Rob Reiner is spending millions of dollars of California taxpayers’ money to advocate for programs he is sponsoring, under the guise of informing the public. This is a thinly veiled, and bordering on illegal, use of the money to promote his political ambitions. Read this week’s column by California Assemblyman Ray Haynes,

It’s your birthday. You have just blown out all of the candles on your scrumptuous calorie-laden deeply-frosted birthday cake. You close your eyes ….

New Orleans is one of the areas in the continental United States where Formosan Termites are well established. (They currently infest 11 states.) During the past hurricane season many trees were blown down. Trees that succumbed to the high wind are the most likely to have been weakened by being infested with those termites. The same is true for wooden housing structures in the city.

One way to get rid of the debris during post-hurricane clean-up is to use wood chippers and shredders to create mulch. Mulch from infested trees would carry termite eggs, and if sold in other parts of the United States would spread the infection.

The Louisiana State University Agricultural Center notes that efforts are being made to quarantine the infected mulch:

Efforts are under way to prevent the spread of Formosan subterranean termites in mulch from New Orleans and Louisiana following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It is true that there is a lot of cellulose debris (wood, paper and their products) in Louisiana following these two hurricanes. Yes, Formosan subterranean termites are found in the parishes affected by the hurricanes and will get in mulch. However, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) in Louisiana imposed a quarantine for the Formosan subterranean termite on October 3, 2005….

Movement of wood or cellulose material is prohibited unless either (1) it is fumigated or treated for Formosan subterranean termites and is approved for movement by the commissioner or his designee(s) or (2) written authorization is given by the commissioner or his designee(s) for the movement of untreated wood or cellulose material from the quarantined parishes….

Considering the rampant corruption pervading New Orleans at the city level and Louisiana at the state level, we would advise our readers not to rely on these government precautions. Approval of a batch of mulch could easily be granted for a bribe, kickback, or some other sort of political favor. This is not the year to economize by buying bargain mulch.

There are several alternatives.

• You can select bagged mulch from long-established reputable mulch companies, clearly identified as northern hardwoods from Vermont, pine nuggets from Oregon, that sort of thing.
• You can purchase the more expensive cedar mulch, and then you won’t need to spend money on pesticides. It is like putting your flower beds and trees in a safe “cedar closet.”
• You can use your mulching lawn mower and recycle your own yard waste to use as mulch. That way, whatever plant diseases you get will be your own.
• Many towns have a mulch program. They collect leaves in the fall in bio-shreddable bags and create a huge town mulch pile. Residents can help themselves for free.

We may be facing the worst case of transporting a problem to all parts of the country that we have ever had. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and there is no good pesticide control against them. Once established, they can only be hindered by expensive civic efforts to find and sterilize the nests.

From the United States Agricultural Research Service comes this announcement:

New Orleans is “ground zero” for a national campaign against the Formosan subterranean termite, an exotic species that now infests 11 states. The campaign includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, and the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board. The Audubon Institute fills an important educational role.

The goal is to reduce the Formosan termite’s numbers and colonies. Along with that should come a marked reduction in the $1 billion per year cost in property damage, repairs and control measures….

Dear readers, beware the termites. They are coming to a garden center near you, bagged and ready to spread.

By the Texas Transportation Institute’s reckoning, the cities having the worst traffic problems are:

1. Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Calif.
2. San Francisco, Oakland, Calif.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Atlanta
5. Houston
6. Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Tex.
7. Chicago
8. Detroit
9. Riverside, San Bernardino, Calif.
10. Orlando, Fla. [tie with Riverside, CA]
11. San Jose, Calif.
12. San Diego

What have you done today to make traffic better for all of us? Telecommuting? Carpooling?

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the United States military to recruit on campuses that accept Federal funding. According to Associated Press:

Court Upholds Campus Military Recruiting
By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, despite university objections to the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.

Justices rejected a free-speech challenge from law schools and their professors who claimed they should not be forced to associate with military recruiters or promote their campus appearances.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said that the campus visits are an effective military recruiting tool.

“A military recruiter’s mere presence on campus does not violate a law school’s right to associate, regardless of how repugnant the law school considers the recruiter’s message,” he wrote….

Well, the Solomon amendment is now “good law.” Take that, Yale! Live with it, Harvard!

Editor’s Note: [MathMan] also has his own weblog, The Braden Files.

It’s Monday, and our [WordSmith] has posted another fine article on the Editorial Page. Read

This edition of the Blogburst is about a little known and incredibly harmful agency called the Executive Office of Immigration Review. It essentially guarantees a back door for illegal immigrants of all stripes to remain in our country, protected and in perpetuity. Of course, it is grounded in litigation and kept alive by attorneys whose livelihoods depend upon it. In short – it undermines our immigration laws. So it will never be enough to simply say, “We’d be OK if we only enforced the immigration laws we’ve already got on the books.” How many times have we all heard that one? Well, it’s not true — and we need to know what’s killin’ us!!!!

The EOIR is one of our biggest problems. It’s important to know that we can’t just talk about “enforcing our current immigration laws” without fully realizing that there is a revolving back door that completely undermines our laws. How many times have you heard somebody grumble that illegals know our laws better than WE do? It’s true! They know how to work the system and milk it for all it’s worth. Nevertheless, it’s our concern, and our duty to become more aware, even though the topic itself may be kind of “dry”.

There is a dangerous misconception lurking in America’s growing public consciousness about immigration law enforcement. From the man on the street to the halls of Congress, the fatal error persists in the belief that if only current immigration laws were just enforced, the illegal alien invasion of these United States would be over for good.

All would be well if we put the legal mechanisms in place into effect . . . right?

Wrong.

Few Americans even recognize that there’s any problem at all with HOW the federal government goes about deporting illegal aliens and criminal alien residents. Securing the Arizona desert was a piece of cake in comparison—remember that the volunteer Minuteman Project showed the world that they could do it in a month!

So what’s the problem?

Read the rest of this entry »»