Barry Bonds

I'm a lifelong baseball fan, specifically a San Francisco Giants fan. As Barry nears Hank Aaron's home run record there will be a lot of controversy. But this story has more than a few angles to it:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds has called for increased security at his home ballpark after a fan entered the field and approached him during Friday's game with Arizona.

Bonds, who is on the verge of becoming baseball's all-time home run leader, was told security would be beefed-up as he nears Hank Aaron's record of 755.

"This is about baseball players, all of us," Bonds told reporters.

"This is not my ballpark. I just work here... I'm an employee. All the employees should be protected."

The fan, Andrew Clapp of Fargo, North Dakota, rushed bare-footed onto the field in the seventh inning and ran towards Bonds.

Bonds put his arm around him and walked him off the field to waiting security.

"The guy jumped on the field, had his hands up and was screaming, 'I just want to shake your hand,"' Bonds said.

"I said, 'fine, some shake my hand."'

Bonds said the fan told him he had no shoes, no money, and nothing in his life.

"'I've been down in that neighborhood.' I said, 'Let's just walk back together, though, so those guys don't get itchy and throw you to the ground, and you can show them that you mean no harm."'

Clapp was charged was public intoxication and public trespassing, both misdemeanors. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=reu-bondssaturdaydc&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Added: He made the all-star team

I think that Barry showed a caring side here. Whatever else you may think about him (steroids), he had the decency to make sure the idiot wasn't hurt.

sea otter

Here is a critter that was once pretty much extinct thx 2 the Russian fur trade.Still surviving. Still kickin it.

pet troubles part xviii

My pet dinosaur, Noam, prefers to attack books, and sangria wine. One cannot just give these things to her- Noam absolutely must hunt her meals, or she will not eat at all, and - "Waaaagghh!"
So this meant leaving the backdoor open, at feeding time, so Noam could get to the bookshelves.
Thankfully, this house has an overabundance of poor prose along its shelves. But anyway
Today, something most unfortunate occured.
Well what used to be today was when Noam got loose, and went after an ice-cream truck. Far as I know, my pet dinosaur has no craving for ice cream, nor human flesh... but the ice cream truck driver had been drinking sangria wine, and he had been pulled over by a flock of schoolchildren.(they smelled like books) .
Noam has many fine qualities. Discrimination during a feeding frenzy is not one of them.
The ice cream truck is crunched in half, gushing aortal chocolate. The driver is nowhere to be found, nor the jugs of cheap sangria wine he kept under the drivers seat. Strewn across my neighborhood are diminutive bloody ribcages, tiny limbs ripped asunder, ghastly visages of caramel and gore. The local ravens love it.
"BAD NOAM! BAD DINOSAUR! BAD! BAD!BAD!"
So I'm thinking about taking Noam to the pound. I dunno... I'm the only friend this poor cenzoic puke lizard has.

Smack the blogger

I just got hit with a pine cone. I should have seen that coming. But I still have an open window.

A bumper sticker

Or in this case, a window sticker:

al-Sadr's website hacked

Today's oddity in asymmetrical warfare is the hacking of Moqtada al-Sadr's website.

Iraq: Al-Sadr Website Hacked; Hacker Says Shiite Sites To Face Same 'Fate'
Iraq-- OSC SummaryFriday, June 29, 2007

When checked on 29 June, Al-Sadr website, http://www.alsader.com/, which used to post statements and news of Muqtada al-Sader, was found to be hacked. The site now has a black background with the following written on the homepage:

"Peace be upon you

God damn Shiites wherever they may reside or goMay they and this site of theirs never rise for as long as I live, God willing

This will be the fate of all their sites, God willing."

The hacker, who calls himself "Billy", posts a hyperlinked e-mail address.

What's odd is that the hacker calls himself "Billy Gonse", but he's very fluent in arabic. Some of his posting includes the most creative uses of arabic expletives I've ever read, and a lot of Shia are going to be extremely offended.

My kind of protest

From Norway, Maine:

At noon on Saturday, July 7, a group of what Fuda describes as "very pissed-off citizens" will march into town carrying protest signs against the Iraq War, President George W. Bush, and marijuana and nudity laws. As they make their way to Butters Park at the head of Main Street, where they have been assigned as part of the Downtown Festival activities, Fuda promises there will be open marijuana smoking and nude streakers.

At least it has some entertainment value.

Fudafest, or Fully Unclothes Dancing Activism Festival, is described by its founder on the Fudafest Web site as "a clothing-optional protest against unjust laws, especially marijuana laws." The 39-year-old Norway resident said he began the festival in 1992 on his McKay Road property in hopes of "bringing the hippies, punks and metal heads together to fight for their rights. Their right to party, dance and be naked."http://www.sunjournal.com/story/219034-3/OxfordHills/Activist_says_hell_bring_nudity_to_sidewalk_sale/

Failure in Congress

I imagine that Nancy Pelosi must be getting really frustrated by now. She set goals, and the House passed the bills.

In its first 40 hours, the new majority of the House of Representatives kept their promise to voters and passed legislation—increasing the minimum wage for the first time in a decade, empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prices on drugs, cutting interest rates on student loans in half, revoking big oil subsidies and using the money to invest in renewable energy—that provided a down payment for a new direction for this country.

These bills are overwhelmingly popular, and are simply common sense reforms.
Yet every one of them—and many more—got held up in the U.S. Senate.

Conservatives boast about the “success” of their strategy in discrediting the new majority. As Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., put it, “the strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far it’s working for us.”

How is it working? It’s dragging the reputation of the Congress down to the level of the failed president. Conservatives lie in the road of progress and then complain that nothing is moving. http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/expose_obstructionists

The problem is the Senate, where the filibuster has killed the bills.

The fact is that Senate Republicans have obstructed almost every bill in the Senate so far this year - and this includes the ones with wide, bipartisan support.

In the first half of the first session of the 110th Congress, there have been 13 cloture votes on motions to proceed. This kind of formal vote to simply proceed with debate isn't often required and only occurs when one party cannot agree to even move forward with debate and a subsequent up-or-down vote on an issue.

Republicans have forced 13 of those in less than six months. To give you an idea of how obstructionist that is, there were only four cloture votes on motions to proceed in the two years comprising the first sessions of the 108th and 109th Congresses.

"Once known as the Grand Ole Party, today the Republican Party can more aptly be described that the ‘Grand Obstructionist Party,’” said Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday. “Perhaps they see progress in a new Congress as defeat for them rather than a win for the American people. Whatever the reason, they need to know that by their obstructionism, they’re not hurting Democrats, they’re slighting the American
people.”http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/

Funny how obstructionism is OK when Republicans do it.

Cool map site

If you like history and maps, you'll enjoy this site. Maps of Europe through history that show different times by clicking an arrow, starting at 100 a.d. Enjoy.http://www.euratlas.net/PHA/history_europe/europe_map_0100.html

Bush is still an idiot

This statement is just plain mind-numbingly stupid:

Bush said in a speech on Thursday that he hopes Iraq will be like Israel, a
democracy that faces terrorist violence but manages to retain its democratic
character:

' In Israel, Bush said, "terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it's not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that's a good indicator of success that we're looking for in Iraq."

