PSoTD

From WOAI.com:

Officials at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio are among the thousands of Americans getting deluged with Internet hoax e-mails claiming actor Denzel Washington 'pulled out his checkbook on the spot' and made a huge donation to help wounded soldiers during a 'recent' visit to wounded soldiers being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center, 1200 WOAI news reported today.

"I just delete them," post spokesman Phil Reidinger said.

The Internet hoax, which is often combined with sarcastic comments criticizing the media for 'not reporting' the non-event, have been headache for the Army, but provide a publicity windfall for Fisher House, a public-private partnership that builds housing for the families of wounded soldiers on the grounds of military and Veterans Administration hospitals nationwide.

The urban legend e-mail, which has picked up steam in the past two weeks, claims Washington was so impressed with the Fisher House efforts that he 'pulled out his checkbook on the spot and wrote a check large enough to pay for construction of a new Fisher House at BAMC.

It does turn out that Washington did make a sizeable donation to Fisher House some time after visiting.

Still, this email blitz is the kind of work an advertising firm could take great pride in...

Also known as Pennsylvania's General Assembly, in Harrisburg.

Ugh.

State Could Begin Fiscal Year Without Budget

Typical.

Pa. House session halted after ethnic remarks, "cracker" slur

The specifics aren't so typical in this case, but the intellectual level of debate isn't surprising at all.

It is very, very, very, very, very hard to watch these people on a day to day basis.

Dohiyi Mir has a good question you likely won't hear the for-profit news media ask:

An American military helicopter transporting troops that crashed in a rugged area of eastern Afghanistan was hit by hostile fire, the military said today, but it was not known if that is what brought it down.

...

So, what do you think? Was this an operation to get Bin Laden just in time for Bush's grand speech last night? Or just more of the same "we kicked their asses but these pesky Muslims have bad sportsmanship"?

It looks to me like the American Horse Council has a bad case of association lobby-envy.

The first symptom is hyperbolic fever. As in, our members made this country the great place it is...

Check out their exciting press release from Wednesday...
MOST COMPREHENSIVE HORSE STUDY EVER REVEALS A NEARLY $40 BILLION IMPACT ON THE U.S.ECONOMY

First paragraph:
The horse industry in the United States contributes $39 billion in direct economic impact to the US economy and supports 1.4 million jobs on a full-time basis, according to a new study released today by the American Horse Council (AHC). When indirect and induced spending are included, the industry's economic impact reaches $102 billion. The study also estimates the horse population in this country has reached 9.2 million.

I wonder how much economic impact bloggers create when indirect and induced spending is included... Or nudists. Or pie-eating contests. Or the game of chess. Does that number really mean anything?

Now this study wasn't just from AHC. No...
The study, conducted by Deloitte Consulting, LLC over the last year, was commissioned by the American Horse Council Foundation with major funding support from the American Quarter Horse Association, The Jockey Club, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Breeders' Cup Limited, Keeneland Association, American Paint Horse Association, American Association of Equine Practitioners, U.S. Trotting Association, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and the U.S. Equestrian Federation.

All these groups aren't going to get together to create these "statistics" for no reason. Deloitte ain't cheap. Nope, they want something. Wonder what?
Here's some ideas, from the Whittier Daily News:

"Even though they're not used as much in commerce as they once were, horses are still an important part of many people's lives," said Jay Hickey, president of the horse council. "It's an agribusiness. It's a sport. It's gaming. It's a breeding industry."

Hickey said the horse groups had no particular aim for the study other than getting fresh research on their industry. However, trade groups in Washington frequently use such studies when lobbying Congress and the executive branch for policies that would help their industry, and the horse lobby has several of those.

Equine groups are pushing for more favorable capital-gain tax treatment of horses. They want to be eligible for federal disaster relief. Several states allow slot machines at racetracks, and racing interests in others, including Texas, want to do the same. They generally oppose laws that would ban or limit Internet betting.

The groups also are lobbying for more public land to be available for riding trails. In urban areas, from Long Island to Dallas, stables and other operations are being pushed out to make room for homes and other development.

That's right, the horse folks are saddling up for Congress and State Legislatures. First step: create a bunch of "statistics" for decisionmaker consumption. They're going to come to the trough with fine Deloitte tack, but don't expect them to politely wear horse diapers, so wear boots if you're in a capital.

And don't be surprised if you hear that Deloitte is doing a study for the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association next year. After all, pet mice have indirect and induced spending economic impact, too.

Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo:

Blog Posts are determined by Technorati search, News Articles determined by search on Google News.

Google stories drop out of the database after 30 days.

Which State Capital has the worst local State Capital news coverage? Is it Jackson, Mississippi? Or is it Oklahoma City, Oklahoma?

These two cities are now vying for the newest invented-for-the-purposes-of-marketing-the-awarder-yet-still-vaunted news award in the world: The State Crapital Coverage Award, also known as the State Crappie. Brought to you by PSoTD, makers of fine blog commentary that one can read without irritable itching or embarassing odors.

Yes, it's your civic duty... Vote!

Note: This is the last day to vote. And Jackson, Mississippi is kicking ass!

Most State Crapital News Coverage
The Final: Which State Capital Has The Worst Local News Coverage of State Government?	Jackson, Mississippi Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
	Current Results

I just have to give these folks some visibility here. I listen all the time while working, and this week so far has particularly been one kick-ass week in music selection. Haven't heard Dave Edmunds' Crawling from the Wreckage since I put my vinyl albums away. THANK YOU!

Unhappy love affair explains Rice stance on Iran: MP
Wed Jun 29, 8:48 AM ET



TEHRAN (AFP) - Perplexed by the vitriol of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's attacks on Iran, one lawmaker believes he has uncovered the secret of her enmity — that she was spurned by an Iranian boyfriend at college.

"The reason that the US secretary of state attacks Iran is because she had her heart broken by a young man from Qazvin while they were students," a confident Shokrollah Attarzadeh was quoted by the ISNA agency as saying.

Somewhat mysteriously, he added: "This is the result of an investigation by a woman MP, who cannot be named."

...

Hell hath no fury like a Secretary of State scorned.

I strongly think it is time that people start asking their local newspapers to ask of their local members of Congress their opinion on investigating the issues of the Downing Street Memo and related documents. It's as simple as emailing or writing your local newspaper with a request such as:

Dear _______________________,

Is it possible that our local newspaper can ask all local members of Congress their position on the question:

Should Congress now investigate the issues surrounding the Downing Street Memo?

And report that easily some day soon in the newspaper? Wouldn't it be useful to have that information on the public record?

Sincerely,

My name

There's way too many members of Congress that will avoid making their position clear without being asked. It seems reasonable that local news media will ask. Ask them to ask.

President Addresses Nation, Discusses Iraq, War on Terror

Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington, and Pennsylvania.

Perhaps the the Bush Administration ought to specify this ideology further for the American public, and how it differs from the murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in Oklahoma City.

Because if there's no difference, they should include it when itemizing acts of terrorism.

From the Washington Post:

The United States is keenly following Brazil's plan to break a patent held by a U.S. drug company to cut treatment costs for the country's tens of thousands of AIDS sufferers, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

"We are monitoring this latest development closely through our embassy in Brasilia and here in Washington," a U.S. trade official said, without commenting on whether the United States would challenge Brazil on the issue.

Brazil has announced it will break a patent on Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s anti-retroviral drug Kaletra to provide a cheaper generic version for its treatment program.

It would be the first time any country has broken a patent in order to produce an anti-AIDS drugs. Brazil says its state-owned lab could make the drug for 68 cents a pill, less than the $1.17 each the government pays Abbott.

Brazil was taking the step after Abbott had refused to grant a voluntary license to manufacture Kaletra, Costa said.

The order, the first issued by Brazil in a long-running tussle over pricing between developing countries and multinational companies producing drugs used in AIDS treatment, will go into effect within 10 days, Costa said.

This will be interesting ten days in this situation. Will Abbott grant the license after all?

For other blog discussion on this, check out

A pet hamster is at the centre of a bizarre police investigation after it was put in a sealed envelope and posted in a letter box, it has been revealed.

Didn't watch it. Last time I watched Bush was the debates with Kerry. All the stumbling and fumbling and smirking and posturing is too embarrassing to sit through. Plus Bush is a guy who will gladly piss on your leg and tell you it's raining, so why bother?

I did read the text of the speech and unsurprisingly it was simply more lip service. At this point we're not eliminating terrorism or spreading democracy to the Middle East. We've created a terrorist breeding and training ground and will end up with either an Islamist sister state for Iran or a civil war. We're in a face-saving operation ... or more accurately Bush is in a Presidency-saving operation. Doesn't seem to be working.

