It's not just me....

Cross posted from Wired...

Hey America, Make With the !@~$ High-Speed Rail Already

In April, a train built by the French engineering firm Alstom screamed along the Ligne à Grande Vitesse, the Paris-to-Strasbourg high-speed rail system, at a record- breaking 357 miles per hour. The whizzing run past Vendôme provided a glimpse of next-gen railway travel, and Alstom execs hope, set the company up for future contracts in emerging high-speed rail markets like China and India.

Conspicuously absent among those emerging markets: the US. Of course, news of the achievement sparked yet another round of well-worn rants, often delivered by globe-trotters who return home after rides on slick Japanese or French trains wondering, "Where the hell is my high-speed rail?" It's a question that betrays a certain naiveté about transit policy — but it's still a good one. If the country has a prayer of solving its traffic woes and creating a more efficient, environmentally sound infrastructure, we'll need some first-rate, wicked-fast trains.

That the US lacks them is due neither to conspiracy nor accident. Distances between major North American cities dwarf those in Europe. (France's north-south axis is barely longer than the trip from New York to Chicago.) According to transportation geeks, high-speed rail competes with air travel only for trips under 500 miles or that take less than three hours by plane. Chicago to St. Louis could work, but New York to Denver? Nope.

Gas is also cheaper here than in Europe and the Pacific Rim. That's an incentive to drive the short hops instead of taking the train. And an even greater incentive: Our roads are almost universally awesome. "We've chosen to sink our transportation investments into the automobile," says planning guru Robert Cervero of UC Berkeley. No news flash there.

But technology and economics may be shifting to a point where regional high-speed rail is plausible. Public transit in general is looking better and better to local governments. New York City approved a new subway line, San Francisco is considering an additional trolley route, and Los Angeles might extend its subway to the beach via parts of town people actually want to go. The same holds for intercity travel. Illinois and Wisconsin recently invested in improved rail service between Chicago and Milwaukee. Ridership spiked. "If you make this available, people will recognize how valuable it is for our urban environments," says Dennis Minichello, president of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association. Put another way: If you build it, they will ride.

New technology also helps. Lighter materials, improved acceleration, and enhanced communications all translate to faster travel times and lower construction and operating costs. Until recently, the signaling systems that keep trains on course and prevent collisions were installed in the ground along the entire route. That equipment has now been replaced by cheaper satellite and wireless technologies. And there's the critical issue of tilting: Most high-speed trains ride the same rails as standard passenger and freight lines. These tracks tend to be curvy; high speed demands long straightaways. But if the trains are designed to lean inward against curves to counteract centrifugal force, they can travel faster on existing infrastructure — a major cost saver. It works in Spain, and on Amtrak's flawed but popular Acela line in the Northeast Corridor.

To really make a system work, the US needs to build dedicated high-speed tracks. "But then that costs more, and you're talking about expropriating land," one industry insider says. Eminent domain is an explosive topic in the property-rights-obsessed US. On the other hand, we did it for the Interstate Highway System. Back then, it was for the benefit of national security; Eisenhower argued that the roads might be needed to move troops. But today we know that pollution, global warming, and dependence on Middle East oil are issues of national security, too.

The big test for US high-speed rail is now under way in California, and the hurdle is political, not technical. "Lassitude is our enemy," says Quentin Kopp, chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. He's leading the campaign for a Sacramento-to-San Diego high-speed train (San Francisco to Los Angeles in two and a half hours!). A $10 billion bond measure is slated for the 2008 ballot, but it's hardly a sure bet. Despite his iridescent-green glow, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not endorsed the bond. But even if he comes around, rail riders should keep the champagne corked. In the 1990s, Texas officials pushed for high-speed rail connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, only to be squashed by a lobbying push from Southwest Airlines. This fast train thing could work, if enough people would just get on board.

Naw, we don't need health care.

Giving up on giving away

So, I'm totally giving up on finding something in my considerable and useless possessions that may be the surprise piece in "Treasure in the Attic" played out in my own little eBay drama.

I researched a few antiques that have come down to me through my great grandfather, and they're worth so little on eBay that it's not worth photographing them and putting them out there. So, I've been moving some things around, displaying a few more things, and getting the front room a little more organized than it is now.

It's time to just integrate them, or stow them away.

No one does righteous indignation better than this

No one does righteous indignation better than this

Tuesday before a day off

So, last night Matticia is telling me that he's all excited about the upcoming Sweeney Todd movie with Johnny Depp as Todd.

I think I passed a gallstone when I heard it. Johnny Depp, as wonderful as he is, just doesn't strike me as the barber whose voice derives from the bowels of Hell itself. He's just a little whisp of a thing. Can he even sing? Or is this going to be like Madonna singing Evita, which still has left my hearing damaged.

My BG this morning was 87. I've NEVER had it that low, EVER. Not on arising, anyway. Mid 90s, yes.

I've been reading these articles about diabetes; how it's all about the food intake and a little exercise - that the current therapy is driven by pharma and lazy doctors. How wild.

More movement on the commercial mortgage front.

Sunday evening Happyness

I'm watching the DVD "The Pursuit of Happyness." It's an awesome movie. Even if you hate Will Smith.

Where has this year gone? Where has this weekend gone?

Today in church things were again awesome. We only had 12 people. However, we asked for people to stay and help me get the book cases put out, the books moved out and organized and everyone - everyone - stayed and helped out. It's not everything I'd like to accomplish yet, but it's a strong start. Hopefully, next weekend I can get some more things cleared out, and set up an office in the back.

You know, I live on a busy corner. Every day, all day and until after midnight, cars pull up at the traffic light and wait for the light to change. Every few minutes, one of those cars has a high powered thrumming stereo system that literally rattles the glassware in the house. The curio on the front wall that has 20th Century glassware in it rattles like I'm in an earthquake. About once a week, I have to open up the case and move all of the glassware back to its original position.

How is that even rational or reasonable behavior? Why aren't all of those bastards deaf already?

I can't wait until I can get those windows installed.

I had such weird dreams this weekend. Again with a dream of being at my grandparent's house in northern Michigan, in the basement, but this time, the sunlight was streaming in the windows. I haven't really read enough into it. I dreamed about my aunt, she was disappointed in me. It was just .. random and hard to understand.

I finally set up the church's merchandise store. I worked on the Fabulair merchandise today.

Bram was suggesting he wanted to get a black schnauzer. Uh ...

Chuck and George have a new roomie who's a landscaper; I think that this week, he's going to come out and design me a new front patch. That will be great.

So much to accomplish this week. I'm looking forward to having Wednesday off - I'm just going to sleep.

Just what if ....

Here's a video of the Shanghai Maglev train. It only travels from the airport to downtown. At 431 km/hour. 273 mph.



Just what if ..

Let's just say that the Texas high speed rail project was brought back to life. And, let's say for sake of argument that said rail triangle was constructed - and, to quell the Negative Nancies that bitch about this rail triangle slaughtering inattentive soccer moms in their Suburbans and kids with learner permits at grade crossings - let's just say that it was constructed on elevated tracks.

Notice in the video that it takes the train fewer than three minutes to get up to full speed. The whole trip is 22 miles - about that from downtown Houston to the Woodlands, and lasts about seven minutes.

Imagine for a minute that you got onboard the train in downtown Houston. If you don't live in downtown houston, you took a connector up from Friendswood, or Pearland, or Katy, or Sugar Land. You walked over to the train, and you hopped onboard.

And sat down.

The train pulls out from the station, and you're sitting there with your laptop, or your latte from Fivebucks. While the train picks up speed, you notice that traffic on I-45 north isn't jammed up like it always is .. well, not quite so badly.

And, seven minutes later, the train slows down and stops in the Woodlands. A few people get off, and a few more get on. The train pulls out.

Let's say that this is at 7:30 in the morning, and you have a meeting in Dallas at 9:30. You left the house at 6:30, and took the car from your home in Royal Oaks to the Hillcroft Transit Center, which took you about 20 minutes on the Westpark Tollroad, and about 17 minutes if you took the light rail from Kirkwood to the HTC. The light rail from HTC to the downtown station takes another 15 minutes. Plenty of time to grab a latte from Fivebucks, which has a concession in the terminal.

And, from the Woodlands, we have 211 miles to go to downtown Dallas.

Four minutes up to speed, and you've passed through about 15 miles - 71 minutes later, you're pulling into the Dallas downtown rail station.

The taxi stand is only some 400 steps from the train platform, so you hoof it out to the cab line, and grab a cab to the building on Central in which your meeting is being held. 25 minutes in the cab, and you're walking out on the dot to take your meeting.

