Welcome to Demopedia!

"...the collaborative information clearinghouse from Democratic Underground."

I’ve been slumming again. And I never cease to be amazed at the things I find on the Left side of the house. Demopedia is almost like science fiction, in that you can explore the alternate-universe inhabited by the self-described “reality-based community.” But this isn’t fiction. There are a sizable number of people that actually belive this stuff, as demonstrated by the commenters on DU. Demopedia is the collective result of a group of people who have aggragated all the beyond-the-pale memes currently circulating on the outermost fringes on the Left. Want the latest conspiracy theory? Need a laundry list of Bushitler crimes that justify his impeachment? Need an exhaustive history of ALL the horrific things the United States has done in and to the world? Well, look no further, as a matter of fact, you can forget Google and just bookmark Demopedia. Every moonbat theory ever conceived is in the process of being itemized, described, and explained in excrutiating detail right here.

Here are a couple of articles just to get you started…all links within the quoted bits have been left intact so you may explore at will.

Impeach George W. Bush, A detailed, semi-legalese “Articles of Impeachment” (there are five), with associated laugh-a-minute “discussion” threads. And a lot of this stuff is OLD…this excerpt is from a discussion thread in May, 2005:

The little turd from Crawford:
Lied us into an Illegal Invasion, War and Occupation.
Lied when inventing phony Saddam-Osama connections.
Lied about intelligence cherry-picked to build casus belli.
Lied about not knowing about 9-11 before it happened.
Lied about letting Osama family fly out of USA after 9-11.
Lied about not knowing James R Bath.
Lied when holding hands with Dick Cheney in front of 9-11 Warren Commission.
Lied when asked: "Who outted CIA agent Valerie Plame?"

Then there are the "little" lies that still qualify as "High Crimes and Misdemeanors"
Lied about HARKEN Energy insider trading.
Lied about fixing things for bidness as governor of Texas.
Lied about tax cuts helping everybody.
Lied about not knowing Ken Lay.
Lied about Social Security.

I know there are ten billion more lies to come flying out of the crazy monkey's drunken coke-whore's pie-hole of a smirk what's his. An idea: Let's give the impeachment prosecution a head start.

What else did the liar pretzelnut George Walker Bush LIE about?

This one is just too, too precious. Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq fascinated me in all its hysteria and arcane “knowledge.” e.g., chemical-biological warfare, “popular national resistance,” and “obstructing the right to information.” This isn’t a very popular Demopedia page, as demonstrated by the hit counter that claims “This page has been accessed 305 times.” I assume the content herein is little known, and that is probably a good thing. So here’s a few excerpts…

From the Introduction:

The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all. We, people of conscience, decided to stand up. We formed the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) to demand justice and a peaceful future.

From “Overview of Findings”

4. In pursuit of their agenda of empire, the Bush and Blair governments blatantly ignored the massive opposition to the war expressed by millions of people around the world. They embarked upon one of the most unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history.

9. The illegal privatization, deregulation, and liberalization of the Iraqi economy by the occupation regime has coerced the country into becoming a client economy that is controlled by the IMF and the World Bank, both of which are integral to the Washington Consensus. The occupying forces have also acquired control over Iraq's oil reserves.

11. There is widespread opposition to the occupation. Political, social, and civil resistance through peaceful means is subjected to repression by the occupying forces. It is the occupation and its brutality that has provoked a strong armed resistance and certain acts of desperation. By the principles embodied in the UN Charter and in international law, the popular national resistance to the occupation is legitimate and justified. It deserves the support of people everywhere who care for justice and freedom.

From “Charges”

10. Re-writing the laws of a country that has been illegally invaded and occupied, in violation of international covenants on the responsibilities of occupying powers, in order to amass illegal profits (through such measures as Order 39, signed by L. Paul Bremer III for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which allows foreign investors to buy and takeover Iraq's state-owned enterprises and to repatriate 100 percent of their profits and assets at any point) and to control Iraq's oil. Evidence was presented of a number of corporations that had profited from such transactions.

11. Willfully devastating the environment, contaminating it by depleted uranium (DU) weapons, combined with the plumes from burning oil wells, as well as huge oil spills, and destroying agricultural lands. Deliberately disrupting the water and waste removal systems, in a manner verging on biological-chemical warfare. Failing to prevent the looting and dispersal of radioactive material from nuclear sites. Extensive documentation is available on air and water pollution, land degradation, and radioactive pollution.

13. Obstructing the right to information, including the censoring of Iraqi media, such as newspapers (e.g., al-Hawza, al-Mashriq, and al-Mustaqila) and radio stations (Baghdad Radio), the shutting down of the Baghdad offices of [Al Jazeera]] Television, targeting international journalists, imprisoning and killing academics, intellectuals and scientists.

15. Committing a crime against peace by violating the will of the global anti-war movement. In an unprecedented display of public conscience millions of people across the world stood in opposition to the imminent attack on Iraq. The attack rendered them effectively voiceless. This amounts to a declaration by the US government and its allies to millions of people that their voices can be ignored, suppressed and silenced with complete impunity.

Excerpts from “Against the Major Corporate Media” These are particularly RICH!

1. Disseminating the deliberate falsehoods spread by the governments of the US and the UK and failing to adequately investigate this misinformation, even in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary. Among the corporate media houses that bear special responsibility for promoting the lies about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, we name the New York Times, in particular their reporter Judith Miller, whose main source was on the payroll of the CIA. We also name Fox News, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, the BBC and ITN. This list also includes but is not limited to, The Express, The Sun, The Observer and Washington Post.

From “Recommendations”

3. That all laws, contracts, treaties, and institutions established under occupation, which the Iraqi people deem inimical to their interests, be considered null and void.

5. That there be an exhaustive investigation of those responsible for the crime of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq, beginning with George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, those in key decision- making positions in these countries and in the Coalition of the Willing, those in the military chain- of-command who master-minded the strategy for and carried out this criminal war, starting from the very top and going down; as well as personalities in Iraq who helped prepare this illegal invasion and supported the occupiers.

7. That people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war. Examples of such corporations include Halliburton, Bechtel, The Carlyle Group, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following companies have sued Iraq and received "reparation awards": Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell, Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such actions may take the form of direct actions such as shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and pressure on shareholders to divest.

8. That young people and soldiers act on conscientious objection and refuse to enlist and participate in an illegal war. Also, that countries provide conscientious objectors with political asylum.

9. That the international campaign for dismantling all US military bases abroad be reinforced.

Thank GOD this is fringe thinking. Never underestimate the power of the fringe, however, to influence and affect the opinions and thought processes of the young and impressionable. In all seriousness, it’s good to understand who we, as rational and sane people, are up against and how they think. The bonus is this krep is good for more than a few laughs, as well.

Good Looking Kids, Eh?

Appropos of nothing; just thought you'd like to see The Boys.

The top picture was taken sometime before 1991. I know the approximate date because Buck isn't sporting his Gulf War I ribbons. From left to right: Sam, as NROTC cadet; your humble scribe, six or so years post-retirement (and the uniform fit perfectly); and Buck, as a Senior Airman. I hesitate to say Buck, Jr, as he isn't a "junior." "Buck" just happens to be the common nickname given to us both. Buck is the older of the two.

The middle picture of Sam is old; in this shot he's a Lieutenant, Junior Grade (Lt, J.G.). Sam is now sporting an additional whole, not half, stripe, making him a Lieutenant Commander. I don't have his current official mug shot.

The picture of Buck at the bottom was taken this week, so it's about as current as it gets!

I wish I had a picture of my father in uniform to add to this collection. And I further wish the Old Man had lived to see his grandsons following in his footsteps. Unfortunately, my Dad died before both boys entered service. But, somehow I know he knows. And I know he's proud. As I am.

Resisting the Urge...

...to launch a rant. I won't, though I'm powerfully tempted. Today is the premier broadcast of "NHL on NBC," with three regional games on tap: Rangers vs. Red Wings, Dallas vs. Boston, and Colorado vs. Philly. Guess which game I want to watch? Guess which game I get? Colorado is up, 2-0 at the start of the second.

Stupid hockey quote of the day, so far:

Bill Clement to Ray Ferraro - "Is there any team better than the Flyers right now?"

Ferraro: "No" (albeit with much rationalization)

That said after the Red Wings handed Philly their (heads) last night, 6-3. And the Flyers are down 2-0 as I write. But this is the new NHL, where even a three goal lead ain't dog-poopie.

Saving grace for today's game: Dave Strader, one of the best commentators in hockey, is providing the play-by-play for the Avs-Flyers. Dave used to be the play-by-play guy for local Red Wings broadcasts on channel 50 in Detroit. Dave's obviously one of my favorite hockey guys, aside from the commentators on CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada." Could ya tell?

