Iowa Flood Thoughts

It has been a hectic couple of weeks here at the Salmon shack. The flood of course has disrupted the normal flow of summer for most people to some extent but I would like to take a few minutes to jot down a few disjointed thoughts before it all becomes just a distant memory...

One theme that I hear time and again from the people that were hit by the floodwater's was the fact that despite the warnings they never in their wildest dreams feared that their homes would be under water. I called my aunt on Tuesday night and offered to bring over the truck and move her out but she felt sure they would be all right. She left with her dogs and literally the clothes on her back thinking they would be back in the morning. By Wednesday she had five foot of water in her living room. Of the 10-12,000 people in the flood zone, less than a thousand had to be evacuated by authorities. More proof of the 90-10 rule. Ten percent of people cause 90 percent of the problems.

I have been thoroughly impressed by the reaction of the city officials in dealing with this catastrophe. The evacuation and return to the areas has been orderly, well controlled, and organized. There of course was some grumbling by folks waiting in line at the checkpoints when they began to let residents back in but again the 90-10 rule applies. FEMA, The Red Cross, the National Guard, and the hundreds of volunteers have all been outstanding. There were no deaths in Cedar Rapids and only a few arrests. Someone did break into my cousins house and stole a generator but reports are that looting has been rare which I believe is a reflection on the people of this community.

A sense of humor is certainly needed to deal with the destruction.

As I drove down F Avenue toward the river last Wednesday I was struck by the fact that you could smell the destruction before you could see it. The stench was overwhelming in the flooded area. As we entered my aunts house I can only say that her home looked like someone filled it with mud and turned on a blender. We recovered what we could that first day but the idea that her little house could ever be repaired seemed out of the question. It was later confirmed that the house would have to be demolished.


On the bright side. The determination of the residents to get into their houses was amazing. Of course while their are those that will probably just walk away, the majority of residents were in there removing a lifetime of belongings and beginning the process of recovery. By Saturday it was nearly impossible to find a place to park with the army of friends, family, and volunteers that descended on the area to help the residents with the monumental and heart wrenching task of hauling everything you own to the curb. It is hard to descibe the feelings of sadness at the losses and the the overwhelming task of cleaning it all up while at the same time feeling pride in our neighbors for the job they were doing it trying to make it right again.




The city has made a herculean effort to remove the tons of debris to the landfill as people began to strip the walls and floors of their homes. I spent Saturday at my cousins stripping plaster and lathe and flooring and woodwork from her house as they are determined to rebuild while many of the houses around here with structural damage will surely be razed.

Sunday we were to meet FEMA at my aunts house and I took some time to drive downtown to survey the damage there. Having spent the last few days in the Ellis Blvd. area it was easy to forget the scope of the damage. As I drove down 6th St once again I came face to face with the devastation and of course the majority of the people that lost so much are the ones that have so little to begin with. Downtown looked like a war zone as an army of workers try to restore the businesses that were lost to the floodwater's.


The shear power of the river was unimaginable. The pilings that had held the railroad bridge over the river at 8th Ave. were literally rocked from their foundations by the force of the river. The amount of debris plastered to the face of all the down town bridges was equally astounding. Particularly the hundreds of blue plastic drums from the houseboats that broke free of their moorings in Ellis park boat harbor



While our little world revolves around Cedar Rapids there was of course devastation along the entire length of the Cedar River. In Charles City one of my fondest childhood memories is crossing the swinging bridge that was built across the Cedar in 1906. I took my daughter there just last month when we attended Aunt Toni's funeral so she could see where her dad used to play as a kid. Sadly, the Swinging Bridge in gone.


Other Reactions:

THE ANTI-THESIS OF KATRINA:
The people of Iowa have suffered greatly in the past week as their rivers have over-flowed their banks, and as town after town after town has been put under historically deep, stinking, brown water.

And the people of Iowa will smile; they will shrug their shoulders; they will not complain that the government has abandoned them; the will not rush to the over-passes of highways and hold screaming press conferences decrying the Bush Administration; they will not wonder where the National Guard is, for they do not want the national guard there. They will instead shoulder their burden; wait for the waters to recede; pick up their brooms, their shovels, their hoses and buckets and rags and get to work cleaning up after the nation’s “attack.”

They will not rant; they will work. They won’t scream; they will work. They won’t call down the heavens upon the government. They will work. They won’t look to Washington, or even much toward Des Moines; rather they will look to each other and they will work.

