The Return of Shirley Sherrod

Politico reports Shirley Sherrod will be working for USDA, not in USDA.

Sherrod will be a contract employee leading one of three field programs designed to bolster relations between the USDA and minority farmers and ranchers. Support for the programs is among several recommendations contained in a sweeping, two-year study released Wednesday that examined decades of discrimination claims by African Americans, Latinos, women and Native Americans.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54970.html#ixzz1MKt4hgVD

Temptation

My wife and I have two cats, the senior of which was recently put on a special renal diet, or rather two renal diets: one of canned food, the other of kibbles.  This means keeping the two cats separate during meals, because the younger cat, Ginny, likes the kibbles, while Carrie likes the food she was used to having, the food Ginny still gets. 

Because neither cat cleans their plate(s), we often have to pick up the plate with the remaining food and stick it out of reach of the cat who wants it (but isn't the cat who should have it). Upon occasion, a cat outsmarts us.  Upon occasion, a cat succumbs to temptation, as shown in the slide show at this album, when the plate with kibbles was placed on top of an old popcorn popper.

The Blattman Infant Goes for World Travel Record

From a Chris Blattman bleg for travel advice:

"In case it’s relevant, between her third month and her eighth, the plan is to hit Canada, Spain, France, Turkey, and probably Ethiopia, Vietnam and Thailand."

What's Bad for the Military Is Bad for Civilians

Tom Ricks The Best Defense has a post citing a book by a Vietnam-era general:

Prudent military planners should draw the obvious conclusion that operations which span two administrations may lose their support in midstream. Very short operations like Grenada are about perfect. Long inconclusive operations like Vietnam are now known to be doomed. We may take this to be a legitimate consideration in connection with the doctrine governing operational art. It is a political refinement which is no less organic to the problem.

 I'd paraphrase this to say that prudent bureaucratic planners should draw the obvious conclusion that IT projects which span two administrations may lose their support in midstream.  (That's a conclusion reinforced by my review of the new Civil Rights Assessment report at USDA. )  It's not really a question of politics, but of Not Invented Here.  I hope they plan for MIDAS to be complete by Jan 20, 2013.

Oxfam Says "Ho-Hum" to Program Cuts

Via Farm Policy, here's Oxfam's blog with a big ho-hum at the idea of cutting farm program payments.  The writer focuses on the direct payments, which WTO doesn't consider market-distorting, and thus don't hurt developing countries (which is Oxfam's concern).

Discrimination Study at USDA

The Post reports USDA got the results of an $8 million study of discrimination yesterday.

The study, which officials described as voluminous, was not distributed. Among its more than 200 recommendations, which were released Tuesday, were suggestions that the agency’s chief diversity officer monitor hiring, that farm service officials be required to “thoroughly” explain reasons for denying loans to minorities and women, and that the USDA mount public relations efforts to change the agency’s reputation by emphasizing its focus on diversity.

I hope the study is better than that paragraph suggests:  I'd think we'd want all loan applicants to understand why their application was denied.

I checked the USDA website--nothing on the report.  I notebut forbear commenting on the fact there have been no FY2010 civil rights reports posted here.  Whatever the Obama administration is doing, they aren't being transparent with those reports.

Executive Bureaucrats More Accurate Than Congressional Ones

Via Project on Government Oversight, Roll Call has a piece describing a very high error rate on Congressional financial disclosure forms.

Changing Direct Payment Program

It's sounding more and more as if the direct payment program will be eliminated or drastically changed in the new farm bill.  The wheat and corn people like crop insurance, but not the cotton and rice people. Of course, the number of cotton and rice farmers is down, and only a fraction of the wheat and corn.  I'm not sure though how many wheat, corn, and soybean farmers in the South there are who don't grow cotton or rice and who might be satisfied with crop insurance.  That is, whether the problem the South sees with the actuarials for crop insurance is limited only to cotton and rice.

The Doha round of negotiations appears to have fizzled out.  I'm not sure whether or not that makes it easier to move money from the direct payment program, which complies with the WTO restrictions, to something else which is less compliant.

[Farm Policy cites an ERS study:

Meanwhile, an update from USDA’s Economic Research Service yesterday explained that, “While the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program and Federal crop insurance are both part of the farm safety net, they do not necessarily serve the same farmers. Looking at counties that received at least $20 in direct payments per cropland acre in 2008, or $20 in crop insurance indemnity payments averaged over 2007 to 2009, clear geographic patterns emerge [see graphical illustration here]. Direct payments tend to be higher in the Corn Belt (corn and soybeans), Mississippi Delta (cotton and rice), and the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast (cotton and rice). They are also high in Arizona (cotton), California (cotton and rice), and parts of the Southern Atlantic Seaboard. Crop insurance indemnity payments tend to be higher in the wheat-growing regions in the Northern Plains and parts of the Southern Plains, as well as North and South Carolina. Both programs are high in the Texas Panhandle (cotton and wheat) and across Alabama and Georgia (cotton and peanuts).”
 ]

The Story Behind the Forest Service Sale of Warehouses

I was fiddling around, resting from some landscaping efforts (these days I work a half hour and rest for 1 1/2) and found the Forest Service has a bunch of warehouses for sale in Illinois. They're listed on the White House's website for sales of surplus government property.  Now I don't think of the Forest Service as having a lot of action in the East so I was curious.  What seems to have happened is this: the Army surplused (presumably through a BRAC) the Joliet Ammunition plant which covered 20,000 acres near Joliet. They had to do an environmental clean up of the land.  The Forest Service picked up some of it, or maybe all of it.  They say:

The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie was established in 1996 on the former Joliet Arsenal. It is the first national tallgrass prairie in the country and one of the newest units of the National Forest System.   Midewin represents a major effort to restore 20,000 acres of farmland and industrial land to a unique American landscape and the complex ecology of the prairie. Its mission also includes providing education and recreation opportunities. All of Midewin’s programs and progress are thanks to the support of hundreds of volunteers and partner agencies, businesses, and organizations. Midewin Tall Grass Prairie site

So the 10 pages of warehouses  and other buildings, including some as small as 26 square feet, FS lists for sale are really storage buildings associated with the old Army Arsenal.

[Updated:  Turns out almost all of the 175 buildings in Maryland are at the Beltsville location of the Agricultural Research Service.  Wonder if the building my uncle once worked in is included.]

Turnover at FSA

Chris Clayton noted the turnover at USDA, including FSA.  One acting administrator has returned to California so another comes in from Montana. It's an undesirable situation.  The administrator may or may not be a great leader, but it's for sure that no acting administrator will be great.  The best you can say will be: "for an acting admin, he's pretty good".