Catching up

I was out of computer from Friday afternoon until yesterday afternoon. The power cord on my computer went out. I went to Radio Shack, which had one item which would replace my power cord - for a hundred bucks. I walked next door to Wal Mart - not to buy a replacement, but to see what they had. They had the exact item (brand name and all) that Radio Shack had, except it was 20 bucks cheaper at Wal Mart. I ended up buying a power cord for my computer on Amazon.com for (yes, this is no typo) $1.75, plus shipping. I opted for expedited shipping, which made my total bill about $12.75. It works fine. 

And then I found out that Chase bank was giving me one "payment due date" online, and another in their snail mail bills, and when I met the online deadline, was late on the snail mail account. Geez. And when I called them about it, they immediately waived the fee, but even after talking to at least six different desks, including two supervisors, they cannot answer why the two dates exist. I would hate to think they are that sleazy. 

But I got a little behind on my posting. Dang, I missed my Sunday News Show piece, although I did watch the news shows. There wasn't a lot to write about, although I do remember that there were a few things that caught my attention. But I can't remember what it was, so it must have been pretty unmemorable. 

But there have been a couple things worth mentioning. The Democrats lost Weiner's seat in NY. That must really trouble Obama. It would if I was he. But, again, you can't read too much into it. Afterall, the republicans lost a seat that they should have won not that long ago, and apparently that didn't have too long of coattails, or the republicans wouldn't have won last night.

I think that parties that are trying to retain a seat lost by scandal have a huge hill to climb anyway. And I do think that people that normally would be democrats are sending Obama a signal that he is on the wrong direction in terms of how he is trying to appease the republicans. In fact, one of the most consistent poll numbers across different polls is whether or not people think the country is going in the right direction. About 3/4ths of the people don't think so. And I agree! But that doesn't automatically mean that people are totally against Obama. But I think it speaks to the fact that they do think that Obama isn't fighting hard enough for what most people would say is the right direction. Obama needs to forget about his obsession with appeasing the republicans and think about the majority of the people. He seems to be sensing that, and his last few days have been more in the right direction, although it may be too little too late.

One other thing that happened that caught my attention was the attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Geez, if we can't protect that before we pull out, what hope do you have of maintaining much influence after we pull out? Probably not much. But isn't that history? Doesn't history clearly read that Afghanistan invaders invariably fail? 

We just watched the movie "Network" last night. We checked it out from our local library. You should watch it - it's so modern considering it was made in 1976. Is this what we have come to? Is this why our nation is faltering?

Senator McConnell is a hypocrite

I saw Sen. McConnell on TV yesterday, dismissing Obama's jobs plan - saying that nothing he has done has worked. He's getting hard to take - his demeanor is awful and he's just so disagreeable. Well, actually he has been hard to take all along, but he's getting exceptionally so lately. He has been against everything that Obama has been for. In fact, it's his opposition in the senate that kept many of the things that Obama had wanted to do the first two years of his term from getting done. A few analogies that I have thought of include sitting in a boat punching holes in it and then complaining because you are sinking; or pouring sand in the gas tank of a car and then complaining cause it won't go; or putting something on the railroad tracks and complaining because the train got derailed. You get the picture. 

But not only that - but McConnell is complete hypocrite when it comes to Obama's stimulus. Let me give you some examples: while Kentucky is not one of the most populus states, and they voted against Obama decisively, one of the very top recipients per dollar of stimulus contracts is from a Kentucky company, the Rogers Group, Inc., listed from Hopkinsville, KY, according to Propublica. Trigg County, which voted against Obama with an even larger margin than the state as a whole, is one of the top per capita recipients of stimulus money in the country. The county in which I spend a lot of time - McCracken, the home of Paducah - received over a hundred million dollars in stimulus funds, including extra funding for cleanup at the gaseous diffusion plant, a whole block of brand new public senior housing, which I watch being built everyday I go to town, improvements to existing public housing, and many other things. You think that isn't or hasn't been providing jobs? Wouldn't things be a lot worse on the jobs front if those jobs were eliminated? Those jobs certainly couldn't have been taken by the "private sector."

And it might be worth mentioning that some of that stimulus money went to a private company that didn’t even exist a few years ago, that now is reaping good federal contracts with the Dept. of Energy and the U.S. Forest Service, some of which was bolstered by the stimulus, and some of which were obtained "no bid." And would you be surprised to hear that the company hired McConnell's former long time Western Kentucky head of his staff? 

