Olberman disects Rumsfeld

This has been posted everywhere, as well it should be.

Crown Point Bridge - Repair or Replace?

I know, I'm getting old, but I say repair. The replacement bridges being built on NYS highways are ugly. It wouldn't be replaced with another arch-truss bridge. I miss the arch-truss bridge that spanned 1st and 2nd ponds on the Tupper Lake Rd.

Canadian ad campaign mocks George W. Bush

How to defeat the terrorists

Kevin Drum nails it in my opinion:

But al-Qaeda won't be beaten by fighting a bunch of aimless proxy wars in the general vicinity of the Middle East. It will, eventually, be beaten when the non-terrorist population of the region decides to turn against al-Qaeda and its jihadist allies and deny them the support and shelter they need in order to function. Encouraging that to happen is the biggest foreign policy challenge of the 21st century, and because they've failed so miserably at it, it's the one thing the Bushies most want to avoid talking about.

An Iraq War Timeline

Here is an indispensible tool called "Lie by Lie" at MotherJones. Who said what when and whether it was accurate or not.

What a Surprise!

I was right. It's 'pork-boy', Sen. Ted Stevens that blocked the pork-buster database bill presented by senators Coburn and Obama. Mr. "Bridge-to-nowhere" himself.

But did he really do it? Well, he had a motive: As the paper and others have noted, Stevens and Coburn have clashed before -- in particular over Stevens' now-legendary "bridge to nowhere." Coburn attempted (and failed) to block the $233 million boondoggle. And revenge certainly fits the senior Alaskan's m.o. "Stevens can play rough," the Seattle Times noted in June. "Despite denials from his staff, he retaliates - and doesn't mind waiting years to do so."

Sen. Stevens admits he is the guy.

UPDATE: There is still one Senator who has not answered the question about the secret hold. This one a Democrat and would have been my second choice as the secret holder if Stevens hadn't admited to being the one. It's our old buddy Sen. Byrd of course.

They are still being killed

To date: 2637 US service persons dead
19323 wounded

And more every month. 60 so far this month.

And what is the plan to end this madness - - - Stay the course

More State Fair Pictures

Statue comes alive.

Get inside a bubble

A very small portion of the midway

Gary Puckett and the Union Gap

BJ Thomas
Ok, so you probably never heard of these guys from back in the 60's

10 days old

Government Transparency

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a website database that you could search, for free, to find out how the Federal government is spending our tax dollars. For example, you could type in "Halliburton" and instantly find out how much government money is going to Halliburton.

Well a bill proposing such a database has been introduced into the Senate by Senators Coburn and Obama. The bill will not be voted on however, because some Senator has placed a "secret hold" on the bill. TPM is trying to find out who the Senator is. So far 79 Senators have said "It's not me." More about secret holds here.

So one of these Senators;

Bond, Christopher S.- (R - MO)
Byrd, Robert C.- (D - WV)
Carper, Thomas R.- (D - DE)*
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)*
Crapo, Mike- (R - ID)
Gregg, Judd- (R - NH)
Hatch, Orrin G.- (R - UT)
Reid, Harry- (D - NV)*
Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D - WV)
Sarbanes, Paul S.- (D - MD)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)

doesn't want us to have a freely accessible database that tells us how the government spends our taxes. My guess is Ted Stevens.

Ratzinger and Intelligent Design

Ok all you Catholics out there....get ready to go all creationist if this is true. Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design. Maybe old Pope Benny will decide the Earth is the center of the universe next.

Think About These Comments

From Darksyde posted on Daily Kos:

I imagine in the not too distant future, Ph.D. dissertations and classes in political science will be devoted to analyzing how this crop of neocon miscreants lurched clumsily from one monstrous failure after another, and still held solidly onto a third of the electorate. Maybe the academics will figure it out. Part of me hopes someone will. For now, as one who has lived it, I find the phenomenon incomprehensible. When a co-worker defends Bush or Iraq or the handling of Katrina, I have to consciously try not to stare in open contempt, jaws agape, as a half dozen possible explanations for why they could be so sadly misled and yet so confident, wrestle with one another in the small part of my brain that insists on finding order in chaos.

Read more here.

And these comments from Paul Krugman (via Crooks and Liars):

Apologists for the administration will doubtless claim that blame for the lack of progress rests not with Mr. Bush, but with the inherent inefficiency of government bureaucracies. That’s the great thing about being an antigovernment conservative: even when you fail at the task of governing, you can claim vindication for your ideology. But bureaucracies don’t have to be this inefficient. The failure to get moving on reconstruction reflects lack of leadership at the top.

