G.W. Bush - "It's Not My Fault"

10,777 mobile homes have been stored since last September in Hope, Ak. Costing FEMA (heckova job Brownie) $300,000 a year on land leased for two years. Pres. Bush can't understand why these homes aren't being used for Katrina victims. Well, Pres. Bush, it's called incompetent government. You know, the government that you are in charge of? E.J. Dionne has an excellent editorial on the problem (which is G.W. Bush).

Forget About the Rapture - Worry About Peak Oil

I've been aware of peak oil for a few years but I've prefered not to think about it much. Peak oil concerns depletion of oil resources. You can learn more about peak oil here. Many experts believe we have already reached peak oil production, there is no where to go but down from here on out. But if you really want to be scared read "George W. Bush and Peak Oil: Beyond Incompetence". Yeah yeah, I know past Presidents haven't done much for energy conservation either, but Georgie boy is an 'oil man' and should know better.

The article goes through these points one by one:

Peak Oil is foreseeable.

The consequences are also foreseeable and are likely to be ruinous.

The Bush administration has been repeatedly warned.

Actions could be taken to reduce the impact, but the longer those actions are delayed, the worse the impact will be.

The administration, rather than taking steps to mitigate these looming catastrophic impacts, has instead done things that can only worsen them.

Don't forget to visit dieoff.org (lots of nice graphs) and lifeaftertheoilcrash.net.

So the rapture better happen with a couple decades at the latest or there won't be anyone to 'rapture'.

Artificial Turf is Back on the Ballot

The $1.5 million dollar ballot proposition for the school budget is back. The proposition has been rewritten to identify the field to be covered with the plastic. It turns out to be Schroeder's field on Ampersand Av. The artificial turf effort was coordinated by local CPA Joe Fiorile of Saranac Lake.

Mr. Fiorile said “It seems to me our facilities are not up to par with even the smaller school districts in the region,” he said. “I understand money’s tight. I’m just saying if we have a nice football facility that can be used for other sports – lacrosse, soccer – I’m thinking of how it would benefit the kids and enhance the enjoyment of the community watching their kids play sports.”

I highly doubt football fans would want to move to Schroeder's field and we already have a pretty nice football facility. So it looks like this proposition was pushed by lacrosse or soccer parents. Lacrosse and soccer are played at different times of the year so both would have access to the artificial turf. School Board member Joan Schaefer points out that there is no parking or restroom facilities at Schroeder's field, but there is no parking at the football field either. And, it would be easy enough for people to park at the high school and walk the path through the woods to the field. You would need a strong bladder at Schroeder's field though. One big problem is that Schroeder's field is a very wet field and would need extensive improvements in drainage. If the proposition passes (doubtful), any amount the school spends over $1.5 million would not be eligible for the 54% State aid. Proponents of the artificial turf claim it is safer than natural turf. I have not been able to find much evidence that this is not true.

Rep. John Sweeney - Wife Gets a Cut of Campaign Donations

So now we have a pretty good idea why the Dept. of Justice was examining Rep John Sweeney's financial records. It seems Rep. Sweeney paid his wife a commission of 10% for campaign fundraising. This is the same thing Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) has been doing with his wife. Rep. Doolittle's wife also had Jack Abramoff as a client. Neither of the Representative wives had any fundraising experience prior to working for their husbands campaign. This 'commission' technique means that the Sweeneys personally benefit from every campaign donation.

From the Albany Times Union last year:

A relative newcomer to the practice of hiring relatives is U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, whose campaign paid $42,570 to Creative Consulting, a firm owned by his wife, Gayle Ford, between April 2003 and January 2004.

Sweeney's filings list payments to Creative Consulting for fund-raising consulting and commissions. Creative Consulting is Sweeney's 10th-largest campaign expense.

Read more here.

End of Times

Some cool 'Rapture' websites. 'Apocalypse soon' is one. Did you know that epidemics of malaria, TB, AIDS, measles and diarrhoeal diseases are signs of the end of times? Mad cow disease too!

Or, you can go here to 'Rapture Ready' and read the 'Rapture Ready news'. Of course 'Rapture Ready' would love to accept your donation although for the life of me I don't understand why they need money if the end of times is coming. Maybe they just want to party it up until the end. At the least the 'Rapture Index' is currently unchanged. But, the fact that 'Satanism is reported to be flourishing in Russia (Gog)' does have me a bit concerned.

Lastly, there is a really good chapter on 'Post-Rapture' survival. You see, there is still a chance for you to attain heaven in the 7 yr post-rapture period.

