Anti-GMO petitioner arrested at White House trying to deliver a petition to Michelle Obama

[JohnyCanuck]

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From the Youtube blurb:

Who knew that Alexis Badden Mayer of the Organic Consumers Association would be arrested outside the White House when she attempted to deliver a DVD Petition with over 200,000 names asking Michelle Obama to ask her husband to fulfill a campaign promise to label GMO food products.

There is no more basic American right, then petitioning the government - but not if you don't have the money to buy access to officials who have become more responsive to the interest groups that finance their elections then the people who elected them. And so it was with the petition that called for the truthful labeling of foods containing genetically modified organism (GMO). People want to know what they are eating and want food labeling to indicate if the food has been genetically modified.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Why isn't the mainstream media covering this? Why was she treated so brutally? Where's the outrage?

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[Tigress DEM]

2. They were fine until they actually blocked the gate. BUT getting arrested isn't always a BAD thing.

This will get them more attention. Lot's of groups go there with the INTENT to get arrested.

Some of the attention will be negative and ignite the Obama critics on both sides, but getting arrested gives them potential to get covered by the media and I learned a few things from this vid I didn't know. Bees dying from eating the crops? I'll have to check that out a bit more. Russia banned it because it decreases the ability for animals to reproduce? Interesting.

IF it had been me, and only because I saw it at a CODE Pink and Cindy Sheehan protest at that same back fence....... I would have put up pages of their factoids on the fence. Paper print outs tied up with ribbon representing the points 200,000+ signatures are trying to get across. I know, not very green of me, but people seeing it passing by, the subliminal reinforcement of everything she's saying would have been another layer of protest itself.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Apparently she wasn't one of the ones blocking the gate....

She was just hanging around trying to get a staffer or intern from the WH to come out and accept the petition, the protesters who apparently were blocking the gate were not arrested.

In this Instant Film, the story gets sidetracked when a couple of Jewish “missionaries” coincidentally roll up at the White House and ask to see the President, then perform the Jewish Tefillin ritual which consists of strapping a small box containing Torah verses to the head and arm of Adam Eidinger, one of demonstrators. While Adam is strapped he begins whispering about how GMO foods are not Kosher and how the insecticides, genetically engineered into corn, are killing the bees. All this does not go unnoticed by the uniformed Secret Service, who become increasingly impatient, with a demonstration, now blocking an entrance, that seems to be spiraling out of control. Instead of arresting those blocking the entrance, they arrest the person trying to deliver the petitions, Alexis Baden-Mayer from the Organic Consumers Association.(my emphasis /JC)

http://www.occupymonsanto360.org/2013/03/02/white-house-arrests-gmo-petitioner/

[Tigress DEM]

4. Well, even John Conyers got blocked from delivering a petittion to the White House personally.

Course that was back in the Bush years.

So she has this huge media event and this group "coincidentally" rolls up with her to the White House? If that is correct, then she needs to learn more about managing a protest so everyone knows what is ok and what is not ok in that you have certain goals and people need to not get in the way of those goals.

Still she's young and this isn't a bad effort. I just think she'd benefit from seasoned guidance.

[Tigress DEM]

5. Look at 7:02 in the film. These people obviously came to support and she says "WE have to stay here.

She is the leader because it's her petition and she's verbally reinforcing that these people are with her. They are supporting her right to deliver the petittion. It isn't any "coincidence" falling out of the sky. It's simple civil disobedience and she's handcuffed, not slapped or disrespected.

It's enough that she's waited weeks to get any one to pay attention to her petition. Don't try to portray her as some insignificant victim. She held a media rally and if these people came out to support her and she didn't want them there, she could have let the cops move them away from the gate.

There are laws that protect protests, but you have to stay in certain guidelines. Step out and you are in the world of civil disobedience, which is a patriotic place to be. It is what it is. Spinning isn't helpful. She did an awesome job.

Better to spend the time getting the video watched on it's merits rather than inciting false controversy.

[drynberg]

6. LOOKS TO ME THAT OBAMA'S GOT SOME

"Splainin' to do" about his broken GMO campaign promise. Just ignoring 200,000 petitions ain't what I'd call transparent, you?

[FiggyJay]

7. While the Prez

is sitting on his hands, Monsanto is on their way to killing us all. Why won't Obama stand up to the corporations? We desperately need a courageous president before it is too late.

[Buzz Clik]

9. LOL!

[Petrushka]

8. Thanks for the link. Posted it to my FB timeline. (n/t)

[MADem]

10. Why was she delivering a petition to MICHELLE Obama?

FLOTUS isn't the Queen. It's not her job to "ask her husband" anything of that nature. And the President does not make law.

