Posts from — May 2007

Via Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway: Keith Olbermann will receive the first Molly Ivins Award from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies [AAN] today.

AAN officials stated in a release that Olbermann’s show “is notable for its literate writing, fast-paced delivery, historical and pop-culture references and the host’s signature wit, all of which make ‘Countdown’ one of the most vital and colorful newscasts on the air.”

AAN plans to donate $2,000 in Olbermann’s name to the Molly Ivins Fund for Investigative Reporting at the Texas Observer, stating “Ivins remained a passionate supporter of the non-profit bi-weekly newsmagazine until her passing.”

It’s nice that there is an award named for Miss Molly, and that Keith Olbermann received it. It’s even nicer that the award includes a donation for her fund. The question is, who else is worthy?

Scorpio says Bush hates the troops, but I don’t think he has ever cared about them enough to hate them.

CNN as a slightly different version of the same Associated Press report: New war funding bill unacceptable to White House

President Bush would veto any bill drafted by House Democratic leaders that would fund the Iraq war only into the summer months, his spokesman said Wednesday.

And Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate committee that such short-term funding would be very disruptive and “have a huge impact” on contracts to repair and replace equipment. The Defense Department, he said, just doesn’t “have the agility to manage a two month appropriation.”

One simple question, after four years why is the Iraq conflict still being funded by “emergency” bills?

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The Hurricane Season starts on June 1^st but some people didn’t get the message. According to Jeff Masters Subtropical Storm Andrea has developed in the Atlantic off the Georgia coast.

Not enough rain is expected to help with the wild fires, and the lightning may start more.

Ringo went into a postpartum cat fit that included scaling my right arm. Fortunately the keyboard wasn’t damaged by the blood, but I had to wash the mouse and mouse pad.

Dot has been depressed and I was ready to haul her to the vet, but after purging hairballs all over the house, and getting her own personal plate for dinner, she is back to her old cheerful self, cuffing her brother and Ringo. She is not fond of the kittens, which is good, because she ignores them which Ringo prefers.

Sox, on the other hand, would really, really love to play with the kittens. This means he is getting cuffed by his sister and Ringo on a fairly regular basis.

The kittens have their eyes fully open and are sort of mobile – about .18 on a Breathalyzer, not a chance of walking a straight line. They try to avoid their mom except when they’re hungry because staggering to within her reach means “THE TONGUE.”

I had to take my Mother out to a meeting tonight because she didn’t want to drive at night…through the smoke…of the wildfires that have burning all day on the edge of the Hurlburt Field property. The woman she was going to ride with canceled to prepare to evacuate her home. Nothing like the fires in Georgia or over in Central Florida, but annoying enough. Sirens all day and the low flying aircraft are only mildly annoying and the smoke hasn’t been that bad.

Back to the grind.

Scout at First Draft has been reporting on the problem of missing National Guard equipment for some time. The Department of Defense knows about it; the governors know about it; the GAO knows about it. Apparently the only people who don’t know about it all work in the White House.

CNN’s Political Ticker has the latest effort to shift blame: White House v. Kansas governor on storm response

Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state’s adjutant general, said the Kansas National Guard was equipped at only about 40 percent of its required levels, down from the 60 percent that it had at the start of the war.

[snip]

Snow said “I’m not aware of any prior complaints,” and said it would be “standard procedure” when a tornado hits for a state to consult its disaster plan and start making assessments about where the federal government needed to step in.

“We are certainly going to try to clean up any misunderstandings about how this works,” Snow said.

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback also disputed Sebelius after visiting the destroyed town on Monday. Brownback, a Republican candidate for president, said local officials and the Kansas National Guard commander all told him they have the resources needed to respond.

“That’s what really got me, is her saying that,” Brownback said of Sebelius.

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Tsk, tsk. CNN reports: Poll: Americans disapprove of Bush’s Iraq veto – “The poll found that 54 percent of Americans opposed Bush’s May 1 veto, while 44 percent backed the president’s decision to kill the $124 billion bill.”

Wow, 54% of American-hating Americans don’t like the actions of the Decider / Commander Guy / Shrubbery. What is a resident of the White House with a 28% approval rating to do?

Hint: the last guy resigned.

Second night of rioting in France:

Most of the troublemakers this week have been white, whereas the 2005 riots involved many black and Arab youth angry over discrimination and alienation from mainstream society. This week’s protesters resembled some of the young people who helped bring down a minor labor reform last year through mass demonstrations.

