Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

The Democrats last fall took over our National Congress and claimed they would make changes. They would work for the people and solve all the problems that the Republicans dumped on us, the people. Now I haven't been very impressed with anything they have accomplished but I am a skeptic so that is not surprising. I see though that the American people aren't very confident in what they are doing either. A recent poll indicates that only 14% of the people have "a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress." The real shocking thing is that this number is lower than the President gets at 25% and those evil big business get at 18%.

I don't trust Congress at all, but I am surprised that the number for Congress isn't higher. If you read any number of political blogs, on the left of course, on the web you would think the Democrats have led us into a state of Nirvana and all peoples should be bowing and scraping before the wonderful Democratically controlled Congress to solve all of our problems and woes and will spread cash out to all those unfortunate souls left out by the Republicans for all these years. It appears thought hat the average American doesn't buy into this, they still don't trust the crooks.

If such unhappiness exists in Congress, why don't the voting public vote the bums out and replace them with somebody they can trust? This is one of my few questions I do know the answer to. Everybody is almost always happy with their Congress Critters, it's just the rest of the country doesn't vote in anybody that they have confidence in. If everybody outside on my district would just vote for somebody good, defined as somebody who votes me money and not everybody else in the country, I would be confident in Congress as a whole. Since those Congressmen are always voting other people money instead of me, I won't have confidence in any of them.

I find the whole thing interesting, I don't think the whole poll means much, but it is interesting. Blogs on the right will have a field day with this one and it will be fun to watch the vitriol flow. I enjoy watching such arguments. It always makes me laugh and I can always use a good laugh.

The most important political office is that of the private citizen. Louis D. Brandeis

We have all heard about the pet food recalls and contaminated wheat gluten from China that has caused it. The story has continued since some of this contaminated gluten has been fed to hogs and chickens and now raises questions about these animals.

The hogs and chickens that have all ready made it into the human food chain that ate this contaminated gluten have been given the blessing by the USDA and the FDA. What else could they do? The real funny thing about this is that the animals that haven't been slaughtered yet are being held off the market and more than likely are going to be destroyed rather than allow them into the human food system. Why are the ones all ready slaughtered okay but the ones still alive are not? Simply because the USDA and FDA fumbled the ball and are trying to cover their ass now. They couldn't do anything about the ones all ready slaughtered but they can stop more from being slaughtered to contain the potential problem.

So let's do something I normally don't like to do here. Play the blame game. Where does the blame lie for this problem. Lets start with the producers in China who supplied this product to the US. I've talked about the food safety system in China and how it is non-existent. They put their own people in jeopardy and, as shown by this episode and others, people across the world. Definitely there is blame to be laid here. Can we as Americans do anything about it? Not directly, but more about that later.

Who's next to blame, the business that imported the product into the US? They imported it because it was cheaper than can be produced in the US and there is a demand for it so they can make money on it. By shopping around for the cheapest product in China, they opened the door for this contamination. There is an old saw, you get what you pay for and by buying the cheapest product, the probability there is a problem with it is greater. Should the company have demanded stricter checking and tracking of items used in the manufacturer in China? Should they have tested the product more thoroughly when they got it? In hindsight we could say yes to both these questions. So the importer shares some of the blame for this problem.

Next in line would have to be the US Government. The USDA and the FDA have not been inspecting imported food at the levels necessary to prevent this. Are they to blame? Truthfully, the blame does not fall on the USDA and the FDA for this. Congress has never tasked these agency, nor given them the funding to do this task, so it has remained undone. Congress needs to shoulder some of the blame for this for not providing sufficient funding for this task and also the president for not asking for the money to inspect the food stuffs that are coming into the US. Would the wheat gluten that caused this whole problem been caught by sufficient inspection? A question I can't answer, the gluten was destined for animal feed and not human consumption so would it have been inspected as close as human food stuff should be? I doubt it, so even with increased inspections this might have slipped through.

