Mexico's gang wars spawn vigilante justice

The bodies of four alleged gangsters, stuffed into a parked car near President Felipe Calderon's compound in this capital city, carried a message of divine retribution: “The wicked are denied their light, and the upraised arm is broken,” proclaimed the biblical passage, Job 38:15. Scrawled with a marker on the backs of three of the bodies, a single word — “Kidnapper.” The discovery of the dead men two weeks ago suggests to many Mexicans that despairing private citizens or even local officials may be exacting their own raw justice amid the unbridled crime sweeping the country. Last Tuesday, thousands of people in a village near Mexico City threatened to lynch four alleged kidnappers. The men, two of whom authorities say may be federal policemen, were rescued by state police who rushed to the town of Juchitepec. Earlier this month, human rights activists in Sinaloa state, cradle of most of Mexico's narcotics smuggling syndicates, claimed that death squads, possibly composed of police officers, might be behind a string of recent killings targeting suspected car thieves. And, following the July murders of two American church leaders who had challenged a local kidnapping, a fundamentalist Mormon farm community southwest of Ciudad Juarez requested and temporarily received permission to form a militia. A group dubbed the “Citizens' Command” early this year announced it would begin killing gangsters in bloody Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso. Several subsequent killings suggested that the victims were targeted by such a group...read more

Bush aide urges weapons ban to slow Mexican drug war

The former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection called Monday for the U.S. to reinstitute the ban on assault weapons and take other measures to rein in the war between Mexico and its drug cartels, saying the violence has the potential to bring down legitimate rule in that country. Former CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner also called for the United States to more aggressively investigate U.S. gun sellers and tighten security along its side of the border, describing the situation as "critical" to the safety of people in both countries, whether they live near the border or not...read more

Another example of how prohibition leads to gun control, and how one government intervention creates a problem which is then proposed to be "fixed" by another government intervention.

Also a good example why Bush-type republicans are so unpopular.

TSA bans snowglobes

The TSA says you can't carry a snow-globe onto a plane, even if it fits in your freedom baggie, because they can't measure how much liquid it contains, and therefore it must contain more than three oz of potential explosive, um, water. "Snow globes are not permitted to be carried through security checkpoints," said Transportation Security Administration spokesman Dwayne Baird. The reason is that the globes contain liquids, and TSA rules say that only liquids, gels or aerosols in containers of three ounces or less are allowed through security in carry-on bags...read more

The post points out that Archimedes figured out how to measure volume over 2,000 years ago.

Army drops appeal of Pinon Canyon ruling

The Army has dropped its appeal of a federal court ruling in September that rejected a 2007 environmental study intended to justify sending more troops, more often to train at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad. The motion to dismiss was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Justice Department lawyers handling the case refused to comment on the decision. Not 1 More Acre!, the rancher group that filed the lawsuit over the 2007 environmental study, wasn't as reserved Tuesday. "We knew we had a good case to start with so it surprised us the Army was even appealing the district court decision," Mack Louden, a board member of the group said Tuesday. "We keep winning all the battles (with the Army) but it's the war over Pinon Canyon that we're worried about." In September, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch set aside the 2007 environmental study, calling it severely inadequate for justifying the Army's plan to send even more troops, more often to train at the 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon range. While the Army's long-term plan is to expand Pinon Canyon, they had conducted the 2007 study to look at the impact of training more troops on the current site. Matsch vacated the study and the Army's "Record of Decision" to boost the training schedule for Pinon Canyon. Matsch said the Army's own reports, which were uncovered by the lawsuit, showed Pinon Canyon had suffered environmental damage in the past after more modest training exercises. Matsch said the Army's contention it could mitigate damage from even heavier use of the land at Pinon Canyon was contradicted by its own documents...read more

