Monkeyfister

The classic Chaplin film...



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Great Big hat-tip to Scrutiny Hooligans.



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Labels: John McCain, Republican Values, St. John McCain

Please?

via The New York Times

It is difficult to gauge the extent of the opposition, but residents agree that the park has more detractors than supporters. One state lawmaker from Murfreesboro said she had received hundreds of calls and e-mail messages, “99 percent” of them against the park.

In contrast, another developer’s recently announced plans for an “Ole South” theme park in two nearby counties has not stirred opposition, according to state lawmakers from that area.

The only comparable Bible-themed destination in the United States is the 15-acre Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Fla., said Reagan Hillier, president of the Faith Based Amusement Association, though he said dozens of traditional theme parks incorporated faith-based themes.

Paula Agee, who lives across the highway from the site of the proposed park, said she supported the idea but was in the minority. She said it would bring better roads and services, and that she preferred it over new homes.

“I’m not really that worried about it,” she said. “I think it would actually end up being a good thing for the residents of Blackman.”

Neighborly relations remain cordial, with ire reserved for the developers. Some residents say the project has been thrust upon them with the assumption that it would be welcome because of its religious theme, a perception that many here are eager to dispel.

“A lot of people think this is a big boy who’s come in to a small town, and he’s pulling the wool over our eyes and feeding us a line, and hopes the Tennessee hillbilly people don’t catch on,” said Melissa Batey, who lives on a nearby farm that has been in her husband’s family for 200 years.

Amen, Sister Batey.


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Labels: Christian Values, Christianists, Religeous Wrong, Theocracy, Theocracy Rising

I guess the caveat inferred here is "When it refers to me or the Executive Branch." Abu talks the talk, but walking the walk is for the little people.

Hey, Gonzo-- FUCK YOU-- you unethical piece of shit! Back when I was writing Statements Of Work for Government Service Contracts, nearly two years ago, I followed every rule, whether that meant that I got the services required or not. Many times, as a result of following the Laws, I needed to interrupt my days off, report to my workplace and remediate faulty situations, by phone. I had to contact and bring in a Contract Officer to make SURE that I was following the Law.

Want to know something, Gonzo? Even if Law Enforcement Officers made me stop right now, and without being able to look at my notes and records, I'd be able to recall with "some" detail, things that I said and wrote, in regard to individual cases and situations. Those situations were and are very minor moments in my career thus far, as a Government Servant-- that period is from 24FEB03 to 21OCT2005. My brain is totally addled, and I can still remember minor actions from over three years ago. Why can't YOU remember MAJOR events from less than a year ago with any, even minor detail? It looks to everyone out here, that you have something, and someone to hide.

I have NO CONFIDENCE in you.

Love, a fellow Government Servant, who out-ethics you any day. Bitch.





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Labels: Abu Gonzales, Alberto Gonzales, Ethics Honesty, Governmental Ethics, Republican Values

I'm posting this in hopes that you good readers that have horror stories might be able to make a difference in our Uber-Shitty Health Care System.





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From mountain formation to mountain habitats and species, this video has it all-- click through for full screen...



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Truck Pushes Wheelchair For Miles - Watch more free videos


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One of the very best video game series EVAR is finally getting a follow-up from Bethesda Games. Coming Fall, 2008-- just in time for the elections. I've been SO looking forward to this.

"War. War never changes..."


Via: VideoSift

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Labels: Video Games

This is part three of one of the best of PBS' NOVA series of this past season...


Via: VideoSift


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He's stupid, and ugly, and nobody likes him...

via Reuters

ROME (Reuters) - Demonstrators clashed with police in central Rome on Saturday as U.S. President George W. Bush wound up a visit to Pope Benedict and Italian leaders.

Hours after Bush had discussed Middle East peace with Pope Benedict and was wrapping up meetings with Italian politicians, police in riot gear charged and fired tear gas at demonstrators who had thrown bottles at them in Rome's historic centre.

The protestors, some wearing motorcycle helmets and bandanas to cover their faces, shattered a window of a bank and overturned outdoor dining tables on some of Rome's most famous streets.

Several policemen and demonstrators were injured.

Tear gas wafted into Rome's historic Piazza Navona, which had been the scene of a demonstration that was for the most part peaceful. Anti-American graffiti was spray-painted on some statues and restaurants and shopkeepers lowered their shutters.

Way to unite, George.


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Labels: George W. Bush

I strongly recommend buying those heavy-duty boxes from U-Haul. I recco them for one reason-- Uniform Size. It makes packing and fitting all your stuff into the truck (and friends' pick-ups and trailers) much more easy and efficient. It eliminates wasted space and voids in your pack, and if you're just moving across town, as I am, it WILL save you extra trips. Those U-Haul boxes are extra heavy-duty, and can be recycled through several moves. I still have a bunch from when I moved down here over four years ago.

Trust me on this score-- the few bucks per box is definitely worth it. Remember, I am an old Stagehand, and packing a truck for a tour is an artform all its own. A good move starts with a proper, uniform pack. I'll take a lamp, put it in a box, and pad it with pillows and blankets and towels-- no space gets wasted, and everything gets packed and moved.

I'll make a drive down to the Memphis Commercial Appeal this coming week, and drop into their printing plant. A little nugget I know from working as a Lithographer's Mate in the Navy. Newspaper print plants always have tons of papers that are rejects from first runs (bad registration, too much ink, under-inked, etc), and they will gladly give you as much as you can take. Or you can drop your four-bits into a paper rack, and grab the whole stack... whatever works, I suppose. But, the trip to the print plant is always an educational experience, you get to make some new friends, and you're supporting recycling-- and it's legal. I'll use all that bad news as weed and grass-blocker when I start setting up all my new garden beds... Recycling bad news into good news is always a good thing!