Mr. Bush could have moved quickly to turn his promises of reconstruction into reality. But he didn’t. As months dragged by with little sign of White House action, all urgency about developing a plan for reconstruction ebbed away.

Mr. Bush could have appointed someone visible and energetic to oversee the Gulf Coast’s recovery, someone who could act as an advocate for families and local governments in need of help. But he didn’t. How many people can even name the supposed reconstruction "czar"?


Mr. Bush could have tried to fix FEMA, the agency whose effectiveness he destroyed through cronyism and privatization. But he didn’t. FEMA remains a demoralized organization, unable to replenish its ranks: it currently has fewer than 84 percent of its authorized personnel.

Maybe the aid promised to the gulf region will actually arrive some day. But by then it will probably be too late. Many former residents and small-business owners, tired of waiting for help that never comes, will have permanently relocated elsewhere; those businesses that stayed open, or reopened after the storm, will have gone under for lack of customers. In America as in Iraq, reconstruction delayed is reconstruction denied — and Mr. Bush has, once again, broken a promise.

Birds of Prey at the State Fair

Wise old Horned Owl. Very big bird.



This Golden Eagle only had one eye. He is still an awesome bird.

moveon ads

Remember, this is the guy represents those of us that live in North Elba.

Sorry No Post Today

I was in surgery all afternoon. Twenty patients and unfortunately, none of them survived. Going to the NY State Fair this weekend. Maybe something interesting will happen.

Health Care Crisis

Iraq War Vets Duke it Out

Paul Hackett is awesome. Watch him make mincemeat out of Vin Taylor who is running for congress in Texas. Whether you are for or against the Iraq War, Hackett makes a lot of sense.

Bush's Notes Analyzed

Bob Harris at Huffington Post used photoshop to get a look at GW's press conference notes. It's well worth reading his comments.

Bush apparently has a seating chart that includes which reporters he supposed to call on (middle sheet in the photo). Two of the reporters were CBS Radio Mark Knoller and NBC Kelly O'Donnell, both were called on.

Cost of Iraq War

Most people know the Iraq War is expensive. Tens of billions of dollars a year. I've read 8 billion dollars a month. Sounds about right. So that is:

$2 billion a week
$267 million a day
$11 million an hour

This of course doesn't include the human and societal costs. The big question of course is whether spending all that money is making us safer today. Being a big bleeding heart liberal, I would argue NO. I wonder what else we could be doing with that kind of money.

The UK Guardian has an article which claims the winner of the "War on Terror" is Iran.

The study said Iran had been swift to fill the political vacuum created by the removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The Islamic republic now has a level of influence in the region that could not be ignored.

In particular, Iran has now superseded the US as the most influential power in Iraq, regarding its former adversary as its "own backyard". It is also a "prominent presence" in its other war-torn neighbour, Afghanistan, according to Chatham House's analysts.

The report said: "There is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East.

Ellenburg, NY Strikes It Rich

A deal has been struck with Noble Environmental Power. Noble gets to build 54 clean energy producing wind turbines and Ellenburg gets:

$243,000 annually for 15 yrs for agreeing to be a host community for wind turbines.
$54,000 one time bonus for allowing special projects.

And Ellenburg gets to split with Clinton County, the Town of Ellenburg and the Northern Adirondack Central School;

$486,000 annually for the next 15 years. 54% to the school!

"The benefit to the town, when you add it all up, is about $462,240 every year," he said.

"We intend on taking some of that money and putting it toward taxes. The Town of Ellenburg will see a drastic reduction in their taxes."

More here.

Saranac Lake Community Store

A group of hard working volunteers have been working on the formation of a Community-owned retail store for Saranac Lake. They have a website called www.community-store.org.

The community store concept is an idea that is slowly catching on in some small communities in the country. The Powell, WY Mercantile is often the store that community store groups want to use as a model. From the Casper Tribune:

The people running the Powell Mercantile didn't expect their downtown clothing store to become a tourist destination, but people come to The Merc by the busload.

Smaller contingents pull up in cars from Torrington, Riverton, Newcastle, Rawlins and Ely, Nev. But these particular tourists come not with cameras, but with questions about community ownership.

Or this:

"We've made money since day one," Witzeling said.

The cool thing about community stores is that they are owned and operated by community members. But it is not a co-op, it's about as capitalistic a company as they come. FAQ about community stores can be found HERE. The volunteers behind the Saranac Lake Community Store deserve 100% community support for one reason. As their website points out, their mission is to bring reasonably priced goods to Saranac Lake. How can anyone be opposed to that?