Monday, November 29, 2010

From Wikileaks

"The cables also contain a fresh American intelligence assessment of Iran's missile program," The Times reports. "They reveal for the first time that the United States believes that Iran has obtained advanced missiles from North Korea that could let it strike at Western European capitals and Moscow and help it develop more formidable long-range ballistic missiles."

at least this explains one of the reasons the US asked Russia to join the missile defense group.

Rojo

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

time for a Christmas toone






and for grins, because it makes me happy and Thankful.



have a happy holiday!

rojo

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Toone for the Day




rojo
Why the Tea Party Gains Voters

A must read on mortgages.

kind of long, but it explains how houses are foreclosed upon in great detail. People lose houses while the banks get the houses and gets to resell them. People have no place to live and so on. and Wall Street makes money and the middle class gets screwed. Simple. You can understand the anger of the Tea Party, but why isn't anyone doing anything? and Dems wonder why they HAVE LOST market share. duh!!!! Nothing like protecting voters. But, nnnnoooooo--save money for the lobbyists.
rojo
Thoughts for a Grey Day

From Charlie Pierce's Idiot America--

"James Dobson, a prominent Christian conservative spokesman, compares the Supreme Court of the United States with the Ku Klux Klan. Pat Robertson, another prominent conservative preacher man, says that federal judges are a greater threat to the nation than is Al Qaeda and, apparently his text from the book of Gambino, later sermonizes that the United States should get in the stick and snuff the democratically elected president of Venezuela. And the nation does not wonder, AUDIBLY, how these two poor fellows were allowed on television." (bold and italics are mine)

"...And in Dover Pennsylvania...a pastor named Ray Mummert...sums it up.

'We've been attacked ...by the intelligent segment of our society.' "

So if we follow the lead of these folk, if we are intelligent, ask questions and wonder, in their eyes, we attack society.

So be it!

And on another front, I see over the weekend Russia was invited to help protect the skies as part of the missile defense umbrella. This comes within two weeks of a plane flying up into the skies outside LA, leaving a comtrail that looks like a missile launch. So it wasn't a missile? and then we ask Russia to help protect the skies against what then. Personal opinion, but I don't think we asked for their help to show how earnest we are in the START treaty.

rojo

BTW, Charles Pierce's commentary can be heard every Tuesday morning on the Stephanie Miller show at 7:30 PST, I think.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Third World Man?

I seem to remember that Germany, between the two wars actually used wheelbarrows of cash to buy a loaf of bread. We are really at an important point in our country's economic and political history.

As times get harder, the populace tends to like absolutists such as Hitler and Mussolini. And these are normally backed by banks. The only ones that get hurt are the general populace.

The issue becomes how to get a grass roots movement going that captures the energy of the Tea Party but is not run by Dick Armey and remains progressive. Currently the populist rebellion has been fascist-oriented.

and we are becoming more and more economically weak. How will we react? Cutting discretionary spending to balance the budget and cutting Social Security is only 12% of the budget. I believe the military is 38%+. What do we cut? and discretionary spending includes dairy and farming subsidies. Does Chuck Grassley have the testicular fortitude to cut those?

rojo

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Two Versions, Same Song





and then the Dead (skip to 1:30 to miss the tuning)


rojo
How to $1.50 on a Friday Night

Go to JBs or the Mentor Hullabalo
o and see one of the best bands ever.





rojo

Thursday, November 18, 2010

What A Wonderful World, or do we share the same world?

I have spent the past four days in the southern Central Valley in CA. I know CA has an image of liberalism, but that really is in the urban areas, with San Diego as an exception. That city is largely conservative. Tink Darrel Issa and Randy Cunningham. The Southern Central Valley (Bakersfield, Taft, Maricopa) is far from liberal. You can place much of this area south of the Mason Dixon line, maybe south of Mississippi.

I sat and listened to a patron bloviate in a hotel restaurant yesterday about how bad it is that the Democrats are still in power because they make the government larger, the debt larger and they tax more. It was all I could do to not ask him which party had the last surplus, who raised the debt (Reagan, Bush and Bush were the worst, all Republicans) and who made government smaller (Clinton-D). and who balloonned the size of government (Bush-R). The only reason I did not debate him is he was hosting clients from overseas.

Another item you see here is a multitude of signs stating "Congress Created Desert" or signs referencing sewage treatment and how that effects Delta water (very true) and how that water belongs to the people of Southern CA (not true). Congress funded the canals in CA to allow the transfer of water to the central valley. The residents damned other rivers and built levies draining lakes for cotton and food farming. Maybe farming is a desert is not such a good idea. Yes, it feeds America, but has destroyed wildlife, the largest lake west of the Mississippi (Tulare Lake, now a dry hole) and stopped the flow of many rivers. The Kern again is not reaching Bakersfield and Buena Vista Lake is fed from canals attached to the Sacramento River 300 miles away. Nothing wrong with canals and stuff, but admit that the unnnatural farming practiced was financed by Congress and is not a God-given right!