After your meeting, you grab a bite, and cab it back to the station for the 2:10 train back home.

At 3:30 you're in downtown Houston. You walk to another platform, get on the rail back to your office in Greenway Plaza, and at 3:45, you're walking into the lobby at 11 Greenway, heading for the elevator.

Compare this to how we do it now.

Southwest, come the end of August, will have 30 flights a day between Houston and Dallas/Love. Everyone's convinced that Houston Hobby is the best airport in the city (except for those who fly a lot) and so, we'll start out leaving the house.

Your meeting is at 9:30, and from Dallas Love to Central and, say, Throckmorton, that's going to take twenty minutes by cab. So, you have to arrive before 9:10. You need to leave a little time on the arrival end to wait for all of the people in front of you who were in boarding group "A" to unload their bags, skis, laptop cases and baby seats and de-plane. So, you need to be in Dallas by 8:55ish.

Scheduled block to block times from Hobby to Love are 55 minutes, so you need to be on the 8:00 a.m. flight.

It's a weekday, so you'll need to be at the airport at least by 7:15 to clear security. You printed your boarding passes online, so you don't have to check in anywhere, just get there and stand on queue with everyone else in the "B" boarding group. This is really cutting it close though, 45 minutes, so you plan on being at Hobby at 7:00 a.m. for the 8:00 a.m. departure.

Now, from Royal Oaks, we're going to assume that the rail is available (apples to apples and all) so you can either take your car (Westpark tollroad to US 59 to I45 south to the airport exits - give it 45 minutes if you're REALLY confident) or take the rail into town (37 minutes) and then out to Hobby on the rail line - another 20.

So, you're leaving your house at 6:00.

This is assuming everything works as it should. If it's thunderstormy - you're late in Dallas. If there's ice - you're late in Dallas. If it's raining and you took the car - you're missing your flight and you're late in Dallas.

But, everything goes as it should. So, you're saving a good thirty minutes on trip time up to Dallas this way. Time at home. Sleeping in.

While you're on the train, you're laptopping it. The ride is as smooth as sitting at your desk. Thundershowers? It provides visual interest through the windows.

Now, let's look at the return. Remember, on the high speed rail, we're back at the office at 3:45.

So, we leave lunch at 1:30. Our meeting mate in Dallas gives us a ride over to Love. We get there at about 1:50, so we can catch the next flight out at .. probably 2:30, giving us a little time to clear security. We push back, wheels up and we're at Hobby at 3:30.

Are you seeing where we're going here?

3:30, you stand up with all the other lemmings, and wait to de-plane. You head out to the light rail, back downtown and it's now 4:10. Change trains, and you're at the office 4:30ish.

You've saved one hour and twenty-five minutes today. The frustration level is also much lower.

What could you do with an extra hour and twenty-five minutes, not to mention being able to work the entire ride up and back, because you don't have to stow your laptop for takeoff/landing?

How many cars would it take off the roads?

What stands in the way? Well, several things. Firstly, Texas is all about private enterprise, and private enterprise is all about getting the money for free from the government. Secondly, unless the real estate developers here can figure out a way to make money on it, it's unlikely to gain much lobbying support.

Then, there's Southwest Airlines, who will definitely lobby against having their Texas Triangle business taken away from them. Why?

Southwest has 30 flights a day each way between Houston and Dallas. That's 8160 seats a day, and they're usually full. Their financial gross from that one city pair operation is approximately $563,000 a DAY. $180,172,800 a year, if you only look at weekdays.

That's money that's worth fighting for.

Think of the major cities separated by a few hundred miles which could be successfully paired with high speed rail.

London car .. how to fight illegal parking?

Who knew Abba could explain Iraq?

I've reached that milestone

I guess it's the final nail in the notion that I'm young and indestructible. The doctor today put me on blood pressure medication.

Not that I'm hypertensive, exactly, just sort of. My BP usually runs about 130/90. My heart rate is also a little high at 85.

Hm.

My letter to NPR

A few days ago, we had a storm related power outage, and my trusty clock radio needed to be reset. I had failed to get all the settings down, and I forgot to reset the morning alarm to KUHF, my local Public Radio station.

The last three mornings, I've been waking up to a shrill, mechanical "beep, beep, beep."

This morning, I awoke and I realized I was in a better mood on arising than I have been in many months.

Of course, I had to reflect on this a moment.

I am now free of listening to endless, pointless "news" about Iraq. That's what has elevated my mood. I no longer have to listen to car bombings, the pointless deaths of our soldiers, the posturing of our administration and the "loyal opposition" who offer no opposition at all to this illegal, senseless, horrific nightmare.

And since I live in a state in which there is no point to calling one of my fright wing Congressmen, I am free of the frustration of being able to do nothing about it at all.

I also realized that I've chosen to ride public transit four days a week, and my afternoons no longer lend themselves to listening to "All Things Considered" as I sit in bumper to bumper traffic.

Ditto with the input restrictions on listening to the same pointless recitation about Iraq.

And my mood is greatly improved.

So, I have now officially given up my mornings with "Morning Edition," and my evening drive times with "All Things Considered." Until it's over.

Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Wasn't I just saying this?

From the thecarlounge.net, which is a great little news source - snarky and fun, and loaded with up to the minute information.

Brian's friend Wes is the author - he's awesome. In fact, I want all of you to go and start reading thecarlounge.net so that he keeps publishing it. I'll wait.

The 1970 booklet from China entitled China Tames Her Rivers is full of eye-poppingly extreme Communist propaganda, but every word of it was meant seriously, including these: "There were early attempts by traitors to hoodwink the people with such decadent Western notions as "put technique first" and "place specialists in charge of engineering." These traitors were swiftly dealt with."

Mao had a deep-seated loathing for engineers and other intellectuals, and so did everything he could to minimise their contribution to Chinese society. In the so-called Great Leap Forward, intellectuals were rounded up and shot, and Mao (who didn't know a thing about metallurgy) ordered farmers to quit farming and instead build small coal smelters on their land, melt down their farming implements and turn them into raw steel. He thought this would act as a springboard for China to have a sudden industrial revolution. What actually happened was a sudden lack of food because nobody was farming, a sudden lack of farm implements because they'd all been melted down, and a sudden glut of utterly useless metal goo that couldn't even remotely be called steel. Vast numbers of people starved to death.

So, culturally, China not only has no history of valuing Western "quality" and design as we know them, but they actually have a strong history of violently devaluing them. They will emerge from this, but it's going to take a very long time. Unfortunately, Western MBAs don't want to wait, and the collateral damage includes mislabeled glycol being sold as glycerin, melamine being stuffed into dog food, and this: The Detroit News is reporting that federal safety officials have ordered over 450,000 tires made by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. recalled because corner-cutting during assembly can lead to complete and catastrophic tread separation. The tires were sold for light trucks under the brand names Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS in a variety of 15 and 16-inch sizes. The recall affects all tires sold because the manufacturer "failed to provide information that would allow [the US distributor] to determine exactly how many tires, and which batches, have the problem."

Here's the news article from the Detroit News. The website (thecarlounge.net, remember?) has a cool picture of what this tread/corner separation looks like.

Monday, Monday .. donde esta la autobus?

Took the bus this morning. Apparently, white people don't ride the bus when it's raining. Personally, not having to get all jacked up about people doing stupid stuff when the road's wet is just dandy with me. I only waited outside for about four minutes before said bus rolled up, and so I'm just damp.

And, I'm just all read up and out. In a moment, I'm going to close most of the web browsers that I use all day long and focus on the tasks that I have on my pop-up task list.

After I pay some bills.

If you're wondering how we know that someone else is gay, read this.

Okay, so blah blah blah blah .. I hate sunty behavior. That's French, with the cedilla. Enough on that subject.

Bram was chasing asian boys until about 0500, and when he got up and out, it was nearly 11:00. He was freaked out to find my car in the garage. "Did you take the bus?"

Yepper.

So, things are happening here. Five new loan applications today alone, it seems.

More on the "to do" list.

What's up with all you that have blogs

and write in them about once every twenty days? Or every year?

If you started a blog and you aren't interested in maintaining it, just close the damned thing down. Find that link that says "delete this blog" and nuke the thing.

That will prevent me from having to go, hopefully, to see whether MAYBE you wrote in your blog.

Just uninstalled a whole bunch of software on the laptop that were duplicates, useless or cheesy - the lappy is now very zippy as compared to before. That's awesome!

