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I'm melting!

It's been a bit, shall we say, warmish, around these parts for the better part of a week with no relief foreseen for at least a few more days.

And hard as it may be to believe, we're not getting the worst of it. Temps have been over 100 for a record number of days in California, stressing power grids to the breaking point. And the heat wave blankets nearly the entire country, setting high temp records in many states.

Is this a symptom of global warming?

The infernal heat, unsurprisingly, has affected some people's mood in an unflattering way. It seems that the folks I've had the pleasure to interact with lately are all even more surly and diasgreeable than usual, and that probably applies to myself as well.

The infernal and unrelenting heat is bad news, not only for it's danger to the elderly and others, but for the fact that it affects several local events, such as the Mississippi Valley Fair.

A news report on Sunday had a reporter at the state mandated "cooling center" in Rock Island. It was locked up tight. Guess they don't work weekends, so if you're in danger of death due to heat, please try to do it during regular business hours.

Perhaps it's the thought that counts?

There were also several counties, including some around Rock Island County, which had no cooling center at all.

As there's the usual wealth of issues and world events floating around, most notably the tragic and horrific bombings and attacks between Lebanon and Israel which is throwing gasoline onto the fire of mid-east instability and adding to the already massive hostility towards the U.S./Israeli axis.

Feel free to weigh in on that if you wish, or any number of other current events.

And I can't think of a better reason to demand there be an immediate cease fire in the Lebanon conflict that the thought that their national treasures might be destroyed. As of now, I officially love Beirut too.

Where is it?

Where can you find this place?
(click to enlarge)

**Update**

Illustrious reader Huck Finn correctly IDed the photo as the City Museum in St. Louis, MO.

This place is an underpublicized gem. A wonderful and amazing place worth a trip from just about anywhere, especially for kids.

View more pictures of this incredible place, here

Polls reflect public disgust with Bush, Republican Congress

MyDD notes the following:

NPR has a new survey on the House out today that was conducted by Democrat Stan Greenberg and Republican Glenn Bolger. This poll is particularly interesting because of the district level detail it offers on the generic ballot question. The poll only focused on the fifty most competitive districts this year, forty of which are held by Republicans, and ten of which are held by Democrats. Here are some of the findings:

In the fifty most competitive House districts this year, Democrats lead the generic ballot 48-41. While this is a smaller lead for Democrats than many national polls reveal, it is important to remember that this is primarily a survey of Republican-held.

When candidates are named across the fifty districts, Democrats lead 49-43.

Within the ten Democratic held districts, Democrats hold a whopping 60-29 advantage. This may only be a sample size of around 200, but these numbers show the tremendous strength of Democratic incumbents around the nation. We hold a 31-point generic ballot advantage in our ten most endangered seats? Amazing.

Within the "top tier" Republican held seats (not sure how many districts this included), Democrats hold a sizable 52-42 advantage in the generic ballot. These are the sort of numbers that make a takeover very likely.

Within the "bottom tier" of the competitive Republican held seats, Democrats still hold a generic advantage of 47-44. This is particularly amazing. This shows Democratic competitiveness across a wide swatch of districts.

Bush is at 45% "strong disapprove" in these districts, and only 24% "strong approve." Remember--these are in districts that Republicans hold.

Voters also indicate a high level of enthusiasm to vote, and Demcorats hold a significant edge in that category. However, I'll believe that when I see it, considering low turnout during the primary season so far.

Take a look at the poll results here. Good news for Democrats across the board.

It sucks to be Republican these days.

Lu Ann Kerr fundraiser

Candidate for Rock Island County Treasurer Lu Ann Kerr is holding a fundraiser tomorrow evening (Fri.) from 5 to 7:00 p.m. at the Milan American Legion, 515 West 1st Avenue.

Guest: $10
Sponsor: $50
Patron: $100

Lykam feeling the heat

As noted on the "Iowa's First" blog, a go-to source for information on Iowa's hot 1st district senate race, the Iowa 85th house district race is also attracting some bigfoot national attention, as documented in this Ed Tibbetts piece in the QC Times.

Republicans smell blood in their attempt to defeat Democratic two term incumbent Jim Lykam of Davenport. Bill Frist, (who Frank Rich recently referred to correctly as perhaps the most craven politician in D.C.) has made appearances to raise funds for Lykam's opponent, political newbie Roby Smith, also of Davenport, and Smith has recieved campaign dough from Mitt Romney's PAC as well.

Looks like this is shaping up as another hard fought Iowa battle.

Onward Christian lawyers

The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe.

The documents show that only 42 percent of the lawyers hired since 2003, after the administration changed the rules to give political appointees more influence in the hiring process, have civil rights experience. In the two years before the change, 77 percent of those who were hired had civil rights backgrounds.

In an acknowledgment of the department's special need to be politically neutral, hiring for career jobs in the Civil Rights Division under all recent administrations, Democratic and Republican, had been handled by civil servants -- not political appointees.

But in the fall of 2002, then-attorney general John Ashcroft changed the procedures. The Civil Rights Division disbanded the hiring committees made up of veteran career lawyers.
...
At the same time, the kinds of cases the Civil Rights Division is bringing have undergone a shift. The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians.

Because God knows that if any group is really struggling to get by, suffering horrible discrimination, and being held down, it's white Christians.

Sadly, this is only one of literally thousands of such under the radar actions which have been occurring for the past 6 years in a blatant attempt to subvert rules and propriety in order to worm more fundy, conservative people into every facet of government, the same government they routinely demonize and characterize as useless and unnecessary.

Day of honor and patriotism in Galesburg

The funeral of slain serviceman Jerry Tharp of Aledo, cut down by an IED in Iraq, was held in Geneseo Saturday afternoon, attended by The Patriot Guard Riders.
[Photos Here]

The Patriot Guard Riders is a group of primarily veteran motorcycle riders formed to provide an honor detail for fallen veterans or active duty servicemen and women, as a way to counter the loathsome protests of the Westboro Baptist Church, and has grown exponentially in a short time. They now organize honor details for any vet who has passed away.

Mainly through word of mouth and their website, "missions" are organized and the turnout is nothing short of amazing.

Though I went primarily to see the freakazoids who protest at fallen soldier's funerals, (and who consider Galesburg a "particularly evil place") I instead was caught up in the sheer mass of bikers who came to honor this young man.

There were conservatively 3 to 400 bikers at the funeral. They formed up in a large parking lot and then moved out onto a cross street where they waited for the procession carrying the body to pass, then pulled out to form a massive line of motorcycles, which even at two or three abreast stretched for a half mile at least. The procession of bikes took over five minutes to pass.

At the church, they deployed to form long lines along the street in front of the church holding around a hundred American flags. They then stood solemnly for at least an hour or more, before standing down and mounting up again.

A cop told me that the goons from Westboro Baptist Church had indeed arrived and protested, at over 300 ft from the church, and at least a half hour before the funeral started, as required by law, and had assembled down the street over a slight hill, so they were both beyond eyesight and earshot.

A small group of civilians reportedly stood and faced them in silence, but beyond that, no one gave them any attention, which is, after all, the only reason they do what they do.

In that respect, it was rather disappointing to see every Quad City TV outlet as well as at least one paper there in force and giving them camera time and publicity that they certainly don't merit.

I think that if everyone ignored them, they might just go away. But of course, the press is congenitally incapable of doing that.

While waiting for the funeral to end and the coffin to be loaded into the hearse, the press showed a rather ugly side as well, as they huddled in the shade across the street.

A select group of Patriot Guards, perhaps 8 or 9, who had come from all over, and who had stood solemnly in the heat holding flags lining the streets around the church, came forward and formed a line facing the hearse to honor the dead soldier as he was loaded into the hearse.

This immediately brought howls of protest from at least one photographer who started carping immediately to his fellow press members that they were going to "ruin our shot!"

He started walking out into the street shouting to a Navy man in dress whites who was apparently coordinating the press coverage, and amazingly, they actually asked the honor attendants to stand back at an awkward distance just so these guys could get a shot without having to move. God forbid they'd have to move somewhere else.

Why should they move to get a better shot? Why not just interfere with the funeral of a Iraq casualty, right?? Struck me as pretty disgusting, not to mention callous.

The town of Galesburg also had a shiny new, no doubt incredibly expensive. "Central Command Unit" parked nearby, a huge enclosed truck with "Homeland Security" painted on the side and brisling with high tech gear and a extendable mast with a surveilance camera on top. Of course it was useless, but hey, they got their toy from "Homeland" security. And in the event that something major ever does happen, maybe someone will actually know how to use it. Maybe.

Just prior to the end of the funeral, the bulk of the riders formed up and roared off again for Keithsburg, where Tharp was to be buried.

A special honor detail from the group remained and escorted the funeral procession after the church service.

This group is very impressive, and very inspiring. To see such a display of honor for their fellow soldier is truly touching. The sheer logistics and organization required to pull these missions off is amazing, yet they do it with military precision, unsurprisingly.

The Galesburg Fire Department backed in two ladder trucks at an intersection near the church and huge an enormous flag over the street.

When the procession left the church, two Army trainer planes flew overhead at precisely the right moment as the hearse passed under the flag.

I've posted several pictures of the day in the blog's Photobucket album. If anyone is curious, they can be viewed here.

RIP PO1 Jerry Tharp.

That's right folks... it's time to play.....

NAME THAT BARN!!! [CHEESY APPLAUSE TRACK]

Today's barn is probably just too easy.



I can safely assume that the majority of readers have seen it a dozen times and perhaps many more.

Though no clue is needed, I'll give you that it's located in Illinois.

**UPDATE**

Reader PrairieStateDem identified the barn correctly. Hats off!
It's located at mile marker 47 on I-80 east atop a small hill on the right.

Here's some more shots which might make it more familiar. They were taken with one hand at highway speeds, (a couple backwards over my shoulder on the return leg) so they're not perfect, but might jog your memory.

Did someone say dictator?

Add this to the growing mound of evidence that the Bush/Cheney White House truly think they are simnply dictators, above the law, above congress, above the supreme court, and even above their own Justice Dept.

What's it gonna take for people to sit up on their hind legs and notice what's going on?

President Bush effectively blocked a Justice Department investigation of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, refusing to give security clearances to attorneys who were attempting to conduct the probe, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.

Bush's decision represents an unusually direct and unprecedented White House intervention into an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal affairs office at Justice, according to administration officials and legal experts. It forced OPR to abandon its investigation of the role played by Justice Department officials in authorizing and monitoring the controversial NSA eavesdropping effort.

"Since its creation some 31 years ago, OPR has conducted many highly sensitive investigations involving Executive Branch programs and has obtained access to information classified at the highest levels," chief lawyer H. Marshall Jarrett wrote in a memorandum released Tuesday. "In all those years, OPR has never been prevented from initiating or pursuing an investigation."

In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales said that in matters involving access to classified programs, "the president of the United States makes the decision."

Thanks to an alert reader for steering me to this.

"Honor and Dignity" YouTube-a-rama

Remember that campaign speil where they said Bush would return "honor and dignity" to the White House? I do to.

I set out to bring you a couple clips showing what an undignified clod Bush was, but those instances seem nearly endless. Here are but a few, though there's plenty.

Pop up some popcorn, gather the family around and enjoy.

Dave Letterman kindly compiled 10 of Bush's more dignified moments for us.



But that wasn't up to date.

More recently, Bush molested German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 conference. Looks like it hurt.



And here we have a stark example of Bush's deep thinking, table maners, and coarse language. Contrast Bush's thought process to Blair's. Blair had to be thinking, "How do I get through to this idiot?"



And this one... my God. It pretty much says it all about Bush. (Keep your eye on the background)



Bush, a deep thinker.



And of course, as a man of God, Bush never lies.



and of course, he has impecable manners.



and for your tragi-comic enjoyment, here's some more prime Bush moments. (though the laugh track is goofy.)

I give you, the leader of the free world, two term U.S. president George W. Bush.

Groucho is rolling in his grave

John Marx, who pens tepid pieces for the Dispatch/Argus featuring what I guess is humor apparently aimed at those who find the comic strip "Nancy" hilarious, today did his thing on his experience getting stuck in a traffic jam waiting for Dick "Dick" Cheney's motorcade to pass.

Needless to say, he went to Cheney's hunting incident for material no fewer than 10 times by my count.

The only thing worse than that overkill was that he didn't even know the facts about the incident he mined so heavily for comedy gold.

What's neat about my world is that if I'm covering a big shot -- and Vice President Dick Cheney, aka The Great White Hunter for his ability to shoot a hunting partner in the bee-hind, is a big shot -- I never get stuck in a big-shot roadblock.

No, what's neat about your world, John, is that you don't have to know what you're talking about. (and neither apparently, do your editors)

Granted, Marx couldn't be confused with a reporter, and he aims to please the "average guy" demographic, but shouldn't he at least know simple facts that the average guy (or young kid) knows, such as that Cheney shot an attorney in the face, not the "bee-hind"?

The D/A's Wundrum wanna-be has a ways to go.

Thodos appoints Keehner East Moline City Administrator

A little more than a year after former city administrator Steve Verdick resigned, the city has named his replacement.

Rich Keehner, who was assistant city administrator, was appointed to the position late Monday.

Last year, Mayor John Thodos hadn't wanted to fill the vacant administration post to save the city money. But now East Moline needs someone to focus on duties such as union grievances and contract negotiations, the mayor said.

