I don’t know about hell (yet), but Albuquerque, and all of New Mexico, froze over (why “over”?) last night. And with it, the bird bath in this photo.
Notice the the peak of ice near the peak of the brick. It almost looks like the water bubbled up just as it froze. I can’t believe the proximity of these peaks is coincidental. Did the brick conduct cold deeper into the water? Did it merely provide a surface to climb? (Though the ice peak is not exactly next to the brick.)
If I were a science writer and didn’t know the answer, I’d know someone who does. mjh
Monthly Archives: November 2006
The End of All Debates
ABQjournal: Wilson Hangs On Despite Trends By Jeff Jones And Michael Coleman
Brian Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque’s Research & Polling Inc., points to Madrid’s debate mistakes— and more specifically the way Wilson took advantage of them— as the single most important factor.
“This is going to become a classic, textbook example of one defining moment affecting the outcome of an election,” Sanderoff said.
In future elections in New Mexico, when not a single candidate is willing to participate in debates, don’t blame Bill Richardson, blame Heather Rove Wilson. Why would anyone risk a gaff becoming the defining moment of the entire election? It turns out Richardson’s selfish, cowardly act was a wise move — you know what a snake like Dimdahl would have done with any odd gesture or miscue.
Long before Madrid’s brain freeze, the GOP (god’s Own Party) sent out fliers designed to frighten voters. The funniest one linked Madrid to Hillary Clinton’s massive plan to socialize medicine in America (the last step before turning everyone gay!). Once Madrid handed The Party of Fear her own open-mouthed head on a platter, the fear factor was “can we trust her?” As if she would have a finger on the button, 500th in succession. As if the innumerable blunders, verbal and otherwise, by inarticulate Duhbya haven’t lowered the bar to ground level.
In two years, remember Wilson’s presumptive arrogance in declaring herself the winner 10 days before the facts came close. Remember the slap in the face to everyone who did not vote for her (the vast majority of voters in the district). Remember the Party of Arrogance and Fear. mjh
In Which Adair Makes an Ass of Himself
Most of us have come to expect arrogance from Republican leaders, as well as some disconnect from reality. Rod Adair seldom disappoints on both counts. In his latest column for the Journal, Adair explains that everything good is and always has been Republican and everything shifty and immoral is and always has been Democrat.
Adair writes about “our ancient foes in the Democratic Party.” That’s a healthy attitude. Listen to this: “Our opposition [is] to Democrat ideas, whether slavery, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, poll taxes, Jim Crow laws and the like…” Yes, Rod Adair believes slavery is a Democrat idea and the KKK is a Democratic PAC. Which party supports unfettered private property rights and opposes an intrusive Federal government forcing change on those who would not have it?
Let’s be clear about one thing that Adair does not understand. The GOP is NOT the Party of Lincoln. They tell themselves that to comfort themselves, but in the early 1900’s, the Republican party became the party of the rich, the party of the landholder, the party of unchecked business, the party of the anti-progressive reactionary and the redoubt of angry white males — Adair being a case in point. Lincoln’s influence ended in the late 1960’s, when the Republicans began to appeal to white Southerners who resented Federal intrusion in their state’s rights. Since the 1960’s, the Party of Lincoln has not said, “You Dems are finally getting on board with desegregation and affirmative action.” Instead, they’ve said, “Those Dems are interfering with your time-honored ways.” Ways that include Jim Crow and lynching.
Adair claims, “We are the party that fought against slavery and won. Who opposed us every step of the way? The Democrats.” So Jefferson Davis was a Democrat? The last election shows the Republican Party has become the party of the South–perhaps Trent Lott’s return is another indication, scooping up all those former Democrats who despised Kennedy and King. So, while Adair wraps himself in the flag, he’d better make sure it isn’t confederate (like George Allen’s).
Adair writes, “We must admit that over the past 12 years, our congressional majorities and then our administration tried to out-Democrat the Democrats— pork-barrel spending run wild, copying Democrat ideas that legitimize illegal immigration, complete abandonment of fiscal discipline at all levels.” Everything wrong in the past 12 years is due to the GOP embracing the Democratic ideals. Yeah, right.