Why not go to Congress, where law is made? Make an appointment to see one's representative, and present the petition to them?

[Tigress DEM]

13. To get some extrodinary support.

Go to Congress? They who work what 129 days this year?

POTUS and FLOTUS are on the job 24x7. POTUS was out of the state that day.

FLOTUS has shown an accessibility to the average people and I don't think it was a bad idea. I don't like to be overly critical of the Obamas because their experience is above and beyond the challenges of previous Presidential families in so many ways.

HOWEVER, I'm a great fan of continuing to put our leaders feet to the fire, just because it's sometimes the only way to get their attention. Like being stranded on a mountain and on the verge of hypothermia and slapping each other awake so you don't fall into the final sleep, it's not a nice thing to do ordinarily but in context it brings the attention back to the job at hand. Political survival, keeping campaign promises, rising above the circumstances and finding a way through.

Besides THIS petition doesn't negate the Congressional route. It's an attention provoking, sympathy/support getting method of putting an important issue front and center.

[MADem]

14. They aren't King and Queen. She's not even a paid government employee, and he's the head of the

Executive Branch.

I just think it was a lame protest--one of those "easy to ignore" things. I realize the person's heart was in the right place, but it does have the "serf petitioning the Queen" vibe, and that doesn't resonate with me.

Far better to make 435 copies of the thing, and find 435 activists who live in the district of each of the congresspersons sitting in the House, and deliver the petitions that way. One to every sitting rep. That would make a powerful photo op; all those people holding the petition copies, maybe all wearing the same tee shirt with the same slogan.

That would resonate with me, and suggest a familiarity with the democratic process. Far better than pleading for the attention of an unelected spouse, no matter how swell she might be.

[Tigress DEM]

15. I think you're missing my point. Michelle Obama seems like an approachable person, not like a Queen.

If she were to take this into consideration, she is someone who the President listens to. An informal conversation procedurally, but no less important.

I think your idea is a lot more realistic AND it's a good idea for round 2 if that person were to want to continue getting interest for the cause.

[MADem]

16. I think it mocks our system of government, to petition Her Ladyship to bend the ear of His Lordship.

Oh, MiLady, hear the cries of your serfs in despair! You're so warm and sympathetic, madame, of course you will hear our pleas...!

That's how it comes across to me.

Michelle tells her husband...and then what? He calls up Pelosi and says "Try to make this work--I know you don't have the speakership and can't set the agenda in the House, but...I dunno, maybe trade for something?" Or he calls up Harry Reid and says "See what you can do Harry, even though Boehner will wipe his ass on this when it gets to the other side...?"


I wish more people would have stayed awake in civics class, and perhaps hold Congress's feet to the fire. We elect them to represent us. All appropriations start in the House. That is where the power to make law lies. The House is where to begin, en masse.


It also, if the demo is sufficiently dramatic, is an opportunity to provide fifty state coverage of a story, because reps from fifty states are involved in the action, and fifty media outlets at a minimum will cover it from a "local" spin...

Someone pleading with the first lady? Page 24 of the paper on a good day....

[Tigress DEM]

17. Duly noted the whole thing is a bit dramatic, but in general approaching Michelle still isn't stupid

Bottom line, Mad, they are people. She's his wife. If she mentions it, he'll listen and at least put it on the back burner. She's got her duties and roles in the White House, she's not just window dressing.

She might even lend her own support to the cause to get some publicity and more awareness to drum up more support for him. You are right it ain't no monarchy. These are DEMs in the White House. Woodrow Wilson had sheep to trim the lawn and our POTUS and FLOTUS are about getting the job done. There is just so much to do with such an obstructionist congress.

WE aren't the ONLY ones who put Congressional feet to the fire. It is part of the President's job to have an agenda (and it WAS part of his agenda during the campaign) and the President gives Congress input and works with what they come up with for his ideas.

I demonstrated against the Iraq war in DC. We had 1/2 million people there by some counts and we got next to zip for coverage on the local news. They pulled out a story about a St Bernard that swallowed a butcher knife and lived. We had Cindy Sheehan getting arrested at the back door of the White House the next day - bout a thousand people and we were heard and seen. Even though we got no official acknowledgement.

[limpyhobbler]

11. Well their first mistake is they forgot to bring a suitcase full of campaign cash.

Awesome video. Thanks JohnyCanuck.

[KansDem]

12. Looks like if you're wearing a uniform...

...you get in right away!