I would note that “minor labor reform” is a relative term based on whether or not your job was affected, and the choice of the term “troublemaker” is interesting.
This isn’t immigrant backlash; this is French university students who are nervous about a Sarkozy government and what it will mean for them as they go job shopping. The immigrants are already in trouble on the job front, but the white French students normally make out, and now they are concerned.

Sounds like “interesting times” ahead.

Everyone, foreign and domestic, is reporting on: Feds Arrest Six In Plot Against Army Base:

The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.

“Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets,” said FBI agent J.P. Weiss.

“We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that.”

[snip]

One defendant, Eljvir Duka, was recorded as saying: “In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone is trying attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad.”

The six were arrested Monday night trying to buy AK-47 assault weapons, M-16s and other weapons from an FBI informant, authorities said.

They appeared in federal court Tuesday in Camden and were ordered held without bail for a hearing Friday. Five were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. military personnel; the sixth was charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in obtaining weapons.

One defendant, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, spoke of using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons to kill at least 100 soldiers, according to court documents.

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The Associated Press reports, Farmed fish given meal tainted with melamine, thus expanding the effect of the problem to another area of the human food supply, but down at the bottom of the article is the real news:

U.S. investigators also have learned that the purported Chinese wheat gluten and a second ingredient, rice protein concentrate, were actually simple wheat flour. The flour was spiked with melamine and related, nitrogen-rich compounds to make it appear more protein rich than it was. In tests, nitrogen levels are measured to gauge the overall protein content of food ingredients.

“What we discovered is these are not wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate but in fact are wheat flour contaminated by melamine,” Acheson said.

The FDA is considering enforcement options, he added. The ingredients came from two Chinese firms: Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd.

The Chinese had one product, wheat flour and ground counter-tops. Whatever you ordered you got that with a label reflecting what you ordered. This is fraud – straight-forward, old-fashioned fraud. This wasn’t a mistake or misunderstanding or a cultural difference – it was fraud.

Even though this is technically a “state visit” the BBC reports it will be carbon neutral:

The tour is the Queen’s first carbon-offset state visit, where a donation is made to an environmental charity to offset the plane journeys made by the royal party.

I wonder if anyone has thought of having the Shrubbery show a little concern for the planet by either parking Air Force One, or buying carbon offsets when he goes traipsing around the country for no understandable reason.

The Trap/Neuter/Release program over in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is a bit overwhelmed, possibly from all of the cats brought into the area after Katrina. If you have some spare change the good folks at Cat Haven would appreciate any help they can get.

If you are lucky enough that it makes a difference, any donation is tax deductible.

Via CNet, Reuters is reporting that Dell joins Microsoft, Novell in Linux pact.

Microsoft said on Monday Dell had joined a business collaboration it had with Novell to allow open-source Linux software to work with Windows.

[snip]

Under the latest agreement, Dell will purchase Suse Linux Enterprise Server certificates, Microsoft said. Suse Linux is Novell’s operating system.

Dell will also establish a services and marketing program to migrate existing Linux users who are not Dell Linux customers to Suse Linux, Microsoft said.

“Linux users who are not Dell Linux customers” is an interesting limitation given that Dell announced on May 1^st that it would be supplying Ubuntu Linux on its systems. This must be something that Microsoft is doing and using Windows licensing to encourage Dell to go along, because supporting and promoting a version of Linux different than your corporate choice doesn’t make much sense otherwise.

I complain about it every hurricane season and now it is showing up in “tornado alley” as 60% of the Kansas National Guard ‘s equipment is in Iraq, which is slowing the response to the Greenburg disaster.

Whenever there is a major weather incident I check Dr. Jeff Masters who blogs over at Weather Underground. Dr. Masters reports 68 people have died in tornadoes this year, two more than all of last year.

He also links to The Wichita Eagle aerial photographs of the Greenburg damage. This what an EF5 tornado, with winds > 200mph, does to an area. There isn’t a leaf left on any of the trees, and the Wicked Witch getting a house dropped on her is less fantasy than you thought.

If you are a real weather fanatic, Dr. Masters also has some of the imaging of the storm from instruments. This is what you don’t want to see on your local Doppler radar images.

Via Ellroon, the FDA had another Friday notification. The agency advises people who have been importing glycerin to check to ensure that they didn’t receive diethylene glycol [DEG].

Both are sweet syrups, but glycerin is used in the manufacture of cough syrups and children’s form of medications, while DEG is a toxic liquid used in automotive anti-freeze and solvents.

There are dozens of cases of dogs dying from drinking pools of anti-freeze from leaking radiators every year, like the melamine from last Friday, it causes renal failure in pets and humans.

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