This'n'That; March 2nd[Cartoon;Truckers;'10Pork;

I Was Surprised....

....when I opened this morning's edition of "The Rag" and found the Wizard of Id cartoon!! [Cartoon Above] With my alteration, the current authors Jeff Parker and Johnny Hart have "hit the nail on the head!!!"I hope the artists,' authors' don't mind that I altered the text somewhat-to give it a meaning more in tune with today's faltering economic repairs.

Truckers.....

I recently joined a social network primarily [I thought] by, for and about truckers and trucking. After I joined, I wandered through the site a bit. Seems they're open to almost anyone joining their fledgling organization [ http://driversalike.ning.com ]. It's still a fun site to wander thru if one's into trucking and trucking issues.

2010 Budget Pork

How'ta Hail does one wrap his/her mind around $3.94TRILLION?!?! It took us a while to evolve to these massive numbers. I remember when, as a pre-teen kid in a small town in NYS, that I overheard some startling information: The guy that us'ta own the local lumberyard/hardware store was reputedly worth A MILLION DOLLARS!!! Holy CRAP!!! That'sa lotta money; a 'one' followed by SIX ZEROS!!! This, in an era when my dad-lab tech in the dairy industry [later, the bacteriologist]- netted a "whoppin' " $40 a week for 6 or 6-1/2 day, work week. Those were mind-numbing numbers!!! Now-a-days, a billion dollar figure barely raises an eyebrow.

Back onto the topic at hand: Have ya hadda chance to look at the latest round of pork-barrel spending [This is gonna take days, IF NOT WEEKS!!]? Note; If for no other reason than to cloud the issue, members of Congress calls earmarks-pork barrell spending-porkulus..."Congressionally-designated projects [items]!!"

This chart is submitted by the House Agriculture Committee, [Partial List ONLY]:

**Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory, Beltsville, MD-7,888,000 **Animal Health Consortium, Washington, DC-820,000 **Animal Vaccines, Greenport, NY-1,518,000 **Animal Welfare Information Center, Beltsville, MD-560,000 **Aquaculture Fisheries Center, Pine Bluff, AR-519,000 **Aquaculture Initiatives, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute,

Stuttgart, AR-7,000

**Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (Rodale Institute), Wyndmoor, PA -42,000 **ARS Southwest Watershed Resarch Center, Tuscon, AZ-254,000 **Biology of Arboviruses/Control ofRVF Arthropods as Disease Vectors, Laramie, WY-3,421,000 **Biomass Crop Production, Brookings, SD-1,131,000 **Biomedical Materials in Plants (Biotech Foundation), Beltsville, MD-1,698,000 **Bioremediation Research, Beltsville, MD-111,000 **Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation,

Washington, DC-2,503,000 **Catfish Genome, Auburn, AL-819,000 **Center for Agroforestry, Booneville, AR-660,000 **Central Great Plains Research Station, Akron, CO-498,000 **Cereal Disease, St. Paul, MN-290,000 **Com and Soybean Research, Wooster, OH-959,000 **Cotton Production and Processing Research, Lubbock, TX-1,228,000 **Crop Production and Food Processing, Peoria, IL-786,000 **Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center, Booneville, AR-1,805,000 **Delta Nutrition Initiative, Little Rock, AR-3,937,000 **Diet Nutrition and Obesity Research (Pennington), New Orleans, LA-623,000 **Dryland Production, Akron, CO-219,000 **Efficient Water Management of High Water Tables, Miami, FL-596,000 **Endophyte Research, Booneville, AR-994,000 **Formosan Subterranean Termites Research, New Orleans, LA-6,623,000 **Foundry Sand By-Products Utilization, Beltsville, MD-638,000 **Honey Bee Lab, Weslaco, TX-1,762,000 **Hormonal Control of Growth/Reproduction, Athens, GA-643,000 **Human Nutrition Research, Boston, MA-254,000 **Human Nutrition Research, Houston, TX-254,000 **Improved Cow-Beef Operations for Water Quality, Brooksville, FL-599,000 **Improved Crop Production Practices, Auburn, AL-1,293,000 **Kamal Bunt, Manhattan, KS-508,000 **Kika de Ie Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center,

Weslaco, TX-8,688,000 **Land Management and Water Conservation, Pullman, WA-1,830,000 **Lyme Disease 4 Poster Project, Washington, DC-700,000

**Medicinal and Bioactive Crops, Oxford, MS-111,000 **Medicinal and Bioactive Crops, Washington, DC-111,000 **Mid-West/Mid-South Irrigation, Columbia, MO-645,000 **Minerals/Dietary Requirements for Good Health, Grand Forks, ND-9,534,000 **Mosquito Trapping Research/West Nile Virus, Gainesville, FL-1,154,000 **National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD-2,817,000 **National Center for Agricultural Law, Beltsville, MD-654,000

**National Com to Ethanol Research Pilot Plant, Washington, DC I 360,000 **New England Plant, Soil, and Water Research Lab, Orono, ME-49,09

