In Mexico, a drug war of choice?

There is another version of history, which goes as follows: Calderon won elections in 2006 with a margin so thin (0.58 percent) that it prompted cries of fraud, persuaded his left-wing opponent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to declare himself the real winner, and gave Mexico the unusual and embarrassing spectacle, for weeks on end, of two men claiming they were the legitimate president. So, ten days after eventually being sworn in, Calderon announced that he had ordered the army into his home state of Michoacan to make war on Mexico's drug cartels. One of Calderon's most vocal critics, former foreign minister Jorge Castaneda, loses no opportunity to say this was a war of choice, not prompted by any specific outrage but by a perceived need to legitimize a contested presidency. Calderon badly misjudged the strength of the criminal mafias, the alternative version goes, and now is stuck with a war he cannot win, not even with U.S. support. Nobody knows just how many people are involved in the drug trade -- as foot soldiers, runners, lookouts, accountants, money launderers, communications experts and a wide variety of other functions. Another estimate on the strength of the trafficking organizations has come from the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper with good contacts in the military that last year quoted an unnamed senior defense official as saying the Pentagon believed the number of cartel foot soldiers matched that of the Mexican army - about 130,000...more

Why is it so hard to flee Mexico’s drug war?

It was one of the first cases of extortion since a deadly drug war had erupted in Juárez in 2008, and Kuchle didn’t cave in. The result was the end of his business. When the threats continued, Kuchle moved to El Paso, Tex. Now Aroma sits on a popular strip of Mesa St., not far from downtown. Same restaurant, except on the other side of the Rio Grande. “There’s no way I would go back,” Kuchle says. “Only crazy people can live over there.” More than 5,100 homicides later, the drug war has changed the way almost everyone lives in this city of 1.3 million. The poor hide behind closed doors. The wealthy have fled. Pharmacist José Monsiváis is sitting in a wooden chair facing the sidewalk doing, well, nothing. He says half of the businesses on the strip, many of them cantinas, bars and restaurants, have closed. There are no customers, especially American ones, anymore. The local chamber of commerce says 6,000 businesses have closed in the past nine months, many of them because of extortion. This city has gone from zero to 20 per cent unemployment in two years. Part of the reason is the global recession. But, Monsiváis insists, “the main reason is the violence in Juárez. A lot of people are afraid to come here.” Monsiváis says business is down 50 per cent. “I can’t pay the bills, food, gasoline.” De la Rosa says that more than 70,000 homes in Juárez have been abandoned, with more than 100,000 people having left for Texas or other cities in Mexico. (Other estimates suggest 250,000 have left.)El Paso’s police chief, Greg Allen, estimates 30,000 Juárenses have legally crossed and are now living in his city. Many say that’s a low...more

Why The Climate Bill Is Stuck In Neutral

Now that financial reform has passed through the Senate, is energy next? As always, that's… unclear. A big problem right now is that no one actually seems to be at the forefront of shepherding the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act through the chamber. As Darren Samuelsohn reports, Harry Reid was supposed to take charge of the process, but he's still trying to figure out whether to move ahead with a big climate bill or a smaller "energy-only" bill (which, in its current form, is basically a grab bag of subsidies that wouldn't actually accomplish all that much). Reid is waiting to see how a couple different things unfold. First, he wants the White House to get actively involved—the way Obama helped salvage a deal at Copenhagen or stepped in during the intra-party skirmishes over the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the House. But so far, the administration has stayed aloof. The second thing Reid wants is a Republican ally who can help corral a few votes on the other side of the aisle. That point-person used to be Lindsey Graham, until Graham got in a tiff with Reid over immigration and bowed out of the whole process...more

Govt met with environmentalists on land protection

Recently released documents show the Obama administration was getting ideas from environmental groups about setting aside millions of acres in the West, drawing the ire of land users who said discussions were being developed behind their back. In the documents — most of which are e-mail messages — the environmental groups suggest various ways to protect land, such as by creating national monuments, buying private land or through conservation easements. Republicans who submitted an information request to obtain the documents blasted the information as proof that the administration was privately crafting large-scale land use plans. Federal agencies have so far produced only a fraction of the requested documents, they said. The e-mails show detailed discussions that went into brainstorming for the "Treasured Landscapes Initiative."...more

A source who has reviewed the documents says:

Wanted to point you to Rep. Rehberg’s excellent decision to put the (relatively few) documents Interior has turned over related to the Internal National Monument document request, you can pull up the documents here: http://rehberg.house.gov/uploads/DeptofInterior.zip.

