FLE
Senate Approves Bill to Broaden Wiretap Powers The Senate gave final approval on Wednesday to a major expansion of the government’s surveillance powers, handing President Bush one more victory in a series of hard-fought clashes with Democrats over national security issues. The measure, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, is the biggest revamping of federal surveillance law in 30 years. It includes a divisive element that Mr. Bush had deemed essential: legal immunity for the phone companies that cooperated in the National Security Agency wiretapping program he approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. The vote came two and a half years after public disclosure of the wiretapping program set off a fierce national debate over the balance between protecting the country from another terrorist strike and ensuring civil liberties. The final outcome in Congress, which opponents of the surveillance measure had conceded for weeks, seemed almost anticlimactic in contrast. Mr. Bush, appearing in the Rose Garden just after his return from Japan, called the vote “long overdue.” He promised to sign the measure into law quickly, saying it was critical to national security and showed that “even in an election year, we can come together and get important pieces of legislation passed.”....
Barack Obama Breaks Promise, Flip Flops, and supports Telco's Today, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama voted for H.R.6304, which amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (F.I.S.A). In doing so he voted to give telecommunication providers immunity against civil damages that they might incur in the course of enabling the government to execute wiretaps and other types of electronic surveillance. He did so, after an amendment to the bill that would have stripped out the immunity provision, S.Amdt. 5064, was defeated 32-66. In voting for the bill, Obama acted in direct contradiction to his earlier statements. In 2007 Bill Burton, an Obama campaign spokesman, said "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." The original F.I.S.A statute was passed in 1978 in order to protect civil liberties against overly expansive government surveillance, and had clear penalties of $100 per person, per day, plus punitive damages, for telecommunications companies that conducted electronic surveillance without judicial oversight. Given that each day tens of millions of people have their data go across the networks of some of the larger telcos, the risk that these companies faced by working with the government on extra-judicial wiretaps was extreme. In giving companies that work with the government immunity from these penalties, H.R. 6304, and Barack Obama who voted for it, just took away the only reason stopping AT&T, Verizon, and others from helping the government use extra-judicial wiretaps. In voting for the bill, Obama not only helped the telco?s, but also broke his promise to protect the American people from expansive government surveillance....
New York Moves To Defend Gun Law In a sign that federal courts here in New York will defend New York City's restrictive gun regulations, a judge is allowing the city to strip a disabled Vietnam War veteran of his gun license. The decision, handed down this week, is likely the first court ruling to deal with New York's gun-permitting scheme since the Supreme Court declared that the Second Amendment gives citizens an individual right to keep a gun at home for self-defense. The veteran who lost his gun license, Dominick DiNapoli, said the Supreme Court's decision ought to require that he gets back his gun permit. "Who needs a gun more than someone like me, who is disabled and can't physically defend his home?" Mr. DiNapoli said in an interview. The court decision, by Judge William Pauley III of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, does not mention the Second Amendment and defers entirely to the New York City Police Department's permitting process. New York's gun-licensing system is expected to come under challenge soon on allegations that it restricts law-abiding citizens from keeping guns at home for self-defense....
This is the U.S. on drugs The United States' so-called war on drugs brings to mind the old saying that if you find yourself trapped in a deep hole, stop digging. Yet, last week, the Senate approved an aid package to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400 million going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America. The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for the last 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition -- with little to show for it. Is anyone actually benefiting from this war? Six groups come to mind. The first group are the drug lords in nations such as Colombia, Afghanistan and Mexico, as well as those in the United States. They are making billions of dollars every year -- tax free. The second group are the street gangs that infest many of our cities and neighborhoods, whose main source of income is the sale of illegal drugs. Third are those people in government who are paid well to fight the first two groups. Their powers and bureaucratic fiefdoms grow larger with each tax dollar spent to fund this massive program that has been proved not to work....
The political establishment and telecom immunity -- why it matters Nancy Soderberg was deputy national security advisor and an ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration. Today, she has an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times defending the FISA bill and telecom amnesty. The entire Op-Ed is just a regurgitation of the same trite, vague talking points which the political elite are using to justify this bill, accompanied by the standard invocations of "National Security" which our Foreign Policy elite condescendingly toss around to justify whatever policy they're claiming is necessary to protect us. But it's the language that she uses -- and the brazenness of the lying (and that's what it is) to justify this bill -- that's notable here...I would really like to know where people like Soderberg get the idea that the U.S. President has the power to "order" private citizens to do anything, let alone to break the law, as even she admits happened here. I'm asking this literally: how did this warped and distinctly un-American mentality get implanted into our public discourse -- that the President can give "orders" to private citizens that must be complied with? Soderberg views the President as a monarch -- someone who can issue "orders" that must be obeyed, even when, as she acknowledges, the "orders" are illegal. That just isn't how our country works and it never was. We don't have a King who can order people to break the law....
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
G-8 Approves Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions The United States joined its allies Tuesday in committing for the first time to try to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, as the Group of Eight major industrialized nations approved a plan aimed at spurring a new worldwide treaty to limit global warming. In a statement, President Bush and the other G-8 leaders said they would work with other countries to "consider and adopt" the 50-percent reductions as part of a new United Nations treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. The leaders made it clear in their statement that they expect such developing countries as China and India, whose economies are also major polluters, to play a role in reducing emissions. Meeting on the scenic Japanese island of Hokkaido, the leaders also promised to make more immediate cuts in emissions over the next two decades, though they did not offer a numerical target. They indicated that they intend to write into the new treaty language that would bind them to "implement ambitious economy-wide mid-term goals in order to achieve absolute emissions reductions." But it was the global warming language that appeared to attract the most attention here as a sign of how far Bush would go on the issue before he leaves office in seven months. The statement represents Bush's most serious commitment to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions found to be contributing to a dangerous warming of the Earth. Bush also pressed the G-8 to say developing countries must participate in the effort to make cuts -- although perhaps not to the same degree as fully developed countries. Still, the language drew deep disapproval from environmental groups, who said the targets were too weak or ambiguous and accused the G-8 leaders of papering over fundamental differences so as to render the summit language meaningless. Critics said real progress must await a new U.S. administration that they expect will be open to larger cuts in emissions than Bush will consider....
G-8, CO2 And The Garden Of Eden Even as the G-8 Summit announced plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, researchers at the Johann Heinrich von Theunen Institute in Germany find the rise in carbon dioxide levels may in fact be a boon to plant life on Earth. The Theunen Institute, which has been monitoring the phenomenon since 1999, trained CO2 jets on plants, raising CO2 concentrations in the air around them to 550 parts per million (ppm), significantly higher than today's levels. The researchers announced on Tuesday that such increased exposure to carbon dioxide appears to boost crop yields. "Output increased by about 10% for barley, beets and wheat" when the plants were exposed to the higher levels, according to the Institute's Hans-Joachim Weigel. That the Earth is getting greener due to higher CO2 levels was confirmed recently by satellite data analyzed by scientists Steven Running of the University of Montana and Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA. They found that over a period of almost two decades, the earth's vegetation increased by a whopping 6.2%. "Higher CO2 enables plants to grow faster and larger and to live in drier climates," explained Lawrence Solomon in a June 7 article on the Running/Nemani findings in Canada's Financial Post. "Plants provide food for animals, which are thereby also enhanced. The extent and diversity of plant and animal life have both increased substantially during the past half-century."....
Ex-EPA aide tells of White House censorship Democrats have long alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney played a key backstage role in thwarting U.S. efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but they have had little evidence. Until now. Jason Burnett, a senior official with the Environmental Protection Agency who resigned June 9, charges that Cheney's office urged him to delete or water down testimony to Congress by top administration officials on the impacts of global warming. Burnett also said the White House blocked an effort by the EPA to issue an endangerment finding, a conclusion that climate change is a threat to the public. Under a Supreme Court ruling last year, the finding would have forced the administration to cut emissions. California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who held a news conference with Burnett on Tuesday, said the revelations show that the White House conspired to muzzle its own scientists' findings on climate change to delay action on regulations....
Endangered Species Protections Sought for U.S. Wolverines The United States must protect endangered wildlife from global warming and other threats within its own borders and not rely on other countries, such as Canada, to do the job, according to a coalition of 10 conservation organizations that announced today its intention to file a legal challenge against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service violated the Endangered Species Act, say the groups, when it refused to protect wolverines in the United States on the grounds that a healthy population persists in Canada. The Service’s decision is its latest justification for denying long-overdue protections to this imperiled animal — protections that were first petitioned for nearly a decade ago. Earlier this year, the agency conceded that if nothing is done, “the [lower 48 wolverine] population will be at risk of extinction." Yet it decided not to take steps to protect the species. According to the coalition, the fewer than 500 wolverines left in the lower 48 represent a distinct population that is only tenuously linked to the Canadian population of wolverines and in desperate need of habitat and other protections....
Agency wants to shut out Salt Lake, Utah counties Las Vegas water officials are trying to keep Salt Lake and Utah counties out of the loop during an upcoming hearing on the proposal to take 50,000 acre-feet of water annually from Snake Valley - despite the counties' concerns that the drawdown could provoke dust-bowl conditions on the Wasatch Front. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has filed an objection with Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor to requests for "interested party" status for the counties, three tribal bands, the Central Nevada Water Authority, conservation groups, businesses and residents. The move appears to be a new, aggressive tactic to push aside Utah concerns about what could happen to Snake Valley vegetation should the water table drop too low, and move quickly on a $3.5 billion, 285-mile pipeline project that would siphon water from an aquifer that lies under the two states for use in Las Vegas. "All this has happened rather rapidly," said Steve Erickson, a Utah spokesman for the Great Basin Water Network, one of the groups SNWA seeks to exclude. "They want to keep the public out of this process as much as possible."....
Ranchers get edict on Tomales Bay water quality West Marin ranchers in the Tomales Bay watershed must develop "ranch plans" by November 2009 informing state regulators how they intend to keep manure from washing into the bay. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the directive, which has caused concern among West Marin ranchers. There is pressure on ranchers because, during heavy rains, waste from cattle washes down creeks that feed Tomales Bay, impairing water quality, according to the state. A primary focus of the directive is for ranch owners to keep cattle and their waste away from creeks by building fences and other barriers. The order is believed to be the first in the state designed to regulate ranches to protect water quality, water officials said. The directive affects ranches that are 50 acres or larger, which represent about 90 percent of the grazing in the Tomales Bay watershed. Officials estimate 150 ranches will have to develop ranch plans, and that the plans will cost each ranch about $46,000 to implement, according to the University of California Agricultural Extension in West Marin....
Proposed Texas regulations for wild hogs draw opposition New regulations proposed for handling feral hogs are drawing opposition from West Kerr ranchers and trappers. The new rules have good intentions — the control of disease — but some are misguided, local opponents say. West Kerr Rancher Teri Hawkins said feral hogs reproduce rapidly and damage property, livestock and wildlife. She has a petition signed by almost 100 ranchers to date opposing new regulations that impose added costs on trappers. “If they impose these rules to where it’s not feasible for these trappers to trap them, they’re going to quit and then it’s just going to get really out of hand,” Hawkins said. The hogs are a boon for hunters, she said, but something needs to be done to reduce their numbers. The proposed regulations deal with holding, transporting and the disposition of live wild hogs that have been captured, to reduce the chances of spreading disease to domestic swine herds to cattle and other livestock....
It's All Trew: Vigilantes were the law in frontier towns The military post of Fort Griffin was established by the U.S. Army in July 1867 along the banks of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. Named for General Charles Griffin, the site was deemed necessary to protect settlers from Indians and several outlaw bands operating in the area. Later, it also served as a supply depot for the southern expeditions sent to the Great Plains during the Red River wars. With the huge southern herd of buffalo ranging in the area, the new garrison gave protection to large numbers of hunters migrating down from Kansas where the Republican herd had been decimated. Proceeds from sales of hide and meat hunting, the garrison payroll of Fort Griffin and additional money spent by trail herds moving north to Kansas brought gamblers, criminals, shady ladies and bunko artists by the droves into the new town. This so-called civilization settled in a nearby ramshackle town called "The Flats" made up almost entirely of saloons and bordellos. Many occupants lived in tents and dugouts and every form of lawlessness known existed within its city limits. The military had no jurisdiction over civilians and there was simply no law available because the town was not organized enough to collect taxes for salaries for lawmen. Crime ran rampant, and citizens finally saw something had to be done....
G-8, CO2 And The Garden Of Eden Even as the G-8 Summit announced plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, researchers at the Johann Heinrich von Theunen Institute in Germany find the rise in carbon dioxide levels may in fact be a boon to plant life on Earth. The Theunen Institute, which has been monitoring the phenomenon since 1999, trained CO2 jets on plants, raising CO2 concentrations in the air around them to 550 parts per million (ppm), significantly higher than today's levels. The researchers announced on Tuesday that such increased exposure to carbon dioxide appears to boost crop yields. "Output increased by about 10% for barley, beets and wheat" when the plants were exposed to the higher levels, according to the Institute's Hans-Joachim Weigel. That the Earth is getting greener due to higher CO2 levels was confirmed recently by satellite data analyzed by scientists Steven Running of the University of Montana and Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA. They found that over a period of almost two decades, the earth's vegetation increased by a whopping 6.2%. "Higher CO2 enables plants to grow faster and larger and to live in drier climates," explained Lawrence Solomon in a June 7 article on the Running/Nemani findings in Canada's Financial Post. "Plants provide food for animals, which are thereby also enhanced. The extent and diversity of plant and animal life have both increased substantially during the past half-century."....
Ex-EPA aide tells of White House censorship Democrats have long alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney played a key backstage role in thwarting U.S. efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but they have had little evidence. Until now. Jason Burnett, a senior official with the Environmental Protection Agency who resigned June 9, charges that Cheney's office urged him to delete or water down testimony to Congress by top administration officials on the impacts of global warming. Burnett also said the White House blocked an effort by the EPA to issue an endangerment finding, a conclusion that climate change is a threat to the public. Under a Supreme Court ruling last year, the finding would have forced the administration to cut emissions. California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who held a news conference with Burnett on Tuesday, said the revelations show that the White House conspired to muzzle its own scientists' findings on climate change to delay action on regulations....
Endangered Species Protections Sought for U.S. Wolverines The United States must protect endangered wildlife from global warming and other threats within its own borders and not rely on other countries, such as Canada, to do the job, according to a coalition of 10 conservation organizations that announced today its intention to file a legal challenge against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service violated the Endangered Species Act, say the groups, when it refused to protect wolverines in the United States on the grounds that a healthy population persists in Canada. The Service’s decision is its latest justification for denying long-overdue protections to this imperiled animal — protections that were first petitioned for nearly a decade ago. Earlier this year, the agency conceded that if nothing is done, “the [lower 48 wolverine] population will be at risk of extinction." Yet it decided not to take steps to protect the species. According to the coalition, the fewer than 500 wolverines left in the lower 48 represent a distinct population that is only tenuously linked to the Canadian population of wolverines and in desperate need of habitat and other protections....
Agency wants to shut out Salt Lake, Utah counties Las Vegas water officials are trying to keep Salt Lake and Utah counties out of the loop during an upcoming hearing on the proposal to take 50,000 acre-feet of water annually from Snake Valley - despite the counties' concerns that the drawdown could provoke dust-bowl conditions on the Wasatch Front. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has filed an objection with Nevada State Engineer Tracy Taylor to requests for "interested party" status for the counties, three tribal bands, the Central Nevada Water Authority, conservation groups, businesses and residents. The move appears to be a new, aggressive tactic to push aside Utah concerns about what could happen to Snake Valley vegetation should the water table drop too low, and move quickly on a $3.5 billion, 285-mile pipeline project that would siphon water from an aquifer that lies under the two states for use in Las Vegas. "All this has happened rather rapidly," said Steve Erickson, a Utah spokesman for the Great Basin Water Network, one of the groups SNWA seeks to exclude. "They want to keep the public out of this process as much as possible."....