Here's a great blog post on the state of the "liberal" media and people's general unconsciousness about what the government is up to:

Qui Tacet Consentit Hotlist
by Devilstower
Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 04:52:46 PM CDT

The Sunday paper arrived by my mailbox carrying its usual heft of ads, sports, and television schedules. Above the headlines on the front page was the story of a man who killed his wife and kids, and was foolish enough to not only do so on the basis of the plot from a popular TV crime show that aired the previous week, but to base his murder scheme on a plotline in which the murderer was caught. The rest of the front page was taken up with a story of religion in baseball, the difficulties of a local museum, and a study on mass transit. Nothing too unusual.

In the meantime, we have a Vice-President who has declared his independence from law and regulation, and a President who, far from reigning in in this ridiculous Constitutional overreach, has decided to play me too, even in reference to regulations that explicitly address the office of the president and vice president.

Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should."

In the ultimate evolution of Nixonian dogma, they are quite blatantly asserting that the rule of law may be ignored, and that the president and vice-president obey only at their own discretion.

Did you know that members of the St. Louis Cardinals often stay after the game to talk to fans about faith? Or that Paris has agreed to have an interview with Larry King? Or that Conservapedia states that the Pleistocene is a "theoretical" period of time? All those stories made the "A" section of my Sunday paper.

There have been some voices raised that the we are nearing a constitutional crisis. That's not true. We are in a constitutional crisis. And to lose this fight, we don't have to land in jail. We don't have to see troops on the street or get a midnight knock on the door.

People are still speculating over the meaning of the Soprano's finale. A rare monkey was born at the Tokyo Zoo. Colin Powell is coming to town to give a motivational speech.

We have only to worry about the events of everyday life. We have only to flip on the tube. We have only to be silent. Qui Tacet Consentit -- silence implies consent.

Toward the page of section A, there's a story on more soldiers losing their lives in Iraq. That's sad, but look there's a bit on how Peru has lowered the age of consent to 14, and a human interest piece on the struggles of Muslim detective in France.

Every paper that is not running this story on the front page, every day, is providing a blessing to the administration's actions. Every television station that wastes a minute on celebrity gossip, is complicit in the destruction of democracy. And every one of us not actively protesting these actions is passively supporting them.

There's a review of the newest model from Saturn in the auto section, the business section mentions that gas is below $3 nationally, and just look at those ads! Some department stores are already discounting summer merchandise

Meteor Blades has already given you a terrific insider's history of the protest movement during the Vietnam era, and told you about Iraq Moratorium Day, the series of protests that are planned to start in September. I plan to participate, and I hope you will, as well.

There's a long section in News Watch about how we may have no choices but New Yorkers in the election. The Midwesterners interviewed for the story don't seem too thrilled about it. And hey, the city museum had a two-headed hermaphroditic albino snake. How cool is that? Oh, but it died.

But don't wait for September. If you already belong to a local group, keep participating, if you don't, then join. And even if you're not out involved in a formal protest, conduct a constant, personal protest. It can be at your school, at your church, or at the copy machine, but whenever opportunity allows, make it clear that you do not consent. Make it clear that this is not okay with you. It's not ordinary. It's not something that "all politicians do." It's not business as usual. Do not be silent.

Where's that movie schedule? I think we could still catch a flick this afternoon.

This is something that's been bothering me lately

"Today's oral hygiene tip: Don’t brush your teeth---you never know what you're puttin' in there. The Colgate-Palmolive company is warning consumers about counterfeit Colgate toothpaste that may contain a toxin commonly found in antifreeze. On the bright side, you can make all your dental appointments at Jiffy Lube."
---Stephen Colbert

So, we know that Chinese manufactured protein stock was used in dog food, cattle food, and human food - and that this protein stock was contaminated with melamine to increase the protein values. Melamine is toxic to mammals ..

We also see that one of the most popular cars in Europe, one which my friend Brian tells me is the best that the Chinese auto industry has to offer, crumples up like a cheap tissue when run through a standard barrier crash test. Actually, it crumples up worse than a Pontiac Montana mini-van, which is pretty amazing..



Here's my concern - we're allowing nearly unrestricted Chinese imports. More importantly, Chinese and third-world manufactured components are entering into our supply chain, wholly uninspected and unregulated, and are being used by domestic manufacturers in products that we have been conditioned to trust over decades. These products can now turn out to be toxic, without our having any prior choice over our purchase decision - we won't KNOW who's using uninspected and unregulated Chinese feedstock in the supply chain.

What other toxic or dangerous products have we now allowed into our stream of commerce, replacing or comprising safe and healthy products we have long come to expect were monitored and secured by our own Government?

The cost of globalization seems to be to bring down the regulated standard, bring down the wage base, bring down the health and safety, and bring down the quality of life to the lowest common denominator dictated upon us by countries such as China which are wholly unregulated.

Monday, Monday ver 892.01

Why do I bother? That was Brian's question just now.

Because I'm a fracking idiot, I guess - that's the only decent answer.

I'm down to just seven pieces of paper on my desk; I need to go swap out a light bulb at Lowe's, pick up my prescriptions and go home. And maybe drink a bunch of vodka.

A dressed up and no where to go

So, I did my usual Saturday thing yesterday; laundry, cleaned up some, did this and that. My phone's been acting up again, and it seems that I have a bunch of voice mail messages, but the silly thing hasn't rung, nor has it got any calls in the call log from about half of these voice mails.

Today, I did the church thing again; I was RED hot on the podium. Afterward, a few of us hung out and we hung up some artwork, the mirrors in the bathrooms, two whiteboards, and cleaned out several cabinets and moved some book cases. It felt good; more needs to be done.

I still can't find my tuxedo pumps. I'm thinking of going up into the attic and seeing if they somehow got lumped into some of the christmas boxes or something. I only have another day or so to find them. Assuming.

The formal dinner thing is Friday night; I don't really have a tux, and I don't have a date, since Tom won't wear a tux and doesn't want to go and I can't think of anyone else to ask (that would say yes.) Bleh. I'll get talked into going and who the heck knows what's going to happen.

I also have a thing on Thursday night, Tuesday night, and .. YAGH!

I will survive. It's pride next weekend, and I think I'm going to retreat into my space since it's my usual Sunday off. I think.

People think I'm a Democrat.

It's really kind of an insult. People still think that Democrats are "liberal," and that calling me a Democrat is akin to calling me a liberal.

Balderdash.

Pat Oliphant today characterized so nicely how I feel about Demos and Repugs. Thanks, Pat!

If you're going to slag me for not being a Kool-Aid drinking neocon, call me a "liberal," at least. Don't call me a Democrat. Puh-leeze.

Interestinger and interestinger

So, today, I was the sole member of a quality control "panel" for the clinic. The only invited person who attended. I told the social worker conducting the "panel" of my consistent experiences, and by the time I was done, she was without words. I mean, I've been speechless before, but this was something to see. No one in the room had anything at all to say for about 15 seconds.

We'll see if this accomplishes anything; it was good to learn that the idiot who had screwed my prescription refills over the last year and a half had been "replaced." I hope that whatever he's doing, no one's health care is associated with it. He'd be someone good to .. oh, I don't know, lay around the house and bitch about how awfully he's been treated while someone else takes care of the expenses, the cleaning, the cooking, the laundry, and .. well, everything else.

Today while working on loans - four of 'em, actually, it totally interfered with my planned work for the day - I had an email from Wayne (who's the Prince of Sweetness) that had a link to a YouTube video in it. The video was amazing. I had chills all over my upper body throughout the entire video, and then had tears in my eyes for 20 minutes.

So, tonight, we're going to have a little lesson. Yep. This lesson is two-fold; it's about culture, and it's about passion.

First, a little walk into movie past - the show is "Pretty Woman," and the scene is where Richard Gere puts Julia into an incredible dress, and into about a quarter million dollars worth of jewelry and flies her on a private jet to San Francisco to see a production of "La Traviata." She's never been to an opera before. She asks what to expect, and he says, basically, you're going to either love it or hate it.

And she's captivated.

Opera is like that for me, when it's .. well, captivating. I've been to gorgeous opera productions - millions upon millions of dollars spent on set, costume, lighting, and the musical execution is flawless - and it has all of the emotion of putting your white clothing into the laundry and heaving in some soap.

I've also been to opera that cost about sixteen dollars to produce, where the singers were musically talented but they conveyed the meaning of the piece through their emotional involvement. And, there's nothing like it.

So, here we're going to review a few short clips of the same piece of music performed by a few different professional, well known opera stars .. just to get a sense of what we're doing.

The show is "Turandot," by Puccini. The piece is the Nessun Dorma, one of the most famous tenor pieces in all of the world of opera. I'm going to copy out the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article for you, because it references the guy who is the point of all of this piece tonight.

