PNP comment: This is ridiculous to demand a CDL (commercial driver’s license) to operate farm equipment.  — LizBowen

Agenda 21 Update: Family Farms Are Under Attack

Posted on July 31, 2011 at 1:07pm by Mike Opelka

• From The Blaze.com

Is the US government starting to implement the policies of the United Nation’s plan for global management of people and resources known as Agenda 21?  The latest efforts out of the Department of Transportation (DOT) seem to indicate this is happening. And they are starting by targeting America’s farming communities with costly and oppressive regulations.

In Late May, the DOT proposed a rule change for farm equipment, and if it this allowed to take effect, it will place significant regulatory pressure on small farms and family farms all across America – costing them thousands of dollars and possibly forcing many of them out of business. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the Department of Transportation (DOT), wants new standards that would require all farmers and everyone on the farm to obtain a CDL (Commercial Drivers License) in order to operate any farming equipment. The agency is going to accomplish this by reclassifying all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs).

(It is also important to note here that DOT Secretary Ray LaHood holds a seat on the newly created White House Rural Council. A powerful group whose members have ties to George Soros and The Center For American Progress.)

The move by the DOT appears to be “legislation through regulation.” By reclassifying all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Vehicles, the federal government will now be able to claim regulatory control over the estimated 800,000 farm workers in America, at the same time, overriding the rights of the states.

This proposed change literally means family farms could no longer legally allow young workers, not old enough to drive and seniors who no longer drive on the public streets, to operate a tractor… even on the family’s private property.

Waco, TX television station KXXV has the story:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/agenda-21-update-family-farms-are-under-attack/

The proposed change also means ANYONE driving a tractor or operating any piece of motorized farming equipment would be forced to pass the same rigorous tests and fill out the same detailed forms and diaries required of semi-tractor trailer drivers. This reclassification would bury small farms and family farms in regulation and paperwork.

Some of the additional paperwork and regulation required:

• Detailed logs would need to be kept by all drivers – hours worked, miles traveled, etc.

• Vehicles would have to display DOT numbers

• Drivers would need to pass a physical as well as a drug test – every two years.

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF) is one of many farm organizations not happy about the idea and has sent the DOT a letter expressing this opinion:

“WFBF opposes any change in statue or regulatory authority that would reclassify implements of husbandry or other farm equipment as Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs)”

WFBF Director of Governmental Relations Karen Gefvert continues, explaining the excessive cost to farmers if this allowed to move forward:

“The proposed guidance by the FMCSA would result in an initial increased cost to each Wisconsin farmer and employee of $124 just for the CDL license, permit and test; not to mention the time and cost for the behind-the-wheel training that is several thousand dollars.”

Additionally, Illinois farmers believe this regulation will also force new restrictions on trucks used in crop-share hauling. (One estimate claims more than 30% of Illinois farmers utilize shared land.) These crop-share trucks are typically limited-use vehicles that often travel fewer than 3000 miles each year, mainly hauling crops from the fields to nearby grain elevators. To require them to follow the same rules as semis would also mean a farmer would be forced to purchase substantial insurance.

The Hancock Journal-Pilot covered the story:

Earlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) began to define crop-share tenant farmers as “for-hire“ carriers and implements of husbandry as ”commercial motor vehicles.“ The ”for-hire” designation for crop-share tenant farmers would have a dramatic effect on farmers because it voids exemptions from the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program and would require a minimum of $750,000 in insurance coverage for the farmer.

The DOT is holding hearings for public comment on the topic, but only through Monday, August 1st and farmers all across the country are rightfully concerned. No matter what the feedback is from the people who actually grow the food, it appears that the DOT’s mind is made up. Just last week, DOT Administrator Anna Ferro posted an Op-Ed addressing the controversial regulation. The opinion piece closes with this statement:

Everyone in this Administration – from President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary LaHood on down – is committed to the long-term success of America’s agricultural industry. In many ways, agriculture is the backbone of our economy – feeding hundreds of millions of Americans and billions more around the world. As the largest user of freight transportation in the nation, the agricultural industry is also one of USDOT’s most important constituents. We hope that this comment period is the start of a new and productive relationship. We may not ultimately agree on every issue, but we will always listen — and do our best to help America’s farmers succeed.