Representatives of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1234 are unhappy with Mr. Keehner since he's been the prime negotiator with them on a new contract to replace on that expired April 30. AFSCME Council 31 staff representative Dino Leone said that Mr. Keehner's promotion is a "worst-case scenario" for city employees.

This is the guy that seemed absolutely zealous in his quest to give Triumph more and more and yet more breaks, perks, and freebies. He's obviously not a fave of the union either.

Durbin brings home $1.2 million in bacon to the IL Quads

If you weren't careful, you may have overlooked the tiny 3.5" column tucked away next to the fold on page A12 of today's Dispatch/Argus, but it reveals that Sen. Dick Durbin has gotten $1.2 million appropriated for the Quad Cities.

I'm not sure what "River Tech Boulevard" is exactly, but a cool million has been appropriated for it. The piece says it will allow flood-proof access to the proposed WIU riverfront campus, if it's ever built.

I trust this doesn't involve raising River Dr. in any way or messing with the parkway.

Durbin also announced $200,000 for a bike trail in Carbon Cliff.

Savanna is to get $200,000 for the Great River Trail as well.

Davenport gets taste of security absurdity

QC Times photo by Jeff Cook

The picture above is captioned in the QC Times,

Davenport police officers tell protesters marching along River Drive they had orders to collect the wooden sticks on their American flags as a security measure. The marchers demonstrated and raised banners while Vice President Dick Cheney attended a fundraiser in Davenport.

Cheney came to town, and in what is a by now very common occurrence, protesters were subjected to harassment and ludicrous policies and restrictions.

I could link to dozens of stories which make this one seem mild by comparison. Protesters, some elderly, herded into the Orwellian named "Free Speech Zones", basically pens hundreds of yards from where Bush or Cheney are appearing or traveling, protesters hauled off or arrested for simply wearing anti-Bush tee-shirts, and on and on.

Davenport got a taste of it when Dick "The Snarl" Cheney came to Davenport for a fundraiser at the home of Chuck Ruhl in McClellan Heights for candidate Mike Whalen.

Davenport, as well as U.S. taxpayers likely paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the security surrounding this visit alone, yet it was purely partisan, soley to raise money for a Republican candidate. Cheney made no public appearance and didn't give a press conference. As a matter of fact, the press was barred from the event.

Yet we're supposed to pay for this?

As usual, John Beydler puts it all in perspective. Read his post here.

It's truly an outrage and wrong that the Republican party is now behaving as if we live in a one party state, never mind that essentially we do. But the arrogance is familiar, as is passing the expense on to taxpayers with little regard as to it's propriety.

It's a good thing that the press is on to this story and I hope they follow up and report on the expenses involved and how much of the tab is being charged to taxpayers in order to hold a Republican fundraiser.

If Al Gore had pulled this stunt as VP, it would be banner headlines and the hew and cry would be deafening.

And what about the fact that these burly cops were confiscating spindly sticks from these women's flags!?? That's what we're paying for?

And the photographer who got this picture was detained for a time! Yeah, it's national security I guess. But it seems more like Russia or China.

This is security run amok.

Instead of protecting Cheney from little old ladies with small flags, they should worry about him choking on the BS he likely spewed to his very well-heeled admirers in McClellan Heights.

Church of the Poison Mind brings twisted message to Galesburg

The Rev. Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church, a group of psychopaths if ever there was one, has announced their plans to protest at the Galesburg funeral of Petty Officer 1st Class Jerry Allen Tharp, a Naval Reservist from rural Aledo who was killed by an IED in Iraq.

Anti-gay protesters from a Topeka, Kan., church will picket a U.S. Navy Seabee's funeral in Galesburg Saturday -- the third time the group will descend on the city.

Westboro Baptist Church members will be outside the funeral of Petty Officer 1st Class Jerry Allen Tharp, a Naval Reservist from rural Aledo, protest organizer and church member Shirley Phelps-Roper said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

The group believes soldiers are being killed in Iraq because God is punishing the United States, especially its military, for tolerating homosexuality, she said.

Even though Gov. Rod Blagojevich in May signed the "Let Them Rest in Peace Act" barring protests within 200 feet of a funeral site, the law hasn't deterred the group from heading to Galesburg's Bethel Baptist Church for the third time.

Ms. Phelps-Roper said she believes "Galesburg is a particularly evil place" because residents do not serve God.

Well, there ya go. But are the Quad Cities going to stand idly by while Galesburg beats us in the evilness deparment? I think it demands some studies and PR efforts to turn this around.

All joking aside, I can't think of a more loathsome group than these people, and there's plenty out there to choose from.

A group called the Patriot Guard assembled from all points on motorcycles to escort the body of OFC Tharp from Chicago to Aledo. Though they were delayed over two hours and didn't arrive in Aledo until after midnight, there were hundreds of participants and crowds along the route to pay their respects.

The group's website has a page for the Tharp "mission" , and it reveals a group of dedicated and respectful vets with motorcycles who ensure that vets get the honor they deserve.

If you read through the comments, you can find some pretty inspiring and touching sentiments, such as this one posted after the escort duty was completed.

07/19/2006 1:08 PM Alert
This is why I do what I do with the Patriot Guard Riders (PGR)...

Last evening/night (Tues, 7/18), I was on a PGR mission, escorting the hearse with a fallen SeaBee and his widow from O’Hare to Aledo (Iowa Border, near Quad Cities).

Flight in with the body was 2 hours late, then the hearse driver got misplaced from the airport to the Park Ridge VFW, so we didn't get on the road until about 10. Police escorted us down 294/88/355/55/80 at up to 95mph – about 12 bikes started from VFW, some others met us along the way to Princeton. Stop at Princeton to gas, meet with more family and more PGR. Had probably 60 bikes (maybe more) on to Aledo.

Starting about 15 miles out from Princeton - other officers and fire personnel were parked, lights on, in the median or on overpasses, at attention, saluting. One overpass had to have had 50 people and police with candles and flags lighted by the LEO's spots.

The truck stop in Princeton that was the gas/meeting point looked like a little city of its own, street and parking lot lined with folks with candles, flags and well wishing signs.

Once off the interstate – at every bump-in-the-road town -- police, fire, residents, lining the sides of the road - again flags, candles, signs and salutes.

The entire town of Aledo was in Central Park with flags and candles – at midnight. Local VFW had a color guard there. Every vehicle that had any kind of flashing light lined the road into town and surrounded the park. The SeaBee's business partner had one of those cement pumping rigs there with the boom extended and a huge flag suspended from it. A bagpiper was playing as we pulled in (order was police escort, PGR, hearse, family cars, Navy cars). The local choir sang the National Anthem, Amazing Grace and his favorite hymn. Buglers played dual trumpet taps.

Not a dry eye in town... certainly not mine.

Family expressed their appreciation, individuals from both VFW’s thanked us for what we do, strangers from the town came by to shake hands or hug and say thanks – and my answer is – “It is Our HONOR to be here”.

It was an expensive night for me - riding at warp speed shredded my large flag, broke the shaft on my small flag, took my CB antenna off and cracked the cover on my airhorns... Due to the delay, I ended up in a B&B room for 5 hours at $60... Then this morning on the way home, passing an odd shaped oversized load that created some weird turbulence, I lost my PGR hat...

AND I"D DO IT ALL AGAIN IN A MINUTE!!!!

PGR - “Riding with Respect”


-bogie
McHenry County, IL

The group is planning to provide honor guard duty at Tharps funeral services in Galesburg as well. I don't think Freddy's gang will want to mess with them.

One member noted that he'd talked to members of Tharp and they were worried about the possibility of trouble from the nut job "Christian" group. He gave his word that the family wouldn't even know they were there, and I trust that these guys don't give their word lightly, especially to the families of fallen brother's in arms. With any luck, the creeps from the Church of the Poison Mind will be not allowed to protest while the family is within earshot and they won't have to witness this disgusting display.

The Westboro Baptist Church out of Kansas' website has the charming URL godhatesfags.com. (their mirror site is godhatesamerica.com)

The site is a real treat if you want to see what passes for Christianity in these folk's warped mind. They seem to subscribe to a notion similar to one that fellow blogger Jim Mowen has also espoused. As the Westboro Baptist website puts it, "God loves everyone -- the greatest lie ever told!"

This notion which is currently gaining popularity among the "Christian" right could be expressed loosly that Jesus was a bad mofo who was capable of hate and advocating ill will or death towards those considered "sinners" by ... well... by the person who believes this crap. In other words, you can still be a good Christian and "Jesus follower" and hate particular groups of people, feel superior to them, and wish them ill, essentially throwing the basic tenets of Christianity out the window.

How convenient that they've found a way to adjust their religion to accomodate some of the lower instincts among us, but not others. And of course, greed is increasingly being found to be a Christian virtue by the right as well, as is veiled racism and religious bigotry.

Religion is flexible, you see. It's a big tent, and these folks pick and choose what's immoral and what's not, who's evil and who's blessed, primarily along the lines that the immoral things that they practice and believe (and can't hide) are ok, and those that they SAY others do,(a lot of them do it themselves), primarily having to do with their obsession with the sex lives of others, aren't.

The only difference between the more muted country club type of Christian rightist and Fred Phelps is that Freddy is more honest and up front about it.

I might take a trip out to Galesburg tomorrow just to see these freaks with my own eyes.

Drinking Liberally get-together Friday

The Illinois Quad City chapter of Drinking Liberally is gathering tomorrow night (Fri.) at Jack's Place 425 5th Ave. in downtown Moline at 7:30 p.m.

The group is open to anyone supporting liberal goals, so please participate and make the group more diverse. Otherwise, it might become nothing but an insular group of campaign activists. (who get together and drink on their own anyway)

The idea is to encourage and allow those who may not otherwise be active in politics or party activities, but who feel that conservatives have lead the country in the wrong direction, to meet in an informal, casual setting to talk and meet other like-minded folks. You might end up getting more involved as you learn more and find out how you can contribute, but there won't be any pressure to do so.

If you didn't go to the first get-together, make it a point to show up tonight. I'll see you there?

Bush uses first veto to restrict stem cell research

A stubborn "don't bother me with the facts" Bush bucks his own party to gratify the anti-science "know-nothings" on the right.

He even signed a bill forbidding "fetus farms", which even its sponsors acknowledged, doesn't exist. So the right has now passed a bill to outlaw something which only existed in their own fevered imaginations and the propaganda campaign against stem cell research.

The world is exploding, and these idiots are spending their time on measures defending a clump of cells and blocking scientific progress which may result in the alleviation of the suffering of millions.

President Bush, defying a bipartisan majority in Congress and a strong current in public opinion, exercised the first veto of his presidency Wednesday by blocking an expansion of federal support for embryonic stem cell research that he considered immoral.

Within hours of Bush's announcement, a House effort to override the veto fell 51 votes short of the required two-thirds majority, effectively killing the bill for the year. The vote for the override was 235 to 193, with 51 Republicans siding against the president.

Bush said the veto was not a setback for science but rather a victory of conscience, as taxpayers should not pay for research that destroys human embryos — even in the service of obtaining stem cells to develop potential cures for disease.

"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush told a crowd of supporters, including children born of the type of fertility clinic embryos that would have been used for research under the bill. "It crosses a moral boundary that our society needs to respect, so I vetoed it."

The bill Bush rejected would have eased restrictions that he imposed in 2001 on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Supporters of the loosened rules decried the veto, saying it had dashed the hopes of American scientists and patients and their families.

"Vetoing this bill is one of the greatest mistakes of his presidency," Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said.
...
The most remarkable thing about Bush's decision may not be that he vetoed this particular bill, as he had repeatedly threatened to do. More significant may be that it took so long in his presidency before he vetoed anything.

Every president after James A. Garfield has issued at least one veto, and Garfield served less than a year, in 1881. Thomas Jefferson was the only two-term president to issue no vetoes.

Many Republicans say Bush's extraordinarily long veto-free period is a tribute to how far the GOP-controlled Congress has gone to accommodate him — authorizing the war in Iraq, giving him almost every tax cut he proposed, meeting his overall budget targets.

...
The president's uncompromising defense of his 2001 stem cell policy, despite changes in the scientific and political landscape over the last five years, is in keeping with a leadership style that his admirers call principled and his detractors call bullheaded.
...
Even as he vetoed the bill, Bush signed legislation passed unanimously by the House and Senate to address the fears of some critics that scientists were aiming to create "fetal farms" in which human fetuses would be grown for their organs and tissues.

Proponents acknowledged that the law was preemptive, because the procedure was not known to have been practiced on human fetuses.

The stem cell controversy has centered on research that is progressing around the world but is narrowly funded by the U.S. government. It entails destroying human embryos to obtain stem cells, which are thought to be able to develop into any type of cell in the body. Many scientists believe this research may lead to medical insights and cures for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's.

...
In vetoing the legislation, Bush said that "if this bill would have become law, American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos, and I'm not going to allow it."

But the American taxpayers arent' asked whether they want their tax dollars to fund the deliberate destruction of literally hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and yes, children.

Apparently Bush's "conscience" is more conerned with inanimate cells than the lives of non-white human beings which happen to live on top of oil.

A discussion of this issue happened in a previous thread before Bush's veto.

I wrote...

[I] recall something I heard an authority say on the news yesterday regarding the current stem cell action (or inaction) in the Republican congress.

The Republican (read fundy) "War on Science" (hey, it's a distortion, but why not borrow one of their tactics?) is truly draggng our country back to the dark ages.

While Bush panders to the know-nothing fundy base and refuses to allow any meaningful stem cell research, other countrys in the world are eating out lunch on the issue.