Gotta go get more cold drugs today. I thought I was getting over this krep, but no such luck. It's a persistent cold, this one! I labored under the delusion I was getting "better," all evidence to the contrary, before taking the last of the TC&F-S late last evening. So, a resupply is on the agenda today, after the game (such as it is).

Small Towns I've Known and (Sometimes) Loved

I’ve lived in a wide variety of places in my life, big and small. In America I’ve lived in big cities like the megalopolis of Los Angeles, sophisticated, moonbat-infested San Francisco, hot and humid Washington, D.C., and gritty, industrial Detroit. I’ve also lived in medium-sized cities like Oklahoma City and Rochester, NY. Internationally, I’ve lived in Tokyo, London, Paris, and Ankara, the capital of Turkey. I’ve also spent a year or longer in garden spots like Wakkanai, Japan, and Sinop, Turkey. When I say “lived,” I mean a minimum of at least a year, two years or more is better yet. It doesn’t count, in my book, to simply visit a place for a week or two, you have to live there to know it. Of all the big cities I’ve lived in, London is my favorite, by far. But that’s another story!

The place I live, Portales, is a small town. (I’ve written about Portales before; here’s the link to a city profile, and here’s a couple of pics.) I like small towns at this stage in life for a lot of reasons, chief among which are: no traffic, friendly people, low crime, and much less complexity in day-to-day living. There are drawbacks, to be sure. I’ve mentioned a few annoyances in the past, when I’ve compared living in Portales to, say, living in San Francisco. I don’t have a broadband internet connection, there are precious few good restaurants, and I can’t get a decent cup of coffee anywhere NEAR Portales. My local shopping options are also severely constrained. Nearby Clovis (pop. 30K) provides more options than Portales, but they’re still limited. I have to drive over two hours to either Lubbock, TX or Albuquerque to get into “mainstream” America as we know and love it. But, all that said, I love living here, for the moment. Things can, and do, change. I may wake up tomorrow morning and decide to hit the road. It’s good to have options!

I’ve lived in a number of other small towns besides Portales, and I have the Air Force to thank for that. Air Force bases aren’t generally located near big cities, but they usually are close to medium-sized towns, at the least. My career was different than most, in that I was in the radar business for the greatest part of my 22 years in the Air Force, and that meant being stationed in some very small towns. Here are a few of the small places I enjoyed.

When I was stationed at Fortuna Air Station, North Dakota, I lived in the smallest of small towns: Westby, Montana. Current population figures for Westby, MT are 153 people; there were (supposedly) 250 people living in Westby when I was there in 1977-78. The first three months I was at Fortuna, I lived in neighboring (30 miles west) Plentywood, MT, which had probably less than the current reported population of 1,855 people. I could have lived in the town of Fortuna (pop. 31), about three miles away from the radar site. Or there was Crosby, about 25 miles east of Fortuna, which now has all of 1,067 souls, again, probably a lot less in 1977...or perhaps there were more. One of North Dakota’s biggest problems is out-migration. People don’t want to stay up there. Obviously, there aren’t a lot of people living up in the Great White North of the United States!

Westby was great. You could walk the whole town in 15 minutes. There was a grain elevator, one gas station, two bars, four churches, a small grocery store, and a combination beauty parlor-laundromat-City Hall. There was no cable TV; we got two TV stations out of Williston, ND, and radio out of Regina, Saskatchewan. The nearest McDonalds was either in Regina, or Minot, ND. We used to go to Minot to party, which is why I laugh at Air Force people when they go on about how bad being assigned to Minot was. All in all, I loved my time in Fortuna/Westby, but I don’t think I’d live there again. It’s just TOO cold, and I mean TOO cold!

And then there’s Boron, CA. Current population is listed as 2,025 people, but once again, there were probably a lot less people there in 1970. I spent a year in Boron, and this place is probably the least favorite of all my USAF assignments. Smack in the middle of the Mojave desert, the best thing I can say about Boron is there was wonderful dirt-bike riding to be had! I could literally push my bike out of my garage and be in open desert in less than a minute. The second-best thing about Boron is that it was less than three hours from Los Angeles, and four hours to the ancestral home of the First Mrs. Pennington. She and I spent every available moment AWAY from Boron as was humanly possible.

A much, much better small town is North Bend, OR, population 9,620 people. The city of North Bend and its twin, Coos Bay run together. Coos Bay has 15,374 people. Since the two cities run together you have to say the total population is about 25,000. This is on the very fringe of what I’d call a “small town.” North Bend was one of the best assignments I had in the Air Force. Living on the Oregon coast was very, very pleasant, all things considered. The weather is mild, the location is beautiful beyond belief, and the people were very friendly. I’d live there again.

Klamath Falls, OR , on the other hand, is east of the Cascades and has an arid, almost desert-like climate. K-Falls currently has 19,000 people. I was stationed there from 1971 until 1975. I’ve been back once, and once was enough. Nothing remarkable there.

And finally…there’s Lompoc, CA, with a current population of 46,000 people. The city (?) had more like 25,000 when I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB from 1964 until 1967. Both of my adult children were born at the VAFB hospital and the First Mrs. Pennington still lives in Lompoc. A nice, quiet little town back in the day. My kids tell me Lompoc has gang problems these days and is suffering from growth problems, e.g., housing cost inflation. I’ll always remember Lompoc fondly; I had some great times there!

So. Small towns. Love ‘em, or leave ‘em. I’ll love mine for a while longer, thank you!

Update, 01/13/2006, 2:30 p.m. I forgot Biloxi, MS. How could I forget Biloxi? Like all other Americans, my heart aches for Biloxi these days. This small town on the Gulf Coast is home to Keesler AFB and has suffered more than most from hurricanes. I knew Biloxi before and after hurricane Camille, having been to Keesler for training in 1963, 1967, 1972, and 1980. All told, I spent the better part of two years in Biloxi, if you aggregate the time I spent there on four PCS/TDY assignments.

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Biloxi. I spent a good portion of the "wild" days of my youth in some of the best and worst dive bars in all of North America. I lolled on the beach. I played with my kids in various parks in and around Biloxi. I made the short trip from Biloxi to New Orleans more times than I can remember. I ate some of the best seafood I ever had in Biloxi and neighboring towns. Yea, I have fond, fond memories of Biloxi. And I wish the residents of this lovely town all the best in their efforts to rebuild their city and their lives.

TGIF. Again? My, How Time Flies!

TGIF is simply a remnant expression from past lives...every day is Friday at this stage in my life! Don't mean to rub it in, you know, but it is what it is! I used to look forward to Fridays with real anticipation, not simply because it was the end of the week, but because it meant the Usual Suspects at the work place would congregate after work at one watering hole or another. I miss those gatherings tremendously!

So, today's agenda includes cleaning up a not insignificant portion of eastern New Mexico that deposited itself in the form of fine grit and dust on every horizontal surface in my humble abode. It's the usual ritual after a dust storm, and one I'm still not used to. I never cease to be amazed at how much dirt manages to work its way into the house during these storms.

Here's a round-up of some of the best from this morning's reading...

The 20 Most Annoying Liberals in the US, 2005 Edition. John Hawkins, at Right Wing News. My favorite moonbat wins the “Most Annoying” title, well-deserved.

Green House Gasbags, or “Conspicuous conservation is a huge waste of energy.” A treatise on 4,000+ square feet dwellings that are “green.” You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. “Touch the earth gently,” indeed.

Here’s a good roundup of comment on the Alito hearings. Many tasty links to follow, including the one to John Hawkins’ blog (below), which merits an entry all its own. My favorite comment from this segment: “Attacking Alito is like eating Chinese food: An hour later, you're angry again.” Actually, this installment of “Best of the Web” has SO many good entries it’s hard to pick which one I like the best. Read it all!

The Kos Kidz Go After Alito’s Wife. John Hawkins, again. I haven’t been to dKos in a while, and that’s probably a good thing. Here are a couple of sample comments Mr. Hawkins dredged up from the sewer that is the comments section of dKos:

fugue: CRY...CRY...WTF???
My question. This is not some rated 'G' family oriented hearing. This is how the nation gives somebody the right to interpret it's constitution for the next decades.
WILL SHE INFLUENCE HIS ABILITY to JUDGE????
next thing we know, this guy will do whatever the wifey is crying for. (omg, omg, they are killing unborn baby...waaa waaa....)
WTF?
GO HOME...
This is the MOST blatant attempt to manipulate public emotion. She should go f*ck herself."


Maine Atticus: WTF is she doing there, anyway! She should be home baking cookies and making more home-made clothes!
Why do wives, or husbands for that matter have to hang around, looking like complete *sses at these hearings?
Another stupid cow married to another Nazi motherf*cker.
Cry, you cow. You moron. You sh*thead married to a man who would destroy this country!
Cry? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Despicable. Simply despicable. Sometimes I'm at a loss for words after reading comments like these. Why must we demonize and insult each other? What's the point? The interesting thing about these commenters is most all of them use pseudonyms. Perhaps the discourse would be more civil if people were required to use their REAL names when commenting. Feh.

