Woman's Place Is Leading The House

BobGeiger.com: The Saturday Cartoons

Etiquette Tip

Tourist fighting his way off the train: Look, people. You actually have to let us out of the train before you can get on.

Old guy: This is New York, son. A simple 'Fuck you' will do.

- Overheard in New York

I Have Fall Allergies -- In January

Had to take a Claritin this morning for allergies, which I normally only experience in spring and fall. Talked to several people today experiencing the same. Guess we're not alone:

Forbes: Warm Weather in Northeast Prompts Early Allergy Return

A Hideous Theory

Brendan Smialowsky, NYTimes, 6/12/06:
From left, the C.I.A. director, Michael V. Hayden, the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, the national security advisor, Stephen J. Hadley, Vice President Dick Cheney, President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza L. Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, meet on Iraq.
Why has John Negroponte resigned his post as National Director of Intelligence to become Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's deputy? There has to be some reason. Steven Pizzo at The Smirking Chimp has a theory: this paves the way for Cheney to resign, Rice to be appointed Veep in his stead, and Mr. Nicaraguan Death Squad himself, Negroponte, would be made Secretary of State. Ewwwww. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, it could.

So what's up? Here's what I think is up -- and if I were Bush I would be itching to get on with the game.

Move 1: Announce what the administration knows will be a very unpopular decision to send more troops to Iraq.

Move 2: Let the Democrat-controlled Congress throw a fit and hold hearings the administration knows will stir up additional opposition and shake loose new damning information on the administrations march to war and mismanagement of that war.

Move 3: Just when all the above is hitting the fan, Dick Cheney announces he is retiring from office early due to “health concerns," and because he does not want to be "a distraction" when he is called to testify in purjury trial of his former No. 2. Scooter Libby.

Move 4: The next day Bush announces he will nominate Condoleezza Rice to replace Cheney.

Move 5: At the same time Bush announces he is nominating Negroponte to replace Rice as Secretary of State.

Blogtopia* Roundup, Friday January 5, 2007

On BoingBoing, news that five words slipped into the last Pentagon budget bill will make U.S. military contractors subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Honorary blogger Paul Krugman in today's New York Times says the Democratic Congress should first, un-privatize Medicare.

Professor Juan Cole links to the Diary of Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive. How horrible life is really like in Iraq today.

Glenn Greenwald reappears from writing his latest book to eviscerate the un-credible, full of shit right-wing bloggers and their incessant whining about media coverage of Iraq.

ThinkProgress has pictures of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), our first Muslim congressman, being sworn in with his hand on a Koran published in 1764 which was once owned by Thomas Jefferson. I have it on scant authority that these pictures caused several wingnuts' heads to explode.

And, since We Love Lists,
(1)read Steve Gilliard's list of books to read so you don't sound like a stupid warblogger. Check out the recommendations in comments, too.
and
(2) check out World Changing's Ten Stories You May Have Missed by environmental journalist Alex Steffen.

Got to go for my walk, as it's near 60 degrees. Yesterday afternoon when I pulled into my driveway, I startled a bunny munching on the lawn, which is quite green. One of my neighbors planted bulbs yesterday. This is January?

Day of Firsts

Deval Patrick sworn in as Massachusetts governor: First black governor of Massachusetts, second black governor in U.S. history
Nancy Pelosi sworn in as Speaker of the House: First woman Speaker of the House

We Love Lists

Even infuriating lists like this one which remind us of how the Republican war on regulation has killed, maimed and injured American workers:

Confined Space: Top Ten Workplace Safety Stories of 2006

Constitutional Crisis

The new Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who earns $212,100 per year, thinks judge's salaries are far too low. Emperor Chimperhito thinks he can write a memo and suspend the 4th Amendment. Which of these is a 'constitutional crisis'? If you picked the rich guy with the gavel, you understand the plight of the poor beleaguered rich wingnut; if you picked the rich guy with a stolen presidency, you understand the plight of democracy.

I swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, and liberty and justice, for which it stands, as long as I get all the moolah I'm entitled to!

CNN: Low pay threatens judiciary, Roberts warns

Federal district court judges are paid $165,200 annually; appeals court judges make $175,100; associate justices of the Supreme Court earn $203,000; the chief justice gets $212,100.

Thirty-eight judges have left the federal bench in the past six years and 17 in the past two years.

The issue of pay, says Roberts, "has now reached the level of a constitutional crisis."

Did Bush have his fingers crossed when he swore to uphold the United States Consitition?

