Posts from — July 2009

Mikel Astarloza of Spain made his move at exactly the right moment and flew in to take stage 16 that ran through portions of the Swiss, Italian and French Alps. Franco Pellizotti of Italy scored major points in the climbs and picked up the red numbers for his efforts.

Cadel Evans was in good shape until the final climb, but slipped back. His slip was nothing compared to Tony Martin who had worn the white jersey and was in the top ten for almost the entire race to this point, he’s back at 34 after a terrible day.

1. Alberto Contador (E/Astana) 67:33:15 [yellow jersey]
2. Lance Armstrong (US/Astana) +01:37
3. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) +01:46
4. Andréas Klöden (D/Astana) +02:17
5. Andy Schleck (LUX/Saxo Bank) +02:26 [white jersey]
6. Vincenzo Nibali (I/Liquigas) +02:51
7. Christophe Le Mevel (F/Francaise) +03:09
8. Frank Schleck (LUX/Saxo Bank) +03:25
9. Carlos Sastre (E/Cervelo) +03:52
10. Christian Vande Velde (US/Garmin) +03:59
11. Mikel Astarloza (E/Euskatel) +04:38 stage 16 winner

More after the fold

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CNN found a good candidate: One wheelchair — one lesson of problems in health care reform

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) — Debbie Brown used to process medical and dental forms for a living before a debilitating illness forced her into early disability retirement and left her in a simple, no-frills wheelchair — a rented wheelchair that has cost taxpayers about $1,200.

Brown says the public should be outraged about her wheelchair.

Why? She says she could buy a comparable wheelchair on the Internet for $440 if she had the money. It sounded hard to believe that her rented, $1,200 taxpayer-funded wheelchair could be bought for $440, so CNN decided to check — and instead found an even better deal.

CNN went to the same company that charges Medicare for Brown’s chair, Apria Healthcare, and bought it for $349 — about a fourth of what taxpayers’ have paid for Brown’s rented wheelchair.

It is the same for almost everything that Medicare leases from these companies. I know because my Mother is on Medicare and they paid to lease a nebulizer for a month. My Mother thought the $75 was too much, so she asked me what it would cost to buy one. I found one made by the same company that was smaller, quieter, and more compact for $50 plus $5 shipping and bought it so she could turned the leased machine in before the month was out. She doesn’t use one every day, it is only necessary if she gets a bad cold. Paying $75/month was outrageous, but you can’t buy a serious nebulizer from anyone in town.

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The capitol bureau for the Pensacola News Journal reports on local races: Senate race wide open

TALLAHASSEE — The Panhandle will join the campaign frenzy of an unprecedented 2010 political season with wide-open state legislative races.

A state Senate seat and three House spots representing Northwest Florida are open next year because of term limits. There already are plenty of contenders — at least for Republicans — in the heavily GOP districts. Those races will be part of an election cycle with four open statewide Cabinet campaigns and a high-profile U.S. Senate contest.

State Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview, will end a 16-year legislative career — with a decade spent in the Senate — when he is term-limited out next year. The race to succeed him now includes two House members hoping for promotion to the upper chamber and a political neophyte seeking to upset the race for the Republican nomination.

Current House member Greg Evers from Baker [North Okaloosa county] calls himself a farmer. House member Dave Murzin of Pensacola admits to being involved in real estate and property management. Also from Pensacola, Mike Hill is an insurance agent. I would give Evers the edge in the district based on his address. The district is predominately rural, and it’s hard to get more rural than Baker.

People seem unaware that the moon landing was an international effort, as the ABC reminds people in their article, Fond memories of ‘the dish’ for moon-landing veterans.

If the moon landing had been faked, as PZ Myers noted that a CNN poll indicates some people seem to believe, it would have been an international conspiracy that would have had to include the Russians, because the signal from the surface of the moon was available for anyone with the proper receiver, which includes the Russians and certain people flying funny airplanes around with antennas all over them. All you needed was to be in a position to see the moon at the time of the transmission, something Australia could do, but the sites in the US couldn’t.

In his remembrance of Walter Cronkite, Mustang Bobby included the video of the Apollo 11 Landing on 20 July 1969 at 15:17:40 CDT.

Día de la Independencia
República de Colombia

¡Viva Colombia!

The ABC reports that Frank McCourt has died at 78 as a result of complications in treating melanoma.

He was born and died in New York City, but gained his fame for the autobiographical novel he wrote about growing up in Limerick, Ireland during the Depression, Angela’s Ashes

“It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

He entered writing late, after decades spent as a school teacher in New York, but his book was worth waiting for, and, amazingly, not the “total downer” that you would assume.

The Local Puppy Trainer announces the sun rises in the East: Matt Gaetz to seek Sansom’s seat

Matt Gaetz has announced his candidacy for the District 4 seat in the Florida State House of Representatives.

Gaetz, 27, a resident of Fort Walton Beach, is the third Republican candidate to announce his interest in succeeding state Rep. Ray Sansom, whose term in the House would expire next year.

Kabe Woods and Bill Garvie, both also of Fort Walton Beach, have also pre-filed to run.
…

Gaetz said he believes Northwest Florida needs energetic leaders who will stand up for the core values of the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has “core values”? You mean like graft, corruption, and marital infidelity aren’t all they believe in, based on their performance lately? Do they expound on the virtue of hypocrisy, that seem to be their main “core value”. Instead of new taxes, they call them fees. Instead of “pork” or “turkeys”, they call them community development.