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Labels: American Dreamblogging, Housekeeping, My Life As It Is

I just came back from the library, where I donated a pile of books.

While going through my bookshelves, I realized that I really don't need all those sci-fi fantasy novels any more. I also decided to donate my Al Franken books, a couple of Joe Conason books, and a couple of books by Mark Crispen Miller and Greg Palast. I've already read these books, and I figure that, here in the middle of Red State Land, they just might do some greater good in this small community.

I know that somewhere down the line, I'm going to slap my forehead for needing a quote from one of them, but, I think they will do more good in the library, than on my shelves, gathering dust.

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Labels: Community, Donating, Libraries, My Life As It Is

So light posting.

It's time to get the books and the kitchen put into boxes, and ready to move. My plan is to get everything in the kitchen, save for one pan, a saucepan, and a pot, and a few cooking/eating utensils, a plate, and a bowl into boxes. That means cleaning out the refrigerator, and all that fun stuff. Busy, Busy, Busy.


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Labels: American Dreamblogging, Housekeeping, My Life As It Is

Again...

via MSNBC

SPRINGDALE, Ark - Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. on Friday recalled more than 40,000 pounds of ground beef shipped to Wal-Mart stores in 12 states after samples tested at a Sherman, Texas, plant showed signs of E. coli contamination.

No illnesses had been reported. Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. said the recall is not related to contaminated ground beef distributed by California-based United Food Group LLC.

The recalled products were sent to Wal-Mart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, Tyson said.

---

The recalled products include:

* 1½-pound trays of Angus steak burger all natural, 85/15, 6¼-pound patties;
* 1.33-pound trays of Angus steak burger all natural, 85/15, extra thick, 4 1/3-pound patties;
* 2¼-pound trays of 73/27 all-natural ground beef; and
* 5½-pound trays of 73/27 all-natural ground beef.

As I said last night-- We're on our own...


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Labels: Contaminated Food, E. Coli, Food Recall

Dedicated to this joke of a G8 Summit.

It's all too clear we're on our own...



Lyrics
Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinnin' free,
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky,
Brush in some clouds and sea,
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space,
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace
Is the human face,
But afraid we may lay our home to waste.

There's a fear down here we can't forget.
Hasn't got a name just yet.
Always awake, always around,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Now watch as the ball revolves
And the nighttime falls.
Again the hunt begins,
Again the bloodwind calls.
By and by, the morning sun will rise,
But the darkness never goes
From some men's eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets,
Staking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat,
It's you and me.
You and me.

Switch flash blades in ghetto night,
Rudy's looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley, roll them bones.
Need that cash to feed that jones.
And the politicians are throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

[Bridge:]
Commissars and pin-stripe bosses
Roll the dice.
Any way they fall,
Guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray,
Selling guns instead of food today.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians are throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Heartless powers try to tell us
What to think.
If the spirit's sleeping,
Then the flesh is ink
History's page will thus be carved in stone.
And we are here, and we are on our own
On our own.
On our own.
On our own.

[Instrumental]

If the game is lost,
Then we're all the same.
No one left to place or take the blame.
We can leave this place an empty stone
Or that shinin' ball of blue we used to call our home.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians are throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

[Bridge two:] Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north.
In a whole world full of petty wars
Singing I got mine and you got yours.
And the current fashion sets the pace,
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical, he rant in rage,
Singing someone's got to turn the page.
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing just leave well enough alone.
But when his pants are down, his cover's blown...

And the politicians are throwin' stones,
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And it's all too clear we're on our own.
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Picture a bright blue ball,
Just spinnin', spinnin, free.
Dizzy with the possibilities.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

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Music of Ethiopia...



Why yes. I DO have better musical taste than Atrios. But, stop, and watch this video-- this is much more powerful than first meets the eye and ear.

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370,000 motherfucking POUNDS of meat. 185 TONS of Beef... About 275 cows killed.

via Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Southern California-based meatpacker United Food Group LLC said it was expanding a recall to include an additional 370,000 pounds of ground beef believed to be contaminated with the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria.

United Food said the recall was expanded from 75,000 pounds due to "concerns raised by the California Department of Health Services."

The products were sold in grocery stores in 11 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The meat was shipped to Albertson's, Basha's, Grocery Outlet, Fry's, "R" Ranch Markets, Sam's Club (California, Arizona and Nevada), Save-A-Lot, Save-Mart, Scolari's Wholesale Markets, Smart and Final, Smith's, Stater Bros. and Superior Warehouse.

"We have been working closely with the USDA and the California Department of Health Services to ensure that this additional recall is completed successfully," Todd Waldman, senior vice president for United Food Group, said in a statement.

E. coli O157:H7 can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration. Children, the elderly and people with poor immune systems are the most susceptible.

The labels of the products subject to recall bear the establishment number "EST. 1241" inside the USDA mark of inspection or printed on the package. All of the products bear a sell by date of "Apr/29/07" or "Apr/30/07", a freeze by date of "Apr/28/07" or "Apr/30/07" or a produced on date of "April 13-07".

APRIL??? That was two fucking months ago!

Find a Local, Organic farmer, and buy your meats and Poultry there. The USDA, and BigAgra and this putrid Administration don't give a shit whether you live or die, any more.

WE. ARE. ON. OUR. OWN.


