PSoTD

Didn't take long for a conservative blogger to step in it concerning the Zogby poll indicating that 72% of U.S. troops in Iraq say the war should end this year...

So, what’s the one real take-away fact from this poll?

Reservists and National Guard troops are wimps.

Marines rock.

End of story.

Hey, a sports question! And a twofer!

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being that you absolutely don't care, and 10 being that it's the most important thing in your life, how would you rank the:

Men's Division One NCAA Basketball Tournament?
Women's Division One NCAA Basketball Tournament?

I'm not really into defining people as good or evil, but from my standpoint, anyone who has the sheer disregard for humanity required to picket a funeral is evil. This just seems like a form of mental torture to me. Unfortunately, Central Pennsylvania is going to get dosed by the cancer of Kansas the next few days.

It seems the time is getting ripe for the "big" bloggers on both sides to try an experiment - allowing significant bloggers from the other side to guest post on their blog on areas of interest that both bloggers can agree on. For example (and only for example), I suspect there's something that both Atrios and Instapundit blog about that they have similar opinions about. At some point, the personal demonization of opposing bloggers has to stop. It isn't nearly as effective to attack a person as it is to attack an idea if your goal is TO STOP THE IDEA FROM GAINING TRACTION in the long-run.

Not everything is about the pushbutton issues that each side keeps pressing. There has to be plenty of important things that are in the middle ground that the blogosphere doesn't highlight nearly as well - or else there isn't a middle ground at all, and this country is in the process of tearing apart. We ought to look for that middle ground for change at least sometimes, and the big bloggers could be the start of that.

If Atrios and Instapundit, for example, agreed on something important that should be changed for lobbying reform, and each pushed it, wouldn't it reverberate through the partisan blogosphere(s) to leaders of both parties? At some point, shouldn't bloggers consider the opportunity to work "across the aisle" and force change?

Sorry about the bad pun. But here's this year's stupid Mardi Gras quote of the year:

"The definition of Mardi Gras is sex, drinking and nudity. Why can't we have a family-style festival without booze?"

Good grief. Gotta wonder if this was asked by the same kind of person who complains about Christmas celebrations muting the Christian overtones. Can't these people look at common definitions?

Mardi Gras - literally "fat Tuesday"; a festival day ending a period of celebration and excess; usually occurs mid to late February, sometimes early March. Immediately followed by Ash Wednesday and Lent. Traditional Mardi Gras celebrations are held in Mobile and New Orleans.

What would "family-style excess" look like? Too much soda? Whoa, we've played our 100th game of Bingo? I can't believe I ate all that church cornbread?

So who's gonna be the Jimmy Carter of 2008?

My questioning tribute to fashion:

In general, do you prefer that the clothes you wear have pockets, or have no pockets?

What's My Image is an interesting site. You can post your photo and ask any of several questions and see if visitors to the site can guess the answer by looking at your photo. I posted my photo just to see how it works.

PCNBlog wants to know: What Pennsylvanian(s) would you like to see on PCN's Call-In Show sometime in the future?

Accusations of Misused Money Roil Orthodox Church:

Allegations of financial misconduct are rocking the Orthodox Church in America, whose former treasurer says top officials misappropriated millions of dollars in donations from agribusiness titan Dwayne Andreas, U.S. military chaplains and ordinary parishioners across the country.

The highest officers of the 400,000-member denomination, an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church, are accused of using the money to cover personal credit card bills, pay sexual blackmail, support family members and make up shortfalls in various church accounts.

Tell me if this sounds familiar. Church leaders want to discipline another specific church leader in this story. However, they want to discipline him because he wants an investigation:

Metropolitan Herman, the archbishop of New York and Washington who is first among equals in the Holy Synod, has directed church officials not to discuss the matter publicly. Archbishop Tikhon of San Francisco has urged the synod to discipline Archbishop Job of Chicago -- not because Job is in any way implicated in the scandal, but because he has called for a church commission to conduct an investigation.

"My question is very simple: Are the allegations true, or are they false? And to this day I have no answer," Job said in a telephone interview. He added that two bishops have privately agreed with him that an investigation is needed, but "unfortunately they have not made that public."

Punish those who seek the truth? Doesn't seem like the right direction if your goal is to benefit humanity.

If you're interested in seeing how long this story has been brewing, check out Orthodox Christians for Accountability.

Yesterday was the last game of the season for my daughter's coed "8 years of age" basketball league. I coached the team this year, and it was a blast. We ended up 5-3, and of the ten kids on the team, all but three of them scored this season. And one of the three had some illness issues that kept him out of several games. So, we did get everyone pretty well involved. (note: picture isn't our team, just from the web)

There's something about coaching kids this age that is very rewarding. There is an attention span issue that you have to work with, practice can't be so focused on any particular skill that they lose interest, which can be easy to do because everything needs a LOT of work. But the kids are earnest in their effort to play, and there's a great feeling when you see one of your kids score their first basket or play the point for the first time (successfully) or determine to dig the rebounds out. Today we had all of that, plus trophy distribution and goodbyes and thank-yous to and from all the players. Good, good, good stuff. I'm going to miss it until next season.

