Same...uh...Stuff, Different Day

Ah…the coffee is good this morning! It should go without saying the coffee’s good every morning here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, but it’s seemingly better than usual today. Same coffee, made in the same measure, but somehow different and more vibrant. Could it be my taste buds are recovering from all those years of all that smoke? Possibly.

The coffee may be good today, but the reading is sub-par. Just one example: more, yet still more, about the federal prosecutor firing “scandal,” a scandal that just might take down the Attorney General. As for Gonzales getting the boot, I agree with Mr. Krauthammer:

KRAUTHAMMER: When the boss is -- when the boss says -- is asked about the chances of you escaping his firing you and his answer is "I hope so, you better start packing.

Look, I said earlier, last week, he's a dead man walking, and it's on the grounds of incompetents. He had an easy way to defend the administration on this issue early on. I would not have the president waste his ammunition in defending him now at the beginning he should have said -- Gonzales should have said, was the White House involved in this, if it was, I'm not sure, if it was, so what, it's perfectly legitimate.

The district attorneys are appointed by the president. Election are fought over priorities in law enforcement, we want that to be known by our district attorneys. Every administration ultimately changes over to enforce, those priorities. It's a perfectly legitimate executive function. We don't have anything to hide or be ashamed of. He didn't say that at the beginning, and now it's too late.

Charles is referring to the President’s response yesterday when asked about Gonzales’ future. I’d be cleaning out my desk too, if my boss said something even remotely similar regarding my prospects for continued employment. As Mr. Krauthammer says, it’s all about “incompetents.” (That’s an easily-explained error in transcription, btw.) I’m simply aghast at the incompetence displayed by Alberto and his staff in this brouhaha. This whole thing could have been cut off at the knees if Gonzales had simply said “so, what?” when the Left began shouting. Incompetence. Gross incompetence. One cannot imagine, say, the Nixon White House (or even the Clinton White House, for that matter) being such rank amateurs.

Dubya needs a win…any sort of win…and soon. There’s just too damned much bad news these days.

This may be a small win for Dubya, the US, and the world at large: Russia Gives Iran Ultimatum on Enrichment:

PARIS, Mar. 18 — Russia has informed Iran that it will withhold nuclear fuel for Iran’s nearly completed Bushehr power plant unless Iran suspends its uranium enrichment as demanded by the United Nations Security Council, European, American and Iranian officials said.

The ultimatum was delivered in Moscow last week by Igor Ivanov, Russia’s Security Council Secretary, to Ali Hosseini Tash, Iran’s deputy chief nuclear negotiator, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a confidential diplomatic exchange between two governments was involved.

For years, President Bush has been pressing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to cut off help to Iran on the nuclear reactor, which is Tehran’s first serious effort to produce nuclear energy and has been highly profitable for Russia. But Mr. Putin has resisted.

Recently, however, Moscow and Tehran have been engaged in a public argument about whether Iran has paid its bills, in a dispute that may explain Russia’s apparent shift. The ultimatum may also reflect Moscow’s increasing displeasure and frustration with Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium at its vast facility at Natanz.

“We’re not sure what mix of commercial and political motives are at play here,” one senior Bush administration official said in Washington. “But clearly the Russians and the Iranians are getting on each other’s nerves — and that’s not all bad.”

“Not all bad,” indeed. I’d say two more things…(a) ‘bout time the Russians got on board and (b) Russia’s threat to withhold fuel probably won’t have any measurable effect on Iranian intransigence. But Captain Ed thinks the Russian threat, if it materializes, may result in Ahmadinejad’s downfall. My first thought is that wouldn’t be all bad, either. My second thought is “be careful what you wish for.”

More potential good news for Dubya: Betraying their base -- the Democrats can do it too:

The GOP grew sweaty and bloated like a fat man at an all-you-can-eat pasta bar, and the voters were right to pry the Republicans' white-knuckled grip from the hot table's sneeze guard.

So here's the ironic part. Suddenly, it looks as if the Democrats are the Republicans on fast-forward. It's early yet, and the Democrats did finish their mini-Contract with America — the so-called first 100 hours — with mixed success on the substance but great fanfare in the media. Yet items like upping the minimum wage and shafting oil companies, although certainly not insubstantial, were primarily symbolic.

The most important issue in the November elections, as every single political observer with a pulse will tell you, was the war in Iraq. The weasel words and euphemisms — "strategic redeployment," "course change," whatever — couldn't conceal the simple fact that the Democrats were elected in large part to end the war. That was certainly how the party's liberal base saw it, then and now.

But look at how the Democrats are behaving. They've completely failed to stop the surge, and their latest efforts to derail the war are so convoluted — timetables on top of timetables — that even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.), a cosponsor of legislation to withdraw troops by September 2008, can't explain them.

No kidding. It’s hard to stay on message when there are 17 variants of that particular message, ain’t it?

Speaking of the surge… “THE IRAQ SURGE: WHY IT'S WORKING”

March 20, 2007 -- 'I WALKED down the streets of Ramadi a few days ago, in a soft cap eating an ice cream with the mayor on one side of me and the police chief on the other, having a conversation." This simple act, Gen. David Petraeus told me, would have been "unthinkable" just a few months ago. "And nobody shot at us," he added.

Petraeus, the new commander managing the "surge" of troops in Iraq, will be the first to caution realism. "Sure we see improvements - major improvements," he said in our interview, "but we still have a long way to go."

What tactics are working? "We got down at the people level and are staying," he said flatly. "Once the people know we are going to be around, then all kinds of things start to happen."

More intelligence, for example.

Good things come in threes, yes?

This is pretty cool: more customization of your search page from the Googleplex. I’ve set my “theme” to Japanese Tea Garden (see the screenshot on the right, click for larger). I haven’t found any Easter Eggs yet, but Hey! It’s only been 30 minutes or so.

Sad news, via Lileks: Blogger and Left-Coast writer Cathy Seipp is in the hospital with terminal cancer and only has days to live. Ms. Seipp was one of the first blogs I ever read, and I’ll miss her.

Today’s Pic: A red rose in a Houston botanical garden… taken in March, 2000. I forget exactly which botanical garden, so I can’t give you a link. I will give you another Houston link, however. When I went and fetched the MFAH link for yesterday’s post, I came across this: The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800-1920. From the description of the exhibit:

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the sole venue in the United States for this sweeping exhibition of French masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition will present 135 works from New York´s Metropolitan Museum´s treasured collection of French painting. The Metropolitan Museum´s French masterpieces are among the best in the world, and are by the greatest artists active in France between 1800 and 1920, with many, such as Ingres, Corot, Courbet, Delacroix, Millet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso, represented by multiple works.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a road-trip. I’m nearly certain about it. The exhibit is running right now, through May 6^th. I can’t miss this…

Four Years On...