Finally, I came into a meeting yesterday and the folks there were speaking of the evils of Senate Bill 501which would take away your right to a home garden. It was sponsored by Kucinich in their minds. I asked when did Kucinich become a Senator? and we looked up the bill on my computer. Nowhere did it state that it takes away the rights of a home gardener that we could see. But they saw it on websites my computer could not find. And I was informed the only way to make jobs in this country is to remove the EPA and OSHA. They keep us at a disadvantage from the rest of the world. I wanted to scream, we could cut back our wages too and hire children but the sarcasm would have been lost. Yet another WTF moment. We have already seen what happens what when the government backs away from audits in the Gulf.Finally, the best for last. They were complaining that Brown was now the governor and things could never go back to the way they were thirty years ago when things were good. Honest. I could not make this up. That was a Meg Whitman campaign line so I know where they saw it. Guess who was governor 30 years ago???!!! Brown. and the last governor with a surplus before deregulation of energy was a Democrat, and he was replaced by Arnold.

I cannot wait to leave Bizarro world.

One important point is that this does illustrate that many Americans do not share the same basic information. We are very insular and this becomes more apparent to me as I travel.

rojo

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Never Thought of This

As if global warming were not enough, 1/4 of sea level rise comes from overpumping aquifers. What this means then is that the aquifers get lower and those near the ocean get salt water intrusion, which requires RO to remove the salts if the wells are to be used. RO is a power hungry monkey. Which means more burning of carbon based fuels and the cycle continues.

rojo

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Cedars of Lebanon, maybe

There were ski resorts in Lebanon? Let alone that global warming could shut them down and kill the cedar trees?

It just makes me realize how insular I am as an American.

rojo

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Toone Time




rojo
Deep in the Heart of Texas

Nothing like living in Texas. Where the water is radioactive and the environmental protectors say--so what? Could be why they are so strange.

and in good water news, salmon are returning to CA this year finally. Crisis over, no! But progress

rojo

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Two Views of the Same Toone

this one is disallowed to embed, but features Natasha Atlas.




You choose.

rojo

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Toone for a Day




rojo
So, What Are We Killing Actually?

I was at a sewage conference last week and one of the biggest issues are Sanitary Sewer Overflows caused by the flushing of antibacterial wipes down the toilet. They ruin and plug lift station pumps. Ooops.

here is an article that details the algacidal properties of these agents. The other is how these compounds are now making it back to the environment.

After a while, you have to wonder whether what we are intentionally killing in terms of microbes is worth what we are unintentionally killing in terms of phyto and zooplankton. And are we breeding the dreaded superbugs. Already, endocrine disruptors that make it through wastewater plants are changing the genetics in the plants that are grown in the biosolids. But if you can't use the biosolids for fertilizer, where do you bury it all? Already, the Colorado plains take most of the biosolids generated by NYC. Is there room in NYC for 80 train car loads per week to be buried?

These are honest questions. How much waste do we generate that there are no perfect solutions for?

rojo

Monday, November 08, 2010

Politics, Not as Usual

I have not commented on the elections only because I was on the road last week and busy. First, it makes sense that the angry voters chose the party of the working man, the Tea Party and the Republicans to help them. Yeah, sure. What happened was that the Administration bailed out Wall Street and the banks, those folks got bonuses and Main Street lost many jobs and houses and they were pissed. and when the Tea Party came up, no one said, we cut your taxes. Then corporate interests like Dick Armey, the Koch Brothers, etc. coopted the anger and made political hay out of it and got right wing candidates elected. Problem, messaging by Democrats and that they really, really underestimated the anger of the electorate. They did not understand that people like their jobs and houses. They were and probably are out of touch.

Now the fun begins. Pelosi will replace Steny Hoyer. She was an effective leader and will continue to be. Cantor wants to cut all entitlements. DeMint sez balance the budget with tax cuts and has no ideas. Rand Paul is saying cut the military spending. Texas is trying to opt out of MediCaid and Children's Health Insurance to balance their deficit. I mean why tax oil companies in Texas or rich white folk when you can cut children's aid. My guess is that they are Christians who believe life is sacred too. Just don't give the kids any fucking aid. Let 'em die after they are born. and Darrel Issa is promising subpoenas for government mistakes, like the mortgage problem, maybe Obama's birth certificate and probably not for admitted war crimes by the Bush Administration and certainly not for Cheney's energy task force which divided Iraqi oil even before the war to free the OIL (oops, I meant the oppressed Iraqis).

I am guessing I will be going back to being angry a lot. But to say the least it will be interesting. Being the eternal optimist, I am hoping some Democrat other than Pelosi will grow a pair and messaging will be clear. Moderate republicans will come forward and work to actually decrease the country's problems and I am guessing monkeys will fly out of my butt, too. But it will be interesting. Particularly the monkeys

rojo

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Saturday Morning Fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdvzfeIKHTE

http://boingboing.net/2009/11/27/dr-johns-weird-new-o.html

and


rojo




Monday, November 01, 2010