National parks 5-0, the Sesquipedalian spark of the Right, jailbirds, more
Meredith Aska McBride | Thu, Feb 28th, 2008 | Category: Headlines | Tags: meredith aska mcbride, democrats, police, austin, agribusiness, incarceration rate, park service, farm bill, the scourge of liberalism, one percent, sxsw, william f. buckley, jr.
Dems work to keep subsidies for agribusiness
The negotiators agreed Tuesday to find $10 billion in extra money in a last-ditch effort to save the farm bill, once seen as an opportunity to reform commodity programs and divert scarce funds to conservation, nutrition, organic research and California fruit and vegetable growers who are locked out of the Depression-era programs. The money is needed to appease these interests while still maintaining the commodity subsidies. Yet in proposals so far, those areas get trimmed to keep the subsidies flowing.
The subsidies demanded by the farm lobby would help big corn, wheat and soybean growers in areas where income is shattering records, credit is flowing and real estate values soaring.
Police Force Improvements Promised
That report said the Park Police were understaffed, poorly trained and badly equipped, leaving such icons as the Washington Monument and Statue of Liberty at risk.
Appearing at a budget hearing, Bomar promised an “action plan” to improve leadership, officer safety and financial transparency at the police agency, which is part of the Park Service.
William F. Buckley, Jr., 82, Dies; Sesquipedalian Spark of Right
Mr. Buckley’s greatest achievement was making conservatism — not just electoral Republicanism, but conservatism as a system of ideas — respectable in liberal postwar America. He mobilized the young enthusiasts who helped nominate Mr. Goldwater in 1964 and saw his dreams fulfilled when Mr. Reagan and the Bushes captured the Oval Office.
President Bush said Wednesday that Mr. Buckley “brought conservative thought into the political mainstream, and helped lay the intellectual foundation for America’s victory in the Cold War.”
To Mr. Buckley’s enormous delight, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the historian, termed him “the scourge of liberalism.”
New study says SXSW worth $95 million to Austin
“SXSW is targeting both an affluent demographic and people with expense accounts,” Rees said. “You may have a band sleeping eight to a room, but you may have an executive spending 20 times the amount over the course of the festival that that band is spending,” he said.
1 in 100 Americans Are Behind Bars, Study Says
Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.
The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 is behind bars, but that one in 100 black women is.
Meredith Aska McBride, originally from Milwaukee, is halfway to a music degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In her spare time she plays viola, writes for The Daily Pennsylvanian, freelances and raises hell with Students for a Democratic Society.