ABC News’ counterpoint to yesterday’s good news from The London Times:

March 19, 2007 -- A new national survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq: widespread violence, torn lives, displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever starker sectarian chasm — and a draining away of the underlying optimism that once prevailed.

Violence is the cause, its reach vast. Eighty percent of Iraqis report attacks nearby — car bombs, snipers, kidnappings, armed forces fighting each other or abusing civilians. It's worst by far in the capital of Baghdad, but by no means confined there.

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” To that please add: American opinion polls. Or rather, opinion polls conducted by Americans.

Here’s an interesting contrast…from the ABC News article:

METHODOLOGY — This poll for ABC News, USA Today, the BBC and ARD was conducted Feb. 25-March 5, 2007, through in-person interviews with a random national sample of 2,212 Iraqi adults, including oversamples in Anbar province, Basra City, Kirkuk and the Sadr City section of Baghdad. The results have a 2.5-point error margin. Field work by D3 Systems of Vienna, Va., and KA Research Ltd. of Istanbul.

And from The Times (UK):

ORB interviewed a nationally representative sample of 5,019 Iraqi adults between February 10-22. The margin of error was +/- 1.4%. (Italics in original text)

Could it be the “oversamples” in Anbar province and Sadr City affected the outcome? Or the fact the sample, however statistically relevant it may be, is half that of the ORB survey? No matter. One can intuit the desired outcome by at least two of the ABC News survey’s sponsors: the Beeb and ABC News. The financial industry always attaches this disclaimer to advertising flogging the wonderfulness of their investment vehicles: “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” In the case of ABC News and Auntie the exact opposite is true. Perhaps ABC/BBC need a disclaimer, too. If I may be so bold, let me suggest: “It’s always been bad, it’s bad today, and it will be worse tomorrow. Trust us, we’re the NEWS, and we know.”

Just sayin’.

Kinda sorta related to the above: Michael Barone, writing in Real Clear Politics:

"They always blame America first." That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, describing the "San Francisco Democrats" in 1984. But it could be said about a lot of Americans, especially highly educated Americans, today.

In their assessment of what is going on in the world, they seem to start off with a default assumption that we are in the wrong. The "we" can take different forms: the United States government, the vast mass of middle-class Americans, white people, affluent people, churchgoing people or the advanced English-speaking countries. Such people are seen as privileged and selfish, greedy and bigoted, rash and violent. If something bad happens, the default assumption is that it's their fault. They always blame America -- or the parts of America they don't like -- first.

Where does this default assumption come from? And why is it so prevalent among our affluent educated class (which, after all, would seem to overlap considerably with the people being complained about?). It comes, I think, from our schools and, especially, from our colleges and universities. The first are staffed by liberals long accustomed to see America as full of problems needing solving; the latter have been packed full of the people cultural critic Roger Kimball calls "tenured radicals," people who see this country and its people as the source of all evil in the world.

It’s a good essay, but in the end, it doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know, in your heart of hearts. We’re not perfect, this is true. But, at the same time, one gets profoundly tired—sick to death, even—of the “Bash America” crowd. The good news? According to Barone, most people, thinking people, understand the mindset behind the America Bashers and seek alternative views to the krep they’ve been force-fed in school. Let’s hope that doesn’t change…

Good news on the Algore front from John Fund at the WSJ:

The media are finally catching up with Al Gore. Criticism of his anti-global-warming franchise and his personal environmental record has gone beyond ankle-biting bloggers. It's now coming from the New York Times and the Nashville Tennessean, his hometown paper that put his birth, as a senator's son, on its front page back in 1948, and where a young Al Gore Jr. worked for five years as a journalist.

Last Tuesday, the Times reported that several eminent scientists "argue that some of Mr. Gore's central points [on global warming] are exaggerated and erroneous." The Tenessean reported yesterday that Mr. Gore received $570,000 in royalties from the owners of zinc mines who held mineral leases on his farm. The mines, which closed in 2003 but are scheduled to reopen under a new operator later this year, "emitted thousands of pounds of toxic substances and several times, the water discharged from the mines into nearby rivers had levels of toxins above what was legal."

[and, the last paragraph]

Mr. Gore has called the campaign to combat global warming a "moral imperative." But Mr. Gore faces another imperative: to square his sales pitches with the facts and his personal lifestyle to more align with what he advocates that others practice. "Are you ready to change the way you live?" asks Mr. Gore's film. It's time people ask Mr. Gore "Are you ready to change the way you live, as well as the way you lecture the rest of us?"

Read the whole thing…

In the spirit of “equal time,” I give you the link to Shaun Mullen’s “Vietnam, Iraq & A Tale of Two Marches”

October 21, 1967

I am attending the march as an aspiring journalist who will file a story for my college newspaper. But I would be lying if I didn’t say my heart is with the protesters and my opposition to the Vietnam War is driven in part by the possibility that I’ll be drafted once my student deferment ends. (It did. I was. But my subsequent travels in Southeast Asia were in journalist’s mufti.)

March 17, 2007

I have had more than my fill of war and pestilence over four decades as a veteran, reporter and editor. I bleed red, white and blue for my country but do not abide being lied to by its leaders whether it is Vietnam or Iraq. I am at the march because I feel compelled to do more than merely blog on the war and yammer about it with the DF&C over after-dinner single malt Scotches.

The piece is well written and is an interesting contrast between then and now. Draw your own conclusions; I’ve drawn mine.

And…on the other hand, Gerard writes an essay much more in tune with my feelings and attitude about this anniversary:

Four years in. An inch of time. Four years in and the foolish and credulous among us yearn to get out. Their feelings require it. The power of their Holy Gospel of "Imagine" compels them. Their overflowing pools of compassion for the enslavers of women, the killers of homosexuals, the beheaders of reporters, and the incinerators of men and women working quietly at their desks, rise and flood their minds until their eyes flow with crocodile tears while their mouths emit slogans made of cardboard. They believe the world is run on wishes and that they will always have three more.

Like savages shambling about some campfire where all there is to eat are a few singed tubers, they paint their faces with the tatterdemalion symbols of a summer long sent down to riot with the worms. They clasp hands and sing songs whose lyrics are ash. "We shall... over... come." Overcome what, overcome who? Overcome their nation? Is that their dream? It is the lifelong dream of those that lead them that much is certain.

