Horse industry at a loss after election

Kentucky's horse industry, which bet heavily on a Democratic win in Tuesday's special state Senate election, wasn't prepared for defeat and doesn't have a short-term plan to advance legislation that would allow slots at racetracks, industry leaders say. "We didn't plan on losing, so we don't have a strategy other than we want to attempt to continue to have our voices heard," said Ric Waldman, a bloodstock consultant who is one of the directors of the issues group Keep Our Jobs in Kentucky Inc. The horse industry group spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on advertising that opposed Republican Jimmy Higdon and supported Democrat Jodie Haydon. Haydon's election had been seen as critical to the horse industry's efforts to get casino-style gambling, but he lost by a wide margin. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said the fate of expanded gambling is in the hands of Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear. Stivers said the horse industry has spent a lot of money trying to change the political power structure in the Senate. After two very expensive elections, the Republicans remain in power by a 20-17 margin, with one independent who generally sides with Republicans. "If they spent the $1.9 million that we've heard that they've spent, I feel that they were not very good at spending their money," Stivers said. "Maybe they are not in as bad a shape as they claim to be if they can spend basically $2 million on an election."...read more

Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations. The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals. The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week. The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol's principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions...read more

EPA Attempt to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions Will Kill Jobs, Critics Warn

Congressional Republicans and business groups are denouncing the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health. The finding, announced Monday, would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, under the 1970 Clean Air Act. “If the Democrat Congress can’t kill jobs by passing a national energy tax, then the Obama Environmental Protection Agency will,” warned Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference. Pence said the EPA’s announcement – which came on the first day of the international climate conference in Copenhagen – is an attempt by the Obama administration to build international support for a binding climate change treaty. “It seems liberal Democrats will stop at nothing to overcome the strong objections of the American people to a cap and tax system,” Pence said. Liberals in Congress are pushing “cap and trade” legislation that would create an entirely new system for buying and selling carbon credits – and raise costs for every energy consumer...read more

Dems aim to expand water pollution controls

With the deletion of a single word from the Clean Water Act, some leading Democratic lawmakers are angling to greatly expand the federal government's authority to regulate water pollution. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in June quietly approved legislation dropping the adjective "navigable" to describe the bodies of water covered under the 1972 law, vastly expanding its scope and prompting a lobbying campaign from business groups that fear the small editorial change would cost jobs during economic hard times. The federal government regulates lakes and rivers large enough for ship traffic, but if the word "navigable" is deleted, the groups say, the government could have the authority to police everything from wetlands and lakes to backyard ponds and roadside ditches. The law also would open the way to government regulation of 20 million acres of the nation's so-called isolated wetlands and 59 percent of the nation's streams that do not flow year-round. These are two types of water that are now largely exempt from federal oversight...read more

Senators say global warming bill will harm agriculture

U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) today raised issue with testimony delivered by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Chief Economist Dr. Joseph Glauber before a House Agriculture Committee hearing last week on the economic impacts of pending climate change legislation. The Senators have repeatedly said Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer cap and trade bills will have profound and substantial impacts on the U.S. agriculture sector. The long-awaited USDA analysis confirmed initial concerns raised in July when U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack first testified in front of the Senate Agriculture Committee on the same issue. As noted in Dr. Glauber’s testimony, cap and trade will increase the food consumer price index (Food CPI) by nearly 5 percent by 2050. The beef sector will see a 10 percent decline, while the hog and dairy sector will see reductions of 23 percent and 17 percent respectively. Additionally, cap and trade will take 59 million acres of cropland and pasture out of production. In short, according to USDA and other testimony at the hearing, cap and trade will increase food prices, reduce production and likely put farmers out of business. “This testimony confirms what we’ve known for some time: the cost of producing crops and livestock will increase, and energy prices will go up,” said Sen. Johanns, member of the Senate Agriculture Committee...read more

Obama Admin Will Speed Reviews of 'Green' Patents

The Obama administration vowed today to streamline the patent review process for "green" technologies and committed $100 million for federal research, development and demonstration projects. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will expedite the examination of applications for "green" technologies, which could range from building-integrated photovoltaic materials to electric vehicle batteries. The pilot program is aimed at reducing the patent review time from 40 months to 12 months, a move that will enable inventors to secure funding and launch businesses more quickly, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told reporters today...read more

