In light the recent resignation of Douglas Bandow from a major think tank over his writing of editorials while taking lobbying money from groups whose positions he was supporting the New York Times had this article looking at how widespread the practice was in the op-ed pages.

An argument is put forward by some that there are no ethical issues with op-ed writers being paid by groups who are being supported by any given op-ed piece.  I don't think it is unethical on it's face either.  But it does become unethical when the op-ed writer isn't identified as a someone who is writing on behalf of the groups.  

As the article points out some op-ed writers aren't being identified as recipients of lobbying money.  That to me is very unethical.  As is having the various groups give the lobbying money to the authors by third parties.  It doesn't matter how many "degrees of separation" there is, lobbying money is lobbying money.

In the article a "Dr. Matthews", who writes op-ed pieces for the insurance industry, seems to think just because he is not based in Washington that means he isn't a lobbyist.  That is a novel argument to say the least!!

It has been raining in the northeast for 8 consecutive days.  Where I live (CT-1) had escaped the worst of the heavy rain and flooding...until today.  The building my video store is in sprung a leak yesterday and water started coming into the store through the drop ceiling by the front door.  I put an empty trash basket under the leak to try to save the carpet.  I have problems with water but it usually is in the winter when snow melts and refreezes on the roof, but not by the front door and not in October.  My partners took that in stride they know about the water problem.  Our meeting went well they left around noon.

The day was off to a busy start, customer wise.  Rainy weather is usually good for the retail video biz, and that was reaffirmed this week.  I was up front catching up on some paperwork when I hear a loud noise and a customer yell, "Hey your roof is coming down!!".  MY ROOF IS COMING DOWN?  WTF?!?!  I go rushing to that part of the store to find my roof was just fine...but the tiles in the drop ceiling weren't.  There were 2 more leaks and saturated insulation had caved in a waterlogged ceiling tile.  Debris all over the place, wet video boxes...it was one big mess.  As customers continue to file in I pick up the larger pieces of the tile, get the vacuum out to clean up the rest and wiped down the boxes.  

I go back up front, the store empties out and I have lunch.  Just as I finish I hear a whoosh!!  I go running back again as 2 customers come in.  Yep, another tile collapsed.  I go through the whole routine of cleaning, vacuuming and wiping again.  Then I hear the buzzer on the door go and somebody I know from my bowling leagues walks in.  I really didn't have time to shoot the shit with him, I kinda had my hands full at the time.  Well he didn't stop in just to say hi, he stopped in to tell me a 35 year old guy who bowls in my leagues had a stroke.  A WHAT?!?!  Yep he had a stroke.  So as I am trying get this latest mess cleaned up I get the story.  I hear this guy is in the hospital and "not in good shape".  The guy takes off realizing my situation.  But by now my head is spinning...partners unannounced, leaky roof, multiple ceiling tile collapses and finding out a friend had a stroke.  And all the while a moderate rain is turning into a deluge.  I deploy another empty trash basket to collect the water from the latest leak and head back to the register a bit dazed...

The customers aren't slowing down.  We commiserate about the endless rain and if it will ever end.  The day is turning into a very good one for the bottom line.  I go to take another look at the damage to the ceiling and notice the tile next to the one that had last collapsed was sagging dramatically.  OK so when is this one gonna go?  No idea, but by this time it was about 4:00 and I was leaving at 6:00.  I was sure that that tile would come down and with the way the day was going I figured when that tile went it would probably fall on a customers head (that would be VERY bad, lol!!!), so I decided to take it down before it fell.  I got a broom out and with the handle poked the tile until it fell to the carpet with a SPLAT!!  Out comes the shovel, vacuum and paper towels again...as the rain and customer flow get even heavier.  

The clock finally rolls around to 6:00.  My part timer shows up, I head home through the partially flooded streets, eat dinner and head to the bowling alley to make the start of my 7:00 league.  When I get there I get some good news.  The guy who had the stroke was doing ok.  It wasn't a stroke at all but was related to his diabetes problem, which affected his eyesight with all the symptoms of a stroke.  But he was going to be just fine.  I start bowling and I feel I am in a dream.  I bowled fairly well (it could have been much better if weren't for the last game) but my mind was on the store.  A wind driven rain was coming down at the rate of 1-2" per hour.  Street flooding was occuring, it was the heaviest rain of an endless 8 day deluge.  After I finished my last game I get on the phone and call my store.  I hadn't got a call at the bowling alley so that was encouraging, but I cringed at what was happening at the store.  Were there any more problems?  Nope...other then the trash baskets were half filled with water, it was status quo.  I swung by the store picked up the receipts and hydroplaned my way home.

