Thune, Schumer Introduce “Cow Tax” Prevention Bill

Interesting situation.

First, it’s totally stupid that this even needs to be dealt with, but it shows that some of the ‘crats of EPA need to find a real job. Proposing taxes (oh, yeah – “fees”…right) on livestock produced gas? What would be next, regulating Jay Bush’s product line (of canned beans) to reduce potential “pollution”? But I digress.

Hopefully this will go through without much problem…it’s starting off with that rarest of birds…real bipartisan sponsorship, with Sen. Thune and Sen. Schumer (Donk – NY) getting the ball rolling. The Chief can’t imagine much Donk support for this coming out of states like Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, North Dakota, or even Minnesota (well, then again, if Franken takes the seat…).

U.S. Senators John Thune and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) today introduced a bill (S.527) that will once and for all prevent the government from imposing an onerous “cow tax” on farmers across the country. Late last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discussed regulating greenhouse gases in its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking under the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, which could include requiring farmers to purchase expensive permits. Although the EPA did not propose moving forward with the permits, Thune and Schumer are taking preventive action to protect America’s farmers. The “tax” would cost South Dakota farmers an estimated $367 million — or $175 per dairy cow, $87.50 per beef cow, and $20 per hog — fees that could put already struggling family farms on the brink of closure.

It’s highly unusual for the Chief to agree, and to grant some kudos to Sen. Schumer…IMHO he’s such a moonbat on so many issues…but in this case he is on the side of reason:

“Times are hard for families across New York State, and they are particularly hard for our farmers. The idea of a imposing a cow tax on our farmers and adding one more crushing burden is absurd,” Schumer said. “This bill will put an end to this inane `cow tax’ once and for all.”

“Inane”…yeah, that’s about right…

Below is the text of a letter from the American Farm Bureau Federation to Senator Thune and Senator Schumer supporting this legislation:
Continue reading →

Activists ‘shocked’ at Clinton stance on China rights

Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.

Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.

“But our pressing on those issues can’t interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis,” Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.

An old American tradition: money trumps blood.

For a notable previous example of this kind of economic realpolitik, Google “Loral” and “Clinton Administration”.

James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic

AlGor’s climate guru takes a swat.

(Meanwhile, AlGor has made one of his famous climate change lectures in the middle of a major snow storm. This has happened before, repeatedly!)

NASA warming scientist James Hansen, one of former Vice President Al Gore’s closest allies in the promotion of man-made global warming fears, is being publicly rebuked by his former supervisor at NASA.

Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fears soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embarrassed NASA” with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was “was never muzzled.” Theon joins the rapidly growing ranks of international scientists abandoning the promotion of anthropogenic global warming fears.

Sen. Reid Hits the Ground Running in Uphill Re-Election Bid

We in South Dakota demonstrated what can happen when a LibDonk Senate Majority Leader gets so involved in national politicizing that he loses touch with what the home state voters think is really relevant to them; which in OUR case resulted in the end of the Senatorial career of ex-Senator/now B.O. cabinet designee Tom Daschle.

Now may be Nevada’s chance to repeat the process:

Sen. Harry Reid will command the biggest party majority of any Senate leader in a quarter century when the new Congress convenes in January. But the Nevada Democrat is already worried about his own re-election fight in 2010.

Sen. Reid, perhaps the most-vulnerable Democrat who will face re-election in a midterm race that is likely to favor his party once again, began interviewing campaign managers last week. The Senate majority leader also recently stepped up fund-raising.

Will Nevada repeat the phenomenon of a sitting Majority Leader being voted out? One can only hope!

A Checklist Of Obama’s Many Promises

Few presidential candidates have made more specific promises to American voters than Barack Obama. They came so fast and furious in the latter part of the campaign, you’d be excused for not keeping up. So as a public service, we’ve put together a handy checklist of some of the biggest Obama promises — culled from his “Blueprint for Change,” his campaign speeches and advertisements. Clip it. Save it. And see how he did in four years.

LIST FOLLOWS: Continue reading →

A vote against B.O.

What to say?

Either B.O. is
(a) A totally phoney Chicago machine creature who will do the bidding of his libDonk party masters & their special interest allies, or
(b) A virtual neo-Bolshevik, using democratic means to reach the reins of power to implement “change” in an unashamedly socialist direction.