Congressmen offer forest management bill

Saying action is needed to save suffering national forests and the rural economies that surround them, Oregon Reps. Greg Walden and Kurt Schrader offered legislation Tuesday aimed at thinning woodlands and using the material to meet the rising demand for renewable fuels. The package of bills were also sponsored by Democratic Reps. Brian Baird of Washington and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota and Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, would update the current forest management law passed in 2003. Since that time, the bipartisan group said more than 40 million acres of forest have burned and more have been blighted by disease and pests. The local economies have been ravaged too, with many currently experiencing 15 percent (or higher) unemployment. The current law, they said, it not muscular enough to deal with those conditions. ``The one thing I learned is, you don't solve a problem by ignoring it,'' Walden, a Republican, said during a news conference. ``Here's what we have to show for this policy of neglect - record unemployment in forested communities. Catastrophic wildfire nearly year after year after year. Massive bug kill in our federal forests, threatened habitat and watersheds,'' he said. ``Our federal forests are sick. They are choked. They burn in the summers and they're being eaten alive by bugs. Simply put, our federal forests are a national treasure but a national treasure that's in peril.''...read more

Keepin it Western!‏

Ralph Hampton and Tamara Boatright were awarded the "Radio Station of the Year" award from the Western Music Association. The award was announced at the annual Awards Show in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 21. Hampton and Boatright were on hand to accept the award. The Western Music Association is comprised of fans, western music artists and djs. The awards are nominated and granted based on the voting membership.

Hampton and Boatright started the Ralph's Backporch show, 2 years ago from their home office in San Augustine TX. Using an internet website, they broadcast western music, cowboy poetry and interviews to a global audience over the internet three times a week. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings they can be found sitting at their desks with headphones, talking and joking it up for a growing western music audience.

"Western Music is on the rise, Ralph's Backporch is at the fore front of making that happen" said Paul Harris, western music performer and member of the Western Music Association. "They do things their own way, not following the lines of traditional radio, their show not only showcases the music and poetry of the western artists, it brings the artists to the audience, through live interviews, and special live performances."

Hampton defines the music that they play as "anything a cowboy will play, sing or dance too" giving the show a range of music on any given night. Often you will hear rodeo rock, a buckle polishing tune followed up by a thoughtful cowboy poem. Western music and poetry gained popularity during the 1930s and 40's with singing cowboys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Bands such as the Sons of the Pioneers were touring the country capturing the imagination and hearts of children longing to be cowboys. That generation is now grown, but remembers those days, the cowboy code and the romance of the cowboy. Hampton credits part of the success of the show to the fact that as life gets more complicated, people want to go back to the simpler, cowboy way. The classic and modern western tunes of horses, open spaces and family values touches all of us wether were sitting at a desk on wall street or the computer in the living room of the ranch in wyoming.

The show registers thousands of listeners each month, many of them live while on air, more in the archived version of the shows. One of the small town aspects of the show includes a "chat room" where regular listeners congregate. Everyday people such as Slim McNaught of New Underwood South Dakota and locals such as Kathy Brittian of Shelby County listen, fellowship and add color and character to the show as Boatright and Hampton feed off of the comments. The live audience becomes part of the show.

Others credit their success to the music that they play and their relaxed interviews. It balances the classic western and western swing with the up and coming cowboy singers of today who often break the "traditional" rules. Western music encompasses a broad spectrum of influences and styles and the show blends those seamlessly at times, other times contrasting them to show its diversity. The interviews, always live, are relaxed and give listeners a glimpse into the lives of people who are as diverse as the music itself. Ralph often tells a guest, "sit back and relax, were just visiting here on the backporch." Whether its talking about horses bloodlines with someone like Michael Martin Murphy to the struggles of a relatively unknown New Mexico artist, Ralph's Backporch is allowing a growing international audience to get a glimpse into the lives and minds of those creating the music that they love.

Along with a world-wide listening audience you can log on to your home computer and tune in to Ralph's Back Porch each Monday, Wednesday and Friday night, 7 until 9 pm cst at www.blogtalkradio.com/ralphsbackporch Ralph and Tamara invite you all to tune in for some good old Western fun!