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Labels: BigAgra, Contaminated Food, E. Coli, Food Recall, Poison Food, USDA

Well, the Iraqi Oil Workers, and other Unions are on strike, and they are obviously having a dramatic impact. The Iraqi Army, has been called out against them, and I totally agree with Mr. Pfeiffer, in that it is pretty obvious that the actions are at the behest of the US. Yes. It IS all about the oil.

via Mountain Sentinel

Back in March of this year, I pointed to Iraqi union resistance to the privatization of their nation's oil and suggested that if Iraqi unions become a target in this war then Operation Iraqi Freedom will lose all pretence that it is anything other than a war of imperial conquest. (See Are Labor Unions Terrorists?)

Now the oil workers have gone on strike in an effort to stop the privatization and giveaway of Iraqi oil. The Iraqi government has responded by ordering the arrest of the union leaders, and the Iraqi military has surrounded the striking workers. The veil over imperial conquest is not just falling, it is being ripped off.

The Iraqi government and military would never take such bold actions without, at the very least, the sanction of US officials. Most likely, the US gave the order for the strike to be stopped. No doubt, the US is having the Iraqi military handle the matter so that they can ostensibly wash their hands of it. Yet, if the Iraqis cannot put down the strikers, the US will have to take direct action.

Furthermore, if union leaders and strikers are arrested, where will they be detained and interrogated? In US run facilities such as Abu Ghraib? Such a scenario would strike at the heart of why this invasion and occupation is illegal and why all who are involved in it are guilty of war crimes.

The very silence of the US media concerning the Iraqi oil strike is itself indicative of who is directing the repression of the strikers. Those of us who are aware will have to listen very closely to learn what is really happening in the cradle of civilization. I suggest you visit the links mentioned in the news articles. Visit these websites regularly while this strike is in effect. It is probably the only way that people in the US will know what is happening over there, and what is being perpetrated in our names.

More Here.


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Labels: Dick "dick" Cheney, George's Stoopid Energy Policies, Iraq, Iraq Military, Iraq Oil, Iraq Oil Wokers Union

Keillor really gets it. It's such a comforting thought knowing he's alive and well, and writing such wonderful tales as this one.

via Common Dreams

You look at the Amish and you see the past, but you might also be looking at the future. Our great-grandchildren, faced with facts their ancestors were able to ignore, might have to do without the internal-combustion engine and figure out how to live the subsistence life. Maybe someone will invent a car that runs on hydrogen or horse manure, or maybe people will travel on beams of light like in old radio serials, but the realist in you thinks otherwise.

Fred Thompson, a vanity candidate for president, goes around sneering at the notion of global warming, pointing out that Mars is heating up too, but nobody who has read the scientists’ latest report on climate change is in a joking mood: It says that the situation will get a good deal worse before it gets better, if it ever gets better, and nobody knows just what “worse” means in this case.

The matter of greenhouse gases has to be addressed, and it won’t be while the country is stuck in the disaster that is Iraq. The way to get unstuck is for some intrepid Republicans to get off the bus and put their shoulders to it and push. It needs to back up. The Current Occupant has driven it into a mudhole and is spinning the tires. Human lives are being tossed away carelessly, a country is bleeding, and the big man behind the desk is dishonest, incoherent and incompetent. He might do well as mayor of this little town, but he might also turn the water department over to his buddy from high school and order the police to search the cars of visitors.

As it is, it’s an idyllic town. A classic townscape: tree-shaded boulevards, blocks of frame houses with spindle railings on the porches, lovingly kept up by families who feel cheered and encouraged by the gentle ornamentation, the humane scale of things. They endure the same uncertainties as you or I, the same shocks of mortality, are as capable of crankiness and outright absurdity, but the classic small town speaks of a steadiness and everyday valor that anchor our lives.

More at the link!


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Labels: Garrison Keillor

Nothing like having a former US Attorney under Legal Scrutiny and potential indictment on your side to boost your Preznidential asspirations... and Victoria Toensing, to boot! SCORE!!!

via Think Progress

Robert Novak reports tonight that controversial former U.S. attorney in Arkansas Tim Griffin, who resigned last week, will join Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign as rumored:

Even before the official announcement of candidacy by former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), an all-star team of GOP operatives is gathering around him — Lawrence Lindsey, Ken Khachigian, Tim Griffin, Dave Bossie and Victoria Toensing, with more to follow.

Griffin, a former protege of Karl Rove, was formerly research director of the Republican National Committee. He became the poster boy for the politicization of the U.S. attorney process. Former Justice official Kyle Sampson noted that getting Griffin into office “was important to Harriet [Miers], Karl, et cetera.”

Gobbless their nutty chutzpah!


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Labels: Republican Timebombs...., Republican Values, Wingnuts On Parade

You, my good readers, are absolutely the best, and you've no idea how awestruck I am by your kindness...

I am thrilled, humbled and honored to be amongst such an incredible list of nominees. for the Koufax Awards "Best Of The Consonant-Level Blogs." What a fine honor.

It is NOT easy to keep on blogging at this level. You work, and work, and work, and then when the day is done... THEN you can start blogging.

Against that list of superlatively excellent bloggers, I stand little chance in this category, but, WOW, it is a fantastic feeling to be put in the same arena as all of them. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart... You've really done wonders for my Spirit, in so many ways.


