Privatizing the Public Estate There is nothing as priceless in a physical sense that Americans can bequeath their descendents than the public domain – national parks, national forests, bureau of land management (BLM) lands and wildlife refuges that, collectively, make up a third of the nation. These, at least for now, belong equally to all 300 million U.S. citizens, billionaire and pauper alike. But a “private sector” that has bought everything from networks to congressmen has our lands in its crosshairs, and in recent decades right wing economists and legal advisors have devised strategies aimed at their privatization, a goal furthered by repeated reductions of the budgets of land management agencies, allegedly in the interest of “streamlining” government. What puts this issue on front burner now is a skyrocketing national debt of well beyond ten trillion dollars, nearly the size of the entire U.S economy and requiring the National Debt Clock to drop its $ sign in order to make room for the additional digit. Efforts by private interests to gain control of public lands have evolved from the “Sagebrush Rebellion” of the 1970s, through the “Wise Use Movement”, and into so-called “free-market environmentalism” consisting of a politically powerful and massively funded network of industrial interests and conservative foundations and think tanks pushing privatization via such means as “competitive outsourcing” and “public-private partnerships”....

Ag Undersecretary: Missoula Appeal “Superfluous and Uninformed.” U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey says Missoula County's recent appeal over federal handling of a Freedom of Information Act request is "superfluous and uninformed." In a telephone interview with The Associated Press this week, Rey talked about the county's demand for information related to road easements involving the Forest Service, which he oversees, and Plum Creek Timber Co. The county will get all the information it is due under the FOIA request, Rey said, but that may not be all the information sought. The request filed in June arose as Missoula County officials looked into private negotiations between the Forest Service and Plum Creek, negotiations about possible changes in the easements that are a framework for company use of Forest Service roads. In the appeal filed last week, the county said the Forest Service provided too little information in response to the FOIA request. As more information is gathered, it will be sent if deemed appropriate for release, Rey said. The appeal is superfluous because one filed earlier by the county has not been decided, and uninformed because an index requested in the county's latest appeal is something not normally provided outside of a court case, he said. Deputy Missoula County Attorney D. James McCubbin on Wednesday defended the request for the index and said the appeal he sent last Friday was submitted one business day before an appeal deadline specified by the Forest Service. McCubbin said the agency told him not meeting that deadline would result in the county forgoing its right to appeal....

BLM to Carson: Hold your horses A federal agency says pastures it operates in Oklahoma and Kansas no longer have room for wild horses caught in New Mexico's Carson National Forest. In the past horses caught in the forest that couldn't be adopted out were sent to Bureau of Land Management holding facilities. But Carson National Forest wild horse coordinator Anthony Madrid has received an e-mail from U.S. Forest Service headquarters saying he can no longer ship unadopted horses to BLM facilities. The e-mail gives no reason but Madrid speculates the policy change comes because the BLM facilities are nearly full and expect more wild horses from BLM-managed lands.

Ag groups worry California cage ban will spread Farm groups on Wednesday criticized a new California law that bans keeping chickens, calves, and pigs in cages, arguing it will increase production costs, while animal welfare proponents said they hope to get similar laws adopted in other states. "California often is a bellwether, so it's likely this ban will be pushed in other states," Bryan Black, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said in a statement. "We certainly don't expect the Humane Society to stop with California." Black called it "regrettable" that farmers and ranchers "who treat their animals humanely and provide them a safe, healthy environment" were vilified by animal-rights groups. "We certainly hope we don't see more of these measures on the ballot in other states, but the animal activists have a lot more money than the American veal farmer," said Chip Lines, president of the American Veal Association....

Jogger runs mile with rabid fox locked on her arm With a fox locked onto her arm, an Arizona jogger ran a mile to her car, where she was able to dislodge the animal, throw it into the trunk and drive to a Prescott hospital. The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said the fox, which later attacked an animal control officer, tested positive for rabies. The unidentified Chino Valley resident told deputies she was on a trail Monday at the base of Granite Mountain when the fox attacked, biting her foot. The woman said she grabbed it by the neck when it went for her leg and it latched onto her arm. Thinking the fox was rabid, she wanted to make sure it didn't get away so she ran to her car, where she was able to pry open its jaws, wrap it in a sweat shirt and toss it into the trunk. The woman is receiving rabies vaccinations, as is the animal control officer.

Obama Transition Team

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For the past several months, a board of advisors has been informally planning for a possible presidential transition. Among the many projects undertaken by the transition board have been detailed analyses of previous transition efforts, policy statements made during the campaign, and the workings of federal government agencies, and priority positions that must be filled by the incoming administration. With Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s election, this planning process will be now be formally organized as the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501(c)(4) organization to ensure a smooth transition from one administration to the next. The work of this entity will be overseen by three co-chairs: John Podesta, Valerie Jarrett, and Pete Rouse. The co-chairs will be assisted by an advisory board comprised of individuals with significant private and public sector experience: Carol Browner, William Daley, Christopher Edley, Michael Froman, Julius Genachowski, Donald Gips, Governor Janet Napolitano, Federico Peña, Susan Rice, Sonal Shah, Mark Gitenstein, and Ted Kaufman. Gitenstein and Kaufman will serve as co-chairs of Vice President-elect Biden’s transition team. Supervising the day-to-day activities of the transition will be:

Chris Lu – Executive Director
Dan Pfeiffer – Communications Director
Stephanie Cutter – Chief Spokesperson
Cassandra Butts – General Counsel
Jim Messina – Personnel Director
Patrick Gaspard – Associate Personnel Director
Christine Varney - Personnel Counsel
Melody Barnes – Co-Director of Agency Review
Lisa Brown – Co-Director of Agency Review
Phil Schiliro – Director of Congressional Relations
Michael Strautmanis – Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs
Katy Kale – Director of Operations
Brad Kiley – Director of Operations

The phone number for the transition headquarters is 202-540-3000. The official website for the transition is www.change.gov and it will be live later today.

COMMENT

Of interest to readers is Carol Browner, who was the administrator of EPA during the Clinton Administration. Prior to that she was an aide to Senator Al Gore and ran the Flordia Department of Environmental Protection. She is currently chair of the Audobon Society and also chairs it's executive committee. The Audobon Society issued the post-election statement I linked to here.

This is from Wikipedia:

During the Clinton Administration

When Republicans took control of Congress after the 1994 elections, she took the lead in the Clinton Administration in successfully fighting efforts by the Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives, to weaken the Clean Water Act. She was able to work in a bipartisan manner, though, with Congressional Republicans in helping craft amendments to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Food Quality Protection Act.

Browner came from Florida with a reputation as someone who could work with the private sector. While at EPA, she expanded the Agency's flexible public-private partnerships as alternatives to traditional regulation through Project XL (designed to find common sense, cost effective solutions to environmental issues at individual facilities) and the Common Sense Initiative (targeted at efforts involving entire industry sectors).

