Corporate Money and Lobbying

Kevin Drum has a couple posts tied to an LA Times article.  They looked at the political contributions and lobbying of the soft drink industry, which rose dramatically when there was talk of taxing soft drinks in the interest of fighting obesity.  It's an important issue, particularly in light of the "Citizens United" decision of the Supreme Court.  But I comment on Drum's post there are other sources of leverage, particularly for what Ike called the "military-industrial" complex.  And Eugene Volokh, at Volokh Conspiracy, has an interesting post on California's experience with rules at the state level similar to the new Citizen's United regime.Apparently in CA the biggest contributors are not corporations, but unions and Indian tribes. 

Dairy Program Faces Revision

The Dairy Talk on Agweb Blogs includes a post covering possible changes in the dairy program, ideas of the head of the National Milk Producers Federation. Some points:

• going to an insurance program covering--return over feed cost.
• current price supports effectively put a floor under world-wide dairy prices. 
• the voluntary reduction program under Cooperatives Working Together needs help--too many free riders.

There's a bunch of comments.  Mine is similar problems were faced in the programs for grains and cotton. People thought other countries were free riding on our efforts to adjust production.  And long ago, in the days of the Hoover administration, efforts to talk farmers into reducing production without government payments or coercion fell flat on their face.

Snow and Ethics

We live in a townhouse cul-de-sac that's Y-shaped, about 30 or so houses on each arm of the "Y".  The Reston area has just gotten about 20 inches of snow, which offers an object lesson in the ethics of libertarian rugged independence.

Generally I'd say we're rugged independents here.  Each of us operates on his or her own time schedule and concepts.  Some get out before the snow has stopped, others will appear in a couple days. Some people shovel their way to the common sidewalk (on cluster property), and stop.  Some don't shovel.  Others shovel some part of the common sidewalk.

Once we get to the parking area, we're still independent.  The cluster pays for the area to be plowed (heavy 4-wheel drive pickup with front blade).  Usually that works okay.  But today, one person got his 4-wheel drive SUV backed out of his space (ignoring the advice to stay home and off the roads), and then got stuck.  Fortunately it wasn't at the entrance to the cul-de-sac, but it was at the base of one branch of the "Y", meaning that side didn't get plowed.  The late word is that the 4 wheel drive has gone out on two of the trucks of the contractor, so that side may never get plowed.

Even where the plow went, it couldn't do all that much.  For most cars, there's 5 feet between the back of the car and the plowed area, at least on the side that got plowed.  (Unfortunately because of the configuration I've got about 15 feet behind my car.)  So each of us is faced with the job of shoveling snow off the top of the car, from the sides of the car, and from the back of the car to have a chance to get to the plowed lane and then stuck. Now comes the test.  The best tactic which serves everyone's interest is to carry each shovelful of snow to the front of the car and dump it the other side of the sidewalk from the car.  The best tactic for each person is to get out early and dump the shovels of snow on his neighbor's car, or behind his neighbor's car in the plowed lane.  You may be hindering the people who live on the part of the cul-de-sac further from the street from getting out, but it saves you work.

New Idea: Farmers Markets

Not so.  As the Universal York blog reminds us, in the old days there were market buildings, some of some distinction.  See here for the interior and here for exterior.  Those who push farmers markets today need to examine the reasons why they almost vanished in the first place. (DC has the Eastern Market and I think a couple others, so they didn't quite vanish, but there's a fine balance of population density, transportation, refrigeration, economy, female cooks, household help, etc. which formed the ecology in which such buildings could be erected and maintained.)

The All-Powerful President

"Although departments and agencies are supposed to adhere to the president's priorities, they do so only half heartedly."  Quoted in a discussion at OMBWatch of the relative non-importance of the president's budget. Although CJennings quibbles with the description, I think it's fair.  Certainly with DOD there's a long history of gamesmanship between the DOD and the committees on the Hill that hardly qualifies as even quarter-hearted, much less half.

The Louisiana Purchase Versus the Alabama Holdup

The "purchase" refers to the deal Sen. Landrieu got for her support of health care reform; the "holdup" refers to Sen. Shelby putting holds on all Obama's nominees until he gets two projects for his state.

First He Killed His 51 Cows

And then himself.

See the story in today's NYTimes. Peter Applebone is fairly restrained in his piece on the suicide of a 59-year old dairyman north of New York City. The article says 51 cows is about the limit for a single person.  My uncle ran a similarly sized dairy by himself, at least until his barn burned and he had a heart attack. That tells me there's not been much productivity improvements over the last 60 years, except of course the cows these days probably produce 2-3 times the volume of milk.  But milking 51 cows, minus those dry, twice a day, every day of the year is an intimidating prospect.  It scared the hell out of me.  And at 59, and alone.  (Dairy isn't the most social occupation.)

I assume he raised his cows from calves and he knew them, knew their personalities.  That hurts. [Paragraph revised to clarify.]

Indian Cotton Production

One of  the "memes" of the sustainable ag/organic farming movement is the belief that genetically modified cotton seeds failed in India.  So I found this interesting:

The statistics of cotton production and consumption in different countries across the world were recently revealed by the International Cotton Advisory Committee, showing a steady decline in cotton production in Pakistan from 2.194 million tons in 2005 to 2.08 million tons in 2009. India on the other hand increased its cotton production from 4.097 million tons in 2005 to 5.34 million tons in 2009. Accordingly, India’s cotton export has increased while that of Pakistan is facing difficulty. China too has increased its cotton production while its indigenous consumption has decreased, allowing a greater margin for cotton export.
The increase in cotton production in India and China is said mainly to be the result of cultivating pest-resistant varieties of cotton seeds, which have not yet been introduced in Pakistan. On the other hand, Pakistan’s cotton cultivation has declined due to several factors ranging from cultivation of traditional varieties and via traditional methods, poor marketing, and failure in making timely payments to cotton producers.

A Time Long Ago

Orin Kerr at Volokh tips the Time article on an argument before the Supreme Court (apparently one of the cases which became known as  Brown v Board of Education case).

Government PR

Government Executive has an article on government PR, particularly in light of Congressional restrictions which date back to when Public Roads was part of USDA.