Just as I thought

Just as I expected Bush picks another dingbat appointee to replace Wolfie. Cronie
Thanks Josh you save me much time in researching this. The initial search looked positive. I should know better.

Various shorts

Looks Like Cindy Sheehan is giving up the fight and I can't say as I blame her. Her pleas for answers have fallen on deaf ears both Republican and Democrat.

I'll need to do some research on Wolfie's replacement, but you know if George picked him his credentials will be less than stellar. Ah another cronie perhaps?

Memorial day was marked by 8 more soldiers dead. When will the killing end? Who will stop it?

Shrub puts sanctions on Sudan. Big deal. The companies of Sudan are backed by China. Humm so doesn't that mean that the U.S. is actually backing the policies of Sudan indirectly with its' trade with China?

A Memorial Day Tribute

Oh I have laid down my life in Flanders fields
My body floated off Normandy
I fought with valor with X Corps at Inchon
I was cut off at Dien Bien Phu
How many more will die
How many friends will go

I lost my limbs on the road to Bagdad
IEDs are deadly you know
I was lucky
my tent mate lost his face
And his buddy lost his mind

A little girl asks
When's daddy coming home?
But her mother can't answer
And we all know why

Two tours later
Summer's coming
Will I make it through
The scorching heat

Will I be just a number
Or a flag draped coffin
Just a memory
For my friends back home

You remember me
I was that brown haired
blue eyed high school kid
Up the street that
The younger kids all loved

Mom and dad had great hopes for me
That's all gone now
I'm just a number
On the front page news

But I do have a name
so don't forget me
It's Tom Bob Bill John and Dave
Take a minute and remember me

Sorry

It appears that e blogger is not going to let me do the post I have been working on for some time now. As a result I have written a tribute to soldiers who have fought in wars past and present. Sorry no whiz bang presentation that I had hoped for but sometimes you have to take what life gives you and make the best of it.

OLPC project

I had been hoping to start a grass roots campaign to help finance the One Laptop Per Child program, but after doing some investigation it looks like this will have to be put on hold for a while. A $100 computer sounds like a cheap deal however nobody thought of the infrastructure costs involved in setting up such a program. There's the wireless connections sattelite dishes and operational costs that nobody mentioned. That would be something that only a government or large corporation could finance. I still think it's a great educational idea. We'll see what happens.

Tough week

It was a physical week for me with much demolition work. Watched as another contractor fall through the roof. Luckily he came out of it without a scratch. Said he might need to change his underwear.
The Dems have gotten my ire. If they don't stand up and get (what do you call it) "bolas" I'm going to start looking for another party to support.
Still working on a whiz bang Memorial Day post. I just hope my media skills and e blogger are up to it. Stay tuned we'll see what happens.

Now I know why maters are so expensive

Tomato Virus
So for all of you out there planning to plant tomatoes this year pay close attention for signs of this virus. Just a heads up.

_____ Killed in _____________

I fired up the browser this morning and popped over to Yahoo News to see what was going on only to see 4 killed here, 7 killed there, 25 killed over there. You could fill in the blanks with Iraq, Afganistan, Palestine, or Lebanon. Day after day week after week month after month. It's enough to keep you permenantly depressed and in need of a permenant prozac prescription. I went instead to the site of Nickolas Negroponte you may have seen him on 60 Minutes with his one laptop per child. I'd love to start a grass roots movement to help with this program. Think about it for one minute. Not only would you be providing kids with more knowledge than any encyclopedia, but you give them the chance to meet and understand cultures from all over the world. Throw a line or two in the comments section (if it's there) and let me know what you think.

NO YOU HAVEN'T FIXED THE PROBLEM!

I still can't preview my blog and comments have disappeared. Auto save seems to have gone thank God I hated that idea anyway. Oops I think it's back. How do you turn off auto save? Anyone know? Leave a comment where you can.
Note to geeks in the background that created blogger: When you actually get something that works LEAVE IT THE F*CK ALONE.