I wrote this before Bush's speech:

I don't think he's going to say anything new. He's going to put the onus on Americans to stay the course as a necessity for American security. Political shorthand: a failure in Iraq will be America's failure. Will throw in a couple of references to 9/11. And don't forget there's good going on in Iraq.

It'll create a small positive buzz among conservatives. It'll tick off liberals even further because dissent to the war will be equated with a failure to support America. Political shorthand: it'll divide America even further on the war.

I will be shocked if tonight's speech pushes the dial anything noticeable on the poll numbers related to Bush and Iraq. Bush's main chance to improve his poll numbers, and by reflection increase his ability to lead, is to quit trying to convince the half of the nation that thinks he's dead wrong about Iraq that he's right, and start trying to convince them that regardless of the difference in opinion, he needs their help and support. But he just won't do that.

While Bush is tap-dancing around the situation in Iraq tonight, maybe he should also take a minute or two to discuss Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, which a U.S. official said may have been carrying 15 to 20 people, crashed Tuesday while ferrying reinforcements for counterterrorism operations in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility

...

Tuesday's crash comes after three months of unprecedented fighting that has killed about 465 suspected insurgents, 29 U.S. troops, 43 Afghan police and soldiers, and 125 civilians.

The violence has left much of Afghanistan off-limits to aid workers and has reinforced concerns that the war here is escalating into a conflict on the scale of that in Iraq.

Just like cockroaches, looks like the Taliban are back.

Erotic telepathy. I must have the power!

It's the subject of this week's GPU question at Unpaid Punditry Corps:

What do you think is and will be the political impact of President Bush’s primetime Speech to the Nation on Tuesday, June 28th?

In a prime-time address from Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division, Bush was to argue that there is no need to change course in Iraq despite the upsetting images produced by daily insurgent attacks.

Yeah, it's not the trumped-up WMD threat ... or the incomplete planning and incompetent execution of the occupation ... or the torture at Abu Ghraib and human rights violations at Gitmo ... or the 1800 dead GI's ... or the tens of thousands of dead Iraqis ... or the dim prospects for success that's bugging Americans.

It's that darn upsetting image we want to get rid of!!

Oregon considering self-extinguishing cigarettes...

A bill to require tobacco companies to sell only self-extinguishing cigarettes in Oregon has sailed through committee and is headed for the Senate floor.

Proponents say the measure would save lives and reduce the number of forest fires, but it is getting stiff industry opposition.

Industry lobbyists agree that so-called "fire-safe" cigarettes are less likely to spark blazes.

But they say companies don't want different requirements in different states, and that the safer cigarettes require a more expensive paper.

"We can't manufacture cigarettes based on 50 different designs," said Mark W. Nelson, a lobbyist whose clients include RJ Reynolds.

These companies cannot do any kind of safety-related or health-related improvements to their product by their choice. They have to be forced. They can't just pick the safest standard, and go with that. They can't be proactive. They can't respond to all the government statistics about cigarette-related fires, and try to do something to reduce them.

They have to have government help. And they're begging for it - from the federal government.

I hope they're catching up on some of the outstanding reads out there recently on other blogs.

Fester has a great post over at the Unpaid Punditry Corps called Inflation and Future Expectations. Give it a read.

I liked Brad DeLong's writeup on the eminent domain decision. Take a look.

Common Sense Desk covered the Monday Supreme Court Decision I found interesting and least blogged about: Cable Wins Big.

Bill Frist's hopes for 2008 are sinking...sinking...sinking... Swing State Project has the details.

Matthew Holt depresses me at Ezra Klein's blog by explaining Why the FDA is in tatters.

The Stakeholder quotes Representative George Miller - Keep partisan politics out of baseball.

No kidding. It's America's game, remember.

Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo:

Blog Posts are determined by Technorati search, News Articles determined by search on Google News.

Here's the problem: Google stories drop out of the database after 30 days. I didn't start keeping track until June 1 on Google News count, so I have 9 more days before I can work the numbers around to figure out how many new news stories Google is showing for the day.

George W. Bush owned a Major League Baseball team. Rupert Murdoch owned a Major League Baseball team. Thirteen Bush Pioneer contributors own or owned Major League Baseball teams.

But now Republican Congressmen are warning Major League Baseball they better not sell the Washington Nationals to George Soros.

I think our democracy just jumped the shark.

Tony Blair is expecting a tough time reaching agreement with his buddy Dubya on climate change at the upcoming G8 meeting.