God Bless these people, for this is America at its best. This is the Midwest where we grew up, and our friends grew up, and our (children) go to school. This is not Katrina. This is Katrina’s anti-thesis.
(Author Unknown)

The satire of Iowa Hawk "Flood Ravaged Iowans Idiotically Move On"

"So there you have it: a 500-year, gold plated, biblical grade flood, and all I have to show for it is a sore back and a basement full of soggy rental stereo equipment. This tragedy has been brought to you by a negligent government and an indifferent media. And most of all, my neighbors: 3 million stoic, self reliant, hard working morons who can't figure out a million dollar opportunity when they're waist deep in it.. And they wonder why they call us "Idiots Out Walking Around.""

Save Water. Make a Rain Barrel

UPDATE 6/15: The rain barrel project worked beyond my expectations. An early morning thunderstorm dropped about 1 inch of water on this already drenched city and the rain capturing contraption accumulated about 500 gallons of water.










Cedar Rapids citizens are being asked to reduce water usage because of the reduced capacity of the municipal water department affected by the flooding. Below is a simple and cheap water collection system that you can use to collect rainwater over the coming weeks while the city deals with this disaster.

The parts are available at Thiesens in Cedar Rapids for a minimal cost. Downspout coupler. $2.50. 3" drain pipe $.40 / foot. They will sell 3" pipe by the foot but 4" pipe is only sold by the roll.

Attach downspout and pipe to gutter and run into a suitable container. Trash can, barrel etc. We are using our daughters swimming pool. Total cost for this dual downspout system was around $20.00. To capture any gutter debris I requisitioned a pair of the wife's nylons for the end of the drain pipe. While this water is good for toilets, dishes, and washing but I probably wouldn't drink it without boiling.

The city has asked that residents should use water for drinking only and to curtail showers laundry and dish washing for the duration of the emergency.

Do your part. Save water.

Cedar Rapids Flooding

Mays Island in downtown Cedar Rapids has never been breached by the waters of the Cedar River until now. Four thousand homes have been evacuated and one of the cities two hospitals has been evacuated. The entire downtown area is underwater and the Quaker Oats, Cargill, and the Penford plants have been shut down. On Thursday one railroad bridge loaded with rail cars filled with gravel meant to help stabilize the bridge against the power of the river collapsed. All the auto bridges but the I 380 overpass are submerged. The city is under a water conservation order as workers battle to protect the one remaining city well still operating.

More Photos Courtesy of the CR Gazette

Iowa Company Produces Flatulance Containment Device

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette: (E-edition registration required)
The biggest order in the five-year history of Cedar Rapids-based Flat-D Enterprises will help employees in an anonymous Midwestern city’s public safety dispatch center breathe a little easier. The order, for more than $1,000, was for seat pads that absorb flatulence odors — enough to cover the seats of an entire department. At a retail price of $25.95 each, that’s more than 38 pads. “They got them for the whole department because it wasn’t right to point a finger at one or two people,” said Frank Morosky, Flat-D vice president and co-founder...

About 70 percent of the company’s flatulence deodorizing pads are sold to women, and most are designed to be worn inside undergarments. Morosky said the company’s newest product, the FlatM, was introduced this week to improve sales in the male market. The diamond-shaped undergarment pad is designed to accommodate the male anatomy better, Morosky said. “It’s black and manly,” Morosky said, adding that sales of the $14.95 product have started out strong. The company gets about 2,000 views per day on its Web site, http://www.flat-d.com/

I never imagined that such an important or inovative product was even available. I learn so much on the the internet. Women fart? Who Knew?

Saving the World Can Be a Bitch.

"Senate Democrats May Pull Climate Bill:Week's Debate Has Been Contentious”

...The week has been marked by parliamentary maneuvers and bitter accusations over divergent estimates of the bill's future costs. On Wednesday, a group of GOP senators asked that the clerk of the Senate read the entire 491-page bill aloud, an extremely rare request. That took more than 10 hours.

Although parliamentary maneuvers could still extend the debate into next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) faced the prospect of failure in a bid to end debate on amendments to the climate bill this morning. In that event, he was expected to seek withdrawal of the entire measure, to the relief of some Democrats from coal-producing or heavy industrial states.

"We are going to have Democrats voting to end debate on what they call the most important issue facing the planet and Republicans voting to continue debate on it," said Don Stewart, communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Some Democrats were worried yesterday that the GOP might try to block withdrawal of the legislation to prolong a debate that many Democrats think no longer works to their political benefit.

The Democrats want to save the world but once again Poor Harry Reid gets outflanked by his opponents. What is amazing was the speed of the withdrawl. It seems to me that if you take the time produce 491 pages of legislation meant to prevent the world from coming to an untimely end you would at least put up some semblance of a fight. I personally think this legislation is the biggest boondoggle to ever come down the pipe but as Reid so impassionatly intoned in his speach on Monday ,"the Earth has a fever." If you truly believe that, at some point don't you have an obligation to stand up and fight. No one should be suprised that they don't.

