Stolen from Crooks and Liars.com--

crooks_andliars:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/29/a-crude-awakening/

C&L July Film of the Month: A CRUDE AWAKENING The Oil Crash

Documentary by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack

“Oil is our God. I don’t care if someone says they worship Jesus, Buddha, Allah, whoever – they actually worship petroleum.”
Mathew David Savinar, Lawyer and Founder of Lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

If An Inconvenient Truth could be considered The Wizard of Oz of environmental documentaries, then A Crude Awakening would have be considered the Rosemary’s Baby of that same genre.

Global warming. So what? Melting polar icecaps? Call me later. A Crude Awakening paints a picture so much grimmer than anything Americans have seen in their lifetimes. Or in the movies this summer, for that matter. It is dark. It is primordial. It is terrifying. It is - The end of oil, as we know it.

While technically speaking, oil is running out, for it to go bone dry will take a few lifetimes. But do not dare exhale a sigh of relief. That fact is not relevant to this splendid documentary. It seems there is a bigger problem. One that is arriving faster than Netflix. That problem is global peak oil. Say it over and over, folks. Say it until your tongue gets used to saying it. Write it down. Tell your children. Open the windows of your Ford Explorer and scream it out into the dark abyss. You will be seeing and hearing about it for the rest of your lives – possibly beginning today.

Written, produced and co-directed by Basil Gelpke, from Switzerland and Ray McCormack, from Ireland, A Crude Awakening will scare the living Bush out of you and at the same time leave you dumbfounded. If you’re like me, you’ll be grasping at straws for a logical way out of this oncoming runaway train that some experts have already dubbed the “post-industrial stone age.”

Now that, my friends, is an inconvenient truth. It is a truth so scary, so inconvenient, that few will even utter its name. Once again, for the record, its name is Peak Oil. And no one seems to have the slightest idea what to do about it.

You might not know about it but THEY do. The heads of the ‘Seven Sisters’ oil companies. The Saudis. OPEC. Dick Cheney’s secret Energy Task Force. Bill and Hillary – they ALL know about Peak Oil. Everybody but YOU! Maybe its time YOU found out? Huh? Curious? End of the World? Saving for your toddler’s college education? Uh, sorry, that won’t be necessary.

The world as we know it is coming to an end soon.

That doesn’t come from a religious cult like the Moonies or conspiracy lunatics with tin foil hats in Idaho. Rather it is the uncontested scientific conclusion of the world’s most widely respected geologists, physicists, oil executives, bankers and politicians.

Gelpke, with a background in anthropology and economics, worked as a war correspondent before becoming a scientific filmmaker. His partner, McCormack who has a history in corporate filmmaking also holds an Honors Degree in Environmental Policy and Management. These guys know their stuff, are extremely serious and bring on-camera expertise to back them up. A parade of renowned academics, scientific experts and corporate advisors from across the political and economic spectrum enter and re-enter this shocking film. Each time they reappear they bring with them overwhelming amounts of irrefutable evidence that the world as we know it is about to go through some very savage changes.

And they mean NOW.

I don’t want to alarm anybody but you should be afraid. VERY AFRAID. Not of bin Laden. Not of AIDS. Not of global warming. Not of George Bush. But of global Peak Oil and what that represents.
For the uninitiated, in order to understand this movie one has to understand peak oil. It is not very difficult.

Peak Oil, also known as Hubbert’s Peak was named for the Shell Oil geologist, Dr. Marion King Hubbert. In 1956, M.K. Hubbert accurately predicted that America’s domestic oil production would peak in 1970.
His peers laughed at Hubbert at the time.

He had successfully examined the amount of new discoveries of oil in the United States from the 1930s onward. Those rose and fell like a bell curve. After a huge spike, they were simply running out of places in the U.S. that held oil fields. He figured that if the discovery of oil supplies formed a bell curve, then the production of the oil would form a matching bell curve soon afterwards.

He was dead right.

By 1970, U.S. oil production had peaked and the decline was in rapid freefall. Using the same extrapolations for the entire world, Hubbert predicted that world oil production would be peaking by 1995. It would have been spot on accurate, had the politically motivated oil embargoes of 1973 and 1979 not been enacted, setting back world oil peak by just 10-15 years.
In other words…NOW.
“The United States had been the largest oil producer on earth for nearly 100 years and nobody thought it would ever end,” explains Mathew Simmons an energy investment banker and advisor to president George W. Bush.
The last new frontiers in oil discovery were in the Alaskan North Slope, Siberia and the North Sea. That was in 1967, 1968 and 1969 respectively. All have peaked since then. The North Sea oil finds were indeed massive and quite unknown at the time. A huge discovery. It peaked in 40 years. Next year Britain will actually have to import oil for the first time since the discovery.

The world has been so thoroughly explored with massive new technological devises that most experts feel there is no new oil out there. In fact, advanced engineering technology has created in effect, “super straws” to suck all known oil out of the ground faster than ever before believed possible.

The desperation of the oil companies have led them to oil shale fields in Canada and steaming old well sites for the very last drops of “the devil’s excrement.”

Two thirds of the known oil fields today are in the Persian Gulf. In 1978, Iran was producing 6 million barrels a day. Today? 3-3 ½ million barrels a day. This is indicative of the downward slope of oil production following a peak. The Saudis have found only one new oil field since 1967. They pump 12 million barrels a day yet each year they claim their reserves are exactly the same. How is this possible? It’s not. In the late 80’s all the OPEC countries simply increased their “known” oil reserves by 50% for political reasons and quota busting.

With the massive industrialization of India and China already underway, it is becoming quite obvious that oil production will not be able to keep up with demand. In fact, we already see this happening with the doubling of our own gas prices in just the past few years. Experts believe that those same prices will rise steadily and quickly to $15 per gallon.
And that’s when things will really and finally get hairy. Once oil peaks, the downward crash is fast and furious as the entire world scrapples for the remaining apples.

Our entire civilization has been built on cheap oil. Not only are we reaching the end of the artificial American dream, peak oil experts also feel we are on the precipice of a massive worldwide Age of Depression. We have become the victims of our own success. Huge population booms have occurred due to the mid-century “green revolution” in farming that produced enough cheap food to feed the entire world. Our cities and society grew at staggering rates because of the use of the cheapest fuel source ever discovered.

Oil.
“One barrel of oil for $100, will produce as much energy as you would get from 12 people working all year,” says Roscoe Bartlett a scientist and U.S. Republican Congressman from Maryland.

But the times they are a changin’.

Ten or fifteen years ago, the per capita income of the average Saudi was $28K. Today its down to $6K. There has been a huge drop in the standard of living for the average Saudi. Strap yourselves in folks. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride. We’re next.

There seems to be two solutions:

1) Multinational resource wars. Militarize our population to allow them to continue to drive SUVs. Tell them what the stakes and go for it. Invade till the last drop.
2) Begin to prepare for the end of cheap oil and adjust to available alternatives as soon as possible. As bleak as they may seem.

Just so you understand what we’re up against.

If we hybridized every stinking car on the road today, we would still be consuming the same amount of gasoline as we are now in just 5-7 years. With each year demand grows enormously. With no end in sight.
The alternative fuels everyone has been jabbering about lately don’t cut it. If you added all the alternative fuel sources up, that is if they were even ready and functioning at massive levels, it wouldn’t even make a dent in the loss of oil.

Oil is that cheap.

“We pay more for a bottle of drinking water than we do for a gallon of gasoline,” explains David L. Goodstein, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.

If you went nuclear alone, we would need 10,000 new nuclear plants immediately and then the damn uranium would run out in 10 years anyway. Unless you’re France. Their entire country is powered by nuclear power. Just watch were you put the trash, Jacques.

The most fascinating chapter of the film is entitled, Life After The Peak. This shows us the other side of the Hubbert Peak. The downward slope. Ouch. We got a snippet of it in 1973, when OPEC turned off the U.S. oil spigot because of the Israeli War. Cars lined up for miles to get the last drop of gas. Everyone freaked, but quickly forgot about it when the man hooked them up again with the Persian Black.

In the near, near future, driving cars and flying by plane will be a luxury reserved only for the Super Rich. The financial markets will shrink due to the elimination of petro dollars. The stock markets will collapse worldwide. Populations will shrink immensely as hunger and starvation sweep the globe.

An apple will cost $7.

Hydrocarbon Man’s days are severely numbered.

Oh, and if you think hydrogen is gonna save you, think about this: It currently takes 3 – 6 gallons of gasoline to make enough hydrogen to drive a car the equivalent distance that one gallon of gasoline would drive it.

Coal? Too dirty. We’ll choke to death. Wind power? Keep blowing. Hydroelectric? Every river is already dammed. Biomass? Too much energy to create it.

In fact, the only science that seems to have any chance in hell is solar. How ironic. But there is a catch. A huge catch. It would take a field of solar panels half the size of California to power the country. The sun. Of course. How could we miss it?