Are all "home improvers" buying these now? We went to the Pennsylvania Home Show at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg yesterday. We're going to do some remodeling this year, and wanted to look at windows/tile/cabinetry/kitchens/etc.

Seemed like half the floor space was jacuzzi and hot tub vendors. They were everywhere. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. From the Washington Times:

When asked what new high-end amenity they plan to add to their homes in 2005, 10 percent of homeowners said a hot tub, which fell between kitchen upgrades at 12 percent and in-ground pools and wine cellars at 8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to a recent Coldwell Banker survey of the so-called "luxury index."

The latest trend toward luxury is the hot-tub entertainment system, with television and DVD combinations as well as fiber optic and LED lighting.

And yes, there were lots of those at the Home Show, too.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for Basketball News Services. That's right, he writes about basketball. But he also writes about politics from time to time, particularly when it invades basketball, such as the Sebastian Telfair incident. Some basketball fans don't appreciate it, but Ingram writes:

One reader wrote to ask me if I shouldn't differentiate between hoops and politics. This is a "hoops site," after all, and I should stick to that. I couldn't disagree more. Here's my response:

If only we could seperate our lives into such categories as "hoops" or "politics." One necessarily affects the other. Many of the people who should be paying attention to politics are often too busy paying attention to entertainment. That's how people who do not have the best interest of our country at heart get into office. Voters aren't paying attention.

So here it is. One writer doing what he can do to get the worst offenders to pay attention to more important issues. Take it as you will, but I'm not willing to criticize privately when I fail to do so publicly. That's called hypocrisy - and too many Americans are guilty of that.

Thank you, Mr. Ingram. You are correct. TOO many people refuse to spend much time considering the situation the country is in, preferring to bury themselves with entertainment. But politics invades everything, and reporters of entertainment need to keep their marketplace apprised of the impact of that invasion. There needs to be more people like Ingram in the entertainment reporting industry.

First I heard that Don Knotts had passed. Now, Darren McGavin. It's hard for me to think of McGavin as anything other than Carl Kolchak from The Night Stalker, a monster show that my brothers and I loved to watch, even though the network it was on kept moving it around. Many will remember McGavin from The Christmas Story, and he was great in that, but I just can't shake his newspaperman performance in The Night Stalker.

Happy trails, Mr. McGavin and Mr. Knotts.

Is NCAA Selection Sunday.

Crap is such a great, guttural sounding word. You can stretch out or emphasize any letter in the word and give it your personal signature. Ca-rap. Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. Ca-raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaap. Crappppah.

And it hasn't been stigmatized fully as a "bad" word. Crap ain't shit. It ain't even turd. Crap is harder than "poopie", but is actually a more accepted word among adults. Kids shouldn't really say crap. Adults, when in the company of only adults, shouldn't really say poopie. We all know this.

And yet, when you search the famous quotation resources, you find that the word has not been memorialized much in great lines. Here's a few:

QUOTATION:Hey, cut the crap! The Pope, the Holy Father himself, has this very day blessed Michael Corleone. You think you know better than the Pope?

ATTRIBUTION:Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Dominic (Don Novello), The Godfather III, during Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) St. Sebastian award ceremony when members of the press ask Dominic about Corleone’s Mafia background (1990).

QUOTATION:Lieutenant, I’d like to point out to you that I don’t have to put up with this crap from you. I’m not in your two-bit army, I’m in our two-bit army.

ATTRIBUTION:Bryan Forbes (b. 1926), British screenwriter, and Bryan Forbes. King (George Segal), King Rat, to a British officer (1965).

QUOTATION:Don’t read much now: the dude Who lets the girl down before The hero arrives, the chap Who’s yellow and keeps the store, Seem far too familiar. Get stewed: Books are a load of crap.

ATTRIBUTION:Philip Larkin (1922–1985), British poet. A Study of Reading Habits (l. 13–18). . . Collected Poems of Philip Larkin. Anthony Thwaite, ed. (1988) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

QUOTATION:If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it.

ATTRIBUTION:J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger (b. 1919), U.S. author. Catcher in the Rye, ch. 1 (1951).

And none of those are off-the-top-of-the-head memorable. CRAP!

Where things stand tonight.