"Climate change is obviously very difficult," Blair told a news conference in his Downing Street residence. "It is incredibly important that we do get some clear agreement that we need to move to a low-carbon economy, that we need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and we need to do so urgently," he said.

"It's my own view about that. We will wait to see whether we can get an agreement or not."

The United States has so far strongly disputed the scientific basis for global warming.

A leaked draft of a final statement for the G8 summit underscored a gulf between President Bush and Blair about the extent of the problem.

In a June 14 draft, the sentences "Our world is warming" and "We know that the increase is due in large part to human activity" are in brackets, indicating U.S. disagreement by marking those passages out for possible deletion.

If the United States wasn't the world's biggest polluter, would we still be trying to alter science in our favor?

The Flu Wiki is now online. Time to bookmark.

The Supreme Court term ends today and it seems all too likely to be Rehnquist's swan song. Conservative group Progress for America is already firing the first shots with a TV disinformation campaign in drooling anticipation of a troglodyte nominee.

Tribune Media Services' Robyn Blumner has a look at a few of the front-runners for the next opening.

Top on the list is J. Michael Luttig of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He's only 51 years old - just old enough to have some gravitas but still young enough to offer a possible 30-year lock on the chief's seat.

...

Luttig, a former law clerk for Scalia, has a judicial record of hostility to abortion rights, environmental protections and gays. He has a renowned animosity toward criminal defendants, which may stem in part from a terrible crime perpetrated on his family. In 1994, Luttig's father was murdered by two teenage carjackers. Luttig moved his chambers to Texas in order to lend assistance to the prosecution, and he demanded the death penalty. One of the defendants was later executed.

Another judge who appears to be a finalist is John Roberts Jr., who was appointed to the D.C. Circuit Court by Bush in 2003. He is 50 years old - that magic number - and has a minimal judicial record to review, considered a plus in a bruising confirmation battle.

...

In a case involving the constitutionality of a federal law barring doctors who receive federal funds from counseling their patients on abortion, Roberts went beyond the question presented in the case to argue for overruling Roe vs. Wade.

When the high court was considering the issue of prayer at public school graduations, Roberts urged the court in a friend-of-the-court brief to find those prayers constitutional and exhorted the court to loosen its test for keeping church and state separate.

The only dim glimmer (and it's pretty dim) offered was Judge Michael McConnell of the 10th Circuit.

McConnell's writings as a law professor at the University of Chicago and University of Utah indicate a rightward tilt. He holds the extreme view that the Constitution protects the unborn. Even so, McConnell is a brilliant constitutional scholar who has actively worked against Congress' efforts to outlaw flag burning. He also criticized the Supreme Court's actions in Bush vs. Gore, saying Florida should have been given time to do a recount, and he publicly opposed President Clinton's impeachment.

Pass the Alka Seltzer, please.

Dimmy's World has an interesting post on Congressional websites, and in particular the grades that Pennsylvania's delegation are getting for their web efforts. Worth a read.

Hard to believe that people can still be so... emotionally unaware of the possibilities when they send out an email. You can end up being ridiculed right out of a job.

Timely, because the most popular holiday weekend for barbecuing is July 4th - which is next weekend. Courtesy of the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association.

A few highlights:

Folks in the Northeast win the frequent fire-up award - they are the heaviest barbecuers in the nation, followed by those in the North Central, South and then West parts of the country.

The most popular foods for barbecuing are, in order, hamburgers, steak, hot dogs and chicken breasts.

Charcoal was invented in the early 1920s by automobile-king Henry Ford. Natural lump charcoal was a by-product created when he began manufacturing his own wood alcohol. The lump charcoal was eventually ground and combined with starch and formed into the uniform, pillow-shaped briquets we buy today; Thomas Alva Edison actually designed the first charcoal briquet plant for his friend Ford.

Paul Winchell, a ventriloquist, inventor and children's TV show host best known for creating the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh's animated friend Tigger, has died. He was 82.

Winchell did a lot of great cartoon character voices, including another of my favorites, Dick Dastardly, but regardless of his Winnie the Pooh work, nobody should ever forget Fleegle, from The Banana Splits.

Best of luck in casting in the great beyond.

Like a ghost from the past, the Downing Street Memo and related documents returned this summer to tell us this: the Bush Administration tells the British government a "truth" that it will not tell the American people or the rest of the world. Not only will the Bushies not tell Americans what they tell the British government, they tell Americans almost the opposite.

