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FBI chases anti-GMO activists while ignoring Monsanto’s transgressions

by Margurite Axley Posted on June 24, 2013

FBI chases anti-GMO activists while ignoring Monsanto’s transgressions

By John Upton

Hot on the trail of the bad guys — depending on your definition of “bad.”

Some experimental GMO crops were torn out of a field in Oregon this month. That means it’s time for the federal government to freak the fuck out and do its best to clamp down again on eco-activism.

The sugar beet plants, which were genetically engineered by Syngenta to survive applications of the herbicide Roundup, were uprooted in the middle of the night from a couple of fields, presumably by anti-GMO activists. The destruction of the experimental crops occurred in the same state where a strain of Monsanto’s illegal herbicide-resistant wheat recently showed up in a farmer’s field, threatening America’s multibillion-dollar wheat export market.

Guess which crime the FBI is desperate to crack?

That’s right: The sugar beet one. The agency announced that it “considers this crime to be economic sabotage and a violation of federal law involving damage to commercial agricultural enterprises.” According to the FBI, a $10,000 reward is being offered for clues by Oregonians for Food and Shelter, a corporate forestry and agriculture group that lobbies for pro-GMO and pro-pesticide legislation.

The Oregonian reports that 1,000 genetically engineered sugar beet plants were uprooted from land leased by Syngenta on June 8:

Three nights later, the destruction continued on another property, where another 5,500 plants were ruined.

“It doesn’t look like a vehicle was used. It looks like people entered the field and destroyed the plants by hand,” said Paul Minehart, head of corporate communications in North America for Syngenta, a global agriculture corporation based in Basel, Switzerland.

Estimates for the damage were not specified but the financial losses are significant, according to FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele.

Meanwhile, Monsanto is continuing to push its claim that its genetically engineered wheat turned up on an Oregon farm because of an act of sabotage. That claim is drawing skepticism from the expert whose tests first confirmed that the rogue wheat was developed by Monsanto. From a report in The Guardian:

While Monsanto’s chief technology officer suggested eco-activists were to blame, [Oregon State University weed sciences professor Carol] Mallory-Smith said deliberate contamination was the least likely scenario:

“The sabotage conspiracy theory is even harder for me to explain or think as logical because it would mean that someone had that seed and was holding that seed for 10 or 12 years and happened to put it on the right field to have it found, and identified. I don’t think that makes a lot of sense.”

We may learn more about the cause of the GMO wheat contamination after the U.S. Department of Agriculture completes an investigation.

But let’s get back to the sugar beets case. If you happen to know who uprooted those plants, The Oregonian has a request for you:

Ring the local offices of the FBI at (541) 773-2942 during normal business hours or call the FBI in Portland anytime at (503) 224-4181

Tips may also be emailed to portland@ic.fbi.gov.

Yeah, right.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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FBI chases anti-GMO activists while ignoring Monsanto’s transgressions

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EPA delays fracking safety study until 2016

by Georgeysm Posted on June 24, 2013

EPA delays fracking safety study until 2016

By John Upton

iQoncept

We told you last week that the EPA is abandoning an investigation that linked fracking chemicals with groundwater contamination in Wyoming. Amid controversy over that move, news about EPA delaying another fracking study got overlooked by most media.

In 2010, Congress ordered the EPA to look into the dangers posed to drinking water sources by hydraulic fracturing. That research was expected to be completed in 2014. But last Tuesday, an EPA official told attendees of a shale-gas conference in Cleveland, Ohio, that it wouldn’t be done until 2016.

The Akron Beacon Journal was one of the few outlets to cover the news:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is analyzing the threat that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, poses to drinking water, but that study won’t be completed until 2016.

That assessment came Tuesday from Jeanne Briskin, coordinator of hydraulic fracturing research at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. …

Briskin said the EPA probably would complete and release a preliminary report in late 2014. It is “complex research,” she said. …

Briskin outlined what her agency has done so far and the work that still must be completed. It is sampling water in two drilling counties in Pennsylvania plus in Colorado, North Dakota and Texas.