Glenn Reynolds can sees lessons in the Bush Administration UAE Port contract debacle. His vision is still hazy:

As I write this, it's not clear where the rest of the debate is headed, but there are already some useful lessons for the White House. First, blogs make an excellent early warning system. The White House, unaccountably, seems to have been blindsided by the furor over this deal, though most people's gut reaction was negative. As with the many bloggers like me who changed their minds, gut reactions can be overcome by evidence — but the White House should have taken advantage of this early warning to have its arguments in order. It didn't.

That's the second lesson: The White House should not only have read blogs, but responded to them with information and arguments, rather than waiting for blog readers to weigh in. As Rich Galen observed on Wednesday, "It is an issue of this administration having a continuing problem with understanding how these things will play in the public's mind and not taking steps to set the stage so these things don't come as a shock and are presented in their worst possible light." Paying more attention to the blogs won't solve that problem. But it will help.

I'm not going to argue that these aren't lessons to be learned, but it is not the primary lesson. The primary lesson: TRANSPARENCY. The point isn't that the Bush Administration should manipulate conservative bloggers for their own aim - regardless of how many conservative bloggers may beg to be used in such a function.

No, the point is - let the facts out in a timely fashion and Bush can avoid shocking even his own base to tears.

As for Reynolds' article and his ideas for the role of bloggers? Color me unimpressed.

That's the number of new cell towers going up every year in the United States. Makes for lots of residential community conflicts...

I think Russert's given up on "balance".

MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT WEEKEND LISTINGS 2/26/06

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA) Chairman, Armed Services Committee

REP. PETER KING (R-NY) Chairman, Homeland Security Committee

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Governor of California - R

Oh, and on interesting, too.

at least online. In blogtopia, nobody cares if you look like the definition of a nerd.

Eschaton has an interesting post about how Republicans decry the civilian debate about the appropriate time to exit Iraq militarily. More civilians are saying that the time is now. Still, many Republicans, including the Bush Administration, want to rely on the military to make this decision.

And so we should ask these Republicans: what would have happened if Lincoln had decided that Civil War management decisions were a military and not a civilian decision? Would McClellan have remained in charge of the Union Army? Would Grant have remained in the West? Would the Union have lost the war?

These kinds of rabblerousing letters to the editor just entertain me. And why is it that the people that write such letters seem to always have the most plain jane boring names?

The Foxhole kills families, and should be eliminated

By reading recent positive letters to the editor concerning The Foxhole, one would think it is a charitable club that bakes cookies for the elderly, crochets booties for newborns, and gives free marital counseling for ailing marriages.

After all, one citizen told us that it is a "clean club" that is helping single mothers and college students "better themselves", and that its owner, Mr. George, is a "great man." And another citizen referred to The Foxhole as merely a place of entertainment.

When can I get an appointment to take my husband and five children to visit this clean club for some entertainment and meet this great man, Mr. George? I am always looking for more positive role models for my children.

In all seriousness, might I remind you of what kind of place and people we are talking about here? Nude women being paid to dance in the laps of salivating perverts. If this is a clean club, what would the aforementioned citizen consider dirty?

I'll tell you what God considers dirty. Jesus said if you even look on a woman who is not your wife to lust after her in your heart, you are guilty of adultery. What goes on in The Foxhole is not benign entertainment; it is sexual sin and against God's law.

Mr. George is not a "great man" helping women to better themselves. He is profiting from and proliferating a sexual epidemic in our country that is destroying men, women, children and families.

And as for those who would chant, "If you don't like it, just don't go," I would say that we should not be content to be silent in the midst of immorality in our community. Sometimes we have to do more than abstain; we have to speak out.

May all God-fearing citizens of Zanesville join in prayer that our community will no longer tolerate bad businesses like The Foxhole, and furthermore, that those who frequent it will repent and serve Jesus.

Elizabeth Johnston
Zanesville

I wonder if newspapers, in the age of the Internet, think about the impact of publishing such letters to the editor. It has to temper the view of the community for anyone that reads this letter. Why would the Zanesville newspaper select such a letter? Is she representative of their population? Is this how smart people are in Zanesville? Are there a bunch of bible-toting moralists stamping out lust throughout their city?

You don't know if you don't live in Zanesville. But there's not much incentive to find out. Religious moralist judging is not a way to generate growth or tourism.

This really isn't about Zanesville, though. It's about newspapers, and the Letters to the Editor section. You can go around the country and you can see sloppy standards for letters. There is no standard for discourse, short of preventing lawsuits. Newspapers may publish more outrageous letters in an effort to generate a controversy, they may publish simplistic points in an effort to placate a vocal minority, but there is no visible activity by the newspaper to try to elevate the quality of debate. There was a time when some newspaper editors actually included a newspaper response to every letter published in the Letters to the Editor. We need to get back to that. The opinion page is important enough to require that people do more than just vent their feelings in a letter. Let's require some logic, too. That'll be helpful for both community discussions, and the image of those communities having those discussions.