I mean, aside from the dubious goal, does he even realize how this is playing into Jihadi propaganda?

That sort of scenario is precisely the propaganda message broadcast by the Jihadi websites in Iraq and the Arab world! They say that the US military occupation of Iraq, in alliance with Shiites, has turned the Sunni Arabs into Palestinians! Bush could not have handed the guerrillas a better rhetorical gift. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that DVD's of Bush's comments will be spread around as a recruiting tool for jihadis, and that US troops will certainly be killed as a result of this speech. You could say that the US military presence is already pretty unpopular in the Sunni Arab areas. But what of the progress in al-Anbar Province? Will Bush's speech help or hurt Sunni Arabs who want to ally with the US against the foreign Salafi Jihadis?

As usual, Juan Cole has a brilliant assessment:

These words may be the stupidest ones ever uttered by a US president. Given their likely impact on the US war effort in the Middle East, they are downright criminal.

The US political elite just doesn't get it. Israel is not popular in the Middle East, and it isn't because Middle Easterners are bigots. It is because Israel is coded as the last European colonial presence in the region, an heir to French Algeria, British Egypt, and Dutch Indonesia-- and because the Israelis pugnaciously continue to try to colonize neighboring bits of territory. (This enmity is not inevitable or eternal; in 2002 the Arab League offered full recognition of Israel in return for its going back to 1967 borders, but the Israeli government turned down the offer.) But for the purposes of this analysis it does not really matter why Israel is unpopular. Let us just stipulate that it is. Why would you associate American Iraq with such an unpopular project, if you were trying to do public diplomacy in the region? .http://www.juancole.com/

(Sometimes I wonder why I bother blogging on the Middle East. I should just post "go read Juan Cole" everyday.)

Car Bombs

So 2 car bombs in London, that luckily were defused, were both Mercedes. I know this is somewhat irreverent, but why would you use a Mercedes? If you're going to blow up a car, wouldn't a Ford be a better choice? I used to own a Mercedes, and it was a marvelous car. On the other hand, every Ford I've ever owned left me feeling a strong urge to blow them up (not as an act of terrorism, but because they deserved it).
Really though, if your just going to blow a car up, shouldn't it be a cheap crappy car?

Boobie time

It's Friday, so it's boobie time:

A masked boobie with egg.

One for Zymurgian

So he'll learn how to have fun with photo's:

There's a subtle joke here. If you "get it", let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I'll explain later.

Another boat

When I posted on the Animas trip, I mentioned that I really didn't like rowing a duckie. I just gained a duckie, and now I'm much more fond of them. Got the boat in really good deal. This is someone else rowing the same boat:

The immigration bill is dead

And that's a good thing. It was a total mish-mash that wouldn't have accomplished much. Sometimes doing nothing is better than further complicating the problem.

what i meant to say is...

My grandfather- Jack Welsh, lived to be 98. My mom's dad. He was such an asshole.
I mean, the dude absolutely hated anyone that wasn't "hardscrabble irish-catholic. Anyway, he had a special vehemence for "colored folks." He called them "porch monkeys".
Well Grandpa, you hateful dead curmudgeon, I happen to like hanging out on what passes for a porch on my dwelling. I kick it on a couch, watch all the poor darkies across the street make the best of their toys... I mean, uumphg... I appreciate the changing hue of the peaks and ephemeral birdsong. I am, Grandpa, an official porch monkey. So vomit a little more whiskey into yer casket, noteworthy ancestor!

a zymurgian interlude

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the prose of Joe Bageant:

"We are insulated by ignorance, body fat, cheap spectacle and electronics. Hang around the working class places very long and you'll see that they almost never talk of current events. They never mention politics except in an election year. They never mention any larger issues than sports, movies, and where to get good ribs and seafood and why GM just can't seem to build a decent engine. They put up flags and patriotic symbols because it seems like the right thing to do because everybody else does. But no conscious analysis takes place. Most workingclass whites, blue collar, technical, service or whatever, are nonpolitical. And to the extent that they hold beliefs, they hold the beliefs they think they are expected to uphold. Just like they hold little flags and ribbons for the troops. That's to tell you who they believe they are. Americans and Americans only. Plain Americans cut from the rest of the world by a self-isolating belief that it's better to be American than anything else, even if they really can't prove why. Ignorance is bliss, and somehow America is where supposedly everyone wants to be. No depth of thought or consciousness involved or required. There is the American on top and the rest of the world who is envious and plotting to steal their freedom.
One thing for sure. Traditionally, we can count on working white Americans to go off in a homicidal swarm to "defend our way of life" whenever our leaders periodically declare it to be threatened. Whenever they nail the cowhide to the barn. Right now we have a full-blown case of the cowhide syndrome. Anyone who grew up on a farm knows what happens if you butcher a cow, then nail the hide up high on the barn. The rest of the cows go absolutely freakin berserk until it is removed. Now George Bush and the neos have nailed the hide to the barn and they have no damned intention of taking it down. For the moment, however, it is not election season so things have calmed down a bit. It is mostly the neo-con leadership and the liberal herd that is agitated and bellowing out there. Everybody else is at Wal-Mart.
Nothing to do but go home, break out the Old Grandad, and drink it straight from a rusty canteen cup. The voice of a ghost breaks in on the reverie-"AND DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO WASH THE MOTHERFUCKER!"
Right, Hunter."

Right, Joe.
(from his site "Deer Hunting With Jesus)

you have been warned

This fella has read way too much of this blog.

pet pic

See? I told you she was pretty! (when she's sober)

Truth vs. Rhetoric

Here's a test for you all: How many members of Iran's parliament are jewish?
Feel free to read the correct answer in the comments, then bear this in mind whenever you hear anything about Iran in the media. The "Islamic theocracy" isn't quite as extreme as you might think.

