NEWS BRIEFS for Sept. 1, 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

By Benjamin R. Bombard

Jackson Hole, Wyoming -
Microbursts in W. Y-Stone and from Simpson
The National Weather Service sent investigators to West Yellowstone on Monday to find out whether a gnarly thunderstorm that tore through town last Saturday was actually a tornado. The NWS determined the storm was in fact a microburst, an intense downdraft of air that sends wind rushing out along the Earth at intense speed.

Speaking of microbursts, former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson has long been prone to the verbal variety – intense outrushes of vitriol and inane observations. You doubtlessly heard about his microburst last week in which he described Social Security as “a milk cow with 310 million tits.”

That comment created a wave of negative reactions that struck the political turf last week. A chorus of voices – Independent and Democratic representatives from both the Senate and the House, Democratic Senate candidates, MoveOn.org, The Older Women’s League, The Strengthen Social Security Campaign, The National Organization for Women and others – called for Simpson to resign or be removed from his position as co-chair of the Deficit Commission, which is looking at potential cuts to Social Security benefits. Simpson has since apologized for his comments and the White House said he’s staying put on the commission.

Another result from Simpson’s comment is the launching last Friday of a new website: StuffAlanSimpsonSays.com. The Progressive Campaign Change Committee threw the site together, and it features some ripe sayings from Simpson’s sound hole about Social Security.

On his Commission’s potential Social Security cuts: “We have the ability …   to adjust and put together a package. And if the American people and the Congress don’t like it, then just let them sink.” “We’re trying to take care of the lesser people in society.”

On his Commission’s work: “A lot of blood, hair and eyeballs have to lay on the floor before we finish.”

Maybe the next website to pop onto the local radar will be StuffPeterMoyerSays.com.

Sens. pocket oil/gas cash
Another new website, this one created by Oil Change International accuses Wyoming Senate Reps. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso of being in the pockets of the oil and gas industry. Well, actually, the BobbingInPetroleum.com shows the Senators floating in yellow rubber ducky innertubes in a sea despoiled by leaking oil and gives them major jeers.

According to the website, since 1999, Enzi has collected $204,000 (that number has risen to $307,000 since the site was last updated) in “dirty energy contributions,” while Barrasso has accepted $167,000 (now $280,100). The Senators are also called out for voting for winning accolades from oil and gas companies for their voting records, which include votes for Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R - Arkansas.) amendment to reverse the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gasses harm the environment, and votes against eliminating “big oil and gas company tax giveaways.”

That might sound like a lot, but they can’t hold a petroleum-based candle to Sen. John Cornyn’s (R - Texas.) flaming oil drum. Cornyn has taken in $1.86 million from oil, gas and coal since 1999.

Wildfire roundup
The Bull Fire over in Hoback sure wasn’t a fan of the recent wet weather. Though it grew a few hundred acres in the last week, a lot of that growth was attributable to burnout operations wherein firefighters set fire to unburned fuels using drip torches. The fire grew to encompass a total of 4,255 acres, but in the past couple days it has been mostly inactive, with spotty only smoldering and creeping behavior. A four-man crew is patrolling the fire.

Cool, wet weather also put a damper on the Arthur 2 fire near the east entrance of Yellowstone. Numerous resources working the fire were demobilized in the past week, and control of the 200-acre fire that consumed mostly litter and understory has been turned over to a Yellowstone engine and a crew.

The Gravel Fire east of Jackson Lake in the Bridger-Teton National Forest has some potential to add to the 503 acres it has burned, but again, cool, wet weather makes it less of a concern for fire management officials. A squad of smokejumpers jumped the fire on Saturday and will continue to monitor it.

Finally, firefighters from Idaho National Laboratory and the Bureau of Land Management have contained another fire that has burned at the INL’s desert site. The Middle Butte fire burned more than 22-square-miles but is now considered contained. JHW

photo BOBBINGINPETROLEUM.COM

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NEWS BRIEFS for Sept. 1, 2010 | Planet JH News Article: General News

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