Turbulent Thursday

The post title refers to the weather...the High Plains, which includes most of eastern New Mexico from the I-40 corridor down to Roswell, is under a "severe wind advisory" until 5:00 p.m. In addition to the usual verbiage about high-sided vehicles being susceptible to cross-winds, the National Weather Service also includes advice to "postpone all outdoor burning." Good advice, since our winds are a constant 32 mph at the moment, with gusts to 45 mph. Lord knows we've had "issues" with the landscape bursting into flames of late. Not so much in New Mexico as Texas and Oklahoma, but enough to justify worry.

I'm still fairly low and slow today. I'm not up to anything that, however remotely, could be called intellectually challenging. Of course there are those folks who would respond with "What's new? Are you ever up to being intellectually challenged?" Uh, no. Not at all! {shaddup}

I've had C-SPAN on all morning, semi-watching the last Q&A session (read that: inquisition) between Judge Alito and the Senate Judiciary Committee. No high drama today. Move along, nothing to see here.

I haven't scanned the news so I'm blissfully unaware of what's happening in the world. Exception: I did read that 345 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in Saudi Arabia's Annual Hajj Stampede, despite new and improved anti-stampede measures introduced this year. It's probably all Bush's fault. Or, at the very least, the ineptitude of his political appointees responsible for coordinating international protocols for The Running of the Bulls, Hajj Stampedes, and Black Friday Wal-Mart Sales.

I spent the better part of this morning reading old posts from the archives of Neo-neocon. I love the way this woman writes. We (obviously?) have a shared POV on most things political. Although my political conversion from Liberal to Conservative pre-dates her conversion by 20 years or so (late-70s vs. 2001), the conversion process was/is remarkably similar. My "earlier" conversion is more a function of age than of prescience. Her series, "A Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change," is HIGHLY recommended reading!

Today I discovered one of Neo's heroes is Winston Churchill, another shared trait. My journey into Neo's archives began with this post containing Robert Frost quotations, and led, predictably, to the Churchill post and other subsequent links. In a previous life I used to append a "Daily Quote" to the Daily Operations Reports I disseminated (daily!) to corporate Senior Management; Ol' Winnie was a reliable and very-well-used source for many of those daily quotes. Reading Churchill quotes brought back some pleasant memories of employed-days-gone-by.

I'm working on putting up a post about one of my oldest, most nagging pet peeves in life, but am stuck. I've done a lot of Googling and reading up on the subject, but here's the crux of my problem: I feel one shouldn't complain about anything in life unless one has a suitable alternative course of action. And I don't have an alternative. So, do I violate my principles and essentially say "Here's something I don't like" and leave it at that? Or just fuggedaboutit altogether? Decisions, decisions...

And so it goes...

A Poignant Moment...

...during the Alito confirmation hearings. Senator Lindsey Graham delivered an apology to Judge Alito on behalf of his Democratic colleagues, which is a left-handed way of saying Graham politely beat the living dogshit out of Senators Schumer, Kennedy, and Feingold for their incredibly disparaging remarks and innuendo about Judge Alito's character. (Background here)

So, that's poignant, you say? No, it wasn't the apology that was poignant, it was Mrs. Alito's reaction. The TV camera, while focused on Judge Alito, also caught Mrs. Alito trying to control herself as the tears came. She eventually got up and left the hearing room, obviously distraught.

Mrs. Alito had obviously had enough of listening to partisan hacks, disguised as senators, besmirch her husband's character with absolutely no valid reason to do so. Senator Graham's apology simply brought her emotions to the breaking point.

I find it amazing there are good, decent men and women left in this country who remain willing to undergo trial by innuendo in order to serve the nation. WHY would a rational person consent to this sort of ordeal? Every nominee knows what's coming, yet they continue to volunteer. I just thank God they come forward, and hope they continue to do so.

It's hard for me to lose respect for Schumer or Kennedy since what little respect I had disappeared long, long ago. Feingold is another story, but he's rapidly getting to "moonbat" in my book.

More here, here, here, and here. Un-freaking-believeable.

A Wednesday Warble

Nice day, today. We’ll be in the low seventies by the afternoon, so it’s warm, and breezy (as usual). Nothing much on the ol’ plate today. I may go get a haircut. Or a dog license. It’s a toss-up, at this point. If I opt for the license, I’ll have to buy a new collar to go with it, so I’ll prolly do the haircut.

Lileks has a new Screedblog up. It’s a good one, as usual. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll say “New Screedblog, don’t bother.” But I doubt it. Here’s the lede paragraph:

The story made every Blue Stater sit up straight and hiss: the mask has dropped. It’s begun. A college student at the U of Mass. requested a copy of Mao’s “Little Red Book” from the library, and was subsequently visited by Federal agents. A professor vouched for his tale. The news wires picked up the story. Blogs frothed. Columnists great and small rent their garments. Finally, the true face of Chimpy W. Pretzelchoker’s Amerikkka had shown itself. Today, goon-squads bracing innocent Mao scholars; tomorrow, the Reichstag burns. No, that was 9/11. Tomorrow, Kristallnacht! The worst has come true, and things are looking up!

And since we’re talking links…The Anchoress provided tasty links to the following two articles…and she has LOTS more!

Mark Steyn, in the Chicago Sun-Times: U.S. shouldn't have to do tap dance over bugging. Sample grafs:

It shouldn't be necessary to point out the obvious. But, unmoored from reality, wafting happily into fantasy land safe in the hermetically sealed Democrat-media bubble, Sen. Barbara Boxer and her colleagues are apparently considering impeaching the president for eavesdropping on al Qaida calls made to U.S. phone numbers. Surely, even Karl Rove can't get that lucky.

By the way, I'd love to see the witness list for that trial: Muhammad al-Jihad testifying that a week before he blows up a Bali nightclub he always makes a perfectly innocent call to his cousin in Milwaukee to ask how the kids are; Abu Musad al-Zarqawi testifying that he only called Howard Dean to issue a formal complaint about congressional Democrats stealing his rationalizations. Etc.
The Democrats and the media want to upgrade every terrorist into O.J. Simpson, insulated by legalisms and entitled to his own dream team. (Their figleaf, the court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which previously denied not a single request, has turned down hundreds in the years since 9/11.) The practical effect of the Dems' approach is to extend the protections of the U.S. Constitution to any dodgy character anywhere on the planet who has a U.S. telephone number in his Rolodex.

Intel, Lies, and Treason, by Ralph Peters in the NY Post (registration required, or you could go here to avoid giving out your e-mail addy) The lede:

January 9, 2006 -- ACCORDING to the Democratic Party's leaders, we all have been betrayed by the Bush administration's Big Brother intelligence tactics as evil government operatives invaded the privacy of innocent Americans.
Stop lying. Show us the victims.

Name one honest citizen who has been targeted by our intelligence system. Name one innocent man or woman whose life has been destroyed. Come on, Nancy. Give it up, Howard. Name just one.

And then…

I worked in the intel field for 22 years and still give occasional lectures at various agencies, and the truth is that analysts and technicians work in cubicles that would make Dilbert run screaming. Recent recruiting efforts mean that more-senior officials work in cubicles, too.

Our intelligence professionals could make more money in private industry. But they serve because they believe in our country and their mission. And not one of them goes to work in the morning asking, "How can I do a bad job for my fellow citizens today? How can I subvert the Constitution?"

I’ve been trying, rather half-heartedly, to watch the Judge Sam Alito confirmation hearings on C-SPAN. Emphasis on trying. The bottom line is that I’ve been unsuccessful. I understand watching would be good for me, sorta like cod-liver oil for the brain. But I can’t seem to pay attention in my current state. Which brings us to…

Cold Update. Still here, still suffering. Yesterday morning I ruined my coffee by taking a dose of TC&F-S immediately upon waking up. Bad move. That stuff is so strong it screws up your taste buds for an hour or more. So today I opted for coffee over medicine. The coffee is nearly exhausted, so it must be time to relieve the headache and incredible congestion. Boy, will I EVER be glad when this shite runs it course…

And so it goes....

Just Checking In...

Blogging will be light to non-existent today because I've entered Third-Stage cold-ness. By that I mean colds are predictable in their development and progression, at least that's my experience. The First Stage is awareness...you're off-center, slightly congested, and ill-humored. You know there's nastiness coming in the very near future. The Second Stage features all symptoms in full-bloom: sore throat, cough, and full-frontal mucous attacks. For me, the Third (and final) Stage is when the cold settles into your chest, characterized by much hacking, wheezing, and general unpleasantness. When I'm in the Third Stage I lose interest in most everything. Third-Stage can last a day or two, at the most; worst-case is a Third-Stage cold turns into bronchitis. Let us pray...