I would highly suggest you take a look at them. It is apparent that Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service also had sections with proposals in the Internal Document but the full document is being withheld. CEQ was clearly involved and certain Forest Service and Agriculture people were brought in at a certain point. It was clearly tightly controlled as far as who participated.

Interior is still withholding 2,016 documents.

Jaguar's trapping was criminal act, not just tragedy

The death of Arizona's last known jaguar was cloaked in deception. We don't yet know where the lies began, but the public has a strong interest in finding out. We do know the public was misled. Initially, state and federal officials said the cat accidentally blundered into a snare that had been placed as part of an Arizona Game and Fish Department bear/ mountain-lion study. After being trapped, the jaguar known as Macho B was collared and released only to be subsequently recaptured and put down when he showed signs of distress. It was an ignoble ending for rare and wonderful wild animal. The protection of such endangered animals is a priority of federal law. The recovery of endangered species is national policy. As a careless accident, Macho B's death was a tragedy. But it wasn't an accident. It was a crime. Last week, for-hire biologist Emil McCain, who had been working as a subcontractor for Game and Fish, pleaded guilty to telling a co-worker to put jaguar scat at trapping sites to lure Macho B, an animal previously seen only in photos. McCain, who at first denied the luring the beast, was sentenced to five years' probation and fined $1,000. Former Game and Fish employee Thornton "Thorry" Smith was fired after admitting he helped McCain try to cover up the truth. This isn't over. Game and Fish has an ongoing investigation, as does the federal government. It is important to find out whether higher-ups in Game and Fish knew about this illegal effort...more

Resurgent Pombo Taps Anti-Enviro Vein in Bid for Calif. Seat

Four years after being voted from office, former Rep. Richard Pombo (R) of California is attempting to resurrect his political career in a new district where few voters know his record for seeking to rewrite some of the nation's premier environmental laws. But observers of environmental politics during the 1990s and 2000s are all too familiar with Pombo, whose re-emergence has set off a flurry of opposition from advocacy groups who believe his return to Congress would rekindle the rancorous -- and some say anti-environmental -- debates that defined his tenure as chairman of the House Resources Committee from 2003 to 2008. Now, many of those same groups, led by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, are pulling out the stops for the June 8 Republican primary election in the nearby 19th District, where Pombo is seeking to replace the retiring Rep. George Radanovich (R). As part of the campaign, environmental groups are running radio ads claiming that while in office Pombo tried to sell national parks to private developers and sponsoring robo-calls accusing him of violating federal bribery laws. "He represents to them the devil incarnate with respect to environmental issues," said Bruce Cain, a political expert at the University of California, Berkeley. But Pombo, 49, who describes himself as a San Joaquin County cattle rancher, has a very real shot at winning the Republican nomination for the District 19 seat, according to Cain and other campaign watchers...more

Authorities Say Mojave Desert Replacement Memorial Cross Must Come Down

Authorities say a Mojave Desert war memorial cross that replaced one that was stolen is illegal and must come down. Linda Slater, a spokeswoman with the Mojave National Preserve, says a maintenance worker spotted the 7½-foot replica cross made of metal pipes on Thursday in a federal park. The original cross was stolen more than a week ago. It had been the subject of a lawsuit arguing that the Christian symbol didn't belong on public land. The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily allowed the old cross to stand, but Slater says the new cross isn't covered by the ruling and will be taken down. The site's caretakers constructed a replacement cross on Saturday. Wanda Sandoz, who has watched over the site with her husband Henry since 1984, said the one put in place Wednesday night is not the one welded by her husband. Sandoz said the cross that went up overnight is white, but their replica has not been painted yet -- indicating that the replacement could be the original stolen cross or someone else's replica. "I'm curious as to how they got it up there," Sandoz said, explaining that erecting the cement-filled pipes was a rigorous and difficult process — and would be much harder by the light of a quarter moon. "It's not like you can dig a hole and put a cross in there. It's solid rock up there," she said. Thieves used bolt cutters to rip through the inch-thick bolts that had kept the cross in place since 1984. That memorial replaced a wooden cross that was put up in the Mojave Desert in 1934 by veterans of World War I to honor troops who died in battle...more

