Badlands Journal

A retired fellow they call "Badger," after killing a little more city grass with tobbaco juice, recently commented to us that he was "wrapped up in Warren Buffett from head to toe." He lives near the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe tracks. Last year Buffett bought the company. He wears Justin boots. Buffett owns the company. He buys his jeans, shorts and socks at Costco. Buffett owns $300 million in Costco stock. He buys his underwear, sweatshirts and fishing gear from WalMart. Buffett owns $2 billion in WalMart stock.

"Warren even makes my Fruit of the Looms," he said, "and I ain't too sure he don't make the straw hat I just bought for the summer.

"I don't mind the sound of train whistles," Badger said, "and out-of-town people I call love the sound of a train and think it's real authentic or something. The roper boots fit fine and don't cost too much. Costco jeans are a gift to mankind for a penny under $13, and the WalMart stuff is cheap and works pretty well -- which are the criteria for anything I put on my body. And that's not even counting the landlord's mortgage," Badger added.

"But, being such a poster child for ol' Buffett, I expect at least he'd send me a 'Warren' ballcap. Or maybe a belt buckle. I'm a Buffett Boy from head to toe," the old man said, killing a little bit more of that city grass next to the sidewalk. 

The point of the ferocious mudslinging going on in the Republican Party primary election in the 19th CD of California is simple: water and the Endangered Species A ct.
The future of the San Joaquin River Settlement will be influenced by whoever gets the congressional seat that contains the Friant Dam. In addition to the San Joaquin River. The 19th CD contains the headwaters of the Merced, the Tuolumne and the Stanislaus rivers, which provide water for a half a dozen eastside irrigation districts north of the dry bed of the San Joaquin River and if the Friant Water Users are included, 28 additional water contractors  south of it, fed by San Joaquin River water through the Friant-Kern Canal.

4-22-10

The Michigan Messenger

House bill would restore Clean Water Act protections...Eartha Jane Melzer

http://michiganmessenger.com/37085/house-bill-would-restore-clean-water-act-protections

Reps. John Dingell (D-Dearborn) and Vern Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids), together with Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) have introduced a House bill that would restore Clean Water Act protections weakened by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and guidance from the Bush administration.

We always read with fascination the opinions of Rep. Devin Nunes, Pathological-Visalia. Wondering again about Tulare County in light of his latest ravings below, we were reminded of a long-forgotten event in the history of California voter registration, in which in 1966, the Tulare County Clerk discarded more than 150 registration affidavits collected by volunteers going door-to-door in outlying communities simply because the people registered had Hispanic surnames.

Nunes' profound problems with reality began at home.

Moving on to the topic of his latest screed, the campaign of Richard Pombo, Crooked Cowboy-Tracy, to be reelected to Congress from a district he doesn't even live in, we were reminded of a common sight on the highway just west of Tracy during the halcion days of the speculative real estate bubble, back before Pombo's links to convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff (conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion) were so well documented that they persuaded voters in his old district to elect a liberal Democrat from the Bay Area and throw Pombo out. On the outskirts of Tracy, if you were coming in from the west, parked on a ranch road in the middle of the first farm field beyond the last subdivision on the western edge of town, there was a cattle trailer parked so that motorists could read the sign facing them on its side. The sign read: "Pombo Real Estate Farms."

"The federal government does not create the American dream that I have lived and that others have lived, although the federal government can surely kill the American dream," -- Carly Fiorina, Republican candidate for US Senate.

Actually the federal Central Valley Project created American dreams for a number of farmers and agribusinessmen in the San Joaquin Valley, although not in Hughson, where farmers get their water from the Tuolumne River, not the CVP.

We notice that the California Farm Bureau, which boarded its spaceship for another planet years ago, is still beaming down its usual feeble political signals. Unhappily for the scribes at this website, Valley politics this year is beyond satire. Unfortunately for residents of the Valley, its politics is the satire. You can't make it up.

Badlands Journal editorial board

4-8-10
Sacramento Bee
In Hughson, Fiorina promises farm water, eased taxes
By John Holland

Evidently, in addition to every other absurd, tasteless outrage against political life here in the Valley, now we have a hissy fit between two third-generation Portuguese immigrant princes, calling each other names. Devin Nunes, a Republican from the largest dairy county in the nation, learned a six-syllable word the other day and started calling Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who represents the second-largest dairy county in the nation, a "to-tal-i-tar-i-an." Cardoza took Nunes to the cowshed, replying, "Ele no tem vergonha," ("He has no shame") although between the two, Nunes would know a lot more about the inside of a cowshed than Cardoza ever did. Nunes serves on the House Ways and Means Committee; Cardoza serves on the House Rules Committee. Both have teamed up to help Westlands Water District and the Friant Water Users Authority to circumvent any ways, means or rules standing between them and water from the San Joaquin Delta and the San Joaquin River. They are both in their fourth terms.

As Badlands Journal anticipated several months ago, a hot topic of the fiscal year is credit default swaps bought to insure holders of California bonds against possible default by the Golden State, which appears to be rapidly going the way of Argentina,  It's the same-old, same-old derivative gambling, played by those familiar high rollers, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, who, incidently, also handle the bond sales here in our lovely unregulated, post-Glass Steagall Act economy.

Apparently, none other than the state Treasurer, Bill Lockyer (former attorney general, former state Senate pro tem, former assemblyman, and all-round argument for term limits in one politician), has complained to the bankers about this and wants information there is no doubt he will be unable to obtain on the buyers of CDSs on California bonds. Lockyer's remarks on any subject, after having served in the state Legislature and in statewide offices since 1973, should be taken with pain killers.

Big Mama McClatchy is lecturing us on doing our due diligence as citizens to prepare to vote in the June primary. Mama warns us against all the campaign flak that will be coming at us and urges us to consider carefully the serious issues facing us and to be sure to learn what each candidate's position is on these vital questions of the day.

Since we can't trust anything the candidates will be telling us on TV, in mailers, newspaper ads and on billboards, let alone in person, our minds automatically turn to Big Mama's stable of sage political analysts for the truth about what the candidates stand for.

However, we are frustrated now and, Badlands Journal suspects we will remain frustrated with Big Mama's coverage of the candidates in the June primary elections, because all it amounts to is a sports report on the candidates' fund-raising abilities. It's like batting averages in the Cactus League. It is a ridiculous substitute for political journalism. 

Yo, Big Mama, before you start lecturing voters on learning about the issues and how the candidates stand on them, take your own advice -- describe the issues and report how the candidates stand on them. At least quit drooling over all those big campaign media budgets. All we hear right now is a big slobber sound.

Badlands Journal editorial board