Song Of The Day #197

Ranch Radio invites you to give a listen to Jean Shepards 1952 recording of Twice The Lovin' In Half The Time.

The tune is available on her 24 track CD Honky Tonk Heroine: Classic Capitol Recordings, 1952-1964.

Documents identify terrorism threat in border gaps

Shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, a secret government report highlighted a way terrorists might easily enter the United States carting weapons of mass destruction. It wasn't by air or sea. The classified analysis pointed to an arid and sparsely populated stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona teeming with drug runners. "This area has become very active with smuggling and encrypted radio traffic," says the report titled "Threat Assessment for Public Lands" completed by the Interior Department in late 2002. "This would be an ideal area to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction." The report, marked "sensitive," surfaced recently in a load of documents uncovered by Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop. Moreover, while officials stress a huge investment in fencing and border patrols has cut down smuggling traffic, one of Interior's top cops acknowledged portions of the border are still porous. "I don't want to suggest that the concern has completely dissipated and I can't go any further without straying into classified materials," said Larry Parkinson, Interior's deputy assistant secretary for law enforcement. "Anytime you have the ability for bad actors to come across the border, the Mexican border, the Canadian border or you know, flying into an airport, that concern will be there and I think we would be kidding ourselves if we suggested that all of those holes have been filled." Bishop, along with several other Republicans in Congress, say that one region of the U.S.-Mexican border -- a miles-long expanse abutting federal wild lands -- is a prime national security lapse that needs fixing. "The fact is that we have had for several years large parts of our border areas...controlled by human traffickers, potential terrorists, and especially, drug cartels," Bishop says. Bishop, the ranking Republican on a House subcommittee that oversees federal public lands, says he is concerned that wilderness laws are impeding the ability to secure the nation's borders...read more

And still Senator Bingaman continues to push for 560 square miles of wilderness near the Mexico border. The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce sent testimony to the committee chaired by Bingaman, suggesting an alternative to wilderness and requesting a field hearing on S.1689. Recently a broad section of Dona Ana County groups endorsed the chamber proposal and also requested a field hearing. So far, no word back from Bingaman.

Humanure: Goodbye, Toilets. Hello, Extreme Composting

For more than a decade, 57-year-old roofer and writer Joseph Jenkins has been advocating that we flush our toilets down the drain and put a bucket in the bathroom instead. When a bucket in one of his five bathrooms is full, he empties it in the compost pile in his backyard in rural Pennsylvania. Eventually he takes the resulting soil and spreads it over his vegetable garden as fertilizer. "It's an alternative sanitation system," says Jenkins, "where there is no waste." His 255-page Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure is in its third edition and has been translated into five languages, but it has only recently begun to catch on. His message? Human manure, when properly managed, is odorless. His audience? Ecologically committed city dwellers who are looking to do more for the earth than just sort their trash or ride a bike to work. (See reusable toilet wipes as one of the top 10 odd environmental ideas.) "It's one of those life-changing books," says Erik Knutzen, 44, an eco-blogger in Los Angeles. "You read it, and the lightbulb just goes on." Now he eschews his porcelain potty for a big bucket with a toilet seat. He "flushes" by tossing in a scoop of sawdust, which not only neutralizes smells but also helps speed the breakdown of material for compost. Like many back-to-basics sophisticates, he believes Jenkins' humanure system is more sanitary and more rational than the conventional alternative. "Human waste is a perfectly good source of an important resource, nitrogen," Knutzen observes. "Water is a valuable resource too. Why mix the two and turn all of it into a problem?"...

I note that Jenkins is a roofer and that his system would lessen the demand for plumbers.

To fight back, some eco-plumber should form the Humanure Holistic Roofing Co. and use that bucket of compost to patch your roof.

Or let the humanure naturally bake into forms shaped like a shingle.

Instead of shingles you'd have shittles on your roof.

I would propose a pilot project at the White House. For the first time I'd be happy to send my fair share to D.C.

