It's Relative

Since we moved to Bozeman I've gotten to know and appreciate my brother-in-law Jack much better. He braved the Montana winter to spend a week with us around Christmas and was a gracious and generous host to our oldest two kids during their trip down to Texas early this last summer.

The purported purchaser
Sam Houston State ROTC

Jack and his sister own and operate a business -- Wagamon Printing it is called. Jack is not the shy and retiring type and he actually does buy ink by the barrel. A number of years back he got up in arms about how the landed gentry in his home town were pulling strings with the local government to receive property tax abatements and divert funding from critical infrastructure projects in residential areas to support commercial development that served insider land holdings. So Jack pulled a Ben Franklin. He geared up a printing press to publish a newsletter ("The Taxpayer") that he distributed to voters exposing questionable transactions and back room shenanigans. He then ran for and was successful in securing a seat on the city council where instead of being merely a thorn in the side, he became a thorn on the dais.

Jack lives in Huntsville, Texas, which is best known for being the home of the state penitentiary that includes the state's execution chamber. It is also the home of Sam Houston State University, with its 18,400 students in 80 undergraduate, 54 masters', and 6 doctoral degree programs. Its alumni include newscaster Dan Rather and film director and screenwriter Richard Linklater, best known for the cult movie, Dazed and Confused.  

Huntsville Item reports on the SHSU scheme.

Anyhow, it seems like Sam Houston State was flexing its muscles, and aiming to buy up some local property at a near confiscatory price using the power of eminent domain. Jack noticed. While he may not be a city councilman anymore he still has his critic's pen and he used it to communicate with the local rag.

The sole issue is that the state is attempting to steal property from a private citizen.

Rest assured I am not using the word “steal” lightly in this context. When Dana Gibson chose to lie to the attorney general in order to con the state of Texas into misusing eminent domain, THAT IS STEALING. There is no good way to say it because what she is doing is that bad. For her to say that the property is “critical” to the operation of SHSU is ridiculous on its face. While it may serve a critical function in saving her pride and Al Hooten’s credibility, I can assure you Sam Houston will continue to operate with or without the property in question.

While the battle rages on between the state and Mr. Maalouf, do not be distracted by rhetoric concerning the “proper use” of the property or the “best use” as far as the “community” is concerned. As a citizen of the United States of America, I am insulted that someone would have the nerve to write to the newspaper saying what Mr. Maalouf should or should not do with his property.

And when I say “someone,” I mean Sally Nelson, in her letter to the editor in the Sept. 11 edition of The Huntsville Item. What Mr. Maalouf or anyone else does with their property is none of their business. Ms. Nelson and Dana Gibson need to BACK OFF! If this sounds mean, it’s supposed to. It’s about time somebody got angry and came to Mr. Maalouf’s defense by calling a lie a lie and stealing what it is — STEALING!

As a property owner and taxpayer, I am angry beyond words that my hometown university is trying to steal prime, main street, retail property from a businessman whose only crime was to put in the winning bid on a piece of land.
While we’re at it, I am insulted as a veteran of the U.S. Army that Dana Gibson is trying to use the ROTC program and veterans as an excuse to try and take Mr. Maalouf’s property. This does not reflect the values or spirit of the Constitution of the great country I and every other veteran took a blood oath to protect.

In closing, I would encourage our citizens and particularly our business owners to speak out against this terrible injustice taking place in our town. It is not enough to say it behind closed doors at a time like this. If Dana Gibson gets away with this, no one’s property will be safe.

Whoa baby!  I love it!  No holds barred verbal sparring.  Calling out the smile sweetly and stab you in the back "community" lovers. Thwack!  Boffo!  Defending constitutional values!  Go for it!  

A few days later, Sam Houston State gave in.  The Huntsville Item reported,

HUNTSVILLE — Sam Houston State University will no longer pursue acquisition of the Army Reserve building property at 2257 Sam Houston Ave., SHSU President Dana Gibson announced Monday.