In 1995, Browner generated controversy, after she and the EPA were charged by the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs with violating the federal Anti-Lobbying Act (18 U.S. Code § 1913) by faxing unsolicited material opposing the Republican-sponsored regulatory reform package to various corporations and public-interest groups.[2]

As EPA Administrator, Browner also started the Agency's successful brownfields program, which, during her tenure, helped facilitate cleanups of contaminated facilities, especially in urban areas, and which leveraged more than $1 billion in public and private funds for cleanups.

Since 2001

After the Clinton Administration, Browner joined the Albright Group, a "global strategy group" headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. As a Principal in that firm, Browner assists businesses and other organizations with the challenges of operating internationally, including the challenges of complying with environmental regulations.

COMMENT

Another Gore connection is Donald Gips, who served as Domestic Policy Advisor to VP Gore and who raised over $500,000 for the Obama campaign. He is currently vice president of corporate strategy and development for Colorado-based Level 3 Communications, the sixth largest defense contractor in the country.

Watch for Gore to be some kind of special envoy on climate change from the White House or State Dept.

See anyone representing agriculture?

Election Results Bring Conservation Opportunity and Need for Action "Voters in this historic election cast their ballots not only for change, but for a new era of hope for our environment, and the people, birds, and other wildlife that depend on it. Washington has been ignoring critical environmental issues for too long. President-elect Barack Obama and a more environmentally aware Congress offer the promise of leadership and fundamental change that could usher in new protections for America's great natural heritage, and a new lease on life for species in decline. "Despite real reason for optimism, we cannot take conservation gains for granted. Audubon is committed to helping the new Administration and Congress to live up to their great promise; and to make conservation, clean energy and green jobs part of America's path to a brighter tomorrow. "Through our local Chapters, state offices and national grass roots efforts, Audubon will join with others in the environmental community to ensure that our newly elected leaders lead the way on issues vital to our environment, our economy and diversity of life on Earth." Issues demanding prompt attention include....

Lawyer wants Supreme Court to hear eagle case A Northern Arapaho man who killed an eagle for use in his tribe's Sun Dance is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court order that he must stand trial on a criminal charge. Winslow Friday asked the Supreme Court to review his case last month. He wants the court to overturn a ruling that a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver issued in May stating that he must stand trial. Friday's request is the latest turn in a long-running legal dispute over the rights of American Indians to kill eagles for religious purposes. The latest challenge, however, centers on whether it's appropriate for federal appeals courts to second-guess federal district judges on the factual issues of a case. The appeals court ruling in may overruled a decision that U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming wrote in 2006 that dismissed the criminal charge against Friday. In throwing out the charge against Friday, Downes ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had shown "callous indifference" to the religious beliefs of American Indians. Downes ruled that the federal agency wouldn't have given Friday a permit to kill the eagle even if he had applied for one....

Report: Drilling on federal lands could be faster The government isn't doing enough to expedite drilling in federal waters and on public lands, according to a report issued Tuesday by congressional investigators. In a review of the 55,000 federal oil and gas leases issued to energy companies by the Interior Department from 1987 to 1996, the General Accountability Office found that the vast majority expired without being drilled, and an even smaller amount actually produced oil and natural gas. "We do not agree that Interior is pursuing expedited development of oil and gas leases," the report reads. Energy companies currently hold leases but are not producing on about 68 million acres of federal land -- property that has the potential to double domestic oil production. About a third of the oil produced in the U.S. in 2007 came from public lands. House Democrats and Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama have said companies should "use it or lose it" -- meaning they must drill on lands they currently rent or release them before being awarded new leases....

Wolves kill ewe at Reed Point ranch Wolves returned to a sheep ranch north of Reed Point Sunday and killed one ewe. Wolves have killed livestock on the ranch in five previous incidents, the most recent in early October. Federal Wildlife Services officials confirmed that wolves were responsible for the depredation. As a result, a permit allowing the rancher to kill one wolf was extended for 45 days, starting Sunday. A total of 16 sheep and one goat on the same ranch have been confirmed killed despite the efforts of herders and guard dogs.

Burgeoning workloads ahead for Interior agencies The Minerals Management Service might need as much as $140 million in new appropriations to regulate new offshore drilling projects, according to agency officials. MMS is one of two federal agencies that oversee energy projects on federal lands, and both will see their workloads increase markedly in the next few years. At MMS, it’s because of the lapsed ban on offshore oil drilling, which opens millions of acres of coastal lands to exploration. The Bureau of Land Management, meanwhile, will have two new responsibilities: issuing oil shale exploration leases, and managing new geothermal projects on millions of acres of federal land. The new work means both Interior Department agencies could need big budget bumps in years to come. At BLM, the most immediate priority is the geothermal project. The Interior Department last month opened 190 million acres of federal land to geothermal development; companies are already looking to develop some of that land, according to Mike Nudd, BLM’s associate director for minerals, realty and resource protection. Companies are particularly interested in developing land in Western states, like California, Nevada and Wyoming, Nudd said. BLM will probably look to expand its staff in that region, he said....

Avalanche blasting in park still prohibited The National Park Service has issued a final decision denying BNSF Railway permission to use explosives for avalanche control on Glacier National Park's southern boundary except under extreme, emergency circumstances. The decision signed by Mike Snyder, the service's Intermountain regional director, does, however, allow the railroad to monitor the potential for avalanches on the steep slopes above railroad tracks in the Middle Fork Flathead River corridor. The railroad had requested permission to use light artillery to reduce the threat of avalanches to railroad traffic. "The area of the park that was the subject of this [environmental impact statement] has federally listed threatened and endangered species present, is within the park's recommended wilderness, provides winter recreation for park visitors and is important winter range for deer, elk and other ungulate species," Cartwright added....Endangered Species: 1, Human Safety: 0

Ca. animal welfare measure passes Proposition 2, which outlaws cramped cages for egg-laying chickens, has passed. The Standards for Confining Farm Animals Act drew some high-profile backers, including Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi. Opponents argue the measure will drive egg producers out of state. The proposition was the farthest-reaching measure dealing with farm animal treatment ever put before voters in any state. It prohibits ranchers from keeping chickens, veal calves and breeding pigs in pens that are too small for them to stand up, turn around or stretch....

USDA adds to list of preferred environmentally friendly products The Agriculture Department is proposing to add nine categories of products made from biological or agricultural ingredients to its list of preferred procurements. Procurement staffs and federal contractors must give preferences to these environmentally friendly products when they order new supplies so long as they are available in a reasonable amount of time, meet performance needs and come at a reasonable price. The nine new product categories are chain and cable lubricants, corrosion preventatives, food cleaners, forming lubricants, gear lubricants, general purpose household cleaners, industrial cleaners, multipurpose cleaners, and parts wash solutions. The nine products would be added to the 33 product categories that have been identified to date under Agriculture’s BioPreferred Program. The categories include everything from hydraulic fluids and roof coatings to hand cleaners and towels....