(A personal aside, when someone tells you, “We may not ultimately agree on every issue, but we will always listen… ” it has always been my experience that they are going to do whatever they wanted to do in the first place. The “listening” was just to make you feel better.)

The FMCSA has said their intent is to create uniformity in how federal safety regulations are carried out across America. The farming community and many of the states that would be affected by this change feel differently. Almost to a man, the farming community believes this to be a local issue, best handled by state governments, and not some Washington DC agency.

To make a comment to the DOT visit – www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on the Federal electronic docket site. Or you can fax your comments here 1–202–493–2251.

Read article at The Blaze with links at:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/agenda-21-update-family-farms-are-under-attack/

Polar Bear Researcher Suspended, Under Investigation for ‘Integrity Issues’

Published July 29, 2011

| FoxNews.com

A leading climate scientist whose report in 2006 of drowning polar bears in Arctic waters galvanized the global warming movement — and was highlighted in Al Gore’s Oscar-winning climate-change documentary — has been suspended, possibly over the accuracy of his observations.

Charles Monnett — who manages as much as $50 million worth of climate research on Arctic wildlife and ecology — was told on July 18 that he was being put on leave pending an investigation into “integrity issues,” according to a letter posted online by the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which is questioning Monnett’s suspension.

The complaints against the Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) remain unclear, and the connection to his seven-page 2006 peer-reviewed paper on the drownings are unknown, despite a months-long or longer investigation.

PEER charges Monnett’s suspension amounts to a witch hunt.

“The quality and continuity of the scientific work he’s overseeing is distinctly being jeopardized,” Jeff Ruch, PEER’s executive director, told FoxNews.com.

His group alleges the Interior Department is violating its own rules and regulations, and that the ongoing investigation seems intended merely to disrupt Monnett’s body of scientific work.

“We assumed after the February interviews this would all be cleared up. Apparently not,” Ruch said.

Steve Hargrove, chief of staff for the office of the Inspector General, declined to comment on “an ongoing investigation,” other than to tell FoxNews.com it’s one of about 200 cases the agency works each year.

Ruch said BOEMRE has barred Monnett from talking to reporters, and calls to his office and home were not answered.

Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, could not speak directly to Monnett’s case but said he believes the public has a right to be skeptical about scientific claims related to global warming.

Even if every scientist is objective, “what we’re being asked to do is turn our economy around and spend trillions and trillions of dollars on the basis of claims about what’s going to happen to the climate,” he said, adding later: “If global warming really takes hold here in the next few years and bad things start to happen, then we can act. But right now, I think we should just be sitting on our hands, observing.”

Michael Browich, the director of BOEMRE, told his staff by email Friday that the suspension was unrelated to the 2006, AP reported, though he would not clarify what information the group sought. Documents provided by PEER seem to contradict that.

They indicate investigators are focusing on observations that Monnett and fellow researcher Jeffrey Gleason made in 2004, while conducting an aerial survey of bowhead whales. The report said they observed four dead polar bears floating in Arctic waters after a storm. They detailed their observations in an article published two years later in the journal Polar Biology; presentations also were given at scientific gatherings.

In the peer-reviewed article, the researchers said they were reporting, to the best of their knowledge, the first observations of polar bears floating dead offshore and presumed drowned while apparently swimming long distances in open water — suggesting “that drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open water periods continues.”

The article and presentations drew national attention and helped make the polar bear something of a poster child for the global warming movement. Al Gore’s mention of the polar bear in his documentary on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” came up during investigators’ questioning of Gleason in January.

In May 2008, the U.S. classified the polar bear as a threatened species, the first with its survival at risk due to global warming.

