Michelle Malkin » Big Momma Michelle Obama: Food profiteer-turned-food cop

Big Momma Michelle Obama: Food profiteer-turned-food cop

By Michelle Malkin • May 12, 2010 01:06 AM

My syndicated column today takes on the First Lady’s hypocritical war on junk food. You can find the White House obesity task force report that lays the groundwork for Mrs. Obama’s nutritional power grab here. Or as White House aide Melody Barnes puts it: “It will serve as a roadmap for the work we need to do together to make sure that our kids grow up healthy and have the opportunity to live active lives.” My roadmap on the SEIU connection to Mrs. O’s campaign is here.

Related: Food police state alert – 3rd-grader gets one-week detention for possessing a Jolly Rancher candy. Michelle Obama gives the punishment two thumbs up!

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Big Momma Michelle Obama: Food profiteer-turned-food cop
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

Let me summarize first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity agenda: Shed as I say, not as I gain. While she crusades for organic foods and puts government pressure on corporations to stop marketing fast food and junk food to children, Mrs. Obama herself profited from the very same processed food industry she now demonizes.

In June 2005, a few months after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate, Mrs. Obama hustled a seat on the corporate Board of Directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. Despite zero experience, the food-processing company put her on its audit and nominating and corporate governance committees. For her on-the-job training and the privilege of putting her name and face on their literature, the company forked over $45,000 in 2005 and $51,200 in 2006 to Mrs. Obama — as well as 7,500 TreeHouse stock options worth more than $72,000 for each year.

The chairman of the TreeHouse Foods board, Sam K. Reed, was a top executive at Kellogg’s and Keebler Foods, home of that great menace to children, the Keebler Elf. Before that, he headed up Mother’s Cake and Cookie Company. The conglomerate sells cheese sauces, Cremora non-dairy creamer, instant soup, puddings and powdered soft drink mixes. Hardly the stuff of Mrs. Obama’s new vision of nutritional paradise. TreeHouse is also a leading supplier of pickles used in the burgers of evil fast food chain McDonald’s — exactly the kind of corporate restaurants Mrs. Obama is now targeting in her war on urban “food deserts.”

The corporation-bashing Mrs. Obama would have continued raking in her TreeHouse cash if it hadn’t been for her husband’s pesky pledge to pander to Big Labor and swear off Wal-Mart. The retail giant, you see, happened to be TreeHouse’s biggest customer. And Wal-Mart is to Big Labor as sunshine is to Dracula.

In May 2007, Obama told AFL-CIO workers in Trenton, N.J., that Wal-Mart was dead to him. “I won’t shop there,” he pledged, with an eye toward embarrassing then-chief rival Hillary Clinton, who had served on Wal-Mart’s board from 1986-1992. The AFL-CIO has waged relentless attacks on Wal-Mart, dubbing it the “Poster Store for Greed.” That, by extension, would make Mrs. Obama — all-too-happy recipient of a Wal-Mart dependent compensation package worth more than $100,000 in 2008, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records — a Poster Child for Ancillary Avarice.

Candidate Obama shrugged off his wife’s conflict of interest. “Michelle and I have to live in the world and pay taxes and pay for our kids and save for retirement,” Obama explained to Crain’s Chicago Business magazine before his White House bid. Political expediency, alas, required that the candidate’s wife step down when the issue reared its head after Obama’s Wal-Mart bashing during the presidential campaign cycle. True to form, Mrs. Obama turned the decision into an ostentatious display of martyrdom:

“As my campaign commitments continue to ramp up, it is becoming more difficult for me to provide the type of focus I would like on my professional responsibilities,” said Chicago’s Joan of Arc in a resignation statement eight days after her husband declared his boycott of the stores stocked with food items processed and distributed by her TreeHouse colleagues. “My priorities, particularly at this important time, are ensuring that our young daughters feel a sense of comfort and normalcy in this process, and that I can support my husband in his presidential campaign to bring much needed change to this country.”

She saw no conflict then. And she sees no conflict now in wielding her East Wing clout to restrict the advertising free speech of the food industry that lined her pocketbook with big, fat paychecks. The Obama White House is on an insatiable control binge. No private space has been left behind — not your grocery aisles, not your children’s TV shows, not even your refrigerator.

Give the first lady this: She has an uncanny knack for wrapping her self-interests in the mantle of self-sacrifice and public service. It’s the Obama way.

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#101

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:33 pm, Dexter Alarius said:

Now what kind of gifts will Sock Puppet and Spud Butt present to the PM?

Return a few of those colonies we stole?
Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey have pissed him off lately.
#102

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:35 pm, AlohaGuy said:

stillontheroad:
Has the new PM’s assistant sent his list of favorite movies for the DVD gift basket???

Michelle Obama is throwing in a copy of Elton John’s Diet Guidelines “A Candle in the Cake.”
#103

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:41 pm, spaceycakes said:

“A Candle in the Cake.”

goodbye, Norma Jean/
though you never voted for me at all/
you had the nerve to speak your mind/
when all you ate was lard…
#104

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:45 pm, Flyoverman said:

Why does Barack Obama have a social security number that would indicate he was a Connecticut resident?