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Labels: Koufax Awards

I'm still crazy for them after all these years...

via Scrutiny Hooligans

Sayz Screwy Hoolie:

It’s a great day to peruse the archives and see how much we’ve accomplished and how far we’ve come. We helped dethrone an Appropriations “Cardinal” and elect a Mixed Bag Democrat. We launched a News Network and helped stop an unnecessary power plant. We blogswarmed for mental health, surprising the powers that be with our tenacity, ferocity, and logic. We’ve helped alter the course of our local Democratic Party.

And that’s just the last 12 months.

While our traffic numbers vary from anemic to steroidal, the core of Hooligans’ readers have been as faithful as blue tick hounds. Thanks for spending your time here and for responding to calls to action. We appreciate every comment, even if I stridently demolish them from time to time.

Here’s to all you Scrutiny Hooligans: Uptown Ruler, funk-o-meter, Brother Fly, Toofer Flynchen, Jimmy Puddin’, syntax, Drama Queen, writ of summons, westcoast rattler, and Catchy Pseudonym. I didn’t imagine we’d still be at it three years later, and I certainly never imagined we’d have the impact we’ve had.

I’m grateful and excited to embark on our fourth year.

Way to go, y'all!


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Labels: Scrutiny Hooligans

BIG troubles. Fucking disaster.

via AP-Yahoo News

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

The officials did not say where the Turkish force was operating in northern Iraq, nor did he say how long they would be there.

The officials said any confrontation with Iraqi Kurdish groups, who have warned against a Turkish incursion, could trigger a larger cross-border operation. The Turkish military has asked the government in Ankara to approve such an incursion, but the government has not given formal approval.

An official at military headquarters in Ankara declined to confirm or deny the report that Turkish troops had entered Iraq.

Way to go, George.


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Labels: Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey

This is great stuff. As you all know, I'm a big fan of John Perkins, and whole-heartedly espouse the idea of Corporate Disobedience in all aspects of American life. Follow the link to video, audio, and the transcript.

via Democracy Now!

Today, we spend the hour with a man who claims to have worked deep inside the forces driving corporate globalization. In his first book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, John Perkins told the story of his work as a highly paid consultant hired to strong-arm leaders into creating policy favorable to the U.S. government and corporations -- what he calls the “corporatocracy.” John Perkins has just come out with a new book. It's called “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption.” [includes rush transcript]

John Perkins' website. I'll add it to the sidebar, under Corporate Disobedience.


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Labels: Corporate Disobedience, Corporatocracy, Democracy Now, John Perkins

There's power in a Union.

via Mercury News

The Bush administration calls the Iraq occupation an exercise in democracy building. Yet from the beginning, many of the Iraqis who want democracy most are treated as its enemies - Iraq's unions.

Iraq has a long labor history. Union activists, banned and jailed under the British and its puppet monarchy, organized a labor movement that was the admiration of the Arab world when Iraq became independent after 1958. Saddam Hussein later drove its leaders underground, killing and jailing the ones he could catch.

When Saddam fell, Iraqi unionists came out of prison, up from underground and back from exile, determined to rebuild their labor movement. Miraculously, in the midst of war and bombings, they did. The oil workers union in the south is now one of the largest organizations in Iraq, with thousands of members on the rigs, pipelines and refineries. The electrical workers union is the first national labor organization headed by a woman, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein.

Together with other unions in railroads, hotels, ports, schools and factories, they've gone on strike, held elections, won wage increases, and made democracy a living reality. Yet the Bush administration, and the Baghdad government it controls, has outlawed collective bargaining, impounded union funds and turned its back (or worse) on a wave of assassinations of Iraqi union leaders.

President Bush doesn't believe what he preaches. He says he wants democracy, yet he will not accept the one political demand that unites Iraqis above all others: They want the country's oil (and its electrical power stations, ports and other key facilities) to remain in public hands.

The fact that Iraqi unions are the strongest voice demanding this makes them anathema. Selling the oil off to large corporations is far more important to the Bush administration than a paper commitment to the democratic process.

Iraq's oil was nationalized in the 1960s, like that of every other country in the Middle East. The Iraqi oil union became, and still is, the industry's most zealous guardian.

---

Like all Iraqi unionists, Juma'a says the occupation should end without demanding Iraq's oil as a price. "The U.S.A. claimed that it came here as a liberator, not to control our resources," he reminded Congress.

To win Iraqis' respect, therefore, congressional opponents of the war must disavow the oil law. Whatever government holds power in Baghdad at the occupation's end will need control of the oil wealth to rebuild their devastated country.

Stay strong and don't give in. I expect my Brothers and Sisters, here in America to support the Unions efforts in Iraq, as well. It'd be nice to see a statement from the AFL-CIO in support of this effort.


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Labels: Iraq Oil, Union

The other side of this day in history...

"Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

We remember, and reflect.


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Labels: In Memoriam, Requiem For Heroes

Well, we've already got a Blood For Oil program in Iraq, I guess that this is the next logical step...

via WPVI-TV

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - June 5, 2007 - American Red Cross officials are offering the chance to win free gasoline as an incentive to get more Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents to donate blood.

This summer, each donor will automatically be entered in a drawing to win $3,500 worth of gasoline. Entries for the first drawing, July 23rd, are already being accepted. An identical raffle will start July 23rd and run through September 16th.

Every day, the Red Cross also will award a $25 gas card to a randomly selected donor.

Oy.


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Labels: Blood, Oil

We remember.




