Finds this story at Shakespeare's Sister pretty amusing. Maybe I'll have to take in "Muncie Gras" some day...

Interesting post from last July from Under the Influence:

Not to... ...pick on Joe Biden, but the Statement of Organization that his leadership Pac, Unite Our States, filed with the Federal Election Commission lists two officers (on page three of the five page form that you can either download as a .pdf or click through page by page), William C. Oldaker and Jeffery J. Connaughton, and gives as an address for the pair 818 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC. That's the same address as Oldaker, Biden & Belair, a firm that lobbies the federal government. The Biden in the name of the firm is R. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son...

Today's question:

What cartoon character would be the most tasty to eat?

Well, it's about that useful.

When boy wrestles girl, neither feels like a winner

No matter what happens, Maurice Baker’s friends are going to enjoy this.

They stand alongside Baker on the edge of the mat, minutes before he risks a life’s worth of pride.

They tell him that the girl he is about to wrestle was the No. 3 girl wrestler in the nation last year. But they also make sure Baker hears their laughter when they watch her warm up.

On this recent Saturday morning, it’s hard to figure out who is delivering the bigger psych job: Baker’s friends or the girl, Shamaine Danner. There she is, on the other side of the mat, slapping her face with both hands. She’s pacing within a 10-foot area, and this being her hometown of Richmond, nobody is invading her space.

This whole high school girl vs. boy thing can bring out myriad emotions for everyone involved. The boy doesn’t want to hurt her, but he also can’t lose. The girl feels constant pressure to validate her very presence on the mat. The boy’s parents and coach just hope he finishes the day without a loss and a long bus ride home. Even the girl’s coach feels awkward.

“I feel bad when she beats a boy,” Richmond coach John Daniels admits.

I guess this co-ed competition in a grappling sport is a good thing, and hopefully twenty years from now it won't be a big deal. But it does put high school student athletes in a strange position at a difficult age as far as dealing with gender norms and expectations.

I'll admit, if our daughter said she wanted to wrestle boys in high school, I'm not sure I'd be very excited about it. There is a social attention aspect to this type of co-ed participation in sports that does not come with sports that are less physically intimate. People have mixed feelings about it. Participation becomes muddled into social values. You can see it in this article.

On the other hand, if there are no female wrestling programs in high school, and a girl wants to compete, there's little option for her. If she wants to play, she has to participate in a co-ed program and automatically jump into the social aspect of it as well.

Here's a DC lobbying firm: Oldaker, Biden & Belair. Web site is here.

Why hire them? Their web site says:

Negotiating the Washington labyrinth can be time consuming and intimidating for both insiders and outsiders. However with all mazes there are shortcuts, and Washington is no exception. Oldaker, Biden & Belair's network of contacts throughout the private sector, the Executive Branch and Congress enables the firm to react speedily to a client's needs, answer a client's questions and ultimately solve a client's problems. This network allows us to monitor effectively a client's issues from legislation to implementation.

So who's the Biden member of the firm?

R. Hunter Biden

A founding partner of Oldaker, Biden & Belair, Mr. Biden currently focuses on the Financial Services Industry, International Business Development, International Trade Policy and Information Technology Policy as it relates to intellectual property rights, consumer privacy and telecommunications. He has served as a Senior Vice President at a major financial services firm and most recently was a Presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he served as the Executive Director for e-Commerce Policy Coordination under Secretaries Daley and Mineta. While with the Administration he also participated in a number of international business development and policy missions to Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Mr. Biden has a B.A. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Hmm. He's done a lot of things, but apparently being the son of one Senator Joe Biden doesn't deserve mention in the bio.

I picked up our 5 year old yesterday afternoon at daycare. It is a great daycare run in Shiremanstown through a Lutheran church, both of our kids have gone there and enjoyed it, and the educational results have been superb.

Our five year old, he likes to pass gas and laugh. He's a boy. That's what they do. So he did, loudly, in the parking lot, and then declared, "I tooted." Loud enough for several parents picking up their kids to hear. Still, it's progress, since we've been working on him to not say fart. We're just not a "fart" family, we prefer other words. The way my wife and I were raised, I guess.

I said quietly to him that hey, that's fine, but we don't have to announce it. So even louder, and a bit proudly, he says,

"At least I didn't say the F word."

Funny. I'm not sure why he decided that "fart" was the "f word", but it was one of those moments where you know every parent in earshot was paying attention. There's something about a preschooler referencing "the f word" in a church parking lot that causes notice.

But now the challenge - how do we teach him that fart really isn't "the f word", without explaining that some other word is? He can wait a few years to find out the alternative.

First of all, this is not a complaint. It's a question. memeorandum presents an automated hourly synopsis of the latest online news and opinion, linking weblog commentary with traditional news reports. It generates some traffic and visibility for bloggers excerpted on the major stories.

