Buy your ammo now, Pilgrims. Before Hillary confiscates it.

Rising dairy and oil prices grab the attention of shoppers and motorists. But the increasing price of ammunition – a consumer product the government considers when calculating the rate of inflation – has largely gone unnoticed.

The price increases began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then were compounded by a double whammy: the war in Iraq, which pushed up overall demand, and growing industrial powers such as China, which bid up the cost of needed raw materials.

The impact is widespread:

•Ammunition dealers complain of declining sales as they are forced to pass along rising costs to consumers.

•Hunters and gun enthusiasts, who initially stockpiled ammunition when prices spiked, are now making more of their own or shooting less.

•And police departments in the Dallas area are experiencing long delays in shipments and having to adjust training schedules accordingly.

“It’s no good to have the gun without the ammunition,” said Ken Mitchell, an ammunition dealer in Justin.

Manufacturers dramatically ramped up production after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, producing about 1.5 billion rounds last year – more than 3 ½ times the number manufactured in 2001, said Gale Smith, a spokeswoman for the Army’s Joint Munitions Command Center in Rock Island, Ill.

But they struggle to keep up with the demand as troop deployments continue in the Middle East. Military spending on small-caliber ammunition increased from $242 million in 2001 to $688 million in 2006.

The ammunition business is also feeling the pinch because of the rising price of global commodities such as copper, brass, nickel, steel and lead.

For instance, China’s torrent of construction has added to its manufacturing capacity. And the country is hungry for resources to feed its growth. The components needed to manufacture ammunition are also used for laying power lines and adding buildings to wider skylines.

“We were paying $1 a pound for copper two years ago. Now we’re paying $3 per pound,” said Brian Grace, a spokesman for Minnesota-based Alliant Techsystems, the military’s biggest producer of small-caliber ammunition. “Not all the costs are being passed on. We’ve tried to soften the blow with supply chain management and improved efficiency.”

Despite those efforts, dealers, hunters and law enforcement officers are feeling squeezed.

Stockpiling

Mr. Mitchell estimates that the volume of his ammo sales, which make up about half of his business, has dropped by more than half in the past two years.

Certain rounds, such as .223-caliber, used in the Army’s M-16 and law enforcement’s AR-15, have become increasingly difficult to find in the civilian market. Supplies of the .308 cartridge, the standard round for NATO and a favorite of hunters for its deadly effectiveness, have also tightened.

Some calibers cost only 10 percent more than a year ago; other varieties have more than doubled in price.

When prices started to rise, savvy gun owners stockpiled all they could get, sending prices even higher. Now dealers say that as soon as new supplies come in, customers snap them up.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 50 cents or $3, whatever’s cheapest gets bought up quick,” said Robby Rucker, a manager at Southwest Ammunition Supply in Mesquite.

He said his wholesalers raise their prices from 3 percent to 10 percent each quarter. He expects more price increases in September.

That’s a problem for Karl Pifer of Granbury, who specializes in manufacturing designer ammunition that costs more but performs better.

“The market is moving toward lower-quality and lower-cost ammunition that gets mass produced,” said Mr. Pifer, owner of KC Precision Ballistics. “I try to stick with the prices I’ve got, but when they go up, it’s hard. It hits me before it hits the customers.”

When Mr. Pifer received a catalog in the mail last month for materials, he rushed online to place orders on the good deals. But he was too late. An e-mail in his inbox alerted him that prices had gone up since the catalog was distributed. It was, he said, the fourth increase in eight months.

Prices of factory-produced ammunition – and increased surcharges for shipping and handling – have gotten so high that more hunters are making their own in a process called hand loading.

“Guys on a budget are going back to hand loading with the price of ammo doing what it is,” said Dallas resident Noel Hutcheson, 71, a retired stockbroker who hunts quail and ducks.

Sales of ammunition components such as empty cartridges and primers have grown at Mr. Rucker’s family-run store each time retail prices for ready-to-use ammunition have gone up.

But do-it-yourself ammunition production isn’t cheap either. Someone making his own shotgun shells is going to spend roughly a third more than last year on supplies, said Don Snyder, executive director of the National Skeet Shooting Association and the National Sporting Clays Association.