It could be debated which is worse. Wait…it COULD be even worse yet: he could be both (a) and (b) at the same time! The political perfect storm of the worst of all worlds!

Now there’s a scary thought!

Just.  One.  Person.

A very interesting set of evidence and discussion concerning the effect just one armed citizen could have on a random mass shooter.

The apparent probable outcome, in spite of the MSM/lib-regressive cant is NOT in the favor of the perp. Check it out.

Revisionist geography in Mexican magazine

¡Caca de toro!

’nuff said – the graphic speaks for itself.

Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi. Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

This is definitely grist for the historical/biographical mill.

Mr Gorbachev’s surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians. In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a “closet believer”.

Interesting.

Access account with Wildblue has been hung up for a week or so…may be for another week yet.

Blogging has been in hiatus, and may continue to be sporadic at best until everything gets sorted out.

Thanks for your patience, please check back.

Romney for President

After getting the nod from the American Conservative Union’s David Keene last week, National Review signs onto the Romney candidacy, signaling his acceptance by what is arguably the heart of the conservative establishment.

Many conservatives are finding it difficult to pick a presidential candidate. Each of the men running for the Republican nomination has strengths, and none has everything — all the traits, all the positions — we are looking for. Equally conservative analysts can reach, and have reached, different judgments in this matter. There are fine conservatives supporting each of these Republicans.

Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts

The endorsement goes on with NR’s literate style to go into more detail – stuff not really new to the Chief – but IMHO welcome to see, especially considering the quality of the source.

They conclude:

More than the other primary candidates, Romney has President Bush’s virtues and avoids his flaws. His moral positions, and his instincts on taxes and foreign policy, are the same. But he is less inclined to federal activism, less tolerant of overspending, better able to defend conservative positions in debate, and more likely to demand performance from his subordinates. A winning combination, by our lights. In this most fluid and unpredictable Republican field, we vote for Mitt Romney.

The Chief concurs.

The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced

When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed. At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world’s only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders. That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.

Uninvited guest: A Chinese Song Class submarine, like the one that surfaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk – a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board. By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

Several thoughts occur to the Chief, as an old Destroyer sailor:

Firstly, the Chief can full well imagine the “Holy sh_t” reaction of the carrier group at the appearance of the Chicom’s “People’s Liberation Army Navy” under the reported circumstances.

It is admittedly not a trivial task to detect a quiet submarine. Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), certainly uses a lot of science in its efforts, but given the variables of sea conditions, temperature layers, currents, etc., success at times is as much a matter of successful art as it is of successful science.

Having said that, the Chief hopes that the Admirals allegedly leading the fleet these days get ulcers to help them realize the fecklessness of their policies that draw down the fleet while the Chicoms build up towards their planned Reaganesque 600 ship Navy. (How’s THAT: the Communists copy the Gipper’s policy, while we move ever more firmly into the realm of Chamberlain’s appeasement.)

The Chief fears that the position of the Carrier these days is starting to look like that of the Battleships in 1914. Nothing more powerful afloat, but such a major investment, that fear of losses dominated their use, or non-use.

The result of the first Naval arms race with the Brits and Kaiser Bill’s Kriegsmarine was the interesting but less than decisive Battle of Jutland. The ChiComs are making the point to us, that if we bring in the flat-tops to…let us imagine…defend Taiwan against forcible reunification with the mainland…that these marvels of naval technology, each with 4500-5500 US sailors aboard could be subject to destruction by a modern version of WW-II German technology in the form of the diesel-electric U-boat.  (And wouldn’t THAT be grist for the political mills inside the beltway, to say nothing of the popular reaction.)

What makes things even worse, and the fecklessness of the Admirals even more evident (as if it were possible) is their penchant for inviting their ChiCom counterparts to come visit and learn how we operate, and see our strategy, tactics, and weapons at work (in exercise mode), all of which would certainly be of help to them in a possible (or probable?) future war.

The whole mess just leaves the Chief with a sick sensation in the pit of the stomach. God help the USA – ’cause our so-called leaders are badly botching their responsabilities.

DONNER und BLITZEN! Too much thunder and lightning tonight to keep blogging (with our Wild Blue 2-way satcom link).

Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament

What’s really proven here? Very specific but relatively trivial Old Testament detail has archeological proof.

The sound of unbridled joy seldom breaks the quiet of the British Museum’s great Arched Room, which holds its collection of 130,000 Assyrian cuneiform tablets, dating back 5,000 years.

A fragment of cuneiform – Tiny tablet provides proof for Old Testament
This fragment is a receipt for payment made by a figure in the Old Testament

But Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out such a cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact.

Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered – Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as “the chief eunuch” of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.

Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name – Nebo-Sarsekim. Nebo-Sarsekim, according to Jeremiah, was Nebuchadnezzar II’s “chief officer” and was with him at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the Babylonians overran the city.

China executes former food, drug chief

Now THIS is one idea that we might profitably adopt from the ChiComs.

China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog today for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product safety crisis.

They know that they have had problems with this issue, and this is application of “The buck stops here.” literally with a vengeance.

China shuts 180 food factories for using illegal chemicals

Yummie? NOT!

China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday. The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.

Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety. “These are not isolated cases,” Han, director of the administration’s quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.

As if we needed any more reasons to READ THE LABELS, and avoid supporting the ChiCom anti-US militarization by improving their trade balance at out expense.

‘Chemical Ali’ to hang for killing Kurds

Saddam Hussein’s cousin, known as “Chemical Ali,” and two other regime officials were sentenced yesterday to hang for slaughtering up to 180,000 Kurdish men, women and children with chemical weapons, artillery barrages and mass executions two decades ago.

A good saving of oxygen. Needless to say, the Kurds are happy campers about this verdict also.

NAFTA super-highway:
Governments never lie, they just don’t tell the truth

“There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA Superhighway of any sort,” says David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce, in reply to a reporter’s question. The article also quotes Senator Kit Bonds as saying that the notion of a NAFTA super-highway is based on “unfounded theories,” with “no credence.”

Sounds solid, right? Guess again!

If these two gentlemen are correct, it will come as a great surprise to the North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition; the Texas Department of Transportation; the City of Fort Worth, and nearly two-dozen other major sponsors of a national conference: “Moving North America Forward,” on “SuperCorridors” they promote. The conference, May 30 – June 1, is designed to move the SuperCorridors projects forward.

Of course, these two gentlemen are not correct. NASCO boasts that it received millions in grants from the federal government. And TexDOT has been notified that its federal highway funding is in jeopardy if the state legislature’s two-year moratorium on toll-road construction is not overturned. The federal government is definitely involved in the creation of NAFTA SuperCorridors, but at an arms-length, sufficient to have “plausible deniability.”

The NAFTA SuperCorridors are but a part of the much broader agenda which seeks to create a North American Community. This goal is also denied by government officials – even while government employees from Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., meet daily in working groups to “harmonize” rules and regulations that will “integrate” the three nations.

Like we really want to have Mexican-style corruption, and Canuckian socialism imported here?

Keep your powder dry!

…an interesting take on the Don Imus affair

Commentary on a David Brooks spiel from Meet the Press reported on Samizdata:

…shock-jock popularity is not about racism. It is about cruelty. Institutionalized culturally based cruelty. Indiscriminate cruelty for its own sake.

Brooks also points out that Imus was very heavily watched and listened to by the power elite. After an appearance on Imus’ show he, Brooks, received a remarkable amount of feedback from the power elite that make made up a disproportionate part of Imus’ audience. So now I ask, what does this say about the souls of those who demand the power and authority to be our masters? What does it mean that the powerful should be so enamoured of deliberate and systematic cruelty that they listen to it for entertainment?
(Emphasis added by the Chief)

What does it say indeed? Nothing very positive!

Something to think about as we move into the election season.

Student Government Asks Reporters to Leave by Monday

Virginia Tech students are showing more good judgment and sense than much of the media coverage of last week’s shooting, and have asked the MSM to pack up and get out of Dodge…well, Blacksburg.

You’ve seen the news coverage from Blacksburg, complete with prominent network anchors reporting from the scene. And now, the student government at Virginia Tech is asking for all of that to end. It’s calling on hundreds of reporters to leave campus by Monday morning, when students are supposed to return to classes. A spokeswoman for the student government says the campus appreciates the reporting on the story, but that students are ready to move forward.

Good for them!