Well, I’m not a Republican, so I don’t get to vote for any of my local officials. It’s a warm feeling knowing that I’m not responsible for any of the criminal class our local elected officials have become.

This is an editorial in the Local Puppy Trainer –

Headline: Using fear to expand D.C. power

Lead Paragraph:

We’re glad to see Republicans gear up to fight the Obama administration’s unprecedented insertion of federal authority into areas of life that traditionally and appropriately have been reserved to the private sector. Indeed, our nation is heading down a dangerous road from which it might be difficult to return.

The body of the piece used to support that lead paragraph and headline is a recounting of the evil perpetrated by the Hedgemony under the Shrubbery.

It does not occur to them that the Republicans are the problem, when it comes to government intrusions into private space, because they are only concerned with the interests of corporations. They were silent about all of the abuses of the Bill of Rights, but vault onto the soapbox when the government might do something about the failures of large corporations to serve the needs of people and the country.

The drought conditions in British Columbia , the Canadian province North of Washington state, have made wildfires a matter of when, not if. This cluster of fires is Northeast of Seattle, about 50 miles North of the Washington/British Columbia border.

The CBC reports: B.C. wildfires force 17,000 to flee

The number of residents forced out of their homes because of a wildfire in the tinder-dry Okanagan region of B.C. continues to climb.

The latest reports indicate as many as 17,000 people have been evacuated from 6,500 homes in the region.

Since the fires started Saturday afternoon, flames have destroyed at least nine buildings, including three houses, and charred three square kilometres [740 acres] in West Kelowna.

Jeanne Rucker, an official with the Kamloops Fire Centre, told CBC News on Sunday that the fire was burning out of control.

There were more than 150 people battling the blaze, including 100 structural firefighters, as well as 17 pieces of heavy equipment, up to 10 helicopters and four water tankers.

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Alberto Contador took the stage, the yellow jersey, his team, Astana, took the yellow numbers, and the times spread out first to last from two hours to three.

Simon Spilak of Slovenia grabbed the red numbers as the Tour entered the Alps, while the Schleck family of Luxembourg celebrates Andy taking the white jersey and Frank moving into the top ten.

Carlos Sastre of Spain, last year’s winner, has moved up to 11^th place, showing he isn’t out of it, despite a major time disadvantage from the team time trials early on.

1. Alberto Contador (E/Astana) 63:17:56 [yellow jersey]
2. Lance Armstrong (US/Astana) +01:37
3. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) +01:46
4. Andréas Klöden (D/Astana) +02:17
5. Andy Schleck (LUX/Saxo Bank) +02:26 [white jersey]
6. Rinaldo Nocentini (I/AG2R) +02:30
7. Vincenzo Nibali (I/Liquigas) +02:51
8. Tony Martin (D/Team Columbia) +03:07
9. Christophe Le Mevel (F/Francaise) +03:09
10. Frank Schleck (LUX/Saxo Bank) +03:25
11. Carlos Sastre (E/Cervelo) +03:52
12. Christian Vande Velde (US/Garmin) +03:59
13. George Hincapie (US/Team Columbia) +04:05
14. Cadel Evans (AUS/Silence) +04:27

Selected others below the fold.

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The infamous Tour de Rook has been resurrected to the groans of many weekend athletes. Coverage of Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 is available. It now comes with a sound track, unlike the other one.

Jesse Ventura, Michelle Bachmann, Franken/Coleman, and Garrison Keillor aren’t the only things happening in Minnesota. It’s like Alaska without the earthquakes and volcanoes.

The BBC continues its coverage of Iran: Call for Iran protesters’ release

Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani has called for the release of people jailed after protesting at the result of the recent election.

In his first Friday sermon since the vote, he also said large numbers of Iranians still doubted its result.

Outside, police fired tear gas at thousands of opposition supporters who were chanting slogans in support of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Chanting also broke out among some of the tens of thousands of people inside.

Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in streets near the university – the first public opposition demonstration for more than a week.

EBW at Wampum got reports that reform candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, was beaten by the Basiji outside the university and a prominent women’s rights activist, Shadi Sadr, was beaten and kidnapped.

The authorities still don’t understand that this isn’t going away, and the regime is losing more authority and legitimacy with every incident.

Sergei Ivanov of Russia took the stage, with Martijn Maaskant of the Netherlands grabbing the red numbers, but two new names entered the top ten: George Hincapie at 2 and Christophe Le Mevel at 5. A break-away couldn’t be reeled in. The leaders are tired and the loss of Levi is really being felt.

The jerseys were static, but AG2R regained the yellow numbers of the leading team.

1. Rinaldo Nocentini (I/AG2R) 58:13:52 [yellow jersey]
2. George Hincapie(US/Team Columbia) +:05
3. Alberto Contador (E/Astana) +:06
4. Lance Armstrong (US/Astana) +:08
5. Christophe Le Mevel (F/Francaise) +:43
6. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) +:46
7. Andréas Klöden (D/Astana) +:54
8. Tony Martin (D/Team Columbia) +01:00 [white jersey]
9. Christian Vande Velde (US/Garmin) +01:24
10. Andy Schleck (LUX/Saxo Bank) +01:24

More below the fold.

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