Normal programming will resume in the near future. In the meantime, I'd like to share an editorial I read last night. Key grafs:

The real House GOP problem isn't about lobbyists so much as it is the atrophying of its principles. As their years in power have stretched on, House Republicans have become more passionate about retaining power than in using that power to change or limit the federal government. Gathering votes for serious policy is difficult and tends to divide a majority. Re-election unites them, however, so the leadership has gradually settled for raising money on K Street and satisfying Beltway interest groups to sustain their incumbency.

This strategy has maintained a narrow majority, but at the cost of doing anything substantial. The last year in particular was an historic lost opportunity. House Republicans were also the main culprit in watering down Medicare reform, while Ohio's Mike Oxley has run the Financial Services Committee more or less as liberal Barney Frank would. Beyond welfare reform and tax cuts (and perhaps health-savings accounts), the GOP has achieved little in the last decade that will outlast the next Democratic majority.

The WSJ, it speaks for me. In other words: WAKE UP, GOP!

Random Notes

Talk about change. Saturday we had a high of 73 degrees with bright sunshine and a bit of wind; yesterday our high was 68, with the same bright sunshine; today it's snow flurries outside my window with a current temp of 36, on its way to all of 46. And it's gray, gray, gray. Not to mention cold, inside as well as out. I've mentioned this before: RVs are not very well-insulated. They're drafty as Hell, as a matter of fact! I'm gonna burn a lot of propane today and tonight...

Late last night or early this morning, depending on your POV, I was singing the praises of Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe. I won't take it ALL back, but I have noticed TC&F-S isn't very good at eliminating sinus blockage. While I wouldn't call it pain, I am suffering from considerable pressure behind and below my right eye...pressure that makes me think I'll have a huge mess to clean up if and when the sinus dam breaks. It's that bad. But, otherwise, I'm thankful the stuff works as well as it does. My dosage had worn completely away by the time I woke up this morning, and the difference between being ON the drugs and OFF them is astonishing.

Here, via The Captain, is an amusing bit of alcoholic Aussie fluff. The site will prompt you to download an Active-X control to view the vid; I did and can vouch for its safety. The vid is quite clever, but I'm not sure it will sell any beer. Maybe in Oz...

And here, via my friend Catherine in SFO, are the results of the 2005 WaPo Mensa Invitational, where "readers (are asked) to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition." My favorites:

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an ass.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

There are 18 in all.

Ageism! I protest! As a semi-geriatric American, I find this offensive! (Just trying to see what it's like, you know, to be one of The Perpetually Offended.) (via Gerard Vanderleun)

Also from Gerard: Say Good-Night to the Dragon Lady. Hard to believe.

And it's still snowing. Kinda pretty, as long as it melts when it hits the ground. So far, so good.

Another Town Hall Intervention

Smash gives Congressman Bob Filner fits at one of those (by now) infamous "Town Hall" meetings. You just have to read the whole thing. Congressman Filner is on a par with Dubya when it comes to eloquence and use of the language. Unlike the President, however, Mr. Filner is totally bereft of ideas, beyond the usual "it's all about oil" and "send in the UN."

Smash sets the congressman straight, in fact, it's a total take-down.

(via Lex)

Images of New Mexico

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Main Street, Portales, NM. 7/21/2005, 0328 hrs. I stood on the corner, in the middle of the street, on the sidewalk...all OVER the place...taking pictures at 3:30 in the morning and saw nary a soul, nary a car, for over an hour. I kinda like that.

Previously, in the archives:

Shiprock (I)

Very Large Array near Soccorro, NM (II)

Flightline, Cannon AFB (III)

Taos Church (San Francisco de Asis) (IV)

US 84 Roadside (V)
Valley of Fires (VI)
Brazos Cliffs (VII)

Wal-Mart, Check Out Lanes, and Drugs

I woke up from a Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe induced sleep around 11:30, raided the fridge, ate, and washed the day’s dishes. I then sat myself down at 12:15 to put up a post, clicked on “Create” and… nothing. The "create" page wouldn't load. So I’m writing in Word and will publish later, if and when Blogger comes back around. It may be a weekly maintenance period, Sunday nights are favored for this sort of activity.

So. Wal-Mart. I like the self-checkout lanes. I could walk right up to the self-checkout lanes, do my business, and get the Hell out of Dodge for about a month after they installed them in the P-Town Wally-World. In other words: no line. Things have changed; I had to wait in line for a self-checkout today. Technophobia has been cured in Portales. Well, sorta. You know how it is when you’re behind a doofus at the ATM? As in, the guy who has no idea how much money is in his checking account, and has to check his balance TWICE ("Hmm. That can't be right...") before unsuccessfully trying to withdraw 50 dollars, and then settles for 20? It’s an order of magnitude worse in a self-checkout line, especially if the customer is buying produce, i.e., no bar code. Take my word for it. I'd never make it as an assistant manager at Wal-Mart; my ability to deal with stupidity is pretty limited and my lack of tact is renowned. Bad juju when dealing with the public.

I had to get a supervisor’s approval before I could complete my checkout today. Why? Because I bought not one, but TWO bottles of Cold and Flu – Severe. One daytime, one nighttime. Makes sense, right? You’d think I was trying to buy a Schedule One Controlled Substance instead of cold medicine. It seems people have found out you can get by high by quadrupling the dose, or snorting it, or shooting it up, or something. Somewhere, in some State or Federal database, a small entry was made today: “Buck Pennington, Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe, two bottles, 01/08/2006.” Sheesh.

You really should “feed a cold.” The Beeb sez so. I always get that stuff mixed up, never remembering if I should feed or starve myself, or both, when I’m ill. But thanks to the Internets, and AlGore, I can find the correct answer in .02 seconds. That AlGore is one smart fella, even if he does get his Unums and his Pluribuses confused.

Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe really is good stuff. The running tap that is my right sinus cavity was shut OFF about a half-hour after taking the first dose, my head opened up, my throat became smooth and friendly, and my cough disappeared. I slept peacefully for a full six hours. Yea, verily: I histamine no more! No wonder TCF-S is a controlled substance.

I feel something like Navy guys must feel when doing "port and starboard" watches...six on, six off, rinse, repeat. Having a cold means I sleep a lot but sleep irregularly. My circadian rhythms are hosed to begin with, this cold will only make things worse. I know: bitch, bitch, bitch. I do it because I CAN.

Yep. It's a Cold.

Just finished the coffee and threw the third Viva paper towel sheet in the trash. Lord, I luv me some Viva! Paper towels non-pareil, they are...what with doing triple duty as cleaning cloths, napkins, and Kleenex, too. Their primary duty today is Kleenex. I'm also glad I have a new roll lurking in the kitchen cabinet; I'm gonna need it before this cold is done and gone.

And, speaking of which, I'm trying to work up the energy to make myself presentable and cruise on down to Wal-Mart to get some cold remedies. Before turning in early this morning I took a couple of Tylenols for this sore throat and was amazed to find all the bottles of pain relievers in my medicine cabinet were well beyond their expiration dates. I'm not quite sure what that means, beyond the fact that my medicine cabinet hasn't been cleaned out in quite a while. The Tylenol seemed to work, despite the fact it's expired. One pill bottle went directly into the trash; the prescription date was 11/30/19-freaking-94. Why would I hold on to pills for over 11 years, anyway? Clue: they were good drugs. Real good.

So. Off to the showers. Wally-World is calling.

Dammit.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. "I hate it when that happens," he said, displaying his immediate grasp of the obvious. I've been listing to starboard all day, being not quite right in that indefinable sort of way. Actually it IS definable. I originally thought I'd developed a minor sinus problem...stuffed up, unable to clear, etc. But in the last two hours I've also acquired that scratchy throat that is the harbinger of worse times to come. {sigh} Tomorrow will tell, for sure. I'll probably be off to Wally-World in the morn to load up on decongestants, Nyquil and the like.

A cold isn't all that unusual, right? Wrong. Portales has been an incredibly healthy place for me, especially compared to SFO, where it seemed like I was constantly inflicted with low-level colds that turned into the occasional bout of severe bronchitis. I attribute that unfortunate set of circumstances to my daily excursions on crowded BART trains and unavoidable exposure to all sorts of semi-lethal airborne microbes.

In the three years I've been in Portales I've had exactly ONE cold. That's it: one. And I'm certain I picked up that lil piece of nastiness at my grandson's school while attending a school play. Makes me wonder why someone hasn't invented some sort of general disinfectant system for elementary schools, which, as we all know, are the Mothers of All Colds. It should be pretty simple to load, say, ten gallons of a diluted Lysol solution into the overhead sprinkler system and spray the place down every night around midnight. Ditto for the kids as they walked in the door in the morning...sorta like a mini-CBR (Chem-Bio-Radiological) decontamination station...you'd just have the kids walk through a Lysol mist everyday and Voila! No more colds! (No need to thank me, unless you make money off of this.)

Anyway. As I said, Portales has been very healthy for me. Until today.

