Times Square At The Millenium
Apparition Of A Carnival
Vertigo On The Shield
Left: "The Shield" - a giant fin made of granite (as seen from the side).Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama both left President Bush's financial bailout meeting at the White House after 5 p.m. Thursday with no apparent deal worked out.
Obama, appearing on CNN's "The Situation Room" after the meeting, said there "has to be a sense of urgency on the part of everybody. ... We've got to move rapidly."
Obama said that there will be a deal eventually but that there is still work to do, including reaching a consensus among Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and House Republicans.
McCain told ABC News on Thursday night that Republicans "have legit concerns. Some of those have already been satisfied, such as accountability and oversight board and CEO executive pay. Members are aware of the crisis situation that we are in."
Obama, who will spend Thursday night in Washington, once again railed against infusing presidential politics into the negotiations over the $700 billion economic bailout. McCain's campaign said he will also stay in the Washington area for the night.
But whatever McCain's underlying motivations, both campaigns are now locked in a bizarre game of chicken. If McCain actually boycotts the Oxford debate, Obama may score a public-relations coup while his Republican rival looks weak and evasive. Or the Democratic nominee may appear too political while McCain puts on his mantle as statesman. Republican strategist Rich Galen, who advised Fred Thompson in the primaries, said, "It's a brilliant stroke by McCain. You will have an empty chair debate in Oxford without McCain. And an empty chair at the White House economic negotiations without Obama." Of course, George W. Bush, an early-to-bed president, is unlikely to be meeting anything but his pillow at the White House during debate time Friday night.Obama should show up and debate an empty chair. Neither candidate has much role with arranging the big bailout, and both should show up to debate.
Occasionally in these moments, in a perverse kind of private entertainment, I've found myself imagining what would happen if I pawned off on someone just the ballsiest, most inane excuse for flaking on some commitment. And not something that people might buy -- nothing entertaining about that -- but just something completely off the wall and nonsensical. What would people's reaction be? Speechless, laughter, tearing me limb from limb? Would they ever speak to me again?
So, let's see, I can't moderate the panel because I've been called to Washington to give a special briefing on guerilla tactics to be used against the Taliban?
Or maybe, I want to be at the meeting, but as weird as this sounds, all the bridges and tunnels out of Manhattan have been shut for the day. Some counter-terrorism thing probably. I tried renting a helicopter but they're all booked by people at the UN.
Isn't this pretty much what John McCain tried to pull today? But actually really did it? And on a national stage? He wants to cancel the debate? And maybe also Palin's debate. Are you kidding? Why not cancel the election too? And because he has to go back to DC to solve the financial crisis? Really? The topic he knows nothing about and after he's shown up less in the senate in the last two years than anyone but Tim Johnson, the guy who had the stroke? Which of my employees is going to call from home tomorrow and say they can't come to work because of the financial crisis?
One of the advantages of running a presidential campaign is that roughly half the country is deeply committed to believing or at least saying that virtually anything you do or say makes sense. And so it is here. But, look, if you were living in the real world, if you were some hotshot young executive at a Fortune 500 company trying to rise in the ranks, and you pulled some whacked crap like this, it would probably get you blackballed permanently. People would think you were either deeply unreliable or maybe just had a screw loose. And yet here he is -- is he kidding? He can't debate Barack Obama because he's got to go to Washington and save the economy? It's like the biggest 'dog ate my homework' in history.
Fernando C' de Baca, who heads the GOP in Bernalillo County, was quoted by BBC reporter Jon Kelly on Friday as saying that even though the polls show Barack Obama with a substantial lead over John McCain among Hispanic voters, "The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors. African-Americans came here as slaves. ... Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."C. de Baca errs by speaking on behalf of all New Mexico Hispanics with what is, at best, a minority attitude - a very minority attitude.
A recent spate of gang activity in Woodland drew a packed house of concerned parents at the Woodland High School auditorium tonight. Local law enforcement representatives were on hand to answer questions from the 200 people who attended a forum on gang violence sponsored by the Woodland Joint Unified School District. Some of the responses drew gasps from the crowd, such as when Woodland Police Department Sgt. Tom Davis, supervisor of the department's gang unit, estimated there were about 670 validated gang members in the city of roughly 56,000 population. Davis added that there were "several hundred others we haven't made contact with." A brutal attack on a 13-year-old boy Tuesday was the result of simmering tensions between street gangs in the city of roughly 56,000 people, police said. Three assailants attacked the boy Tuesday around 7:30 p.m. while he was walking near the corner of Lemen Avenue and Donnelly Circle, according to the Woodland Police Department. The boy was beaten with a bat and stabbed in the upper torso, police said. He was being treatment at UC Davis Medical Center, said Lt. Charlie Wilts, Woodland Police Department spokesman.