NYDailyNews: W pushes envelope on U.S. spying
New postal law lets Bush peek through your mail

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

'Climate Change Is Happening Around the World'

Reuters: 2007 predicted to be world's warmest year

LONDON (Reuters) - This year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday.

The Met Office said the combination of factors would likely push average temperatures this year above the record set in 1998. 2006 is set to be the sixth warmest on record globally.

"This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world," said Met Office scientist Katie Hopkins.

The world's 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1994 in a temperature record dating back a century and a half, according to the United Nations' weather agency.

In local global warming news, last night on my way home I drove by the remains of a large skunk that had been hit by a car and had released its peculiar fragrance. Yes, a skunk, out in January in the hills of Central Massachusetts. I know that skunks don't truly hibernate, but they normally aren't out and about at this time of year, because it's not usually in the 50s in January. [Which mammals hibernate during the winter? Click the link to find out which ones.]

Good Question

BobGeiger.com: Why Should Life Or Death Be Decided By Income?

Coming Attractions

If you liked Katrina, retiring National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield says you'll love the next hurricane -- it'll be huge, and it shouldn't be too long before it hits. Mayfield is the man who issued this famous weather alert which was ignored by the morons in the Bush White House:

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

Mittwit Leaves the Way He Came In -- Says One Thing, Then Does Another

• Just days after defeating Shannon O’Brien, Romney made a sanctimonious pledge not to make patronage appointments. "I look for people who get jobs based on what they know, not who they know," he said. Romney went so far as to say that "political connections "will be held against an applicant for a job in his administration: "That will have to be something that’s overcome, that will not be an advantage, that will be a disadvantage."

2002 Boston Phoenix editorial.

Governor Mitt Romney, despite his stated opposition to patronage appointments, installed more than 200 Republican activists, current and former state employees, and others to boards and commissions in December, including departing Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. [] He appointed about 200 people to boards in December and about 100 in November, according to a Globe tally.

Boston Globe, January 3, 2007

Senator Tim Johnson Update

Via Raw Story, a South Dakota TV station reports doctors predict a long recovery for Mr. Johnson, who has been sedated since December 13th. I know from my dad's case that being sedated for even a week leads to loss of the abilities to speak and swallow, and those are hard to relearn. All those muscles must be rebuilt and reconnected.

Football Round-Up

BBC: Liverpool 3-0 Bolton: The hosts take the lead on the hour when Jermaine Pennant's cross is turned in by Peter Crouch
A report in London's Evening Standard says that Fulham, who have already tendered an offer to American Clint Dempsey, are also going to sign Oguchi Onyewu from Standard Liege for a transfer fee of 1 million pounds. The best thing that can come from those signings is the chance for those two great young Americans to learn from the workhorse of the US National Team, Brian McBride. McBride is never the fastest or the most skilled player on the field, but he works the hardest. If Dempsey and Gooch can learn to Be Like Brian, this will be a match made in footie heaven. (via DuNord, football365 readers have ranked BMB the '4th most underrated player' in English football. Some good end-of-year soccer lists are linked on DuNord, too. It's the best football site out there.)

Stevie G. an MBE. Soon enough we'll be calling him 'sir'. About time -- he should have gotten it after the Champions League win in 2005, but we'll take it for the FA Cup heroics.

Crouchie (pictured above) had another bicycle goal on Sunday against Bolton. How can Rafa sell him? Plus, it would break Coach Mom's heart. Even before we met him in the elevator in Chicago, she's been a big fan.

I guess Britain has its own version of "Punked", with Rio Ferdinand as Aston Kutcher. Who Ate All The Pies has a segment where he messes with Shaun Wright-Phillips (aided and abetted by John Terry).

Operation Save-The-Planet News

Logo of Stopglobalwarming.org (underneath it says, All 10 of the hottest years on record, globally, have occurred in the last fifteen years.)

Residents of the EU can now have their cars scrapped, for free; carmakers are responsible, and the goal is to have 80% of the vehicle reused. I'm shooting off an email to my congressman, Jim McGovern, to advocate that the US adopt a similar law.

In the US, Walmart, of all companies, is pushing energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs and hopes to sell 100 million by the end of 2008.

On Grist, an interview with Ed Begley, Jr., green-living celebrity.

My personal green news is a 6-month update on my Toyota Prius. My mileage has dropped to between 44 and 45 miles per gallon (44.6 exactly, today) due to the temperature drop and, according to my mechanic friend Mark, the reformulation of winter gasoline. I was getting 49 to 52 MPG during the summer. I can't tell you how the car drives in the snow, because we haven't had any. Today it was 46 degrees as I returned a few errant Christmas gifts, and I heard on the radio that it is supposed to be in the 50s on Thursday. I saw on Suburban Guerrilla that it was 57 degrees in Vienna, Austria today, their warmest temperature ever recorded on this date in over 150 years.