Yet, there is McConnell doing everything he can to throw Obama under the bus. One has to wonder if his motivations are more than just political? I believe that they are. I’ll just leave it at that. McConnell will come to towns in Kentucky like Paducah and meet with the Chamber of Commerce, but he won’t hold any open town meetings. He’s a coward in that regard. Sure, he squeaked by in the last election, but only because he had as his opponent another republican trying to disguise himself as a democrat - something at which he had already been caught. That never works, especially when power and money are at stake, and in a currently republican state like Kentucky. 

While I’m not completely happy with Obama, I still think he is trying hard to cope with a difficult situation, is compassionate and intelligent. I can’t say the same for McConnell. He is the ultimate political hack who seems to care much more about political outcomes than the nation. Yet, it’s people like him who are the first to wrap themselves in the flag. And that is hypocrisy - a calling card of Mr. McConnell.

Comments on Labor Day

Today is "Labor Day" in the U.S. This is one of the major holidays in the U.S. Even though it doesn't close down as many businesses as Christmas, or Thanksgiving, the business world of the U.S. pretty much shuts down on Labor Day. Also, Labor Day also roughly symbolizes the end of the warm season for that year. The actual end of summer is still a couple weeks away, but Labor Day represents the beginning of school seasons, (although most now start ahead of that) the beginning of a new TV season, the end of the summer vacation season, and the beginning of preparation for winter. 

But doesn't all of that avoid the purpose of the holiday? On June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories. This was the beginning of the national Labor Day. But the fact is, it was a response to the growing power of people working together to form unions to fight the rip-off businesses that were exploiting their labor with low pay, poor working conditions, and no rights on the job. People died during that time trying to organize unions, and our government was responsible for some of those deaths. This holiday was formed to recognize the labor rights movement, to atone for the brutality, and as appeasement for the past mistreatment of workers.

But today, unions are under assault. They are under assault by republican politicians and their business supporters. And that assault has been pretty effective, although unfair. The attack has been that union workers are making more than they deserve and therefore are a drag on the economy - taking from everyone else. The fact is that for the most part, even the best paid union workers are "middle class." At the same time, mega-institutions that the system identifies as "too big to fail" are getting handouts of public money that start in the billions. The most venomous kind of propoganda is particularly aimed at public union workers, but in general, the attack on unions is across the board. The businesses that negotiate with unions would rather negotiate with people individually. It's much easier to find an individual dispensible than all of your workers at once, and you can get workers to work with less pay and benefits that way.

And the unions have less than prevailed in countering these attacks. Look what has happened this year - with the election of anti-union governors who have successfully reduced the powers of unions, and thus, the pay of their members - it has happened in a number of states. Sure, it has been subject to a lot of protest, and it's not over by any means, but the unions have taken some significant blows. In reality, it started with the crushing of the air traffic controllers union by president Reagan. The national labor movement stood by and let that happen, and since then, it's been open season. 

So here we are on Labor Day. The working class has less jobs, less money, and less rights on the job than it has had for awhile. If we get a republican government - with legislative, executive, and judicial branches all controlled by republicans, we might see Labor Day repealed. After all, wouldn't the best way to celebrate Labor Day be to go to work?

Sunday News Shows

The news shows basically had the same things: Obama needs to "go big" with his jobs plan; Romney and Perry are going to be criticizing each other; the economy and who is going to get the blame. Yawn.

There were a couple off the mainstream discussions that I thought were really good. One was on "To the Contrary" where they discussed that a Penny's tshirt that Penny's had been offering that read something like "I'm too pretty to need an education. I can get my dumb brother to do everything for me..." or something like that. Apparently there was an organized campaign against Penny's to get it to quit selling these t shirts and Pennys did just that. I thought that the females on the panel shredded that pretty well, and it was interesting. The next discussion that I thought was above the pablum was on McLaughlin Group, which discussed federal government arts funding. 

A Mr. Carney - a conservative that sat in where Monica Crowley used to sit (where did Monica go?) (Rich Lowery usually takes her place these days, but hey, it's a holiday weekend) made the absurd analogy that because the Beatles made so much money that they didn't need help from the National Endowment for the Arts. The fact is that when artists make it to the top levels of income, they aren't getting too many grants from the National Endowments. There are some very important grants that go to previously unrecognized or emerging artists that do need help because the private sector isn't supporting their art. But that seems to be typical of the kind of arguments that these type of views will make.

