The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Politics & RKBA => Topic started by: ericire12 on July 08, 2009, 01:21:37 PM
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/michelle-obama-vegetable-garden-lead
Lead found in Michelle Obama's White House vegetable garden
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/03/20/0320_michellegardens_460x276.jpg)
It was meant to be a show case for healthy living, with the first lady, Michelle Obama, personally putting hand to pitch fork in a crowd of school children to dig up the first White House vegetable garden in more than 50 years.
Instead, an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot - whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead.
A spokeswoman for the White House said the soil in the garden had lead concentrations of 93 parts per million of lead. Health experts say it is safe to raise leafy vegetables in soil with concentrations of 10-50 parts per million, and urban gardens typically have raised lead levels. However, it is advised for young children to be tested for exposure to lead if they play in areas where lead concentrations exceed 100 parts per million. The Environmental Protection Agency puts the threshold for dangerous lead levels at 300 parts per million.
But even though lead levels in the first garden are far below that danger zone, the disclosure is awkward for a White House which has made prominent use of the vegetable garden to define Michelle Obama's role as First Lady,and to encourage sensible eating habits in children.
Children are expecially vulnerable to exposure to lead, which can cause neurological and kidney damage, and stunt their growth.
The vegetable garden was an important symbolic break with the George Bush presidency, and it became a cause for environmentalists and the organic food movement in America who had urged the Obamas to use the White House to set an example of healthy eating.
Michelle Obama invited dozens of 10- and 11-year olds from a state elementary school in a transitional neighbourhood of Washington to the White House last March to help her dig up a 1,100 square foot plot of land near her daughters' swing set. Photographers were let in to take pictures of her kneeling in the dirt and wielding garden tools.
The first lady gave interviews joking about how all the members of the first famly would be required to weed on occasion.
As the weeks went on, and the White House garden grew, it became central to Michelle Obama's efforts to rebrand herself, and banish any residual damage from the rightwing attacks of the election campaign when she was cast as the stereotypical angry black woman. The White House featured blog posts on the garden's progress.
The school children were invited back to tend the plot and just two weeks ago to bring in the first harvest: 73 lbs of lettuce, 12 lbs of snap peas and one cucumber. Obama and the children then trooped into the White House kitchen to wash lettuce and shell and cook the peas for lunch, which they ate outside on red and white checked tablecloths.
Sam Kass, who followed the Obamas from Chicago as their personal chef, gave a short speech praising the gardeners for getting their yeild without resort to fertiliser or herbicides, and for using green compost.
The White House said the garden would go on. "The garden recently underwent extensive soil testing that proved it is completely safe," Katie McCormick Lelyveld, the first lady's spokeswoman, said. A lead level of 92 parts per million is significantly better than the government standard for a garden like this. The White House kitchen garden team is committed to producing fresh, safe and healthy food as a learning opportunities (sic) about health eating, and they'll continue to do so," Lelyveld said.
The White House would not say whether the Obamas or the children who had helped tend the garden would be tested for lead exposure.
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It did.
And now I feel badly for it.
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Can't these dip shits get ANYTHING right ?
It did.
And now I feel badly for it.
I laughed and don't regret it a bit. Stupid is as stupid does.
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exposure to lead, which can cause neurological and kidney damage
Lead poisoning. That explains what's making BHO so stupid......NOT
He's always been that way!!!
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It did.
And now I feel badly for it.
Can't these dip shits get ANYTHING right ?
I laughed and don't regret it a bit. Stupid is as stupid does.
I forgot to add my **sarcasm alert** notice again. ;)
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Isnt it just a wonderful "poster child" for all that liberal "its for the children" crap they always try to peddle.
Here are a couple more for ya:
1. 80% of Fireworks Used at National Mall on July 4 Were Made in Communist China
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50610
2. Handing out condoms in school and teaching kids about sex doubles the pregnancy rate
http://www.bookwormroom.com/2009/07/07/back-to-the-old-abstinence-drawing-board/
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Typical Liberal BS. The photo op is the important thing, all image, no substance.
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I (speaking strictly non politically) did find it a little sad. The reason is that I very much support eating locally grown stuff as a way to support local farmers, and I like the idea of eating stuff I grew rather than buying tomatos grown in Mexico or God knows where. I also like the idea that they were growing heirloom stuff (old American varieties) rather than the types that "food scientists" developed based on shelf life, not taste. It is kind of a sad day when you can't plant a garden in your backyard and not have to worry about it poisoning your kids.
FQ13
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(https://www.bboheme.com/assets/obama_garden.jpg)
(http://images.dailyradar.com/media/uploads/showhype/story_large/2009/05/07/michelle_obama_elmo.jpg)
(http://www.thekidalog.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/23/broc_obama_2.jpg)
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Considering that the White House has been there for 209 years, gone through several renovations including a complete strip and repaint over the decades past, it doesn't surprise me in the least that the ground around it and surrounding neighborhoods is contaminated.