Ranchers get edict on Tomales Bay water quality West Marin ranchers in the Tomales Bay watershed must develop "ranch plans" by November 2009 informing state regulators how they intend to keep manure from washing into the bay. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the directive, which has caused concern among West Marin ranchers. There is pressure on ranchers because, during heavy rains, waste from cattle washes down creeks that feed Tomales Bay, impairing water quality, according to the state. A primary focus of the directive is for ranch owners to keep cattle and their waste away from creeks by building fences and other barriers. The order is believed to be the first in the state designed to regulate ranches to protect water quality, water officials said. The directive affects ranches that are 50 acres or larger, which represent about 90 percent of the grazing in the Tomales Bay watershed. Officials estimate 150 ranches will have to develop ranch plans, and that the plans will cost each ranch about $46,000 to implement, according to the University of California Agricultural Extension in West Marin....
Proposed Texas regulations for wild hogs draw opposition New regulations proposed for handling feral hogs are drawing opposition from West Kerr ranchers and trappers. The new rules have good intentions — the control of disease — but some are misguided, local opponents say. West Kerr Rancher Teri Hawkins said feral hogs reproduce rapidly and damage property, livestock and wildlife. She has a petition signed by almost 100 ranchers to date opposing new regulations that impose added costs on trappers. “If they impose these rules to where it’s not feasible for these trappers to trap them, they’re going to quit and then it’s just going to get really out of hand,” Hawkins said. The hogs are a boon for hunters, she said, but something needs to be done to reduce their numbers. The proposed regulations deal with holding, transporting and the disposition of live wild hogs that have been captured, to reduce the chances of spreading disease to domestic swine herds to cattle and other livestock....
It's All Trew: Vigilantes were the law in frontier towns The military post of Fort Griffin was established by the U.S. Army in July 1867 along the banks of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. Named for General Charles Griffin, the site was deemed necessary to protect settlers from Indians and several outlaw bands operating in the area. Later, it also served as a supply depot for the southern expeditions sent to the Great Plains during the Red River wars. With the huge southern herd of buffalo ranging in the area, the new garrison gave protection to large numbers of hunters migrating down from Kansas where the Republican herd had been decimated. Proceeds from sales of hide and meat hunting, the garrison payroll of Fort Griffin and additional money spent by trail herds moving north to Kansas brought gamblers, criminals, shady ladies and bunko artists by the droves into the new town. This so-called civilization settled in a nearby ramshackle town called "The Flats" made up almost entirely of saloons and bordellos. Many occupants lived in tents and dugouts and every form of lawlessness known existed within its city limits. The military had no jurisdiction over civilians and there was simply no law available because the town was not organized enough to collect taxes for salaries for lawmen. Crime ran rampant, and citizens finally saw something had to be done....
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
ProRodeo Hall of Famer Clem McSpadden dies at 82
Clem McSpadden, a member of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and an immensely popular political figure in his native Oklahoma, died at 10:51 p.m. July 7 at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after a lengthy struggle with cancer.
McSpadden, of Chelsea, Okla., was general manager of the National Finals Rodeo for 18 years in Oklahoma City (1967-84), a past president of the Rodeo Cowboys Association and one of the sport's legendary announcers for more than half a century. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1990.
"The entire Western world has lost a friend with the passing of Clem McSpadden," said Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Chairman of the Board Keith Martin. "I’ve known Clem all my life, and no one knew rodeo better or loved it more than he did. This is a sad day for our sport, but the legacy of Clem McSpadden will live on forever."
As an announcer, McSpadden worked the National Finals Steer Roping (NFSR) a record 27 times from 1963 to 2000. He announced rodeos in 41 states, Mexico and Canada, where he became the first American to serve as the voice of the Calagary Stampede and the Canadian Finals Rodeo.
McSpadden conducted the opening for the "Command Performance" Rodeo for President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and was the American announcer chosen for the U.S. versus Canada Rodeo during the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary.
In 1986, McSpadden was named PRCA Announcer of the Year and Cowboy Hall of Fame Man of the Year.
"Clem was the godfather of all of ’em," said fellow ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee Roy Cooper. "He was the voice of rodeo. He loved roping, and he saw them all -- from Toots Mansfield, Jim Bob Altizer and Dean Oliver to Joe Beaver, Fred Whitfield and Cody Ohl. Clem McSpadden has done more for our sport than any other individual. He always worked hard, and he always made a difference in everything he did. Clem was a man who got things done. He was a good friend to all cowboys, and was a real blessing in my life. Now Clem’s up there where the great ones roam, with Sonny Davis, Freckles Brown and Jim Shoulders."
A tribute to McSpadden was already being discussed for the 50th annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, Dec. 4-13 in Las Vegas, and WNFR general manager Shawn Davis is going ahead with plans for honoring a man Davis describes as "an icon in our sport."
"This is definitely a loss," Davis said. "There are very few people who you can say really made rodeo, and he is one of them. The NFR is the most stable thing in rodeo, and he played a very instrumental role in getting the NFR up to that next plateau, carrying the sport with it."
A graduate of Oklahoma State University, McSpadden served in the U.S. Navy (1944-46) before launching himself into the dual careers of politician and rodeo announcer. He was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1954 and served until 1972, twice being elected president pro tempore; he was the first to serve consecutive terms.
In 1972, McSpadden was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and became the first freshman to serve on the prestigious Rules Committee before launching an unsuccessful campaign for the governorship of Oklahoma, losing to David Boren.
The Chelsea post office was named in McSpadden's honor in January.
"Clem McSpadden was a cherished mentor and adviser to me and so many other elected leaders across Oklahoma," U.S. Representative Dan Boren (D-Okla.) told the Tulsa World. "He was a state legislator, U.S. congressman, businessman, rancher, long-time rodeo announcer and always remained a devoted public servant to his community, state and country."
A moment of silence for McSpadden will be observed tonight (July 8) on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Chelsea Funeral Home and Crematory (www.mmsfuneralhomes.com/mms_funeral_homes.asp).
McSpadden is survived by his wife, Donna, his daughter, Kay and his sons, Bart and Paul.
Clem McSpadden, a member of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and an immensely popular political figure in his native Oklahoma, died at 10:51 p.m. July 7 at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after a lengthy struggle with cancer.
McSpadden, of Chelsea, Okla., was general manager of the National Finals Rodeo for 18 years in Oklahoma City (1967-84), a past president of the Rodeo Cowboys Association and one of the sport's legendary announcers for more than half a century. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1990.
"The entire Western world has lost a friend with the passing of Clem McSpadden," said Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Chairman of the Board Keith Martin. "I’ve known Clem all my life, and no one knew rodeo better or loved it more than he did. This is a sad day for our sport, but the legacy of Clem McSpadden will live on forever."
As an announcer, McSpadden worked the National Finals Steer Roping (NFSR) a record 27 times from 1963 to 2000. He announced rodeos in 41 states, Mexico and Canada, where he became the first American to serve as the voice of the Calagary Stampede and the Canadian Finals Rodeo.
McSpadden conducted the opening for the "Command Performance" Rodeo for President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and was the American announcer chosen for the U.S. versus Canada Rodeo during the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary.
In 1986, McSpadden was named PRCA Announcer of the Year and Cowboy Hall of Fame Man of the Year.
"Clem was the godfather of all of ’em," said fellow ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee Roy Cooper. "He was the voice of rodeo. He loved roping, and he saw them all -- from Toots Mansfield, Jim Bob Altizer and Dean Oliver to Joe Beaver, Fred Whitfield and Cody Ohl. Clem McSpadden has done more for our sport than any other individual. He always worked hard, and he always made a difference in everything he did. Clem was a man who got things done. He was a good friend to all cowboys, and was a real blessing in my life. Now Clem’s up there where the great ones roam, with Sonny Davis, Freckles Brown and Jim Shoulders."
A tribute to McSpadden was already being discussed for the 50th annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, Dec. 4-13 in Las Vegas, and WNFR general manager Shawn Davis is going ahead with plans for honoring a man Davis describes as "an icon in our sport."
"This is definitely a loss," Davis said. "There are very few people who you can say really made rodeo, and he is one of them. The NFR is the most stable thing in rodeo, and he played a very instrumental role in getting the NFR up to that next plateau, carrying the sport with it."
A graduate of Oklahoma State University, McSpadden served in the U.S. Navy (1944-46) before launching himself into the dual careers of politician and rodeo announcer. He was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1954 and served until 1972, twice being elected president pro tempore; he was the first to serve consecutive terms.
In 1972, McSpadden was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and became the first freshman to serve on the prestigious Rules Committee before launching an unsuccessful campaign for the governorship of Oklahoma, losing to David Boren.
The Chelsea post office was named in McSpadden's honor in January.
"Clem McSpadden was a cherished mentor and adviser to me and so many other elected leaders across Oklahoma," U.S. Representative Dan Boren (D-Okla.) told the Tulsa World. "He was a state legislator, U.S. congressman, businessman, rancher, long-time rodeo announcer and always remained a devoted public servant to his community, state and country."
A moment of silence for McSpadden will be observed tonight (July 8) on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Chelsea Funeral Home and Crematory (www.mmsfuneralhomes.com/mms_funeral_homes.asp).
McSpadden is survived by his wife, Donna, his daughter, Kay and his sons, Bart and Paul.
Life After Kelo: Looking Back and Forward It’s one of the most hated Supreme Court decisions in decades, and it happened just three years ago. I’m talking about Kelo vs. New London, where a bare majority of the justices decided that it was OK for local governments looking to increase tax revenue to take land from their citizens and give it to a developer. Now, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution permits the use of eminent domain for “public use.” But over the decades, the courts had expanded the meaning of “public use” from takings for roads, schools and hospitals—things anyone can use or benefit from—to takings for “public benefit.” That meant urban renewal efforts and other plans for economic development, the argument being that eventually the public would benefit from the increased tax revenue. Kelo took that a step further and said that governments can take land from a private citizen if the government thinks the land would be more beneficial to the public in the hands of another private entity. The decision outraged even Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who wrote in her stinging dissent: “To reason, as the Court does, that the incidental public benefits resulting from the subsequent ordinary use of private property render economic development takings ‘for public use’ is to wash out any distinction between private and public use of property—and thereby effectively to erase the words ‘for public use’ from the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.” Appropriately, the aftermath of Kelo in New London itself shows the importance of the Constitutional limit on eminent domain and the absurdity of trying to determine “public benefit” based on predictions of future revenue. Three years after winning the right to take the property of Susette Kelo and her neighbors, there hasn’t been any public benefit in any form from the land that city officials took. In fact, the city doesn’t even know what to do with the land now that officials’ handpicked developer couldn’t muster the financing necessary to build anything....
Ways and Means Over four decades, Russell Means has led an insurrection, posed for Andy Warhol, aspired to be an assassin and been arguably the most influential public figure in fighting racism against the American Indian. Now, in his quest to start his own country, the road to success might run down Embassy Row. Means's life has been something like a Johnny Cash song. He has done prison time for inciting a riot, and has been stabbed, accused of murder, hit by two bullets and divorced four times. Long ago, he was a fancy dance champion and a rodeo star. Even now, at age 68, he remains a forceful presence -- a warrior. On this visit to the nation's capital, Means was, per usual, fighting the United States of America. Along with three other Lakota Indians, he had recently severed his ties with the United States and declared himself a founding member of a new, autonomous nation -- the Republic of Lakotah. Unsanctioned by their tribal government, and speaking only for themselves, the dissidents claimed dominion over more than 93,000 square miles of traditional Lakota territory -- a continuous chunk of sparsely populated dry land that includes parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming....
Agricultural Policy: The Seen and the Unseen The full long-run effects of any government program are never known in advance. To illustrate, consider U.S. farm policies. A host of “emergency” agricultural programs were enacted by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Although the particulars of these programs have undergone numerous changes since then, the fundamental functions and impacts of many of them remain intact even though economic conditions bear little resemblance to those of the 1930s. The New Deal programs have proven to be not only persistent, but also profligate and regressive. In recent years, more than half of all direct government farm payments have gone to the 10 percent of farms with incomes of $250,000 or more. This is not likely to change in the new farm bill. Farmers, if married, will be eligible for subsidies if their annual incomes are as high as $1.5 million. Perennial government aid to farmers with such income levels was not foreseen when farm programs were initiated! The unforeseen consequences of U.S. farm policy may be even more important in programs for specific crops. For example, the price support program for sugar restricts imports and (in some recent years) domestic production. The program increases the domestic sugar price, often to levels more than double the world price. When the sugar program began, who could have foreseen that a major corporation, Archer-Daniels-Midland Corporation (ADM), would become a major beneficiary? Although ADM does not produce sugar, it has reaped huge benefits from artificially high U.S. sugar prices, which increase demand for (and thus increase the price of) sugar substitutes. ADM is a major producer of high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sugar substitute whose production became economical largely because of the price umbrella offered by the sugar program....
Animal-Rights Farm Should apes be treated like people? Under a resolution headed for passage in the Spanish parliament, respecting the personal rights of "our non-human brothers" won't just be a good idea. It'll be the law. The resolution, approved last week by a parliamentary committee with broad support, urges the government to implement the agenda of the Great Ape Project, an organization whose founding declaration says apes "may not be killed" or "arbitrarily deprived of their liberty." No more routine confinement. According to Reuters, the proposal would commit the government to ending involuntary use of apes in circuses, TV ads, and dangerous experiments. Proponents hail the resolution as the first crack in the "species barrier." Peter Singer, the philosopher who co-founded GAP, puts it this way: "There is no sound moral reason why possession of basic rights should be limited to members of a particular species." If aliens or monkeys are shown to have moral or intellectual abilities similar to ours, we should treat them like people....
Republican buoyed by calls for energy exploration A top U.S. Republican cited on Monday a surge in support among liberals for increased energy exploration as a reason why the Democratic-led Congress may act soon to allow expanded drilling in the United States. President George W. Bush and many Republicans in Congress support opening up drilling as a way of taming high gasoline prices, which have hit a record $4.11 a gallon. Democrats in Congress, however, have been looking at controlling oil speculation as well advocating greater conservation. "There's clearly a dramatic shift across the ideological divide in America in favor of producing more energy here at home," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. "I can't imagine that the majority (Democrats in Congress) is going to ignore that indefinitely," McConnell added....
New Cars in California Must Display Global Warming Score California is making it mandatory for cars to be labeled with global warming scores, figures that take into account emissions from vehicle use and fuel production.The law requiring the labels goes into effect at the start of next year for all 2009 model cars, though its expected the labels will be popping up on cars in the coming months.The labeling law forces cars for sale to display a global warming score, on a scale of one to 10, which is based on how vehicles in the same model year compare to one another. The higher the score, the cleaner a car is. The score takes into account emissions related to production of fuel for each vehicle as well as the direct emissions from vehicles.The score will be displayed next to the already-required smog score, which also rates cars one to 10 for how many smog-forming emissions they emit. For both scores, an average vehicle will have a score of five.California is the first state of pass such as law, and a similar law will take effect in New York for 2010 model year vehicles....