According to a transcription of a February 23 interview, investigator Eric May asked Gleason his thoughts on Gore referencing the dead polar bears. Gleason said none of the polar bear papers he has written or co-authored has said “anything really” about global warming.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/29/polar-bear-researcher-under-investigation-for-integrity-issues/#ixzz1Ti4ITLZH

Does NASA Data Show Global Warming Lost in Space?

Published July 29, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Has a central tenant of global warming just collapsed?

Climate change forecasts have for years predicted that carbon dioxide would trap heat on Earth, and increases in the gas would lead to a planetwide rise in temperatures, with devastating consequences for the environment.

But long-term data from NASA satellites seems to contradict the predictions dramatically, according to a new study.

“There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans,” said Dr. Roy Spencer, a research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. science team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer — basically a big thermometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

“The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show,” he said. The planet isn’t heating up, in other words.

James Taylor, a senior fellow for environment policy at conservative think-tank The Heartland Institute, wrote at Forbes that the meaning of the new research is clear — and it compromises what he called a “central premise of alarmist global warming theory.”

“Real-world measurements … show far less heat is being trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere than the alarmist computer models predict, and far more heat is escaping into space than the alarmist computer models predict,” Taylor wrote.

But with any story on the science of climate change, scientific truths are never so simple.

Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, called Spencer a “controversial figure” within the climate research community. He argued that Spencer’s paper is neither new nor correct.

“He’s taken an incorrect model, he’s tweaked it to match observations, but the conclusions you get from that are not correct,” Dessler told LiveScience.com.

Many scientists believe that as the planet warms, more water vapor moves into the atmosphere. This water vapor exists as clouds, which trap more heat, creating a vicious loop.

Spencer sees it differently. He thinks that the whole cycle starts with the clouds. In other words, random increases in cloud cover cause climate warming. The cloud changes are caused by “chaos in the climate system,” Spencer told LiveScience.

The truth of climate change remains murky, as always — something even Spencer notes in his new paper.

“Atmospheric feedback diagnosis of the climate system remains an unsolved problem,” he noted.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/29/data-cooling-on-global-warming/#ixzz1Ti3Fb6EL

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, Jul. 31, 2011 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/31/3806034/surplus-water-flowing-to-states.html#ixzz1ThhtQOyv

Removing Barriers to Salmon Migration

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

New York Times

July 28, 2011

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — Beginning late this summer, one of the most promising and pure acts of environmental restoration the region and the nation have ever seen will get under way here, experts say, in the form of the largest dam removal project in American history.

It will demolish two massive hydroelectric dams, one of them 210 feet high, that block the otherwise pristine flow of the Elwha River, nearly all of which is within the boundaries of this remote national park.

For a century, since the first dam was built in 1912 to supply power for the town of Port Angeles and later a lumber mill, salmon have been trying, futilely, to follow their genetic GPS upstream on the Elwha. Instead, five miles south of where they enter the river from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, they hit a concrete wall.

“They pool at the bottom and go in circles,” said LaTrisha Suggs, the assistant director of river restoration for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. “They swim up, they swim down, they swim up, they swim down.”

Biologists say that will change once the dams are fully removed, sometime in 2014, and that a migrating salmon population that has declined to about 3,000 fish will steadily begin replenishing itself from a small stock carefully perpetuated in rearing channels since the 1970s to preserve their lineage as “transitional species.”

These Chinook — one of six salmon species, all of which exist in the Elwha — are distinct from salmon that enter Puget Sound and those that spawn in rivers off the Pacific Ocean. Models show that up to 392,000 fish will fill 70 miles of habitat now blocked by the dams, matching the predam peak. Chinook here once grew as big as 100 pounds, and experts say they should reach that size again.

“Because of the habitat we have,” said Brian Winter, the park’s project manager for the restoration project, “we expect success.”

It will have taken a long time and a lot of money to achieve. The first President George Bush signed off on the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act after it was passed by Congress in 1992, and momentum had been building for more than a decade before that. The total cost, $350 million, includes paying for new power sources and water treatment plants in the area as well as fish hatcheries and extensive revegetation projects.