COOL marks first full month After the first full month of country of origin labeling implementation, producers, packers and retailers have begun sorting out in practical terms how to transfer live cattle origin information up the chain to consumers at the retail meat case. What the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers the “educational compliance” phase is expected to take at least another six months. “The best estimate that we are seeing now is that approximately 30 percent of the beef sold in the U.S. will have to be labeled with country of origin information,” says Ryan Reuter, a beef specialist for the Noble Foundation at Ardmore, Okla. Processed items, food service, restaurants and smaller meat markets doing less than $230,000 in business annually, are all exempt from the law. Most beef is already of U.S. origin. The nation’s largest packer Tyson Foods estimates that 90 percent of all the fresh, retail beef and pork cuts produced in the United States will qualify for a U.S. label. All the major meatpackers have said they intend to label everything they can as a U.S. product by spring. During a temporary grace period, USDA is allowing auction markets and packers to use visual identification to determine origin. But government officials have continued to insist that visual means of identification of imported animals alone will not be sufficient to make a U.S. origin claim in the future....

BSE Testing Hot Topic on “Boston Legal” With the hubbub of the election, you might have missed ABC’s “Boston Legal” tackling the beef industry. Last night’s episode centered on cattle rancher Carol Hober (Valerie Bertinelli) suing the USDA for not allowing her to test every animal on her ranch for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). During testimony, Bertinelli’s character accused the USDA of catering to corporate meat packers who are against the cost of mandatory testing, while 65 countries impose trade restrictions on U.S. beef. “That’s the policy at my ranch. We want to test every cow so we can be safe. How dare the federal government say I can’t do so,” Hober said on the stand. Proponents for USDA on the show revealed BSE testing can only detect the disease shortly before the animal exhibits symptoms—which for most U.S. cattle is after the typical age of slaughter. “First of all, testing can’t detect mad cow disease until shortly before the cow develops symptoms. Cattle are typically slaughtered at 24 months of age—that is long before the disease is detectable. Look, all this testing, testing, testing talk, the reality is, testing can’t make a difference,” said the proponent for USDA. During Shore’s cross examination, the USDA representative said that allowing some ranchers like Hober advertise the fact they test all of their animals would make the rest of the beef industry look unsafe....

Oregon - US Senate: Merkley-Smith race tightens as count continues

Alaska - Stevens leads Begich by thin margin in Senate race

Alaska - Young headed to victory

North Dakota - Hoeven returns as Governor

South Dakota - Johnson returned to Senate

Idaho - Risch defeats LaRocco to succeed Craig in U.S. Senate

Heinrich wins 1st Congressional District seat (NM)

Teague ends 28-year GOP hold in 2nd (NM)

Huntsman reelected Governor in Utah

Wyoming's Enzi, Barrasso elected to Senate

Gov. Schweitzer wins re-election in Montana

Voters send Baucus back to Senate

Democrat wins in Colorado U.S. Senate race

NM Dem. Udall carries on green family legacy

Obama beats McCain in New Mexico presidential vote

McCain wins Wyoming

Udall defeats Pearce in US Senate race

MIT scientists baffled by global warming theory, contradicts scientific data Scientists at MIT have recorded a nearly simultaneous world-wide increase in methane levels. This is the first increase in ten years, and what baffles science is that this data contradicts theories stating man is the primary source of increase for this greenhouse gas. It takes about one full year for gases generated in the highly industrial northern hemisphere to cycle through and reach the southern hemisphere. However, since all worldwide levels rose simultaneously throughout the same year, it is now believed this may be part of a natural cycle in mother nature - and not the direct result of man's contributions. The two lead authors of a paper published in this week's Geophysical Review Letters, Matthew Rigby and Ronald Prinn, the TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, state that as a result of the increase, several million tons of new methane is present in the atmosphere....

Profits to the Planet The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that it is launching a new conservation fund called the Earth Profits Fund. The fund will ask the world’s 500 wealthiest corporations to dedicate one percent of their profits to protect threatened forests, fisheries and other at-risk ecosystems around the world. IUCN, a Swiss-based nonprofit, is an environmental network comprised of more than 1,000 governmental and nonprofit organizations (also known as the World Conservation Union). The group is best known for producing and maintaining a Red List, the most comprehensive tally of the globe’s endangered species. The new Earth Profits Fund will act as alternative funding source for conservation programs in light of the fact that traditional sources are disappearing in light of the worldwide economic meltdown. If the group can get the buy-in from the world’s richest companies, it could raise some $10 billion a year to put toward conservation causes....

Mammoth step in bringing back extinct species Resurrection of frozen extinct animals, such as woolly mammoths, could be a step closer to reality, with scientists cloning mice from the brain cells of dead mice which had been in a deep freeze for more than a decade. The cloned mice were able to reproduce normally and have healthy babies. It had been thought this approach would not work with frozen animals, because ice crystals in their cells would have damaged their DNA. But a Japanese team of researchers, led by Teruhiko Wakayama of the RIKEN research institute in Kobe, developed techniques to get around this problem, producing clones from mice which had been kept at -20 degrees for 16 years. No special chemicals had been added to the mice to cryopreserve them, a situation which would also apply to animals frozen in the wild, such as mammoths trapped in the permafrost. Dr Wakayama said this meant his team's success "offers a distinct chance to resurrect extinct animals or preserve endangered species"....

Yellowstone wolves crash, Idaho's thrive Since the beginning of wolf reintroduction in the Northern Rockies, Idaho and its more than 20 million acres of wild lands have taken a back seat in the debate to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone simply had more star power for wolf advocates seeking a remarkably ambitious program to restore wolves into a region where the animals were hated, poisoned and eliminated. The 2.2 million-acre national park at the core of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, along with nearby Grand Teton, also offered wolf advocates a level of government control like few places on Earth. When wolves were finally released in 1995, all the national hoopla went to Yellowstone. The releases in Idaho were almost a footnote. The Idaho wolves quickly found each other, along with the few native wolves that hadn't been illegally shot or poisoned. They formed their own packs and flourished in the wild backcountry of the Salmon-Selway ecosystem, which has ample supply of elk. With managers balancing protection with the needs of livestock owners, the Idaho wolves also found homes on the edges of the ideal habitat. Wolf numbers grew in Idaho at rates far higher than either Yellowstone or Northwest Montana, where they had been repopulating since the 1970s. When they were delisted back in March, there were as many wolves in Idaho - more than 700 - as there were everywhere else in the northern Rockies. Even in the face of relatively high mortality due to official killings to protect livestock, Idaho became the place where wolves grew old....