Bishop: Environmental rules impeding border security

Rep. Rob Bishop charges that environmental laws are delaying the effort to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and hindering law enforcement officials from pursuing drug smugglers. The Utah Republican, the ranking GOP member on the House Natural Resources subcommittee over public lands, says that documents he obtained show Homeland Security officials are hitting environmental roadblocks in trying to erect a virtual fence near troublesome crossing areas. In one e-mail the congressman highlighted, a Denver-based National Park Service official informed Homeland Security that placing a surveillance tower in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is problematic because it would violate federal wilderness laws. All but 5 percent of that monument is designated as wilderness. In another case, a Bureau of Land Management official gave border security permission to test drill near a wilderness area only if no endangered Sonoran Pronghorn animals were nearby and that a biologist must accompany the drillers. Bishop contends that immigrants are scarring wilderness on their own and the inability of border agents to use motorized vehicles in some areas has led to drug smugglers controlling a vast region of American wilderness. "We're putting a higher priority on wilderness than we are on border security," Bishop says. "What is the primary goal down there? Is it border security or is it wilderness that we can't control?"...read more

In Senate, coal fuels climate deals

Forget the debate over green jobs, wind farms and solar power. In the Senate, all deals on climate change run through coal country. Black gold has maintained a tight hold over the climate bill — despite a damaging lobbying scandal this summer, growing public health concerns and a destructive toxic coal ash spill that smothered 300 acres in eastern Tennessee last December. “They don’t have a deal until they get the coal-state senators, and they are a long way from doing it,” said Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). “They’re going to need us to pass a bill.” And coal-state senators haven’t been shy about their needs. On Thursday, a group of 14 coal-state members, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), urged Senate Democrats to offer more protection in the climate bill for coal-dependent utilities. “You’ve got to have the coal states,” said Peter Gray, chairman of the environmental law practice at McKenna Long & Aldridge. “If Democrats want a climate change bill, they are going to have to accept concessions to the coal industry.” Even the Senate’s most liberal Democrats recognize the stronghold coal has in the Senate...read more

100 Things Blamed on Global Warming

Late for a party? Miss a meeting? Forget to pay your rent? Blame climate change; everyone else is doing it. From an increase in severe acne to all societal collapses since the beginning of time, just about everything gone wrong in the world today can be attributed to climate change. Here’s a list of 100 storylines blaming climate change as the problem...read more

It's all there, from insomnia in children and UFO sitings to increases in crime.

Forest Service Open to Allowing Mountain Bikes on Continental Divide Trail

Along its 3,100 miles that wind from the Canadian border down to Mexico, the Continental Divide Trail is one of the most rugged, and in parts one of the most visually spectacular, hiking trails in the country. Now the U.S. Forest Service says the route could be opened in places to mountain bikes, a move that raises a question or two regarding possible impacts to national parks. From north to south the trail runs through portions of Glacier, Yellowstone, and Rocky Mountain national parks, as well as El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico. In places you need the skills of a mountain goat to negotiate the route, which, by the way, is not entirely in place. Early in October the Forest Service published its proposed rule changes to the trail's comprehensive management plan in the Federal Register. They took effect November 4. The updated management plan does not magically open the entire Continental Divide National Scenic Trail to mountain biking, but rather provides "that bicycle use may be allowed on the CDNST if the use is consistent with the applicable land and resource management plan and will not substantially interfere with the nature and purposes of the CDNST."...read more

Idaho Gov. Otter objects to ESA listing

Gov. Butch Otter said the federal government has let down the ranchers and others in Idaho who stepped forward to help a rare flowering bush that grows in the Foothills and in wet areas of Southwest Idaho's desert - even though it was not protected under the Endangered Species Act. "Frankly I feel betrayed by the feds," said Ted Hoffman, an Owyhee County rancher who worked with the state Office of Species Conservation to develop the "candidate species conservation plan" that was approved by the federal government. Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum) has been found on more than 20,000 acres in Ada, Canyon, Elmore, Gem, Owyhee and Payette counties. The listing, which would be finalized Dec. 7, could place new restrictions on ranchers and the U.S. Air Force, which use large portions of the core remaining habitat of the plant in Owyhee County. Ranchers may be subject to environmental lawsuits aimed at removing their cattle from federal grazing lands in the spring. Hoffman said ranchers helped researchers find even more of the bushes when they were working under the state plan. David Hensley, Otter's attorney, said the decision is more ominous because the state is working on similar species plans for the sage grouse, and it could make it harder to persuade rural residents to join in. The key difference, though, is that the Idahoans agreeing to the sage grouse plans are making changes on private land, so they have more protections if the species is ever listed. The public land grazers affected by the peppergrass decision would be immediately subject to any new federal rules. The peppergrass listing also could limit energy development, military training on the Orchard Training Area southeast of Boise, and even residential development...read more

