Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc – July 30 Come visit us at our new web site: www.interestingitems.org Leave your thoughts, comments and opinions. We look forward to hearing from you. Interesting Items Alex Gimarc [email protected] Interesting Items 7/30 In this issue: 1. Young 2. Corn 3. Setnetters 4. Backbone 5. Permit 6. Eagle 1. Young. Alaska Congress critter Don Young (R, AK) made some waves last week with an endorsement of leftist democrat candidate for US Senate from Hawaii , Mazie Hirono. Her opponent, former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle (R) is close enough in polling to make this a competitive race. Though I do not expect Young’s endorsement to do much other than stir up some muck in the water, it did raise his profile among conservative bloggers and in the Anchorage Daily News last week. Speculation over the weekend centered upon the first thing he talked about working together with Hirono (who is also a sitting House member) on native issues. The speculation was that he was sucking up to the Native Corporations up here that funded Lisa Murkowski’s reelection in 2010 as a write-in candidate. On the other hand, the rumor mill has it that he and Lingle got crosswise over something or another. She was nasty and he took the opportunity of cutting the ad to return fire publicly. Young is expected to easily win his nomination in the primary next month. Note that Lingle is a moderate much in the Scott Brown mold, so it is not outside the realm of possibility that she did something to irritate Young sufficiently to trigger him to endorse her opponent. 2. Corn. It is difficult to keep food prices low during a fairly serious drought while you are converting a significant amount of it into vehicle fuels. The ethanol program which started over 30 years ago as ostensibly a way to wean the United States off of oil for vehicle fuel has turned into a monster that is transferring large amounts of tax dollars and subsidies into the large agricultural corporations like Arthur Daniels Midland (ADM) who like it a lot. Unfortunately today it is literally eating us out of house and home. Over the years, ethanol has been ensconced into the clean air rules from the EPA as a required additive into gasoline during the winters in most parts of the country. Internal combustion engines do not particularly like the 10% ethanol mix as it burns hotter and is less efficient than standard gasoline. It also destroys them quicker than they would otherwise fail. You also get 10 – 15% less mileage than would from straight gasoline. Along comes a periodic drought in the Midwest that is harming production of corn, the primary component of ethanol, and you have a classic supply and demand problem. Given that neither the Obama administration nor the Harry Reid led Senate majority will lift a finger to put a moratorium on EPA ethanol requirements, and we set the stage for a spike in the prices of everything that is fed with or produced with corn (meat and poultry, for example). Nations ought not to be burning their food for fuel. Add to this mix, a bloated reauthorization of the farm subsidies via the Agriculture Bill that is currently stalled in the House because the House leadership cannot get the majority necessary to pass the $950+ billion bloated pork fest. Nothing in the legislation as currently written eliminates the ethanol mandate or limits the EPA from requiring it as an additive. Note that the EPA recently approved an increase in the ethanol mix from 10% to 15%, exacerbating the problem. This is a mess. And it is a mess because the government got itself involved unnecessarily in the marketplace. This must stop. Sooner would be better than later. 3. Setnetters. Alaska is suffering a shortage of king salmon statewide this summer. This is the third or fourth year with such a shortage and it has gotten worse each year. Under the current management plan, when the fisheries managers cannot get sufficient fish of a particular species into the rivers to make escapement (you need so many fish spawning to create the next generation of salmon), they start shutting down fishing via a predetermined list of usual suspects. This year, the returns have led to closures of sport fishing for kings statewide, and a nearly complete closure of set netters along the Kenai River in Southcentral Alaska . The set netters who work the shallow areas of the river inlet where the kings run are up in arms, flexing their political muscles and demanding local politicians move Heaven and Earth to ignore the management plan on the Kenai and let them put their nets out. Unlike the sport fishermen, unlike the guides who target king salmon, both of which are expected to simply suck it up, the commercial set netters have been out daily protesting the closure. To be fair, fisheries biologists up here do not understand completely the natural processes in the oceans that allow fish to return in desired numbers. They do know that they have reasonable escapement in past years and that the fry have been leaving the rivers in expected numbers. But something has been happening out in the oceans to those fry. This is likely tied to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) turning to the cold phase in the middle of the last decade, at which