"Plaguers" Premieres!Director Brad Sykes dropped us a line this week with the good news that his latest film, the Steve Railsback-starrer Plaguers, was a rousing success during its premiere at Spain’s recent Estepona Fantasy & Horror Film Festival, taking home a Silver Unicorn Award for Best Screenplay.
Very cool news indeed! So when will those of us in the U.S. get to see it? ”Plaguers has been selected as the Opening Night film for Shockerfest in Modesto, CA,” Sykes told us. ”It will screen at midnight on Oct. 3, 2008. This will be the film’s North American premiere, and I’ll be in attendance along with producer Josephina Syke. Start Halloween early this year and be the first to catch Plaguers on the West Coast!”
North Valley Cuisine
Left: Tuesday night at Sadies.
Left: The quintessential New Mexico eating establishment, Blakes' Lotaburger (where my Dad eats nearly every day, and where I would too, if I was still in New Mexico).
A Visit To The Supermarket
Left: Halloween tombstones and Halloween candy. The subliminal message: Eat candy; you die.
Left: The automated checkout station.
Eight to 10 members of an Arizona State University fraternity are believed to have caused a car accident by vomiting milk onto traffic below an ASU footbridge on University Drive Tuesday night.
The prank caused a woman to rear-end another vehicle at about 6 p.m. after that vehicle stopped to avoid the vomit, according to Sgt. Scott Smith a spokesman for the Tempe Police Department.
The woman and her young daughter suffered minor injuries. The woman was cited for the accident, according to Smith.
It is unknown why the men were drinking and vomiting the milk.
The name of the fraternity could not be confirmed but it is being placed on secession, which prohibits them from participating in Greek and university activities, according to Matt Hunt a coordinator with fraternity and sorority life at ASU.
But Cox was refreshingly forthright.It's also important to note that legislation has expressly excluded CDS from regulation even of the most modest kind, such as disclosure, and the lack of disclosure, the lack of transparency, around this market is one of the reasons that we as a law enforcement agency, but also market participants, are very, very concerned about this.Italics mine.
If I'm not mistaken, the legislation Cox is referring to is the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, a bill that former Senator Phil Gramm was instrumental in passing.
Maybe Cox is still smarting at the attack launched against him last week by Gramm's disciple in all affairs economic, John McCain. McCain said Cox hasn't been doing his job. Well here, Cox appears to be saying that one of the reasons the SEC hasn't been able to do its job is because it was handcuffed by legislation that McCain's economic advisor, Phil Gramm is responsible for enacting. Touche!
ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports: If Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain doesn't vote for the Bush administration's $700 billion economic bailout plan, some Republican and Democratic congressional leaders tell ABC News the plan won't pass.
"If McCain doesn't come out for this, it's over," a Top House Republican tells ABC News.
A Democratic leadership source says that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has been told that Democratic votes will not be there if McCain votes no -- that there is no deal if McCain doesn't go along.
McCain, taking questions from the traveling media today for the first time in 40 days, said he doesn't yet know how he will vote on the bailout.
But when he was asked by ABC News' Ron Claiborne what he would do if the fate of the bill was in his hands, he said Senate Democrats should not use his vote as the determining factor on the success of the bill.
"This issue should be - and their vote should be determined in how we can resolve this crisis and get America going again," McCain said. "This is a huge crisis. We know, in the words of many experts and mine, this is the greatest financial crisis since World War II. So to somehow, for the Democrats to say that their vote is going to be gauged on my vote frankly doesn't do them a great deal of credit.
"Their first and only priority should be making sure this economy recovers and get back on our feet again," McCain said.
The vice president traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to silence a chorus of GOP complaints about Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion plan. But House Republicans who walked into a closed-door meeting with Cheney steaming over the plan walked out just as angry, and they described what happened in between as both “a bloodbath” and “an unmitigated disaster.”
Texas Rep. Joe Barton took the unusual step of telling reporters gathered outside the Cannon Caucus Room that he had confronted Cheney “respectfully” about his concerns — a level of dissent Republicans once considered heresy under the Bush administration.
...Cheney’s inability to turn around members of his own party said plenty about how congressional Republicans view the Bush White House these days — but maybe even more about their discomfort with a bailout plan many of them see as an attack on their free market principles.
“It’s a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this administration,” South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint said in a comment posted on Politico’s Arena forum.
“There is tremendous unease over the federal government assuming the assets that these financial institutions cannot price or manage,” said Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the ranking Republican on the committee drafting the legislation.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday whether Republicans were willing to take responsibility for killing the Paulson plan — but neither were they eager to take responsibility for passing it, either.