Nine energy companies and nine drilling-supply companies have cooperated with the EPA research, and 1,000 chemicals have been identified as being used in the fracking process, Briskin said.

The news follows an April announcement made by the EPA in the Federal Register that it was giving the public an extra six and a half months to submit information that could inform the agency’s study.

It’s nice that EPA is trying to be thorough with its research and is giving citizens more of a chance to contribute to the process. But considering how quickly fracking is spreading around the country, three more years is a long time to wait.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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EPA delays fracking safety study until 2016

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Kerry implores India to tackle climate change, ticks off Indian enviros

by kx93z6g Posted on June 24, 2013

Kerry implores India to tackle climate change, ticks off Indian enviros

By John Upton

U.S. Embassy New Delhi

IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, an Indian, welcomes John Kerry. That’s America’s ambassador to India, Nancy Powell, in the background.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in India over the weekend and gave a speech urging the fast-developing country to work closely with the U.S. and other countries on solutions to climate change.

Kerry is leading a delegation to Delhi for U.S.-India talks focused on trade and energy; Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is part of the visiting group. The stop in Delhi is one leg of a trip Kerry is making throughout the region.

The Americans’ arrival in Delhi coincided with deadly floods in northern India that some Indian officials have linked to global warming. But though climate change poses urgent dangers in India, Kerry’s speech was not received warmly by all of the nation’s environmentalists. Some felt they were being lectured to by the secretary of state, a representative of a nation that is second only to China in total greenhouse gas emissions.

Kerry has long warned of the dangers of climate change, and it’s been one of his favorite topics to discuss abroad since he was sworn in as Obama’s top diplomat. “Everywhere I travel as secretary of state — in every meeting, here at home and across the more than 100,000 miles I’ve traveled since I raised my hand and took the oath to serve in this office — I raise the concern of climate change,” he wrote just last week in an opinion piece in Grist.

Kerry’s speech in India was part of a broader push by the Obama administration on climate change. The U.S. recently struck a deal with China to cooperate on reducing heat-trapping HFC emissions, and the president is preparing to make a big climate announcement on Tuesday.

The New York Times reports on Kerry’s speech:

“I do understand and fully sympathize with the notion that India’s paramount commitment to development and eradicating poverty [by increasing electricity supplies] is essential,” Mr. Kerry said in a speech at the start of a two-day visit. “But we have to recognize that a collective failure to meet our collective climate challenge would inhibit all countries’ dreams of growth and development.”

In an effort to prod the Indians to act, Mr. Kerry warned that climate change could cause India to endure excessive heat waves, prolonged droughts, intense flooding and shortages of food and water.

“The worst consequences of the climate crisis will confront people who are the least able to be able to cope with them,” he said. …

Mr. Kerry also pleaded with India to commit to working constructively on a global treaty to be negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

From Reuters:

Emerging economies like India have resisted pressure in global climate talks to commit to targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a dispute with rich nations over whose industries should bear the brunt of the cuts.

The 1.2 billion people who live in India use far less electricity than do Americans, but the nation’s growing economy and its dependance upon coal pose major global warming threats.

Chandra Bhushan, a senior official at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, was unimpressed by Kerry’s speech, as he explained in an opinion piece in Down to Earth, a leading Indian environmental magazine published by his nonprofit:

I have no problems with [Kerry’s] pitch for countries coming together to develop renewable energy. But I have issues with the fact that nowhere in his speech did he mention what the US is doing on renewable energy or what is the renewable energy target that the US has set for itself for, say 2020. The fact is that today close to 20 per cent of India’s electricity supply is from renewable sources (including hydropower). India has set itself a target for renewable energy; the US has not.

The US today is going the fossil fuel route. It is moving to shale gas big time. Kerry should know that this shale gas mania would destroy the renewable future of the world that he so fervently preached yesterday.