He used the number his aunt had previously “borrowed.”
#105

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:46 pm, rightwingmom said:

spaceycakes:
Thanks for the Brain Worm!
Now I’ll NEVER get that song out of my head!!!
#106

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:22 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:45 pm, Flyoverman said:
Why does Barack Obama have a social security number that would indicate he was a Connecticut resident?
He used the number his aunt had previously “borrowed.”

You mean Aunt Zanoonyloonytoony? Is she still here in Boston?
#107

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:27 pm, AlohaGuy said:

You mean Aunt Zanoonyloonytoony? Is she still here in Boston?

The retirement plans in Arizona are on hold.
#108

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:31 pm, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

Mark Lavine is starting an opposition group to MamaBama’s Food Police.

Fatties United
FU
#109

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:36 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

WOT but worth mentioning, bankrupt Los Angeles saves AZ the trouble of writing off $7 million of bad debt they would not have been able to collect on LA City contracts anyway. That’ll teach those racists in AZ!
#110

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:45 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

Well, if the SSN issue was about Michelle Obama, I could see what the issue was. Her caboose probably spans a couple of ZIP codes, thus… multiple SS’#s.
#111

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:45 pm, ErikTheRed said:

The irony of Progressive thinking: Your body is your own personal, private, inviolate business… as long as you’re murdering babies.
#112

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:51 pm, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

That’ll teach those racists in AZ!

We are humbled, humiliated and thoroughly chastised. If by being humbled, humiliated and thoroughly chastised we can keep Los Angelesites out please humble, humiliate and chastise us again

Pain and shame may well be our lot in life but please spare us the ravages of LA, Sodom By the Bay and the University of California /Santa Cruz.

===

“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed.
#113

On May 12th, 2010 at 4:57 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

Elite High Value Interrogation Unit Is Taking Its First Painful Steps
In February 2009, after two wars and years of confusion over the best way to interrogate a terrorist, the Obama administration created a special unit to relearn how to get critical information from suspects in custody. Fifteen months later and in the wake of the failed car-bombing in Times Square, the question now is: where are they?

Under Obama’s direction, this hard core interrogation unit will feed Faisal Shahzad cheeseburgers and fries until he fears his life is being endangered by cholesterol and red meat…. then he’ll spill the beans.
#114

On May 12th, 2010 at 5:06 pm, Ditkaca said:

On May 12th, 2010 at 3:25 pm, AlohaGuy said:
Why does Barack Obama have a social security number that would indicate he was a Connecticut resident?

Witless relocation program

FIFY

My apologies to Larry the Cable Guy
#115

On May 12th, 2010 at 5:08 pm, Dexter Alarius said:

the Obama administration created a special unit to relearn how to get critical information from suspects in custody.

George Tenet could tell them how. Water-boarding works.
#116

On May 12th, 2010 at 5:43 pm, AlohaGuy said:

the Obama administration created a special unit to relearn how to get critical information from suspects in custody.

Look Mr. al Qaeda, unless you’re more helpful, this bombing will go on your permanent record. And I mean it this time.
#117

On May 12th, 2010 at 6:13 pm, tiredofit08 said:

Off topic: Glenn Beck has made a call for everyone to research Maurice Strong (vids, speeches, writings, articles) archive them and send them to him at: becktips@foxnews.com

This guy advocates for a one world order and advocates crap and tax as well…let’s help him out this guy big time…
#118

On May 12th, 2010 at 6:14 pm, rambler said:

That will teach those AZ racists

Here’s hoping that those CA fruits, nuts and flakes boycott my state too.
#119

On May 12th, 2010 at 6:49 pm, greenfairie said:

AZ should shrug and shut off the water and electricity Los Angeles buys from it. How do you like them apples, El Lay? Mwahahahaha!
#120

On May 12th, 2010 at 7:15 pm, Ron said:

This woman drives me nuts, same as her husband. In today’s Idaho Statesman there’s an AP story about a hamburger joint in DC that Michelle loves to frequent, and it includes the recipes for a corned-beef hash burger. Not exactly low-cal fare. Eat as I say, not as I do. The beef version has at least a pound of meat, too.
#121

On May 12th, 2010 at 9:31 pm, ITookTheRedPill said:

No private space has been left behind — not your grocery aisles

Watch out, MR. SUPERMARKET PRODUCE PUTTER OUTER, Michelle Obama is coming!
#122

On May 12th, 2010 at 9:42 pm, AlohaGuy said:

In today’s Idaho Statesman there’s an AP story about a hamburger joint in DC that Michelle loves to frequent, and it includes the recipes for a corned-beef hash burger.