Republican leaders are now hoping Democrats load the legislation with unrelated measures that would give them the political cover to oppose it, members and aides said. At the same time, party leaders are using back channels in the business community to gauge member support for a “clean” bill.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned his former colleagues that they would pay a price in November for backing the bailout now — and that John McCain could ride to victory over Barack Obama by persuading voters that the bailout is really the “Obama-Bush plan.” While McCain seemed to move in the other direction Tuesday, Gingrich called the Paulson plan “stupid,” “a really bad idea” and “the kind of corrupt scheme that could have been designed by [Russian Prime Minister] Vladimir Putin.”
Despite the anxieties — and outright anger — expressed during the Republicans’ nearly two-hour exchange with Cheney and the other White House officials, lawmakers remained respectful enough to give the vice president two standing ovations.
Still, a lawmaker present said that Cheney and his team “were the wrong guys” to send to the Hill: “The problem is that they’ve used up a lot of goodwill.”
...Cheney and the others made policy arguments for the proposal instead of political arguments that would help lawmakers explain a vote for the plan to constituents. The meeting was almost an hour old when the vice president told the anxious Republicans, in response to a question, that failure to pass this would result in more foreclosures and cause grave hardship for their constituents.
“No one sold it,” one member present said. “Nobody has figured out how to sell it when you’re knocking on voters’ doors.”
Left: Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University, Tempe.
Left: Highway 101 separating Mesa and Tempe, and its intersection with the Superstition Freeway (looking south).
Left: Falcon Field. I once blogged about this airfield, where the Commemorative (formerly Confederate) Air Force is headquartered, among the citrus orchards of the East Valley, near Gilbert, AZ, and where WWII bombers are on display.
Left: In the suburbs of Phoenix, swimming pools glitter like jewels in the morning sun!
Left: The Superstition Mountains, near Apache Junction. On the ground, these mountains present a formidable wall. From up here, the mountains look - cute!
Left: Highway 88 bridge and Theodore Roosevelt Dam, on the Salt River.
Left: Theodore Roosevelt Lake, featuring the island landmark known as Windy Hill.
Left: Meadows along the Mogollon Rim. I believe the small, elongated lake that is visible may be Carnero Lake, southwest of Eager, Arizona.
Left: Springerville, Arizona.
Left: It almost looks like a natural dam site, and a prehistoric lake bed! (With the lighting and all, it may be deceptive, however.)
Left: This amazing linear feature seems to be a volcanic dike at the south end of the North Plains. It shows up on Google Earth too! It's SO straight!
Left: Blue Water Creek Canyon, on the boundary of the Laguna Indian Reservation, SSE of Acoma Pueblo.
Left: Peculiar badlands (volcanic in nature?) southwest of Highway 6, west of Belen.
The southern Rio Puerco River Valley, featuring the Ladron Mtns. in the distance.
The Interstate 40 bridge over the Rio Grande River. I spent much time along this river and along these bluffs in high school!
Left: The intersection of Interstate 40 (lower left to upper right) with Coors Blvd. The little green oval in the upper quadrant is located at West Mesa High School, where I graduated in 1974!
Left: "The Big I": the intersection of Interstate 25 (left to right) with Interstate 40 (upper left to lower right).
Left: Downtown Albuquerque, with the Rio Grande River in the distance.
Left: Bank of the West Tower at San Mateo Blvd. & Central Avenue - for many years, the tallest building in New Mexico (but since superseded). The smaller building is located at Copper Blvd. & San Mateo Blvd.
"Fiddler On The Roof" (Or The Travails Of Tevye's Daughters) - Weekend Two
Left: Tzeitel (Amanda Yount) and Motel The Tailor (Brennan Ballard).
Left: Tevye (Jeff Nauer) and Perchik (Giorgio Selvaggio).
Christopher Buckley (son of William) was a guest on "Forum" on KQED the other day. He predicted that Obama would win handily, mainly based on the current financial debacle.
"This morning Senator McCain gave a speech in which his big solution to this worldwide economic crisis was to blame me for it," Obama said.
"This is a guy who's spent nearly three decades in Washington, and after spending the entire campaign saying I haven't been in Washington long enough, he apparently now is willing to assign me responsibility for all of Washington's failures.
"Now, I think it's a pretty clear that Senator McCain is a little panicked right now. At this point he seems to be willing to say anything or do anything or change any position or violate any principle to try and win this election, and I've got to say it's kind of sad to see. That's not the politics we need.
"It's also been disappointing to see my opponent's reaction to this economic crisis. His first reaction on Monday was to stand up and repeat the line he's said over and over again throughout this campaign -- 'the fundamentals of the economy are strong' -- the comment was so out of touch that even George Bush's White House couldn't agree with it."
