mjh's blog

Flickr

I have posted just under 1,000 photos on Flickr over the past few years. According to Flickr’ stats, my photos have been viewed just under 35,000. If that seems like a lot, consider that isn’t 35,000 people, that’s 35,000 views (average = 35 views per photo). Odds are that no more than two dozen people have seen most or all of my photos. (And anyone who hasn’t seen them all never will at this point – can you imaging how long it would take.) I consider a good ‘audience’ around 50 people. One hundred views is a lot.

However, I have a few photos that have been seen by a much higher than average number of people. For the longest time, my most-seen photo was one I half-jokingly call Albuquerque Wetlands: lush greenery in the bottom of a concrete arroyo near the Big-I. I attribute most of those viewers to John Fleck, because he highlighted that photo.

Two photos have started moving up this year. A photo of a pasque flower started climbing this spring and surpassed Abq Wetlands handily. Then, even more surprising, a photo of a big brown spider jumped in the past month or two, each day gaining more than a dozen views. Spider has now eclipsed pasque flower and all others as my most seen photo. (For the record, I have far better photos of spiders and flowers.) I don’t know if someone has linked to each of these photos, but I can’t imagine people are searching every day for these images.

The New Republicans Will Fix Things The Old Republicans Couldn’t — yeah, right

It isn’t often that public outrage peaks so close to an election, but this is a rare moment in history when "we the people" can exact a price from the political leadership that has duped, scammed and lied to them, contributing mightily to the current financial mess. …

If the public wants real reform, it will penalize the people and the party that failed to provide it. Voters can do more than "throw the bums out." …

Amen, Cal Thomas. Let’s throw out the bastards who have dominated the political scene since 1980. Let’s get those bums who ran everything from 1980 to 1992, returned to power in 1994, and then, following a squeaker in 2004, declared a mighty mandate and a generation of GOP rule to come. Oh, but let’s see who Cal wants to replace the bums with:

They can throw these bums out and replace them with freshmen Republicans who will take office with a reformer’s zeal and rebuild the government’s financial house before the Potomac fever virus infects them. With John McCain and Sarah Palin already committed to reform (as opposed to Barack Obama’s nonspecific "change"), the combination of a new Republican administration and a Republican Congress that has been chastened by its defeat in the 2006 election and imbued with a new zeal to change the way Washington works, could produce a revolution that would have made our Founders proud. …

While Republicans could have done much more when they held a congressional majority under a Republican president, they now swear they have learned their lesson. With the public engaged as never before, even Republicans wouldn’t be able to get away with business as usual this time.

Let the revolution begin! Judgment Day should come on Nov. 4.

Cal Thomas

So, Cal’s argument is: (1) the Democrats are the bums and (2) Republicans will fix things before they are re-corrupted and (3) even if you don’t trust Republicans, they’ll be on good behavior if you watch them closely. Ignore 1994. Ignore every year from 2000 to 2006.

Today, I heard a McCain supporter opine that Democrats want to do everything themselves and it takes someone like McCain to work with both sides of the partisan divide. A divide continually enlarged by Republicans strategists, culture warriors and leaders. Well, in the face of the economic crisis, Dems are working with Republicans. We all know from experience, Republicans were not so generous in their heyday. Recall Tom “The Hammer” DeLay and his ilk. We’ve been throwing the bums out for 2 years and have one more big push. Good riddance. peace, mjh

“What do you think of the plan, John?”

Today, the Washington Post reveals more details about what happened during the White House meeting on Thursday between President Bush and top lawmakers. Despite indicating that his presence was pivotal in Washington for these bailout negotiations, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said almost nothing during the meeting with Bush:

Bush turned to McCain, who joked, “The longer I am around here, the more I respect seniority.” McCain then turned to Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to speak first.

Boehner was blunt. The plan Paulson laid out would not win the support of the vast majority of House Republicans. It had been improved on the edges, with an oversight board and caps on the compensation of participating executives. But it had to be changed at the core. He did not mention the insurance alternative, but Democrats did. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pressed Boehner hard, asking him if he really intended to scrap the deal and start again.

No, Boehner replied, he just wanted his members to have a voice. Obama then jumped in to turn the question on his rival: “What do you think of the [insurance] plan, John?” he asked repeatedly. McCain did not answer.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/27/mccain-silent-meeting/

He doesn’t understand.

