Corngrowers concerned about new pesticide regs

Since the Clean Water Act was passed in the early 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency has interpreted the law to exclude lawful pesticide applications regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act from National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. But early in 2009, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the permits are necessary for the application of pesticides. The National Corn Growers Association sees this as a game changer that would impact any grower that uses pesticides. “In the past, you knew if you were applying a pesticide according to the label language you were in compliance with federal pesticide law,” said NCGA Director of Public Policy Rod Snyder. “At this point, with additional Clean Water Act requirements and the possibility of citizen suits under that act should a pesticide happen to reach a body of water, even a ditch or a puddle, you have a secondary layer of regulations with potential legal vulnerabilities that you did not have before.” The citizen action suit provisions within the Clean Water Act are a major concern for NCGA. This interpretation of the law would require permits for pesticide usage. These provisions also make it possible for activist groups to directly sue farmers should they feel that there is a breach of a permit or a permit was not applied for at the agency. This would provide ample opportunities for lawsuits attacking farmers in the courts...more

When Mother Nature and Mother Obama both hit you at the same time, it ain't a pretty sight to see.

Antibiotics and Meat DO Mix

CEI submitted comments this week on an FDA proposed guidance that “encourages” farmers and antibiotics manufacturers to stop using “medically important” antibiotics for livestock growth promotion purposes. There’s actually a pretty large body of scientific research showing how much so-called sub-therapeutic doses actually contribute to consumer health by reducing pathogen loads in animal-derived foods and have a positive impact on human safety (see here, here, here, and here, for just a few examples). Plus, when the European Union banned antibiotics for livestock growth promotion, the expected decrease in the incidence of resistant human pathogens did not occur. In most cases, the number of resistant bacteria continued rising, and in some cases they rose dramatically. Moreover, the incidence of foodborne illness also rose substantially. This shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise, since it’s estimated that livestock uses account for as little as 10 percent of the problem with antibiotic resistant bacteria...more

Creator of TV western "Bonanza" dead at 93

David Dortort, who created "Bonanza," the top-rated western that aired for 14 years on the NBC television network, died September 5 at his Los Angeles home. He was 93. Debuting in 1959, "Bonanza" was the most-watched show on U.S. television from 1964 to 1967 and maintained a place in the ratings top 10 for a decade. Dortort also created "The High Chaparral," which originally followed "Bonanza" on Sunday nights on NBC and ran for three seasons. Dortort pitched "Bonanza" in 1959 as a way of helping to promote the sale of color television sets manufactured by the U.S. electronics company RCA, then the parent company of NBC. "Bonanza" would be filmed in color in scenic Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and feature a cast of relative unknowns -- Michael Landon, Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts -- as members of the fictional Cartwright family. Departing from the typical TV western formula of the day that focused on lone gunslingers and drifters, Dortort chose instead to depict the lives and adventures of a widowed rancher and his three sons living together on the Ponderosa Ranch...more

Song Of The Day #400

For our 400th offering here at Ranch Radio we give you Buck Owen's 1959 recording of Second Fiddle.

How Enviros Obstruct the Border Patrol

But this story, and another in the New York Times ("On Border Violence, Truth Pales Compared to Ideas"), plus almost everyone else, missed the real story: migrants and drug smugglers (marijuana, mainly) are attracted to parts of Arizona for a specific reason. On these federal lands, environmental regulations prevent the Border Patrol from doing its job. That's what the mainstream media won't report. Over and over again, Bishop makes this simple point. The U.S. side of the 1,950-mile border with Mexico is about 60 percent private land and 40 percent federal. "Almost all" of the migrants and drug smugglers come across federal lands, protected by stringent "wilderness" designations or endangered species rules. The federals are submissive before the environmental regs that interfere with border enforcement. The Border Patrol, a division of Homeland Security, has to complete lengthy environmental reports and get permission from the Departments of Agriculture and Interior before it can do anything. This can take several months. So yes, there is indeed an Arizona funnel through which the illegals enter. One federal agency works against another to create the funnel. The Mexicans are all but invited to come in and trample down the wilderness, which of course they don't care about. They actually cut down endangered cacti and lay them across roads to keep the Border Patrol out...more