Blogroll Addition

Warrant Officer Michael D. Fay is the United States Marine Corps' Artist in Residence in Iraq; I stole the drawing above from his blog, Fire and Ice. Not only is WO Fay a superb artist, he is also an accomplished photographer and writer. His drawings are accompanied by straight-forward descriptions of his subjects and not infrequently by writing that is, in a word, poetic. Stop by and pay him a visit!

(Hat-tip: Neo-neocon.)

Speaking Truth to Power, Military Division

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) held a Town Hall meeting Thursday evening in Arlington, Virginia, as reported by the WaPo yesterday on page B-3. In a rather unusual move, Rep. Moran invited Congressman John Murtha to participate in the Town Hall. The WaPo reports:

Before a crowd of about 600 people that spilled out of the auditorium and into an overflow room and the street, Murtha accused the Pentagon of ignoring a drop in recruitment levels and tolerating such problems in Iraq as low morale and shortages of body armor and other equipment.

The Town Hall was very well-attended, thanks in part to an e-mail campaign by MoveOn.org to mobilize its anti-war members. FreeRepublic heard about the MoveOn campaign and launched a campaign of its own, urging pro-war individuals to turn out, as well.

But about Truth to Power… One member of the audience was less than impressed with Murtha’s military bashing. Former Army sergeant Mark Seavey stood up and delivered the following to Reps Moran and Murtha during the Q&A session (via Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette):

"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)

"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause)

The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."

Moran - who is one of the few congressmen supporting Charlie Rangel's call to restore the draft - responded quickly: "That wasn't in the form of a question, it was in the form of a statement. But, uhh... let's go over here." And he took the next question.

That was not in the form of a response to Sgt Seavey in any way shape or form.

You need to read all of Greyhawk’s post, Murtha vs the Army, over at Mudville Gazette. In addition to the foregoing piece about former Sgt. Seavey, Greyhawk has lots more on Murtha, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace’s comments on Murtha’s statement that he wouldn’t join the military today. And many, many links to what others are saying about Congressman Murtha.

Michelle Malkin has a link to a video file of Seavey’s comments Thursday evening, but I couldn’t get the link to work. I imagine the poor server hosting that file has been pounded into a molten puddle of aluminum from all the download requests it’s received. But, try it anyway.

I don’t understand Murtha at all. The man served 37 years in the Marine Corps, retiring as a colonel in 1990 (bio here). Prior to about eight months ago, Rep. Murtha was generally regarded by the Pentagon, and by the military in general, as one of the “friendliest” congressmen toward the military on The Hill. No more. Representative Murtha is certainly entitled to his opinions on the Iraq war. But when he gets his facts wrong (once again, see Greyhawk) and indulges in rhetoric that is clearly counter-productive to the war effort he comes across as a fuzzy-thinking old man who belongs in a rocking chair on his front porch, rather than in the congress of the United States. But he’s a hero to the anti-war Left. Go figure.

Update 01/07/2006, 1200 hrs: See also James Taranto in the WSJ's "Best of the Web." Taranto writes MoveOn.org actually sponsored the Town Hall. The last graf:

The good news is that the "antiwar" movement is not serious. If it were, it would not have to rely on fringe figures like Murtha, Moran and Cindy Sheehan.

"Simply Shocking"

Andrew C. McCarthy, in National Review, on leaks by anonymous FISA court judges, as related by the WaPo in this article: “Surveillance Court Is Seeking Answers — Judges Were Unaware of Eavesdropping.” Excerpt:

Even more mind-blowing, though, is to find them (ed: FISA Court judges) discussing what they see as the merits of the issue. Without having heard any facts or taken any submissions on the governing law — and in the cowardice of anonymity — here they are speculating for the media about what positions they might take depending on how the administration answers their questions. Here they are preliminarily weighing in on the validity of defense claims in cases where FISA evidence was introduced. This is an inexplicable judicial misconduct.

McCarthy is outraged; you should be, too.

Ariel Sharon is NOT Dead

Updated at 11:45 a.m., MST. Ariel Sharon is not dead, he remains hospitalized in a medically induced coma; the source for the post I wrote is the lead item at memeorandum, which quotes an article from World Tribune.com. memeorandum is not updated as of this writing. The lead sentence in the Tribune article:

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, the most powerful Israeli leader in 50 years, has died, Middle East Newsline reported.

I apologize for my incorrect item. My original post continues below, unedited.

This morning, US time, of complications from the massive stroke he suffered two days ago. Charles Krauthammer believes Sharon's death is a calamity of unimaginable proportions for Israel. Austin Bay is of the same opinion and provides links to significant analyses and opinions.

There will probably be rejoicing in Ramallah and other parts of Palestine. That rejoicing will be terribly misplaced, for Sharon provided Isreal with true leadership, leadership capable of moving towards a just resolution of the Israel - Palestine conflict.

Let us pray that things don't go back to "business as usual," that is, the never-ending cycle of violence that has come to pass as the status quo in that part of the world.

RIP, Ariel Sharon.

TGIF and Miscellanea

Dr. Sanity has a good analysis and rebuttal to Glenn Greenwald’s verbose dissertation on the Bush administration’s ability to engender fear and paranoia about terrorism in the public’s mind. A sample from Mr. Greenwald:

“…Bush opponents must finally overcome the one weapon which has protected George Bush again and again: fear. Fear of terrorism is what the Administration has successfully inflamed and exploited for four years in order to justify its most extreme and even illegal actions undertaken in the name of fighting terrorism.”

“Without pause, the Administration has sought to make Americans as frightened as possible about terrorism and has used that fear to justify its actions with regard to almost every issue.”

Dr. Sanity posits Mr. Greenwald has his own fears, and then asks:

The basic tenor of his fear is easy to deduce: while we are fighting this illusory enemy, Bushitler has been amassing power and will soon set himself up as a dictator and destroy our freedom. I will let you decide who we have to fear more--the President of the United States or the religious fanatics of Islam who want to obtain a nuclear weapon? Who do we have to fear more: those who are trying to prevent another 9/11 or those who would like nothing better than to do something even worse in our country?

A good read, and a good response when your liberal friends accuse you of succumbing to BushCheney-induced “fear.” As the ol’ saying goes: “It ain’t paranoia when the bastards are really out to get you!”

Via Powerline: A brief but unnoticed moment of sanity in the NSA surveillance kerfluffle:

Rep. Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Dec. 21:
As the Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, I have been briefed since 2003 on a highly classified NSA foreign collection program that targeted Al Qaeda. I believe the program is essential to US national security and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities.

I’ve been watching the rerun of this morning’s Washington Journal on C-SPAN with one eye while doing my morning reading with the other. Brian Lamb interviewed the political editor from The Center for Public Integrity, who stepped the audience through various pages on the Center’s web site. There’s a wealth of information on this site about who’s lobbying whom, and how much the lobbyists spend, in an aggregated form. As an example, I was curious about the USAF. After a very quick search on the web site, here are the top ten organizations lobbying the Air Force:

1) Northrop Grumman Corp.
2) General Dynamics Corp.
3) Twenty-First Century Partnership
4) Northwest Airlines Corp.
5) Military Officers Association of America
6) Abilene Industrial Foundation
7) Federal Managers Association
8) Firearms Training Systems
9) Non Commissioned Officers Association
10) Lockheed Martin

No real surprises there, other than wondering just who, or what, the “21st Century Partnership” is? Another interesting aspect of this site is the ability to identify the lobbying firms, individual lobbyists (by name), the states doing lobbying (in the USAF’s case, Virginia was number one), and countries lobbying the USAF. Yes, countries. In USAF’s case, 99% of the lobbying is done by US-based organizations. But the UK, Israel, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Sweden (?) each had at least one instance of lobbying contact between 1998 and 2004.

The web site contains various “projects,” one of which is the Telecommunications and Media project. You can search the Telecom Project by zip code and get a comprehensive report of who owns the media in your neck of the woods, how many outlets (print, radio, TV) there are, and a complete listing of those companies. As an example, I found there are 16 radio stations, five TV stations, and two newspapers in the Clovis-Portales area. Interesting stuff!

There’s much, much more. One could spend hours exploring the various projects and features on this fascinating site.

Random Notes

Slept in very, very late this morning. I was surprised when I looked at my watch and saw it was ten o’clock and I was still a-bed. That doesn’t happen very often, even considering I didn’t get to sleep until around 2:00 a.m. Too much excitement, and by that I mean:

Texas 41, USC 38.

Won with 19 seconds left on the clock. Texas down by 12 with six minutes and change left to play. Vince Young pulls out the stops and scores two touchdowns AND runs for a two-point conversion; the Texas defense puts the full-stop on USC. Does it get any better than that? Well, does it?

I’m thinking the Heisman folks want a do-over on this year’s vote. As noted on ESPN:

Game Ball Goes To: Vince Young. May have been the greatest championship game performance ever. The Texas QB threw for 267 yards, ran for 200 more and scored three TDs -- including the game-winner with 0:19 left.