The Bush Legacy

While I find a new reason to scream about the Bush administration on a daily basis, I think the worst part of his legacy (even worse than Iraq) will be his appointments to the Supreme Court. This weeks decisions are a sign of things to come. Consider the 3 decisions related to the First Amendment: corporations and churches are protected by free speech, but individuals are not. That's the bottom line of the decisions. Corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, churches can get taxpayer money to promote their values, but you can't carry a sign reading "bong hits 4 jesus". And that scares me.
The corporatocracy controls this administration, and they're going to do everything they can to hang on to power. So expect more de-regulation, slime ads, and environmental destruction.
We're stuck with John Roberts for a long time, and that scares me.
Added: Tom Toles illustrates:

Sweaterman's 8-ball List

1. I'm adopted, and the only thing I know about my birth parents is that they were in college and (I assume) felt that a child would interfere with their educational goals, so they put me up for adoption (at the time, abortion wasn't really an issue/option in the U.S. as it wasn't legal). I was in a foster home for 2 weeks until my current parents got me (for the bargain price of $200!). The foster parents called me Kevin. I met them once when I was in my late teens and there is a picture of newborn me with them somewhere, but I couldn't find it on a bet.
2. It took me until I was 31 years of age to truly, deeply understand the phrase "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll".
3. I have a severe allergy to Bermuda grass, but managed to mow the lawn weekly for seven years. Without a mask.
4. I am, by my own admission, too loud, boisterous, and "life-of-the-partyish". Even sober.
5. I am rational and skeptical and scientific, so even though I grew up in the 70's, curiosity about mystical things like astrological signs, chakras, and auras really holds no fascination for me.
6. That said, by birth I am (apparently) a water sign, and as a life-long swimmer and scuba diver, maybe there is something to all that.
7. I have the honor of having won not one, but TWO Ladmo bags. The big ones. Once on the show, and once at the old Christown Theater. For those who don't know that that means, you can check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_and_Ladmo. And, of course I didn't save them; I'm not one of those obsessives who rat-packs every little fucking thing in the hopes that it'll be worth a fortune someday on eBay. I have a life.
8. I have an inordinate fondness for number theory; specifically Goldbach's Conjecture (go ahead, Google it, you know you want to). I wrote many programs in graduate school for prime number generation, integer decomposition (factoring) and the like, and found some fascinating patterns, but finally gave most of it up, as it tends to make you batshit insane (see the movie pi, if you can stand the jerky camera shots).

Cupcakes for all

I have no idea where Jack found this sign, but I have a feeling this could be a very expensive promotion:

http://intellectualize.org/

comments from the shortbus

1) I have had my toenails painted by beautiful girls on rafts, a few times, on the Colorado, just like Pygalgia.
2)I would rather be serving donuts on Alpha-Centauri. Hard job to get.
3)after having spent today hiking the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon, with a lovely lady, I've decided my next sentient incarnation should be some kind of falcon- nesting in cliffs.
4)someday I will be capable of completely manifesting, at will, beef jerky sandwiches on rye, with third-world mustard.
5)today I learned that the bark of very old ponderosa pine trees smells like vanilla.
6)I still think the band "A Flock Of Seagulls" is way boss.
7)if a hot chick blinks constantly, while facing yer gaze, instead of looking in yer eye, is she aloof from the true fathom of emotion, or does she just think I really suck?
8)I'm starting to feel that ole stirring in the groin for my pet dinosaur. My fathomless cenzoic lass?

Moving Stuff

Our Buddy Monkyfister is moving and I wish I was there to help him. I am an expert at moving large heavy objects. My job at the local university included some really big pieces of scientific equipment (large,heavy,fragile). Just ask Sweaterman if I know how to move stuff (OK, I did say "get more people").

I know some tricks.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Whig to say 8 random things about myself. I hate these games.

1. All right, here are the rules. 2. We have to post these rules before we give
you the facts. 3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things
and post these rules. 5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight
people to get tagged and list their names.

OK, here's how I do it:

1. My toenails are a work of art. On my last river trip a beautiful woman decorated my toes.

2. I was once a Girl Scout troop leader (see pic @ right), but for all the wrong reasons.

3. I'm really a very good cook.

4. But I'm lazy.

5. 53 times down the Grand Canyon feel's like a warm up.

6. As a 14th generation American, I can call you names.

7. Number 7 is for comments.

8. Yes Gary, I stole the moose. But the Moose rally wanted to be stolen.

I refuse to tag other people, but if Sweaterman, Zymurgian or Ghandisxmas feel like listing random things about themselves I'm for it.

pet troubles, part IX

You might ask, "what color is your pet dinosaur?" I would describe her as travertine mauve. Most assurably cenzoic, probably early-jurassic, Noam has lots of scales. She appears ponderous, but can be quite lithe. Hmmm... howtaputit.... a cross between a tracheosaurus and an allisaurus, with a feline disposition and an olfactory wit better than a beagle's. She purrs when she's pleased and it makes the ground shake.
She's been with me for a spell now. At first I kept Noam tied with a titanium leash to a big tree. -kay first of all Noam is a jealous creature, demanding affection and consolation constantly much like canis stupidis. While I'm at home and she knows it, my dinosaur is compliant and restive, munching contentedly on vapid philosophy books(seems to be her preferred diet) But the absence of my scent renders Noam inconsolable. Noam yowls and yowls when she sees me go to work every morning. "Waaaaaaagh!"
One time I left my house to go to a party, a couple miles away. Well, shortly after arriving there , here come Noam galumphing down the street, dragging, at the end of her leash, a ponderosa tree.
My pet ruined some one's birthday party. Not only with her girth and indelicacy, but my dinosaur sniffed out all the watery sangria wine them folks were drinkin, and she took a fancy to it.
Howtaputit- my pet is distressing to most folks, but she did show up to the party with a pride of stray cats...that, and she's wasted on sangria and dragging a pine tree around downtown. Damn, well , shit- I'm really thinking about taking Noam to the Humane Society. Unless any of ya'll got a hankerin for a fickle dinosaur?

A Sunday River Pic

'cause I got nothin' to say.

From this spring's San Juan trip.

"R"?

So I ran this blog through a site that gives ratings on the movie scale, and it got an "R" rating. They noted the words "bastard" and "bastards" as the reason for the rating. They gotta be kidding. I mean, when I was growing up my mother wouldn't say "Republican" in front of us children. She'd say "Bastards" instead, so I never thought it was a big deal. But if any kids are reading this blog make your parents read it with you. You can get your own blog rating here:http://mingle2.com/blog-rating

Lack of Posting

I'm sorry that I have not posted much lately. I could say I've been busy...but I haven't been any busier than usual. I could say "burnout", but that would be silly. I could say "bush/Iraq" fatigue, and it might be true.

So I'll give you this, and hope I have more post's soon.

Another Lie

I know this administration lies, but this one is ridiculous:

There's some disturbing news about marijuana use among teens. A new study from the White House is linking the drug to violence and even gang membership.http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=6693805

Or maybe Whig and I are secretly gang members...
(emphasis mine).

First Friday of Summer

Have some Boobies.

Way to Go

Posted because I'll accept this in my obit.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple
fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070620-0825-nakeddeaths.html

appetite for philosophy

Isn't it just amazing that the ancient Mayans were so cogent about lots of stuff - astronomy, calenders, pyramid building, decapitations, etc., but they never invented the wheel. I'm not calling the Mayan Civilization stupid, just finding it curious that wheels never occured to them , as carts can carry lots of stones or body parts etc. - the Mesopotamians (ancient Iraqis) well knew. I mean, the Mayan cosmology is chockfull of cycles, the wheeling of the stars and planets and their respective gears. But they prefered to carry things around, i guess.
Maybe there is some inherent trait in the universe, that we can percieve, but fail to manifest as a tool to vastly simplify our lives; something confluencing the wheelless aboriginal central americans' comprehension of cosmic cyclical motions?
Our world could really use fellas like Homer, Galileo, and Jimi Hendrix.