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, based on the play Turandot by Carlo Gozzi. It was left unfinished by Puccini at his death, and completed by Franco Alfano. The first performance, at the Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, on 25 April 1926, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, included only Puccini's music and not Alfano's additions. Later performances were of the completed score. In June of 2007, Paul Potts, a performer on the British television show "Britain's Got Talent" sung an abridged version of Nessun Dorma, a piece of the opera often performed by such renowned tenors as Pavarotti and Domingo. The Youtube video of his performance, posted on June 10, 2007, had 1,014,418 hits by June 13. As acclaim of the performance has spread over the internet, millions of viewers who had never pursued or observed classical Italian opera have been introduced to the art by this performance.

So, first let's look at the most well known of tenors, Pavarotti. Make sure you watch the whole thing - the words are subtitled for you:



Pretty impressive, huh? Musically, he's awesome.

No chills for me, though. No tears. No response. (yawn..) Did I park my car on the fourth floor of the garage? Hmmm.

Now, we're going to watch someone who kicks things up a notch. Not as flawless in his apparent musicality, but still very good. Phrasing is awesome.



Here's the thing - this guy's singing gives me chills BEFORE he emits a single tone. Watch his face - he's THINKING about what he's saying with the lyric. Chills, chills, chills. Wow. This is great stuff. In Ankara, Turkey? Did we know that they have an opera house? Can you hear the people EXPLODE into applause and cheers? They don't give this kind of a reception for the other performers, it's more politeness and an acknowledgement for their reputation and accomplishments.

Bottom line, now - this guy who sang on the UK television show "Britain's Got Talent." He's a mobile phone salesman in South Wales. It's his dream to be an opera singer. I don't know that he's formally trained, but from his pitch control, I'd have to say that he's not.

It was pointed out to me today that Paul has a partially cleft palate. So, no background for this stuff, physical impairment, and what does he have? One shot on a cheesy TV show with Simon (legree) as the Head Bastard in Chief.

Watch this:



I've watched this clip now five times today. Every single time, I've had chills all up and down the ENTIRE time he sang. The first time, I had tears in my eyes for twenty minutes. I just watched it for the sixth time today as I was posting the embedded link, and I have tears running down my face.

This is what passion is. This is what commitment is. This is what faith is. This is how some people succeed beyond all obstacles.

Find it in yourself.

New York Times Editorial: Bork v. Bork

New York Times Editorial: Bork v. Bork

June 14, 2007

Editorial
Bork v. Bork

There are many versions of the cliché that "a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged," and Robert Bork has just given rise to another. A tort plaintiff, it turns out, is a critic of tort lawsuits who has slipped and fallen at the Yale Club.

Mr. Bork, of course, is the former federal appeals court judge who was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987 but not confirmed by the Senate. He has long been famous for his lack of sympathy for people who go to court with claims of race or sex discrimination, or other injustices. He has gotten particularly exercised about accident victims driving up the cost of business by filing lawsuits. In an op-ed article, he once complained that "juries dispense lottery-like windfalls," and compared the civil justice system to "Barbary pirates."

That was before Mr. Bork spoke at the Yale Club last year, and fell on his way to the dais, injuring his leg and bumping his head. Mr. Bork is not merely suing the club for failing to provide a set of stairs and a handrail between the floor and the dais. He has filed a suit that is so aggressive about the law that, if he had not filed it himself, we suspect he might regard it as, well, piratical.

Mr. Bork puts the actual damages for his apparently non-life-threatening injuries (after his fall, he was reportedly able to go on and deliver his speech) at "in excess of $1,000,000." He is also claiming punitive damages. And he is demanding that the Yale Club pay his attorney's fees.

We can imagine what Mr. Bork the legal scholar would ask if he had a chance to question Mr. Bork the plaintiff. If it was "reasonably foreseeable" that without stairs and a handrail, "a guest such as Mr. Bork" would be injured, why did Mr. Bork try to climb up to the dais? Where does personal responsibility enter in? And wouldn't $1 million-plus punitive damages amount to a "lottery-like windfall"?

Since we believe in the tort system, when properly used, all we would ask is whether Mr. Bork's unfortunate experience at the Yale Club has led him to re-evaluate any of the harsh things he has said in the past about injured people, much like himself, who simply wanted their day in court.

“We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us” –Pogo (Walt Kelly)

So, this morning, I was exchanging emails with a young man who was telling me he couldn't talk to me outside of work, because he has a young daughter at home, and she would figure out that he's gay if he spoke to a gay man on the phone.

I've long understood that terrified homosexuals are the bane of gay rights, and in fact are frequently in the vanguard of those campaigning against gay rights and gay existence, but last night's lesson in this truth that it is we who fight ourselves was quite startling.

My sister, who lives a life of extreme privilege compared to the large body of US citizens, is unwilling to give up her employer paid benefit package in support of universal single payer health care.

My sister has never been without health care. She's never been without paid vacations, employer paid retirement, and a benefits package that provides her with disability insurance, life insurance and long term care benefits. She travels considerably for work and so pays nothing for recreational travel, as she keeps her frequent flier benefits.

Our conversation last night could not have been more polarizing. Her opinion, and apparently that of most of her associates, is that they should keep their titanium plated benefits while everyone who isn't covered now gets some kind of Medicare/Medicaid plan.

This completely overlooks several of my primary points, especially that of personal bankruptcy and debt defaults (improves credit worthiness generally, and improves bank's risk exposure,) small business and entrepreneurial flexibility and growth (more jobs, increased economic activity, and economic expansion,) taking the huge load off of globally competing large corporations (Business Week wrote last week that Chrysler was a health care company with some car issues,) and significantly ignores the 14th Amendment to the United States constitution. Meaning that, if the government gets into supplying health care, then exemptions or variations from that which the government is providing violates equal treatment mandated by the 14th amendment.

And she just doesn't care. She is unwilling to even entertain a program that would bring everyone's health care up to these standards. She went on about how no one would vote for such a package, because it's too much like socialism. The 14th Amendment/Equal Protection argument is lost on her, even though it was the first thing my room mate (who has such platinum plated health and other benefits through his employment, but was completely in agreement that everything should be pitched into a common hopper for the benefit of all.) She wasn't willing to discuss at all that her notion fragments the risk pool, making the cost unsupportable for the government covered population.

No, no, no, no, no. It can't be done, you won't take anything from me, nothing's going to change anyway.

It's like she read my thoughts and gave them no consideration - only the statement that everyone have health care together, and "bang!" She shot that one dead between the eyes.

Okay, I'm from Texas - I have to use such metaphor. But, you have to understand - my sister isn't just liberal in her politics and thinking - she's what today would be considered a wide-eyed fanatic left wing nut job. It's a family trait - that isn't a criticism of her political views, because she and I share most of those.

It's only that if this is what resistance the idea is going to get from those who are in the left, how is anything going to be accomplished?

I still stand on my assertion that if big business (I guess that should be Big Business) and the Chambers of Commerce get behind the economic forecasting, increased economic resources and activity, and behind the idea of universal, single payer health insurance, it will happen. We just have to look out for those whom we thought would be standing with us stabbing our backs as we try to walk forward.

Declining balances

Oh, what fun .. it is to ride .. the sleigh of human behavior.

So, today, a call from a realtor with whom I've had great chemistry and bad fortune.

"Did you get my invitation to the show? Blah, blah, our friend should have been in it, blah, blah, it's going to be really cute, blah, blah. Oh, let me bring you up to date on that former client (you gave me.) He's working toward another closing, and it seems that the client himself is the cause of these delays. (blah, blah) Oh, he needs copies of his tax returns, can you please fax them to his new loan officer?"


1. I'm not that easily fooled.
2. Seems that they're trying to get him 100% financing, still, but they need his tax returns. Which won't support a loan at all.
3. Interest rate is what we quoted him three months ago, not the lower number that he was originally promised
4. Appraisal was JUST ordered because the client wouldn't cut loose with the appraisal check
5. LO was stymied trying to get him to release his bank statements
6. They can't prove his self-employment for two years, and I won't sign a tax preparer letter.

Hah. Hah. Hah.

Never once does the realtor say "I'm sorry I ever believed that you weren't doing the best job you could do and that the problem lay somewhere else."

I called him back about ten minutes later to point out that the client couldn't possibly do a full doc loan unless he was no looking at a $60,000 property. Maybe.