When Jonas Salk found the cure for polio, he was asked if he had filed a patent on his new vaccine. Salk looked quizzically at the reporter and famously said, “No. After all, could you patent the Sun?”

Hey, New Mexico. Let’s go. Everybody out! That means you.

See A Crude Awakening before there are no more petrochemicals left to even make DVDs.

A screenwriter/producer/journalist based in Hollywood, California, Mark Groubert is the Senior Film and Book Reviewer for CrooksandLiars.com. As a filmmaker he has produced numerous documentaries for HBO. Groubert is also the former editor of National Lampoon Magazine, MTV Magazine and The Weekly World News. In addition, he has written for the L.A. Weekly, L.A. City Beat, Penthouse, High Times and other publications. He is currently at work on his memoirs…or so he says.

Important enough to quote word for word.

rojo

After reading Digby's post about the Gay Old Party and their homoerotic fascination with all things big and bold, I have to wonder about why GW's figurine has a bigger penis than Ken.

rojo

It's Good To Be The King!

Just yesterday in the Denver Post there was an interesting article about how foreclosures were running at a record high in Adams and Weld Counties. These are all low to low-middle income houses. There are also record rates in Douglas County, also known as rich, white Christian county (remember when Castle Rock voted down affordable housing--good to have Hispanic gardeners and housekeepers, just don't want to live by them). People bought on ARMs and as the rates raise, they lose their homes. Simple. Pay rates for low and middle class have not raised with the Cost of Living. They have remained stagnant, while worker productivity has increased.

Today's headlines in the same paper? A Sales Surge for Digs Over $1,000,000. Hmmm. There is no shortage of people who can afford over $1,000,000 and those people, some of whom may be rich enough to be Monkeyboy's base-"What an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base.", can't find adequate housing. There is dearth of $1,000,000 plus homes.

Let's see. Worker productivity up. Worker salaries stagnant for 5 years. CEO and executive pay rising at incredible rates compared to worker salaries. Hmmm. Trickle down economics at its finest.

rojo

Fun to Visit - Just Don't Drink the Water

Indiana regulators exempted BP from state environmental laws to clear the way for a $3.8 billion expansion that will allow the company to refine heavier Canadian crude oil. They justified the move in part by noting the project will create 80 new jobs.

Under BP's new state water permit, the refinery—already one of the largest polluters along the Great Lakes—can release 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day. Ammonia promotes algae blooms that can kill fish, while sludge is full of concentrated heavy metals.

This is not a comforting admission:

[Paul Higginbotham, chief of the water permits section at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management] said regulators still are unsure about the ecological effects of the relatively new refining process BP plans to use.

here is the complete story for the Trib.

Si if we place BIG mixers in the lake we can dilute the pollution? Maybe we can make toxic sludge pudding. Can't wait to eat carp. Yum.

rojo

Iraq is going so well, we can’t have our Congressmen stay there over night.

“The delegation's visit was harrowing at times. While visiting with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker at the U.S. Embassy inside Baghdad's walled, high-security Green Zone on Friday, mortar blasts landed inside the American-controlled territory.

"This recorded message played four times while we were there, asking us to move away from any windows, to get on the ground and move to the center of the building," Bachmann said. "(Crocker) stayed in his seat and kept talking with us the whole time. He never moved."....

Security conditions in Iraq prevented Bachmann from meeting any Iraqis, leaving the Green Zone or staying in Iraq overnight. She and other congressional members were required to wear full body armor, including Kevlar helmets, during the entire trip, she said.”

From the St. Cloud Times via www.Americablog.com

And yesterday there were mortar and rocket attacks in the Green Zone. Right in the middle of the Green Zone. Our safe zone. By our Embassy. In the middle of surge-secured area.

“On Tuesday, guerrillas launched some 20 katyusha rockets and mortar shells into the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, killing 3 persons, including a US soldier, and wounding 25 persons.

The Green Zone was originally supposed to be the safe place in Iraq, with the area outside it (everything else) called the "Red Zone." The US Embassy in Baghdad appears to have forgotten what the phrase "Green Zone" means, since a spokesman there told the LAT, "There's fire into the Green Zone virtually every day, so I can't draw any conclusions about the security situation based on that . . .’ ”

And the Iraqi security Chief for the Green Zone was KIDNAPPED!

"Tuesday's attack came the same day gunmen kidnapped Iraqi Police Col. Mahmoud Muhyi Hussein, who directs security inside the Green Zone . . .

Hmmm!!! Let me see if I got this straight. We get attacked in our own safe zone. Anyone we don’t want to get hurt can’t stay there and the Iraqi Security dude gets kidnapped there.

We know the war is lost. I am not trying t incite feelings, etc., but it is a failed policy and now the question becomes how do we keep the casualties to a minimum. How do we retreat with our equipment and 160,000 personnel plus contractors? Does anyone remember the last days of Vietnam? It was a zoo. People were hanging on helicopters trying to leave.

We are arming Sunnis to fight Shiites right now. Where do you think their arms will point as we leave the country? Do we walk out of the country backwards? Do we run like hell? Hope we don’t leave too much behind. Think anyone will shoot at us as we leave. After all, we are the liberators. And how much will be left of our new airbases and army bases? Will we leave a force there enough troops there to man them. Or will they be allowed to die on the vine as they wait for supplies in the middle of the desert?

rojo

Hooray for NPR!

I have lived with my wife in many locations. In fact, we are soon to be moving to Northern California to follow my job. Can you say ASAP?? More on that later. Egad!!!!!!

That said, I went to work this morning and heard 3 FM radio stations playing the Doors out of the 7 possible choices. Oh, yes, 2 were playing ZZ Top. And one had Breakfast with the Beatles. Why, God, why??? Much music has been made since 1970.

But when my wife and I lived in Iowa, we only had AM radio. Yes, I am an old fuck and FM was not popular and cars had no FM radios (remember fm converters? anyone?) and the best Cedar Rapids had was oldies and there was KUNI and one FM station out of Muscatine that was pretty good. The AM stations had hog reports and futures and high school football. Then you could drive across the state and hear NPR on AM and it had quirky songs you did not get on other stations. An aside, we drove from Colorado to Ohio this past autumn and heard OAR in Omaha and Natalie Zuckerman in Iowa.

In '93, I worked in Grand Junction and had to drive from Ft. Collins to Grand Junction weekly and you had better have a tape deck or listen to NPR. It kept you sane. The university station at Mesa was good but had a range of 10 miles and there was as a good station outside of Carbondale. The rest was "Classic Rock." I mean, how many times can you get a woody listening to Smoke on the Water? Oh yes, Rush would have been the liberal talk show host in Grand Junction at that time and the local Classic Rock station had its 3rd anniversary. Having been to GJ two years ago, it has entered the 21st century and has nice bistros, etc. downtown. Very Cool.

Fast forward to today--crappy choices on the radio and I hit KGNU and Radio 1190 and KRFC. All have live listening links and are worth a listen. The day started better as I heard Gogol Bordello as the first cut!!!! Yay! Something New. and if no NPR, there would be no joy.

Anyone know of good minor stations in between Sacramento and SF?

For your listening pleasure.

A good band out of Denver. happy day.

rojo

Saturday Rock and Roll

Hot and sexy!

Enjoy.

rojo

There may be an actual reason we feel people are getting stupider and stupider and we have many more ADHD problems. Check it out.

I am not a fear monger, but how many chemicals are developed and used without testing annually?

rojo

Notes from the Tubes--

Just a few thoughts before the weekend--

1) Cheney is above the executive branch. In my opinion, a specious argument. But if that is the case, I want to see the damned energy policy formation meeting notes!!!!!! These were denied to the public based upon executive privilege. Can't have it both ways Big Dickman.

2) I was listening to Randi Rhodes yesterday and she was speaking of caging votes and how a minimum of 1,000,000 votes were not counted because of vote caging (you can guess these votes were not the votes of prep school graduates). McNulty admitted he heard of the practice but did not research it in House testimony yesterday. Voter suppression is a felony offense. As second in charge of DOJ, he did not research this???? Either blind, incompetent, both or maybe in collusion. And Tim Griffin (where do the Republicans find so many lookalikes for the Pillsbury dough boy?? Are they cloning Rove?) was rewarded by being given a US Attorney post for suppressing minority votes and giving the election to Bush. (Which he has since quit because public service is not worth it. Ah, less money than the private sector and there is scrutiny. unlike Enron.)

Illegal, yes. But who gets to press charges. If there were that many votes not counted, does anyone know who they were? I am naive to this process, but if someone has names, could not the person whose vote was not counted contact these people and have them press felony charges of abridging constitutional rights? I don't know. Abu Torquemada will not press charges. Can Congress press charges for vote caging? I really don't know.

rojo

If this does not raise your blood pressure, little will. So we could have saved lives, but we didn't, but we have protection for contractors because they can afford it. Why? Because they charge it back to us at a 30% minimum profit margin. Soldiers are collateral damage.

