And here

I thought I didn't have anything to write about today. Silly me.

Report Concludes That FEMA Should Be Replaced
Ex-FEMA official: Agency better when independent
There's no doubt whatsoever that FEMA didn't work well when under the ... ahem, "Department of Homeland Security". (and everything I've ever read about them make them sound like a Really Bad Joke{tm})

But do you really think that renaming them (which sounds like what this is, dissolve one and make another that does the same thing in the same way and the same place) will make their response to disasters better? (another case of Congress wanting to appear to be doing something without actually have to do any work)
[goes back to read the piece]
You're making one mistaken assumption, Mr. Copenhaver, you're assuming that the Senate is calling for this proprosed disbanding seriously and intends to get something done. That assumption is like thinking that a nail can be used to fix a flat tire.

Speaking of

McFly ...

Snow Racism no longer a big

It's true. Rich, White, (Republican) Men are not descriminated against on the basis of their race!
(perhaps they should be)

If you build it ... they will come?

Now let there be no particular doubt in anyone's mind. Hurricane Katrina was terrible, the loss of life, property, dreams even. The Federal government's bungling of the response, the state and local government's as well. About the only people who didn't screw the pooch were the millions of people who donated time, money, energy, labor, their homes, their communities and everything else.

But let's look, for a moment, at one of the definitions of insanity. I've read (or heard) some place that one of the definitions of insanity was performing the same action repetitively and expecting different results. ... It appears that Albert Einstein was the one who said that (at least according to online sources - well nothing on snopes about it either way).

So now let's look at
La. required to chip in $270 million on levees
the outrage in Louisiana at being requested to pay to help rebuild the levees. If you build a house under a tottering cliff and a rock falls on it and crushes your house I feel sorry for you. I'll (perhaps) help you rebuild it, help you living until then, help you with your immediate needs. That's only the proper (and christian?) thing to do.

But if you insist on rebuilding your house in exactly the same place and expect another rock not to fall on your house, crushing it again, who's crazy? You for doing that or me for not wanting to help you the 2nd time? In 1718 when Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded the place, even he noted that the location wasn't very good. Heck, it's easy to find information reporting that most of the city is between one and ten feet below sea level.

[knock][knock] Hello McFly?

Not feeling sorry

I've been watching this Enron thing for awhile now and I've posted before on the income both of those men made selling off their company stock before the place imploded.

This
Lay earned $106M, mostly in stock and options, in 2000
says Lay earned $106 million in 2000. That goes a long way toward making me feel a whole lot less sorry for the "poor man". And he seemingly bemoaned the fact that if he liquidated any of the stock options that he's still have to pay the 33-35% taxes on it. Even if he paid all the tax (which I really doubt) that's still $68 million dollars for one years pay!

And as I think about it how many of the people hurt by the implosion (setting aside for the moment the people ... the working class people who lost their jobs), the "investors" where really middle class people and not rich people who are now whining and crying that they lost their money investing in the company? I feel sorry for the middle class people and the working class and the people who lost their jobs and their retirement savings. But the rest of the rich people can go spit (I have no idea what that means or how insulting it is since it seems to be a Southern thing, but it seems about as vehement as I feel - which is some but not a lot)

Let them eat ... gas?

I was reading my blogs today and a lot of ... noise is being created about the gas price problem. Conservatives screaming that it's not the president's fault, crying about the republicans who are abandoning him in droves and the dems who want to cut taxes for consumers and cut tax breaks for oil companies. Liberals who are annoyed at being cast the villians and are decrying the conservatives riding around in their big gas sucking SUVs and bemoaning the fact that they've been advocating renewable energy for years and years.

Does anyone else find it deliciously ironic that Bush drove to the news conference where he announced the investigation into gas station price gouging in a 14 vehicle motorcade? (not to mention the homo-erotic symbolism of his ordering a probe)

There was an interesting piece on NPR yesterday talking about two entrepeneurs who wanted to work in energy and had a new startup with an interesting way to make natural gas from coal.
Turning Dirty Coal into Clean Energy
I wish them luck!

Former Enron Chairman Blames Others for Collapse
It was predictable that Lay appears to be blaming everyone else, Fastow, the media, who knows who else, on Enron's collapse. I wonder if it occurs to him that his buddy Skilling bailed for a reason and that if he was such a good judge of people and a "hands-off" manager that he didn't get what was coming to him (collapse of the company and a prison sentence). (not that I'm a fan of management telling me how to do my job)

Bush Tries to Breathe New Life into Immigration Bill
While it's not the president who's loudly proclaiming that we should ship the 11 MILLION illegals here back to where they came from, I wonder if those who do (in Nebraska!?) have a plan to pay for all that. And here I would like to insert any number of visual images of Nazi's barging into Jewish homes dragging them out to be shipped to camps in 1939.

Leakers?

Doesn't this sound to you like diapers that have closure (and containment) issues?
Or perhaps somehow related to floaters (whoa, I was thinking toilet humor and found that). Given that revelation, let's go see what wikipedia has to say about "leakers" ... nope, nada.