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My good friend, Pat has never been wrong with these things, if anything, he's understated conditions. Be careful, good readers in Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska and the surrounding areas.

via Bartcop Forum

A record-setting low is headed our way. Okay, this is both interesting and scary. There is an intense low pressure system headed our way. The center of this low has the lowest pressure ever recorded in history for a land-based system. The pressure is 925 MB!!! They are watching the track of this low very closely. Right now, it appears SW Minnesota into the SW suburbs will be the most likely for a severe weather outbreak on Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning and earlier for South Dakota and Nebraska. That includes the possibility of long-track, long-lived and very strong tornadoes. Even before the more violent storms are anticipated to hit, the low will almost act like a tropical storm with very heavy rain and possible 50 mph sustained winds.

There has never been a Low like this in history. In fact, the National Weather Service is so concerned about this Low, they actually issued a Moderate risk for Day 3; which is something they have never done before.

More on the exact track will be known tomorrow; and I would not be surprised at all to see a High Risk go out tomorrow for parts of Minnesota.

Stay on top of weather reports in your area.


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Labels: The Weather And The Elements

A fine piece of rhetoric...

via Asia Times

When my assistant greeted me, a number of weeks ago, with the news that I had been invited to deliver the commencement address to the Department of Rhetoric, I thought it was a bad joke. There is a sense, I'm afraid, that being invited to deliver the speech to students of rhetoric is akin to being asked out for a romantic evening by a porn star: whatever prospect you might have of pleasure is inevitably dampened by performance anxiety - the suspicion that your efforts, however enthusiastic, will inevitably be judged according to stern professional standards. A daunting prospect.

The only course, in both cases, is surely to plunge boldly ahead. And that means, first of all, saluting the family members gathered here, and in particular you, the parents.

Dear parents: I welcome you today to your moment of triumph. For if a higher education is about acquiring the skills and knowledge that allow one to comprehend and thereby get on in the world - and I use "get on in the world" in the very broadest sense - well then, O esteemed parents, it is your children, not those boringly practical business majors and pre-meds your sanctimonious friends have sired, who have chosen with unerring grace and wisdom the course of study that will best guide them in this very strange polity of ours. For our age, ladies and gentlemen, is truly the Age of Rhetoric.

Now I turn to you, my proper audience, the graduating students of the Department of Rhetoric of 2007, and I salute you most heartily. In making the choice you have, you confirmed that you understand something intrinsic, something indeed ... intimate about this age we live in. Perhaps that should not surprise us. After all, you have spent your entire undergraduate years during time of war - and what a very strange wartime it has been.

When most of you arrived on this campus, in September 2003, the rhetorical construction known as the "war on terror" was already two years old, and that very real war to which it gave painful birth, the war in Iraq, was just hitting its half-year mark. Indeed, the Iraq war had already ended once, in that great victory scene on the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego, where the president, clad jauntily in a flight suit, had swaggered across the flight deck and, beneath a banner famously marked "Mission Accomplished", had declared: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

Of the great body of rich material encompassed by my theme today - "Words in a Time of War" - surely those words of George W Bush must stand as among the era's most famous, and most rhetorically unstable. For whatever they may have meant when the president uttered them on that sunny afternoon of May 1, 2003, they mean something quite different today, almost exactly four years later. The president has lost control of those words, as of so much else.

At first glance, the grand spectacle of May 1, 2003, fits handily into the history of the pageantries of power. Indeed, with its banners and ranks of cheering, uniformed extras gathered on the stage of that vast aircraft carrier - a stage, by the way, that had to be turned in a complicated maneuver so that the skyline of San Diego, a few miles off, would not be glimpsed by the television audience - the event and its staging would have been quite familiar to, and no doubt envied by, the late Leni Riefenstahl (who, as filmmaker to the Nazis, had no giant aircraft carriers to play with). Though vast and impressive, the May 1 extravaganza was a propaganda event of a traditional sort, intended to bind the country together in a second precise image of victory - the first being the pulling down of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, also staged - an image that would fit neatly into campaign ads for the 2004 election. The president was the star, the sailors and airmen and their enormous dreadnought props in his extravaganza.

However ambitiously conceived, these were all very traditional techniques, familiar to any fan of Riefenstahl's famous film spectacular of the 1934 Nuremberg rally, Triumph of the Will. As trained rhetoricians, however, you may well have noticed something different here, a slightly familiar flavor just beneath the surface. If ever there was a need for a "disciplined grasp" of the "symbolic and institutional dimensions of discourse" - as your Rhetoric Department's website puts it - surely it is now. For we have today an administration that not only is radical - unprecedentedly so - in its attitudes toward rhetoric and reality, toward words and things, but is willing, to our great benefit, to state this attitude clearly.

Nice, and it gets better.


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Labels: George W. Bush, Iraq War, War On Some Terror

Whilst we're talking about hurricanes, I've meant to post this very cool bit of research from Purdue University for a couple of days...

via Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.-- Purdue University researchers have found evidence that tropical cyclones and hurricanes play an important role in the ocean circulation patterns that transport heat and maintain the climate of North America and Europe.

These findings support a 2001 theory by Kerry Emanuel, a professor of atmospheric science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and suggest that there is an additional factor to be included in climate models that may change predictions of future climate scenarios.

"It was thought that hurricanes occurred over too short of a time period and over too small of an area to affect the global system," said Matthew Huber, the Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences who led the research group. "This research provides evidence that hurricanes play an important role and may be one of the missing pieces in the climate modeling puzzle."

The research also showed that hurricanes cool the tropics, forming in response to higher temperatures and acting as a thermostat for the area, Huber said.

"Warm water fuels hurricanes, which have been shown to leave cold water in their wake," said Huber, who also is a member of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center at Discovery Park.