Here's what the National Weather Service is reporting about our freakily warm winter:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
600 AM EST MON JAN 01 2007

...WARMEST FINISH OF ANY YEAR IN BOSTON...

...WARMEST DECEMBER AND WARMEST NOVEMBER-DECEMBER COMBINATION
RECORDED AT BOSTON/S LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER 2006 WAS 41.1 DEGREES IN
BOSTON. THIS BEATS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 40.7 DEGREES SET IN 1990.
THE NORMAL DECEMBER MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IS 34.8 DEGREES
WITH A DECEMBER 2006 DEPARTURE OF +6.3 DEGREES.

IN ADDITION...THE COMBINED AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR NOVEMBER AND
DECEMBER 2006 WAS APPROXIMATELY 45.1 DEGREES. THIS BEATS THE
PREVIOUS RECORD OF 44.6 DEGREES SET DURING THE COMBINED MONTHS
OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1990.

THERE WERE 19 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE
TEMPERATURES FROM DECEMBER 10TH THROUGH DECEMBER 28TH AND
24 DAYS ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURES IN DECEMBER 2006.

OFFICIAL RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT SINCE 1872.

We Love Lists

Especially end-of-the-year lists.

Via Digby, (who lauds Brilliant At Breakfast's Brilliant 20 of 2006), Crooks & Liars collected several lists from left blogtopia*. (Look at the end of the post where it says "END-OF-YEAR STUFF"

And remember to write 2007 for the year tomorrow. You know, like James Bond.


*yes, skippy coined that phrase!

Happy Sweaty New Year

Independent (uk): World faces hottest year ever, as El Niño combines with global warming

Independent (uk): 'If we fail to act, we will end up with a different planet'



The cover picture captions, from above:

2
MELTDOWN RELEASING DEADLY METHANE...

0
WEATHER PATTERNS GROWING UNSTABLE...

0
DROUGHTS THREATENING AGRICULTURE...

7
MOUNTAIN GLACIERS RETREATING...

RIP Donald M. Murray

He was my favorite writer. Clear, honest, and deeply personal. I was always moved by his writing about his cold, emotionally barren childhood, and his deep and abiding pain over the loss of his 20-year-old daughter Lee:

The morning our 20-year-old daughter Lee took sick with her last illness, I was trying to write a letter of sympathy wondering what I could say, asking myself if it would make any difference.

Five days later I knew. It made a difference.

I discovered it was better to reach out than turn away, to say the wrong thing than say nothing.

But in living through Lee's loss and others I also discovered I had something to say to others who suffered the loss of someone they loved.

Pain is better than forgetting.

It is almost eighteen years but Lee is still with us. The pain is not so much lessened as it has become familiar, like the pain that continues in the leg that has been amputated. Her death is part of us.

I steel myself pretty well for the expected moments of pain. Her birthday in March, her deathday in August, Thanksgiving, Christmas, even, these days, listening to an Albinoni oboe concerto knowing it is not her practicing in the next room.

But there is no protection from the blindside hit. Lee waves from a passing car. She appears ahead of me on a street in Sienna, wearing a backpack, I rush to catch up with her but she turns a corner and is gone.

She stands in the shadows, just outside the living room. I hear her counsel when I have a problem and pay attention. At the concert I sit beside her in the center of the orchestra as she invited me to sit beside her during an orchestral rehearsal at the University of Massachusetts and we are again surrounded by music.

It is not all tears. We laugh at the same old jokes - and some new ones. Every submarine sandwich I eat, I share it with Lee. It was her favorite.

When I was dying in a heart attack, Lee stood - in the blue jumper she had made - waiting at the end of a brightly lit tunnel, smiling.

But, I often say in a letter of sympathy, people will want you to get over it, snap out of it, buck up, forget.

Of course we have to get on with life, to find salvation in routine that suddenly seems trivial, to fulfill our responsibilities to the living. But not to forget.

It would be the most terrible sadness if the memory of that person who has died were erased.

It is far better to remember, to mourn, to weep, to rage, than to allow the one who is gone to disappear.

In a way I welcome the pain. I hurt; I remember.

So, I say in my sympathy letter, they should learn to accept the pain, even in a way welcome it, by comparing it to the terror of forgetting.