Any moron with half a brain would have at least considered the possibility. Compared to the rest of the country, the East coast is basically a landfill anyway, piled up goop from five centuries of people pooping whereever they could and burying the refuse and waste and all sorts of nastiness. Kind of like Europe except it doesn't smell bad, YET! (Unless your in New Jersey... ;D)
Nothing a simple test couldn't have provided.
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Didn't Teddy Roosevelt use part of the White House grounds as a target range?
Lead? Hmmmmmm...
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I (speaking strictly non politically) did find it a little sad. The reason is that I very much support eating locally grown stuff as a way to support local farmers, and I like the idea of eating stuff I grew rather than buying tomatos grown in Mexico or God knows where. I also like the idea that they were growing heirloom stuff (old American varieties) rather than the types that "food scientists" developed based on shelf life, not taste. It is kind of a sad day when you can't plant a garden in your backyard and not have to worry about it poisoning your kids.
FQ13
At the level reported, 32parts per Mil. I wouldn't worry about the food, the background levels of hazardous chemicals in todays environment are more dangerous than that, and it's still safer than eating Mexican produce contaminated with crap.
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Didn't Teddy Roosevelt use part of the White House grounds as a target range?
Lead? Hmmmmmm...
Yes. ;D
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Due to the unprecedented high levels of lead in the First Lady's garden, the Secret Service and White House Police will be equipped with non-toxic air soft weapons.
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I dont know if this belongs here or in the "Women are so stupid" thread:
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/fashion/2009/07/09/2009-07-09_michelle_obama_flashes_expensive_taste_carries_5950_black_bag_alligator_russia_.html
Michelle Obama flashes expensive taste, carries $5,950 alligator envelope clutch in Russian woods
(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/07/10/alg_michelle-bag.jpg)
Talk about luxury in the woods!
Michelle Obama showed off her more expensive taste in fashion by carrying a $5,950 VBH black alligator manila clutch while strolling the wooded landscape outside of Moscow, Russia this week.
The First Lady, who has been known wearing affordable American brands such as Gap and J.Crew, flashed the shiny handheld purse while walking with her husband, President Barack Obama, during their meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana.
The shiny alligator bag is handmade in Italy by luxury leather goods company VBH, named after V. Bruce Hoeksema, a former colleague of Valentino.
It's part of the Spring 2009 collection and is currently sold at the VBH store in New York (there are currently two in stock) and Neiman Marcus.
While a rep for VBH could not confirm where Obama purchased the bag, she could have picked it up in Chicago. Both Neiman Marcus and Ikram, her go-to boutique in Chicago, sell VBH goods.
It's not the first time the First Lady has shown off a taste for pricier items. She wore a pair of $540 sneakers by French design house Lanvin at a D.C. food bank in late April.
LET THEM EAT CAKE MY VEGETABLES!
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I went wrong as a youth. Should have gone to Community Organizer School. Evidently they do pretty well.
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I went wrong as a youth. Should have gone to Community Organizer School. Evidently they do pretty well.
Like we learned - or were told to learn - in Watergate, follow the freakin' money!!!!
The POTUS earns $200k a year. So who is funding this lifestyle change? People (Tom, me and a whole boarload of others are out of work and we are supposed to be impressed by a $6k handbag? And if it was given to her - the article does say she bought it - then it belongs to the people of these United States. Any bets on whether it is found when they eventually leave the WH?
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I went wrong as a youth. Should have gone to Community Organizer School. Evidently they do pretty well.
Yet she looks pretty darn pissed for someone who has the means to afford a $5,900 purse.
*Meanwhile, Obama tells the Russian President that on the third day he created trees.... and saw that they were good.
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I also missed this the first time I read the article:
It's not the first time the First Lady has shown off a taste for pricier items. She wore a pair of $540 sneakers by French design house Lanvin at a D.C. food bank in late April.
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Yet she looks pretty darn pissed for someone who has the means to afford a $5,900 purse.
*Meanwhile, Obama tells the Russian President that on the third day he created trees.... and saw that they were good.
She's always pissed - one angry black woman. Remember the whole "For the first time in my life..." episode? The problem is, after you are that angry for that long, it is a hard habit to break.
The whole garden and Vogue magazine thing is to help her not looked pissed. Just an act.
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I've always thought she looked more 'constipated'.......but 'pissed' works too.
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Have you seen the picture of her 11 year old daughter walking around Rome with a wanna be thug?
Check Drudge.
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Thats not shocking at all, given the history and the age of the building.
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Typical Liberal BS. The photo op is the important thing, all image, no substance.
As they say in Texas, "All hat, no cattle"
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I've always thought she looked more 'constipated'.......but 'pissed' works too.
Several other Web sites have taken to calling her Warf (From Star Trek)
As they say in Texas, "All hat, no cattle"
Head shot!