McCain was repeatedly insulting to Obama in the debate. McCain said, "He doesn’t understand" at least four times. Asshole.

[updated 9/27/08]

In a CBS News poll, uncommitted voters see Barack as the debate winner. When it comes to the economy, 66% say Barack would make the right decisions versus 42% for McCain.
The CNN poll results are also clear:

Who did the best job tonight?
Barack: 51
McCain: 38

Who would better handle Iraq?
Barack: 52
McCain: 47

Who would better handle the economy?
Barack: 58
McCain: 37

Mission Accomplished

From Think Progress:

Over on the Wonk Room, Matt Duss recalls this line from Osama bin Laden’s surprise late-October 2004 videotaped address:

And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the Mujahedin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan with Allah’s permission… And it all shows that the real loser is… you. It’s the American people and their economy.

The CIA judged that Bin Laden’s videotaped message was an effort by al Qaeda to deliver four more years for President Bush, thus helping them recruit a new generation of terrorists.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/25/bin-laden-bleed/

Against McCain

Just read this scathing indictment of John McCain:

… while McCain’s campaign, characteristically substituting vehemence for coherence …

[T]he more one sees of [McCain’s] impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

My god, what flaming liberal said that about McCain?! Read on:

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that “McCain untethered” — disconnected from knowledge and principle — had made a “false and deeply unfair” attack on Cox that was “unpresidential” and demonstrated that McCain “doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does.” …

In any case, McCain’s smear — that Cox “betrayed the public’s trust” — is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are “corrupt” or “betray the public’s trust,” two categories that seem to be exhaustive — there are no other people.

Man, who is this unpatriotic socialist? Well, you’ll know him by his true colors, a stark black and white that denies even gray exists, let alone real color.

The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain’s party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale.

Oh, of course, that must be George Will explaining that McCain isn’t merely a disappointment to conservatives, but is actually himself a leftist socialist.

Not only is McSame the next Duhbya, but he’ll preserve Duhbya’s relationship to conservatives – he’s not conservative enough! Shudder. I thought Sarah Failin placated the Radical Wrong. peace, mjh

George F. Will – McCain Loses His Head – washingtonpost.com

Prejudice Comes in All Colors

GOP Leader Won’t Resign, By Jeff Jones
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal

By late morning, however, audio-taped C de Baca comments from a separate BBC radio interview began making the rounds in New Mexico.

       “I feel strongly that Hispanics will not support, in my generation and the generation around my age, are not going to support the Democratic candidate for president primarily because there is a strong feeling that African-Americans during the civil-rights movement took advantage, full advantage, of all the benefits and programs that the government offered, that were supposed to be offered to all minorities,” C de Baca said in the newly released interview with the British broadcasting giant.

       “But we were left behind, we were left sucking air, and we resented that ever since the ’60s, and I don’t see how a black president is going to change that,” C de Baca said in the interview recorded in Albuquerque last week in connection with a foreign journalist tour.

I’m outside any quarrel between Hispanics and African-Americans. I’m surprised, though, that a Hispanic would resent blacks “taking advantage” of benefits. C de Baca implies that blacks took more than their share and left Hispanics empty handed. An odd view for a conservative, who should resent anyone who takes advantage of government support – anyone other than countless corporations.

Time to recall this quote from just a few weeks ago:

Garcia, 71, lives in Doña Ana, just north of Las Cruces. She thinks Obama has come off as condescending and arrogant.

“I don’t know one single Hispanic over 50 who will cast a vote for Obama,” she said, conceding that “there have always been conflicts between blacks and browns.

New Mexico : Betting on the West : The Rocky Mountain News By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News

peace, mjh

Sheriff Darren White Stole My Picture…Then Tortured It!!! – Duke City Fix

Sheriff Darren White Stole My Picture…Then Tortured It!!! Posted by Johnny_Mango on September 23, 2008 at 9:35am

Sheriff Darren White Stole My Picture…Then Tortured It!!! – Duke City Fix

Double Standards

A friend of mine sent me the following. peace, mjh

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

(A) If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.”

(B) Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, [yours is] a quintessential American story.

(A) If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

(B) Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

(A) Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

(B) Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

(A) If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor,  spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of  13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.

(B) If your total resume is: local weather girl,  4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

(A) If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.

(B) If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

(A) If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

(B) If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you’re very responsible.

