At the end of last year, when he was running for President, Rick Santorum told an Iowa audience that he would drastically reduce federal spending on food stamps.
Santorum asked, “If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger problem?”

Perhaps Santorum is still living in the Middle Ages, when fat bellies were a sign of wealth and plenty. In fact, given his views on sexual morality and gender roles, it’s likely Santorum actually is stuck in a time warp.

But in today’s reality, those obese and impoverished Americans Santorum is referring to aren’t living the high life, like rotund royalty of the past. They’re actually dying a slow, and ultimately miserable death, courtesy of our nation’s corporate food system.
Death by food is a hot topic in the news media whenever there’s a recall of e-coli contaminated spinach or salmonella infested chicken. Foodborne illnesses kill about 3,000 Americans every year and sicken another 48 million Americans. “We the people” have decided our food supply is a part of the commons, and thus created agencies like the USDA to monitor the safety of our food. But that's "fast death" by contaminated food, which is why it receives so much attention.

On the other hand, "slow death" by unhealthy food receives far less attention. We hear news stories about soaring obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates, yet rarely make the connection back to major flaws in our national food system.
Some local lawmakers, however, have made these connections.

Led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg - who banned the sale of large, high-fructose sugary beverages and restricted the use of trans-fats in his city’s restaurants - lawmakers in California, Arkansas, and Virginia have also taken steps to curb the consumption of unhealthy food, doing everything from placing “sin taxes” on sugary sodas to banning toys in fast food restaurant kid’s meals. But most of these measures have been ridiculed by the political Right, amid charges that the “nanny state” has gone too far – a sign that Americans still don’t understand the urgency of reforming a food system that is slowly killing us all.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13145-fast-food-slow-death

Corrections Corporation of America used in drug sweeps of public school students in Arizona.

November 28, 2012 |

In Arizona an unsettling trend appears to be underway: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.

The state has graced national headlines in recent years as the result of its cozy relationship with the for-profit prison industry. Such controversies have included the role of private prison corporations in SB 1070 and similar anti-immigrant legislation disseminated in other states; a 2010 private prison escape that resulted in two murders and a nationwide manhunt; and a failed bid to privatize nearly the entire Arizona prison system.

And now, recent events in the central Arizona town of Casa Grande show the hand of private corrections corporations reaching into the classroom, assisting local law enforcement agencies in drug raids at public schools.



Trick or Treat

At 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.

Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school -- with a student population of 1,776 -- on "lock down," kicking off the first "drug sweep" in the school's four-year history. According to Hamilton, "lock down" is a state in which, "everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves -- nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school."


"Everybody is locked in, and then they bring the dogs in, and they are teamed with an administrator and go in and out of classrooms. They go to a classroom and they have the kids come out and line up against a wall. The dog goes in and they close the door behind, and then the dog does its thing, and if it gets a hit, it sits on a bag and won't move."

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/private-prison-company-used-drug-raids-public-high-school

SUBMITTED BY Josh Glasstetter on Monday, 8/27/2012 1:43 pm

Conservative talk show host Neal Boortz, speaking at yesterday’s Unity Rally 2012 in Tampa ahead of the Republican National Convention, denounced public schools as “government schools” that are “forced upon us.” Boortz blamed “100 years of government education” for bringing America “to the point that a man like Barack Obama could be sworn in as president of the United States.”

Boortz directed the crowd to change the way they speak about public schools – calling them “government schools” instead. He also called on the audience to “preach school choice,” by which meant efforts to defund public schools and provide taxpayer dollars for religious and private schools and homeschooling.

A number of public officials spoke at the rally, including Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Michele Bachmann. Kleefisch and Chaffetz both followed Boortz but neither stood up for public schools. One has to wonder if they, like Boortz, also hate public education:

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/public-schools-denounced-tea-party-rally-tampa-blamed-election-barack-obama