Posts from — September 2010

Both candidates come from farming families, but neither is actually a farmer.

Both candidates are native Floridians.

Both candidates entered politics early: Adam Putnam was elected to the Florida legislature at 22, Scott Maddox was elected to the Tallahassee city commission at 24.

Adam Putnam, as should surprise no one [the football stadium is named for his grandfather], graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in food and resource economics.

Scott Maddox graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration and then a law degree.

Here are the links to Wikipedia, a Lakeland Ledger profile, and the campaign site for Scott Maddox.

FYI: Adam Putnam was part of the House Republican leadership, but his committee assignment was not Agriculture. Believe or not he is on the Committee on Financial Services and the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, the House watchdogs who didn’t bark before the economy collapsed. Oh, yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are “Government Sponsored Enterprises”.

I wouldn’t take farming advice from either one, but Scott Maddox is overwhelmingly better on the environment and consumer issues. Florida’s number one asset is its environment. If we mess it up, the BP oil spill showed us what will happen.

Position: 17.0N 91.0W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 14 mph [22 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1001 mb ↓.

Currently inland about 125 miles [200 km] South-Southeast of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico.

It is not expected to survive the passage across the Yucatan to reach the Bay of Campeche.

All Warnings and Watches have been canceled but the heavy rains will cause flooding.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Well, I was going to totally ignore this but when a story appears in both the New York Times and the BBC it must be a pretty important international story, or they are both using the same source for their Off-Beat / Strange / Bizarre fillers.

Basically a failed fundamentalist candidate for the state educational authority in Texas is claiming that social studies textbooks are pro-Islam and anti-Christian, and the state must not buy any more of these texts. This guy won’t be satisfied until the only book in public schools is the Bible.

The only reason anyone cares is that Texas buys a lot of textbooks, and publishers tend to pander to their whacko prejudices to make the sales.

If the whacko is looking for “pro-Islam” textbooks, he is in the wrong courses. He should be demanding the state cancel all math and science classes, because much of the basic work in those fields was done by Muslims during Europe’s so-called “Dark Ages”. He apparently missed the clue that we use “Arabic” numerals in math and science, and al gebra is obviously not something he knows about.

It is people like this that make it really hard to go through life with a Southern accent.

Susie Madrak is the story getting the big buzz around blogtopia™, which is a bit unsettling for her. She provides her memory of the event at Crooks & Liars.

She is somewhat taken aback by the reaction, because she really was just being herself. Her background is as a city newspaper reporter, and she continues the traditions of that class. As Finley Peter Dunne, writing as Mr. Dooley, noted around the start of the 20^th century a newspaper “comforts the afflicted, afflicts the comfortable”.

If you look at the interaction between Susie and David Axlerod, it was Axlerod’s reaction that was the problem. He didn’t understand that Susie was attempting to help the White House come up with some way to reach the base they have been dumping on in recent days. Axlerod’s reaction was to essentially have a hissy fit about the left not clapping loud enough for the garbage bills that have been produced.

Susie has taken a number of hard punches, but she gets up and returns to the fight, because that’s who she is, but I really don’t see how anyone can promote the Democrats with a clear conscience. They were given everything they asked for, but have produced nothing that will help anyone but corporations.

Update: Susie talks of Life in the eye of a hurricane.

Position: 15.2N 85.0W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles [280 km].
Minimum central pressure: 998 mb.

Currently inland about 125 miles [205 km] East-Southeast of La Ceiba, Honduras.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Honduras, including the offshore islands; and the coast of Belize from Belize City southward.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Belize North of Belize City.

The storm will probably dissipate over land. The trough that was expected to guide the storm to the North didn’t arrive in time.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

No Respect

Gotcha!

[Editor: Ringo was staring directly at the camera, but as soon as I pressed the shutter button she executed an immediate ‘Eyes Right’. There was no flash, she did it to annoy me.

Friday Ark

There are four officers in Florida government that are elected state-wide: Governor, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Most Floridians simply call the last job “the agricultural commissioner” and think that farming is all the job entails. The next time they’re in a service station, they should look at the sticker on the pump telling them it was inspected for accuracy, because the name on the sticker is the “ag com”. While agriculture is half of the job, the other half is being the advocate for consumers in the government.

Normally the people running are qualified and mostly non-partisan, despite what it may say by their name. Normally a lot of people just don’t bother to vote on this line. Well this year, things aren’t normal because Adam “Howdy Doody” Putnam is the Republican nominee.