Here's my question about it: does it provide too much incentive for bloggers - particularly the smaller and middle-range bloggers - to focus blog posts on the "mainstream" news in pursuit for the traffic an aggregator site such as this may provide? Can sites such as memeorandum actually impact editorial choices by bloggers on what they post about?

Iraq's on a new precipice. Only the spinmeisters can say that there are many more left...

For the Dover School District, it was over $1 million dollars.

Nice going. That's more than 4% of the Instruction Budget for the district for this year.

Because I don't see why Americans should understand what he means:

The transaction should go forward, in my judgment. If there was any chance that this transaction would jeopardize the security of the United States, it would not go forward.

How does Bush define "security" in this statement? How about the term "any chance"? Is this the same standard he used for the Iraq War decision? How about in the failure to implement many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission? What the hell does he mean?

Interesting story going on in North Lebanon:

A group of residents pressed the North Lebanon board of supervisors last night to not allow a cellular-phone tower to be built at the township building.

Several months ago, Omnipoint, the telecommunications company that services T-Mobile users, proposed a lease agreement that would pay the township $1,200 a month if the tower is built on land along Kimmerlings Road.

Before the tower can be built, however, Omnipoint needs a zoning variance because township ordinances do not allow structures taller than 35 feet.

The supervisors told the group last night that it cannot make a decision on the proposal until the township zoning-hearing board submits its written position to grant the variance.

Citing environmental concerns, residents have begged township officials the past few months to stop the proceedings.

The supervisors are interested in the proposal because of the revenue it will generate for the township. To balance the 2006 budget, the township raised the real-estate tax by 1 mill. The supervisors have said the revenue from the tower would help offset rising costs.

The supervisors maintain that before any decisions are made, they must consider the position of all 11,000 residents of the township and not just the handful that speaks out against the agreement at the board’s public meetings.

It seems to me that the standards for zoning changes should be the same for both private and public land owners. Generating revenue for the township shouldn't be seen any differently than generating revenue for a private enterprise when the standard of the determination is land use - i.e., zoning. Can township buildings have casinos because it will help their coffers? Nude dancing? The revenue for the township should NOT come into play in a discussion about zoning.

See for yourself.

Based on today's Supreme Court decision:

What actions, currently illegal by law but permitted by at least one faith, are next to be the subject of court cases seeking to make these actions legal for purposes of freedom of religion?

From Reuters:

U.S. followers of a small Brazilian-based religion can import and use hallucinogenic tea in their ceremonies, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a case pitting religious rights against federal drug laws.

The court's opinion, the first ruling on religious freedom written by new Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected the U.S. government's effort to stop the import and use of sacramental hoasca tea by the New Mexican branch of the religion, called O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal.

The justices upheld an appeals court ruling that the government must allow the use of the herbal hoasca tea as part of a spiritual practice because of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

I sense repercussions, but I have no idea what they may be...

YEEAARRRGGGHHH...

ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

Tax cuts, new cash to health care programs, blueprints for new roads and schools — states have jumped into 2006 with ambitious plans to spend the money pouring into their coffers, a windfall that's just in time for governors and legislators as they start re-election campaigns.

The spending spree is the clearest proof yet that the gloomy days of cuts and budget-tightening that dominated the first half of the decade are over, even as some urge caution and others say states have yet to fully recover from the downturn.

I don't know who Robert Tanner is, but this kind of reporting is freaking irresponsible. Spending sprees are clear proof that tough times are over? LOOK AT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Spending sprees can be debt-driving fantasies. The article even states - slightly - that there's disagreement about where states are in the recovery. But don't let that stop the article.

So, what was the impetus for this article? I find it hard to believe that a reporter was looking at state budgets across the country and said, hey, there's excess money in their coffers now, that's an excellent story....

Who is pushing this theme? Companies looking for government contract revenue? Or companies looking for tax relief? Hey.... it looks like it's companies, either way!

And can't they think of Rainy Day Funds, or General Savings, or Lockboxes, for state funds?

Apparently, it isn't even called Presidents' Day as far as the Federal Government is concerned. It is the observance of Washington's Birthday. So what is everyone's obsession to call it Presidents' Day?

Los Angeles, be careful. You won't like him when he's angry.

Do you prefer America officially celebrate all Presidents on Presidents' Day, or would you prefer America to officially celebrate Lincoln and Washington's birthdays separately?

Curt Gowdy passed away today. He and Tony Kubek were the first voices I associated with baseball and the World Series. Some of the greatest baseball games I watched as a kid had these two, and later, a little Joe Garagiola mixed in as well.

Mr. Gowdy has a state park named after him in Wyoming, which is a rare achievement for a sportscaster. His home state was proud of him, and for a kid growing up in the 60s, I understand why. Happy trails to him.

