Good Gracious...Serious Bats

I was being a little tongue in cheek when I said we were going to see the bats. A lot of times these local "events" are subject to inflation by local pride. Well, it is truly impressive when at sundown these bats decide to fly. Wave after wave emerge from under the over pass and clouds of Mexican Freetail bats waft off across the area. All of them headed southeast at first but you could see them start to break up in the distance and fan out in different directions. I'm impressed. The event only lasts for 10-15 minutes but it is one continuous stream while it is happening. During the day you can drive by this overpass and not see a thing as the bats are hidden up between the girders but come sundown they just erupt. Neat.
Got to get packed and ready for an early flight tomorrow back to Hotlanta. Plane is 805a so that means piling out of the sack about 4am.

P.S. Dining tip. Salt Grass Steak House ( at least the one here just north of Sam Bass road along I35) is an excellent choice if you want a good steak, good service and a reasonable price). I had the small filet(tenderloin) and it was the best steak I have had in a restaurant in many moons. I was impressed by the service as well. My colleague had the New York Strip and he ate everything but the moo and he is almost as big a food snob as me.

Bats...Lots of Bats

Finished up all the meetings a little early. So my colleague and I have decided to take advantage of our few moments of freedom to have an early dinner and then drive down to where I-35 crosses McNiel and watch the millions of bats emerge at sundown from underneath the freeway bridge. Evidently this is one of the largest concentrations of bats in a surburban area anywhere. There is a bridge in downtown Austin that is famous for it's bats as well but our sources say that there are more bats out here than downton. It is only a couple of miles from the hotel down the access road so why not? You have to do something when you spend so much time on the road to break the routine. I understand the Texas DOT makes a special effort to build these bridges with habitat for bats. I will give a full report later if I can stay awake.

I have been surfing around trying to catch up with the world today and not much good news to be had. More bad news from the Middle east and now Turkey is threatening to invade Northern Iraq to quell the Kurdish terrorists that are raiding in Turkey. Not a good sign.
Bush vetoed the Castle bill (stem cell funding) but he did it hiding in his office...no reporters, no photos. I will keep my fingers crossed that Congress can find the few more votes needed to override. Polls show that the majority of Americans (66%) support increased funding for stem cell research. It is just like Bush go against the will of the people in order to throw a bone to the rabid Christo-fascists that are what is left of his base. This will swing some of the races in November even more to the Dems.

Tragically Wrong

Up really early this morning. Already done the walk, showered and dressed and it is only 630a here is the hill country of Texas.

The latest reports show that I missed the mark by thousands when I estimated the number of civilians killed in Sunni versus Shiite violence in Iraq. My guess of 500 was a little low...turns out it is more like 6000 in May and June.
How can anyone in the administration claim with a straight face that Iraq is moving in the right direction? This is so insane and tragic that I am almost speechless. There is no way you can spin this into "good news".

"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in violence in Iraq. In the worst attacks, fifty-three perished in a suicide bombing Tuesday in Kufa, and 50 were slain Monday in a market in Mahmoudiya.

According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies it receives.

The report charts a month-by-month increase in the number of civilians killed, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April. In the first six months of the year, it said 14,338 people had been killed.

Someone explain to me how this is good news. If this is "almost civil war" I don't want to see the real thing.

Bye Ralph

UPDATE: Ralph is now officially the loser. He still managed to pull 44% of the Republican vote which should make the Georgia GOP embarrassed. 175,000 GOP voters are either stupid or so morally corrupt that they don't care if Reed was the poster boy for corruption and hypocrisy.
The question is what a Republican figure has to do to turn off some voters?
........
Since I am currently a Georgia resident...only been there 25 years...I am keeping tabs on the primary races in my home state. As of now, 9pm eastern daylight Mark Taylor seems to have the edge on Cathy Cox for the Democratic Governor's race. Only 14%of precincts reporting but he has a nice lead. Still too close to call.

Of special interest, of course, is how old Ralph Reed is doing against Casey Cagle in the Rethuglican primary for Lt. Governor.... the good news is that Ralph ( I Love Them Indians) Reed is getting his clock cleaned by Cagle. With 13% of the precincts reporting we have Cagle ahead by a large margin (74% to 26%) and it seems pretty clear that all the baggage that Reed is justifiably carrying is trashing his chances. There is a Goddess.

Reed is another one of those smarmy Georgia smart ass white boy types that is a fundamentalist Christian only when it suits his pocket book that I know so well. I spotted the phony schtick the minute I say him and he hasn't disappointed.

It's Not Good

I am getting tired of waking up and reading this kind of news. I can't even imagine how terrible it must be to be an Iraqi and wake up every morning living it and knowing that nowhere are you going to be safe and that even going to market is a gamble with life? What has out blighted country done?

Just when does the misadministration decide to call a spade a spade and admit that we have a full blown civil war in Iraq?

This morning anothermarket bombing in which 45 are killed and 60 or more wounded in the Shia holy city of Kufa. I don't have the time to research it now but my estimate would be near 500 in the last few weeks have been killed in such attacks.

Not only is Iraq going deeper and deeper into hell but Afghanistan is as well. The Taliban, you know the ones we defeated, have captured two towns in southern Afghanistan.

Texas Found

Ok , found my way here and had too much BBQ. Trying to blog but I have awakened twice whilst sitting here in front of the computer three long necks seem to be the ieal formulae for sleepy time. Now having trouble keeping a single image of the screen in focus so it is time for bed. I 'll be fresher in the morning.

Texas Bound

Gotta go to Austin, Tx this afternoon (actually Round Rock) for a couple of days. Just checked the weather and it is forecast to be 102F. Right now they are reporting the humidity at 77% which means the 102 will feel a lot warmer. Atlanta only supposed to get to 93F today and the humidity is a little lower at 66%. Just a couple of days of discussions on some extension of our work into Latin America from what we are already doing in the U.S. and Canada.

Good thing about Round Rock is that there is a very good Texas BBQ place almost next to the hotel which will be the destination for tonight. The place is called Rudy's and while it is not the absolute best to be had in the Austin area it is very good and will suffice to allow me to satisfy my periodic desire for some good smoked brisket. Since I spent my formative years in eastern North Carolina I have very fixed ideas about BBQ and while I love good Texas BBQ I am still a whole hog with a vinegar based sauce guy. If you spend anytime in Austin there is a place called the Salt Lick which is probably the best in the area but it is too far from Round Rock for this trip (about 50 miles). I have driven further for good BBQ(as in hundreds of miles) but I'll settle for Rudy's this trip.

I'll check in after the BBQ tonight. I won't comment on the disaster expanding in the middle east, both in Iraq and Lebanon other than to say that, with respect to Israel and Lebanon and Palestine, this is just the next phase in the battle that was started at the end of WWII when the Allies decided to give Israel someone else's land in compensation for the holacaust. This may be the final episode or just another war in which the civilians get the short end of the stick. We'll see. Regardless, it is a tragedy.
As to Iraq...what can you say but "stupid is as stupid does".

Drought Too!

Speaking of warm and fuzzy...this sure makes me feel better about our future.

The first half of the year was the warmest on record for the USA.

The government reported Friday that the average temperature for the 48 contiguous United States from January through June was 51.8°F, or 3.4°F above average for the 20th century.

That made it the warmest such period since recordkeeping began in 1895, the National Climatic Data Center reported.

No state was cooler than average and five states — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri — experienced record warmth for the period.

Not only is it hotter and getting more so but it is getting drier. The same article reports that "As of June, 45% of the contiguous U.S. was in moderate-to-extreme drought, an increase of 6% from May."

Stabbed in the Back

I tried to find something to excerpt but it is a whole cloth and an excerpt won't do it justice. The thing is that it’s one very long continuous story. It needs to be read as a whole . It is really nice of Harper's to put this piece on the web.

Milestone and I Missed It

I've been so busy and traveling the last few weeks that I missed a milestone at Fallenmonk. On June 30th we surpassed 10,000 discrete visits and 20,000 page views. June 23rd also marked the second anniversary of the first post here at Fallenmonk. Since no one visited me back then I will repost it since it is where I get the name for the blog. BTW just so you know...one of the first commenters here was the mighty and fabulous Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake fame and I do cherish my place on her now powerful blogroll.

Thanks to all you regular visitors and especially the commenters. I enjoy hearing from you and will try and reciprocate as best I can.