Wolverine settles in Colorado

State wildlife biologists say they think M56, the solo male wolverine that migrated more than 500 miles to Colorado from Wyoming last spring, appears to have settled in at the snowy edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, raising hopes for the survival of the species and other threatened carnivores. Climate change appears to be shrinking nationwide the snowy habitat needed to sustain predators including wolves, wolverines and lynx, wildlife experts said Monday at a conference on climate change put on by the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife. Colorado, with its abundant federal lands at elevations higher than 12,000 feet, increasingly is seen as a prime refuge where threatened and endangered species could be reintroduced. "We have to focus on areas that are most resistant to climate change, and Colorado is one of them," said David Gaillard, northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife. "We'd love to help the state raise money" for a project. Colorado biologists who successfully reintroduced lynx in high-mountain terrain now are beginning to talk about the wolverine...read more

Critics Say UN Food Summit Wasteful, Ineffective

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, blamed for plunging his people into starvation, used his platform as Tuesday's opening speaker at the U.N. anti-hunger summit to decry what he called his neocolonialist foes. Another longtime African strongman, Moammar Gadhafi, held another nightly soiree at a villa in the Italian capital in the company of hundreds of young ladies selected by a "hostess" agency. Tunisia's first lady and her bodyguards blocked traffic on roads leading to Via Condotti, a glamorous street of designer boutiques near the Spanish Steps. Rome daily Il Messaggero ran a photo of Leila Zine in front of luxury jewelry store Bulgari. The images bolstered criticism that the summit called by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is long on rhetoric and extravagance and short on solutions for the world's 1 billion hungry...read more

Fielder promotes new book “Ranches of Colorado”

Tucked into every corner of the Colorado landscape are places where legends still live. The ranches of the West, and the ranchers who run them, embody what is true about America, and what Americans want to be true: self sufficiency, determination, independence, competence, fearlessness, and an abiding reverence for the land that has blessed us with abundance and opportunity. In 2007 and 2008 John Fielder traveled to photograph 50 of Colorado's most beautiful multi-generational working cattle ranches, most already protected from development. The resulting book “Ranches of Colorado” will play a part in the protection of other ranches. The project is a partnership of Fielder, Colorado's preeiminent outdoor photographer, and the Colorado land trust community including Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust, Colorado Open Lands, and the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts. These organizations earn royalties from each copy of the book sold...read more

"The Weak Ones Turned Back, The Cowards Never Started: A Century of Ranching in Montana"

A century ago, Montana was vast and untamed. Without irrigation, drought was devastating. Harsh winters killed entire cattle herds. Considering the conditions, the book title, "The Weak Ones Turned Back, The Cowards Never Started: A Century of Ranching in Montana," may be even a bit understated. The book compiles the stories of 142 ranches that remain working livestock operations run by the same family in the same location 100 or more years after they were first established. "Great ranches are not made of the dirt, water, wind and grass that comprise their environment," wrote Charles P. Schroeder, executive director of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. "They are formed and sustained by the character of the people attached to them." The ranches date back to 1871, when the Berg Ranch Co. was first created in Lennep...read more