Biotechnology is going to be the "next big thing" as far as investment and profit goes, and the relatively few fundys which have influence way beyond their numbers are sticking their heads in the sand by believing that a microscopic clump of cells has the moral equivelence of say, a patient suffering from Parkinson's or any number of other debilitating disease.

So while Bush and the fundys try to enforce their rather odd beliefs on us, other countries are going full steam ahead, as they should.

This ensures that our strained economy will be deprived of the lucrative and expanding biotech research and development, and that the U.S. will never be able to take the lead in this area as it should.

Another great moment in stupidity and regressive thought from the Republican right.

highxlr8r said...

Dope, maybe you could post a thread on the stem-cell debate itself and relocate this comment, but I wanted to say it before I forgot I was thinking it.

In debate today, Sen. Santorum and others made the argument that because a significant portion of American did not want to spend federal tax dollars to destroy life, that it was unacceptable for him to vote for the bill. The thought that comes to my mind is that there are a lot of think that I do not want my tax dollars to pay for, and that I would think many others would agree. For example, I would prefer my tax dollars not be spent on the war, and I think polls and public opinion show that a significant portion of the population agree. I find it highly doubtful, however, that Sen. Santorum would respect that and vote to not fund the war.

I can accept many Senators' moral perspective on the issue, although I do not agree. However, I would hope that politicians would keep to that argument without resorting to the nonsense that because many people are opposed to a particular practice tax dollars should not be spent on it.

Insanity in the Mideast

I've hesitated to put up anything about the recent crisis in the mideast simply because it's so insane, and the information about same has been so incredibly twisted and one-sided that it makes discussion in any rational way difficult.

Can the U.S. any longer serve as an honest broker between the parties when Bush has studiously ignored being involved in the situation since gaining office, thus resulting in things getting to this point? And with the official U.S. line is so blindly pro-Israel, the administration withdrawing it's embassy from Syria last year, and other factors, has Bush essentially given up our ability to negotiate as an honest middleman?

Can or should the U.S. do something to stop the fighting?

Bush is already getting harsh criticism from the right for even urging restraint by Israel.

Just moments ago, the fat, chain-smoking self-appointed "Morality Czar" and admitted problem gambler, Bill Bennett, (whose continued appearance on major news shows is inexplicable) was visibly angry at calls for a cease-fire, saying, "Give war a chance." It's these people and this way of thinking on the right which is responsible for the world dissolving into war and death. They not only don't do anything to prevent or limit it, but actively encourage it.

It's been shown that many in power on the right are Christian believers that are anxious for the end of the world so they can go to heaven. Their foreign and environmental policies reflect this in that they seem almost anxious for the destruction of the earth and "end of the world".

When religiously inspired delusion is the basis of your thinking, when you truly believe that there's no use planning for the future because the world is coming to an end, you end up with the insane policies we've seen coming from this administration, particularly in the mideast.

They're in love with war, they think it's the answer to every problem. And they're too stupid to realize that for every person killed in war, it takes generations to overcome the damage and feelings of revenge. Hell, it never ends. Some conflicts which started thousands of years ago are still ongoing, such as in the Balkans and elsewhere.

Yet these people feel perfectly comfortable advocating death and destruction in the belief that this will somehow eliminate the groups they see as a threat.

It may or it may not, but it certainly won't do a damn thing about the root problem, other than inflame and exacerbate it.

The right and the Republicans for the most part are drunk on military power.

I don't know what can be said about the situation, the botched evacuation of U.S. citizens, the White House doing absolutely nothing as U.S. citizens in Lebanon are being shelled and killed, and on and on.

And while this attrocity is going on, we see representatives and partisans for both sides, though mainly Israel, talking in school-boy tough guy talk, using the most inflamatory language imaginable to portray the enemy as sub-human monsters, brutally killing innocent women and babies, while COMPLETELY ignoring the fact that they themselves have done exactly the same thing.

It's truly like two kids hauled before the principal after a fight pointing fingers and saying, "He did it!", "No, He hit me first!", and on and on.

And in the meantime, the incompetent Condi Rice does less than nothing, and is only now, under pressure, planning to go to the area. Bush hasn't a clue and is typically shying away from a situation which might incur disapproval or his own political popularity, what little he has left.

Missouri Triumph plant draws suits and concern

Here's a bit from St. Joseph, MO based KQTV which deals with the issue of hogs being delivered to slaughter suffering from extreme stress. (though the idea that you can't yell at a hog is kinda odd, considering that they've just been loaded and packed tightly together in a bouncing, swaying semi and driven for great distances. I guess workers may end up being required to take hog sensitivity training?

Another safety issue for Triumph Foods concerns the livestock.

The high heat can be deadly on hogs -- literally stressing them to death.

Triumph loses revenue every time a hog doesn`t make it to slaughter, but that`s not the only concern.

The handling of the hogs could be a food quality issue, and perhaps a legal matter.

Truckloads of hogs ready for slaughter approach Triumph Foods in the dead of the night. It`s the coolest time of day, easing some of the stress put on the hogs.

"The stress of course would be heat and then yelling. Anything that stresses us, stresses [the hogs]--terrifies them," Gary Silverglat, a 30-year veteran of the pork processing industry, says.

University and veterinarian research shows stress in hogs causes lactic acid to build up, resulting in mediocre meat.

"There are hormones in your body that cause the stress condition. In cattle, it`s called `firery carcuses` because when they kill the animal and take the hyde off, the fat would be bloody red, because the blood comes to the surface,similar to when the human body gets excited, your blood goes into stress mode to fight. The same thing happens in hogs, so you want a hog calm when you go to slaughter because the meat will be better," Silverglat says.

But it`s not just the heat or the quality of the meat that worries one animal rights group. KQ2 showed People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, footage of hogs being off loaded at Triumph Foods. Some of the hogs were dead. Others were yelled at and whipped to move off of the truck.

"What we see on this video is cruelty to animals," Bruce Friedrich, vice president of PETA`s international grassroots organization, says.

PETA believes the video may be in violation of state and federal laws.

"The beating the animals until they squeal appears to violate the American Veterinary Medicine protocol for moving pigs to slaughter. The, by definition, it would not be standard agricultural practice, at least by Missouri state law, and it would be illegal," Friedrich says.

You can inject me with drugs, raise me in confinement pens, feed me the waste of other animals, haul me packed in trucks, use stun guns on me, beat me with bars, hang me upside down from chains while you slit my throat and then dunk me in boiling water, tear out my guts and cut me up, but please don't yell at me."

"Ohhhhh. I don't feel so good. To think I made it this far just to die before they kill me. Give me some quiet before I die of my injuries. No yelling."

The tortoise and the hare

The Hare is winning the race this time around, at least when it comes to raking in dough.

Illinois Democratic congressional candidate Phil Hare has surged ahead of Republican opponent Andrea Zinga in the scramble to collect campaign dollars for their 17th District election showdown.

Despite having only three weeks of fundraising compared with Zinga’s three months, Hare, of Rock Island, had raised $226,799 by Saturday, the July 15 deadline to report second-quarter campaign donations to the Federal Election Commission. Zinga, of Coal Valley, however, came close to her goal of $200,000, collecting a reported $192,690 since April. That number may be amended, though, with an additional $11,000 in Internet donations that were not officially reported, said her campaign manager, Charlie Johnston.

Internet donations?? I thought no politician gave a damn about those, and they're stupid and not even worth bothering with, right trolls? (ahem)

Open Secrets has a summary of finance info on the 17th District race.

Be sure to click on the various links listed in the sidebar to the left under the headings of Summary and Geographic data and Interest Groups.

No data under these headings for Hare as yet, but some interesting data for Zinga.

The most recent filing for the Hare campaign can be viewed or downloaded on the FEC site here.
The link listing individual and PAC donors and amounts can be found here.

Zinga's most recent filing can be viewed or downloaded here.

Her individual and PAC donors (none) and amounts are listed here. (notice that Moline Alderman Mike Crotty didn't report any occupation. Under Schedule C loans to the committee, it shows Zinga loaning herself $75,000 total.)

Let the Eagle Soarrrrrrrrrr

Here's a shot taken yesterday of an eagle soaring over the hills of Rock Island's Longview Park.

I don't know about you, but to me, that can only mean one thing. It's time once again to kick back and dig the tragi-comic lounge stylings of Johnny A.

E.T.'s bike in Longview Park?

I don't know why or how I stumble across stuff like this, but I'm kinda glad I do.
The latest oddity was pointed out to me by some kids at Rock Island's very nice Whitewater Junction water park.

While escaping the blazing sun by seeking some shade up on one of the surrounding hills, some kids said there was a bike in the tree just behind me. That's enough to make me look, (hell, anything is. I'm curious to a fault) and I tried to see what they were talking about.

I didn't see anything as I scanned up the nearby trees. I had to ask where it was and follow their pointed fingers. I tracked up the trunk of the tree, up, and up, and up, and then up some more. Finally, there is was. A ten speed road bike firmly planted in the tree about 40 feet up!!!

Click on images to see them better.







Of course, the first thing that escaped my lips was, "How'd it get there?"

I got various responses, but the first, and most plausible, considering my companions, was that E.T. crashed there. (the basket must have blown away in a storm).

I truly have no explanation for how a bike could get lodged in a tree far beyond a height any mere human could throw it.

My best guess was that someone probably ditched the bike in the crotch of the tree, maybe putting it up about 6 ft off the ground at the time, and the spot was so secluded that no one noticed it as the tree continued to grow, finally resulting in the bike being up where only birds could enjoy it.

I still have no explanation for how it was so firmly attached that it could stay fixed in the tree through strong winds and storms. It's not hanging on anything, and appears to be lodged between two branches of the tree with the front fork dug into one of them.

And maybe the most baffling thing to me, how did anyone even notice that it was up there? Apparently, all these kids knew about it somehow, but I'd have never noticed it in a thousand years.

After all, you usually don't see bicycles 40 feet up in a tree, but now I have. And so have you.



P.S. I've seen two other weird things in the past few months, but alas, I didn't have my camera handy.

One was a HUGE dark blue replica of one of those folding camp chairs that are so popular. It was sitting in the front yard of a house on the north side of the 3600 block of 12th Ave. in Moline. With no exageration, the top of the back of the chair was higher than the gutters of the house, and the seat was probably 6-7 feet off the ground! I'd guess 15 people could fit on it comfortably.

I can only speculate that it may have been a promotional thing from the chair manufacturer that this person got hold of somehow. (Or maybe it was Paul Bunyan's camping chair?)

I was so impressed that later that night, I made a special trip with my camera to try to get a shot of it to share, but, as luck would have it, they'd already taken it down for some reason. I keep checking every time I'm in the area, but alas, it hasn't appeared again. (I'm pretty sure I wasn't hallucinating, the person I was with saw it too. Anyone else happen to notice it?)

The other was a canary yellow Camero, maybe around an '89, which some industrious wrench jockey had put on a jacked-up 4x4 truck frame. It was up so high and had such huge tires that you'd literally have to use a step-ladder to get in or out.

It was parked for sale in an East Moline parking lot, but that too, had disappeared by the time I returned to get a shot a few days later.

Davenport wins round one in traffic cam challenge

I'm very sorrry to hear this came out this way.

Any legal authorities or others care to predict the future of this case?

Does Seymour's argument have merit?

Iowa's constitution doesn't bar cities from enforcing municipal laws against things like speeding, a Scott County magistrate judge ruled Monday in a Bettendorf man's challenge of the constitutionality of Davenport's automated traffic cameras.

Thomas Seymour was joined by the American Civil Liberties Union in his challenge of Davenport's authority to create municipal traffic ordinances against speeding, and whether the traffic cameras meet due process requirements or abdicate police power.

...

In August 2005, Davenport aldermen approved an ordinance authorizing the use of the speed cameras. Tickets issued from speed cameras are civil fines and are sent to the vehicle's owner, not necessarily the person driving.

Randall Wilson of the ACLU of Iowa Foundation argued the main issue was whether Davenport could create the ordinance in the first place. "We say the uniform speeding ticket is the means to enforce speeding. The judge disagreed and we'll study his ruling," he said. "We're inclined to appeal."

In court filings, Mr. Seymour's attorney, Michael McCarthy, argued because the tickets are civil violations and not a simple misdemeanor like a traditional traffic tickets, the ordinance establishing use of the cameras deprives a vehicle owner of federal and state constitutional rights of due process.

"The City of Davenport does not possess the authority to diminish the protections that would be available to the defendant had he been prosecuted under a state statute covering the same subject," Mr. McCarthy's court brief states.

Judge Williamson wrote there is case law that shows cities enforcing municipal infractions, such as speeding, is not prohibited by the Iowa constitution. He denied Mr. Seymour's motion to dismiss the charges and ordered him to pay his $125 ticket.

...

Mr. Seymour argued his due process was diminished because it is up to the defendant to prove he or she was not the driver of a ticketed vehicle. The judge ruled Mr. Seymour "misses the point" and that the city still must prove a violation occurred and the vehicle was registered to the person who got the ticket.

Judge Williamson's ruling continued on to address Mr. Seymour's argument that the traffic enforcement cameras relinquish authority from the police regarding the fines. The traffic cameras aren't city property, but leased from Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz., and are paid for using proceeds from fines.

The judge ruled that because an officer reviews, signs and files each ticket, the ordinance doesn't conflict with case law preventing police authority from being delegated to private companies.

Chris Jackson, a city attorney handling the case, said when creating the ordinance Davenport's legal department anticipated challenges like this. The ruling "really only applies to Mr. Seymour," Mr. Jackson said. "If this thing goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, this becomes precedent."