Carney and Pat Buchanan both mentioned the word "urine" in describing art that one would imagine was funded through the National Endowment. Buchanan used the term "cultural pork" in describing funding for artists. Yet, according to McLaughlin, the budget for the National Endowment was, did I hear this right, $49 million? That's a pittance in the contemporary federal budget. 

A nation that abandons its creative freedom is a nation moving closer to repression. Hopefully a majority of people in the US understand that and know what their options are to avoid this direction.

Mitch Daniel's Indiana state government thwarting public involvement

Yesterday, I went to the Heartwood website's action alert page http://www.heartwood.org/action and used it send comments to the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management on their proposed rules for confined feeding operations. These rules are going to govern how these large livestock facilities will handle their wastewater - thus, very important to the long term water quality of Indiana. 

I used the convenient sample letter which Heartwood provided, which basically urged the state to put environmental considerations high up on the list of factors when promulgating the rule. The Heartwood action alert page can automatically email your letter in to whomever is in charge of the public comments for whatever public comment period the alert is addressing. It's an easy, fast, and convenient way to help the public participate in such things as rulemakings - processes about which most of the public are clueless but have a significant effect on our day to day lives. 

So I send in the letter, and a short while later, I get the email message back below, from Steve Mojonnier
IDEM Office of Legal Counsel. He admits that they "received" the comment and that it was "during the official comment period for the rules." However, he goes on to state that because "it was not provided in the form prescribed," the comments will not be placed "on the record." He does console me that they will be "considered" because some other party submitted the same comments in the "prescribed form." 

Why might this be important? If these rules are subject to judicial review, if comments are on the record, a court will see them. If they aren't, then the court won't see them. The way things stand now, a thousand people could send in that Heartwood alert, and no one except for the agency would ever know that a thousand people have that opinion, and cared enough about it to make a written comment. Don't you think that a judge would want to know that? Public comments shouldn't be just to try and find out what technical knowledge that someone in public might have about a proposed rule or action - they should also be a measuring stick to gauge the public's opinion of a proposed rule or action. If an overwhelming number of public citizens are opposed to the rule, that should matter. Of course, this would mean that the people actually would have some power, and governmental agencies hate that. To them, the public is just a pesky obstacle to get around. That's the problem with so much of our government.

Many pundits have put Indiana republican governor Mitch Daniels forward as one of the most desirable, but undeclared candidates for president. But if this is his idea of democracy, I can't say that I share it. He also is selling off state assets, including the beautiful Indiana state forest system, which he's allowing his buddies in the timber industry to plunder. Personally, I don't see that much good in what Daniels has done for Indiana in the long run.

Here's the letter:

Dear Mr. Donham,
Thank you for your e-mail to the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management concerning LSA Document #09-615, proposed rules for confined feeding operations. While your comment was received during the official comment period for the rules it was not provided in the form prescribed in the Public Notice for these rules (DIN: 20110803-IR-327090615PRA). However, your comments are the same as other comments that were provided as prescribed and will therefore be considered in the rulemaking process. 

If you would like to resubmit your comments and have them included in the official record for this rule, please do any of the following:

(1) Mail your comments by September 2, 2011 to:
LSA Doc. #09-615 [Confined Feeding Operations]

Janet Pittman
Rules Development Branch
Office of Legal Counsel
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
100 North Senate Avenue
MC 65-45
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2251

(2) Hand deliver your comments to the receptionist on duty at the 13th Floor reception desk, Office of Legal Counsel, 100 North Senate Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana by end of day September 2, 2011. 

(3) Submit your comments by facsimile by September 2, 2011, at the IDEM fax number: (317) 232-5970, Monday through Friday, between 8:15 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Please confirm the timely receipt of faxed comments by calling the Rules Development Branch at (317) 232-8922 or (317) 233-8903.

As you requested, you will not receive further correspondence regarding this issue, nor will you be added to any mailing list.

