To replace the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection with a five person Commission. (H.R. 2402) – GovTrack.us

H.R. 2402: To replace the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection with a five person Commission.

Introduced:

Jun 17, 2013 (113th Congress, 2013–2015)

Sponsor:

Rep. Sean Duffy [R-WI7]

via To replace the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection with a five person Commission. (H.R. 2402) – GovTrack.us.

To make sure that consumers never get protected by US government from thieving banks and brokers.

Top 10 Most Common GMO Foods | Eat Drink Better

Genetically modified zucchini contains a toxic protein that helps make it more resistant to insects. This introduced insecticide, has recently been found in human blood, including that of pregnant women and fetuses. This indicates that some of the insecticide is making its way into our bodies rather than being broken down and excreted.

via Top 10 Most Common GMO Foods | Eat Drink Better.

Food Politics » The Farm Bill farce: 227 amendments

The House of Representatives Rules Committee is dealing with the Farm Bill.  The Committee has posted the relevant documents on its website, so you can judge for yourself how our political system works these days.

It’s hard to know what to make of the amendments—all 227 of them—or which ones are worth attention.  Many deal with SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which the House wants cut to pieces.

via Food Politics » The Farm Bill farce: 227 amendments.

Afghanistan to begin peace talks with Taliban in Qatar – Telegraph

The coordinated moves are designed to signal a new phase in the 12-year conflict and a milestone on the road to peace.

However, the challenges ahead were underlined by a suicide bomb only a few miles from where Mr Karzai was speaking, the latest attack in a Taliban campaign to undermine the withdrawal of international forces.

“Our High Peace Council will go to Qatar, they will talk to the Taliban,” Mr Karzai said at a ceremony marking the final handover of security responsibilities from Nato to Afghan forces. He added that he hoped talks would start “as soon as possible”.

The Taliban has repeatedly refused to meet the peace envoys, viewing them as agents of a government controlled by the US.

However, the movement is now formally opening an office in the Qatari capital Doha to facilitate talks.

via Afghanistan to begin peace talks with Taliban in Qatar – Telegraph.

Weekend Gun Report: June 14-16, 2013 – NYTimes.com

A 35-year-old man walked into a Catholic church in Ogden, Utah, and shot his father-in-law in the back of the head during Sunday morning mass. A man accidentally shot and wounded his grandson in Lawrence County, Ala., Sunday morning. An 11-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet from a passing car while he was sleeping in his bed in Oakland, Calif., Sunday morning. Someone opened fire on a group of people outside a Providence, R.I., house just after midnight, killing a 12-year-old girl.

via Weekend Gun Report: June 14-16, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

Weekend Gun Report: June 14-16, 2013 – NYTimes.com The Children being shot

Dionni Branch, 3, was sitting on her grandmother’s Columbus, Ohio, porch Friday night when a stray bullet lodged just below her hairline. A 4-year-old boy was wounded when a bullet entered through a window in his north Wichita, Kan., home early Thursday. A 9-year-old girl was accidentally shot in the stomach by someone riding a BMX bicycle near her home in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, N.Y., Friday night. An 11-year-old boy was shot in the midsection and a 16-year-old boy was shot in the back during two shootings an hour apart late Friday and early Saturday that are believed to have stemmed from an argument over territory in south Monroe, La.

A 13-year-old girl was shot in the leg and wounded when a 13-year-old boy was handling a gun and it discharged in Chesterfield County, Va., Thursday.

via Weekend Gun Report: June 14-16, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

Undaunted by 2012 Elections, Republicans Embrace Anti-Abortion Agenda – NYTimes.com

House Republicans seem eager to reopen the emotional fight over abortion by bringing to the floor on Tuesday a measure that would prohibit the procedure after 22 weeks of pregnancy — the most restrictive abortion bill to come to a vote in either chamber in a decade.

The bill stands no chance of becoming law, with Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House. Republican leaders acknowledge that its purpose is to satisfy vocal elements of their base who have renewed a push for new restrictions on reproductive rights, even if those issues harmed the party’s reputation with women in 2012.

Keenly aware of the fraught position they are in, Republican leaders have moved to insulate themselves from Democrats’ criticism that they are opening a new front in the “war on women.” Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, will manage the debate on the bill when it reaches the House floor, a role that would customarily go to the sponsor, Representative Trent Franks of Arizona.

And in a last-minute revision, House leaders slipped in a provision that would allow for a limited exception in cases of rape or incest, but only if the woman had reported the crime.

via Undaunted by 2012 Elections, Republicans Embrace Anti-Abortion Agenda – NYTimes.com.