Listen to Some Music, Help Haiti

Here's one I had to share: the fine folks at Wolfgang's Vault (http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/) are making donations to Haitian relief for every hour of (free) music streamed from the site. They're also donating 25% from merchandise sales (downloads, t-shirts, classic concert posters, etc.). The concert vault has a huge collection of live concert recordings, from Led Zeppelin to the Newport Jazz Festival to a few thousand bands you've never heard of. I've got Bob Dylan and The Band streaming right now.

Boobies Rights

This weeks Boobies are celebrating the actual birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and hoping you have Monday off to honor him.

Some Local Weather Records

Not to confuse "weather" with "climate", but a look at the numbers for 2009 reveals some disturbing trends:

In addition to having one of the driest years on record, Flagstaff and northern Arizona set some other records in 2009.

-- Flagstaff had the longest growing season on record, due to a span of 153 consecutive days between April 30 and Oct. 1 when it didn't freeze. Typically, the last freeze hits Flagstaff on June 10, and the first freeze of fall is Sept. 21, according to National Weather Service records.

-- Flagstaff had the second-driest monsoon season on record; Bellemont had the driest; Page had the sixth-driest.

-- In 14 of 17 communities, from Ganado and Tuba City to Flagstaff and Williams, average highs and lows for the entire year ranged from a fraction of a degree to 3 degrees warmer than normal, according to data by the Weather Service. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon was neutral -- neither hotter nor colder than average.

-- Flagstaff's hottest temperature for the year was 93 degrees on July 17; its coldest was 6 degrees below zero on Dec. 25.

ON THE WEB www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz

http://www.azdailysun.com/news/local/article_d17c2bbc-7f41-5693-b683-3cfd20e5efbd.html

In brief, it was really dry. Despite last month's blizzard. Unless we have a really wet spring, the summer wildfire season is going to be very scary. So the forecast for snow most of next week is actually a good thing, even if I'm personally sick of winter.

More on Haitian Relief

I'll hand this over from someone who's better at it than I am, but I've given what little I can. Digby posted a list of relief/humanitarian agencies on the ground in Haiti, which I'm just going to copy.

by digby

Ayayay. It's just awful. It's going to be tens of thousands of casualties.

Here is a list of organizations on the ground that will be needing help if you're so inclined:

• The Red Cross: You can give $10 to the Red Cross’s International Response Fund by texting HAITI to 90999. 100 percent of your donation benefits the Red Cross, and you can print a receipt through mGive, a foundation that helps non-profits take advantage of mobile technology.

• UNICEF, the United Nations Fund focusing on children, has worked on the ground in Haiti since 1949, so has the expertise to make a difference. You can donate here.

• Doctors Without Borders is also present in-country. One senior staff member reports, “The situation is chaotic. I visited five medical centers, including a major hospital, and most of them were not functioning.” Donate to support public health efforts here.

• MADRE, the international women’s rights NGO, partners with the Zanmi Lasante Clinic on the ground in Haiti. “The most urgent needs right now are bandages, broad-spectrum antibiotics and other medical supplies, as well as water tablets to prevent cholera outbreaks,” MADRE reports. Donate here.

• Action Against Hunger has had a team in Haiti since 1985, and is ready to fly planeloads of emergency supplies from Paris to Port-au-Prince. Food is one necessity, but so is sanitation; in some Haitian towns, 70 percent of homes do not have plumbing. Donate here.

• Mercy Corps has a history of deploying aid to regions affected by catastrophic earthquakes, such as Peru in 2007, China and Pakistan in 2008, and Indonesia last year. They are deploying a team to Haiti, and you can support their efforts here.

• Partners in Health is the NGO founded in Haiti in 1987 by Dr. Paul Farmer, the celebrated physician and anthropologist who focuses on international social justice. The group’s emergency response focuses on delivering medical supplies and staff. Louise Ivers, PIH’s clinical director in the country, sent the message, “Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS.” Donate here.

To follow the story, the best online source for me remains Mark Leon Goldberg at UN Dispatch.