Pets

Zymurgian has this really, really stupid dinasour for a pet. That's too much like work. Atrocia is my kind of pet- one rat every few weeks, and she doesn't eat books.

Although I used to have some very nice pets who looked like this:

pet troubles

Does your pet piss on the carpet, harass passersby, or claw up the upholstery? Well, consider yourself fortunate...
My pet is a dinosaur named Noam. Like myself, she once had a run-in with a time-vortex. Poor thing. I sure felt sorry for Noam, when I first noticed her curled up and shivering on my porch, yowling with mesozoic incomprehension. I thought to myself-"Sheesh! Why is there a stupid really big dinosaur on my porch?"
Then it occured to me. Obviously! Once you time travel, you smell differnt, but your aroma is only distinguishable to other time travelers. So this fucking dinosaur sniffed me out, quit yowling as she recognized me (Noam is pretty dumb), got really cute and playful and snugly.
I suspect Noam was involuntarily sucked into this age, through a Time Dumpster, as I had been once as well, but only to be involuntarily swept to the year 2013. These time vortex puddles conglomerate across many states. They don't care where they spit you. They do it for fun . Let us call them Dumpsterites. Well, anyway, the Dumpies spat me back to my own time.
Perhaps they will do the same for this witless saurian.
I said to it, " Noam, get in the back yard and stay there. "
So she does. DAMN PERTY DINOSAUR why be in a hurry to send her back? O.K.- let me back up a bit- sometimes I lounge about in our lush, shady backyard in my Crazy Chair, a glass of strong iced coffee and a book. Well, when I introduced my new pal to the backyard, first thing she went for was the book. It was A Handbook Of Modern Philosophy. She just pounced on it , tore it to shreds and devoured the whole book. Something by Chomsky on her chin.
Sure am relieved I just so happen to own a large titanium chain. I use it for, oh Howdy! My name is Zymurgian 'round these parts, if you are catastrophically bored, check out archives. I use a titanium chain in my brewing endeavors, as one result of my perambulations. Any advice out there for the many burdens of owning a devoted (hungry) dinosaur? Noam sure is Cute.

embryos vs. Iraqi's

Guess which our shrub cares about?

President Bush vetoed legislation this afternoon to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research, as the White House sought to emphasize scientific
advances that would allow researchers to pursue the potentially life-saving work
without destroying human embryos.

Fire risks

Two fires in the region yesterday were both quickly contained, but it's a nervous time of year around here. We really need some rain.

"Hairy Grampa"

I don't usually blog personal stuff-not my style(I'm boring). Today my son called to wish me a happy father's day, which is ironic, as I was not a real father, and my grandson also talked to me. So here's the back story:
My son was not raised by me. I was 16 when he was born. The woman who went through the labor had religious beliefs. We were not going to get married, and abortion was not an option. He was adopted at birth, and I only met him when he was 18. I met a grown man, who I really respect, who only shares some of my genes. To make a short story long, when I was 15 a condom failed and a really great result followed. I watched a child be born. I didn't see him again until an 18 year old tracked me down.
He's doing really well, a really smart guy. When we met he wanted to know his heritage, and that I could tell him. My father was a big genealogist, so I had a lot of history to share with him. Now I have 2 grandchildren, and my grandson calls me "hairy grampa" because when he last saw me it was winter and I had a full beard.
I'm an accidental father, but I'm trying to be a good (albeit "hairy") gramps.

Happy Fathers Day

To all the Dads reading this. My own Father has left us, and I miss him. He's the one who got me involved in politics, even though he was a Republican. I think that my Dad would be appalled at the current version of his party, as he had the highest ethical standards. 35 years ago watergate happened, and Dad ( a republican) was one of the first calling for Nixon's impeachment. If he were alive today...I can only imagine that his righteous indignation at Bush would be loudly voiced. Dad was an honest conservative. One of the things I miss most about him is our political debates, which could last hours but were always calm and rational.
Thanks Dad. I miss you.

Saturday

Giants at the Red Sox.
Added: Blech.

Kyl gets a pig

I hate my states 2 senators, and today it's Jon Kyl who's pissed me off.

A Republican senator blocked a vote in the Judiciary Committee on whether to
authorize subpoenas to the Justice Department to obtain secret legal opinions and other documents related to the National Security Agency’s program of domestic eavesdropping. The action by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona will block the vote for a week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/washington/15brfs-SENATORBLOCK_BRF.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1181943823-ZKbyrq/VlW5YmAd8KoyEZg

So here's your pig, Mr. Kyl:

Palestine

What a mess...OK, that is not a profound statement. Hamas controls Gaza, Fatah controls the West Bank (for now-this could change). Egypt is aiding Hamas (prior to the 1967 war,Gaza was Egyptian), while Jordan is supporting Fatah. Isreal is now supporting Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) strongly, although it's likely too little too late. And the average Palestinian is bound to suffer:

A resident of a Hamas-dominated neighborhood, identifying himself only as Yousef for fear of reprisal by his neighbors, said Gazans would always back the winner, regardless of ideology.

"Today everybody is with Hamas because Hamas won the battle. If Fatah had won the battle they'd be with Fatah. We are a hungry people, we are with whoever gives us a bag of flour and a food coupon," said Yousef, 30. "Me, I'm with God and a bag of flour."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

The failure to negotiate a viable Palestinian state has dragged on for decades. When Hamas won parliamentary elections last year, there was hope that they would move away from militancy. That has not happened.

The stage for the struggle between Fatah and Hamas was set last year, when Hamas
won parliamentary elections. Hamas reluctantly brought Fatah into a coalition government in March to quell an earlier round of violence, but the uneasy partnership began crumbling last month over control of security forces.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

Now what?

Abbas just disbanded the government, announced the State of Emergency ( HUGE
SIGNIFICANCE) and called for early elections as soon possible….

as for the confederation, I have to tell you that now, from official sources, i have confirmations! It’s ready… They are building roads connecting the West Bank to Jordan PLUS … i received news from a source in a West Bank municipality about what is happening and they apparently received orders to clean the grounds for the arrival of the Badr Brigades ( under Jordanian rule) …. You can’t possibly imagine what is happening over here! I am seeing it and not believing it ….

As for Gaza…it will be Egypt’s business from now on … Pre 1967 coming back ? I don’t know …but it looks much like it! Nobody can wait anymore and everything
can happen in hours! IN HOURS… i repeat, i’m not analysing anymore, i’m just
watching …. http://olehgirl.com/

For Malaysia

Somebody in Kuala Lumpur keeps coming here in search of the "Friday Boobie". I'm happy somebody noticed, so here you are:

Media Politics

I often read something that states my point of view more clearly than I can. Today, Gene Lyons nails the media's portrayal of the '08 candidates.