California Water Shortage Exposes Big Government Run Amok

California has many problems these days, including a severe water shortage. Unfortunately, big-government policies at the federal level have made this problem far worse than it needed to be. The natural drought has been exacerbated by a man-made drought: draconian application of the Endangered Species Act that restricts the availability of water for irrigation. Imposed to protect various species of fish, the water restrictions have led to fallowed farmland, unsustainable reliance on groundwater, which can cause land subsidence and environmental damage, and rampant joblessness in California’s Central Valley. A glimmer of hope emerged this week when the U.S. District Court released a ruling finding serious flaws in one of the federal biological opinions that restricted water deliveries. The ruling could lead to increased water supplies for struggling farmers and ranchers in the Central Valley. This is an important victory, but we must not to lose sight of the bigger picture, which is that the root of the problem lies in federal interference with state resources. While I’m glad that the court’s latest ruling could lead to more water for California’s struggling farmers, I cannot forget that it was this same court that two years ago forced the federal government to restrict pumping under the Endangered Species Act...more

Court won't review NM uranium mining permit

A federal appeals court has refused to review a ruling upholding a federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision that will allow a company to leach uranium at an aquifer that supplies drinking water for 15,000 Navajos in northwestern New Mexico. The 10th U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied the opponents' request for a rehearing on Hydro Resources Inc.'s licenses. The 2-1 opinion said the NRC met NEPA requirements in its consideration of the cumulative impact of airborne radiation and correctly interpreted the Atomic Energy Act to require consideration only of airborne radiation from the licensed operation. The Denver court heard arguments in 2008 in what lawyers called the first-ever challenge to NRC approval of licenses for an in-situ uranium mining operation. Eastern Dine Against Uranium Mining, the Southwest Research and Information Center and ranchers Grace Sam and Marilyn Morris contended the NRC violated federal law in approving permits for Hydro Resources' leach mining near the Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock...more

Caution: Goats at work

A herd of about 250 goats was recruited as weed whackers around the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery earlier this week. They’ll be back for another three- or four-day job in July. Like the weeds, the goats are perennial visitors to the fish hatchery, although their work schedule there gets shorter each year, a testament to their efficiency. “It’s such a natural way to eradicate the problem,” said Corky Broaddus, hatchery spokeswoman. The problem she speaks of has been acres of diffuse knapweed and dalmatian toadflax, two of the most noxious of noxious weeds. Healing Hooves LLC, an Edwall business owned by Craig and Sue Lani Madsen that uses goats and sheep for natural vegetation management, has contracted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for weed removal at the fish hatchery for six or seven years, Broaddus said. Herbicides can’t be used near the fish hatchery because of their toxicity to fish. Mowers don’t cut low enough to keep weed seeds from spreading...more

Prehistoric Fish Extinction Paved the Way for Modern Vertebrates

A mass extinction of fish 360 million years ago hit the reset button on Earth's life, setting the stage for modern vertebrate biodiversity, a new study reports. The mass extinction scrambled the species pool near the time at which the first vertebrates crawled from water towards land, University of Chicago scientists report. Those few species that survived the bottleneck were the evolutionary starting point for all vertebrates – including humans – that exist today, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Everything was hit, the extinction was global," said Lauren Sallan, University of Chicago graduate student and lead author of the paper. "It reset vertebrate diversity in every single environment, both freshwater and marine, and created a completely different world."...more

Strategies for Sustainable Livestock Grazing: Ecological, Economic and Social Implications

