Posts from — July 2007

According to the cable industry only 58.8% of US households had cable in December 2006. In that number not every cable system carries CNN. Even among those that carry CNN, it is in the second tier of choices, and not everyone is willing to pay for it. Even if they wanted to watch the debate last night, having it on a cable channel meant a large number of people couldn’t. Oh, broadband Internet access is even more limited, so even people who have access to cable, don’t all have access to a fast Internet connection.

Most polls are conducted by landline telephone. Fewer and fewer people every year have a landline telephone, so the percentage of the population that can participate in polls is declining.

Obviously the group most heavily impacted by these facts are the poor, and that number has been growing. Not even the 70¢ per hour minimum wage increase that took effect today is going to help the poor get connected.

For the time being Shakesville is back at the “Old Place”. I can connect to the new place but the template is obviously broken, as if the style sheet is missing.

UPDATE: They are back home. 8:30PM – I spoke too soon.

Mad Kane has come out with her first ever poll, and it’s on impeachment. Go and vote. If you’re in New York, Chicago, or Miami, vote often as is the custom.

I note it’s a WordPress plug-in so I could run polls, were I so inclined. Don’t worry, I’m not.

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Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway wonders: Who Is Clogging the System?

She comments on an article describing the current high gasoline prices as being driven by accidents and mechanical breakdowns at refineries and some of the reasons there are so many problems.

What isn’t addressed is why there are so few refineries. The answer is simple – greed.

After all of those oil companies mergers the resultant companies began to eliminate all facilities that they deemed were redundant, which meant anything that wasn’t required to operate 24/7/365 to cover the current market demand. There were a lot of refineries shut down. There is no slack in the system which keeps the price of gas high, but, like just-in-time inventory control, makes no provision for problems or increased demand.

When asked about the problem the oil companies will give you a song-and-dance about eco-terrorists making it too difficult to build new refineries, rather than admitting that more refinery capacity would increase competition, and they have no intention of competing.

If you look around you will probably notice fewer and fewer gas stations, the brands disappearing dependent on the area in which you live. Too many gas stations increase competition and they are corporations, they aren’t interested in risk or competition. Capitalism is for the little people, not corporations.

My favorite Mideast expert, Dr. Juan Cole of Informed Comment has just received an advanced copy of his new book. Covering the beginning of the current cycle of outsiders invading the Muslim world, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East looks at a part of history that is little known.

As I remember covering the Napoleonic era in several different courses in high school and university, the Egyptian campaign rarely rated more than a paragraph when it was mentioned at all. Most of the information I received on the campaign was part of a discussion of the Rosetta Stone in a language class, and a discussion of compilers.

The Associated Press reports: Georgia plant shut in botulism probe.

Castleberry’s has a complete list of all the products: Expanded Voluntary Product Recall Information – 7/21/07.

The list includes all of their products as well as canned chili, hash, and beef stew that they make for others including most of the store brands in the South. It also includes Natural Balance canned dog food.

Botulism has only been confirmed in the chili sauce for hot dogs, but since it was in the plant, they are recalling all of the products from the plant.

Because no one writes enough about them, and Andante of Collective Sigh has been really busy lately: Tiny Chihuahua Saves Life.

In Colorado a chihuahua took several strikes from a rattlesnake that was threatening a toddler. The child was not hurt, the dog survived, no mention of the fate of the snake.

I feel sure that my cats would have at least watched if I were being attacked.

The BBC has a background piece on the $100 laptop, Factfile: XO laptop, that describes an excellent communications device for disasters. For about twice the price of receive-only crank radio, you could establish a network throughout an area with two-way communications, including visuals.

The “pull-string” power source is certainly interesting to those of us have been in area without power for extended periods.

They should offer to it the public for $200 so that every purchase pays for a free machine for the developing world, like US Indian reservations and our inner cities.

Michael at Musing’s musings is growing exasperated with all of those who are yelling for impeachment and lays out his reasons for not doing it in his post, Basta! . I don’t disagree with the reasoning, but it really wouldn’t take as long as he fears. The House will be acting like a grand jury, and there is more than enough evidence already extant to provide for a bill of indictment. The problem is that there are at least 34 Repub Senators who value Partei over the good of the country, and until that number can be altered there isn’t much point.

The situation cannot continue, with the government being ruled by a series of lettres de cachet, and the rule of law ground into the dust.

The Constitution provides a method of controlling some of the worst abuses and Congress needs to start preparing to use its power of inherent contempt.

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CNN is carrying this Associated Press report: U.S.: Smugglers nabbed in Iraq may have links to Iran

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — U.S. troops on Sunday detained two suspected weapons smugglers who may be linked to Iran’s elite Quds force, the military said, as Washington presses allegations that Tehran is supporting violence in Iraq despite plans for new bilateral talks on the issue.

The suspects and a number of weapons were seized during a raid on a rural farm compound in eastern Iraq, near the Iranian border, according to a military statement.

“The suspects may be associated with a network of terrorists that have been smuggling explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), other weapons, personnel and money from Iran into Iraq,” the military said. EFPs are powerful, armor-piercing roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers in recent months.

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Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Via Pensacola Beach Blogger I found Jon Swift’s take on the phenomenon, Harry Potter Is a Brat, explaining how the series is destroying life as it should be [if you are a supporter of the Shrubbery].

Of course, like all of the DFH bloggers, Swift eschewed breaking the embargo or revealing spoilers. Those sorts of things require professional journalists for newspapers like The New York Times and Baltimore Sun to prove they are more privileged than the children for whom the books were written. I have no idea why they thought it was important to “scoop” the Harry Potter fan sites, but these are important decisions made by professional journalists with editors. These are the people who get all of the important news, like the existence of all those WMDs in Iraq.

[If in doubt, see number 7.]

Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers has a nice background piece on the current Senate: Senate tied in knots by filibusters

WASHINGTON — This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.

The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority.

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The day the world [well, some of the world] has anticipated for a decade is finally here: the final Harry Potter book is available to buy and people will figure out what they have been told in the last six books.

I won’t buy the book immediately, because I never have, and don’t worry about “spoilers” because Ms Rowling has set things on a pretty straight forward path if you have been paying attention. The clues were all there. At this point the title, The Deathly Hallows, should simply confirm what you suspected.

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