Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy!

Voting machines have been a problem the last few years. This has always been a problem because they do not produce an audit trail. In Ohio in 2004, there were many counties in Ohio where Bush received more votes than there were registered voters, or the Dem/Repub ratio was so skewed that all but three or four Dems voted for Bush or where all the election counts were run through a Tennessee firm for vote count that was on the same server as the Republican National server and the guy who set that up and was going to testify died in a plane crash on the way there, after saying his plane had been tampered with a few times before. Coincident? Yeah, sure, just like finding a crack pipe behind an employee's computer and positive drug test are.

Last week someone ran a story where a voting machine all of a sudden had Pacman show up on the screen. and today, this.

Why not just go to paper ballots and hire some more people. We can't all be WalMart greeters as we get older. They could use the work! and the results can have an audit! Otherwise, let's just turn the country over to those who have the most money and bend over.

BTW, anyone seen the no new taxes on energy ads? It will cost jobs!!!! Yeah, sure. The fact is everyone has tight money in the less than $150,000/year class and it might hurt a little. So maybe instead of energy costs spread across the whole public, we should RAISE taxes on those who can afford it. Bet you won't ever see that in an ad. I can hear it now, they raised my rate from 35% to 41% and now I can't buy my new Bentley! Actaully, that sounds like a good alternative.

rojo

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Should Pagans Begin Burning Churches!?

I am so embarrassed to live in my country now. sob!

Why is the OTHER so god-damned scary?

rojo
Why I Do Polka Sundays!

It's what I grew up with-






now, check out the horns that start around the 2:11 mark on this cut--real similar


rojo
Sadists for Christ

The Focus on the Family folks are at it again. Now they are stating that anti-bullying is part of the gay agenda. WE all know that people love to be bullied and pushed around by those who know no boundaries. Ridicule builds character. And if beat the piss out of the poor huddled masses you are a better Christian. That's okay. We know that gays ask for it and by defending them against the fact that they want to be ridiculed and beat up really furthers their agenda.

I can remember a friend of mine once stating that consensus government is a great ideal, but those with the biggest mouths and the thickest skin, not necessarily wisdom win. Well, Focus on the Family wants aggression as part of the Christian Credo.

How sick and twisted is that? I never heard of Sadists for Christ before.

and what the hell is the gay agenda, anyhow? I have asked my gay friends and they only snigger and whisper amongst themselves, so i figure it must be pretty amazing. Then they go huddle with Nancy Pelosi.

rojo

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Solution to Pollution is Dilution

In the past few days, the local paper and trade journals were all up in arms about various reports regarding the Sacramento Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The permit is up for renewal. And with the disappearance of fish from the Delta and salmon not spawning, the State is considering placing an ammonia limit on the plant. The tenor of the reports is "It will cost too much money" and "it will cost 300+ jobs over a 15 year period."

Permit me to say, as a recent resident to CA who specializes in nutrient removal from wastewater, so? Many other states have bitten the bullet as they realized that fish are dying and ecosystems are crumbling. They demand nutrient removal. While CA cannot decide whether ammonia is toxic at dilution levels seen in the rivers--and proving that the old engineer's saw the solution to pollution is dilution, still reigns supreme in the backwaters of the brains of Neanderthals, other states are now worried about Total nitrogen and Total phosphorus, as well as medicine in wastewater effluent as they pollute the waterways. Who knew that as progressive as CA is in energy policy, they are at least 15 years behind the national curve in wastewater treatment and water usage?

It is frustrating to me that the State has told me my specialty won't even be considered for at least 25 years. Hell, San Diego, after much legal wrangling, still uses basically an advanced septic tank to remove solids before it discharges the rest to the ocean. It is too expensive to place a federally mandated system of treatment.

My guess is Sacramento will not have to update either, because they are big and can afford the lawyers to fight a bankrupt government. They are too big to fail and follow rules. Much of CA environmental law is based upon the economic costs to the citizenry and affordability of doing the right thing. Sad.

So my guess is that the economic hub of Los Angeles and San Diego will get the environmental impact statement overturned that said the flows of the San Joaquin and Sacramento River delta that needs to be restored to at least 50% of historic flows. They will continue to pump out so much water to LA, Santa Barbara, the East Bay and San Diego, the rivers will continue to flow backwards. The pollutants will not be treated and the ecosystem will continue to fail. Sad!

Who knew this state was so backwards environmentally when it comes to water laws and use. It sure does not match the image projected and to tell the truth, Texas is much more advanced, as is Alabama and other states you would think would not be. Heck, there have been enough wells placed in the Central Valley for irrigation that the ground has sunk 6-8 feet as the aquifer is drained. Tulare Lake no longer exists and it was the largest lake west of the Mississippi. Drained for economic growth.