Gibson released a statement midday Monday that the university would find an alternative solution for its ROTC and Veterans Affairs programs.

She and other SHSU officials declined to comment on their decision after an almost three-month contest with the city of Huntsville and the buyer of the property, Tarek Maalouf.

The newspaper continued,

The public dispute at times turned contentious. Members of the Huntsville community, Voters for Lower Taxes, the Sam Houston Tea Party, and protest group Eminent Doom came together to protest not only proposed action by SHSU, but against eminent domain as a practice for acquiring land in a case like this one.

Maalouf, also owner of the Draft Bar, accused the university of retaliating against him after he put up signs around the bar and army reserve building property that read, “Don’t Take My Land.”

Maalouf and his attorney Lanny Ray complained that SHSU police issued an unusual series of tickets Aug. 28 to Draft Bar patrons, including those who parked across the street from the bar on Sam Houston Avenue after 5 p.m. in a parking lot assigned to faculty, staff across from the bar.

By the way, Jack's business also produces signs -- just saying. The police state tried its hardest, but this is a victory for the Tea Party, Jack, the sanctity of private property and good government supporters everywhere. Congratulations Jack and friends!

Don't Take My Land signs ringing the subject property.

.

Educate the Dream

I don’t often weigh in on the immigration debate, but I have views. One of these is young people, no matter who they are and how they got here, they need to be educated. Education is a gateway to productive participation in our society. All young men and woman who are motivated and work hard deserve educational opportunities so they can contribute and may have real hope for the future.

Back in Arlington I was proud and privileged to get involved with something called the Arlington Mill High School Continuation Program. It runs approximately 300-350 students. I would say that about 90 percent of the students are immigrants or children of immigrants. They are mostly Hispanic, ESL and HILT students, but their collective heritage spanned the globe -- Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East are all well represented, in addition to Central and South America. The continuation program is an alternative education vehicle with night classes and day sessions, set up to flexibly allow students 16 years of age and up, almost all of whom work, to complete a high school education that otherwise would end up in the dropout statistic bin. Options include on-line courses. It's a stay in program. 

When I got involved, Arlington Mill was an orphaned program in the sense, that at critical junctures, no one outside of its administration was speaking up for the program or on behalf of its students (the traditional schools are well represented by PTA's). The students themselves had no organized voice, not even a student council, a problem that was only later rectified. The program was being pushed around and losing ground. The situation was difficult for Arlington Mill students but easy for me, because all I had to do to help, literally, was to speak up.

Shortly after I left Arlington, the promised change from program to high school was implemented. Arlington Mill High School had its first graduation ceremony last spring. Here is the graduation video.

 

If you have some time it is instructive and uplifting to listen to the speakers. The School Board Chair recounts the story of the young man who sold three cows to leave his native land in order to finance his journey to this country in search of his mother. A young lady speaks of the joys and challenges of the Arlington Mill experience.  A young man recounts the seven year journey it took to get to this point. My friend Barbara Thompson, Arlington Mill principal (she was called “administrator” when Arlington Mill was still a program) tells the graduating students, as I heard her say so many times, to read, read and read and never stop. You would be hard pressed anywhere to find a group of students happier and prouder of earning their high school diplomas. 

Dr. Thompson worked hard with the state to drive the adoption of an alternative accreditation program for Arlington Mill. Traditional graduation time frames do not apply.

"It may take a little longer, but they get there," Arlington Mill Principal Barbara Thompson said. "The final outcome is much more important than the snapshot in time the data provides."

Arlington business persons are coming forward to give Arlington Mill students something to shoot for.

