PSoTD

Oh, he bombed? Right. That's why everyone's talking about it today. That's why he's being championed at half the blogosphere and belittled in the other half - because he bombed.

No, Colbert's comments have a life that will extend the remainder of Bush's life. When GB II dies (or goes to jail), think anyone will remember any of the lines of Steve Bridges last night? Hardly. Bush? No. Think Colbert's lines will resurface? I do. This one:

When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday.

I'm just wondering if this race might be a cold slap in the face to the National GOP on Tuesday...

Despite a federal investigation into his relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Republican Rep. Bob Ney is confident he'll win re-election in his 18th Congressional District.

But this year is different. Unlike recent campaigns, when the six-term congressman had no opponents or only token opposition, Ney this year faces what could be one of his hardest political contests.

He has a challenger in Tuesday's GOP primary - financial analyst James Brodbelt Harris, who has attacked Ney for his ties to Abramoff and stance on taxes. But Harris hasn't raised any money compared with the $474,000 Ney has in the bank.

"Yeah, he is a Goliath with a Goliath-sized war chest. And I am sort of like David, I suppose, but I'm going to take my shot and we'll see what happens," said Harris, who didn't file a campaign finance report.

We'll see how Ney Referendum I goes.

I think he's going to be the first President to give himself a pardon while in office for all actions taken during his term.

Remember the old walk-a-thons? Bike-a-thons? You asked for pledges for each mile you went?

Don't you kinda wonder how participants ask for pledges at the Masturbate-a-Thon 2006?

Sometimes I wonder if eventually every Republican in the 05-06 Congress is going to end up in jail.

Or... The National Conservative Student Conference.

The 2006 National Conservative Student Conference will be held July 30 - August 5 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The incredibly low cost of $325 covers everything: your housing, food, tuition, and material costs.

The National Conservative Student Conference is the signature college conference of Young America’s Foundation. The only event of its kind, the intensive six-day conference brings young people together with conservatism’s biggest stars, and provides an entry point into the Conservative Movement.

Confirmed Speakers As of April 27

Walter Williams
John Stossel
Michelle Malkin
Peter Collier
Harvey Mansfield
Alexander Haig
Robert Novak
Bay Buchanan
David Brooks
Amanda Carpenter
Herman Cain
Marji Ross
Kirby Wilbur
Burt Folsom
Paul Gourley
Michelle Easton
Morton Blackwell
T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Ron Robinson

I see it advertised as the place to get the education you can't get in college. It's time to point out something here - conservative mothers and fathers, you're shelling out $325 for an education that your kids can get just about anywhere. Television - radio - newspapers - magazines - Internet. And I would be willing to bet that you're already paying for it.

So here we go, with Republicans teaching their next generation early on about the values of how to waste money on a duplication of something that already exists. And wasting time as well. How can the next generation of Republican politicans expect to be any less disastrous to the budgets of the governments of the United States than the current crop of "leaders" when this is what they learn?

Apparently, we're going to find out.

Maybe Americans should sing Silent Night as "Stille Nacht", in original German.

Maybe Americans should sing "Adeste Fideles", not "O Come All Ye Faithful"

Maybe Americans should read the Bible in the original language(s) various parts were written in. Or... maybe people should quit looking to manufacture divisive issues.

If this case goes forward, it could be a VERY big deal across the nation. It's plainly obvious that if government can provide incentives to specific companies, that practice does discriminate against all other companies, and is complete governmental B.S. as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to see the practice abolished, so best of luck to this lawsuit.

Does it seem like the rate of dropoff for smaller and mid-range traffic political blogs is increasing? I see that Rook's Rant is on indefinite hiatus... his was one of the blog sites that introduced me to many in the large liberal/progressive bloggerhood beyond Daily Kos and Eschaton. Makes me wonder...

How many of the Top Ten Naked Album Cover Stars can you name?

I came of "football age" watching college and pro football in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I remember watching Notre Dame highlights - didn't everyone in Indiana except those cursed Boilermaker fans - and, of course, watching the big games on Saturday.

There are two voices I associate with this time. One is Lindsay Nelson, who was the voice of Notre Dame. The other was Keith Jackson, who's rumbling/stumbling/tumbling style of broadcasting was fun to mimic for any teenage boy playing or watching football.

Today Keith Jackson announced his retirement from play-by-play. He's 77, and I hope he has many, many years of joy in retirement ahead of him. Thanks for the fond memories, Keith, and keep yelling those "Whoa Nellies" in your private life.

