Politico on Farm Bill Budget and Politics

Politico has a nice piece on the farm bill.

Within the commodity title itself, about $50.2 billion would be saved by repealing current subsidies, chiefly the cash payments. From these savings, $28.8 billion would be re-invested in a new revenue insurance program that would give farmers added protection against “shallow losses” —not covered now by traditional crop insurance.

The new approach is most popular in the Midwest Corn Belt, and Southern cotton and peanuts have been promised concessions in the process. But there is still Southern regional sympathy with rice growers, who are put at a decided disadvantage and who had been banking on some relief through a more traditional system of target prices and supports.

Because of its high capital costs, rice has relied most heavily of the direct cash subsidies and will lose as much as $3 billion from the proposed change in commodity payments. At the same time, rice has been reluctant to jump into crop insurance, since the crop is grown in flooded paddies not vulnerable to drought.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75515.html#ixzz1syaYNKd4

Of course the rice growers have big bucks to throw around.  (I'm reading David Corn's latest book with a reminder of an estate tax modification pushed by Sen. Lincoln which got included in the deal between Obama and the Reps after the 2010 election.  Wonder who was pushing it?)

Food Trouble in India

When I was young, my title would have meant famines or food shortages.  This year, it turns out, the food trouble is too much grain for India to transport and store.

Is Canada Tightening Border Security With US?

Apparently the answer is "yes".

Senate Farm Bill--Committee

Via a number of sources (Des Moines Register, DTN, Farm Policy) here's the Chairman's summary of the draft farm bill which will be considered next week in committee.

I found this interesting:
SEC. 1613. IMPLEMENTATION.
6 (a) STREAMLINING.—In implementing this title, the
7 Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable—
8 (1) seek to reduce administrative burdens and
9 costs to producers by streamlining and reducing pa-
perwork, forms, and other administrative require-
ments;
12 (2) improve coordination, information sharing,
13 and administrative work with the Risk Management
14 Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation
15 Service; and
16 (3) take advantage of new technologies to en-
hance efficiency and effectiveness of program deliv-
ery to producers.
19 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary shall make
20 available to the Farm Service Agency to carry out this
21 title $100,000,000.

Of course, the Appropriations committee would have to give the money.

Texas Values: Football

From a Post article on the new quarterback who's going to take the team to the Super Bowl, Robert Griffin III:

" There’s just one high school, and football is king. Case in point: the team’s weight room is 10,000-square feet, at least three times the size of the Redskins’ in Northern Virginia."

Sentence of the Day: Friedersdorf

Writing at the Atlantic, Conan Friedersdorf does a good sentence:

"There is a glaring problem with that characterization: using sex and silly Web based games to get the attention of male Internet users isn't unorthodox at all. It's pretty much the default method!

 (The context is some on the right attacking an NIH funded effort to reach homosexual men with health information.)

Most Valuable Possession in 1775? Beds

The Boston 1775 blog quotes a letter from Paul Revere to his wife in besieged Boston:

"I receivd your favor [letter] yesterday. I am glad you have got yourself ready [to leave Boston and join him]. If you find that you cannot easily get a pass for the Boat, I would have you get a pass for yourself and children and effects. Send the most valuable first. I mean that you should send Beds enough for yourself and Children, my chest, your trunk, with Books Cloaths &c to the ferry tell the ferryman they are mine."

Aerial Photography/Satellites: Commercial and Government

I posted the other day about NRCS using aerial observation to check compliance with sod/swampbuster provisions.

There was a NY Times article today about conflict between the military and the National Reconnaissance Office.  It seems commercial satellites today are almost as good as the governments, particularly for the sort of imagery the military needs, and they're a lot cheaper.  So the issue is where to spend scarce dollars: on commercial contracts or developing the government's.

Along the same lines, I wonder if NRCS has looked at using Google Earth for a first crack at spotchecking practices.  Granted their imagery isn't updated often, certainly wouldn't be timely for FSA purposes, but it might work for some NRCS purposes.  Matter of fact, if the district conservationist "flew" the county through Google Earth once a year, couldn't she/he learn something?

Down the line, maybe APFO should tap into the commercial satellite facilities?

[Updated: added title]

Jury Duty Coming Up

From the juror instructions for Federal District Court:

What should I bring with me? What should I leave at home?

 

You should bring your juror identification badge, which appears in the middle of the left side of your summons, each day you report to the courthouse. The bar code is used to check you in at the jury office.[Barcoding jurors seems good--when I did jury duty in DC in 1970 or so we didn't have any badges.]

 

You must present a photo ID, such as a driver's license, when entering the courthouse. You and your belongings are subject to search. Please allow plenty of time to pass through security. It is very important that you arrive on time; if you are late, the entire case will be delayed. [Does this imply we're assigned to a case before we arrive? That's new to me but I see how it can work.]

 

Before they are assigned to a particular case, jurors often have to wait while important pretrial activities take place. [But this suggests we aren't assigned to a case??] You may want to bring reading material for those periods of time. You may also want to bring a sweater or jacket; the courtrooms are often quite cool.

 

For security reasons, you will not be allowed to enter the courthouse with cellular telephones, Palm Pilots, Blackberry e-mail devices, pagers, cameras, tape recorders, laptop computers or any other electronic device. [I wonder what happens to people's cell phones? Can they check them?  Pity the poor early adopters (and the mainstream these days) who use Kindle or IPad's for their reading.]

 
Potential weapons such as firearms, knives, pocket knives, scissors, letter openers, screw drivers, mace and pepper spray are also prohibited.

 This probably means little blogging next week, at least on days I have to go in.  Unfortunately getting to Alexandria from Reston is not easy.

Past Disasters

The roughly 3,000 people killed on 9/11 stand as a record.  But when you rank disasters in terms of the percent of total population killed it recedes.  For one, there's the 1,600 killed in a steamboat explosion (the Sultana carrying former prisoners of the Confederacy north).  Given US population then it would be more than 4 times worse than 9/11.