Edson Flores Awarded Arlington Rotary Challenge Stipend 

Edson Flores, a graduate of the Arlington Mill High School, was awarded a two year stipend of $10,000 to help with his college expenses by the Arlington Rotary Education Foundation on Thursday, July 18. The Foundation is the Arlington Rotary Club’s non-profit organization for helping Arlington students.  It created the Arlington Rotary Challenge Stipend to help Arlington high school graduates who have made a dramatic turn-around in their educational pursuits and who need financial support to attend college.  An Arlington resident, Edson graduated from Arlington Mill in 2012 and is a server at Gordon Biersch Restaurant.  He will attend Northern Virginia Community College studying business.  For the past year, he has been mentoring and tutoring students in math at Arlington Mill on his days off.   

Arlington Mill High School Principal Barbara Thompson said “We are proud of Edson, a prime example of Arlington Mill students who are dedicated and committed to completing their high school diplomas. Congratulations to the Rotarians for helping him pursue his college dream.” 

Rotarian Joe Lott, Foundation President, said “Edson’s activities exemplify Rotary’s spirit of service above self.  Our club is pleased that we can help Edson achieve his academic goal.” 

About Arlington Mill High School

Arlington’s newest accredited high school has a full diploma awarding program, offering academic, career and technical courses in day and evening classes. The school will be co-located with the Arlington Career Center beginning in August 2013. Students enrolled in Arlington Mill High School receive their diploma from Arlington Mill.

Arlington Mill
joins hands
around the world.

Yes! Arlington Mill moved to the Arlington Career Center campus in my old neighborhood last month. This is a win/win for the school because now all the students will have ready access to STEM courses and vocational and technical training, as well as easy access to the school itself (the campus is located just off Columbia Pike, easily accessible by bus from the west end where most of the students live). It looks like the strategy of quietly running the night program at the Career Center problem free for several years has paid off.  In the 2006-2007 time frame, my then neighbors went ballistic about the prospect of having Arlington Mill vagrants and criminals across the parking lot from their precious children who attend the neighborhood school on the other side. It was NIMBY, NIMBY, NIMBY. Now the liberal insularity (these people voted 70 percent for Obama, they claim to be open and inclusive, they are phonies and liars to the core) is overcome. 

All the best to Arlington Mill High School and its faculty, staff and student body.

Saturday Pictures

Saturday Pictures

September 21, 2013

(click to enlarge)

Grilling mile high.  Fresh, scrumptious, mmmm, come and get it!

Chainsaw moose anyone?  The food is quite excellent as well -- The Desert Rose in "downtown" Belgrade, MT.

Storming over the Bridgers.

Early season snow cap on Mount Baldy.

The Bridger Range. Fall is here!

Rising Median Incomes

The undeniable truth is median incomes are down most everywhere you look. But in the incubus of federal government inside and surrounding the Washington DC Beltway it is distinctly different. In our review of county by county median incomes, we blogged last spring,

[n]ot so in the Washington DC area.  Huge surges in federal expenditures made the National Capitol Region recession proof and enriched hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contract personnel.   Households throughout the region, despite in many cases being deeply in debt and highly leveraged, never felt the pain.

Now this week the Wall Street Journal has come out with a report that confirms our analysis. And more accurately and comprehensive, there are millions of federal government amped beneficiaries spanning the entire DC Metro area.

American incomes have tumbled over the last decade. But for many people in Washington, D.C., it’s been something of a party.

The income of the typical D.C. household rose 23.3% between 2000 and 2012 to an inflation-adjusted $66,583, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, its most comprehensive snapshot of America’s demographic, social and economic trends. During this period, median household incomes for the nation as a whole dropped 6.6% — from $55,030 to $51,371. The state of Mississippi, which had one of the biggest declines, dropped 15% to $37,095: Nearly one in three people there have an income that is near the poverty line. 

The Washington, D.C. metro area — which includes the surrounding suburbs in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia — has it even better, with a median household income of $88,233 that ranks highest among the U.S.’s 25 most populous metro areas. Tampa, Florida’s median income, by contrast, is under $45,000.