Last but not least in the blame game would have to be the American consumer. Their desire for the cheapest food stuff for themselves and their pets led this to happen. This caused the company to import the cheapest items they could which undercut American producers driving them out of business. American companies have to put up with the USDA and FDA watching what they are doing so they can't provide products as cheap as China can. So Wally World and similar places drive businesses to import unsafe or substandard products to feed to the American public and critters all because THAT IS WHAT THE AMERICAN CONSUMER WANTS AND DEMANDS. In my opinion this is where most of the blame lies.

How many of you out there buy the cheapest pet food you can buy for your animals? You say it's good enough and feed them the crap because you delude yourself into thinking its all the same. This shows that it is not. In all the pet food that was recalled in this, how many of the high end, more expensive products were there on the list. Not many I noticed. So there is a difference. Hell, even my barn cats get name brand food instead of the cheap stuff. I can't stand the thought of feeding even my barn cats that cheap crap. I've never been able to prove it till now but I've always known it wasn't as good and acted that way.

The same thing goes for the food you eat, how many of you buy the cheapest stuff available or even worse,Wally World brand stuff? I will tell you a little something My Darling Wife and I discovered about food and the quality of it. We have to be very careful with the quality of food we feed our boy. It has nothing to do with the sugar content or anything else in the food, it has everything to do with the quality of it. The higher priced it is the better. If we feed anything that is a store brand/generic food, he becomes uncontrollable. He literally starts spinning and bouncing off the walls. The cheaper the food item is, the worse he gets. People never believe me when I tell them this but it's the truth. As an example, if you feed him a cake from a store brand cake mix, he will be uncontrollable. If you use a name brand such as Betty Crockers, he will spin up some, but not as bad the no name mix. The best is to use high quality flour, Wheat Montana, and make the cake from scratch. Then it has absolutely no affect on him. This is just one example of many I could name about the foods that affect the boy. The cheaper the food, the more it affects him.

There is a difference in the quality of the food you buy. When you demand the cheapest food you can buy, that is what you get. A cheap, unappealing product. American's desire for the cheapest food has opened the door for the contamination problem we have experienced and that is who I blame mostly for the problems we are experiencing now with the contaminated wheat gluten. Think about this when you are in the grocery store buying your food. Is price or quality your primary concern? For my boy's health and happiness I choose quality. Should you short your family on quality just so you could afford another Starbucks coffee? You need to think about this so your not part of the problem, you can be part of the solution.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. Henry Ford

We all knew it was coming, the Democrats are adding agricultural disaster aid into a "supplemental spending bill." When I first saw this headline it looked like maybe Congress was finally going to get somewhere with Disaster aid for those who need it. It turns out I was wrong.

The Democrats are attaching this disaster aid to legislation that would withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by next year. This is a sure way to get the disaster aid vetoed by the President if they can even get it through Congress. Reports are that the chances of getting this through the House are slim the way it is and the Senate isn't even considering anything remotly the same. Are the Democrats hoping to garner a few votes for their political Iraq agenda in the House by attaching disaster aid to it? I would say yes, that's what they are trying to do and it's wrong.

I was hoping the Democrats would be above such political games as the Republicans used to play. It appears they aren't Would it be so difficult for the Democrats to allow a vote on Disaster aid in a package all by itself that isn't attached to such an emotionally charged issue as a mandatory troop withdrawal from Iraq? Obviously it is for them.

The disaster aid needs to be severed from this bill. Even if the House passes it, it will be vetoed and they don't have enough votes to get a veto overridden. How like politicians, get desperate people's hope up that you are going to help them then play a game to insure that it will be killed so you don't have to do it. That way you can claim you support the desperate people when you really don't. They were just the pawns in a power struggle for the 2008 elections. I hope farmers and ranchers recognize how they are being used here and why. The Congress doesn't want to help them, just use their pain in a game and laugh the whole time. What a mess, thanks to Politicians.

For he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything. Owen Arthur

Rehberg seeks creation of Indian affairs panel

The U.S. Senate has one, and now Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., sees the need for a permanent committee on American Indian affairs, too.