Official: Feds should consider Rainbow Family ban The U.S. Forest Service should consider banning the Rainbow Family from Forest Service land after a confrontation last week led to the arrest of at least eight people, a top agency official said Monday. John Twiss, director of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations in Washington, D.C., said he was among the officers who responded when Rainbow Family members threw sticks and rocks at federal officers. The confrontation started when officers tried to arrest a member of the Rainbow group for an alleged drug offense. Twiss characterized the Rainbow participants as "non-compromising," "arrogant" and "anti-authority." He said this year's episode and other disturbances at recent gatherings should prompt a review of whether Rainbow Family events are allowed. "I think we have to have that discussion within the agency," Twiss said. "We spend an awful lot of time and effort on these people. And frankly, the taxpayers deserve better."....
Montana greens to loggers: Come back! For decades now, the green extreme has argued the industries that develop the nation's natural resources for commercial use ought to be forced off the West's "public" lands. And they didn't much care which tactic did the job. If sawmills could be shut down and whole towns thrown out of work to supposedly "protect" the spotted owl or some other creature -- or even some small local populace of a species found in abundance elsewhere -- that effort was "good to go." In Missoula, Mont., the environmental extremists appear to have pretty much won that battle. The Plum Creek Timber Company still owns 8 million acres of mostly forested land nationwide, including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana. But they don't cut trees on a lot of that land now. Instead, the former logging company has turned into "a real estate investment trust," The Washington Post reports. And what do real estate investment trusts do with forested land if it's no longer judged politically or economically rewarding to cut the trees for lumber? Are the environmentalists happy that they've finally convinced the loggers to do something else with those lands? What do you think?....
Public prompts changes in roadless plan Nearly 140,000 people have weighed in since January on a proposed rule for managing the more than 9.3 million acres of roadless backcountry in Idaho and the U.S. Forest Service says the comments have prompted it to make changes in the proposal. The Forest Service released a summary Thursday of public comments collected during a four-month period that ended in April. It's all part of the lengthy process of deciding how Idaho's roadless areas and other untouched lands will be managed, preserved or opened to logging and other uses. Changes to the proposed rule, stemming from public concerns, include better definitions of where road construction and tree removal is allowed in the case of threatening fire activity, said Brad Gilbert, the Forest Service's team leader on the proposed Idaho roadless plan. Other changes included strengthening protections on lands in the Boulder and White Clouds mountains of central Idaho, Gilbert said, as well as loosening restrictions in forests where road-building and tree removal has been allowed in the past. "We're making quite a few modifications to the rule based on those comments," Gilbert said....
Preparedness under fire: Federal firefighting system understaffed, report shows The federal firefighting system is "imploding" in California, due to poor spending decisions and high job vacancy rates, as the region struggles to keep pace with what looks to be a historic fire season, a firefighters' advocacy group charges. As a result, the firefighters say, small fires have exploded into extended, multimillion-dollar conflagrations because the U.S. Forest Service has been unable to contain them during the early "initial attack" stage. "The federal fire system is imploding in California. They are crossing their fingers and just hoping they get through the season without a disaster," said Casey Judd, who represents government firefighters from five agencies through the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association. As the "sheer number" of California wildfires pushed the nation to its worst measurable level of wildland-fire preparedness last week — Level 5 — a national multiagency coordinating group announced in a memo Monday that firefighter staffing levels in Northern California "cannot be maintained." Of all the agencies battling California wildland fires — including the region's two largest, the Indians and Basin fires in Monterey County's Los Padres National Forest — it is U.S. Forest Service crews that suffer the highest vacancy rates, entering this year's season with an estimated shortage of 500 firefighters, Judd said....
Rodent plague threatens ferrets The area of plague-infected black-tailed prairie dogs has more than doubled in western South Dakota since mid-May, and the disease could begin to seriously hurt the state's population of endangered black-footed ferrets. Plague is almost always fatal to infected prairie dogs and has killed a large number of the rodents, wildlife experts said. Black-footed ferrets hunt and dine almost exclusively on prairie dogs. "When ferrets eat an infected prairie dog, they'll get a massive dose" of plague, said Kevin Atchley, Wall District ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. "It's likely that some ferrets have perished." The infected area has bloomed from 4,000 acres to 9,100 acres as of last week, Atchley said. Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease, also known as bubonic plague, spread through the West after it appeared in San Francisco in 1902....
Enviros seek options to fight Roan drilling As the clock counts down for the planned lease of the top of the Roan Plateau for natural gas drilling, environmentalists are pinning their hopes on the courts, Congress and administrative actions to delay or block it. Gov. Bill Ritter, who has criticized the Bureau of Land Management plan and offered his own alternative, said his office does not plan to protest the Aug. 14 leases formally. Ritter said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., is working on including his plan in the defense authorization bill pending in the Senate. Salazar, who also attended the event, confirmed that he is trying to submit legislation to make Ritter’s plan law before the lease sale. Environmentalists say none of those plans goes far enough to preserve the surface of the Roan Plateau, which has become a key battleground in the fight between energy development and environmental protection on public lands in the West. They are preparing to file a lawsuit arguing that the BLM failed to address the environmental and fiscal impacts of its plan adequately, and will ask a U.S. district court in Denver to block the leases until the lawsuit is resolved. Environmentalists are also planning to file a written protest of all the leases on top of the Roan, a move likely to delay any drilling, if not the actual issuing of the leases. According to BLM rules, no leasing can take place until the protests are resolved....
Suit attacks relocation effort Two environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the Army and the Bureau of Land Management alleging that proper environmental studies were not conducted before nearly 800 desert tortoises were relocated for Fort Irwin's expansion. The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors, which filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, allege the federally endangered tortoises were moved to inferior habitat that included numerous roads and pockets of diseased tortoises. They also allege that illegal off-roading and dumping occurs at the site east of the Calico Mountains and south of Coyote Lake. "It's time to overhaul Fort Irwin's disastrous tortoise relocation program," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a news release. "Though we can't stop the fort's expansion, we can ensure that the relocation of these rare animals is done right." The National Training Center and Fort Irwin initiated the tortoise relocation efforts in order to expand its borders to train soldiers being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress authorized the expansion in 2001, and the Army has spent more than $8.5 million on research and relocation of the tortoises....
Noisy national parks A lot of us seek out national parks to absorb that careful balance of natural sounds and breathtaking quiet. And even though the parks get more popular every year, we can usually find our silent spot — at least until a jet comes roaring overhead or an engine hums in the distance. But we might have to get used to it: America's flagship national parks are getting louder and louder, according to the Park Service's "natural sounds" office. Yes, the National Park Service actually has a "natural sounds" office, based in Ft. Collins, CO, dedicated to preserving the natural noises of a park — like howling wolves, roaring waterfalls, and even music from sanctioned events. They've discovered intrusive noises are among the things that annoy national park visitors most, and noise becomes a central concern for issues like helicopter tours over the Grand Canyon or snowmobiles in Yellowstone. Extraneous noise also interferes with wildlife, making it harder for animals to hear predators and generally raising their stress levels. The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees maintains a list of particularly threatened parks....
National Park Service impresses online with WebRangers site The National Park Service is reaching out to kids with an innovative Web site that gets them excited about visiting our nation's parklands before they've even left home. WebRangers, a program managed by the NPS Division of Interpretation and Education at http://www.nps.gov/webrangers/ is the recently added online companion to the Park Service's successful "Junior Ranger" program. Every year, over 450,000 children take part in Junior Ranger activities at one of the 290 national parks, where they can explore nature, learn about U.S. history, and take part in each park's special activities designed to really get their hands dirty. WebRangers enables children across the country and around the globe to explore the parks from the comfort of their couch---with the hope that they will be inspired to slip on a pair of hiking boots and go visit one....
Yellowstone fires 20 years later: National attention brought sensational coverage Twenty years ago, Bob Ekey couldn't believe what he was seeing on television. Just outside his room at the Three Bears Lodge in West Yellowstone, a CNN reporter was broadcasting live that ash from fires burning in Yellowstone National Park was falling as he spoke. It was snow. “I wanted to go out and tackle the guy,” said Ekey, a Billings Gazette reporter covering the 1988 fires. “He sensationalized an already sensational story.” Most of the fires started outside the park in May and June. Media interest in the fires was local. “This was a regional story with small national interest until it kicked into August,” said Al Nash, the Yellowstone National Park spokesman, who in 1988 was news director at a Billings television station. “The networks and big newspapers weren't here until August.” By that time, some of the park's treasured places, such as Old Faithful Inn, were threatened, and national news crews poured in. Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis even made an appearance in West Yellowstone, declaring that the event was the only game in town. But according to accounts, some members of the national media were clueless about the restorative role of fire....
Yellowstone fires 20 years later: Back after the burn In a spot severely burned by the 1988 North Fork fire, a National Park Service interpretive sign notes that the area surrounding the boardwalk may be a meadow for decades. Instead, spring-green lodgepole pine trees up to 15 feet high have taken root across the hillside. The sign points out the misconceptions held by many after the 1988 fires burned almost one-third of Yellowstone National Park - that the landscape would take a long time to rejuvenate, that meadows might replace forests in some places and that some soils were so badly burned they were sterilized and no plants could take root. “There's just a lot of myth around the fires that's taken for truth,” said Don Despain, 67, a retired fire ecologist who worked in the park in 1988. “All of (the theories) have been proved wrong. By 1988, I knew that those were not true. The '81, '79 and '76 fires were just as hot as 1988.” During the summer of 1988, when 794,000 acres of Yellowstone burned, Despain was criticized for advocating fire as a natural part of the northern Rocky Mountains' ecology. He helped write Yellowstone's first fire management plan in 1972, which allowed naturally ignited fires to burn in two areas. By 1975, the policy was updated to allow natural fires in all but developed areas. “Fire in a forest that's dependent on fire, it's not destructive, it's recycling itself,” said Bob Barbee, Yellowstone superintendent in 1988. “It's a fact of life, like rain and sunshine.” Barbee wrote Yosemite National Park's first natural resource management plan, which included the use of prescribed fires, or fires set intentionally to burn fuels and reduce the risk of larger, more destructive blazes. Unfortunately for the Park Service, the summer of 1988 proved to be unusual. A dry spring was followed by a drier-than-usual July accompanied by lightning storms and high winds. Initially, lightning-caused fires were allowed to burn in remote areas, but by July 21, as seven fires burned in Yellowstone, federal officials ordered full suppression of all fires....
Yellowstone fires 20 years later: Foliage regrowth defied forecast Within days of the fires, new grasses and plants like fireweed had sprouted. Lodgepole pines - which produce conventional pine cones and also serotinous cones that release seeds only when exposed to great heat - dispersed from 15,000 to 2 million seeds per acre. An average of 2,000 to 12,000 later germinated in each acre. About 24 percent of the park's whitebark pine forest burned, but by 1995, whitebark pine seedlings had been found in every one of 275 study plots established to chart regrowth after the fire. “We were very concerned about the spread of non-native vegetation in the burned areas,” Renkin said. But besides Canada thistle - a temporary post-fire success thanks to its small, wind-borne seeds and deep roots - few invasive species took hold in significant numbers. That first winter was a stark, black-and-white portrait of burned trees and snow, Renkin said, but the following summer brought “the greatest wildflower show ever.” “Boom! The purple lupine came out. Then the daisies would come on,” he said. After widespread news reports on the fires, throngs of curious people showed up the next summer, and 1989 was the busiest year of the decade. Some predicted a grim future for the park, especially along a 660-acre site known as Blowdown, accessible from the road between Norris Junction and Canyon Village....
Ways and Means Over four decades, Russell Means has led an insurrection, posed for Andy Warhol, aspired to be an assassin and been arguably the most influential public figure in fighting racism against the American Indian. Now, in his quest to start his own country, the road to success might run down Embassy Row. Means's life has been something like a Johnny Cash song. He has done prison time for inciting a riot, and has been stabbed, accused of murder, hit by two bullets and divorced four times. Long ago, he was a fancy dance champion and a rodeo star. Even now, at age 68, he remains a forceful presence -- a warrior. On this visit to the nation's capital, Means was, per usual, fighting the United States of America. Along with three other Lakota Indians, he had recently severed his ties with the United States and declared himself a founding member of a new, autonomous nation -- the Republic of Lakotah. Unsanctioned by their tribal government, and speaking only for themselves, the dissidents claimed dominion over more than 93,000 square miles of traditional Lakota territory -- a continuous chunk of sparsely populated dry land that includes parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming....
Agricultural Policy: The Seen and the Unseen The full long-run effects of any government program are never known in advance. To illustrate, consider U.S. farm policies. A host of “emergency” agricultural programs were enacted by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Although the particulars of these programs have undergone numerous changes since then, the fundamental functions and impacts of many of them remain intact even though economic conditions bear little resemblance to those of the 1930s. The New Deal programs have proven to be not only persistent, but also profligate and regressive. In recent years, more than half of all direct government farm payments have gone to the 10 percent of farms with incomes of $250,000 or more. This is not likely to change in the new farm bill. Farmers, if married, will be eligible for subsidies if their annual incomes are as high as $1.5 million. Perennial government aid to farmers with such income levels was not foreseen when farm programs were initiated! The unforeseen consequences of U.S. farm policy may be even more important in programs for specific crops. For example, the price support program for sugar restricts imports and (in some recent years) domestic production. The program increases the domestic sugar price, often to levels more than double the world price. When the sugar program began, who could have foreseen that a major corporation, Archer-Daniels-Midland Corporation (ADM), would become a major beneficiary? Although ADM does not produce sugar, it has reaped huge benefits from artificially high U.S. sugar prices, which increase demand for (and thus increase the price of) sugar substitutes. ADM is a major producer of high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sugar substitute whose production became economical largely because of the price umbrella offered by the sugar program....
Animal-Rights Farm Should apes be treated like people? Under a resolution headed for passage in the Spanish parliament, respecting the personal rights of "our non-human brothers" won't just be a good idea. It'll be the law. The resolution, approved last week by a parliamentary committee with broad support, urges the government to implement the agenda of the Great Ape Project, an organization whose founding declaration says apes "may not be killed" or "arbitrarily deprived of their liberty." No more routine confinement. According to Reuters, the proposal would commit the government to ending involuntary use of apes in circuses, TV ads, and dangerous experiments. Proponents hail the resolution as the first crack in the "species barrier." Peter Singer, the philosopher who co-founded GAP, puts it this way: "There is no sound moral reason why possession of basic rights should be limited to members of a particular species." If aliens or monkeys are shown to have moral or intellectual abilities similar to ours, we should treat them like people....
Republican buoyed by calls for energy exploration A top U.S. Republican cited on Monday a surge in support among liberals for increased energy exploration as a reason why the Democratic-led Congress may act soon to allow expanded drilling in the United States. President George W. Bush and many Republicans in Congress support opening up drilling as a way of taming high gasoline prices, which have hit a record $4.11 a gallon. Democrats in Congress, however, have been looking at controlling oil speculation as well advocating greater conservation. "There's clearly a dramatic shift across the ideological divide in America in favor of producing more energy here at home," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. "I can't imagine that the majority (Democrats in Congress) is going to ignore that indefinitely," McConnell added....
New Cars in California Must Display Global Warming Score California is making it mandatory for cars to be labeled with global warming scores, figures that take into account emissions from vehicle use and fuel production.The law requiring the labels goes into effect at the start of next year for all 2009 model cars, though its expected the labels will be popping up on cars in the coming months.The labeling law forces cars for sale to display a global warming score, on a scale of one to 10, which is based on how vehicles in the same model year compare to one another. The higher the score, the cleaner a car is. The score takes into account emissions related to production of fuel for each vehicle as well as the direct emissions from vehicles.The score will be displayed next to the already-required smog score, which also rates cars one to 10 for how many smog-forming emissions they emit. For both scores, an average vehicle will have a score of five.California is the first state of pass such as law, and a similar law will take effect in New York for 2010 model year vehicles....