This game will be talked about for years to come; if you missed it, you missed The Best Bowl Game, Ever. And quite possibly the best college football game, ever.

Screedblog is back! The acerbic Lileks is the best Lileks, IMHO. Two entries in this year’s opener, one a riff on that must-read Mark Steyn op-ed in the WSJ, and the other with 2006 predictions. Samples:

I defy anyone to find anything in a modern newspaper as bracing or blunt – or as long, for that matter – as this much-discussed Mark Steyn piece on the decline of the West. I’ve felt the same things for the last few years, and it’s not out of some grim censorious distaste for eyebrow rings and wardrobe malfunctions. I do not worry about libertinism. I worry about libertines who think the greatest threat to the imminent Utopia is a Wal-Mart exec who refuses to stock a CD because the lyrics celebrate shooting cops in the head, or who think that uptight repressed Christers are six inches and five days away from replacing the Constitution with the plot of “A Handmaiden’s Tale.” The people who make a religion of environmentalism (I read “State of Fear” over the vacation break, and I can see why it horrified so many; it simply wasn’t helpful. While I don’t doubt that Crichton votes Dem – I just have a feeling – it was cruel & delightful fun to read a novel where George Soros Sees The Light, and Ted Danson is eaten by cannibals), the people who consider themselves enlightened but believe all sorts of pseudo-scientific nonsense (no pesticides for us! We only eat vegetables nutured by donkey offal), the people who regard the entire modern world as a giant horrid Cancer Machine designed by callous top-hatted industrialists. My father is 80 years old, healthy as an ox, Zorba-strong, and he’s been breathing petroleum fumes since 1952. They see threats and perils everywhere except where there are, you know, threats and perils.

And

The New York Times, fresh from reporting the self-destruct codes for the American spy satellites that had inadvertently listened into fifteen pay-per-view porn orders from cable subscribers in Omaha, revealed that US subs have been violating Chinese territorial waters to monitor military communications. The Times named the boat, the captain, his home address, and posted his credit report online. The boat was never heard from again, and was presumed sunk. Outrage was swift – but only when the Justice Department demanded the names of the people who’d leaked the secret information. “Not content with destroying the Fourth Amendment, this administration seems intent on demolishing the First,” said one legal expert who appeared on CNN but declined to give his name, fearing reprisals. (His name was later leaked to the Times, which printed it, but declined to name its sources.)

Chastened, The Administration begged the Times to put all its classified leaks in the “Times Select” online subscription-only service, guaranteeing no one will read them.

As it’s said: read it all!

A Good Man Goes Down. Another victim of Abu Ghraib:

General Sanchez has told senior Army officials that he plans to retire, probably this summer, rather than face a bruising Senate confirmation fight over any new assignment, said two senior officials who were granted anonymity because General Sanchez has not made his decision public. As recently as last summer, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was considering elevating General Sanchez to the four-star command overseeing the military's operations in Latin America. The general's promotion would have showcased the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic officer and his compelling personal story of growing up poor in southern Texas and using the military as a bootstrap out of poverty.

The USA loses one of its most talented generals at a time when we can least afford the loss. More’s the pity.

Hey! We’re Rich! An interesting blurb on American household wealth, which is greater now than at any other point in history. So much for all the angst about household DEBT, eh?

At a Loss, so It's Cars

I'm experiencing my first bout of blogger's angst this morning: what to write? I'm in no mood to consider anything political, as a matter of fact I'm resolved to completely avoid the NYT and the WaPo today. One of the best New Years resolutions I read this past week came in the form of a suggested action:

"Minimize negative input; cancel your subscription to the New York Times."

While I'm not a subscriber, I do have the Times (both the London and New York varieties), the WaPo, and the Guardian bookmarked. Reading the news invariably gets me exercised, which substantiates and validates the suggestion about minimizing negative input. So today I will take a break from all things political, even as The Usual Suspects return to Washington and gear up for confirmation hearings, investigative hearings, and other forms of ritualistic dung-throwing. A pox on their houses.

Yesterday was brilliant. I got a great night's sleep, awoke early, read some great stuff, exchanged New Year's greetings with old friends via e-mail, and drove over to Clovis in the early morn for breakfast. I drove over to Clovis with the top up; it was chilly at 8:30 a.m., somewhere in the mid-fifties. After a huge and very satisfying breakfast I ran the car through the car wash and motored on out to the base.

I got a huge and pleasant surprise on the base: I saw my first Pontiac Solstice. Portales/Clovis isn't the capital of American Kar Kulture, not by any stretch of the imagination, unless your particular niche is pick-ups. You'll see any number of ultra-new Dodge Hemi-powered pickups, Ford F-450 diesel dualies, and the like in and around Portales. But cutting edge cars? Nope. The new Corvette has been on the market for nearly two years and I haven't seen a single example on the local roads, nor has the local Chevy dealer had one on the lot, as far as I can tell. So it was a big surprise to see a Solstice on the base, especially considering I've read Pontiac's entire production run for 2006 is sold out.

I'll be in the market for a new car around the middle of next year, and right now the short-list includes the new Miata and the Solstice. I have had extreme good luck with my Miata (knock on wood); everything still works, it starts every morning right on cue, it's relatively cheap to run, and above all: it's a freaking BLAST to drive. And all this after over five years of ownership. Positive experiences like this tend to breed owner loyalty. The Solstice is in second place as a candidate replacement for the Green Hornet at the moment, especially after I did three parking lot walk-arounds of the shiny black-on-black example I saw yesterday.

To begin with, I'm not impressed with the car's real-world appearance; there's something about the car I can't quite put my finger on. The Solstice looks pretty good in pictures, but in reality the large expanse of front-end paint coupled with small grille openings are out of proportion. The car also has a high belt line that would appear to make hanging your arm on the door sill uncomfortable, if not impossible. Overall, I'm not impressed with the Solstice's design, now that I've seen one in the flesh. I don't think I'd trade my current Miata for a new Solstice, based on appearances alone. Appearance isn't everything, of course. I've not seen a new Miata so I can't make a direct comparison of the two cars.

I'm a "buy and hold" kind of guy when it comes to cars; I don't change cars every two years or so. Given that fact, I make my automotive purchases after a LOT of careful consideration. The process has begun, and the Solstice isn't in the lead. A pity, that. I SO wanted to want one, badly. The "Buy American" impulse is very strong at the moment, especially since GM is in such dire straits. But I won't buy second-best.

So. It was just after 11:00 a.m. when I left the base and the temp had climbed up into the mid-60s. The top came down and I enjoyed an alfresco 80-mph ride between the base and home. It's a wonderful thing when you can motor briskly down the road on the third of January with the top down. And not have to deal with traffic or assorted Weird-Os. Wonderful, indeed.

Greatest Hit

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It was a little over six years ago, November of 1999, to be exact, that I first dipped my toe into the retirement waters. I took early retirement from the company I'd spent 14 years with, bought a brand-new motorhome and a brand-new motorcycle to go with it, sold everything that wouldn't fit in the RV, loaded up the remainder of my possessions, and hit the road. I left Rochester, NY for points unknown and with adventure in mind. The extended road-trip lasted until July of 2000 (not even a complete year) before I went back to work. In the interim, I traveled from coast to coast and border to border, managing to find a little adventure in the process.

I maintained a journal of my travels during this period of time and shared parts of the journal with friends via an e-mail newsletter I called "The Trailer Trash Report." What follows is a rather longish piece on motorcycling that was originally an installment of the TTR. This piece got the greatest positive reaction from readers of the Trailer Trash Report, so I thought I'd share it with both of my "new" readers. Here it is, in its unedited entirety.

June 5, 2000

This week's Trailer Trash Report is all about motorcycling and moderately anti-social behavior on the back roads of Oregon's wine country. I've had a life-long, on and off love affair with motorcycles. I began at age 19, with a Triumph 500cc twin road bike. From there I went to off-road riding and racing, owning a succession of Yamaha 250cc enduros and motocrossers. Somewhere during the early '70s I bought my first sport bike, a 350cc Yamaha two-stroke twin. This was when I found my niche, and between 1975 and 1985 I owned about three RD-350s (I bought 'em used and fixed 'em up), a 1977 RD-400 (which is still in the family; my son Sam is restoring it), an RD-350LC, and a Suzuki GS-750 (an aberration, but a nice one). I rode fast two-lanes all over the West Coast, Japan, and the UK, but I hung my helmet up in 1987 after surviving a pretty bad accident. My bike was totaled in that accident, and I suffered two compression-fractured vertebrae...that hurt...for quite a while!! I decided biking's risk/reward ratio leaned decidedly toward the risk side of the equation, so I gave the things up for quite a while. Until this past year.

