On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog

I am not glued to the live tracking of the teams in the Yukon Quest, but there really isn’t much going on that is worthwhile.

John Murtha died, and on balance that is a loss because the old Marine was one of the few who didn’t forget the troops when he entered Congress. He finally got the Iraq War right, and fought it when he did, but he worked hard to get a lot of military industrial pork for his district.

What is also relevant is the fact that he had the best health insurance and care in the world, but apparently a small problem during a routine surgical procedure, cost him his life. Rest in peace, Marine.

If you are looking for “stuff” and actually have some money, you might consider the Too Liberal For Obama, [AKA: 2L4O] T-shirt.

Future batches will definitely be printed on Union-made, American shirts.

OTOH, PEN, the People’s E-mail Network, is giving away bumper stickers that are a reaction to the Supreme Court’s Synod decision about corporations and elections. If you were wondering, they don’t like it much.

They would like a donation, but don’t insist on it to get the bumper stickers.

Apparently the President is trying to arrange a televised meeting with leaders of Congress from both parties about health insurance. I fail to understand why he thinks that Republicans are going to compromise on anything. It isn’t going to happen. There are no ponies under the pile of manure.

Update at 11PM CST. Zack Steer is back in front, but was edged out by Lance Mackey coming into Circle. Zack’s team is averaging almost 10mph and he still has all 14 dogs pulling. This will boil down to scheduling rest stops.

Beyond Slaven’s Roadhouse
1 Zack Steer (2)

At Slaven’s Roadhouse
2 Hugh Neff (23)
3 Lance Mackey (11)
4 Hans Gatt (13)
5 Gerry Willomitzer (5)
6 Sonny Linder (20)
7 Brent Sass (12)
8 Abbie West (1)^R

Beyond Circle
9 Ken Anderson (17)
10 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
11 David Dalton (3)
12 Kelley Griffin (15)
13 Mike Ellis (18)
14 Normand Casavant (10)

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The standings as of 11:15PM CST. Because of a typo, Sonny Linder is shown as 12^th place, while he is actually in 9^th. The date he left Central was entered as 02/17/10 vice 02/07/10, indicating he spent over 10 days there.

There were a lot of tired dogs after the climbing, and people are having to leave them behind. Abbie West is down to 11 dogs, and several people are down to 12.

Beyond Central
1 Hans Gatt (13)
2 Gerry Willomitzer (5)
3 Brent Sass (12)
4 David Dalton (3)
5 Lance Mackey (11)
6 Hugh Neff (23)
7 Zack Steer (2)
8 Abbie West (1)^R
9 Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
10 Ken Anderson (17)
11 Sam Deltour (4)^R
12 Sonny Linder (20)

At Central
13 Kelley Griffin (15)
14 Mike Ellis (18)
15 Pierre-Antoine Heritier (19)^R
16 Dries Jacobs (22)^R

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Here are the current leaders on the trail between Two Rivers and Mile 101:

Brent Sass (12)
Hans Gatt (13)
Gerry Willomitzer (5)
David Dalton (3)
Sonny Linder (20)
Hugh Neff (23)
Joshua Cadzow (21)^R
Mike Ellis (18)
Ken Anderson (17)

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Quest, the number in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.

The rest of the field is at the Two Rivers checkpoint.

Teams have to climb the Rosebud Summit to get to the Mile 101 checkpoint, where there is a mandatory two-hour stop. The fastest team into Two Rivers, Zack Steer (2), averaged 10.8 mph [17.4 kph].

So, tomorrow they are holding Hyper Tureen ΛΓΞΘ in East Havana Miami at the [Insert Your Ad Here] Stadium. Let’s be honest, the two most memorable Super Bowl events were the 1984 Mac ad, and the 2004 Wardrobe Malfunction.

The game is being promoted as a real morale booster for one city if their team wins. Sorry, but even if the Colts win, it will still be Indianapolis, the capital of bland.

On the other hand, win, lose, or draw, it’s Mardi Gras time in the Big Easy. Winning the game will be nothing more than lagniappe – Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

The 24 teams of 14 dogs and a musher began leaving the Fairbanks Start at 2PM CST in the balmy 10°F late morning heat on their way to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It is still mostly cloudy in the area.

The Fairbanks News-Miner reports that Most mushers carrying GPS tracking devices for first time during Quest, the single exception being Gerry Willomitzer, who decided not to get involved.

You can find out where people [except Gerry] are by clicking on the Yukon Quest Live Tracking link.

The current record for the course was set last year by Sebastian Schnuelle at 9 days, 23 hours, and 20 minutes, so you have time to eat, sleep, and visit the facilities without worrying about missing “the big play”.

By now you will have read about this somewhere, here’s the Washington Post version: Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama holding up Obama nominees for home-state pork.

What you probably don’t know, is that the largest chunk of money that Shelby is attempting to extort by his tactics, is to build a facility in Alabama that is designed for the manufacture of Northrop/EADS KC-45, an aircraft that the Defense Department has not yet decided to purchase.