Official: Feds should consider Rainbow Family ban The U.S. Forest Service should consider banning the Rainbow Family from Forest Service land after a confrontation last week led to the arrest of at least eight people, a top agency official said Monday. John Twiss, director of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations in Washington, D.C., said he was among the officers who responded when Rainbow Family members threw sticks and rocks at federal officers. The confrontation started when officers tried to arrest a member of the Rainbow group for an alleged drug offense. Twiss characterized the Rainbow participants as "non-compromising," "arrogant" and "anti-authority." He said this year's episode and other disturbances at recent gatherings should prompt a review of whether Rainbow Family events are allowed. "I think we have to have that discussion within the agency," Twiss said. "We spend an awful lot of time and effort on these people. And frankly, the taxpayers deserve better."....
Montana greens to loggers: Come back! For decades now, the green extreme has argued the industries that develop the nation's natural resources for commercial use ought to be forced off the West's "public" lands. And they didn't much care which tactic did the job. If sawmills could be shut down and whole towns thrown out of work to supposedly "protect" the spotted owl or some other creature -- or even some small local populace of a species found in abundance elsewhere -- that effort was "good to go." In Missoula, Mont., the environmental extremists appear to have pretty much won that battle. The Plum Creek Timber Company still owns 8 million acres of mostly forested land nationwide, including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana. But they don't cut trees on a lot of that land now. Instead, the former logging company has turned into "a real estate investment trust," The Washington Post reports. And what do real estate investment trusts do with forested land if it's no longer judged politically or economically rewarding to cut the trees for lumber? Are the environmentalists happy that they've finally convinced the loggers to do something else with those lands? What do you think?....
Public prompts changes in roadless plan Nearly 140,000 people have weighed in since January on a proposed rule for managing the more than 9.3 million acres of roadless backcountry in Idaho and the U.S. Forest Service says the comments have prompted it to make changes in the proposal. The Forest Service released a summary Thursday of public comments collected during a four-month period that ended in April. It's all part of the lengthy process of deciding how Idaho's roadless areas and other untouched lands will be managed, preserved or opened to logging and other uses. Changes to the proposed rule, stemming from public concerns, include better definitions of where road construction and tree removal is allowed in the case of threatening fire activity, said Brad Gilbert, the Forest Service's team leader on the proposed Idaho roadless plan. Other changes included strengthening protections on lands in the Boulder and White Clouds mountains of central Idaho, Gilbert said, as well as loosening restrictions in forests where road-building and tree removal has been allowed in the past. "We're making quite a few modifications to the rule based on those comments," Gilbert said....
Preparedness under fire: Federal firefighting system understaffed, report shows The federal firefighting system is "imploding" in California, due to poor spending decisions and high job vacancy rates, as the region struggles to keep pace with what looks to be a historic fire season, a firefighters' advocacy group charges. As a result, the firefighters say, small fires have exploded into extended, multimillion-dollar conflagrations because the U.S. Forest Service has been unable to contain them during the early "initial attack" stage. "The federal fire system is imploding in California. They are crossing their fingers and just hoping they get through the season without a disaster," said Casey Judd, who represents government firefighters from five agencies through the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association. As the "sheer number" of California wildfires pushed the nation to its worst measurable level of wildland-fire preparedness last week — Level 5 — a national multiagency coordinating group announced in a memo Monday that firefighter staffing levels in Northern California "cannot be maintained." Of all the agencies battling California wildland fires — including the region's two largest, the Indians and Basin fires in Monterey County's Los Padres National Forest — it is U.S. Forest Service crews that suffer the highest vacancy rates, entering this year's season with an estimated shortage of 500 firefighters, Judd said....
Rodent plague threatens ferrets The area of plague-infected black-tailed prairie dogs has more than doubled in western South Dakota since mid-May, and the disease could begin to seriously hurt the state's population of endangered black-footed ferrets. Plague is almost always fatal to infected prairie dogs and has killed a large number of the rodents, wildlife experts said. Black-footed ferrets hunt and dine almost exclusively on prairie dogs. "When ferrets eat an infected prairie dog, they'll get a massive dose" of plague, said Kevin Atchley, Wall District ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. "It's likely that some ferrets have perished." The infected area has bloomed from 4,000 acres to 9,100 acres as of last week, Atchley said. Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease, also known as bubonic plague, spread through the West after it appeared in San Francisco in 1902....
Enviros seek options to fight Roan drilling As the clock counts down for the planned lease of the top of the Roan Plateau for natural gas drilling, environmentalists are pinning their hopes on the courts, Congress and administrative actions to delay or block it. Gov. Bill Ritter, who has criticized the Bureau of Land Management plan and offered his own alternative, said his office does not plan to protest the Aug. 14 leases formally. Ritter said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., is working on including his plan in the defense authorization bill pending in the Senate. Salazar, who also attended the event, confirmed that he is trying to submit legislation to make Ritter’s plan law before the lease sale. Environmentalists say none of those plans goes far enough to preserve the surface of the Roan Plateau, which has become a key battleground in the fight between energy development and environmental protection on public lands in the West. They are preparing to file a lawsuit arguing that the BLM failed to address the environmental and fiscal impacts of its plan adequately, and will ask a U.S. district court in Denver to block the leases until the lawsuit is resolved. Environmentalists are also planning to file a written protest of all the leases on top of the Roan, a move likely to delay any drilling, if not the actual issuing of the leases. According to BLM rules, no leasing can take place until the protests are resolved....
Suit attacks relocation effort Two environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the Army and the Bureau of Land Management alleging that proper environmental studies were not conducted before nearly 800 desert tortoises were relocated for Fort Irwin's expansion. The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors, which filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, allege the federally endangered tortoises were moved to inferior habitat that included numerous roads and pockets of diseased tortoises. They also allege that illegal off-roading and dumping occurs at the site east of the Calico Mountains and south of Coyote Lake. "It's time to overhaul Fort Irwin's disastrous tortoise relocation program," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a news release. "Though we can't stop the fort's expansion, we can ensure that the relocation of these rare animals is done right." The National Training Center and Fort Irwin initiated the tortoise relocation efforts in order to expand its borders to train soldiers being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress authorized the expansion in 2001, and the Army has spent more than $8.5 million on research and relocation of the tortoises....
Noisy national parks A lot of us seek out national parks to absorb that careful balance of natural sounds and breathtaking quiet. And even though the parks get more popular every year, we can usually find our silent spot — at least until a jet comes roaring overhead or an engine hums in the distance. But we might have to get used to it: America's flagship national parks are getting louder and louder, according to the Park Service's "natural sounds" office. Yes, the National Park Service actually has a "natural sounds" office, based in Ft. Collins, CO, dedicated to preserving the natural noises of a park — like howling wolves, roaring waterfalls, and even music from sanctioned events. They've discovered intrusive noises are among the things that annoy national park visitors most, and noise becomes a central concern for issues like helicopter tours over the Grand Canyon or snowmobiles in Yellowstone. Extraneous noise also interferes with wildlife, making it harder for animals to hear predators and generally raising their stress levels. The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees maintains a list of particularly threatened parks....
National Park Service impresses online with WebRangers site The National Park Service is reaching out to kids with an innovative Web site that gets them excited about visiting our nation's parklands before they've even left home. WebRangers, a program managed by the NPS Division of Interpretation and Education at http://www.nps.gov/webrangers/ is the recently added online companion to the Park Service's successful "Junior Ranger" program. Every year, over 450,000 children take part in Junior Ranger activities at one of the 290 national parks, where they can explore nature, learn about U.S. history, and take part in each park's special activities designed to really get their hands dirty. WebRangers enables children across the country and around the globe to explore the parks from the comfort of their couch---with the hope that they will be inspired to slip on a pair of hiking boots and go visit one....
Yellowstone fires 20 years later: National attention brought sensational coverage Twenty years ago, Bob Ekey couldn't believe what he was seeing on television. Just outside his room at the Three Bears Lodge in West Yellowstone, a CNN reporter was broadcasting live that ash from fires burning in Yellowstone National Park was falling as he spoke. It was snow. “I wanted to go out and tackle the guy,” said Ekey, a Billings Gazette reporter covering the 1988 fires. “He sensationalized an already sensational story.” Most of the fires started outside the park in May and June. Media interest in the fires was local. “This was a regional story with small national interest until it kicked into August,” said Al Nash, the Yellowstone National Park spokesman, who in 1988 was news director at a Billings television station. “The networks and big newspapers weren't here until August.” By that time, some of the park's treasured places, such as Old Faithful Inn, were threatened, and national news crews poured in. Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis even made an appearance in West Yellowstone, declaring that the event was the only game in town. But according to accounts, some members of the national media were clueless about the restorative role of fire....
Yellowstone fires 20 years later: Back after the burn In a spot severely burned by the 1988 North Fork fire, a National Park Service interpretive sign notes that the area surrounding the boardwalk may be a meadow for decades. Instead, spring-green lodgepole pine trees up to 15 feet high have taken root across the hillside. The sign points out the misconceptions held by many after the 1988 fires burned almost one-third of Yellowstone National Park - that the landscape would take a long time to rejuvenate, that meadows might replace forests in some places and that some soils were so badly burned they were sterilized and no plants could take root. “There's just a lot of myth around the fires that's taken for truth,” said Don Despain, 67, a retired fire ecologist who worked in the park in 1988. “All of (the theories) have been proved wrong. By 1988, I knew that those were not true. The '81, '79 and '76 fires were just as hot as 1988.” During the summer of 1988, when 794,000 acres of Yellowstone burned, Despain was criticized for advocating fire as a natural part of the northern Rocky Mountains' ecology. He helped write Yellowstone's first fire management plan in 1972, which allowed naturally ignited fires to burn in two areas. By 1975, the policy was updated to allow natural fires in all but developed areas. “Fire in a forest that's dependent on fire, it's not destructive, it's recycling itself,” said Bob Barbee, Yellowstone superintendent in 1988. “It's a fact of life, like rain and sunshine.” Barbee wrote Yosemite National Park's first natural resource management plan, which included the use of prescribed fires, or fires set intentionally to burn fuels and reduce the risk of larger, more destructive blazes. Unfortunately for the Park Service, the summer of 1988 proved to be unusual. A dry spring was followed by a drier-than-usual July accompanied by lightning storms and high winds. Initially, lightning-caused fires were allowed to burn in remote areas, but by July 21, as seven fires burned in Yellowstone, federal officials ordered full suppression of all fires....
Yellowstone fires 20 years later: Foliage regrowth defied forecast Within days of the fires, new grasses and plants like fireweed had sprouted. Lodgepole pines - which produce conventional pine cones and also serotinous cones that release seeds only when exposed to great heat - dispersed from 15,000 to 2 million seeds per acre. An average of 2,000 to 12,000 later germinated in each acre. About 24 percent of the park's whitebark pine forest burned, but by 1995, whitebark pine seedlings had been found in every one of 275 study plots established to chart regrowth after the fire. “We were very concerned about the spread of non-native vegetation in the burned areas,” Renkin said. But besides Canada thistle - a temporary post-fire success thanks to its small, wind-borne seeds and deep roots - few invasive species took hold in significant numbers. That first winter was a stark, black-and-white portrait of burned trees and snow, Renkin said, but the following summer brought “the greatest wildflower show ever.” “Boom! The purple lupine came out. Then the daisies would come on,” he said. After widespread news reports on the fires, throngs of curious people showed up the next summer, and 1989 was the busiest year of the decade. Some predicted a grim future for the park, especially along a 660-acre site known as Blowdown, accessible from the road between Norris Junction and Canyon Village....
Monday, July 07, 2008
Biofuels behind food price hikes: leaked World Bank report Biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent, according to the findings of an unpublished World Bank report published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday. The daily said the report was finished in April but was not published to avoid embarrassing the US government, which has claimed plant-derived fuels have pushed up prices by only three percent. Biofuels, which supporters claim are a "greener" alternative to using fossil fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, and rising food prices will be on the agenda when G8 leaders meet in Japan next week for their annual summit. The report's author, a senior World Bank economist, assessed that contrary to claims by US President George W. Bush, increased demand from India and China has not been the cause of rising food prices. "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases," the report said. Droughts in Australia have also not had a significant impact, it added. Instead, European and US drives for greater use of biofuels has had the biggest effect....
9th Circuit: Judges shouldn't act as scientists An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it's improper for federal judges to act as scientists when weighing in on disputed U.S. Forest Service timber projects. Timber industry lobbyists and Forest Service officials called the unanimous ruling overturning a challenge to a northern Idaho logging sale significant, partly because it emerged from a court often seen as favorable to environmental groups. In the ruling released Wednesday, the judges dumped a July 2007 decision by a three-judge 9th Circuit panel that halted the Mission Brush timber sale in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Environmental groups The Lands Council, based in Spokane, Wash., and the Wild West Institute, in Missoula, Mont., contended the Forest Service's logging plan exceeded what was needed to restore the forest's historic character and claimed logging would harm the region's ecosystem for species including small, migratory owls. The ruling also overturns a 2005 9th Circuit decision in which judges concluded the Forest Service's approval of logging in burned areas of western Montana's Lolo National Forest was based on an arbitrary and capricious environmental analysis. U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, called this "the most important decision involving a Forest Service environmental case in the last two decades," saying it restores the ability of federal agencies, not meddling judges, to exercise discretion over timber sales. "The judges established a much more limited framework for judicial review of Forest Service decisions - a framework that's much more consistent with the standard use by other circuits," Rey told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The court says its role is not to act as a panel of scientists. They wanted to move back to a more appropriate role." Timber industry representatives said this will help stop judges from asserting their opinions over the decisions of Forest Service managers....
High gas prices threaten to shut down rural towns The price of gas isn't an annoyance here. It's a calamity. Peggy Hanley uses a generator that burns a gallon of diesel fuel every hour — at about $5 a gallon— to power Forks General Store, the only place to buy groceries for miles around. There's no electric service, so Hanley, the owner, uses the generator to run eight refrigerators, nine freezers, lights and two ice machines for the store, which has been in a trailer since a fire destroyed the original building in 1994. There are no utilities and no public transportation in this unincorporated town of a couple hundred people along a narrow road that winds through the mountains 314 miles north of Sacramento. Many people here buy gas for their vehicles and gas or diesel for generators that power their homes. "I'm scared to death" of rising fuel prices, Hanley says. At the store, the hub for visiting whitewater rafters and residents of other isolated towns, gas cost $5.30 a gallon on a recent day when the national average was $4.07. This community may be an extreme example of how rising gas prices are hitting rural Americans particularly hard, but people in small towns from Maine to Alaska are in a similar bind as those here. Soaring gasoline prices are a double whammy for many rural residents: They often pay more than people who live in cities and suburbs because of the expense of hauling fuel to their communities, and they must drive greater distances for life's necessities: work, groceries, medical care and, of course, gas....