Aaarrgghh Maties!
Technology Helps Disseminate The Bad News
Left: The same neighbors' house is clearly visible at the upper left. My coworker's friend's brother house appears to have moved 80 feet, or so, off its foundation (indicated by arrow).Here's the bullshit thing of it all. [My friend's brother] was fully covered with fire, hurricane and flood insurance. His insurance company is now claiming that it was the "STORM SURGE" that was responsible for the damages and a surge is not covered by flood insurance.
ESPANOLA, N.M. (AP) - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised new ideas Thursday to calm America's financial meltdown and help struggling families avoid mortgage foreclosure, saying "this is not a time for fear and it's not a time for panic."
Obama heaped criticism and sarcasm on John McCain, his Republican rival, and mocked his call to fire the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"I think that's all fine and good but here's what I think," Obama said. "In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don't just get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration. Get rid of this philosophy. Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who's going to fight for you."
He said McCain was so out of touch that the White House had to distance itself from his statement Monday that the fundamentals of the economy were sound. President Bush has used that same language but his press secretary would not repeat the line Wednesday in the face of historic financial turbulence.
Marine scientists have discovered hundreds of new animal species on reefs in Australian waters, including brilliant soft corals and tiny crustaceans, according to findings released Thursday.
The creatures were found during expeditions run by the Australian chapter of CReefs, a global census of coral reefs that is one of several projects of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to catalog all life in the oceans.
"People have been working at these places for a long time and still there are literally hundreds and hundreds of new species that no one has ever collected or described," said Julian Caley, a scientist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science who is helping to lead the research.
"So in that sense, it's very significant in that if we don't understand what biodiversity is out there, we don't have much of a chance of protecting it," he said.
Scientists at several Australian museums have begun the complex process of working with the samples for genetic barcoding and taxonomy, the formal system of naming living things. That work is expected to take years, Caley said.
Among the creatures researchers found were about 130 soft corals — also known as octocorals, for the eight tentacles that fringe each polyp — that have never been described in scientific literature, and scores of similarly undescribed crustaceans, including tiny shrimp-like animals with claws longer than their bodies.
Technology is here to help. Software programs that analyse a person's speech, voice or facial expressions are building upon the work of researchers like Ekman to help us discover when the truth is being stretched, and even by how much. "The important thing to recognise is that politicians aren't typically good at out-and-out lies, but they are very adept at dancing around the truth," says David Skillicorn, a mathematics and computer science researcher at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. "The 2008 election has so far given us plenty of chances to see them in action."
Skillicorn has been watching out for verbal "spin". He has developed an algorithm that evaluates word usage within the text of a conversation or speech to determine when a person "presents themselves or their content in a way that does not necessarily reflect what they know to be true".
The algorithm counts usage of first person nouns - "I" tends to indicate less spin than "we", for example. It also searches out phrases that offer qualifications or clarifications of more general statements, since speeches that contain few such amendments tend to be high on spin. Finally, increased rates of action verbs such as "go" and "going", and negatively charged words, such as "hate" and "enemy", also indicate greater levels of spin. Skillicorn had his software tackle a database of 150 speeches from politicians involved in the 2008 US election race (see diagram).
...Additionally, he says, little details count: pronouns such as "we" and "I" are often substituted subconsciously, no matter what is written in the script.
Each of the candidates had made speeches containing very high and very low levels of spin, according to Skillicorn's program, depending on the occasion. In general though, Obama's speeches contain considerably higher spin than either McCain or Clinton. For example, for their speeches accepting their party's nomination for president, Obama's speech scored a spin value of 6.7 - where 0 is the average level of spin within all the political speeches analysed, and positive values represent higher spin. In contrast, McCain's speech scored -7.58, while Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention scored 0.15. Skillicorn also found that Sarah Palin's speeches contain slightly more spin than average.
..."When you see these crises come along, the spin goes up," Skillicorn says. "Obama is very good at using stirring rhetoric to deal with the issues. And it seems to work if you look at what happens in the polls afterwards."
McCain does not seem as adept at using spin to his advantage, and his "straight talk" can make his speeches fall flat from a motivational point of view, according to Branka Zei Pollermann, founder of the Vox Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, who has analysed the candidates' voices for communication consultants Clearwater Advisors, based in London.
"The voice analysis profile for McCain looks very much like someone who is clinically depressed," says Pollermann, a psychologist who uses voice analysis software in her work with patients. Previous research on mirror neurons has shown that listening to depressed voices can make others feel depressed themselves, she says.
Pollermann uses auditory analysis software to map seven parameters of a person's speech, including pitch modulation, volume and fluency, to create a voice profile. She then compares that profile with the speaker's facial expressions, using as a guide a set of facial expressions mapped out by Ekman, called the Facial Action Coding System, to develop an overall picture of how they express themselves.