Finally, Adair beats the drum again against “the liberal media.” The very media that publishes him? The media that makes Lush Limbaugh an idol of countless ditto-heads? The media that burned Dixie Chick records? Fox News? Please, Rod. mjh
ABQjournal: Voters Hold Republicans to Higher Standard By State Sen. Rod Adair, Roswell Republican
mjh’s blog — Rod Knows Bigots
– – –
Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush – washingtonpost.com
Some insiders said the White House invited the backlash. “Anytime anyone holds themselves up as holy, they’re judged by a different standard,” said David Kuo, a former deputy director of the Bush White House’s faith-based initiatives who wrote “Tempting Faith,” a book that accused the White House of pandering to Christian conservatives. “And at the end of the day, this was a White House that held itself up as holy.”
The GOP Shall Rise Again!
Lott Rejoins Senate Leadership – washingtonpost.com
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 16, 2006; Page A04
Four years after racially impolitic remarks cost him the Senate’s top post, Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.) rejoined Congress’s leadership ranks yesterday when his Republican colleagues turned to the veteran insider and skilled vote-counter to help them plot their return to majority status. …
Lott’s feat ranks among the more impressive political comebacks of recent times, just as his fall from grace in December 2002 was spectacular and painful. At a 100th-birthday party for then-Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), Lott said the nation “wouldn’t have had all these problems” if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. Thurmond had run on a segregationist platform as a Dixiecrat that year, and critics denounced the remarks as racist.
Lott said he was simply flattering an old man. But Bush administration supporters and other Republicans helped engineer his ouster just as he was about to become Senate majority leader again after the 2002 midterm elections, replacing him with Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). …
Referring to Lott’s Thurmond comments, [Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a Lott supporter,] said that Americans believe in redemption. “It’s one of those things that happened fairly long ago,” he said, “and people have moved on.”[mjh: 2002!?]
Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was less forgiving. “For many African Americans the sting of Trent Lott’s hurtful words are unlikely to expire anytime soon,” he said in a written statement. “However, his Republican colleagues have given him a second chance to address many of the glaring disparities that impact poor people, particularly African Americans, that he and his party have ignored for so long.”
Rudd Beats Mrs. Wilson!
That Merri Rudd won re-election as Bernalillo County Probate Judge comes as no surprise. An honest and open counting assured her victory. That, and having no opponent. Enjoy her public service while you can — term limits will eject her in four years as no opponent could.
I note that 125,201 people voted for Merri Rudd. That’s 20,000 more votes than Secretary of State Mary Herrera received. That’s 18,000 more than voted to elect the new County Assessor, Karen Montoya. That’s 4,000 more than voted for
Bush campaign managerSheriff Darren Oso White.Moreover, Mer got 30,000 votes MORE than either Madrid or Wilson. Huzzah! mjh
Unofficial Election Results – Page 19 – Bernalillo County, New Mexico, USA
Author Review, Parts 1 and 2
Part 1
As I’ve mentioned, I’m writing–and re-writing–a book on Windows Vista, Microsoft’s next operating system. It has been an interesting challenge on many levels, not the least of which is that Vista was just released in its final form, three or four days after I completed round one of Author Review.
Said review involved re-reading my text which was riddled with questions and comments from editors designed to coax me to a higher-level. I believe they succeeded, if adding 100 pages in 3 weeks can be considered any measure of that. It was grueling, but only once did I despair, when I simply could not install a feature that had worked a month earlier.
During this round of author review, my grudging acceptance of editors became admiration. Merri had modified a church slogan by adding three words (itself an artful act of editing): god leaves you better than he found you–like an editor. She was right in her addition.
And so, almost a month after I prematurely announced “Mission Accomplished” for what was merely phase 1 (the rough draft), I finished phase 2, Author Review (AR), with a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Which brings us to …
AR Part 2
After a couple of days of rearranging the furniture, I was very close to formatting my hard drive, which is the virtual equivalent and a task I perform to rearrange my thoughts. Just before the worst possible moment, I heard from my next editor.