I found his speech hypocritical. He talked about how India should reduce its emissions from residential sector but gave the massive energy consumption in residential and commercial sectors in the US a convenient miss. The US is the largest consumer of HFCs in the world, but Kerry did not throw light on what the US is doing to phase out the highly potent greenhouse gas, and how quickly. While I agree that India should also phase out HFCs, … it should not be through a deal that only benefits American multinational companies.

Though Kerry’s comments might not have pleased everybody, they were delivered in a country that is being hit especially hard by global warming — and that needs to do more to tackle and adapt to it.

Climate change is causing India’s once-predictable monsoon to become erratic. It is pushing up temperatures in a region already known for its scorching summers. And it is melting glaciers that are relied upon by hundreds of millions of people for year-round water supplies.

Last year, the subcontinent’s annual summer monsoon arrived months late, parching farms and causing widespread blackouts by reducing hydroelectric supplies.

This year, the monsoon appears to have arrived early, and when it reached the country’s north, it collided with low-pressure troughs that had pushed unusually far south. That collision of weather systems triggered remarkable deluges. Resultant floods have killed at least 5,000 people in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. They also inundated Delhi’s international airport and pushed levels in the Yamuna River in the capital to their highest points since 1978.

Some Indian officials are saying climate change could be to blame for the flooding. There’s a paucity of scientific research into the possible effects of climate change on the nation, but some studies are underway. “We’re trying to assess the impacts of climate change on the regional climate and on the monsoons,” Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology monsoon researcher Raghavan Krishnan told Grist. “We’re trying to look at extreme precipitation.”

While the research continues, it may be a good idea for India to take stock of the global warming impacts that are already understood and at least follow America’s lead by starting to break its nasty coal addiction.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Kerry implores India to tackle climate change, ticks off Indian enviros

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How climate deniers are like ignorant patrons of ’80s gay bars

by LynetteF1 Posted on June 24, 2013

How climate deniers are like ignorant patrons of ’80s gay bars

By Lisa Hymas

Ryan Cannon

Writer and gay-rights activist Dan Savage has a provocative piece in the Seattle alt weekly The Stranger, comparing today’s climate deniers to gay men in the early ’80s who refused to face up to the reality of AIDS.

He starts out discussing a recent This American Life segment on ranchers in Colorado who won’t acknowledge that climate change is happening, even as it’s ravaging their land and livelihoods.

Listening to the ranchers in [reporter Julia Kumari] Drapkin’s report—hearing the anger, denial, and fear in their voices—took me back 30 years. They sounded like another group of people whose world was on fire and who also couldn’t bring themselves to face reality. They sounded like people I used to know. They sounded like those faggots who stood around in gay bars in 1983 insisting that AIDS couldn’t be a sexually transmitted infection. Even as their friends lay dying, even as more of their friends and lovers became sick, they couldn’t accept that sex had anything to do with this terrifying new illness.

So what was AIDS if it wasn’t a sexually transmitted infection? It was a conservative conspiracy, they said. Or the science was wrong. Or rigged. Or inconclusive. The medical establishment was homophobic and couldn’t be trusted. The federal bureaucracy was dominated by religious conservatives and couldn’t be trusted. Messengers were shot. Larry Kramer, the founder of ACT UP, was called a fearmonger and a drama queen. Randy Shilts, a gay journalist who called for the closure of San Francisco’s bathhouses, was spit on in the Castro. The first grassroots AIDS activists who tried to pass out condoms were chased out of bars.

Stupid, stupid faggots. Insisting that it wasn’t true—insisting that AIDS couldn’t be sexually transmitted, or insisting that AIDS wasn’t that serious because “only” 1,500 gay men were sick in the summer of 1983—didn’t prevent a pandemic. It was true. It was deadly serious. We would have to live very differently if we wanted to survive in this world. We would have to fight back. We would have to transform ourselves sexually, socially, and politically. And we did that, all of that, but precious time was wasted before gay men began to make the changes that had to be made, and countless lives were lost as a result of the denial and delay that paralyzed us in 1983. …

[T]he conservatives, the poor conservatives, they’re like those faggots in gay bars in 1983. They’re standing around, drinks in hand, insisting that the conflagration currently engulfing them—the conflagration that is engulfing us all—isn’t happening. That it can’t be happening. But just as denial and anger and shooting messengers didn’t save those gay men in Chicago’s bars in 1983, denial and anger won’t save Colorado’s ranchers in 2013. Nature is exacting an awful retribution.