Her analysis shows that McCain's voice changes little in pitch as he speaks, and so conveys very little emotion or impact. Whether he is addressing positive prospects or discussing sad facts, his voice always sounds the same.
Additionally, McCain's voice and facial movements often do not match up, says Pollermann, and he often smiles in a manner that commonly conveys sarcasm when addressing controversial statements. "That might lead to what I would call a lack of credibility."
People are unlikely to trust statements made in a flat tone, particularly when they do not match the person's facial expressions. According to Pollermann's analysis, it may not make any difference that McCain does not pepper his speeches with spin, if the way he talks does not strike people as believable.
Narcissism WatchRepublican presidential nominee John McCain suggested this week that he would continue President Bush's policy of having cool relations with the government of Spain, despite having made starkly contrasting statements to the Spanish press earlier this year saying he looked forward to normalized relations with the NATO ally.
In comments that have caused a kerfuffle in Spain, McCain seemed to lump Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero in the same category as the anti-American leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. McCain's remarks came during in an English-language interview with Radio Caracol WSUA 1260AM in Miami, part of the Spanish-language radio group Union Radio, conducted Tuesday.
President Bush has never forgiven Zapatero for pulling troops out of Iraq shortly after his victory in 2004. Though the Spanish prime minister has tried repeatedly to rebuild relations and win an invitation to visit Washington, Bush has yet to hold a formal bilateral meeting with him.
Zapatero is a center-left politician, but McCain has suggested that as president he would seek to repair relations that have been badly frayed in Europe during Bush's tenure. In an early-April interview with a reporter from Spanish newspaper El Pais, McCain said, "This is the moment to leave behind discrepancies with Spain."
He added: "I would like for [President Zapatero] to visit the United States. I am very interested not only in normalizing relations with Spain but in obtaining good and productive relations with the goal of addressing many issues and challenges that we have to confront together."
The reporter for the Miami radio station seemed surprised that McCain, after discussing anti-American antagonists in Latin South America, acted so coolly to the idea of meeting with Zapatero.
"I would be willing to meet with those leaders who are friends and want to work with us in a cooperative fashion," McCain said, throwing in words of praise for the Mexican government.
The reporter asked a second time: "Would that invitation be extended to the Zapatero government?"
McCain repeated his talking point: "I can assure you I will establish closer relations with our friends and I will stand up to those who want to do harm to the United States of America."
The reporter pressed again, and McCain replied: "I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere that are friends with us and standing up to those who are not."
At this point, the reporter sought to clarify that McCain was not mixing up South America with Europe.
"I'm talking about the president of Spain," she noted.
Given this fourth opportunity to extend an olive branch, McCain stuck to his guns: "I'm willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for human rights, democracy and freedom and I will stand up to those who are not."
That McCain would lump Zapatero in with such Latin American bad guys as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez comes as a surprise, because Zapatero and Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, were the protagonists in one of the most public anti-Chavez moments in the Spanish-speaking world.
This isn't funny. It's actually quite serious. We may have the first evidence, on tape, that McCain's age, or illness, or both are catching up with him and he's losing his mental faculties.
I just listened to an interview John McCain did with a Spanish journalist recently. The interview is in English, but there's a Spanish translator translating the tape into Spanish at the same time. So the English part is difficult to hear. I am however fluent in Spanish, and what Josh reports is exactly what the Spanish version shows.
Namely, that John McCain didn't appear to know that Spain was in Europe, or that the leader of Spain was named Zapatero, even after he was told that Zapatero was the leader of Spain.
When asked about Spain and Zapatero, by a Spanish reporter for a Spanish newspaper, McCain responded about Mexico and Latin America. A reader suggested something that Josh had already considered, that perhaps McCain thought the reporter was talking about the Zapatistas in Mexico, the guerilla group. But that's not possible as the reporter clearly said she was talking about Spain and Spain's leader, Zapatero. She told McCain this twice. Let me tell you exactly what she asked McCain (per the translation):"Senator, finally, let's talk about Spain. If you're elected president, would you invite President Zapatero to meet with you in the White House?"McCain then gives this odd answer about America's friends and America's enemies. He also, oddly, talks about Mexico (why Mexico? The question was about Spain) and how he'd invite friendly leaders to the White House. She then asks him again, would that invitation include President Zapatero? He says again that he'd have to review relations first, blah blah. She then says again, "so you'd have to wait to see, so would you meet with him in the White House?" He again repeats his weird statement about friends and enemies. McCain also throws in, oddly, to the Spanish reporter, when she's asking him about meeting the Spanish president, a line about the importance of our relationship with Latin America (this is now the second time he answered a question about meeting the president of Spain with an answer about Latin America). She then says to McCain one last time:"Okay, but I'm talking about Europe - the president of Spain, would you meet with him?"This time, there was no room for confusion. McCain then gives this very bizarre answer:"I will meet with any leader who has the same principles and philosophy as us in terms of human rights, democracy, and freedom and I will stand up to those who do not."