It's getting hot in here

Everything that's pink and lighter on this map represents high temps in the upper 90's and over 100 degrees. A good chunk of the middle portion of the country are recording temps over 100 degrees.

And what's more, it's not just a regional hot spot, the entire country is experiencing temperatures 10 to 25 degrees above historical norms.

But as we know from Republicans, this is all no big deal, and the weather that gets more extreme every year has nothing to do with global warming.

God help us

I found one of my favorite TV moments on YouTube.

Steven Colbert interviews Representative Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), who sponsered a bill to display the 10 Commandments in Congress.

It's truly a beautiful thing.

Click the play button in the middle of the clip to view. (you might have to click it twice)



And here's a John Stewart clip dealing with our senior senators. Egads.


By the way, YouTube now opens up the blog to my posting videos, which may prove interesting.

And of course, if any readers have any video clips of interest, let me know. I'll let you know how to upload them so they can appear here.

And I think we all should take a moment to relive Fearless Leader's stirring State of the Union speech of last year.

Which of these things are not like the others

Illinois Congressional Districts as they stood in 1951

In 1961...

... and in 2002 all hell breaks loose.
The districts bust out of county boundaries and start leaking and snaking all over.
Which leads to....


Thanks to commenter "Nicodemus" for sending along the historical maps.

Got any ripe tomatoes?

Bettendorf lawyer Brian Kennedy in as Frist's Iowa PAC.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has hired a Bettendorf lawyer to chair his political action committee’s Iowa efforts.

Brian Kennedy, who lost a bid for the Republican nomination in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District last month, will head the Volunteer PAC’s Iowa arm. The PAC announced the appointment on Thursday.

Kennedy also said Thursday that Frist will be in Davenport on July 29, when he plans to run the Quad-City Times Bix 7 then campaign for Iowa Statehouse candidate Roby Smith and 1st District congressional candidate Mike Whalen.

I'm taking bets on whether Frist will run the entire course. Any takers?

How much further than the top of Brady will Frist run? Or will he pull a Rosie Ruiz and run the first mile or so, then hop in a car and get out to run across the finish line? Or will he complete the entire race, even if it's in the 90's with stiffling humidity?

River City Reader's McGreevy to commercialize Moline garbage trucks

Long time publisher of The River Cities Reader and promoter of the arts in the area, Todd McGreevy has apparently branched out into the advertising game. His media and marketing company "Admospheres" has landed a contract with the city of Moline to turn their new fleet of robotic arm garbage trucks into rolling billboards.

The QC Times is positively excited about the idea of ads on garbage trucks. An opinion piece in that paper reads as if McGreevy had written it himself:

Moline aldermen this week moved ahead with a novel idea to wrap their new automated garbage trucks with the colorful, eye-catching advertising we’ve seen around here on MetroLink and CitiBus vehicles.

Moline fleet manager J.D. Schulte estimates the new garbage truck deal will net $12,000 to $15,000 annually from its contract with Admospheres. Admospheres president Todd McGreevy expects to sign his first client to the garbage truck ads by summer’s end.
...

We’re impressed Moline took the plunge on their five new automated garbage trucks. We’ll be interested to see if it can generate enough money, as Schulte hopes, to cover tires, oil changes and other maintenance on the trucks. In a community loaded with new automated garbage trucks (Davenport, Rock Island and Bettendorf) we hope others are watching, too.

Flutter-by

I wish I could take credit for the above shot, but it was captured by the lovely and talented Dopette, official gardener of The Inside Dope.

Her hard work and skill provides a lot of great subject matter (only exceeded by the Dopette herself) and it seems that every day something else is blooming.

Her garden attracts a lot of butterflies (such as the pictured Western Tiger Swallowtail) as well as a few hummingbirds. (the walking stick hasn't made a repeat appearance this year, alas.)

Continuing the cavalcade of lilies, here's some shots of a couple more varieties. (and typically, I'm not sure what they are.)

Will Reynolds fundraiser

Readers in the Springfield area, come on down.

Pizza Buffet fundraiser for Sangamon County Board Candidate Will Reynolds

Bernie & Betty's Pizza
1101 Spring St, (On the corner of Spring and Allen)
Thursday, August 3rd. 5pm-7pm.
$20 per person. $200 per sponsor.

I hope you'll be able to attend! You can pay at the door or send money in advance to:

Will Reynolds
P.O. Box 13341
Springfield, IL 62791

Make checks payable to Citizens for Will Reynolds

For candidate Beals, running mouth = jacked jaw

That seems to be the equation applying to the incident at a Moline bar which resulted in Republican candidate for 36th District state senator Jim Beals' broken jaw.

As usual, John Beydler has done the real work and gotten access to records pertaining to the lawsuit Beals filed against both the guy who punched him AND the bar where it occured. The details indicate that it was Beals crowing about beating some guy at darts that inspired said guy to rearange Beals' face.

I find it surprising that someone running for office would be trying to get money out of a bar owner for simply allowing someone who had been drinking to be in a bar.

I know it's shocking, but sometimes there's drunk people in bars. And sometimes they're cocky jerks.

Silence of the Clams

The catch of the day
My fishin' buddy has a knack for catching clams. (More likely mussels. There are 49 species of mussel in the Mississippi, but only four species of clam.)

While this doesn't seem like much, it makes him as happy as... well... a clam. (Not sure how the clams feels about it. They were pretty tight lipped.)

Any time we're able to pull at least some sort of critter out of the water, no matter how big or small, it's all good.

How he manages to catch these clams is a mystery. My best guess is that the clams are doing their clam thing on the bottom with their shells partially open, and he manages to drag his hook across them and the clam, annoyed, clamps down on the hook and it gets snagged.

In my years of fishing around here, I've caught eels (twice), sturgeon, bowfin, gar, snapping turtles, and every sort of odd creature you could imagine, but never a clam.

The first lunker clam my pal caught was in Sylvan slough a few years ago. He was ecstatic and wanted to keep it as a pet. I debated, not sure whether the clam would chew the furniture or be easily house broken. I finally decided to compromise and at least take it home so he could show it off. Then, I figured, I'd return the clam to whence he came.

This wasn't a great idea.

I emptied the cooler and filled it with some yummy slough water for the clam, not easy with a steep rock bank, and we fished for perhaps another half hour before eventually leaving for home.

I was a bit worried about the health of the clam, as the day was hot, and on the way home, I thought better of the idea and decided to stop off behind the Moline water works where I knew there was a clam bed. I thought we could put him in the water there and observe it, see if it opened up or showed any signs of life. Maybe it would at least revive the clam enough to take it back to it's home.

We watched it for a long time. Nothing. Two of us crouched on the river's edge staring at a motionless clam for about a half hour. Concern mounted.

I tried to say hopeful things to my buddy to ease his (our) concerns, but I harbored doubts. Surely after this amount of time, it would have opened up at least a little.

I felt very bad about it, and not knowing exactly what to do, I gently convinced the clam hunter that we should leave the clam there. I told him that the clam was probably alright, though I wasn't too sure.

I once caught a catfish, wrapped it in some newspapers and put it in my trunk where it stayed in probably 100 degree plus temperatures for several hours. This was back when I actually cleaned, prepared, and ate some of my catch, which I no longer do. (strictly catch and release) When I finally got home to my then apartment, I hauled it in and prepared to clean it. And the thing was STILL alive and kicking. (well, flopping)

Clams aren't like that I found.

So I took my buddy home. We told the story of the amazing clam he'd caught in breathless tones, and relived the excitement. But the clam was weighing on my mind.

After going home and taking care of some things, I got online and did some research. I knew that clams were protected, and I found out that if you take a clam, you should return them to the spot you found it. Different species of clams establish beds over several years, and introducing other species can upset the balance of things.

I read more about how dredging, agricultural runoff, barge traffic, and other factors are posing severe threats to mussels. They are truly the canary in the coal mine for river health.

But despite all these threats, they've hung on, though in dramatically smaller numbers and only attaining a fraction of the size they used to. But now, the invasive Zebra Mussel threatens to wipe them out entirely.

The mussel we caught yesterday had many of them attached to it's shell, which I removed before returning it to the water. The Zebra mussel is an enormous threat to midwest rivers and apparently has escaped the notice of our environmentalist state senator, perhaps because it's such a difficult problem and there's no money to be made in trying to eradicate it.

So after reading up on the issue, I couldn't take it anymore. I had to go check on the clam and at least return it to the spot where we'd caught it.

It was now after midnight. But I got up, drove down behind the waterworks, hoping maybe the clam had revived and moved off, but not too confident that was the case. With a flashlight, I eventually found it in the water where we'd left it. I put it in the cooler in some fresh river water, and loaded the thing gently in the car.

I drove back to the Sylvan slough, which those familiar with that area know is a pretty remote spot in an industrial no-man's zone. At night, it's very spooky, to put it mildly.

But I got out and walked onto the ancient iron bridge over the rushing water of the slough which is the only access to the island. While on the bridge, I noticed the glow of a fire by the side of the river up the channel near my destination. I hoped that whoever was there wasn't some gang of crack addicts who would look upon someone like me stumbling up on them as a gift from God.

I continued onto the darkened island which over the years has been the home of vagrants, drunks, gangs, and on which more than one body has been found.

It's been improved in the last few years, with widened paths, fishing platforms, and other very nice improvements. But it's still damn spooky in the middle of the night.
The bottom line is that there's no one there to help, if you were attacked or severely injured, you'd have a loooong way to go to even get off the island, no one would even hear you if you screamed or yelled, and if you couldn't move, no one might find you for days.

With all this in the back of my mind, I walked up the path flanked by tall weeds and a steep bluff leading down to rushing water on one side, and dark tangled woods laced with paths on the other, and I'll tell you, I was, shall we say, ON EDGE. A snap of a twig would have given me a heart attack. It was just plain scary. And I had about two hundred yards to go to get to the place we'd gotten the clam. And who knew who was up there? But I was on a mission, damn it.

I kept going, carrying the cooler and trying to convince myself that I could deal with whatever I might come upon.

I got to the area with only a couple jumpy moments, and didn't see anyone around the fire. This was good and bad. At least if they were there, I could keep an eye on them. I didn't know if they were in the dark around there watching me or what. Had they left with the fire still going? Where were they? (I never did see anyone)

I went out on the fishing platform where we'd caught the clam, opened the cooler, fished out the clam, which had likely gone to the big clam bed in the sky by this time, and tossed it back into the slough. Then I hoped that I didn't see anyone standing there when I turned back around.

I didn't.

I squared my shoulders and just --- kept ---- walking. I couldn't help but steal a few glances back over my shoulder as I made my way back to the bridge, but thankfully, I couldn't see anything in the gloom.

I resisted the impulse to run the last distance to the car, calmly unlocked the door, and got in. But boy, I never felt such relief as when I finally locked the door behind me.

But at least I knew that the clam was where it was supposed to be. Aside from it having apparently joined the choir eternal, things were put right.

We didn't make the same mistake with the clam yesterday, and quickly returned it to the water. Good thing, as it looks like it may have been a Higgin's Eye, which is a federally endangered species and threatened with extinction. (more here)

The moral of the story? Don't take clams out of the water for long on a hot day. They'll die.

And don't go out on Sylvan Island in the middle of the night by yourself.

You might run into some crazy person carrying a clam in a cooler.

Blogs as fundraising sources

Just happened to notice this in the sidebar at the very popular Eschaton blog.

It's a list of candidates and the donations received by each through this one blog alone through the end of June.

Eschaton Approved Candidates
Fundraising totals as of 6/27:
Lois Murphy $15422
Joe Sestak $3622
Ned Lamont $29579
Patrick Murphy $9903
Louise Slaughter $6172
Nick Lampson $1488
Chris Carney $697
Jon Tester $456

I'm not aware of how long Atrios has been calling for donations to these candidates. For instance, he may have added some to the list only recently.

A couple grumpy commenters here have made it a point to sneer at and dismiss online fundraising in general, and the use of blogs to generate support specifically.

Though admittedly, Eschaton is one of the most popular progressive blogs, is national in scope, and has a readership which dwarfs most blogs, (it probably gets more visits per day than this blog gets in almost a year) $67,339.00 raised from readers of a single blog over a few months isn't anything to sneeze at.

I'm not sure how representitive this is or what it suggests, but it's one example which shows that attracting financial support online isn't a myth.

Even adjusting downward in scale, it would suggest that campaigns attracting and enlisting the support of bloggers and their readers could be worthwhile.

Gee, I wonder if there's much interest in the Reynold's case?

traffic data from the past two days
Ill be damned. The blog must have suddenly gotten the attention it deserves. (cough)

The fact is that the huge spike is due solely to people from around the world searching on "sarah kolb" or "adrianne reynolds". This happened once before after the Kolb trial verdict.

And here's a very partial list of the location of visitors who got here searching on "sarah kolb" or "adrianne reynolds" during about a 6 minute period this morning. I finally got tired and gave up writing them down.

A large number seemed to be from either college computer systems, lots of law firms, or media/communication companies, to no surprise.