On Thursday, Rehberg asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to consider an amendment to the House Rules package that would create an Indian affairs committee, similar to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

"The creation of such a committee would be a dramatic step forward in improving the livelihood of all Native Americans, and would signal a commitment on the part of Congress to recognize and address issues important to Indian Country," Rehberg said in a letter to Pelosi, D-Calif.

I don't know if another Congressional Committee will be a big help or not for Indians, but it can't hurt. With a second lawsuit opening up over Indian trust issues, Congress, the government and the American people need to sit up and take notice of what is going on. These lawsuits are going to affect everyones pocketbook and maybe more Congressional oversight would help. What might really help is to do away with the trust status of Indian lands and accounts and let the individual tribes and Native Americans handle it themselves and then the problems won't mount up anymore.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. Abraham Lincoln

The Democrats in the House are coming out swinging full guns on this one.

September 12, 2006

The Honorable Dennis Hastert The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker Majority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515

Dear Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Boehner:

We are writing to ask that you schedule time in the U.S. House of Representatives to debate and vote on emergency agricultural disaster assistance for 2005 and 2006 before the House leaves for its announced October recess.

Very limited and in some cases inadequate disaster assistance has been provided to some parts of the country, while other regions continue to be ignored. Farmers and ranchers are still struggling to recover from disastrous floods, droughts and other natural disasters in 2005, only to face another bad year in 2006, so the time to act is now.

Democrats have sought to provide disaster relief several times in the House. Last fall, Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee proposed emergency disaster assistance measures that were defeated by party-line votes. Democrats have offered similar proposals in the Appropriations Committee that were also defeated by House Republicans last fall and early this year. The Senate included agriculture disaster assistance in both of their emergency supplemental bills. Unfortunately, earlier this year, under pressure from President Bush's veto threat, House Republicans failed to stand up for disaster assistance in the conference committee, once again abandoning the pressing needs of our rural communities. Now, the Senate has included disaster assistance in its agriculture appropriations bill. However, since it is not likely that this bill will be completed before Congress recesses, this is another lost opportunity to provide this needed relief.

A coalition of more than 30 farm and allied organizations, including the National Farmers Union, American Farm Bureau Federation, Independent Community Bankers of America, Farm Credit Council and others have recognized the critical need for disaster assistance and are urging Congress to act quickly and decisively to provide comprehensive relief before the October recess.

Floods, droughts and other natural disasters have a profound negative economic impact on our small rural communities, impacting the banks, equipment dealers, grocery stores, and other businesses as well as our nation's farmers and ranchers.

The House Democratic Caucus recognizes the pressing, urgent need to provide this assistance in our rural communities, and we ask that you schedule time this month to debate and vote on a comprehensive agriculture disaster package.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader

Steny Hoyer
Democratic Whip

James E. Clyburn
Chairman
Democratic Caucus

John Larson
Vice Chairman
Democratic Caucus

Collin Peterson
Ranking Member
House Agriculture Committee

Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee

Bob Etheridge
Co-Chair
Democratic Rural Working Group

Stephanie Herseth
Co-Chair
Democratic Rural Working Group

It looks like the Democrats are coming out swinging on this issue. What do you want to bet they are trying to buy off farmers and ranchers for a few more votes to get a few more seats in Congress? No takers huh. This is a bribe pure and simple. The question is will it work and will the Republicans respond in kind. If they do there is a good chance disaster relief will happen. Interesting times. We will wait and see.

In most economic situations outcome and the payoff depend on each participant's own strategy and the strategy of other participants. John Harsanyi

Now here is an idea I can get behind.

AGRICULTURE COALITION URGES ACTION ON INTERSTATE MEAT SHIPMENT BILL

A broad-based coalition of agricultural and farm organizations is urging Congress to take prompt action on legislation introduced June 15 that would allow interstate sales of state-inspected meat and poultry products. S. 3519, the Agricultural Small Business Opportunity and Enhancement Act of 2006, was introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Herb Kohl (D-WI).