US Plan for Wild Horse Round-Up Faces Opposition

A government plan to round up and relocate thousands of wild horses in the West faces opposition from advocates who say the proposal is inhumane and unnecessary. At a hearing near Reno, two dozen advocates pressed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's National Horse and Burro Advisory Board Monday for a moratorium on roundups until an independent audit of mustang numbers can be conducted. The government wants to carry out Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's plan to relocate as many as 25,000 wild horses from Western rangelands to pastures in the Midwest and East out of fear that the mustangs' fast-multiplying numbers will lead to mass starvation. While the panel adjourned late Monday without taking any formal action, at least two members, Gary Zakotnik and Vern Dooley, said afterward they support Salazar's proposal. ''It's the best and most cost-effective alternative I've seen to deal with the horse problem in my 10 years on the board,'' Zakotnik said. Among those opposed to the round-up are celebrities Sheryl Crow, Bill Maher and Lily Tomlin, who contend the situation is not as dire as the government describes, and the roundups are inhumane and unnecessary. At the hearing, advocates urged the government to remove cattle to free up public land for one of the most stirring symbols of the American West -- mustangs thundering freely across the range. They noted non-native cows far outnumber mustangs on the range...read more

The Humanure Holistic Roofing Co. should contact Crow, Maher and Tomlin, cause they are full of it.

EPA Declares Greenhouse Gases a Danger

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as expected, on Monday declared greenhouse gases a danger to public health, a decision that could soon lead to new emissions regulations for businesses across the economy. The "endangerment finding" announced by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is necessary to move ahead on new emissions standards for cars due out in March 2010. Made under the Clean Air Act, it also opens up large emitters such as power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants and metal smelters to regulations that limit their output of carbon dioxide and other gases. "These long overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the year when the U.S. government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform," Ms. Jackson said. The controversial decision, proposed by the administration earlier this year, comes as a global climate summit opens in Copenhagen. It gives the administration leverage in its negotiations and puts pressure on Congress to pass a bill that cuts greenhouse gases in a more economically efficient way...read more

State OKs killing of wolf pack

State wildlife officials have authorized the killing of the remaining members of the Mitchell Mountain wolf pack after a fourth guard dog was killed on private land north of Helena. Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the agency authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services last week to kill the wolves. “It’s always unfortunate when people lose animals to wolves,” Sime said Monday. “And it’s always unfortunate when wolves have to be killed.” The wolves killed a guard dog in June 2008, a domestic goat in October 2008, a domestic goat and guard dog last March, and other guard dogs on Nov. 2 and Nov. 30. Two of the wolves were killed after the March deaths. Then, after the guard dog’s death on Nov. 2, FWP authorized the removal of three more members of the pack, thought to total between five and seven wolves. However, after two more wolves were killed, another guard dog was killed, which led to the decision to remove the entire pack...read more

Timber program becomes vast entitlement

A federal program that began as a safety net for Pacific Northwest logging communities hard-hit by battles over the spotted owl in the 1990s has morphed into a sprawling entitlement - one that ships vast amounts of money to states with little or no historic connection to timber, an analysis by The Associated Press shows. A four-year renewal of the law, passed last year, authorizes an additional $1.6 billion for the program through 2011 and shifts substantial sums to states where the spotted owl never flew. While money initially was based on historic logging levels, now any state with federal forests - even those with no history of logging - is eligible for millions in Forest Service dollars. Here in Catron County, the part of western New Mexico where Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang once holed up, the program distributes the highest per capita payment in the nation - $1,883 per person. The county, which sits along the Arizona border, is larger than three Eastern states, yet has fewer than 3,500 residents. The public high school in Reserve, the county seat, has just five seniors. The handful of businesses lining Main Street close early each evening, save for a quiet bar frequented by a few locals. Of much more important note: New Mexico's two senators served as chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate committee that rewrote the timber payments formula. New Mexico's increase under the new formula was 692 percent...read more

Dorgan vows to block historic designation for ND Badlands site where Roosevelt once ran cattle