From the Wichita Eagle:

Many Kansans, including members of The Eagle editorial board, have long admired Sen. Pat Roberts for his plainspokenness and reputation for fair brokering of issues.

So it's troubling that Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is fast gaining the reputation in Washington, D.C., as a reliable partisan apologist for the Bush administration on intelligence and security controversies.

We hope that's not true. But Roberts' credibility is on the line.

It is an election year. Right now Pat Roberts is trying to do what he can to protect Bush because there are legislative goals, as well as electoral politics, that Republicans want to reach. They want to get their work done, put some "accomplishments" on the mantle, and head to home to run their elections.

And so while they're in Washington, Bush can probably count on the Republicans to move very, very, very slowly, if at all, on anything controversial to Republicans.

But action in DC will be replaced by talk on the stump by late summer. Pat Roberts can continue to ignore reality, since he's not up for election until 2008. So can Brownback, who isn't up this year either. But all those Kansas House Representatives... what are they gonna do?

The Harrisburg Patriot News had a splashy article entitled the same on the front page of the newspaper Sunday...

Apparently rural Central Pennsylvania has a hefty sexual appetite, although it could be understandable if you didn't realize it when shopping in the local Home Depot. There's a stretch through Perry, Juniata and Snyder counties with 32 miles of sex along the highway : five adult bookstores, a strip club, a private club that caters to swingers and a massage parlor. It actually appears to have a bit of a sex tourism industry going on.

There's an attitude among some in the Cumberland and Dauphin county areas that looks a bit down on these counties, as backwoods or something. I've never thought along those lines - I like more rural areas anyways, and these counties have their charms. Perhaps Perry county will be seen more erotic, or exciting, or obscene with this news. Hard to say. Perhaps that highway drive becomes a whole lot more popular this year...

But not for long. The point of the Patriot's article seems to be that something should be done about these businesses. Otherwise, why not a string of articles about the number of fast food restaurants and gas stations and hotels on various stretches of highway in rural Pennsylvania? So what has put the bug in the Harrisburg Patriot News' ear about these businesses? Who is behind the push to put this article on the front page of the Patriot, and what outrage is expected from it?

She spends her weekly piece tagging Dana Milbank for wearing hunting gear while on Olbermann's Countdown last week in a discussion about Cheney's shooting of Whittington.

Milbank is a Post employee, and so some consideration of his actions is fair game for her piece. But a whole column? For this? It wasn't even in the Washington Post... Why not a blurb? Other ombudsman do that - a couple paragraphs about this, a couple of paragraphs about that - when one issue is clearly not enough to discuss for the week.

I'm no Dana Milbank fan, but his actions weren't worthy of a full column of public chewing in the Washington Post. He's gotta wonder how thick the ice is now.

Some of the more interesting posts of the past few days from Koufax nominees for "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition Blogs":

Sufficient Scruples: Is the FDA Imploding?

3 Quarks Daily: In search of a land that may not exist

Scrutiny Hooligans: Food as Commodity

The Viscount Lacarte: Thinking About Jon

Give 'em a read.

"So how do I know that I can trust it?"

Good question. Not sure if this article really provides a solid answer... yet.

Apparently, Presidents' Day is not really much of a holiday. Not like Christmas, not like New Year's Day, not like Independence Day, not even like Labor Day. So for all of you who believe the Executive Branch is sacred, take heed - much of commercial America doesn't feel like celebrating the boss. Even "bankers hours" don't automatically include the day.

U.S. Bank announces branches open on Presidents Day

Those that will be open include Bank One, Dart, First National of America, Independent, Mason State, Republic and Summit Community.

I can't blame the banks, although this seems to be a big FU to the appreciation of the executive branch. I enjoyed the holiday when it was Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's Birthday, great men, integral to our history, worth celebrating. But lumping in some of the other dud Presidents into this holiday severely diminishes my appreciation of the day, and I'm not just talking about Bush II. Was Buchanan a good person to run our country? Just how important was Chester Arthur to you? And let's not even start on William Henry Harrison...

Think of it this way: imagine all the Christian faiths decided to rename Christmas as Christian Leader Day. All of a sudden, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and the Pope and everyone else who is a leader of a Christian group is to be celebrated within the holiday. Would that make the holiday better, or worse, for you?

Yep, me too. Heck, bankers might even lose another holiday.

I'll be honest. I haven't decided whether I want to vote for Chuck Pennacchio in the Democratic Party Primary for United States Senator in Pennsylvania yet.

But Pennsylvania Democrats deserve a choice if there are candidates willing to give them that choice. Anyone that has lived in Pennsylvania for a while knows the Caseys, and knows what Bob, Jr., brings to the table. In some areas it is impressive. In some areas it is downright depressing. It is not stirling enough, nor hopeful enough, to earn him a walkover in the primary election. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party did voters a huge disservice by trying to give Casey a freebie primary. Fortunately, they have not completely succeeded.