Not A House Divided Against ItselfA HOUSE that has been built entirely upside-down has backfired with tourists in Germany, with many visitors complaining of feeling sick when inside.
The family-sized house, built on the northern German island of Usedom, is furnished with chairs, tables and carpets stuck to the ceiling.
Designed by Polish partners Klausdiusz Golos and Sebastian Mikiciuk, the building is part of the Edutainment exhibition and is supposed to attract tourists to the region.
But upon entering the construction, visitors have reported feeling dizzy and disorientated.
You really can't experience the full effect of Monday's news conference featuring Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton unless you hear it for yourself. Stapleton passionately attacked former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan. Her rhetoric was plain, desperate, and obvious. Her tone, pure shrill.
With intensity, urgency, and alarm in her voice, Stapleton described Monegan's behavior as commissioner as egregious insubordination, full of obstructionist conduct and a brazen refusal to follow instructions.
Did Walt Monegan, former Marine, and lifetime crime fighter deserve this? Of course not.
But history has proven, get in the way of Sarah Barracuda's political ambition, and you won't know what hit you.
If anyone should be on the hot seat, it's not Monegan, but Palin for her inconsistencies.
The governor has given so many different reasons for firing Monegan I've lost count. From the "we need new direction" and "new energy" to "he wasn't hiring enough cops," to "he wasn't doing enough about alcohol in the bush" to "he lobbied for budget increases" to the latest version, which is a doozy; Monegan displayed "egregious rogue behavior."
The governor also originally said that neither she, Todd nor anyone from her administration pressured Monegan regarding Trooper Wooten. Palin then was forced to admit there was serial contact once the Frank Bailey tape surfaced. But she insisted she was just learning of it. But e-mails have surfaced detailing Palin complaining to Monegan about Wooten.
The governor also originally said an investigation was needed and promised to cooperate. Then she instructed her employees not to talk to the investigator and has herself refused to be interviewed.
Palin can't constantly change her story and expect us to believe her each time she does.
"But it sounds like he got a little carried away, because yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he's President, he'll take on the -- and I quote -- 'ol' boys network' in Washington. I am not making this up. This is someone who's been in Congress for 26 years -- who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign -- and now he tells us that he's the one who will take on the ol' boy network. The ol' boys network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting."
Last week the Oregon alternative paper, Willamette Week broke the story that Republican incumbent Senator Gordon Smith, an advocate for "immigration reform" in the form of building a big fence, employed undocumented
workers at his frozen foods processing plant in eastern Oregon.
Smith's response was unequivocal:“I have never had such a hit-piece hatchet-job slimeball done to me before in my 16 years in public life,” Smith told KXL radio host Lars Larson the same day WW published “Señor Smith”. “The policy of that company is to obey the law and document every worker.”Except, of course, when it isn't. In a follow up article, WW locates former and current employees who were or are undocumented or got the job with fake papers.Tomás Salgado wasn’t the first undocumented worker to pack vegetables at Smith Frozen Foods, and he wasn’t the last. To say otherwise denies the truth, says Salgado—a short, heavyset 45-year-old man with a round face and buzz-cut hair.
“What they’re doing is an injustice,” Salgado says in Spanish of Smith Frozen Foods. “Undocumented workers have always helped [Smith]. In reality, they helped grow the plant. And right now they’re still bringing the senator riches.”
Nauer reprises the role he played at the Woodland Opera House a year ago. He has a strong voice and is a good actor, but his Tevye is more a combination of a downtrodden Jewish milkman and Santa Claus. Try as he might, whatever he does, Nauer can't get rid of that twinkle in his eye.
That said, he has wonderful moments, particularly during the scenes with his daughters, when this man of strong traditional values must confront a changing world and realize that his children have very different views on life and love ... and can he accept them?
His duet with Isaacson's Golde - when the couple discovers, after 25 years, that they've grown to love each other - is quite touching.
The three daughters are simply marvelous: both individually and together, during their trio in 'Matchmaker, Matchmaker.'
Amanda Yount is Tseitel, the eldest, who pleads with Tevye not to betroth her to Lzar Wolf, the butcher (Jon Mounts), because of her love for her childhood friend, Motel (Brennan Ballard).
Hodel (Josephine Longo), the intellectual middle daughter, decides to marry the student Perchik (Giorgio Selvaggio), and she shocks her father by asking for his blessing, instead of his permission.