This is the same party that said, "We really in this last election — when I say we, the Democrats — I think pushed it as far as we can, the envelope. Didn't say it, but we implied it — that we, if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war,” Kanjorski said in the video. “Now anybody who is a good student of government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts — and people ate it up." >Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.)

As Clark Kent will tell you, "Anybody can wear the stink'in cape, but when it comes to actually preserving truth, justice, and the American Way, the job can be a bitch." and the Democrats are not up to the task.

Alaska Gov Sarah Palin

There has been much speculation and hope that Senator McCain might name Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. While I am still an Alaskan at heart and believe that the governors credentials are very commendable I don't think she should be the running mate for several reasons.

Just as I don't believe that Obama is qualified to be leader of the free world I also don't believe that Palin has the experience to step into the Presidency. Alaska is a state of 600,000 people and while politics can be every bit as rough and tumble (and corrupt) as Chicago's, Governor Palin is a big fish in a very very small pond. I may be wrong and she may be a very quick study on national issues but I fear that we will have a replay of the John Edwards/ Dick Cheney debates at some point before the election, and I'm afraid she wouldn't come across as Cheney. (Sorry Sarah I hate to compare anyone to JE.) If young and talented is what Mac is looking for, Bobby Jindal comes across as much more knowledgeable, is a better public speaker.

Adding a little known governor from a small inconsequential state such as Alaska would be strategically inept. The three electoral votes are already in the McCain column and its not like the Starbucks vote in the Great Northwest will swing McCain's way with this nomination. He needs to look for someone that will actually bring something to the ticket. Unless McCain can prove that she is absolutely the most qualified for the position then no matter what spin he puts on the nomination he will be seen as pandering to the women vote.

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So while my heart would love to jump on the Palin bandwagon because of my connection to the state of Alaska my mind just says no. However, I do hope that there is a place somewhere in the McCain cabinet for Palin.

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Palin Mania:

"McCain Should Pick Sarah Palin for VP" Real Clear Politics

Palin for VP.com

What Senate Bill 2191 Will Cost Iowans

As I wrote here, Washington has pronounced the climate change debate settled, and it is now time to act before its too late. As Harry Reid so monotonically put it yesterday, "That has caused the earth to have a fever – a fever that is growing worse, not better..." Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, particularly if you are using chemo for the common cold.

The Heritage Foundation has researched the economic effects of this Cap and Tax system and the charts below show the economic impact on Iowans if this bill becomes law.

Ben Lieberman at Heritage writes that the costs outweigh the benefits that this legislation will incur, he writes;

Lieberman–Warner is expensive, but what are the benefits? This bill is a solution only to the extent that global warming is a problem in the first place and only to the degree to which the bill reduces that problem. There are reasons to question both.

While a full discussion of global warming science is beyond the scope of this analysis, it is worth not­ing that science is now taking a turn away from alarmism. The release of carbon dioxide, a natural constituent of the atmosphere and a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion, has at least some warming effect on the planet, but the reality of global warming falls well short of being a crisis. Both the seriousness and the imminence of the threat have been overstated by environmentalists and politi­cians alike.
In particular, there is a growing realization that the extreme claims popularized in the media— most notably that a rise in sea level will inundate vast coastal areas and that deadly hurricanes like Katrina are linked to global warming and have become more common—are not well supported. The World Meteorological Organization and many scientists dispute such claims, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Cli­mate Change (IPCC) projects a sea-level rise of approximately seven to 23 inches over the next cen­tury, not the widely publicized 18 to 20 feet in former Vice President Gore's book and documen­tary An Inconvenient Truth...

Furthermore, no matter how great a problem global warming may be, the Lieberman –Warner bill, assuming that it works as intended, would alle­viate only a small fraction of that problem...

Thus, the impact of Lieberman–Warner on over­all emissions trends is modest, given global emis­sions growth. By most accounts, even in the unlikely event that America meets the targets of this bill, worldwide emissions would continue to increase, only at a slightly slower rate...

In sum, America's Climate Security Act of 2007 promises significant economic pain for little envi­ronmental gain. The costs are simply out of line with the benefits. Our analysis puts the cost of preventing carbon dioxide emissions at $49 per ton in 2015 and $68 to $88 by 2030, amounts that are generally in line with five other analyses of this bill. (See Table 1.)

But according to several prominent resource econ­amists, that is more than the dollar value of the harm that each ton does to the environment in the form of increased global warming. One analysis puts the cost of damage at $7.4 per ton of carbon dioxide and rising by about 2.5 percent per year, a fraction of what Lieberman–Warner costs per ton.If true, this bill would prove a textbook example of a solu­tion that is worse than the problem.