The lineup is changing a bit as the incumbent administration's A team moves along to make big bucks in the private sector while Obama struggles to play with his B and C teams, but the results are the same.  It pays to live where Obama spends, Jack Lew (previously Tim Geithner) borrows and Ben Bernanke (soon to be Janet Yellen) prints the money (real or inflation adjusted incomes are going down because this process devalues the dollar).  

DC Metro Area incomes surged ahead
 of the tech sector heavy Silicon Valley.

As for the rest of you who live throughout the U.S., you can forget it. Listen to and worship the leftist and big government rhetoric but live the reality. Declining incomes are a very real tax that is being paid to support massive deficit spending.  Good luck to all.

The Never Ending Flows of Superstorm Sandy

The mainstream media and its government handlers have spoken. The raging inferno that consumed dozens of businesses and several city blocks in Seaside Heights, New Jersey was caused by faulty wiring -- damaged by super storm Sandy. The result of course is,

Gov. Chris Christie's administration decided the state will use Sandy-recovery money to pay for debris removal. He also pledged $15 million in Sandy money to help rebuild the burned businesses.

How convenient! Christie's fiscal bear hug with Barack is the gift that keeps on giving.

Let's look at what other maladies along the Jersey boardwalks can be linked with Sandy, providing basis, perhaps, for more equitably and completely distributing the Sandy largess up and down the Jersey shore. 

Sources say Sandy's hurricane force winds blew Philly Cheese Steaks up to New York. The government needs to stabilize food vendors lest the next storm blow their sausages back to Italy.

Sandy driven sea spray and rain blew into boardwalk arcades, seeped into and warped Skee Ball lanes. Fairness is sought. Funds are needed to get the games back on the level.











Storm rains waterlogged now limp and musty knock-down dolls. Arcades need to firm up and replenish targets on boardwalks in the Wildwoods, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Atlantic City and points north. This is an economic development issue you know. What do the Obamanista's call it?  Forward!

Instead of earning "Choice" stuffed animals, dimes floated in targeted bottles out to sea, where they will swirl in the Gulf Stream until retrieved across the ocean by an Irish lad or lass. Meanwhile, lads and lassies need the dime toss restored to support their summer visas to work the games along the shore.  It's for the kids you know, poor immigrants each one.






The Nathan's hot dog eating contest championship belt disappeared, no doubt flotsam somewhere in the back bay marshes. Hot dog food security is threatened. The contest must live on.

Finally, Mack's Pizza in the Wildwoods was driven into bankruptcy when Sandy blew away away the $2.00 a slice sign and revealed historical non-compensatory prices lying beneath. Money just doesn't go as far these days. I wonder why?

Millionaires Rally for Barack

Barack Obama's appointees on the Federal Reserve Board exceeded the expectations of the moneyed class, voting 9 to 1 to continue printing a trillion dollars a year to boost the asset values of the rich.

Wall Street workerss keeping
 up with the Feds' flow of funds.

U.S. stocks rallied 1% across the board after the Federal Reserve announced it will not reduce its $85 billion monthly asset purchasing program. The unexpected decision propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) to close at fresh record highs, topping the previous records of 15,658 and 1,709, respectively; both set on August 2nd. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) rose 1% to close at a 13-year high of 3,783. And gold prices saw even greater gains than stocks rising over 4% to $1,360 an ounce in after hours trading.

The Fed's decision came as a big surprise to many on Wall Street who were expecting a $10 billion to $20 billion reduction in monthly stimulus.

In the Obama economy it takes money to make money. It seems like a record is set almost every day. In the meantime, ordinary workers and savers are earning fractional interest rates and paying banks to maintain their accounts. Way to go Barack!

Let It .....

Yes, the blue stuff is snow.

Suckers!

Remember, "If you like your plan you can keep your plan?"

Except that,

Walgreen Co. (WAG), the biggest U.S. drugstore chain, will move its workers into a private health insurance exchange to buy company-subsidized coverage, the latest sign of how the debate over Obamacare is accelerating a historic shift in corporate health-care coverage.