I hear the rain is supposed to end tommorrow.  And there's a chance the sun will make an long overdue appearence Saturday afternoon.  We were said to be in a drought 9 days ago...I guess that isn't an issue anymore.  And in a sense we were lucky.  If this system had set up during the dead of winter we could be talking 4-5 feet of snow, which might have qualified as a full blown disaster...and besides compared to what the Gulf Coast went through this was a minor inconvenience.

So ends a strange, surreal day...and I figured I would end it with something much closer to reality.  So I am gonna watch...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  

The hurricane season from hell continues.  Hurricane Rita is expected to cross southern Florida and emerge into the Gulf of Mexico.  The 5 day models has the storm striking Houston.  What a cruel twist of fate for the people who evacuated from New Orleans to Houston.  The storm is expected to strengthen to at least a cat 3 and possibly stronger.

With the lack of preperation for Katrina are precuations being taken in Houston?  And with the uncertainty in forecasting the tracks of hurricanes there is still a chance that Rita could make an early right turn and head for Louisiana...again. :-(

It seems that Bush decided to use this opportunity to critique the UN.  He lectured the UN about corruption in it's ranks (I wonder if the world leaders at the UN are up to speed about DeLay/Abramoff et al.?), following the US lead of spreading "freedom and security" throughout the world, likening the efforts to our military action in Iraq.

Is he really that dense or is he blind?  Instead of trying to further world unity he yet again tried to impose the views of the US on the world.  Saying our actions represent everything that is "right" in the world and the rest of the world needs to follow our lead.  That doesn't represent world unity just uncompromising rigidity of the Bush administration policy.

Does he honestly thinks our war in Iraq has made the world safer?

A smaller government is a better government has been the mantra from the right for a very long time.  But in the wake of hurricane Katrina that fallacy has been exposed.  More important then a small government is having a responsive, effective government.  To have a responsive, effective government we need to most competent people in the country to lead government.  Bush and the conservatives want to see our government operate more like a major corporation.  But as Friedman notes, that is not the case.

That is certainly the sense I got after observing the Katrina debacle from half a world away here in Singapore - a city-state that, if it believes in anything, believes in good governance. It may roll up the sidewalks pretty early here, and it may even fine you if you spit out your gum, but if you had to choose anywhere in Asia you would want to be caught in a typhoon, it would be Singapore. Trust me, the head of Civil Defense here is not simply someone's college roommate.

The corruption of cronyism has infected the body politick to the point debilitation.  This didn't happen overnight.  This infection festered and grew worse without the American people even noticing.  And removing Michael Brown from FEMA is not a cure, it is just suppressing the symptoms of the disease.  The operations of our government is has been plagued by political hacks for the last 5 years.  Combine unqualified political hacks with the conservative's zealot campaign to "starve the beast" has compromised our government to the point of being completely ineffective.  All the conservatives have accomplished is letting the GOP supporting corporate cash cows feed at the trough of the GOP's version of big government.

The point of compassionate conservatism is that it isn't the government's place to assist others it is the people's responsibility.  But compassionate conservatism is fallacy number two.  What has happened is a fostering of a "everybody for themselves" attitude in government.  The ideals they espouse in their porposed gutting of social security was put into practice in the Gulf post-Katrina.  In your time of need don't look to Washington...you are on your own.  And time and time again the conservative pundits have claimed that the victims are to blame for not helping themselves, even when they couldn't.

Freidman makes a great point of how we can fix this problem, in veiwing Singapore's government.  They pay their leaders over $1,000,000 per year but hold them to the highest standards...

Indeed, Singapore believes so strongly that you have to get the best-qualified and least-corruptible people you can into senior positions in the government, judiciary and civil service that its pays its prime minister a salary of $1.1 million a year. It pays its cabinet ministers and Supreme Court justices just under $1 million a year, and pays judges and senior civil servants handsomely down the line.

And he goes on to say...