Jersey City, NJ
St. Joseph, MI
Wolfeboro, NH
Chicago
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Knight Capital, Staten Island, NY
Baker, Botts, Houston (James Baker's firm)
St. Anselm's College Manchester, NH
Allstate Insurance, Northbrook, IL
Army Corp of Engineers, League City, TX
Salt Lake City ,UT
Las Vegas, NV
Baltimore, MD
U of Texas, Austin, TX
Nat'l Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Alaska Dept. of Transportation and Public Facilities, Juneau, AK
Rockland, WI
Rock Hill, SC
Pepperdine, Malibu, CA
Iowa City
Alpharetta, GA
Motorola, Shaumburg, IL
Bank of America, Concord, CA
Muleshoe, TX
Skadden, Arps (enormous corporate law firm), NY, NY
Columbus, OH
Jones, Day law firm, Cleveland, OH
Bank of Marin, San Francisco, CA
Fidelity Investments, Boston
Export/Import Bank, Washington, DC
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
UCLA, Las Angeles, CA
Perot Government Services, Herndon, VA
Army, Ft. Campbell, Clarksville, TN
University of Kansas, Lawrence
Connecticut State University, Hartford
Standord University, Stanford, CA
Hutchison School, Memphis, TN
Toronto, Ontario
Tucson Newspaper Group (looking for a photo of Kolb)
Hill Air Force Base, UT
Google Corporation, Mountain View, CA
Science Applications International Corporation , San Diego, CA
Foote, Cone & Belding Communications, NY, NY (looking for Reynolds picture)
Caterpillar, Peoria, IL
City of New York, Brooklyn, NY
Tribune Company, Chicago
West Palm Beach, FL

Sen. Ted Stevens, net know-nothing

Ted Stevens, (R-Alaska), in addition to being a sputtering loon most of the time and the king of pork spending, is the guy who has enormous power over the future of the internet and whether service providers (the corporations such as AT&T and Verizon who own the on-ramps to the information superhighway) are allowed to charge us to view popular sites which utilize a lot of bandwidth. (The "net neutrality" issue).

If you've always thought the internet was a big truck (and who didn't?), you're wrong.

Turns out it's a series of tangled up tubes.

Listen, learn, and be inspired by Stevesn's firm grasp of internet technology. (and bust a move if ya want.)

(thanks to Crooks & Liars)

Support Judge Wright on the 19th

Judge Vicki Wright of Whiteside County will be the honored guest at a
fundraising reception to boost her 3rd Appellate District candidacy on
Wednesday, July 19, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the home of Stewart Winstein (3535-
24th Street in Rock Island). $50 is the fundraising reception ticket price.
Questions? Call 309-786-8337.

It is a fact that the right is, and has been, making an enormous and largely effective effort to fill court vacancies at all levels with judges who support their "values", "values" which often are unrecognizable to people with the quaint idea of the rights of individuals, privacy, the right to sue for redress of grievances, even if it's against a large corporation, and other basic premises of justice.

They know that when the right wing congress enacts laws, the public's last recourse is to seek justice in the courts. When they have right wing judges in place there, they're ensured that their often anti-democratic and constitutionally questionable laws will be upheld. While they rail and whine about supposed "judicial activism", the fact remains that the right has mounted a huge and concerted campaign to ensure that they are the ones in place to practice just such activism.

This effort has largely gone under the radar to most of the public, which makes it all the more crucial that candidates like Judge Vicki Wright get your support.

The right is flush with money and anything you can see fit to donate would be welcomed by the Wright campaign. Please consider a donation in this crucial contest.

Gregory gets 45 years for murder of Adrianne Reynolds

The accomplice of Sarah Kolb in the murder and dismemberment of Adrianne Reynolds received 45 years in prison today.

In a packed Rock Island County courtroom, Cory Gregory looked Adrianne Reynolds’ parents in the eye and said he was sorry for the 16-year-old’s murder. About 30 minutes later, he was given the maximum sentence of 45 years for his role in it.

Trash talk

A robo-truck feeding itself some delicious garbage
Continuing with my strange interest in automated garbage collection.....

The "Trash-zilla" trucks are on the streets of Moline. It's been two weeks since the city completed distribution of the new industrial strength cans. What's the verdict so far?

I was surprised when I first saw how the robo-trucks lift the container.

Since the cans have an indented slot running up the side which is supposed to face the truck, with a solid metal bar mounted across it near the top, I assumed that the trucks would have some sort of hook which would slide up the channel in the can, engage the bar, and lift it into the truck.

Not so.

The method doesn't even use the bar at all. Rather, a couple arms swing around the can, encircling it with spring tensioned reinforced rubber straps, much like some playground swings are made out of, and simply pinches the can as it lifts it up and over.

I wouldn't stand in front of this thing unless you want a potentially lethal bear hug.
I asked the driver if that wouldn't cause some problems in the case of a rainy day and too heavy cans. Wouldn't it be likely that some cans would simply slip out of the grasp of the arm?

He said that they'd been warned that there indeed could be problems, especially on mornings when the cans could be covered in frost. He also pointed out the potential situation where the arm would be able to lift the can, but having it slip out and fall into the truck itself when it comes to a stop over the hopper.

This of course would be big fun for the driver, who, I imagine, would have to somehow scale the truck, climb down into the slippery dump hole, and then somehow extricate the heavy can and himself. All without any assistance. (cost savings, ya know.)

The primary reason given for automation and how it would save money was the large cost of workers compensation claims paid to "sanitation engineers". If the drivers have to be scaling the trucks and fishing cans out of the hopper on frosty or snowy mornings, I can imagine that they'll still be having quite a few claims.

I've heard one report of a can which broke apart the first time it was picked up by the new truck.

Many people now have to place their cans further away from their homes as well and others have had to change from leaving them in their alleys to placing them on the street in front. I'm sure that there's other special circumstances and problems as well.

A source from the city told me that they plan to have a sort of utility truck on duty which will go around the entire city taking care of locations which the automated trucks simply can't service and using an add-on lift device which fits the old style trucks (and which uses the metal bar to hoist the can) or emptying them by hand.

One positive bit of info I discovered was that while some garbage workers were reassigned and knocked down to janitors with a very steep cut in pay, none were fired outright. At least they're still employed.

And evidently, I'm off the hook for my usual holiday gift of booze and/or monetary cheer for the hard working guys who used to brave the elements to remove life's excesses.

Any reports from the field? Complaints? Cheers? Jeers?

"An Inconvenient Truth" should be required viewing

I recently caught Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" at the theatre in Moline, and it was the first time I'd ever gone to a theatre and paid $8.50 for a seminar.

Not that it was boring or uninteresting, quite the contrary.

The film intersperses a powerpoint presentation and lecture Al Gore has been giving for many years in efforts to get through to people about the threat global warming poses to the planet with a personal narrative.

The movie switches back and forth between the presentation itself and Gore doing a voice over during shots of his travels giving the lecture, and film clips and images traceing his childhood spent between a hotel in D.C. and their Tennessee farm where they raised Black Angus cattle and tobacco, the death of his sister, a smoker, from lung cancer and how his father then quit growing tobacco, the near death of his young son after being struck by a car, to his first becoming aware of and educated about the problem of global warming by a professor in college and his efforts through his political career to try to gain attention and action on the problem. It even recounts in a montage the reprehensible actions which lead to Bush's annointment by the Surpreme Court in 2000 and it's effects on Gore at the time.

One phrase from the movie jumped out at me.

After recounting the devastation of the loss in 2000, the scene shows Gore in some hotel room hunched over his laptop in a pensive mood. The hushed and dramatic voice-over is Gore speaking of how he had to deal with the loss and figure out what to do next.

After a dramatic pause, he says he decided to, "go back to doing the slide show".

Something about that just struck me.

I think whenever people find themselves in untenable, unworkable, or a just plain bad situation, pretty much flat on their asses, they should simply say, "Well, I think it's time to start giving the slide show again.", or simply, "Time for the slide show." I hope it catches on.

At any rate, the movie was very good, well constructed and did not drag or bog down but moved along at a nice pace. And above all, it really presents a comprehensive, scientifically sound, yet easy to understand, overview of historical climate data, most importantly on the historic levels of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere gathered through analysis of arctic ice core samples which allow the analysis of air pockets in ice which represent the atmosphere going back hundreds of thosands of years, and the direct correlation between the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and historic temperature levels gleaned from the same sources.

These graphs are alarming to say the least, with both showing dramatic spikes in recent decades which eclipse any in the recorded data, which goes back through several ice ages.

The domino effects of global warming, which triggers melting of the ice caps, which changes ocean temperatures, which alter ocean currents which are the primary determinants of regional weather, which causes the increase in severe storms and hurricanes which we're already experienceing, which causes devastating shifts in weather patterns, increasing rain and flooding in some parts of the world, while causing massive droughts and the drying out of the soil and "dessertification" in other areas.

And of course, if even a part of the arctic or Greenland ice shelfs melt, the resulting rise in sea levels would produce tens of millions of refugees and untold devastation.

The evidence is stark and hard to dismiss and has withstood the obsessive efforts of those on the right to find any substantial error or contradictory data.

While Gore has a natural drone, his narration and presentation isn't dry and boring, and importantly, he doesn't come across as overly preachy or strident.

He even avoids opportunities to really lambast Bush for his administration's shameful neglect and the right's attempts to deny that the problem is established scientific fact, though he does allude to it briefly on a few occasions, and holds up those who attempt to dismiss the overwhelming scientific evidence to well deserved, but gentle, ridicule.

One interesting section had Gore showing results of a survey of hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies to do with global warming and whether human activity was to blame. While I don't recall the precise numbers, it's safe to say that there were over 300 studies surveyed. Out of that number, exactly zero disagreed that global warming was a real phenomena and that man's activities were directly linked to it.

Against that fact, he showed a chart showing the number of times pieces had been produced in the media on the subject. Again, the numbers were in the hundreds.

Of all of these, over 50% contained the suggestion (promoted by polluters and others who want to muddy the issue) that there was no real concensus on the issue or the cause. In other words, over half of the stories in the press concerning global warming included the propaganda that opinion is evenly divided on the issue, even though that notion is utterly false. A stark reminder of how powerful corporate influence is over whether the public hears the truth or not.

Evidence was presented showing how the U.S. is embarassingly behind other industrialized nations on many fronts, including of course, the Kyoto treaty. In fuel economy standards alone, we're at the bottom of the heap, even far below China.

A bill was recently proposed which would have called for American fuel economy standards to gradually increase to the level that China's are today. (which are not even near the highest).

Our auto corporations and others argued the laughable notion that this requirement would put such a huge burden on them that they simply could not compete. And it only called for them to raise standards to what China is doing today, and gave them 11 years in which to achieve it.

Gore then showed a chart showing that Toyota, Honda, and others who have already risen to the challenge of increased efficiency have all prospered in recent years, while American automakers Ford and GM have suffered huge losses. He also made a strong case that meeting this challenge will produce economic growth and create new industries and jobs to replace any made obsolete by this necessary change.

Nearly all of the facts, figures, and data presented in the film is sourced, though as always, the sources should be scrutinized. Some charts were presented in such a way as to exagerate differences, such as having the baseline be something other than zero. But I feel this was justified in this case by the fact that even small changes in the data result in enormous climactic change. If they had been shown with a baseline of zero, they would have appeared less significant, but the seriousness of the increases may have been lost.

Though there's been predictable grousing on the right, it's been largely limited to ad hominem attacks on Gore, without any serious challenge to the scientific information presented in the film. And it's safe to assume that it was gone over frame by frame in an attempt to find ANYTHING which could be assailed or disproven.

I truly think that everyone, not just liberals or Democrats, but those who consider themselves conservative or Republican, owes it to themselves and their children and grandchildren to at least go see the movie.

As Gore points out more than once, this isn't a right/left, conservative/liberal issue, it's a MORAL issue, and it's imperitive that the county's will be brought to bear on the politicians who continue to dither and avoid serious action due to corporate influence and lack of popular pressure.

This problem is real, has already gone far beyond the point where we as a country should have taken the lead in addressing it, and action needs to be taken to avoid truly devastating consequences on a global scale.

Go see it if you haven't, and if you have, tell us what did you thought of it?

"An Inconvenient Truth" is currently showing at the Great Escape theatre in Moline. Click for schedule.

Visit the movie's website here.

An (over dramatized) trailer can be viewed here.

(For the irony files: The theatre's page contained a web ad for Metrobank with the slogan, "Standing the test of time..." Metrobank was bought out and became THE National Bank at the close of business last Friday.)

I read the news today, oh boy

Seemed like an awful lot of sad news today. While we were all busily doing our thing, as usual there was no shortage of personal tragedy, shock, and loss all around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A very cool old mansion once owned by the Deere family which perched on one of the choicest bluff-top lots with a commanding view of Moline, the river and the Deere factories which once lined its bank suffered a devastating fire.

The home had survived being turned into apartments, decades of decay and neglect and defied attempts by the city and others to restore it (Deere & Co. wouldn't contribute a dime). Somehow, someone had managed to find the money needed to rehab it and it was now occupied when a woman grilling on her deck set the place on fire.

What a real loss. The home was a one of a kind victorian mansion. A friend had an apartment there in the 70s and I recall the incredibly ornate parquet flooring throughout the first floor and the exquisite woodwork that still existed despite the shabby state of the building. It wasn't hard to imagine the formal and opulent life of it's original residents. There were remnants of extensive landscaping, terraces and gardens as well. I also recall that the home had a very unique early version of air-conditioning.

A shaft had been bored deep into the bluff, and over this, an open space continued up through the house. A large fan at the top would exhaust hot air, thus drawing up the cooler air from the shaft into the home to cool it.

The article sounds as if the damage is very extensive. It's not known if the home will be rebuilt

More here and here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A 22 year old woman downed while tubing in the Des Moine river. She apparently got caught in a current near a dam.