Bram came home last night, and, as expected, advised that he'll be gone within days. I am committed to making his bedroom into a curio case. My conversation with C-man this morning on the subject:

back to ATL and hope for the best. I expect he'll be gone in a few days.
[12:49] C-man: ugh
[12:49] C-man: well... best of luck with that - sorry to hear it
[12:49] drdivo: I'm quite serious about turning his bedroom into a curio case
[12:50] C-man: lol... for your glass menagerie?
[12:50] drdivo: all the stupid shit I've bought on eBay and cannot sell now
[12:51] C-man: lol
[12:51] C-man: ahh - a shrine to meg Whitman!
[12:51] drdivo: pretty much. And late night lonliness with a credit card

This selling experience on eBay has been horrible. Of the six things that did sell, three were sold out of country, and the buyers in each case have been pendantic and arrogant about how much postage I should be able to charge. Of course, it's not that you're supposed to just recoup your POSTAGE, but also whatever shipping and handling costs there are. The two Canadians have both already PAID what they thought was "fair," based on the eBay shipping rate calculator, which isn't taking into account the fuel surcharge fees.

So, I was screwed. Well, a different word, actually, but screwed will have to suffice here.

Thusly, I have a batch of crap purchased on eBay over the last ten years that will gather dust until I either wise up and pitch it all in the trash, or until they haul my moldy carcass out of my house, and then pitch it all into the trash. And, it needs a home. And I need a use for Bram's room that doesn't involve inviting yet another non-paying, useless man into my home.

Speaking of useless men, two notes: The Abilene boy was to have come over last night (his request) and he was again a no-show. The client who has a long history of wanting proposals, business project documents, help with understanding his taxes and whatever and can't pay a nickel, ever, has been making noise about getting together to finally cough up some home remodeling supplies he has that he was going to use to liquidate his bill. He invited me to come to his house on Sunday, and then blew me off by text message AFTER the meeting time. Yesterday, it was "sorry, but I'm available the next two days." Yesterday, I told him that I was unwilling to make further plans with him because he doesn't keep them. He wrote me back today and said "well, now you missed me for tonight.."

I wrote back:

I'm still in the same place I was before - you make plans over the last eight months, and you don't keep them. Or you make some enticement to have plans ("let's get together") but there is no specificity, and then you hit me back for not meeting up with you when there were no plans to begin with.

And I still decline. I'm unwilling to make one more appointment that isn't kept, or talk about some deal or project that I'm not going to be compensated for in any way. Sorry.

I'm sure I'll hear something about that.

While on the subject of useless, today I went to Legacy Health (where I've been a patient for almost five years, nee the Montrose Clinic. http://...com/2gq6fh if you want to check them out.) For the ninety-eleventh time, the 82 pound twink at the desk flounces over and asks why I'm there. "Why are you here today?" No, I'm serious. "I have an appointment." "Why, though? What do you need?"

"Lab work." "Well, I see that your appointment is for fasting labs, but that's all it says."

Uh, doesn't that mean that you KNEW why I was there?

"What labs do you need?" "How am I supposed to know that?"

(much flipping through SUBSTANTIAL chart - after all, I've been going there for nearly five years for the identical issue.)

"Well, I don't want to charge you the wrong amount and order the wrong tests, so I'm going to have to go back into the back to find out what you're supposed to be getting."

Now, why would it bother them that they charged me for labs or tests I didn't need, or didn't order labs and tests that I did need? It would be a first time, as they've historically done it wrongly in the past without an apology or a credit back.

"It's not my job to know what your job is supposed to be. When you figure it out, you can call me. I'm going back to work."

Health issues are stressful enough, and they're exacerbated by stress. Many times when I've gone in for an appointment, I have high blood pressure at the exam because of the rudeness, indifference and incompetence that I've suffered at the front desk.

Today, I was thinking about this issue of health care in the US. I was wondering, has Canada had any sort of significant economic reversal since they adopted British Columbia's health care system nationwide some twenty years ago?

From an economic standpoint, having health care in this country wouldn't be so hard to accomplish, and would be a strong economic benefit in the following ways:

1. People who were confident about their health and the support they'd have in health issues are more productive
2. Systems that seek to engage in preventative medicine have fewer people who miss work due to appointments, procedures, and recovery time - so more productivity and fewer missed days

3. Systems that engage in single payer but private provider arrangements provide stimulus for efficient, comforting and accurate care delivery

4. Systems that engage in single payer arrangement can negotiate enormous discounts, and set fair values for procedures as is currently done by HMOs and Medicare.

5. Systems that provide for the care of everyone would resolve the emergency room meltdown; everyone could just go to a clinic or doctor that was convenient for them.

6. Systems that focus on preventative and critical care leave open the high-profit elective, cosmetic and vanity medical services that our high paid doctors gravitate toward.

7. Taking out employer paid benefits (for that lucky portion of the population who are employed where such benefits are paid) dramatically increases the profitability and competitiveness of US firms in a global marketplace.

8. Making health insurance uniform and predictable creates a situation where EVERY employer's positions are competitive based on environment and opportunity, not based on health coverage. This makes smaller, non Fortune 500 employers far more competitive, and increases their opportunity.

9. Making health care generally available through a single-payer system also provides for uniformity of access to health care; people in smaller cities or rural areas would not be impeded from high quality care when there is no "give 'em a pain killer and shove 'em out of here before it costs us something" mentality.

10. Otherwise highly productive employees who are older, or have health issues could gain access to full employment, because their prospective employers wouldn't shun them to avoid increased risk/health care costs. This again increases the wage base, increases productivity, and provides more general economic stimulus.

11. On the job injuries cease being the responsibility of the employer (where such rules are actually enforced.)

12. Immigrants to this country have to "buy in," essentially pay in an actuarially calculated amount of money to gain access to the health care system, or pay privately.

13. Instant financial relief for the myriad industries in this country who are burdened by health care costs for their current and retired workers. Instant global competitiveness for those firms.

14. Bankruptcies and financial defaults would plummet; more than half of all consumer bankruptcies are brought about by health care costs related to a catastrophic health event.



Accomplishing this isn't rocket science, either.

The British Columbia model, which I've only superficially studied, works like this:

a. Everyone who is in BC has a health care card/registration.
b. Everyone in BC pays a tax into the health care pool. EVERYONE. The unemployed pay in. The employed pay in.
c. Since the BC system is non-profit, the rates are established by the actuarial and actual prior year costs based on the number of enrollees. No reserves are necessary for losses, or for underwriting issues.
d. Everyone has equal health care, with an emphasis on non-invasive and preventative health care.
e. The Federal government in Ottawa contributes some Federal revenue into the provincial health care system.

Many elements of this system are already very familiar to anyone who is acquainted with Medicare/Medicaid.

So, we just expand Medicare/Medicaid to include EVERYONE. It's administered on a state by state basis with uniform standards imposed by the Federal program. EVERYONE pays a tax in. The tax collected is a pittance as compared to the health premiums now paid by employers or individuals, but covers the actual risk/costs of health care delivery. Local governments contribute a PORTION of their charity health care tax revenues now allocated to emergency room and clinic care delivery. "Poof!" No more ER crisis. No more county red-ink.

No cosmetic or vanity procedures are covered.

Massive discounts on drugs are negotiated by the system. Drug costs plummet.

The amount of money spent on health care in this country falls. Productivity goes up disproportionately, as more people are able to work more fully, or become hireable.

The following subjects fall away from the collective consciousness entirely:

* Immigrants stealing health care
* Counties and cities overburdened with indigent health care costs
* HMOs denying health care to someone who needs it
* Fraud committed against insurance carriers or Medicare on schemes like motorized wheelchairs or unnecessary back surgeries
* People dying of undiagnosed disease for inability to pay for health care
* People in one state or city having access to wonderful health care, while people in another state languish with old methods and inadequate facilities.
* Unreasonably high rates of birth defects, infant deaths, and preventable deaths will go away

Of course, anyone can object and suggest that there will be flaws. There will be flaws with any system. However, I think that either or any of the Democratic candidates for the Congress or the Presidency could do well to promote an economic model that will show the benefits to the economy and to big, medium and small business will overcome the powerfully funded objections sure to be mounted by the AMA, the drug companies, and the retail medical establishment.

If every major business community save and except those directly affected by the bloated, greed motivated health care "system" we currently have were in favor of a single-payer health system in the US, it would get done. Period.

Leading Conservative Activist Seeks Punitive Damages

Judge Robert Bork, one of the fathers of the modern judicial conservative movement whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate, is seeking $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, after he slipped and fell at the Yale Club of New York City. Judge Bork was scheduled to give a speech at the club, but he fell when mounting the dais, and injured his head and left leg. He alleges that the Yale Club is liable for the $1m plus punitive damages because they "wantonly, willfully, and recklessly" failed to provide staging which he could climb safely.

