Posts from — July 2007

Down for several hours due to power problems at the server farm.  Apparently a circuit breaker melted and power couldn’t be shifted to the back-up generation system.

Too many people are moving to Phoenix and overloading the local grid, IMHO.

Michael at Musing’s musings makes an important point in Trying to do the right thing: what do you do after you’ve done all you can on your own?

Back when I was living in California I conserved water from the start. I was used to it from the military and living in a city where water was relatively expensive. I put the jug in the toilet tank, turned off water when it wasn’t necessary, watered plants with the dish water, etc. I did these things before there were any “real problems” in San Diego because it was a desert, and you don’t waste water in a desert.

Then they had a drought and instituted water restrictions. Fine, reasonable thing to do except they did it by mandating a 10% cut in water usage by everyone. Now the people who had never done anything could achieve such a cut without bothering to do everything I had always done. How was I expected to cut usage?

The problem with such blunt action is that it encourages people to over-consume so that when the restrictions come, they won’t be inconvenienced. It’s time for some leadership and clearly defined goals to deal with the problem. The goals shouldn’t just be for the nation, or the state, but for the individual, so we have some way of knowing we are doing good.

Not content with harassing toddlers over the contents of their sippy cups, and stealing chocolate pudding from little old ladies, according to the reports caught by Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof in Miami, TSA is now clearing out concourses at major airports to search dead people. This is not a replay of the Dead Parrot, cremated is as dead as it gets.

At least the bomb squad didn’t blow up the package as a “security measure,” because I seriously doubt anyone opted to have their ashes scattered over Concourse F of the Miami International Airport.

Apollo 11

Commander:
Neil A. Armstrong

Pilot: Columbia Command Module
Michael Collins, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Pilot: Eagle Lunar Module
Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., Colonel, USAF

Launched: 16 July 1969 UT 13:32:00 (08:32:00 CDT)
Landed on Moon: 20 July 1969 UT 20:17:40 (15:17:40 CDT)
Landing Site: Mare Tranquillitatis – Sea of Tranquility (0.67 N, 23.47 E)
Returned to Earth: 24 July 1969 UT 16:50:35 (11:50:35 CDT)

As Ellroon of has already mention in her post on the Shrubbery’s diplomatic style it is being reported Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the application of a key Cold War arms control treaty.

Newsweek titles their piece in the magazine’s upcoming issue on Vladimir Putin, The Tyrant’s Turn.

People wonder why “Vladdie Pooh” is no longer the Shrubbery’s best buddy, well it is probably not because the use of Mr. Putin’s first name by anyone who hasn’t known him well for at least a decade is demeaning and insulting to a Russian, although it is. It not so much that the Shrubbery thinks it’s a great honor to have Mr. Putin go to Crawford and Kennebunkport, while Mr. Putin views that as forcing him to stay in an environment that he assumes is bugged rather than the secure Russian embassy in Washington, or that such informality diminishes the status of the Russian nation, although that’s how Russians would view it. The worst part is when Russia offered unprecedented assistance after 9/11 in a hope of establishing new and better relations with the US, and instead, the Shrubbery treated the offers as his due.

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Okay, so the actual headline is U.S. Air Force Builds Up Presence In Iraq, and the story starts:

(CBS/AP) Away from the headlines and debate over the “surge” in U.S. ground troops, the Air Force has quietly built up its hardware inside Iraq, sharply stepped up bombing and laid a foundation for a sustained air campaign in support of American and Iraqi forces.

Squadrons of attack planes have been added to the in-country fleet. The air reconnaissance arm has almost doubled since last year. The powerful B1-B bomber has been recalled to action over Iraq.

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Every Sunday Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof reads the New York Times editorial page so you don’t have to. Normally I prefer the links to the Sunday Doonesbury and Opus comic strips to the absurdity of the columnists, but today, asking the rhetorical question, What Has William Kristol Been Smoking?, MB pulls on the thread of Mr. Kristol’s unraveling tiny neocon brain and then stomps on what falls out.

A thing of beauty [sniff].

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

From the fine folks at McClatchy in DC we learn that State orders flak jackets in Baghdad’s Green Zone

BAGHDAD – The dress code at the Blue Star restaurant inside Baghdad’s Green Zone now calls for vest and hat.

Flak vest and Kevlar helmet, to be precise. And it’s a good thing.

At least four mortar rounds hit inside the Green Zone about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, killing two Iraqi civilians, according to a U.S. soldier who could not speak for attribution because he’s not authorized to talk to reporters.

Meanwhile, a State Department official, after initially denying that State had ordered its 1,000 Baghdad personnel to wear protective gear, said that a copy of the order obtained by McClatchy was an undiscussable security breach.

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In the interest of comity, Mr Chertoff, I have found that 7 grams of NaHCO₃ in 100 milliliters of H₂O [or a teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of water, if you are doing this at home] works wonders for “gut feelings.” Oh, cover your mouth when you belch.

These people have absolutely no shame. As Juan Cole writes: Al-Qaeda regaining strength

Al-Qaeda is the strongest it has been since 2001, we are told, and firming up its base in the tribal areas of northern Pakistan.

Could there be a more trenchant critique of George W. Bush’s supposed ‘war on terror?’ Do a calculation of what he has spent on fighting an unnecessary and counter-productive Iraq War, and what he has spent actually trying to bring Bin Laden and the ever more garrulous Ayman al-Zawahiri to justice.

Obviously not enough because CNN reports that Newly released bin Laden video calls for martyrdom.

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While this topic is normally covered by Ellroon of Rants from the Rookery I have noticed a pattern emerging from recent reports of British actions in Basra and along the Iran-Iraq border.

While movie goers are accustomed to hearing the head of the British secret service referred as “M,” I think it is becoming clear that his real identity is Mr. Toad.

La Fête Nationale

Bastille Day

Thank you for the help with the Revolution.

Happy Birthday Александра.

Some background.

Hipparchia of Over the Cliff, Onto the Rocks has located a very useful site: the Physicians for a National Health Program Single-Payer National Health Insurance FAQ.

A group of doctors provide very straight forward answers to the questions surrounding a Single-Payer system.

‘Noz of Rubber Hose looks at the 8 of 18 benchmarks that the Shrubbery claims were met by the Iraqis in his post, success! it smells like desperation.

We were told to wait 6 months, we waited and things are no better. We have waited for things to get better for four years, and they have gotten worse. This is another Arbusto dry hole. The list of the man’s failures continues to grow. He has never succeeded at anything other than elections, and we have passed the point at which people should just accept it.

The sooner we withdraw, the less money that is wasted, the fewer lives that will be lost. Iraqis will continue to die after the US leaves, but Americans won’t be killing them.