For conservationists and rangeland professionals, conventional wisdom has long held that grazing livestock on rangeland in good to excellent condition rather than in a lesser condition is the most productive, both ecologically and economically. Heavy grazing can lead to changes in the plant species present and a decline in range condition. Yet, ranchers generally maintain a lower level of range condition and neither profitability nor sustainability have been negatively affected. Results from this 34 year record show that profit actually increased for the good and low-fair condition range through time , while it remained steady in excellent condition range. Range in low-fair condition supported a higher stocking rate indicating that ranchers are acting in a manner that is both sustainable and profitable over the long term. However, this practice may not be the most beneficial to the environment and society at large, and incentives may be needed to take ranchers in a different direction...more

China now top U.S. ag export market

China bought more than $10 billion in U.S. farm goods in the first six months of the year to become the country's No 1 agricultural export market, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday. China is the world's largest importer of cotton and soybeans. It roiled the grain market with a purchase of 369,000 tonnes of U.S. corn on May 13, its largest purchase since 2001, and creating hopes of steady, large sales to Beijing. The world's most populous nation and a dynamic economy, China has shot to prominence as a U.S. farm export market over the past few years...more

Leavin’ your cows in good hands ... or so you thought!

After you’ve spent a lifetime putting a cow herd together that you’re kinda proud of, hauling them to town when you’re out of grass is about the last option most cowboys will pick. Most of us will hang on to the old girls a lot longer than is practical. Sometimes it works ... and then again, sometimes it doesn’t. The biggest problem with a long drought is if you don’t have any grass, chances are there isn’t anyone very close that has any extra either. That usually means you either lock ’em up and feed ’em a lot of high priced hay, or you put wheels under them and haul them someplace where it’s actually been raining. That’s more than likely quite a distance. Such were the rotten choices facing Gordon a few years ago. He just couldn’t stand the thought of selling his cows, and so he put his heart into finding them some grass ... no matter what it cost. He finally did. Perusing a farm paper one morning, he found a ranch with grass to lease in the west river country of North Dakota. He got right on the phone with Malcolm Weatherly, the man who’d placed the ad, and the deal didn’t sound too bad. The price was terribly high, but at least Malcolm assured him they’d have feed. It had been raining for a month and the Dakota rancher was badly under stocked for some reason. The guy appeared honest enough on the phone, so they made a deal right on the spot. Gordon wired the money to Malcolm’s bank in Dakota to tie up the deal, and immediately hired the Poodie brothers to haul a couple loads of cow-calf pairs to their new home. It was none too soon either. They were completely out of grass and the hay pile had long since disappeared. Unfortunately, sometimes things aren’t all they appear ... especially on the telephone...more

Baxter Black: Rancher uses feminine wiles to lure bull

Most inventions or new ideas result from a problem for which there is no commonly prescribed answer. Women often have more need to find an alternative solution because, unlike their macho counterparts, “brute force” is not usually a choice. Which brings me to Kristy and her pet cow Jers. Jers, pronounced Jerz, belonged to Kristy and her husband who lived on an Oklahoma quarter section. Kristy kept horses and did some training to supplement her income as a school teacher. Jers was a practical hobby and had recently calved. It was one of those nasty, soggy, shivering, chilly-to-the-bone early spring mornings where the sky looked like a glass ceiling painted battleship gray. The rain had turned the corrals and fields into soup. A perfect time for Jers to come back in heat. On prior occasions Kristy had borrowed one of neighbor Tom’s bulls, but her husband said it would be useless to ask until the ground dried out. Not discouraged in the least, Kristy drove down to the local café the next morning where Coffee Shop Communion was held daily. There, drinking coffee and playing cards, was neighbor Tom dispensing wisdom...more

Song Of The Day #315

Ranch Radio has a classic country song for all you weekend warriors, I've Got Five Dollars And It's Saturday Night, recorded by Faron Young in 1956.

I hope those who wanted to got to play 301-314, because I just accidentally deleted every damn one of them.