Things haven't changed. It apparently is happening right now:

From the Scotsman:

BRITAIN is coming under sustained pressure from American military chiefs to keep thousands of troops in Iraq - while going ahead with plans to boost the front line against a return to "civil war" in Afghanistan.

Tony Blair was warned that war-torn Iraq remains on the brink of disaster - more than two years after the removal of Saddam Hussein - during his summit with President Bush in Washington earlier this month.

So the Bush Administration tells Blair that Iraq remains on the brink of disaster. Not could be. Not is sliding towards. REMAINS ON THE BRINK OF DISASTER.

But this is what we get from the Bush Administration when they speak to America:

From CNN:

Cheney: Iraq will be 'enormous success story'

"We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan. We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story."

Sound the same to you as what The Scotsman reported that the Bush Administration told Blair? Me neither.

So, I would say this to the U.S. news media: Find out how The Scotsman came up with this information. And find out why this kind of information isn't being shared with America.

There's an online article entitled:

The Vanishing Nudist: Living the naked life in California´s desert

which makes the point that nudism is an older generation activity:

I thought about the average age of any nudist here — about 55. So where are tomorrow's nudists going to come from? That's a challenge that the AANR is facing right now, and the numbers don't look promising. Nudists are not creating enough new nudists to sustain a active and vibrant scene into the future.

In a few decades, it seems likely that there will be far fewer people to rent these RV parks and sit by these pools. Young people, in my experience, don't even want to hear about their parents being naked, let alone see it. When I tried to recount my trip to De Anza Springs to my 24-year-old daughter, I got the obligatory waving hand saying, "No, no, no details, dad."

...

It will be interesting to come back to De Anza Springs in 25 years and see whether people in the year 2030 are still interested in nude recreation. It is not guaranteed that there'll be many left, so if you think you'd like to experience a nudist resort, the time to go is now.

If the American Association for Nude Recreation is truly concerned about this, they're going to have to think of ways to re-brand nudism - including some formulas for providing some advantage to the participant. Saying that nudism is the ultimate in freedom and relaxation is one thing - but providing a value to that freedom and relaxation is more of an incentive to get people to try. Do nudists live longer? Are they healthier? Are they wealthier? Are they sexier? What is it about a nudist lifestyle that would convince an average person to take off their clothes in front of strangers and give it a try?

Gotta quantify a bit.

In yet another stunning triumph for the Bush foreign policy team, Iranians yesterday selected hard-line Islamist and Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for President. Ahmadinejad has "vowed to return Iran to the principles of the Islamic Revolution more than a quarter-century ago." Oh goody!

Ahmadinejad knows what he's talking about when it comes to the Islamic Revolution since he was one of the leaders of that fun bunch of kids that stormed and camped out in the US Embassy in Tehran back in 1980.

U.S. State department claims that the election was "fundamentally flawed" because a large group of candidates was not allowed on the ballot appear fundamentally flawed since the Iranians by a large margin chose the most hard-line candidate that *was* on the ballot.

Now that Bush has reversed the reform movement in Iran and turned Iraq into a terrorist breeding ground and all-around hellhole, he still has three years to complete an Axis of Evil trifecta and goad North Korean madman Kim Jong-il into lobbing a nuke at somebody.

Big planetary confab in the western sky this weekend - the rare triple alignment!

To catch the show, go outside after sunset today and find a spot with a clear view of the western horizon, Young said.

As the sky darkens, Venus will be the first astral body to emerge, as it's the brightest object in the heavens after the sun and moon. Mercury and Saturn will show themselves soon afterward -- both being about as bright as the other, and shining with a pale, yellowish light.

Be there or be terrestrial.

Go read Mustang Bobby's post now. There's no excuse for anyone to think differently about this now.

How long until Novak gets a regular gig on Fox?

You know what is really cool about humanity? When we stand in awe of the gifts of nature...

Firefly audience surpasses 13,000

In a flash they were gone - but the synchronous firefly beetles that inhabit Great Smoky Mountains National Park are expected to give a repeat performance next year of the mating ritual that has made the national news.

According to Scott Pardue, supervisory ranger at Sugarlands Visitor Center, a total of 13,100 people were drawn this year by the light of the beetle whose habit of flashing in synchrony is considered rather bizarre, but beautiful.