Offsetting Bush's Green Legacy: Advice for No. 44 There is no shortage of people eager to see President George W. Bush hit the road — his approval rating hovers at 25% — but few will celebrate the end of the Bush era more than environmentalists. From the green perspective, the Bush Administration has been an unmitigated disaster, with sins of omission (the failure to do anything significant on climate change) and commission (stealthy attempts to weaken environmental protections such as the Endangered Species Act). For Bush's successor, that legacy means having to play catch-up starting Jan. 20 on a dusty list of green issues; to name a few: national action on capping carbon, reengaging with the United Nations climate change treaty process, America's addiction to foreign oil, water shortages in the Southwest and accelerated species loss. But the most important task on that to-do list is simple: Don't be George W. Bush. At a time when climate change forced the rest of the world to pay more attention to the environment than ever before, Bush went AWOL. "I think the most important opportunity for the new leader is simply to be a leader," says Mark Tercek, the president of the Nature Conservancy, one of the most influential environmental organizations in the world. The new President will be faced immediately with the U.N.'s annual climate change summit, which occurs this December in Poland before he takes office....

Feds propose much fewer snowmobiles in Yellowstone A cap on snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be lowered by 40 percent under a federal proposal released Monday in response to a judge's rejection of earlier plans. Parks officials had proposed allowing up to 605 snowmobiles a day in the two parks, but U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected that plan in September, agreeing with plaintiff environmental groups that it would increase air pollution, disturb wildlife and cause too much noise. The new plan calls for a cap of 318 snowmachines a day in Yellowstone and another 50 in Grand Teton to the south. Park administrators said they expect it will be adopted by Dec. 15. Yellowstone winter use planner John Sacklin said the new cap would meet Sullivan's concerns while park administrators again try to form a long-term plan for the machines. The cap would expire after three years....

The Philanthropic Roots Of Corporate Environmentalism Perhaps the first environmental historian to critique the influence of ostensibly progressive philanthropic foundations (big money) on the environmental movement was Robert Gottlieb. (1) Writing in 1993, Gottlieb noted in his influential book Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement that foundations "[a]s much as anyone else ...had become part of the process of creating the environmental policy system of the 1970s," which in turn, created a "new breed of environmental organization, with expert staff, especially lawyers and scientists, and a more sophisticated lobbying or political presence in Washington." However, of the subsequent work critically examining how liberal foundations have affected the evolution of the environmental movement, (2) none provides more than a cursory investigation of the involvement of liberal foundations in shaping environmental developments throughout the 1960s, despite the fact that even prior to the 1960s such foundations had been active in funding all manner of conservation and preservation organizations. This article fills this gap in the environmental literature by focusing specifically on the role of the two foundations that gave the environmental movement the most monetary support during its early days, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.(3)....

CEO pleads guilty in shootings of neighbor's bison A modern-day range war ended Monday when a Texas businessman who owns a ranch in central Colorado pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and animal cruelty in the slaughter of 32 bison that belonged to a neighbor. Jeff Hawn, CEO of Seattle-based software company Attachmate, agreed to pay $83,000 to the bison's owner, $70,000 to charities and $4,000 to the Park County Sheriff's Department. Hawn could also face up to 10 days in jail when he's sentenced on Jan. 28. He faces two years of probation, and the case could be wiped from his record if he stays out of trouble during that time. Hawn's lawyer, Pamela Mackey, didn't immediately return a telephone message. Hawn lives in Austin, Texas, but has a luxury home on his Colorado property. Prosecutors say he gave 14 hunters permission to shoot and kill the bison on his land because they kept wandering there from owner Monte Downare's ranch....

Bison are Camp Pendleton's royal grunts They roam freely over the grassy hills, American royalty in a most unusual of settings. Nearby, young Marines are being tutored in the controlled application of violence, but the 147 bison of Camp Pendleton, shaggy, rust-colored and majestic, are protected by federal law. The Marine Corps makes no attempt to fence them. Instead, a staff of civilian biologists monitors the movements of the population, sometimes by helicopter. If the bison wander too close to the artillery or live-fire ranges, training is halted. Once the bison surrounded a vehicle containing the commandant, blocking his way. The four stars on his collar gave him absolute authority over 170,000 Marines but meant nothing to the bison. He waited until the beasts, in their haughty, self-assured manner, slowly decided to move. It all started in the mid-1970s, when the San Diego Zoo gave a dozen bison, which it did not have space for, to Camp Pendleton. Space was not a problem at the 125,000-acre base. The Camp Pendleton population, given its isolation, may prove a genetic boon to species preservation efforts....

Grizzly deaths reach legal 'trigger point' A female grizzly bear shot by a Pennsylvania elk hunter this week will push mortality levels for the bears past a management "trigger point" - only a year and a half after Yellowstone's grizzlies were removed from the endangered-species list.
Federal overseers of the bears are not panicking, however. "We've had high levels of mortality in the past. This isn't unprecedented. It does happen," said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I don't think this is a crisis at all. Populations are still increasing." But environmental groups, who have sued to restore threatened status for Yellowstone grizzlies, are worried. Surprised by the female grizzly Wednesday, the hunter fired his .300 Winchester Short Magnum rifle, possibly shooting through the female and killing her cub. The man was hunting in the Cinnabar Basin, northwest of Gardiner, with an outfitter who had left him at the edge of a clearing. When the bear wandered close, the hunter stood and yelled. The bear rushed toward the man in defense of her cub of the year....

From Calif. to Denver: Ozone woes become regional Ozone pollution — once seen as mainly an urban problem — is spreading across the interior West from rural Wyoming to suburban Phoenix. Levels of the corrosive gas that can impair breathing have exceeded federal health standards in Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado. Four Arizona counties and two in Utah also are likely to exceed a new, tighter federal standard, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. "It's a new ballgame in the West," said Mary Uhl, New Mexico's air quality director. "We've got to do something, and we've got to do it now." In Wyoming, ozone levels in rural areas are "creeping up," said David Finley, state air quality division administrator. "We need to keep our eye on this." The emerging pollution problem is leading to tighter controls on oil and gas operations and raising questions about how much development the West can sustain....

The Horseracing Industry wins by a nose (for now) In the eternal battle of industry vs. regulators, the horseracing industry is employing a [1] wily plan that just might save it from the final nail in the coffin a.k.a. federal oversight.Ever since the unfortunate and [3] very public death of the filly Eight Belles’ during the 2008 Kentucky derby, the horseracing industry has essentially been in a race to save its own life. With the clamoring of bewildered television viewers, animal activists, and opportunistic politicians to “do something” about the state of horseracing . Already barely scraping by with meager revenues and an ever dwindling fan base, new regulations and standards would almost certainly prove too costly, too time-consuming, and result in too boring a sport for the dying industry to bear. So, in what could be described as a Hail Mary pass, the national thoroughbred racing association last month [4] appointed ex-cabinet secretary Tommy Thompson to oversee the implementation of an industry-wide certification system for racetracks. In order to receive the certification, the tracks will need to demonstrate their ability to handle issues such as doping and humane treatment of horses (including retired horses). For the sake of the horseracing industry, and for the sake of the horses within the industry, I hope this works. As of now it seems to be a tenuous victory. Animal activists are still pushing hard for the feds to get involved, and no politician wants to be the one to turn his or her back on camera-friendly ponies....