Putnam is the grandchild of Ben Hill Griffin, just like Cruella de Harris. Ben Hill didn’t have a farm in central Florida, he created a citrus and cattle empire. Putnam isn’t in farming, he’s in agribusiness. He’s not likely to have much sympathy for small farmers and their problems.

Then there’s energy. Putnam led the charge in Congress to open Florida’s waters to oil drilling, and when he talks about home grown energy resources, he must be talking about sugar cane, which only prospers in the area that is supposed to be returned to the Everglades.

I’m guessing that Putnam sees the Ag Com job as a step towards the US Senate or Governor. That means a large campaign chest, and he isn’t going to get that by helping small farmers and consumers.

That’s my opinion, YMMV.

Position: 14.0N 78.4W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 17 mph [28 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 45 miles [ 70 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1005 mb.

Currently about 335 miles [540 km] East of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua to Limon, Honduras, including the offshore islands.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Limon, Honduras westward to the Guatemala border.

This has been building in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela for several days, but finally spun up.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Krugman et al., the people who were screaming we were about to go over the cliff years before it happened, have been screaming that austerity government budgets were the wrong way to deal with the aftermath.

Ireland was the poster child for the “austerians”, the model for how governments needed to deal with the crisis with massive budget cuts.

The BBC reports that the Irish economy contracts by 1.2%

The Irish Republic’s economy shrank in the second quarter from the previous three months, surprising analysts who had been expecting growth.

Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 1.2%, the Central Statistics Office said. It also revised down its measure of growth in the first quarter to 2.2% from 2.7%.

Gross national product (GNP), seen by some as a more accurate barometer of the economy, fell by 0.3%.

The government has been seeking to reassure investors about the economy.

Excuse me, but screw the “investors”! They are clueless collection of crap shooters that caused the meltdown. In the absence of any other information doing the opposite of the “investors” want is a good general guide for getting back on track for a national economy.

Position: 17.5N 28.6W [ 4 PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: Stationary.
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 35 miles [ 55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1001 mb ↓.

Currently about 320 miles [515 km] West-Northwest of the Cape Verde Islands

There is still no steering available for this storm.

Lisa clawed back to Tropical Storm level, but it isn’t going anywhere, and the wind shear is set to increase in the area. There is no point in even noticing this storm unless you are in a vessel near the Cape Verde Islands.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

So, President Obama is upset because the base of the Democratic Party isn’t thrilled with his “accomplishments”. You have to wonder if he will gain any understanding by this little clue:

Dave Johnson, Sean Paul Kelly, and Jim DeRosa all point out what “the base” was saying when the so-called “Health Care” bill passed – the insurance companies won’t do it, they won’t provide the coverage.

Rather than covering children with pre-existing conditions, something that is about to take effect, many major Health Insurance companies are simply going to stop covering any children.

You were told this would happen. You were told that corporations only exist to make a profit. You ignored the warnings of people with a track record of being right, and went with the fools who have been rather consistently wrong. Corporations are scorpions. They are going to act as scorpions, no matter what they may tell you in private meetings.

The CBC and Dr. Masters have pictures and discuss Newfoundland’s close encounter with Hurricane Igor.

There is one person person missing and presumed drowned, an elderly man swept out to sea by the huge waves from the storm.

While winds are responsible for damage to the power grid, the intense rain on the rocky island caused massive flooding. Rain gauges were overwhelmed by the water flow, up to 8 inches were estimated to have fallen in some areas, sweeping away bridges and roads. The massive waves caused significant shoreline erosion and damage to vessels.

First Earl comes ashore in Nova Scotia, and now Igor ravages Newfoundland. This is not a good year for Canada and hurricanes.

The ABC tells us that a Melbourne schoolboy blamed for Twitter meltdown

A 17-year-old Australian schoolboy said he unwittingly caused a massive hacker attack on Twitter which sent users to Japanese porn sites and took out the White House press secretary’s feed.

Pearce Delphin, whose Twitter name is @zzap, admitted exposing a security flaw which was then pounced upon by hackers, affecting thousands of users and causing havoc on the microblogging site for about five hours.

First off, these were scriptkiddies, not hackers, that exploited the problem. The fact that Twitter had no safe guards in place to protect itself from Javascript garbage, given the nature of the site, is truly amazing. The only thing young Mr. Delphin did was to show the gaping hole in Twitter’s security, and the monkeys rushed in to fill it with porn sites – a rather blatant indicator of juvenile males.

You can watch the arrival of the equinox at Archæoastronomy. It takes place at 10:09 PM CDT tonight.

It’s time to man the rakes in northern climes.