Stocks are down about forty percent year to date and no bottom in sight, so U.S. Person feels free to now tell you the truth. He will be traveling for the next month and there will no entries during his absence. For two years he has enjoyed sharing news and his views with readers of Persona Non Grata. He wishes to express his gratitude for your interest in this cyberspace. Happy trails!
Nearly 1,000 endangered gray wolves could face slaughter if the Regime's new wolf-killing plan goes through -- and we only have two weeks to stop it. Click to send your Official Citizen Comment right now -- before the administration has a chance to pull the trigger on its vile scheme to strip wolves of their endangered species protection. They will not stop until the new president takes the oath of office, so its up to us to stop them. Even before this plan was announced, park biologists were predicting a crash in Yellowstone's wolf population this year. Wolf pups are dying from an outbreak of a yet-to-be-determined disease.
As a parting gift to the nation before he vacates the bunker, the Charlatan is wearing out his executive order pen reducing or eliminating regulations intended to protect workers, consumers and the environment. His favorite target has been the Endangered Species Act, one of the most successful pieces of environmental protection legislation passed during the Nixon era. The effectiveness of the law explains why developers want it weakened or abolished. Former Congressman Pombo's legislative attempt to gut the law failed in the Senate, so now in a last ditch effort to give his supporters what they want, the Charlatan is using executive regulatory power to eliminate required consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service for federal projects that may impact protected species. The change is seen by most wildlife experts as significant weakening of the Act since it takes the independent agencies out of the decision making process and allows project managers who have no in-house biological expertise to make decisions affecting protected species. According to the loyalist lawyers at the Interior Department, such consultations are no longer necessary because federal agencies have developed expertise to review their own construction and development projects. Imagine some manager in the Minerals Management Service responsible for issuing oil and gas leases in Chesapeake Bay, the home of oysters, mussels and crabs enjoyed by gourmands in DC. Is there any doubt about how he or she would decide the question of going ahead with a project or protecting the shortnose sturgeon? The change also gives the severely understaffed wildlife and fisheries agencies only 60 days to reach a decision when consulted on whether a proposed project impacts protected species, or the project moves ahead without such a decision. Between 1998 and 2002, the Fish and Wildlife Service conducted 300,000 consultations. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which evaluates projects affecting marine species, conducts about 1,300 reviews each year. The reviews have helped safeguard protected species such as bald eagles, Florida panthers, and whooping cranes. A federal government handbook from 1998 described the consultations as "some of the most valuable and powerful tools to conserve listed species." When the federal agency I worked for was planning a new medical center in Florida, our project managers had no problems asking me to consult FWS to protect wetlands on the proposed hospital site. The Charlatan's parting shots as president are true to form--the triumph of narrow, blind ideology over the common good. It will take a long time to repair all the damage done.
Americans can be proud that their nation has made significant social progress in 153 years since the Civil War. A black man will sit in the Oval Office of the White House, the most powerful political office in the world. But the iconography is simply not enough because our country needs real and decisive leadership if it is to cope with the critical problems facing it after eight years of misrule by Republicans. President-elect Obama will have a relatively short period--the so-called honeymoon--to translate some of his stirring campaign rhetoric into legislative action. If his presidency is to be truly a historic one, he must deliver for the average American. Unfortunately he will not have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. He does have the wind at his back with a more than two to one victory in the Electoral College and a popular vote margin not achieved by a Democrat since Jimmy Carter. Carter attempted too much in his first one hundred days in office, diluting his effectiveness with congressional allies. Obama should not make the mistake of attempting too little in the nation's time of crisis. The public is undoubtably ready for some fundamental change even if Washington politicians are not. The choice of a Chicago machine politician as his chief of staff and a Clinton insider as transition chief are not particularly auspicious of the changes Senator Obama promised the electorate.
You do not have to be vegetarian to know that farm animals raised in intensive commercial feeding operations suffer terribly from overcrowding, disease and pain. These agribusinesses are run on a production line template to achieve economies of scale with little consideration for their sentient captives. The confined feeding operations have become the predominate method of producing animal protein for our consumption. They produce more than fifty percent of food animals although they comprise only five percent of livestock operations. Their economic efficiency, however is supported by unpaid costs to the environment, our health, and the livestock's well being. These are referred to as "externalities" by economists. Confined feedlots also benefit from taxpayer subsidies for feed grains such as corn, and taxpayer supported clean up of wastes generated in huge quantities (300 million tons of untreated manure per year). Between 1997 and 2005 grain subsidies amounted to $35 billion. Confined animals in large numbers are more susceptible to diseases. Consequently 70% of all antibiotics use in the United States are given to food animals to prevent epidemics. The massive use of human drugs on animals leads to disease resistant strains of bacteria such as E. coli, Campylobacter, and the flesh eating horror, Staphylococcus aureus. Human health in rural communities close to giant feedlots suffer from respiratory problems from particulate pollution as well as contaminated drinking water. The smell alone is enough to drive down property values.