This column has no particular favorite and will make no predictions. Even so, it’s not necessary to be a prophet to know how Beltway pundits will handle the so-called character issue. The Republican nominee will be a virile, decisive straight-shooter who’s 100 percent “authentic” and “comfortable in his own skin.” The Democrat will be an indecisive phony, uncertain of his / her identity, but willing to strike any pose or pander to any constituency in a self-serving bid for power. That was the basic script for the media’s astonishing “War on Gore” in 2000, the campaign of falsehood and vilification that helped elevate George W. Bush, an ex-preppie cheerleader and bicycling enthusiast dressed up in rugged “Texas Rancher” costumes, to the presidency over then-Vice President Al Gore.http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/192900/

It's so true. How often have we been told how "manly" shrub is? Never mind that in the real world Helen Thomas would kick his ass in about 2 minutes.

Look, an American presidential election is essentially a long-running reality TV show. So there’s definitely something in what they’re saying. “Hardball” has very low ratings outside of D. C., but it and programs like it are where the Beltway group narrative gets worked out, the basic story line that pundits use to sell themselves as experts without studying tedious issues like health care or foreign policy. The brilliant blogger “Digby” asks a penetrating question: “Why do so many male Washington courtiers have giggling mancrushes on... Republican politicians ?” Personally, I blame “heterosexual panic.” Half the insulting e-mails and all the anonymous phone calls this column generates deal in sexual insult. Whether it’s fear of terrorism, uneasiness at the prospect of a woman president or cultural change generally, the GOP base responds like trained seals to tough-guy poses. It follows that Democrats must play the foil: John Edwards a foppish girlyman, Hillary Clinton an unnatural woman, Barack Obama a racially confused Oreo—well, you get the picture. Yes, it’s pathetic. And no, it has nothing to do with reality or the nation’s problems, but it’s nevertheless something Democrats can’t afford to ignore.

So how do we fight this crap?

I might have to build one of these

Sweaterman emailed me this cool find.

66 beer bottles = one cheap rooftop solar water heater

Take 66 beer bottles. Fill them with water and connect so that it flows slowly from bottle to bottle. Place apparatus on roof (or better yet, build it in place) and voila, you have the ultimate in DIY solar thermal hot water systems. Not only do you get the pleasure of consuming 66 bottles of beer on the way, you also get the joy of providing hot water for your mother to shower in comfort.

That's Ma Yanjun, a farmer in Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province--the heartland
of China. He built the contraption for his mother, according to Weird Asia News, making him both a devoted son and one of the numerous backyard enthusiasts who have discovered a simple way to harness the power of the sun. From the cold
of Vermont to the baking heat of South Africa, such solar water collectors--whether made from beer bottles, soda cans, or anything else--are a cheap and simple way
to heat water for your home--a different type of recycling if you will. You do need to remember, however, that the sun doesn't always shine and plan accordingly.

http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=66_beer_bottles_one_cheap_rooftop_solar&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Actually, I'll have to wait. My landlord keeps saying he's going to replace our leaky roof soon.

Privacy

Several different articles got me thinking about this: Big brother IS watching you, but what are they actually seeing? How much of the data that is (illegally) collected is useful?

An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.

The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling.

The vast majority of the new violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect. The agents retained the information anyway in their files, which mostly concerned suspected terrorist or espionage activities.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/13/AR2007061302453_pf.html

I wonder how much was collected for political purposes, rather than security.

And the corporations are willing to break the law, too.

AT&T agreed to allow large portions of sealed documents that sit at the heart of an anti-spying case against the telecom giant which alleges the company illegally installed secret surveillance rooms in its internet facilities at the behest of the National Security Agency. The case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in January 2006 relies on documents provided to the group by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician who took three documents home with him when he retired in 2004.

AT&T acceded to the disclosure only after the EFF threatened to ask a federal appeals court to unseal documents that had been published by Wired News and Frontline, which would have forced the company's lawyers into the embarrassing position of arguing that documents available on the internet for more than a year were secret, according to Cindy Cohn, the EFF's legal director.http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/att_spy_room_do.html

But is there a point where the amount of information collected becomes overwhelming?

Half a Million Terrorists

Thank goodness our government is so committed to the "War on Terror" that they've managed to track all these evil people down and put them on a list!A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names. Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified. A portion of the FBI's unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to "the entire watch list of 509,000 names," which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force.

The corporatocracy has been mining data for years, in an attempt to target marketing. They have access to every non-cash transaction we make.
The question becomes: How afraid should we be?
Added: Of course, based on the whole DOJ investigation, nobody will remember anything anyway.

Blegging

Just got the new NRS catalog, otherwise known as "porno for boatmen", and I would so love to get a new boat. However, the bank account laughed at the idea. So I had this thought: I'm a blogger, and bloggers (so I hear) get lot's of money from people on the intertubes. So would anybody out there like to buy me this?

NRS E-180 Self-Bailing Rafts

Revised Expedition Series! The classic Grand Canyon raft in an 18' self-bailer.

Item# 1098 $5,870.00

Just kidding. (unless you are George Soros).

Who knew

Here's a find.http://murmursofearth.blogspot.com/2007/06/short-guide-to-iraq.html

In 1943, some American troops were stationed in Iraq. Here is a PDF of a War Department handbook introducing them to the country, and providing some dos and don'ts when interacting with the Iraqi people. Some highlights:

• NEVER discuss religion or politics or women with Moslems.
• Don't stare at anyone. Remember the fear of the "evil eye".
• Knock before entering a private house. If a woman answers, wait until she
  has had time to retire.
• If you see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not
  queer.
• You can usually tell a mosque by its high tower. Keep away from mosques. [Emphasis in the original] If you try to enter one, you will be thrown out, probably with a severe beating.
• There are four towns in Iraq which are particularly sacred to the Iraq Moslems: Kerbala, Najaf, samarra, and Kadhiman. Unless you are ordered to these towns it is advisable to stay away from them.
• Moslems here are divided into two factions something like our division into
  Catholic and Protestant denominations -- so don't put in your two cents when
  Iraqis argue about religion.
  
  
• There are also political differences in Iraq that have puzzled diplomats and
  statesmen. You won't help matters any by getting mixed up in them.

And
then there's this:

• American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis
  (as the people are called) like American soldiers or not. It may not be quite
  that simple. But then again it could.
  

~
Wish somebody read it in 2002.

Outrage

Via Gordon at the brainhttp://alterx.blogspot.com/

"These are guys who are pretty much going straight from deployment to the streets," added Rachel Feldstein, associate director of New Directions, a residential care centre for homeless veterans inside the VA complex in West Los Angeles. She says veterans of the Iraq war are becoming homeless much more quickly than Vietnam vets.

While about half of the estimated 400,000 homeless veterans served during the Vietnam years, Feldstein said most did not usually become homeless until nine to 12 years after their discharge.

Already, she said, Iraq war vets are living on the streets of Los Angeles, getting seriously addicted to drugs and falling into criminal behaviour, she said.

Firm estimates of the number of homeless Iraq war veterans are hard to come by. In June 2005, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reported the number of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) veterans seeking assistance from community-based homeless services
providers had exceeded 400.

The group Veterans for America, formerly the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, estimates that 10,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are now living on the street.