Now the first post:

"Now I understood for the first time that all these problems are caused by a race asleep and thrashing about in its panicked nightmares. There will be wars and holocausts and genocides as long as God is portrayed and thought of as a tight-minded legislator, a feudal lord, an offended King, a hypersensitive Artisan – even if church managers condescendingly tack onto that ridiculous list the not-very-convincing footnote that He is also loving. As long as people dream that they are insecure and needy in some sort of eternal jeopardy, there will be atrocities. But as the human race grows up spiritually, and as individuals gain a personal experience of the God they have been worshipping in fear, they will recognize that much of their theology and philosophy is built on nightmares. That will be the day of peace. I suddenly found myself unwilling to sit it out in the mountains of Utah. I wanted to play an active role in the process of the world’s awakening. – George Fowler, "Dance of a Fallen Monk"

It's a War

After spending all day staring at spreadsheets full of numbers I am now braindead.but I just made a quick scan of the news and I can officially declare that in my humble opinion we have another war erupting in the middle-east. The over-top-response from the Israelis, which was just what was hoped for byHezbollah will continue to escalate.
Don't be surpised if Syria and even Iran get into the mix and expect that supporters of Hezbollah in Iraq and Afghanistan take this opportunity to punish American soldiers for the continued unquestioning U.S. support of Israel. We have Palestinian and Lebanese blood on our hands as well. The military and financial aid we have been pumping into Israel for last 5o years or so are the ONLY reason it has the capability to do what it is doing.
It is just so tragic that such a beautiful and historic land was placed in the impossible positition it is in by the Allies after WWII. I am not sure we can see peace there until one side is destroyed so completely that there is no one left to fight.
A lot could have been done by Washington to keep the lid on this but in their incompetence and ignorance they continued to support the radical elements within Israel and ignore the weakness of Lebanon's new government. Our failure to support the fledgling Lebanese government is a primary driver of the desperation fueling this outbreak of violence. We have a lot of responsibility for the state of affairs there.

Catching Up with the Day

Home again after driving a good bit of the day and trying to catch up on the events of the day.

The stock market is not looking too kindly on the oil prices and Israel's hyper response to the kidnappings taking a 167 point dive.

Comedian Red Buttons is dead at 87. Cool guy and he gave us some good laughs. Thanks Red.

Looks like Little Georgie is embarrassing us again overseas.

From the little bit I have been able to gather it seems to me that Israel is going way overboard in their response to this kidnapping. Bombing the airport into uselessness is going to be a tragic blow to the Labanese economy as it was kind of a symbol of the rebirth of the country. The U.S. and every other country should be condeming Israel for this out of proportion response but all Bush did today was blame Hezbollah and said Israel had a right to "defend itself". I sure wish I new what the Israeli Secret Police have on Bush and company...

Oh, and it looks like our Canadian friends have another confirmed case of "Mad Cow" on their hands. Not good news.

I catch up a bit more and check in later. Right now I have to find out if Madam left anything for me to rustle up for dinner. She only left yesterday afternoon for the U.K. but she likes things pretty minimal when she leaves. I haven't eaten since breakfast and that was melon and coffee so I am getting hungry. Not to mention that the cocktail I have just consumed hit bottom with a jolt.

Travel Day Today

On the road today back to Hotlanta from Greensboro. Should be back later today if the creek don't rise. Really hurt at the pump last night as I can't remember ever having to shell out 40 bucks to fill up my car. The only saving grace is that I will be reimbursed at 44 and a half cents a mile which if you don't consider the 6 hours of drive time means a profit of about a $100 bucks which is better than minumum wage.
You guys play nice.

Cabbages and Kings

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings and why the sea is boiling.

So spoke our purported leader today as he revealed the great accomplishment of the regime so far. The deficit, the glorious deficit, is only 296 BILLION dollars this year and this is a wonderful and joyous thing as we thought it was going to be much larger(423 B$). Granted it is the fourth largest deficit in history but it is better than last year's 318 BILLION dollars and much better than the other years I have ruled the kingdom.
How low does Bush think our intelligence has fallen under his command? Since when is any deficit good news but yet the he was touting what a great thing this was and how it was all due to his visionary tax cuts. I got the lipstick now where is that pig?

Here are the top five budget deficits of all time;

1. 2004 (George W. Bush) $413 billion
   
2. 2003 (George W. Bush) $378 billion
   
3. 2005 (George W. Bush) $318 billion
   
4. 2006 (George W. Bush) $296 billion (projected)
   
5. 1992 (George H. W. Bush) $290 billion

Just to remind ourselves how totally incompetent and deluded this bunch is... in 2001 they inherited a surplus estimated by both White House and congressional forecasters at $5.6 trillion for the next decade.

Supposedly most of the reduction in deficit is due to higher tax receipts from the wealthy and corporations. This translates to the richer are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is just that "caught in the middle".

Worse? Yes It Can Get Worse

The Iraqi government is asking the U.N. to lift the immunity of U.S. soldiers in Iraq so that they can be tried locally for crimes against the Iraqi people. It just got worse folks. What do you think will happen once an American GI is arrested, tried, convicted and hanged in Iraq for some crime?

This ought to be interesting. Bush used the U.N. to justify invading Iraq and now Iraq wants to use it to punish American soldiers. Welcome to reality boys and girls.

First Veto? Take Aspirin and Don't Call

Well, well, well, it seems Bush is ready to execute his first veto. According to Karl, Bush is "emphatic" about stem cell research not being funded or extended and will veto the Castle Bill if it passes the Senate.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 238-194 last year to pass the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. If the Senate approves the bill, it will go to the president's desk.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who backs the bill, has said he will try to bring it up for a Senate vote soon.

If, in fact, this comes to pass you could consider this a defining example of what the Bush presidency is all about. Along with everything else here is a great chance to screw over a hundred million people with just the stroke of a pen. It is, I think, especially significant that he would use his first and probably only veto in 8 years of office to reject something supported by so many. It would be very rewarding to see this particular veto overturned.

Just when you think you have seen the bottom of the barrel these guys come up with another.

tip to huffpo

With the Tar Heels

No time for extended time on the net this morning. After the walk and getting dressed it's time for some breakfast and head to the client for another day of meetings. Not very exciting but it's a living. Everyone have a great Monday and maybe pray to whatever God or Goddess you think might help prevent the hellhole in Iraq from getting any worse. They are really stretching the definition of "not civil war".

Work Harder and More Often

Getting ready to launch back to Greensboro for the week. Nice easy 5 hour drive and no rushing. Put on some good CD's and set the autopilot. I'll check in this evening from the hotel.

Just read something in the AJC Sunday business section that is really sobering to think about.

If you are working for the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour and work 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks of the year then you still won't earn as much as the average CEO in America makes before lunch in a single day. That should be embarrassing to the current administration but I will bet you that they never even give it a thought and if they had their choice, and could, they would lower the minimum wage or abolish the requirement altogether.

Sucks. Later

Of Zits and Other Irritations

Hey folks, I hate to be the party pooper around here but their is a war on big time in Iraq and one simmering in Afghanistan. The North Koreans are pumping sunshine up our kilts. The economy is tanking. We owe the Japanese and mostly the Chinese our total output for untold years...as in we are writing checks our great-great-grand children are going to have to cash. Millions of Americans are below the povery line but are working 60 - 80 hours a week just to fall further and further behind the American Dream. We are slowly poisoning our skies and waters and actually reversing the efforts we began making 10 -15 years ago to change. The world hates and fears us as you would a rabid dog. That's just for starters...

Face it folks we are very similar to a giant ZIT on the face of civilization. You know the kind that stares back at you from the mirror in the morning and actually throbs. You know the one that signals to everyone who sees you how diseased and unclean you must be. You know the kind.

Hey GOP Congress, all or any of the above you could be tackling before the mid-terms. But NO, your agenda for the rest of the year is to vote on family tax breaks, prohibiting any government from using federal money to confiscate guns during emergencies; ensure that local governments do not have to pay damages or lawyer fees in court battles over public expressions of religion, and protect the Pledge of Allegiance from being found unconstitutional by a court.

Oh, you are also going to address two of the major crisises facing America by banning human cloning and requiring that those performing late-term abortions to inform women that the fetus could feel pain and could receive anesthesia. You also haven given up trying to solve another severe crisis and plan another vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, even though it could not be adopted in this Congress since it has already been rejected in the Senate.

