PETA pushes for tribute to honor cows killed at stockyards

An animal rights group wants a memorial to slaughtered cows erected at the site of South St. Paul’s stockyards.

In a Monday letter to Greg Miller, president of the company that is developing 27 acres of land vacated by Central Livestock last month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urges that he “recognize this site’s historical significance and honor the millions of cows auctioned off for slaughter.”

This is one place where I’m happy to jump in with the Darwinians…we evolved further therefore we get to make the rules, we win.  

The following charts so the price activity for the three largest US grain products.

In the face of these commodities having increases of at least 60% in the last year, Congress is looking to dramatically increase farm subsidies.

Congress is debating a farm subsidy bill  that would be $300 billion dollars over the next 5 years.   For those of you keeping score, that amounts to $2,678 for every American family.   In Barack Obama’s world, this amounts to nothing as it’s only $45 per month per family (He thinks $30 savings each month from the elimination of the gas tax is “nothing”).

While the Democrats and sympathetic Repulicans cry that these subsidies are for “the family farm,”  Citizens Against Government Waste did the legwork for the 2007 farm bill and not only dispelled that myth but give other  the reasons why a continuation of farm subsidies is wrong for America. Here are a few of their findings:

• The largest 10 percent of grain farmers, with an average net worth of $2.4 million, receive 50 percent of all grain subsidies.
• First, 60 percent of farmers don’t even produce crops that are eligible for subsidies. More than 90 percent of farmers either receive no subsidies or receive less than $2,000 annually.
• 80% of farms GROSS $50,000 or less making it unlikely that they are farming as sole source of income.

• 60 percent of sugar program benefits go to the wealthiest one percent of sugar farmers.

If at a time when many agricultural products are at record prices we need to not only continue but increase subsidies, is there ever a time when we don’t need them?  

It’s time for Republicans to show some backbone and tell Americans why this is bad for the country, bad policy and that they won’t vote for it.  

Here’s a video of Stephen King, who I used to think had a pretty good brain, slandering our military personnel:

Sounds very familiar to another “Elite” John Kerry who in 2006 said that if you don’t get a good education “you get stuck in Iraq.”

From now on, those of us that can read can buy books from author’s whose name isn’t Stephen King.

Despite a whole heap of reminders, I almost forgot that today is an election. NBC is running a contest for America’s Favorite Mom, and today is the vote for the finalist from the Military Mom bracket.

I wholeheartedly endorse Patti Patton-Bader, the head angel of Soldiers’ Angels.

Did I mention that NBC is letting you stuff the ballot box up to 10 times, or that voting ends at 8 pm? So, what are you still doing here? GO VOTE PATTI PATTON-BADER FOR AMERICA’S FAVORITE MILITARY MOM.

Cue them here as usual, but in case you haven’t noticed, Barack Obama has gone back to the fainting routine. Sister Toldjah, in part one of her taking two for the team, caught it. Do also read the full recap of the Obama rally, and head back there tomorrow for the recap of the Clinton rally.

If I had more energy, I’d really deliver the snark at the Journal Sentinel for making their whine fest over food-service cuts in jails the lead item in Friday’s paper. Once again, the Fifth Column at Fourth and State prove their lack of touch with reality.

“There’s no difference between Hillary and Obama!”
“McCain’s no conservative, he’s Democrat Lite!”
“Bush sold himself as a Conservative but has turned out to be just another RINO”

In the most thorough review of the topic that I’ve seen, Keith Poole and associates at the University of California, San Diego have compiled a review of all member of Congress, House and Senate, and analyzed who’s who in the political zoo.

In this first graph we see the confirmation and correction, to several of our “Truths.”

1. Hillary and Barack are “Change you can Xerox.” Contrary to what Hillary’s campaign is trying to tell people, this study shows that Hillary’s record is to the left of the Democratic party and is imperceptibly different from Obama.
2. McCain is clearly from the left side of the Republican Party. As I posted in my first post on this site, McCain touts his lifetime Conservative voting record. However, if you look over the past few years, and especially the most recent, McCain’s voting record has moved to the left. The study has a great animated graph that shows how McCain’s voting record began squarely in the middle of Republicans but over time has become an outsider of the Republican members.
3. Contrary to the feeling of many Conservatives, Bush lines up to the right. The question that this raises for me is “To the right of what?”