Haiti

Incredible devastation in what was already the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. The Red Cross and UNICEF have ways to help, as do many other aid groups.

For Her Courage

Miep Gies was bestowed with the "Righteous Gentile" title by the Israeli Holocaust museum.

Bullshit.

Righteous Gentile? How about 'Righteous MotherF*cking Human Who Supported Far More Of A Share of Her Life's Load Than Anyone Ever Should". That might be a start. For her, and for the many others who gave as she gave, and but because of the fickleness of fate, she became the icon.

This is a person who defined and defines the essence of humanity. She IS what it means to be human; to share, through our weakly evolved history of providing support to each and every one of us, when we most need it, and following through on that support, even though it may have meant the cessation of her own being.

That's Human. That's Humanity. That was Miep Gies.

Let's hope that we could all be a little more like her, every day.

Obey the Sign

My city, in what I presume to be unintended humor, placed this sign on the sidewalk approaching the railroad crossing nearby. As I walked by a few evenings ago, a group of what I presume to be local college students were...um...engaging in an obvious response, and taking pictures. I didn't have my camera with me at the time, but I'm willing to bet that the results have already been posted somewhere on the intertubes. And I will also bet there will be more.

I love my city!

No Surprise, But...

In case you might have been delusional enough to think they couldn't get worse, they can:

Sarah Palin to Contribute to Fox News

Another reason not to watch.

A Cunning Plan

With just a few minor flaws.
Last week, NORAD twice scrambled fighter jets in response to unruly passengers. Now, I understand that everybody is being hyper-vigilant in the wake of the "undie bomber", but I fail to see how F-15's or F-16's are an effective way to deal with the problem. The fighter escorts can force a commercial aircraft to the ground based only on the implicit threat of shooting it down. Which doesn't strike me as much of a deterrent to a terrorist. "Don't blow up the plane, or we'll blow up the plane" has a bit of a logical flaw as a tactic against terrorism. Maybe I'm missing something, but blowing something up to prevent it from being blown up, while a common military approach, seems counterproductive.
And I don't quite understand how this helps control "unruly" passengers. Saying "quit being an asshole, or we'll blow you (and everyone around you) to smithereens", while emotionally satisfying, seems to be a bit of overkill. Sure, we've all had the urge to blow up an obnoxious drunk (OK, at least I have; you may be more tolerant), but no sane person would actually do it, especially when it means killing a couple hundred other people along with the jerk.
So the scrambled fighters are a purely symbolic gesture, allowing the TSA to say "see, we are doing something." It's just that the "something" won't make anybody any safer.
Or am I missing something?

Kyl Has Priorities

My dumber senator (truly) has his priorities. For instance, along with every other thing on the internet, he doesn’t like online gambling very much. Which is OK; I like online gambling, but I don't have a bunch of casinos lobbying me; simple corruption I can understand. But Jon "I Hate Government" Kyl is using this as an excuse to put a "hold" on a bunch of Treasury nominees. Per Matt Yglesias:

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) evidently doesn’t like online gambling very much, and in 2006, he helped craft a law banning the processing of online wagers. The law and its corresponding regulations were supposed to go into effect last month, but the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve pushed back the start-date until June.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is your modern United States Senate. If there’s some random crap that nobody cares about, it just takes one Senator with a bee in his bonnet to ruin everything for everyone who would like to live in a country with
a properly administered government. There are six Treasury nominees still awaiting action being held up by Kyl.

You might think it would be a good idea to have an Under Secretary for International Affairs. Kyl disagrees. You might think it would be a good idea to have an Under Secretary for Domestic Finance. Kyl disagrees. You might think it would be a good idea to have an Assistant Secretary for International Markets and Development. Kyl disagrees. You might think it would be a good idea to have an Assistant Secretary for International Economics and Development. Kyl disagrees. You might think it would be a good idea to have an Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets. Kyl disagrees. You might think it would be a good idea to have an Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. Kyl disagrees.

