Many years ago, Ray Bradbury wrote a short story, "Dial Double Zero," about a creepy life form emerging within the telephone system and harassing a guy minding his own business.

That's similar to what has happened with the federal budget – an inanimate object has taken on an intrusive life of its own.

As part of his economic recovery plan, President-elect Obama has promised to put the beast on a weight-loss program. Many of Obama's predecessors have made similar vows, yet the fiscal metastasis has continued. Still, in the face of a deficit likely to exceed a trillion dollars, Obama is right to have a go at it.

At the end of a weekend of turkey sandwiches and leftover sweet potatoes, farm subsidies are as good a place as any for Obama's federal slimming program to begin. ...

In the spirit of Michael Pollan's open letter to the Farmer In Chief, here's a short note to the incoming Administrator of The Environmental Protection Agency:

Hello,
I send this before your name has been announced, and probably before you have accepted the invitation by the President-elect to run this organization. The people in Washington D.C. that suspect they know have listed many outstanding, capable and caring people as possible candidates. Kennedy, Nichols, Sussman, Renstrom, Learner, McGinty and Jackson have all been mentioned ... but even if you are not one of these I am quite certain that you were chosen because you, too, have excellent credentials, the proper experience and the right attitude to run this Cabinet-level agency. People like Rucklehaus, Rielly, Costle, Thomas, and Browner have protected the best interests of the environment and the people of this country, while not seriously impeding the businesses that share these same resources. Some before you have favored the environment in the extreme, some have given in to businesses. In retrospect I think most left their jobs with the country, and usually the environment a better place. At least they all said that that is what they wanted to do when they took their oath of office. I trust you will do the same.

The accomplishments made since your Agency was founded by Richard Nixon nearly 40 years ago are staggering, including the phase out of leaded gasoline, safe drinking water, the PCB ban, asbestos cleanup, wetlands protection, FIFRA, passive cigarette smoke laws, lead based paint restrictions, FQPA, the clean air act and now even nanotechnology reviews. And these are only the highest of the highlights. Your Assistant Administrators and Regional Offices will bring you up to speed on what has been done regarding the 30 or so major areas your agency deals with on a regular basis. But it is the future that you must focus on, and though I know you have much to do, above all please do not forget to do exactly what the title of your Agency says it is supposed to be doing ... You are the person in charge of PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT.

To that end, some of what your new boss has in mind is carefully spelled out. His major campaign issues were health care, energy independence, climate change, and now, certainly, the economy. Moreover, his environmental/agricultural focus centered on maintaining a safety net for family farms, strengthening anti-monopoly saws, regulating CAFOs, COOL labeling, establishing more organic agriculture, setting aside more land, and getting more young people into the field. ...

It’s been clear for a while that Utah Governor Jon Huntsman bears watching. You’re bound to sit up and take notice when a Republican governor of a coal-dependent state decides to sign up for a regional agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The shrieks of climate denialists notwithstanding, Utahns apparently had little problem with Huntsman’s putting Utah into the Western Climate Initiative. He was re-elected governor November 4 with a handsome 78 percent share of the vote that his fellow Republican candidates could only dream about.

Huntsman’s resume has some sparkle to it. Like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, he has diplomatic experience. Like Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, he speaks fluent Mandarin.

We are also told that he rocks out to ...

April may have been the cruelest month in 1922 when Eliot wrote The Waste Land, but November is the cruelest month in 2008 as beekeepers, almond growers, pollination brokers, scientists and reporters hold their breath to see if this November Colony Collapse Disorder will rise again and be counted. November is the month it begins to creep, especially in the holding yards of California. So far its presence hasn’t been overwhelming, but it has shown up, mostly in operations arriving just this month from the east coast. But it isn’t limiting itself to just California, as usual, so beekeepers everywhere are making lists and checking everything twice, or more often, to make sure their bees are doing what their bees are supposed to be doing.

One scientist speculates that the previous two years have, in a twisted sort of way, been beneficial to the beekeeping industry if for no other reason than beekeepers are working hard at maintaining healthy colonies. Carefully they are watching nutrition levels in their bees, timing mite treatments better, doing everything possible to stem the tide of Nosema cerane, the gut-infecting disease that’s been causing all manner of problems the past couple of years, and to reduce as much as possible their exposure to any and all pesticides in the agricultural environment they are required to live in.

All of these precautions have paid off to some degree for most beekeepers, as it seems, so far, the incidence of CCD has been reduced. But this is a sly and sneaky monster so no one is taking the lull so far for granted, and everyone is holding their breath.

Still, all the precautions in the world have not stopped the reoccurrence of this malady ...