Selvaggio is one of those performers who suddenly displays a huge voice that we don't quite expect; he's a delightful surprise.
Shannon Kendall is radiant as Chava, Tevye's favorite daughter, who breaks her father's heart when she falls in love with Fyedka (Trevor Hoffmann), a Russian and therefore Tevye's sworn enemy.
PRINCETON, NJ -- The Sept. 14-16 Gallup Poll Daily tracking update shows Barack Obama regaining a slight, although not statistically significant, edge over John McCain, 47% to 45%, among registered voters, marking the first time since the week of the Republican National Convention that McCain has not held at least a one percentage point margin over Obama.
From a broad perspective, the race remains a statistical tie. But there has been a general drift towards Obama since McCain moved to a five-point lead over Obama through the weekend after the GOP convention.
Today's report includes two days of interviewing conducted after reports of the collapse of Wall Street financial institutions and changes in the stock market began to dominate the news on Monday. Gallup Poll Daily tracking data show that in each of these individual days (Monday and Tuesday) consumer ratings of the U.S. economy have become more negative. Similarly, in each of these individual days' interviewing, Obama has led McCain in election tracking. There is thus a correlation between the bad financial news and Obama's gains, although the data do not allow us to conclude definitively that there is a causal connection between the two.
Gold prices exploded Wednesday -- posting the biggest one-day gain ever in dollar terms -- as fears of more credit market turmoil unnerved investors and triggered a flood of safe-haven buying.
Gold for December delivery rose as much as $90.40, or 11.6 percent, to $870.90 an ounce in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after jumping $70 to settle at $850.50 in the regular session. That was the biggest one-day price jump ever; gold's previous single-day record was a $64 gain on Jan. 29, 1980.
In Galveston, water and sewer systems aren't working. Its hospital is closed. The city is littered with debris and officials are asking for help against disease-carrying mosquitoes. One of the biggest challenges may be ensuring clean drinking water for the region.
``We're telling people who are here if they can leave, leave,'' Galveston spokeswoman Mary Jo Naschke said by telephone today. ``We are telling residents we will let them know when it's OK to return. Right now it's not good.''
When Ike hit land as a Category 2 hurricane on Sept. 13 with 110-mile per-hour (177 kph) winds, its eye passed over Galveston, perhaps sparing the city the worst of the storm's fury. The storm surge in Galveston, predicted to be as high as 25 feet (7.6 meters), may have peaked at half that level, according to a National Weather Service tidal gauge.
Forty percent of the city's 57,500 residents opted to ride out the storm, Steve LeBlanc, the city manager, said the day before Ike struck.
Most of Galveston is still covered by floodwaters, which have begun receding, according to a city statement.
...In the U.S., most deaths from hurricanes typically occur after the storm passes, said Thomas Kirsch, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response in Baltimore.
Access to clean water is the most pressing issue, he said. Power failures can idle purification plants for weeks, seawater can make water undrinkable, and pipes have often been contaminated with sewage or chemicals. Tainted water can cause diarrhea and dehydration.
...In Galveston, a medical clinic is handling emergencies and giving out tetanus shots, Naschke said. The city has asked Galveston County to start spraying for mosquitoes, which carry and spread disease.
Officials need to attack the pests as soon as possible, said Richard Pollack, a mosquito researcher at Harvard University's School of Public Health in Boston.
``Within a few days, if they don't do this, life is going to be fairly unbearable,'' he said. ``It is a real problem. It is a quality-of-life issue. You can't tell if the mosquito landing on you or your child is infected or not.''
If unchecked, mosquitoes carrying diseases including West Nile virus could get out of control, he said.
Galveston's hospital, the University of Texas Medical Branch, lost its generators and had to evacuate the last of its patients, Naschke said.
...Elsewhere along the Texas coast, entire towns were all but erased by Ike's storm surge. Ike has killed 41 people in 10 states, the Associated Press reported.
...``It's going to be a while before people can live in their homes,'' Paulison said today aboard Air Force One with Bush. Some residents may wait 18 months, Paulison said.
Curfews are in force in many of Texas's hardest-hit communities and about 1.8 million customers in the state are without power. Thousands of residents have been lining up for water, food, ice and gasoline.
...A 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew is in place in Galveston and 11 people have been arrested for looting, Naschke said. National Guard troops are backing up city police in enforcing the curfew, according to the city's Web site.
About 70 percent of Houston should have electricity back by the end of the week, FEMA's Paulison said.
About 3,300 residents and 110 pets have been rescued along the Texas coast, according to the office of Governor Rick Perry.