What the hell is this?

Contractors protect their "intellectual assets" - a wonderful buzz term meaning your ass is mine until you die and we will slough you off like a healed scab when you quit making us money - better then we protect our youth.

Another day I will rant about the use of contractors. Today I want to focus on how mismanaged this war and our military is. No one would ever expect the armed services to be safe. But if you have a volunteer army willing to go and serve, this cannot be the best you can do.

I truly believe that Saddam was picked because it was like attacking the local puppy butcher. An amoral oppressor who attacked his own people (Kurds). And they had no anti-aircraft capabities to stop shock and awe. Quick win, Mission Accomplished, look good in a codpiece, be studly. But, oops, we forgot the aftermath and what Condi calls civil order problem:

"But you know, I just -- I know that there are all these reports now -- well, but you know that this might happen or that might happen. I can remember sitting in our meetings before the invasion and saying, and particularly Don Rumsfeld -- you know, people worrying about revenge, that after all those years of the suppression of Shia and Kurds, particularly Shia, there might be revenge taken out. And then we were really rather surprised not to see it. And even in the first few months after the Samarra mosque, we were sort of surprised that people didn't.

Well, it has emerged. But it's emerged by extremists and bad guys doing it. It's not as if -- and sometimes when people say civil war it drives me a little bit crazy because, you know, it's not like Iraqi Shia and Sunnis are running down the streets killing each other because they're Sunnis and Shias. These are organized gangs and death squads, and that's a civil order problem. And we're helping them deal with a civil order problem.

I think part of the problem for the American people is that's kind of uncomfortable. And as Dave Petraeus has said, it's very dangerous -- helping them deal with a civil order problem. But if we can give them the space by helping them deal with the civil order problem to get this de jure reconciliation in place, then I think you can see the transition to the kind of posture that a lot of people talk about as acceptable for American policy. But we can't just get over where we are and go there now."

Does anyone not remember Yugoslavia??? Oil, control, bid swinging dicks and little "what happens next" vision. This administration is single-minded and incompetent. And not willing to sacrifice. Or ask others to. Just shop and be happy.

Why aren't people more furious? Oh yeah, they are working two manufacturing jobs (read Mickey Dees) to pay for things like food and rent that one job could pay for before free trade became popular.

rojo

Irony!

Never having been to the new creation Museum, where the Earth's 6,000 year history is detailed and Adam and Eve frolic with velociraptors, I can't imagine that they hired an actor to play Adam who, shall we say, has indefinite leanings.

"For the Creation Museum, I did what I did as an actor. It doesn't necessarily mean I believe in evolution or a believe in creation," Linden said. "I'm hired to get a point across. On the flip side, if I was hired to play a murderer, that doesn't mean I'd go out and kill somebody. It's make-believe."

Ah, commitment. But, he is an actor. You would think that before hiring someone to play Adam that the Museum may have checked his past, given the controversial nature of the views of the museum, and maybe found out the man also went by the name Bedroom Acrobat. D'oh.

By the way, Bedroomacrobat.com is now being reconstructed and disavows any relationship with Eric Linden. Eric has a press release on his site disavowing relationship with that site.

And, who cares, except the owners of the museum. I guess it is hard to find hard-bodies who are creationists.

rojo

Culture Wars

Lately, I have seen many emails forwarded to me by concerned citizens on how Muslims can’t really be Americans because they placed their God above the God of all. I deleted many, but finally responded to one person (oh heck, maybe reply to all means a lot of people read it, but I doubt it) and stated that maybe if you believed in your Christian God and pledged your allegiance to him, you couldn’t be an American either.

And now I see this on the Intertubes—

The Ten Commandments and Theocracy

Category:
Posted on: June 6, 2007 9:19 AM, by Ed Brayton

Via EbonMuse's site, I found a link to the Society for the Practical Establishment and Perpetuation of the Ten Commandments, a boldly theocratic organization that calls for voiding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the establishment of a society governed by Biblical law. The site is run by Robert T. Lee, who says:

Only the Creator of the heavens and the earth to whom all mankind are responsible can properly govern them; and He has graciously given them His most wise, noble, righteous and perfect moral Laws by which all people are responsible to perfectly conform in thought word and deed - in every detail of their lives. His righteous Laws are the only ones which have ever and will ever exist that can definitely work for the total good of every society. Any people who reject His most perfect and holy Laws, that is, the TEN COMMANDMENTS, do so to both their corporeal destruction and eternal damnation.

And they're just getting warmed up:

It is conformity to the established laws of evil and the lack of moral laws, moral penalties and rewards that's the cause of all that's awry in any society. Therefore the performance of true righteousness is the one and only answer to both preventing and ridding a society of every single thing that's amiss therein. If America will ever cease to wallow in its constitutional depravity, its government and people will have to come to the point where they are willing to accept their constitution as being the thoroughly depraved document that it is, officially and perpetually annul it along with its Bill of Rights, and officially embrace the moral laws of God as the foundation and supreme law of the land and legislate against all that's contrary to true morality. America must come to understand that its constitution is not really the Bible. It is a document that manifests America's self-righteousness, foolishness, and blindness.

But the stench of America's depravity is getting worse. In no way could this be happening if the nation is being truthfully governed by true moral principles. The principles upon which America was founded and is being governed are those that are perfectly antithetical to true morality. As long as it continues to be governed by such, it will continue to be governed by nothing more than the established laws of evil which deceptively appear as righteousness.

Do government officials and those who hold public trust truly know what they take an oath of office to do when they take the oath to uphold and defend the manmade constitution of the United States? And do blind patriots know what it truly means to faithfully abide by the spirit of such a manmade constitution? To uphold and defend the constitution and its Bill of Rights is to defend principles that are the governing principles of the kingdom of Satan. Any law that is antithetical to the TEN COMMANDMENTS is always satanic.

And if it needs to be more explicit what they want to see done, they spell it out quite bluntly:

Instead of a people seeking to govern themselves, the most noble and civic thing they can do in establishing their nation or society, or in laying down laws by which the structure of their governments and their inhabitants must conform is to wholeheartedly embrace the moral laws of God as their constitutions, without ever seeking to amend such morality; and all proposed bills, laws, statutes, ordinances, judgments and customs be based on the moral laws of God while vigorously enforcing such morality.

Source http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/06/the_ten_commandments_and_theoc.php

That backs up my theory, but why don’t Christians use the Sermon on the Mount instead of Leviticus and the TEN COMMANDMENTS. If you go to the website where these quotes were taken you can find a great site where justice is meted out. Might as well say “Stone the Bastard.” I know I was brought up Catholic and learned more Catechism than the Bible, but I never remember Christ saying “Stone Them!!!!!” There was something about guilt and throwing first.

What the hell is wrong with these Christians?

rojo

I see the EPA is up to its old tricks again. What is a navigable water and what is considered a wetland have been downgraded again.

This will decrease the amount of protection marginal flows, seasonal flows and particularly wetlands receive under the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act protects all navigable waters. How many marginal wetland are really navigable? What this will do is place an unfunded mandate (where is Jeff Gannon when we need him? Oh wait, he was funded. He was a prostitute. I wonder who he visited all those times in the White House? It would be fun to know what Christian lawmaker he was making his bitch. but I digress) -- yes, an unfunded mandate on State and county environmental protection departments as they will have to protect these areas as the Feds won't.

Now, let's say you were a developer in an area where there may be few environmental activists. And you want to fill in a swamp (er, wetland) to place a development near a freeway. You could go the county and say in your environmental impact statement we will rid you of pesky mosquitoes and lower the chance of West Nile virus and lower your expenses by eliminating your need to monitor for that and mosquito control. Oh yes, don't mind the red wing blackbirds, herons, etc. we will be displacing. They will just move elsewhere. And this is if the county actually requires environmental impact statements. Just stating that the possibility of abuse exists, maybe. And maybe county officials are cheaper to bribe than federal officials. maybe. Or maybe county and city officials want economic development and they may be more biased than federal officials. maybe.

But what really bothers me here in Colorado is that if the definition of navigable waters gets further downgraded, how many waters in Colorado, where you sometimes jump across rivers (they start here in the mountains and don't gain breadth until you get out to the plains) would truly be navigable, kayaks not withstanding? And many streams are seasonal depending upon snow melt. In a state where irrigation canals and senior water rights prevail (yes, Ralston Creek and Clear Creek were dried up four years ago by irrigation diversions--keeping grass green is much more important than fish life) how much can a stream be diverted before it is considered non-navigable and therefore not worthy of protection?

and even in Denver, the Burlington Canal (I think) along the bike path can take so much of the flow of the Platte River that the river will be dry until the effluent outfall of the Denver Metro Wastewater Plant actually starts a flow again. Yes, this does happen. This allows lawyers to lobby the State Environmental Agency to lower pollution standards (not navigable, no water) and the State is short-handed (republican congress cut budget, watch for Tabor amendments in your States--they suck. Tax payers Bill of Rights they are not. They are just an excuse to cut government funding.) Who has more money and time? developers or overworked and underpaid State employees who work for civil service?