In searching for this story, I found another about 15 year old Iowa boy drowning in a freak accident while tubing in Wisconsin back on July 4th.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A 55 year old woman died from injuries sustained when the motorcycle she and her husband were riding struck a deer about a half mile north of Alcoa on State Street in Bettendorf. Her husband was treated and released.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A woman apparently decided to pull over her car on I-80 near Walcott at around 3:15 a.m. Sunday and then walk out in front of a semi tractor-trailer going about 65 mph in a suspected suicide.

Personel are still trying to determine the woman's identity from fingerprint and dental records and authorities say they believe from items found in her car that she is from East Moline.

What could have possibly caused someone to actually do such a thing?

And try to imagine what this is like for the driver of the truck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And in the topper from Missouri, we learn of 5 children, 4 of them siblings, who drowned during a church outing when one of them got stuck in the undercurrent and the others attempted to rescue him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life is a game of chance.

And some people chose to spend it on such important matters as making a big issue over whether a few of their political opponent's yard signs had a union bug on them or not.

Kind of puts things in perspective.

Hare is on the Internets *

As noted by John Beydler, Phil Hare now has a campaign website of sorts.

And great googly-moogly, it even has a means to donate online! This is a heretical idea which, when proposed months ago by myself as one reason candidates need to have a web site, (here and here) was met with jeers and slammed as stupid and impractical by a few troglodytes which were able to comment back when I left the gate unlatched.

Their wisdom: (spelling errors theirs)

I think that you are wrong. What is the gain to the pol. What can they do to get people to vote for them. People have to go to the pols site. If they do they are already for or against. I think it is way overrated.

and

The DOPe's views on blogs are way out of the mainstream Politcans don't need stinking blogs they need votes. Votes move politcans, not blogs...

And on on-line donations:

It's like the old Sinefield episode where George puts a tip in the tip jar and the person didn't see him so he takes out the money to do it again but gets caught. Blog donations no one sees and no one hears. People want to go to fundraisers to be seen. You think everyone just wants to stay in their basement and do everything anon. Not in the real world. People actually like to leave the house and see and be seen. You are way off base.

Someone better tell Hare he's "way off base".

Of course, those comments reflect a huge ignorance of how things work and weak logic.

The list of things to be gained by a politician having a website is a long one.(which should be apparent so I'll spare you.)

A website most definitely can translate to votes, for "politcans" or even politicians.

A website also allows people who normally wouldn't check out someone they feel they oppose to do so easily and perhaps be swayed.

And online donations are most certainly "seen" and recorded. The pol knows exactly who donated and how much. You just don't have to go stand around in someone's living room eating dubious hors d'oeurvres and making small talk to do it.

And the politician doesn't have to spend thousands of bucks setting up fundraisers, securing sponsors, getting a place, designing and printing invitations, donation cards, envelopes, thousands in postage, paying a mailing service to get them all out, recording who returns the donations, who came, etc. which means the first huge chunk of donations are eaten up entirely by the cost of the fundraiser.

But again, I guess the idea of utilizing online fundraising is apparently "way out of line".

A commenter to Beydler's post also notes that Hare's site is set up by some outfit out of D.C. rather than locally, which may explain the move into the 20th century despite the obvious ignorance of many in charge as to the use of the web.

* Click Here

Sens. Kyl and Deputy Dawg Graham attempts to defraud the Supeme Court

This may appeal more to the legal community out there, but I find it a very interesting situation.

It involves Senators John Kyl and Lindsay Graham staging a bogus collioquey on the Senate floor, thus ensuring it would be included in the record, solely for the reason of trying to cover their asses in regards to the Hamdan case being heard by the Supreme Court.

John Dean provides a run down of the case and the actions of the senators at FindLaw. Those of you who aren't interested in the legal details of this important case can scroll down to the section about the senators.

Though of course anyone is free to comment, I'd be interested in the opinion of any attorney's or judges out there as to the propriety of the senator's actions.

Whatcha reading?

Here's a list of some books I'd like to read in the near future.

"Overthrow, America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq"
Stephen Kinzer

I saw Kinzer interviewed on BookTV and this sounds like an excellent chronicle of the how, why, and consequences of America's largely corporate driven medling in foreign governments over the last century.

"American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury"
Kevin Phillips

Phillips is a great author and historian who happens to have been a former Republican strategist who predicted the ascendtion of the Republican party in his "The Emerging Republican Majority", which makes this book and his last, "American Dynasty : Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush" (which I've read) all the more credible.

Phillips clearly sees the hypocrisy, greed, and deceit of the Republican leaders and the corporate interests they serve which he helped to gain power.

Misquoting Jesus : The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Bart D. Ehrman

Should be interesting. I saw this author interviewed as well and the book explains a realistic view of the origin and numerous re-jiggerings the Bible has undergone over the ages and how it's used to reflect the desires and hangups of whomever happens to be the one pointing to the Bible as a basis for what they want to impose on all of society by political means.

"The Assassins' Gate : America in Iraq" George Packer

By all accounts, a hard-eyed and informative examination of just how we ended up in the quagmire in Iraq.


Those are but a few of the books on my "wish list", and I hope to get my hands on a copy sometime soon, though the libraries on the Illinois side are notorious for being jam packed with conservative screeds by the likes of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and disgraced toe sucker Dick Morris, a guy who's been dead wrong in everything he's ever written, while having only a relative handful of books critical of the administration. (A few of which are only there because I requested them.)

For instance, the Moline Library at one point didn't possess a copy of an Al Franken book which had at the time been on the NY Times bestseller list for a couple months, but had several obscure and largely unnoticed books trotting out all sorts of malicious garbage against the Clintons, Gore, and Kerry. Go figure.

Coulter gets Coultered

Ouch!

Will Reynolds for Sangamon County Board

I'm making a big exception to my self-imposed rule here and actually coming out and endorsing a candidate.

Will Reynolds, a former anonymous blogger, and a great one at that, is now turning his political skills and interests into more direct action by running for a seat on the Sangamon County Board.

Reynolds is a case study in the skillful and effective use of the internet in building a political campaign.

He first ran a very popular and well written blog for quite some time. It provided a wealth of discussion of various news and issues of concern to his area and allowed him to research issues and formulate positions as well as gage reader opinion.

Will quit running his very successful blog when he began entertaining thoughts of running for office. He was also planning to work as a campaign consultant and felt that for both of those reasons, he could no longer ethically run an anonymous blog.

After that, he began the Springfield chapter of Drinking Liberally which has enjoyed great success, and no doubt provided a core of supporters and advisors which provided help and encouragement in his desire to run for office. Reynolds has a host of other accomplishments as well.

The Reynolds candidacy is now established and has both a well-done campaign website and an excellent blog up and running.

Both are sterling examples of what candidates can do to leverage the power of the internet in their outreach, communications, and fund-raising efforts, even at the level of county board. (It doesn't have to be fancy, just well-designed and laid out.)

The website contains the basic elements which provide viewers and voters crucial information, such as a candidate bio, current news and press coverage, events, and a brief statement about what the campaign is about.

The blog allows Reynolds to feature issues of concern and discuss his views on them. This of course, provides an openness which is a valuable service to voters trying to assess their choices. I think such efforts will be very well received by voters.

It's not for everyone though. Such a service would be avoided by a politician who had no real knowledge of or ability to discuss details of any issues or who simply waits to see what his biggest contributors tell him his positions are. In that respect, it's in such as politician's best interests to keep the public in the dark on issues as well as their positions on them, and I'm sure some would avoid a campaign blog like the plague.

Bearing that in mind, a politician with a blog is a breath of fresh air, progressive, and an effective step away from entrenched, stagnant, business as usual politicians and their campaigns which seek to avoid explaining positions on issues beyond the bland, unimaginative, meaningless, generic and predictable platitudes which serve as the foundation of their campaigns. (I'm for jobs. I like kids, I like "family values", etc.)

If any of you are in Sangamon county or if you simply want to support a knowledgeable, personable, quality Democratic candidate who's not mired in the past, knows what the internet is, and isn't afraid to use it, please give Will your support.

As his slogan states, "Where there's a WILL, there's a way."


PS: As an aside, I heard something Sunday which cracked me up in a sad sort of way. Evidently, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Bridge to Nowhere) described the internet as, "a collection of tubes".

There ya go Senator. Reminded me of old Strom Thurmond, addressing a participant in a senate hearing whom he couldn't hear, telling them to "speak into the machine!", by which he meant the microphone.

Yeah, there's history in the Senate alright. Some of them are right out of the 70s, or as in Thurmond's case, the 1870s.

Haring begins "Coffee Talk Message Program"

A portion of a Haring press release:

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Steve Haring
Phone: 309-751-0975

Moline, IL – Steve Haring, candidate for State Representative, loves his coffee almost as much as he loves his politics. In an attempt to use his passion for coffee to his advantage in his bid for the 71st Representative District he has decided to start the “Coffee Talk With Steve Haring” message program.

“The district is 80 miles long so some of the issues in say Moline are miles apart from the issues in Morrison.” Steve said “I want to bridge that gap in Springfield, I want to represent the entire district not just some of it and I can’t do that unless I hear the concerns of people all over the district.”

This new program will be focused on local issues in different locations around the 71st House District. The first “Coffee Talk” will be in Rapids City, IL with more to come throughout the election cycle. Steve will provide the coffee as the voters provide the questions and topics. All are invited to attend and bring up the issues that are most important to them.

Steve will be having his first “Coffee Talk” at The Brothers Restaurant, 1718 2nd Ave, Rapid City, Illinois on July 24, 2006. Steve will be there from 7:00 am - 9:00 am, we hope to see you there.

The above is provided for informational purposes only and should not be taken as an endorsement or support of any candidate by this blog or it's owner.

Come on Dems. The Republicans are stealing your lunch once again. I've been practically begging campaigns to send in any info they'd like published for over a year and with only a couple exceptions, you've ignored it. I can't force you to be smart enough to take advantage of a golden opportunity. (and it doesn't cost a dime!)

Send along your press releases, information or announcements and I'll be glad to post any events you want publicized. Or of course, you could continue to squander the opportunity out of ignorance and/or petty spite while the Republicans take advantage. Your call.

Truth and Reality be damned

The routinely excellent Joe Conason:

In the acrid debate over Iraq, the President’s supporters will say anything. They will question the patriotism of those who disagree with “staying the course.” They will insinuate cowardice on the part of those who would “cut and run.” Even though they avoided military service, they will denigrate the records of decorated veterans like John Kerry and Jack Murtha. They will even accuse the war’s critics of providing “aid and comfort” to the enemy, which is the legal definition of treason.

Then the White House will turn around—after days of encouraging such vilification of their opponents—and leak the commanding general’s optimistic plan to start withdrawing troops, which would proceed according to the same timetable proposed by those weak and pusillanimous Democrats. That is meant to reassure the majority of Americans who realize invading Iraq was a strategic error and a tragedy that must be concluded as soon as possible.

All the slanders and all the maneuvers are performed for political expedience, not national security. In pursuit of Karl Rove’s electoral strategy, the Republicans will spend a trillion dollars and squander thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, and the prestige of the United States. There is only one thing they won’t do. They will not speak honestly about the war, because the truth cannot accommodate their crude partisan rhetoric.

Read the rest here

Whatever happens in Keithsburg, stays in Keithsburg

One man's misfortune is another man's opportunity, the saying goes.

And in Keithsburg, a sleepy river town barely getting by when its misfortunes were compounded by a devastating flood several years ago which nearly wiped the village off the map, a guy named Guy Brenkman apparently saw a goldmine.

Brenkman appears to be buying up the town, lock, stock, and barrel, and trying like hell to establish a strip club as well.

As he put it in an ad run recently in a Mercer county paper,

"Bikini's in Keithsburg, Illinois, offers entertainment that may offend some people," the ads read. "You are hereby given notice that females performing may appear in a topless state of dress as part of the entertainment package [package?] this establishment offers. Do not enter the establishment if this type of activity offends you. [We dare ya!]

"The owners of this establishment have chosen to offer this format of entertainment as their right under the United States Constitution's First Amendment allows them to do."

If that doesn't get those farm boys racing down the highway to Keithsburg, nothing will. Hell, it's closer than going to Rock Island or Davenport looking for hookers, as the Aledo mayor got busted doing not so long ago.

Bruckman originally proposed to open "Bikini's Bar & Grill" as a Hooter's style restaurant, which prompted the city council to hastily write and pass an ordinance designed to keep adult type entertainment out of the village. Brenkman had the waitresses dressed in string bikinis, but after having spying what he believes is a loophole in the wording of the ordinance, promptly began topless dancing about 5 weeks ago.

The place has been packed every since. As one alderman put it,

"When we first moved here, you could throw a rock down Main Street and not hit anything. Now, you actually have to stop at the corners."

Brenkman won a federal court battle in 2002 against the Peoria County Board and won the right to run a totally nude strip club, "Fantasyland" there.

Brenkman has also bought "several other buildings" in Keithsburg.

As the account in the D/A puts it:

Aside from the topless bar, Mr. Brenkman has bought several other buildings in downtown Keithsburg. His fiance, known as Sherri, runs an adult-themed women's wear shop. She's also offering exotic dancer classes as a way to draw more local dancers to Bikini's.

[Ankle Grabbing 101, Intro to Pole Humping, The Art Of Exotic Dance: Turn Your Panties Into An All-night Bank Deposit Box, and "Are You A Cop? The Do's and Don't's of Income Enhancement?]

