It's The Pitts: Dismembered

Lee Pitts

I'm not a clubby kind of guy. I don't belong to Rotary, Kiwanis, PTA, KKK, John Birch Society or Book of the Month Club. I take pride in the fact that I've been disinvited to join many groups. That's all right with me because I hate meetings.

The only drawback to my antisocial behavior was that for many years I worried that my obituary was going to be skimpy. For example: "Lee Pitts was assassinated by an angry reader and left no survivors and did not belong to any clubs, hold any offices or do anything noteworthy while he was alive." You'll agree, that's a pretty sad commentary. But now, thanks to modern marketing, I'll have plenty of clubs to list in my obituary. "Lee Pitts, aged 105, passed away peacefully while asleep. He was an active member in good standing with the Costco Club, United Mileage Plus and the Safeway Club, hardware store club and many others too numerous to mention. They all mourn his passing and will miss him." Much better sounding, don't you agree?

There are many advantages to these types of clubs. There are no meetings, you're not asked to serve on a committee, be an officer, wear a funny hat, or go to a costly convention. The biggest drawback, however, is that you have to carry around all the little plastic cards that prove you are a member. I have so many of these cards in my wallet that when I sit down I'm at a 30 degree angle.

I've never understood the concept behind buying clubs like Costco. I respect the company for selling great meat and having the nerve to ask their customers to fork over $40 a year for the privilege of giving Costco shovelfuls of money. Think about that for a moment. If someone had suggested, "I've got an idea. Why not charge folks to shop in our stores!" Wouldn't they have been branded a nut case? What other group, besides the U.S. Congress, gets away with charging people to do business with them?

Evidently consumers love the idea that they have to pay club dues in order to buy vast quantities of shop rags and toilet paper because when they open the doors at Costco you'd better not dawdle or you'll be run over like hippies at a rock concert. It must be that membership makes people feel like they are VIP's when they have to show a card to enter a store. Whatever the rationale, I think there are ways that we in agriculture can capitalize on the public's willingness to pay to do business with us.

At your next branding try charging the neighbors for the honor of helping you work your calves. Instead of feeding them a well deserved barbecue dinner after the work is done, charge them for it. Make them join your club, pay an annual fee, and if you're really brave, charge them extra for being a member of the ground crew.

I'm also thinking that auction markets could charge for the weekly show they put on. Instead of wining, dining and begging buyers and sellers for their participation, auction market operators should charge them all to join their sale barn club. Anyone entering the building must show their card. Buyers could also be charged for special VIP seating, perhaps with their name on the back of their favorite chair.

If you think it's far fetched to charge people to watch an auction you probably have not been to the Red Bluff Horse Sale where thousands pay $10 each just to watch. Or the Barrett Jackson car auctions where you must pay to get in. All this proves that auctions have hidden entertainment value. I know one fella who subscribed to Direct TV just so he could watch cattle auctions on his television. He's addicted to them. And he's a hair dresser! Instead of giving away costly catalogs for bull sales, breeders should charge prospective buyers $30 to $100 for them like they do at swanky art auctions.

If you are going to try these ideas let me know. I want to be there when an auction market operator tells an old crusty cow buyer that henceforth he has to join a club and pay $40 a year for the privilege of buying canner cows at his auction. If you survive that suggestion you might also consider charging the buyers for parking.

White House readies phone-tap case concession

The Obama administration may be on the verge of a major concession in a long-running legal battle over records about so-called telecom immunity. An email obtained by POLITICO shows that the Obama Administration is preparing for the possible release of some details of the Bush Administration’s lobbying for legislation giving telecommunications companies immunity from lawsuits over their involvement in warrantless domestic wiretapping. But even if they do release those details, the administration may press on with a legal battle to keep secret the identities of the companies involved in the program. The reported decision would be a significant reversal by President Barack Obama’s administration and followed a series of legal setbacks the government suffered recently in the FOIA case seeking the records from last year’s debate over granting immunity to the telecoms. However, the move could also be a litigating tactic to surrender some of the less sensitive information in the case in order to bolster the government’s credibility for a determined attempt to protect the most sensitive data: the names of the companies which were seeking immunity...read more

In other words, they can use public money to lobby a public entity, but the public can't see all the records.