The only question is how much time will be wasted and how many lives will be lost as a result of denial and delay this time.

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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An Update on America’s Antique Credit Card Industry

by Traci B. Jackson Posted on June 13, 2013

Mother Jones

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Matt Yglesias is traveling in Europe right now, so naturally he’s complaining about America’s continued reliance on absurdly outdated magnetic stripe technology for its credit cards. Chip-and-PIN smart cards are used almost everywhere in Europe, which means that old style American cards often won’t work—sometimes because automated kiosks won’t accept them and sometimes because befuddled clerks have never seen one before and don’t know what to do about them. As you may recall, I whined about this last year before my family trip to Denmark and Italy.

Anyway, this got me curious: how are things going on the chip-and-PIN front? So I did a bit of googling and at first the news seemed good: a growing number of American card companies offer smart cards, some with no/low annual fees and no foreign transaction fees. Hooray! But as I continued looking into this, it turned out that virtually none of them were truly chip-and-PIN cards. American banks have instead decided to invent a whole new technology called chip-and-signature. WTF? Is this actually any more likely to work in Europe than an old school mag stripe card?

Most of the articles I read were frustratingly vague on this point, but this one from John Kiernan seems pretty authoritative and boils down to: no. Contrary to the happy talk from U.S. card flacks, “practical experience and consumer feedback indicate that you can still use magnetic stripe credit cards pretty much anywhere that will accept a chip-and-signature card. And the few places where magstripe cards don’t work (i.e. certain unattended kiosks), chip-and-signature cards don’t tend to work either.”

OK then. It’s basically a marketing scam. But we’re still left with a question: why don’t U.S. banks just offer real chip-and-PIN cards? They aren’t expensive, and the technology is well understood since every bank in Europe does it. What’s more, chip-and-PIN cards all have mag stripes on the back, so they’ll work fine in U.S. machines too. What’s the deal?

According to Kiernan, banks just don’t feel like it because they don’t have any incentive to do it at the moment. Plus this:

In addition, there are certain transitional, regulatory and logistical issues for banks that explain why they have not simply adopted chip-and-PIN credit cards.

Well, now he’s just playing mind games with me. What regulatory and logistical issues? Tell me, tell me, tell me!

In any case, the bottom line seems to be that things are now worse than ever. If you sign up for a “smart card” from a U.S. bank, you’ll feel more secure before you travel to Europe, but in fact you’ll be every bit as vulnerable as you were before. It’s the kind of unconscionable bamboozlement I’ve come to expect from the American banking industry. My advice for European travelers: hope for the best, but always carry a fair amount of cash with you just in case.

And what if you want a real chip-and-PIN card? Well, apparently the State Department Federal Credit Union, which anyone can join through its partnership with the American Consumer Council, offers one. So there’s that. And USAA has a genuine chip-and-PIN card for its members. Aside from that, your only real option is to wait until 2015, when chip-and-PIN is allegedly going to get rolled out in the United States. Yeesh.

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An Update on America’s Antique Credit Card Industry

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The Benefits Of Buying Organic Clothing

by David Green Posted on June 11, 2013

Even with our knowing of the negative impact that unsustainable habits can have the environment, the decision to commit to environmentally friendly practices is occasionally difficult to do. Although, a growing number of individuals and businesses are trying hard to go green. For instance, wind energy is becoming more widespread. Additionally, there are a lot of little things that the rest of the people can implement to help out the environment. One of those things is to wear organic clothing.