Utah-Nevada water standoff quiet, fierce On moonless nights here in the Utah-Nevada borderlands of Snake Valley, the naked eye can see five planets, countless stars and the great swath of the Milky Way. Climb the hill to Great Basin National Park and one can see the nighttime glow of Las Vegas, whose leaders say their sprawling city must have the water under Snake Valley - or wither and die. And they are coming for it, making plans for a 285-mile pipeline to tap the aquifer that stretches from Salt Lake City to Death Valley and take the water south. At the same time, Utah wants to build a pipeline on Lake Powell to suck up Colorado River water and send it northward to growing desert communities before it gets anywhere near Glitter Gulch. For now, the two driest states in the nation are in a quiet standoff, fitfully negotiating or scuffing lines in the sand. Eventually, though, the outcome of this tale of two pipelines, begun with an agreement struck 86 years ago to share the Colorado and now groaning under rapid population growth and climate distress, could shake the foundations of Western water law....
Bridger Fire fuels distrust of Army One sign of the distrust between the Army and the ranchers around the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site is that weeks after the Bridger Fire was extinguished, questions remain about how Fort Carson personnel managed the 48,500-acre fire that burned for two weeks on the training site and spread onto private lands. "Did they throw all the resources at the fire that they could have? Nobody will know that because in the first days, the Army didn't tell anybody what was going on," said Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. "I know people first spotted smoke on the training site on (June 9)." Robertson also is a firefighter with the Kim volunteer department and he said the rural fire departments at Hoehne, Branson, Springfield and elsewhere rely on each other for help when the summer wildfire season begins. La Junta Fire Chief Aaron Eveatt said his department largely was kept in the dark about what was happening with the Bridger Fire until the Type II incident team took over. The Forest Service incident teams, made up of veteran wildfire managers, are accustomed to dealing with big fires, the public, the news media and local communities when they arrive at a blaze. "I don't want to second-guess how another department fought a fire, but it was like night and day after the Type II team arrived," Eveatt said. "That's when we were notified to be on standby to protect residences on private land."....
Legacy of UT's oil wealth: a denuded landscape Investors appealed to the patron saint of impossible causes when oil drilling began on University of Texas System land in 1921. It didn't hurt. Santa Rita No. 1 blew in on May 28, 1923, after rose petals blessed by a priest were scattered from the top of the derrick at the behest of some Catholic women in New York who had purchased shares in the Texon Oil and Land Co., which drilled that first well. Since then, the UT System's 2.1 million acres in West Texas have produced $4.4 billion in royalty payments and other mineral income for the Permanent University Fund, an endowment that supports the UT and Texas A&M University systems. But this long-running bonanza for higher education exacted a price from the remote, semiarid landscape where it all began. Millions of barrels of salt water, a byproduct of oil and natural gas production, contaminated 11 square miles, or more than 7,000 acres, killing virtually all vegetation and leaving the land vulnerable to wind and water erosion. Hundreds of mesquite stumps with three feet of exposed roots testify to the dramatic loss of topsoil....
Focus on elk as disease persists near Yellowstone Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area. Government agencies have killed more than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone over the last two decades in an attempt to contain brucellosis, which causes pregnant cattle to abort their young. Cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades are being infected, and livestock officials in both states are now targeting elk as the cause. "We've got way too many elk," said John Scully, a rancher living in Montana's Madison Valley. "Clearly with so many elk, the risk rises. We need to reduce their numbers." A tentative proposal, drafted by federal officials, sets a goal of eliminating the disease — not just controlling it in bison and in elk. Livestock officials say infected elk herds around Yellowstone must be culled — an explosive proposition for a prized big game species that has thrived under the protection of a dedicated constituency of hunting groups. Nevertheless, pressure is mounting to kill or capture more of the animals....
Cattle Fever Ticks Lay Claim To A Million Acres In Texas The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) marked an ominous anniversary July 3 by expanding the preventive cattle fever tick quarantine area in south Texas by 307,000 acres, after the dangerous livestock pests were detected on cattle outside quarantine areas in Starr and Zapata counties. Fever ticks, capable of carrying and transmitting deadly “tick fever” to cattle, have been detected on livestock or wildlife on 139 Texas pastures during the past 12 months. “In July 2007, the first preventive quarantine was established-39,325 acres in Starr County-to enable the US. Department of Agriculture’s Tick Force and the TAHC to inspect and treat livestock moved from the area, get ahead of the fever tick and push it back across the quarantine line,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and head of the Texas Animal Health Commission, the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. “Now, a year later, we have more than a million acres under preventive quarantines in Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties, in addition to the half-million acres in the permanent fever tick quarantine zone that runs alongside the Rio Grande, from Del Rio to Brownsville.”....
Weak horses sent to Mexico to be slaughtered The traders at Dallas County's half-filled horse auction knew the fate of their scrawny thoroughbreds even before they herded them into the ring. And it wasn't to go back to the ranch. The ones with visible backbones and skin stretched over their ribs – at least half of the 36 horses for sale – would probably end up in Mexico, where money can still be made off horse slaughter. Texas horse traders say it's the best solution to the combined wallop of forced American slaughterhouse closures last year and one of the worst horse markets in history. "We don't have anywhere to move them, and they're starving to death," said Steven Oden, a horse trader from Terrell whose prize horses once sold for $8,000 but now go for $800. Breeders, ranchers and cowboys are struggling to continue a livelihood that extends generations. The closure of the kill plants coupled with the rising price of hay and fuel means rising numbers of horses with dwindling funds to care for them. Horse owners say they're left with little option but to sell their horses to a "killer buyer," or trader who buys the horses at a reduced price and takes them to Mexico for slaughter. About 25,000 horses have been shipped to Mexico for slaughter this year, 10,000 more than this time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture....
Taste of western culture The best place to get a taste of western culture at the Stampede is at the Western Showcase art show. Since 1912, western art has been a fixture at Stampede and now the showcase has grown to become one of the top western art shows in Canada. Located in Hall C and Hall D of the Roundup Centre, the Western Showcase features work of over 100 artisans. The Western Showcase is the largest western art show in Canada and gives visitors a first-hand look at unique pieces that celebrates cowboy culture. From a life-size moose sculpture, to landscapes and native art this show attracts buyers from around the world and brings together artists from across North America. "This is the best show, absolutely the nicest show," says Stephen Lee a rancher and artist from New Mexico. "The international crowd and the attention [we] get is like no other." Lee says, for him, western art is about telling a story with every piece. The inspiration for his bronze piece called Cruz, which has been chosen for this year's art auction, came from his own horse. "Cruz is one of my mares. She's a horse we raised at our ranch and we broke her. As you can see from the piece the topic is her bucking which is something she did alot when I was raising her, but I broke her. It's about her and I growing up together," says Lee....
Longhorns announce return of ranch rodeo At high noon in downtown Colorado Springs Friday the streets looked reminiscent to a scene from an old western movie. Hundreds of Texas longhorn cattle took over Tejon Street to announce the arrival of the Ride for the Brand Ranch Rodeo. Now in its sixth year, the ranch rodeo is has become part of the summer rodeo tradition in Colorado Springs. Following the rodeo on Saturday, the Pikes Peak Range Riders will return from their trek around the mountains on Sunday. They will then ride in the rodeo parade Tuesday night to celebrate the beginning of the 68th Annual Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo on Wednesday. In professional rodeos, the competitors are often professional athletes who spend much of the year competing in rodeos around the country. But at the ranch rodeo, all one hundred of the competing cowboys come from working ranches. Even the competition events are typical of ranch life. They include wild cow milking, ranch bronc riding, trailer loading, stray gathering, and sorting and branding....
Early settlers pushed into New Mexico One of the biggest land deals in United States history helped bring about the settlement of the barren plains of Eastern New Mexico. In 1881 brothers Charles and John Farwell and others organized a syndicate of eastern investors and agreed to build the red granite capitol building in Austin in exchange for title to 3 million acres of land in the Texas Panhandle. This grant took in portions of 10 counties ranging from Yellow House near Lubbock in the south to the Oklahoma Panhandle in the north. The brand of this new ranch, “XIT,” was designed to foil rustlers, and XIT became the name of the ranch. In 1882 when they began surveying and fencing this vast area, it forced the settlers who were already there to move on. Many of them moved west into New Mexico. Yellow House, near the present site of Lubbock, fell inside the XIT property, so in 1882, Newman began moving his cattle to Salt Lake, now Grulla Wildlife Refuge, just across the state line in New Mexico. Since his brand was “DZ,” the ranch was known by that name. With him came several cowhands, including my step-grandfather, R. L. “Bob” Wood, who was Newman’s first cousin; Sid Boykin; Walter Fulcher; and Julius Darby, a black man. Newman had bought the rights to the water from Andy McDonald, and McDonald’s brother Will’s wife, Lizzie, became camp cook. The men dug troughs at the northeastern end of Salt Lake to catch the spring water which flowed into the lake and built an adobe house. The logs for beams and door frames had to be hauled from Las Vegas, N.M., and Newman complained that they cost him $10 apiece....
Uncle Amos Oliver and Gene Autry This time of year, rodeo stories come out of the woodwork. Jack Oliver reminds that Belton July 4 rodeos were the training ground for three Belton/Bell County All Around American Cowboys on the National Circuit, Cotton Proctor of Belton, Bob White of Three Forks and Les Hood of Killeen. Which brought up the close friendship Jack's uncle, the late Amos Oliver, well known farmer-rancher in the Three Forks Community, with the late Les Hood, and Uncle Amos meeting up with the cowboy movie star singer, Gene Autry. Uncle Amos was a good friend and strong supporter of Les Hood and attended every rodeo in driving distance when Les Hood was riding. Back of the chutes visiting with Les and other rodeo hands was where Autry came in. Both Oliver and Autry were strong and well known breeders of shorthorn cattle. They checked out the shorthorn pens carefully and faithfully at every show. "One year at Ft. Worth Gene Autry asked Amos if he would consider buying a $10,000 registered shorthorn bull from Scotland. If they each would buy one it would help on shipping costs. Uncle Amos and Gene Autry each bought one of those $10,000 calves to be shipped from Scotland, the British Isles....
9th Circuit: Judges shouldn't act as scientists An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it's improper for federal judges to act as scientists when weighing in on disputed U.S. Forest Service timber projects. Timber industry lobbyists and Forest Service officials called the unanimous ruling overturning a challenge to a northern Idaho logging sale significant, partly because it emerged from a court often seen as favorable to environmental groups. In the ruling released Wednesday, the judges dumped a July 2007 decision by a three-judge 9th Circuit panel that halted the Mission Brush timber sale in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Environmental groups The Lands Council, based in Spokane, Wash., and the Wild West Institute, in Missoula, Mont., contended the Forest Service's logging plan exceeded what was needed to restore the forest's historic character and claimed logging would harm the region's ecosystem for species including small, migratory owls. The ruling also overturns a 2005 9th Circuit decision in which judges concluded the Forest Service's approval of logging in burned areas of western Montana's Lolo National Forest was based on an arbitrary and capricious environmental analysis. U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, called this "the most important decision involving a Forest Service environmental case in the last two decades," saying it restores the ability of federal agencies, not meddling judges, to exercise discretion over timber sales. "The judges established a much more limited framework for judicial review of Forest Service decisions - a framework that's much more consistent with the standard use by other circuits," Rey told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The court says its role is not to act as a panel of scientists. They wanted to move back to a more appropriate role." Timber industry representatives said this will help stop judges from asserting their opinions over the decisions of Forest Service managers....
High gas prices threaten to shut down rural towns The price of gas isn't an annoyance here. It's a calamity. Peggy Hanley uses a generator that burns a gallon of diesel fuel every hour — at about $5 a gallon— to power Forks General Store, the only place to buy groceries for miles around. There's no electric service, so Hanley, the owner, uses the generator to run eight refrigerators, nine freezers, lights and two ice machines for the store, which has been in a trailer since a fire destroyed the original building in 1994. There are no utilities and no public transportation in this unincorporated town of a couple hundred people along a narrow road that winds through the mountains 314 miles north of Sacramento. Many people here buy gas for their vehicles and gas or diesel for generators that power their homes. "I'm scared to death" of rising fuel prices, Hanley says. At the store, the hub for visiting whitewater rafters and residents of other isolated towns, gas cost $5.30 a gallon on a recent day when the national average was $4.07. This community may be an extreme example of how rising gas prices are hitting rural Americans particularly hard, but people in small towns from Maine to Alaska are in a similar bind as those here. Soaring gasoline prices are a double whammy for many rural residents: They often pay more than people who live in cities and suburbs because of the expense of hauling fuel to their communities, and they must drive greater distances for life's necessities: work, groceries, medical care and, of course, gas....
Utah-Nevada water standoff quiet, fierce On moonless nights here in the Utah-Nevada borderlands of Snake Valley, the naked eye can see five planets, countless stars and the great swath of the Milky Way. Climb the hill to Great Basin National Park and one can see the nighttime glow of Las Vegas, whose leaders say their sprawling city must have the water under Snake Valley - or wither and die. And they are coming for it, making plans for a 285-mile pipeline to tap the aquifer that stretches from Salt Lake City to Death Valley and take the water south. At the same time, Utah wants to build a pipeline on Lake Powell to suck up Colorado River water and send it northward to growing desert communities before it gets anywhere near Glitter Gulch. For now, the two driest states in the nation are in a quiet standoff, fitfully negotiating or scuffing lines in the sand. Eventually, though, the outcome of this tale of two pipelines, begun with an agreement struck 86 years ago to share the Colorado and now groaning under rapid population growth and climate distress, could shake the foundations of Western water law....
Bridger Fire fuels distrust of Army One sign of the distrust between the Army and the ranchers around the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site is that weeks after the Bridger Fire was extinguished, questions remain about how Fort Carson personnel managed the 48,500-acre fire that burned for two weeks on the training site and spread onto private lands. "Did they throw all the resources at the fire that they could have? Nobody will know that because in the first days, the Army didn't tell anybody what was going on," said Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. "I know people first spotted smoke on the training site on (June 9)." Robertson also is a firefighter with the Kim volunteer department and he said the rural fire departments at Hoehne, Branson, Springfield and elsewhere rely on each other for help when the summer wildfire season begins. La Junta Fire Chief Aaron Eveatt said his department largely was kept in the dark about what was happening with the Bridger Fire until the Type II incident team took over. The Forest Service incident teams, made up of veteran wildfire managers, are accustomed to dealing with big fires, the public, the news media and local communities when they arrive at a blaze. "I don't want to second-guess how another department fought a fire, but it was like night and day after the Type II team arrived," Eveatt said. "That's when we were notified to be on standby to protect residences on private land."....
Legacy of UT's oil wealth: a denuded landscape Investors appealed to the patron saint of impossible causes when oil drilling began on University of Texas System land in 1921. It didn't hurt. Santa Rita No. 1 blew in on May 28, 1923, after rose petals blessed by a priest were scattered from the top of the derrick at the behest of some Catholic women in New York who had purchased shares in the Texon Oil and Land Co., which drilled that first well. Since then, the UT System's 2.1 million acres in West Texas have produced $4.4 billion in royalty payments and other mineral income for the Permanent University Fund, an endowment that supports the UT and Texas A&M University systems. But this long-running bonanza for higher education exacted a price from the remote, semiarid landscape where it all began. Millions of barrels of salt water, a byproduct of oil and natural gas production, contaminated 11 square miles, or more than 7,000 acres, killing virtually all vegetation and leaving the land vulnerable to wind and water erosion. Hundreds of mesquite stumps with three feet of exposed roots testify to the dramatic loss of topsoil....
Focus on elk as disease persists near Yellowstone Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area. Government agencies have killed more than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone over the last two decades in an attempt to contain brucellosis, which causes pregnant cattle to abort their young. Cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades are being infected, and livestock officials in both states are now targeting elk as the cause. "We've got way too many elk," said John Scully, a rancher living in Montana's Madison Valley. "Clearly with so many elk, the risk rises. We need to reduce their numbers." A tentative proposal, drafted by federal officials, sets a goal of eliminating the disease — not just controlling it in bison and in elk. Livestock officials say infected elk herds around Yellowstone must be culled — an explosive proposition for a prized big game species that has thrived under the protection of a dedicated constituency of hunting groups. Nevertheless, pressure is mounting to kill or capture more of the animals....
