to the citizens of Florida.
Here is the list of the brave Senators who took a stand against warrantless arrests by an out of control FDA:
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Jim Coburn (R-OK)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Mike Lee (R-UT)
Rand Paul (R-KY)
Jim Risch (R-ID)
John Thune (R-SD)
Pat Toomey (R-PA)
David Vitter (R-LA)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Surprising to me that not a single one is a Democrat. Keep this information in mind come November my friends!
Yay! My senator in Wisconsin came through! Well…one of them anyway.
I don’t see mine on the list… this is outrageous!!!
I’m usually all for throwing out the whole lot of politicians and starting over. Thankfully Oklahoma does have a good one in Tom Coburn.
A third party could be helpful if structured the right way….but I think term limits along with compensation reform and no retirement packages would be better. There is a serious problem with our system when a person spends many millions of dollars for a 90-150K a year job!!
@ Jason: I agree with you about spending milllions to make $200 grand. It’s ludicrous. But once you’re into that gubment ring the perks are endless and that’s what most of them are after.
I’m from SD and this is the first time I can say Thune actually TRIED to do something reasonable. I hope it’s because he’s a good friend of Rand Paul because maybe he’ll get a better political education than he’s had up to now (between Rand and Ron he might learn a bit about liberty). I’m not a fan of Thune, as if you couldn’t tell. I’m also not a fan of Kristi Noem (from SD) and will work to get her competitor elected this year. Can’t stand the woman.
But what bothered me about this bill is the fact that the major portion of it that WAS passed had to do with speeding up the marketing of drugs! Good grief, I’m sure not for that. I’m not for Rx drugs in general because they don’t help anything, they mostly cover up and then create bigger illnesses, which become harder to treat. On this I disagree with Rand Paul and all the rest who supported S. 3187 – I only supported the Amendment set forth by Rand Paul concerning raw milk freedoms and disarming the FDUh gun-toting fools.
Also, to the poster who mentioned that she thought gay rights and women’s rights were more important than our general liberties . . . all I can say is that she has a lot to learn about life, not to mention a lot to learn about liberty. Look up some information on Judge Andrew Napolitano or Ron Paul and learn about Constitutional freedoms before you start crowing about other individual freedoms. We need to preserve our original freedoms or we have nothing.
Yes! You said it well! Thanks and God save us from the power hungry!
I thought I had a good one in Mark Rubio. Evidently not.
Hi Sarah,
Our Senator in Oklahoma (R) is Tom Coburn. If we are going to give credit where credit is due, we should at least get their name right. 🙂
Yay for Idaho senators!!!
Mary, mom to many, livin the dream in Idaho
I agree!! This is why we moved to Idaho!
I was happy to see that too! That’s why we are moving to Idaho in 2 months!!
Is ice forming in hell? Because John Cornyn has never before, in his long career as Texas Senator, cast a vote I approved of or that I felt represented me.
Being from Texas, I think that we should write John Cornyn and thank him for taking a stand on this! As a matter of fact, we should all contact our senators who took a stand to thank them.
And chew out the ones that voted it down!
Amen to that!
Wow, thanks John Boozman, my senator from AR! Well the (R) one; the (D), Pryor, didn’t come through. Oh well, I’m waiting on his email response to see why he didn’t vote for this.
Although this is bothersome, I will stil vote Democrat. Gay and women’s rights are more important.
I think we desperately need a third party in this country.
We need a SECOND party in this country, not the one with two heads and is run
by the corporations.
Gay rights are more important than us having our liberties? No wonder this country is all skewed.
I think partys should go away so that people would start to vote for the person running, not a party!
Gay Rights and Women’s rights will not be fully possible if we don’t have food rights. Gay people and women deserve to eat real food too right? Is it better to “progress” in to gay marriage rights than to retain our dwindling right to grow and eat what we want and need? (Persecute the farmers…persecute us all) Personally what I am “allowed” to put into my body trumps the tax benefits that I get from being married. I do certainly agree…third party needed. I will be voting republican and I am a woman.
all rights are important, how about that?
Tina means if a Rep takes over, the rights that gays and women have earned will be gone. Gay rights especially.
I long for the day when this NON-ISSUE (gay rights) finally becomes a non-issue and they’re acknowledge as the people they are. It amazes me, as a foreigner living in America, that Americans care so much about something that really doesn’t make that big a difference.
You will all look back in a few years and wonder why you ever made such a fuzz, don’t worry the gays aren’t scary people, they’re just like you and me. Remember when women were second to men? and couldn’t even vote, and now we wonder why we took so long to get them those basic rights? same scenario.
I agree Andrea. No one will have any rights except those limiting the rest of us. I am grateful that a representative of Texas voted for THE PEOPLE! SHAME on those who didn’t! I will remember.
Agreed Andrea. Gay rights, abortion, “womens rights” are issues MEANT to sideline us away from the real core important issues!! Our liberty and freedom are more important than anything. If those are gone, then WE are done as America! Get it in your head!
yea really tina… you would rather see a same sex couple with the right to marry than a country where anyone (gay or straight) can be arrested without cause and held forever??
-jason and lisa-
This is a false dichotomy. We do not have to choose between health/farming freedom, and freedom to marry/be who you are/love who you love, however you want to put it. Any abrogation of anyone’s rights is an assault on liberty for all.