Just think of these implications for a minute and let me know if gutting the Clean Water Act seems like such a good idea.

One other small rant. I mentioned Denver Metro WWTP. It gets the flow from almost the whole Denver area. Big plants are easier and MUCH CHEAPER to regulate and keep in compliance rather than many small ones. Except remember lobbyists cost money and bigger plants can afford lawyers more readily than small ones. But I mentioned that many area creeks run dry in the summer because of irrigation. Ralston Creek and Clear Creek had many small wastewater plants on their banks in the past--Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Northwest Lakewood, some small mobile home parks off of Federal Ave. All these at one time contributed flow to the creeks. Now their flow is diverted to the east side of Denver, depriving the stream of flow. I am sure that no one adjusted the irrigation rights to accommodate the change in flows. This really needs to be a consideration for semi-arid areas.

Oh, and if a river like the Platte receives much of its flow from a wastewater plant after irrigation diversions, how many male fish are there in the river? One study shows an 80% ratio of female to male.

Or intersexed fish?

rojo

"Attorneys for Cheney and the other officials said any conversations they had about Plame with each other and reporters were part of their normal job duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate "policy dispute." Cheney's attorney went farther, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role, and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit.

"So you're arguing there is nothing -- absolutely nothing - these officials could have said to reporters that would have been beyond the scope of their employment [whether it was] true or false?," U.S. District Judge John D. Bates asked.

"That's true, your honor."

--from http://dailykos.com/

Whoa, back up there a minute bucko! Cheney's lawyer states he should be immune from all prosecution for anything he says. I had no idea he was the head of a church! or was a king!

As an administrator, he has every right to brainstorm in private meetings with other members of the administration any damn thing they want. But stating these things in public? No way. There is a huge difference between thinking things up, discussing them in private and then consulting with the proper legal and other levels of authority before mentioning anything in public. I would expect the war department to have thought about 40 scenarios (at least) to invade anyone, and also ways to defend ourselves. That does not bother me. Just like I hope members of the judicial branch worry about ways to protect civil rights. Or health and human services worry about ways to protect us from the West Nile virus or stockpile anthrax vaccine or flu vaccine. Just like my job as a wastewater treatment operator is discharge clean water within a budget, plan for future, more stringent regulations and then work with political and budgetary entities to make sure the money and the infrastructure are there so we meet any problems before they arise. and have emergency response plans ready in case we have a blocked sewer line or whatever. You take into consideration the proximity of any surface water impoundments and streams and rivers.

But, what we plan about and what we discuss to the public are very, very different. There is a level of security that people should not know. In a egalitarian society that may not be popular, but it is true. I would not want anyone to know security details of a large metropolitan water system and its weak points, but they need to be discussed. And if you give out too much information or act vindictively or unprofessional, "you're fired!" This is not hard to understand. There is no divine right of kings or kings in the U.S. You want to be the CEO administration, then act accordingly. Unprofessional, incompetent, lose job. Duh.

As an aside, this does bring up the myth of a CEO as a "rock star." I read business pages and see what the size of a golden parachute is for running a company into the ground. Rather amazing. Hire me to run a company into the ground. Why not? But how many of us get proxy voting shares with our 401ks? and how many of us actually know who does what with our investments? Our lack of knowledge and activism allow business to run amok. and I am not blaming--I do it too. It probably is not common knowledge who serves on the Boards of the companies we invest in or that many, many people are on the Boards of many companies. And these companies deal with each other. A very closed good old boys club. An exploration for another day.

But to say anyone, POTUS, Veep or anyone can say what they want PUBLICALLY (to reporters, not in private with peers) and are immune from prosecution shows how privileged and disconnected from reality and responsibility Cheney really is. And he needs to be ripped for it.

rojo

WTF, Thursday edition @ 04:19 am

I am a relative youngster, compared to some I know, AARP card excluded. But I sit here this morning looking at the news that Detroit has now asked for impeachment. The State of Vermont has asked for impeachment. Oberlin, Berkeley, San Diego and others have this on their upcoming ballots. For Chrissakes, when will Mainstream Media get a clue the populace is unhappy and we could care less about insider arguments and stories and the same old talking heads. Do we really need to see John McCain again on a Sunday morning? PEOPLE ARE PISSED! The same old, same old is getting people disinterested in that status quo. Record profits for multi-national corporations while the middle class disappears is not helping the demeanor of everyone.

I don't know if I have ever seen the country so polarized since the Vietnam era. If there is not significant change now, I feel that there will be major change in the next election, but this unrest foments splinter groups and wackadoos to take matters into their own hands. What strikes me is that the progressives will probably work within the system of the country they hold dear. I am more worried about backlash right wing or libertarian extremists taking matters into their own hands when they lose voice in the upcoming elections and are still listening to the vehemence and hate being sold by Rush or Glen Beck or Michael Savage.

and all this precludes people in power not trying to foment Armagedon to fulfill Biblical prophecy (in their opinion) so they can speed up the coming rapture.

Happy Thursday! but do something nice and compassionate today for someone.

rojo

Every time I say I am done with politics and do not want to read anymore something draws me back. I started reading blogs a few years ago by daily reading www.juancole.com and his blog entitlled Informed Comment. It is by far and away the best commentary on Iraq going and I started reading because of the shallow coverage of what I know now as MSM. He had more insights about that geographical area and politics than anyone I heard on TV as I knew we were being sold a war we did not need. So today from Juan Cole:

"In case you missed it, I posted some passages showing what the Jordanian newspapers really thought of Cheney's visit here.

For a trip down memory lane, see my posting on Cheney's similar Middle East trip of April, 2002.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt warned Cheney against an Iraq War and said that it would produce a hundred Bin Ladens! Abdullah II spoke of the "apocalyptic" consequences and worried that the region would go up in flames. So were these leaders of the region right in 2002, or was smarty pants CIA-operative-betrayer Cheney? He'll be hunting quail in Texas in a year and a half, and Abdullah II will have to deal with a million extra residents in his country-- displaced Iraqis. Jordan only has 5.2 million citizens. And, Cheney won't be helping Jordan deal with the burden on services or with feeding the Iraqi refugees he helped create. It will just be Abdullah II and a volatile situation that could explode, just as did the Palestinian refugee problem created by Israeli expulsions and land expropriation in 1948 and 1967."

So far Mulbarek seems correct but what is troubling is that there may be millions of Iraqi-expatriates that I never thought of. and mostly in the Middle East, overcrowding marginal infrastructure.

So let's keep adding fuel to the flame instead of finding aid and diplomatic solutions. And then blame the cultural milieu for causing the problems. "Damned Arabs anyhow. Why can't they be like our Jewish friends?" Why in America is creating a situation and then blaming those involved considered acceptable leadership. Please keep that in mind with upcoming elections. Where do want our vision to go?

I am often surprised that more people have not accepted the Kucinich stance of a cabinet Peace Minister. We spend BILLIONS on war machines and much less on diplomacy and training young adults to be diplomats and visonaries.

Thought for a day.

rojo

Hi Ho, Hi Ho,
I fear and in lockstep we go.

from www.rawstory.com

"Dobson went on to enumerate a series of meetings convened by Christian right leaders in Washington to discuss the supposedly existential threat to the United States from a nuclear Iran.

“I heard about this danger [from Iran] not only at the White House but from other pro-family leaders that I met during that week in Washington," he said. “Many people in a position to know are talking about the possibility of losing a city to nuclear or biological or chemical attack. And if we can lose one we can lose ten.

"If we can lose ten we can lose a hundred," he added, “especially if North Korea and Russia and China pile on.” "

Hold on a minute there, bucko. I feel like I am listening to the bastardized lyrics of Junko Partner.

Am I to believe a group of crazed fear-mongers in a room together talking about the implicit dangers of Iran nuking the crap out of us. and then being piled on by Russia, China and North Korea. How afraid are these people in their lives? They believe in their God and his Son has already saved them.


1) There are loose nukes out there.
2) One will go off in the U.S. because people hate us. The reasons,and many are false, are too numerous to mention. We are targets!
3) I refuse to live my life afraid of this, and believe covert intelligence and enforcement are better than trying to be the biggest swinging dick in town via military force. I believe Britain tried that here once.
4) Maybe Fishbone is right.

I hope that if this is true that more than the Christian Right is informed. After all, they will end up ascending in the rapture and we get their Volvos.

Or is this another delusion that the world is ending and all is going on according to the Divine Plan of Revelation? These folks are seriously twisted. Sadly, they run our government and really believe that they are doing God's will bringing the end times.

rojo

In case you missed this little tidbit...

rojo

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country's civil conflict, and at times it's been difficult to arrive at a quorum)....

