Posts from — November 2010

Position: 25.2N 69.6W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [025°] near 10 mph [16 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph [130 kph].
Wind Gusts: 90 mph [155 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 100 miles [160 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles [ 40 km].
Minimum central pressure: 987 mb ↑.

Currently about 275 miles [440 km] North-Northeast of Grand Turk Island.

The storm is over the open Atlantic and all coastal Warnings and Watches have been discontinued. It has had a burst of strengthening, but is still projected to begin weakening. None of the models have been successful at predicting the strength of this storm.

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.]

Jude at First Draft won’t win any awards for civility, but when you encounter the brain-dead ignorance of someone like Scott Walker, the new Republican governor-elect of Wisconsin, you are stunned.

The basic story is that Governor-elect Walker has announced plans to cancel the Federal rail project that was going to connect Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the project has already started, it means that the state will be required to re-pay the money that the Federal government has spent, and the state of Wisconsin will lose the entire Federal grant.

Mr. Walker is apparently under the delusion that he can just take the Federal money and use it as he wishes, in his case for roads, not understanding that the money was appropriated for a specific project, and can only be spent on that project.

The money would have provided thousands of jobs, as well as providing a fast and convenient method of travel between Wisconsin’s two largest cities. There were no Wisconsin funds required for the project, so no state money will be saved by canceling it.

You have to wonder what they are putting in the tea…

Today would have been the seventh blogiversary™ for Collective Sigh.

Andante, Melanie, and Jim are just three of the thousands who have died in this country because they couldn’t afford health care when they needed it.

And yet, people act surprised that I am so angry at the Democrats who blew a golden, once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the problem, and sold out to the drug companies and health insurance companies instead.

The process is known as triage in the medical world, treat the most serious problem first. If you are dead, nothing else matters. Think about that.

Position: 20.8N 72.8W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [045°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 75 mph [120 kph].
Wind Gusts: 90 mph [145 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 120 miles [195 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles [ 40 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb ↑.

Currently about 35 miles [ 55 km] Southeast of Great Inagua Island and about 155 miles [245 km] West-Northwest of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Haiti and the southeastern Bahamas including the Turks & Caicos Islands.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the northern coast of the Dominican Republic from the Haiti border eastward to Puerto Plata.

Tomas has weakened somewhat as it heads for Great Inauga Island.

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.]

Daylight Savings Time ends in the US Sunday morning, November 7^th at 2AM. It becomes 1AM and you get an extra hour of sleep, unless you work the “graveyard shift”.

Most devices make the change automatically, although many, like my clock radio, change under the old system and have to be ignored for a couple of weeks.

“Fall back – Spring ahead”

The “Old” Man

Harumpf… Harumpf.

[Editor: This is Blaze, the alpha tom and largest of the ferals. He has a rakish scar over his right eye as a result of his early attempts to assume the position. He’s in for some cold nights because the alpha tom doesn’t have any friends to cuddle up to – it’s part of the job description.

Friday Ark

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.

The British are celebrating the anniversary of the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot.

A group of English Catholic conspirators including an explosives expert, Guy Fawkes, stashed 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament building with the intent of blowing up the members of Parliament and King James I during the official opening of Parliament on November 5^th, 1605.

Bonfire Night is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and occasionally the Pope, are traditionally thrown on the fires. Effigies of modern politicians have made their appearances at the celebration.

As Robert Cecil was involved, I doubt anyone will ever know the truth about the plot.

The pundits are making the same mistake that Obama makes, that the US is politically to the right of center. This was a low turn-out election because there were few left of center choices for people and they are tired of voting for the lesser of two evils, and want to vote for people and policies they believe in, and that make the country work.

Mid-terms are about the base of the parties, and the White House decided to insult the base of the Democratic Party in the run-up to the election, and then was stunned when the base decided to send the message that they wouldn’t work or vote for people who refused to work or vote for them.

Only because I prefer to keep the front page safe for work and she is writing from her core anger, below the fold I have Athenae response, which sums up what I really think about Obama’s first two years.

[Read more →]

Position: 17.3N 75.5W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [030°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph [100 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 120 miles [195 km].
Minimum central pressure: 989 mb ↓.

Currently about 230 miles [370 km] West-Southwest of Port au Prince, Haiti and about 100 miles [160 km] East-Southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Haiti; the southeastern Bahamas including the Turks & Caicos Islands; and the Cuban province of Guantanamo.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Jamaica and the Cuban provinces of Santiago de Cuba, & Holguin.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from the Haiti border eastward to Barahona.