Four years in and we see these old rotting rituals trotted out in the streets like some pagan procession of idols and shibboleths, like some furred and feathered fetish shaken against the sky by hunkering witch-doctors, to hold back the dark, to frighten off the evil spirits and graven images that trouble the sleep of the dreamers.

Four years into the most gentle war ever fought, a war fought on the cheap at every level, a war fought to avoid civilian harm rather than maximize it. Picnic on the grass at Shiloh. Walk the Western Front. Speak to the smoke of Dresden. Kneel down and peek into the ovens of Auschwitz. Sit on the stones near ground zero at Hiroshima and converse with the shadows singed into the wall. Listen to those ghost whisperers of war.

He has a way with words, that man. It’s a good thing envy isn’t fatal. Well, it’s not fatal around El Casa Móvil De Pennington, anyway. Perhaps I should say I suffer from “excess admiration.”

Yeah, that’s it.

{Sigh} Overall, not a very good day. At least my readings haven’t provided a good beginning to the day. I’m going to work to make it better…

Today’s Pic: Spring, seven years ago. Or, one might could call April in Houston “summer.” Folks in other climes would definitely call weather like that found in Houston, in April, “summer,” what with the heat and humidity. Still, it was a great day out.

YrHmblScrb in the statuary garden of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

April 7, 2000.

A Cloudy Yet Pleasant Sunday

The WaPo has a fuzzy account of yesterday’s anti-war protest in Washington:

Organizers, who had predicted tens of thousands of marchers would demonstrate, gave estimates ranging from 15,000 to 30,000. Police no longer provide official estimates of crowd size but informally put it at 10,000 to 20,000, with a smaller but sizable contingent of counter-protesters.

War protest leaders said a large winter storm that hit the Northeast hurt turnout. More than 60 bus loads of protesters who had been scheduled to come from the region canceled their trips Friday night, according to Brian Becker, national coordinator for the Answer Coalition, the event's main sponsor.

It was quickly apparent that the weather had not prevented counter-demonstrators, many in black leather motorcycle jackets, from showing up in force and surrounding all sides of the Wall.

The last paragraph above says counter-demonstrators “turned out in force,” yet elsewhere in the article the WaPo downplays the numbers.

It appears the turnout for yesterday’s counter-protest was good…30,000 people, according to the National Park Service (as reported by Gathering of Eagles). Baron Bodissey at The Gates of Vienna has a good write-up and pictures—less of the moonbat variety and more of normal people—lots of pictures. The Hot Air folks have four-plus pages of photos on Flickr; once again mostly normal folks…but more moonbats (and many more photos) than Gates of Vienna.

Most interesting:

DESPITE sectarian slaughter, ethnic cleansing and suicide bombs, an opinion poll conducted on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq has found a striking resilience and optimism among the inhabitants.

The poll, the biggest since coalition troops entered Iraq on March 20, 2003, shows that by a majority of two to one, Iraqis prefer the current leadership to Saddam Hussein’s regime, regardless of the security crisis and a lack of public services.

The survey, published today, also reveals that contrary to the views of many western analysts, most Iraqis do not believe they are embroiled in a civil war.

Officials in Washington and London are likely to be buoyed by the poll conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB), a respected British market research company that funded its own survey of 5,019 Iraqis over the age of 18.

Polls are common here in the US, but they seem to be fairly rare in the Middle East, especially in Iraq. This one is an eye-opener. It’s also pretty good news for the US (and Britain, as noted), in my humble opinion. This little item, in particular, is striking:

Only 27% think there is a civil war in Iraq, compared with 61% who do not, according to the survey carried out last month.

Just this morning I watched Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher on C-SPAN (no transcript or video available yet) say something to the effect of “A Republican told me recently he thought there was a civil war going on in Iraq. Well, Duh! We’ve known this for two years now.” (I’m paraphrasing, but the gist is accurate.) Perhaps Ms. Tauscher needs to have a few words with some Iraqis. They seem to appreciate our efforts, and their effects, much more than she does.

This is important (to some of us):

The oldest celebrity in hockey not named Chris Chelios celebrates his birthday Sunday when the Stanley Cup turns 115. Short and stout, the little guy has worn his age well and, to our knowledge, Stanley hasn’t had any work done to keep him looking so young. No Botox for him.

Happy Birthday, Stanley! I’m sure you’ll enjoy your summer in Detroit this year. Maybe.

That “maybe” relates to the fact the Wings were Number One overall in the NHL standings going into last night’s game in Vancouver, which they lost, 4-1. Nashville, who were one point behind the Wings going into last night’s games, beat Dallas 3-2 in an ugly game. The Preds are one point ahead of Detroit with ten games left in the season. This is when it gets good...

Look for much more hockey in the coming weeks here at EIP. It’s that time of year!!

Today’s Pic(s): More cherry blossoms. These things only last for a day or three, so you have to get ‘em while you can. Yesterday I gave you a couple of close-up blossom views, today it’s the Big Picture. In terms of the tree - not the file sizes - although the file sizes are quite large, even when re-sized for blog-posting purposes. The tree itself is rather small; I'd estimate about eight to ten feet in height. A young'un, in other words. But she's been here longer than I have...

And for those of you who think I might be turning Japanese on you, what with all the sakura stuff these last two days…well, I have been heavily influenced by Japanese cultural sensibilities. I took away more than a bit from my five years in Nippon. How could I not? There’s a lot to like there. And a lot not to like, as well, but that? T’is another story altogether!

Outside my door (again). Twenty minutes ago (again).
(There's a Green Hornet behind that tree, so be careful!)

Spring!

Today’s Pics: Spring has sprung! A couple of close-ups of the blossoms on the ornamental cherry tree outside my door. These photos are much larger than life; the blossoms are tiny little things…oh-so-delicate, in other words. Kinda like The Second Mrs. Pennington. (Not!)

As always, click for larger. Which, in this case, is highly recommended!

About 20 minutes ago.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, one that promises to be quite warm (83 is the forecast), bright, sunny, and just slightly breezy. The last bit is the best bit. More often than not our best days are marred by gale-force winds. Today? Not so much. At least according to the forecast. We’ll see.

So. The best thing to do with a day like today is to get out in it. The coffee has been drunk, the rounds have been made, and I’ll report there are no outrages in the offing. None here, anyway. Too nice a day to be outraged.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to the Irish, the Irish-Americans, and Irish wanna-bees. All y’all be careful out there and go easy on the green beer, if you’ve a mind to do that sort of thing. I’ll raise a glass today, but the contents will not be green. Sacrilege!

