Off to New Mexico

I'm going to head off to the Land of Enchantment, to apologize to Governor Bill Richardson for putting that Albuquerque Tribune article that made fun of his jet purchase, into the hands of the Lucianne wingnuts, and also to visit my Dad, who hasn't been feeling well, and to soothe my overworked sister(s). I might blog from there, but, if not, then next Tuesday, the 14th, instead!

Death Rattle?

I'm still pretty wary, but Marshall sees a light at the end of the Social Security tunnel:

To my reading, this sounds very much like the phase-out death rattle, the phase of a legislative struggle -- grimly reminiscent for some of us of late 1994 -- in which a doomed legislative initiative rapidly de-evolves into more and more pitiful and anemic forms of its original self before finally disappearing into thin air -- perhaps with not a few of its champions going 'poof' along with it.

Whiners

Like Atrios says, this is really funny!

Mr. Hook, Is This True?

And now, the Santa Fe, NM police have a different, more mundane, explanation than Mr. Hook for why he was beaten so. Let the accusations fly!

Flying Monkey Productions

Hey! I recognize most of these young, ambitious musical theater folks! Pick up a copy of "Inside the City," or click on the link!


Ryan Warren rests in the arms of some of his Flying Monkey crew members: Monika Neal, Bess Toyama, Kristin Cunningham, Meghan Vanderford and Hudson Shively.

New Theater Construction

As Drudge would say, developing....

Arlene

The poorly-developed eye is some distance offshore, but almost all the rain is east of the eye, which means the Tampa area will get (and has already gotten) some heavy rain from this storm. Not much wind, but if you've got tools outside, bring them in! Landfall is still likely to be on the northern Gulf Coast (Alabama coast, or maybe Pensacola area).

Low-Grade Scientific Misconduct

Like all human endeavors, scientists engage in some (mostly low-grade) misconduct. Unlike many professionals, however, I suspect scientists have greater alacrity in policing and exposing themselves:

One-third of scientists surveyed said that within the previous three years, they'd engaged in at least one practice that would probably get them into trouble, the report said. Examples included circumventing minor aspects of rules for doing research on people and overlooking a colleague's use of flawed data or questionable interpretation of data.

Stylin'

So, New Mexico Republicans plan to air this ad, in New Hampshire! All to knee-cap Bill Richardson before his nascent presidential campaign even takes form:

With jets zooming in the background, slot machines ringing and a car speeding away, the ad also talks about a person who "travels with a large entourage of body guards and staff to places like Europe and Las Vegas."

The ad asks "Is it P. Diddy? Britney Spears? No, it's Governor Bill Richardson."

This kind of ad can backfire, particularly since its wealth-obsessed Republicans making the charge. Perhaps Richardson can buy into the rationale, and like Mayor Willy Brown in San Francisco, benefit from it. At least the flinty New Englanders won't forget it! It'll help with name recognition!

(I posted this news story on the conservative Lucianne Web Site. This story made them feel so good, harking back to the Clinton days, that one of the commenters even thanked me for posting it! The Bushies must be feeling more and more beleaguered every day!)

Pleasant AM/PM

Things are nice and quiet these days around AM/PM. Of course, they are renovating the store, and there's a chain link fence all around that discourages customers from even approaching the store. But it's nice and quiet!

Tropical Storm Arlene

Good name (I had an aunt by that name). Plus another storm that will pass shortly afterwards in the vicinity of Haiti.

The Gods Are Most Annoyed

Interesting:

More than 100 nude women danced in a remote mountain village in Nepal to ease a drought. The Kathmandu Post reported some believe dancing naked women will please the gods, who will provide rain in return.

But is it going to work? According the the FNMOC, even though heavy rain is falling in portions of Burma and Thailand right now, for poor, dry Nepal for the next week, no way!

Lessons for Iraq

From a West Point grad who was in 'Nam.

Stormy South

Is that a hurricane being forecast, uncomfortably close to New Zealand in about 10 days?

Its heartbreaking to watch how close the rain is sometimes forecast to get to Australia without actually falling there. I guess most of the continent is a desert for a reason!

Tommy Ray Hook Goes Home

Pursued by a million questions:

“He’s still pretty out of it,” said Bob Rothstein, the attorney for the Los Alamos National Laboratory employee. Hook, 52, has a fractured jaw, a back injury, damaged teeth and perhaps more. Rothstein hopes to read the full medical report today.