**North Appalachian Experimental Watershed Research, Coshocton, OH-1,361,000 **Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory, Mandan, ND i 58,000 **Northwest Center for Small Fruits:Corvallis, OR-25,000 **Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research,

University Park, PA-4,602,000 **Phytoestrogen Research, New Orleans, LA 1,426,000 **Potato Diseases, Beltsville, MD-61,000 **Poultry Diseases, Beltsville, MD-408,000

**Precision Agriculture Research, Mandan, ND-453,000

**Quality and Safety Assessment Research, Athens, GA-531,000

**Seismic and Acoustic Technologies in Soils Sedimentation Laboratory,

Oxford, MS-332,000 **Soil Management Research, Morris, MN-78,000

**Sorghum Cold Tolerance, Lubbock, TX-246,000

**Sorghum Research, Bushland, TX-452,000

**Sorghum Research, Little Rock, AR-135,000

**Source Water Protection Initiatives, Columbus, OH-700,000 **Southern Piedmont Conservation Research, Athens, GA-2,908,000 8Stable Fly Control, Lincoln, NE-866,000

**Subtropical Beef Germplasm, Brooksville, FL-767,000

**Sugarbeet/Avian Disease and Oncology Labs, Ea Lansing, MI-5,024,000

**Swine Odor and Manure Management Research, Ames, IA-1,791,000

**Termite Species in Hawaii, Gainesville, FL-130,000 **Tropical Aquaculture Feeds (Oceanic Institute), Hilo, HI-1,438,000 **U.S. National Arboretum, Gardens and Education Units,

Washington,DC-1,878,000

**Vaccines and Microbe Control for Fish Health, Auburn, AL-991,000

**Vector Borne Diseases, Gainesville, FL-205,000

**Waste Management and Forage Research, Ms State, MS-2,100,000 **Water Management Research Laboratory, Brawley, CA-3I7,000 **Water Use Reduction, Dawson, GA-657,000

**West Tennessee Mississippi River Cropping Systems Unit, Jackson,TN-254,000 **Wild Rice, St. Paul, MN-303,000

Agricultural Research Service Buildings and Facilities Congressionally-directed Projects: **Agricultural Research Center, Logan, UT-4,351,000

**Agricultural Research Facility, Beltsville, MD-2,192,000

**Alcorn State Biotechnology Laboratory, MS-1,176,000

**Animal Bioscience Facility, Bozeman, MT-2,192,000

**Animal Waste Management Research Laboratory, Bowling Green, KY-1,088,000

**Appalachian Fruit Lab, Kearneysville, WV-783,000

**ARS Research Facilities, Starkville and Stoneville, MS-3,177,000

**Center for Advanced Viticulture and Tree Crop Research, Davis, CA-2,192,000

**Center for Grape Genetics, Geneva, NY-2,192,000

**Center of Excellence for Vaccine Research, Storrs, CT-2,192,000

**Dairy Forage Agriculture Research Center, Prairie du Sac, WI-2,002,000

**Forage Animal Production Research facility, Lexington, KY-1,632,000

**Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station, ID-544,000

**National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, IL-2,192,000

**National Plant and Genetics Security Center, Columbia, MO-1,633,000

**Southeastern Poultry Research Laboratory, Athens, GA-2,427,000

**Systems Biology Research Facility, Lincoln, NE-1,088,000 **U. S. Agricultural Research Service Laboratory, Canal Point, FL-1,096,000 **U. S. Agricultural Research Station, Salinas, CA-2,192,000 **U. S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, HI-1,565000 **Agricultural Research Facility, Knipling-Bushland Laboratory,

Kerrville, TX-1,957,000 **Agricultural Research Service Laboratory, Pullman, WA-2,192,000 **Agricultural Research Service Sugarcane Research Laboratory,

Houma, LA-2,505,000

**University of Toledo Greenhouse and Hydroponic Research Complex,

Toledo, OH-2,192,000 Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Research and Education Activities [NO +000]: **Hatch Act-106,000 **McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry-27,535,000

**Evans-Allen Program (1890 Colleges and Tuskegee University)-45,504,000 **Agriculture and Food Research Initiative-201,504,000

**Special Research Grants-84,499,000

******Improved Pest Control:

**Expert IPM Decision Support System-154,000

**Integrated Pest Management-2,379,000 **Minor Crop Pest Management (IR-4)-12,000,000 Pest Management Alternatives-1,412,000 **Animal Health and Disease (Sec. 1433)-2,950,000

**1994 Institutions Research Program-1,610,000 **Rangeland Research-983,000

**Graduate Fellowship Grants-3,859,000

**Institution Challenge Grants-5,654,000 **Multicultural Scholars Program 981,000

**Hispanic Education Partnership Grants 6,237,000

**Secondary/2-year Post-secondary 983,000 **Capacity Building Grants (1890 Institutions)-15,000,000

**Payments to the 1994 Institutions (Tribal Colleges)-3,342,000

**Alaska Native-serving and Native Hawaiian-serving Education Grants-3,196,000 **Resident Instruction Grants for Insular Areas-800,000 **New Era Rural Technology Program-750,000 **Veterinary Medical Services Act-2,950,000

Til Nex'Time....