Maybe you are familiar with the concept of organically grown food, but you might well not be so familiar with organic clothing. What is organic clothing? If we refer to organic products, we mean any that don’t add chemical pesticides to the water and soil. This helps support biodiversity within the ecosystem.

Cotton grown the old way is the most extensively used clothing material, and regrettably it’s also the one crop with the biggest environmental footprint. Are you aware that twenty-five percent of pesticides are used on cotton crops?

Organic cotton, on the other hand, is harvested without any chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Instead, the cotton is grown through natural means. Other organic materials such as hemp and bamboo are also eco friendly raw materials for organic clothing.

One large plus of organic clothing should be the fact that it is more gentle to your skin. Due to the fact that the clothing fibers are lacking any traces of harmful chemicals, they won’t lead to skin allergies. In addition, clothing made from bamboo is naturally antibacterial.

Any time we choose organic clothing, we reduce the number of chemicals slipping into the environment. Conventional farming causes great amounts of harmful chemicals to get into the land and spread out to the watershed. That is a growing source of health issues in these times. But if we opt for organic clothes, we are supporting the efforts of organic agriculture which don’t harm the ecosystem.

A number of organic clothing fabrics such as hemp and bamboo are very durable. They still look great after many washings and last longer than non-organic fabrics.

Whenever we select to wear environmentally responsible apparel, we are making a positive impact on the lives of all the people who grow clothing fiber crops. Their communities and homes are safe from an exposure to a toxic influx of chemicals that originates from large scale agricultural methods.

If you think about all of these benefits, we should not be surprised that a larger number of clothing manufacturers are switching over to making organic clothes.

Are you interested to read more about organic clothing, including which fashions are current? Go ahead and click on the link to learn more.

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Why is the Best Eco Yoga Apparel Made From Bamboo?

by Michael Rinchen Posted on May 25, 2013

Everyone should make it a goal to decide to buy all natural clothing products which are produced in tune with the earth. Bamboo fabric is the perfect choice for sustainable yoga clothing for a number of reasons.

Clothing made from bamboo is incredibly soft. Lots of consumers compare it even to cashmere or silk. The reason for this is because bamboo fibers naturally have a rounded surface. Which makes bamboo clothing very soft to the touch, even for those with allergies and sensitive skin.

Bamboo clothing is extremely liquid absorbing. This indicates that when you are perspiring bamboo fabric will wick away the excess moisture from the surface of your skin. You should feel more comfortable and dry while wearing bamboo activewear for yoga or any other physical activities.

Bamboo material is filled with little spaces which allow the fabric to breathe. You can expect to feel more cool if wearing bamboo clothes in the warmer months. While in the colder months, bamboo clothing can provide an excellent insulating layer which keeps you nice and warm. Bamboo clothing is also observed to block out around 98 percent of ultraviolet rays, so this fabric helps save your skin from cancer.

The wonderful bamboo plant possesses a natural antimicrobial bio-agent called bamboo kun. The anti-microbial abilities of the bamboo kun are still at work in bamboo textiles. You can notice that bamboo clothes, bath towels, and sheets inhibit the growth of fungus and bacteria. Your bamboo activewear will smell cleaner for a longer time than apparel made of other fabrics. This makes eco yoga wear from bamboo such a great choice. Lots of consumers choose to buy bamboo underwear and bath towels for this same reason.

Bamboo is known as one of the quickest growing plants of all, but did you know also that it is actually a type of giant grass, and not a species of tree? This means all of the various bamboo stalks are united by a network of roots below the ground. Only the canes that have matured for three or four years are cut down, while the newer culms are left for another year. This way bamboo can continually be collected in a sustainable manner in the same location every year. Furthermore, bamboo has its own natural defense against pests. So this plant can be grown easily in an organic process without the use of poisonous pesticides that damage the environment.