Steve Mojonnier
IDEM Office of Legal Counsel
100 N Senate Ave MC 65-45
Indianapolis IN 46204-2251
317.233.1655
#52

Tater Elected Director of VOTE (Vegetables Organizing for the Earth)

Tater is proud to announce that she has been elected director of VOTE. Vegetables Organizing for the Earth. Her first priority for the group work will be fighting climate change. We vegetables must make our humans understand the horrible consequences their actions have on vegetables and other life forms. The second priority will be the outlawing of chemical cancer causing pesticides. 

There is no doubt that our earth climate is changing. An activist that is an expert in this field, Little Birdie, has told me of some very scary experiences her flock has been experiencing. They have had to try and change their migration time that has been their way for generations. Food sources that they depend on for nesting success has been jeopardized by the wild changes in weather. It's hard to find new homes where there is already populations of other birds. Many birds have not figured this out and find there is no food for themselves or babies. As she flies across the country she sees first hand the horrible pollution from human industry that is changing our climate.

I am appointing the Little Birdie to head our committee on stopping climate change. 

I love my home in the garden where my family has procreated for generations. In the early days no one could even imagine that humans would put poison on a vegetable's home. Some humans now think it is ok and harmless to poison plants and other creatures of the earth. I have seen my garden community mutated by poisons and die horrible deaths. The poisons seep into plants and are eaten by humans. 

Me and my fellow vegetables love and need insects and fellow plants. Even the ones that are in competition with my community. Even the ones that eat our leaves and fruit. Just imagine if something would come and poison your neighbors. It is clearly understood even by a potato head that poison like 7 dust and Roundup kills indiscriminately and lasts in the soil. 

Another knowledgeable activist in the insect world, Mr. Flutterby knows how his community of butterflies are suffering from pesticides. Obviously pesticides kill indiscriminately. Many of her fellow monarchs have died from these poisons. I am appointing Mr. Flutterby to head up our committee opposing pesticides on earth.

I am hopeful we can turn humans around and save our beautiful earth. I'll post more news from VOTE in the near future. Thank you for your interest.

Sunday News Shows

I guess when congress is out of town for summer vacation, and there is a lull in the political activity around DC, the "slow news" syndrome hits. Today was not the most dynamic day in the history of the Sunday news shows.

There were a few things worth mentioning. I guess the one that really sticks in my mind is Michelle Bachmann actually saying in a speech that if she is elected president she will have the gas prices down to 2 bucks a gallon within a year. WOW!

I didn't hear anyone discuss exactly how she is going to do that. But seems to me that if something that extreme were to happen it would require some pretty serious governmental intervention. But I thought Bachmann was for smaller government? That kind of promise is so ludicrous that I guess that is how it got on the news shows and mentioned first by me. It's really outrageous. Hopefully the American people are not
THAT gullible.

The next two things had to do with Obama. First, most everyone was yawning about Obama's up and coming speech about jobs which will happen sometime in September. People are sick of commissions, plans, and speeches that never accomplish anything, and there is fear that this is just another one of those cases.

But it did come up more than once by the democrat talking heads that there is discussion in the white house about whether Obama should continue to play conservative and work toward any kind of incremental gains that he might be able to make with the republicans, or, conversely, he should come up with a bold, progressive plan that could create a lot of jobs but lower the deficit, even if the republicans would shoot down right away. Personally, I don't think Obama has gained much trying to work with the republicans.

The third issue that got my attention is whether or not it was a good idea for the Obamas to take a vacation on Martha's Vinyard. I have to say that I am in the camp that thinks a vacation is fine, and the Martha's Vinyard trip probably isn't enough to keep him from getting re-elected. But, if Obama wants to build a rapport as the spokesperson for the working class, he can't, at very crucial times, act like one of the wealthy elite. It's like the guy is addicted to having one foot in being a republican and one in a democrat. Not sure if that is sustainable. We will see.

I read an interesting but potentially foreboding opinion page in the newest Newsweek magazine. I can't remember the dude's name - but it wasn't one that i readily recognized. But the message was one that I think Obama should note - that he has disappointed the democratic base enough so that he should not run for a second term, and instead, let Hillary Clinton be the candidate. I'm not ready to go there yet. But I hear what the guy has to say, and I think the Prez should too.

Endangered mussels and Paducah riverfront development

I have known that there was a controversy brewing regarding plans by "movers and shakers" in Paducah who have a riverfront development plan that in some way was going to impact some federally endangered mussel species in the Ohio River. I didn't have the time to get deeply involved in the issue, but I knew that other people did have concerns that the development was going to impact these species, and that politics would rule over the environment and that these mussels would be quietly destroyed and no one would ever know. 