"I like to say the good news is that hurricanes function like a thermostat for the tropics, and the bad news is that hurricanes function like a thermostat for the tropics. The logical conclusion of this finding, taking into account past research into the impact of rising temperatures on cyclone and hurricane intensity, is that as the world and the tropics warm, there will be an increase in the integrated intensity of hurricanes."

More, of course, at the link. Do, please have a look at the whole article-- the research findinds are quite amazing (especially to a geek, like me).


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Labels: Global Warming, Hurricanes

Our good friends at The Oil Drum are keeping a very close eye on it, as it moves across the East Coast of Oman, and turns either into the Persian Gulf, or North to the Southern Coast of Iran. TOD has two threads of analysis up, and DO check out the comments attached to each-- TOD gets some of the heaviest energy thinkers involved in their comments, and you're bound to learn something from these discussions.

One thing to keep in mind about Cyclone (Hurricane) Gonu, is that in the history of recorded history, there has never been a hurricane that has ever taken this track. Never mind that it is very late in the Indian Ocean season for such a massive hurricane to form.



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Labels: Hurricanes, Iran, Oil Production, Persian Gulf

Those of you in Brooklyn and Queens might want to pay particular attentention to this article...

via New York Magazine

Ten million gallons of toxic gunk trapped in the Brooklyn aquifer is starting to creep toward the surface. How scary is that?

On a foggy October day in 2002, Basil Seggos first saw the sheen on the surface of the water. He and his colleagues had launched an old wooden-hulled oyster boat from the Dyckman marina in Inwood, and headed south, down the Harlem and East rivers. They were on a mission to document fishing and crabbing spots on the riverfront so that local anglers could be warned not to eat their catch. When Seggos’s boat reached the mouth of Newtown Creek, the finger of water that separates Brooklyn from Queens, they decided to sail into the creek to check out its unnatural landscape—miles of waste-processing plants, gasoline-storage facilities, and abandoned refineries. The boat passed floating auto parts, crumbling bulkheads, and rusting pipes spewing filthy-looking water. Then, about a mile in, Seggos saw it: oil coating the surface of the water from shore to shore and extending upstream for another half-mile or so. “It was everywhere, all over the shoreline.” Officially, Seggos was running an outreach program for Riverkeeper, RFK Jr.’s environmental organization, and the organization’s protocol in situations like these is to stop and call the state Department of Environmental Conservation hotline. The call is supposed to provoke an immediate reaction, but no one showed up. The next day, Seggos called again. “We’d never even heard of a spill there before,” says Seggos. “But they told me they already had an open case on it and they were handling it.”

What Seggos discovered—or rediscovered—wasn’t an oil spill, exactly. Rather, it was a mix of gasoline, solvents, and associated poisons bubbling up from the very ground: a thin dribble that betrays the presence of a supertanker’s worth of the stuff submerged in the age-old geology of Greenpoint. It’s actually more than a century’s worth of spills, leaks, and waste dumped by oil companies that has pooled into a vast underground lake, more than 55 acres wide and up to 25 feet thick. First discovered by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1978, the Greenpoint spill has been estimated at anywhere between 17 million and 30 million gallons—three times more oil than the Exxon Valdez spill. That makes it the largest known oil spill in American history.

Seggos had stumbled upon a long-forgotten industrial accident, decades in the making. It soon became an obsession. Over the next thirteen months, he dug through old news clippings and contacted state and local officials. He attended community meetings and organized local activists into the Newtown Creek Alliance. And he tried to understand how it was that a giant oil spill remained so little known in the thriving neighborhood right above it. What he learned, mostly through Freedom of Information Act requests, was that Mobil—the company that had likely spilled most of the oil—had quietly agreed with state officials to assume responsibility for the necessary cleanup. In return, the state wouldn’t make any more demands: no timetables, no fines, no set outcomes. Both sides could avoid a bitter, costly, and potentially embarrassing court battle. And by keeping it quiet, there would be no public panic—or costly liability.

---

To see the extent of the problem, imagine a viscous tar-colored blob stretching amoebalike through the Earth. It starts where Meeker Avenue hits Newtown Creek, seeping out into the waterway. From there it extends south and steadily deeper under the Brooklyn soil, reaching a depth of about 40 feet. It’s contained from below by the groundwater in the Brooklyn-Queens aquifer: The oil is repelled by the water, so the muck “floats” on top. Like the Blob in the eponymous Steve McQueen movie, it keeps changing shape and moving—bulging south beyond the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, slithering north toward Greenpoint Avenue, ballooning west to at least Monitor Street. This black lagoon fills the nooks and crannies in the gravel, sand, and silt that characterize the soil of the area, pooling in pockets that range from just centimeters thick to natural vats that are 25 feet deep. The contaminated zone encompasses at least 55 acres of northern Brooklyn—an area roughly the size of Tribeca.

Happy World Environment Day, from Big Oil.


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Labels: Big Oil, New York City, Pollution

Ol' George is as toast as it gets in Europe... Heh.

via First Draft

ROSTOCK, Germany -- President George W. Bush went to Europe on Monday faced with a long to-do list, and one overriding obstacle in the way of all of it: To Europeans, he's the least popular U.S. president in history.

Bush's problems extend beyond public opinion. He's at odds with the leaders of countries east and west, whom he's to meet during a summit of leading industrialized nations at a Baltic seaside resort.

---

"Bush is so disliked that he's not even considered anymore," said Franco Pavoncello, a leading analyst of Italian politics. "He's part of the past. Italians have moved beyond him and now care only about who will replace him."