Meanwhile, interest groups, FBI agents, police detectives, lab workers and journalists across the nation want to know why Hook was pummeled by a group of assailants outside Santa Fe’s only topless bar and allegedly told to keep his mouth shut.

One theory, according to Rothstein, Hook’s wife and a co-worker at the lab, is that Hook was lured to the bar, beaten up and left for dead because he planned to testify before a congressional committee later this month about financial abuses at the nuclear-weapons laboratory. He was supposed to meet with another lab auditor who had told Hook on the phone that he had information about fraud. That person never showed up.

It would be ironic if it was just a matter of bone-headed jealousy, or out-of-control bikers, or something like that. It's still quite murky, though. They hit him pretty hard! Seems like a crime of passion, but what's driving the passion? In general, with political or business matters, if you want to deliver a beating, you should try to miss the face.

My father tells a story of when he worked briefly with Land Grant Activist Reies Lopez Tijerina, in the mid-60's. According to the story, one day Tijerina was stopped by the NM State Highway Patrol. They delivered a beating from the neck down. He could barely walk, but he looked fine.

Of course, cops are professionals, and less prone to passion over such matters. Either it was inexperienced Lab types doing the beating, or local hoods who didn't like the way this guy was ogling the dancers. I'm thinking Lab types, because why would hoods pick on THIS guy, when the club was full of oglers?

Or something! Who can say?

Lodi

Apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival (and the "detainees," particularly if the charges are inflated or incorrect):

Just about a year ago, I set out on the road,
Seekin' my fame and fortune, lookin' for jihadist camps.
Things got bad, and things got worse, I guess you will know the tune.
Oh ! Lord, Stuck in Lodi again.

Rode in on KAL, I'll be walkin' out if I go.
I was just passin' through, must be seven months or more.
Ran out of time and money, looks like they took my friends.
Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again.

The man from the madrassah said I was on my way.
Somewhere I lost connections, ran out of popsicles.
I came into town, a one night stand, looks like my plans fell through
Oh ! Lord, Stuck in Lodi again.

Mmmm...If I only had a dollar, for ev'ry cone I've sold.
And ev'ry time I've had to sell while kids stood there broke.
You know, I'd catch the next plane back to where I lived.
Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again.
Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again.

Al Qaeda in Lodi?

It's still too early to say much about this story, except to make two points:

• The jihadist training camp where Hayat is alleged to have undergone jihadist training, is just about adjacent to Rawalpindi, one of Pakistan's big cities, and not far from the capital of Islamabad. That means the Pakistani government had to have been tolerating the camp's presence, even well after September 11th. Of course, Musharraff comes from a political party that has long favored jihadist camps, particularly with respect to Kashmir. Just another example of the murky politics at work in Pakistan, particularly with respect to terrorism.
• It's remarkable just how few arrests we've heard about in the U.S. regarding Al Qaeda. There were the Lackawanna, NY, arrests, of course, but surprisingly few, all things considered. Three possibilities suggest themselves: 1.) the arrests have been many but secretive; 2.) the FBI has made few arrests because they know so little; or 3.) the FBI has made few arrests, in order to gather more intelligence. I lean to #2, but who knows?

Struck by Lightning

Survivor stories:

About 70 percent of lightning-strike victims are afflicted with a bizarre collection of disorders that remain almost a total mystery to medical science. LeDoux, like most survivors, has a terrible short-term memory. "I would've been able to hide my own Easter eggs and not find them," he says. "I lose days, sometimes a whole week." He is easily distracted and often fatigued and has gone through spates of depression. "That first year when they told me I'd never be able to work again, I took a gun and put it to my head and pulled the trigger," he says. "But you know what? I forgot to load it."

Just Asking for Problems

Can't we spare them a buck or two?

On Sunday, members of Iraq's elite police commando units, heralded by U.S. and Iraqi officials as a key to stemming the insurgency, staged a protest outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, saying they hadn't been paid in four months, witnesses said.

No Credibility Left

Having lost all credibility, the Bush Administration yields to the inevitable:

The Bush administration, having found no alternate candidate or support from any allies, has given up on its attempt to force out Mohamed ElBaradei as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to two U.S. officials.

With ElBaradei's bid for a third term virtually guaranteed when the agency's board meets next week, the White House decided to invite him to Washington for a talk tomorrow with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the terms of U.S. support, the officials said.