"What's unique about the men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan is that they're not able to integrate with their family," Feldstein said. "They've seen horrible things. They've been in horrible places and their family can't relate. And so you become homeless in the last place you lived."

Activists concerned about increases in the number of homeless veterans argue for greater federal investment in affordable housing and social services. Of particular concern is the wait for mental health care, which can run as long as six months.

A recent study by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government found that by the time the Iraq and Afghanistan wars end, there will be at least two and a half million vets. Because of that, the Harvard study concluded, Congress will have to double the VA's budget simply to avoid cutting services.
http://ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=38137

I'm sure that more yellow magnets can address this.

Iraq's worsening mess

I'm reading some very troubling reports in the Arabic press regarding the Askariya shrinebombing, and the political fallout following.

The mosque, one of the four most revered in Iraq, has been heavily guarded by Iraqi troops ever since the 2006 attack. No one ever asserted responsibility for that blast. But it was blamed on the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, which over the years has launched attacks on both Shiite and Sunni targets in an effort to fuel religious battles and push the country into civil war.

The real question comes down to how soon will al-Maliki's government collapse, and what will follow.

Bombers returned overnight to finish off the Askariya Shiite shrine, the same one that was badly damaged in 2006, and Al-Sadr’s bloc suspended its participation in Parliament in protest over the al-Maliki’s government inability to provide basic security. This occurred in the midst of a coordinated insurgent campaign to destroy Iraqi bridges and other infrastructure in and around Baghdad, and while the Americans plead with the Iraqis to do more.

I also have questions about the timing. One day after Moqtada al-Sadr received Sistani's blessing for his attempts to end Sunni-Shia violence, the Shia shrine bombing seems to be an attempt to inflame sectarian conflict.

Al-Sabah carries on page 3 a 560-word report entitled "Muqtada al-Sadr Visits
Grand Religious Authority in His House in Al-Najaf; Al-Sistani Blesses Al-Sadr
Trend's Efforts To Bring Shiites, Sunnis Together." . .

"Sayed Muqtada refuses all kinds of violence and he refuses to answer violence with violence," Obaidi said. "Sayed" is an honorific used for descendents of the Prophet Muhammad.

As I've said before, al-Sadr has positioned himself to be a real power broker in the future of Iraq. He could be our best hope or our worst fear in Iraq.

The reaction was swift in Shiite-dominated southern Iraq. Black banners were
hoisted outside the Najaf residence of radical cleric al-Sadr, who called for three days mourning and peaceful demonstrations to mark the minarets' destruction and criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the site.

He also said the U.S. occupation is "the only enemy of Iraq" and "that's why everyone must demand its departure," or a timetable for its departure.

Solar beer

Running a brewery on solar power is cool. Now if Pearl would just start making a decent beer...

A warehouse renovation project set for the historic Pearl Brewery site will also be a "learning laboratory" for "green" building and energy efficiency, featuring the largest solar energy installation in the state, announced CPS Energy and Silver Ventures, which is renovating the historic brewery in an adaptive re-use project.

The $1.35 million solar energy joint project will install a 200-kilowatt array of solar panels atop a 67,000 square-foot former warehouse facility

http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=185866

Oil's Swell

Priorities:

From today's NYT:

The top American military commander for the Middle East has warned
Iraq’s prime minister in a closed-door conversation that the Iraqi government needs to make tangible political progress by next month to counter the growing tide of opposition to the war in Congress.

In a Sunday afternoon discussion that mixed gentle coaxing with a sober
appraisal of politics in Baghdad and Washington, the commander, Adm.
William J. Fallon, told Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that the Iraqi government should aim to complete a law on the division of oil proceeds by next month.

Any comments?

Republicans don't evolve

At least that's my conclusion from the report http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27847 showing the majority of republicans don't believe in evolution.


I'll call them the "un-evolved".

Bush scandals list

Some guy named Hugh has a list http://www.netrootsmass.net/Hugh/Bush_list.html, and he's only come up with 190 so far. I'm sure he missed a few, but it's a great start. Sample:

4. Iraq: axis of evil, lack of preparation for occupation, looting, including the National Museum, too few troops, lack of training, lack of equipment, lack of securing loose Iraqi munitions, disbanding the Iraqi army, banning the Baathists, the CPA, cronyism, Paul Bremer, losing tons of money literally, lack of international inclusion in reconstruction and security, weak Constitution, formation of sectarian parties, weak government, denial of actual conditions in Iraq, ignoring 4 years of failed policies and the basic proposal of the Iraq Study Group to withdraw, escalating instead, continuing lack of any discernible
mission

While I'm Not A Complete Pacifist...

.... I must respect those who are. And so, this entry. Much more at the Wiki.

Jeannette Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives and the first female member of Congress. A Republican and a lifelong pacifist, she was the only member of Congress to vote against United States entry into World War II and one of fifty to vote against World War I. Additionally, she led resistance to the Vietnam War.

Were there more like her today.

Arm them all

Following up on the U.S. arming Sunni's in Iraq, or our leaders are idiots:

BAGHDAD, June 10 — With the four-month-old increase in American troops
showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders
are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past. [...]

... In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.

Of course, arming both sides of a conflict helps promote peace, right?

It's the least we could do after helping establish Shi'ite death squads in the Iraqi Interior Ministry and arming the Badr Brigade Iraqi Army, which is often comprised primarily of Shi'ites, except in Northern Iraq where the Kurds predominate.

I liked Boomans take on it:http://www.boomantribune.com/

So, when does Bush announce we're going to use tactical nukes to take out the
United States military? That's the next logical step for dealing with a state sponsor of terrorism, isn't it? And isn't what these US commanders are now doing the raison
d'être for Our Dear Leader's order authorizing US forces to kill or capture Iranians in
Iraq? Namely, the arming and training of Iraqi insurgents who are killing Americans? Well, wasn't it?

If all this makes your head spin, imagine how it feels to be an American soldier in Iraq this morning. Must be nice to know that the very people who blew off your buddy's arms and legs, or crushed his skull in an IED attack yesterday, are now the recipients of US Government largesse. Especially since the US government has been sooo good about taking care of our disabled vets, once they can no longer serve as target practice for many of these same insurgents.

Shrub speaks

OK, I know that G.W.Shrub says stupid things almost every day, but this looks really really stupid:

While in Italy on Saturday, Bush was asked whether there needs to be a deadline for action by the United Nations in establishing independence for Kosovo.

"In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one," Bush said emphatically. "This needs to come _ this needs to happen. Now it's time."

That must not have been a memorable statement for the president.

By the time he got to Albania the next morning, he was befuddled when a reporter asked for more detail on the deadline.

"First of all, I don't think I called for a deadline," he said Sunday in his latest European stop. That drew a curious reaction, and Bush picked up on it.

"What exactly did I say? I said, 'Deadline?'" Bush asked.

Someone signaled that he did, in fact, say the word.

"OK, yes, then I meant what I said," Bush said to laughter.