What is clear is that while the U.S. Congress dickers over timelines and benchmarks, Baghdad faces a major political showdown of its own. The major schism in Iraqi politics is not between Sunni and Shia or supporters of the Iraqi government and "anti-government forces," nor is it a clash of "moderates" against "radicals"; the defining battle for Iraq at the political level today is between nationalists trying to hold the Iraqi state together and separatists backed, so far, by the United States and Britain.

from Think Progress

Okay, Iraq wants us to leave. The majority of Americans want out. How bull-headed is this administration.

rojo

Take the time to read this and see that there is much on the table this week and until the end of May in Iraq. Yes, we are in the middle of a civil war we helped start. What happens if the Kurds secede over oil revenues? What role would Turkey play? The Sunni countries? the Shiites?
Just thinking aloud and I really don't know any answers.

rojo

After a week off and a clear head--okay, my head cannot hold all the stupidity and scandals it can see anymore--I have a few comments.

First is Obama's comments on Detroit automobile industry. Gas prices are at almost all time highs adjusted for inflation. I think 1983 was actually higher. I drive through Colorado and see all the damn big diesel pickups. Or Excursions. Or the Bellaraphons. Or whatever. Who the hell needs to play urban cowboy that much?? Or are our kids so fat we need that big of an SUV to carry them all. I was listening to my favorite local talk radio host yesterday (give him a web listen, he is good) and he had a caller say he had a pickup that got him 18 mpg and he was happy with that. I had a '63 VW that got 42 mpg. Granted it had few extras, but it worked. Now we brag over 18 mpg. D'oh! Is it any wonder we voted for Bush? It will take decades for the American auto industry to get up to speed. There is the need for long-lasting, well-built cars that get good mileage. The ONLY reason they sell big vehicles is because they can load them with extras and options, raising the profit margins. and the public is so stupid, they demand them.

Chevy even touted the new electric car they were going to market, but then said "oh, we may not be able to find batteries. Sorry" What!!!! This hasn't stopped the Prius and Insight. And I wonder how honest they are after watching "Who killed the electric car." They just keep diggin deeper.

And maybe Congress can grow testicles (no, I really do want to see Nancy Pelosi with testicles, just a euphemism. I am hoping to see her as President after the impeachments. She would make a good President and would be my first choice for the first female President over Hillary, but I digress) and get the energy policy meeting records for this administration. I do fear that even if they did press oil companies (remember they are not Standard Oil of Ohio, but BP; or Texaco, but Shell), they will take their product to China or elsewhere.

rojo

I incorrectly made mention of Altnet in my last post. I apologize. It really should be alternet. Link to the relevant story is attached. rojoo

I have taken time of off writing anything to actually gain a sense of perspective and sanity. Between work, kids and everything (still can't get my checkbook to balance) I needed a little space.

But here are two issues worth looking at. The first is the television show that showed the run-up to the Iraq war. The war that shows we have no moral high ground and can be fat and happy as occupiers, not just as consumers. It is Bill Moyers Journal and the link will show you the reporting that was not done, except by Knight-Ridder (now McLatchey) news service. God, it is good to have Bill Moyers back again. He is what a Texas Christian should be. Watch the show and be amazed. Digby, as usual, had a marvelous comment.

One other item is tracking the vote in Ohio in 2004. Altnet had a very wonderful article that took a couple of days to sink into my feeble brain. During the 2004 election, the Secretary of State Blackwell, he who certified the election before the recount was even started, let alone completed--he who threw out tens of thousands of voter registrations because they were on the incorrect bond paper, he who provided so few voting machines in black neighborhoods (predominantly democratic voters) so that hundreds of thousands inner city voters could not vote even though they waited in line over 8 hours, he who lost over 50,000 thousand provisional votes, and he who certified election results in counties with 587 voters as giving over 1300 votes to Bush!, yes that man who is now facing possible felony charges for voter fraud. Well, it has been traced that the computer address that ran the election count after 10 pm election night (Kerry had a fine lead then) was not the Secretary of State's computer. He ceded control of the count from his computer to the same IP address as the IP address as the Republican National Committee computer. The same server that has lost 5,000,000 Karl Rove emails. Avedon Carol has condensed two links on her excellent website, showing this story.

How hard is it to win (or fix) an election when you control the count from party headquarters? We need paper trails on all votes! Otherwise businesses like Diebold can fix elections. By the way, does it seem strange to you that one week after the Democrats won the House and the Senate and the oversight was going to begin--JUST ONE WEEK--Diebold put their election machine division up for sale. All of a sudden after 6 years it is no longer profitable.

rojo

1) I am not a fear monger or a conspiracy theory nut job, except when it comes to Kennedy's assassination (one guy and a magic bullet that changes direction. even I am not that gullible).

But today I happened across an entry in dailykos regarding who knew that the French warned of imminent air attack. The time lines presented were somewhat surprising in that Ashcroft refused to fly after that time. Tells me somebody said something. But I am still open to the fact that warnings were general in nature and NBD. Mr. "Don't Show Me Boobs" is kind of weird after all.

But, in the comments section--someone posted that there were war games (probably headed by Cheney) that day were being run and that there were 22 "hijacked airplanes" on the FAA's screens that day. (google war games + 9/11 + Cheney and see what you get) And East Coast fighter planes were in Canada tracking a phantom long-range nuclear bomber (this in the era of ICBMs and subs???) so there was confusion as to if and what may be the real hijacked planes and that there were no interceptors available. It makes sense that the media could not actually tell us for a while how many hijacked planes there really were. No one knew because of the bogeys.

So we warned of an imminent attack that week. War games happened to fall on the day of the attack, confusing the issue. These are facts. So either this administration are the unluckiest SOBs on the planet, except for the FEMA command sight was set up the night before as part of the war games. Or someone was complicit in the plan. Or there were tremendous security leaks letting terrorists know when there would be radar confusion.

I don't know what to think. I would never want to believe that someone could be complicit in planning the attacks to further a political agenda. My heart would break that people could be that unscrupulous. Unlucky--can't be that unlucky. Security leak, probable. or maybe a combination of all of the above. God help us all (if you believe in that) if this was a plan involving officials of the U.S. government.

rojomojo

This from an article in www.salon.com today:

Blackwell, for his part, said liberals are trying to use the Fairness Doctrine to accomplish what they could not in a free market, and asserted that liberals are "terrible" at making talk radio. "If liberals think it is just too hard to compete with the Sean Hannitys of the world," Blackwell said, "then they should focus on what they do best -- make ice cream."

Blackwell was the wonderful head of the Committee to ReElect GW. Some of his shenanigans included voter disenfranchisement (sending people to the incorrect districts in Hamilton County), voting rights issues (all voter registartion had to be on paper of X bond material, surprised he did not say with a Cartier watermark, which cancelled the voing rights of thousands in predominantly balck and poor counties), was so soundly beaten in his race as Governor that teh RNC pulled all his funds and may yet receive a jail sentence if the new Ohio Attorney General continues investigating voter fraud.

So let's see--what does he do best. Oh yes, that is lie, cheat and steal and sleep at night becasue his "tricks" to keep Republicans in power have cost over 100,000 lives and have further sunk our country "SURGE ON, dudes!" into a quagmire where we are not wanted (rose petals, my ass.) Free market--how about free voting place? When you really look at the economy in the U.S., it has never really been a free market economy. There have been tariffs to keep imports down, keeping jobs in America. There has been little Outsourcing to other countries until the past 15 years. The amount of money given to farmers and agribusiness is more than to welfare queens. The Savings and Loan (rememebr Neil Bush) bailout cost business nothing, just the taxpayers.

Face it. If you want free market, you had better be one of the top 1% in America. Business Weekly, I think, showed that that 6% of America controls and profits from over 50% of the economy. The middle class and the upper middle class were consciously made by trade unions and the New deal. It has been slowly dismantled by the far right in teh name free trade and free market. Correct me if I am wrong, but if I made all the incorrect projections that Bill "Fish Lips" Cristol has made in my workplace, I would be pushing a broom. "It's good to be the King."

Keep that in mund as we listen to people speak about how liberals don't know how to do anything. Create the middle class. Make higher education affordable. Give voter rights and expand the decision making base in the U.S. so it not just rich white guys who can perform militia justice.

Make ice cream my ass. Without a liberal agenda, Blackwell would not even have voting rights.


rojo

I mentioned Ohio voter fraud in my last post and here is an update. It will be interesting to see if 2008 results differ much.

rojo

From Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com

"I feel really bad about the server problems the White House/RNC seems (no, not a typo -- they appear to be a single entity) to be having on the email front. Believe me, I run a small business that is heavily dependent on cranky servers and other gizmos. So I know how hard this can be. But I think this might be a case where that NSA 'terrorist surveillance program' may really come in handy. I'm told the NSA has some very capable data recovery tools they've developed. And even if those guys are too busy hunting al Qaida, doesn't the FBI have some pretty good forensic computer geeks? What happens when, say, a company like Enron (okay, perhaps not a great example) says some emails were 'mishandled' and now are gone forever. I guess that's just the end of it, right? Normally, it's not kosher for a government agency to offer direct assitance to a private entity or political organization. But, hey, we're pretty far down that road I guess. So let's have the FBI go down and take a look at these servers and see if these emails have really disappeared forever."