Just Briefly...

About Valerie…

Valerie Plame Gives Committee Secret Decoder Ring
by Scott Ott

(2007-03-16) — Valerie Plame, whose CIA career ended when columnist Robert Novak blew her cover in July 2003, today testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee whose members will receive a special secret decoder ring so they can understand her without revealing sensitive intel in a public forum.

Ms. Plame (aka Valerie Wilson) lived such a secret life that when she and her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, appeared in a photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine, she was compelled by CIA covert spy protocol to wear dark sunglasses.

The former agent will speak in a top-secret cipher language. Committee members will break the encryption as she speaks using the secret decoder device.

Dang! Somehow I missed the decoder ring thingie. Maybe C-SPAN had some sort of simultaneous translation/decoding technology in play? No matter. I missed half of what she said anyway. Too distracted by that harridan in the background…

Here’s the AP report on her testimony this morning. Take it with a grain lump of salt.

Apropos of nothing, but I’d sure like to see more articles like this. Of course the article fits my personal mindset, temperament, and habits these days. I suppose the money is in the hot spots, so that’s where nearly all the publicity and advertising will go. But how many times in life have you found yourself in a strange place (i.e., city) where you wanted to find a nice little, quiet, comfortable bar where you could have a conversation with someone without shouting to be heard? In my case, that’s happened a LOT. Quiet little upscale watering holes do exist, but they sure can be difficult to find. Perry’s is such a place and was the default watering hole for that ol’ gang of mine… primarily because it was near my place of business in SFO. We were there every Friday evening, unless were at the “other place,” which is/was the quintessential dive bar.

Ah… dive bars. Another genre entirely, but they tend to be quiet. This place (the reviews are amusing and somewhat accurate), referenced above, was right around the corner from my office in SFO (a two minute walk, even if you tarried a bit), and was one of my absolute favorites at the time. They had the most bizarre lingerie show I’ve ever seen (every Wednesday), but that’s another story entirely.

I'll Be Late - Start Without Me

Today’s Pic: Posting will be late today. I’m engrossed in Valerie Plame’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee, which is in progress as I type. And that’s the subject of “Today’s Pic.” Not Plame’s testimony, but rather: “Stupid Code Pink Tricks.” I don’t have sophisticated frame-grabbing video technology; this is just a quick grab-shot with my camera.

Note the woman in the background with the cleverly hand-lettered “Impeach Bush Now” tee shirt. This twit has been standing quietly in the range of the camera covering Plame for at least 15 minutes now. I’m surprised (a) the twit hasn’t been asked to leave or (b) C-SPAN doesn’t change camera angles.

Whatever.

(PS: Plame is a fox!)

In the News...

Daniel Henninger has a great op-ed in today’s WSJ: The Walter Reed Fiasco; The Army fired the one guy who can fix it. Excerpts:

Last week, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came forward to announce the speaker's perspective on the manifest problems at Walter Reed: "The American people spoke clearly in the November elections that they wanted accountability and oversight. Under the Republican Congress it has been almost nonexistent, and you can certainly see that with what occurred at Walter Reed." No, you cannot see that. Rep. John Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat, added that "we should have known all this before."

But all this was known before, though not by Reps. Pelosi and Tierney.

On Feb. 17, 2005--two years ago--GOP Rep. Tom Davis and the government reform committee held a public hearing on the maltreatment of wounded soldiers. The hearing was the culmination of an investigation, begun in 2003, by the committee and the Government Accountability Office. Virtually everything of substance in that Washington Post story was described, in numbing detail, at that hearing two years ago. Two soldiers, Army Sgts. John Allen and Joseph Perez, appeared before the Davis hearing and described their tours through the same hell painted by the Post last month.

Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, described the problems at Walter Reed in words that should be inscribed on portals across every bridge leading into Washington: "Life every day in this system is like running in hip boots in a swamp." He called it a "bureaucratic morass."

[…]

Into this collapsing "morass" the Army six months ago dropped Maj. Gen. George Weightman, M.D. No ordinary desk-bound doc, George Weightman spent five years in the infantry after graduating in 1973 from West Point. Then he went to medical school. It's a decision that has required him to design medical assistance techniques, in theater, with the troops that entered Saudi Arabia for the first Gulf War, in Honduras with Delta Force (there contracting malaria), in Kosovo as head of the 30th Medical Brigade for all troops in Europe, and in Kuwait training the surgeons and medics who would treat our wounded in Iraq the past four years, a model system. A former Army surgeon who served there with him told me he saw "numerous instances of George cutting through the bureaucracy on the run-up to Baghdad." And this is just the official side of the ledger. One son, also West Point, is on his second Army tour in Iraq, and the other is in the Army's medical school.

Mr. Henninger calls for Gen. Weightman’s reinstatement, and based on the facts presented, I agree. All that’s been done so far by DoD, the Army, and our oh-so-concerned congresscritters (particularly those with a “D” after their name) is to validate the ol’ saw that says “no good deed goes unpunished.” Read the whole thing.

More from the WSJ, this time on that one billion dollar lawsuit Viacom filed against Google and YouTube:

There is undoubtedly some truth to the preceding--hey, free advertising is always nice--but so what? The Jon Stewart clips, as well as the other clips in its complaint, are Viacom's property, not Google's. The former company is entirely entitled to dictate when, where, and under what terms its property be used--and who gets to make money from it in the process. While Viacom is getting free advertising, as a property-owner it gets to choose what free advertising it wants, not have a choice foisted on it.

So, that's it then, right? A property owner has its rights infringed, sues, and sets things straight? Well, not really. Because the real issue here has nothing to do with YouTube.

Consumers have spoken, and they don't like the way that electronic media--whether music, television or movies--is being packaged and sold to them. A decade ago they rebelled against being forced to buy entire CDs when they only wanted the few good tracks, and thus spawned Napster. Today, using YouTube, they are rebelling against being forced to watch entire programs when they only really want the 20-second part of American Idol last night where the contestant forgot the song lyrics and broke down in tears. Or a hockey fight. Or whatever.

I’m a pro-business kinda guy, but in so being I draw the line at stupidity and arrogance on the part of businesses that can’t recognize a trend when it smacks them in the face and—what’s worse— refuse to adapt to change and seek remedies from the courts to protect their old, outdated business models. It appears some CEOs and their management teams think it’s simpler to just lawyer-up, rather than give people what they want. In the immortal words of Robert Zimmerman: “Because something is happening here/ But you don't know what it is/ Do you, Mister Jones?”