Agriculture coalition members said the legislation will resolve a basic inequity which has existed since 1967. Removing the current ban on interstate sales will level the economic playing field for small business, spur more competition in the marketplace, create a more uniform inspection system and further enhance food safety and consumer confidence in the food supply. The coalition is also launching a national grassroots campaign to support passage of the bill.

I've never been a big fan of trying to market meat myself because it requires federal inspection to cross state lines and that would be a royal pain in the ass. This would solve that problem. Ranchers could group together and open a slaughter plant to sell meat under their own label and not have to worry about the Federal inspections. The meat would still be inspected by the state inspectors it would just remove a layer of unneeded bureaucracy.

I really like this idea and support it. Now to e-mail my Congress Critters and prospective Congress Critters so they can ignore me once again. Isn't our system wonderful.

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: (1) It's completely impossible. (2) It's possible, but it's not worth doing. (3) I said it was a good idea all along. Arthur C. Clarke

USDA stands for United States Department of Agriculture. I repeat United States. Check this out.

USDA’s Inconsistent BSE Policies Continue to Cost U.S. Cattle Industry Billions

Following the December 2003 discovery in Washington state of an imported Canadian cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more than 50 countries closed their markets to U.S. beef. Now, almost three years later, these markets still remain largely closed, and Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) still refuse to correct the problems that contributed to the loss of these significant export markets.

“Making headlines this week is USDA’s reported actions of further delaying exports to South Korea at a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day because USDA wants to try to force that country to accept beef from Canadian cattle,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “That's wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is that it puts the interests of a few meatpackers that want to slaughter Canadian cattle over the entire remainder of the U.S. cattle and beef industry.

“South Korea has made it clear it will not accept beef from Canadian cattle,” Bullard continued. “USDA’s decision not to move forward with the agreement shows that the packers have too much influence over USDA, and these obstructionist practices are hurting U.S. cattle producers.”

South Korea doesn't want beef from Canadian cattle. The USDA says to hell with the US producers, they want to protect the Canadian producers and the meat packers. This is just totally unbelievable. DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND THE US IN USDA MEANS UNITED STATES.

I am so at a loss as to why Johanns is doing this. The only reason I can see is that he is in the pay of the meat packers. It's the only thing that makes sense. Why else would he undercut American producers this way. I've always said the USDA is just a arm of the big meat packers and this just proves it yet again. When is Congress or somebody going to step in and investigate the USDA and how it undercuts American beef producers time and time again in favor of the meat packers.

What really gets me is nobody cares. Screw the American cattlemen, we don't care seems to be the philosophy. I have tried time and time again to get answers to questions about things like this from Burns, Baucus, Rheberg, and Tester and they all just ignore me. They won't respond to any of my questions about Agricultural policy. They obviously don't care about the agricultural segment of the state and feel they can ignore us.

I'm serious here, what's a dumb cowboy supposed to do to get these people's attention? I'm open to suggestions. I write, call, e-mail and they are all ignored time and time again. What do I do wrong when asking the questions? The only thing I can figure is they require too much thought and caring about the public and they can't give a glib answer in response. That must be it, I always ask for specifics, not generalities when they answer my question.

I'm tired of this shit, that's all I know.

I am tired. My arm aches. My head boils. My feet are cold. But I am not aware of any weakness. Zane Grey

Time magazine names Burns one of the worst senators

Time magazine has named Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., one of the five worst Senate members, criticizing him for his ties to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and calling his legislative record "meager."

Everybody is acting like this is a big surprise. I'm not surprised at this. I could see this after his first term in office so what's the big deal? I do have a question about the timing of the article though. Is this meant as an attack against him from the magazine during his campaign or is it happenstance that he is in an election cycle when this comes out? It would be interesting to know.

I also note Burns thinks if he raises and spends enough money the people of Montana will forget his transgressions, taking a bribe, and elect him to another term. Can the people of Montana be bought like Burns himself was bought by Abramoff? Only time will tell.