Arizona signs along I-8 warn of human, drug smuggling violence

Truckers making their way east and west through Arizona may want to avoid areas near Interstate 8. The federal government has posted signs warning of violence and criminals tied to drug and human smuggling. Dennis Godfrey, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, said his agency put the signs out in June in response to increased danger in a 40-mile area south of I-8 near the Sonoran Desert National Monument. That 487,000-acre desert includes about 200,000 acres south of I-8 that have seen increased drug and human smuggling activity in recent months, Godfrey told Land Line Thursday, Sept. 2. Violence in the area has surged in recent months, though it hasn’t become prevalent on the highway, Godfrey said. Instead, authorities are asking travelers to be careful and try to avoid access roads and other areas south of I-8. The massive state desert acreage and an even larger expanse of Indian reservation make up an eight-mile buffer between most of Arizona and Mexico during the 40-mile stretch, and have become key smuggling routes for violent Mexican cartels to move humans and drugs...more

Battle zone on the border

A day after the bloodiest border shootout to date, residents who have endured years of violence on both sides of the Rio Grande counted their blessings. The gunbattle Thursday between Mexican soldiers and the Zetas drug gang killed at least 25 of the narcos near the town of Ciudad Mier, about 20 miles south of the border. It was yet another confrontation in what has become a battle zone in Mexico's drug war. "Two weeks ago, right across the border, there was a running gunbattle in Miguel Aleman. We could hear the shots," Capt. Francisco Garcia of the Roma police said Friday. Referring to other nearby Mexican towns, he said, "Three days ago, they had a shootout in Nuevo Guerrreo. And in Los Guerras, they have shootouts almost every night." So far, the violence has not crossed the Rio Grande. On Friday, another shootout occurred on a highway in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon. In that battle, five suspected narcos were killed by army troops. The violence has forced citizens on both sides of the border to dramatically change their behavior. For starters, casual trips across the Rio Grande are now just old memories. Foot traffic across the bridge in Roma has dropped by up to 90 percent this year, according to Mexican officials...more

Mexican drug wars fester along US border

Deaths and threats happen all around Mexico, but in recent months Tamaulipas has displaced Pacific Coast states like Sinaloa and Baja California when it comes to high-impact violence. Tamaulipas is the end of the shortest route for drugs and illegal immigrants into the US. It accounts for about 3 per cent of Mexican homicides, a figure that is growing, according to Mexican officials. The Calderon government attributes the worsening of the war in northeastern Mexico to the split between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, according to the Calderon government's security spokesman Alejandro Poire. The two groups had cooperated for more than a decade. The fight has drawn in other cartels like the Sinaloa Cartel of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and La Familia Michoacana, a bitter enemy of Los Zetas, who stepped into Tamaulipas to help the Gulf Cartel. "Tamaulipas is a strategic point to take drugs in and out of the United States, since it has a vast coastline and important cities like Nuevo Laredo, Miguel Aleman, Reynosa, Rio Bravo and Matamoros, which are the closest destinations for the criminals who move drugs through the Gulf of Mexico," the government report said. Nowadays the cartels' business reaches well beyond drugs, and that explains last week's migrant massacre and many attacks on bars, butchers' shops, bakeries, funeral homes and media outlets...more