This applies to internet radio, too. (Especially internet radio…which leads me to ask: You have signed the petition, haven’t you?)

Scott Ott does it again…

Clinton: Gen. Pace Owes Apology to Adulterers

by Scott Ott

(2007-03-14) — Former President Bill Clinton today added his voice to the chorus calling for Gen. Peter Pace to apologize for remarks in a recent interview in which he branded some kinds of behavior as “immoral“, and said the military should not condone immorality of any kind.

[…]

Mr. Clinton noted that if the nation had Gen. Pace’s attitude toward adultery just a few years ago, “we would have lost the valiant service of one of history’s greatest commanders in chief.”

“The military desperately needs brave men and women with the character, integrity and dignity that their colleagues can count on in times of war,” said Mr. Clinton, “But Gen. Pace essentially hung out a sign that says, ‘adulterers, homosexuals and liars need not apply.’”

“Essentially?” Howzabout specifically? Just sayin’.

Mr. Ott was good yesterday, too. To wit:

Pelosi War Plan Guards Against Risk of Victory

by Scott Ott

(2007-03-13) — The Democrat timeline for pulling U.S. troops from Iraq is designed to protect the United States against what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls “the threat and consequences of victory.”

The California lawmaker told reporters today that while Republicans focus on how the Democrat proposal undermines the troops and leads inevitably to defeat, “few have paused to consider the risk of victory.”

“A major triumph in the war on terror in Iraq would cause immeasurable political upheaval in the United States,” said Rep. Pelosi. “Unemployment would increase, especially among career politicians who opposed the president’s strategy. Countless millions of dollars would be wasted on doomed political campaigns.”

“…immeasurable political upheaval in the United States…” Oh, My, Yes. We need some of that. And I believe we’ll get some, providing Madame Speaker continues down the path she’s chosen…

I’m sorry, but you ARE high:

The Colorado General Assembly wants to be quite clear on this point: When the singer-songwriter John Denver praised the joys of Colorado and sang about “friends around the campfire, and everybody’s high,” in 1972, he was not referring to illicit drugs. Definitely not. Don’t even think it. The high in question, lawmakers say, is really about nature and the great outdoors — the tingly feeling you get after a nice hike, perhaps.

[…]

“A lot of people probably think it’s already the state song,” said Richard Grant, a spokesman for the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.

[…]

“It’s certainly going to appeal to a lot of young people,” Mr. Grant said. “It’s just a cool thing to take a rock song and make it the official song.”

Colorado just named John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” as the state’s second official state song (the first is “Where the Columbines Grow”). Yeah, naming “Rocky Mountain High” as the state’s official song will appeal to lots of young 50- and 60-year-olds; real “young people” …anyone under 30… probably neither know nor care who John Denver was. He’s been dead for ten years and was playing third-rate venues at age 53 at the time of his death. And, to be blunt about it: RMH is NOT a “rock song,” it’s schlock. It’s middling, run-of-the-mill schlock…nothing exceptional as far as schlock goes, but not worse either. I’ve hated that song for years. Nothing makes me change the station or hit the mute button quicker than to hear John Deutschendorf Denver’s whiny voice singing anything. Anything at all. Gah!

Today’s Pic: Another series of Mom pics from the digital archive. This time it looks like the top two photos were taken at the same time as yesterday’s “Mom and Me” pics, as she’s wearing the same outfit. I think the third pic was taken at the Mather AFB (or perhaps McClellan AFB, Dad was stationed at both places) Officers Club pool, circa 1952. I know the bottom photo was taken in Tijuana, sometime in the early 50s.

As always, click for larger.

It's ALL Good. Or So They Say, and "They" May Be Right.

Michael Yon’s new column is up. Mr. Yon talks of the news media, old and new, and their relationship with the war, the public, and the military. In so doing he has a few good words for the MSM and reveals his new relationship with Fox News:

Behind me I heard several NBC crewmembers talking with Craig White. I did not know Craig, but he was talking about an American Colonel I had the honor of getting to know, Colonel Stephen Twitty. The way Craig and the others were talking, Twitty sounded like he walks on water. According to some soldiers who know him, he does. Craig had been embedded with Twitty previously, and wanted to try to see him again. That was the opening I needed to interject that I’d just spent a month in Mosul with Twitty’s people in the 2-7 CAV. Later when I emailed the news up to Mosul, Twitty gave high praise to NBC. And when I watched Brian Williams and Richard Engle and General Downing do live interviews, everything they said was consistent with what I am seeing on the ground. Brian and Richard both clearly were concerned to get it right.

[…]

This week, journalists are all around this area—ABC, Fox, New York Times, Associated Press, The Telegraph, Stars & Stripes (DoD publication) and others, all flagships—but where are the bloggers? Prohibitive costs, very high risks, and an increasingly shrinking market for the work probably contribute to the poor showing. Will the blog-world still maintain the attack on coverage from the mainstream media? Instead of looking for mistakes in some coverage, the common cause might be better served by well-informed bloggers searching all sources for the reports that get it right and driving readers to those.

[…]

Readers who came to this website via a link on the front page of the Fox News website are beneficiaries of one example of this cooperation. Fox News is on the cutting edge of this new wave. In the coming months Fox will post excerpts of my latest dispatches that link to the complete versions here. While Fox uses their resources to penetrate the murk here in Iraq, I will maintain independence and the net effect is more readers will see more of the situation on the ground.

There’s much more, of course. Mr. Yon’s comments are pretty much spot-on. He’s a voice I trust, but certainly not the only one. It’s good to know Mr. Yon thinks there are quite a few MSM types that are working hard to “get it right.” Forgive me, but I’d find it pretty hard to make that sort of positive value judgment if I hadn’t heard it from Michael. Maybe I’ve just seen too much Wolf Blitzer and not enough Brian Williams.

I wish I had more days like yesterday. It was almost as if I had one of those “Easy Buttons” Staples goes on about. The weather was pretty decent, my interaction with government bureaucracy was better than one could hope for, the external hard drive I bought worked with no intervention on my part (real plug ‘n’ play), the backup software I installed worked as advertised (albeit slowly), the commissary had everything I needed, and there were no check-out lines. Anywhere. Which, come to think on it, there almost never is a line at the Cannon AFB commissary, unlike large bases where long lines are a chronic problem. I feel a digression coming on, but I won’t. Digress.