Walgreen’s decision affects about 160,000 current employees and follows similar action this year by Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) and Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) As an alternative to administering a traditional health plan, all three will send their employees to an exchange run byAon Plc. (AON) Fourteen more companies will join in 2014 when 600,000 people will participate, Aon said.

There is more,

Other large employers, including International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Time Warner Inc. have this year moved their retirees into private exchanges from company-picked plans. Trader Joe’s Co., the closely held grocery store chain, has said it will move part-time workers at its 400 stores onto the Obamacare exchanges, and United Parcel Service Inc. decided to drop health benefits for 15,000 of its workers’ spouses who can get insurance through another company.

What Obamacare has done is give large employers an off ramp from providing healthcare for their employees and approbation and a mechanism for shifting healthcare cost increases onto their workforce.

CBS This Morning’s Jill Schlesinger calls this “a big deal,” and points out that this gets Walgreens and other corporate employers off the hook for compliance costs:

“I can’t see how this is going to be good for the employee in the future,” Schlesinger adds, given the CBO projection yesterday of health-care cost escalation over the next twenty years.

Once Obama's politically calculated delay in the implementation of the majority of the provisions of the horribly misnamed (unless you are big business) Affordable Care Act runs out after next year's mid-term elections, it will get even worse. Bloomberg news calls the current defections an "Exodus." The metaphor train will bridge to deluges and floods of corporate defectors. The big companies love Obama, they love him so much. 

Suckers! 

Top August Posts

September is moving and shaking on Along the Gradyent, but let's take a moment to go back to August, to look at its top ranked posts.

1. Topping the list was a guaranteed to be popular guest post by Teresa. She delved into the prickly subject of cacti. In Mildly Painful, Painful and Very Painful -- Texas Cactus Teresa ran down the range of cactus hazards for mature adults, young children and everyone in between. The family that blogs together stays together. And while you are at it, wear shoes and watch where you sit.
2. Talking about shaking things up, number two in page views was Earthquake! Or How Quake Lake Was Formed. We ventured on a day trip over to Virginia and Nevada Cities, and traveled down towards Yellowstone, stopping at Quake Lake. It's a geological marvel, formed on August 17, 1959 when a 7.5 earthquake cleaved the the side off a mountain, dammed Madison River Canyon and formed Earthquake Lake, 6 miles long and 190 feet deep, before creating a spillway that got the Madison River flowing once again.
3. Barack Obama believes 40 miles of fiber optic cable paid for by his stimulus package produces hundreds of jobs, while 1,500 mile of pipeline constructed, operated and paid for by sustainable economic enterprises in the private sector creates a few dozen billets. Go figure or go read Our Job Denier in Chief and this and that and the next thing to learn about Dear President's learning opportunities on the jobs and economic activity front.
4. In a gratifying first, a Saturday Pictures post made it to the a monthly top postings list.  We spent a weekend in Livingston where we shot some scenes and captured a childhood love affair with Wilcoxson's Ice Cream.
5. In Sequester as in Scare-Quester -- Montana Style we wrote on how the mainstream media went hook, line and sinker for the hoax that we would be engulfed by fiery infernos due to the sequester.  This was, of course, just a few weeks previous to the Rocky Mountain front experiencing rains of "biblical" proportions, which according to Harry Reid is due to climate change that the government is powerless to control in light of the sequester's funding constraints.  How many tens of trillions of dollars do you need to pay off greedy Democratic dweebs?

Use this opportunity to take a quick look back, but most of all I encourage keeping up this month.  Summer's passing means more blogging.  Thanks to all who read and support.

Kudos to the US Park Police Helicopter Crew

If you were watching yesterday, the US Park Police helicopter was there, airlifting trapped personnel and victims to safety from the roof of the Naval Sea Systems Command building in the Navy Yard complex.

The Park Police helicopters have been wherever needed again and again, brave, persistent when required, and daring and effective.