"In the areas that are critical to our survival, like Defense, Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs, we look for the best talent," said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy. "You lose New Orleans, and you have 100 other cities just like it. But we're a city-state. We lose Singapore and there is nothing else. ... [So] the standards of discipline are very high. There is a very high degree of accountability in Singapore."

When a subway tunnel under construction collapsed here in April 2004 and four workers were killed, a government inquiry concluded that top executives of the contracting company should be either fined or jailed.

We should be paying top money to the most highly qualified people to serve in our government and lead our nation.  With the increased compensation should come the expectation those leaders should have the highest level of integrity and accountability.

Mediocre people leading the greatest country in the world should be unnacceptable to everyone in the US.  And advocating a smaller government with less accountability to the people, in terms of it's societal responsibilities to ensure the welfare of the people (the core of conservatism), will lead to the fall of the US as a true leader in the world.

I think Freidman nailed it this time...

[But] it is not only government that doesn't show up when government is starved of resources and leached of all its meaning. Community doesn't show up either, sacrifice doesn't show up, pulling together doesn't show up, 'we're all in this together' doesn't show up."

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900...

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935...

The New England Hurricane of 1938...

Camille 1969...

Andrew 1992...

Katrina 2005...

All of these hurricanes were catastrophic.  Worst of the bunch were the first three because nobody knew they were about to be hit.  After Galveston in 1900, sea walls were built to hold back the Gulf of Mexico.  After 1938 levees were built on the Connecticut River at Hartford to contain the river.  But as a whole the country has failed to learn from these disasters of the past.

Here are the disasters waiting to happen...

Cat 4 - 5 landfall in Midatlantic:

If a major storm would strike the midatlantic (with a track of roughly 100-115 degrees in comparison to the eqautor) with the eye coming up Cheasapeake Bay the devastation would be catastrophic.  Baltimore, Richmond and Washington areas would be utterly destroyed by a 20-30 foot surge coming up the Cheasapeake Bay, which would be worsened by funneling of the water into a narrowing bay.  The city of Philadelphia and states of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey would suffer catastrophic damage from wind and from the flooding of the Delaware River Watershed.  Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts would suffer crippling damage to their infrastructure due to flooding from 10-20 inches of rain, 100+ mph winds and numerous tornadoes.  The Northeast corridor would be paralyzed for months.  Casualties could reach the thousands...

A cat 4 -5 landfall Northern Jersey or NYC

A landfall at about 95-105 degrees in northern New Jersey or NYC.  Lower Manhattan would be under water with multiple building failures.  The Port of New York would be devastated.  Massive destruction would be inflicted on New England and Long Island.  The Connecticut River watershed would see unprecedented flooding from the Canadian border to Long Island Sound with Connecticut and Western Masschusetts facing the brunt of massive flooding.  Providence would face the same fate as of '38 with Narragansett Bay claiming the city.  Financial markets will be down or crippled for weeks to months.

Looking at both of these scenarios the Midatlantic landfall is far more serious, not to denegrate a more northern landfall.  Part of the problem is that when hurricanes make the "turn" and start to head up the coast their forward motion increases sometimes up to 50-60 mph.  This means people would literally have hours and not days to evacuate.  

Two far fetched scenarios, right?  Not so, both have happened in the past in the 19th and 18th centuries.  The consequences of either of these happening have grave consequences on our national security.  We, as a country, should be looking at making changes and preparing for these powerful landfalling hurricanes.  The cost of doing nothing dwarfs whatever it would cost to make the preparations.  

It is an issue that should be looked into on a bipartisan way.  The coastal cities of Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Charleston, Baltimore, Washington, New York and Boston are all key ports for the US economy.  Steps need to be taken to protect them and we need to re-examine coastal development as a whole.  Because as bad as Katrina was there are scenarios which are plausible and far worse, with losses in the trillions and casualties, in a worst case scenario, in the tens of thousands.

Or then again we can go back to burying our heads in the sand...and keep on saying it can't happen here.

Global warming is real air and sea temperatures are rising and the polar ice caps are melting.  The long term effects are open to debate.  But looking back over the last 15 or so years there have been a number of natural disasters in the US which have severely impacted the US.