California's Prop 19, on legalizing marijuana, could end Mexico's drug war

On Nov. 2, Californians will vote on Proposition 19, deciding whether to legalize the production, sale and consumption of marijuana. If the initiative passes, it won't just be momentous for California; it may, at long last, offer Mexico the promise of an exit from our costly war on drugs. The costs of that war have long since reached intolerable levels: more than 28,000 of our fellow citizens dead since late 2006; expenditures well above $10 billion; terrible damage to Mexico's image abroad; human rights violations by government security forces; and ever more crime. In a recent poll by the Mexico City daily Reforma, 67 percent of Mexicans said these costs are unacceptable, while 59 percent said the drug cartels are winning the war. We have believed for some time that Mexico should legalize marijuana and perhaps other drugs. But until now, most discussion of this possibility has foundered because our country's drug problem and the U.S. drug problem are so inextricably linked. Proposition 19 changes this calculation. For Mexico, California is almost the whole enchilada: Our overall trade with the largest state of the union is huge, an immense number of Californians are of Mexican origin, and an enormous proportion of American visitors to Mexico come from California. Passage of Prop 19 would therefore flip the terms of the debate about drug policy: If California legalizes marijuana, will it be viable for our country to continue hunting down drug lords in Tijuana? Will Wild West-style shootouts to stop Mexican cannabis from crossing the border make any sense when, just over that border, the local 7-Eleven sells pot?...more

Backyard Volunteers Count Fireflies to Track Possible Decline in Numbers

Scientists are hoping a network of backyard volunteers who spent the summer counting fireflies can help them determine if the luminous insects are in a decline. About 700 volunteers from across the nation counted fireflies in their backyards, local parks and meadows and also noted their color and flash patterns. The volunteers then entered their observations into an online database that’s central to the Firefly Watch program sponsored by the Boston Museum of Science. Scientists are worried by reports from the public that they are seeing fewer fireflies each summer, possibly because of habitat destruction from suburban sprawl. About 5,100 people from 42 states and four other nations have taken part in Firefly Watch’s online effort since it debuted in May 2008...more

Alright! I can't wait for urban backyards to be declared critical habitat.

Fly swatters and fly and mosquito spray will be outlawed.

The Western Watersheds Project will claim backyard pets transfer distemper and other harmful diseases to fireflies.

The Wildlands Project will want "fly corridors" between backyards and school playgrounds.

The United Nations will designate city parks and football fields as Biosphere Reserves.

The Native American Urban Tribes will claim many of the backyards are sacred sites.

Land & Water Conservation funds will be used to acquire backyards.

Interior Secretary Salazar will announce that fireflies are a "keystone species" and are negatively impacted by global warming, necessitating immediate "collaborative" action.

In return for Backyard Habitat Management Plans, Salazar will sign agreements with homeowners to allow inadvertent "takes" of fireflies.

The Center for Biological Diversity will sue Salazar for violating NEPA, the APA and the ESA...and win.

The Dems will be bewildered when they discover a disproportionate number of backyards with fireflies are owned by minorities and the economically disadvantaged, meaning the ESA itself violates their concept of "environmental justice".

The Repubs will scream and holler and hold hearings...then do nothing.

And in an interview with MSNBC President Obama says he hopes the American public will understand "there are no fireflies in Muslim backyards."

Yes, I just can't wait.

And forgive me Lord, but I hope city sewer plants are declared prime breeding ground for fireflies.

NM senators support illegal immigration super highway

When New Mexico's Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall introduced S.B. 1689 in September 2009, immigration was barely a blip on the public's radar. Over the last year, other issues such as stimulus spending, health care, and cap-and-trade have stolen the spotlight. Their harmless sounding bill, which makes land in New Mexico part of the National Wilderness Preservation System and the National Landscape Conversation System, received virtually no attention. Now that immigration is in the spotlight as non-border states mimic Arizona s controversial immigration law, polls show that the majority of the public wants to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. S.B. 1689 will disappoint that majority. Unless people speak up, this New Mexico bill will sail through on a professional courtesy to Sens. Bingaman and Udall. In southern New Mexico the proposed Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Wilderness National Conservation Area sets aside a long north/south strip of land just miles from the border that contains all the elements that make it perfect for the movement of both human and drug trafficking: wilderness/de facto wilderness safe havens; east /west highway access; rugged and complex north/south mountain and drainage orientation; and high, strategic points of observation...more