I have actually been talking to some reasonably thoughtful Republicans recently that are almost too embarrassed to admit they voted for this crowd and Bush especially. And speaking of Bush... don't expect him to do anything to address the major, catastrophic issues facing us and the rest of the world. He and Karl have one thing on their minds for the rest of the godforsaken term and that is pump up the base. If you think trashing the NYT was bad you ain't seen nothing yet.

Getting back to the zit metaphor...once you got it, you can squeeze it, smear antibiotics on it and just try and pretend it isn't there but you know and everyone else knows it is. You just have to buck up an hope it won't linger. The good thing is Bush and this Congress will go away but it will seem like forever before they do. Neosporin anyone?

Free Saturday

Ok back in Atlanta for Saturday at least. Have to drive back to Greensboro again tomorrow for another 3 and half days. Takes about 5 hours depending on the traffic in Atlanta and Charlotte which can add an hour plus. All caught up on the banking and chores. Car is all gassed up at $2.949/gallon...ouch. Expenses and time card are all complete and filed so I now have some time to play around on the Internet and maybe blog.

There are so many blogs I enjoy that I am really frustrated when I can't get to them all. Not only do I enjoy them but when I have something to add I enjoy the interaction. I need to consider cutting back the sleep I guess and it wouldn't hurt me to miss a meal here or there.

What I really need is direct feed. You know an embedded chip or two, dual processors for redundancy and a 20 - 30 gig of novram for caching when I am out of wireless range. Power from direct conversion of stored glucose and fat. The more you surf the more you can eat or the more weight you lose. I have read some pretty good scifi with this theme and it is interesting to consider the posibilities. Instant access to any bit of information you need from anywhere. Instant communications without clumsy hardware. Download music, movies or even a complete vacation without leaving the comfort of home. Want to get to know someone better? Nothing like a direct connection if you know what I mean.

Anyhow, something to think about. It could be pretty slick until the NSA got involved.

Going Ninety in a Sixty Zone

Busy, busy and no time to indulge the blogs. Already late this morning and still not completely ready to go. I am sure there is some good reading available on the blogroll so visit some of them.

I was kind of looking forward to having Ken Lay spend a little time behind bars on this side but the Goddess has spoken and she obviously has other plans. Oh well.

Wonder where all the money is going now?

For the People

I have now enjoyed happy hour(with crudite) in the hotel and declined dinner with my colleagues. I am now free to spend a little time talking about the Fourth of July and the current state of our confederation.

Our forefathers had a very clear view of what it takes to make a success of government. They had spent some 30 odd years petitioning the Parliament to recognize the colonies as legitimate citizens of the Empire and failed. It is only after the extended effort to “work within the system” that they recognized the futility and took the alternative course.

The Declaration of Independence is the result, and defines the democracy we have had until now. It defines government as an man-made system, established by the people and for the people, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and charged by the people to ensure the equal right of all to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” More pointedly the Declaration says, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.” The rabid right and the Christofascists of today have conveniently forgotten this attribute of freedom. The attacks this past week on the New York Times clearly point to this failure of the right, and by default the GOP, to embrace to this admonition.

We now have a government needlessly wasting the lives of its young men and women for nothing but money and power, all the while claiming a fictitious moral justification. They are telling us daily that we are safer by their efforts when all the evidence clearly tells us the opposite. They tell us daily how much better things are going in Iraq only for us to hear today the Iraq government asking for the UN to step in and protect them from the ravages of the U.S. occupation. The “Global War on Terror”, or GWOT, as defined by our current government is recognized as a failure and mistake by the majority of America and even more so by the rest of the civilized world. “Operation Iraqi Freedom” is violating the government’s promise to enable us “life, liberty and happiness”. How many mothers, fathers and wives are weeping tonight over their overwhelming loss in the debacle of Iraq?

We liberals and progressives are not alone in our disgust for our current government. The nations of the world are also holding us in contempt and derision. We, who while supporting the sacrifice of our military in Iraq and Afghanistan, are foaming at the mouth over the war itself, are in not in poor company.

The same has been experienced by many over the years. For instance Mark Twain was called a “traitor” for criticizing the U.S. invasion of the Philippines. In not a dissimilar situation he said: “The gospel of the monarchical patriotism is: ‘The King can do no wrong.’ We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had — the individual’s right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.”

It is very frustrating to be on our side of the fence and know so truly in our hearts what is the right answer for our country. We see the death and futility of our efforts in Iraq and cannot see any end to the carnage. We also know our responsibilities as Americans. The government is there for us and by us and has no legitimacy other than through the good graces of the governed. We, as Americans, are required to recognize and support this truth and though an awesome responsibility, it cannot not be shirked.

If the government is not meeting our needs with respect to “life, liberty and happiness” then it is our duty to try and change it. We are not traitors but patriots. This Fourth of July we need to remember that our democracy has benefits but equal and impelling responsibilities and we cannot ignore them for fear of being branded a traitor by some half-wit with no understanding of what it means to be an American patriot other than waving a flag and getting drunk on the Fourth of July.

Happy Fourth.

Mother Nature’s fireworks have just started here in Greensboro and she is doing yeomans’ work. I am on the sixth floor of the hotel and it is a great view of the thunderstorm.

Some Fourth

Come to rest in Greesboro. Nice visit with Mom. Hard to believe the improvement in just a few short weeks. Spent most of the day on the road but traffic was not too bad and safely ensconced.

New record set for downing hotdogs today at 53 and 3/4 by the Japanese kid again. Closest competitor was a Californian with 52.

Shuttle launched successfully and that was a first launch for the fourth of July.

Seem Bush has neglected to tell us that he gave up on Osama sometime last year and disbanded the CIA team that was tracking him. So much for the "Dead or Alive" bit. I wonder if he thought the story would ever get out? If you are a Mexican looking for a better life look out....if you killed 300 American civilians in on fell swoop...no worries.

Tired and going to try and make an early night of it. Already have run into some of the Swedes here for the meeting as they were all gathered in the bar watching the Worldcup and being raucus. They probably have something planned for later which I will beg out of as I intend to use this week to try and recover a bit. Looks like I have 6 - 8 weeks of travel ahead of me and possibly a week long trip to China is cooking...not looking forward to that.

Might change my mind and hang out bit here tonight but otherwise R&R.

Road Warrior

Traveling today. Off to see my Mom in West 'by God' Virginia and then bounce back to Greensboro, NC for Meetings that start on Wednesday. Strange for me to travel by car for business where I don't have to worry about what I can carry. Just through it in the car.
Taking my full size guitar and everything.
Really not bad drive to W.Va. from Atlanta. Straight I75 through Chattanooga to Knoxville and just northeast of Knoxville pick up I81 to I77 North. Going to actually get some miles on the new car. I have had it since February and it still only has 2800 miles on it. Spends a lot of time parked at the airport.
Hopefully the hotel will have Internet tonight and I can report in.

Devil Corn

There is a great article in this month's Smithsonian Magazine by Michael Pollan. 'What's Eating America' that discusses the impact of the ability of man to manufacture nitrogen and the resultant impact on the culture of corn. It's something I never really thought about but knew somewhere in the back of my mind. Fascinating reading and a good argument for organinc farming.

Descendants of the Maya living in Mexico still sometimes refer to themselves as "the corn people." The phrase is not intended as metaphor. Rather, it's meant to acknowledge their abiding dependence on this miraculous grass, the staple of their diet for almost 9,000 years.

For an American like me, growing up linked to a very different food chain, yet one that is also rooted in corn, not to think of himself as a corn person suggests either a failure of imagination or a triumph of capitalism.

Or perhaps a little of both. For the great edifice of variety and choice that is an American supermarket rests on a remarkably narrow biological foundation: corn. It's not merely the feed that the steers and the chickens and the pigs and the turkeys ate; it's not just the source of the flour and the oil and the leavenings, the glycerides and coloring in the processed foods; it's not just sweetening the soft drinks or lending a shine to the magazine cover over by the checkout. The supermarket itself—the wallboard and joint compound, the linoleum and fiberglass and adhesives out of which the building itself has been built—is in no small measure a manifestation of corn.

There are some 45,000 items in the average American supermarket, and more than a quarter of them contain corn. At the same time, the food industry has done a good job of persuading us that the 45,000 different items or SKUs (stock keeping units) represent genuine variety rather than the clever rearrangements of molecules extracted from the same plant.