Last year, Park managers thought it was incredible that 8,500 people packed into Elkmont Historic District to see the fireflies, and, expecting an even larger human turnout this year, set up a plan to control the crowds and conserve the Park's natural resources.

Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo:

Blog Posts are determined by Technorati search, News Articles determined by search on Google News.

Here's the problem: Google stories drop out of the database after 30 days. I didn't start keeping track until June 1 on Google News count, so I have 9 more days before I can work the numbers around to figure out how many new news stories Google is showing for the day.

It's been a few weeks since I've done this... highlighting the blogroll of someone who has blogrolled me. But here's Froth Slosh B'Gosh's blogroll - give some of these fine blogs a visit!

2 political junkies --- 116th PA Coy I --- 20th Maine Coy E --- 26th MI Coy A --- After Downing Street --- Altercation --- The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat --- Bartcop --- Big Brass Alliance --- Eric Bowser --- Center for American Progress --- Comments From Left Field --- The Conversation --- Democracy for Pittsburgh --- Digby --- Kevin Drum --- Eschaton --- Exit Stage Left --- Festers Place --- Google News --- Haunted Field Music --- Honsberger is a Liar --- Jeebus --- Jesus' General --- Jesus Was Not a Republican --- Lauren's Ramblings --- Liberal Avenger --- lsqrd --- Mad Kane --- National Regiment --- PSoTD --- Pittsblog --- Pittsburgh Bloggers --- Pittsburghese --- Pirates-Official Site --- Progress Pittsburgh --- Mark Rauterkus --- Raw Story --- Rooks Rant --- Santorum Cybergate --- Scooter Blue --- Shakespeares Sister --- Sivacracy --- skippy --- Spontaneous Arising --- South Knox Bubba --- Subdivided We Stand --- Three Rivers Online --- Wonkette --- Words For Snow

Usually I avoid it like canned peas but I was unfortunately stuck watching the Official Republican Propaganda Channel tonight while I was out for dinner (Bison Burger medium well). Fortunately the sound was down.

Could any of you veteran FauxNews observers clear up a few questions for me?

1. Do FauxNews personalities get trained to smirk or does it just come naturally? Perhaps it's a tribute to Bush!
2. If you look up smarmy in the dictionary, do you see Jim Angle's picture?
3. Do they always run a story on Hillary every hour?
4. Do they always run a story on Ted Kennedy every hour?
5. Do they always run a story on PETA every hour?
6. Who is the anchorman that looks like an alien from a grade B fifties Sci Fi movie in a clown suit?

Fair and balanced responses only please!

Mahna Mahna
Do doo be-do-do
Mahna Mahna
Do do-do do
Mahna Mahna
Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!

This week's Gravitational Pull-Up question at the Unpaid Punditry Corps:

At what age do you think you'll retire at, and where do you plan to retire to?

I've often told my wife that I suspect I'll work until almost the end, although part-time. And it will be my business, not working for someone else, if I can help it, so I can set my own parameters (as the marketplace allows, of course).

So I'm going to write about semi-retirement. We are saving money specifically for retirement, we do have long-term investments that also may be used for it if necessary. But even though we'll have enough to retire, that doesn't mean we have unlimited choices of location.

At least in many places in America.

We have two great children and I want to be available for them as they become adults as best I can. It's likely that will keep me in the Western Hemisphere.

The recent trend of retirees moving to Mexico and Belize and elsewhere, as attractive as that lifestyle may seem, probably is a short window as demand increases - the costs will go up to reflect the demand, and the dollar value will make it less appealing. But there will be another set of geographical destinations that will seek the retiree's dollar, perhaps a little more remote, a little more distance, a little less desired.

I'd like to live near the ocean beach when I retire, but it's such that for a person of my means, if you don't own beachfront property now, you're probably not going to get it for retirement. So that's out. That leaves the rest of interior America or getting lucky in Costa Rica or Honduras or elsewhere.

I figure by the time I reach semi-retirement, I'll have few choices of where to live. Figuring that my home, wherever it is, will be paid for (and that's a focus of ours), that will be one option. Or wherever in North America is reasonably priced for those on a relatively static budget.

I figure this to be 20 years plus from now. One has to wonder if at sometime, the United States will try to determine a policy to provide incentives for retirees to migrate to lesser populated areas that can support such communities. I'm not talking about warm weather locations. I'm wondering about the Dakotas, Nebraska, Idaho, etc. Just wondering.