“There are some people who are shooting less,” said Mr. Snyder of San Antonio, whose two groups have about 3,000 members in Texas. “It’s just an additional cost to compete and enjoy our sport. There are a lot of people that jump in and pay the tariff and do it.”

Must-have item

No matter what the cost, the police need to pay. Law enforcement demand for ammunition grew after 9/11 as departments increased their officers’ live fire training.

Several police officials said they are paying more for ammunition and experiencing delays for shipments.

But everyone from Fort Worth to Carrollton insists that public safety has not been compromised. Of eight departments surveyed, none has resorted to giving deputies fewer bullets or pulling guns out of service.

The Dallas Police Department, which spends roughly $500,000 annually on ammunition for about 3,000 officers, used to have orders filled in six weeks. Now it takes six to nine months, said Sgt. Paul Stanford, range master for the department.

The ammunition used in patrol rifles, identical to what the military needs, costs 35 percent more than two years ago, Sgt. Stanford said, rising from $84 a case to $114 a case.

And a case of 9 mm rounds, the standard for Dallas Police Department service weapons, costs 10 percent more than two years ago – going from $98.75 in 2005 to $108.15.

The impact on smaller departments, which often don’t have a special relationship with wholesalers, can be even greater.

In Hurst, which has 72 officers, Assistant Chief Richard Winstanley needs to plan a year or more ahead for what his staff might need. He has to be especially proactive to keep .223 rounds in stock.

“We have to be patient,” Chief Winstanley said. “Some training has to be put off until we receive the items.”

While the police and other gun owners hope prices come down, they are adjusting to the reality of costlier ammunition.

“We’re still buying bullets because we don’t have any choice,” Dallas’ Sgt. Stanford said. “It’s like gas. You have to absorb the cost.”  STORY LINK

Say it ain’t so — say that Ron Paul fans ain’t takin’ Romney’s money and then stabbin’ ole Mitt in the labonza. Say it ain’t so, Joe.

Ron Paul’s supporters are actively encouraging Iowa voters to take advantage of Mitt Romney’s offers of free transportation to the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on Saturday and then, once they are there, to vote for Mr. Paul.
“Some say if Mitt is willing to bus Iowans to Ames for the straw poll, they should take him up on his offer!” says a flier in Iowa and on the Internet in advance of the straw poll for the Republican presidential candidates. The flier says that after riding the Romney bus to Ames, and allowing the Romney campaign to pay one’s $35 entry fee, Iowans should then carefully weigh their options and “they may decide to vote for Ron Paul.”

The flier is topped with a banner that says “2008 Ron Paul News,” but Jesse Benton, a campaign spokesman, said it was the handiwork of independent supporters over whom the campaign had no control. “We can’t tell our supporters what to do or not do,” Mr. Benton said, adding that the campaign did not want to get “entangled” with federal finance regulations involving potential in-kind contributions.

But he conceded that infiltrating the Romney bus could certainly help Mr. Paul. It is his first visible attempt at converting his popularity online into success offline, which, alas, is where it counts.

Late to the game in Iowa
Mr. Paul, a relatively obscure Congressman from Texas who caught fire online after appearing on the televised presidential debates, has only just started campaigning in Iowa. Mr. Benton said the fact that Mr. Paul was a full-time member of Congress prevented him from campaigning in Iowa sooner, although other candidates have been swarming over the state for months.

“This is his third trip to Iowa, but his first chance to really get out there,” Mr. Benton said. He just opened a campaign office in downtown Des Moines and started to advertise his anti-tax, anti-abortion rights, Libertarian message on radio, television and in the newspapers. STORY LINK

Technorati tags: RON PAUL, ROMNEY, CAUCUS, IOWA, ELECTION

REUTERS news agency duped! What else is new?

Footage purporting to show Russian explorers claiming the seafloor beneath the North Pole was in fact a scene from the 1997 film, Titanic.

The Russians symbolically planted their flag below the surface nine days ago. The Independent led its Friday edition with the story, but did not use the Reuters images, now known to be misleading. However a number of media outlets around the world accompanied their coverage with the pictures, from the film starring Kate Winslett and Leonardo DiCaprio.