The Flood of 1993.  The midwest was deluged by what was described in some areas as a "500 year" flood.  Hurricanes are more frequent, severe and likely to make landfall during peak activity periods.  During 2004 4 major hurricanes made landfall in Florida, that had never happened before.  Now in 2005 the Atlantic Hurricane season went from the designation "very active" to being now classified "hyperactive".  In Europe, for the second timee in three years, they are going through aonther "100 year" flood.  Now can this all be blamed on Global Warming?  No.  But the 2004 & 2005 Atlantic hurricanes do bear Global warming's fingerprints.  

The economic impact goes far beyond short term spikes in gas prices.  The port of New Orleans is now closed, impairing shipping and business.  The damage to New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile combined is catastrophic.  The cost of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons will be well into the trillions of dollars.  Like I said, global warming doesn't necessarily cause these storms but it does make them more severe and numerous.  How much has to be lost in terms of lives, property and business before we wake up a deal with a problem which will, in the long run, kill many more people and cost for more money then our Iraq war?

There are political ramifications in Connecticut regarding closures.  Will Jodi Rell (R) decide to run for governor based on the fact she effectively took the point on a successful campaign to keep the base in Connecticut?  And, while all of us in Connecticut are very happy the base was saved, this must bolster Rob Simmons' chances to get re-elected in CT-2.

Most of my favorite lines come from Holy Grail. 

"What are you going to do, bleed on me?"
"I'm not dead yet"

or this exchange from the Witch Trial scene

Q: "What else floats?"
A: "Small stones?"

I always thought George W. Bush could trace his lineage to the very befuddled "small stones" responder, lmao!!

From the BBC TV show my favorite skit was "The Spanish Inquisition" replete with the Comfy Chair.  And does anybody remember the skit they did on election night TV coverage.  I have to look it up but the candidate's names of the "Silly Party" had me rolling on the floor.

I could go on all night, so I ask...what's your favorites?

In 1986 Attoney General Edwin Meese asked for a study to be done looking at the "harmful" effects on pornography on US society.  The Commission included people such as James Dobson, Father Bruce Ritter and Diane D. Cusack all noted critics of erotica.  The Commission didn't study mainstream pornography but seemed to focus on child pornography and snuff films from the 70's.  They tried to make those heinous acts the face of "mainstream" pornography of the 1980's.  The main conclusions about mainstream pornography by the Messe Commission were...

First one...

Holiday - Green Day

Say, Hey!

Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
The shame
The ones who died without a name

Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called "Faith and Misery" (Hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protestor has crossed the line (Hey!)
To find, the money's on the other side

Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
There's a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

(Hey!)
(Say, Hey!)

"The representative from California has the floor"

Zieg Heil to the president gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don't agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that's meant for me
Just cause, just cause, because we're outlaws yeah!

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives

This is our lives on holiday

Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and all the past glory of the mainstream media are now faded relics of the past.  They are now like the yellowing newspaper they were originally printed on.  There is no longer a strong independant press.  Just a press that reports nice, safe, vanilla stories.  Sure there was Iran-Contra in the 80's and Whitewater in the 90's but there seems to very little interest from the public in general for investigative journalism. 

After Watergate the steady drone of "liberal media bias" began.  And like waves crashing on a coastline the credibility of the press was slowly but steadily worn down.  There would never be another Watergate again if certain people had their way.  Finally, the line between propaganda and journalism was eradicated.  It has culminated in the past year with the revelations that Armstrong Williams was a paid shill for the Bush Administration and the Jeff Gannon "day pass" controversy.  There are still credibile journalists in our press but they have been relegated to the blogs on the internet.  Dan Rather and Eason Jordan were taken down but that was more about journalistic cannibalism then investigative journalism.  The latest incident is of Michael Isikoff and the Newsweek Koran abuse story.  Isikoff got the story right but he and Newsweek were pillored by many on the internet and by the President himself, even after the Pentagon said the story didn't cause the rioting in the Middle East.  Newsweek was publically chastised, apologized and recanted.  But that wasn't enough Newsweek was asked by the administration to make amends for the "damage" that was caused.  Why the outrage?  Because his anonymous source recanted.  Woodward and Bernstein were heros because of their anonymous source "Deep Throat" but it looks like anonymous sources will now go the way of the dinosaurs.

What we need now is a Hunter S. Thompson in the press, who will take no prisoners.  That might be too optimistic.  How about a mainstream media which, at least, won't be intimidated?