[snip]
It has been less than a century since Fritz Haber's invention, yet already it has changed earth's ecology. More than half of the world's supply of usable nitrogen is now man-made. (Unless you grew up on organic food, most of the kilo or so of nitrogen in your body was fixed by the Haber-Bosch process.) "We have perturbed the global nitrogen cycle," Smil wrote, "more than any other, even carbon." The effects may be harder to predict than the effects of the global warming caused by our disturbance of the carbon cycle, but they are no less momentous.

The flood of synthetic nitrogen has fertilized not just the farm fields but the forests and oceans, too, to the benefit of some species (corn and algae being two of the biggest beneficiaries) and to the detriment of countless others. The ultimate fate of the nitrates spread in Iowa or Indiana is to flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, where their deadly fertility poisons the marine ecosystem. The nitrogen tide stimulates the wild growth of algae, and the algae smother the fish, creating a "hypoxic," or dead, zone as big as New Jersey—and still growing. By fertilizing the world, we alter the planet's composition of species and shrink its biodiversity.

You Made the Bed

Stranger of Blah3.com speaks for many of us:

Dear Media,

I hope you all enjoy lying in that bed you’ve made.

All those years of making excuses for George W. Bush’s ineptness, inadequacies, and illegalities have earned you absolutely nothing. You brushed aside his lack of experience and intellectual incuriosity in 1999 and 2000, mostly because you didn’t like Al Gore. Your behavior gave him a much better position from which to steal the 2000 election.

You bought the spin from Bush’s minions, ignoring the crisis that was taking place in Florida after the election. You believed every lie they came up with, from ‘The votes have been counted and re-counted and re-counted’ to ‘Al Gore is trying to steal the election,’ and you decided that letting Bush take office (in the most literal sense possible) was ‘best for the country.’

You papered over the fact that he was scared out of his mind on September 11, 2001 - to the point where he flew to Idaho to hide - in favor of painting him as a ‘resolute leader.’ You swallowed, hook, line, and sinker, every lie that came out of the White House in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq - in many cases embellishing the lies to make them sound more plausible. …

… And after all this, Bush and Cheney and Congress and Coulter and every wingnut pundit, whom you’ve coddled and accommodated every step of the way, show their appreciation how?

They want to muzzle you. They want to imprison you. They want to try you for treason.

tip to Barbara at Mahablog

Monument Valley

Since we had a Navajo guide for our day long tour we got the chance to go into some not so frequently visited areas. This included many old Anasazi sites with the pueblos hidden in sheltered cliffs. At one site there were a lot of pottery shards just laying around on the ground. Madam Monk being the amateur archeologist was beside herself. These pots were made and used by the Anasazi nearly a ten centuries ago and here they were laying right out in plain site. It says something about the type of people that take these tours in that they understand that removing an artifact from its place destroys a lot of it's value. It was obvious a lot of people had rightly resisted the temptation to take a piece or two home.

This is the most famous Monument Valley view. It is called John Ford's point as the famous director thought this was the most scenic view in the park. In case you are not aware Monument Valley was a favorite location for Ford to shoot his westerns with John Wayne. Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and several others were shot here. If you look real close you can see a Navajo on is pony out on the near point. For a buck he will let you have your picture taken sitting on the horse.

Desert Denizen

OK here is the token wildlife pic.
Captured this fellow outside the hotel room at Goulding's in Monument Valley. Lured him and a buddy (or mate) with Planter's mixed nuts. They seem to prefer the Brazil nuts.
Anyhow, a western chipmunk sometimes called an Antelope Ground Squirrel. Notice the big back feet compared to our eastern chipmunks. These must help them motivate quickly in the sand.

Desert View

This is Desert View again but from a different angle and closer to sunset. You can just see the western edge of the Painted Desert in the distance and just a peek of the Colorado River below. We spent a couple of hours here waiting for the sun to set.

Big hole #2

This was taken at Desert View point and is the most easterly point the park. At the top is where the Little Colorado joins in.

Big Hole

I realized a while ago that I hadn't really uploaded any of my Grand Canyon pictures. Here is one taken from the walking trail along the south rim and one of the few places that you can actually see the Colorado River from the rim. I picked this photo since I think it kinda gives you the sense of how freaking big this hole in the ground really is.

Missing the Point

I have been reading everywhere about the "treason" purportedly as a result of the NYT reporting on the SWIFT banking information. The Boston Globe, actually doing some reporting, shows that everything supposedly revealed in the Times article was already in the public domain and much of it placed there repeatedly by the Bush administration itself.

I think this whole deal is just Rove and company moving into the next phase of damage control over the disastrous Iraq debacle. They know they have lost it and that more and more of the country knows that have screwed this up so badly that there is slim to no chance of making it right. The next step is to start passing the buck and finding someone, anyone to blame. The meme that is under development by the Bush boys and girls with the aid of the Hasterts, O'Rielly's, etc. is to blame the Times and the press for their failure. It goes like this...

"We coulda' won the war if every time we turned around we weren't hampered by the press revealing all of our secret tools. All of out most effective weapons were made useless by the press. You can't win a war without weapons and all of ours were taken away from us. If you are looking for someone to blame for the mess then blame the press."

These folks know that there was no operational disclosures in the Times article and no one has pointed out any damage to out capability because of it. They can't because there is not any. The only logical reason for this hoopla is to try and begin shifting the blame.

As Glenn Greenwald asks...

What, specifically, would a terrorist have been willing to do on June 22 [the day before the banking story was published] that he would not do on June 23 as a result of the Times' article?

What the Times revealed is the lack of oversight and checks on these intelligence-gathering activities, not the existence of the activities themselves, which were already well known.

31.6K$ versus Zip

It's about time this got a little traction in the MSM. I was very upset that it didn't generate any noise when it happened last week. This is a clear difference between the GOP and Dems and it shouldn't be left behind the curtain. This is the kind of thing that voters will remember in November, especially those directly or indirectly affected. These things need to be flogged incessantly by the progressives.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A week after the GOP-led Senate rejected an increase to the minimum wage, Senate Democrats on Tuesday vowed to block pay raises for members of Congress until the minimum wage is increased.

Note this little zinger that someone at CNN slipped into the article. Must be at least one closet progressive working there.

The minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Democrats want to raise it to $7.25. During the past nine years, as Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to increase the minimum wage, members of Congress have voted to give themselves pay raises -- technically "cost of living increases" -- totaling $31,600, or more than $15 an hour for a 40-hour week, 52 weeks a year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

It would be especially good if so many Dems had not voted for the pay raise this year. 119 voted for as opposed to 74 no. Bummer.

Prepare to Duck

One of the nearly 2000 asteroids known as "Apollos" because they have earth crossing orbits will give us a near miss Sunday. This asteroid (2004 XP14) is a pretty big one and is esitmated at over a half mile in diameter. It is one of the 983 asteroids that are considered "Potentially Hazardous" due to the close proximity of its orbit.

An asteroid possibly as large as a half-mile or more in diameter is rapidly approaching the Earth. There is no need for concern, for no collision is in the offing, but the space rock will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet early on Monday, July 3, passing just beyond the Moon's average distance from Earth.

Astronomers will attempt to get a more accurate assessment of the asteroid's size by “pinging” it with radar.

And skywatchers with good telescopes and some experience just might be able to get a glimpse of this cosmic rock as it streaks rapidly past our planet in the wee hours Monday. The closest approach occurs late Sunday for U.S. West Coast skywatchers.

The asteroid, designated 2004 XP14, was discovered on Dec. 10, 2004 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), a continuing camera survey to keep watch for asteroids that may pass uncomfortably close to Earth.

P.S. Don't miss Billmon's take on this

Focus Boys, Focus!

I will save myself some typing since Bobby at BBWW already said it. What he said...though I am not known to use the term "Sheesh".

I can't believe we're paying these people in excess of $160,000 a year to pull off this shit. We've got crumbling schools, melting ice caps, gas at $3 a gallon, the Gulf Coast still cleaning up after Katrina, no plan for Iraq, the Taliban on the rise again in Afghanistan, port security actually worse than it was on 9/11, and the best the Congress can come up with in their three-day work week is gay bashing, idol worship, and an exercise in kill-the-messenger. Sheesh.

On the other hand, given their propensity for coming up with truly monumental wastes of money and rubber-stamping their way into irrelevancy at the hands of the Bush administration, perhaps the best we can hope for is that Congress just spends their time not doing any more harm than they've already done.