This kind of thing really has to stop, it’s a ludicrous way to run a country. Amidst a global economic meltdown, we can’t get confirmation for the international economics officials. Not because the senate has a problem with them, but because one guy isn’t happy with the delay of some internet gambling regulations.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/01/while-economy-burns-jon-kyl-blocking-treasury-nominees-over-petty-bs.php

I'm of a simple mind: we're in an economic crises, I have no idea how to fix it, but I want more people working to solve the problem. Not saying Treasury should be trusted too far, but they should be allowed to have a full toolbox for the attempt.
And that is the crux of the debate: the dems govern poorly, while the rethugs are against governing at all. It's a lousy choice, but those are the only options at this time.
I don't particularly like Timmy G., but I'd rather he had a full team while tackling our current mess. I'd even give up my online football bets (which have done me well) to have a barely functional government.

Why Is The Bird Grumpy?

For reasons that are entirely unclear to me, Grizelda (my bird) woke up in a bad mood today. Most days, when I let her out of her cage in the morning she perches by the heater and chatters at the sunrise. Not today. Today she started by attacking the computer mouse (a behavior I thought I had broken her of) and then attempting to shred and toss a pile of paperwork that I should be working on. Then it was the speaker wires that became her target. She's been loudly complaining about my putting a stop to her path of destruction, like a small child throwing a tantrum. I finally had to put her back into her cage for a "time out".

She's normally a very sweet, well behaved bird. I have no idea why she's in such a bad mood today, as everything in her world (food, water, treats) is the same as every other day. No signs of anything wrong with her health; I checked her out to see if there was anything physically wrong and found her to be extremely healthy. So why is she so grumpy today?

Added: Let back out about an hour later, she's her normal sweet self.

The Absurdity of St. Sleazy

Clearly St. Sleazy McCain is feeling threatened by the potential primary from J.D. "the eggplant" Hayworth (yes, that's my new pet nickname for him). St. Sleazy has decided to channel his 'inner warrior' in two new radio ads:

"President Obama is leading an extreme, left wing crusade to bankrupt America. I stand in his way every day. If I get a bruise or two knocking some sense into heads in Washington, so be it. I'll keep fighting for jobs and economic growth for Arizona as long as I'm in the Senate," McCain says in one of them.

"My lot in life has been to wage war against wrong, like today's massive spending at the worst possible time," he says in the other. A narrator calls McCain "Arizona's last line of defense" against Obama's agenda and says McCain leads the charge against "ridiculously unaffordable ideas like government-run health care." Conveniently for the McCain campaign, it appears that the only place to listen to the ads, other than Arizona radio stations, is here, on the campaign's contribution-form web page.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/01/mccain_i_stand_in_obamas_way.php

Damn, but that's some absurdest theater! Somehow, Obama is an extremist liberal (which is news to most of us on the left) who can only be stopped by the bruised tough-guy geriatric hero, St. Sleazy himself. While I'm sure these ads will appeal to the base, to me sounds even more delusional and senile than he did during his presidential run, and that's saying something. Watch for J.D. "the eggplant" to put out even more extreme 'tough-guy' ads in response, which could be entertaining if it weren't for the sad absurdity that one of these wackos will probably end up being senator.

Boobies I Should Have Noticed

Don't know why it took me so long to find and post this one, but it's here now. Enjoy.

The Retirement

(Baseball post; non-fans can skip)

Randy Johnson has announced his retirement, ending a career of the pitcher who, in my opinion, was the most entertaining to watch over the past 22 years. I lived up in Washington state when the Mariners first acquired the young Johnson (from the Expos), and the first time I saw him pitch, my reaction was "Oh, my...if this guy learns to throw strikes, he'll be one of the greatest. If he doesn't, he's gonna kill somebody." He learned (although he did kill a bird with a pitch).
For those unfamiliar with "RJ" or "the big unit" as he was nicknamed, he was simply intimidating as a pitcher. A 6'11" lefthander with a 100mph fastball and a menacing stare, he overpowered batters. Baseball statistics are a matter of near religious reverence amongst fans, and Johnson's numbers put him in the all-time greats: 303 wins (24th), 4,875 strikeouts (2nd all-time, 1,700 ahead of #3), 5 Cy Young awards, 10 all-star appearances, 2 no-hitters (1 a perfect game) and a world series co-MVP. Automatic 'Hall-of-Fame" in 5 years.
In 2001, Johnson lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a World Series championship, blowing away the hated Yankees. He ended his career by pitching last season for my beloved San Francisco Giants.
I've been a Baseball fan my whole life, and I've seen some of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game. Johnson was among them, and the game will miss him.