Tin horn politics

I was doing some research for an upcoming article I'm writing. I went through several articles about past wars and noticed many many similarities in the course of the way these were presented. It dawned on me that you could actually make a boiler plate for the process of past and future wars. It would go something like:

1. Find a nation with some natural resources (oil, gold, minerals, cheap labor)
2. Create a negative campaign against its' leader ( A dictator, a communist supporter, a supporter of a nation you don't like)
3. Support desenters in that country and create mistrust for its' leaders.
4. Send aid to any groups that might overthrow the government.
5. Give military training to any groups that might overthrow the government.
6. Throw a false flag operation and be sure it makes world press. (Note: a false flag operation is to create a disaster like a downed aircraft, a ship sunk, a massacre and blame it on their government or leader.)
7. Degrade the leader saying he's a psychopath, a rapist, a child preditor or canibal.
8. Let it be known that the leader is an immediate threat to your country.
9. Support an uprising and refer to the rebels as "freedom fighters".
10. When the leader is overthrown install your own puppet leader. When the people find out the puppet is a tryrant install a new puppet and use him until people catch on to him.
11. When you have succeeded in raping the country both here and abroad pull your troops out, leave in shame and then blame it on the opposition party.

What happened to comments?

Sorry there are no comments section under the last post. I don't know what happened. After they went to this auto save nothing seems to work quite right. Soon as I figure out the fix or they do you will be returned to NORMAL blogging! Hint Hint. Oh, and now the preview doesn't work either.

A great loss of a Canadian pilot

I hold a special fondness for the Canadian Snowbirds. Many years back we had an air show here every August. Several of the participants would practice the week before the show. I think it was a Friday afternoon before the big show when I heard a loud roar near my place. I usually don't pay much attention as I live a stones throw from a local airport (luckily not in the flight path), but this noise was exceptionally loud so I walked outside to the front lawn to see the Snowbirds doing a dive directly at my place. At the very last second they pulled up doing a perfect loop. I later found out that they were noted for "buzzing" places much to the dismay of the FAA. I will always remember that little stunt and the expert flying they displayed.

Here's one I missed

I've only been able to catch bits and pieces of the news this week (busy on a demo job). I was glad to here that Bo Diddley is up and around after a stroke this past weekend. Hang in there Bo

Freedom and dignity

It's hard to imagine that it's been nearly 30 years since my mom passed away. I guess time moves quicker the older you get. That got me to thinking about years ago and the cost of gas. When I started driving before the oil embargo and all the emission regs on cars, gas was I think about 50 cents a gallon and the minimum wage was 2 bucks an hour. Now gas is running $3.05 and climbing and the minimum wage is $5.15. Now if gas hits $4 a gallon and you are making minimum wage and have to travel to your job by car your screwed. It reminds me of the movie the Grapes of Wrath. There they were sitting around figuring that after working all day they wouldn't have enough for food. And another thought comes to mind. The jobs that I've had that paid the least amount of money also came with the least amount of respect. Nothing like adding insult to injury as the saying goes.
I came across this article via the Huffington Post (I always like their more obscure storys) that I'll call Freedom Index
I like the way the author informs us of the S/W FI numbers. Go have a look.
And to all the moms out there "a happy mothers day".

A travesty of respect

Photo by Tami Scilicio

I was thinking about the cost of this"war" today and came across this article about the costs to the vets that hasn't been fully realized. Anybody out there have a count on the on how much this war has cost so far and how much it's costing each month? This is not to disregard the emotional costs and the costs to families all over the U.S. What cost could you put on the loss of a father, a brother, a mother, a sister, a nextdoor neighbor or a friend. Then there's the cost of the loss of respect. The woman who took the photo above was fired because she was trying to show respect but by doing so she violated a military law. When I see headlines about casualties in Iraq all I see are numbers. Three U.S. troop died here. Five U.S troops died there. Our troops, the fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters, and friends have been reduced to impersonal numbers.