Never Give In

Steve Bates has a good post over at YDD about Harriet Tubman and the similarities we face today with her struggle for justice. Worth a read.

One common facet of our world and Tubman's is that in both of them, utter disregard for fundamental human rights has been institutionalized by the powers-that-be. Is a government that secretly establishes the prison camps at Guantanamo and the torture chambers at Abu Ghraib and probably a dozen other places, a government that secretly employs "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners of war and political prisoners to countries in which they are tortured, a government that sends its own young people to kill and to die based on a naked lie, less damnable than a society in which the ruling powers openly accommodated the enslavement of human beings? Both are unconscionable and deplorable.

Trials of Power

Billmon wades into the fray regarding the attacks on Kos and Jerome in his usual articulate way. He is detecting the clues that this is another example of "Swiftboating" and it signals a recognition by the Dems and the DLC in particular that Kos and company are gaining too much power and influence and need to be squashed. Here's a sample.

But in the end it doesn't matter. The Lieberman Dems don't hate and fear Kos and the Daily Kos "community" because they are too far to the left. They hate them because they represent an emerging power center within the Democratic Party that they don't control -- what's more, one that is now much closer to the public mainstream on the central issue of our time (the Iraq War) than they are.

[snip]

Whether the grown ups (Peretz, Lieberman, Hillary) actually set the Swiftboat in motion, or just watched approvingly ("Who shall rid us of this meddlesome blogger?") as their hatchet boys did what comes natural, is almost irrelevant. The important thing to understand is that we have reached the point where the Dinos and their media allies are willing to use Rovian tactics against anyone who challenges their entrenched position -- even someone like Kos, who is hardly the second coming of Henry Wallace or George McGovern.

Whether that's good or bad for the Kossaks I don't know -- I suppose it depends on how much credence you give to Gandhi's old saw: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." In the real world -- and in imperial America, too -- the truth is that sometimes they ignore you, then ridicule you, then fight you and crush you like an overripe eggplant. We'll see if that's true this time. Either way, though, it looks like the battle between the netroots and dino Dems is going to get very down and dirty indeed.

Read the whole thing...it is a good read.

Some Backbone Appears

This is a pretty incredible slam by ABC News on Bush concerning Global Warming. It is pretty strong stuff for the MSM.

In the White House, only hours after that old elm had fallen, Bush was addressed by a reporter, thus: "I know that you are not planning to see Al Gore's new movie, but do you agree with the premise that global warming is a real and significant threat to the planet?"

"I have said consistently," answered Bush, "that global warming is a serious problem. There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused. We ought to get beyond that debate and start implementing the technologies necessary ... to be good stewards of the environment, become less dependent on foreign sources of oil..."

The President -- as far as the extensive and repeated researches of this and many other professional journalists, as well as all scientists credible on this subject, can find -- is wrong on one crucial and no doubt explosive issue. When he said -- as he also did a few weeks ago -- that "There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused" ... well, there really is no such debate.

At least none above what is proverbially called "the flat earth society level."

Not one scientist of any credibility on this subject has presented any evidence for some years now that counters the massive and repeated evidence -- gathered over decades and come at in dozens of ways by all kinds of professional scientists around the world -- that the burning of fossil fuels is raising the world's average temperature.

Or that counters the findings that the burning of these fuels is doing so in a way that is very dangerous for mankind, that will almost certainly bring increasingly devastating effects in the coming decades.

One small group of special interest businesses leaders -- those of some fossil fuel companies -- have been well documented by journalist Ross Gelbspan and others to have been fighting a PR campaign for 15 years to keep the American public confused about the wide and deep scientific consensus on this.

They've aimed, as Gelbspan explains, to keep us thinking that (to borrow the president's words this morning) "There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused" -- though no open and thorough journalism this reporter knows of can find any such thing.

Drenching waters, president's words, high judges' scrutiny, worried voters, journalists scrambling to get their arms around this enormous story, oil executives looking at spread sheets while they explore for more oil in Canada and the Arctic, and one elm down ... so far.

Meteorologists predict more heavy rain this week along the mid-Atlantic seaboard.

Climatologists predict much the same for the coming decades.

Bold is mine.

Thanks Americablog

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb

According to reports from West Palm Rush Limbaugh has been detained at the West Palm Airport for possession of illegal drugs. Methinks the judge that granted him such leniency on the condition he stay clean for 18 months is going to be less than pleased.

Do I wish too much for a little cooler time for Pigboy? You betcha!

(CBS4 News) WEST PALM BEACH Sources have confirmed to CBS4 News that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.

Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when officials found the drugs, among them Viagra.

Another American Tragedy

Another "compassionate" week for the GOP. The Republicans in the Senate rejected Senator Kennedy's proposal to raise the federal minimum wage by a vote of 52-46. These "compassionate" Republicans decided to keep the minimum wage at the same poverty-inducing rate it has been at for the last nine years.

If you do the math the numbers are $5.15 per hour times 40 hours per week times 52 weeks a year... with no vacation and no holidays you get the grand total of $10,712 per year or $206 per week. Note that this is before the income, social security and medicare taxes are taken out which will reduce it by at least a third.

Just for the record, just this month, Congress agreed to keep their automatic salary increase for cost of living.

This is a very partisan issue. Every Democrat present voted for the minimum wage increase. The only Republicans that seem to have some concern for the fate of the American worker and to join Democrats were Senators Chafee, Collins, DeWine, Lugar, Snowe, Specter, and Warner ( Jeffords too).

I suppose the Republicans are counting on the typical American amnesia to kick in before the November elections. They assume by that time all the poor bastards they just screwed one more time will have forgotten this new insult. The tragedy is they may be right. It is amazing how often the folks that have the most to lose vote for the party that will surely ignore their needs and do nothing for them.

I captured the 2004 Poverty chart from HHS below. You can readily see that even two years ago, if you consider taxes, not even a single person makes the grade. I am really trying to understand how the folks that voted against the Kennedy bill sleep at night. There wasn't even a counter proposal to meet Kennedy half way. It is just another American tragedy under this Republican misadministration.

2004 HHS Poverty Guidelines

Size of Family Unit	48 Contiguous States and D.C.	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$ 9,310	$11,630	$10,700
2	12,490	15,610	14,360
3	15,670	19,590	18,020
4	18,850	23,570	21,680
5	22,030	27,550	25,340
6	25,210	31,530	29,000
7	28,390	35,510	32,660
8	31,570	39,490	36,320
For each additional person, add	3,180	3,980	3,660

SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 69, No. 30, February 13, 2004, pp. 7336-7338

Home in Atlanta

Welcomed back with righteous thunderstorms...quite the contrast to the deserts I have been traveling in the last few days. All in all a good but short holiday and a chance to see a part of the country I have been remiss in visiting. Should have done it sooner.
The impositions of modern life are here and waiting...e-bills, e-mail, e-harassment, e-penis enlargement, e-anything.
I am woefully behind in my world picture since I have been avoiding the news(or vice versa) for a week. I detect that Bush and company are about to be punked by their handpicked team in Iraq which ought to make for some interesting backstepping and hemming and hawing on tomorrow's shows.
I was saddened to hear that Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake lost her mother last week and our love goes out to her. I haven't had time to read all the comments but the support from all the "firepups" on the sad news is impressive and moving.
I will try and catch up with the world tomorrow and add something to the discourse and maybe even a picture.
It is now time for a little sleep.

All Over

Ok vacation is history. Got to see a major chunk of Arizona and the bottom bit of Utah and all in all it was a very busy and full week. Back in Phoenix and catching a plane back to Atlanta early this afternoon. Should begin to see some regular posts here as I can pretty much count on Internet in the places I go. I had no real cell phone/Blackberry service/Internet in the Grand Canyon, Page, or Monument Valley. I did see a glimpse of service from some company called Smith Bagley while on the Navajo reservation in a place called Kayenta which is famous for its Navajo Code Talker exhibit in the Burger King.

I am glad I toolk the time to visit Monument Valley. It is a National Monument but is contained completely within the Navajo reservation and they pretty much have it under their control. You can (for 5$) drive around a 17 mile unpaved road that loops through some of the monument and past most of the major rocks. The best way to see the whole thing is to go to Goulding's Lodge and do the package that includes the all day tour. You get a Navajo guide and go to places in the valley that are restricted to guided tours only. These are only accessible via 4 wheel drive and way, way off the beaten path but you get to see Anasazi ruins, pertroglyphs and rock formations that you can't see on the self tour. With the package an all day tour cost $80.00 per person and includes a lunch of burgers cooked by the guide. Good value.