-- Josh Marshall

I work at a business and when the email gets lost we have IT guys come in and fix it. Now, they can't always find every email. But, what are the chances that a whole batch of emails on a specific topic from a certain time period gets lost? I am always amazed that in the electronic age, even without going to the NSA extent that Josh Marshall jokes about, that people feel that lost emails is an excuse. Get real.

I believe that there are charges such as failure to cooperate with an investigation, obstructing justice and so on that can be brought to bear as a cudgel. How many low level flunkies will allow themselves to be sacrificed in order to get to the head of Hydra (ooops, sorry, this is not Marvel comics). How much fear is instilled by the ruling minions that no one has yet rolled?

The worst part about this is that MSM is not really covering this in depth. Only geeks are reading this sort of thing and the average worker bee does not know how deep or how high this corruption and borderline legality may go. But what this does is reshape any idea the average citizen has about routine rights to privacy and voter rights. The arguments have been pushed so far to the right, favoring a ruling class of honchos that can place you under surveillance, and limit voting that no one knows how much they are being manipulated. Specific rights won in the 60s by minorities are disappearing so fast that "separate but equal" rules could be favored by some and then placed on talk radio and covered in MSM as a serious discussion and then would become part of the general lexicon of the American speech. If you think I am joking, just remember that Ted "Tubes" Stephens kept a job after his gaff and that Tom "Let's Bomb Tehran" Tancredo was not only not laughed out of office, but was reelected! I am sure that Tancredo is a native American name and he does not look anything like the dark-skinned immigrants he is always beating up in speeches. I mean, did not the Italians emigrate from somewhere, Tom? Wittgenstein was right in the sense that redefining words will redefine the thought paradigms of a culture. And dictate the limits of the debate.

The past two U.S. elections have been decided by voter rights manipulation. Ohio election officials have been charged and convicted with rigging the recount which cost Kerry the election. How many lives (Iraq death toll is now over 650,000) have been lost over someone's LUST FOR POWER AND CONTROL?! How many people know that felonies were committed in Ohio? Where is the media outrage? Civic outrage?

And these people have the balls to call themselves Christians? Nice ethics.

rojo

I have always thought this woman was one of the hottest women (Joni Mitchell and Annie Lennox, too) in the music business. I have often scoffed when people talk about Brittany or Beyonce. and am amazed at Christine Aguilera's talent, but this from one of my favorite woman pop stars--

A better Democratic strategist - Tori Amos: ""The way to really combat the right wing is to not be subservient to them on any level, particularly when it comes to ideology," she continued. "Therefore, you better offer up another ideology that can combat theirs, and as a preacher's daughter, I understand their ideology inside and out. Frankly, they've all hijacked Jesus and his message. I'm sorry, but 'Love thy neighbor as yourself' is nowhere to be found, especially in our current regime, who, in the name of God, is sending our young men and women to die over there [in the Middle East]."

rojo

About two weeks ago, i went on a rant about Circuit City and workers wages. I did not have a handy-dandy visual showing the differences in worker's hourly wage vs. CEO salary pay. Well, here it is. Hourly wages up 4.3% since 1995 and CEO wages up 298%. Yeah, trickle down sure as fu works. rojo

I am very depressed. I have taken the time to watch a very good video entitled Unprecedented. It shows how the election in 2000 was thrown in Florida. Thrown, stolen, whatever. Let's not mince words. It was brother sucking off brother.

I really do not want to hear how it was all fair. Governor Crist deserves kudos for his current action.

What depresses me is that we have, because of the action in Florida in 2000, have cost over 500,000 lives, lost any moral primacy that America has ever had world-wide (to the point we are viewed internationally as an occupying force), placed America in deeper debt, and has ruined our reputation world-wide.

All for brotherly payback. may they rot in hell, regardless of their self-religious beliefs. At the very least, they should be fined and family fortunes lost. I have often wondered if a class action suit by the survivors of the Iraqi debacle action the personal fortunes of GW would be worth anything.

rojo

Welcome to your generation's Vietnam. I hope fervently that Iran does not become the new Cambodia. There is a little more at stake here other than the Domino Theory. Like the world's oil supply. I hope I do not sound callous or indifferent to the loss of lives in either conflict.

This administration would have been happy in the Red Scare days of the 50s. Now we have the terrorist scare of the 00s. What the hell are people thinking? Civil Liberties have been rolled back. Good paying jobs are leaving in droves as free market global economic theory is king (at least it isn't called trickle down theory anymore). The middle class is dissolving (this was a political and union creation). The Conservative Supreme Court finally had to step in and say "Wake up, what the hell are you doing?" when it comes to the EPA and air pollution.

Where is the moral and emotional outrage?????? I am getting up off my fat senior ass and starting to join planned demonstrations. I actually hoped that I would not have to as there are many other young people who should be more pissed off. Think ahead -- what will life be like without health insurance when you are 50 +? Or will you be a member of the ruling class? Civil Liberties won in the 60s are disappearing. Environmental rules are being rolled back.

And for a President who does not want pork in his budgets--Why is this war not in the budget? Did he forget it was going on? He reminds me of Pee Wee Hermann when he falls of his superbike during his adventure -- "I meant to do that." How in the hell can you say there should be no pork and unfunded mandates (no, not Jeff Gannon and Karl Rove) and forget to fund the war!!!!!!

Why aren't people incensed?

rojo

Livin' the dream in the U.K.

Yes, record profits on investments and workers wages are stagnant. Gotta love any attempts at explanation of trickle down economics. Sure, it makes it to the working class.

It is troubling that people still believe that shit. But maybe because they are of the investor class and it all looks good there. And who cares about sub-prime mortgages because those who lose their houses aren't me---and the government will bail out business. Again

rojo

Gakked from rocketboom.com --

"Austrian Hans Steininger was famous for having the world’s longest beard (it was 4.5 feet or nearly 1.4 m long) and for dying because of it.

One day in 1567, there was a fire in town and in his haste Hans forgot to roll up his beard. He accidentally stepped on his beard, lost balance, stumbled, broke his neck and died!"

rojo

From Atrios 9and the local newspaper)--

"Money Makes The World Go Round

Circuit City's variation on this is to fire its more highly-paid and more experienced workers and then to let them apply for the same jobs at lower wages:

The electronics retailer, facing larger competitors and falling sales, said Wednesday that it would lay off about 3,400 store workers. The laid-off workers, about 8 percent of the company's total work force, would get a severance package and a chance to reapply for their former jobs, at lower pay, after a 10-week delay, the company said.

Neat, isn't it? Of course Circuit City could have made similar savings by first firing its CEO, Philip J. Schooner, who earned around 2.17 million dollars last year and then letting him reapply at the "market" rate for CEOs.

Now why would a firm openly admit to doing something like this? Could it be a way around possible age discrimination suits? Many better paid workers are not only more experienced but also older."

I know I will never shop at Circuit City again.

That said, you have to give them points for honesty. "We need to raise our margins...blah..blah...blah. So we are hiring kids from MickeyDees as teens know more high tech shit then you..."

And they are losing 3,000 workers at $4.00 change for 2080 hours per year plus benefits plus overtime or roughly $33,000,000. What this tells me is that if they cannot make margin at $12/hour to the employees, then something is wrong. In Colorado (probably California too) you cannot raise a family on that. It highlights that perhaps wages may be too high on the management end. Without doing the research for this comment, I know that executives never made what they are making now, particularly if it is in proportion to what hourly workers are making. That skews margins ridiculously. But even if you trim management salaries a little (or a lot) all the way down the line, where do you make up $33 mill? One other non-populist part of the equation is Americans want more toys and at cheap prices. Screwing other Americans so we can get our fix is a part of the equation. Makes you feel all warm and cuddly inside to know you are (I am) part of a complex problem that is based in greed.

Living wages would be nice, less money to executives would be nicer and do we really need a 60" TV? or a home theater system? or a house that is thousands of square feet for a family of 4.5 people? I see over 3000 square feet for a family of 4 and wonder who they are hiring to clean.

rojo

After having an extremely long work week with two more days to go, I have come across a frightening article. While there are some very funny lines in it:

"Then, much the way some companies go green, DOJ under Ashcroft went Pentecostal. In correspondence, use of the word "pride" was forbidden because the Bible calls pride a sin; employees were also asked to never use the phrase "no higher calling than public service." Ashcroft instituted prayer meetings, leading a Bible study at 8 a.m. sharp each day, some days even in his office, on others in a conference room at Main Justice. All department employees, regardless of their religious affiliation, were invited to attend, but in reality few did."

and

"After 9/11, the DOJ staff also received copies of the lyrics to a jingoistic song that Ashcroft had penned himself, "Let the Eagle Soar." He asked staff to sing it at the beginning of the work day at his prayer meetings."