This is the creativity that the U.S. Congress shows for solving the gasoline price problem: a rebate.

Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

So... assuming that since there was no rebate even suggested when gas was a dollar a gallon less, apparently Congress feels that they need to resolve the price issue for Americans for... the next 100 gallons. How far-reaching. How forward looking. Can we people Congress with even more simpletons? Hard to see how.

Wonder if that money could be spent in a better way, for a more productive, more long-term resolution? Why... this proposal probably only will salve Americans until maybe... early November?

If Congress can't come up with better solutions than just throwing money at voters, then they should be fired. Period. If I get a rebate check, I'm sending it to a candidate for Congress who has real ideas about energy for this country and who opposes this rebate.

Announce that you're running for President in 2008. Don't be coy about it. Don't worry about Hillary. Put it out there, publicly, and dare the other candidates that are interested to do the same. Get the first strike advantages.

It isn't that I'm necessarily in the John Edwards camp. But he's an interesting candidate that still has a lot to prove, and this is a good window for his audition - so he should announce already. Americans don't want coy. We want direct and honest and intelligent. We NEED that.

Soon you'll have a chance to buy a life-size statue of Lucille Ball carved from a trunk of a tree resting atop a stump.

I think I'll eat one of those to celebrate the 100K visitor mark we'll pass later today. Thanks for coming!

Update: Time for chocolate. Thanks, everyone!

Just curious about bloggers...

How long have you had your current computer?

Why is it that seemingly all the bulletin board spammers use fake Russian email addresses when posting? Are they really Russian? Sure makes it easy to decide what bulletin board applicants to ignore...

Had to have a tree cut in our backyard. It's about 15 feet from the house, and we're remodeling and putting on an addition... and so it has to go. Will replant another oak at the top of the yard this weekend, but it'll take it another 40 years to be as grand as this one.

But not a pin oak. Hate the acorn type, hate the fact that half the leaves fall off in the winter.

Cutting the tree.

Congress must keep the Internet free and open by voting for meaningful and enforceable Network Neutrality.

This is a cute story and all, but it sure would be a hell of a lot more helpful to society if zoos started training animals to perform medicine, rather than painting.

About Tony Snow - enough already.

It doesn't matter if it's him or it isn't him. Frankly, the press again has been snookered by the Bush Administration into wasting valuable press coverage into a non-story. This is going to be the goddamn press secretary. This person will respond to and cloud press questions. This person will replace Scott McClellan. That's how important the job is - you get to replace Scott McClellan. The story has no legs beyond that, unless, of course, the press wants to give it legs beyond that, which is exactly what it has been doing.

Enough. Quit chasing the mechanical bone already.

The growing number of Google links to the term "foreclosure boom". Today's number is 434.

I suspect this little comment is going to strike 70% of America as an outright lie.

President Bush today said he had tried to avoid war with Iraq "diplomatically to the max."

Bush is so grody, man.

I've been wondering, with our country's history, why Americans think that the current "structure" for determining foreign policy for the United States is adequate. We're in the second war of the last 40 years in which a great chunk of the population thinks the effort is politically misguided. There's considerable angst about economic foreign policy, there's human rights and environmental issues and all sorts of other items that fall into a general heading of "foreign policy." Why is Cuba still an enemy? Can that possibly be considered successful foreign policy?

Do we have any standards for foreign policy that Americans can even declare with any confidence? "To help America" isn't a standard, it's a slogan. Standards have goals and benchmarks and often are monitored for success or failure. Can Americans say, with any confidence, that any of that really happens today?

And so... I wonder why the question of structure of foreign policy determination doesn't come up more often with Americans. It's not just that executive branch "deciders" fail on their own accord, but it's that they bring relatively short-term agendas to the office, must "pander" to their base on many foreign policy issues, and in large part don't really have a check or balance from either the Congressional or Judicial branches. It seems to me that it's built weakly, and could be better constructed.

So... imagine it was the early days of America again, and you're partly responsible for writing the Constitution. Would you have written the Constitution to better structure how America's government determines foreign policy? How?

You're still required to pay for full-service gas?

Today's question:

How often do you get headaches?

but a family mummy is a bit creepy, I think.