Bikes get in your blood. Every spring after I quit riding I'd see guys out for that first ride, and I'd be envious. I'd go into bike shops, look at the new models and think "Yeah, they're good looking, but...too much money, not enough time to ride...and I'm getting too old for this stuff, anyway..." Truth be: I missed it. A lot. So, when I decided to run away from home, I also decided to get back on a bike. This time I opted for a 225cc dual-purpose bike, something I could putz around town on and go trail riding on when the opportunity presented itself. My bike is small, light weight and does all of 80 mph, flat out. I decided against getting back into sport bikes because they're simply too advanced now days. Your typical 600cc sport bike will do nearly 150 mph, box-stock, right off the show room floor. Liter bikes (1000cc) are capable of 180 mph today. Too fast for an old man! Which brings us to today's tale...

In my last report, I told you my buddy Lee has three sport bikes: two of which are an RZ-350 two-stroke twin and a 400cc sporter. Saturday Lee, another friend named Dave, and I went for an all-day ride in Oregon's wine country around McMinnville. Dave rides a Harley Sportster, and Sportys are cruising bikes, not back road burners. I rode Lee's RZ, and Lee was on the 400. We took it easy on those nice two lane roads with the good twisty bits, and it was a safe and sane day. I don't think we broke 80 mph once. We stopped often to admire the scenery, had lunch in a nice pub, and took another break for a pint in the Oregon Hotel in McMinnville, which is The Official Location of America's First UFO Sighting, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year, by the way. All in all, it was a good day out.

Now Lee has another friend, Steve Clark, who is a road racer with a garage FULL of bikes; I think I counted 12 of the things in various states of running order. Steve is in his mid-40s, has been riding all his life, and races 600cc modified production class on a VERY highly tuned Yamaha four. This bike puts out 89 rear-wheel horsepower, which moves that 425 pound bike (wet...with fuel) down the road at a damned fast clip. The bike's top speed is in the 150 mph neighborhood, or slightly above. Steve also has a lightly modified Honda CBR 900RR, which puts out 130 hp and weighs a bit over 440 pounds, wet. It's blindingly fast, and so quick it'll make your ears bleed. "I have s***-box cars," sez Steve, "but nice bikes!" He is absolutely right about the bikes. Lee, Steve and I went for a ride Sunday afternoon, and I'll not soon forget it.

We rode Steve's favorite road today... a road that leads out of Albany through farm land and up into the mountains...headed west toward the coast. The road is posted at 55 mph, and the State of Oregon was kind enough to post "suggested speeds" (warnings) at each corner, which range from 10 mph hairpins up to 45 mph sweepers and all points in between. The warning signs do double-duty as brake markers, of sorts. You hold your entrance speed constant and really hit the binders about 100 feet beyond the sign, downshift, snap the bike over on its side, hold the power steady for a moment then roll on the throttle, spinning it around 10,500 rpm while accelerating out of the turn...but, I'm getting ahead of myself, AGAIN! 

Back to the road...it begins in farmland, with wide sight lines down the road and from side to side. The road gradually increases in elevation, with gentle up and down hill sections that are increasingly wooded. The road tightens up a bit as you go higher, and the turns are a little tighter. The air gets cooler the higher you go. The day is bright, cloudless and about 80 degrees in the valley. This is a good time and place!

Every sport biker has his favorite road, usually very lightly traveled, well maintained, with good visibility and lots of twists and turns...from very tight turns to fast sweepers. The road is the challenge: you try to master it, find "the line" through all the corners (the line can change, but that's another story), and ride it as quickly and skillfully as you possibly can. You score extra points for form. When you're "on," when you put it all together, when you get it absolutely right, it's a glorious feeling that's nearly impossible to describe. It's exhilarating, and it can make you laugh right out loud in your helmet. You walk around for days with a goofy grin on your face after one of those rides where you get it right. Those rides don't happen that often, though. "Getting it right" means matching engine speed and road speed perfectly through the bends, holding the right lean angle, hitting the right brake points at the right times, clipping the apex of each curve perfectly, dialing in the right amount of throttle at the right time, and not missing a single shift, up or down, all while trying to stay out of jail and stay glued together the way you came out of the box, more or less. The activity demands total concentration...anything less than total concentration means a sloppy ride, at best. At worst, you could win a ride in a large Ford van owned by the Fire Department or someone like them.

We left Steve's place with Steve on the 900, Lee on the 600, and me on the baby bike...with the 14,000 rpm red line. Five minutes or so and we're out into the country, and Steve picks up the pace. We head into a series of right-left-right sweepers posted at 45 mph. I look down at my speedo going into the first turn and I'm doing 70. Steve and Lee are pulling away...quickly. I dial it up a bit and I'm doing 80 coming out of the last turn. Steve and Lee are dots down the road. The first twinge of fear hits...these guys are fast! I wind that little Yamaha out to it's red line in fourth, then fifth, and shift into sixth at 125, indicated. Those guys are still pulling away!! I have VERY brief thoughts about insanity, medical insurance, life insurance, and my kids...but hold it open. I keep it at 125 for what seems like a minute or so then throttle back, hit the brakes and downshift for the next corner, a 35 mph left hander. I'm feeling a little more confident at this point, so I lean a bit further, get a bit more aggressive with the throttle, and exit cleanly, pulling to red line once again through third, fourth and fifth. The bike is an absolute jewel above 10,000 rpm. Below that, there's next to no power at all, but in between 10K and 14K it goes pretty good for a 400. Up ahead I see Steve and Lee have slowed, waiting for me to catch up. I catch up and we repeat the process all over again for the next 20 minutes or so. They run away and hide, I get a bit quicker, they wait for me to catch up. I'm feeling better and better as every minute goes by. Finally, we go through a little town and stop on the outside of town for a break and a root beer. We bench race for about 20 minutes, and then we switch bikes and head out again.

This time I'm on the 600, Lee's on the 900, and Steve's on the 400. I understand IMMEDIATELY why Lee was pulling away so quickly. This 600 is a beast, a weapon. The power comes on around 7K and explodes to its 12K red line. Wheelies are no-brainers on this bike; it takes serious concentration to hold it on the ground through the first three gears. Steve is in the lead, and his road racing skills are such that he can stay comfortably ahead of Lee and I, even though we're on much more powerful bikes. This guy is amazing...smooth AND fast. We head back into the country, reversing our route back home. This time I'm more familiar with the road, but I'm on a bike with a steep learning curve. The bike is a pure racer with a tacked on license plate, and it's intimidating. I'm probably only using 50 percent of it's capabilities and it's awesome. Make that awe-inspiring. You don't want to screw up on this thing...you better know what you're doing. Five miles down the road and I think I have the brakes figured out. They're powerful and allow for serious late braking into turns. The throttle response isn't as easy to dial in as the brakes...the power is either on or off, with little or no ability to modulate the throttle. I'm riding pretty conservatively (it's not MY bike, after all), but I'm also riding a LOT faster than I was on the 400. I'm keeping Steve in sight, and we're losing Lee. I'm establishing a rhythm now, the road ahead is clear, and the bike is a willing and eager accomplice. The speed picks up, I look down and I'm doing 135 on the straight. OK...that's too fast...throttle back. A few minutes later I back it down to 75 or so for a moment or three and Lee catches up. He waves me over, asking if I want to trade bikes. I say "OK," we stop, swap mounts and head back out.

The 900 is a revelation. Where the 600 is brutal, abrupt and hard-edged, the 900 is smooth, comfortable and deceptively fast. It has gobs of torque and is incredibly quick...so much so it's scary. You twist that throttle and you ACCELERATE...no ifs ands or buts...pure, raw acceleration. Keep in mind, this bike puts out 130 hp at the rear wheel...and the bike and I together weigh only 575 pounds...or about one horsepower for every 4.5 pounds of mass to move. That sort of power-to-weight ratio is normally found in race cars, or sports cars costing six figures. It's more power than I can use, but DAMN did it feel good to let that sucker wail!!!

So anyway...we motored back on in to Albany. I explored the Honda's capabilities on the way back in, being respectful of its sheer presence. I'm not sure I'd want to own one of these things...nice place to visit, but ya wouldn't want to live there. It's an amazing piece of machinery, though. Quick, fast, light, comfortable, good looking, and, no...I'm not going to tell you how fast I went on that thing. I'm thoroughly impressed with how far the manufacturers have taken the product in the last ten years. It's been at least that long since the last time I rode sporting machines. Today's bikes perform as well as pure racers of comparable size did ten years ago. It's the motorized equivalent of the computer industry, I guess.

Safely back home after a great ride, and a good dinner (ribs and beer), I'm wondering how I can arrange frequent visits to my Buds and their impressive stable of sport bikes. I really, really, really like the company and the riding! This weekend was a tremendous amount of fun, but it taught me a bit, too. My personal state of tune isn't really high enough to be riding with these guys. It's been a long time since I was out carving up back country roads, and it was obvious I'd been away too long. You never really forget HOW to ride, but you need a lot of practice to keep the skills sharp, especially if you're going to ride at supra-legal speeds. I think I should probably stick to my little 225. Getting on my bike after riding the sport machines this weekend is...uh...boring. At least it's boring on the street. I just have to keep telling myself that 45 mph on a fire road or a logging trail is just as good or better than 135 on a sport bike, now, don't I? ;-)

So...it's Monday morning here in Oregon and I still have this goofy grin on my face...how was your weekend?