And as an elder of the tribe who has experienced loss, I write for them to remember in their own way, to mourn in their own way, to do what would be appropriate for the person who has gone, and, more important, to do what needs to be done for the living.

I could sleep on the floor of the waiting room as I slept in battle. Minnie Mae could not sleep. No right, no wrong.

The night Lee died we went to a musical in which her sister was appearing in the chorus. Lee would have wanted that, no matter if others approved.

We - her immediate family - chose cremation because it was what we thought she would have wanted and it was, we discovered what each of us wanted for ourselves. We paid no attention to the relative who said, "I don't know how you could burn her up."

We did what we had to do.

We could not handle a formal funeral, bringing the family from afar, after her quick dying, so we had a private service at the grave side.

I wept - frequently - and Minnie Mae did not. No guilt, no public measuring of pain. I dream of Lee and Minnie Mae does not. That does not mean that one of us mourns more deeply than the other. No guilt. No keeping score.

We love in our own way; we grieve in our own way.

And in this terrible loss we have found strength. When we are tested by other events, we have a measure of our ability to survive.

And we were also reminded that life is fragile.

In my letters reaching out I tell others what Lee's passing taught us: to listen to each other and to ourselves, to live the gift of life with caring and celebration. Today. Right now.

Obituary, Boston Globe: Columnist Donald Murray dies at 82
Pulitzer winner penned Globe's 'Now and Then'

This Can't Be Good

BBC: Huge Arctic ice break discovered
Scientists have discovered that an enormous ice shelf broke off an island in the Canadian Arctic last year, in what could be sign of global warming.

It is said to be the largest break in 25 years, casting an ice floe with an area of 66 sq km (25 square miles).

It occurred in August 2005 but was only recently detected on satellite images.

The chunk of ice bigger than Manhattan could wreak havoc if it moves into oil drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer, scientists warned.

Chicago Sun-Times (AP): Huge arctic ice shelf breaks loose

Medicare Part (D)isaster: Insurance Companies Cashing In

Insurance companies got millions of seniors to sign up for Medicare Part (D)isaster coverage last year by making it cheap. Now that they've got 'em, they're going to fleece 'em. Democrats must reform this terrible, terrible bill.

Boston Globe: Insurer hits millions of seniors with drug cost hike
Premium will rise by 130% for Mass. plan

The more than two million senior citizens nationwide who signed up last year for Humana Inc.'s least expensive Medicare prescription drug plan face average premium increases of 60 percent -- and in seven states, increases of 466 percent -- starting tomorrow . The higher prices will affect about 50,000 seniors in Massachusetts, where premiums are going up by 130 percent, from $7.32 to $16.90 a month.

Medicare added the prescription drug benefit in 2006, and in most states dozens of drug plans with varying coverage are available through insurance companies. Healthcare advocates say Humana kept its prices low in 2006 to gain market share. The strategy may prove lucrative, they say, because many seniors spent considerable time researching and selecting their drug insurance and were unlikely to switch plans for 2007, despite increased premiums.

[]

Under Part D, seniors who go without drug coverage will pay higher prices if they eventually decide to buy it. As a result, many seniors who did not need prescription drugs in 2006 signed up with Humana's low-cost plan simply to avoid having to pay more if they needed coverage in the future.

"Some of them took the plan even though they were only taking aspirin," said Nancy Roper , a volunteer for Action for Boston Community Development who counsels low-income seniors on drug plan choices. "Now, this jumps to $16.90 for 2007, and they're calling and asking is it worth it. It's a hardship."

Making Progress

What President Clusterfuck has wrought in Iraq.

Reporter Hannah Allam of McClatchy:

Even Mr. Milk is dead. The grocer we called by the name of his landmark shop in the upscale Mansour district was kidnapped and killed, along with his son, my colleagues said. The owner of a DVD shop where I once purchased a copy of "Napoleon Dynamite" also had been executed.

So many blindfolded, tortured corpses turn up that an Iraqi co-worker recently told me it was "a slow day" when 17 bodies were found. Typically, the figure is 40 or more. When the overflowing morgue at Yarmouk Hospital was bombed last month, one of our drivers wearily muttered, "How many times can they kill us?"

Even the toughest of my Iraqi colleagues hit their breaking points after experiencing the indignity of being forced from their homes, the trauma of a bomb outside a doorstep, the grief for a cousin killed by a mortar, the shame of staying silent while a neighbor's house was torched.

Update on Senator Tim Johnson

Not good, according to Bob Geiger. Two weeks is a long time to be on a ventilator.