This was a great catch by Holden, as the Free Press has since pared away all the good stuff in the article.


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Labels: George W. Bush, Idiot Son Of An Asshole

Scooter...

via FDL

Obviously, statute requires sentence that protects public. I have to consider the type of sentences available, I have option of imposing sentence from probation to max, I have to consider need to avoid disparities. Creates real challenge. Bc. Obviously, one one hand, there are reasons why departure might be appropriate, On other hand, consdiering nature of offense, that conduct in my view counters against imposing a sentence that departs. In the end, my view that those factors balance themselves out, which causes me to conclude that sentence does fall and should fall within the guidelines.

I don't think high end is necessary. 30 months FIne him $200,000

UPDATE: Apparently, Marcy, typing fast, mis-typed the Fine amount. I think that the $250,000 figure is more fitting to the crime, anyway.


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Labels: Plame Trial, Republican Cover-up, Republican Values, Scandal, Scooter Libby

Today!

Plant A Tree, do something good for our Mother.

via Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian protesters held a "picnic rally" against the logging of native forests while hundreds of Indian policemen swapped guns for spades to plant trees on Tuesday to highlight World Environment Day.

Across Asia, people learned about worm farming and composting, listened to lectures about renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions, while school children took part in plays and painting competitions.

More than 50 people halted logging operations in the southern Australian state of Victoria, calling for an end to native forest logging, the Wilderness Society said.

Make every day World Environment Day.


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Labels: Environment, Environment Blogging, Global Warming

Sincerest condolences to his friends and family.

via Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.

The senator's family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

Just before the 2006 election, Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia and had to cancel his last campaign stops. He nonetheless won with 70 percent of the vote, monitoring the election from his hospital bed.

Two days after the election, Thomas announced that he had just been diagnosed with leukemia.

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Labels: In Memoriam

Someone please shove a sock in his mouth before he makes matters even worse than he's made them.

via Reuters

PRAGUE (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush plans on Tuesday to hail democratic strides made by former Soviet states like the Czech Republic, in a speech that may further inflame tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bush began an eight-day trip to Europe on Monday with his popularity at home at a low point over the Iraq war and tensions abroad over global warming and missile defense.

Visiting a country that broke free of communism with a Velvet Revolution, Bush will meet with Czech officials at the mediaeval Prague Castle.

Later, he will speak at a pro-democracy conference organized by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and ex-Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky.

It was unclear how far Bush will go in attacking the Kremlin over what the United States sees as moves to curb freedoms, but the White House made clear Russia would be mentioned in the speech, along with China.

GAH!!!


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Labels: George W. Bush, Idiot Son Of An Asshole

Recorded live at Joe's Pub, February, 2007, as part of the Attic Jam Sessions.




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The camel's back has just snapped. Nothing good will come of this.


via The Newshoggers

The AP is reporting that 7 Turkish soldiers have been killed by a Kurdish PKK attack on their border post, an act which is certain to further ratchet up Turkish calls for a cross-border invasion to deal with the Kurdish terrorist problem that the Iraqi government and US occupation forces have been unwilling and unable to handle.

The AP also reports that artillery shelling into Iraqi territory has already begun - and that the Iranians have joined Turkey in co-ordinated shelling of Iraqi soil.

A pro-Kurdish news agency reported Monday that Turkish troops shelled a border area in northern Iraq for a second day in an attack on Kurdish rebels based there.

Abdul-Rahman al-Chadarchi, a spokesman for the Kurdish rebel group PKK, told The Associated Press by telephone that there had been artillery shelling from Turkey into Iraqi territory at dawn, and that there had been simultaneous shelling from the Turkish and Iranian sides on Sunday night.

This is something very huge and very ugly developing in a place where we simply do not need more developments.


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Labels: Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey, US Troops

James discusses the way-to-early campaign season, and focuses in on what is NOT being said.

via Clusterfuck Nation

US election campaign periods have never been regulated in terms of a set number of weeks or months, the way some other nations do. But the 2008 US election is the first in my lifetime that ramped up to such an intense and formal level of activity so far in advance. If nothing else, the amount of money that the candidates need to raise -- and burn through in airplane charters, staff salaries, and staged events -- puts them all in jeopardy of corrupting themselves to the various donors desperate to preserve their prerogatives under the status quo.

What everybody seems to sense semi-consciously is that the status quo is dragging the US into an abyss. But so far, no one among the declared candidates has been able or willing to express a coherent view of what it is in the status quo, exactly, that is doing the dragging. One undeclared figure, Al Gore, has presented the climate change part of the story and pretty much stopped there -- perhaps sensing that if he ventured to offer views on anything else, he'd start sounding like an actual candidate. But my guess is that the really important issues will never be articulated in the course of this campaign because they are too painful for the public to hear. And so all the premature debating and posturing will amount to a smokescreen of words meant to conceal the fact that we are a nation without confidence that any leadership can guide us into a plausible future.

In the background of all this sits the pathetic figure of President George W. Bush. He's pathetic because he has been in a position -- not facing reelection -- to tell the American people the truth, but he's shown no capacity for apprehending it. If he represents anything, it's the idea that the truth is optional, that if reality is disappointing, just create your own reality.

Good stuff. Go read.


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Labels: James Kunstler, US Politics

Over at Tom's Astronomy, you'll find an awesome GIF of Jupiter's moon Io, and it's giant volcano, Tvashtar erupting away, as Io spins. The series of images was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft, which is on it's way to Pluto.