FBI delves into DMV photos in search for fugitives

In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver's license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes. The project in North Carolina has already helped nab at least one suspect. Agents are eager to look for more criminals and possibly to expand the effort nationwide. But privacy advocates worry that the method allows authorities to track people who have done nothing wrong. "Everybody's participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver's license," said Christopher Calabrese, an attorney who focuses on privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union...read more

Obama's unrestrained FBI

In the last weeks of the Bush-Cheney administration, FBI Director Robert Mueller and then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey rushed into law such unbounded expansions of the FBI's domestic surveillance powers that I was stunned. As described by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an ever-watchful guardian of the Constitution, these Attorney General's Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations authorize the FBI — without going to a court — "to open investigative 'assessments' of any American without any factual predicate or suspicion. Such 'assessments' allow the use of intrusive techniques to surreptitiously collect information on people suspected of no wrongdoing and no connection with any foreign entity. These inquiries may include the collection of information from online sources and commercial databases." President Barack Obama has expressed no objections to these radical revisions of the Constitution, a founding document he used to educate students about at the University of Chicago. His attorney general, Eric Holder, said calmly during his Senate confirmation hearing: "The guidelines are necessary because the FBI is changing its mission ... from a pure investigating agency to one that deals with national security."...read more

Democrats Take a Pass on Civil-Liberties Reform

For a minute, it almost looked like Democrats were going to put up a fight on the PATRIOT Act as it came up for reauthorization. With a majority in Congress, a clear list of reforms set out by Russ Feingold and six other Democrats in the JUSTICE Act, and a president who had presented himself as a friend to civil libertarians, it certainly seemed possible. Last week, the administration outmaneuvered most congressional efforts to strengthen civil-liberties protections in the PATRIOT Act reauthorization, inserted provisions in the Homeland Security appropriations bill that would prevent the release of torture photographs that are the subject of a pending FOIA request, and is now poised to sign a defense authorization bill that contains changes to the military commissions that fall short of what the administration itself said might be overturned by the appellate courts. While most news outlets were focused on the health-care debate and President Barack Obama's unexpected Nobel Prize win, the administration successfully foiled civil-liberties advocates' efforts to rein in Bush-era executive powers -- and with little resistance from Democrats...read more

Supreme Court to hear asset forfeiture case

Asset forfeiture is one of law enforcement's most potent weapons against drug crimes. When private property such as cars, boats, houses, and money are used in a narcotics transaction, US laws allow the police not only to seize those assets but to profit from the seizures. But a problem arises when the confiscated property belongs to someone unaware that crimes were taking place. In such instances, it can take a year or more for the owner to get back the seized property. The US Supreme Court Wednesday takes up a case examining whether a federal appeals court was right when it ruled that officials in Chicago were taking too long to return property to innocent owners. The case, Alvarez v. Smith, involves six individuals who filed a class action lawsuit challenging Illinois' Drug Asset Forfeiture Procedures Act (DAFPA). Three claims sought return of seized cash, three others involved cars. The law provides for a series of administrative steps that can take from three to six months from the time of the seizure until a forfeiture hearing is held before a judge. The plaintiffs complained that was too long for an innocent owner to wait. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. The appeals court likened the situation to the right of a criminal defendant to a speedy trial...read more

California AB 962: Much more than ammo?

Must people who follow gun laws and gun rights issues are aware by now that over the weekend, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California AB 962. AB 962 requires registration (complete with thumbprint) of purchasers of handgun ammunition, requires retailers to keep the ammunition inaccessible to customers, forbids mail order purchases of handgun ammunition, etc. Speaking of which, one gun rights advocate I know well, at his online journal Days of Our Trailers, points out that the law seems to define "ammunition" in ways that one apparently must be a statist politician to understand. (c) For purposes of this section, “ammunition” shall include, but not be limited to, any bullet, cartridge, magazine, clip, speed loader, autoloader, or projectile capable of being fired from a firearm with deadly consequence. “Ammunition” does not include blanks.. That is taken directly from the text of the legislation--I omitted subsection (b) for the sake of brevity--and seems to indicate that magazines (whether "high capacity," or not), revolver speedloaders, unloaded bullets (not whole cartridges--just the projectiles themselves), etc., will fall under the scope of this insane law...read more

Man Fired For Looking At Gun Web Sites

t's not unusual for employees to be fired for browsing pornographic Web sites at work. But a Pennsylvania gun owner named Tony Jackson may have been the first person ever fired for looking at Web sites featuring gun parts. When Jackson was searching the Web for a replacement shotgun stock, supervisor Christie Vazquez -- who admitted in a subsequent deposition to being "very anti-gun" and had quarreled with him before about politics -- noticed what he was doing. Vazquez said she was scared because it was only a few weeks after the Virginia Tech massacre (see CBS News video), so she promptly reported her colleague's Web browsing to Planco's human resources department. Vazquez also informed the HR department that Jackson owned guns and was a member of the National Rifle Association. You can guess what happened next: according to court documents, the HR representative, Jamie Davis, replied that reporting the visits to Mossberg.com and other sites was "the right thing" to do, and ordered the information technology department to investigate Jackson's Internet activity. After receiving a list of Web sites visited, Davis recommended that Jackson be placed on leave, which the company authorized. Planco disabled Jackson's front door and computer access and arranged for undercover police to be at the building the next morning...read more