It is at this point where I would normally make an impassioned plea to write your senator and tell them that this bill is economic suicide, but our own Senator Harkin is a co-sponsor of this legislation and as Harry Reed declared yesterday, those that disagree are essentially head in the sand naysayers. It is doubtful that you will persuade any of them that this is an act of lunacy now that they have their eyes on the revenue stream this scheme will produce.

Also see: The Five Myths about global warming legislation.

The 1/2 Compromise

I caught the opening statements of Howard Dean on CSpan yesterday at the Democrats Rules Committee Meeting to determine the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegates. Now I must admit Howard has always reminded me of Barney Rubble. Don't get me wrong I think Barney is a hell of an actor but Dean has the same grin, mannerisms, and they both talk out of the side of their mouths.

As his Iowa WOOHOO moment proved Dean can also be just plain annoying. He used the term "extraordinary"15 times in the course of the speech. I know because it became so glaring I had to go back and count. Someone please get the man a thesaurus.

However, beyond my petty nitpicking Dean also had the audacity to state that 5 supreme court justices were 'Intellectually Bankrupt" for their decision in the 2000 election. Can Dean really believe that or is pandering pablum to the putzes so ingrained in his psyche that he can make such an idiotic pronouncement in a public forum without a second thought. I believe it is just a case of the the pot calling the kettle black. This is after all the the party that just yesterday decided to count the voters of Florida and Michigan at 1/2 of a person.

This decision hearkens back to 1787 when a similar compromise was reached. "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."

This time the compromise reads: Representatives shall be apportioned among 55 of the States which may be included in the Union according to the their respective numbers. Florida and Michigan shall be determined by adding the whole number of free super-delegates, bound to service for a term of years, and 1/2 half of all other persons.

Intellectual Bankruptcy for sure, and this New York Democrat would agree, as she was being escorted out of the proceedings.

Views from the Garden

Top: Clamatis. Lower: Columbine

2008 Seldovia Chainsaw Carving Contest

Inside every tree there is work of art just waiting to come out.



See all of this years contestant entries here: Seldovia, Ak Gazette.

Krauthammer On Global Warning

Yesterday I discussed proposed Global Warming legislation making its way through Congress. The Markey bill is not alone however. On the senate side similar legislation by Leiberman and Warner is also pending. While I agree that efforts to reduce pollution are necessary and reducing our dependence on foreign supplies are in our national security interests these bills are overzealous in their scope and potentially damaging to our economy.

From Charles Krauthammer, "Confessions of a Global-Warming Agnostic; The Church of the Environment needs a nuclear Reformation"

I’m not a global-warming believer. I’m not a global-warming denier. I’m a global-warming agnostic who believes instinctively that it can’t be very good to pump lots of CO2 into the atmosphere, but is equally convinced that those who presume to know exactly where that leads are talking through their hats.

Predictions of catastrophe depend on models. Models depend on assumptions about complex planetary systems — from ocean currents to cloud formation — that no one fully understands. Which is why the models are inherently flawed and forever changing. The doomsday scenarios posit a cascade of events, each with a certain probability. The multiple improbability of their simultaneous occurrence renders all such predictions entirely speculative...

Yet on the basis of this speculation, environmental activists, attended by compliant scientists and opportunistic politicians, are advocating radical economic and social regulation. “The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity,” warns Czech President Vaclav Klaus, “is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.”

The Politics of Regret

It is difficult for me to see the appeal of Barrak Obama if for no other reason than his resume is so glaringly thin for a person applying for the position of Leader of the Free World. I can understand why he is drawing the majority of the black vote simply because we naturally gravitate to what we identify as own cohort. However, that doesn't explain his other major voting block which are educated upper class whites. White guilt is often noted as the cause for their support but guilty for what? I recently ran across this piece, "I was a Red-Diaper-Baby" by Erica Manfred, which might explain it.

I was a Red-Diaper-Baby O.K., so my parents were Communists. But at least they believed in something.
I never thought I would feel nostalgic about Communism. As a 60's activist and child of lefty parents, I once took as gospel beliefs that now seem quaint: human beings are basically good; if people, not capitalists, owned the means of production, poverty would disappear; economic equality could cure all social ills. Misguided and dangerous though Communism was, the passion for social justice and compassion for working people that it represented is gone from the planet, and I, for one, miss it. Although to their deaths they never admitted it to me, my parents were both card-carrying Communists. How do I know? I can't tell you. I was brought up never to reveal such information. When friends visited my parents, instead of telling me to put out the cheese and crackers, I was instructed to hide The National Guardian, a genuinely mind-numbing lefty publication. In addition to being told never to get into a car with a stranger, I was instructed never to answer a stranger's questions - the questioner might be F.B.I. As a teen-ager, I was secretly disdainful of my peers because they were oblivious to the suffering of others.