It is also quite eye opening to spend the day in the desert with a native guide and ask questions. Because of the extended drought over the last 10 - 15 years the Navajo have not been able to make a living like they traditionally have. They are now dependent on hauling in water from some of the deep wells that are around the valley as well as hay to support their tiny flocks of sheep and cattle. The drought is forcing them to abandon many of their traditional methods of living in the desert. this is most likely the same set of circumstances that forced the Anasazi to abandon the valley so long ago. Because of global climate change this the may be the fate of the majority of us in the not so distant future.

See you from Atlanta tonight or tomorrow.

Back to the real world...

Bryce Canyon

Like I said earlier Bryce Canyon is worth seeing. We saw pronghorn antelope, deer and even caught a good look at a pair of pinion jays. At nearly 9000 ft there is also quite the view from Rainbow point.

Through the Desert

We had a fun day yesterday that was totally unplanned. We did go to Bryce Canyon but getting there was the best part. On our way from Page to Bryce we stopped at the BLM Visitors Center for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We had a great talk with the resident paleontologist and he showed us some of their latest discoveries. Evidently the area was the last part of the U.S. to be mapped and the first dinosaur bones weren't dicovered until 1999 or so but since then hundreds have been uncovered. Anyhow, he told us we should go directly across the monument instead of circle it to get to Bryce. Taking the unimproved road through the monument saves nearly a hundred miles and he said it was really the best way to see the monument.
We took the 55 miles of dirt road and it was truly impressive we only passed a couple of others on the way and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. The picture is just one of a hundred I took on the trip. I can highly recommend taking Cottonwood Road from U.S. 89 west of Page to Hwy 12. The rental is an Chevy Equinox with some ground clearance and all wheel drive but I think you could make it easily in a regular one if you were careful.
Bryce is worth the visit as well. Not as grand as the Grand Canyon but cool in its own way.
Off to Monument Valley this morning and Goulding's Lodge which is supposed to be the best place to stay in the area. Tomorrow we have a day long archealogical tour scheduled with a Navaho guide that will get us behind the scenes...as it were.

Fires

Big fire burning over on the North Rim today and therefore we are changing direction and going to Utah and Bryce Canyon instead. It was already starting to get hazy yesterday and today it is pretty bad according to reports. Only 12 miles further to Bryce than to the North Rim from here in Page. this little town at the bottom of Lake Powell is pretty central to a lot of good stuff and you can make day trips to the Grand Canyon North and South Rim (130 miles), Bryce Canyon NP (150 mile), Monument Valley (160 miles) and a bunch more. I promise a couple of pictures tonight.

Still Out West

Having a good time. No access to the internet for a few days though. Millions of pictures to post and stuff. If you haven't seen the Grand Canyon in person it is a must do. Pictures just don't do it justice. Awesome...I can't believe Iv'e waited this many years to see it.

Made the drive from the canyon to Page, Az this morning. Very scenic as well. It is actually through the Painted Desert so it is pretty special. I will catch up more a little later this evening. I will also try and post a few pics.

I have been going without internet since Thursday last week and didn't know I could go so long without it. I be back later. I have to see what bills are due for payment and check the email.

Canyon Bound

Ok all the work in Phoenix is done, madam has arrived and we are off to see the wonders of Northern Arizona. We have a whole lost of places to see between here and the Canyon and between the canyon and Monument Valley. Should be a lot cooler at that altitude.
Everyone says the drive between Phoenix and Sedona and the Grand Canyon is beautiful so I intend on taking a lot of pictures.
Don't know what the Internet access will be like so don't know how much you'll hear from me over the next few days.

Have fun. Don't shoot anybody in the face. Don't mock any blind folks over their dark glasses and ignore Ann or arrest her.

AIG Loses Records on 1M People

Ok, I'm a firm believer in the value of computers and how they can make out lives better in many ways. Computers eliminate a lot of human drudgery and enable a lot of great things like the Internet and it's how I make my living. There is, however, a certain level of responsibility required if you are going to use computers to collect sensitive information on people. We are seeing entirely too many instances of negligence connected with stored personal information.

WASHINGTON - A thief recently stole a computer server belonging to a major U.S. insurance company, and company officials now fear that the personal data of nearly 1 million people could be at risk, insurance industry sources tell NBC News.

The computer server contains personal electronic data for 930,000 Americans, including names, Social Security numbers and tens of thousands of medical records. The server was stolen on March 31, along with a camcorder and other office equipment, during a break-in at a Midwest office of American Insurance Group (AIG), company officials confirm.

I'm trying to understand how somebody could walk into the computer center of a major corporation and walk off with a whole server. Did they keep their server arrays on the back porch?
This is one area in which the Democrats have failed miserably to take the lead on. The government needs to get some serious requirements and penalties in place for companies and individuals that violate the their responsibilities to make a diligent effort to protect personal information. The companies argue that it cost too much but there have been several studies that show that the cost of losing this kind of information costs more in the long run than properly protecting it.

It's Campaign Time

Now that the midterms are getting closer the GOP and Rove are getting their campaign game on. Yesterday's stunt to Iraq was pure political theatre and the well oiled machine didn't disappoint. Secrecy, middle of the night helicopter rides, cheering troops, it was all in place and they are carrying it through again this morning in the rose garden. Disgusting.

Still in Phoenix and still having trouble doing anything but working and sleeping. Just crashed after dinner last night and slept right on through until the alarm. Nice walk this morning but it was already 90 at 5am and before the sun came up. Due for another scortcher again today.

Madam said it was a nice cool day in Atlanta yesterday as they enjoyed some of the coolness from Alberto but we didn't get any rain and we need it badly.

Later and have a good one.

Lots'a Trust

Watching CNN HL this morning while rushing to get ready and they are reporting that Bush has made a surprise visit(desperate atttmept to revive numbers) to Bagdhad this morning. Guess they just decided to pop in a see what's going on in person since they are trying to figure out how to un fuck up Iraq this week. Evidently, there is not a lot of trust of the new Iraqi PM since he wasn't told of Bush's visit until 5 minutes before Bush walked into the room. That would sure make me warm and fuzzy if it happened to me.
Bush is also supposed to visit with some of the troops while he is there for 5 hours...wonder if he brought his plastic turkey?

On a side note they are also saying that Rove's attorney Luskin is saying that Fitzgerald has informed him that he will not seek charges against Karl. I would expect that Rove has made some kind of deal to hoist Libby who knows else from the petard in trade.

Off to breakfast and the client...going to be a scortcher in Phoenix today as they are predicting 112...but it's a dry heat.

Chat among yourselves and have a great day. Maybe I will be able to stay awake tonight and do some real work here.

Off Again

I've decided that the thing to do is to go back to work. Mom has made remarkable progress in just two days and she doesn't need my help right now. IF the progress continues she will need my help when she is released and at home. Just two days ago there wasn't, apparently, a chance that she would be able to once again live unassissted but that outlook is now in question.
I will head back to Phoenix tomorrow for the last week of this gig and then it is behind me.
Madam will fly out the end of the week and we will take a few days off and see the Grand Canyon and then I can come back do what I need to do. The good thing is that my next client engagement will be in Greensboro, NC which is just a couple of hours away from my mom's place so I will be close enough to respond quickly if needed.
Reports from my youngest brother are that she is rapidly improving and is beginning to give everyone in the hospital hell which is more like her old self.
So anyway, off to Phoenix for the last week of this gig in the early morning. Minimal blogging until the evening tomorrow assuming I can do anything but fall into bed and sleep. The first day of work and the three hour time change makes for a long one and I am usually too exhausted to do anything but crash but we shall see. See you tomorrow.

The Downward Spiral

Ntodd has an excellent piece up on the importance of weakness in a conflict such as we are experiencing in Iraq. Stop by.

This is part of reason why Zarqawi's death means nothing. He represents the weaker side of this asymmetric warfare, so already naturally gains from our arrogance of power. What's more, our early mythmaking only enhanced his position in Iraq--both alive, and now as a martyr to the cause--and our later mockery undermined any positive domestic impact.

