Posts from — March 2008

Éireann go Brách!

Well everyone agrees that he died on March 17^th, but the year is subject to debate. This is his normal¹ feast day on the Catholic calendar. Enjoy as you are wont.

Wikipedia has more on Saint Patrick’s Day, if you need more.

1. Because it’s Holy Week, Saints’ feast days are moved, but heathens will be celebrating anyway.

Carrie at Brilliant at Breakfast writes about H-1B visas, while Sue Sturgis at Facing South writes about H-2B visas, both are bad ideas, and both are costing Americans jobs, while abusing foreign workers who get the visas.

The claim is that there aren’t enough American workers to do the jobs. That’s not true. What’s true is that the corporations who use these visas don’t want to hire people who have rights and will demand to be paid for their education, skills, and experience. This is a form of internal out-sourcing, and the workers are the losers.

The foreign workers put up with unreasonable living conditions, while the Americans being replaced are highly skilled workers that are considered “too expensive”. It’s all about corporate profits.

No matter how “oppressed” I might feel about my situation in Florida it is an annoyance compared to the tragedy that is Tibet.

CNN reports Dalai Lama: China causing ‘cultural genocide’

(CNN) — The Dalai Lama on Sunday called for an international probe of China’s treatment of Tibet, which he said is causing “cultural genocide” of his people.

The exiled spiritual leader of Tibet spoke at a news conference Sunday in Dharamsala, India, two days after violent clashes between pro-autonomy demonstrators and Chinese security forces in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

A spokesman for the self-declared Tibetan exile government said it has confirmed at least 80 deaths in Friday’s violence and that protests were continuing outside the capital Sunday, further undermining China’s hopes of a smooth run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China’s official Xinhua news agency put the death toll at 13.

[Read more →]

It’s drawing to a close:

Finished at Nome:

69 Richard Savoyski (90)^r
70 Sue Allen (27)
71 Wayne Curtis (22)
72 Sue Morgan (72)^r [Utah]
73 Trent Herbst (85)
74 Heather Siirtola (47)
75 Gene Smith (53)^r [Washington]

On the trail out of White Mountain:

76 Martin Koenig (96)^r [Montana]

At White Mountain for the mandatory 8-hour rest.

77 Liz Parrish (75)^r [Oregon]
78 Molly Yazwinski (62)^r
79 Deborah Bicknell (21)^r

I was getting concerned about Michael Suprenant (46)^r who left Elim on 03/14/08 at 22:10 and didn’t show up at White Mountain all day yesterday and most of today. He is now listed as scratched at Elim, but there’s no explanation yet. A lot of people should have passed him if he was stopped near the trail.

The “Red Lantern” for the last place finisher is all that’s left, and it should be awarded tomorrow.

The wayback machine shows the results of the Iowa caucus to have been: Obama 37.6%, Edwards 29.7%, Clinton 29.5%.

But it turns out the 45 pledged delegates are being distributed: Obama 25, Edwards 6, Clinton 14. According to Obama’s supporters it’s perfectly all right to steal delegates from John Edwards because he withdrew. As an Edwards supporter let me remind you, that John suspended his campaign, he did not withdraw, and the supposedly “pledged delegates” were still his until the Obama camp stole them in the corrupt process that is Iowa.

How can I say Iowa is corrupt, because Iowa violated the same Rule 11A that Florida violated, and Obama says the Florida process is corrupt.

[Read more →]

This is what it looks like this morning:

Arrived in Nome:

66 Anne Capistrant (88)^r
67 Kirk Barnum (31)^r [Montana]
68 Eric Rogers (25)

Between White Mountain and Nome

69 Gene Smith (53)^r [Washington]
70 Wayne Curtis (22)
71 Sue Allen (27)
72 Richard Savoyski (90)^r
73 Trent Herbst (85)
74 Heather Siirtola (47)
75 Sue Morgan (72)^r [Utah]

Still in White Mountain

76 Martin Koenig (96)^r [Montana]

And heading for White Mountain

77 Michael Suprenant (46)^r
78 Molly Yazwinski (62)^r
79 Liz Parrish (75)^r [Oregon]
80 Deborah Bicknell (21)^r

Even this late there has been some shifting in position, more from some slowing down, than people speeding up.

^r – Iditarod rookie

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

This is the status for the field as the race winds down:

Finished in Nome since this morning

61 Joe Runyan (83) [New Mexico]
62 Dries Jacobs (65)^r [Belgium]
63 Rich Corcoran (84)^r
64 Laura Daugereau (29)^r [Washington]
65 Jake Berkowitz (43)^r [Michigan]

On the trail out of White Mountain

66 Kirk Barnum (31)^r [Montana]
67 Anne Capistrant (88)^r
68 Eric Rogers (25)

In White Mountain for the mandatory 8-hour rest stop

69 Sue Allen (27)
70 Gene Smith (53)^r [Washington]
71 Wayne Curtis (22)
72 Richard Savoyski (90)^r
73 Trent Herbst (85)
74 Sue Morgan (72)^r [Utah]
75 Heather Siirtola (47)

On the trail out of Elim

76 Michael Suprenant (46)^r
77 Martin Koenig (96)^r [Montana]

Still in Elim

78 Molly Yazwinski (62)^r
79 Liz Parrish (75)^r [Oregon]
80 Deborah Bicknell (21)^r

Joe Runyon came out of retirement to act as Rachael Scdoris’s “guide” and then starting hitting 9 mph speeds after Rachael scratched. He obviously hasn’t forgotten how to run the race.

At this point people tend to cluster, to be sure no one gets left behind. Now the point is to finish and at least get the belt buckle.