My family and I were part of a morally superior secret society that cared more about the fate of the world than did our bourgeois, materialistic neighbors. We - whose showplace home could have been in House and Garden - worried about poverty, racism and injustice, while they worried about how to keep up with the Joneses. Pursued by the evil forces of anti-Communism, we did not name names. As it happened, no one asked my parents to name anyone, but they swore they wouldn't have anyway. My grandparents were socialists who escaped the ghettos of Russia to fight for the right to unionize in America. My parents were Communists who fought for social justice in the 1930's. As the third generation of this proud leftist family, I wanted to make good. As an activist in the 60's, however, I lacked oomph. I missed out on the freedom rides - too obsessed with a guy in my math class. I overslept for a big civil rights demonstration. I did climb over the wall to the Pentagon in 1967 but was too chicken (and too cold) to stick around for the tear gas. I joined a women's consciousness-raising group but was so intimidated by all those fierce women that I dropped out.In 1968, I went to Cuba and signed up for the Venceremos Brigade, American leftists who were invited to help with the sugar cane harvest. That experience was my reality check. I'd spent my life on the ideological left in self-styled anarchist groups with Utopian dreams of participatory democracy. I discovered that an actual Communist dictatorship bore no resemblance to my fantasy. While the Cubans mechanically spewed forth the party line, the notorious Weathermen, who had joined the brigade to recruit new members, used Maoist brainwashing techniques, like all-night criticism and self-criticism sessions, to induce us to sign up. I realized I'd rather be ruled by Richard Nixon than by the kids in the Weather tent. At least you could vote him out.

When I got back, I traded in my politics and went into therapy. But I feared disgracing my family. I felt disloyal about being more concerned with my own turmoil than the world's. My mother wanted to know who was supposed to carry the torch of radicalism into the next century. But what torch? The Weatherpeople were clearly delusional as well as dangerous. My parents passionately believed that the Soviet Union was the promised land, another treacherous fantasy. I recognized that anarchism was a utopian crock.

What was left? Did political passion, no matter how idealistic, inevitably lead to fanaticism? I became a cynic, disbelieving any group's claims to a corner of the truth. What remains of the left in today's me-first political climate leaves no room for grand social visions. The younger generation of leftists has splintered into interest groups - each defending its turf with more arrogant political correctness than my die-hard Stalinist parents - without any unifying vision of a just and compassionate society. Though I long ago dropped the torch, my upbringing has had certain long-term effects. I cannot cross a picket line. I am constitutionally averse to Republicans. I feel guilty every time I miss a demonstration for a good cause. (Lucky for me there aren't too many of those these days.) As with other wishy-washy liberals, my political life consists of voting for the least objectionable candidate. I still long, though, for a political movement I could wholeheartedly embrace. In my fantasy party we would support the interests of the poor and working classes, not the rich; we would fight for the rights of animals and the environment; we would combat discrimination wherever we found it, and, most important, we would not only tolerate but encourage dissent. Maybe the next generation.

What Obama has tapped into it not so much guilt but regret. The regret that past candidates did not live up to the cause to which they still cling. Bill Clinton came closest and generated enthusiasm in the early years but it didn't take long for them to realize he was just in it for himself. Gore may have been a believer but he wasn't able to gain power after eight years of Clinton. Then theres Hillary, how does that song go? "We wont get fooled again." Obama on the other hand has tapped into the fantasy of people like Manfred and has generated cult-like dedication from a faction that HOPES for a relization of a dream.

Prayers for Parkersburg

Our hearts and prayers go out to those in the town of Parkersburg that were affected by this week ends tornado.

Photos Here (Thanks Rick)

The New Carbon Tax

You can call it a investment, call it a lease, call it an auction, but whatever you call it companies that produce CO2 emmisions are in for substatial increases in the cost of doing business. Congressman Edward Markey (D. Mass) has announced a plan to penalize those companies that do not meet his future government mandates for greenhouse gasses.

Markey prefers to portray his plan an investment and as he describes, “The bill is called the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act, or iCAP for short, the small “i” a tip of the cap to the technological potential of clean energy. The bill also proffers a new paradigm in global warming legislation: the Cap-and-Invest system. The bill caps pollution at 85 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It then uses an auction system that sets a price on carbon, and allows companies to compete for reductions, or buy or trade credits within the system.”