Says Tom:

Last week the last of the data, infrared scans of Jupiter’s day/night boundary taken during the flyby last February and March, were the last of the data to be sent from the New Horizons spacecraft to Earth based antennas. There was a lot of information too, 36 gigabits (4.5 GB ?).

You may have seen this image of the Jupiter moon Io, but if you click it, you will see an animation of the volcano Tvashtar. It’s really a great image

Go pay a visit to Tom's place. He's always got cool stuff to show you.


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Labels: Space

Finally. A Permaculture video that was produced by one of the originators. I've been waiting for this one to get posted for free viewing. Bill Mollison is the author of THE Text on the subject of Permaculture, and this video provides the best, most in-depth view of what it is about, and how it can be adapted to fit ANY location. Take note of the bit where he has set up a balcony garden. My balcony looks quite like that. A bit grown up, now, but, it follows the same idea. It's going to be quite interesting taking all the plants down, moving them, and transplanting them into the new yard.




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Labels: Permaculture, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture

Richard Heinberg has started a project at New College to assist Municipalities in assessing their current energy needs, and helping them to find solutions to those needs as energy sources dwindle, and prices rise. Their first model city is Sabastopol, CA. Have a look:

via The Powerdown Project

Mission Statement
The mission of the Powerdown Project is to bring the urgent issues of energy vulnerabilities to communities and their policy makers, through education, outreach and research, and to offer alternative and viable solutions to address energy consumption, production and distribution.

Here is an interview with three of the Powerdown Project staff, as featured in episode 18 of Peak Moment Television, with Janaia Donaldson.




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Labels: Peak Oil, Powerdown, Sustainability

Caro, at Blah3 has posted a wonderfully hope-full article by Brent Budowsky.

On July 7, 2008, Al Gore and a galaxy of entertainment superstars, a worldwide army of idealists, and 2 billion concerned citizens from seven continents will take a stand on global warming that will advance a new political era of optimism and hope…

Sooner than people realize, Americans are going to be astonished and amazed at the rekindling of American optimism and the can-do attitude that good people who care passionately can make a difference.

In recent years American politics, culture and media have been so drenched in negativity, pessimism and civic poison that our institutions of political and media power have lost sight of the classic American spirit of can-do optimism…

Here's to hope, and hoping.


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Labels: Al Gore, American Dream, American Innovation, American Nightmare

Get a load of this shit, kids:

via Green Car Congress

Automakers Rally US Citizens to Oppose Higher Fuel Economy Standards

Beginning this Memorial Day weekend, members of the auto industry are rolling out a comprehensive campaign to convince Americans to oppose proposed increases in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and to pressure their elected officials to vote down such proposals.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) has launched a website (www.drivecongress.com) that encourages citizens to compose messages of protest against “unrealistic fuel economy increases” to be hand-delivered to elected officials. AAM represents BMW, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen.

The website allows users to insert statements provided by the AAM, such as “I value fuel economy, but I also want many other attributes in my automobile like safety, passenger and cargo room, performance, towing, hauling capacity and more” or “Rather than setting a harmful mandates [sic] like the one being proposed, the government should encourage the use of alternative fuels like ethanol, and provide incentives for consumers, like me, to purchase alternative fuel autos.”

The Detroit News reports that the campaign will also include at least a million dollars of radio ads in ten states that have a high percentage of truck and SUV owners.

Resist. I recommend a serious Monkeyfistering of that system... Write your Congressperson and Senator, and let them know that these messages that are flooding into their offices are ASTROTURF, and total bullshit. Then, let them know that CAFE standards need to be raised-- NOT lowered-- to ensure a healthy future to our Happy Motoring Society. Encourage them to open/continue grants and credits for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles at the manufacturing and consumer levels. More importantly, encourage them to press for more public transportation systems, and limits on Suburban sprawl to mitigate the need for more cars. It is important to let them know the source of this atroturf crap.

I saw it at The Bartcop Forum. Cartoon via RussBLib, whose Blogspot site is MUCH prettier than mine.


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Labels: Big Three, CAFE Standards, Corporate Disobedience, Corporate Values, Corporations, Corporatists, Corporatocracy, Fuel Efficiency, US Automakers

You are FREE... to do as we tell you...



Let it download a bit, so that you can skip past the commercials.


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Labels: American Fascism, Police State

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Because the well is right here on my land, along with my waste disposal. By learning how to care for, and maintain the septic field, I am in control of my own water/waste system. If a water main breaks in town, I've still got water and sewage. One day soon, through saving up my money, I will switch the well pump to solar. We get plenty of sunlight here, in Memphis, to keep the the pump humming. Especially with a small battery bank to back it up.

via US News and World Report

For the North Jersey communities, the crisis was over in 60 hours, when the break was repaired and the water deemed safe. But those who've examined the state of water around the nation and the globe say the crisis is only beginning. Mismanagement and climate change are shrinking clean water supplies worldwide.

The brunt of the problem is borne by the poor on every continent; those who have the resources, like denizens of that flashy desert capital of conspicuous wealth, Las Vegas, grab all the water they can find. In less arid regions, Americans take tap water for granted, but that's only because of hundreds of thousands of miles of underground pipe laid generations ago, much of it now decaying.

Studies by government and utilities agree that cities and towns will need to spend $250 billion to $500 billion more over the next 20 years to maintain the drinking water and waste-water systems we equate with modern living. The only debate is how to pay for it, in a country accustomed to paying about $2.50 per 1,000 gallons—the lowest price for tap water in the developed world.

More at the link, of course.


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Labels: Solar, Water, Water Shortages