Calif. School Named for Al Gore May Be Toxic for Students

A new $75 million campus dedicated to “environmental themes” has been named for former Vice President Al Gore (and Rachel Carson who championed environmentalists’ campaign against the use of DDT, a chemical used to fight off malaria-carrying mosquitos). The Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences is scheduled to open its doors for a new school year on September 13, but classes may be delayed unless excavation crews can successfully remove and replace toxic dirt on the premises. The LA Times reports: Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet, space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses. Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage. Groundwater about 45 feet below the surface remains contaminated but also poses no risk, officials said...

It will be toxic in more ways than one.

The irony of Jesse Jackson's stripped SUV

Add Jesse Jackson’s ride to prominent vehicles being stripped in Detroit. Following the embarrassing news that Mayor Dave Bing’s GMC Yukon was hijacked by criminals this week, Detroit’s Channel 7 reports that the Reverend’s Caddy Escalade SUV was stolen and stripped of its wheels while he was in town last weekend with the UAW’s militant President Bob King leading the “Jobs, Justice, and Peace” march promoting government-funded green jobs. Read that again: Jackson’s Caddy SUV was stripped while he was in town promoting green jobs. Add Jesse to the Al Gore-Tom Friedman-Barack Obama School of Environmental Hypocrisy. While preaching to Americans that they need to cram their families into hybrid Priuses to go shopping for compact fluorescent light bulbs to save the planet, they themselves continue to live large. “We need an economy that creates employment that can't be shipped overseas,” the Green Rev wrote for CNN about the march. “Home-grown American labor will be installing windmills and solar panels. A green economy is not an abstract concept.” Well, its certainly abstract to Jesse...more

'Climate migrants' projected to flood U.S.

Climate change in Latin America — and the accompanying drought, flooding and desertification — is likely to drive increased illegal migration across the Mexico-U.S. border in coming years, according to a report. Worsening economic conditions, spiraling social tensions and growing political instability will drive greater numbers to make the dangerous journey to the United States in the long term, according to the American Security Project, a bipartisan nonprofit research group focused on national security threats. While migration might be down in the short term, in the long term the "United States is likely to see an increase in migrants all across the southern border due to climate change and its follow-on effects," said the report's author, Lindsey Ross, a scholar at the American Security Project...more

The ASP press release accompanying their report says:

Dr Jim Ludes, the Executive Director of ASP said: “This report highlights the consequences to the United States, and especially the communities and law enforcement agencies along America’s southern border, of not tackling climate change.” He went on to note: “Climate change is a crucial issue facing the United States that needs to be addressed now. We can no longer put our heads in the sand. It has real, tangible consequences.”

I'm no scientist, but I certainly understand the political message behind this report: conservatives, either get behind cap and trade and other global warming initiatives or see our country over run by "climate migrants".

When I look at the Board of Directors for ASP and see it has dems like Gary Hart and John Kerry, and repubs like Christine Todd Whitman, you might say I'm a wee bit suspicious of their agenda.

Save the Light Bulb

Dear John Boehner, Ted Poe, and Members of the incoming 112th Congress, If you do only one thing in your time in Washington, and frankly I hope you do only one thing given your propensity to expand government (other than eradicating Obamacare), it is this: SAVE THE LIGHT BULB. People may not realize it, but one of the first acts of the Democratic Congress in 2007, was to ban the light bulb effective in 2014. Seriously. Now, you may say that this is an exaggeration, and it is a bit, but the incandescent light bulb is the light bulb of choice for millions of Americans. It turns on instantly, it can be tossed in the trash without summoning a hazmat team, and is cheap. The compact fluorescents cannot be treated that way and cost more. Likewise, we are forced to deal with China for every purchase...more

Here is Rep. Ted Poe's 2008 floor speech on compact flourescent light bulbs:

