Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Faithful letter writer Gerald Ray sent us two missives this week, so we have combined the two dealing with items currently in the news.
1) Our county is experiencing a severe drought that has seen cattleman reducing their herds because of a shortage of feed. They are watching in disbelief as California ships hay to China. China’s diet has changed and they have millions of cows that do not have enough pasture. Alfalfa exports to China have ballooned to an estimated 380,000 metric tons in 2012 from 2,320 metric tons in 2007.
Our trade imbalance with China is so bad that China can fill containers with hay and ship it to China for half the cost of shipping it to the dairies in the central valley of California.
Our U.S. Department of Agriculture is promoting the development of this new export market by encouraging farmers to switch their land to hay. Alfalfa is a water guzzling crop and the water needed to produce this much hay would supply the needs of 500,000 families. If our government believes that we must supply China with milk, why don’t we ship them powdered milk? That would create much-needed jobs!
Thinking of water shortage, this is the same California that wanted to divert water from the Columbia River about four or five decades ago.
2) Diane Feinstein who is the Senate Intelligence Chairman says she is going to find out who knew what and when in the General Petraeus bombshell that exploded at 5 p.m. on Election Day. It is quite interesting that this incident really started to unravel the day of the embassy tragedy.
Shame on the administration officials and the national press for their roles in keeping this from the public until the president was safely re-elected.
I must have missed something in my life, as I do not understand the lustful and lecherous behavior of people when there is so much at stake. Then to be stupid enough to use the Internet that is forever. Apparently more forever than wedding vows!
Mr. Petraeus in my opinion no longer deserves to be called “General.” If a tawdry roll in the hay with so much at stake is beyond your self-control and self-discipline then I believe that he should have stayed in retirement!
It is now easy to see why Mr. Obama was so relaxed on Election Day that he could go play basketball!
Gerald W. Ray
Spokane
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