No doubt the presence of the so-called "liberal" bloc of the Supreme Court in the majority opinion is going to mean Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are going to be yammering today about the liberals/Democrats coming for your homes, but that doesn't strike me as apt. As a "liberal" type, I can't say that I'm particularly in favor of it. You might be able to stereotypically tag this on liberals if they were taking the property for a baby seal preserve or some social cause ... but an office park?

The decision is more consistent with the Bush/Republican philosophy of granting wide latitude to local governments in servicing businesses needs first. This is the kind of ruling a Chamber of Commerce should love!

That said, I find some logic to Steven's majority opinion. Who is to say a highway is any more in the public good than affordable quality office space? And doesn't allowing "blighted" properties to be taken discriminate against the poor?

If we are going to have a policy of eminent domain then it's reasonable that the "public good" should be determined at lowest possible level of government by the most directly accountable representives.

Still, vigilance will be vital. This is certainly not the kind of authority you want to put in the hands of a Duke Cunningham.

I'm going to read this book while at the beach in July: Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East

What caught my eye was a piece in the Houston Chronicle a few days ago that made me curious:

Ex-Reagan adviser predicts rise of developing countries

Q: What is the premise of your new book?

A: There is a historic shift right now in the world economy. Six hundred years ago, the places we now call China and India accounted for 70 percent of the global economy. There wasn't any America, and Europe was insignificant.

By 1950, China and India were only like 10 percent of the world economy, while Europe and America were 75-80 percent. But in the last 10 years, we've had 3 billion new people from China, India and the former Soviet bloc come into the global economy, and these economies are growing rapidly.

We're beginning to see a readjustment back toward the historical norm.

Q: Is it inevitable that we won't be the No. 1 world economic powerhouse in the near future?

A: We're going to be a powerhouse for a long time, but I think one thing that is important to understand is that we account for 5 percent of the world's population and we are 30 percent of the world's economy. That's kind of unnatural. It would be better if the other guys were doing better, and that's going to happen.

China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America are all going to achieve a more proportional share of global output, and we want them to. The worst thing would be them failing. We don't want 3 billion people turning into refugees. What we need to do is use the leadership, capability and the power that we have to share the global economy in such a way as to help them to succeed. The benefit of their success will create a system that is complementary and allows all of us to win.

I'll let you know what I think of this book after reading it - if anyone else out there has given it a read, feel free to provide a brief review in comments.

Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo:

Blog Posts are determined by Technorati search, News Articles determined by search on Google News.

Here's the problem: Google stories drop out of the database after 30 days. I didn't start keeping track until June 1 on Google News count, so I have 9 more days before I can work the numbers around to figure out how many new news stories Google is showing for the day.

Go read Slowing Down on the Downing Street Memo by Something Requisitely Witty and Urban. All about pursuit of the truth for the sake of knowing the truth, with no other primary agenda.

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

I wish I had more confidence in local government management. But I don't. There's way too many examples of light-headed economic development "planning" in local governments around the country - many of which are really just revisions of Chamber of Commerce requests - to believe that this is really of any benefit to homeowners across America.

Writing for the court's majority in Thursday's ruling, Justice John Paul Stevens said local officials, not federal judges, know best in deciding whether a development project will benefit the community. States are within their rights to pass additional laws restricting condemnations if residents are overly burdened, he said.

Here's the problem with that - the Supreme Court has just given local government a very big power tool. Any state where the Legislature is dominated by a particular local government(s) is going to find it VERY difficult to reign in the practice without some extremely gross injustices taking place. In addition, any state that passes additional laws would have to strongly consider that their laws will be tested expensively in federal court.

Certain states will find it much easier to protect individual property rights - states that are not dominated by large metropolitan areas. But states like Pennsylvania and Illinois and Missouri are going to find it tough to pass any laws that will strengthen individual property rights beyond where they are today.

It's decisions like this that give the term "conservative judges" resonance with more centrist voters.

"The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline." - Dick Cheney on Larry King, 6/20/05

Meanwhile back in the Reality Based Community ....

PA Governor Rendell Sends Off 4,000 National Guard Soldiers Heading to Iraq; 2,100 of the Soldiers are from Pennsylvania
Thursday June 23, 12:39 pm ET

HATTIESBURG, Miss., June 23 /PRNewswire/ — Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell today addressed 4,000 soldiers and their family members at a deployment ceremony for the Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team / 28th Infantry Division at Camp Shelby, Miss. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team's deployment to Iraq marks the largest deployment since Korea and the largest deployment for combat since WWII.

