The Bush administration refuses to turn over subpoenaed documents related to the agency's decision to prevent California from enacting stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:26 PM PDT, June 20, 2008
...The administration's claim of executive privilege is the latest twist in the escalating legal and political battle over California's efforts to implement its own law combating global warming. Critics of the EPA decision contend that it was based on politics, not science or the law....
Towboat Senior Deckhand Al Davis, right, and Junior Deck Hand Randy Howard, left, work on securing barges they anchored earlier on Mississippi River the near Quincy, Ill., Monday, June 16, 2008. The barges which contain soybeans and corn will be anchored in the river until the flood waters recede. The Mississippi River is closed to barge traffic due to flood conditions that have destroyed homes and thousands of acres of corn and soybeans. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
After all, the dead of this country, whether it is in Iraq or domestically serve a purpose to their loss. The DEAD FOLKS in the Midwest have suffered the consequences so those 'DOWNSTREAM' have a better outcome after all !
It must be God's Plan after all. I mean George Walker Bush and John McCain would know best about that, right?
How ludicrous does this have to get? What will it take finally for Bush and McCain to pull the plug on oil exploration and begin to retool the nation's infrastructure to stop this travesty called GOVERNMENT !I tell you what, rather than 'deal with the issue' of Human Induced Global Warming, let's just blame this mess on The Army Corp of Engineers that don't have the RIGHT to do what's necessary because the USA has a Government under Republican Domination for Decades that have denied the issue of Carbon Dioxide Pollution right up to the last 'go round' in the Senate recently. So, let's make the Army Corp the SCAPEGOAT to this Republican travesty and forget about those dead. I mean Bush and Cheney can ignore over 4000 American soldiers in an illegal war in Iraq they can certainly ignore trivial domestic losses due to Human Induced Global Warming. Oh, I forgot. There is no such thing as Global Warming and Carbon Dixoide could never be a toxic gas !
Neocons are simply amazing people. They believe that 'control' of the media and the 'political spin' will stop any reality handed them. Well, it would seem THIS ACT OF GOD has its own idea of reality and a nation now faced with potential food short falls and escalating food costs have a lot to answer for when in fact, IT AIN'T OVER !
13 Dead In Midwest Floods; Hundreds Flee (click here)
Flash Flood Warnings Posted From Texas To Pennsylvania; At Least 3 People Missing
(CBS/AP) Residents of low-lying towns stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated Wednesday after a foot of rain pushed rivers and creeks out of their banks in the nation's midsection. At least 13 deaths had been linked to the weather, and three people were missing. Record or near-record flood crests were forecast at several towns in Missouri. Flooding was reported in large areas of Arkansas and parts of southern Illinois, southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio, and schools were closed in parts of western Kentucky because of flooded roads. "We've got water rising everywhere," said Jeff Korb, president of the Vanderbugh County, Ind., commissioners. The National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania....
Battle to save farmland at fever pitch (click here)
By Jeffrey Meitrodt and Tim Jones, Tribune correspondents
6:18 PM PDT, June 18, 2008
URSA, Ill. -- Despite a history of heart problems, Larry Ippensen lifted shovel after shovel of sand Wednesday afternoon with scraped and sunburned hands in a desperate sandbagging effort to save his 160-acre family farm from a nearby faltering levee."If the levee goes, my crop is gone," said Ippensen, 62, who spent more than five hours filling bags with his two adult children and a 12-year-old grandson.
For miles around Ippensen's corn and soybean farm, the Mississippi River – raging at all-time flood highs or near them – devoured thousands of acres of prime farmland. At least nine levees were overrun Wednesday alone and more than 20 in recent days....
FEMA and The Farmer's Home Administration AIN'T GOT ENOUGH MONEY to reconstruct the Agricultural Infrastructure of the USA, yet alone rebuild levees. Do you have the remotest idea of the monies needed to supply 'loans' to farmers that have lost crops? Plenty. Do you know the monies approved for the illegal war in Iraq by the House today? Outrageous. Where are the priorities to a nation abandoned by it's Executive Branch to the ravages of corporate profits and dealings? The 'sink hole' called the USA Treasury keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper and we haven't seen any substantial impeachment hearings yet. Amazing. And Wall Street thought all they had to do was restructure mortgages.
What.
A.
Joke !
And of course all this flooding was a complete surprise to the Executive Branch.
EXCEPT.
FOR THE COMPLETE SURPRISE LAST YEAR !
Central U.S. staggers from storm punches (click here)
updated 10:25 p.m. ET
Tues., Aug. 21, 2007
Ohio latest area to see new flooding; death toll reaches 22
RUSHFORD, Minn. - Water-weary residents across the Midwest began counting their losses Tuesday as damage estimates from this weekend’s deadly flash floods climbed into the tens of millions.
The rain moved into Ohio, where roads flooded, schools canceled classes and residents were rescued from flooded homes by boats.
The death toll from the two storm systems — one in the Upper Midwest and the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin in Texas and Oklahoma — climbed to 22 when searchers found the body of a man tangled in a tree about four miles from his wrecked, upside-down car near a creek south of Lewiston, Minn....
Regardless of the 'insurance' Bush has given to their Red State Agricultural Community, that isn't going to return the crop losses or a reasonable food policy for the people of the USA ! Anyone hungry or losing their homes due to food prices ?
You know its a darn shame that the USA's farmers will end up 'with relief' money when the cost of agricultural products, especially biofuel products, are going through the roof. Amazing. The 'very product' that would serve to bring farmers OUT OF LONG STANDING DEBT, is being washed away along with the soil. Darn shame.
Agricultural Assistance Act of 2007 (click here)
On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed into law the "U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007" (2007 Act).
The 2007 Act provides approximately $3 billion in agricultural disaster aid for America's farmers and ranchers. The aid will cover crop losses, livestock and feed losses, emergency conservation practices and dairy losses. The Act also extends the Emergency Forestry Conservation Reserve Program (EFCRP) and the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program.
This page serves as a clearinghouse for information about the farm programs addressed in the 2007 Act....
