blivet 2.0

• Public Option Now!
  A 'The Nation' editorial.
  "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal," he said during the press conference, "then why is it that the government–which they say can't run anything–suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical." — Barak Obama
  Damn right. We must have a public option. A single payer plan would be fantastic.
  (tags: obama healthreform politics)
• Think Again: The Strange Politics of Collusion (and “Dickishness”)
  Alterman on Dana Milbank, Nico Pitney, the MSM and who (whom?) is being a 'dick.'
  (tags: politics obama press journalism)
• Iran's Green Wave | The Nation
  "[F]or the first time since the1978-79 revolution, which led to the Islamic Republic, Iran's leadership is confronted with an explosive and unpredictable challenge: from below, a mass movement whose street energy and high-tech organizing savvy spread from Tehran to Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and other cities. And within the elite there is a swelling wave of dissatisfaction with the narrow-minded radicals in power, who are blamed for having squandered the country's oil wealth, mismanaged its economy and forced Iran into a crippling regime of sanctions that have walled it off from the technology and foreign investment it desperately needs. (…)
  Reform in Iran is a slippery slope, and once reforms get started the very fabric of the Islamic Republic could unravel. It's that scenario that Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and their IRGC and Basij allies are determined to resist at all costs. And they're prepared to unleash Tiananmen Square levels of violence to make sure it doesn't happen. "
  (tags: iran iranelection Ahmadinejad Khamenei Dreyfuss)
• PEACEINSPACE.ORG
  This I really have no problem with Webre and I support these efforts. Arthur C. Clarke was the chairman. "Would we rather have weapons above our heads or a transformation of the war industry into a peaceful World Cooperative Space Industry?" Again, this is from Thom Hartmann's Wednesday radio show.
  (tags: space security Webre)
• EXOPOLITICS.COM: Politics, Government, and Law in the Universe
  From Alfred Lambremont Webre who was on Wednesday's Thom Hartmann radio show. Included here without too much comment. I'll just note some example posts.
  "The Discovery of Life on Mars: Uncovering a NASA Coverup" and "Webre's article exposed NASA's planned bombing of the moon under Project LCROSS on October 9, 2009 as violating space law and triggering possible conflict with lunar-based extraterrestrial civilizations that the U.S. government (National Security Agency and NASA) has reportedly known about since the mid-1960s."
  (tags: politics space conspiracy exopolitics extraterresterial Webre)

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Apropos to my letter to Harry Reid — over at Thom Hartmann, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the difficulty of blocking the Republican filibuster thanks to Harry Reid’s hormone deficiency.

Scroll down to ‘THP090702 Brunch with Bernie.’ I am confident this will link rot like a big dog.

• Todd S. Purdum on Sarah Palin | vanityfair.com
  creepy quote: "More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it ‘Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.’"
  (tags: politics culture mccain 2008+election palin batshitcrazy)

Mr. Reid,

The Democratic caucus in the Senate now has *60* votes with the seating of Al Franken (D-Mn). That’s the mythical filibuster-proof majority. Let’s get something done now. When the other party was in a similar position, they do not seem to have hesitated to use that majority to enact legislation that did not seem especially bi-partisan.

Our country is in a economic crisis, we need new usury laws, single-payer health care, the approval of a Supreme Court nominee, funds to close Guantanamo, strong environmental laws and regulations, a myriad of other things, and essentially a return of the the ‘commons.’

It is now time to act, Mr. Reid. The Progressives and Democrats of America are watching.

Thank you for your time,
Hal B. Rager

• Solar Energy Study Area Maps
  Via @wildnevada : " info & maps of 24 areas being fast-tracked for utility-scale solar energy development." Letter-sized pdf maps, poster-sized pdf maps, and shapefiles (.shp).
  (tags: environment energy solar EIS GIS)
• The Raw Story » Close McCain friend allegedly called Palin ‘Little Shop of Horrors’
  Via MicCheckRadio: "Sarah Palin – the gift that keeps giving. McCain staffers spill the beans. A print-out-take-to-the-bathroomer."
  (tags: politics palin 2008+election mccain)
• The Best Way to Photograph Fireworks – PC World
  I am not a photographer, thus I do not know if the author is FOS or not. But here is a guide just in time for the 4th.
  (tags: photography howto guide)
• FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Special Interest Money Means Longer Odds for Public Option
  Nate Silver breaks down the numbers on the influence of lobbyists on blocking health care reform and who those lobbyists are likely to target. [via Crooks & Liers]
  (tags: politics health corruption government medicine healthcare reform lobbying healthreform Senate)
• YouTube – HAARM.org – Fire Care
  "What if we ran the fire department like we run the health care system? At HAARM, they do." That would be Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine. Time for a single payer option in the health care reform bill.
  (tags: haarm healthcare video SEIU humor)
• Eruption of Sarychev Peak, Kuril Islands : Natural Hazards
  "On June 12, 2009, Sarychev Peak on the Kuril Islands’ Ostrov Matua experienced a spectacular eruption. The event left behind a changed island. Acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite, these images of Ostrov Matua show the island shortly after the eruption on June 30, 2009, and two years before on May 26, 2007" [via @NASA]
  (tags: nasa volcano Sarychev Kuril ASTER)
• NASA – ASTER Imagery
  "The most complete topographic map of Earth, from our Terra spacecraft and Japan's ASTER sensor." [via @NASA]
  (tags: reference maps space gis geography map ASTER Terra nasa)
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson on our lack of skepticism | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
  via @DiscoverMag
  (tags: science skeptic)