Bamboo also gives much back to the air and soil as it grows up. A single acre of bamboo plantation converts a greater amount of carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen than an equivalent forest of hardwood trees. The intertwined root system of a bamboo stand helps hold moisture within the soil and stop erosion. A bamboo stand can be cultivated on sloping terrain where other crops are not grown easily. The bamboo harvested for making fabric only needs rainwater for its water needs. By comparison, the cotton plant is one of the most water intensive crops in the world. It takes many tons of irrigated water just to grow one pound of cotton fabric.

Well now you know, bamboo is an incredible natural treasure with an impressive amount of benefits as a material for fabric. Those who care about the environment will feel great about sporting clothes made from bamboo. It is ideal for anybody practicing yoga, jogging, or any other kind of athletic activity. Bamboo clothing wicks away moisture, so you are going to feel more comfortable. While at the same time, bamboo material reduces bacteria growth. So your yoga wear will smell more fresh. Lastly, bamboo clothing is so comfortable and good looking that you will not want to wear anything different.

To learn more about organic yoga clothes and eco conscious yoga clothes, click on the link here.

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Ooh La La: Sarkozy Gave the Obamas $42,000 Worth of Swag

by DenaeTina858 Posted on April 26, 2013

Mother Jones

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Friday, the Federal Register released a list of all the gifts that foreign leaders gave President Obama in 2011. His haul included a basketball signed by the Toronto Raptors (from the Canadian prime minister), more than a dozen Brazilian soccer jerseys (from the governor of Rio de Janeiro), a pretty sweet-looking eco-friendly bamboo bike (from the ambassador of the Philippines), and an array of rugs, paintings, and statues.

Presumably the president smiled and said thank you to all these presents, because, as the Register dexplains, “Non-acceptance would cause embarrassment to donor and US Government.” Even if Obama liked any of the gifts, he’ll never get to use them: They all go to the National Archives and eventually, to his library and musuem.

French president Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, made the rest look like cheapskates. They gave the first family more than $42,000 worth of French luxury goods including purses, perfumes, goblets, a Lacoste polo shirt, bath robes, and a Hermès golf bag worth $7,750. Some of the more insane gifts the Sarkozys gave the Obamas:

His and hers bathrobes
From the official description: “His and hers white, belted Dior bathrobes with ‘Dior’ embroidered on the breast pocket.”

Hermès…everything
From the official description: “Large, black Hermes golf accessory bag including set of lock and key, and extra strap in bottom compartment, presented in cream colored drawstring bag.”

The Sarkozys are partial to the French luxury brand. Other Hermès gifts: A $7,500 golf bag, a golf “travel bag” (there’s a difference? Apparently there’s a difference.), a travel case, a scarf for Michelle, and a cotton beach towel, which retails for around $600.

Hermés

A $400 lighter and pen
From the official description: “Limited-edition ‘HOPE’ fountain pen and Ligne 8 lighter from S.T. Dupont, each in a cherry blossom design, and contained in a 6.5″ x 6.5″ black box with ‘G8 France 2011’ on the top.” A nod to POTUS’s cigarette habit, perhaps?

AZ Fine Time

Baccarat crystal lamps
From the official description: “Baccarat ‘Our Fire’ clear full-headed crystal table lamps on silver pedestals with silver and crystal lampshades in red presentation box.” Estimated value: $5,500.

Baccarat

Grooming products
More than $800 worth of goodies from the Paris perfumeries Frédéric Malle and Bonpoint.

Frederic Malle

The kicker? Despite its first couple’s lavish taste, France actually spent less on its gifts than Brazil or Gabon president Ali Bongo Ondimba, who gave the president a 14-inch blue mask sculpture worth more than $50,000.
(h/t National Journal)

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Ooh La La: Sarkozy Gave the Obamas $42,000 Worth of Swag

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How Yellowstone Businesses Kept the Snowplows Operating

by Aaleyah William Posted on April 8, 2013

Mother Jones

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The LA Times reports today that the superintendent of Yellowstone Park, in a last ditch effort to deal with budget cuts caused by the sequester, decided to delay snowplowing for two weeks, a savings of about $400,000. Local businesses, afraid that this would hurt the tourist trade, decided to band together and pay for the snowplows themselves. But they aren’t happy about it:

It’s not that residents don’t want to reduce the deficit. Washington needs “to grow the economy, not the government,” said Jay Linderman, who owns an Italian restaurant on Cody’s main drag and grudgingly gave $200 to pay for plowing. What rankles locals is the indiscriminate nature of the sequester, which cut programs across the board without weighing individual merits.