Seabiscuit and Woolf immortalized

Cardston jockey George Woolf and Seabiscuit — the horse he rode to victory in 1938 — will soon be immortalized in bronze, more than likely on the grounds of the Remington Carriage Museum, in Woolf’s home town. The sculpture, commissioned by Cardston-area rancher Jack Lowe for $130,000, will be completed by Lethbridge artist Don Toney and is to be unveiled in June, a month after what would have been Woolf’s 100th birthday. For Howard Snyder, manager of the Carriage Museum, it’s recognition that’s long overdue. “This monumental bronze will stand in tribute to the ‘Iceman,’ George Woolf, and his rise from small-town beginnings to lasting fame in the world of sporting achievement,” said Snyder...“He wasn’t particularly known to be a very handsome thoroughbred,” said Toney of the race horse. “He was almost what we might think of as a running quarter horse these days. Some people described him as a cow pony, but I think that’s something of an exaggeration. I know horses, and he was not a stretchy-looking thoroughbred type, but he was a handsome horse, maybe a little stockier and maybe not as tall. “He was over in one knee a bit, which really didn’t harm him in any way. The fact that he didn’t really look the part, and he had a rough beginning — he didn’t really want to run — is a real interesting part of the story. Then he got a new trainer that really turned things around.” Snyder said the Seabiscuit story is one of the great inspirational stories in American history, in which an unappreciated horse, a disappointed millionaire, a displaced Colorado cowboy and a young Canadian jockey in decline came together in an astounding combination of circumstance and talent...read more

Song Of The Day #183

Ranch Radio presents Faron Young's 1955 recording of It's A Great Life (If You Don't Weaken).

It's available on his The Complete Capitol Hits of Faron Young and several other of his collections.

Binding climate treaty may slip far into 2010

A binding international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions will slip to mid-2010 or beyond and a summit in Copenhagen next month will fall short of its ambitions, the United Nations and Denmark said on Monday. The United Nations' top climate official said a treaty could be wrapped up at talks in Bonn by mid-2010. Denmark, host of next month's meeting, said it might take longer - until Mexico in December. Negotiations on a deal, initially due to be reached at the December 7-18 summit in Copenhagen, have stalled. A prominent member of the U.S. Congress also acknowledged it could be months before the Senate gets around to passing a domestic climate bill. Senator John Kerry, who is leading Senate negotiations on a compromise U.S. measure to tackle global warming, said he and other Democrats were working toward "trying to see if we can get this to the (Senate) floor sometime in the early spring, as early as possible."...read more

Environmental laws put gaps in Mexico border security

In the battle on the U.S.-Mexico border, the fight against illegal immigration often loses out to environmental laws that have blocked construction of parts of the "virtual fence" and that threaten to create places where agents can't easily track illegal immigrants. Documents obtained by Rep. Rob Bishop and shared with The Washington Times show National Park Service staffers have tried to stop the U.S. Border Patrol from placing some towers associated with the virtual fence, known as the Secure Border Initiative or SBInet, on wilderness lands in parks along the border. In a remarkably candid letter to members of Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department could have to delay pursuits of illegal immigrants while waiting for horses to be brought in so agents don't trample protected lands, and warns that illegal immigrants will increasingly make use of remote, protected areas to avoid being caught. The documents also show the Interior Department has charged the Homeland Security Department $10 million over the past two years as a "mitigation" penalty to pay for damage to public lands that agencies say has been caused by Border Patrol agents chasing illegal immigrants. "I want this resolved so border security has the precedence down there. If wilderness designation gets in the way of a secure southern border, I want the designation changed," said Mr. Bishop, Utah Republican, who requested the documents. "If it means you lose a couple of acres of wilderness, I don't think God will blame us at the judgment bar for doing that." A major problem is wilderness - lands deemed so pristine that they should be maintained in that condition, free of man-made structures. Wilderness is governed under a 1964 law that imposed strict rules that tie Border Patrol agents' hands, and there is a lot of that land along the border. According to the Congressional Research Service, California has 1.8 million acres of wilderness within 100 miles of the border, and Arizona has 2.5 million acres. New Mexico and Texas have smaller plots. According to e-mails obtained by Mr. Bishop, Park Service officials at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and at the Denver office that oversees the park said they will not allow the Border Patrol to place electronic surveillance towers on parts of the park that are designated wilderness...read more

And yet Senator Bingaman continues to push S.1689 which would create 560 square miles of wilderness on our southern border.

