Free Republic

There are too many current poll results at this point to ignore the impression that the GOP nomination battle in the early states is currently coming down to two people: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. The one place where Cruz may be in the lead is Iowa, and that’s something of a head scratcher for those who follow the conventional rules of political warfare. The Texas Senator has come out time and time again in opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard and ethanol subsidies (well… all subsidies to be honest) and that’s generally considered to be the equivalent of...

Donald Trump attacked Ted Cruz for not supporting ethanol subsidies. He said in Iowa on Friday, "Oil companies give him a lot of money, so he's for oil." The thing about oil and gas is, it doesn't require big subsidies, because it's the cheapest and most efficient form of fuel for cars. Ethanol, on the other hand, does require big government subsidies, because it is highly uneconomical. Ethanol is much more expensive than oil and gas and, gallon for gallon, produces much less energy than gasoline. That's why the government has to hand over billions in subsidies to big agri-businesses...

Since the day he announced his candidacy, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been making the case that he's the conservative candidate who can win the Republican nomination. It doesn't matter if he is speaking to a group of homeschool kids and their parents, Cruz closes by telling his audience about how much money his campaign has raised and that he is positioned to win. Now as we enter the final phase of the 2016 caucus campaign, Cruz has a handful of prominent Iowa endorsements to go along with all of his campaign cash. The big three statewide Republican elected officials,...

With the Iowa caucuses less than two months away, Ted Cruz seemed to have an epiphany Thursday night on one of the state's — and agricultural lobby's — biggest issues in Congress. Cruz (R-Texas) initially voted with fiscal hardliners to retain $3 billion in crop insurance cuts that were made as part of a budget deal approved in October. After a visit to the Senate cloakroom, Cruz returned and flipped his vote to side with farming interests, which ultimately prevailed. The crop insurance votes were part of a debate on a highway bill, which Cruz opposed on a final vote,...

Ted Cruz's need to keep women barefoot and pregnant -- among other of his draconian politicies -- turned me off his presidential campaign long ago. But whatever you say about the Texas senator, the man has a king-size backbone. Ted Cruz in Iowa Cruz, fearless attack dog for ending the ethanol mandate in the U.S. gasoline supply, stayed true to his principles -- yes, even while campaigning in the belly of beast, in the middle of the Hawkeye State, corn-based ethanol capitol of the world.And there it was, just hours after the Obama administration released its (failed) plans to boost...

Donald Trump is blaming an intern after he seemingly took a shot at Iowa voters in a Twitter post Thursday insinuating that the reason Ben Carson is now beating him in the early voting state is because GOPers are eating too much genetically modified corn. “#BenCarson is now leading in the #polls in #Iowa,” Trump seemingly quoted a fan on Twitter. “Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain? #Trump #GOP”

It's been a long-standing tradition at the Iowa State Fair, but now you can cast your kernels for presidential candidates at the Minnesota State Fair. The early front runners in the unscientific poll at the Minnesota Republican Party booth are Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. "Anybody can stop by our booth and and cast a vote for whoever their favorite candidate is," GOP Party Chair Keith Downey said. If you make a donation or sign up to support the GOP, voters get a small cup full of corn kernels they can distribute among as many of the candidates...

It’s the same party with 2 wings. The Washington Crony Party. If one can fleece the taxpayer it will be done, Republican, Democrat, whatever, so long as money is funneled to the narrow interests which fund your campaigns. The Republican Party, though it has a free market wing which is young and growing is still dominated by the older big government crony Republicans. How long that generation can hold on, and how much damage they will create to the economy is anyone’s guess. (From The Surge) "Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) just can’t help himself. He is intent on using the...

America's grain stocks running short By Robert Pore robert.pore@theindependent.com Print Story | e-mail Story | Visit Forums Global demand for grain and oilseeds is at record levels, causing the nation's grain stocks to reach critically low levels, according to Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt. With a weak U.S. dollar and global demand so high, foreign buyers are outbidding domestic buyers for American grain, Hurt said. "Food consumers worldwide are going to have to pay more," Hurt said. "We ended 2007 with our monthly inflation rate on food nearly 5 percent higher. I think we'll see times in 2008 where...

Imagine a government energy program that is such a disaster that the Environmental Working Group and the American Petroleum Institute both oppose it. The anti-poverty group ActionAid USA wants to get rid of it, as does the pro-business Competitive Enterprise Institute. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., wants to end it. So does Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. They're both sponsors of the Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2015. Feinstein pans the ethanol mandate as "both unwise and unworkable." Quoth Toomey: "It drives up gas prices, increases food costs, damages car engines and is harmful to the environment." Scott Faber of the...