The restoration of the Elwha comes as dams, often facing expiring operating licenses, are to be removed from several prominent rivers, including the White Salmon in Washington and the Penobscot in Maine. Four dams are scheduled to be removed in the Klamath River in southern Oregon in 2020.

Many conservationists see this as momentum for more ambitious goals, most notably their push to breach four dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington that provide electricity, water and a channel for barge traffic between the ocean and the powerful agricultural interests inland. Their hopes increased when President Obama recently nominated Rebecca Wodder, the former president of American Rivers, which has pushed for dam removal on the Snake and elsewhere, to become assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. The nomination, which has yet to be confirmed, is widely opposed by dam supporters.

Yet even advocates for larger dam removals acknowledge that they can draw only limited comparisons between the remote Elwha and dams like those on the Snake. The two dams on the Elwha, the Glines Canyon Dam and the Elwha River Dam, provided enough power on average for about 14,000 homes and allowed for no fish passage. The dams on the Snake can power a city the size of Seattle and have elaborate systems for fish passage, though a federal judge has repeatedly found them inadequate.

Even as it is planning to ambitiously promote the Elwha restoration, the Obama administration opposes removing the dams on the Snake, as did administrations before it. The judge, James A. Redden of the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon, is expected to rule soon on a government plan to improve protections for salmon in the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

Here on the Olympic Peninsula, the National Park Service has helped lead a branding effort that includes posters and stickers saying “Elwha River Restoration; Natural Wonders Never Cease.” Local museums are collecting equipment from the powerhouse, which stopped producing power in June. A festival is planned in Port Angeles around the start of the removal in September. The public will be able to watch the dam removal from platforms during the next three years.

“Our Plan A is to use hydraulic hammers,” said Brian Krohmer, the project manager for the contractor overseeing the removal, Barnard Construction. “Plan B is explosives.”

The dams will be lowered slowly from top to bottom — “kind of like eating a corncob, just going back and forth,” Mr. Krohmer said — to regulate the downstream flow of sediment accumulated behind them so it does the least damage to the river and the people below.

While experts say the habitat surrounding the river is pristine except for the dams, removing them has required extensive new plumbing elsewhere. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, which has lived at the mouth of the river for thousands of years and has opposed the dams since they were built, is being connected to the sewer system next door in Port Angeles for the first time because of evidence that its septic system could be damaged by rising groundwater.

The reservation will also be protected by a levee that has been raised, widened and fortified with rocks as large as four feet across because the sediment flowing downstream will raise the level of the freed Elwha. The tribe wants all of this, but after a century of living with a tamed river and adapting as development increased on the peninsula, there is also concern.

“What worries me is that the river’s going to be unpredictable after they take the dams out,” said Ron Boulstrom, 46, a lifelong resident of the reservation and a commercial fisherman. “Four more years and I’ll have my house paid off, and I’m making a nice new garage. Hopefully, the river won’t take me out.”

Then again, according to tribal lore, the tribe’s creation site was flooded by the dams. And there are the Chinook, also called king salmon, remembered in stories told from generation to generation, but now too depleted to fish.

“Back in the day, we had this whole place, the hills, the mountains,” Mr. Boulstrom said. “I’d like to catch another king out of the Elwha in my lifetime.”

This article has been :revised to reflect the following correction

Correction: July 29, 2011

An earlier version of this article misstated the location of the White Salmon River. It is in Washington, not northern Oregon.

Read it at and see the weird photo at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/us/30dam.html?_r=2

http://www.kmed.com/common/global_audio/51/30114.mp3

Mark Baird, vice president of Scott Valley Protect Our Water, spoke on Monday, July 25, 2011 at 8:10 a.m. with Conservative Talk Show Host, Bill Meyer.

Worth listening to, as it explains our situation regarding legal Water Rights.

Listing of coho salmon to the Endangered Species Act is a fraud.  Coho are not native fish. Coho were planted in the Siskiyou Rivers starting as far back as 1900.

