Posts from — October 2007

The CNN coverage of the SoCal fires:

Two fatalities and 1,000 homes lost in San Diego county with more than a half million people evacuated. There have been 300 homes lost in the fires around Malibu and Los Angeles county.

The winds seem to be moderating, which helps in controlling the fires and allows the fixed-wing aircraft to fly fire suppression missions.

The Harris Ranch fire is also causing destruction in Mexico around Tecate.

Smaller fires have been springing into existence all around the area, including two on Camp Pendelton and one on the Lajolla reservation.

The Shrubbery is set to play disaster tourist on Thursday, which will ground all aerial operations and pull fire fighters off the line to act as a back drop at a media event. If he feels a need to do something, he could donate the fuel that he would use for the trip to the fire fighting operations. After New Orleans no one believes him when he promises aid.

From a Times-Picayune article on the recent flooding in New Orleans:

…In both New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, pumps operated without incident throughout the day Monday to drain water from streets and yards, but were unable to keep up with the intense rainfall.

“We had everything operating at full capacity,” said Robert Jackson, spokesman for the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board.

But in some areas, more than two inches of rain fell in an hour, while the city’s pumps can handle only a maximum 1 inch in the first hour of a rainfall and 1/2 inch every hour thereafter, he said…

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I don’t suppose it will come as a surprise to anyone that I’m not especially fond of GOP officials which makes me question the intelligence of people who vote for them, but I would like to second TBogg’s expression of dissatisfaction with Glenn Beck.

Oh, Glenn, you really ought to learn something about California before shoot your mouth off, because I wouldn’t expect an interview with Duncan Hunter (R – CA52), whose constituents are being burned out by the Harris fire, or Brian Bilbray (R – CA50) whose voters have been affected by the Witch fire. Not even Repubs deserve to be burned out or have their patriotism cavalierly questioned by you.

For the near future if you want to send me e-mail you need to use the new address in the sidebar. The dumka.com address is in transition with no clear idea as to when it will be back up because the individual who owns it is dealing with a few problems.

The main problems are the wildfires in San Diego county, as he doesn’t know if he’s going to be forced to evacuate as the fires approach the coast.

CNN has the AP feed, MSNBC has their own reporting, but TBogg’s coverage is more meaningful if you have lived in the county. The San Diego Union-Tribune has a fire blog but their server is swamped.

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Over at Altercation it is going to be Lieutenant Colonel Bob Bateman, a military historian in and for the military, versus Victor David Hanson, PhD, formerly respected classics professor who has morphed into a neocon wingnut. Colonel Bateman is tired of VDH distorting history for political purposes and intends to fact check the history that supposedly supports Hanson’s views.

I wonder how Hanson reconciles his admiration of William Tecumseh Sherman and his personal transformation into a political shill when Sherman is rather well know for saying of political office: “If nominated, I will not accept; if drafted, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

Sherman was not exactly a fan of the chattering classes either: “If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”

Douglas MacArthur or Curtis LeMay would be much better choices.

Tune in and bring popcorn.

Riverbend has a post from Damascus up today talking about life in exile and the problems of being a refugee –Bloggers Without Borders….

One of the things that struck me is that the Hedgemony is so concerned with its own legacy it doesn’t seem to notice that it is improving Saddam Hussein’s image among the Iraqi people. It is hard to believe that Americans could screw anything up so badly that a brutal monster like Saddam would start to look good to his victims.

Jams of Poor Mouth has a post on an unusual reaction to the situation in Burma. I make no claims regarding the efficacy of such action, but if you are interested:

Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
2300 S Street, NW
Washington DC 20008

Homeland Security will probably get a little squirrely over this, but they need to learn how to use ‘Net search engines.

Dr. Black always finds time to point out the failings of David Broder, as he does in Matlock’s Vision of Health Care, but he doesn’t spend enough time reviewing all of the disconnections in Broder’s column about Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

Consider these excerpts from Broder’s Washington Post column, Leavitt’s Healthy Vision

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — For most of the American public, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt is best defined by his role defending President Bush’s controversial veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

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Bringiton at Corrente discusses a recent incident involving a 75-year-old woman an Comcast cable system.

The woman was plainly wrong. Just look at the accompanying picture. She used a 16-ounce curved claw hammer, probably a Plumb model 11406 from the handle, and that was simply wrong. She should have used a 16-ounce ball peen hammer like the Plumb model 11426. I know some of you are thinking that a 32-ounce double-faced engineer’s hammer was the proper choice, but she is 75, and that would be too much hammer for the job.

Remember, when your purpose is to convince a customer service organization about your seriousness in pursuing service, a demonstration of knowledge and competence is important in the presentation of your complaint.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Hipparchia has a great idea: since Florida Democrats don’t get to join the Democratic presidential nominating convention on an official voting basis because of the shift in the primary date, Florida Dems should cast a symbolic vote for Chris Dodd to show support for his action in defense of the Constitution and demonstrate our distaste for the Democratic leadership.

We have to vote or the Repubs will slip some sort of nastiness by us in the form of a ballot initiative, and we may as will stick it to the DLC puppets who control things.

Since Kevin Drum is only a year away from being buried under AARP junk mail at 49, I thought I’d help him out with the puzzle of what happened in Syria.

The Washington Post tells us what the VSP are saying: Syrians Disassembling Ruins at Site Bombed by Israel, Officials Say

Syria has begun dismantling the remains of a site Israel bombed Sept. 6 in what may be an attempt to prevent the location from coming under international scrutiny, said U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the aftermath of the attack.

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The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have enough inspectors to ensure the safety of our food, no doubt because it is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, but the Department of Agriculture has no problem finding the resources to conduct a full-blown investigation of Hemingway’s six-toed cats.

So far the USDA has expended the following resources:

• More than 270 government man hours spent on the case so far.
• The cases involve at least three government lawyers …
• Four inspectors …
• Six veterinarians …
• And at least 14 USDA field trips to sunny Key West.

There are about four dozen of these cats living in and around Hemingway’s house in Key West, so what makes this a cause célèbre for the Department of Agriculture? Someone complained, but who? Possibly a big donor? When is Kenneth Starr going to be called in?

Via Facing South I found this wonderful article, Louisiana kicks off 2007 gov races, at State Line.

Louisiana has an open primary, i.e. party identification doesn’t matter, everyone gets to vote, and the top two finishers go on to the general election if the top vote getter receives less than 50% of the vote. If the number 1 candidate gets more than 50%, they are automatically elected.

They are holding the primary tomorrow and Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) would seem to be on track to win the whole thing, except there’s an LSU-Auburn University football game tomorrow and it’s the first day of deer season for several areas in the state.

To win outright, Jindal needs the good ol’ boys to put off shooting Bambi for a while, and to get to the polls before kick-off. He’s asking a lot of Louisiana voters.