Wiley is probably not unusual in its layers of editorial staff. I was hired by one person but my day-to-day contact had been my Development Editor (DE). His editing, along with the contributions of the Technical Editor (TE–a role I have played several times), won my respect for editors.
But my most recent contact was from the Production Editor (PE). Suddenly, I felt like someone in a medical examination room, where professionals come and go, determining your fate without an introduction. My new PE was sending me the first five chapters recently returned by the Copy Editor (CE) and informed me this was the beginning of AR. AR? Shouldn’t there be unique terms of art for the AR before and the AR after–they are two distinct processes. Nonetheless, I’m not one to force such thoughts on strangers (assuming you are no longer a stranger). My approach to new systems, which is what I regard the Publishing Industry as, is to observe and learn its tricks and idiosyncrasies. That’s what I do.
So, I began reading my chapters for the umpteenth time. It was a pleasure to see all those colorful revision marks gone, save for a few comments or questions from the CE. Though her tone was a little more insistent and less collegial than the DE’s, there weren’t a lot of comments to respond to. Still, I felt the need to read every word I’d written.
And so, I noticed I could not find every word I’d written. Understand, I have written, oh, let’s say 250,000 words in the last 3 months. I’ve rewritten whole sections and I’ve read the questions and suggestions of at least three editors, so I don’t expect to remember all the words. It may be a measure of the paucity of standouts that I could actually notice any missing. But I did. Gone, without a single revision mark. Ouch. Whose book is this?
The first time I noticed this, I did what I would have done had the deletion been marked–I rejected it, which in this case means, I put my words back in my mouth and on the page. Still, I felt it warranted an inquiry to the PE, if not the CE, DE or TE.
So my new PE wrote back that the CE had a technical glitch which prevented some changes from being marked. She is very sorry that numerous chapters suffered this glitch. A crueler nerd would speak of IO errors–Incompetent Operator–but I am not cruel.
However, a technical glitch does not explain changing my use of the word “entwined” into “interrelated.” That’s the work of an automated thesaurus, not a person who respects a writer’s emotional attachment to words. That’s a condescending change that says “you chose the wrong word, here’s the right one.” That was my worst nightmare about the arbitrary power of an editor. That it was hidden by a “glitch” so that I might well not have seen this until it was in final print makes it worse; it doesn’t explain it away.
So, now, what was already clearly a pretty close reading on my part has become an ordeal in which I question every other sentence. In some cases, it is obvious that I would not write like that, good or bad. However, imagine wondering “what’s missing?” Which of my words have been stolen? mjh
PS: Like Sideshow Bob, I have to comment on the inevitable irony that this piece contains errors I still haven’t seen after re-reading it a dozen times. (I can imagine the argument that the final verb before my signature should be singular.) It’s my fate and I accept it wearily. We’re human: we see each other’s mistakes immediately. And everyone needs a good editor now and then.
A few thoughts post-election
Heather Wilson is still following the Republican playbook: appear confident when confidence isn’t warranted, declare victory when it is still in doubt and act outraged when anyone dares to disagree.
Read the insolence from a Wilson spokesperson:
“If there is an honest and open counting, Heather Wilson is going to be re-elected without any questions.”
That’s right, the outcome is certain and the data will fit the results. You will not question this! Notice the acid this throws on the process: if we don’t win, you cheated. Simple. Incendiary. Rovian.
Karl Rove’s still in power (and in the front row at the Bush’s press conference). Though Rove is the Architect of Victory in the same sense as Rumsfeld, Rove has not shared Rumsfeld’s fate.
As for Rummy, did you hear his parting assertion that Bush and his cadre are the few who really understand what’s going on in this, “the first war of the 21st century” (the assumptions of that phrase nauseate me). These guys never knew what is going on, just what they wanted to be going on. They are delusional.
CIA-ocracy
Can anyone tell me how many of the top people in Washington are former CIA directors? Seems like a disproportionate number, going all the way back to Duhbya’s daddy. Sure, CIA people are smart and well-informed. Never mind the secret prisons. mjh