Okay, I know I feel prayer should be separate from work. Kind of like an old boss of mine should not say in management meetings to hire women because they work at 25% less, thus increasing our profit margin. Or management staff using the C word to describe women in the office when the accountant leaves the room. These are unnecessary and discriminatory. Prayer is cool, but if you need to do it, do it quietly and to yourself. It is not a group activity, and should not be a cheerleading activity that does count when raises and advancement are concerned. Just like institutionalized prejudice and degradation of women may cause high employee turnover in traditional female clerical staff roles. (Can't understand why we can't keep women on our office staff?, duh! Yet six of my last hires have been women and there have been no "continual cat-fighting" among women.)

Set up a culture that cares little about justice and works from an agenda -- to lower the boundaries between religion and government and you have a very unappealing monoculture that doesn't see the irony of claiming that anyone can swear on the Koran to serve in public and be a citizen in a Christian country.

rojo

It's Friday!!!!

Turn it Up.

Ojos de Brujo, Ventil8tor Rumba

rojo

Mid-week musings before the shite hits the fan from the DOJ document dump—

March 18, 2003, courtesy of Frank Rich:

Barbara Bush tells Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she will not watch televised coverage of the war: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it’s going to happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

Waste your beautiful mind worrying about things like death and suffering. Is it any wonder her son has little conscience for the suffering of others? I am reminded of numerous period pieces and character studies where the idly rich don’t worry about the poor folk, but are caught up in their little worlds of what is neat (Paris “dumber than snot” Hilton comes to mind as a 20^th century equivalent). And fun. And fashionable. And beautiful. And why do people want to emulate them? Oh, that’s right, they have money, people to handle it for them, look good and have fun and don’t have to get dirty. You won’t see them sharing a camera with Mike Rowe. The one thing that self-absorbed people forget is their lives are trivial, but they have good toys. I just don’t understand the lack of compassion.

I came across a link to German green roofs, but lost it. Information on these can be found on the following Canadian report. http://www.urbanag.org.au/Green%20Roof%20Policies.pdf It is quite interesting and I have heard of little or none of this in the United States. Regionally, I live in the Southwest and I have a hard time imagining green roofs in the desert. Here in Denver, there is so little water that wastewater reuse is THE technology of the future. That’s right, drinking reclaimed poo will be the only way there will be enough water. Currently Aurora is going to be taking river water through the gravel aquifer of the Platte River downstream from the Denver Metro Wastewater Plant (and at times because of irrigation canal diversions, the effluent of the plant is THE ONLY FLOW in the river. Yes, that is right, the river flows through downtown Denver and then gets diverted to farmland around Brighton and if you are a regular bike rider on the bike trail you know the river goes dry two or three times per year until the wastewater plant effluent.) But in Chicago or NYC or Philly where there is water, this would help cool things and work. If you ever have seen John Todd’s work with aquatic farming and living machines, you can see where he has proposed this for years, along with storm drainage ponds and solar aquatic treatment of the same. It does work. His solar aquatic Wastewater Plants work to where there is no need for phosphorus removal. This could work well in the Southwest as WWTP, but would require investors.

But ehis is a digression of what to do with your roof in the Southwest. Here is an alternative. I have contacted the firm the see if it may work for our house.
http://renu.citizenre.com/index.php?c=1168291804 If my wife and I do not move for a year, I would like to sign a lease for photovoltaics on my roof. I would feel better about life.

From Atrios—

“Privatizing profits in good times while socializing losses in bad times is another form of reckless corporate welfare that generates moral hazard while fostering new bubbles.”

These comments ring really true when it comes to corporate welfare. His comments were directed at what happens if the real estate bubble for sub-prime lending does require corporate bail out. It probably will and predictions are that it will be larger than the Bush family saving and loan scandals. There the government bailed out the beleaguered Savings and Loan industry at the cost of well over $30,000,000. And why did I mention the Bush family? Neil’s business acumen was worse than GW’s. Oh, excuse me, Neil received a $50,000 fine for Silverado—while he took home $200,000,000. How does that work? If I am late on a credit card payment, I get a late fee and higher interest rate. He gets a 0.25% fine for $200,000,000 and gets to keep the money.

The sub-prime interest scandal will cost more than the Savings and Loan scandal. It will cause a recession. Merrill Lynch is already predicting a 30% drop in the market this year. 401k kids be ready to eat it yet again. My 401k still has not recovered from 9/11, but I do not spend enough time moving money around. Some of that is my fault. I could be more aggressive and when the market drops like it did three weeks ago, I could buy stocks that drop. And wait. But I don’t. My personal life aside, what I am saying is that we pay for the bail out of the investor class. I know I the big picture, if the banks fail, we are screwed. If industry fails, we are screwed. No middle class, no big screen TVs, no college for your kids, no going to see the Eagles or the Police for $150 a pop (or more—like I can afford that). BUT NEVER LIE TO ME ABOUT FREE MARKET ECONOMY AGAIN!!! Corporate welfare costs us, taxpayers more every year than the mythical welfare queens ever have and that does not include the military industrial complex. Tell me you want to fuck me in the ass so you can have my money. Don’t talk to me about the glories of free market economy. It never works and never has worked unless you are rich to start and can pay off the right people. And have no conscience about living on the life blood of others.

Enough for now—a glorious spring day awaits. Creation is on the move and the flowers are starting to bloom. That is no bullshit. Just remember Barbara Bush’s statement when someone talks to you about compassionate conservatives and laugh in their faces. Hell, send them a link to my blog.

rojo

Here we go, step right up and place your bets--

What are the odds there will be a new butt boy in Washington? Who is going to take it in the ass for the boys in power? Get those leather chaps on...

The question only remains, will it be Torquemada Gonzalez? will it be Piggie Rove? How about "Dis is the Bog One" Cheney? Someone will go to protect Bush's ass. The question is who?

Gonzalez' top aide will not satisfy the blood lust of the righteous public outcry. In order to quell investigations, there will need to be a sacrificial lamb. But who?

The winner is----Harriet Miers. 3-1 odds. They don't call it the good ole boy network for nothin' and she ain't a boy. Gonzalez 7-1. If you want to take the over -- 5 mid-to-upper level administrators go.

Be almost as much fun as March Madness.

rojo

This just a quick post early in the morning--

I have heard many people on talk radio ask why the Dems aren't doing enough. Why no impeachment? Why no confrontation with the White House?

Let's take a strategery look at this. 1) Go into open conflict with the mainstream media still mostly in the back pocket of conservatives. Who looks bad then. Remember just recently Andrea Mitchell on Hardball discussed how the majority (CNN poll says 18%--what a whopping mandate) of Americans wants Libby pardoned. They can can still get away with that type of overstatement in order to curry favor with the rulers. Any open conflict makes the administration more cuddly as the Progressives attack them. I know it is unrealistic spin, but that is what would happen. or 2) go through committees and oversight--pull pieces of the machine out one by one until people like Cheney and Rove end up with their head on a pole and being done so by much of the media, not just Keith Olbermanm. I am seeing where Gonzalez may get his soon. Same with Rove. A bit at a time without confrontation works for me. and in the long run completely discrediting the whole machine would be most effective.

That being said I am so grateful the blogs such as Americablog, juancole.com, dailykos are part of the infrastructure nowadays so it is not just the hard right that is organized with their Christian soldiers getting the word out. I hear a change blowing in the wind, but remem

It has been a very, very busy week and a weekend, but there are some stories that I must comment on.

The leader of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Dr. Mohler stated:

One of the nation's leading Southern Baptists has called for a policy that would support medical treatment,” if it were to become available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother's womb from homosexual to heterosexual.” This latest assault on our dignity and existence comes from no less a personage than Rev. R. Albert Mohler, the president of the prominent and influential Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. (synopsis from Dailykos)

This leads me to ask many questions. But it also makes me want to congratulate Dr. Mohler. Southern Baptists are admitting that some people are hard-wired to be gay in utero. This means that unlike other conservative Christian groups, they admit that this may actually be physiological rather than being something that you can be cured of by counseling. (Does anyone believe Ted Haggard is cured after one month of counseling when part of his payoff was to move from the State of Colorado. You know, far far away where no one knows you. Thanks James Dobson.)

But he goes further and adds that being gay is a blot on humanity and is a vestige of Original Sin; a sign that man fell from grace. So let me see if I can understand this specious reasoning. 1) Being gay is (or at least can be) a physiological trait you are hard-wired with in utero. 2) This is a sign of falling from grace during the fall from Eden. Let me look at this more closely. One thing he has not blatantly done (but tacitly) is to blame women for the fall. After all, you all descending from Eve and we have fallen from grace because you ate an apple 6,000 years ago. (I wish I could hear his diatribe about Lilith in Genesis—she must be the bitch that did not allow God’s plan of the necessity of humanity to fall from perfect creation so we could brutally murder his Son so we could have salvation if we only believed, not on how we act.) But we must live with the blot of the Fall, as he sees it. So what better way to change the world than to change DNA structure of gays in their mother’s womb.