Cattle Fever Ticks Lay Claim To A Million Acres In Texas The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) marked an ominous anniversary July 3 by expanding the preventive cattle fever tick quarantine area in south Texas by 307,000 acres, after the dangerous livestock pests were detected on cattle outside quarantine areas in Starr and Zapata counties. Fever ticks, capable of carrying and transmitting deadly “tick fever” to cattle, have been detected on livestock or wildlife on 139 Texas pastures during the past 12 months. “In July 2007, the first preventive quarantine was established-39,325 acres in Starr County-to enable the US. Department of Agriculture’s Tick Force and the TAHC to inspect and treat livestock moved from the area, get ahead of the fever tick and push it back across the quarantine line,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and head of the Texas Animal Health Commission, the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. “Now, a year later, we have more than a million acres under preventive quarantines in Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties, in addition to the half-million acres in the permanent fever tick quarantine zone that runs alongside the Rio Grande, from Del Rio to Brownsville.”....
Weak horses sent to Mexico to be slaughtered The traders at Dallas County's half-filled horse auction knew the fate of their scrawny thoroughbreds even before they herded them into the ring. And it wasn't to go back to the ranch. The ones with visible backbones and skin stretched over their ribs – at least half of the 36 horses for sale – would probably end up in Mexico, where money can still be made off horse slaughter. Texas horse traders say it's the best solution to the combined wallop of forced American slaughterhouse closures last year and one of the worst horse markets in history. "We don't have anywhere to move them, and they're starving to death," said Steven Oden, a horse trader from Terrell whose prize horses once sold for $8,000 but now go for $800. Breeders, ranchers and cowboys are struggling to continue a livelihood that extends generations. The closure of the kill plants coupled with the rising price of hay and fuel means rising numbers of horses with dwindling funds to care for them. Horse owners say they're left with little option but to sell their horses to a "killer buyer," or trader who buys the horses at a reduced price and takes them to Mexico for slaughter. About 25,000 horses have been shipped to Mexico for slaughter this year, 10,000 more than this time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture....
Taste of western culture The best place to get a taste of western culture at the Stampede is at the Western Showcase art show. Since 1912, western art has been a fixture at Stampede and now the showcase has grown to become one of the top western art shows in Canada. Located in Hall C and Hall D of the Roundup Centre, the Western Showcase features work of over 100 artisans. The Western Showcase is the largest western art show in Canada and gives visitors a first-hand look at unique pieces that celebrates cowboy culture. From a life-size moose sculpture, to landscapes and native art this show attracts buyers from around the world and brings together artists from across North America. "This is the best show, absolutely the nicest show," says Stephen Lee a rancher and artist from New Mexico. "The international crowd and the attention [we] get is like no other." Lee says, for him, western art is about telling a story with every piece. The inspiration for his bronze piece called Cruz, which has been chosen for this year's art auction, came from his own horse. "Cruz is one of my mares. She's a horse we raised at our ranch and we broke her. As you can see from the piece the topic is her bucking which is something she did alot when I was raising her, but I broke her. It's about her and I growing up together," says Lee....
Longhorns announce return of ranch rodeo At high noon in downtown Colorado Springs Friday the streets looked reminiscent to a scene from an old western movie. Hundreds of Texas longhorn cattle took over Tejon Street to announce the arrival of the Ride for the Brand Ranch Rodeo. Now in its sixth year, the ranch rodeo is has become part of the summer rodeo tradition in Colorado Springs. Following the rodeo on Saturday, the Pikes Peak Range Riders will return from their trek around the mountains on Sunday. They will then ride in the rodeo parade Tuesday night to celebrate the beginning of the 68th Annual Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo on Wednesday. In professional rodeos, the competitors are often professional athletes who spend much of the year competing in rodeos around the country. But at the ranch rodeo, all one hundred of the competing cowboys come from working ranches. Even the competition events are typical of ranch life. They include wild cow milking, ranch bronc riding, trailer loading, stray gathering, and sorting and branding....
Early settlers pushed into New Mexico One of the biggest land deals in United States history helped bring about the settlement of the barren plains of Eastern New Mexico. In 1881 brothers Charles and John Farwell and others organized a syndicate of eastern investors and agreed to build the red granite capitol building in Austin in exchange for title to 3 million acres of land in the Texas Panhandle. This grant took in portions of 10 counties ranging from Yellow House near Lubbock in the south to the Oklahoma Panhandle in the north. The brand of this new ranch, “XIT,” was designed to foil rustlers, and XIT became the name of the ranch. In 1882 when they began surveying and fencing this vast area, it forced the settlers who were already there to move on. Many of them moved west into New Mexico. Yellow House, near the present site of Lubbock, fell inside the XIT property, so in 1882, Newman began moving his cattle to Salt Lake, now Grulla Wildlife Refuge, just across the state line in New Mexico. Since his brand was “DZ,” the ranch was known by that name. With him came several cowhands, including my step-grandfather, R. L. “Bob” Wood, who was Newman’s first cousin; Sid Boykin; Walter Fulcher; and Julius Darby, a black man. Newman had bought the rights to the water from Andy McDonald, and McDonald’s brother Will’s wife, Lizzie, became camp cook. The men dug troughs at the northeastern end of Salt Lake to catch the spring water which flowed into the lake and built an adobe house. The logs for beams and door frames had to be hauled from Las Vegas, N.M., and Newman complained that they cost him $10 apiece....
Uncle Amos Oliver and Gene Autry This time of year, rodeo stories come out of the woodwork. Jack Oliver reminds that Belton July 4 rodeos were the training ground for three Belton/Bell County All Around American Cowboys on the National Circuit, Cotton Proctor of Belton, Bob White of Three Forks and Les Hood of Killeen. Which brought up the close friendship Jack's uncle, the late Amos Oliver, well known farmer-rancher in the Three Forks Community, with the late Les Hood, and Uncle Amos meeting up with the cowboy movie star singer, Gene Autry. Uncle Amos was a good friend and strong supporter of Les Hood and attended every rodeo in driving distance when Les Hood was riding. Back of the chutes visiting with Les and other rodeo hands was where Autry came in. Both Oliver and Autry were strong and well known breeders of shorthorn cattle. They checked out the shorthorn pens carefully and faithfully at every show. "One year at Ft. Worth Gene Autry asked Amos if he would consider buying a $10,000 registered shorthorn bull from Scotland. If they each would buy one it would help on shipping costs. Uncle Amos and Gene Autry each bought one of those $10,000 calves to be shipped from Scotland, the British Isles....
FLE
How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment? Early next week the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love. That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. That a majority on both sides of the aisle — not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties — intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever. We are living in a time when the right of habeas corpus — which simply put is your right to be brought before a proper court of law where the government is made to prove that there is good and legal reason to detain you — recently survived by a margin of only one vote at the U.S. Supreme Court. Now these bad actors are prepared to set aside your right to privacy — written into the Constitution as a key part of our Bill of Rights — with hardly a nod in the direction of the true patriots who rebelled against an English king and his army to guarantee those rights....
Report details snooping in celebrity passport files A federal investigation of unauthorized snooping into government passport files has found evidence that such breaches may be far more common than previously disclosed, and the State Department inspector general is calling for an overhaul of the program's management. In a report issued Thursday, the inspector general found "many control weaknesses" in the department's administration program, including what investigators said was a lack of sound policies on training staff, accessing electronic records and disciplining workers who break privacy rules. The investigation was launched in March after it was disclosed that government and contract workers had snooped in the files of three presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain. To assess the extent of the problem, investigators assembled a sample of 150 famous Americans, including athletes, politicians and entertainers, and examined how many times their files in a government database were viewed over a six-year period. The files of 127 people in the sample were accessed at least once; in total, these files were "hit" 4,418 times. Nine of the files were opened more than 100 times. State Department officials did not identify the celebrities whose files were included in the sample. More than 20,500 federal and contract employees have access to the records database, including State Department staff and officials involved in investigations, security assessments and other analyses, the report says....
No evidence needed under terror profiling plan The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups. Currently, FBI agents need reasons -- such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated -- to investigate citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials say, would let agents open terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, are deemed suspicious. Although President George W. Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on their race or ethnicity, the new rules would let the FBI consider those factors among traits that could trigger a national security investigation....
Sheriff's drug fund spending revealed Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith stopped paying jail inmates from seized drug assets when state investigators began looking into the controversial practice last July, according to copies of checks he released to avoid a lawsuit last month. But Smith continued to use the federal forfeiture money for other questionable expenditures such as college tuition for favored deputies, a Kingsland boxing club's lease, and a retainer for a private lawyer, the checks show. And he used the federally regulated fund to pay routine expenses after county commissioners cut his operating budget last year. Federal guidelines say the asset money, returned to counties based on drug arrests, is to be used only for law enforcement purposes such as equipment, jails or training. They expressly say the funds are not to be used for the department's general operational costs or in any way that gives the appearance of extravagance, waste or impropriety. But over the years , Smith has used the money to work inmates on private property, establish college scholarships and donate to Camden nonprofits. Questions over his use of the funds led County Commission Chairman Preston Rhodes to refuse to sign an authorization form in September to receive money from the federal government this year. The records show Smith spent about $615,000 from the fund from July 2007 through May. Commissioners repeatedly criticized his use of federal drug money to pay jail inmates to work on private property, including the sheriff's, and not just in Camden County but also at his ex-wife's house in South Carolina....
Repeal the Second Amendment? A Chicago newspaper's call to repeal the Second Amendment is an "unconscionable attack on the entire Bill of Rights and the freedoms it protects," the Second Amendment Foundation says. In an editorial published on Friday, the day after the Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 ruling upholding the individual right to own firearms, The Chicago Tribune called the Second Amendment an "anachronism" that should be repealed. "The amendment was intended to protect the authority of the states to organize militias," The Chicago Tribune said. The newspaper supported its argument by claiming that a 1939 case, U.S. v Miller, established the amendment as a "collective right" that applied only to service in some type of militia. But that's a false argument, the Second Amendment Foundation said. "The Chicago Tribune's editors have demonstrated an appalling short-sightedness," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "If they are so willing to abandon one civil right for an entire class of American citizens, what's next? Perhaps they would strip some citizens of their First Amendment rights to free speech or religion...Once you make it acceptable to destroy one civil right, it does not take a very big leap to embrace limitations on, or the abolition of, another civil right," he added....
Bush fingerprinting plan faces resistance Key members of Congress are siding with the airline industry and moving to block the administration from forcing airlines to take fingerprints of foreign visitors before they fly home. The opposition is setting up a clash over a final Bush administration effort to tighten security and immigration by keeping better track of when visitors leave the country. U.S. and foreign airlines say fingerprinting 33 million visitors a year would devastate them financially, costing $12 billion over 10 years, at a time when soaring fuel prices have helped put some airlines out of business and forced others to cut flights. "U.S. airlines obviously cannot bear the staggering additional costs," the Air Transport Association, which represents major domestic carriers, wrote last week in comments on the proposal. The full House plans to vote this month on a measure barring the Homeland Security Department from requiring airlines to take fingerprints until the department tests a fingerprint system with airlines. The House Appropriations Committee approved the measure last week as part of a bill funding the department for 2009. The department fingerprints visitors as they arrive and tracks their departures using paper forms that are sometimes inaccurate. Others opposing the department's plan include Germany and the United Kingdom, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Travel Industry Association....
How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment? Early next week the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love. That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. That a majority on both sides of the aisle — not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties — intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever. We are living in a time when the right of habeas corpus — which simply put is your right to be brought before a proper court of law where the government is made to prove that there is good and legal reason to detain you — recently survived by a margin of only one vote at the U.S. Supreme Court. Now these bad actors are prepared to set aside your right to privacy — written into the Constitution as a key part of our Bill of Rights — with hardly a nod in the direction of the true patriots who rebelled against an English king and his army to guarantee those rights....
Report details snooping in celebrity passport files A federal investigation of unauthorized snooping into government passport files has found evidence that such breaches may be far more common than previously disclosed, and the State Department inspector general is calling for an overhaul of the program's management. In a report issued Thursday, the inspector general found "many control weaknesses" in the department's administration program, including what investigators said was a lack of sound policies on training staff, accessing electronic records and disciplining workers who break privacy rules. The investigation was launched in March after it was disclosed that government and contract workers had snooped in the files of three presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain. To assess the extent of the problem, investigators assembled a sample of 150 famous Americans, including athletes, politicians and entertainers, and examined how many times their files in a government database were viewed over a six-year period. The files of 127 people in the sample were accessed at least once; in total, these files were "hit" 4,418 times. Nine of the files were opened more than 100 times. State Department officials did not identify the celebrities whose files were included in the sample. More than 20,500 federal and contract employees have access to the records database, including State Department staff and officials involved in investigations, security assessments and other analyses, the report says....
No evidence needed under terror profiling plan The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups. Currently, FBI agents need reasons -- such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated -- to investigate citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials say, would let agents open terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, are deemed suspicious. Although President George W. Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on their race or ethnicity, the new rules would let the FBI consider those factors among traits that could trigger a national security investigation....
Sheriff's drug fund spending revealed Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith stopped paying jail inmates from seized drug assets when state investigators began looking into the controversial practice last July, according to copies of checks he released to avoid a lawsuit last month. But Smith continued to use the federal forfeiture money for other questionable expenditures such as college tuition for favored deputies, a Kingsland boxing club's lease, and a retainer for a private lawyer, the checks show. And he used the federally regulated fund to pay routine expenses after county commissioners cut his operating budget last year. Federal guidelines say the asset money, returned to counties based on drug arrests, is to be used only for law enforcement purposes such as equipment, jails or training. They expressly say the funds are not to be used for the department's general operational costs or in any way that gives the appearance of extravagance, waste or impropriety. But over the years , Smith has used the money to work inmates on private property, establish college scholarships and donate to Camden nonprofits. Questions over his use of the funds led County Commission Chairman Preston Rhodes to refuse to sign an authorization form in September to receive money from the federal government this year. The records show Smith spent about $615,000 from the fund from July 2007 through May. Commissioners repeatedly criticized his use of federal drug money to pay jail inmates to work on private property, including the sheriff's, and not just in Camden County but also at his ex-wife's house in South Carolina....
Repeal the Second Amendment? A Chicago newspaper's call to repeal the Second Amendment is an "unconscionable attack on the entire Bill of Rights and the freedoms it protects," the Second Amendment Foundation says. In an editorial published on Friday, the day after the Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 ruling upholding the individual right to own firearms, The Chicago Tribune called the Second Amendment an "anachronism" that should be repealed. "The amendment was intended to protect the authority of the states to organize militias," The Chicago Tribune said. The newspaper supported its argument by claiming that a 1939 case, U.S. v Miller, established the amendment as a "collective right" that applied only to service in some type of militia. But that's a false argument, the Second Amendment Foundation said. "The Chicago Tribune's editors have demonstrated an appalling short-sightedness," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "If they are so willing to abandon one civil right for an entire class of American citizens, what's next? Perhaps they would strip some citizens of their First Amendment rights to free speech or religion...Once you make it acceptable to destroy one civil right, it does not take a very big leap to embrace limitations on, or the abolition of, another civil right," he added....
