Our Constitution holds that if one is to be accused of some infraction of the law that a procedure of probable cause, due process, and a valid warrant be obtained. Remember this in the days to come should you be stopped one of the soon established inspection points, any agency decides to make a farm visit, or one of the nefarious farm surveys. You have the right to say NO. Our Constitution was designed as a practical tool. Let’s use it!

Your Saturday trivia question is: How many times has Washington State substituted reasonable cause for probable cause? The person closest wins a NoNAIS coffee mug.

Olympia-The following is a stunning example of your tax dollars at work. Don’t you wish this agency would get a life? Look at those hours….

From the trenches,

Celeste

USDA Internal Handbook Advises Animal-Identification Staff to Address Farmers “at the Sixth Grade Level”

The USDA’s confidential “NAIS How-To Handbook,” intended for non-public distribution to Federal and State NAIS personnel, reveals an aggressive campaign to implement NAIS in the face of farmer opposition by strictly controlling communications, manipulating media coverage, concealing the original NAIS program documents, and discrediting opponents.

by

Mary Zanoni, Ph.D., J.D.

P.O. Box 501

Canton, NY 13617

315-386-3199

mlz@slic.com

March 29, 2007

A USDA “NAIS (National Animal Identification System) How-To Handbook,” most recently revised in February 2007, instructs all State and Federal NAIS staff aggressively to promote the supposedly “voluntary” premises ID program. The goal of the campaign and the How-To Handbook is to “increase . . . premises registration results” and to promote during 2007 not only “continued growth in premises registration,” but also the “adoption of animal ID and tracing.” (Handbook, p. 1; USDA’s NAIS Community Outreach bulletin, Feb. 2007, p. 1.)

The Handbook demands uniformity and strict adherence to four “key messages” that staff are to present to audiences of farmers when promoting NAIS. As described by the USDA, these “key messages” “are organized into topic categories and supported with concise sentences. They are designed for an audience reading at the sixth grade level.” (Handbook, p. 41.)

The Handbook originally was designed for a meeting in Kansas City in late October 2006, attended by a total of 132 “State ID Coordinators, Federal ID Coordinators, and members of various livestock industry associations.” (NAIS Community Outreach bulletin, Dec. 2006, p. 1.) The meeting was designed to train all NAIS personnel to adhere strictly to “a communications campaign currently being implemented at the National level.” (Handbook, p. 3.) After the original USDA mandatory NAIS plan, set forth in the Draft Strategic Plan and Draft Program Standards of April 2005, met with an unexpected level of strong opposition from farmers and animal owners, the USDA hired a public-relations firm to analyze the opposition and repackage NAIS with a more congenial-sounding message. (Presentation by Dore Mobley, USDA/APHIS information officer, at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture’s “ID Expo,” August 2006.)

The apparent upshot of the professional public-relations advice was ….

Olympia-The infamous Farm Jaws (SB5204) proposed legislation giving unrestrained police powers to WSDA, unconstitutionally, passes out of Committee and will become law when the Governor of Washington State signs the bill.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5204

Police powers is a judicial decision not a legislative decision. We need to educate our Legislators and the Executive Branch that undermining the Constitution is unacceptable.

And who are the sponsors of the FARM JAWS? The same Senators who failed to listen to “We the People” yesterday at the puppet hearing of ESHB 1151:

Sponsors:Senators Rasmussen, Schoesler, Shin, Hatfield, Jacobsen, Morton

Letters are already being sent letting these Senators know that mocking the public with show hearings and bringing police powers to Washington State will be remembered and resisted.

Write these Senators today before your right to free speech disappears too.

From the trenches,

Celeste

Revealed to the public the Communication Tools used by the USDA:

Communication Tools

Study this……more to come

From the trenches,

Celeste

The idea of implantation of a RFID (radio frequency identification device) into your animals flesh got you bothered? No problem! The private sector has come up with an invisible tattoo for your animal. No more worries about that rice size RFID. You too, can sell your privacy and Constitution down the river with this new invisible RFID tattoo technology. Since this company likes to tag things so much maybe they should move to a more totalitarian country or go into a different business. We need to send them a message: Don’t tread on my animals!

Invisible Tattoo

http://www.somarkinnovations.com/

From the trenches,

Celeste

Many of us are shaking our heads wondering where our representation is in Olympia. Who holds these Legislator’s accountable other than the election process? Don’t have the money for litigation? Here in Washington State we have the Evergreen Freedom Foundation who tackles many of the difficult issues we are bumping about as we advance forward to defeat the NAIS. This morning on their site I ran into the Ten Minute Citizen. I urge each of you to adopt this commitment to either educate and/or activate. Freedom takes sacrifice.

http://www.effwa.org/main/page.php?number=93

What does it mean to be a Ten Minute Citizen? The preservation of liberty depends on citizens deliberately taking action. We are urging you to invest the equivalent of ten minutes per day, six days a week (one hour per week or four hours per month), in being an informed and active citizen. Is this too much to invest in citizenship? We hope you and tens of thousands of others think it is reasonable.

A new legislative session is about to begin and your involvement is crucial. Our representatives are facing a huge deficit, and government grows larger by the day. It is up to us to help legislators make tough, responsible decisions. We can start by becoming informed—then we can take action.

From the trenches,

Celeste

Thank you to Sue

NAIS Communication Plan

From the deep dark cavern of the USDA:

Rulemaking and recently adopted rules….

Olympia-Here at nonaiswa we get many guests reading our posts for a variety of reasons. It is our mission to educate the public on a wide range of topics. Since NAIS involves tagging our beloved animals, I thought you might appreciate getting to know some of the *government herd* visiting our site from this past week:

netaccessb.leg.wa.gov Region Washington City Olympia-ISP State Of Washington – Legislative Service Center Returning Visits 6 Visit Length

Multiple visits spread over more than one day

26th March 200711:06:12No referring link
nonaiswa.org/26th March 200711:08:52

nonaiswa.org/26th March 200711:11:33
nonaiswa.org/?cat=426th March 200711:12:21
nonaiswa.org/?cat=426th March 200714:41:52
nonaiswa.org/27th March 200708:02:48
nonaiswa.org/27th March 200713:54:14
nonaiswa.org/27th March 200715:11:04

Region – City – ISP State Of Washington

27th March 200708:42:48No referring link
27th March 200708:44:02No referring link

No referring link Host Name netaccessb.leg.wa.gov Country United States Region Washington City Olympia ISP State Of Washington – Legislative Service Center Returning Visits 6 Visit Length

Multiple visits spread over more than one day

Region Washington City Olympia ISP State Of Washington – Washington State Dept Of Agriculture Returning Visits 8

From trenches,

Celeste