Sunday Morning Papers: S&P

Today's papers are filled with articles on S&P downgrading America's debt from AAA to AA+. This goes along with my Facebook feed having a number of anti-government/politicians/Obama postings about the S&P, many of them by people who have 1) no idea what S&P stands for, and 2) had not heard "S&P" before Friday.

For those of us who understand what Standard & Poor does, there are two items of information that are slightly consoling. First, that S&P is just one of many credit rating agencies and the others are not following suit. The Treasury Department is pointing out flaws in the report's methodology already. Secondly, these are the same groups of people who never saw sub-prime mortgage bundles as junk investments, and we all know how that worked out. With their track record, perhaps being downgraded is a good thing, since they cannot read the future.

I'm not going to get into what caused the downgrade right now, but I'm thinking it's a combination of the Tea Party being willing to hold the economy hostage, the unwillingness to increase revenues (i.e. taxes), and the rippling effects of cutting government spending to income and health of private sector business (and their ability to pay taxes). What gets me, is that if US Government bonds are no longer the safest possible investment, what is?

Prepare for a bumpy ride, my friends.

You Don't Like Us, Either

On August 1, the Congressional Approval Rate in a CNN/ORC Poll was at 14%. That's low, even for Congress. In the abstract, public polls show that most Americans dislike Congess, but they love their individual Congressman. Your incumbent Representative is voted back to Washington year after year because he does a good job and brings money and projects back to the district. Now, when the guy down the street brings money and projects back to HIS district, that's just Washington waste, and someone needs to vote the guy out of office.

However, with a 14% approval rating, Congress needs to take note: not even your own constituents like you at this point. There was some talk that punting the debt ceiling to 2013 was to allow the 2012 Presidential race to play out without this as the main point of debate, but Congress should be collectively sighing... there's a good 14 months between this debate and the next time that the 86% of Americans who don't approve of their job performance to be swayed by pretty bridges, educational initiatives, and a giant defense contract for the factory down the street. Except... that the debt deal just cut any chance of these things being brought back home.

Screw you, constituents!

Budget for Food

The Associate Press had an article out today on a study in the journal Health Affairs on the increased cost associated with purchasing food that will satisfy the new American Food Plate guidelines for potassium, fiber, vitamin D, calcium, etc. According to the researchers, getting all of these nutrients in the new amounts will cost each American an extra $380 per year, or $1,520 for a family of four. The AP tries some tips for how to cheaply increase your potassium intake by eating more potatoes and beans, and interviews some public health experts, and makes a great point... deeply buried: "Recent estimates show 49 millions American make food decisions based on cost."

When I first read this article, I was completely ready to do a quick post on cutting your food bill. The standard, garden, eat fresh foods, stop buying junk food, embrace leftovers, plan your meals, shop sales, use coupons, yadda yadda yadda... but there are plenty of these types of articles out there if you look for them. Instead, I was wondering, "What do you do when you've done all of this, and still can't buy food?" While it talks about the money budget, eating fresh foods involves prep time. If I'm working both a full-time and part-time job, do I have time in the budget to chop up vegetables and make a special run to the farmers market?

With over 45 MILLION Americans currently receiving food assistance (no, that's right, about 15% of the population), there is a substantial portion of the population that just can't find extra money for food. Food banks are finding their budgets slashed from federal grants, and state and local sources. So... where WILL Americans find the money to eat well? Especially since a poor diet is often contributing to the chronic diseases that are inflating health care costs? Answer this question, my friend, and I will personally nominate you for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Meanwhile... if you want to eat more beans to increase your fiber and potassium intake, try my recipe for White Bean Chicken Chili (along with prices):

• 3 small onions (grown in my garden, bulbs cost 1c/each: $0.03)
• 4 cups chicken broth (from leftover chicken bones: cost = time)
• 6 assorted peppers (also grown in garden, with one 50c from farmers market)
• Half a bag of frozen corn ($1.00 for bag, 50c used)
• 2 cans of white beans (Great Northern and White Kidney, 60c each)
• Cumin, tumeric, paprika and other spices from the rack that smell good
• Half a leftover roasted chicken. ($6.50 in chicken from the free range organic local farmer, but half a grocery store rotisserie chicken will work at $2.50)
• 2 tomatoes (Grown in garden. If you live in the Midwest in August, at least one of your neighbors is complaining about having too many tomatoes. Steal 2 from them.)

Saute the onions in a little olive oil until they stop making you cry and are a bit translucent. Add chicken broth, diced peppers, frozen corn, beans, and spices. Shread chicken. Add to pot. Let this simmer for 20 minutes. Dice tomatoes. Add, and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Eat. Enjoy.