I hope I am wrong.

rojo

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Oh My Gawd! or at least somebody's god

I sit and read the paper this morning and saw one article of national importance. Important only because it shows the zeitgeist of some of the population and it is worrisome to me. A pastor (you know, man of God) is planning to burn Qurans on 9/11. Huh? A representative of Christ on earth, you know, Christ, the one who preached love and turn the other cheek, is planning on burning anothers' holy book., Let who is without sin, cast the first stone, or something like that. This guy must really be holy! His Dove Outreach must really have love and be good at it.

And of course the act is so holy, they need an armed militia to support it.-
"Despite the city’s fire protection ordinances, the poorly-named Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL is committed to hosting “International Burn a Quran Day” on September 11. The radical church, which boasts an “Islam Is Of The Devil” message on a sign outside the church and as the title of its pastor’s book, insists “we will still burn Korans” on the church grounds despite being denied a permit. While the church may be fined for openly burning the holy texts, one “armed Christian conservative group” aptly named Right Wing Extreme vowed Sunday to protect the church from any other harassment during the burning:

The Christian conservative organization Right Wing Extreme has offered its support and protection for the International Burn a Quran day.

Right Wing Extreme was founded in April of 2009 after the Department of Homeland Security’s report titled Right Wing Extremism.[...]

We fully support Dove World Outreach Center and its efforts to put an end to the notion that Islam is a peaceful religion. Islam is a violent cult with the goal of world domination.” Says Right Wing Extreme founder Shannon Carson.

Right Wing Extreme insists that “President Obama is a Muslim who is intentionally destroying America’s economy, constitution, and has a socialist agenda aimed at bringing about a New World Order.” The group measures its “state of alert” through a “Defcon system.” Currently set at level 3, the “Defcon system” warns that the group’s “moral and ethical code are under moderate attack” and that the U.S. Constitution is only “partially intact.” According to their ethical code, members swear to defend the Constitution and recognize “that freedom comes by the shedding of blood and sacrifice.”

While Right Wing Extreme is supporting the church’s “protest” of Islam by militaristic means, one non-profit Muslim group, the Book of Signs, is countering the protest by “distributing 50 free Qurans for every Quran burned” and by urging bookstores to refuse to sell Qurans to those involved." (source, Think Progress.com)

And today in the NY Times, the righteous reverend is portrayed as fearless because he carries a 40 caliber pistol in his holster. Funny, I never saw Christ--you know the Son of God, carry a spear, a sword, or a semi-automatic. Some churches forget there was a NEW Testament that supersedes the Old.

This anger, this self-righteous blindness scares the hell out of me. I am truly frightened by gun-toting self-righteous angry people. I have been instructed that if everyone carries a gun, it would level the playing field. I doubt it. Some people just have faster reactions with which to dispense death. It also saddens me, particularly in the wake of a cabbie being stabbed yesterday when he answered that he was a Muslim.
"I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before," he said. Since when does a practitioner of a gospel of Love need to invoke fear?

Yet, this is what we get day after day fed to us. Fear and hate. Fox news was creating a stir quoting a Muslim cleric that the US has more Muslim blood on their hands than those who performed the 9/11 atrocities. They castigated him for those comments. Sorry folks, but conservative estimates of dead Muslims who were not combatants in Iraq exceed 75,000 dead. Last year alone the total was over 4,000.

I am tired of hate, of anger. It is easy to knock down buildings, destroy an others character by lies. and people rabidly suck that shit up because they feel inadequate and it makes them feel better. It is not that much harder to be creative, to bless. When will people realize that hate and expressions of crazy anger makes you a minion of the devil, or a destructive power. For conservative Christians such as the above-mentioned minister, or Fred Phelps, they don't realize they express what they fear--Satan! And I always am amazed that gun rights are almost always brought into the equation quickly.

Even if you don't believe in God, Satan, evil and good--you have to admit that Love and Guns don't always go together. Illogical.

rojo

Friday, August 20, 2010

Great Toone

Embedding disabled on this. Just follow the link to a great soul/jazz piece.

rojo

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Polka Sunday






take eastern european and add a dance beat and


and in memorium of richie Hayward, long-time drummer of little Feat


ROJO

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Now What?!

As if we didn't know this was coming....I remember people joking about you are what you eat in the 70s, making fun of the dirty hippies and their beliefs. And now, scientists see that plants reflect what is fed to them.

Water reuse has been one of the better ways seen to deal with wastewater effluent. Trouble is nobody thought of Personal Care Products. or endocrine disruptors. Not only effects fish in the effluent streams, but plants watered with it. Whoever thought of a sunflower with perfect hair?

Okay, so it won't have hair. But it will have great chemicals in the fruit and seeds that enter the foodchain. I wonder if that could have long term effects?
duh!

And this becomes a real problem because no one ever figured this in the equation of what to do with human waste. And this is for highly treated sewage. Imagine what San Diego sewage would do. Oh, but it saves them money. I am sure the fish love partially treated sewage, as do the surfers.

rojo