Stock up on food, medicines, living supplies, weaponry and gold. You will need enough for 7 years. Don't plan on being able to supplement your food with hunting and fishing because the stocks of wild animals and fish will have been depleted and destroyed by the 3 1/2 year worldwide drought and three successive meteor-like or comet-like objects that strike the earth sometime after the rapture. Since you have decided to reject Christ's offer to join in the rapture, your concern is how to maintain good health in the post rapture era. You must build a supply of multiple vitamins with particular emphasis on anti-oxidants such as C and E and minerals.

Rapture Alert is cool too. They have a great page on why tatoos aren't for christians.

If you received tattoos before conversion to Christ, then you have already been forgiven for that. On the other hand, if you have received tattoos after giving your life to Christ, you need to repent of this sin and not repeat it, under any circumstances, because it is considered abominable.

Our President - Liar, Idiot, Incompetent

Where to begin? It's always so hard because there are so many examples of Bush lying, acting like an idiot and being completely incompetent.

Todays press conference:

Question: Helen Thomas, finally being allowed to ask Bush a question after 4 years. "My question is, why did you really want to go to war?"

Answer: Pres. Bush. "I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen" "No President wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true."

Three years ago:

Minutes before the speech, an internal television monitor showed the president pumping his fist. "Feels good," he said.

- Knight Ridder News Service, March 20, 2003

Over 2300 US soldiers dead, and more to come

Over $300 billion spent, and more to come

Bush is unable to admit a mistake, unable to make a change, unable to hear opinions other than his own, and more of this to come

Forgot about this one showing he planned on going to war or this one.

Could We Have Prevented the 9/11 Attacks?

An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative was plotting to hijack an airplane, according to federal court testimony yesterday.

More here.

No one was listening.

John Sweeney - Bush Enabler

With congressional elections coming up in November, try to keep in mind that our congressman, John Sweeney (R-NY 20) does not believe in democracy. He is the guy responsible for the "Brooks Brothers Riot" that shut down the 2000 Presidential election vote recount in Miami. Mr. Sweeney must believe that every vote does not count.

On Nov. 22, 2000, after learning that the Miami canvassing board was starting an examination of 10,750 disputed ballots that had previously not been counted, Rep. John Sweeney, a New York Republican, called on Republican troops to “shut it down,” according to Down and Dirty. Brendan Quinn, executive director of the New York GOP, told about two dozen Republican operatives to storm the room on the 19th floor where the canvassing board was meeting, Tapper reported.

In fact, Republicans brag about what Sweeney did in Miami. Of course they put their own 'spin' on what happened.

The Irish American Republicans played the critical role as leaders of President Bush's 2000 Florida Recount Team. Our Board was entrusted with running the GOP floor effort during the crucial Miami Recount, and lead the misnamed "Brooks Brothers Riot" that ended the Gore campaign's efforts to count selected ballots in secret, away from the media.

You have to ask yourself if this is the kind of person we want representing the North Country in the US House of Representatives. People in the North Country are better than that.

Keep track of past and current Sweeney goings on here and here.

Iraq Timeline and Bush Incompetence

Today is the first day of Spring and the first day of the 4th year of war in Iraq. Here is a pretty detailed timeline of the last three years of war in Iraq. It will help refresh your memory about all the lies and foulups made by the Bush administration. Just a minor sampling below:

May 1, 2003 "Mission Accomplished"

May 29, 2003 We found the WMD

June 28, 2004 "Let Freedom Reign"

Aug 30, 2004 Our catastrophic success in Iraq

May 30, 2005 Insurgency in its last throes

Dec 15, 2005 Purple fingers

2318 dead
March 19, 2003-March 19, 2006

We have to suffer 3 more years of G.W. Bush as a completely incompetent President, but we can certainly get rid of the 'rubber stamp' Republican majority in congress that has allowed him the freedom to be so incompetent. We now know what a government looks like when it is run by people who hate government.

A Word About the Pike Company

It seems Pike CO. is causing Union problems in building the Malone WalMart big box. This is not surprising at all. Pike Co. is probably one of the largest groups of corporate liars in NYS.

Pike CO. was hired by the Saranac Lake School Board back in the late 1990's as construction managers to oversee and manage building and renovations at the high school, Petrova school, Lake Clear school and Bloomingdale school. Hire us, they said, and we guarantee that you will save money and get quality buildings.

Unfortunately, Pike CO. is directly responsible, in my opinion, for the problems with the new buildings that we are now seeing. To the tune of over 8 million dollars. It was their job to see that proper fill was used in the building foundations. I believe there is an ongoing lawsuit by the SL school district against Pike CO.