In fact the footage showed two Finnish-made Mir submersibles, filmed for sequences showing the search for the wreckage of the Titanic in James Cameron’s blockbuster about the 1912 disaster.

It took a 13-year-old Finnish boy to call a local newspaper pointing out that the footage looked identical to that in the film.

Reuters said the footage came from the Russian television channel RTR, which used the images as “archive pictures” hours before the expedition was complete. In a statement, Reuters said: “This location error was corrected as soon as it was brought to our attention … The caption has been corrected.”

ED NOTES: The Commentator to PETA: Open Wide — say AAAHHHH. Now let me get the gaff hook. –Al Czervic

Apparently sufficient sewing, combined with fervent wishes and lots of monetary contributions, can lead to a harmonious world for all beings.

At least that’s the thread I’m reading in the latest little charade out of the The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The well-healed organization is in the business of appealing to peoples’ mis-placed sentiment, then organizing grass roots efforts (with plenty of donations, of course) to fund a crusade.

PETA contends that “Billions of fish are killed each year so that people can eat their flesh, while millions more are ripped from their homes for ‘fun’ by anglers.”

Well, yeah.

In honor of these “victims,” PETA has banded supporters together to create the world’s first Fish Empathy Quilt. Gosh, that’ll solve the problem, eh?

More than 100 squares were created by participants across the country, the assembled quilt measuring more than 300 square feet — each square handcrafted by someone with way too much time on their hands.

PETA bases its stance, and sucks more money out of its members, on the contention that fish have complex nervous systems, the significance of which is disputed by aquatic biologists.

PETA contends that fish “are intelligent animals who observe, learn, use tools, and form sophisticated social structures” and “talk to each other with squeaks, squeals…Some fish even woo their potential partners by singing to them!” They also contend that “Some fish tend well-kept gardens, build nests, and collect rocks for building hiding places where they can rest.”

In true Disneyesque fashion, when animals are humanized, facts can be twisted, shaded and otherwise manipulated to appeal to misguided human sentiment.

If you are a fisherman and see the whole thing as a crackpot scheme, don’t laugh. Our side doesn’t have any grassroots support like this and regulations can be swayed these days by the correct voter turn-out for ballot initiatives. STORY LINK

Technorati tags: PETA, ITHACA, FISHING, FISH, MORON

ED NOTES: Walter Rich was a man ahead of his time, and had a heart as big as Delaware County. Under his stewardship an abandoned tourist railroad  was turned  into an inland empire of 500 miles of active ‘road — employing many in our area and serving the entire state as well as the nation.  He will be missed by railfans, the public, and his employees.

One more thing: The Mayor of Cooperstown was right in lowering the flag to half mast in honor of Mr. Rich.  Mr. Butler (a fired disgruntled NYSW employee) can just SUCK THIS!   –Al Czervic

Walter Rich could have bartered his Syracuse University law degree for a 9-to-5 job reviewing contracts for New York State’s DOT or verifying legal precedents for the ICC. What boredom. What utter nonsense for a risk taker. You ought to be able to turn in Webster’s unabridged dictionary to the word “entrepreneur” and find a reference to Walter Rich. But don’t look under “monopolist.” Rich cherishes rail-to-rail competition and proposes more.

Rich took an entrepreneurial interest in short lines 33 years ago while studying political science. By the time he received his law degree in 1971, his maturing Delaware Otsego Corp. had graduated from operating a 2.6-mile steam-powered tourist line to piecing together 550 miles of rights-of-way ownership and trackage rights in three states that, under the banner of New York, Susquehanna & Western, became an alternative to Conrail for reaching the Port of New York and New Jersey from the Midwest through Buffalo.

True to its acronym, Delaware Otsego excelled as a can-do and will-do organization whose creativity and flexibility attracted Sea-Land stack trains even though its route was longer and slower than Conrail’s. Where Class I railroads imposed a charge-often a hefty one-for each accessorial service, DO’s flagship Susie-Q was more like the small-town grocer, offering neighborly extras with a smile. When an economic downturn wounded industry, Rich provided 60 days of zero-price “storage on wheels” until the loaded freight could be sold.