Tropical Storm force winds are already affecting the southern coast of Haiti, as the storm continues to strengthen.

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.]

Dave Johnson at Seeing the Forest: Bloggers Were Right: It WAS Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.

Steve Bates at the Yellow Something Something: Hey Democrats… The Election Could Have Sucked Worse.

Lambert at Corrente: The midterms were a referendum on Obama from the D base, and that’s why the Ds lost.

Duncan at Eschaton: Here We Go Again

I don’t know how politicians lacked the self-preservation skills to recognize that if they failed to deliver on the economy they would fail, but that’s what happened.

Paul Krugman: Blame The Whiny Center

So, we’re already getting the expected punditry: Obama needs to end his leftist policies, which consist of … well, there weren’t any, but he should stop them anyway.

What actually happened, of course, was that Obama failed to do enough to boost the economy, plus totally failing to tap into populist outrage at Wall Street. And now we’re in the trap I worried about from the beginning: by failing to do enough when he had political capital, he lost that capital, and now we’re stuck.

The first President I voted for was a Texan who came into office with the same type of flood that Obama did, but instead of putzing around and being conciliatory, Lyndon Baines Johnson went to work and got his Great Society programs passed. It wasn’t easy, parts of the program were filibustered by Democrats, but Barack Obama couldn’t have been elected without LBJ’s program. He took his “political capital” and spent it to get things done. With LBJ, “kicking butt and taking names” was not a figure of speech.

He damaged his legacy with the Vietnam War which is why people tend to forget the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, and the other Great Society bills he pushed through in his single term.

Both of the redistricting amendments exceeded the 60% threshold and are now part of the Florida constitution. In addition, the attempts by the legislature to overturn the public financing and classroom size amendments failed.

This makes the election of Scott as governor less of a blow and signals real change in the make-up of Florida’s legislature and its Congressional delegation. The Republicans will have to turn in their crayons.

After being sandbagged by Markos of DKos [he suggested Crist run as an independent] and Obama [the rumor that Meek was dropping out in favor of Crist was traced back to the White House], Kendrick Meek didn’t really have a chance, so we are stuck with Rubio.

The turn-out was just under 50%, which isn’t exceptionally low, but the win on redistricting shows that liberals and progressives were voting, but not for a number of Democratic candidates. If the leader of the party won’t support the party’s candidates, why should voters?

Position: 15.4N 75.2W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northwest [330°] near 6 mph [ 9 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1003 mb.

Currently about 295 miles [470 km] Southwest of Port au Prince, Haiti and about 210 miles [335 km] South-Southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Haiti.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the southeastern Bahamas including the Turks & Caicos Islands.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Jamaica; the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from the Haiti border eastward to Barahona; and the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, & Holguin.

Tomas is again strengthening and turning to the North.

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.]

Dr. Krugman was a bit disconcerted to discover the phenomenon of Math Rage, people upset with him because he expected them to do simple math to understand what he was talking about.

He encountered one possible explanation in his comments in the form of Jihadist Economics, proving that the zero lower bound is really about the imposition of Sharia law.

Then he discovered that he was part of the new Axis of Evil™ in Evil Personified.

While I could go on about why people who base their worldview on belief don’t like numbers much. Numbers don’t care what you believe, the answer will be the same for atheists and Christians, but Badtux highlights the real answer with a YouTube clip.

The Pensacola News Journal blows their headline, but the information is interesting: 2.9 Floridians voted early or by mail

[Secretary of State Dawn] Roberts noted that more than 1 million Floridians voted early this year (another 1.9 million voted by mail), but she declined to predict turnout, or whether it would top the 66 percent mark reached in 1994, the record for a non-presidential year.

You have to understand that Florida elects its top state offices on mid-term years, so a large turnout isn’t unreasonable or unexpected especially when a Senate seat is also up for election.

The polls are open until 7:00PM CDT [8PM EDT] in the Panhandle, so the results won’t be out for while, and there is still time to vote if you haven’t. Even if you hate everyone running, there are constitutional initiatives that need to be supported or stopped, since you can’t depend on the legislature to actually work for the citizens.

My Mother had no problems voting today, although she hated using the ramp. Even though two precincts vote at the town hall, there were far more workers than voters at 1PM and they did open the doors.