SL School Board Rejects Artificial Turf Proposition

A group of SL school district residents want artificial turf on one of the playing fields at a cost of $1.5 million dollars. The board basically said we couldn't afford it this year and refused to put up a proposition to public vote. The artificial turf supporters submitted a petition requesting a proposition be put up for a public vote. However, they did not follow the law closely enough. A school board may refuse to place a proposition on the ballot if the petition submitted to the board is ambiguous. The actual site that the artificial turf would be installed was not specified. This also made the proposition ineligible for State Aid.

Question. If a group of residents were savey enough to know they could submit a petition to get a proposition up for a public vote, how is it they didn't know about the 'ambiguity' clause? It's right there on page 84 of the School Law handbook (28th edition). There are only two sports groups with the will or means to request artificial turf. Football or Lacrosse. Moreover, the football field is probably the only field on which artificial turf could be installed without a lot of drainage work first. So who were the interested citizens?

Lastly, the School Board President didn't have enough time to further research the proposal. In other words, you need to see which way the wind is blowing before you have an opinion.

It's Official - We All Owe $30,000 Each

The National Debt limit has been raised to $9,000,000,000,000. Each one of us, every man, woman and child in the USA, now owe $30,000. Mostly to Japan and China.

To be more precise it's actually $8,965,000,000. And, the bill passed with a vote of 52-48 along party lines with the fiscally conservative Republicans voting against...oops, what to hell am I saying the Republicans are no longer fiscally conservative.

Wal-Mart Prank

I find this story a little hard to believe but it's somewhat amusing. Not because it's Wal-Mart per se, but because haven't we all dreamed about getting the kind of revenge described in this story.

Don't Swear in Canandaigua, NY

Don't Swear in Canandaigua, NY, at least not when Pres. Bush is in town. Read about it here.

One Word Descriptions of Bush

From latest Pew Poll.

Positive: Good; Christian; Honest 28%

Negative: Incompetent; Idiot; Liar 48%

I'm a Liberal - But I knew that already

Find out what your political typology is by taking a short test here.

Liberals represent 17 percent of the American public, and 19 percent of registered voters. Predominantly white, most highly educated group, least religious group, 59% Democrat; 40% Independent. Liberals are second only to Enterprisers in following news about government and public affairs most of the time (60%). Liberals’ use of the internet to get news is the highest among all groups (37%).

What's your typology? I'm guessing Brandon will be a 'disaffected', can't guess about Sara but there is a group called 'upbeat' so I'll go with that one.

Justice Dept. and Rep. John Sweeney

People are wondering why the US Justice Department has investigated the financial records of Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY 20). According to this article in the Post Star, Rep. Sweeney's records were examined on the same day as those pols involved with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Of course, Rep. Sweeney does not now, nor has he ever had any involvement with Jack Abramoff (along with most congressional Republicans). At least Mr. Sweeney was in good company because the records of Rep. Burns (R-MT), Tom Delay (R-TX), and Bob Ney (R-OH) were examined on the same day. If you don't know the history of those 3 guys you really are out of it.

Thanks to 20TrueBlue for bringing this to our attention because it sure isn't getting much national press.

Also see comments on this topic posted by The 10,000 Things.

Rich State, Poor State, Blue State, Red State

Reading E.J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post put me on to this paper. Rich State, Poor State, Blue State, Red State: What's the matter with Connecticut? by A. Gelman, B. Shor, J. Bafumi and D. Park, 2005, Dept. of Statistics and Department of Political Science, Columbia University. A link to a pdf of the paper is here.

The paper asks how Democrats do so well in wealthy regions of the country but still are not the party of the rich. The authors conclude that rich people in poor (Red) states are much more likely to vote Republican than poor people in those states. But in rich states (Blue), income has almost no correlation with vote preference.

E.J. Dionne concludes that "The divide in American politics is about more than the ideological distance between the two parties. Right now red-staters and blue-staters live in two different political universes."

The paper is somewhat technical and heavy on statistics, but at least look at Figure 12.

Precise SL Weather

I've added a link to Precise SL Weather for you out of town and overseas readers. It's based out of Petrova Elementary School in SL.

Heligmosomoides polygyrus

Thanks to sitemeter I can now see that alot of people arrive at this blog because they google "Heligmosomoides polygyrus". They probably want the cool picture that I posted, so I've posted it again. This is a picture of a male and female worm. The female is the larger worm and you can see the eggs inside her at the tail end. The male worm has the distinctive bursae at the tail end. This picture was taken for me by Dr. Jay R. Georgi DVM when I was working at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Georgi had this wonderful microscope that he loved more than anything. He was given money to purchase the microscope when a downed powerline killed one of his best sources of a parasite. I can't remember if the animal was a sheep or a pony. Here it is again and if you use it please remember Dr. Georgi, one of the best veterinary parasitologists ever.

NOTE: I should point out that this nematode was once named Nematospiroides dubius.