He went on to explain that Kosovo should not continue adrift through endless
debate.

"That's what I meant," Bush declared. [WaPo]

How did this clown end up in power? (that's meant rhetorically- I know all the corrupt history)

What's important

I thought I would never post anything with the name of a skinny blonde going to jail, but Juan Cole wrote something that puts it in perspective:
http://www.juancole.com/

American cable news has been fixated on the jailing of socialite Paris Hilton for the past week, on grounds that she twice violated the probation sentence she earlier received for drunk driving. They interrupted coverage of world leaders at the G8. They briefly spliced in Gates's decision not to reappoint Peter Pace as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. A new frenzy broke out with every tiny twist . She was brave, she was weeping, she was mentally fragile. She was released, she was rejailed, she shouted it was unfair and cried, she was undergoing psychiatric evaluation.

Just for a little perspective, we could consider the news from Iraq on Saturday. Incoming mortar fire from guerrillas hit Bucca prison, killing 6 inmates and wounding 50.

The US military is holding 19000 Iraqis, 16000 of them at Bucca. Although most are guerrillas or their helpers, a lot of them were picked up because they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once arrested, an inmate often cannot clear himself for months or years. I don't think they have access to attorneys. No one cares if they are depressed. At Abu Ghraib earlier on, some inmates were systematically tortured. It is unlear if all such practices have ceased.

Some Iraqi women have been held in this way. Some were essentially hostages, taken to make them reveal where their husbands or fathers were or to guarantee their good behavior. Their reputations were shot, since Iraqis think Americans are sex fiends and wouldn't trust the virtue of a woman who had been in their custody. The unmarried among them are likely doomed to be spinsters.



American television never mentions that the US has 19000 Iraqis in jail, or that some have been women, or that some are innocent, or how they feel about being in
prison.

So is Paris Hilton being given special treatment by our media? We all are, folks.

Not that you'll hear this in the nightly news.

Dealing with ...

Machiavelli knew that pragmatism would always win, but we'll screw this up, too.

In a meeting with reporters, Lynch said contacts with the Sunnis, who make up the bulk of the insurgency, were a matter of pragmatism.
``They say: 'We hate you because you are an occupier, but we hate al-Qaida worse and we hate the Persians (Iranians) even worse' ... you can't ignore that whole population,'' Lynch said.

There is NO winning. We need to leave.

Ethics

I really want to put up an angry post about some people using my research to promote themselves, but I'm not going to let anger win. I'll explain later.

Just credit the folks doing the real work.

added: I did a lot of work leading up to this:

A Flagstaff couple already in the beer business is ready to brew up a different kind of fuel. Diane and David Williamson, owners of Mogollon Brewery, have formed a private company to build and operate an ethanol refinery at Camp Navajo.

The company, called Earth Friendly Fuels, would produce about 50 million gallons of ethanol per year.

The plant would produce corn-based ethanol. Then, ideally, it would transition to consuming tree scraps from a waferboard wood plant proposed in Winslow, if technology improves.

That product is called cellulosic ethanol, and it is still in the developmental stage.

http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/06/10/news/20070610_front%20page_16.prt

The fuel refinery could consume about 200,000 tons of woody debris, or about half the output of the proposed biomass from the Winslow plant, said Pascal Berlioux, president of Arizona Forest Restoration Products, the company proposing the oriented strand board plant in Winslow.

Added: I should just calm down. The local newspaper went with the story, despite a lack of research or informed sources.

Diane Williamson declined to discuss details, saying there was no signed lease yet for the property at Camp Navajo.

The plans for the plant are a long way from fruition, which is why I haven't posted about it.

The need to lighten up

I am only capable of 3 serious posts in a row, then I need something lighter. Here it is:

Corrupt Bastards

I don't usually join in blogswarms, but this one got me going. Via http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/, the New Orleans pump situation is appaling:

Yeah, the ones that Jeb!'s buddies supplied. They were messed-up to begin
with, and are still dysfunctional. The Corps embargoed the report while the
National Media was in NOLA for the start of the Hurricane season, and are still
holding back the truth.

http://first-draft-blog.typepad.com/ has the rundown:

Beginning with what Oyster says for the overview...

In a blockbuster post, Matt McBride outlines his initial impressions about the Army Corps of Engineers' internal investigation on the floodgate pumps. In short, New Orleanians are at risk because the pumps haven't been fixed properly. Please read the whole thing; it's mega-important.

Then on to the post by Matt at Fix the Pumps for details. First he states..."The report is stunning in its breadth and depth. Things are way worse than I knew. [...] The amount of crap this investigation uncovered is breathtaking." Matt then details what is wrong with the pumps among other things. There is this regarding what has been known...

Colonel Bedey, Jim St. Germain, and Dan Bradley have been lying to us in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, all of the media (local and national), and the entire nation for a year, right up to and including Bedey's assurances during General Van Antwerp's "Truth & Honesty" tour last Thursday. There is a critical fix (as in, the pumps could fail without it) that needs to be applied to the drive units. The New Orleans Corps has known about it and has not performed that fix since June of 2006! I don't see how these men can keep their jobs.

And this regarding the pump contract...

The contract administration has been a travesty - perhaps even criminal - and there appears to have been an active effort to cover that up. MWI was writing change orders - including prices - and the Corps was sending them back to MWI with a bow on them. Duplicate payments have been made to MWI. There appears to be no written justification for most of the payments. There appear to be millions of dollars unaccounted for.

This whole administration has been one massive ripoff. Profits are more important than lives to these assholes.

One Million Blogs for Peace

Found this project over at http://www.crooksandliars.com/, and I like it. So Pygalgia is now one in a million.

The Concept
Between 20 March 2007 and 20 March 2008 (the fifth year of the war), we will attempt to
sign up One Million Blogs for Peace. By signing up, a blogger is stating his or her agreement with The Pledge below. They will then be able to participate in various challenges launched by One Million Blogs for Peace. They will also be listed on this website with a link to their blog.

http://bluepyramid.org/peace/

I hope to see this button show up on other blogs I admire. Spread the word!

Meet the meat

More beef recalls for e. coli. Nice to know that they're taking action to protect us, right?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003741087_beefrecall09m.html

LOS ANGELES — A meat supplier has expanded a voluntary recall of ground beef
that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

United Food Group said in a statement this week that it expanded the recall of 75,000 pounds of ground beef to include an additional 370,000 pounds based on "unspecified concerns" raised by the California Department of Health Services.

The recalled products were shipped to grocery stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. They were sold under brand names Moran's, Miller Meat, Stater Bros., Inter-American Products and Bashas'.

What really infuriates me is the timing. Notice the "sell by" dates:

The products have "sell-by" dates from April 29 to May 6 and may have "freeze-by" dates of April 28, April 30 or May 7. The establishment number "EST. 1241" is stamped inside the USDA mark of inspection or is printed on the package.