Judge Bork has been a leading advocate of restricting plaintiffs' ability to recover through tort law. In a 2002 article published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy--the official journal of the Federalist Society--Bork argued that frivolous claims and excessive punitive damage awards have caused the Constitution to evolve into a document which would allow Congress to enact tort reforms that would have been unconstitutional at the framing:

State tort law today is different in kind from the state tort law known to the generation of the Framers. The present tort system poses dangers to interstate commerce not unlike those faced under the Articles of Confederation. Even if Congress would not, in 1789, have had the power to displace state tort law, the nature of the problem has changed so dramatically as to bring the problem within the scope of the power granted to Congress. Accordingly, proposals, such as placing limits or caps on punitive damages, or eliminating joint or strict liability, which may once have been clearly understood as beyond Congress's power, may now be constitutionally appropriate.

Ted Frank, another leading proponent of tort reform, questions the merits of Judge Bork's claims:

I sympathize with Judge Bork's serious injuries, but it's beyond me what his lawyers are thinking in asking for punitive damages. And if any danger is open and obvious such that there is an assumption of the risk, surely the absence of stairs to reach a lectern on a dais is—especially if the dais is of the "unreasonable" height that the complaint alleges it to be.

ACSBlog wishes Judge Bork a swift recovery from his injuries.

Investments gone bad ..

When one starts off a good blog, and inserts imagery, quotes, lots of fun stuff to spice things up, and then we find that it's gone for good because the blogsite on which I was posting (I cross post in three places normally) has crap base code, and flakes out on about 10% of the software commands...

One feels like saying "screw it, no one really needed to hear this shyte anyway."

So, that's where I am with it right now.

Fun with N&N

Raced home yesterday, cleaned this, that, the other, ran all the eBay stuff back upstairs, decided that the downstairs vacuum cleaner was awful, used the broom on the stairs, and while all of this was going on, the cable came back on.

What a deal!

So, the front room is looking better, the back room is looking good - tonight and this weekend, I'm shampooing the stairs, scrubbing the floors downstairs (hands and knees, it's a family thing,) and doing the usual - laundry, etc. I have a bunch of wires, extension cords and cables to prettify, which will take a little time tomorrow, especially since the stereo rack needs to come away from the wall, and something positive needs done with the rat's nest back there. If only T were available to help me, NO ONE is better at cleaning up cable runs than is T. Have to hook up the TV in Bram's room and my room to the cable lines. And, after all of this, I think I'm actually done moving in.

I am wondering what's involved in digging out a Wandering Jew....

Had a great time hanging out with Nicole and Nancy last night, we just had a blast sitting around and yammering about stuff and catching up.

After weeks of trying to find someone to come do it, asking friends to come help me figure out how to plant it, avoiding going out there because as a teenager I HATED being sent out to weed and/or mow, but yesterday I walked out with Jackie and the hateful next door neighbor was walking her daughter's dog, was scowling in the direction of my front door again, and pulled some weeds, turned and THREW THEM ON MY WALK. Lovely Christian woman that she is. Now, after only an hour's effort (I think, it felt like two) and a trash bag full of .. vegetable matter, the front patch is .. cleaned up somewhat.







John and Matticia have both told me that the Wandering Jew needs to come out of there else it take over. Well, fie and fiddlesticks. Maybe it can be put into a pot and take over from a Mount or something. Bring down some clay tablets.

I'm never going out to win the neighborhood association's yard of the month award, but I would like it to look tidier and pleasant. Carla, where are you with your design skills?

I need to do some running around today. Two of my best lady friends are coming over tonight for wine and crackers, and I have to get home early enough to clean the floors and take the eBay stuff (most of which isn't selling at ALL, that's quite the annoyance after investing all that time into it) upstairs.

A Heart Attack


An elderly man suffered a massive heart attack and his family drove
wildly to get him to the emergency room.

After what seemed like a very long wait, the E.R.
Doctor appeared, wearing his scrubs and a long face.

Sadly, he said, "I'm afraid he is brain-dead, but his heart is still
beating."

"Oh, dear God," cried his wife, her hands clasped against her cheeks
with shock! "We've never had a Republican in the family!"

The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom
by Greg Palast

This Monica revealed something hotter — much hotter — than a stained blue dress. In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One….And the Committee members didn’t even know it.

Goodling testified that Gonzales’ Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin’s “involvement in ‘caging’ voters” in 2004.

Huh?? Tim Griffin? “Caging”???

The perplexed committee members hadn’t a clue — and asked no substantive questions about it thereafter. Karl Rove is still smiling. If the members had gotten the clue, and asked the right questions, they would have found “the keys to the kingdom,” they thought they were looking for. They dangled right in front of their perplexed faces.

The keys: the missing emails — and missing link — that could send Griffin and his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.

Kingdom enough for ya?

But what’s ‘caging’ and why is it such a dreadful secret that lawyer Sampson put his license to practice and his freedom on the line to cover Tim Griffin’s involvement in it? Because it’s a felony. And a big one.

Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet - except the USA - only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.

Here’s how caging worked, and along with Griffin’s thoughtful emails themselves you’ll understand it all in no time.

The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked “Do not forward” to voters’ homes. Letters returned (”caged”) were used as evidence to block these voters’ right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and — you got to love this — American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.

Why weren’t these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation — and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission Accomplished.

How do I know? I have the caging lists…

I have them because they are attached to the emails Rove insists can’t be found. I have the emails. 500 of them — sent to our team at BBC after the Rove-bots accidentally sent them to a web domain owned by our friend John Wooden.

Here’s what you need to know — and the Committee would have discovered, if only they’d asked:

1. ‘Caging’ voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.

2. Griffin wasn’t “involved” in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin, Rove’s right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge campaign. How do I know? It’s in the email I got. Thanks. And it’s posted below.

3. On December 7, 2006, the ragin’, cagin’ Griffin was named, on Rove’s personal demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became prosecutor.

The committee was perplexed about Monica’s panicked admission and accusations about the caging list because the US press never covered it. That’s because, as Griffin wrote to Goodling in yet another email (dated February 6 of this year, and also posted below), their caging operation only made the news on BBC London: busted open, Griffin bitched, by that “British reporter,” Greg Palast.

There’s no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet — except the USA — only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.

And now, not bothering to understand the astonishing revelation in Goodling’s confessional, they are missing the real story behind the firing of the US attorneys. It’s not about removing prosecutors disloyal to Bush, it’s about replacing those who refused to aid the theft of the vote in 2004 with those prepared to burgle it again in 2008.

Now that they have the keys, let’s see if they can put them in the right door. The clock is ticking ladies and gents…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US Attorney Resigns Following Conyers’ Request for BBC Documents
by Greg Palast
June 1, 2007

Tim Griffin, formerly right hand man to Karl Rove, resigned Thursday as US Attorney for Arkansas hours after BBC Television ‘Newsnight’ reported that Congressman John Conyers requested the network’s evidence on Griffin’s involvement in ‘caging voters.’ Greg Palast, reporting for BBC Newsnight, obtained a series of confidential emails from the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. In these emails, Griffin, then the GOP Deputy Communications Director, transmitted so-called ‘caging lists’ of voters to state party leaders.

Experts have concluded the caging lists were designed for a mass challenge of voters’ right to cast ballots. The caging lists were heavily weighted with minority voters including homeless individuals, students and soldiers sent overseas.

Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of US Attorneys, met Thursday evening in New York with Palast. After reviewing key documents, Conyers stated that, despite Griffin’s resignation, “We’re not through with him by any means.”

Conyers indicated to the BBC that he thought it unlikely that Griffin could carry out this massive ‘caging’ operation without the knowledge of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rove.

Griffin has not responded to requests by BBC to explain this 'caging' operation. However, in emails subpoenaed by Conyers' committee, Griffin complains to Monica Goodling, an assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, about the BBC reporter's reproduction of caging lists in Palast's book, "Armed Madhouse."

In the email dated February 5 of this year, Griffin stated that the purpose of 'caging' was to identify "fraudulent" voters. This contradicts one explanation of the Bush campaign to BBC that the lists were of potential donors and not in any way created to challenge voters.

Griffin confidentially wrote: "The real story is this: There were thousands of reported illegal/fake voter registrations around the country, so some of the Republican State Parties mailed letters welcoming new voters to the newly registered voters. … The Republican State Parties ultimately wanted to show that thousands of fraudulent registrations had been completed."