Western Legacy Alliance Applauds Efforts of the Western Caucus to Bring Attention to EAJA Abuse

In an open letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), dated November 2, 2009, members of the Congressional Western Caucus expressed great concern to Attorney General Holder regarding the ongoing and apparent abuse of the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) by certain organizations including environmental and special interest groups. The Caucus highlights the complete lack of oversight, accountability, and transparency in the overall process and allocation of funds under EAJA, which appears to have contributed to the egregious abuse. “Environmental groups have been working to deny grazing rights to America’s ranchers for decades. They do so by claiming violations of environmental policy, suing federal environmental agencies and ultimately, tying up ranchers’ time and resources in costly, and often baseless, court battles,” said Jeff Faulkner, Western Legacy Alliance (WLA) member. “What makes this situation worse is the fact that these environmental groups such as Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity are shaking down federal government programs so they can access taxpayer dollars to fund their radical agendas.” Two of the federal programs that are seemingly handing out millions, and possibly billions, to environmental groups are the EAJA and the Judgment Fund. The EAJA was established approximately 30 years ago by Congress to ensure that individuals, small businesses and/or public interest groups with limited financial capacity could seek judicial redress from unreasonable government actions that threatened their rights, privileges or interests. EAJA accomplishes this by allowing small businesses and individuals who would otherwise not be able to afford a court battle to obtain reimbursement of attorney’s fees if they are found to prevail in a case over a government agency such as the Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Forest Service...Press Release

I guess its time I fess up to being in on the ground floor of creating EAJA.

It all started with a coin broker in Portales, NM. He had ordered some gold coins for a customer. The coins had made it to El Paso when they were confiscated by treasury agents who had received info the coins were illegally imported. Then the treasury dept. dumped a bunch of gold bullion on the market which drove down the price of gold. On Monday or Tuesday of the next week, the treasury agents said oops, they were wrong and the coins were perfectly legal, and they released them to the coin dealer. However the customer, due to the hefty drop in the price of gold, declared bankruptcy and refused delivery. This then forced the coin dealer into bankruptcy.

The timing was such that the coins would have passed to the customer prior to the dumping if the federal agents hadn't confiscated them. So one NM businessman was down the drain as a result of the gov't confiscating private property based on faulty information. I was an aide to Senator Domenici at the time and approached him about the situation and convinced him the feds should compensate individuals in cases such as this. Domenici introduced legislation, which was amended and watered down and eventually became EAJA.

This whole thing reminds me of a recent essay by Dr. Robert Higgs, Can the Rampaging Leviathan Be Stopped or Slowed?, in which he claims all attempts to limit the size of government will fail and the beast will continue to grow until it implodes.

Anyway, all you cowboys can cuss me and all you enviros can thank me for having the original idea that has become so distorted in EAJA.

You see, it all started with a coin dealer in Portales, NM...

Wolf hunt shut down in Montana after quota filled

Montana is shutting down its first public hunt for gray wolves since their removal from the endangered species list after state officials said they expected to meet the season's quota of 75 by Monday evening. The quota was met two weeks before the season's scheduled close. The 75 killed equals about 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500. Yet even with the success among hunters, the number of wolves in Montana is expected to increase this year by 20 percent or more because wolves are such prolific breeders. Whether a hunt will be repeated next year is uncertain: A lawsuit to return the predator to the endangered list is pending before Judge Donald Molloy in U.S. District Court in Missoula. State wildlife commissioner Bob Ream of Helena -- a wildlife biologist who spent 20 years studying the animals -- declared the 2009 hunt a success. "For a first try, the state did very well," Ream said Monday. "It happened quicker than a lot of us thought it would, but all in all, the geographic distribution of the harvest was good." Because the wolves killed were scattered across the state, Ream said the hunt might begin to put a dent in the number of livestock killed every year by the animals. That's become an increasing problem in recent years as wolves expanded into areas inhabited by people and livestock...read more

Australia exempts agriculture from cap & trade

Australia's opposition expressed confidence on Tuesday that it would reach a deal with the government to pass laws for a domestic carbon trade scheme, with a final government offer on negotiations due next week. The opposition's climate change negotiator, Ian Macfarlane, told Australian media he was optimistic he would secure a deal despite divisions within his own party on the issue. The government has bowed to a key opposition demand to permanently exclude agriculture, which accounts for around 16 percent of Australian emissions, from the scheme, but the opposition also wants more concessions for coal miners...read more