Interpol and U.N. Back ‘Global Policing Doctrine’

Interpol and the United Nations are poised to become partners in fighting crime by jointly grooming a global police force that would be deployed as peacekeepers among rogue nations riven by war and organized crime, officials from both organizations say. It is the first step toward creating what Interpol calls a “global policing doctrine” that would enable Interpol and the United Nations to improve the skills of police peacekeepers, largely by sharing a secure communications network and a vast electronic trove of criminal information, including DNA records, fingerprints, photographs and fugitive notices...read more

Support Your Global Police?

Noble was thus deeply involved in the decisions that led to the avoidable deaths of six members of the Branch Davidian sect, and four ATF stormtroopers, on February 28. His involvement in the planning and execution of the siege and the final April 19 assault isn't as significant. But he played the definitive role in covering up those crimes by serving as the "lead investigator" in the Clinton administration's internal "inquiry" into the federal atrocities at Waco. So patently fraudulent was Noble's "investigation" that a second bogus inquiry was necessary: In 2000, Attorney General Reno chose former Missouri Senator John Danforth to preside over an "independent" investigation that was mounted in what proved to be a successful effort to derail the wrongful death lawsuit cited above. By that time, however, Noble – who had been given the Alexander Hamilton Award by the Treasury Department, as if anything named after that individual could be construed as an honor – had been given another coveted post with Reno's help: He was nominated to serve as secretary-general of Interpol, a position he occupies to the present day. On October 12, Noble's agency announced that it would be collaborating with the United Nations by providing technical support – including access to voluminous, detailed databases – to UN "peacekeeping" personnel, including those that belong to the world body's police force, UNPOL...read more

TSA Takes Baby Away From Mother

Mommyblogger Nic tells the horrifying story of how TSA agents took away her child because the clip on his pacifier set off the metal detector yesterday. Nic writes: Jackson was in my arms, and in the midst of getting all of our gear on the conveyor belt, my mistake was neglecting to take off my son's pacifier clip that hangs from his shirt, which is metal. The instant I walked through the metal detector with Jackson in my arms, we beeped. I knew exactly why... The male TSA agent repeated, "I'm going to have to pick him up to inspect him." I handed him my son. I handed him my son and he walked away with my child. My eyes welled up with tears, I stood up from my chair and I asked the female TSA agent, "Where is he going? Where is he taking my child? Why is he leaving?" Jackson, while being whisked away looked at the male TSA agent awkwardly and repeated "no no no no." I started crying. The TSA eventually returned the child a few minutes later but the interim period was extremely stressful for the mother. According to the TSA website, "We will not ask you to do anything that will separate you from your child or children." Looks like some agents need retraining. Consumerist

Canadian trucker fined for smoking on the job

A Canadian truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday. A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in southwestern Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 ($290) ticket. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County. "We enforce the legislation and this truck driver was in violation of that," she said. Reuters

Is the CIA still hiding JFK assassination secrets?

Is the Central Intelligence Agency covering up some dark secret about the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Probably not. But you would not know it from the C.I.A.’s behavior. For six years, the agency has fought in federal court to keep secret hundreds of documents from 1963, when an anti-Castro Cuban group it paid clashed publicly with the soon-to-be assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The C.I.A. says it is only protecting legitimate secrets. But because of the agency’s history of stonewalling assassination inquiries, even researchers with no use for conspiracy thinking question its stance. The files in question, some released under direction of the court and hundreds more that are still secret, involve the curious career of George E. Joannides, the case officer who oversaw the dissident Cubans in 1963. In 1978, the agency made Mr. Joannides the liaison to the House Select Committee on Assassinations — but never told the committee of his earlier role. That concealment has fueled suspicion that Mr. Joannides’s real assignment was to limit what the House committee could learn about C.I.A. activities...read more

Song Of The Day #158

Our Gospel tune this morning is One Of These Days by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

It's available on their 14 track CD Help Is on the Way on the Horizon label.