In a roll out of his bill at the Center for American Progress Markey noted that his bill is fashioned after the European plan but where they went wrong is they gave away carbon credits to the various industries FOR FREE. We won’t be that foolish. Instead we are going to auction carbon credits to industries to the tune of 8 Trillion Dollars.

It takes a little Orwellian imagination to call a tax an “Investment” but that is essentially what he has done as the Economic Policy Institute explains; “For example, a lease for 10 tons of carbon dioxide could be sold at auction to an electricity producer. The lease would entitle the purchaser to release 10 tons of carbon over the life of the lease (say five years), but it would also require, for these emissions, a fixed per-ton payment, which would be set in advance by the terms of the lease. Businesses would thus have an upfront cost to obtain the permit at auction (though less than in a cap-and-trade regime), and then they would be responsible for the annual payment for polluting. This payment would act like a carbon tax, increasing incentives to reduce emissions while adding predictability to the market and costs.”

Economically speaking, anytime the government takes money out of the system there is going to be an equal and opposite reaction. In this case the cost of energy and most other products is going to have to go up or businesses that are able are going to go overseas. But don’t fear. To make the plan palatable to the masses Markey is going to throw you a bone. He states “More than half of the funds from the bill goes directly back to low-and middle-income American families to offset any increases in energy costs from the transition of the economy to low- or zero-carbon energy.” As Soapy Smith used to say, “We steal from the other guy and pass the savings on to you.”

It must be noted that former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta testified before Markey's congressional commitee, along with former Clinton advisor Ian Bowles, and Markey choose to make the announcement at Podesta's Center for American Progress.

Barry has "The Sixth Sense"

"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong."

B. H. Obama

Decoration Day 2008

We walked among the crosses

Where our fallen soldiers lay.

And listened to the bugle

As TAPS began to play.

The Chaplin led a prayer

We stood with heads bowed low.

And I thought of fallen comrades

I had known so long ago.

They came from every city

Across this fertile land.

That we might live in freedom.

They lie here 'neath the sand.

I felt a little guilty

My sacrifice was small.

I only lost a little time

But these men lost their all.

Now the services are over.

For this Memorial Day.

To the names upon these crosses

I just want to say,

Thanks for what you've given

No one could ask for more.

May you rest with God in heaven

From now through evermore.

C.W. Johnson

Nationalization of Oil

Maxine Waters recent foo pah has evidently heightened my oily awareness. If you need a model of oil industry nationalization you need look no farther than our friend Sluggo down Venezuela way. Since the takeover of the main source of income the economy has headed to the crapper. From Bloomberg: "Chavez Price Controls Mean Record Oil Fails to Prevent Shortage"

Peak Oil Doomsayers

It’s hard to keep up with the newest craze in fear mongering but this article alerted me to the “Peak Oil” craze that has hit the Internet. If you didn’t get on the global warming bandwagon here is an issue you can surely embrace. With oil at $125 dollars a barrel and gas at four bucks surely we must be running out of oil and will soon be returning to the 19th century. From today's Cedar Rapids Gazette:

(AP) BUSKIRK, N.Y. — A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings. That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear...

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few year. (This sentence should have been enough for any self respecting j-school graduate to hit the delete key on this article.)

What makes this newest end day scenario so absurd is that it is so empirically wrong. From Reason Magazine: "The Tank Is Still More Than Half Full"

So who’s right? Fortunately, it looks like humanity is at least a generation away from peak oil production. Unfortunately, there could be another “oil crisis” any day now.
The world consumes about 87 million barrels of oil per day, or nearly 30 billion barrels of oil per year. How much oil is left? It’s hard to be sure. Proven oil reserves i.e., oil that is recoverable under current economic and operating conditions—are estimated to be 1.1 trillion barrels by the industry journal World Oil, 1.2 trillion by the oil company BP, and 1.3 trillion by the Oil and Gas Journal. In March 2005 the private U.K.-based energy consultancy IHS Energy estimated that the world’s remaining recoverable reserves, excluding unconventional sources such as heavy oil or tar sands, are between 1.3 trillion and 2.4 trillion barrels.

But are proven reserves all that’s left? Several analyses put ultimate reserves at much higher levels. For example, the USGS undertook a comprehensive analysis of world oil reserves in 2000. It calculated that the total world endowment of recoverable oil is 3 trillion barrels. (Its figure is higher because it includes estimates for undiscovered resources and projected increases in already producing fields.) In addition, the total world endowment of natural gas is equivalent to 2.6 trillion barrels of oil, plus 330 billion barrels of natural gas liquids such as propane and butane. The USGS figures that the total world endowment of conventional oil resources is equivalent to about 5.9 trillion barrels of oil. Proven reserves of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids are equivalent to 2 trillion barrels of oil. The USGS calculates that humanity has already consumed about 1 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, which means 82 percent of the world’s endowment of oil and gas resources remains to be used.