Wikipedia has a decent short version of the sordid KC-X affair, which is the search to replace the venerable [a nice way of saying archaic] KC-135 fleet of aerial refueling aircraft. It involves an initial order of 180 aircraft, so it is a very large chunk of money at stake.

I’ll give you a hint at how bad this process has been – the Hedgemony canceled a defense contract and actually prosecuted people for corruption. Members of Boeing’s top management had to resign. It has been bid three times, and the decision on the third bid isn’t due until this summer.

Shelby is trying to force the Air Force to accept a bid from an individual company, essentially acting as a lobbyist for that company/consortium, and holding up 70 appointments to accomplish this. He is holding up the work of the government for the possibility of 1000 jobs in Alabama.

The Lone Ranger 2003-2010

She was the alpha female for the ferals. I knew something was wrong last Spring when she didn’t have any kittens, having consistently produced two every season. She has been getting thin lately, and was probably taken by a respiratory infection.

Friday Ark

Distributorcap NY has gone on hiatus, and I can’t say I blame him. Everyone went all out to give the Democratic Party the power it needed to repair the eight years of the Hedgemony, and they have squandered the gifts. What was the point?

The “Netroots” is an even bigger disappointment as the so-called leaders have spent more time making excuses that leading, and the excuses aren’t even convincing.

Then we are faced with total absurdities like Markos Moulitsas, the Kos in dKos, trying to talk my governor, Charlie Crist, to run as a Democrat, undercutting the real Democratic candidate, Kendrick Meek.

If the current word on the street that former governor, John Ellis “JEB” Bush is going to emerge from his undisclosed location and endorse Marco Rubio as the Republican candidate for Senator, then Charlie is definitely in deep yogurt, but I don’t want him as my Senator, no matter what label he wears. “Centrists”, “Blue Dogs”, whatever you call them, are the problem not the solution for the current mess. They are the reason that nothing happened in the Senate with a 60-vote Democratic caucus. In any case, the Democratic base isn’t going to come out for Charlie Crist, and he can’t win as a Democrat.

This is the starting grid for the 2010 Yukon Quest:

1 Abbie West, Two Rivers, AK, US
2 Zack Steer, Sheep Mountain, AK, US
3 David Dalton, Healy, AK, US
4 Sam Deltour, Sint-Kruis, Belgium
5 Gerry Willomitzer, Shallow Bay, YT, Canada
6 Katie Davis, Olney, MT, US
7 Terry Williams, Fairbanks, AK, US
8 Jocelyne LeBlanc, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
9 Cindy Barrand, Kasilof, AK, US
10 Normand Casavant, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
11 Lance Mackey, Fairbanks, AK, US
12 Brent Sass, Fairbanks, AK, US
13 Hans Gatt, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
14 Bart DeMarie, Christopher Lake, SK, Canada
15 Kelley Griffin, Wasilla, AK, US
16 Jennifer Raffaeli, Fox, AK, US
17 Ken Anderson, Fox, AK, US
18 Mike Ellis, Two Rivers, AK, US
19 Pierre-Antoine Heritier, Crans-Montana, VS, Switzerland
20 Sonny Linder, Two Rivers, AK, US
21 Joshua Cadzow, Fort Yukon, AK, US
22 Dries Jacobs, Jabbeke, Belgium
23 Hugh Neff, Tok, AK, US
24 Peter Fleck, Salisbury, UK

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These are the elevations of the checkpoints and mountains on the trail, as well as the distances between the checkpoints:

Fairbanks 440 feet [134 meters] Start
Two Rivers 750 feet [229 meters] 45 miles [72 km]
Rosebud Summit 3640 feet [1109 meters]
Mile 101 2250 feet [686 meters] 82 miles [132]
Eagle Summit 3685 feet [1123 meters]
Central 435 feet [133 meters] 33 miles [53 km]
Circle City 597 feet [182 meters] 74 miles [119 km]
Eagle 880 feet [268 meters] 159 miles [256 km]
American Summit 3920 feet [1195 meters]
Dawson City 1050 feet [320 meters] 147 miles [237 km]
King Solomon’s Dome 4002 feet [1220 meters]
Pelly Crossing 1558 feet [475 meters] 202 miles [325 km]
Carmacks 1722 feet [525 meters] 73 miles [117 km]
Braeburn 2326 feet [709 meters] 77 miles [124 km]
Whitehorse 2089 feet [637 meters] 100 miles [161 km] Finish

Total actual distance: 992 miles [1596 kilometers]

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When I saw this at Pensacola Beach Blog it occurred to me that it was a perfect illustration of why you don’t bother with the policies of Reagan and the Bushes to deal with the national debt – they failed miserably. If you want to reduce the debt, the look to the policies of Harry Truman and JFK.

Tax cuts are part of the “Borrow and Spend” Republican policies that got us into this mess, not the path out. Deregulation was the reason Wall Street was able to almost destroy the world economy, not the path out.