The best thing about yesterday was the experience at the Social Security office. If the rest of the gub’mint worked as well as the Social Security Administration we’d have significantly fewer problems, IMHO. (Parenthetical comment: the fact the system is going broke isn’t the Agency’s fault. Don’t go there.)

Mr. Andy Chavez, the guy who took care of me yesterday, was thoroughly prepared for our meeting, courteous, knowledgeable, and didn’t seem disgruntled in any way…unlike most government employees who tend to communicate a vague feeling of resentment at your mere presence. Think “DMV.” The other thing that struck me was the system’s efficiency. The Agency’s record of my lifetime earnings was accurate. Given the Agency sends each of us an annual record of our earnings and one’s estimated SS benefits, along with an address and a simple process for contacting them if you have a dispute is probably a key to that efficiency. The Agency also has a good web site with real, useful information, as opposed to self-promotion. One can obtain and download a comprehensive benefits calculator at their web site, which I did. And that calculator is pretty accurate, too, or at least it was in my case. My “approved” benefit and the benefit I thought I’d be getting were within one dollar of each other. Amazing, that! In other words, the Agency set my expectations before I even contacted them. It helped that I was prepared and had done my homework. But the Agency gave me the tools (the annual letter, the benefits calculator) to do my homework. Impressive. And I’m not being sarcastic. Not at all.

All in all, a very positive and reassuring experience. Lord knows we need more of those when interacting with the gub’mint.

Now…about that back-up software. Eight hours, 39 minutes and 38 seconds to backup 66.5 Gb of data in 89,711 files. Not all that bad, I suppose, but if I learned anything at all, it’s to schedule back-ups for the dead of night. Coz while one can use the ‘puter while one is backing up, it’s painfully slow. But Hey! At least I’m finally backed up. I knocked on wood before typing this and will do the same after I’m done: I’ve never experienced a hard drive failure. Never ever, neither at work nor at home. That might be some sort of record…given my 20+ years of PC use.

What he said:

I mean that's one of the joys of blogging. I'm my own assignment editor.

Look there's lots of news everyday. And sometimes that is all I do because the stories are interesting and enjoyable to write about. Face it ... when it comes to writing I'm a sort of hedonist. I do what I like.

On other days I may be in a bizarre mood or a humorous mood or even a contemplative mood and I look for other items of interest that reflect those moods. But I have no idea from one day to the next what I'll be writing about the following day.

Another thing which I find amusing is when I'm accused of not being 'fair'. I can't say this enough - I'm not fair. I don't try to be fair.

I came across those words of wisdom whilst reading all about the scandal du jour, which I won’t comment on, because (a) like Orrin Kerr, I know very little about it and (b) from what little I do know, today’s scandal seems to be a fabricated Left-Wing target of opportunity. I just wish the administration weren’t so damned good at creating those targets. Just sayin’.

Today’s Pic: More from the scanned photo archives, thanks once again to The Second Mrs. Pennington. This time it’s YrHmblScrb in the arms of his mother. Note the way Mom’s dressed; pretty spiffy, ain't she? I find myself channeling Mr. Lileks in this regard from time to time. He and I are alike in at least one respect, and that would be our mutual fondness for the (perceived) virtues of the past, styles and manners being just two aspects of our admiration for times gone by.

As usual, click for larger.

Atlanta, Georgia. Sometime in 1945.

New Guy on the Block plus Random Guilty Feelings

Here’s a new milblog that is much, much more than worth your time to read: This Veteran’s Life. Written anonymously by a guy who goes by the nom-de-plume of @WR, it’s an insider’s tale of life as an outpatient at Walter Reed. An ounce of eyewitness commentary is worth SO much more than a pound of MSM writing. Do go.

(h/t: Kris, in New England…posting at The Flight Deck.)

So. Back from the the Big(ger) City^TM. Mission accomplished, and it was as painless as painless can be. Absolutely NO hassles what-so-ever. None. My first geezer check should be deposited in my bank account on May 23^rd. Social Security is paid in arrears, and you must be 62 years of age for the full month to receive benefits. And that’s OK with me.

So, again. I received a piece of startling news during the application process. Our Dear Uncle Sam is a generous man, indeed. It turns out that SN3, by virtue of his age and parentage (that would be a reference to me) is entitled to something known as the “Auxiliary Child Benefit,” which means: money. To the tune of approximately $900.00 per month. The very act of my drawing SS benefits is all that is needed for SN3 to qualify for his benefit. Assuming TSMP applies, of course. And she will. We’ve already exchanged e-mails on the subject.

I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand: “free” money. I use scare quotes for many reasons, and I’ll assume you understand. No one turns down free money, and this amount of money is not inconsequential. On the other hand, is it moral to take money when one is not in need of…um…assistance? One can say “you earned it,” and that may (or may not) be true. But, there’s still this nagging thought that isn’t quite fully-formed as I write. And it’s not a good thought.

And now I must install a new external hard-drive and back-up software I bought while I was over in the Big(ger) City^TM. This ought to be fun…

Auugh!

I slept poorly last night. I suspect it’s because I have an appointment over in the Big(ger) City^TM this morning, an appointment I (a) don’t want to miss because it’s (b) very important business. Which tends to make sleep fitful. Put aside the fact I’m completely prepared, which is to say all the necessary documentation has long been retrieved from the archives and put in a conspicuous place to be picked up as I walk out the door. Strangely enough, all the documentation…my birth certificate, DD Forms 214 from each and every enlistment, check book…was exactly where it should have been. There were no frantic searches, no missing yet required pieces of paper, nothing. Preparation, such as it was, was a piece of cake. So why didn’t I sleep well?

Deep psychological issues, I fear. My appointment today signals one of the transitions to life’s end-game. I’m about to officially enter geezerhood.

I’m applying for Social Security.

Today’s Pic: From the archives of another sort. This is my Mom at (I’m guessing) age ten or so, which would date the photo from about 1935. Late in our marriage The Second Mrs. Pennington launched a project to scan old family photos; she completed about ten percent of what were in the archives before she went off to do bigger and better things.

Quite the costume Mom's wearing, ain't it? One wonders what the occasion and its associated back-story were. I'm thinking "dance school." All proper young ladies in that place (Atlanta) and time (early twentieth century) simply had to be schooled the arts, nu? And she was that. A great dancer!

And now... off to the Big(ger) City^TM !