Mr. Brenkman said currently all his dancers and bartenders are from outside the local area.

He also runs the Riverside Motel, which he said has been nearly full on a consistent basis [DUH!] since he came to town. In fact, he's looking at adding about eight more rooms to the motel because of its popularity.

He recently bought the Tastee Freeze and is in the middle of putting on an addition to move the arcade he bought and opened earlier this year into that building. He still has plans of reopening a dollar store, which opened for a short time earlier this year.

He had a run-in with the city council over a bank he wants to bring to town. He requested that a two-way street be switched to a one-way street to enable the bank to have drive-up service.

Mr. Brenkman said he has never seen "such stupid, narrow-(minded) action by a city council" when several aldermen voted against the change, and said he thinks several aldermen are against the project because it was presented by him.

Hmmm. A strip club, a thriving motel, an adult lingerie shop for "Sherri" to run, and his own bank to pile up all the cash. Could be the start of an empire ala Capone's Cicero of the 20's or perhaps Keithsburg will become the East Dubuque of the 50's and 60's.

It seems whatever the outcome, Bruckman is going to become an even wealthier man. (if some enraged farmer doesn't plug him with a shotgun when he finds out his daughter is dancing and frequenting the motel.) Sex sells, after all, and in deepest, darkest Mercer county, it ought to sell like hotcakes.

And permit me to ask a rhetorical question, why would a motel be doing thriving business to the point of expanding in a town where there is absolutely NOTHING but a topless club and a couple of stray dogs?

Rural residents of Mercer county appear willing and eager to leave some money in Keithsburg, and since it appears that Bruckman has already essentially bought the town, it's all money in the bank, maybe even his own bank.

Now if he can only figure a way to open a casino. It IS right on the river bank, after all. I think a call to Sen. Jacobs is in order.

Predicition: Brenkman will evenutally have an all nude club in Keithsburg using the same strategy he utilized in Peoria County, namely, forcing the city or county into a lawsuit so expensive that they'll give in. Gambling may be not far behind.

Local Drinking Liberally group is off the ground and wheels up

The first gathering of the Illinois Quad City chapter of the national group "Drinking Liberally" was an encouraging success attracting several people of all ages.

The group agreed to meet on the first and third Friday of each month at Jack's Place, 425 15th Street in downtown Moline initially, and go from there. Meetings can be increased or moved as circumstances change.

To keep up to date on the next scheduled get-together, stay informed by joining the group's e-mail list, discuss things on the chapter's forum or to contact organizers Andy or Amanda, go to the local group's page here.

For future reference, I've added the DL button to the sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the page linked above.

Don't be left out! Come on down to the next meeting, enjoy a beverage (or two), meet other people who share an interest in non-conservative politics, shoot the breeze and have a good time.

The more the merrier!

Do you do Su-Do-Ku?

Su-do-ku is a number puzzle that has recently appeared in newspapers, books, and elsewhere. It's popularity is said to be large and growing.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, it consists of a square divided into 9 subsquares, each of which is further divided into 9 subsquares of its own for a total of 81 little squares. Some of the squares contain numbers.

The puzzle can be found in several configurations from difficult to damn near impossible.

The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to fill in the blank squares so that each horizontal row, each vertical row, and each of the nine subsquares all contain the numbers 1 through 9.


This happens to be the one I'm attempting I finally solved.

I'd seen these puzzles mentioned in various places, and today I decided to give it a try for the first time. I've been grinding on it for hours, but it's got me stymied.

I initially decided to go through each blank square and pencil in all the possible numbers for that square. That took a fairly long time in itself.

I was then able to find a couple rows and columns where a number only occured once, so therefore that square had to be that number.

But after that, I was stopped in my tracks. Now I'm left with many squares with many possible numbers.

My plea is to anyone who has experience with these fascinating puzzles to let us know if there's a method to this madness. Is there a system or process you use?

I'd be eternally grateful, as the only way forward from here that I can think of so far is to guess at a number and go from there. Of course, every time you enter a number, it affects the row, column, and subsquare it's in, so it's not as easy as it may sound.

I know there's some extremely bright readers out there and I'm hoping someone can give me some hints or tips. In a word: HELP!!!!

UPDATE: I finally solved the little sucker, but there has GOT to be a better way. I haven't erased that much since grade school. Maybe after you do a few times it becomes easier, but the way I did it was insane.

There's no one choice for several squares, ( in other words, there may be three squares in which you need to fill 5, 6, and 7, but all of them would work in any of the squares.) which forces you to just pick a number and a square. But that choice affects about 15 other squares. So you go along and fill in those squares until it becomes apparent that something doesn't work. But you can't change the problem square, because that impacts on a row and column and subsquare, so.... it's erase all this stuff and start again.

There's hundreds of possible permutations, and it just gets out of hand.

Until you happen to get lucky and make a few correct guesses, it's a nightmare.

Any further hints or tips would be appreciated.

(The solution to the puzzle above is available if anyone needs it. Just send e-mail or tell me in comments and I'll either publish it here or get it to you somehow.)

Time for Big Brother to go

I don't often get an opportunity to agree 100% with a Dispatch/Argues editorial, but they hit the nail squarely on the head with their recent piece supporting the legal challenge to traffic surveilance cameras and the "law enforcement for private profit" angle it entails.

And they don't pull any punches, as well they shouldn't.

The ACLU has taken up the cause of a man who says he was wrongly accused by a photograph of breaking a traffic law in Davenport.

Good. The American Civil Liberties Union understands what Davenport officials don't: Government-operated citizen surveillance is a blatant violation of a host of rights including the right of the accused to confront their accuser, the right to effectively defend oneself, the judicial cornerstone of "innocent until proven guilty" and the blatant invasion of privacy such government spying represents.

And worse, all that is happening without any serious data to show that such cameras do anything to make driving safer. For example, opponents of red-light camera enforcement say that while there are fewer broadside accidents thanks to the cameras, there is a marked increase in rear-end collisions as divers slam on the brakes at intersections. A report commissioned by U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey also said that yellow lights at intersections where cameras are in place are often shorter, making running red lights more frequent and putting more money in municipal pockets, but increasing rear-end collisions at those intersections.

Those complaints and others have prompted challenges to camera enforcement around the nation. According to the USA Today, California attorney Arthur Tait has represented more than 300 clients who are challenging red-light cameras. Contrary to popular belief, he said, the cameras are not infallible. But the statute treats them that way. So most drivers who get "caught" pay for it, even if they did nothing wrong. "In other criminal cases, you have a right to confront your accuser," he told USA Today. "But with this technology, your accuser is a camera." You can, of course, fight it. But, well, good luck.

Read the rest here.

Blues Fest shots, other junk, and yeah, more flowers

The Dirty Dozen Brass band blowing their brains out.
In an all too familiar scenario during the recent economy, it appears the band had to "downsize", forcing the remaining guy to play both trumpet parts. Sound familiar?

Shots from the Blues Fest include Delbert McClinton, Mavis Staples, Sonny Landreth, and Ronnie Baker Brooks.

Take a look here if you'd like. Not great shots by any means, and many are low res video captures, but the subjects are interesting.

Flower shots can be found here.

And some interesting stuff that caught my eye is in this album.

Feel free to leave any comments on the pictures here.

The high cost of the magic word, or Buying a nickle for a dime

Next time some politician or booster keeps spouting the magic word "jobs" in your face to make it seem as if their latest effort to grease the skids for corporate interests is going to help the "little guy", think again.

They're determined efforts ramming through whatever multi-million dollar deal their new corporate best friends want is sucking real money out of your pockets harder than an Oreck on a bowling ball.

Incalculable millions of potential and real tax revenue is forfeited with the stroke of a pen and smiles and hand shakes all around as the press dutifully records the latest massive giveaway of money the people of the state and locality have a right and a duty to collect.

Money which will have to be made up by digging deeper into the pockets of the very "working families" who, these politicians constantly assure us, are whose interests they're looking out for. It's all for the average working guy that they roll over on their backs for big money, acting like the class dweeb in some hormonal frenzy towards the hottest cheerleader in the school, with no self respect, and not only willing, but eager to agree to anything, damn the consequences or even if they'll ever get what they fervently hope they might.

Earlier this year, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue offered an astounding $400 million in incentives to Kia, the Korean automaker, to develop a plant that would employ 2,500 Georgians. Each of those jobs came with a $160,000 price tag. But it was nothing compared with what Mississippi was reportedly willing to offer the Korean car company: $1 billion in incentives, or roughly $400,000 per new job created.

In Perdue’s defense, Georgia had recently lost two American auto plants. Even cosmetic economic development probably looked better than doing nothing.

But what is truly unfortunate is that Perdue is not alone. When states across the country eye strategies for economic development, too many of them turn to an old idea: tax breaks for big companies who bring in a couple hundred jobs.

These companies literally receive billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Who are the targets of this largesse? As a Good Jobs First study noted recently, one of the biggest recipients is Wal-Mart—the company famous for its ability to undercut wages and local businesses has received well over $1 billion in financial assistance.

And while the corporate corruption of the federal government is well-known, the implications of the growing set of corporate tax loopholes at the state level is less commonly addressed.

The implications of these shifts are clear. Citizens for Tax Justice reports that corporations manage to shield as much as two-thirds of their profits from state corporate income taxes. The result: money that could be spent on real economic development opportunities flows instead into the pockets of executives and the bill gets passed along to small taxpayers—local businesses and workers.

These types of tax breaks are often described as “tax expenditures” because they more closely resemble government programs than true tax reform. Yet, unlike most government programs, tax expenditures often operate as implicit entitlement programs—there is no limit on how high the costs can go, no annual appropriations system and generally little legislative oversight. Even worse, there is no accountability of results. The companies file a tax return, claim the credit and never need defend the benefits produced by the tax provisions.

Read the rest at TomPaine.com here.

How can this be considered anything less than corporate theft of the public's money on a massive scale? Incentives, sure. But how much is too much? The line was crossed long ago. And why is this theft almost never looked into and scrutinized in the press?

To it's credit (atta boy, Rod), the State of Illinois has a website which allows even peons like myself to at least try our hand at looking up how much state largesse has been doled out and in what amounts, to which corporations, as well as what agreements were made, and how well they're living up to their end of the deal.

But the state program under which Triumph received their hunk of dough doesn't appear to be one of those included in these reports.

The Center for Tax Justice provides some rather shocking facts and figures regarding how corporations are stiffing states out of income tax on a mind boggling scale. Just imagine what even a portion of the nearly 42 BILLION dollars in state taxes owed but not paid by corporations over a three year period could do for strapped state budgets.

State income taxes paid by corporations have dropped precipitously in the recent past, though Illiniois again fares well in this category with only Florida and New Jersey showing a smaller decline in corporate income tax revenue.

Picture place

I'm trying out Photobucket as a means of sharing pictures with y'all. We'll see how it goes and if I get the hang of it.

I shot video of the Bettendorf fireworks, and the first batch of shots are captures from that. They're low res, and not too sharp or flashy, but interesting.

Check them out here.

I think you can view them as a slideshow as well, though I haven't gotten that far yet.


This way, it's hoped, I can both post more pictures, and those who don't want to bother looking at them won't have to, but those who wish to check them out will have a means to do so.

Drinking Liberally comes to the Illinois Quads!!

Promoting democracy
one pint at a time

As reported a short while ago, illustrious contributor YoungDem has stepped forward and done the leg-work to set up a chapter of Drinking Liberally in the Illinois Quad Cities.

I think this is a fantastic idea, a great organization, and I sincerely hope readers will make it a point to show up and participate. (I intend to myself at some point.)

Drinking Liberally Moline/Quad Cities, IL will be having a organizational drink on Friday July 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Jack's Place 425 15th St. in Moline. (corner of 15th and 4th Ave.)

Help this effort get off the ground.

BE THERE!

Drinking Liberally is open to all ages, eye colors, and hat sizes, and of course, you don't have to be a drinker. (though it helps.) Come one, come all.

This has great potential to be a very constructive, fun, and interesting social activity. No pressure, you don't even have to talk politics. Just sit and talk over a pitcher or two. I think it would be a great way to both meet other like-minded people as well as share views and information, and most importantly, have a good time.

I imagine there will be a mailing list available at some point, which is a great way to stay informed. I'll pass that info along as it's available.

And it's being noticed. The founder of the Des Moines chapter was recently written up in the Register.

After a year, her chapter has 270 people on it's mailing list and regularly attracts 15 to 35 people to the weekly get-togethers.

Boom

Since I screwed up and missed all the fireworks displays on the 3rd, I made it over to Bettendorf last night for their show.

Not bad.

There was a HUGE crowd on hand sitting in the grass field, but they looked kind of weird. Maybe it was that South American toad I licked by accident. (though it's odd that the picture came out looking just like I saw it. Go figure.)

clickpic

Anyway, the fireworks looked pretty normal.

You know the drill, click for bigger image.(IF you run Internet Explorer and it's set to automatically fit images to the window, hover pointer over picture (or click outside picture and then back on it) and wait for the little square to appear in the bottom right. Click that for full size image.)




Fireworks, or a dandelion on acid?
Ever feel like this?



I tweaked the above shot and came up with this. (looks nice enlarged)



As you can see, I couldn't shoot fireworks too well with a little point and shoot, but some of them look pretty cool despite the shaky exposures.

After the show, it was utter gridlock in the area. It took 45 minutes to get from Middle Park to I-74. Any slower and people would have been backing up.

One heartening thing was that despite the maddening delays people still stopped to allow people to pull out. Always nice to see.