Just when I thought it was safe to hit the supermarket

I am slowly becoming leary of going to the supermarket. Not that they that sell the food have anything to do with the safety of what we buy, unless you get some ignorant or unscrupulous butcher or produce manager. I do check where food items are packaged or processed. Anything coming from China gets put back on the shelf or the refer display. Sorry but I just have no trust after considering the current melamine situation. And now we have a rather large case of Ecoli in ground beef. Now there's the question of the safety of chicken, pork, fish and beef. So obviously I'm now wondering about turkey. We'll see as time passes. Federal legislators just passed a bill to increase funding for food safety so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt to see if anything gets done but I'l not holding my breath. As I said we'll see.

Now Fish

Hat tip to/photo - markeseremet.blogspot.com/


First it was pet food that was tainted, then chickens and hogs and Now Fish Now I still wouldn't be extremely concerned had I not read the following bit from the Huffington Post:
"There's no tolerance for any of these compounds, either melamine or cyanuric acid. [...] We just don't know when we get these mixtures together. So there is no, really no acceptable level."
USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007 (thanks to David Goldstein)
I'd say it's time to put a moratorium on food products from China until some safety measures are in place.

Update: Looks like our state fish farmers have pulled tainted feed and are checking all supplys Bad feed

Respirators?

Looked at an article about wearing masks in the event of a major flu outbreak and decided to do a little research on CDC recomendations. I get a lot of good info from the CDC but I must say I'm disappointed at the info I got on using a dust mask for flu protection. Here's the Guidlines?
Now they classify a paper dust mask like those used in construction as a respirator. Let me tell you there's no way in hell you can call these things a respirator. A respirator requires a face to mask seal and a fit test.Check here
There are two types of fit tests to determine the fit of a particular user. One uses an irritant smoke to check for leaks around the nose, cheeks and chin. The other uses a machine to test the actual difference in outside air and air inside the mask called fit factor. A dust mask would not protect against the irritant smoke and there is no way to get a reading from the machine as it requires an impremeable seal around the nose and mouth. So I can only assume somebody is going to make a ton of money producting these masks and selling the fear of a flu outbreak with reminders of the swine flu nearly 100 years ago. Would I wear a dust mask for such an event? Not on your life. I've used them twice for dealing with fiberglass insulation and both times they didn't work.

Chicken update

Looks like someone is paying attention to food safety. I just wonder if it's not the producers who are pressuring the Feds to do something about the problem. Via the Seattle Times/ AP Chickens Witheld
I checked the FDA, the USDA, and the EPA websites for news on this and you guessed it nothing there.

What's for dinner?

Now that Shrub and Co. have pretty much completed gutting the FDA and the CDC I'm wondering what's safe to eat any more. Let me lay out a nice menu and see what can kill you before you get to desert.

Spinach salad ala ecoli

Ground beef patty e' mad cow

Freshly chopped onions salmonela

Chicken or pork malamie

Now none of this would really bother me had I not read the following from the FDA: EEEWWW

Note: "If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken".
Nothing like being proactive we'll just wait till someone dies then send out a warning.

Bush foot in mouth

Wish I had a direct link to the video I saw on ABC news tonight. Shrub now defines success in Iraq as something with an "acceptable level of violence". Yea George how many innocent women and children can be permitted to die for things to be acceptable by your standards? Only wish Watertiger could lend me one of her photoshop jobs to post here to go along with this. What can we do now to get rid of these thugs?
Note to George: The sun is coming up. It's time to pull out and go home. The party's over. Even the hosts and house guests want you to leave. (80% Iraqis 65+% Americans). Pick up your toys and head home cause mom and dad are calling. You've been out much too late.

May 1

May 1 is the traditional May Day a celebration of sorts for the working men and women. I am reminded of the Haymarket riot in Chicago and the Wooblies out here in the northwest. A moment of silence for those who fought to make our working lives better.
John Edwards was here today to speak and seek union support. I'm far from deciding on a presidential candidate, but I wanted to pass on some of the things he said. He has been the only politician to admit that he was dead wrong in voting for the war resolution. He also said that congress should send and keep sending funding bills to Bush with deadlines for troop withdrawl. He also touted a universal health care program. I'd be for that if he could figure out a way to pay for it. Estimates are somewhere around 7 trillion dollars.