(A) If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.

(B) If you’re husband is nicknamed “First Dude”,  with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Satire is alive and well

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton open Saturday Night Live.

Think Progress » The Sarah Palin Digest

Palin Believes The Founding Fathers Wrote The Pledge Of Allegiance. In 2006, when asked by the Eagle Forum Alaska if she found the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance offensive, Palin replied, “Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me.” But the words “Under God” didn’t appear in the Pledge until 1954. The Pledge itself wasn’t written until 1892. [Huffington Post, 9/1/08; Slate, 6/28/02]

Palin Responded ‘Hang ‘Em Up’ When Asked About The Death Penalty. When asked about the death penalty in extreme cases, Palin replied, “My goodness, hang ‘em up, yeah.” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/18/06] …

Palin Left Wasilla $20 Million In Debt. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin cut taxes while simultaneously expanding the town’s operating budget by almost $2 million. She ended her term in 2002 with Wasilla $20 million in debt. [Anchorage Daily News 10/23/06; the Politico, 8/29]

Think Progress » The Sarah Palin Digest

The Reformer

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official “duty station” is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor’s daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show. …

She wrote some form of “Lodging — own residence” or “Lodging — Wasilla residence” more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 — Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin’s daughters’ expenses and $19,000 for her husband’s. …

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. …

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

“It was quite the little scandal,” said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. “I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam — you pay yourself to live at home,” he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could “count on one hand” the number of times his children accompanied him.

“And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state,” he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor’s office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin’s chief of staff.

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

Ignore the Feeble Old Man Behind the Curtain — Look at the Pretty Lady!

Good news, everybody. The GOP has discovered that some people are still sexist and they aren’t going to put up with it any longer. Never mind the fact that the Republicans regularly roll their eyes at Politically Correct speech and insist that everyone is so damn sensitive to harmless speech. No, now the Republicans are the feminist, if not the femi-nazis.

I assume McSame Failin’ will be speaking out in favor of equal pay and a woman’s right to control her own body. Yes? I assume Conservatives everywhere are asking forgiveness for the hateful things they said about Janet Reno and many other women. I assume McCain has called up that supporter who called Hillary a bitch and finally said, “Madam, I won’t stand for that,” instead of laughing along with the crowd.

Yup, with Republicans Against Sexism, it’s morning in AmeriCo again.

 Palin Drone

Palin Drone

Sexism and the GOP’s candidate for VP

By Jim Scarantino

On the basis of experience alone, one cannot answer yes to Obama as president and no to Palin as vice president without applying a sexist double standard.

Palin has her own remarkable life story to tell. Like Obama, she must overcome stereotypes and prejudice. She has only two short, intense months to get that done. [mjh: Poor Palin! Perhaps she should have gotten involved in the national scene a little sooner. Did the GOP learn nothing from the last nasty governor they anointed?]

Palin Drone

Obama has been running for over 18 months. There is no one in America who hasn’t heard something about him. (No one who should vote, at least.) Palin is an unknown to most of her own party. It just isn’t comparable, Jim.

We’ve seen this VP before

By Jerry Ortiz y Pino

We know Sarah Palin because we know Fox News and because we know Ann Coulter. She is a fresh face on the scene, but the ideas she espouses are certainly not fresh; they deviate not an iota from the Karl Rove memo-of-the-day repeated endlessly by the clones at Fox. And she delivers them with the venom and bilious smirk we know all-too-well from watching Coulter when we can’t escape. …

We know Palin because we knew Spiro Agnew. She has been assigned the Spiro Agnew role, the Spiro Agnew dialogue, the Spiro Agnew bludgeon. She is, despite her gender, Spiro Agnew the way Mary Martin was, despite her gender, Peter Pan.

Ach, Du Lieber Mann!

Another Democrat for McCain? Really? I wonder who these Democrats supported before Obama got the nomination. I can’t think of any Democrat other than Lieberman who is like McCain. What kind of Democrat switches from some hard-to-imagine Democratic candidate to McSame Failin’? A so-called Raygun Democrat? A so-called Southern Democrat?

Understand, it’s still mostly a free country — in spite of BushCo’s best efforts (finally, their incompetence shows a benefit). You’re welcome to support whomever. And you’re welcome to call yourself whatever. But, a Democrat for McCain? That’s like Caribou for Palin. peace, mjh