Well, It was Interesting...

...but not too rewarding. Ohio State dominated Notre Dame. Crushed them. The 34-20 score makes it look closer than it actually was. Aside from the first drive of the first quarter, ND came out flat. OSU ran and passed at will throughout the game; ND's defense lacked focus and look unprepared, surprising given all the hype surrounding Coach Weis and his meticulous game prep. Brady Quinn couldn't deliver the goods, either. Quinn's passing was a respectable 29 of 45 on the day...but no touchdowns. And that sort of sums up the game, right there. OSU delivered the big plays, ND didn't.

I had a flash of hope in the fourth quarter when ND drew to within a touchdown with five minutes left. Not to be...OSU came right back and scored on another big play, a 56 yard touchdown pass by Troy Smith. Smith is quite possibly the most under-rated quarterback in the college game this year. He certainly took it to ND. Ohio State deserved the win.

The other disappointing game (for me) was Texas Tech's three point loss to 'Bama with 00:00 on the clock. I was convinced the game was going to OT, but noooo. 'Bama's kicker put a 45-yard field goal just over, and I mean just barely over, the crossbar to take the win. A heartbreaker for Tech.

Oh, well! Sometimes your guys win, sometimes they don't. Yesterday was a "don't" day for me...

And Today It's FOOTBALL!

Currently watching Texas Tech and Bama; Bama leads 7-3 with 11 seconds left in the first half. I have a tenuous connection to Tech, my step-granddaughter attended Tech last year before transferring to a New Mexico college.

But my BIG interest is the Fiesta Bowl: ND vs. Ohio State. Ohio State is a 4½-point favorite.
ND coach Weis sez that's baloney:

"We're no underdog," he said. "We got two great football teams. I don't worry about underdog, point spread, those things are irrelevant to me. You have two teams that both have an equal chance of winning."

Agreed. I think ND will win by a touchdown. ND, by all rights, should be playing in the Rose Bowl, since they came oh-so-close to beating USC this year. And it was CLOSE. But, coulda-shoulda-woulda...it is what it is.

And now I'll get back to the game at hand.

Enough is Enough

Byron Calame, the Public Editor of the NYT, writes in Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence:

Protection of sources is the most plausible reason I've been able to identify for The Times's woeful explanation in the article and for the silence of Mr. Sulzberger and Mr. Keller. I base this on Mr. Keller's response to me: "There is really no way to have a full discussion of the back story without talking about when and how we knew what we knew, and we can't do that."

Taken at face value, Mr. Keller seems to be contending that the sourcing for the eavesdropping article is so intertwined with the decisions about when and what to publish that a full explanation could risk revealing the sources. I have no trouble accepting the importance of confidential sourcing concerns here. The reporters' nearly one dozen confidential sources enabled them to produce a powerful article that I think served the public interest.

Mr. Calame sent a list of 28 questions on the NSA story to Bill Keller, the executive editor and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher. Both declined to answer Mr. Calame's questions. If, as Mr. Calame suspects, both the NYT's publisher and editor are adamant about protecting the NSA story's sources, we have the makings of a legal battle-royal.

The NYT went to great lengths to protect sources in the Plame story, although the NYT's senior management ultimately distanced themselves from Judy Miller, and Miller eventually testified before the grand jury. The current NSA story is a helluva lot more serious than the Valerie Plame disclosure. No one has ever claimed outing Ms. Plame jeopardized national security, or even jeopardized Ms. Plame, personally.

The NSA disclosure is quite another matter. I do NOT agree with Mr. Calame's assertion that "a powerful article that I think served the public interest" was produced, unless the "public interest" includes compromising US intelligence gathering methods and procedures. A general, high level description of an active US intelligence operation has been provided to anyone reading the NYT or with access to the internet, including both current and potential enemies of the United States.

The NYT has admitted omitting classified details about the NSA program from the stories it has published. I can’t prove it, but I’m quite certain Mr. Keller, Mr. Sulzberger, or any of the reporters working on the NSA story do not have security clearances with the appropriate “compartments” authorizing them access to information they’ve received and disclosed. Who else knows the omitted details of the program? What assurances do we have that these details haven’t been divulged on the cocktail party circuit? And for that matter, if the sources of this story revealed sensitive technical details of the surveillance program to the NYT, who else have they talked to?

It’s clear, to me, that a crime has been committed in publishing this story. I think it’s past time the US has a law equivalent to the UK’s Official Secrets Act. A key provision of the British law is there is no public-interest defence, and disclosure of information already in the public domain is still a crime. Journalists who repeat disclosures may also be prosecuted.

Granted, we live in an open society where free speech is both respected and protected. But we must draw a line when it comes to revealing information that seriously compromises our ability to wage war. More to the point, that line should be very bright and obvious about information that compromises our ability to interdict and render harmless the efforts of our enemies.

Enough is enough.

Happy New Year!

2006 literally BLEW into Portales this morning...at 8:00 a.m. this morning the winds were a steady 35 mph, with gusts to 41. Over the past two hours the winds have increased to a steady 44 mph with gusts of 56 mph. We're under a "wind advisory" until 6:00 p.m. this evening. As if I needed "advice" that the wind is blowing...I can tell THAT much from the steady side-to-side rocking of the ol' RV. And the dust clouds blowing past my window...

I awoke with a clear head this morning...one of the benefits of "maturity," I suppose. Last evening's imbibing was limited to a failed experiment with Drambuie and Soda, which, a trendy male model-spokesperson on TV assured me (falsely) I would enjoy. I managed to choke down about a third of the contents of an Old-Fashioned tumbler before tossing the remainder down the drain; replacing the contents of the glass with three fingers of Oban. (Ah! MUCH better!) Drambuie and Soda tastes a LOT like Nyquil, and that is not a favorable comparison. I like Drambuie, but in future I will continue to drink it neat, and in small quantities.

Midnight came and went, and I was in bed at a decent hour. For once this week.

Here are a couple of light-weight items from today's WaPo I found entertaining during my morning read...

The List: What's In and Out for 2006. The opening graf:

These things are starting to feel less like Lists and more like Dear John letters to the idea of mass culture. If you haven't heard, it's all over -- that American Top 40/weekend box office/Nielsen family notion of common experience, the way we gather 'round for important moments and horrific TV and the bad hairdos and the belted, pink overcoats that we all get around the same time. It's a heckuva job, Brownie, managing such a socio-politico-pop-culture disaster. We did the flyover this morning and it's all gone. It's all flotsam. It's Anderson Cooper on a pontoon down there, waving and crying and blogging.

A fascinating list, with various and interesting links to WaPo stories from 2005. I particularly liked the travel article on Buenos Aires...made me want to get up and GO. The other impact this list/story had on me was to make me feel incredibly out of touch with the culture. Which, of course, I AM...if your principal definition of culture is all about "personalities," movies, fashion, and TV shows.

And then there's A Year on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, by Dave Barry, who isn't as funny as I remember him being once upon a time. Barry constructs a year-in-review featuring riffs on Tom DeLay, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jackson, Greta Van Susteran, and Delta Air Lines. Samples:

(March) In economic news, financially troubled Delta Air Lines announces that it will no longer offer pillows on its flights, because passengers keep eating them. But the economy gets a boost when the jobless rate plummets, as hundreds of thousands of unemployed cable TV legal experts are hired to comment on the trial of Michael Jackson. Jackson is charged with 10 counts of being a space-alien freakadelic weirdo. Everybody agrees this will be very difficult to prove in California.

and...

But by far the biggest story in August is Hurricane Katrina, a massive, deadly storm that thrashes Florida, then heads into the Gulf of Mexico. For decades, experts have been warning that such a storm, if it were to hit New Orleans, would devastate the city; now it becomes clear that this is exactly what is about to happen. For days, meteorologists are on television warning, dozens of times per hour, that Katrina will, in fact, hit New Orleans with devastating results. Armed with this advance knowledge, government officials at the local, state and federal levels are in a position to be totally, utterly shocked when Katrina -- of all things -- devastates New Orleans. For several days, chaos reigns, with most of the relief effort taking the form of Geraldo Rivera, who, by his own estimate, saves more than 170,000 people.

FEMA director Michael Brown, after conducting an aerial survey, reports that "the situation is improving," only to be informed that the area he surveyed was actually Phoenix. For her part, Greta Van Susteren personally broadcasts many timely reports from Aruba on how the Katrina devastation will affect the ongoing Natalee Holloway investigation.

OK, maybe Barry IS as funny as I remember him being.