time the king and coho salmon returns started crashing. There are also suspicions that international fisheries ships operating in international waters have been targeting salmon before they return to Alaska , though nobody has been able to prove those suspicions. Interestingly enough, the cold phase of the PDO seems to favor great salmon returns into the Pacific Northwest , which is enjoying a banner year. While I sympathize with the set netters for their financial hardship this year, I must point out that in some ways, they have brought this calamity on themselves. How so, you might ask? The commercial fishermen statewide have long opposed aquaculture here in Alaska . They have backed and consistently fought all attempts to learn how to set up and operate fish farms in Alaska . We have legislation prohibiting all fish farming statewide. We cannot even study it. As a result, when the natural stock does not return, which it does from time to time, they are SOL. If they had gotten into the aquaculture business some years ago, they would have an out, and a way to dodge the vagaries of the natural world. There is a reason that other nations have embraced fish farming for salmon. There is a reason they are successful. It is long past time for Alaska commercial fishermen to join the real world before it grinds them into economic oblivion. 4. Backbone. Last week saw the announcement of a high powered group of leftists and union officials that will be fighting the repeal of Alaska ’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES). Backbone was set up as an unofficial lobbying group years ago. In the past it was headed up by former Alaskan Governors Hickel and Hammond, giving it significant political clout. This time around, it numbers among its membership the head of the local AFL – CIO, hardly a pro-business kind of guy. They promise to support candidates who support the taxation status quo that is slowly but surely strangling oil production on the Alaskan North Slope. We will hope they spend their money and wield their influence poorly. 5. Permit. The Obama Administration’s war on mining continued last week with the outrageous announcement that the federal Office of Surface Mining was questioning the validity of a sixteen year old permit extension for the Wishbone Hills mine in the MatSu Valley north of Anchorage. The permits were extended in 1996 and have not been questioned by anyone since, right up until the point when the mine owner Usibelli Coal wanted to expand the mining district last year. Local NIMBYs went nuts and started complaining to all the agencies. This one stepped up as the most recent speed bump. Not only did the feds claim that the 1996 permit extension was done under questionable circumstances, but they also claimed that permit extensions done in 2002 and 2006 were not properly done either. Note that none of this is taking place on federal lands. Note also that this is entirely a state issue with state permits issued via a state process in a state mining district. The Attorney General of Alaska has stepped up to fight the illegal thuggery by the Obama administration. Unfortunately this obstructionism has shut down Usibelli’s plans to start the new mine this summer. They already built the access road into the new site. 6. Eagle. From the Land of Franz Kafka comes an IRS tax valuation story. File this one under the heading “You can’t get there from here.” A family receives a sculpture of a Bald Eagle as part of its multi-million dollar inheritance. The sculpture is an expensive and famous one that includes part of an actual Bald Eagle. It is illegal under federal law to sell a Bald Eagle or anything produced with eagle parts. Because they cannot sell the object, the lawyers for the family write its valuation as zero. Not so fast, Eagle Breath. Now comes the IRS, eager to maximize the flow of money into the Treasury by any means necessary. The IRS writes a valuation of the sculpture at $65 million. They are demanding $29.2 million in taxes paid on something that cannot legally be sold by any American. In economics, the single definition of value is what you can sell it for. Unfortunately, the IRS does not traffic in economics. Today, it traffics in extortion. More later - - AG "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: Our Home Page http://interestingitems.org/ Archives can be found at http://home.gci.net/~agimarc Anchorage Daily Planet http://www. anchoragedailyplanet.com/ MatSu Valley News http://matsuvalleynews. blogspot.com/ Subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/ Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: Our Home Page http://interestingitems.org/ Archives can be found at http://home.gci.net/~agimarc Anchorage Daily Planet http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com/ MatSu Valley News http://matsuvalleynews.blogspot.com/ Subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/ Ray Stevens - Obama Budget Plan http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com/video/video/show?id=2600775: Video:4018994&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_video “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” Winston S. Churchill -- To join RichsRants, send email to: [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/richsrants?hl=en