The only thing that Zarqawi's death really accomplishes is in the minds of the deluded, which merely solidifed our defeat and decline. And in the long run, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Still, the coming storm isn't going to be pleasant...

An we are really glad he has decided to keep blogging.

No End in Sight

You just lost some more of your rights to privacy in case you didn't notice.

Companies that provide Web-based telecommunications services must allow wiretapping by law enforcement officials, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

The ruling upholds a Federal Communications Commission decision that companies such as Vonage Holdings Corp., the country's largest provider of Internet phone service, are under the same legal obligation as telephone companies. The requirement for a wiretap-compatible system could mean higher expenses for broadband service companies, and it marks the further spread of regulation into Internet phone services.

A Human Answers

Soledad O’Brien CNN interviewed father of Nick Berg father, Michael Berg by telephone looking for a "glad he's dead, too bad he didn't suffer more" reaction and was truly astonished that a man at peace with himself and connected to the universal truth was on the other end of the line.

O’BRIEN: Mr. Berg, thank you for talking with us again. It’s nice to have an opportunity to talk to you. Of course, I’m curious to know your reaction, as it is now confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man who is widely credited and blamed for killing your son, Nicholas, is dead.

MICHAEL BERG: Well, my reaction is I’m sorry whenever any human being dies. Zarqawi is a human being. He has a family who are reacting just as my family reacted when Nick was killed, and I feel bad for that.

I feel doubly bad, though, because Zarqawi is also a political figure, and his death will re-ignite yet another wave of revenge, and revenge is something that I do not follow, that I do want ask for, that I do not wish for against anybody. And it can’t end the cycle. As long as people use violence to combat violence, we will always have violence.

O’BRIEN: I have to say, sir, I’m surprised. I know how devastated you and your family were, frankly, when Nick was killed in such a horrible, and brutal and public way.

BERG: Well, you shouldn’t be surprised, because I have never indicated anything but forgiveness and peace in any interview on the air.

O’BRIEN: No, no. And we have spoken before, and I’m well aware of that. But at some point, one would think, is there a moment when you say, ‘I’m glad he’s dead, the man who killed my son’?

BERG: No. How can a human being be glad that another human being is dead?

I feel better knowing that people like Michael Berg are out there.

Thanks to The Heretik for the link

Bad Day for Net Neutrality

Net neutrality took a big hit yesterday. The big telcos won this battle and are close to winning the war as the bill goes to the GOP Senate. We know that Big Business owns the Senate and the chance of getting a bill that so favors the telcos shot down in the public interest is slim to none. I expect this kind of vote from the GOP but 58 Democrats joined with 211 Rethugs to kill the amendment.

If there is not a sea change in attitude somewhere we are about to see an end to the Internet as we know it. Take I look at the list of Dems who voted No and if one of them is yours you might consider an email or telephone call to let them know you are not pleased.

Happy Jesus Day!

Shakespeare's Sister reminds us that today has been proclaimed Jesus Day in Texas by the former Governor of the great state and our current resident of the Whitehouse.

Jesus is so embarrassed!

Another Passage Upcoming

UPDATED BELOW.

Okay, I'm back for a while. If your curious as to the family crisis...it was my mother. She had been having some trouble with digestion etc. for about a month and when she finally shared her all of her symptoms with her doctor he immediately put her in the hospital. A gastroenterologist had a look and after all the x-rays and cat scans decided he could only be sure of what was what by doing a little exploratory surgery. To make a long story short what started out as a minor procedure to assess turned into a 10 hour major surgery. Ten hours of surgery is not kind to a 78 year old woman and at some point during or after the surgery she had a stroke on the left side of her brain and some damage as well to the right. She is now on a respirator and will have to have a tracheotomy and feeding tube inserted. Very bad.

The current plan is to wait and see what happens over the next 3 - 4 weeks and see if there is any improvement from the stroke and at least get some healing from the surgery. If we are very lucky she may make some good progress though the doctor warned us that she will probably never be able to live alone again unassissted. The very real possibility is that she will be unable to make it without breathing assisstance or the feeding tube. Very, very bad.

My two younger brothers and I are probably going to have to make some very hard decisions in the next month or so.

Saturday Morning Update: Things are much better this morning. Respirator removed and no need for a feeding tube. Talking some and taking liquids and Jello. Some movement in the right arm so evidently the stroke wasn't too severe. Overall an astounding improvement over even yesterday. Encouraging and most welcome.

Long Silence

Quiet here because of a family emergency. Back now but a long day of travel and much stress. Some very tough decisions in the near future. I'll be back to full strength tomorrow.

Pleasant Surprise

Stepped out of the hotel room this morning about 5am for my morning walk and lo and behold it was raining. Rained enough to get my tee shirt wet and wet all the pavement but stopped quickly and in 20 minutes you could see no sign that it had rained at all. Everything nice and dry only a little more humid than normal. That's after yesterday afternoon when there were dust storms over Phoenix that had people pulling off the freeways because they couldn't see. Paradise it is not.

Down the Rat Hole

Here's progress for you. Worse and worse. Don't worry though we are working hard on the gay marriage issue you aren't concerned about.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN)-- Nearly 1,400 Iraqi civilians died in a wave of targeted killings in Baghdad last month, according to a high-ranking Iraqi Health Ministry official.

The figure does not include civilians killed in insurgent bombings, the official said. Even so, the number is the highest monthly death toll in the capital since the war began three years ago.

In May 1,398 bodies were brought to the Baghdad morgue, the official said.

All were killed in attacks; in most cases the bodies were found strewn across the Iraqi capital, shot execution-style, the official said.

Hot, Hot, Hot

Another 112 degree day here in Phoenix yesterday. I sure will be glad when this little gig is over at the end of next week. I can't say that I am a big fan of Phoenix, especially in the summer. I haven't seen the rest of Arizona and will try and correct that week after but so far so bad. It doesn't help that we are working long days in a less than stellar work environment so the mood starts on a low note anyway.
According to the local weather report we will have a "cold snap" today and it will only be 108.
Trying to find time to spend a little time here and elsewhere on the blogs but not having much luck. I did manage to wake at 0430 this morning and get something done.
Later...

American's Concerns

On May 22-24 the Gallup organization conducted a poll where they asked respondents to list their top two concerns about Amercica. Kos has the whole list of concerns or at least those that garnered any significant percentage of the vote. "Moral Values" didn't even get 1% of the vote and yet Bush and the GOP Congress are spending their whole week flogging the gay marriage amendment.

I think this has to backfire at some point. The American people on the whole are not stupid and when they see this administration focusing all their energy on such a meaningless issue as a sop to the whacko right there is going to be backlash.

Here are the top 10 issues Anericans are concerned about and the percentage of the vote.

1.Situation in Iraq/war 42%
2.Fuel/oil prices/the energy crisis 29%
3.Immigration/illegal aliens 23%
4.Economy in general 14%
5.Poor health care/hospitals; high cost of health care 12%
6.Terrorism 4%
7.Education/poor education/access to education 4%
8.Federal budget deficit/federal debt 3%
9.Unemployment/jobs 3%
10.Taxes 3%

6-6-6 today

For all you superstitious types don't overlook that today is 6/6/6. This, of course, is only true if you follow the Julian calendar.

Made famous by the Book of Revelation (Chapter 13, verse 18) it has been studied extensively by mathematicians because of its many interesting properties.
Here are some interesting things about the number from Mike Keith and there are many more...

The number 666 is a simple sum and difference of the first three 6th powers:

666 = 1⁶ - 2⁶ + 3⁶.

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It is also equal to the sum of its digits plus the cubes of its digits:

666 = 6 + 6 + 6 + 6³ + 6³ + 6³.

There are only five other positive integers with this property. Exercise: find them, and prove they are the only ones!

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666 is related to (6² + n²) in the following interesting ways:

666 = (6 + 6 + 6) · (6² + 1²)
666 = 6! · (6² + 1²) / (6² + 2²)

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The sum of the squares of the first 7 primes is 666:

666 = 2² + 3² + 5² + 7² + 11² + 13² + 17²

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The sum of the first 144 (= (6+6)·(6+6)) digits of pi is 666.

Where is the Leadership?