Cost: $8.73. $4.73 if you go cheaply. The big cost with this is time. Time to shop the farmers market for deals, making giant batches of chicken broth, plan a garden, start seeds, transplant, weed, water, and harvest plants. So, make sure you budget for it.

It's Cream Puff Day

Today marks the beginning of the Wisconsin State Fair, and the first of 11 days in which I try (desperately) to come up with a good excuse to get to Milwaukee to purchase a dozen Cream Puffs.

Mmm... cream puffs...

The Tea Party is no Preston Brooks

No matter how uncivilized we think today's political climate is, no one has risen to Preston Brooks level yet.

Aw yeah... segue to one of my favorite acts in American Congressional history...

Think back to the magical year of 1856. The United States, just five years away from The Civil War, is voting on the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This was a battle over the very soul of our country: shall we open new horizons in our country to expand slavery, or shall we attempt to contain slavery to the places where it already is practiced. The act was so divisive, so contentious, that two years later, Stephen Douglas (D-IL), a co-sponsor of the act, would face a daunting re-election campaign against a state legislator and lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. Only one of those guys has a PBS American Experience episode with Doris Kearns Goodwin providing commentary.

Yet a verbal showdown against one of the most gifted orators of the 19th Century was preferable in comparison to what happened to the other sponsor. Andrew Butler of South Carolina found himself in a terrible situation. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) took to the Senate floor, and produced a tirade the likes of which have seldom been equaled, no matter how much Ted Stevens tried. Seeing a favorite uncle so maligned, Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, decided that the only rational thing to do was to grab his cane and bludgeon Senator Sumner on the floor of the Senate.

This wasn't in the heat of the moment, Representative Brooks sat down with his friends to debate what to do next, and grabbing his cane and assaulting a Senator was the result of this deliberation. He even brought along a fellow South Carolina rep to hold the rest of the Senate at bay with his pistol while he (Brooks) beat Sen. Sumner until his cane broke. Sumner was a man whose opinions of the equality of the races was miles ahead of his time, if you believe this interview with David McCullough on The Colbert Report (about minute 20, before he reads some lyrics from 'Baby Got Back'). Rep. Brooks was fined $300, but his pistol-wielding friend was censured. Senator Sumner, having suffered head trauma, spinal cord injuries, and PTSD could not return to the Senate for three years.

So, no, we're not at the point yet where a Tea Party member calmly and rationally decides to beat a member of the opposition within an inch of life. But I can't say I'd be surprised if it did happen. The difference is that while the Kansas-Nebraska Act literally effected peoples' lives - whether they could live as free men or not - today's debate uses such heightened rhetoric that it elevates mundane things like earmarks for transportation projects to the level of outlawing slavery. God help us if we do have another Preston Brooks over the debt ceiling deal.

Zucchini Season

Right now, the going rate of zucchini at the local farmers market is 3 for $1. Each zucchini is approximately the size of a football, and can feed a family of four for a week and a half. This is a very, very good thing. Sunday dinner has become a gentle saute oof green and yellow zucchini, some home grown tomatoes, and a slight handful of rotini with a dusting of Trader Joe's Organic Vodka Sauce and some shaved Parmesan. Crack open a bottle of chilled Pinot Grigio, and that is summer. Right there.

Found a quick recipe on Eating Well for Tortellini & Zucchini Soup (medium zucchini? What is that?), which sounds like a fabulous way to combine the pasta-zucchini-tomatoe triumvirate in a slightly different way. Need to swing by the local bakery for some crusty bread. Served with a basic salad topped by some cucumbers and olives, and I really have been eating well this summer!

I can feel it coming in the air tonight: It's coal.

Two weeks ago, the Natural Resources Defense Council listed the 20 states with the highest levels of toxic air pollutants. For Midwesterners, the list looks somewhat familiar: 1. Ohio
2. Pennsylvania
6. Indiana
7. Michigan
17. Illinois
18. Wisconsin
20. Iowa


Besides Minnesota, am I missing a Midwestern State? (No, Missouri doesn't count, but they were #16.) The cause that is cited is coal fired power plants.


Coal, burned in the Midwest, while increasingly, the farmland looks more and more like this:

There are detractors who say that the windmills are a blight on the landscape. Um, what exactly are they blocking? More endless sky and flatness? Normally, visiting relatives around the Midwest, there are three of these wind farms that I have to pass through. I cannot remember ever seeing these windmills standing still. Day and night, they are moving, producing power, and the only adverse effect is blocking the horizon and paving some access roads.