I'm a simple bachelor, and I usually eat what I buy within a few days. It's now June, so ground beef that had "April 29th" as a "sell by" date has been consumed. Guess I got lucky.
It would be nice to know that the groceries I buy today are safe TODAY, dammit.
Thanks to Monkeyfister for the tip.

Logic

An Irishman walks into a Dublin bar, orders three pints of Guinness, and drinks them down, taking a sip from one, then a sip from the next, until they're gone. He then orders three more.

The bartender says, "You know, they'd be less likely to go flat if you bought them one a a time."

The man says, "Yeah, I know, but I have two brothers, one in the States, one in Austrailia. When we all went our separate ways, we promised each other that we'd all drink this way in memory of the days when we drank together. Each of these is for one of my brothers and the third is for me."

The bartender is touched, and says, "What a great custom!"

The Irishman becomes a regular in the bar and always orders the same way.

One day he comes in and orders two pints. The other regulars notice, and a silence falls over the bar. When he come to the bar for his second round, the bartender says, "Please accept my condolences, pal"

The Irishman says, " Oh, no, everyone's fine. I just joined the Mormon Church, and I had to quit drinking."
(from: Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes)

A tragedy

The ongoing Iraq debacle has created so many tragedies that this might be overlooked:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2098272,00.html

Fly into the American air base of Tallil outside Nasiriya in central Iraq and the flight path is over the great ziggurat of Ur, reputedly the earliest city on earth. Seen from the base in the desert haze or the sand-filled gloom of dusk, the structure is indistinguishable from the mounds of fuel dumps, stores and hangars. Ur is safe within the base compound. But its walls are pockmarked with wartime shrapnel and a blockhouse is being built over an adjacent archaeological site. When the head of Iraq's supposedly sovereign board of antiquities and heritage, Abbas al-Hussaini, tried to inspect the site recently, the Americans refused him access to his own most important monument.

Yesterday Hussaini reported to the British Museum on his struggles to protect his work in a state of anarchy. It was a heart breaking presentation. Under Saddam you were likely to be tortured and shot if you let someone steal an antiquity; in today's Iraq you are likely to be tortured and shot if you don't. The tragic fate of the national museum in Baghdad in April 2003 was as if federal troops had invaded New York city, sacked the police and told the criminal community that the Metropolitan was at their disposal. The local tank commander was told specifically not to protect the museum for a full two weeks after the invasion. Even the Nazis protected the Louvre.

I realize that the human toll in bloodshed is the real tragedy, but the destruction of history is also tragic.

The national museum is not open but shut. Nor is it just shut. Its doors are bricked up, it is surrounded by concrete walls and its exhibits are sandbagged. Even the staff cannot get inside. There is no prospect of reopening.

Hussaini confirmed a report two years ago by John Curtis, of the British Museum, on America's conversion of Nebuchadnezzar's great city of Babylon into the hanging gardens of Halliburton. This meant a 150-hectare camp for 2,000 troops. In the process the 2,500-year-old brick pavement to the Ishtar Gate was smashed by tanks and the gate itself damaged. The archaeology-rich subsoil was bulldozed to fill sandbags, and large areas covered in compacted gravel for helipads and car parks. Babylon is being rendered archaeologically barren.

Meanwhile the courtyard of the 10th-century caravanserai of Khan al-Raba was used by the Americans for exploding captured insurgent weapons. One blast demolished the ancient roofs and felled many of the walls. The place is now a ruin.

Outside the capital some 10,000 sites of incomparable importance to the history of western civilisation, barely 20% yet excavated, are being looted as systematically as was the museum in 2003. When George tried to remove vulnerable carvings from the ancient city of Umma to Baghdad, he found gangs of looters already in place with bulldozers, dump trucks and AK47s.

When the histroy of the Iraq war is written, we will look less civilized than the Mongols.

It is abundantly clear that the Americans and British are not protecting Iraq's historic sites. All foreign archaeologists have had to leave. Troops are doing nothing to prevent the "farming" of known antiquities. This is in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention that an occupying army should "use all means within its power" to guard the cultural heritage of a defeated state.

Iraq explained

I think this diagram should clarify the situation in Iraq:

Now that we see who's with us and who's against us, it should be easy to come up with a workable plan, right?

Lost in Translation

You would think that we would use any Arabic translators that we can get. Wrong. Gays need not apply.

From Stephen Benjamin's op ed in today's NYT:

The lack of qualified translators has been a pressing issue for some time — the Army had filled only half its authorized positions for Arabic translators in 2001. Cables went untranslated on Sept. 10 that might have prevented the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Today, the American Embassy in Baghdad has nearly 1,000 personnel, but only a handful of fluent Arabic speakers.

I was an Arabic translator. After joining the Navy in 2003, I attended the Defense Language Institute, graduated in the top 10 percent of my class and then spent two years giving our troops the critical translation services they desperately needed. I was ready to serve in Iraq.

But I never got to. In March, I was ousted from the Navy under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which mandates dismissal if a service member is found to be gay....

Consider: more than 58 Arabic linguists have been kicked out since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was instituted. How much valuable intelligence could those men and women be providing today to troops in harm’s way?

I'll add a personal note. I tried to get a translator job with the State Department in 2002, but because I have a (minor) criminal record I couldn't. While I'm not fluent in Arabic, I read and speak it well enough to be useful. But we must follow those conservative values first.

It's Friday

So it's Boobie time:

Happy Friday.

Moving Sweaterman

Helping Sweaterman move yesterday, I was struck by two things. One, the man has good taste in furniture. Two, that means heavy furniture. We'll be finishing the move today, but thankfully most of the heavy stuff is done. Sometimes I wish I had lighter friends.

Better Solar

I started seeing this material at alternative energy conventions a few years ago, and I'm glad to see more of it.

Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels.

Anil Sethi, the chief executive of the Swiss start-up company Flisom, says he looks forward to the day - not so far off - when entire cities in America and Europe generate their heating, lighting and air-conditioning needs from solar films on buildings with enough left over to feed a surplus back into the grid.

The secret? Mr Sethi lovingly cradles a piece of dark polymer foil, as thin a sheet of paper. It is 200 times lighter than the normal glass-based solar materials, which require expensive substrates and roof support. Indeed, it is so light it can be stuck to the sides of buildings.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/02/19/ccview19.xml

We need more and cheaper solar power, so I really hope these guys succeed.

The "tipping point" will arrive when the capital cost of solar power falls below $1 (51p) per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power. We are not there yet. The best options today vary from $3 to $4 per watt - down from $100 in the late 1970s.

Mr Sethi believes his product will cut the cost to 80 cents per watt within five years, and 50 cents in a decade.

It is based on a CIGS (CuInGaSe2) semiconductor compound that absorbs light by freeing electrons. This is then embedded on the polymer base. It will be ready commercially in late 2009.

"It'll even work on a cold, grey, cloudy day in England, which still produces 25pc to 30pc of the optimal light level. That is enough, if you cover half the roof," he said.

"We don't need subsidies, we just need governments to get out of the way and do no harm. They've spent $170bn subsidising nuclear power over the last thirty years," he said.