``Residents who have evacuated, stay where you are,'' Perry said in a statement. ``The worst thing that could happen is for people who are in a safe area where there is food, water and electricity to return to communities that have yet to have essential services restored.''
Comparing Hurricane Ike With The 1900 Galveston Hurricane
Left: NY Times' graphic showing the path of Hurricane Ike's eye.Over the next two days, Ike maintained a steady course towards Galveston and Houston. It increased only slightly in intensity to 110 mph (177 km/h) - the high end of Category 2 - but exhibited an unusually large wind field. As it approached the Texas coast, the inner structure and eyewall became more organized.
Ike made U.S. landfall at Galveston, Texas, on September 13 at 2:10am CDT (07:10 UTC), as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 110 mph (177 km/h) and a central pressure of 952 mbar (28.11 inHg). The 2:00 am NHC advisory cited tropical storm and hurricane force winds extending 275 miles (445 km) and 120 miles (190 km), respectively, from the center.
Left: Radar image of Hurricane Ike at landfall. HGX Radar, Base Reflectivity, 1:07am CDT.At the time of the 1900 storm the highest point in the city of Galveston was only 8.7 ft (2.7 m) above sea level. The hurricane had brought with it a storm surge of over 15 ft (4.6 m), which washed over the entire island. The surge knocked buildings off their foundations and the surf pounded them to pieces. Over 3,600 homes were destroyed and a wall of debris faced the ocean. The few buildings which survived, mostly solidly-built mansions and houses along the Strand District, are today maintained as tourist attractions.
The highest measured wind speed was 100 mph (160 km/h) just after 6 p.m., but the Weather Bureau’s anemometer was blown off the building shortly after that measurement was recorded. The eye passed over the city around 8 p.m. Maximum winds were estimated at 120 mph (190 km/h) at the time, though later estimates placed the hurricane at the higher Category 4 classification on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The lowest recorded barometric pressure was 28.48 inHg (964.4 hPa), considered at the time to be so low as to be obviously in error. Modern estimates later placed the storm’s central pressure at 27.49 inHg (930.9 hPa), but this was subsequently adjusted to the storm's official lowest measured central pressure of 27.63 inHg (935.7 hPa).
Picking Up The Pieces
Meanwhile, Back On Mars....Opportunity has completed one of the most fantastic scientific campaigns of the Mars Exploration Rover mission -- the interior investigation of "Victoria Crater." After spending more than 340 Martian days, known as sols -- almost one Earth year -- inside the crater, Opportunity climbed back out on sol 1634 (Aug. 28, 2008). To do so, Opportunity retraced the wheel tracks the robotic geologist had made while crossing a large sand ripple and entering Victoria on the slopes of an alcove known as "Duck Bay."And what-up with Phoenix? They saw some dust devils - an expected oddity in the polar summer - but I'm most interested in this business about humidity swings.
A fork-like conductivity probe has sensed humidity rising and falling beside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, but when stuck into the ground, its measurements so far indicate soil that is thoroughly and perplexingly dry.
"If you have water vapor in the air, every surface exposed to that air will have water molecules adhere to it that are somewhat mobile, even at temperatures well below freezing," said Aaron Zent of NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., lead scientist for Phoenix's thermal and electroconductivity probe.
In below-freezing permafrost terrains on Earth, that thin layer of unfrozen water molecules on soil particles can grow thick enough to support microbial life. One goal for building the conductivity probe and sending it to Mars has been to see whether the permafrost terrain of the Martian arctic has detectable thin films of unfrozen water on soil particles. By gauging how electricity moves through the soil from one prong to another, the probe can detect films of water barely more than one molecule thick.
...Preliminary results from the latest insertion of the probe's four needles into the ground, on Wednesday and Thursday, match results from the three similar insertions in the three months since landing.
"All the measurements we've made so far are consistent with extremely dry soil," Zent said. "There are no indications of thin films of moisture, and this is puzzling."
Three other sets of observations by Phoenix, in addition to the terrestrial permafrost analogy, give reasons for expecting to find thin-film moisture in the soil.
One is the conductivity probe's own measurements of relative humidity when the probe is held up in the air. "The relative humidity transitions from near zero to near 100 percent with every day-night cycle, which suggests there's a lot of moisture moving in and out of the soil," Zent said.
SHANGHAI -- China's troubles with tainted baby formula grew into a national crisis today as health officials reported that a third infant had died, the number of illnesses skyrocketed to 6,244 and products from 22 companies tested positive for contamination with the industrial chemical melamine.
The number of infants sickened after ingesting the tainted powdered milk was five times more than what the government reported Monday. The new figures showed that 1,327 babies remained hospitalized, with 158 suffering from acute kidney failure, China's health minister, Chen Zhu, said at a news conference today in Beijing.