Fantasy League Politics

OK, here's your assignment.

You are to think long and hard about whom you'd like in each of the following offices, and not limit yourself to just those who are in office, have held the office in the past, or who are candidates for the office:

71st District State Rep. (currently Boland)
72nd Distric State Rep. (currently Vershoore)
36th District State Senator (currently M. Jacobs)
17th District U.S. Representitive (currently Evans)

And pick as many as you can from:

17th District Demorcratic State Central Committeeman (currently Johnston/Boland)
Rock Island County Democratic Chairman (currently Gianulis)

Mayor of Rock Island
Mayor of Moline
Mayor of East Moline

Rock Island County Board Chairman
Rock Island County Clerk
Rock Island County Sheriff

and any other office you wish. Anything above the level of alderman or County Board member is fair game.

And BE CREATIVE. Forget for the moment about whether a person could actually have a shot at being elected. Don't even worry if they live in the district you want them to represent. Remember, this is fantasy politics.

It can be a Dem, it can be a Republican. It can be your barber or mechanic. It can be your pet Shitzu. It can be someone who used to serve in the position, or better yet, mix and match.

Think out of the box. Plug someone from column A into column B. Put your precinct committeeman in as State Senator, or slap a state rep in as a county official.

Get creative. If you were the Grand Poohbah, and you could play God with political offices, putting anyone in any position, no election, no nothing, what would be your "dream team"?

Looks like we're not the only one blowing off rockets on the 4th

Early in his administration, George Bush utterly abandoned the diplomatic process built over years of effort by the Clinton and previous administrations and immediately broke off talks with the isolated North Korean government, headed by the volatile Kim Jong-il.

He blasted North Korea as a member of the "Axis of Evil", and otherwise adopted a stance of belligerence towards the paranoid and potentially dangerous nation. It comes as small surprise that North Korea, feeling more threatened than ever, and with little motivation to do otherwise, moved forward with their nuclear weapon development.

Even so, Bush still refused to engage in direct diplomatic talks, and things went progressively downhill.

Today, North Korea fired six missiles, including at least one capable of long-range, over the sea of Japan just hours after the U.S. launched the space shuttle Discovery.

Now due to yet another instance of this administration's ham-handed blundering in foreign policy, acting as though they can take over the world, another genie is just about out of the bottle. Bush/Cheney's arrogant belligerence has thrown gasoline on the fire, further threatening global stability.

Are these guys just dying to start WWIII? (if they haven't got us there already)

More shots from East Moline Parade

Here's some more shots from the 4th of July Parade through beautiful, depressed, downtown East Moline. (I finally tricked Blogger into letting me put them up.)

The Huff truck resembled a police vehicle, no surprise.

The Vicki Wright SUV had a great stars-n-stripes paint job.

That rounds out the candidate entries that I caught.

Personally, when it comes to catchy campaign vehicles, I think Kinky Friedman has them all beat hands down. A custom Viper, (and another closer shot), a four wheel drive, and the grandaddy of them all, this Texas sized stretch Caddy with a vista on the side, pulling the Kinkabago. (and of course, huge longhorns mounted on the roof)

This gentleman was an entry of one.
He was advocating justice for immigrants.Note to conservatives: Isn't it high time we had a constitutional amendment banning flag socks? Get on that, would you? Surely there's no more important problem facing our great nation. History will judge you kindly for addressing this burning (and itching) issue. (and while you're at it, throw in something that makes wearing socks with sandals a felony. Thanks.)

Now here's a come on that would be irresistible to any grade schooler.
Classic.

Miniature motocrossers

You don't see a souped up Corvair every day.
Cool looking car.

And before any nitwits start yammering about slighting this candidate or that, I've explained that I arrived late. I tried to get down as close to the end as possible to catch as much as I could. The Republican party entry was the first political entry I caught and I've included every political entry from that point on. If anyone was ahead of that, I missed it.

Independence Day Parade in East Moline

Here's a few shots from the annual July 4th parade in East Moline.
Unfortunately, I didn't get there in time and missed some parade entries, but here's a few I did see. (as always, click on pictures to see larger version)


Here we see a young man putting a hex on the Republican entry.

The Schwigen for Sheriff car was very cool.
If only Barney Fife was driving it.

Judging from the fact that every politician I was able to see today had one, (with the exception of Jeff Terronez) getting a custom paint job on a vehicle of some sort is required practice in order to run for office these days. Judging from Zinga's, I wouldn't recommend picking an Avalanche. (though they were probably giving them away. They're the Zima of cars.)

Jim Beals inspires a spectator to check his watch.

The Beals entry featured a live (sort of) band on a trailer.

The "Haremobile" was enormous!

And so was Hare.

Jeff Terronez had just hopped in his car before this shot.

I have several more shots, but Blogger is making it impossible to upload them at the moment. I'll try to see if it's in a better mood later.

East Moline's new city motto?

Happened to see this on the way home from the parade.

I thought it was pretty blunt and authoritative, so, not wanting any trouble, I stopped, dropped, and started rolling. Before long, about a dozen other people were doing it too, figuring it was the thing to do.

As I was rolling one way, I saw my life flash before my eyes when I suddenly realized a woman about the size of Montana was rolling directly at me. I now know what it's like to witness a flesh tsunami. Only my nimble reflexes averted a chilling and grisly fate. I still shudder to think of it.

But the banner should read, "Stop, drop, roll, and then eventually stop rolling", because no one knew when it was OK to quit rolling around.

I finally got dizzy and said to hell with it.

"East Moline; Stop, drop, and roll."

Catchy, I suppose, but WTF???? Wouldn't you expect something a little more upbeat like, "Gateway to Moline", or "We have a Jim's Ribs too." or "Come to get on I-88, stay for the taverns." or something like that? I mean, the downtown's a little sleepy, but it's not dead yet. (though it might smell like it in a couple years)

That's it.

Maybe the banner is a forward thinking effort to prepare the populace for what they'll be doing when the wind blows west after the Triumph plant is at full bore? (or would that be "boar"?)

You might be a Republican if....

You might be a Republican if:

You are more upset about Brokeback Mountain than Abu Ghraib.

You can’t stand Hilary Clinton’s hair but you have no problem with Tom DeLay’s.

You truly believe that the worst time for the country in recent history was when the country was at peace and running a budget surplus and that nearly every problem Bush has caused or that makes him look bad is directly the fault of the Clinton administration.

You thought Al Gore was a vicious, power hungry politician who tried to steal the 2000 election, and when 5 conservative Supreme Court justices stepped in, and took the election away from the people of this country, enjoyed telling the majority who elected Gore to "Get over it."

You bought the fiction that Viet Nam combat veteran John Kerry was somehow a coward for volunteering and being wounded multiple times, while a frat brat whose family got him cushy duty in the guard and who blew off even that relatively small commitment, along with every top level figure in the Bush administration, none of which had served in the military, were more qualified to be commander in chief and lead us into war.

You think Global Warming is no big deal but environmentalists are a major problem.

You actually think that Christians and whites are discriminated against and under attack.

You believe that allowing gay marriage somehow threatens to make heterosexual marriage extinct.

You don't see any problem with America became a theocracy like Iran or Afghanistan under the Taliban.

You think government should get completely out of people's lives, except when it comes to getting involved with what two consenting adults do in their own bedroom or helping the insurance industry by smoking bans, helmet and seatbelt laws, etc.

You became wealthy by your company getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of inflated government contracts and/or government help in tax abatements, subsidized training and wages for your workforce, etc., and sit by the pool of your second home condemning people who receive food stamps and bitching bitterly about what little taxes you still pay. (despite the fact that the U.S. is one of the lowest taxed developed nations on earth.)

You think professional athletes make too much money but Sam Walton’s kids and Paris Hilton deserve everything they have.

You like the way George Bush walks and got hot when he played dress up in a flight suit on the carrier which was turned around so the cameras wouldn't show the coastline only a few miles away.

You think Al Gore is "wooden" and Dick Cheney has charisma.

You think that "grown ups" are in charge in the White House and Bush has been a "uniter, not a divider".

You think CNN is biased but Fox News is neutral.

You like the sound of Newt Gingrich’s voice.

You are sure the United States has the best education and health care systems in the world.

You think Dick Cheney is a straight shooter.

You think Michael Chertoff’s beard makes him look distinguished.

You think the problem with our health care system is lawyers.

You think it was more important to locate Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress than to locate weapons of mass destruction.

You don’t believe "terrorism" has made Rudy Giuliani an incredibly rich man.

You believe freedom of speech covers everything Pat Robertson says and does, but burning a flag should be illegal.

You can be in the same room with Brit Hume.

You have yourself convinced that the country and world are better off now than 5 years ago.

~~~~

You've named your kids "Deduction one" and "Deduction two"

You've tried to argue that poverty could be abolished if people were just allowed to keep more of their minimum wage.

You've ever referred to someone as "my (insert racial or ethnic minority here) friend"

You've ever tried to prove Jesus was a capitalist and opposed to welfare.

You're a pro-lifer, but support the death penalty.

The only union you support is the Baseball Players, because heck, they're richer than you.

You've ever uttered the phrase, "Why don't we just bomb the sons of bitches."

You don't think "The Simpsons" is all that funny, but you watch it because that Flanders fellow makes a lot of sense.

You fax the FBI a list of "Commies in my Neighborhood"

You get uncomfortable if you see women wearing scarves covering their heads at the supermarket and keep a sharp eye on them. You're then confused when you see an Indian woman wearing a sari, wonder which one you're supposed to be afraid of and decide that it's both. You debate whether you should report them to authorities.

You don't let your kids watch Sesame Street because you think Bert and Ernie represent "sexual deviance."

You've argued that art has a "moral foundation set in Western values."

You argue that you need 300 handguns, automatic weapons, and military ordinance, in case a bear ever attacks your home.

Vietnam makes a lot of sense to you.

You point to Hootie and the Blowfish as evidence of the end of racism in America.

You've ever said civil liberties, schmivil schmiberties.

You've ever said "Clean air? Looks clean to me."

You spent MLK Day reading "The Bell Curve."

You've ever called education a luxury.

You look down through a glass ceiling and chuckle.

You wonder if donations to the Pentagon are tax-deductable.

You came of age in the '60s and don't remember Bob Dylan.

You own a vehicle with an "Ollie North: American Hero" sticker.

You're despise the "liberal media."

You ever based an argument on the phrase, "Well, tradition dictates...."

You've ever called the National Endowment for the Arts a bunch of pornographers.

You think all artists are gay.

You ever told a child that Oscar the Grouch "lives in a trash can because he is lazy and doesn't want to contribute to society."

You've ever urged someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, when they don't even have shoes.

You appreciate the power rush that comes with sporting a gun.

You believe that the agricultural, restaurant, housing and hotel industries can survive without immigrant labor.

You think God hates homosexuality, but loves the death penalty.

You believe society is color-blind and growing up black in America doesn't diminish your opportunities, but you still won't vote for Alan Keyes.

You're for prayer in schools, as long as you don't pray to Allah or Buddha.

You have to believe speaking a few Spanish phrases makes you instantly popular in the barrio.

You have to believe that only your own teenagers are still virgins.

You think "bipartisan" means Democrats should compromise on something.

You still think James Carville is one scary human being.

You think "abortion doctor" is an oxymoron.

You've never met a tax cut you didn't like.

You have a bumper sticker that says "Insured by Smith and Wesson"

You believe the hole in the ozone layer to be a myth created by crazy liberals.

You fervently speak about the evils of marijuana at social gatherings with a vodka straight in hand.

You think the words feminist and lesbian are synonyms.

You believe every man, woman, child and fetus should be armed to the teeth with AK-47's, hand grenades, handguns, and any other weapon imaginable.

You actually believe that people own AK-47's for "hunting purposes"

You have faith in "trickle down economics"

You think that Michaelangelo's David should be wearing boxers at the least.

You think Clarence Thomas is a good spokesman for the black community.


And you're a Republican if you believe that:

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals, minorities, and Hillary Clinton.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all of mankind without regulation.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

That the Bush is the reason we haven't been attacked at home since 9-11.

That all the detainees at Guantanamo and other prisons are killers and terrorists.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution,
which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then, it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

You support states' rights, except when it came to the Florida 2000 election, gay marriage, gun control, decriminalizing euthenasia or drugs, etc. etc.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Evan Bayh to visit area

The word is that potential presidential candidate (and who isn't) Evan Bayh is to make an appearance in the Quads at some point in the near future.

Unfortunately, I don't have any details at this time. I'd like to appeal to any readers who have information to send it my way or leave it in a comment. Thanks.

**UPDATE**

Thanks to two alert readers who helpfully provided Bayh's schedule for his visit to Iowa.

The complete schedule is included in the comment section below and it includes these two local appearances on Friday, July 7. If Bayh trips your trigger, here's your chance to listen to him and dust off your checkbook.

5:15 PM-06:15 PM

Event honoring State Senator Roger Stewart and State Rep. Polly Bukta

Eagle Point Park Lodge
3900 North Third Street Clinton, IA 52732
OPEN PRESS

7:15 PM-08:45 PM

Event honoring Bruce Braley (congressional candidate)

1416 West 16th Street NW
Office Building Room 107
Davenport, IA 52804
OPEN PRESS

I have no idea what this building is, but it appears to be in a residential area. It's a block west of Marquette on 16th St.

Amen

"Some people think George W. Bush is stupid. That's not true. But he definitely thinks we're stupid." - astute panelist on C-Span yesterday.