But anyway yesterday I was reading stuff on the folks who have been leaking classified information and how high muckity mucks aren't held to the same standards that the working men (and women) are prosecuted under. Well today I went and looked at my new link to milblogwire.com. The first one pissed me off since "Uncle Jimbo" was wailing about how these two leakers/whistleblowers (Dana Priest and Mary McCarthy) should be not just imprisoned in the black jails they leaked about, but perhaps shot because they were "endangering our national security". He calls them names and insults their motivations and all sorts of other stand up sort of neo con tactics. I did notice that he didn't seem to consider the other side of the coin or how he might have responded in a similar situation. He only seemed to repeat the same old tired fear-mongering that the administration uses to justify their questionable tactics.

That pissed me off and I almost removed the link itself and called it quits on them. However I read down further to see what else was on there and if it had any redeeming qualities or was just a place where survivalists and right wing fascist-wannabes hung out. The next piece was bagging on the retired generals who have come out against Rummy. Blah. Since none of us have been inside those meetings between the high level military commanders and Rummy there's no way we could know whether what they're saying is true or not. So speculation is pointless, especially since Bush favors loyality over competance or integrity any day.

Then I got to this piece, Music From Heaven. This is why I put the link on there in the first place. Stories from soldiers who have "been there, done that" on the ground in Iraq. This is what I wanted to read there, not the ranting crap of some inbred mouthbreathing monobrowed moron with a gun and an internet connection.

There is one other thing I wanted to say on the leakers. It's a tricky place to have to be. On the one hand you have classified operations/actions/documents/whatever. I've been pretty clear on where I stand on treatment and handling of classified information. But what if it's something like torture being done (by our people/in our name) on captured (operatives/spys/terrorists/combatants/whatever) prisoners? What if the information so gleaned is used to save tens, hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives?

Do methods matter? If we descend into barbaric behavior are we really any better than the terrorists? And if we are no better than the terrorists, do we deserve to win? How much of our modern American mindset is composed of our own conviction of our inherant right to triumph because we are good, moral and just?

Okay, you can put

the stairs back now.

My legs are starting to feel more like my legs again. Unfortunately at this point the pain doesn't disappear but it moves to my knee and my hip since it's been wet and soggy around here and will probably continue for a bit.

Ah well, the consequences of hood diving and presuming that other people a) know how to drive and b) have their head out of their ass so they can look around.

The stairs ... oh god, the stairs ...

I say this because my thighs are screaming at me. Yesterday was bad but once I got sat down it wasn't too bad until I decided to try to get up again.

But today I had to actually move around and do stuff.

Saturday I was all ready for my testing. I even went and carbo loaded by going to Fazolli's for pasta for lunch. Granted I should have done it the night before or for breakfast for an 1800 workout, but I never knew how it worked. I just followed along the gang when we had a(n Army) PT test the next morning. I was relaxed and thought I knew most of the answers to the questions I might be asked (I blew all the stance questions and a few of the other ones). But carbo loading does nothing for your endurance and that's what I needed for the exercises Marlin gave us. 400 ... I didn't even hear what he called them, but they were squat thrusts with a pushup at the bottom. Yvonne talked him into adding 600 crunches to the list so at least we had a break for them for a bit. And I didn't even get close (well I did get more than half way I think) to finishing (but the point is to keep us exercising for an hour or more).

I even soaked in the jetted tub for an hour the next morning. It felt good but not so much that it was all better.

But then we went for Shakespeare's pizza after and that was Good.

Whoa, Nellie!

Now when I was a young Captain in the Army and moved into the S-2 (Security and Intelligence) staff position (circa 1986), I became responsible for all the security clearances in the battalion. I was basically in charge of making sure all our classified information was properly handled and secured and that no one who was unauthorized was allowed to have access. It all seemed pretty clear cut to me. I got familiar with all the appropriate regulations and the paperwork necessary to classify a document (something we didn't usually do), how to declassify a document (also something we didn't much do) and how to get folks who needed it access to the classified documents. Nearly all our stuff was NATO war plans in case of invasion. (begins to search his memory for what he can tell people in this open forum about our classified documents)

To tell you the truth I probably knew then but I can't recall these days what the punishments are (or were) for breaches of classified information. It was never really an issue because we all knew how important it was and we were all very careful. Hell the Walker Spy ring was big news way back then.

Imagine my chagrin when I read these blogs ...

Leaker or Whistleblower?

Treason by association

Now it seems to me that handling classified documents properly has become passe these days (which is a mis representation since there are likely thousands of people who do it right but never get into the news). And who you are is much more important apparently than the documents you are leaking or mishandling.

I don't disagree that the President is the one who can ultimately declassify documents since he's the one in charge of our National Security. But I'm fairly certain that there are specific actions and procedures that he has to go through to do it. And that most of these procedures would actually be done by someone else. Selective declassification for political purposes seems at odds with National Security to me. As is leaking by high level government officials. Especially when the exact same actions by lower level government officials is treated (as it should be) much more harshly. The least that should be done is security clearances revolked and if access to classified information is critical to the job then oh well, move them to a new job or can them. Including cabinet level positions. Now the president can't be fired per se, but an impartial investigation over this is a much more appropriate use of public money than poking around some lame assed sex scandal for eighteen months.