No wonder after CSX and Norfolk Southern carved up Conrail, CSX loaned Rich the funds to take Delaware Otsego private, control a board on which CSX and NS have minority representation, and keep doing what DO does. John Snow and David Goode recognize that coddled DO shippers would shift to truck were they forced to deal directly with rigid Class I bureaucracies. An independent DO also stands ready to act as an overflow route for CSX and NS between the Midwest and metropolitan New York.

And wow, has success followed Rich’s strategy of understanding the customer, performing on the advertised, and respecting unionized employees. This past summer, New York Republican Gov. George Pataki and Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush knocked on Rich’s door, bid their respects, sat on his screened porch, and sought his advice. Former Democratic New York Gov. Mario Cuomo issued Rich a single-digit New York license plate. His fellow short line and regional rail entrepreneurs elected Rich chairman of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

Ever the small-town grocer, Rich says “monopolies are destructive. We’ve injected a huge dose of new competition through the Conrail carve-up, but fine tuning may be necessary.” STORY LINK

Technorati tags: WALTER RICH, RAILROAD, NYSW, COOPERSTOWN, FLAG, PATRIOT

‘Hundreds’ cancel trips, homeowner threatens to move out

 

Some of the ski fans who have patronized Telluride, Colo., now are calling the ritzy resort “the land of radical liberals” and canceling planned vacations there because the town board voted to approve an ordinance calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

One ski club of 175 people already has made plans to go elsewhere, another skier has threatened to sell his home there and another critic predicted the town soon would bow to Mecca.

“It’s huge, unbelievable,” said Telluride Mayor John Pryor. “Ski groups are canceling for the winter. Hundreds of people are bailing. The (town) website is flooded with people saying they’re canceling their vacations here.”

The storm of protest followed the town board’s recent vote on the impeachment issue, according to a report in the Denver Post. The report said among the labels being pinned on the town include: Moonbats, lunatics, boobs, bong smokers and left-bots. READ MORE HERE

Technorati tags: TELLURIDE, BUSH, ELECTION, IMPEACH

ED NOTES: What goes around, comes around. SUCK IT, LIBS!

Ah, that blowhard liberal in wolf’s clothes Ron Paul, who says he’s against pork, is ready to blow $400 million of YOUR TAX DOLLARS on shrimp! Another fool who’s too stupid to know when to quit. –Al Czervic

Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul — who is campaigning as a critic of congressional overspending — has revealed that he is requesting $400 million worth of earmarks this year.

The Wall Street Journal reports Paul’s office says those requests include $8 million for the marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to pay for research into shrimp fishing.

A spokesman says, “Reducing earmarks does not reduce government spending, and it does not prohibit spending upon those things that are earmarked. What people who push earmark reform are doing is they are particularly misleading the public — and I have to presume it’s not by accident.”STORY LINK

Technorati tags: RON PAUL, PAUL, PORK BARREL, SHRIMP, TEXAS

Before he became a candidate for president, Tom Tancredo was telling Americans that the U.S. should threaten to bomb Mecca if Islamic terrorists successfully detonate a nuclear device in America.

In July of 2005, he said on Fox News, “If this [terror attack] happens, and if, in fact, we can prove that it was perpetrated by some fundamentalist Islamic - ‘Islamo-fascist’ is really I think what we should call them - then you might think about this as a threat, the retaliation on their holy sites.

“We are talking about a situation where our very lives are at stake, not just the life of the United States, but of Western civilization,” he insisted.

A week later, Tancredo told WFLA Florida radio host Pat Campbell:

“You know, there are things that you could threaten to do before [a terror attack] happens …”

The Colorado Republican then explained: “What if you said something like: If this happens in the United States and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims - you know, you could take out their holy sites.”

Asked if he was talking about bombing Mecca, Tancredo replied: “Yeah.”

And the congressman and presidential candidate is not backing down from these comments. He told an audience in Iowa today, almost exactly two years later, that as president he would advocate the very same position. READ MORE HERE

Technorati tags: TANCREDO, MUSLIM, TERROR, NUCLEAR, MECCA

ED NOTES: Way to go, Mr. Tancredo! We should have pulled the nuke trigger a long time ago on these murderous slimebags.  What goes around, comes around, Muhammed.