Side note for MN and WI readers, Wellstone and Feingold were nearly identical and (dramatic pause for the launch of a surprise statement) they are WAAAAAY to the left of the spectrum.

(more…)

John McCain opened his mouth and inserted his foot, sideways, trying to tie his favorite cause, wasteful spending, to the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis.   On Wednesday, McCain said:

“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”

He tried to clarify that statement on Thursday by saying:

“No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved.”

Somebody wake McCain up and tell him that the bridge was scheduled to be replaced in 2020, not because there was a lack of funding but because that was believed to be the useful life of the bridge.   While surveys of the bridge identified “deficiencies,” the bridge was never identified as unable to carry its designed traffic load.   The current evidence is suggesting that the bridge collapsed due to a design flaw that  had gusset plates undersized by a factor of half.

I agree with McCain’s desire to shrink government and end wasteful spending.   However, just because you have a hammer, not every problem is a nail.  

As I said, stupidity is party agnostic.   Regarding his opposition to the federal gas tax holiday, Barack Obama said:

“Remember that bridge in Minneapolis?   We’re already short on money in terms of investing.”

Same response to Barack with this addition…Barack, since when have you been concerned about spending money?   You seem to have money for anything you can possibly imagine.   The last look at the ol’ “Spend-o-meter” is that you’ve committed to spending an additional $850B. You don’t think you could find a mere $350M to send our way?

Attention. Attention bloggers. Attention Wisconsin bloggers. With the successful launch of the Blog n Grog, there are now two opportunities to drink with your favorite bloggers (and most of the time, me) each month:

– Drinking Right – The second Tuesday of each month (this month, it’s the 13th), 7 pm, Papa’s Social Club, 7718 W Burleigh in Milwaukee
– Blog n Grog – The last Tuesday of each month (this month, it’s the 27th), 7 pm, Neighbors Social Club, 260 W Main in Waukesha

Because I’ll be out of town the country the last week of May, I’ll unfortunately miss the Blog n Grog. Don’t let that stop you from attending one or both of these events, though.

A coal based electric plant was approved yesterday  for Marshalltown IA.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that in order to satisfy their rabid global warming sycophants, the board required the power company to also increase their wind generation power 250% by the plant’s opening, use 10% biomass within 7 years of opening and pay for any costs that may be added through implementation of nonsense cap and trade regulations.

I’m guessing each of the commission members drove to the meeting. I’ll bet each of them paid close to $3.50/gallon for their gas when they last filled. I’ll be each of them have complained in the last couple of weeks about the increase in gas prices. Even with all of that knowledge, one of the commission mental midgets was thinking:

Darrell Hanson of Manchester, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said he favored setting aside the plant proposal for three or four years to see what carbon limits Congress passes and to analyze other market forces. "The safest and most reasonable course would be to delay for three or four years.

Yup, let’s wait.   Gee, that’s working so well for gas prices.   Gee, if we could magically say it was OK to start drilling or refining additional oil today, it would be 3-8 years before that effort would have any impact on gas availability.   Yeah, let’s not make a decision today.   It’s too hard and there are people sitting in the room who might not like me.

Chickenshit!

It’s people like this Commissioner who bitch about “Big oil’s profits” but won’t do a thing to change the equation.   They sit and hide, afraid of the Sierra club and militant “ecological” groups whose real purpose is to make sure that man curls up in a fetal position in some corner of the globe and leaves the animals to rule creation.

If the increase in energy prices of the last year don’t wake people up to the fact that we need to increase capacity and that the cost of dawdling is nearly crippling, I don’t know what will.   I do know it’s time for some folks to “grow a pair” because anything short of “ABSOLUTELY NOT” is going to be met by wails from the “ecological” groups.   Even with the ridiculous additional requirements put on this project the “ecology” groups weren’t satisfied:

Carrie La Seur, a lawyer for Plains Justice, which opposes the plant, said it is "most likely" the group will eventually sue to block construction of the plant. First, the group will join the Sierra Club, the Iowa Environmental Council and the Iowa Consumer Advocate’s office in fighting an air permit with the state and opposing the plant during before the utilities board this fall.

In the words of Thomas Paine it’s time to “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” Doing nothing is no longer acceptable. Doing nothing or cowering in the corner sniveling about “Global Warming” will only ensure that we leave a country for our children that is unable to meet the demands of the future; and we’d be the first generation in America to do that. That’s not a history book footnote that I’m interested in being a part of.