Last Wednesday, Goodling testified under a grant of immunity before the House Judiciary Committee that Gonzales' Deputy Paul McNulty, "failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of allegations that Tim Griffin had been involved in vote 'caging' during his work on the President's 2004 campaign."

Goodling's testimony prompted Conyers' request to the BBC for the Griffin emails.

Last night Palast showed Conyers a Griffin email from August 2004 indicating that Griffin not only knew of 'caging,' but directed the operation.



And check out this story from Slate: Raging Caging - What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care? Here: http://www.slate.com/id/2167284/pagenum/all/#page_start

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, ARMED MADHOUSE: From Baghdad to New Orleans -- Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild. For information, go to www.GregPalast.com

This is an awesome airplane take-off video!

This was the first 747 passenger flight from Bournemouth Airport, UK, destination New York. Bournemouth has a short runway so this was an incredibly dramatic take off for the 747. Listen for a guy in the background saying "its not gunna make it!" and "Jesus christ!"

I think I figured it out -

This morning, while searching for articles on a "24" actor, James Badge Dale, I happened across some articles about Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert, the former gay prostitute/uncredentialed journalist who entered the White House more than 200 times, had public record issues that would have normally prevented him entry, and whose exit was undocumented and unexplained many times.

Basically:

Gannon - gay prostitute (and a hot one, I must add)
White House entry passes which did an end run around security and procedure
White House press corps day passes under a false name, and which no one else could get
Entries into the White House during evenings that the President was not in residence

So, what big fag in the White House that had that much authority and that much support of Geo. W could have waived in a smoking hot prostie and given him (the prostie) a quid pro quo of the press access in exchange for asking the president prepared questions?

(edited) I have my ideas...

If you want some fun, go read ol' Jeff's "political" blog which has no information, just re-hash of Ann Coulter, Rush and other members of the screaming hit parade whose mission it is to sanctify and protect white, heterosexual, Protestant, entitled males. You can find that at http://www.jeffgannon.com

I threw up in my mouth a little when I read the first few articles. At least he's hot looking; little else is offered in the way of substance.

Fun article about Bram's favorite subject ..

Bram's favorite subject is, by the way, HURRICANES. He's all about the hurricane plan. We sort of have one. It's fungible. It's developing. I want wireless weatherproof webcams on the outside so we can see (and broadcast, of course) the incoming weather when the windows are all boarded up.

This guy is writing about the Atlantic hurricane season, which started yesterday.

As if to announce today's June 1 date, Tropical Storm Barry just formed--unexpectedly--in the Gulf, and may now be intensifying over the infamous warm Loop Current. Neither Jeff Masters nor the official forecasters think Barry is going to become a hurricane before reaching Florida, however. The National Hurricane Center puts the storm's intensity at 40 knots, though Masters thinks it's stronger than that.

Masters also makes this interesting observation:

The hurricane season of 2007 is in second place for the earliest year that the second named storm occurred. The record is held by 1887, when the second named storm formed on May 17. Third place is held by 1934, when the second storm of the year formed on June 4. The second storm of 1934 was also the worst June hurricane on record. It hit Central America as a Category 1 hurricane, dropping up to 25 inches of rain on Honduras, triggering landslides that killed 3,000 people.

There is no relationship between high activity early in hurricane season and high activity during the main August-October peak of the season. For example, the 1934 hurricane season turned out to be an ordinary season with 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and no intense hurricanes.

I'm not surprised to hear that there's no relationship here....but at the same time, I also remember last year, when Atlantic storms really struggled to form and develop. This year, by contrast, they're popping up suddenly where we don't expect them. I don't know....something feels different about the way the atmosphere-ocean system is behaving this time around.

That's all I'll say at this point.

MEANWHILE: After a weakening phase, Tropical Storm Barbara is back and may soon hit Mexico. The question is how strong this one can get before landfall. It's over warm water with low shear....

And finally, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is now tracking a storm in a place where I have not seen one appear since I became a hurricane junkie: The Arabian Sea. I'll be keeping an eye on that one as well....

Because I love to bitch ... about shitty service

I picked up my car from David Taylor on Thursday, where it had overnighted. As was predictable, they sent me the email "were you satisfied" inquiry today.

Well, they asked:

"Were all of your service concerns corrected on this service visit?"

Wiring harness appears to be on order (this was not explained to me, but could be on order from my review of the invoice.) Foglamps were not repaired, perhaps because of this issue.

I had requested that the sunroof be adjusted, but the service writer and the invoice were quite specific that they could find nothing wrong with it.

"Based on this service visit, overall, how satisfied are you with David Taylor Cadillac Buick GMC Pontiac?"

Well, I paid $270 and was without the car for two days for an oil change, a fuel filter and a bottle of fuel conditioner in the gas tank. Nothing else was done.

As I drove up the beltway after paying for my car, the wind whistled merrily across the back of the sunroof, pushing out any thoughts of returning phone calls until I closed the sunroof shade.

That night, as I was driving through Memorial to pick up my best girlfriend for her birthday dinner, the stereo speakers on the left side of the car began to cause the interior trim to buzz loudly enough that the XM announcer's words were blurred.

But, I can see how no problem could be found.

So, I'm perturbed that I spent $270 on a service that could have been accomplished for $80. I'm pretty good at dumping a can of gas treatment in the thank, you see, and the going price for an oil change is about $25.

Have you noticed how hopped up most people are about illegal immigration?

Personally, I've never understood it - these people come here, live a low-level existence, work for pay we wouldn't accept doing jobs we wouldn't do (oh, by the way, by "we," I mean WHITE people, not brown people.) They do not, contrary to popular belief, clog our emergency rooms with unpaid medical requests, and they definitely do not take Social Security or other public benefits. Yes, some of them get drunk and shoot at people, and some are robbers, and some are murderers - in case you missed it, they're not the ONLY ones doing this. In fact, they're in the minority.

Hey, I made a funny!

Today, the Wall Street Journal did something VERY funny - they called a spade a spade! Except, it wasn't a spade spade, it was a KKK white bigotry spade thing:

"The fact is their (conservatives) objection is fundamentally cultural, but they can't say that. It's the biggest unspoken truth at the center of this debate. They can't talk about it."

"The real lie of this is that they make the whole debate about illegal immigration. They don't want them here legally."

"(Conservatives) want to make their (illegal aliens) lives so miserable that they'll just leave."

"They claim to like legal immigration... as long as its from eastern Europe."

"There's a real divide between the members of Congress, the Republicans, who realize that they are in deep trouble if they go into the election again as the anti immigration party."

"The Republicans will be a permanent minority by 2007."

How about THEM apples? If you shoot off about how the WSJ is a liberal commie pinko newspaper, I'm going to take you out behind the woodshed and make you spend the summer learning what the facts are.

George Bush loves gay people

This was quite the article from Daily Kos which I'm going to reproduce here, because it's something that needs to be seen and contemplated, not just passed over.

Here's the article:

Last week, with little fanfare, George W. Bush announced the nomination of Joseph Holsinger to become the Surgeon General of the United States. Said Bush:

As America's chief health educator, he will be charged with providing the best scientific information available on how Americans can make smart choices that improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury.

And speaking of choices, Holsinger and his wife:

...founded Hope Springs Community Church in a warehouse at 1109 Versailles Road. Calhoun called it a socially diverse congregation with a "very vital recovery ministry." It serves the homeless and those with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex; and it has a Spanish-language Hispanic congregation with its own pastor. [...]

Hope Springs also ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian, Calhoun said.

"We see that as an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle," he said. "We have people who seek to walk out of that lifestyle."

And as a member of the United Methodist Judicial Council, Holsinger:

...supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church...(The church's bishops voted later to allow the gay man to become a member.)

But rest assured, according to his supporters, this potential Surgeon General for all Americans won't "be driven by ideology."

I feel SO much better!

This really gives me a reason to be nasty to the evil Republican woman down the street.

George Bush loves gay people

This was quite the article from Daily Kos which I'm going to reproduce here, because it's something that needs to be seen and contemplated, not just passed over.

Here's the article:

Last week, with little fanfare, George W. Bush announced the nomination of Joseph Holsinger to become the Surgeon General of the United States. Said Bush:

As America's chief health educator, he will be charged with providing the best scientific information available on how Americans can make smart choices that improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury.

And speaking of choices, Holsinger and his wife:

...founded Hope Springs Community Church in a warehouse at 1109 Versailles Road. Calhoun called it a socially diverse congregation with a "very vital recovery ministry." It serves the homeless and those with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex; and it has a Spanish-language Hispanic congregation with its own pastor. [...]

