June, 2010 archive
A Responsible Fiscal Would Look Everywhere 0
United States military spending is almost half the federal budget. It should be scrutinized as carefully as any other portion of the budget.
The Boston Globe:
Kenny Golden, who is running as an independent against Democratic Congressman Glenn Nye and Republican Scott Rigell, is not a responsible fiscal. According to The Slant, his budget plan exempts defense spending completely (it also is arbitrary and capricious, mandating cuts without reference to usefulness or efficiency, but that’s another issue).
From his press release (emphasis added):
1. Cutting the budget deficit
• 2% annual budget cuts on each cabinet level department except the Department of Defense
• Consolidate or eliminate redundant federal agencies and functions
Then, again, Mr. Golden was a Republican until he jumped ship to run in this election. The public record of Republicans as responsible fiscals is clear. They talk a lot.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Crossing Debar Dept. 0
Debarment removes a federal grant from the recipient; it the ultimate penalty for misconduct.
Among the types of grants subject to debarment are mineral rights.
Fresh Air interviews ProPublica investigative reporter Abrahm Lustgarten on his investigation of BPs safety practices. From the website:
“[The documents are] strikingly consistent, which was the first thing that jumped out to us …” Lustgarten tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “You start to see a couple central themes. And those were: internal criticism for a lack of accountability in the company, lack of support for workers at BP and at BP’s contractors. … [There was also] a consistent emphasis of profits over production over safety and maintenance and environmental compliance, meaning they were putting profits ahead of safety. And finally, a systematic disregard for maintenance of their equipment. It’s a process that they call ‘run to failure’ where they would use the equipment for as long as possible while investing as little effort and money in maintaining it as possible.”
Follow the link to listen to the interview or read lengthy selections from the interview.
World Cup 0
Don’t care, although, every day this week, my local rag has devoted an entire half page, with lots of white space that could have included, you know, sentences and paragraphs, to previews of the World Cup.
I’m not one to follow a sports event just because it’s eventing.
Guess I’d just as soon see them waste the space on soccer (Association Football, that is) as on NASCAR. Either way the paper soaks up spilled coffee.
Apparently, not everyone shares my apathy.
Some seem to think that Soccer is a librul plot.
It’s a Norman Rockwell World 0
Except it’s backwards day.
Helen Thomas 2
I sort of vaguely remember her from presidential press conferences when I was a young ‘un.
Never was really impressed with her; neither her nor my advancing age lessened my lack of impression.
The few times I worked up the nerve actually to watch a presidential press conference (John Kennedy held them regularly and I usually watched–I was too young to know to turn them off–he, at least, knew how to tell a joke), I found her no less annoying than any other self-fluffing Washington White House reporter, even when she was justly tweaking King George the Wurst.
But she was cyber-lynched over a few off-hand remarks by the Nation-of-Israel-Can-Do-No-Wrong bunch.
Frankly, there is no nation that can do no wrong and few nations that do mostly right.
It’s called human nature and, most of the time, if one thinks critically about it, humans are annoying, if not downright depressing. Fortunately, most of us are able to suspend critical thought for day-to-day life. It is a necessary defense against insanity.
James Wolcott does the post-mortem.
Wall Street Journal Goes Birther 0
But, being the Wall Street Journal, it denies it in the same breath.
Where Obama Disappoints 0
I can understand why President Obama believed that digging for the truth of Bushie behavior during the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq and in America’s Concentration Camps might not be worth the candle.
If you’re going to accomplish anything, you have to pick your battles.
The Bushies did so much damage in so many places (just consider the Mineral Management Service) that picking that battle, while it might satisfy moral outrage and re-establish principles of law and morality, would probably overshadowed all the others.
Nevertheless, the current administration’s choice to continue along the path of repressing information is most distressing. Glenn Greenwald:
All of that would be bad enough if his generous immunity were being applied across the board. But it isn’t. As numerous incidents reflect, as high level Bush lawbreakers are vested with presidential immunity, low-level whistle blowers who exposed serious wrongdoing and allowed citizens some glimpse into what our government does are being persecuted by the Obama administration with a vengeance. Yesterday it was revealed by Wired that the Army intelligence officer who reportedly leaked the Apache helicopter attack video to Wikileaks — and thus enabled Americans to see what we are really doing in Iraq and other countires which we occupy and attack — has been arrested (Wikileaks denies the part of that report claiming that the whistleblower also leaked to it “hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records”).
More Raw Story.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still above 450k:
While payrolls rose for a fifth month in May, hiring by companies was less than forecast, underscoring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments yesterday that there will be “only a slow reduction” in the unemployment rate. Job gains are needed to spur consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, and ensure a sustained expansion.
Good News in the Wind 0
Virginia Governor McDonnell joins other governors to support wind power. The group includes governors from North Carolina to Maine.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
It’s nice to see him talking something other than oil.
Seaman Flipper, USN 0
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I remember that the trainer of Flipper ultimately regretted his role and began to campaign on behalf of dolphins.
The Navy trains dolphins to look for mines:
Using echo-location, bottlenose dolphins can detect those types of objects from about 150 yards away. After a dolphin has been commanded to look for an object, it will scan the area and swim back to the boat. If it believes it’s found something, it touches a tennis ball or plastic disk at the front of the boat.
Then the handler will give the dolphin a marking device and signal it to drop the marker a certain distance away from the suspected mine. A Navy diver will take to the water for a detailed inspection and decide whether to disarm or detonate the mine.
Large Scale Plumbing 0
Tuesday, during the vigil, the spoils pipe of at the Rudee Inlet dredge had separated.
In this sequence, you can see
- the separated pipe, then
- the crew tie up to the two pieces of pipe, then
- manoeuver them into a position where they could work with them, then
- reconnect them.
The last picture shows the reconnected joint, which is still leaking. Other joints were leaking too, so I reckon losing some water isn’t that big an issue so long as the spoils are disposed of.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Due Process Dept. 2
Andrew Clark, U. S. Business Correspondent for the Guardian, argues against piling on BP. A nugget:
Many will argue that BP deserves to die, and anger is entirely understandable. But critics should be careful what they wish for. America is a nation with a tradition of due process and everybody – even “big oil” – is entitled to a fair trial.
I can get behind the part about a trial.
Follow It Does Not Follow 0
Today’s Non Sequitur, that is.
Go read the comic and then read the comments. Some of them do indeed bring the picture to life . . . .
QOTD 0
Will Rogers, from the Quotemaster:
If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.
I’ve been to Cincinnati. It’s a nice town in northern Kentucky.
The Road Warrior 0
What a great movie.
Simple, straightforward, lots of car crashes.
What more could a guy want in a movie?
Spill Here, Spill Now, Mad Barbour of Haley Street Dept. 0
“It cannot be that the only thing our government is good for any more is war . . . .”
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Ass Quest 2010 | ||||
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Via TPM.
Banana Fanna Fo Fanna 0
Play the Name Word Game with BartBlog.
