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Despite a much needed revamp of the entire farm bill, conferees continue to struggle through negotiations, but there is at least one group of planters who will come out ahead.  However, despite this congressional gridlock, there is at least one group of planters who continue to make money off the old farm bill. Sugar cane and sugar beet growers have actually managed to increase the size of their proverbial pot in the new package. Why? Because of government sponsored mandates for a “sugar-to-ethanol” program in the United States.

The U.S. Sugar industry has long enjoyed the comfort of a federal security blanket.  With interlocking price supports and import quotas, sugar tycoons have been able to sell their product in the marketplace with little or no foreign competition.  However, with the implementation of free trade agreements such as the 2005 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and new provisions in NAFTA, the sweet deal U.S. growers had was about to be disrupted.  Not to be outdone, a strong lobbying effort was launched on behalf of sugar growers in order to help regain their cozy and secure spot in the U.S. market.

If these provisions in the Farm Bill are implemented, the price for U.S. Sugar (which is already above the global price) will increase, with additional mandates to encourage part of the sugar market towards ethanol production.  In addition, the U.S. based ethanol industry also benefits from high tariffs limiting ethanol imports, mostly on sugar derived ethanol from Brazil.

This is a sour deal and contrary to proven free market principles. Ethanol tariffs combined with the sugar subsidies keep Americans from accessing ethanol from its most efficient source, which is sugar. 

"... that Huck is still drawing votes this far removed from having dropped out of the race is a reminder of his lingering appeal among Christian conservatives.  He got 12% of the vote statewide in Carolina, but out in Billy Graham country near the Tennessee border he was well into the teens in county after county.

Do these folks know Huck has withdrawn?   Are they just voting for him to register their support for a fellow believer?  

"Point to ugly exit poll data from Indiana showing 50% of Clinton supporters say they will not vote for Obama in the Fall.”

"Fewer than half of Clinton voters in both states said they would support Obama over McCain in the general election should that be the matchup. More than half of those backing Obama said they would be unhappy with Clinton as the party's standard-bearer."

... I don't honestly believe that half of Clinton voters will vote for McCain.  However, if 10 percent of Clinton voters stay home -- a more realistic possibility -- McCain probably wins.  As you can see, this is a real problem for Obama ...

"Why would she make something up? Because she's a flake, and a poser, and an attention-seeking diva. And that's on the record."

I'd be more impressed by this "straight talk" if it wasn't just as obvious in July 2000 that Arianna was "a flake, and a poser, and an attention seeking diva", when Senator McCain agreed to appear as the keynote speaker at her flaky attention-seeking posers' "shadow convention" (shadowing the GOP one, that is).

Another woman who attended the 2001 dinner said Tuesday that Cindy McCain had told her she could not bring herself to vote for Bush. The source said she did not want to be identified, so as not to alienate the McCains.

In the next week or two, the Senate will consider S. 27 the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act.  This bill has been pushed by environmentalist extremists and would “settle” a 20 year old lawsuit that they’ve pursued against the federal government, in order to restore the salmon population of the San Joaquin River.  The best part of this bill is that the targeted area of water that this bill would help has been dry for the better part of 70 years.

This bill all by itself is outrageous, but thanks to Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA), it has come to light that Democrats are planning to sneak in a massive earmark and “airdrop” it into this bill. The earmark will spend $1.1 billion in an attempt to put salmon into a river that has run dry.  The threshold for success is very small.  According to the settlement, if only 500 fish return, the project will be deemed successful. 

If you do the math, that makes each fish worth $2.2 million dollars.

Even for someone from Orange County $2.2 million is a lot for a fish.