But therein lies the perennial rub: Cuts that are welcomed in the abstract are not always appreciated when they hit home. And everything the government does, however small, touches somebody. “You pay your taxes to get certain services,” said Bruce Eldredge, executive director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, a world-class museum in the center of town, which delivered a $10,000 check to the chamber. “We would, I think, probably argue as a community that we pay our federal taxes to make sure the park is open at a specific time.”

This is, obviously, the problem of government in a nutshell: everyone wants spending to be cut, but no one wants spending to be cut on them. They want it to be cut on other people.

In particular—and please excuse the wild guess here—I imagine that most people who have a serious jones for cutting federal spending are really only interested in cutting spending on poor people. Cutting other services just isn’t what they signed up for. It’s the Obamaphones and the food stamps that are wasteful, not the Yellowstone snowplows and small town air traffic controllers. This is why I’ve always been a little surprised that when the sequester was originally negotiated, Republicans agreed to exempt (or treat specially) a whole bunch of mandatory means-tested programs, including unemployment benefits, student loans, community health centers, EITC and other refundable tax credits, CHIP, disability, school lunches, TANF (traditional “welfare”), Pell grants, Medicaid, and SNAP (food stamps). Those are the programs that their base really wants to see cut, but for some reason Republicans agreed to mostly leave them untouched.

Anyway, reading this Yellowstone story reminded me that I’ve never seen a good account of how Obama managed to bamboozle Republicans into agreeing to this. Does anybody know of one?

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How Yellowstone Businesses Kept the Snowplows Operating

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The NFL Hits Yet Another Roadblock in LA

by MalenMajure469 Posted on March 17, 2013

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Phil Anschutz, the billionaire owner of AEG, recently announced that he had decided not to sell his company after all and instead planned to take back control into his own hands. This matters in Los Angeles because Anschutz has always been sort of lukewarm about the idea of AEG building a downtown stadium to lure an NFL team, and he’s now signaling that he may have had enough. Michael Hiltzik hopes that he really has:

Anschutz has spent, by his accounting, between $45 million and $55 million of his own money to push the downtown project along. City officials have been herded, like cattle to the abattoir, into pledging to do everything in their power to get the stadium built — though not with a dime of taxpayer funds, wink wink.

One would think that in exchange for these bennies the league would have been moved to deal with Los Angeles, its business community and its residents with good faith and transparency. Instead, it has offered the same unceasing tergiversations, with nary a clue about what would constitute a suitable deal. Well, not entirely no clue: Plainly the NFL wants a deal in which the taxpayers put up all the money for a stadium, and the league’s billionaires take all the profits.

The willingness of local communities to subsidize billionaire football team owners with truly astronomical sums never ceases to astonish me. Los Angeles has actually been pretty good about telling the NFL that maybe a bunch of titans of free enterprise shouldn’t expect taxpayer help for what is, after all, an extremely lucrative private enterprise, and I can only hope that they stick to their guns. As Hiltzik says, city leaders have already caved a little bit by allowing a stadium deal to bypass the usual regulatory hurdles, but that didn’t bother me too much since I figured it was the bare minimum that any big stadium project gets in a big city. So far they haven’t gone any further, and that’s why there’s still no NFL team in Los Angeles. No huge taxpayer subsidies, no football.

Which is fine with me. Let other cities play the sucker. I’m not sure why so many civic leaders are so eager to get bullied and bamboozled by the NFL, but LA is doing the country a favor by setting a good example. They should keep it up.

Mother Jones
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The NFL Hits Yet Another Roadblock in LA

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