Awash

So… back safely from my foray into P-Town, which is literally awash, as I suspected. Journeying through P-Town during or just after a major rainstorm gives the Green Hornet a better water-tightness test than running it through the car wash. (It passed the test, in case you’re wondering.) There were at least two times when I thought a Duck would be more appropriate than a Hornet (Green, one each) for navigating the canals streets of P-Town.

Now about that fiber connection. It’s a tale of woe and slippage due to weather (the ice and snow we had in December and January) and problems with the fiber itself. According to the lady I spoke with at Yucca Telecom there were (unspecified) problems with the fiber which stopped installation and forced “some” re-work. Stuff happens with large scale wiring projects like this, and I know from personal experience. Still and even I’d be less than honest if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I am.

But I have an application in hand for a fiber connection which should be delivered towards the end of May or the first part of June, at the latest. A TWO MEGABIT connection, which is a five-fold increase over the (theoretical) 384 Kbps connection I have today.

I can’t wait. But I will.

Fiascoes in Three Takes

You can say that again! From the WSJ:

Just when President Bush seemed to have beaten back the Congressional defeatists on Iraq, along comes his own Justice Department to undermine some hard-won antiterror policy gains. The incompetence at Justice is getting to be expensive for Presidential power.

[…]

Some of the reaction on Capitol Hill has been typically overwrought, and the IG's audit found no evidence of intentional or criminal misuse. As a matter of law, such subpoenas are only allowed to seek certain kinds of records such as phone logs and travel information. This isn't a case of J. Edgar Hoover snooping on political enemies.

Nonetheless, the management lapses have done significant harm by allowing critics to claim that all such subpoenas should be barred. FBI Director Robert Mueller has acknowledged the foul-ups and says he's responsible, but it's astonishing that he didn't undertake his own audit much earlier. Those of us who have supported expanded government power to prevent another terror attack have done so with the expectation that the FBI and Justice will have processes in place that limit potential abuses. Mr. Mueller and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales both claimed that they did.

This is another fiasco for the FBI, which may simply be incapable of effective counterterrorism. Every independent group that has looked into the FBI--including the Robb-Silberman commission--has found that the agency is failing in that duty. Whatever discipline is handed out for this latest foul-up, the country needs to debate again whether domestic antiterror functions should be taken from the FBI and given to a new agency modeled after Britain's MI5.

MI5. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a call for a new federal agency modeled on MI5; in fact, I’ve made the same sort of calls in the past. The idea is a good one except for one thing: time. It takes time to stand up a new bureaucracy, it takes time to pick and choose the personnel who will staff it, and it takes time to integrate that agency into the existing, over-large and largely inept federal intelligence community. And that’s probably the reason there’s been little or no movement on the idea. We simply do not have the luxury of time…the threat is too great and the proposed task is much too large.

Still and even, something must be done. The FBI seems immune to change, or, if not immune, incredibly resistant. Their information systems are 1970s vintage and their procedures, from all indications, are pretty much from that era, as well. I don’t believe decapitating DoJ by firing Gonzales (who does seem to deserve it) and Mueller is the answer. And I’m waaay out of my depth and area of expertise to suggest an alternate course. But I will say one thing: watching both Mssrs Gonzales and Mueller thrash about while trying to restore confidence in DoJ is painful. And that’s understating the case.

Captain Ed, as usual, has more.

Hell freezes over, SoCal edition:

AFTER WEEKS OF internal strife, House Democrats have brought forth their proposal for forcing President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008. The plan is an unruly mess: bad public policy, bad precedent and bad politics. If the legislation passes, Bush says he'll veto it, as well he should.

It was one thing for the House to pass a nonbinding vote of disapproval. It's quite another for it to set out a detailed timetable with specific benchmarks and conditions for the continuation of the conflict. Imagine if Dwight Eisenhower had been forced to adhere to a congressional war plan in scheduling the Normandy landings or if, in 1863, President Lincoln had been forced by Congress to conclude the Civil War the following year. This is the worst kind of congressional meddling in military strategy.

[…]

By interfering with the discretion of the commander in chief and military leaders in order to fulfill domestic political needs, Congress undermines whatever prospects remain of a successful outcome. It's absurd for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to try to micromanage the conflict, and the evolution of Iraqi society, with arbitrary timetables and benchmarks.

Well, OK, they’re only stating the obvious. Still, that’s a big leap for The LA Times, nu? And you know they aren’t…uh…exactly overwhelmed with their new-found common sense. Nope. They absolutely, positively, have to get their licks in on Dubya. Which they do (“Bush's wartime leadership does not inspire much confidence. But...”). And of course, there’s that inference that the Dems need to “just do it,” as in: cut off funding for the war. Or rescind the authorization to use force in Iraq. They are the LA Times, after all.

At any rate, here’s hoping Madame Speaker reads and heeds the primary thrust of the op-ed: “Quit meddling!” Faint hope, that.

Related (sorta) stuff at Don Surber’s place: “Lefties Eat Their Own.” Excerpts:

A bunch of lefty protesters gathered Sunday outside the home of a government official to demand that the U.S. cut off funding for the war in Iraq, the AP reported. The official’s name: Nancy Pelosi.

[…]

But we are dealing with people who are never satisfied with anything. They are a small group of people; AP reported there are twice as many conservatives as there are liberals (via James Joyner). They prefer looking from the outside in. Now that they are inside, they turn on their own.

This is political suicide. Jonestown really is applicable. That cult began in California and was praised by Jane Fonda. Noted the AP of this new group, “Organizers count more than 140 arrests so far nationwide. Most involve charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.”

Hmmm. On the one hand we have the LAT. On the other: moonbats.

Your move, Madame Speaker.

I don’t normally read Malkin (for the same reason I don’t read Coulter: too much bomb-throwing). But this is rich:

First, Democrat Rep. David Obey spanks "idiot liberals." Now, Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is calling out the cowards who won't debate on Fox News. Punchy!

I did the Obey thing in a previous post. But Kucinich? Speaking up for Fox News (sorta, if you kinda squint)? Who’d a thunk it?

Once again, I’ll quote Mr. Morrisey, this time on Democrats, Fox News and Kucinich:

Or, as I said earlier, how can we trust these men and women to defend the United States and stand up to Iran, North Korea, and Osama bin Laden when they run screeching from Roger Ailes and Fox's viewers?

Memo to Democrats: When Dennis Kucinich has to scold you for lacking courage, you need a serious search-and-rescue for your party's stones.

What he said!!

And now I have to go see a man about a horse fast internet connection. I’m going to pay my ISP bill in person this month rather than mail it in, because I want to know what’s up with this fiber connection I was supposed to get sometime in January. Now that it’s mid-March. Enquiring minds wanna know, as it’s said…

Rain. And Lots of It.