Although I have been aware for a couple months that someone, and I do not know who nor do I really care to know, apparently approached the Center for Biological Diversity about the issue. The CBD looked at the situation and some emails went out to some people (like me) who are known to have been concerned about the environment asking for people to sign on as plaintiffs in challenging the development plan. Apparently they found some folks who said yes.

Just a couple weeks ago there was an article in the Paducah Sun reporting that the CBD had filed some kind of administrative action against the city and the Corps of Engineers I guess challenging their development plan. There wasn't a lot of detail in the story, and up to that point, I still didn't understand exactly what actions the city was planning that was going to impact the mussels. I assumed it was a boat dock for large riverboats that involved putting pilings into the bed and allowing boats with overly deep drafts which would dig into the mussel beds. But in the back of my mind, that didn't seem like enough to really shut down the development because large boats already nose right up to the foot of Broadway, and the tugs are all over the place.

Last night, though, while visiting some friends, I got a much more detailed informal presentation on exactly what is going on with the situation, and I understand much better now why the controvery has built and why the CBD got involved. 

Basically, what the city is planning is to fill into the Ohio River right on top of the mussel bed. That fill will purportedly, although I doubt it, block the current coming off the Tennessee River right after the confluence and allow the city to install some boat slips behind the fill. There are more details which I won't go into right now, but when I heard that the city thought that they could fill right on top of a mussel bed with endangered mussels, I understood why the CBD got involved. Apparently, Sen. McConnell has promised the city $10 million in one of his "earmarks" (aren't those no good anymore?) to move forward with this development if they can get the plan approved. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I also got to see an alternative development plan drawn up by a local retired architect that would avoid the mussel bed, free up 12 acres that are now outside the flood wall, and expand the main downtown area. Unfortunately, up to this point, city leaders are too stubborn to consider it. It's going to be an interesting several months as this issue progresses. I'll write more about it later.

Sunday News Shows

This was an interesting day for news shows. Bachmann had won, ever so slightly defeating Ron Paul, for the Iowa straw poll - about as meaningless an exercise in futility as one can imagine. Then, right before the straw poll, cowpunch Rich Perry, currently employed as governor of Texas, announced that he was getting into the republican race. The press gave him about as much attention as they did the straw poll.

Nonetheless, David Gregory had Bachmann on "Meet the Press" for an interview. I wouldn't call it extended, but it was more than just soundbites. He did get under Bachmann's skin a few times, but pulled back when she got a little too flustered. He had played a clip of her making statements about gays - about how horrible and twisted they were. She tried to deny that she had said what she said, but she isn't that good of a lawyer. That would have been a tall order for any lawyer. 

If she is the republican nominee, Obama is just about guaranteed a second term. I don't think that will happen. 

But the most entertaining part of the Sunday news shows that I watched was Roger Simon's appearance on "Inside Washington." He was there taking the place of Mark Shields. I like Mark Shields, although I do think that he is almost over-exposed, but Simon's view on things, and his way of expressing them, were refreshing and right on. 

For example, he summarized the Rick Perry entrance into the republican race by asking if he would end up being "all hat and no cattle." Later, he laid out the almost inevitable upcoming political scenario in which the congress passes an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and Obama vetos it. He said, interestingly, and this is a place where I'm not sure I agree with him, that the republicans want to avoid that scenario. That suggests that there may be a deal in the works on the deficit supercommittee. I find that hard to believe. 

I thought that the McLaughlin group got off on a weird tanget. They spent too much time talking about whether or not Obama's statement in the middle of the day last week when the stock market fell over 600 points was a good idea or not. It is a fact that the stock market fell another 300 plus points after his statement, but who is to say that it might not have fallen a thousand points if he hadn't made his statement. This was a cheap shot at Obama I thought, and a waste of time when there were a lot more important things to talk about. 

As a sidebar, I read in a current Newsweek story about Gloria Steinham that she had Mort Zuckermann as one of her several boyfriends. Wow! No accounting for taste!

4th anniversary of the beginning of Rural Thoughts

Today is the 4th anniversary of the first date that I posted anything on this site. It's been a lot of fun. The piece I wrote which is the basic homepage explanation is what I wrote on 8/11/07. I need to rewrite it. But then again, I need to do a lot of things! ha ha ha! 

This piece will be, I believe, the 562nd entry. There have been some other contributors, but the overwhelming bulk of the writing has been done by me. I have reviewed the Sunday News shows, commented on politics, written about local issues where I live, reviewed art and music events, and even written about some personal things in my life. Also, an occasional photograph is posted. I should post more. 

I have a small but consistent readership. I don't know who they are. I think my mom reads it once in a while. But I get hits on the website from around the world. I honestly don't know if they are reading or trying to hack in. I get these weird spam ads that appear in my comment approval queue. I have no idea how they get there. Some kind of computer automation. 

I get an occasional comment that is relevant and real. I love that - it means someone is taking it serious. I wish I would get more. I hope that at least a few of the people that look at this blog will leave me a message about my first 4 years - the good and the bad. 

I intend to keep going. Some of my columns get read quite a bit and distributed. For example, one of my current columns about the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Frist museum in Nashville shows up on the first page of Google search if you search for "Andy Warhold exhibit at the Frist Museum." That's pretty awesome! A column I wrote about a Mitch McConnell campaign ad two years ago when he ran for re-election got a lot of reads after it was put on a mainstream media news blog out of Louisville. My column about Newsweek's new design was one of the earliest and most read on that subject. 

But I know I'm not a great influence on the news world. But I think my insight, that of a native, low income, liberal thinker in the heart of conservative midwest, is one that isn't represented in the mainstream political punditry. And unknown to me, my columns may be read by influential people on occasion. I simply don't know. But I love to write, and I will continue. Happy anniversary to Rural Thoughts!

Stock Market crash

The mainstream media seems to be blaming the stock market drop, which was very severe today, but has been going on for over a week, on the so-called "downgrade" of the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poors. Yeah, it undoubtedly had an influence because of the timing. But this is one more example of the mainstream media jumping on something and not looking any deeper and giving the public information which is less than on the mark.

People and organizations with lots of money control the stock market. If you have a thousand dollars worth of microsoft stock and sell it at the price of the moment. it wouldn't make a blip in one of the major stock markets like the NASDAQ, which generally sells that kind of electronic business stock. It takes the big stock holders to sell to trigger that kind of loss. Once those kind of losses start registering, others may join in, including small holders, which cumulatively can have an impact, but it is the big funds - mutual funds, retirement funds, etc. that register the changes in the index. 

And the holders aren't just Americans anymore. They are from all over the world. And they are looking at the money situation all over the world when deciding what to do. And, apparently, and I sure can understand this, many of these large share holders are very nervous that things are going to go down, and they are getting what they can. It's dog eat dog. 

The U.S. debt is part of it, but only a small part. The debt situation in Italy and other European countries widely reported, such as Greece, threaten the stability of the Euro, which just a few years ago was much more valuable than the dollar. Instability and violence in Mexico, and now London, adds to it. The conflicts in Syria, Israel, and other mideastern countries also adds to the uncertainty. What is going on in the U.S is, all in all, pretty stable compared to all of that. 

What Standard and Poors did was totally political. They are in the "destroy Obama" camp, whether it is merited or not. They are afraid that they might have to chip in a little more to fix the nation's problems and they don't want to. Great patriots! So, they do what they can - throw a flaming arrow at the economy. 

And it caught fire. But the fire from that arrow is only a little compared to the fires raging in other places around the world that are influencing peoples' opinions of the global monetary situation. What Standard and Poors did was miniscule. So why is the major media saying that it was the credit downgrade from Standard and Poors that caused the big stock market drop today? Hard to say - but it is only marginally correct. 

I keep expecting more from the mainstream media and I don't get it.

 

Donna Groves appears on "Comment on Kentucky"

Yesterday was Fancy Farm picnic in this little western Kentucky town that swells once a year. This historic event, the over 130th year in a row that it has taken place, is like a page from a history book. It has become such an integral event in Kentucky politics, that Kentucky Educational TV (KET), which is a statewide network of public television stations, not only televises live from Fancy Farm during the political speeches on Saturday afternoon, they now have their weekly Kentucky political news "talking head" show, "Comment on Kentucky," appear live from Fancy Farm the Friday before, which was the day before yesterday. 

I couldn't make it to Fancy Farm this year. It would have been hot and humid, as usual. I did watch the speeches today on KET. Nothing really earthshaking. Gatewood Galbraith, the regular independent candidate for governor in Kentucky, was particular harsh toward gov. Steve Beshear, who had just been on a week trip to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit troops, focused his entire speech gushing over the troops. That's well and good, but Galbraith called him on it, and not gently. Be interesting to see how it plays. I thought it might have been too harsh, not that the substance of what he was saying didn't contain some truth. Beshear cloaked himself in the flag and the military, avoiding the state issues of the day. Maybe a good strategy, maybe not.

But this isn't a review of Fancy Farm. This is a review of the appearance of Donna Groves, long time news director of WKYX/WKYQ radio stations out of Paducah, on Comment on Kentucky. She took the place of Bill Bartleman, former political writer for the Paducah Sun, who was always the western Kentucky political journalist that appeared on the show. But Bartleman has retired, and "Comment" couldn't have a show at Fancy Farm without having a western Kentucky political journalist on the show. I think Donna Groves was a good choice, and kudos to Mr. Fellman for picking a female. That said, there isn't too many functioning mainstream political journalists in western Kentucky at the moment. I believe this is Ms. Groves first appearance on the show - a boost for her and for WKYX.

I thought that Ms. Groves did a good job. She knows the politics of far western Kentucky well. But, she did fumble when handed a discussion on the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. At first Wellman called it the Calvert City gaseous diffusion plant. Opps. Brief that guy before the show...please! But he quickly joked that the name of it is the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant, so he should have known. OK, we'll forgive him on that one. 

Groves' fumble occurred when she was talking about how Sen. McConnell and Representative Whitfield were trying to get legislation passed that would allow the "reprocessing" of depleted uranium tails that are stored at the site. This would keep the plant operating for a number of years past it's planned shutdown next year. 

Instead of probing how this legislation flies in the face of McConnell's deficit reduction position that he recently has taken, Groves, after a brief explanation of the process, presented the issue to the panel as a question - "you get rid of the stuff and make usuable product, so isn't that a win/win?"

That was a bit disappointing to me. Ms. Groves has been around here a long time - longer than me, I suspect. I am sure that she knows the answer to that. The answer to that is....that, even if you ignore all other factors, such as environmental, that such reprocessing is a big money loser. It takes so many trips through the enrichment cascades to get a small amount of uranium, and the electricity use at the cascades is so monumental and expensive, that there is no way they can make money reprocessing depleted uranium. And when you add in the fact that a substantial percent of the depleted uranium is contaminated with plutonium and other transuranics, plus technitium and other fission products, it makes that prospect much dimmer and less likely.

You think they wouldn't have been doing it if it wasn't profitable? They had over 4 decades to do whatever they wanted out there - before there was any environmental or health awareness at all - and they didn't do any reprocessing then. Why? Costs too much - plain and simple. 

In fact, ironically, the government is now spending millions upon millions building a plant that is going to de-fluorinate the depleted uranium hexafluoride cylinders so that the stuff can go into some kind of safer storage than it is in now. If the government and industry thought that the stuff was really useful, why would they spending millions of taxpayers' dollars to make the material unusable? The whole reprocessing of depleted uranium tails is a classic case of a tiger chasing his tail around in a circle - and no, it doesn't end up in butter. 

So the interesting fact is that what McConnell (and Rand Paul) and Whitfield, are asking for is a subsidy to keep a large federal workforce in their jurisdictions working. Of course, the nuclear industry is one of the most highly subsidized in the country, but the republicans (and some democrats) seem just fine with that. It's just one small example of what hypocrites they are. But hey, as long as their cronies are making out well (and they are), the deficit is something to be discussed elsewhere. And that is the story that Groves should have been telling. 

But hey, she is surrounded by right wingers in her co-staff at WKYX, Paducah's talk radio show that plays Rush Limbaugh and the other ultra-conservative talk show folks. She has to go to work with them everyday. Maybe that's why she couched the depleted uranium issue as a question. It would come off as pretty positive toward the proposal, and she could be pretty sure that the others on the panel - Fellman, Ronnie Ellis, and Alford, the republican Associated Press reporter, wouldn't have a clue what the real answer to the question she posed was. But I do. And I had to tattle!