Endangered or not, wolf killings set to expand

Government agencies are seeking broad new authority to ramp up killings and removals of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes, despite two recent court actions that restored the animal's endangered status in every state except Alaska and Minnesota. Various proposals would gas pups in their dens, surgically sterilize adult wolves and allow "conservation" or "research" hunts to drive down the predators' numbers. Once poisoned to near-extermination in the lower 48 states, wolves made a remarkable comeback over the last two decades under protection of the Endangered Species Act. But as packs continue to multiply their taste for livestock and big game herds coveted by hunters has stoked a rising backlash. Wildlife officials say that without public wolf hunting, they need greater latitude to eliminate problem packs. Montana and Idaho held inaugural hunts last year but an August court ruling scuttled their plans for 2010. "As the wolf populations increase, the depredations increase and the number of wolf removals will increase. It's very logical," said Mark Collinge, Idaho director for Wildlife Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture branch that removes problem wolves, typically by shooting them from aircraft. At least 1,700 wolves now roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. There are more than 4,000 in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. New populations are taking hold in Oregon and Washington, and wolves have been sighted in Colorado, Utah and New England. Some of the most remote wilderness habitats are becoming saturated with the animals. As a result, packs are pushing into agricultural and residential areas where domestic animals offer an easy meal...more

2 coyote attacks in 1 hour in NYC suburb; tot hurt

A teen and a toddler have come face-to-face with a coyote in two separate incidents within about an hour in a New York City suburb. The toddler's father took her to get medical care, but the teen was unhurt. Authorities say a coyote lunged at the teen boy shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday in Rye Brook. About an hour later, the 2-year-old girl was attacked near her home about two miles away. In June, the town of Rye — about 3 miles from Rye Brook — had two coyote attacks within four days. A 3-year-old girl playing in her backyard was jumped from behind by a coyote, and a 6-year-old girl was mauled by two coyotes. After those attacks, authorities in Rye urged parents to keep their kids inside on summer evenings. Rye Brook is about 30 miles northeast of Manhattan. AP

HT: Outdoor Press Room

Animal Activists Use Oil Spill to Push for Wildlife’s Day in Court

According to the American Bar Association, a number of organizations have recently tried to sue under the Endangered Species Act on behalf of sea turtles who have died in the Gulf. In federal court, the groups sued to force BP into halting controlled burn operations meant to stem the spread of oil. In early July, BP and the Coast Guard agreed to allow environmental scientists to “observe” burn efforts to ensure the turtles would be removed from danger. In addition, the ABA reports that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on the attorneys general of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi to prosecute executives of BP on animal cruelty charges. ”The oil leak represents an example where tremendous pain and death are brought to individual animals,” Michigan State University law professor David S. Favre says. ”The law penalty has no easy way to deal with these individual deaths,” he says. This is something animal activists want changed and some are pushing for new laws that would extend legal rights and protections–usually reserved for humans–to animals. One of these activists is President Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein. Sunstein has come under public scrutiny in the past for his controversial views surrounding “rights” for livestock, pets and wildlife. “[T]here should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, scientific experiments, and agriculture,” Sunstein wrote at the University of Chicago in 2002...more

Seven Myths About Green Jobs

While governments around the world pour taxpayers' money into a whole range of supposedly win-win "green investments", this paper finds that these waste resources and reduce economic growth without necessarily protecting the environment...more

The study is by a British think tank, but the following was interesting:

“Green investment” isn’t even a reliable way to improve the environment, the study finds. Steel is one of the world’s most carbon-intensive industries, yet the United Nations Environment Programme counts steelworkers as having “green jobs”, because steel is needed to make wind turbines.

Another distortion on behalf of the greenies.

Obama Administration Reverses Course, Forbids Sale of 850,000 Antique Rifles

The South Korean government, in an effort to raise money for its military, wants to sell nearly a million antique M1 rifles that were used by U.S. soldiers in the Korean War to gun collectors in America. The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates. A State Department spokesman said the administration's decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands...more