It's All Trew: Good use of newspaper Today's highly-touted "recycling" programs are not new to old timers. The terms of "save it, use it up and wear it out" were the everyday habits of the early day families in order to get by and survive. Nothing was wasted or just tossed out. There was always a use of some kind. Hundreds of stories, jokes and pranks recall the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogues saved and hung in outhouses to save having to buy toilet paper. Not only was the habit a money saver it provided many hours of enjoyable reading for as long as you could hold your nose. No one threw newspapers of any type away. The principle use was to clean lamp chimneys. Something about the ink in the print made the glass globes shine and glisten around the flame. Since most lamps had to filled with kerosene each day, the newspaper was a staple around most rural homes and kept at ready for instant use. Ours was kept on a shelf in the pantry along with a stack of paper sacks, a ball of twine, a pile of white meat wrapping papers and some rubber bands. Dust from the Dust Bowl along with soot from wood and coal smoke settled on everything inside a home. Newspaper was used to cover shelves so that when they needed cleaning, the paper liner was changed. As most shelving at the time was usually crude and uneven, the newspaper hid the ugly surface neatly as well as providing a clean surface....

Obama Cabinet Picks

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At Politico.com Mike Allen has gathered intel on potential Obama appointments. The article gives Dem insiders info on both White House and Cabinet picks. Of interest to readers here are the following:

Secretary of Interior - Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Secretary of Agriculture - Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)

Secretary of Energy - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)

Environmental Protection Agency administrator - Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.); Kathleen McGinty, former head of the Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Agency

Allen says McCain's people were too busy campaigning to talk.

EU facing revolt over climate change target enforcement The European Union is facing a revolt from poorer members over tough climate change targets at a time when the global economy is heading for recession. Italy has teamed up with seven east and central European countries - Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia - to threaten a veto over Brussels legislation that implements an EU target to cut Europe's CO2 emissions 20 per cent by 2020. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, attacked the target as an unnecessary burden on European businesses at a time when recession was intensifying international economic competition. "I have announced my intention to exercise my veto," he said. As well as agreeing to cut CO2 emissions, the EU is trying to enforce a target requiring European countries to produce 20 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Poland fears that its reliance on coal-fired power stations will see it unfairly squeezed and pushed to invest in expensive wind turbines, unlike France which is dependent on nuclear energy. The row has opened a deep rift over the costs of meeting environmental targets between rich Northern and Western member states and their poorer neighbours....

Obama Called Out for Comments About Bankrupting Coal Fired Power Plants With only hours before election day, coal has become a major topic of Decision 2008. Sunday, comments resurfaced from a taped interview Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama did with the San Francisco Chronicle in January. In the interview, which has been available online for months, Obama talks about the importance of coal. He went on to talk about his cap and trade proposal to help curb global warming. "If somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted," Barack Obama said to the San Francisco Chronicle in January. The campaign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain jumped on those comments today and is already sending out taped phone messages to voters in Ohio. Campaigning in Marietta today, McCain's running mate Sarah Palin mentioned the Obama comments. "He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he's comfortable letting that happen. And you got to listen to the tape," Sarah Palin said....

Coal official calls Obama comments 'unbelievable' At least one state coal industry leader said he was shocked by comments Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made earlier this year concerning his plan to aggressively charge polluters for carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. According to the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, the coal industry provides about 40,000 direct jobs in the state, including those for miners, mine contractors, coal preparation plant employees and mine supply company workers. The senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association called Obama's comments "unbelievable." "His comments are unfortunate," Chris Hamilton said Sunday, "and really reflect a very uninformed voice and perspective to coal specifically and energy generally." Hamilton noted other times Obama and vice presidential candidate Joe Biden have made seemingly anti-coal statements....

Missoula County appeals to get forest papers The U.S. Forest Service has withheld information sought by Missoula County officials as they looked into road easement negotiations conducted privately between the federal agency and Plum Creek Timber Co., the county said in documents Friday. Deputy County Attorney D. James McCubbin sent the Forest Service an appeal of its response to an information request the county filed June 25 under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Missoula County has criticized Rey over negotiations in which the government and Plum Creek, the country's largest private landowner, agreed on changes to an agreement about company use of Forest Service roads. Some county commissioners in the state have said the changes would make it easier for Plum Creek to sell timberland for housing or other development, perhaps leaving counties with the high cost of providing public services in remote places. Commissioners say the easements traditionally allowed company use of Forest Service roads only for management of Plum Creek forests. Rey maintains the terms have allowed broader uses. After conducting an investigation requested by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., the Government Accountability Office said in October that the agreement between Rey and Plum Creek could set a precedent allowing other private landowners to use forest roads for development of subdivisions. The amendment would substantially increase of the value of many Plum Creek lands in Western Montana, according to the GAO, which also found the private talks blocked public involvement....

Rift widens among area tribes, private landowners Private landowners and businesses here have a double threat from state and federal traditional cultural property regulations. They are trying to stop the temporary designation of Mount Taylor as a traditional cultural property from becoming permanent, which they say has already violated their rights and stopped them from using their land for any commercial purposes. If made permanent, they say the Grants area economy will be destroyed. Not only is the state Cultural Property Review Committee considering making a state-level traditional cultural property permanent, but the Forest Service has also temporarily designated Mount Taylor to be a traditional cultural property under the Historic Preservation Act and could move to make it permanent. The land within the federal traditional cultural property is some 1,100 square miles and includes more than 200,000 acres of private land. Even though the listing is temporary, anyone using land within or nearby the boundaries of the area is required to follow regulations as if the listing were permanent. This means that if landowners wish to do anything with their land requiring a federal or state permit, they must consult with five area tribes, including the Navajo Nation and Pueblo of Acoma, before being allowed to use their land as they wish. “They did this without public knowledge,” says Joy Burns, who owns land within the traditional cultural property boundaries....

Land auction suspended as tribes claim first rights The U.S. Forest Service has suspended the auction of its former ranger station in Twisp, Okanogan County, after the Colville Confederated Tribes complained that it should have had the right to acquire the property first. Caught in the middle of the dispute in federal court is the Methow Valley town, which has made acquisition of the property, including 17 buildings on 6.7 acres, the focus of its redevelopment plans. Twisp's Public Development Authority made the only bid on the site — $1 million — before the Forest Service halted the online auction. The town's residents have made "a huge local investment in developing a vision for that property," said Kate Jones, executive director of the Methow Arts Alliance and a member of the Public Development Authority. Jones said the authority has spent $30,000 on a feasibility study for the project, which envisions a town center that combines ecological awareness and the arts through education. Project advocates hoped to incorporate a new library, a farmers cooperative and an American Indian cultural center. Now the project has been thrown in doubt, and some residents are concerned the Colville Tribe is interested in Twisp as a potential casino site. Tribal Business Council Vice Chairman Michael Finley said Tuesday the tribe wants the property for cultural reasons....

