Posts from — December 2006

The Independent News is the alternate weekly for Gulf Breeze / Pensacola area.

Their current cover story is about the book, War of the Words by Craig Myers. The article by Mari Saugier Krueger discusses the Gulf Breeze UFO story. Among UFOlogists, Gulf Breeze is nearly as important as Roswell, even if many people don’t want to be reminded of it.

To quote myself: “While newcomers in Gulf Breeze, near Pensacola, have created a hot spot for UFO reports, if an actual alien spacecraft landed in the center of Fort Walton Beach, the police would call Eglin and tell them to remove their latest experiment from the road.”

Fallenmonk notes the Campbell’s Soup Click for Cans campaign. Vote for your favorite NFL team and the winning city gets a Campbell donation to the local food bank. Good cause with a minimal effort.

I remembered, but Mustang Bobby does a better job on the post I would have written.

Another record cold day down here and I have a head cold that is not helping me deal with it. Tomorrow will also be cold, so we can hope that fleas and other pests will die outside.

Cold Cat Cuddle

Hey, how about turning up the electric blanket.

[Editor: Dot and Sox don’t move far from the comforters when it’s cold.]

Friday Ark

According to E.J. Dionne on NPR, the fact that this report came out before the Democrats had control of anything means the mess belongs to the Republicans.

David Brooks talked about people being upset by “political bickering,” ignoring the fact that the Republicans have been in charge, and the Democrats haven’t been able to do much of anything, so the only “bickering” that was even noticed was among the Republicans.

Apparently the Israeli government doesn’t want to talk to anyone, nor do the Kurds.

I think they need to take Mark Fiore’s Remedial Iraq Study Group course.

After the joint press conference today the BBC’s Nick Robinson was a bit nervous:

WASHINGTON DC: I’ve just been eyeballed long and hard by George Bush for suggesting he might be in denial re Iraq. It’s important, he told me, that you understand that I understand that it’s bad.

Commentors told Nick to expect extra scrutiny at the airport when he comes back to Britain. [Yes, some BBC personnel have official weblogs with comments.]

“a date which will live in infamy…”

The official US Navy site on the Pearl Harbor attack.

There will a memorial service aboard NAS Pensacola that features 18 local survivors of the attack.

One might say that Whiskey Fire started this by saying that there was no reason to have Jose Padilla wear black-out goggles when he was removed from his cell for a dental appointment.

The response by Ann Althouse led to a post by Ann Altmouse, and then NTodd and Watertiger joined in the silliness.

Glenn Greenwald, who has been trying to be an adult about the “Ann Althouse enigma,” finally realized the futility in Today’s tour around the world of the Bush follower:

(2) Ann Althouse yesterday: “calling your opponent stupid is incredibly lame… an admission that you have no substance.”

Ann Althouse last week: “Glenn Greenwald is such an idiot. Am I supposed to respond to this foolishness? Glenn, you moron . . . , you disreputable slimeball? (And your writing is putrid.)”

Obviously, the interesting point here is not Ann Althouse. By itself, her observation yesterday that the treatment of Jose Padilla may have been justified by a fear that he would use his eyes to blink “coded messages” to The Terrorists says all that needs to be said about her, ever.

Let’s see, Padilla was being held in solitary confinement in a military brig with no outside contact and was being taken to a military dentist, so the obvious question to the suggestion of blinking to send a message would be: How would “terrorists” be in a position to see any message?

In an amazing break with the policy of the Shrubbery, the new man slated to take over the National Hurricane Center actually appears to be qualified for the job.

The Miami Herald reports: New director of hurricane center urges public readiness

It’s official: Veteran weather service administrator Bill Proenza will become director of the National Hurricane Center when Max Mayfield retires next month.

[snip]

In the past, most center directors were selected from within the ranks of hurricane forecasters or researchers. The choice of Proenza indicates that officials at NOAA headquarters in Washington sought someone from within their management comfort zone, but he also has extensive forecasting experience.

Proenza served during the early 1960s as an intern at the hurricane center and flew aboard hurricane hunter missions, though he spent much of his recent career as a NOAA administrator.

In his current position, Proenza manages nearly 1,000 forecasters and other employees in 32 offices in Florida and nine other states.

He actually has education and experience in the field, and work experience in the geographic areas most affected by the 2004 & 2005 hurricane seasons. Perhaps the fact that he is currently based in Texas was enough.

And what did the new Democratic leadership get for the members of the House to celebrate?

According to Lyndsey Layton of The Washington Post: 5-day work week is a Capitol Hill culture shock – “Democrats seek a businesslike image; many in GOP decry effect on families”

Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January.

The horror.

[Snip]

“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”

These clowns will have only worked a total 103 days in 2006. They didn’t pass the spending bills that were due on October 1^st. They will receive $165,200 in salary and more in expenses and benefits, including their “commuting costs” back to their districts.

I wonder if Rep. Kingston has spent any time “caring” about the families affected by the multiple disasters that he and other members of Congress have allowed the executive to involve the country in without any significant oversight? What does he think the effect of the Iraq War is on the families of the National Guard, Reserves, and regular soldiers who have been deployed multiple times? What about the families affected by hurricane Katrina?

Congress in located in Washington, DC. Someone should have told the Congressman before he ran for office. If working a five-day is too tough for him, unlike the members of the military, he can quit.

We have a huge budget deficit, so it is time for the government to “tighten its belt”, and these “commuting costs” is a good place to start. Two round-trips a year is good enough for soldiers deployed to Iraq, so that should be sufficient for Congressmen.

Steve Bates‘s friend Stella has a solar powered rainbow maker and Karen has a USB missile launcher that should keep small pets amused for an extended period.

If you had any doubts, the BBC reports: Richest 2% own ‘half the wealth’.

If you are feeling pretty good about your condition you should note: “In contrast, some citizens of the rich countries have more debt than assets – making them, the report says, among the poorest in the world in terms of household wealth.” This is the reason the housing bubble has had such an impact – when your largest asset is de-valued, you can become poor really quickly. I would note that property assessments will lag this decrease, so you will still be taxed on the higher value.

Michael Bérubé took his son to see the new animated film, Happy Feet, because his son wanted to see the movie. His son gave it two stars, but Michael looks at the earlier writing on the movie and opines: “the right-wing pundits and bloggers who complained about the film are completely and fully batshit insane.”

After six years of the Shrubbery I can understand why some people are having a problem telling the difference between cartoons and reality.

If you are K. Daniel Glover and you are taking money to be the editor of National Journal‘s Technology Daily and the author of its Beltway Blogroll, isn’t it reasonable to assume that you know something about blogs and bloggers?

Apparently not. First, the Beltway Blogroll is, in fact, a blog, not a blogroll, and its content is essentially daily selections from the feed with minimal original content. The current post is “Danny” bemoaning the mean bloggers for “attacking” him over his piece in the New York Times. Apparently it doesn’t occur to him that he should have used more due diligence and fact checking before he impugned peoples’ ethics.

It may come as a surprise to “Danny”, but Google works on blogs, and if you have questions about what someone did or said, you can search through their archives to find out when they wrote about things, and whether they mentioned any outside interests. It’s really simple to do, even paid professionals can learn to use it.

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