California Dept. of Fish and Game are not following their own regulations. Fish and Game must be made to follow the law and the Constitution.

Illegal pot growers (marijuana) in the USFS managed lands are a driving force in the destruction of Water Rights of farmers and ranchers.

An environmental program was started in 2000, by the enviros to target removing 4 hydro-electric dams on the Klamath River using the fraudulent listing of coho salmon.

Department of Water Resources on 3 weeks notice increased a rancher’s Water Master Service FEE from $600 to $4,000. These are family ranchers and can’t afford this huge increase of a fee, which is put on the property tax rolls and must be paid as a tax.

To those who want to help, but are not farmers and ranchers, Mark suggested: Be awake in your life. Do not blindly follow government officials, who are not following the Constitution.

We need a government that will represent the people, immediately.

Listen to the podcast to learn more.

Our opponents are at it, trying to intimidate The People.

An untraceable group purchased commercial time on major talk radio outlets. The ad says signature gatherers are convicted criminals who will use your information for identity fraud. Furthermore, Sacramento politicians have proposed several constitutional amendments trying to limit the people’s ability to collect signatures.

They understand our strength comes from our vote and if they can reduce the influence of our vote they will hold more power.

Do not be intimidated by their distasteful tactics!

It is our California Constitutional right to walk the streets of our state for the purpose of gathering signatures for initiatives or referenda.

Please print and sign the petition to Stop SB 48 today!

It is extremely important that you read the instructions for the petitions. State law is very peculiar about signature gathering and any deviation from the instructions may result in the invalidation of the signatures you collect.

Stop SB 48 is printing long-form petitions for distribution to those interested. The long-form petitions should be available early next week.

If you are setting up a table outside of your local Walmart, a mall, taking petitions to your local clubs, organizations, or groups or going door to door in your neighborhood and would like the long-form petition please email latanya@stopsb48.com.

The email should contain:

1.)   Your name

2.)   Mailing address

3.)   The amount of long-form petitions you would like

Tell your community leaders, family members, and friends about our effort to Stop SB 48. You may refer them to www.StopSB48.com.

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he’s fed.  

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid…

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me
to my doom…’

When he’s gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened? Can you spell ‘politicians?’

PNP comment:  Let’s add bureaucrats to the blame.  Once they have a govmut job, they won’t let go!!!

From Congressman Wally Herger

I wanted to let you know that I recently joined several other members of the House in writing a letter to members of the United States Senate expressing concerns about President Obama’s nomination of Ms. Rebecca Wodder as Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior.

Normally I do not feel the need to comment on agency nominees and I appreciate the unique role of the Senate in the confirmation process.  Nonetheless, the policies previously advocated by this nominee would be so detrimental to jobs, our economy and the livelihood of rural Americans that I felt compelled to join other Members of Congress to make our views known.

This position is responsible for supervising the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and many federal conservation programs administered by the Department of Interior – all of which significantly affect the economy and property rights in rural Northern California.

Ms. Wodder’s current position as the head of American Rivers, a Washington, DC-based national activist group that has repeatedly litigated against the federal government in favor of removing critical energy and flood control infrastructure, and her past work with the Wilderness Society raise serious concerns about a potential bias against multiple use and access that this nominee may bring to this important position.

One of American Rivers’ pending cases against the federal government would dismantle four dams on the Snake River in Washington State in an attempt to “bring back the Salmon.”

The organization, however, disregards the fact that there is no scientific evidence to support this assertion.  Considering the viewpoints and activism of this group, I am concerned that Ms. Wodder would be unable to pursue a balanced approach that protects energy projects, private property rights, and water rights.

Ms. Wodder’s nomination is currently under consideration by the Senate Committees on Energy and Natural Resources and the Environment and Public Works. While I am not a member of the Senate, I will continue to do all I can to express concern about this nomination and support balanced land management policies that encourage economic prosperity and protect private property rights in Northern California