^r – Iditarod rookie

That is attributed to Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neal, Jr. a Democratic Speaker of the House, who said it was a saying of his father, Thomas P. O’Neal, Sr.

Political ranters who fail to recognize the wisdom of that statement have been blathering all over about what happened with the Florida primary, while demonstrating to all and sundry that they don’t have the first clue about why the date for the Florida primary was changed.

Here’s something most people miss about that election: 4,239,350 people cast ballots on January 29 in the election, 3,658,802 votes were cast for the Democratic and Republican candidates for President.

Wait a minute, you say, why vote in that election if you weren’t going to vote for a Presidential candidate, it was the Presidential primary? The other 473,885 voters who were not qualified to vote in the closed Florida primaries were casting ballots in the real reason for changing the date – Amendment 1 to the Florida constitution to change the property tax laws, giving the Republicans something to talk about in Florida elections in 2008.

Look at the numbers: 97.5% of the voters voted on Amendment 1; only 86.3% voted in the Presidential primary. What was the purpose of the election? What was the important issue in the election?

[Read more →]

The race is winding down with only 20 teams left to go and everyone on the north coast.
Latest Finishers:

52 William Hanes (74)

53 Zoya DeNure (89)^r

54 Benedikt Beisch (64)^r [Germany]

55 Matt Calore (30)

56 Karen Ramstead (19) [Alberta]

57 Joe Gans (12)^r

58 Rick Holt (20)

59 Jeff Deeter (50)^r

60 Sam Deltour (63)^r [Belgium]

Sam Deltour of Belgium just arrived in Nome, but he arrived with all 16 dogs still in harness, something no one else has done this year. He’s a rookie, and if he’s going to continue to race, he just completed a hell of a training run. Veteran dogs are in some ways more important than a veteran musher, so if he can keep this team together and healthy, he will be very competitive in long distance racing for a while.

Of passing interest, while most people are struck by the fact that Zoya DeNure was a former fashion model, she also has a blog, which is obviously more important, because catblogging is more important than catwalking.

The end of the race is on the trail out of Koyuk where 78^th Molly Yazwinski (62), 79^th Liz Parrish (75), and 80^th Deborah Bicknell (21) have just left for Elim.

If you receive an e-mail supposedly from “Yahoo 360”, proceed with caution. Nod32 went ballistic when it saw it, we are talking lights and sirens, because of something in the message.

“Why are people in Michigan and Florida so angry? They knew what the rules were before they changed their primary dates, so why are they so angry?”

Among many other things, the rules were changed on the fly by the DNC.

Go read the DNC Primary Rules, the ones the leaders of the Democratic parties in Michigan and Florida agreed to, from a New Hampshire Democrat.

Based on the rules, the Democratic officials in Michigan expected to lose 50% of their pledged delegates and all of their superdelegates – that’s what the rule [Rule 20.C.1.a.] says will happen to states that violate the rule [Rule 11.A] on scheduling primaries and caucuses.

That is not what happened. The rules, as written and agreed to, were not followed.

Five states [Michigan, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina] violated Rule 11.A by scheduling primaries and caucuses earlier than allowed, but only two were punished, and those two lost all of their pledged delegates. No superdelegates lost their votes. This is not according to the rules.

When an unelected group within the Democratic National Committee can arbitrarily decide what rules will be enforced and what the penalty will be, rather than enforcing the rules equally, against all violators, and handing out equal penalties the process is corrupt.

This problem can be easily resolved to the satisfaction of everyone – enforce the rules. All five states should lose half their pledged delegates and all of their superdelegates, just like the rules require.

The concept is called “equal justice under the law” where democratic principles guide government action. Some people think it’s important.

31 Gerald Sousa (10)
32 Rick Casillo (34)
33 Jason Mackey (36)
34 Scott Smith (35)
35 Robert Bundtzen (97)
36 Sven Haltmann^r (73)
37 Rohn Buser^r (37)
38 Louis Nelson Sr. (80)
39 Cindy Gallea (82) [Montana]
40 Jon Korta (71)
41 Clint Warnke (15)
42 Robert Nelson (70)^r
43 Rudi Niggemeier (52)^r [Germany]
44 Rick Larson (95) [Montana]
45 Kelley Griffin (86)
46 Bruce Linton (8)
47 Lachlan Clarke (58) [Colorado]
48 Fabrizio Lovati (77) [Italy]
49 Benoit Gerard (91)^r [France]
50 Jennifer Freking (60)^r [Minnesota]
51 Blake Freking (54) [Minnesota]

^r – Iditarod rookie

Deborah Bicknell (21) is at the back in 80^th place on the trail out of Shaktoolik.

Jennifer Freking and her husband, Blake, raise and race Siberian huskies. It was one of her dogs that was killed by a snowmobile earlier.

Ed Iten’s four-year-old male, Cargo, died earlier in the race, but the preliminary examination is unable to determine the cause of death. They will be conducting further tests.

From comments on my earlier post on Rachael Scdoris: apparently she and her dogs are fine, but they couldn’t make any progress on the sea ice, and she decided that scratching was better that wearing out the dogs going nowhere.

Rachael Scdoris (55), the legally blind musher from Bend, Oregon, has scratched in Koyuk while in 62^nd place. No word yet as to why she decided to drop out.

Allen Moore (76), who scratched at Shaktoolik yesterday, is receiving medical attention for a high fever. His wife, Aliy Zirkle (17), finished in 21^st place.

The warmer than normal temperatures have not been kind to dogs or mushers – both have to work a lot harder in soft snow, and sub-zero temperature tend to kill microorganisms.