Like in 1982, when the Park Police helicopter pulled Air Florida Flight 90 victims from the frigid waters of the Potomac following an unscheduled stop on the 14th Street Bridge.

US Park Police helicopter pulling victims from the icy Potomac River, January 13, 1982, pictured from the
express lane (Rochambeau Bridge) span of the 14th Street Bridge. The northbound span in the background,
with a portion of the guardrail sheered by the plummeting plane, was renamed for Arland D Williams Jr. who unselfishly passed the life ring hanging from the helicopter rope to a fellow passenger before submerging and perishing in the river.

For decades now, the copter has been there like for every inauguration, demonstration and major event along the National Mall, to monitor, corral lawbreakers and control the crowds as needed.

Picture of pre-inaugural Clinton-Gore event, from US Park Police helicopter, January, 1993.

It has protected the White House.

A U.S. Park Police helicopter was on scene almost instantly after the Pentagon was struck on September 11, 2001, radioing information on the extent of the damage and the progress of the fire to the Arlington County Fire Department. 

And then landing on September 11th to whisk victims away from the scene. 

Years later, the U.S. Park Police helicopter was ten miles up the Potomac to rescue stranded motorists when River Road became a river.

And it's there to speedily transport accident victims along the George Washington and Baltimore Washington Parkways.

The helicopter hovers over the Anacostia to rescue bald eagles stuck in the muck.

And I shot these photos of the Park Police helicopter up immediately in the aftermath of the August 23, 2011 DC earthquake.  

Park Police inspecting
Washington Monument.

Park Police helicopter inspecting the Smithsonian
Castle building.

The U.S. Park Police helicopter does winter duty in the sky patrolling the snowed in Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

The U.S. Park Police are up in the New York City metropolitan area too, assisting on Staten Island in the recovery from Hurricane Sandy.

And providing access to the storm swept grounds of the Statue of Liberty.

And yes, the Park Police was at the Navy Yard in Southeast DC yesterday, providing reconnaissance, pulling victims from the roof and helping trapped personnel to escape.

Park Police helicopter flying above the USS Barry, docked at Washington Navy Yard, September 17, 2013.

Look! It's the Man in the Ice Floe.

Here is the extent of the Arctic ice pack on August 26, 2012.

And here is the extent of the Arctic ice pack on August 15, 2013. See how it has grown! The additional polar coverage, demarcated by the area between the old and the orange line in the picture above, is greater than the size of Europe.

Now, why was the ice pack so small?  After extensive research the cause is determined. We dusted off the surface and found the source of hot air.

Al Gore! Case closed.

Score: Washington Nationals 1 Barack Obama 0

The petulant presidency continues. 

Washington Nationals cancel game tonight in response to DC tragic killings.

Barack Obama goes on minutes after in midday, before the blood is dry, with hyper partisan political speech -- business as usual with a typical array of political mannequins arranged behind.  

This man is an embarrassment and anyone who supports him diminishes him or herself.

Tiger and Sergio

Tiger Woods fell back at bit in the BMW Championship today, mostly because he picked up a two stroke penalty for unintentionally moving his ball a few tenths of an inch, caught on review only because his every move, each twitch is capured on camera. It's not the same for everyone else -- it goes with the territory but really is not very fair. 

Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods

Be that as it may, one result of the penalty is Tiger dropped into a tie with Sergio Garcia. They will be teeing off together tomorrow morning at 11:50 CDT. It's the first time they will be paired together since Garcia moped and whined about Woods' alleged discourtesy during the Players Championship. After the round the duo exchanged barbs. The next week Garcia stepped into it big time.

Asked when he would be inviting Woods round for dinner at the US Open next month, the Spaniard replied “he can come every night - we will serve fried chicken.”

The racist overtones caused a stir at the prestigious European Tour Player Awards and continued an ill-tempered transatlantic exchange with Woods following their latest fall-out at the Players Championship a fortnight ago.

"I apologise for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during the European Tour Players' Awards dinner," Garcia said. "I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner."