Hope Springs also ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian, Calhoun said.

"We see that as an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle," he said. "We have people who seek to walk out of that lifestyle."

And as a member of the United Methodist Judicial Council, Holsinger:

...supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church...(The church's bishops voted later to allow the gay man to become a member.)

But rest assured, according to his supporters, this potential Surgeon General for all Americans won't "be driven by ideology."

I feel SO much better!

This really gives me a reason to be nasty to the evil Republican woman down the street.

First morning on the bus

I was so tired this morning for reasons I don't know. About 0750, I was thinking "there's no way I'm going to make the 7:55 bus... when's the next one?" Turns out the LAST one is at 8:20,but the trip time is shorter than the rest by nearly 15 minutes. So, I hustled my butt out the door to the bus stop, and you could have set your watch by the bus' arrival. There are very few people on the bus here - but it's not a commuter bus, it's a city bus, bumpy and relatively loud. However, it's pretty self-righteous to feel like I'm not blowing hydrocarbons out my personal 275 horsepower tailpipe. Plus, I'll arrive at the office with all of my blogging and reading completed.

Had a long conversation with Bram's mom last night about diabetes (she's a diabetic educator...) I learned a few things, some of which were disturbing to my self-rationalizaing beliefs. It does seem that exercise is a huge difference .. and that food intake is everything. Blah. Time to tackle that issue, I guess.

Obviously, this laptop screen must be cleaned for optimal use during these commutes.

Today, I'm going to start working on practicing what I advise others to do. That's all I'm going to say about that. I'm all excited about saving money on my wireless phone account (as of yesterday) and on the cable bill. There was one other account I was planning on saving money on - the goal is to reduce fixed expenses by $400 a month. I'm about halfway there so far.

Tonight, Nicole and I are going out for her birthday, and I'm trying to cook up the best arrangement for her to feel princess-like. I am still gelling on that ...

Had the house to myself again last night, which was pleasant. I watched (sort of) two episodes of "24 Season Three," and read a bunch of "best of Craigslist" postings, three of which had me laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face, and struggling to breathe.

People can be quite creative. It seems that their greatest creativity is in the area of bathroom humor. Interesting.

Just had to move to the back of the bus to make way for a woman in a wheelchair. Interesting. A bit louder back here, but I'm sitting higher, and no one is going to bother me at all. Hell, I have another ten miles to go here on the bus, so what difference does that make?

This is a really great way to go, I think.

Still can't find my tuxedo shoes. They're just gone, gone, gone. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find great looking tuxedo shoes in a size 13 that fit me? Crap.

I have to go get measured for a tux for this thing on the 22nd, too. I may just skip the whole idea of a date. There isn't anyone that I'd like to take that would go, I don't think. I may be able to strong arm Tom into being my date, we'll see. He's resistant.

I had fun last night at the real estate broker function - mostly in throwing people under the bus .. "oh, you didn't come to OUR big anniversary party because you were feeling overworked, but all this heavy rain isn't a decent excuse for people not coming to your broker happy hour when you gave everyone fewer than 24 hours' notice? "

Un-huh.

You should have seen the expressions on their faces when I said "well, we offered to give you your company website and hosting for free. But, you thought you could do better than that."

Of course, they were blank faced .. "free?" "Yes, free." "How did we miss that?" "Focusing on the other mortgage companies that you invited, I should guess."

"We'd love free!" "I'm sure you would. Perhaps one of your MORE preferred mortgage lenders will help you with that."

John was there as a foil to my directness. "Oh, we'll take care of you." Says I "IF you stop jacking us around on the mortgage lender sponsor thing."

I need a bus pass. Who is this crazy queen wearing a black suit, black shit and a white tie? Am I in a time machine, instead of a bus?

I need to email my client that has the attic insulation (which I covet.) He's being all slippery again, now that there is a need on my part. Figures.

Oh, by the by - the bus suddenly headed for the freeway, and dropped me off less than 150 feet from the office door TWO MINUTES EARLY.

You want to read some truly amazing shit?

I mean TRULY. AMAZING. SHIT.

There's a pun in there - a prize to the first person who figures it out.

Guest lodgings and 30,000 miles

Put away a few things in the guest room this morning (and took down the broken Jesus picture,) and here's how it looked with sunlight streaming in today..







The boy from Abilene was heard from last night. I'm publishing the details in the private blog - if you're not a reader and you want to be, just ask me (and, depending on our relationship, I may let you.) I was quite harsh. Bram hooted with laughter.

Scarlett is in the shop today and tomorrow for the 30,000 mile service, repairing the foglamps and their associated wiring harness, the sunroof (again,) and the stereo speakers which are buzzing. I think she'll be ready near the end of the day tomorrow.

Riding the bus home today for the FIRST time!

Humor for this Wednesday morning that feels like Tuesday:

A very gentle Texas lady was driving across a high
bridge in Texas one day. As she neared the top of the
bridge, she noticed a young man fixin' to jump.

She stopped her car, rolled down the window and
said, "Please don't jump, think of your dear mother
and father."

He replied, "Mom and Dad are both dead; I'm going to
jump".

She said, "Well, think of your wife and children."

He replied, "I'm not married and I don't have any
kids"

She said, "Well, think of the Alamo ."

He replied, "What's the Alamo ?"

She replied, "Well, bless your heart, just go ahead
and jump, you dumb assed Yankee."

I'm cleaning up my "to do" list today, and going home to pull weeds and trans-plants that can be put into pots and successfully populate the courtyard. Bram's on the ambulance tonight, which means that I can look forward to a peaceful evening of that, taking out the trash, and watching my newly arrived disc of "25 - Season Three."

Talked to my dad last night for a good long time, he actually seemed to be interested in what's going on with the church. And, I had several calls last night from the Phoenix minister who I have already written to tell "only with a mediator, please."

Okay, time to line out the tasks to be accomplished and off we go!!

Funny how tired I'm feeling today. Bleh. We're waiting for more rain.

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

Mark Twain

Sometimes it's just the little things....

Here are some pictures of Matticia magic:

First is a picture of the amazo-cool shoe holders from IKEA at $2.99 each:



Then, two pictures of the picture lamps that Matticia hung for me in the bedroom - the flash kind of destroys how cool it looks in there. The indirect light and shadows are AMAZING. Now, I have to pick out DIFFERENT colors for in here... but it makes me very happy.





Then, three pictures of the kitchen post-hockey puck lamps. First, the before picture of the crappy five buck over sink fixture...



Then, two pictures - one over the sink showing the lamps (hidden above) with the hanging bread board, and the other of the coffee cannister which is in the "before" picture.





My new bedroom ceiling fan makes all of the difference in how well I sleep, it seems. It's silent, it moves more air than a Category II hurricane, and I sleep very soundly with it running. The packaging for the various things that I have had to save are all neatly organized in the attic. The Christmas stuff, same story. My bedroom closet is MUCHO organized, with the shoes in these very cool IKEA hanging things, all of the stuff to be eBayed organized in one area, the stuff to be scanned and scrapbooked in another, all of the clothing in another ..

The train curio is now lighted, with more and cooler stuff displayed therein, my bedroom artwork is lighted, the deco bar is re-lighted, and the kitchen - oh, my goodness - just a hundred dollars and some Matticiamatic talent and it's transformed. There are now six hockey puck lamps illuminating the sink and the counter area, which a.) look WAY cool, b.) provide twenty times the illumination, and c.) make the whole counter area look awesome. With the vent hood lamp on, the kitchen has more than enough light, and it's so amazing. The dishwasher no longer leaks waste water into the under counter area (total cost - $6.00.) The water coming out of the faucet is clean, fresh and filtered to 2 microns. The water coming out of the refrigerator - the same. The cool bread board that came from my mom is hanging over the sink, out of the way and balancing a picture on the other side.

Wow. All that, a trip to the office to fire off some missives at the ministers who vex me, two big naps, a huge load of trash to the trash, and all these new tschotkes in the living room. Wow. Oh, and the lovely lace curtain over the guest room window, the new bedding therein, lamps (if we can crack the non-standard socket code issue,) and pictures on the walls in there.

Simply amazing. And, the pool party last night was a whole lot of fun. David always has outstanding music mixes, and Bram, Matticia and I basically sat in the kitchen chowing down, sucking down cocktails, yapping about all kinds of stuff and listening to the music.

Tonight's movie selection - the original "Fun With Dick and Jane," in honor of Jane Fonda being so fabulous still at 70 or thereabouts, and in honor of time gone by with the passing of Charles Nelson Riley.