Support choice in the primary. Tell a friend about Chuck Pennacchio's campaign for U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania.

This must make for some interesting stories amongst Travelodge employees.

Good for you, Richard Dreyfuss.

From PennLive:

State upgrades warning steps for water emergencies
The state is changing the way it notifies the public of drinking water emergencies. Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty unveiled the plan today at the Cornerstone Coffeehouse in Camp Hill.

Water companies must adopt new procedures to notify their customers when there is a threat to drinking water supplies. Customers will be able to chose whether they want to be notified by telephone, e-mail, beeper or another method that works for them.

They also must work with local emergency management agencies, police departments and fire companies who will make door-to-door visits and bullhorn announcements of the emergency. Announcements also are to go out immediately through the news media.

McGinty said that while new regulations are being drafted to require the new procedures, water companies are being asked to implement the procedures as soon as possible.

The new regulations are in response to a Dec. 10 incident in which about 34,000 homes and businesses on the West Shore received a "do not consume" order after a fluoride leak at Pennsylvania American Water's Yellow Breeches Water Treatment Plant. The advisory was lifted Dec. 11, but some municipal officials and residents complained that they didn't receive proper notification of the spill or the restrictions.

It's quite likely that the controversies will occur regardless of how local government informs the community about the possibility of the construction and siting of a cell tower. The volume is quite high... below is just a sampling from this week around the U.S...

New Jersey
Cingular wins approval for tower
Residents see cell coverage gain as their loss

Massachusetts
Tower plan gets cool reception in Natick

California
Our Sprint-Nextel lease agreement

Cell towers approved
Residents plan challenge of New Monterey project

Arizona
Cherokee cell tower rejected: Parents happy but wonder why so little notice

Illinois
In back-to-back meetings, the Villa Grove Planning and Zoning Board and City Council faced a packed room of people who came with questions about a proposed tower to host cellular antenna equipment.

Maine
Patterson Hill hung up on cell tower issue

Ohio
Neighbors Oppose Cell Tower

One of the themes that come out of these controversies is the lack of transparency on the local government's part of considering and approving these towers. Citizens are not going to know what a notice for a use variance on plat XX-XXXX, code 374.12 and 398.3 means. Period. Yet, that's all some local governments have to do - and that's all some of them do. When the construction equipment shows up across the street, the residents realize what is going on, and usually that's a little too late to act.

With the number of community cell tower construction/placement controversies growing in the United States, you'd think that by now there would be some sort of analysis of the impact of cell towers on residential property values in the U.S.

There is an interesting British study about residential property values and power lines, and it suggests what you might expect: those closest, and with greatest view, of the powerline structure see a price reduction of up to 20% over similar residential properties in the same area that are over 400 meters away from such structures. How that applies to cell tower impact over residential properties is unknown.

The Canadian Review of their National Antenna Tower Policy was charged to determine if there was evidence exists that property values are impacted by the placement of antenna towers. Results are mixed:

Evidence of Antenna Towers’ Impact upon House Sales Transactions

The most reliable evidence of the value of land is its market value as determined by the price that a willing purchaser is willing to pay to a willing vendor in a free market. Some research completed recently in New Zealand has used actual sales transaction data to attempt to determine whether market price was negatively impacted by the presence of cellular base stations. Dr. Sandy Bond of the Department of Property at the University of Auckland, in collaboration with colleagues Karen Beamish (2004) (Footnote 338) and Ko-Kang Wang (2004), (Footnote 339) has conducted two parallel studies about the effects of cell tower placement on local property values. As the principal research activity, case studies were performed in four suburbs of Christchurch, New Zealand where a cellular base station had been established. Survey data was collected on people’s perceptions about the impact of the base station on their property value and, most importantly, that data was combined with actual housing price changes over time. Changes were determined using a hedonic house price approach. (Footnote 340) The hypothesis of this research was:

In suburbs where there is a CPBS [cell phone base station] constructed, it will be possible to observe that discounts are made to the selling price of homes located near these structures.

The survey data indicated that a major concern of people living proximately to a cell tower was the effect of this tower on property values - a third of the respondents believed it would decrease the price or rent they would be prepared to pay by between 1 to 9% and nearly a quarter (24%) indicated that they believed it would decrease the price or rent by between 10 and 19%. The findings of the market study of actual home prices confirmed the opinion survey results. In the two suburbs studied where towers were built in 2000, the effect of a tower on home prices was a decrease of between 20.7% and 21%. Interestingly, in the two suburbs where the towers were constructed in 1994, the effect was either insignificant or prices actually increased by 12% due to the presence of the tower. A possible explanation for this difference was the significantly increased media coverage and public controversy that surrounded the most recent tower placements in the study. Also, two high profile legal cases, involving cell towers, were decided after 1994 when the two earlier base stations were established. (Footnote 341)

Why do I say the results were mixed? Because here's their conclusion:

Recommendation 34: That the impact (positive or negative) that an proposed antenna installation may have upon the property values of particular parcels of land should not be the subject of an antenna consultation.