And I won't point out, since most of my readers agree with me, that I didn't trust him from the getgo and aren't surprised by his cavilier attitude about our National Security (and Interests).

A man with a work ethic

The 'Rumsfeld problem' - circa 1971

An interesting piece which, again, points out Rummy's work ethic. Admirable. As is his opposition to the war in Vietnam (from the prespective of someone who had beliefs and stood up for them rather than supporting that war or not). And apparently last time he was Defense Secretary his accomplishments are similarily in procurement and hardware rather than in good solid strategic thinging. Having worked with the 3rd Armored Division I know first hand how impressive the M1 is.

But my gut feeling follows what General Newbold was "... the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions — or bury the results." Bury the results. That's one of the things about Rummy that sticks my craw the most. If he had ever served I suspect that he would understand this bit and it would color his thinking and decision making enough that the current situation would be vastly different.

But the horse is long dead and fossilized (I've been beating it so long here) ... ;-P

hmmm

Well the woman who I was castigating in yesterday's entry responded to what I'd posted on the BlogHer site. She had some interesting things to say (well sort of interesting) but my impression was that she wasn't going to be swayed by anything anyone said. While she was a liberal of sorts (the impression I got from her blog), she was convinced of her own correctness.

And I saw another piece on Bloomberg.com, And So the Bush Shake-Up Begins. So What?. She poopoos the 8,000 generals the administration claims aren't calling for Rummy's ouster. I've no idea if she bases her opinion on fact but it would be interesting to know what percentage those eight constitute of the total number of generals who've held command in Iraq.

About your comfy chair ...

Every weekday I have a bunch of things I check (and read) first thing in the morning. One of them is the blogHer site. Today I saw this one (I often read "Politics and News") Arrests in Duke rape case, the President defends Rumsfeld, and the math and science gender debate continues.

A lot of these are summaries of sorts with links to other blogs. Now a blog isn't a place to get anything other than an *opinion* in most cases, and we all know what those are worth (the phrase "diddly" jumps to mind).

But the one linked to *Chez Diva* just pissed me off. She sits (wherever) safely in her "comfy chair" loudly proclaiming that the retired generals who are proclaiming that Rummy should step down are betraying a trust, that they should have been saying these things while they were in the pentagon or in command. And while she may know what the various "J" offices are (one through eight she says), I see nothing in her "about me" which indicates to me that she served as an officer in the miliary. That she knows what it's like to lead troops, much less lead troops in battle. That she knows anything at all about how it feels, what it's like, to write an OPPLAN which may result in people dying. On both sides.

Until she does serve I think she's more guilty of *armchair generalship* than the people she's debasing. And despite the fact that she may have a point, because she's not been there, done that I feel more like saying "shut the fsck up" than listening to her points. Delivery matters sometimes, as does the source.

Oh and I think those Duke boys should get what's coming to them, rich white boys or not. Rape a girl, get your whang chopped off.

Note: To the Anonymous poster citing all sorts of references about how the striper is wrong and a bad person and is making up her allegations, you have some interesting points, cite factual sources. However your lack of sources denies your claims much credibility as does your anonymous status (if you have something to say step up and say it and let the world know who you are, if you have to hide when you say it then I wonder what you're afraid of). And your wish that when they "poor boys" (I find little sympathy for privilidged rich white boys who get whatever they want and can depend on daddy to clean up their messes) are proven innocent I get my wang cut off dooms your comments to the bit bucket. Bye! Don't let the door hit you in your ass on the way out.

ow ow ow

I say that a lot these days since I've been taking Goju Ryu Sho Bu Kan Sho Rei Shobu Kan School of the Goju Ryu Style Karate (the kind Ralph Macchio pretends learns in "The Karate Kid")(and I've no idea if I got the name right)(I stand corrected, now I just need to remember what each of the words means for the test this week). The workouts are getting a bit easier as I slowly get in better shape but the drills and katas seem to be hard on my joints and back. We have class on Thursday evening at a local church and Saturday evening at a martial arts center (with all the pads and mats and stuff).

I usually soak in the jetted tub in as hot water as I can stand (or as is left after the Boy showers) for awhile Sunday mornings. There are usually still a few achs and pains left in my back afterwards. But I wasn't sure how well they worked until today. Yesterday I got too distracted by game demos and whatnot and then realized it was almost 2 before I was ready to go so I showered instead (had errands to run).

Today I can feel every knot and ach because I didn't soak yesterday. Maybe I'll have a chance to do it tonight but I doubt it. I ran the Boys grades and he had a significant drop so we're going to have to talk about school tonight.

Jim Heivilin

Professional Lawn Mower Racer

Shop till you drop (in size)

I love Dave Barry. He's hilarious. I wish his band would play someplace close by so we could go listen. Well see, I'm pretty sure from their comments that the listening wouldn't be so good.

But I think I may start double posting for awhile since people are still reading this.