--- snip ---

Largest deployment for combat since World War 2. Wow.

Godspeed.

Looking for some light reading for the beach this summer?

New Saddam novel out soon

AMMAN (AFP) - A novel said to have been penned by ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein telling the story of an Arab warrior who saves a town from a plot to overthrow its ruler is to be published soon.

Jordan's independent Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper carried a picture of the cover of the Arabic-language book "Ekhroj minha ya mal'un" whose title could be translated into "Damned one, get out of here".

The book is expected to be published in Jordan and other Arab countries within a week, the newspaper said.

It relates the story of a man named Haskeel who plots to overthrow the ruler of a town but is eventually defeated by an Arab warrior and the ruler's daughter, according to the newspaper.

...

Next: Saddam joins The Huffington Post!

This Eastern Pennsylvania television channel's local news program finds out where members of Congress stand on investigating the Downing Street Documents:

WFMZ'S JOEL D. SMITH JOINS US NOW WITH MORE ON THE GROWING LOCAL DEBATE OVER THE "DOWNING STREET MEMO", JOEL?----

ROB, WENDY, THE DOWNING STREET MEMO IS APPARENTLY A RECOUNT OF A JULY 2002 MEETING BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN OFFICIALS REGARDING SADDAM HUSSEIN.

ARE THESE WORDS ENOUGH TO LAUNCH AN INVESTIGATION?

THE DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE OF BERKS COUNTY SAYS YES.

BUT REPUBLICANS DISAGREE. BERKS CONGRESSMEN JOE PITTS AND JIM GERLACH SENT US THIS JOINT STATEMENT:

"THE FACT REMAINS THAT SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO THIS NATION AND TO HIS OWN. HE WAS IN VIOLATION OF MOST ARTICLES OF THE 1991 CEASE FIRE.., WE DID THE RIGHT THING IN REMOVING HIM. IT MADE US SAFER."

REPORTER

THE DOCUMENT DOES NOT SPECIFICALLY CLAIM THE ADMINISTRATION KNEW THERE WERE NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, BUT DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE COUNTY THINK ITS CLOSE ENOUGH.

2:10 (TIM) HOLDEN

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH GOING FORWARD ON AN INVESTIGATION OF THE INTELLEGENCE GATHERING OR MANIPULATING AND STILL BEING ABLE TO SHOW YOUR STRONG SUPPORT FOR OUR MILITARY.

Note to cable television news behemoths: See, it can be done! Members of Congress can be asked about whether there should be hearings... and they will sometimes respond!

However, about Gerlach and Pitts: Nothing in the quote used actually states that they disagree with holding an investigation in the Downing Street Memo and other DSM documents. Their comments indicate that they approve of the outcome, but there's nothing there about their opinion as to how it was arrived. Hopefully somebody will follow up with them about that.

A few highlights from the blogroll...

From After-Party:

A Jessamine County woman is looking for work after being forced to make a tough decision - take two days to spend time with her husband on leave from Iraq, or lose her job.

Units of labor, support our country on your own time.

The All Spin Zone:

Compare and Contrast
Bush: U.S. Needs More Nuclear Power Plants
EU wants 20 pct cut in energy use by 2020

The Chronic Curmudgeon

WHEN POPSICLES ATTACK!

Dohiyi Mir has a piece about the Top 100 Movie Quotes. Do you have any suggestions? I do!

In Search of Utopia

David explains what he means when he says I am a Progressive/Centrist Democrat.

NewsHog

There's been a betrayal of the sacred responsibility to protect the Marines on the ground.

philly has an interview with former US Congressman Joe Hoeffel. My favorite part:

Blogging is quite a time-intensive activity, how much of your day/week does it take up? I've spoken with Dan Rubin of Blinq, the Inquirer's new blog, and he now blogs as a job from sunrise to well after sa job from sunrise to well after sunset. Do you ever see yourself taking this venture in that direction?

No, I won't ever be an all day blogger. How can anybody stand that?

Okay, okay, okay Skippy!

But when I get near a million visitors, in the year 2525, If man is still alive. If woman can survive, if Zager and Evans give me the copyright, I'll be back...

Unpaid Punditry Corps

We Can Do Better Than This

Sen. Carl Schurz of Missouri in 1872

“Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”

Check 'em out!

Progress Report on visibility of discussion on the Downing Street Memo: