High Gas and Rural Life

The NY Times has an article on the impact that high gas prices have on rural areas. The focus isn't on agriculture, but on those who have to commute long distances. The data is tied to median incomes, and the percent of income represented by gas, so the poorest counties are the hardest hit. Here's a graphic, just in case the article doesn't link to it. Essentially lower New England through the Mid-West is less affected, the cotton South, NM, WY, MT are most affected (up to 15 percent of income on gas).

Lawns and the Environment

Tom Philpott at Grist points out a NASA study on lawns. It seems that we were environmentally correct when I was growing up. Never watered the lawn, never fertilized, left the grass clippings on the lawn; so the bottom line is that our lawn was a carbon sink. Flash forward and we could have gotten paid under a cap and trade policy for carbon. Best of all, from the environmental standpoint, for many years the lawn was mowed using a hand mower. I can still feel the blisters on the inside of my thumbs and in the my palms which I got every year the first time I mowed. Because there were no emissions, we were absolutely correct. (This contrasts with the rest of the country, where you need to water and fertilize, at least according to the author, and with now, when everyone uses power mowers.)

That's one difference between the Amish and the "greens". The Amish, at least some groups, will permit standalone gasoline engines to drive horse-drawn balers or milking machines. A true-blue green would never permit a gasoline engine to cross onto their property. ()

CRP's Future

Here's an article outlining the tradeoffs faced by the Conservation Reserve Program in an economy very different than that of the early 1980's, when it was pushed into law.

Implementing the Farm Bill

The High Plains Journal carries an interesting article on FSA's implementation of the farm bill. (I wish she'd noted the payment limitation changes take effect in 2009 crop year. Cynic that I am, that's plenty of time for the lawyers to figure out how to change legal structures to maximize benefits. No need to bug the FSA offices this summer.)

We Really Must Get Organized

That's what I say to my wife, almost every day. And she quotes Tonto back at me: "what's this 'we'"?

But now, via John Phipps, comes this site, where I can spend my time instead of really organizing myself. As in answering "yes" to most of the 21 questions to test whether I'm chronically disorganized. Growing old has one advantage, it gives one an alibi for one's forgetfulness and disorganization.

Friday Cat Blogging

Here's our two cats getting about as close as they ever do--watching something, probably a bird or squirrel, outside the window. They remind me of bureaucrats in different agencies, very protective of turf, quick to take offense, but sometimes willing to share space, particularly if there's some common focus.



Note the badly patched screen--Ginny, the cat on the left, still believes she's an outdoor cat and refuses to listen to our warnings about Mr. Fox.

Web 2..0 in Government

Government executive has an interesting article on the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the federal government. Some excerpts:

But the zeal of some early adopters of such tools concerns him. "The bloggers worry less about the mission than about getting more bloggers. Intellipedia is more interested in getting more users than in contributing to the mission," Wertheimer said. "We're not yet nudging the early adopters to tinker with the iPhone to see how the adversary will use it to subvert the intelligence community."

Wertheimer also said many analysts still are skeptical about new technology and Web 2.0. Analysts distrust technology staffs, believing they deliver only tools and toys rather than greater capability. His answer to the problem, of course, is collaboration. "We need courses [that include] both of them," he said. "We need to integrate tools. . . . Neurons need to talk to other neurons."

In addition, fear and distrust are impediments on the agency level, he said, noting that ODNI's efforts to convince agencies to share information and people often founder on the ambiguous legislative authority with which the office was created. Each agency is content to discuss other agencies' problems with ODNI officials, but unwilling to examine its own problems, he said. And few willingly follow actions recommended by the director's office for fear that cooperation will lead to more requests for change. "There isn't a sense of common purpose," Wertheimer added.

I don't know how one overcomes such obstacles. One way might be to blow up the existing organizations and start from scratch, but that doesn't work in the government. I think it was Steve Coll, whose book "The Bin Ladens" I just finished (strongly recommend), who commented in passing that the FBI seemed very good in collecting facts but horrible in accumulating them in one place and analyzing them, while the CIA was the opposite, good at analysis but bad at collection. That sort of reflects the cultures of the organizations.

D-Day Message

One of the first adult books I read was Dwight David Eisenhower's "Crusade in Europe"--I recommend it. Often as D-Day comes around we in the U.S. get reminded of his decisions--the drama of delaying D-Day for weather reasons and his writing a message saying the landing was a failure and his fault. That's good and fine.

What we don't remember is the ground commander was the Brit we oldsters love to hate (particularly in "Patton")--Monty. And so I'd never seen the message Monty sent to the troops, which Dirk Beauregard posts here.

Bureaucrat of the Day--Secretary Gates

DOD Secretary Gates has fired the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff. The problem was security of nuclear weapons, which had been screwed up twice. But in the background was Gates' problems with the AF on unmanned drones--apparently the flyboys haven't been as enthusiastic about them as everyone else. (Sort of hurts the self-image of a flyboy to be flying from behind a desk. Can you imagine Sen. McCain or Pres. Bush being enthusiastic drone flyers?)

Gates gets a nod for firing big shots for poor performance, something that rarely happens, even in the private sector.

FSA Bureaucrats at Work

The farm bill has been enacted and those busy beavers at the South Building have issued a series of notices providing early info on its effects.

Notice PL-173 says, which I missed in the law, but which makes sense, that the new payment limitation regs will apply for the 2009 crop year. I don't anticipate following these changes in detail--I've already lost my memory of what's what and spending any portion of my remaining time on earth trying to absorb payment rules doesn't make sense.

Notice DCP-187 covers the direct payment program. The 10-acre base limit will be interesting. Is that going to be significant enough for people to try to evade it. Because you don't have to plant to get payments, the definition of cropland may become more important. That's the sort of thing I enjoyed, trying to figure out the implications and to stay abreast of the schemes and wiles of the people trying to outwit you (i.e., the lawyers).