And she has strict orders – no photos. Really, the press is not allowed to photograph her eating there. Because they have no 1st Amendment rights apparently.
#123

On May 12th, 2010 at 9:50 pm, Marc said:

Michelle Obama does not have to worry about the liberal media digging into any of her scandals or conflicts of interest. Nobody asks her about the no show phony job as “diversity officer” for $3000,000.00 per year that the University of Chicago Hospital gave her (or was forced to give her). As soon as the Obamas headed for the White House, the University of Chicago eliminated the job position. That is how useful the job was.
But Michelle Obama is treated as a saintly figure in the MSM. She came on the Colbert show and Colbert was groveling, telling her beautiful she is and asking her if “Barack will be jealous of me” and then Colbert went on adnauseum about how wonderful it would be to have a date with Michelle. There was not a trace of irony in Colbert’s brown nosing of Michelle Obama.
#124

On May 12th, 2010 at 10:52 pm, Cal City Conservative said:

On May 12th, 2010 at 6:49 pm, greenfairie said:

AZ should shrug and shut off the water and electricity Los Angeles buys from it. How do you like them apples, El Lay? Mwahahahaha!

That would be AWESOME!!!! It would teach those dumb ass council members a real lesson in who is needed HAHA!!

Mark Levin played a clip of one of the IDIOTS saying he needed a passport to go to Arizona! What a COLOSSAL intellect that moron has!
#125

On May 12th, 2010 at 11:14 pm, AlohaGuy said:

OK OT, and I think it might be for subscribers only, but see if you can read a copy of this from the Wall Street Journal.

The Gold Standard: The Case for Another Look
The rise of the tea party movement is a sign that voters may be prepared to consider unorthodox proposals

.
#126

On May 12th, 2010 at 11:15 pm, jangar said:

I’d like to see Elmo reach over and grab a bite of (bleep)!
#127

On May 12th, 2010 at 11:36 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

A little red meat for you “Republican Uber Alles” RINOs:

NBC’s Chuck Todd commenting about a recent NBC poll on MSNBC today:

On the attitude toward the two parties and the Tea Party movement, Todd conveyed:

Both political parties viewed negatively. The Democrats, 37 percent positive rating, 42 percent negative. Republicans, a lesser positive rating [30%]. But check this out. The Tea Party – it’s not an official political party – but there are more people have a positive view [31%] of the Tea Party than of the Republican Party. And fewer people have a negative view of the Tea Party than either of the two major parties [30%].

We “purists” outnumber you RINOs and are viewed much less negatively than either RINOs or Dems.

It’s good being us.
#128

On May 13th, 2010 at 12:39 am, Hangfire said:

Michelle,

We saw you a few minutes ago on Hannity.

Good job, as usual. And very pretty, as usual.

(Doesn’t anyone say pretty anymore? Has it gone the way of cool?)
#129

On May 13th, 2010 at 5:12 am, cicerokid said:

Is that a nutrition-laden banana in yur pocket or are you happy to see me?
#130

On May 13th, 2010 at 8:32 am, Ed Mahmoud abu al-Kahoul said:

Not sure who is called a RINO…

I vote for the most conservative candidate with the best character and resume in the primaries, and then I vote for the person most likely to beat the Demonrat in the general.

Hell yes, McCain is a squish, an AGW cap-n-tax hysteric, and weak on borders and immigration, but he wasn’t a revolutionary Marxist, and he at least had a chance to win.

It may offend the sense of purity of some, but I vote the better candidate in the general, which is never the Demonrat, even if the better candidate leaves a lot to be desired.

Booting Bennett is a good sign. Hatch was decent once, don’t know what happened to him, but he is about due for retirement in 2012, maybe the good people of Utah will send him packing.

Closer to home, Rick Perry is decent, but not perfect, but I’m not going to find some obscure candidate to protest vote for in what might be a tight race, and help put the sleazy super-lib Bill White in the Texas statehouse.
#131

On May 13th, 2010 at 11:41 am, happyscrapper said:

On May 13th, 2010 at 8:32 am, Ed Mahmoud abu al-Kahoul said: I vote for the most conservative candidate with the best character and resume in the primaries, and then I vote for the person most likely to beat the Demonrat in the general.

I totally agree. But save your breath if you are trying to convince PasadenaPhil. He cannot or will not grasp that concept. He’d rather give an election to a marxist than vote for someone he disagrees with on any issue whatsoever. Very few people exist who meet PP’s critera. There are SOME, and we have found them. But heaven help them if they make one mistake…or they are toast. Sad, but unfortunately there are too many people out there who think the same way. This could keep the marxists in power indefinitely.
#132

On May 13th, 2010 at 1:04 pm, Living in the PSRK said:

Bloomberg and the NYC Council already want to ban all meat products from our ed system (CUNY included — like collegians aren’t adult enough to eat how YOU want!) in place of “soy meat”.

Since the “soy meat” is so uber processed, there is something in it besided the phytoestrogens that bind to t3-thyroid hormones and basically make it unavailable to the body. For those of us who are hypothyroid, this is BED! We are already struggling to get the medication that works for us (I order from Canada, since FDA/PharmCos are making it difficult and changed formulary. And the ObamaDeathComp will be saying that we won’t be able to even get presciptions privately, otherwise, we will not be eligible for ANY care (like is happening RIGHT NOW in UK). Now the B@stards want to KILL us with their crappy Gaia Religious Tenets? F*** them.

ALL of THEM….