New Mexico 'Super Station' aims to 'break the power gridlock'

By any yardstick, it's an ambitious project: allow energy to flow more freely across the nation's three massive power grids, breaking down significant barriers to ramping up alternative energy in the United States. A proposed "Tres Amigas Super Station" in Clovis, N.M., would do just that, routing energy from isolated wind and solar installations to urban centers and other places that consume the most power. The transmission hub would be located across 22 square miles in eastern New Mexico near the Texas border. Clovis was chosen because it is nearest to where the nation's three power grids — called the East, West and Texas interconnections — come closest together. Tres Amigas would build a triangular pathway of underground superconductor pipelines, combined with AC/DC converters that synchronize the flow of power between the interconnections. The equipment allows electricity to be transferred from grid to grid. Construction could begin in 2011 or 2012, and the hub could be running in 2013 or 2014, said Phil Harris, chief executive of the Santa Fe-based Tres Amigas. The pipelines, 3 feet in diameter, contain hair-thin ceramic fibers developed by Devens, Mass.-based American Superconductor and can carry enough electricity to power 2.5 million homes...read more

Bush-era oil-shale decision under review

The Obama Interior Department is reviewing a decision made by the Bush administration in its final days that attempted to lock in lucrative royalty rates and favorable regulations for oil companies holding leases for oil-shale development on public lands. The decision, which came in the form of amendments to existing leases, drew little public notice at the end of the Bush administration in January. But since then, congressional watchdogs, environmental groups and state officials in Colorado, where most of the leases are located, have denounced the amendments as a massive giveaway to the oil industry. Obama Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ordered the review "given the timing and circumstances of the execution of the lease addenda," Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Thursday...read more

NRA wants to join wolf lawsuit

The National Rifle Association is asking a federal court judge to allow the group to join a lawsuit regarding the removal of wolves from the list of animals protected under the Endangered Species Act in Montana and Idaho. In documents filed late Friday, Chris Cox, an NRA executive director, said their members hunt in states where wolves are now present and "have experienced anger and frustration during times when their state wildlife management authorities were powerless to take necessary action to control their states' problem wolves." He adds that if the 13 conservation groups that sued to retain gray wolves' protected status are successful in their lawsuit, then NRA members will lose their ability to hunt and enjoy recreational opportunities in Montana and Idaho "due to the threat to themselves, their pets and their prey from problem wolves."...read more

Arctic Now Traps 25 Percent of World’s Carbon

The arctic could potentially alter the Earth’s climate by becoming a possible source of global atmospheric carbon dioxide. The arctic now traps or absorbs up to 25 percent of this gas but climate change could alter that amount, according to a study published in the November issue of Ecological Monographs. In their review paper, David McGuire of the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and his colleagues show that the Arctic has been a carbon sink since the end of the last Ice Age, which has recently accounted for between zero and 25 percent, or up to about 800 million metric tons, of the global carbon sink. On average, says McGuire, the Arctic accounts for 10-15 percent of the Earth’s carbon sink. But the rapid rate of climate change in the Arctic – about twice that of lower latitudes – could eliminate the sink and instead, possibly make the Arctic a source of carbon dioxide...read more

California appears poised to be first to ban big-screen TVs

The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions. On Tuesday, executives and consultants for the Arlington, Va., trade group asked members of the California Energy Commission to instead let consumers use their wallets to decide whether they want to buy the most energy-saving new models of liquid-crystal display and plasma high-definition TVs. "Voluntary efforts are succeeding without regulations," said Doug Johnson, the association's senior director for technology policy. Too much government interference could hamstring industry innovation and prove expensive to manufacturers and consumers, he warned. But those pleas didn't appear to elicit much support from commissioners at a public hearing on the proposed rules that would set maximum energy-consumption standards for televisions to be phased in over two years beginning in January 2011. A vote could come as early as Nov. 4...read more

PETA Becomes A Corporate Animal

Americans know the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for its wild publicity stunts in the name of protecting cows, chickens, and other eatables. But a closer look at media-savvy PETA shows it also has become a corporate animal. Its websites are full of invitations to corporate America to form partnerships, and in the process, cut PETA in on some of the profits. How else has the Washington-based group grown to a $34 million budget and displayed help-wanted ads for more employees in the time of a deep recession? In one case, PETA castigates a credit card company for backing a circus; yet PETA promotes its competitor who sponsors horse racing and beef eating -- two PETA no-nos it is trying to abolish. PETA now operates a "Business Friends" program. For $500 (Silver), $1,000 (Gold) and $5,000-plus) Platinum, PETA grants access to its members and their money. "PETA Business Friends is an innovative partnership for compassionate companies willing to assist in PETA's groundbreaking work to stop animal abuse and suffering," the web site says. Also on the list is VISA, the giant credit card company. The two boast a special relationship. There is the PETA VISA card, featuring a photo of a pig. Purchases on this card result in a 1 percent royalty to PETA. It urges customers to shop at its own mall, where vendors return even more profits to PETA on each sale...read more