Sheriff Dever believes suspect will be identified in Krentz murder

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever told News 4 Wednesday, he is much more confident today that his department will solve the murder of Douglas rancher Rob Krentz, than he was the day of the crime. Krentz was riding his all-terrain vehicle, checking water lines and fencing on his 35,000 acre ranch when he was shot to death March 27th. Sheriff Dever says this is the most difficult case he's ever worked on. He said at this point there is no timeline for an arrest. But Dever told News 4, he is maintaining his theory that the suspect was a border crosser. KVOA

Officials say drug, immigrant smuggling surging at NM border

Drug and illegal immigrant smuggling is surging in New Mexico's Bootheel, according to the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department. Eyewitness News 4 tagged along with deputies in Southwestern New Mexico to see the trend for ourselves. Investigators say they found $100,000 worth of marijuana on Wednesday in the trunk of a car, after the driver refused to show his photo identification or vehicle registration. Officials said a suspected illegal immigrant who had been deported 10 times was behind the wheel. Deputies also executed a search warrant on a suspicious truck that had been pulled over Wednesday night. Officials said about $50,000 worth of marijuana was stashed in the gas tank. The license plate appeared to be from Chihuahua, Mexico. The driver, who officials say had a US Visa, told deputies he was on his way to Albuquerque. "We get a lot of marijuana and alien smuggling loads going toward Albuquerque. We get a lot of vehicles registered out of Los Lunas, Belen and Albuquerque," Cpl. Gary Lassiter of the Hidalgo Co. Sheriff's Dept.

Here is the KOB-TV video report:

Representative Bishop On Wilderness And The Border

This is an almost hour long video of floor statements of Rep. John Carter of Texas and Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah. Both are discussing border security, or the lack thereof.

For those of us from public lands states, Rep. Bishop's comments start at 17:57. His primary topic is wilderness and how it is keeping the Border Patrol from securing the border. Bishop points out that 40% of the land along our southern border is owned by the federal government and that 4.3 million acres of that has been designated as wilderness. For those of you who may not know, the Wilderness Act prohibits the use of motor vehicles and mechanized equipment in wilderness areas. Needless to say, that puts our Border Patrol at a great disadvantage when trying to combat the drug runners and human traffickers, which is why they are using wilderness areas to illegaly enter the U.S. Bishop does an admiral job laying this all out. His presentation ends at around 33 minutes, and the rest is a colloquy between him and Rep. Carter, also with some interesting info.

If you want to see a picture of a vehicle barrier fence put up by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to keep the Border Patrol out, go to 21:20.

If you want to find out about rape trees go to 36:30.

Thanks to both gentlemen for once again bringing these issues to the attention of the House and the public.

Below is the complete video presentation.

Gov. Otter takes on feds over wilderness filming

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter on Wednesday chastised the U.S. Forest Service for forbidding the state's educational broadcasting network from sending a cameraman into a central Idaho wilderness area. Idaho Public Television, licensed by the federal government as a noncommercial TV station, wanted to film students doing conservation work in the 2.3-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area for its "Outdoor Idaho" show, which has filmed in wilderness areas in the past. But Frank Guzman, the Salmon-Challis National Forest supervisor, told the station this month that "this sort of filming is commercial, and thus not allowed in the wilderness." Otter urged Guzman to reconsider what he termed an "ill-advised decision." "The claim that IPTV is a commercial entity is patently absurd and defies common sense," Otter wrote Guzman. "IPTV is owned by the state of Idaho and is an agency of the State Board of Education. IPTV is a noncommercial entity." The federal 1964 Wilderness Act forbids most motorized and mechanized transportation inside wilderness preserves, aiming to keep them pristine as possible. According to Forest Service rules, however, camera crews aren't excluded during breaking news events, in order to protect 1st Amendment free-speech rights. But National Forest managers are instructed not to issue authorization for commercial filming "unless clearly necessary for realizing wilderness purposes," according to Forest Service guidelines. Idaho Public Television wanted to send a lone cameraman down a wilderness trail for several hours on Monday to film 15 participants in a Student Conservation Association program meant to train future land managers...more

Its ok to keep the Border Patrol out, but all hell breaks lose when you deny access to the greenie media types.