Still making the rounds, but today is gonna look like this. It’s been raining non-stop since I awoke about an hour and a half ago, and the wind is out of the east. Which is highly unusual for P-Town since the prevailing winds are out of the west. But…rain is good. I’ve been noticing lately that our neck of the woods isn’t included in the draught monitor segments broadcast by the WX Channel. We had a lot of rain this past fall, and I’m guessing our deficit has been made up. That’s unusual, too!

September, 2006.

Back in a bit…

Time Changes, Yet Marches On

So. Didja reset the clocks? I’m in a sort of low-level daze, and will be in that state for a few days. I hated the time change back in the day. I was always an early guy at work and usually rolled out of bed at 0430 every morning. Moving the clock ahead effectively moved my get-out-of-bed time to 0330, and that’s waaaay too damned early for any human being to get up. That first week of daylight savings time was always very hard for me. Not so much, these days. And that’s a good thing…

More on General Ali Reza Asgari, the Iranian who defected to the West last week, from The Times (UK):

AN Iranian general who defected to the West last month had been spying on Iran since 2003 when he was recruited on an overseas business trip, according to Iranian sources.

This weekend Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, 63, the former deputy defence minister, is understood to be undergoing debriefing at a Nato base in Germany after he escaped from Iran, followed by his family.

[…]

According to the Iranian sources, the escape took several months to arrange. At least 10 close members of his family had to flee the country. Asgari has two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and it is believed that all, including his daughters-in-law, are now out of Iran. Their final destination is unknown.

Wow. This reads like a John Le Carré novel. Getting someone’s entire family out of a police state is a complicated and dangerous affair for everyone involved. The man must be valuable, indeed, to risk an operation of this scope. And we (the general public) will probably never know what this really means. As for me, I’m simply glad the man defected and hope the European/American intelligence agencies use the information they obtain wisely. Read that as: to the Mullahs' GREAT detriment.

Pretty small, in the Grand Scheme of Things, yet important to some of us:

Internet radio stations are warning they could be forced off the air by a big increase in the royalties they pay to play music.

The warning comes after a decision by a US copyright body to increase royalty payments for music via the net.

Commercial webcasters in the US now face the prospect of paying more than twice as much for every track they play.

Frequent readers are aware I’m a BIG fan of Radio Paradise (see the sidebar). It pains me, considerably, to think RP might be driven out of business by such an arbitrary and ill-considered action by the frickin’ gubmint. But it ain’t just the gubmint. Oh, No…it ain’t. Enter the proverbial “special interests:”

There has been much discussion about how unfair these rates are, but our listeners find one fact particularly apalling: while Internet stations like ours are being told they must pay royalty fees that exceed their income, sometimes by several times over, FM stations - including those owned by media conglomerates like Clear Channel - pay nothing at all!

Yes, both FM stations and Internet stations pay royalties to songwriters and/or music publishers. But the royalties in question are owed to the owners of performance copyrights, which means, in most cases, record companies - and to them, FM stations pay nothing at all.

How is it possible for such a massive disparity to exist?

[…]

We are at a fork in the road. Down one path is a radio universe populated entirely by large corporations, who can either afford the legal firepower necessary to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the music industry (such as the satellite radio companies have done) or can afford to offer Internet radio as a “loss leader” (as Yahoo and AOL do).

Down the other fork we are presented with a universe of choices, freely available to all, produced by people who truly love and value what they are doing - including user-programmed channels such as those offered by lala.com, “discovery” channels such as those available at Pandora, and who knows what else in the coming years. None of those choices are viable under the new rate structure, and that would be a tremendous loss for all involved.

That’s Bill from RP, writing in an essay on Save Our Internet Radio. He speaks the truth when he says we’re “at a fork in the road.” I, for one, would simply hate to see my choices diminished, and I most certainly will not go back to commercial radio. Commercial radio lost it, years ago, to be blunt. Satellite radio is an alternative, but satellite radio isn’t nearly as eclectic or entertaining as internet radio. Although I tend to listen solely to RP, I do venture further a field on occasion. Especially when Bill goes off on a whiny sensitive singer jag….but I digress.

So. Is there anything to be done? Well, yes. Yes, there is, in a small way: Sign the online petition and open letter to the US Congress. I signed this morning and joined 14,867 other individuals who think this royalty thing is grossly unfair and a threat to our pursuit of happiness. I hope all y’all agree and sign the petition. Do it for the children!

Bedouins:

A new breed of worker, fueled by caffeine and using the tools of modern technology, is flourishing in the coffeehouses of San Francisco. Roaming from cafe to cafe and borrowing a name from the nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, they've come to be known as "bedouins."

San Francisco's modern-day bedouins are typically armed with laptops and cell phones, paying for their office space and Internet access by buying coffee and muffins.

"In 'Lawrence of Arabia,' the bedouins always felt like they were on the warpath. They had greater cause," said Niall Kennedy, a 27-year-old San Franciscan who quit his day job at Microsoft Corp. to run his own Web company, Patrick Media, out of cafes and a rented desk. "At a startup, you're always on the go, plowing ahead, with some higher cause driving you."

San Francisco's bedouins see themselves changing the nature of the workplace, if not the world at large.

Most interesting. I get the feeling that I know at least one Bedouin. The law of averages makes this possibility almost a certainty, given I worked in the IT industry (as did nearly all my friends/associates) whilst living in SFO. This wouldn’t be me, but I can relate.

From an e-mail sent by my buddy Ed in Florida:

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.

True, that! {insert smiley face here}

Today’s Pic(s): Arguably the most exciting day ever around El Casa Móvil De Pennington. To make a long story short, I was dozing on the couch on a lazy summer’s afternoon when I (finally) hear all sorts of commotion outside. I say “finally,” because it took me a while to realize things weren’t as they should be… the AC droning away in the foreground effectively masked sounds from the outside. That, coupled with the fact the TV volume has to be set on "ear-splitting" to drown out the AC. So, anyway...I raise my shades to see the trailer next door blazing away as the good guys from the Portales Fire Department methodically dealt with it. Of course, the first thing I do is grab the camera and begin shooting. It was only later I realized I should have run, not walked to the nearest exit and got the Hell away…far away…from the fire. Propane tanks, and all that.

The Fire Department came back later that same day night and put the fire out again. It seems like they missed a hot spot the first time around…and the trailer ignited again in the middle of the night. Too much excitement…

August, 2005.