Bush fingerprinting plan faces resistance Key members of Congress are siding with the airline industry and moving to block the administration from forcing airlines to take fingerprints of foreign visitors before they fly home. The opposition is setting up a clash over a final Bush administration effort to tighten security and immigration by keeping better track of when visitors leave the country. U.S. and foreign airlines say fingerprinting 33 million visitors a year would devastate them financially, costing $12 billion over 10 years, at a time when soaring fuel prices have helped put some airlines out of business and forced others to cut flights. "U.S. airlines obviously cannot bear the staggering additional costs," the Air Transport Association, which represents major domestic carriers, wrote last week in comments on the proposal. The full House plans to vote this month on a measure barring the Homeland Security Department from requiring airlines to take fingerprints until the department tests a fingerprint system with airlines. The House Appropriations Committee approved the measure last week as part of a bill funding the department for 2009. The department fingerprints visitors as they arrive and tracks their departures using paper forms that are sometimes inaccurate. Others opposing the department's plan include Germany and the United Kingdom, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Travel Industry Association....
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Old Glory waves across the land today
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Julie Carter
Old Glory will wave majestically in rodeo arenas across America this weekend, starting today. It's the Fourth of July and cowboys, if they are anything, are patriotic.
Don't misunderstand. It doesn't take a holiday for them to bring out the flag. It's there at every rodeo.
Honor to the stars and stripes happens first, before anything else.
Even the livestock seems to know the routine. Watch as the cowboys stand at the chutes, hats held over their hearts as the colors are posted and the national anthem is played.
The bucking horses in the chute will snort and kick the gate behind them like it should be part of the music's percussion.
For a rodeo contestant, it's an exciting sound that echoes in the recesses of their rodeo memories long after they no longer compete.
It goes with the smell of the arena dirt, the banging of the gates as livestock is moved around, arriving trailers rattling across the parking lot and the sound of hoof beats as someone lopes a horse to the arena.
As all of us honor America, our freedoms, and the price paid for both, I find myself annually honoring the cowboy as well. This particular holiday is his "Cowboy Christmas," the most lucrative run of rodeos of the season.
Rodeo rigs are progressively bigger, fancier, and technology has kicked rodeoing up a notch from the days of standing in a pay phone booth to enter a rodeo or find out when you drew up. So much is different, yet so much is the same.
It still requires the basics. First, the cowboy has to get there, and second, he has to have brought his cowboy skills with him.
Fourth of July rodeoing is defined by road-weary cowboys, tired horses, pickups filled with dirty clothes, fast-food wrappers and muddy boots.
The dashboard of the vehicle is full of rumpled programs, Copenhagen cans, empty coffee cups, dust-covered sunglasses, gas receipts, a ball cap or two and a road map.
Many moons ago, when I was part of the rodeo world, I spent tired Fourth of July rodeo marathons wondering what the rest of the world did for their holiday and gave pause to the idea I might be missing something.
I'm not sure how any of that really works, I've just heard rumors about boating, fishing, barbequing and such.
Now that I no longer compete in rodeos, I still don't have the skills for the non-rodeo things. It wouldn't be true if I told you I didn't miss those days of driving across the state three times in four days to hit every rodeo possible.
I even miss the mucking around in the mud after a summer downpour at the rodeo grounds, washing off the barrel horse's legs and gear with the nearest water hose and cleaning up the kids, dog and my boots with the same effort.
I miss the camaraderie with the friends who shared the same passion for the same sport and questioned their sanity for it only briefly.
For me, it wouldn't be the Fourth of July if I wasn't standing in the hot sun, beating rain or dusty wind waiting for the next rodeo event to move the entertainment along.
So that's what I do. However, now I carry a camera and put what I know of rodeo in print.
I don't suppose I'll ever be anywhere else but at a rodeo grounds somewhere on the Fourth of July.
It just is who I am.
Join me at a rodeo for a look into the heart of the rodeo cowboy at his best. Today would be a good day to start.
Julie can be reached through her website at www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Julie Carter
Old Glory will wave majestically in rodeo arenas across America this weekend, starting today. It's the Fourth of July and cowboys, if they are anything, are patriotic.
Don't misunderstand. It doesn't take a holiday for them to bring out the flag. It's there at every rodeo.
Honor to the stars and stripes happens first, before anything else.
Even the livestock seems to know the routine. Watch as the cowboys stand at the chutes, hats held over their hearts as the colors are posted and the national anthem is played.
The bucking horses in the chute will snort and kick the gate behind them like it should be part of the music's percussion.
For a rodeo contestant, it's an exciting sound that echoes in the recesses of their rodeo memories long after they no longer compete.
It goes with the smell of the arena dirt, the banging of the gates as livestock is moved around, arriving trailers rattling across the parking lot and the sound of hoof beats as someone lopes a horse to the arena.
As all of us honor America, our freedoms, and the price paid for both, I find myself annually honoring the cowboy as well. This particular holiday is his "Cowboy Christmas," the most lucrative run of rodeos of the season.
Rodeo rigs are progressively bigger, fancier, and technology has kicked rodeoing up a notch from the days of standing in a pay phone booth to enter a rodeo or find out when you drew up. So much is different, yet so much is the same.
It still requires the basics. First, the cowboy has to get there, and second, he has to have brought his cowboy skills with him.
Fourth of July rodeoing is defined by road-weary cowboys, tired horses, pickups filled with dirty clothes, fast-food wrappers and muddy boots.
The dashboard of the vehicle is full of rumpled programs, Copenhagen cans, empty coffee cups, dust-covered sunglasses, gas receipts, a ball cap or two and a road map.
Many moons ago, when I was part of the rodeo world, I spent tired Fourth of July rodeo marathons wondering what the rest of the world did for their holiday and gave pause to the idea I might be missing something.
I'm not sure how any of that really works, I've just heard rumors about boating, fishing, barbequing and such.
Now that I no longer compete in rodeos, I still don't have the skills for the non-rodeo things. It wouldn't be true if I told you I didn't miss those days of driving across the state three times in four days to hit every rodeo possible.
I even miss the mucking around in the mud after a summer downpour at the rodeo grounds, washing off the barrel horse's legs and gear with the nearest water hose and cleaning up the kids, dog and my boots with the same effort.
I miss the camaraderie with the friends who shared the same passion for the same sport and questioned their sanity for it only briefly.
For me, it wouldn't be the Fourth of July if I wasn't standing in the hot sun, beating rain or dusty wind waiting for the next rodeo event to move the entertainment along.
So that's what I do. However, now I carry a camera and put what I know of rodeo in print.
I don't suppose I'll ever be anywhere else but at a rodeo grounds somewhere on the Fourth of July.
It just is who I am.
Join me at a rodeo for a look into the heart of the rodeo cowboy at his best. Today would be a good day to start.
Julie can be reached through her website at www.julie-carter.com
Saturday, July 05, 2008
FLE
5 arrested in Rainbow Family clash with feds About 400 members of the Rainbow Family threw rocks and sticks at 10 federal officers as they tried to arrest a member of the group, the U.S. Forest Service said Friday. Five members of the group were arrested and one officer was slightly injured. A government vehicle was also damaged. Ten Forest Service officers were patrolling the main meadow of the Rainbow Family's camping area Thursday night and apprehended one person described as being uncooperative, Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said in a statement Friday. "Officers began to leave the gathering site with the subject and were circled by more Rainbow participants that began to physically interfere," Vollmer said. About 400 Rainbows surrounded the officers trying to leave, she said. "The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers," Vollmer said....What can we learn from this? First, you and 400 of your compadres can surround and threaten Forest Service law enforcement, and it's no sweat. Second, you can throw rocks and sticks at them, no problem. Third, whatever you do, don't threaten them with a pair of bridal reins or you will be charged for assault with a deadly weapon. Don't believe me? Just as rancher Kit Laney who did five months in the federal pen. How many Rainbow Family member do you think will wind up in the federal pen?
ACLU plans to investigate Rainbow Family treatment The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering. The U.S. Forest Service says a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family, a group of hippie types and eccentrics who camp on public land every year, threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group. Up to 60 federal and local law enforcers responded, Forest Service officials say, and fired "pepper balls" — similar to paint balls but containing a pepper solution — at the crowd to control it. As many as 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family camped out this year on Forest Service land near the Big Sandy Reservoir. The group holds a weeklong gathering on public land in a different area each year. The Rainbows and federal officers have clashed before, and in 1998, the Forest Service established a national response team to deal with the group. The ACLU plans to accept collect calls from Rainbow Family members for the next two weeks to hear their version of events, Linda Burt, executive director of Wyoming's ACLU, said Saturday....
Rainbow gathering inspires odd jurisprudence More than 100 participants in the annual Rainbow Family of Living Light "Gathering of the Tribes" near Big Sandy made appearances at a temporary federal court at the fire station here this week. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management had issued numerous citations and warnings, ranging from traffic violations to drug possession, during the week before the event semi-officially began Tuesday. Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes signed the unusual order to create the temporary courtroom because the closest federal courtrooms to the gathering are in Green River, Lander and Jackson, he said Thursday. Farson was chosen because it is close to the gathering and because it imposed the least inconvenience to law enforcement and the Rainbow gathering participants, Downes said. "We sent the magistrate judges to them." This marked the first time in Downes' nine-year tenure that he has signed an order to create a temporary court, he said. "But it was clearly appropriate here." The court will remain as long as Rainbow gathering participants are in the area, he said....
5 arrested in Rainbow Family clash with feds About 400 members of the Rainbow Family threw rocks and sticks at 10 federal officers as they tried to arrest a member of the group, the U.S. Forest Service said Friday. Five members of the group were arrested and one officer was slightly injured. A government vehicle was also damaged. Ten Forest Service officers were patrolling the main meadow of the Rainbow Family's camping area Thursday night and apprehended one person described as being uncooperative, Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said in a statement Friday. "Officers began to leave the gathering site with the subject and were circled by more Rainbow participants that began to physically interfere," Vollmer said. About 400 Rainbows surrounded the officers trying to leave, she said. "The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers," Vollmer said....What can we learn from this? First, you and 400 of your compadres can surround and threaten Forest Service law enforcement, and it's no sweat. Second, you can throw rocks and sticks at them, no problem. Third, whatever you do, don't threaten them with a pair of bridal reins or you will be charged for assault with a deadly weapon. Don't believe me? Just as rancher Kit Laney who did five months in the federal pen. How many Rainbow Family member do you think will wind up in the federal pen?
ACLU plans to investigate Rainbow Family treatment The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering. The U.S. Forest Service says a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family, a group of hippie types and eccentrics who camp on public land every year, threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group. Up to 60 federal and local law enforcers responded, Forest Service officials say, and fired "pepper balls" — similar to paint balls but containing a pepper solution — at the crowd to control it. As many as 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family camped out this year on Forest Service land near the Big Sandy Reservoir. The group holds a weeklong gathering on public land in a different area each year. The Rainbows and federal officers have clashed before, and in 1998, the Forest Service established a national response team to deal with the group. The ACLU plans to accept collect calls from Rainbow Family members for the next two weeks to hear their version of events, Linda Burt, executive director of Wyoming's ACLU, said Saturday....
Rainbow gathering inspires odd jurisprudence More than 100 participants in the annual Rainbow Family of Living Light "Gathering of the Tribes" near Big Sandy made appearances at a temporary federal court at the fire station here this week. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management had issued numerous citations and warnings, ranging from traffic violations to drug possession, during the week before the event semi-officially began Tuesday. Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes signed the unusual order to create the temporary courtroom because the closest federal courtrooms to the gathering are in Green River, Lander and Jackson, he said Thursday. Farson was chosen because it is close to the gathering and because it imposed the least inconvenience to law enforcement and the Rainbow gathering participants, Downes said. "We sent the magistrate judges to them." This marked the first time in Downes' nine-year tenure that he has signed an order to create a temporary court, he said. "But it was clearly appropriate here." The court will remain as long as Rainbow gathering participants are in the area, he said....
Dr. North On Celebrating July 4th
...When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to save money like a maniac because the government has stolen 30% to 40% of everything you have made, it takes away a lot of the enthusiasm for celebrating the Declaration of Independence. When Jefferson wrote that document, the British were extracting approximately 1% of national income from the American colonies. For the southern colonies, it may have been 2.5%. If we could somehow get back to the tyranny of Great Britain in 1776, I would be willing to celebrate the Fourth of July with greater enthusiasm. But that would take a revolution....
...When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to save money like a maniac because the government has stolen 30% to 40% of everything you have made, it takes away a lot of the enthusiasm for celebrating the Declaration of Independence. When Jefferson wrote that document, the British were extracting approximately 1% of national income from the American colonies. For the southern colonies, it may have been 2.5%. If we could somehow get back to the tyranny of Great Britain in 1776, I would be willing to celebrate the Fourth of July with greater enthusiasm. But that would take a revolution....
Friday, July 04, 2008
JESSE HELMS, RIP
There was a side to Jesse Helms the media won't report.
As a young Senatorial aide I would ride back and forth from the Senate Office Buildings to the Capitol on a small train. One double car was reserved for Senators, the rest were first-come first-serve for staff and the public.
One day after a Senate vote I was heading back to the office, but the cars for staff were full. Normally, I would have to wait until the train returned to catch a ride. The cars reserved for Senators was not full and Senator Helms said, "Come on in, you can ride with me." As we entered the Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., there were two sets of elevators, one reserved for Senators and one for the public. There was a large crowd and line in front of the public elevator, so Senator Helms grabbed my arm and said, "You can ride up with me." Both of these thoughtful and gracious acts were not typical of the Senators I had been exposed to.
I also recall an incident in a room just off the Senate Chamber. One liberal Senator was upset with some amendment Helms had offered. He told Helms, "I'll bet you think you can walk on water." Helms replied, "I can" and the bet was on. Helms then filled a paper cup from the water cooler, poured it on the carpet, and walked on it.
No matter his sometimes controversial stands, Jesse Helms was an exception in the Senate - an exception because he was a true gentleman with a friendly and humble demeanor.
Helms, North Carolina's Former `Senator No,' Dies
By Jim O'Connell and Gopal Ratnam
July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Jesse Helms, the former five-term U.S. senator from North Carolina whose relish for thwarting initiatives he opposed as too liberal earned him the nickname ``Senator No,'' died at age 86.
As a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee, the conservative senator was best known for pushing to withhold U.S. dues owed to the United Nations, opposing the 1977 treaty that ceded U.S. control of the Panama Canal, and backing policies aimed at isolating Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Helms tried in 1983 to filibuster legislation to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. He also gave fits to both Republican and Democratic presidents by using parliamentary tactics to block administration nominees he opposed. In 1997, he thwarted Massachusetts Governor William Weld's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico, saying Weld, a Republican, was a bad choice because he backed the medical use of marijuana.
``Somebody said, `Jesse, why do you so often advance things or take positions that you know you don't have any chance to win?''' Helms told reporters in 2002. ``And my answer to that is, I do it on principle.''
Helms died at 1:18 a.m. today in Raleigh, said John Dodd, president of the Jesse Helms Center Foundation in Wingate, North Carolina, in a phone interview today. The cause of death has yet to be determined, he said.
Presidential Condolences
President George W. Bush, in a statement, expressed his condolences for the family and called the conservative icon ``a stalwart defender of limited government and free enterprise, a fearless defender of a culture of life, and an unwavering champion of those struggling for liberty.
``So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July,'' America's Independence Day, Bush said.
Helms was ``a leading voice and courageous champion for many causes he believed in,'' said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, in a statement. ``Today we lost a senator whose stature in Congress had few equals.''
While Helms embraced the nickname ``Senator No,'' in many ways ``he was a visionary,'' Dodd said.
``He was talking about Social Security reform in the early 1980s and private accounts to supplement it, and talked about reforming the State Department, which is one of the things he got done, and talked about holding the United Nations accountable,'' Dodd said.
Helms also could change his mind, as he did on AIDS, backing U.S. legislation to provide treatment for people with the disease in Africa, Dodd said. The singer Bono ``told me personally that Helms helped save hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa because of his change in position,'' Dodd said.
Heart Surgery, Cancer
Helms didn't seek another term in 2002, citing health problems. He had undergone heart-valve transplant surgery and survived prostate cancer and a knee replacement. Much of the last year of his term was spent in the hospital, and during his appearances in the Senate he used a motorized scooter to make his way around.
His 30 years in office made him North Carolina's longest- serving senator.
``My friend and long-time senator from my home state'' was a man ``of consistent conviction to conservative ideals'' who served ``on principle, not popularity or politics,'' said the Reverend Billy Graham, the Christian evangelist, in a statement released on PR Newswire.
Conservative `Icon'
When Helms announced his decision not to seek re-election, the Boston Globe called him ``an unyielding icon of conservatives and an archenemy of liberals.''
Washington Post political writer and columnist David Broder wrote in 2001 that Helms was ``the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country.''
In his 1990 re-election bid, facing Democrat Harvey Gantt, a black man who was mayor of Charlotte, Helms broadcast a television advertisement that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter while the announcer said, ``You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.''
In 1994 he caused an uproar when he told a newspaper that President Bill Clinton ``better have a bodyguard'' if he ever visited North Carolina.
Helms was born Oct. 18, 1921, in Monroe, North Carolina, a rural community outside of Charlotte. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and after the war was a reporter and city editor of The Raleigh (North Carolina) Times.
He started in politics as a Democrat at a time when the party drew its strength in the South. Helms served as an administrative assistant to two Democratic U.S. senators from North Carolina in the 1950s. From 1953 to 1960, he was executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association.
TV, Radio
From 1960 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972 Helms wrote and presented daily editorials on WRAL-TV in Raleigh and on a radio network. He also served as executive vice president of the Capitol Broadcasting Co. in Raleigh.
He switched party affiliation in 1970, drawing support from free-market conservatives, foes of federally mandated racial desegregation and Christian evangelicals. A similar coalition was behind the shift that led the South to go from solidly Democratic to Republican.
Helms's stances on contentious social issues made him a frequent target of critics from the Democratic Party and made many of his election campaigns into close races. In 1984, when Republican President Ronald Reagan won North Carolina with 62 percent of the vote, Helms won with 52 percent.
Historic Company
``You may not have agreed with his politics all the time, but he was a gentleman about it,'' Bush said in 2001 when Helms announced he wouldn't seek another term in office.
Helms had lived in a nursing home since May 2006 and suffered from dementia, a spokesman said. He is survived by his wife Dorothy and three children.
Helms's death on July 4 puts him in the historic company of John Adams, the second U.S. president, and Thomas Jefferson, the third president, both of whom died on July 4, 1826, and James Monroe, the fifth president, who died July 4, 1831.
There was a side to Jesse Helms the media won't report.
As a young Senatorial aide I would ride back and forth from the Senate Office Buildings to the Capitol on a small train. One double car was reserved for Senators, the rest were first-come first-serve for staff and the public.
One day after a Senate vote I was heading back to the office, but the cars for staff were full. Normally, I would have to wait until the train returned to catch a ride. The cars reserved for Senators was not full and Senator Helms said, "Come on in, you can ride with me." As we entered the Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., there were two sets of elevators, one reserved for Senators and one for the public. There was a large crowd and line in front of the public elevator, so Senator Helms grabbed my arm and said, "You can ride up with me." Both of these thoughtful and gracious acts were not typical of the Senators I had been exposed to.
I also recall an incident in a room just off the Senate Chamber. One liberal Senator was upset with some amendment Helms had offered. He told Helms, "I'll bet you think you can walk on water." Helms replied, "I can" and the bet was on. Helms then filled a paper cup from the water cooler, poured it on the carpet, and walked on it.
No matter his sometimes controversial stands, Jesse Helms was an exception in the Senate - an exception because he was a true gentleman with a friendly and humble demeanor.
Helms, North Carolina's Former `Senator No,' Dies
By Jim O'Connell and Gopal Ratnam
July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Jesse Helms, the former five-term U.S. senator from North Carolina whose relish for thwarting initiatives he opposed as too liberal earned him the nickname ``Senator No,'' died at age 86.
As a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee, the conservative senator was best known for pushing to withhold U.S. dues owed to the United Nations, opposing the 1977 treaty that ceded U.S. control of the Panama Canal, and backing policies aimed at isolating Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Helms tried in 1983 to filibuster legislation to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. He also gave fits to both Republican and Democratic presidents by using parliamentary tactics to block administration nominees he opposed. In 1997, he thwarted Massachusetts Governor William Weld's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico, saying Weld, a Republican, was a bad choice because he backed the medical use of marijuana.
``Somebody said, `Jesse, why do you so often advance things or take positions that you know you don't have any chance to win?''' Helms told reporters in 2002. ``And my answer to that is, I do it on principle.''
Helms died at 1:18 a.m. today in Raleigh, said John Dodd, president of the Jesse Helms Center Foundation in Wingate, North Carolina, in a phone interview today. The cause of death has yet to be determined, he said.
Presidential Condolences
President George W. Bush, in a statement, expressed his condolences for the family and called the conservative icon ``a stalwart defender of limited government and free enterprise, a fearless defender of a culture of life, and an unwavering champion of those struggling for liberty.
``So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July,'' America's Independence Day, Bush said.
Helms was ``a leading voice and courageous champion for many causes he believed in,'' said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, in a statement. ``Today we lost a senator whose stature in Congress had few equals.''
While Helms embraced the nickname ``Senator No,'' in many ways ``he was a visionary,'' Dodd said.
``He was talking about Social Security reform in the early 1980s and private accounts to supplement it, and talked about reforming the State Department, which is one of the things he got done, and talked about holding the United Nations accountable,'' Dodd said.
Helms also could change his mind, as he did on AIDS, backing U.S. legislation to provide treatment for people with the disease in Africa, Dodd said. The singer Bono ``told me personally that Helms helped save hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa because of his change in position,'' Dodd said.
Heart Surgery, Cancer
Helms didn't seek another term in 2002, citing health problems. He had undergone heart-valve transplant surgery and survived prostate cancer and a knee replacement. Much of the last year of his term was spent in the hospital, and during his appearances in the Senate he used a motorized scooter to make his way around.
His 30 years in office made him North Carolina's longest- serving senator.
``My friend and long-time senator from my home state'' was a man ``of consistent conviction to conservative ideals'' who served ``on principle, not popularity or politics,'' said the Reverend Billy Graham, the Christian evangelist, in a statement released on PR Newswire.
Conservative `Icon'
When Helms announced his decision not to seek re-election, the Boston Globe called him ``an unyielding icon of conservatives and an archenemy of liberals.''
Washington Post political writer and columnist David Broder wrote in 2001 that Helms was ``the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country.''
In his 1990 re-election bid, facing Democrat Harvey Gantt, a black man who was mayor of Charlotte, Helms broadcast a television advertisement that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter while the announcer said, ``You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.''
In 1994 he caused an uproar when he told a newspaper that President Bill Clinton ``better have a bodyguard'' if he ever visited North Carolina.
Helms was born Oct. 18, 1921, in Monroe, North Carolina, a rural community outside of Charlotte. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and after the war was a reporter and city editor of The Raleigh (North Carolina) Times.
He started in politics as a Democrat at a time when the party drew its strength in the South. Helms served as an administrative assistant to two Democratic U.S. senators from North Carolina in the 1950s. From 1953 to 1960, he was executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association.
TV, Radio
From 1960 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972 Helms wrote and presented daily editorials on WRAL-TV in Raleigh and on a radio network. He also served as executive vice president of the Capitol Broadcasting Co. in Raleigh.
He switched party affiliation in 1970, drawing support from free-market conservatives, foes of federally mandated racial desegregation and Christian evangelicals. A similar coalition was behind the shift that led the South to go from solidly Democratic to Republican.
Helms's stances on contentious social issues made him a frequent target of critics from the Democratic Party and made many of his election campaigns into close races. In 1984, when Republican President Ronald Reagan won North Carolina with 62 percent of the vote, Helms won with 52 percent.
Historic Company
``You may not have agreed with his politics all the time, but he was a gentleman about it,'' Bush said in 2001 when Helms announced he wouldn't seek another term in office.
Helms had lived in a nursing home since May 2006 and suffered from dementia, a spokesman said. He is survived by his wife Dorothy and three children.
Helms's death on July 4 puts him in the historic company of John Adams, the second U.S. president, and Thomas Jefferson, the third president, both of whom died on July 4, 1826, and James Monroe, the fifth president, who died July 4, 1831.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2008
A Necessary Observance
If our nation’s Founders could visit us on this, our 232nd Independence Day, what would they make of us? What would they declare of us?
A hint can be discerned in a letter from John Adams to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776, as the Declaration of Independence had just been approved. “It ought to be commemorated,” said the man who would become our second president, “as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Day’s Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”
Americans have maintained the “Pomp and Parade” for more than two centuries now, and the “Bonfires and Illuminations” are commonplace, but how often do we recognize Independence Day as “the Day of Deliverance?” How often do we honor it with “solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty”? How often do we contemplate the cost of our freedom, “the Toil and Blood and Treasure?”
Our Founders believed that independence was more than a choice; they viewed our break from royal rule as necessary.
Consider the first statement of the Declaration: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
The signatories were emphatic that separation from the crown was not only an objective, but an obligation: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.” In conclusion, the Founders wrote, “We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation...”
Their cause, of course, was not anti-government. Rather they objected to the misgovernment of the king, saying, “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Furthermore, the Americans had been patient, petitioning their British rulers for redress for over a decade. Armed hostilities had commenced on April 19, 1775, at the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the colonists faced the full power of the British Empire in their quest for American independence.
One year before taking that step for nationhood, on July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, beseeching the British king for a peaceful resolution of the American colonies’ grievances. A day later, that same Congress resolved the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms.”
King George III refused to read the peace petition and assembled his armies. On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee’s proposal for a formal declaration of separation passed, and the document was ordered printed on July 4.
The war-weary among us today might ask, was independence really necessary?
To pose the question at the outset of the Revolutionary War was to answer it. Representatives of the colonial Americans realized that, in voicing this query, they already possessed proof that they, not the King of England, were legitimate instruments of self-government for their countrymen. How could circumstances be otherwise when the king offered no remedy for his subjects’ complaints, no guarantee their rights would be respected, and no means for them to govern themselves in their new lands?
The founders knew, however, that power could not be its own justification. They recognized that only an appeal to overarching laws, binding the king as much as his subjects, was legitimate. And abuse of authority demonstrated disqualification of any governor, whether a monarch or a purported representative.
We would do well to apply this insight to the political debates of today.
Indeed, two competing philosophies of government at odds during the American Revolution have reappeared, with the anti-republican form seen in those politicians who would seek to gain favor by manipulating language and misrepresenting their positions. Royalists, on the other hand, believed that the king was divinely ordained to rule over the people and was therefore above the law. This view is manifest currently in government officials—especially our elected officers—who believe they may properly command the citizenry to whatever they please, to whichever they purport to be for the good of the people.
As Thomas Jefferson observed, “Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” Yet the prevailing philosophy of government proposes exactly this—that directions from Washington as to how we must conduct ourselves, in matters large and small, will lead inexorably to scarcity and will inevitably erode our freedom.
Our system of government today is not so different from the monarchy we escaped, except that a swarm of bureaucrats have taken up the throne.
A necessity thus presents itself to us as well: We must reconnect with the timeless principles that inspired our Founding Fathers; those same principles that long ago gave birth to a good, great and God-blessed nation.
“[W]hat do we mean by the American Revolution?” reflected John Adams. “Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.”
Let us celebrate this Independence Day 2008 in a manner that Adams himself might recognize—with “solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty,” and with a rededication to the principles of our necessary American Revolution. And as always, in the words of George Washington, “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2008
A Necessary Observance
If our nation’s Founders could visit us on this, our 232nd Independence Day, what would they make of us? What would they declare of us?
A hint can be discerned in a letter from John Adams to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776, as the Declaration of Independence had just been approved. “It ought to be commemorated,” said the man who would become our second president, “as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Day’s Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”
Americans have maintained the “Pomp and Parade” for more than two centuries now, and the “Bonfires and Illuminations” are commonplace, but how often do we recognize Independence Day as “the Day of Deliverance?” How often do we honor it with “solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty”? How often do we contemplate the cost of our freedom, “the Toil and Blood and Treasure?”
Our Founders believed that independence was more than a choice; they viewed our break from royal rule as necessary.
Consider the first statement of the Declaration: “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
The signatories were emphatic that separation from the crown was not only an objective, but an obligation: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.” In conclusion, the Founders wrote, “We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation...”
Their cause, of course, was not anti-government. Rather they objected to the misgovernment of the king, saying, “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Furthermore, the Americans had been patient, petitioning their British rulers for redress for over a decade. Armed hostilities had commenced on April 19, 1775, at the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the colonists faced the full power of the British Empire in their quest for American independence.
One year before taking that step for nationhood, on July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, beseeching the British king for a peaceful resolution of the American colonies’ grievances. A day later, that same Congress resolved the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms.”
King George III refused to read the peace petition and assembled his armies. On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee’s proposal for a formal declaration of separation passed, and the document was ordered printed on July 4.
The war-weary among us today might ask, was independence really necessary?
To pose the question at the outset of the Revolutionary War was to answer it. Representatives of the colonial Americans realized that, in voicing this query, they already possessed proof that they, not the King of England, were legitimate instruments of self-government for their countrymen. How could circumstances be otherwise when the king offered no remedy for his subjects’ complaints, no guarantee their rights would be respected, and no means for them to govern themselves in their new lands?
The founders knew, however, that power could not be its own justification. They recognized that only an appeal to overarching laws, binding the king as much as his subjects, was legitimate. And abuse of authority demonstrated disqualification of any governor, whether a monarch or a purported representative.
We would do well to apply this insight to the political debates of today.
Indeed, two competing philosophies of government at odds during the American Revolution have reappeared, with the anti-republican form seen in those politicians who would seek to gain favor by manipulating language and misrepresenting their positions. Royalists, on the other hand, believed that the king was divinely ordained to rule over the people and was therefore above the law. This view is manifest currently in government officials—especially our elected officers—who believe they may properly command the citizenry to whatever they please, to whichever they purport to be for the good of the people.
As Thomas Jefferson observed, “Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” Yet the prevailing philosophy of government proposes exactly this—that directions from Washington as to how we must conduct ourselves, in matters large and small, will lead inexorably to scarcity and will inevitably erode our freedom.
Our system of government today is not so different from the monarchy we escaped, except that a swarm of bureaucrats have taken up the throne.
A necessity thus presents itself to us as well: We must reconnect with the timeless principles that inspired our Founding Fathers; those same principles that long ago gave birth to a good, great and God-blessed nation.
“[W]hat do we mean by the American Revolution?” reflected John Adams. “Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.”
Let us celebrate this Independence Day 2008 in a manner that Adams himself might recognize—with “solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty,” and with a rededication to the principles of our necessary American Revolution. And as always, in the words of George Washington, “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
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