While I don't usually copy other blogger's posts wholesale...every once in a while there is no option. Joe at AmericaBlog reminds us what went on yesterday while Bush and Congress were busy trying to instill bigotry, hate and one religion into the Constitution.
[snip]
While Bush and his GOP pals in the Senate were busy catering to the theocrats by promoting the anti-gay constitutional amendment, everything else Bush has had a role in was unraveling. Here are just a few of the things that took place yesterday as the President was playing hate politics with the lives of his fellow Americans:

Mass kidnappings in Iraq:

Gunmen in police uniforms staged a brazen daylight raid on bus stations in central Baghdad on Monday, kidnapping at least 50 people, including travelers, merchants and vendors selling tea and sandwiches.

The operation was a direct challenge to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's efforts to restore security in the capital, which has been hard hit by suicide attacks, roadside bombs and sectarian death squads.

The usual mayhem in Iraq:

At least 17 killings were reported across the country Monday, including a Shiite school guard and two Sunni brothers who were shot to death as they were driving to college in the capital. Iraqi police found the blindfolded and bound body of a man who had been shot in the head and chest and another body that had been shot in the head in separate locations in Baghdad.

The Dow dropped almost 200 points on inflation fears:

On Wall Street, Bernanke's fresh inflation warning sent the Dow Jones industrials sliding 199.15 points to close at 11,048.72. It had dropped even more, 214 points, two weeks ago on May 17.

Islamic militants prevail against our allies in Somalia:

After months of fierce fighting, Islamic militias declared Monday that they had taken control of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, defeating the warlords widely believed to be backed by the United States and raising questions about whether the country would head down an extremist path.

Katrina residents still can't come home:

Hundreds of displaced residents of public housing have for several days been returning here for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

Displaced residents in the tents are trying to force the city to reopen their storm-damaged apartments. They are armed with little more than cleaning supplies and frustration, in an effort to force the city to reopen their storm-damaged apartments.

The city, saying the projects are not ready, has refused.

As Chris posted yesterday morning, oil prices rose again: $73.23.
[snip]

The Trouble with the Media

There are some excellent discussions going on over at Digby and Firedoglake about the media and what's wrong with it with respect to we liberals and progressives.

Both are asking for comments on what we need to do about it. Some good reading and provocative links.

From Christy:

What the right seems to want is a pliant media will to spread "the good news" as they and the Administration see it. What we on the left want is not the same — what we simply want is for them to present the truth. Unvarnished, painful though it may be — just the facts, the truth, the heart of the matter. No more tabloid fluff. No one really cares about whether Britney Spears is driving in a convertible with her baby — but we do care about the world in which that baby and all our babies will grow up.

The American public must make decisions at every election which require them to be informed — fully informed. We rely on our press corps to dig out the facts, the truth, the things that the powerful are trying to keep hidden away. Some journalists do this very, very well — and we try to highlight that when we see a good example here on FDL. But for the folks who would rather hang back on the cocktail weenie circuit, let this serve as your notice: the American public is hungry for some truth. And if you don’t provide it — real, honest to God truth, they will pass you by in favor of something else. If the choice is Pravda or Edward R. Murrow, I’d pick Murrow every time.

Crashing the Gate Offer

If you haven't read "Crashing The Gate" yet you should. It really is a must read for those of us on the left that are dissatisfied with the performance of the Democratic Party in the last few elections. Markos and Jerome have done a great job of outlining what's wrong and what we have to do about.

Now that I have finished it and spent the $25.00 I probably won't read it again. I therefore offer free it to the first commenter who sends (the.fallenmonk at gmail.com) me a mailing address and expresses a desire to read it. The only catch being they have to promise to make the same offer on their blog or this blog when they have finished reading it. No other strings.

I am back in Phoenix tomorrow and not back until late Thursday night so it probably won't get in the mail until Friday at the earliest. That's assuming anyone wants to take me up on the offer.

Can We Set Some Priorities? Please?

Here is the bit of the transcript for Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room Friday. You'd think that Bush's handlers would realize that people have a lot on their minds nowadays what with the war and the worsening economic situation. Gay marriage is probably not very high on the agenda of most Americans as something they think is an immediate threat and that should require the immediate attention of the President and Congress and a freaking Constitutional ammendment.

You'd think that the handler's of the king would know that the majority of Americans would see this bull shit as exactly what it is, a desperate appeal to the narrow minded base of the jumped by Jesus crowd in hopes of improving the tanking numbers among the GOP base. It is actually embarrassing to face my friends in other countries when the government of the U.S. is so focused on such crap.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf.

Guess what Monday is? Monday is the day President Bush will speak about an issue near and dear to his heart and the hearts of many conservatives. It's also the day before the Senate votes on the very same thing. Is it the war? Deficits? Health insurance? Immigration? Iran? North Korea?

Not even close. No, the president is going to talk about amending the Constitution in order to ban gay marriage. This is something that absolutely, positively has no chance of happening, nada, zippo, none. But that doesn't matter. Mr. Bush will take time to make a speech. The Senate will take time to talk and vote on it, because it's something that matters to the Republican base.

This is pure politics. If has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in gay marriage. It's blatant posturing by Republicans, who are increasingly desperate as the midterm elections approach. There's not a lot else to get people interested in voting on them, based on their record of the last five years.

But if you can appeal to the hatred, bigotry, or discrimination in some people, you might move them to the polls to vote against that big, bad gay married couple that one day might in down the street.

via Atrios

Barn Door Syndrome

I see that they are going to give the troops in Iraq lessons on the ethics of war. I guess I have trouble with the entire concept. I got the same training in bootcamp as these guys have already had and at the time I had trouble rationalizing it all. If you are at war in defense of your home and hearth then there are certains things which are not considered kosher. There are the things that you do to protect yourself and those that are just violence against your agressor for violence's sake. The latter is wrong in most respects.

The second part of the issue concerns agression. If you are an agressor then the rules change. You have already fundamentally demonstrated your lack of ethics and anything and everything you do is tainted and morally wrong in the sense that you shouldn't be where you are in the first place.

Vietnam showed us how the rules change when the fundamental justifiability of the conflict is in question. I usually go by the rule that if there is any doubt about the morality of a conflict then it is probably wrong. Honor has a hard time maintaining a foothold when there is no bedrock of moral justification for your actions.

I'm Back for the Weekend..at least

Just got home from the airport and Phoenix. Reported to be 112 degress when I left and I won't argue...takes the breath away when you step outside from an air conditioned building. Nice gentle rain falling in Atlanta when I arrived...wonderful.

Quick hunt around to see what 's happening and I stumble upon this at Suzies' place.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The names and credit-card numbers of 243,000 Hotels.com customers were on a laptop computer stolen from an employee of accounting firm Ernst & Young, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Hotels.com, which is owned by Expedia (Research) and Ernst & Young, its auditor, began notifying customers that their information was stolen last week.

I don't use them a lot since I hate paying for my hotel in advance but I have used them once or twice in the last few months. I haven't received any notification yet about whether I'm affected. There is no excuse for this kind of information to be on a laptop computer. I don't care who's it is. There are very simple safeguards that Expedia could have had in place to prevent this information from ever getting out of a secure environment. No excuses.

Quiet...Too Quiet

I know it has been very quiet here for the last week or so but it has been very busy and it seems blogging gets pushed to the back burner. I sat down last night to spend some time here at about half past eight and the next thing I know it was midnight and I was sitting in front of the computer with nothing accomplished. Bad. Another two weeks of Phoenix and long days and travel back and forth then a week of holiday.

Mrs. Monk is flying out in a couple of weeks and we are going to drive up to the Grand Canyon and look around for a few days then it is off to Monument Valley for another few. Just some sighseeing and chilling.

Classic Bush

This is such a classic sympton of the warped reality that has defined the Bush administration and all the powerful Homeland Security that I just had to post it. IF you are the top U.S. targets for terrorist attack... as clearly demonstrated by 9/11... you need less money to prepare:

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday slashed anti-terrorism money for Washington and New York, part of an immediately controversial decision to reduce grant funds for major urban areas in the Northeast while providing more to mid-size cities from Jacksonville to Sacramento.The announcement that the two cities targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, would suffer 40 percent reductions in urban security funds prompted outrage from lawmakers and local officials in both areas, who questioned the wisdom of cutting funds so deeply for cities widely recognized as prime terrorist targets. The decision came less than five months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff unveiled changes in the grants plan intended to focus funding on areas facing the gravest risk of attack.That's classic. Say one thing, do another

This paragraph so completely defines the incompetence of out current leadership that maybe someone should etch it in stone. Amazing.