• WordPress Configuration Tricks
  All about the wp-config.php file in WordPress.
  (tags: wp-config config webdevelopment wordpress webdev reference php)
• TweetCall – Twitter by Voice
  Tweet via phone. No more typing while driving! [via @dogyears]
  (tags: twitter social apps applications freeware voice tweetcall twittertools)
• Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future
  This is the website for Mooney and Kirshenbaum’s book.
  Chris Mooney and scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum team up in a sequel to the Mooney's The Republican War on Science "to explain how religious ideologues, science-phobic politicians, a profit driven media, and hyperspecialized scientists have all helped create this dangerous state of affairs. They propose a broad array of initiatives to reverse the current trend, and bring about a greater integration of science into our national discourse—before it's too late."
  It’s probably worth checking out of the library…
  (tags: books science education policy)

Audrey is in Germany for four weeks dissertating and I have sympathy for her having solo parent duties whilst I was in Tejas for a coupla weeks. Great Ghu, I do not know how single-parents (they are frequently typically single-moms!) do it.

Seven and a half years old is hard to keep up with, much less guide! (Herd? Keep from hurting themselves or you?) Blah, blah, youth is wasted on the young, etc.

We are going to go watch them feed the sharks at the Museum tomorrow as well as doing some piano practice and math drills. BTW, speaking of math and music, today’s NOVA looks interesting!

Some part of those sharks eating pianos or something should keep a therapist in new vacation homes and Jaguars some 30 years hence I’m guessing… (HHOS) Don’t worry, I’m a parent, it’s my job to implant those hereditary neuroses .

It is already way to GD hot here. Officially (as in, they admit to the figure) today it was 108°F (that’s 42°C to the rest of the world) with the promise that ’summer will be here soon!’ Bah. This is not Groundhog Day, this is Groundhog Climate! Or something. That really didn’t have the ‘punch’ I had hoped for… Oh well, it’s hot. Again. Or is that, ’still?’

“I know it couldn’t have been this hot last year because I would have moved away.”

Bzzt, thanks for playing, Mister Man. California has earthquakes, the Plains has tornadoes and *snow.* The Gulf coast has hurricanes, the rest of the country has *Winter*, and the Southwest melts your lead fishing weights in your tackle box into one big, ugly mass. You pays your money and takes your climatic medicine. March in the southern Mojave will be tempered by the harsh reality of July in the Mojave. Same goes for the Sonoran, except they have that humidity stuff when the Monsoons come. 6 of one… The snow-birds cheat by running away.

To complain is to cast your vote for survival. Yeah, that’s the ticket…

• HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher: Episode Guide: Episode 157
  "I don't want my president to be a TV star. Because TV stars are too worried about being popular, and too concerned with getting renewed. (…)
  I'm glad Obama is president, but the "audacity of hope" part is over. Right now, I'm hoping for a little more audacity. – Bill Maher"
  listen to the last 10 minutes of the podcast for episode 157 for some of the best observations on some of our (the left's) current disappointments in the administration.
  (tags: maher obama politics tv)
• Not Enough Audacity – Krugman – NYTimes.com
  Nowhere near enough.
  "When it comes to domestic policy, there are two Barack Obamas.
  On one side there’s Barack the Policy Wonk, whose command of the issues — and ability to explain those issues in plain English — is a joy to behold.
  But on the other side there’s Barack the Post-Partisan, who searches for common ground where none exists, and whose negotiations with himself lead to policies that are far too weak."
  (tags: obama krugman policy)
• Kung Fu Monkey: Farm Fetish
  "We should, in particular, have several Congressional committees, plus a Cabinet-level department, representing Americans who play World of Warcraft, who outnumber American farmers." This whole this is via Krugman's 'Conscience of a Liberal' blog. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/equal-representation-in-congress/
  (tags: politics humor economics wow farming social society agriculture)

Every time I see this I laugh. Perhaps most because I was, after all, 14 once.

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Seen most recently at Kevin’s and originally (AFAIK) here.

I upgraded this blog last week, but now the rest we host here are up to WordPress 2.8.