Garcia followed Fuzzy Zoeller through the casual racism trap door, falling the wrong side of what is acceptable in banter. After Woods record victory at the 1997 Masters Zoeller said: “You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it? Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve."

Like Garcia, Zoeller apologised, claiming his remarks had been misconstrued. But the stain lingers 15 years later.

Expect the first frost of the season to hit cold and to settle in hard on the first tee at Conway Farms, just before noon Saturday.

Note: Alas, the pairing was uneventful.

There were no dust-ups between the two. They shook hands on the first tee and said "Play well" to each other. Throughout the round both players acknowledged the other's good shots. But there was no other banter before they shook hands on the 18th green.

Nothing but frosty banalities.

Al Qaeda's Economy

To grow the economy, defend the dollar, boost exports and stop unnecessary nonproductive expenditures. Or the opposite to contract. Ayman al-Zawahiri understands finance and the economy better than the U.S. President.

Thank You Chairman Jon Tester

The banking system and banks are creatures of the federal government, regulated, funded and chartered by Congress, the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OOC, in the Treasury Department), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), with the agencies subject to Congressional oversight.

Senator Jon Tester, D - Mont., is member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who earlier this year issued a press release proudly announcing,  

Senator Jon Tester today was named Chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy.

The subcommittee is responsible for overseeing Congress’ role in monetary policy, economic growth, small business lending and flood insurance as well as oversight responsibility for the recently created Financial Stability Oversight Council charged with addressing systemic risk to the financial system.

Tester a member of the Senate Banking Committee since he took office in 2007, said he looks forward to using his chairmanship to strengthening the role of Montana’s community banks and small businesses.

“Montana’s community banks are the driving force behind strong small businesses and a job-friendly economy,” Tester said. “This leadership role guarantees Montana and rural America have a voice at the table as we work together to rebuild our economy by creating jobs, cutting spending and cutting our debt.”

Tester tells us he "brings a rural perspective to this committee to make sure that laws and policies work for small banks, credit unions, small businesses and consumers in rural America." Let's see how that's working out for us.

Well, we can congratulate Chairman Jon Tester for returning big banks and the central banking system to a state of prosperity, grandeur and influence greater than at any time since the Great Depression. The Fed's balance sheet has grown to $3.6 trillion.  Big banks have grown from $7.81 trillion in to $10.97 trillion in assets.  

Bigger banks and a more concentrated, more indebted and highly leveraged and centralized banking system -- way to go Jon and friends in reining in debt and reducing systemic risk.  These banks are not only too big to fail -- they are too big to hiccup. 

Senator Tester, thank you and your colleagues for doing your campaign donors' bidding well. With your track record, I think you can understand Mr. Senator why I am befuddled how it is that you want to tell me how to manage my money. More importantly, why don't you answer your email?

The Other Anniversary

September 11th is the anniversary of another significant event. No, I'm not talking about Benghazi. As summed up in a New York Times video, it was a day when "What an army of firefighters, hundreds of aircraft and $120 million couldn't do, a quarter-inch of snow did." 25 years ago today an early season snowfall tamped down wildfires that threatened to totally obliterate Yellowstone National Park.

Overall burn map, Yellowstone National Park
Summer 1988

After a modest June 30 start the 1988 wildfire season grew into a ring of fire that crept, marched and stormed into almost every corner of the park. Old Faithful Inn and the Old Faithful Snow Lodge were threatened as was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Fires raged over and through areas with thermal features normally teeming with tourists. Wildlife were constantly on the move to stay ahead of the raging infernos. The names included the Fan, North Fork, Clover-Mist, Hellroaring, Storm Creek, Mink, Snake and Huck fires.  Little contained wildfire spread other than running into the borders of one another.  

The mainstream media bore down on and blamed President Reagan, Secretary of Interior Donald Hodel, the National Park Service Director William Penn Mott Jr., and Yellowstone NPS Superintendent Robert Barbee for failing to reverse the threats of dry lightening, hot winds and drought and permitting fires to run out of control, as fires approached critical areas.