Omnibus land act includes wilderness designations Republican Mike Beagle of Eagle Point and Independent Dave Willis of Lincoln are excited about the coming vote. But they are looking beyond Tuesday's general election, albeit an event in which both voted and will follow closely. They are anticipating a potential Senate lame-duck session beginning Nov. 17 in which the Senate is expected to vote on the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008, which contains two proposed wilderness areas in southwest Oregon among its more than 150 public lands, water and resources bills. If the bill passes in the Senate, the House may also act on it before the year is out. Beagle, field coordinator for Trout Unlimited in Oregon and Washington, supports creation of the roughly 13,700-acre Copper Salmon Wilderness in the Elk River drainage near Port Orford. Willis chairs the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, which is pushing for creation of the roughly 23,000-acre Soda Mountain Wilderness in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in the mountains east of Ashland. Willis spearheaded the creation of the monument in 2000. Bills calling for the creation of both wilderness areas are contained in the omnibus package. In the case of the monument, the bill also would retire grazing leases in and around the monument through a buyout of willing ranchers. The buyout would be paid for through private sources....

SB County supervisor wants Marines to expand into wilderness areas A San Bernardino County supervisor is proposing that the Marine Corps leave a popular off-roading mecca intact and instead expand its Twentynine Palms training center into two wilderness areas. The military is considering enlarging the 932-square-mile base to the west, taking in the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area, and to the east, right up to the edges of the Sheephole Valley and Cadiz Dunes wilderness areas. But the federally protected wilderness could become new live-ammunition training grounds in an alternative plan suggested by San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. The supervisor has asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office to consider removal of the wilderness designation from more than 150,000 acres in the two areas to accommodate the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center expansion. He contends the land has little value as wilderness. And keeping Johnson Valley open for the estimated 800,000 recreational visits a year is essential to the economies of the High Desert towns of Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, Mitzelfelt said....

Fire fuel vegetation gets the axe in southern Utah Huge swaths of pinyon and juniper trees are disappearing southeast of Enterprise, but instead of going up in smoke, the prodigious trees are being chewed up and spit out. With a relatively slow fire season, state and federal agencies have joined together to clear fire fuels from around communities that increasingly encroach on southwestern Utah's open spaces. As part of the effort, Color Country Interagency Fire Center has used a piece of equipment called a bullhog to help clear trees while leaving wanted plants such as sagebrush and cliff rose, which are important winter forage for wildlife. The Cedar City-based Color Country office is a consortium of state, federal and community fire agencies responsible for wildland fires in five counties in southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona. When not clearing areas by hand using chain saws and axes, the BLM uses its bullhog. With 48 carbide teeth protruding from a rotating cutting head, the machine reduces mature juniper trees to wood chips in seconds....

U.S. West's sea of oil will take time to tap A key issue in the Rocky Mountain West this political season is how to tap Western oil reserves that could be twice as large as Saudi Arabia's - but are encased in rock. The presidential campaigns have weighed in, mindful of polls that suggest that finding new sources of energy is a priority for many Western voters. In the Mountain West, oil shale plays as prominent a role as natural gas and oil drilling. "Unlike the Bush administration's reckless develop-at-all-costs strategy, (Barack) Obama will work with local stakeholders to determine the best path forward and will ensure that science - not big oil - guides our decision-making processes," Obama campaign spokesman Matt Chandler said in a written statement. What Bush has referred to as "enormous reserves" lie beneath the Green River Basin of northwestern Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and eastern Utah. The area contains an estimated 1 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil - up to three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia - locked in rock. Roughly 800 billion barrels are considered recoverable. The trick is getting the oil out. People have tried off and on for nearly a century. The shale, or kerogen, is a precursor that wasn't buried deeply enough or naturally processed long enough to complete the transformation to oil. And even the most ardent supporters of mining oil shale concede commercial development is likely at least a decade off...

GAO suggests more third-party verification of MMS RIK production The US Minerals Management Service could improve oversight of its oil and gas royalty-in-kind (RIK) program by verifying more production data through third parties and improving reports of benefits and costs, the Government Accountability Office said on Oct. 29. "Under the royalty-in-kind program, MMS's oversight of its natural gas production volumes is less robust than its oversight of oil production volumes. As a result, MMS does not have the same level of assurance that it is collecting the gas royalties it is owed," the congressional government watchdog service added in its report. RIK payments make up a growing share of the oil and gas royalties MMS and the US Bureau of Land Management generate, according to GAO. About 58% of the $9.74 billion in royalty payments received in fiscal 2006 were in-value (cash) while 42% were in-kind, it said. MMS takes the oil or gas it receives as an in-kind royalty and sells it on the open market. The agency has said the program increases revenue, improves efficiency, and shortens the compliance cycle....

1.1 million Utah acres of public land closed to off-highway vehicles The Bureau of Land Management on Friday approved five new Resource Management Plans for field offices in Utah that will close almost 1.1 million acres, or 13 percent, of public lands to off-highway vehicle travel in these areas, according to a news release. Off-highway vehicle travel on designated roads is still allowed on 7.6 million acres, or 88 percent of public lands in the five field office areas of Moab, Kanab, Price, Richfield and Vernal. The new plans replace 25-year-old plans and better address “the need for improved recreation opportunities, better management of cross-country travel to protect natural resources, the use of best management practices to mitigate the impacts of energy development activities and additional safeguards for the protection of environmentally sensitive areas,” the BLM’s release said....

Endangered gopher frogs get a break this year Mississippi gopher frogs breed only in ponds so shallow they dry up in summer. Hot, dry springs have stranded tadpoles every year since 1998, when 2,488 froglets hopped out of Glen's Pond in coastal Harrison County, Miss. The pond held water longer this year. And 181 tadpoles survived a deadly parasite, made it through metamorphosis and headed into the surrounding DeSoto National Forest. Biologists saved seven generations. They wash some eggs in well water, apparently removing the parasite, hatch them in a lab and put the tadpoles in screen-covered outdoor tanks. Scientists believe fewer than 100 mature adults live in the wild. Five zoos - in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis, Miami and Omaha, Neb. - have 75 more frogs. Mississippi gopher frogs once lived in longleaf pine forests from western Alabama to southeast Louisiana. Timbering all but eradicated those forests. The frogs live underground, in stump holes and burrows dug by other animals. They have other oddities. Their breeding call sounds like snoring....Sounds like some women I've known. Hope they are endangered too.

Packer's growing clout vexes ranchers The recent announcement by Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS that it intends to acquire two big U.S. beef processors has cattle ranchers and feeders on edge, fearing a loss of competition in the market. "I'm hoping we have some chance of shutting this (merger) down," said Schreiber, who raises calves on his ranch with about 250 mother cows. "This is a very tough industry to survive in, and it's not going to help if we lose competition for our product." JBS, whose U.S. headquarters is in Greeley, has designs on becoming the nation's largest meatpacker. It already had taken a big step in that direction last year when it acquired Greeley-based Swift and Co. for $1.4 billion from a partnership that included Vail-based ski-resort mogul George Gillett. That deal made JBS the third-largest beef producer in the U.S., behind No. 1 Tyson Foods and second-ranked Cargill. JBS would be positioned to leapfrog to the top of the industry under its proposed acquisition of competitors National Beef and Smithfield Beef, the fourth- and fifth-largest packers, respectively. The deals would give JBS about 35 percent of all U.S. beef-processing capacity. But JBS's growth plans took a hit, at least temporarily, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit recently, claiming that JPS's acquisition of National Beef would harm consumers and cattle producers. The Justice Department did not oppose the Smithfield deal. Reaction to the antitrust lawsuit has been mixed. Many ranchers and feedlot operators favor the action because they say it will preserve competition in meatpacking, thus helping them obtain higher prices when they sell cattle to the packers for slaughter. Other analysts see the Justice Department's move as harmful to the meatpacking industry, which has struggled in recent years with low profit margins and excess capacity. Allowing mergers, they say, will improve plant efficiencies and help hold costs down....

Florida Cracker Cattle & Cracker Horse Program In the year 1521, Juan Ponce De Leon brought a small herd of Andalusion cattle and horses with him on his second expedition to the New World. These were the first cattle and horses to ever set foot (or hoof) on what is now the continental United States. The Spanish explorers were forced back to their ship by the Caloosa Indian warriors, and Ponce De Leon received a mortal wound. There is no record of what became of the explorers livestock, so it is imagined that these were the first cattle to ever run wild in Florida. The challenge to conquer Florida went out, and other conquistadors soon followed. These explorers brought cattle, swine, and horses. Each expedition party certainly would have arrived with horses for transportation. Like the early cattle, these horses were the product of selective breeding, and many were of Andalusian lineage. The horses played a tremendous role in Florida History...Ranching was born when Jesuit and Franciscan Friars set up a system of missions across north and north-central Florida. Their mission was to convert Indians to Christianity but the Friars also used Indian labor to tend livestock and crops. These were the first established ranches in North America. Note that the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock had not yet been born! By 1618 Florida's Spanish Governors were seriously expanding cattle production on local ranchos. The Spanish herds, as well as those kept by the Indians and many cattle running wild, flourished on the immense prairies and rangeland of Florida. The result of this herd increase was that Spanish Cattlemen in Florida began to ship cattle to the large trading center of Cuba. This was the first industry to develop in the New World and trade with Cuba would continue for the next three hundred years. By 1700 there were over 30 privately owned ranchos in Florida. A census ordered by Spanish tax collectors reported over 20,000 cattle on the ranchos. Mission herds were exempt from reporting, cattle owned by individual chiefs and those running wild would not have been counted....

Cowboy up: Kindergartners get a real Old West experience Defying the clichéd saying, it actually was their first rodeo. All eight kindergarten classes at Lydia Rippey Elementary celebrated "Cowboy Day" on Wednesday. The students, most clad in western attire and cowboy hats, rotated between four themed activity stations. The classes took turns making western art, racing stick horses, learning the basics of rodeo and listening to campfire tales. A culmination of weeks of schoolwork, Cowboy Day was held in lieu of a Halloween festival at Lydia Rippey. The kindergartners have used the cowboy theme in most aspects of their recent studies, incorporating it in math problems, crafts, writing and story time. Kindergarten teacher and Cowboy Day coordinator Ione Randleman is seeing the results. "They've been reading all these cowboy books, and we keep hearing them say the vocabulary. It's really starting to click," she said. Volunteers from the Aztec High School Future Farmers of America, the Four Corners Rodeo Team and the 4-H Club were on hand to teach the kindergartners how to lasso, barrel race, ride bareback and sit in a saddle bronc saddle. Aztec Feed and Supply provided most of the rodeo equipment. The enthralled children were more than willing participants....

Bruja haunting not just for Halloween
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Julie Carter

Across the West, reports of hauntings are common to homesteads, old ranch dwellings and at locations of bloody battles that represent the taming of the land.

Sometimes you can feel the presence of the restless spirits of those cheated of life in a moment of anger, greed or determination to civilize the land. The irony of the violence to advance progress is perhaps what keeps the phantoms tethered to a particular place.

Ghostly voices and melodies are heard frequently as they waft across a wind-swept hilltop or through a valley that gives an echo to the eerie whispers and wails. No one can explain them with any convincing facts, but plenty try to justify it to ease the tickle of fear quivering in their gut.

Cowboying on a land that has seen hundreds of years of living, dying and battles for boundaries often provides a notable response in man and beast.

Here in the Southwest we know that the brujas abound.

Riding through a lonely place and having the hair stand up on the back of your neck, feel a cold wind on a hot day, or see a shadow where none should be, heightens the senses of awareness in every fiber of your body.

Simultaneously your horse will pull up on full alert, tense, ears searching for a sound, breath coming in snorts while nostrils flare. They will sometimes, for no obvious reason, refuse a trail or resist going through a gate.

A legendary haunting takes place down in the South Texas brush country at a set of corrals that, historically, was used to rest cattle when they trailed up from Laredo to San Antonio.

Sometimes cattle buyers would take delivery at these pens, so they would arrive with cowboys to finish the drive and enough gold to pay for the herd.

The legend goes that one time the vaqueros trailing the cattle decided to take the buyer's gold and keep the cattle.

A gunfight broke out and a number of vaqueros were killed while others escaped.

The gringo buyers, fearing an ambush on the trail back home, buried the gold in the pens along with their fallen comrades. The vaqueros watched from the brush as the burial of gold and cowboys took place.

The story goes that the vaqueros were too afraid to disturb the graves to take the gold and the white cattle buyers wouldn't return for the gold out of fear of the vaqueros.

Supposedly, the gold remains and so do the spirits of the fallen.

Today's modern vaqueros at the ranch, not aware of the legend, will regularly come to the patron during a cattle working and tell him there are brujas at those corrals. "Muy peligroso," they will say. "No good to work there."

At these corrals, cattle are hard to pen and often, both man and beast sense a presence that encourages the flight instinct.

The pens have been rebuilt over the years, but never moved. The patron said any time there was a plan to relocate the corrals, strange things would occur.

The reigning ghosts and brujas seem to think those pens belong right there and nowhere else.


Visit Julie’s website for a discount offer on her new book, Cowboys You Gotta Love ‘em. www.julie-carter.com

Books For Review

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TOR/FORGE publishers has sent me two new books for review. One is a new novel by the excellent author and friend Elmer Kelton, and the second is a reissue of three Zane Grey novels in one volume. I hope to find time to review these books, especially the Kelton novels, in the near future. In the meantime, here is some info from the publisher.

Texas Sunrise: Two Novels of the Texas Republic
Elmer Kelton

Forge Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2064-3
ISBN-10: 0-7653-2064-9
Trim: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches
368 pages

InTexas Sunrise, Elmer Kelton brings together two novels that tell the story of the Texas Revolution as seen by the brothers Thomas and Joshua Buckalew who emigrate to Texas at a time when the Mexican-controlled province welcomes settlers.

In Massacre at Goliad, tensions mount between Mexican authorities and American newcomers, and revolution is in the air, something Thomas Buckalew welcomes but Joshua fears – he is in love with a Mexican girl.

The story touches on the immortal battle of the Alamo, but centers on the infamous Goliad massacre, and ultimately the decisive battle of San Jacinto, which made Texas an independent republic.

After the Bugles continues where Massacre at Goliad ends – on the battlefield at San Jacinto. Joshua Buckalew tries to put the pieces back together but finds that starting over in the aftermath of war can be as challenging as the war itself. The racial differences that helped foment the conflict have not gone away. And Texas finds that being an independent republic can be more difficult than being a colonial extension of Mexico.


Western Legends
Zane Grey

Forge Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2065-0
ISBN-10: 0-7653-2065-7
Trim: 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
784 pages

Three classics of the western genre by the greatest of its founders

Zane Grey is the most famous writer in westerns, a founder of the genre. His works have been made into more than one hundred movies and his stories have endured for a century, influencing all others in the genre.

Three fine, characteristic works are included in this omnibus: To the Last Man, the story of Arizona’s Pleasant Valley War—an historic brutal family feud that ended in universal slaughter; The Mysterious Rider, a romantic adventure featuring Hell Bent Wade, a basically good man with a violent temper that leads him to murder—and redemption; and The Lone Star Ranger, the tale of a youth turned gunman turned Texas Ranger—and perhaps the spark that inspired that mythic character, The Lone Ranger.

Most Presidents Ignore the Constitution
The government we have today is something the Founders could never have imagined.

By ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO

In a radio interview in 2001, then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama noted -- somewhat ruefully -- that the same Supreme Court that ordered political and educational equality in the 1960s and 1970s did not bring about economic equality as well. Although Mr. Obama said he could come up with arguments for the constitutionality of such action, the plain meaning of the Constitution quite obviously prohibits it.

Mr. Obama is hardly alone in his expansive view of legitimate government. During the past month, Sen. John McCain (who, like Sen. Obama, voted in favor of the $700 billion bank bailout) has been advocating that $300 billion be spent to pay the monthly mortgage payments of those in danger of foreclosure. The federal government is legally powerless to do that, as well.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt first proposed legislation that authorized the secretary of agriculture to engage in Soviet-style central planning -- a program so rigid that it regulated how much wheat a homeowner could grow for his own family's consumption -- he rejected arguments of unconstitutionality. He proclaimed that the Constitution was "quaint" and written in the "horse and buggy era," and predicted the public and the courts would agree with him.

Remember that FDR had taken -- and either Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain will soon take -- the oath to uphold that old-fashioned document, the one from which all presidential powers come.

Unfortunately, these presidential attitudes about the Constitution are par for the course. Beginning with John Adams, and proceeding to Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush, Congress has enacted and the president has signed laws that criminalized political speech, suspended habeas corpus, compelled support for war, forbade freedom of contract, allowed the government to spy on Americans without a search warrant, and used taxpayer dollars to shore up failing private banks.

All of this legislation -- merely tips of an unconstitutional Big Government iceberg -- is so obviously in conflict with the plain words of the Constitution that one wonders how Congress gets away with it.

In virtually every generation and during virtually every presidency (Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland are exceptions that come to mind) the popular branches of government have expanded their power. The air you breathe, the water you drink, the size of your toilet tank, the water pressure in your shower, the words you can speak under oath and in private, how your physician treats your illness, what your children study in grade school, how fast you can drive your car, and what you can drink before you drive it are all regulated by federal law. Congress has enacted over 4,000 federal crimes and written or authorized over one million pages of laws and regulations. Worse, we are expected by law to understand all of it.

The truth is that the Constitution grants Congress 17 specific (or "delegated") powers. And it commands in the Ninth and 10th Amendments that the powers not articulated and thus not delegated by the Constitution to Congress be reserved to the states and the people.

What's more, Congress can only use its delegated powers to legislate for the general welfare, meaning it cannot spend tax dollars on individuals or selected entities, but only for all of us. That is, it must spend in such a manner -- a post office, a military installation, a courthouse, for example -- that directly enhances everyone's welfare within the 17 delegated areas of congressional authority.

And Congress cannot deny the equal protection of the laws. Thus, it must treat similarly situated persons or entities in a similar manner. It cannot write laws that favor its political friends and burden its political enemies.

There is no power in the Constitution for the federal government to enter the marketplace since, when it does, it will favor itself over its competition. The Contracts Clause (the states cannot interfere with private contracts, like mortgages), the Takings Clause (no government can take away property, like real estate or shares of stock, without paying a fair market value for it and putting it to a public use), and the Due Process Clause (no government can take away a right or obligation, like collecting or paying a debt, or enforcing a contract, without a fair trial) together mandate a free market, regulated only to keep it fair and competitive.

It is clear that the Framers wrote a Constitution as a result of which contracts would be enforced, risk would be real, choices would be free and have consequences, and private property would be sacrosanct.

The $700 billion bailout of large banks that Congress recently enacted runs afoul of virtually all these constitutional principles. It directly benefits a few, not everyone. We already know that the favored banks that received cash from taxpayers have used it to retire their own debt. It is private welfare. It violates the principle of equal protection: Why help Bank of America and not Lehman Brothers? It permits federal ownership of assets or debt that puts the government at odds with others in the free market. It permits the government to tilt the playing field to favor its patrons (like J.P. Morgan Chase, in which it has invested taxpayer dollars) and to disfavor those who compete with its patrons (like the perfectly lawful hedge funds which will not have the taxpayers relieve their debts).

Perhaps the only public agreement that Jefferson and Hamilton had about the Constitution was that the federal Treasury would be raided and the free market would expire if the Treasury became a public trough. If it does, the voters will send to Congress those whom they expect will fleece the Treasury for them. That's why the Founders wrote such strict legislating and spending limitations into the Constitution.

Everyone in government takes an oath to uphold the Constitution. But few do so. Do the people we send to the federal government recognize any limits today on Congress's power to legislate? The answer is: Yes, their own perception of whatever they can get away with.

Mr. Napolitano, who served on the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey between 1987 and 1995, is the senior judicial analyst at the Fox News Channel. His latest book is "A Nation of Sheep" (Nelson, 2007).