Oh, yeah...a couple of Senators are also retiring. But neither Dodd nor Dorgan ever won a Cy Young or a World Series. I suppose they both threw a few curve balls in their careers, though.

Like A Steele Trap

Republican party chairman Michael Steele follows up on his success with African-Americans and Hispanics by reaching out to Native Americans:

Our platform is one of the best political documents that’s been written in the last 25 years. Honest Injun on that.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/05/steele-injun/

One of the Democrats best assets is having Steele speaking for republicans.

TSA Almost Succeeds

in protecting America from Joan Rivers:

The New York Daily News reports that comedian Joan Rivers was among the many travelers to get snared in the heightened-security frenzy that overtook airports after the December 25th failed terrorist attack. Rivers wasn’t allowed on her Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica this past weekend by a “jittery Continental Airlines gate agent” who thought the two names on her passport, which reads “Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers,” seemed “fishy.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/05/joan-rivers-airport/

Now, I don't think Ms. Rivers is a terrorist. But she's not funny, and she's the kind of celebrity that we have way too many of. As a country, we really don't need Joan Rivers back. I can only assume that the powerful cosmetic surgery industry successfully lobbied for her return.

The Entertainment Value of a Train Wreck

I've been in the 'political doldrums' lately, watching with intense disinterest as the dysfunctional process loudly fails to serve the public. I frequently find myself wondering how much worse it will get.
Here in Arizona, we get the honor of being represented by two of the worst examples of rethuglican obstructionism in the senate, Jon "I hate government" Kyl and St. Sleazy "Keating Five who?" McCain, which is bad enough. But the 'even further right' rethugs are serious about electing an even worse senator:

Fourteen months ago, John McCain was his party's nominee for president. But, now, as the 2010 midterms loom, the senior Senator from Arizona may find himself locked in a primary battle to hold on to his seat -- and he could be vulnerable.

Last week, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) signaled on his radio show that he's getting closer and closer to a run at McCain's seat. "We may have moved past due diligence into something that is more than a legal term of art ... something called 'testing the waters.' So stay tuned on that," Hayworth said.

Hayworth is popular with the conservative base because he was a leading right-wing voice in Congress on immigration, until he lost his seat in 2006. (Since then, Hayworth has hosted a talk radio show in Arizona.) McCain has traditionally struggled with this voting bloc, largely because of his past moderate positions on illegal immigration.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/why-the-political-deck-in-arizona-might-be-stacked-against-john-mccain.php?ref=fpa

As much as I dislike St. Sleazy, I cannot imagine a worse senator than J.D. Hayworth. J.D. is a blow-dried sportscaster with the intellectual capacity of an eggplant. He'll spout the right talking points on "god, guns, and gays", but his pet issue is 'immigration'; he really hates brown people. He's upset that there are "mexicans" in Arizona (J.D. don't know much history).
And he could win:

If McCain faces a primary challenge from Hayworth, McCain could be at a distinct disadvantage because of his state's election laws -- namely the closed primary, which allows only registered Republicans to choose the GOP's nominee.

Voting registration figures in Arizona through last spring show that Republicans, Democrats, and independents and minor parties all take about a third of registered voters. McCain has traditionally had a strong appeal with the state's independents -- but they can't vote in the GOP primary, leaving a heavily conservative, anti-illegal immigration base to choose the nominee.

So far, there is no credible democrat running. So if J.D. wins the primary, he could win in the general.

01022010

Happy "numerical palindrome day."

New Year's Boobie

Flying into 2010.

Happy 2010

Happy New Year to you!

And Happy Birthday to me. 51. Funny, I don't feel older.