Generally, land-use planning authorities are not required to take such impacts into account when siting urban and rural infrastructure that concerned members of the public may find objectionable. Almost every planning decision will produce positive and negative impacts upon the value of land located in the immediate vicinity.

Even as I quietly toil at my blog, someone, from a distance, links to the work. And so I bestow the mighty tip of the hat and a hearty thank you to...

I See Invisible People

Much appreciated!

But I did get a kick out of the high-def appearance reviews at Swanni's HDTV Grammys.

Here's your chance to describe PSoTD the blogger, through my Johari Window.

found via Geeky Mom..

This is a fine lesson for kids. Why not a pop-up book: "I Shot Him In The Head"...

If you're powerful enough, and around "friends", you can shoot a man in the head, keep it secret overnight, and face no legal repercussions. But you have to be more powerful than everyone else involved, so do not hang around people that are your equals. You have to be with "friends" who understand how your power can translate into benefit for them, so do not hang around people who are on the fence.

So... only make friends with the people you can bully or you can "persuade" with benefits. And those should be the only people you hang around with. Then you can shoot people in the head!

At least in terms of links. The number of links to each State Democratic Party blog, according to Technorati, 2/14/06

Alabama - 1.
Arizona - 4.
Arkansas - 4.
California - 1.
Colorado - 6.
Georgia - 10.
Idaho - 0.
Kansas - 28 (it is the Party Site's front page).
Maine - 10.
Massachusetts - 17.
Mississippi - 8.
Nebraska - 3.
New Hampshire - 1.
New Jersey - 19.
North Carolina - 4.
North Dakota - 7 .
Ohio - 7.
Oklahoma - 1.
South Carolina - 9.
Virginia - 34.
Wyoming - 1.

Russ Diamond and PA Cleansweep have made some foes that are fighting back with a web site. So far, I'd have to say that Uncleansweep is pretty damn weak, both on content and message.

A sister of a friend of mine has a little business on the Internet selling wishkitz. Sounds like a great birthday gift for the kid in all of us... Anyway, give it a look.

As soon as he cleared out the Republican competition, Lynn Swann's poll numbers dropped.

Seems like community controversies over cell tower construction/siting is a growing trend. So...

Is there a cell tower construction (or siting) controversy going on in your area?

Unbossed has a good piece about the Bush Administration's obsession with the idea. Bushco: spreading the virus of incompetence to all corners of government.

It's really funny how the conservative states have all these political folks that decry Hollywood values, but they're willing to do just about whatever they can to get some of that Hollywood movie production business. You know, like Wyoming.

Kinda makes you wonder what values they are talking about when they talk about Hollywood values... is it really about how they make their money, or is it where they make their money?

Hopefully our kids' kids will find out what the scoop was on this. Leave it to this Congress to abdicate any investigative responsibility.

From yesterday:

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that I've expressed my views, and we went through this yesterday.

Q But that's a non-answer.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that's what I was trying to indicate to you --

I can't shake the nagging feeling that the traditional flowers, candy, jewelry, etc., are just way too unoriginal as gifts for Valentine's Day... and really don't speak to the day anymore as well. C'mon, it is the 21st century, it's time for a new trend.

So... what gift would you like from your spouse/mate/S.O. for Valentine's Day, really?

In basketball, check out the Bucknell Bison. They crack the AP Top 25 in NCAA basketball, and it is a school of 3500 students. Our local high school has more students.

I've tried to find all the State Democratic Party Blogs. I found them because they had a link from the front page of a State Democratic Party web site. Let me know if I've missed any. I've included the live link, and a brief assessment of the blog. I think this will provide a better visual when I say that official Democratic Party blogs need some sort of Guidelines when you see some of the inconsistent practices.

Alabama - No comments.
Arizona - Ugh. Last post February 1. Second to last post: August 23. Comments are indicated by not readable. What is the point.
Arkansas - Accepts comments.
California - Takes comments. Appears to have about a post every weekday.
Colorado - Accepts comments.
Georgia - Accepts comments.
Idaho - Registered comments. No posts since January 27th.
Kansas - Must register to post comments. Blog contents on Party's front page.
Maine - Accepts comments. No posts in 2006. I guess nothing has happened this year (rolling eyes).
Massachusetts - Takes comments. One post since January 25th.
Mississippi - Accepts comments.
Nebraska - Accepts comments.