Fire viewed from Old Faithful Inn
Approaching the Old Faithful Snow Lodge
September 7, 1988

On September 7, high winds brought the North Fork Fire blaze to the Old Faithful complex, the first time fire had threatened the area in the 116-year history of the park. An aerial suppression assault attempted to slow the fire’s progress, but those efforts failed. Early in the morning, the National Park Service evacuated the complex. Between 500 and 600 people left by the 10 a.m. deadline, although visitors traveling by car still were allowed to visit the geyser as late as mid-afternoon, some arriving just minutes before the firestorm struck. The fire eventually encircled the Old Faithful area, and firefighters successfully battled to save the Old Faithful Inn as well as the electrical substation nearby. The fire burned so hot that it melted the rubber off the wheels of cars and a truck, shattered vehicle windshields, and scorched their paint. As many as nineteen buildings in the area burned to the ground, and the old dormitory building suffered damage.

The peak burning day was September 9th (see Fire Growth Maps for the 1988 GreaterYellowstone Area Fires, page 7)  only two days before nature took the forests back and initiated the processes of growth and renewal. 

By September 11, 1988, the first snows of autumn had dampened the fires as the nation's largest fire-fighting effort could not. The imminent danger to life and property was over, and firefighters were gradually sent home, although the last of the smoldering flames were not extinguished until November. Staff in Yellowstone National Park went to work surveying the impacts of the fires on wildlife, plants, historic structures, trails, and more and answering the demands for information, explanation, and a new fire management policy.

The year after, wildflowers thrived.

A total of 248 fires started in greater Yellowstone in 1988; 50 of those were in Yellowstone National Park. Despite widespread misconceptions that all fires were initially allowed to burn, only 31 of the total were; 28 of these began inside the park. In the end, 7 major fires were responsible for more than 95% of the burned acreage. Five of those fires were ignited outside the park, and 3 of them were human-caused fires that firefighters attempted to control from the beginning. More than 25,000 firefighters, as many as 9000 at one time, attacked Yellowstone fires in 1988, at a total cost of about $120 million. Thankfully, the fires killed no park visitors and no nearby residents. Outside the park, two firefighters were killed, one by a falling tree and one while piloting a plane transporting other personnel. 

Ecosystemwide, about 1.2 million acres was scorched; 793,000 (about 36%) of the park's 2,221,800 acres were burned. Sixty-seven structures were destroyed, including 18 cabins used by employees and guests and one backcountry patrol cabin in Yellowstone.

The aftermath was not dire, not at all. The 1988 fires created a mosaic of burns, partial burns, and unburned areas that provided new habitats for plants and animals and new realms for research. What scientists have learned?

• Fertile soil with good-water holding capacity and dense, diverse vegetation before the fire recovered quickly.
• Grasslands returned to pre-fire appearance within a few years.
• Many of the burned forests were mature lodgepole; this species is recolonizing most of the burned areas.
• The first seedlings of Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, Douglas-fir, and whitebark pine have emerged.

  

  Forest recovery on far bank of Madison River.

• Aspen reproduction has increased because fire stimulated the growth of suckers from the aspen's underground root system and left behind bare mineral soil that provides good conditions for aspen seedlings.
• Some of the grasses that elk eat were more nutritious after the fire.
• Bears graze more frequently at burned than unburned sites.
• The fires have had no observable impact on the number of grizzly bears in greater Yellowstone.
• Cavity-nesting birds, such as bluebirds, had more dead trees for their nests; birds dependent on mature forests, such as boreal owls, lost habitat.
• No fire-related effects have been observed in the fish populations or the angling experience in the six rivers that have been monitored regularly since 1988.
• Vegetation growth has slowed erosion in watersheds that had erosion and mudslides after the fires, such as the Gibbon River.

Out of destruction comes renewal. Amen.