Republicans tend to emphasize economic rights, Democrats tend to emphasize civil rights, but they are in fact indivisible. If the government can storm onto your peaceful farm with guns drawn and confiscate your raw milk and computer records, unopposed by our so-called elected representatives, they can just as easily storm into your nightclub with guns drawn and arrest you just for being in the company of people of the same gender. In fact, that used to happen routinely, and the situation did not start to turn around until the Stonewall riots in New York City in about the 1970s, don’t quote me on details. Gays started to protest their second-class status and the situation started to change for them.
The power elite loves to keep ahold of power and they must be resisted at all levels, in my opinion. I personally don’t think a political savior is going to be found in either of the major parties. We can’t depend on anyone else to protect our freedoms.
Thanks for bringing this shameful voting record to our attention, Sarah. You can be sure I will be following up with my Democratic representatives here in California, not that they’ll pay attention, but the failure of even a single Democrat to oppose warrantless raids on farms is indeed shameful, as is the record of the other Republicans who didn’t oppose this amendment. But then, the Senate already approved warrantless wiretapping and all sorts of warrantless searches a la the so-called “Patriot” Act and other laws. (Notice how the name of a bill usually signifies the opposite of what they want you to think it means?) Responsibility for that rests on Republicans and Democrats both, so no one should be under the illusion that the Republicans are really all about protecting our liberties, any more than the Democrats. They’ve all been bought off, however much they may grandstand about this or that particular hot-button issue that their voters are following closely. It is telling that the Patriot Act was already written and sitting in somebody’s desk until after 9/11, when it was quickly produced and voted on with little debate and even less scrutiny. Which of our representatives actually read the hundreds of pages of that bill? Which of them have bothered to inform themselves of raw milk and food freedom issues?? A few, but not many.
The bigger picture is what we must all start to appreciate. After every so-called terrorist strike, new laws are enacted to take away more and more of the safeguards of our freedom. The same process can be observed in regulations against bogus threats like bird flu, mad cow disease, etc. There’s supposedly a big epidemic that is going to threaten all our lives unless we let the government take drastic action — kill off small farms’ flocks, RFID-tag every hoofed animal, exterminate wild birds, etc (notice how “wild birds” are painted as so dangerous, just like all kinds of “foreigners” and “illegal aliens” are supposed to be so dangerous). And then that is the impetus to pass some more draconian legislation that interferes with our lives and wastes money, time and resources without really addressing the real problem, if there even was one.
I just hope we can get enough people to wake up to what’s going on and oppose it. It’s not just raw milk that’s at stake, or choice about vaccinations, or the freedom to marry. It’s all of those, and a lot of other choices we should be able to make for ourselves that, increasingly, we can’t because our lawmakers are busy fundraising and being entertained by lobbyists, lobbyists who write the legislation for them or spoon-feed their positions to them. Instead the Congress SHOULD be paying attention to protecting the Constitution and the rights of individuals. What we’re losing daily won’t be won back easily.
Sorry for the rant, but this got me riled up, Sarah!
Jeanmarie, you said:
“just like all kinds of “foreigners” and “illegal aliens” are supposed to be so dangerous”
As a Canadian, I can tell you that I very much am made to feel this way by the US government whenever I come into your country. In every way it seems the US wants foreigners to come and spend their money in the country, buy their products, make trade easier, but at the same time we are continually reminded that we are “those foreigners” and so are regarded with skepticism and unease. The message ends up being that our money is welcome, but the jury is still out on us.
Regarding the sad ruling cited in this post, that the US government treats its own citizens with this level of disregard and suspicion is sad and telling. I truly hope that the politics can turn around and become more honest and citizen centered. US citizens deserve a government they can have confidence in and be proud of.
What an aggravation!!! To me there is no option. You cannot arrest without a warrant. It seems like it would rather clear with no room for argument! Sarah, I have a side question. I have an 8 month old who muscle tested for not liking milk (raw and pasteurized), authentic sourdough, and fermented cod liver oil! Thankfully kefir and eggs are okay! With a reaction to authentic sourdough would that most likely mean that all grains fall under the category? I did not think of asking that yesterday!
I would get a second opinion on that one!
Muscle testing is just a snapshot for a moment. My child recently muscle-tested against raw milk and all grains. So, we took him off and started him on a few supplements which he muscle-tested for. His symptoms (fatigue and lack of appetite) completely disappeared on this new diet and supplement regime. Then, about 6 weeks into it, he muscle tested in favor of introducing raw milk and grains again. We did, and his symptoms have not returned.
My point? Muscle testing doesn’t tell you anything permanent about yourself, it just takes a picture of how your body is responding to certain stimulants today. It tells you what foods are inhibiting your healing, not necessarily what foods are causing you to get sick (if any). Make sense?
So, if I were you, I wouldn’t worry about the test results. I’d follow them, allow my child to feel better, then re-test later to make sure re-introducing these foods again later is now safe.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this amendment piggy-backed with Durbin’s bill? Maybe that’s why the whole thing was thrown out? Please clarify. Just want to make sure I’m following everything correctly!
The amendments were voted upon separately from what I have been told.