Until Republicans can stop “pleasin’” crony capitalists with subsidies at the expense of the public, taxpayers will continue to be subject to regular “squeezin.” The really big difference between Republican and Democrat handout recipients is their ability to be sympathetically photogenic. When pressed, the average Democrat welfare recipient can hide the flat–screen TV, stash the cellphone in a drawer and refrain from cigarette smoking. And it’s not too much trouble to pretend to fill out the job application or limp convincingly to prove the bad back disability claim as long as photographers and media are around. The Republican dependency class...

United States Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), today joined Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and seven other cosponsors to introduce The Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2013. The bill eliminates the corn ethanol mandate within the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires a yearly increase in the amount of renewable fuel that must be blended into the total volume of gasoline refined and consumed in the United States. The RFS, which was first enacted in 2005 and then expanded in 2007, requires refiners and blenders to use 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2013. "In 2005, Congress...

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) managed to turn a disagreement with a crowd of Iowa businesses and farmers into an applause line at the Iowa Agriculture Summit. Cruz reiterated his opposition to the Renewable Fuels Standard, a popular policy in Iowa that presents a thorny problem for many Republicans who campaign against crony capitalism but want to win the GOP presidential nomination. “I recognize that this is a gathering of a lot of folks where the answer you’d like me to give is ‘I’m for the RFS, darnit;’ that’d be the easy thing to do,” he said. “But I’ll tell...

Hugh Hewitt grills David Corn of Mother Jones on his claim that then-CBS News correspondent Bill O'Reilly exaggerated the capacity of his involvement in covering the Falklands War. DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: As Joe Walsh said, do the show, go play it straight, he’ll play fair. But you’re asking me questions you didn’t ask Bill O’Reilly. HUGH HEWITT, HOST: If you… DC: So you know, I’m given you one more… HH: Here’s Eric Engberg… DC: If you want to talk about the article or not, Hugh, because I’ve got better things to do than help you fill time on the...

The study, based on DNA analysis of corn cobs dating back over 4,000 years, provides the most comprehensive tracking to date of the origin and evolution of maize in the Southwest and settles a long debate over whether maize moved via an upland or coastal route into the U.S. Study findings, which also show how climatic and cultural impacts influenced the genetic makeup of maize, will be reported Jan. 8 in the journal Nature Plants. The study compared DNA from archaeological samples from the U.S. Southwest to that from traditional maize varieties in Mexico, looking for genetic similarities that would...

The fiscal impact of the ethanol mandate is huge — Michaels estimated it totals “billions, easily” in direct and indirect money — but it has come under attack by liberals as well as conservatives and appears to have lost some of its clout on Capitol Hill. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency — which administers the Renewable Fuel Standard — is considering a cut to the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. ... a growing number of environmentalists want the ethanol requirement eliminated, too. ... In 2007, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law...

CARVER – Police say someone shot an ear of corn through a police cruiser’s windshield using a makeshift device. Police say the corn, which had previously been described only as a “projectile,” damaged the cruiser but did not cause any injuries. At least two other cars have been hit by objects fired at them near Purchase and Callow streets in the last week.

Liberal umbrage-monger David Corn– of the Mitt Romney 47% and the Rand Paul hates Dick Cheney video fame– says the difficulty with making African-Americans angry enough to vote against Republican “intimidation” tactics is that they don’t realize they’re being intimidated… Chris Matthews: What about the attempt to intimidate them out of voting? Corn: Well, that’s true. It’s happening…and when you do that– when people wanna vote or they’re thinking about voting in an election– they do get ticked off and it motivates them. But…they are so disaffected or so distant from this election that they may not even know that...

At the risk of inviting all the usual charges of being politically incorrect, I once again put before you the strange practice of burning food for fuel. The video at the bottom of the post details some of the human costs associated with the increasing use of corn, grains, and other crops for fuel.There is a tendency for environmentalists of our time to think very narrowly about their issues. It is a praiseworthy thing to seek to reduce pollutants and other things that have negative environmental impacts. The Catechism summons us to good stewardship of the earth, the environment, and...

I see that both the Farmer’s Almanac and Joe Bastardi (the other Joey B) are predicting another El Nino winter, which means a stormier and colder than normal winter, especially along the east coast. That could prove to be a bit of a problem since power companies apparently took Barry at his word that “if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them.”  So they didn’t. And they’re closing the coal plants they do have: “In order to comply with the new Obama era EPA regs, American Electric Power, which supplies...