In its 2005 Energy Outlook, ExxonMobil estimates “global conventional oil resources total 3.2 trillion barrels…with non-conventional ‘frontier’ resources such as heavy oil bringing that total to over 4 trillion barrels.” In November 2005, the International Energy Agency, an organization created in 1974 by 26 industrialized countries to assess global energy issues, released its annual World Energy Outlook report, which accepted the USGS numbers and concluded that “the world’s energy resources are adequate to meet projected growth in energy demand” until at least 2030. The report predicted that oil production would grow from the 2004 level of 82 million barrels a day to 115 million barrels a day and that any “peak” would occur after 2030. It suggested that world oil prices will decline to around $35 per barrel (in 2004 dollars) by 2010 and eventually rise to $39 per barrel by 2030. At the Montreal Climate Change Conference in December, Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency, declared: “We don’t share the tenets of the peak oil theory. We feel that they underestimate technological developments. For many decades to come there is no geological problem.”

Probably the most respected private oil consultancy in the world is Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) in Boston. On December 7, 2005, CERA senior consultant Robert W. Esser testified at a House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee hearing on the peak oil theory. “CERA’s belief is that the world is not running out of oil imminently or in the near to medium term,” Esser said. “Indeed, CERA projects that world oil production capacity has the potential to rise from 87 million barrels per day [mbd] in 2005 to as much as 108 mbd by 2015.…We see no evidence to suggest a peak before 2020, nor do we see a transparent and technically sound analysis from another source that justifies belief in an imminent peak.” Instead of a sharp peak followed by a production decline, CERA’s analysts foresee an “undulating plateau” in which global oil production remains more or less steady. “It will be a number of decades into this century before we get to an inflection point that will herald the arrival of the undulating plateau,” said Esser.

There will always be people that are sure that we are living in the end times. Heaven knows I have met more than a few but this craze is no different than the UN takeover, black helicopter craze or the current Global Warming bologna, only this one plays on the fears of people that don't know what to make of sudden rise in oil prices and the gloom and doom predictions of the liberal media. A quick perusal of Peak Oil web sites such as “Life After the Oil Crash" finds that they all have one thing in common; they are all hawking books with titles like “Crude Awakening; The Oil Crash”, “The Coming Economic Collapse”, and "Getting Out; Your guide for escaping America” (Is there really anyplace that would be safe in the event of a total economic collapse.) These books are the product of a paranoia industry that bleeds the unwitting and pushes people like Miss Breault over the edge.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Just Links>>>

It's been a while since I have linked to Iowa Hawk but check out "Dear Barry, Tips from America's premier relationship expert".

From Maggie's Farm, The Ultimate in SUV accessories.

From Anechoic Room, "Barry and Me"

From Gateway Pundit, While Iowa senator Tom Harkin and his cohorts go out of their way to defame the efforts of our troops this Aussie has gone beyond the call of duty.

Oil and Waters Don't Mix

During an empassioned attack on oil executives Rep. Maxine Waters offered a chance to peak into the heart and soul of the left and thier agenda. In the democrats view the oil industry should be under control of the government. We should not be suprised, Senator Clinton has openly stated the same senitments. It was interesting that to Waters's right Democrat Steve Cohen nods approval to Waters statement until he comes to the realization that she had let the cat out of the bag. The rep to the right of Cohen also realizes that Maxine has stepped in the poo.

Link: sevenload.com

Vets for Freedom Response to Tom Harkin

Military Experience a Value not a Flaw

(Des Moines IA) - Vets for Freedom is disheartened by the comments made last Friday by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) stating that a view shaped by "always having been in the military" is "pretty dangerous". These comments are insulting to generations of families who have answered the call of duty to serve their nation in the United States Armed Forces.

"As an Iowa veteran who served on the front lines of the War on Terror, I was offended to hear my Senator demean the distinguished service of generations of American patriots." said Iowa State Captain of Vets for Freedom and Iraq war veteran, Ben Hayden. "To make these comments the day before Armed Forces Day is even more disturbing. Some of our greatest leaders have been 'steeped' in military tradition - from our first President, General George Washington, to John F. Kennedy and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Senator Harkin's comments are nothing more than a political cheap shot aimed at a true war hero. All Americans should welcome this type of generational commitment to service, as it provides the very foundation of our great nation."

May 20, 2008 Contact: Judy Mayka (202) 338-4070

Rope a Dope Redux

While yesterday's boxing analogy got a little out of hand the point was not lost on Robert Novak at the Washington Post. As he points out in today's op-ed McCain will not be playing by Obama's rules in the general election. Much to the chagrin of the Dem's who will yell "you can say that. Its racist" at every turn."

