Posts from — April 2009

A whole lot of people got their knickers in a bunch about the North Korean missile test.

If you can believe Kim Jong-il [get real, you believe a guy who goes to the same barber as Beaker?] everything went wonderfully and their satellite is in orbit broadcasting sounds of joy to the world.

If you believe the US military [boy, these multiple choice tests are getting tricky] the second and third stages didn’t fire and they ended up in the central Pacific.

I would classify it as limited success for North Korea [hey, it didn’t blow up on the launch pad, like the last one], but they still can’t reliably launch multi-stage rockets. Japan is right to be upset, given North Korea’s success rate, because the North Korean missile program could drop a test missile into Japan as easily as flying over it, and with Japan’s population density, thousands of casualties is a definite possibility.

The NWF Daily News [Local Puppy Trainer] has an article that shows what motivates these people: NWF to receive $88 million in stimulus

State Sen. Don Gaetz announced Friday afternoon that Northwest Florida will receive $88 million for transportation and infrastructure projects as part of the federal stimulus program. Although the funding still must be approved by the state legislative Budget Committee on April 16, Gaetz said that action basically is a formality.

“I would have voted against the stimulus package as presented by the Obama administration if I had been a U.S. Senator and not a state Senator, and I have a number of reasons why,” Gaetz said. “But since the dollars are appropriated and going to be coming to Florida, I wanted to make sure Northwest Florida was not forgotten. I was pleased we were able to get our key priorities funded. But obviously, there are other projects further down the priority list we still hope we’ll have a chance at.”
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While you are avoiding pistachios and Asian spices, check your yogurt before you eat it because Cookie Jill caught the Friday evening Stonyfield Yogurt Recall:

Affected products are limited to Stonyfield Farm 32 ounce Fat Free Plain yogurt UPC # 52159 00006 carrying one of the following product codes printed along the cup bottom that start with the following date codes:
· May 06 09 Time stamped 22:17 thru 23:59 (limited to these specific time stamps only)
· May 07 09 All time stamps

Apparently someone messed up while cleaning equipment and there was some cleaner/sanitizer not properly rinsed off. It affects the flavor and appearance, but is not believed to cause health problems.

CNN reports that At least 12 dead in upstate New York shootings

(CNN) — At least one gunman began shooting Friday in an immigration services building in Binghamton, New York, killing at least 12 people, Gov. David Paterson said.

A gunman is among the dead, law enforcement officials said.

A law enforcement source said more than a dozen were wounded.

Two people were seen being led from the building in plastic handcuffs, WBNG reported. It was not immediately known whether the two were under arrest.

The shootings began around 10:30 a.m. ET at the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants and refugees, the source said.

Binghamton is the largest city in the Southern Tier of New York and is just north of the Pennsylvania border. It is the junction for many of the major highways in the state as well as the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers which were part of the Eire Canal system prior to the railroads being built. It is not a hot bed of much of anything.

The wording is a bit odd because there were probably several people in that building with guns besides the attacker. It would be normal for there to be private security, if not regular police in the area. I am guessing that the people brought out in handcuffs were probably carrying weapons, and would be detained until everything was sorted out.

Given the circumstances I wonder if Lou Dobbs, Machelle Malkin, and the rest of the immigrant bashers will take credit for this.

This is the headline from the Local Puppy Trainer: Vandal corrects spelling on anti-Obama sign.

There were a few papers I’ve had returned with red marks on then, but somehow I never thought of correction as criminal mischief, nor assigned the act to the same level of destruction as the sacking of Rome, but then, as a Prussian, the Vandals were neighbors, who, while a bit boisterous at parties, weren’t really as bad as many think. I don’t remember that spelling was particularly important to their culture, probably because they didn’t have a written language.

I would guess that this was someone on Spring Break, because they signed their work and they knew how to spell Hussein.

Front View

Didn’t you show this already?

[Editor: This is Spot from the front as shown back in October because everycat is hiding from the thunder.]

Friday Ark

The minority prime minister of Israel tells the American President what to do.