Meanwhile, a study at IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis... because Indianapolis State University was too long?) on soil samples near coal fired power plants found mercury deposits. With coal, we are poisoning our air, soil, and water. With wind, there's a swooshing sound and the ability to be hypnotized while driving between Rockford and Madison. So why do we still subsidize coal to the tune of $345 billion (according to a Harvard study)? Sure, we get cheap energy, but the cost of that cheap energy is being borne in higher health costs by the entire population, not just those who leave too many lights on around the house.

Sunday Morning Papers: Screw the Turtles

Today's Sunday Papers

I noticed today, a syndicated article from The Orlando Sentinel entitled "Feds are in no hurry to protect tortoises." Or, at least that was how it was framed in my conservative local newspaper. The actual article in the Orlando paper is still ominous, "Gopher tortoises are in trouble but won't get federal protection." Both titles lead to the same question, "Why does the Federal Government hate such adorable creatures?"

Who could hate turtles, by God?!? Our government is so broken, they are unwilling to protect turtles. TURTLES!

Yet, the awful truth is buried under the headline.

Fish and Wildlife Service said it can't afford the time or expense. "This determination does mean we believe the species needs to be listed, but we do not have the resources to pursue the listing," said Cynthia Dohner, the agency's Southeast regional director. "We know the gopher tortoise population is in trouble."

The issue is not departmental laziness, as asserted by the headline, but a genuine lack of funds to protect the species. As it stands right now - at this very moment - Fish and Wildlife Service in Florida is underfunded to carry out a core mission. And the situation will get worse before it gets better, as a main reason cited for the decline in the gopher tortoise is poor management of conservation lands, most likely because of limited resources to manage them.

Fish and Wildlife Service is a division of the Department of the Interior, which appears to be a hotbed of "discretionary spending" that is a prime target for spending cuts by the Tea Party and those scared of the Tea Party (i.e. incumbent Republicans and moderate Democrats, or anyone from the Center). The 2010 Budget approved $12 Billion for the DoI, yet for the 2012 budget, the requested proposal was for $12.2 billion, or an increase of less than 2%. This was the starting point of negotiations, so the proposed budget for the Department of the Interior for 2012 is now $9.9 billion. Given that two programs specifically designed to help saved endangered species both had their budgets slashed by 31% for the 2011 Budget compromise, one could assume that further cuts are going to be levied against that $9.9 billion.

Fish and Wildlife's budget already took some hits. In the Department of the Interior's account by account budget, F&W had an enacted budget in 2010 of $1.646 Billion, but the House of Representatives marked $1.192 Billion for FY 2012. That's a budget cut of 27.5% over two years. The number when you factor in inflation is higher.

What's even more absurd when you think about the budget is that the Department of the Interior actually collects revenues. Gate fees at the National Park Service, rents collected by the Bureau of Land Management, mineral extraction fees paid to the Office of Natural Resource Revenues - the DoI collects money, and a lot of this money is used to fund other DoI initiatives. However, with cuts across the board at the Interior, it looks like budget cuts to the department is also going to impact the amount of revenue that the department can collect, thereby furthering the availability of funds to protect endangered species.

Now, look at the debt ceiling debate. Harry Reid, who calls himself a Democrat, proposed a $2.4 TRILLION cut to discretionary spending. He is vague about where these cuts will be, but it's safe to assume that at least a portion of the cuts will be aimed at the Department of the Interior, who is also the largest land owner in Reid's home state of Nevada. This leads me to believe that if we can just screw over the endangered species, we can make America safe for the Job-Creators, who so far have not been able to create jobs because the government is mean to them.

Behold - the face of evil, he who is responsible for our national debt and recession!!

Sadly, I'm not too far off. The article on my lap ends with one person who is okay with not protecting the gopher tortoise. Steve Godley, biologist and representative for the Florida Home Builders Association, sees no reason to rush into saving the gopher tortoise, and least not while there is prime beachfront to develop. "They are not going to blink out overnight. They live to be 60 or 80 or who knows how long." Yes, we can punt this to 2070 at least. Then we can see if we still have a democracy around that has a bit of political will to do the right thing.

Photos from Wikipedia

THE Tax Question

If:

1) Lower taxes create jobs, and

2) Taxes are at their lowest rates since 1932.

Then why is unemployment at 9.2%?

There shall only ever be one Patti!

In an attempt to finally close down my spam-ridden hotmail and yahoo accounts, I'm transitioning to gmail. Sadly, this also means that until Blogger/Google Blogs lets me combine two Google accounts, my name is going to show up twice. *Sigh* Oh well. Should be able to post more often coming up. Wrapping up some projects should give me more time to write.