Monday, March 29, 2010

Batavia Hearing

http://www.watershedpost.com/2010/liveblogging-dairy-antitrust-hearing

More or less minute by minute.
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 29, 2010 at 3:13 PM

    Was there. To hear all the Dairylea/DFA drones all is well, blame the retailers, blame everyone else, just the way the market works, we are great yada,yada,yada. But when a non-DFA person talked Schumer and asst. att general Varney sat up and took notes it was interesting to see the different look on their faces, almost like they knew the difference in the testimony. Oh yeh, aand I can't pubically post my opinion of Wickham, lets just say weasel.DWCovert

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 30, 2010 at 2:07 AM

    John,
    I was at Batavia yesterday. Better than half the witnesses were a Goddamn tree full of DFA,Dairylea and Upstate parrots:"Don't take away our precious Capper-Volstead Rights! awkk! Polly want a cracker!"
    Wickham was his usually slippery self; stated that the Dairylea Board was made up exclusivly of practicing dairy farmers neatly overlooking the statis of Ol' Clyde Rutherford,"Dairyman for Life..."(I raised that issue with one of Schumer's staff: she just smirked and said"Yes, we're aware of THAT situation!") I can't begin to imagine why these co-op people even try to slip their nonsense past these Washington people. After all the Washinton crowd are the true connoisseurs of bullshit.
    Bryan Gotham was credible, Deb Windecker very effective, Dave Wood was a little underspoken but had a very worthwhile message, Ken Dibbell was, well, Ken Dibbell... Tim Harner made much of being a Harvard graduate...(but, alas, still has to work for Upstate?? well, eveybody has to be somewhere, I guess!)Attorney Gen. Varney seemed genuinely attentive and concerned and Schumer was, of course, Schumer; gotta give the guy credit though: Looks like he's in on that joke with the rest of us! That's about all I got at this hour of the morning. Nate Wilson

    ReplyDelete
  3. SkipMarch 30, 2010 at 9:07 AM

    Geez Nate, I wasn't there but through your eyes I feel like I was. This is one of the first times I heard that it's the retailers that are to fault and not processor/coops. If I had known this sooner I could have directed my anger at them for these lousy prices. Maybe not enough CME and manipulative conspiracy talk for my liking, but at least Schumer is doing something.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 30, 2010 at 1:03 PM

    Skip, at least Schumer is doing something??? What has he done??? Held another hearing? How many more hearings do we need? Just FIX THE PROBLEM! The hearing in Batavia was a joke, The Justice Department investigated this in 2004, and it was recommended that these people be indited and nothing happened. They could use that investigation today, and indite them. 2007 Schumer, Clinton and others requested a GOA report on price manipulation on the CME, pretty damning info in that report, and they DID NOTHING! But I know, at least there doing something...

    ReplyDelete
  5. SkipMarch 30, 2010 at 1:50 PM

    If nothing else it's creating some press. The Bush administration pushed everything related to these issues aside, and I don't recall the DOJ getting involved to the extent that Ms Varney has. There is still a roadblock at the top with Vilsack though, and regardless of Ms Varney's actions USDA ultimately will be the ones calling the shots if there is to be change in milk pricing, and they appear to be observing business as usual.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)