From an interview in The Atlantic magazine: Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will

In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

There is no explanation as to how one stops what isn’t occurring. The Iranian nuclear weapons program is an wholly owned fantasy of the Likud used as an election ploy. If Israel attacks Iran, Israel will have created a real existential threat. Paranoia is unbecoming in a political leader, especially when it threatens the existence of your country.

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The Morris Massacre continues: Two fired at Sheriff’s Office

Michael Coup, chief deputy of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Charlie Morris, was terminated Thursday.

So was David Yacks, the sheriff’s chief assistant of information technology.

Interim Sheriff Ed Spooner announced that both men had been fired following an internal investigation into their conduct during the time they worked for Morris, who is presently suspended and facing federal criminal charges.

Yacks received $89K in performance bonuses his first year, and most of what he did was buy first class airline tickets to Las Vegas using his American Express card so he could rack up bonus points. For investment bankers $89K may not seem like a lot, but that’s better than twice the median household income for the county. It looks like Charlie had a serious gambling problem, among other things.

FYI: the county only reimburses for coach, not first class.

So, the Local Puppy Trainer says State: Flooded Emerald Coast should qualify for federal aid.

The total rainfall in the past week varies by location, but some parts of Okaloosa County have received more than 20 inches.

There was a lot of rain, but the guy quoted who thinks it was worse than a hurricane obviously doesn’t remember my old friend Georges who dumped 48 inches of rain on us in 4 days. The frogs were wearing little orange life jackets for that one.

The best part of the article was the poll down on the sidebar: “Are recent actions by our government officials leading the United States toward socialism, as some critics contend?”, to which 73% said “Yes”.

Understand that most of the damage was to unpaved, red clay roads that turn into a slippery, slimy mess in the rain. We still have them in the county because they won’t raise taxes enough to pave them. These roads are cheap to pave because the only thing really missing is the asphalt top.

This county will take FEMA money as its due, and not worry that its inaction is the real cause of the problem.

CNN reports that Blagojevich indicted on 16 federal felony charges. He got the news at Disney World, where I’m sure he would rather be than in a Federal courtroom with Patrick Fitzgerald as the prosecutor.

It is interesting that this is charged as a racketeering case, which means the Feds will be going after his assets, just like major organized crime cases. He is facing poverty as well as prison.

Tornado Watch until 8PM.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning until 2:45PM.

Flood Warnings for the Shoal River, Coldwater Creek, and Blackwater River. [I didn’t want to go North anyway.]

[Watches mean it could happen. Warnings mean it is happening.]

The first time I remember seeing “James T. Kirk”.

From the New York Times: Upstate New York House Race Is Too Close to Call.

Democrat Scott Murphy, a venture capitalist from Missouri, versus Republican Assemblyman James N. Tedisco, the minority leader of the state Assembly [House] in the 20^th district which is heavily Republican.

That Murphy leads by 65 votes in a special election is a good indicator of how far the GOP has fallen in New York. Tedisco should have crushed him. This should have been a double-digit win. Tedisco could still win when the absentees are counted, but he should have a lead at this point that would have made the absentee ballots irrelevant.

Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who vacated this seat to take Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, was a Democrat, but she and her family were lifelong residents and politically active in the area. She won a squeaker in 2006, and comfortably in 2008. She was an exception for the district and definitely a Blue Dog. This is a Republican district, and with a heavy hitter and local pol like Tedisco running, it was the GOP’s to lose.

A couple more inches of rain, a tornado or two, the frogs are singing, and there’s mold developing on the mildew on the toadstools. Only one more day to go, and then it will be clear for a couple of days.

The beaches are covered with an invasion of the Portuguese man-of-war [stinging jellyfish] and the surf is too choppy for safe swimming. I’m sure the kids on Spring Break are thrilled. There hasn’t been enough sun for a beige, much less a tan. I don’t think pasty white prune skin from the rain was what they had in mind when they decided to head for the beach.

They say that if March comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb. This year it came and left like a flounder.