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Tax preparers make many mistakes: study

Professional tax preparers make significant errors on returns and often charge the taxpayer more than the client had been told to expect, according to a government study released on Tuesday.

The study by the Government Accountability Office was a very limited one, involving 19 outlets of commercial chain tax preparers in one major metropolitan area. But lawmakers said it was a red flag about the tax return industry.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said "bad practices" appear to be "pervasive and systemic in the industry."

GAO investigators presented the tax preparers with fictional, but plausible and not overly elaborate, tax scenarios. Most of the returns ended up wrong -- sometimes inflating the refund for the taxpayer by as much as $2,000 and sometimes costing the taxpayer up to $1,500 in overpayment.

My question is "who's to blame for these problems in the tax industry?" The tax preparers for not do a good enough job preparing taxes or Congress for making the tax law so complicated that nobody can follow it and you are almost guaranteed to make a mistake? I think they should both, Congress and tax prepares, shoulder the blame for these problems in their "industry." Yes, taxes are Congresses industry and they need to suck it up and take their share of the blame.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw

Lawmakers get out of the House

The House of Representatives is on track this year to be in session for fewer days than the Congress Harry Truman labeled as �do-nothing� during his 1948 re-election campaign.

Members of Congress are taking an entire week off for St. Patrick's Day. It's the latest scheduling innovation to give members more time to meet with constituents.

Through Friday, the House was in session for 19 days, compared with 33 for the Senate. If they stick to their current schedule � including two weeks off in April, a week in May and July, plus all of August � House members will spend 97 days in Washington this year.

So, tell me, is this good or bad. If they are not in Washington passing laws it might be good, but that means we are paying them for visiting us at home and bothering us with their campaign stuff.

At a distance passing laws to interfere with our lives or nearby to pollute our air with a constant stream of male bovine excrement (bullshit). Pretty tough call to make. Since I raise cattle I can handle the male bovine excrement more readily so I will call it a good thing.

Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull. Samuel Johnson

Government's idea of 'tracking' animals

Reaction to the National Animal Identification System is shining a light on a growing problem that independent producers believe is threatening the entire livestock industry. Vertical marketing practices in the meat processing industry, combined with the industry's access to and influence on the Department of Agriculture and Congress, has the small producer against the ropes. The NAIS may be the final blow that puts independent ranchers and small farmers down for the count.

There is nothing particularly new here about National Animal Identification System (NAIS), just the same information hopefully reaching more and more people to help fight this plan. Just more information how NAIS is driven by the meat packers to further consolidate the market, and how they are using their money to influence the USDA and Congress to do their bidding.

There is strong belief among producers that the NAIS has little to do with food safety and much more to do with providing data for agribusiness. One farmer says "... agribusiness giants will then have access to all of the information on the [NAIS] database. They will have knowledge about all sources and supplies of commodity animals. They will use such information to improve their ongoing practice of captive supply and market price manipulation."

He is convinced that "The USDA has become the conscript of agribusiness. All key positions at the USDA are now held by former agribusiness people or their minions."

Funny, I've been saying the same thing all along. The Meat packers have bought and payed for the USDA and expect it to do their bidding to the detriment of the farmers, ranchers, and consumers of the USA. Either somebody is listening to me, I'm listening to someone else, or thew facts are so obvious that everybody in the industry knows this to be true. I personally think it's the last on, it's painfully obvious what's going on, getting things changed is the next problem to solve.

Since the problem of the big Agribusiness companies taking control of the USDA first surfaced in 1993 with Mike Espy this isn't a problem that can only be laid at the feet of King George Bush. Bill Clinton was also involved in letting the big meat packers have their way in the USDA and hurting all of us. The solution is going to take an awful big broom at the USDA, along with the political will to use it, to clean out all the influence the Agribusiness companies have and to turn the agency around to helping America's agriculture, not just helping the meat packers to the detriment of us all.

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict. Saul Alinsky

Funny, the above quote comes from a book "The Purpose," Rules for Radicals. So I guess I'm a "radical agitator" now. Scary thought.

Cross posted to No Mandatory Animal ID