I have to comment on an omnipotent Creator setting things up for a fall so everyone can suffer more. God as Pee Wee Herman—“I meant to do that.” as he crashes his ultimate bike trying to do tricks. Yeah, sure. And now we want to mess with genetic structure in order to eliminate sodomites.

What’s next? Genetic engineering a white NBA player that can shoot like Larry Bird but jump higher than paper? Or perhaps constructing a slave race. “I meant to do that.” And, of course, I am the conduit of God’s expression as I am the big teacher at the Southern Baptist Seminary. Oy!

Other items worthy of comment:

The almighty and omniscient Bill Kristol states:

“He (Bush) needs to pardon Libby now. I think that would actually reinvigorate his supporters and show that he’s willing to fight to defend his people and defend the war that he led us into.”

Uh, okay. Has this man ever been right about anything? When will the media quit interviewing him? And others quit caring what he says? I believe he was the one who stated that Sunnis and Shiites never have had a history of discord in Iraq. Yeah, there was strong man in power and those two factions could unite in their dislike of the Kurds. He never learned from Tito and Yugoslavia what happens when a strong man dictator dies or is ousted from power. Obvious answer—democracy. Yeah, right. Ethnic differences disappear in blissful acceptance of freedom. How fucking stoopid are you? So, we continue to give “fish-lips man” a venue in the media.

Speaking of Yugoslavia, particularly Serbia. Slobodan Milosevic’s grave was dug up and a stake was placed through his heart. I guess no one believed he was dead already.

And in Florida, Governor Crist is going to reinstate voting rights to convicted felons that have paid their debt to society. And electronic voting machines will have a paper trace. Six years too late. I can still remember GW stating his brother will deliver him Florida. Yup, no paper trail and abrogating voter rights. Good stuff. Worthy of a third world country. This administration has done more to destroy our country than Nixon did in his terms.

And amazingly enough Diebold is trying to divest itself of the electronic voting machine section of the firm. Could it be that they want to get rid of any trace of records now that there may be some oversight? Democrats come in, start having hearings and all of a sudden they must sell the voting machine division and its records.

Enough for now.

rojo

From the you can't make this shit up department:

Tom Brady, the handsome strapping quarterback for the New England Patriots, had been the steady squeeze of Bridget Moynihan. They split up and guess who is a little preggers now. His new squeeze of about three months, Victoria's Secret heartthrob Gisele, announced today she is about two months preggers.

You would think a nice Irish Catholic boy would know the rhythm method, at least.

I am reminded of an old Steeley Dan song:

"Ain't never gonna do it without my fez on."

rojo

I should be elated on Fitzmas day.

Guilty, Guilty, Acquitted, Guilty and Guilty!!!!

Yet, I agree with Fitzman. To paraphrase "It is sad that this type of behavior happens at the highest levels of power in the government."

Libby is Cheney's butt-boy and unless he cracks, there is little that can be done. That evil bastard may walk yet. We know where the evil lies. At least at the level of Cheney, if not higher.

A blow job is admissible for impeachment and being a traitor by releasing a spy's identity is not.

Christ, what a country.

rojo

Here it is a glorious sunshining Sunday. I have time to actually write something. Here is what I have found in the news today:

1) James Dobson, he of Colorado Springs "I can cure any man of being gay fame", now claims that the furor over global warming is going to be the death of the evangelical movement. Too many evangelical ministers are actually taking seriously the call in the New Testament to be Stewards of the Earth. By golly, those ministers are having to interact with lefties and progressives and conservative values may be tainted. Also, there is a schism forming in the conservative evangelicals where the environment is taking an important level of importance. The stranglehold of the paradigm that the world is there for man's use may be challenged by the paradigm that the world may actually exist for its own use and we are citizens and stewards of it. That could change everything.

2) Here is an interview from http://sideshow.me.uk --

The Talking Dog: Too many Americans are willing to just assume that a European Moslem in Afghanistan in 2001 was up to some kind of mischief. Please describe what you were actually doing there. Also, please correct me if I am wrong, but did not a fair number of men doing what amounts to humanitarian work get swept up in the so-called war on terror and ended up at Bagram, Kandahar and/or Guantanamo Bay, where many are still held to this day?

Moazzam Begg: I went to Afghanistan in the summer of 2001. We had planned, funded and supported a school in Kabul- a girl's school. The program was to go to help, teach, expand and advance and to get some social value. I was also involved in digging some wells and a water project in a drought stricken region in NorthWestern Afghanistan.

It is hard to believe that the U.S. imprisoned this man and then moved him and kept him in jail for almost three years. It is a national embarrassment that we have been such bullies. On an international scale, we have broken rules and will not own up to it. We are an international embarrassment and yet refuse to admit it to ourselves. I am reminded of the Milgram experiment where actors were hired to act as if they were being shocked and "scientists" said they would take responsibility for the pain caused to the subject/actors as average, ordinary people administered supposedly increasing electroshocks. Every participant "shocked" the actors. And this is what we have now. Bullies doing everything and taking responsibility and telling us it will be all okay. When will we ever respond with a resounding "NO! "?

rojo

Long time, no post.

About three weeks ago, I was in the middle of a work emergency where I had to put in over 100 hours of work at a wastewater plant with failing infrastructure in one week. It was rated at 1 million gallons per day (1 MGD). The influent flows because of rapid snow melt, leaking pipes (bad joints where ground water leaks in) , and possibly storm sewers connected to the wastewater system took the flows to over 2.6 MGD, or over twice what the plant was rated at.

Blogger updated to Google blogger and for some reason the screens needed to complete the sign up never all appeared on my computer. And, you know, I was too tired to care. I finally slept for the night last week for the first time. Being over 50 and sleeping only maybe 18 hours in one week, I was exhausted. I slept, slept, took vitamins and slept as I could.

So this morning I finally looked up google accounts and received the missing sign up pages.

and here I am.

weird stories I have seen I would like to comment on--

Binge eating is the largest (no pun intended) food disorder in the U.S. according the February issue of Biological Psychiatry. Much more common the anorexia and bulimia. Am I surprised? Not in the least. Remember this is the country that had to reinvent hypodermic needles because our collective asses are too fat. And I may not be the only one, but I would rather eat nachos than throw the damn things up. and eat them even if I am not hungry, just because they taste good. Eating when not hungry is an American past time. Maybe consumerism and constantly being bombarded by ads feed the fire. And maybe because sex is considered this side of Satan's pleasure so people find other pleasures. I don't know. I am not that smart, but I know the pleasure centers opened when I eat something tasty are second to orgasm, followed closely by the pleasure centers activated by nicotine and then caffeine. Maybe more study into bioelectrical responses in the brain need to be carried out to see what makes us tick. Then we may have a scientific basis for practical behavior modification. and the fun can begin to understand how spirituality actually fits into the mix. Yes, I know there is a major spiritual component to our being human and it so often confused with blind belief and didactic catechisms that the gulf between spiritual fulfillment and life as it is lived on earth, that the world is often mean, bullying and etc.

Second rant--The GAO is stating that the budget deficits may be insurmountable without new taxes. D'oh! And this is news? I want to have the same money system our country has in my personal life. No money, no matter, buy my debt. Then print more money. You don't have to back up your currency with any substance. And this makes sense how? If I am in debt or gain too much weight, I have to work my way out of it. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned personal responsibility? I had to quit buying CDs, going to rock shows and drinking to pay down my charge card, as my income potential was static. This country will have to tighten the belt, maybe cut down on social services, cut the military budget, figure out ways to grow new income (becoming a worldwide leader in renewable energy could, just COULD be a growth market!), and probably tax those that have money. How hard is this to figure? It then becomes how do we do that and what programs get cut. That's where it gets really hard. If we cut the donor cord and make elections public-funded, we will be less beholden to making sure special interests are served. Quit appointing cabinet heads from industry would be nice too. could public service really be a bad idea

Final rant--
Lehman Financial Services or Lehman Brothers have stated that over 30% of subprime loans granted in the past three years will default in the next year. That will glut the market. If you have money and can buy and wait for ten years, you win. If you need a house and are barely scraping by, you are screwed. And if you are like most middle Americans, you will lose your real estate investment. Ow! That will do wonders for the economy. But if you have the money, you will win. Just like this week's stock market "correction" will help those who can buy good stocks at the reduced prices. 401k and mutual funds investors get screwed though. WHAT A SURPRISE! If you can afford a financial adviser, you win if he is on the ball. If you are barely making ends meet, buy the Gravy Train with a Twist or Emeril's Bam! How to Stretch Your Pet Food as You Become Senior cookbook.

Ow!

rojo