Sen. Byron Dorgan believes that adding scenic North Dakota Badlands to the National Register of Historic Places will restrict land use and has told the U.S. Forest Service that he will attempt to block the nomination. "I've told them, essentially, 'Knock it off,'" Dorgan, D-N.D., said Friday. A historic designation in an area where Theodore Roosevelt ran a short-lived cattle ranching business more than a century ago would violate an agreement about its use made when the government bought the property, Dorgan wrote in a stern letter to Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell. "I was happy to pass legislation in Congress that resulted in the acquisition," Dorgan wrote in the September letter. "But further designations of this land would violate the agreement. "I will oppose this nomination," Dorgan wrote. State and local officials believe the historic designation would add another layer of bureaucracy to the Badlands and could prevent oil and gas development, lessen the amount of land open for grazing and stymie plans for a proposed bridge over the Little Missouri River...read more

Cap-and-Tax Bad for Farmers, Rural America

This week the Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research held two important hearings to learn more about the economic impact of climate change legislation. Witnesses at the hearing included the chief economist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as members of academia. They highlighted and discussed various studies that have been completed on the costs of cap and trade on the agriculture industry. Although these studies make different assumptions or have different end results, the overwhelming conclusion from each one is that the cost to agriculture is real. Our farmers and ranchers have much to lose and very little, if anything, to gain. During the hearing, Dr. Joseph Glauber from USDA said, “there is no question that agriculture is an energy intensive sector… [and] agriculture will be hit by higher energy costs.” Another witness, Dr. John M. Antle from Montana State University, testified that the current economic studies “have tended to under-emphasize the costs of adaptation” for farmers. Dr. Patrick Westhoff from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute added that “the House-passed legislation would raise energy costs and this would translate into higher farm production expenses.” It is expected that higher energy prices and higher operating costs will decrease farm income anywhere from $5 billion to $50 billion per year. Dr. Glauber also testified that a cap and trade program would dramatically reduce livestock production by double digits by 2050, which is particularly alarming. If USDA’s analysis is true then U.S. agriculture will no longer be able to provide food security for the U.S. population, which is expected to grow by 130 million Americans by 2050...read more

Cabresto Dam

The long-awaited reconstruction of Cabresto Dam above Questa takes a critical step forward this month with two public meetings on the plans. Rebuilding the 192-year-old dam became a priority in 2005 after heavy runoff caused seepage through the earthen-concrete structure. Subsequently, the state engineer’s office placed a limit on water storage, which reduced the amount of irrigation water to two acequias in the Questa area. Stream and storage water flow through about eight miles of ditch into six different acequia systems on about 4,000 acres of cultivated land. The Cabresto association has an 1815 priority right — the year the acequias began officially drawing water from the creek — and got a “license” to store in 1907. The dam was first constructed in the 1860s, and raised twice since then. Intense lobbying by acequia officials produced $5.5 million in legislative appropriations for the project. The proposed project would breach the old dam and build a new one about 160 feet downstream along Cabresto Creek. The new structure would have updated designs for outlets and a spillway...read more

Man gets 20 years for cattle rustling

Williamson County does not take cattle rustling lightly. Judge Ken Anderson sentenced Monte Sharp, who admitted stealing more than 1,000 cattle from a local broker, to 20 years in prison Monday. It is the largest cattle rustling case in Williamson County history, District Attorney John Bradley said. "The surprising sentence of 20 years in prison should put all thieves on alert, particularly during the upcoming holiday season, that stealing is not tolerated in Williamson County," he said. Sharp was charged after he never paid the $700,000 he owed after ordering 1,061 head of cattle in 2005 from Jim Schwertner, the owner of Capitol Land & Livestock Co. "Ranchers don't take kindly to folks stealing their cattle, especially in Williamson County," Schwertner said. "We've been in business since 1946, and this has never happened to us before."...read more

Ghosts of Wyoming

Ghosts of Wyoming Alyson Hagy. Graywolf, $15 paper. In her fourth collection of short stories, Hagy (Snow, Ashes) explores the lonely state of the Equality State, with its literally and figuratively haunted inhabitants. Hagy has an ear for the locals and a feel for the vast lonely landscape, capturing modern issues like small ranchers' struggles with wolves and environmentalists, and the small details of late nights in pickups and the gradual erosion of Wyoming's landscape. Western archetypes make appearances—cowboys and Native Americans, park rangers, prospectors, and preachers, albeit sometimes with a twist...read more