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When one of the Democratic Party's most astute strategists this week criticized John McCain for attacking Barack Obama's desire to engage Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I asked what the Republican presidential candidate ought to talk about in this campaign. "Health care and the economy," he replied. That is a sure formula for Democratic victory, but it is one that McCain's campaign rejects. Obama embraced that formula once it became clear that he would best Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He began pounding McCain for seeking the third term of George W. Bush. At the same time, Obama implores McCain in the interest of "one nation" and "one people" not to attack him. The shorthand, widely repeated by the news media, is that the Republican candidate must not "Swift boat" Obama. That amounts to unilateral political disarmament by McCain. McCain is not about to disarm. His campaign has no intention of fighting this battle on Democratic turf. During the more than five months ahead, Republicans will explore the mindset of this young man who is a stranger to most Americans. That includes his association with the Chicago leftist William Ayers, who has remained unrepentant about his violent role as a 1960s radical. This will not be popular with McCain's erstwhile admirers in the mainstream news media, but America has not heard the last of Bill Ayers in this campaign.

"Are you ready to rumble?"

Barry and the Rope a Dope.

Now that Barry has relented and is wearing a flag pin again doesn't that paint him as the same kind of pandering politician that he was trying so hard to transcend? Or perhaps that's the strategy. While the media and the blog o sphere spend thier days jabbing away at his little irrelevancies he deftly plays the rope a dope on what he is really all about. Jab, Does he smoke? Jab, did he give Hillary the finger? Jab, does he really believe there are 57 states? Jab, Hey he's wearing flag pin!!! When he gets popped with a real roundhouse he responds with "let me eat my waffle" or "later sweetie." Then the waffle and the sweetie becomes the jab of the day while he shuffles merrily away for an afternoon of bowling or round ball which again become the jab of the day. He then backs into the top rope and waits for the next flurry from an increasingly arm weary opponent. A couple of uppercuts landed with the one two of Wright and Ayers and for a moment it looked like the contender was staggered but Barry sat in the corner while his trainer took one for the team.

In any campaign the one that controls the narrative is the one that wins the bout and so far Barry has excelled. He has excelled at redirection and dictating the rules of engagement, fighting his fight. He has been able to lay on the ropes and deflect the blows with a taunting smile while we all flail wildly, unable to penetrate his defences. He has gone the distance with Clinton with this strategy and until he is forced to come off the ropes in the next bout his opponent will suffer the same fate.

A Great Obama Video, Via: The Urban Grind.

Trapped like a rat

Yesterday I found myself coupled to the face of the back overhead garage door. “Coupled?” you ask. Yes, there is no auto opener on our back garage and once it is in open mode closing it demonstrates several of Newton’s laws of inertia and mass. It takes considerable force to transition the mass of the door from its resting position. To accomplish that, the general procedure is to grasp the ¾ inch gap between the first and second panel and forcefully pull in a downward motion. Once the door is in motion its weight and the force applied ensures a smooth decent to the closed position.

However, as anyone familiar with overhead door mechanics knows, the gap is a fleeting apparition as the panels make their trek to the full and upright position. With dexterity, a normal person can adjust hand position before that gap disappears encapsulating the tips of aforementioned fingers. As I realized that the critical gapage was fast encasing said fingertips the speed and weight of the door was at first surprising. “What the…” I said moments before the painful realization that I was trapped like a mouse in a trap.
As time and space seemed to slow like a scene out of “The Matirx” my mind, in a split second of lucidity, pondered a way to extricate myself from the situation. If anyone should find themselves in such a similar position I offer the following procedure. Step A: Yell “god damn” at the top of your lungs. This has two purposes. It alerts a loved one that you are in need of assistance in the event that Step B is unsuccessful and it also alerts the adrenal gland to supply a sufficient injection of hormone to yank free the set of digits of your dominate hand. Step B: With that parital victory you will momentarily regain your composure long enough to slow the motion of the descending door. Step C: With your one free hand and one foot (foot choice is optional here) you can reverse the direction of travel a sufficient distance to retrieve your now purple appendages. Step D. Install a frigging handle on the door before you smash your fingers.

This has been a public service announcement from the CR Salmon. “Enduring life’s pains, so you don’t have to.”

Freedom Rock 2008 Is Underway

Iowan Ray Sorenson has spent the past nine Months of May painting patriotic murals on a Rock two miles south of I 80 at Exit 86 west of Des Moines. The Memorial Day unveiling has become a local tradition in western Iowa and a tourist destination for travelers.

Pictured: The Rock 2007

See Past Rocks here.

Rays Web site.