It is one of the dumbest things ever on the Internet. The comparison of Bush to Lincoln shows a flawed, craven manipulation and simplistic revision of history during the time of Lincoln and a deep need to recast history in the time of Bush. It's very sad that our history - our American Civil War - is now part of an effort to repaint George W. Bush. That seems like more of something from the history of the Soviet Union than American.

Wanted: Girls interested in computers

Norm Messa is facing a third year without a single female enrolled in his high school programming courses at the Seacoast School of Technology in Exeter.

It’s a national as well as local trend, and one Messa and other computer science instructors are beginning to address.

Despite headlines about the dot.com bust, the industry is clamoring for people, he said.

"Of the 10 fastest growing jobs, five are in health care and five are in IT (information technology)," Messa said. "You have to be good at it, but the payoff is immense."

This year, he has 45 male students in his programming courses for juniors and seniors at the career and technical school, which serves six area high schools.

No girls have enrolled for next year.

I work in IT, and have been around it for 20 years. I won't disagree that the variance in appearance and personal grooming preferences is greater in this field than, say, banking or the medical field. However, it seems to me that the entertainment media has taken the IT professional image and geekified and nerdified the portrayal of the career choice to the point that perhaps it actually hinders the development of the educated employee base in the field in this country.

That's Harvey Mansfield's apparently expertise as professor at Harvard University.

It is amazing how many stories of accidental motor vehicle deaths include something to the extent that "the victim was not wearing a safety belt." Why in the world would you drive without a seat belt today?

The campaign for Lee Heffner, candidate for Pennsylvania 37th House District, was good enough to respond to my request for an email interview on lobbyist registration. Below are the responses.

Question 1: What should be the goals of any lobbying laws or reform in Pennsylvania?

Lee Heffner: To facilitate elections that are about the market place of ideas and elected officials who are true public servants.

Question 2: What entity or entities should be responsible for administering these laws?

Lee Heffner: I'm open to all policies that would improve the election process in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Question 3: Are there any other states that could or should serve as a model for lobbying regulation?

Lee Heffner: Rhode Island has made significant strides in this area. GovTracker has provided their citizens with information about lobbyists and their Secretary of State, Matt Brown, has instituted some aggressive reforms.

Question 4: What kind of public reporting requirements should be required for lobbying? How much information should a citizen be able to find publicly about the activities of a lobbyist, and how should that information be made available?

Lee Heffner: Lobbyists should report their expenditures and the information should be available on the internet in addition to hard copy.

Question 5: Should lobbyists be required to pay, through registration fees, for all costs involved in providing such registration/regulation/public reporting?

Lee Heffner: I would have to investigate all the possible circumstances but for certainly for career lobbyists.

Question 6: How important is lobbyist regulation/registration to you as an issue? Is this something you would see as a top priority for the General Assembly in your first session?

Lee Heffner: My campaign is about new leadership you can trust in Harrisburg and so I take this issue very seriously. Pennsylvanians share values of honesty and trust. Unfortunately, we've lost trust in our legislators' honesty. Transparency of lobbyist activities is an important component to restoring trust and weeding out the culture of corruption in Harrisburg.

There are dozens of cell tower furor stories in the news these days, as residents and service providers battle for placement of towers. But I have never seen the news media ask the bigger question for any area. For example, in this story from Dauphin County in Pennsylvania:

When members of the Paxtang Borough Council consider the proposed installation of a 120-foot cell phone antenna tower in Saussaman Park, they're likely to hear a neighbors' chorus of "not in my backyard."

Council on Tuesday will review a proposal made by T-Mobile of Bellevue, Wash.

Couldn't the Harrisburg Patriot-News do a little digging and report on the cell-service coverage for that area, or the county of Dauphin, or for their zone of readership for that matter? Wouldn't that be more beneficial to all readers of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, to provide some sort of information on cell-service coverage - not by who provides the service, but whether geographic coverage is provided at all or not? Surely Paxtang Borough would know, since they're trying to address the issue. Surely Dauphin County would know. Surely the State of Pennsylvania would know. Surely the FCC would know.

And if they don't - isn't that really the story in itself?

From American Agenda:

Simple Instructions for the Perfect Friday in Pennsylvania

Directory for the Pennyslvania House of Representatives.

Locate your rep, pick up the phone and call him or her.

Tell your Rep to oppose the passage of HB 2381 (The Marriage Protection Amendment) or they will lose your vote forever! Tell them to focus on the real priorities of Pennsylvania, not the hate of a fringe group bent on erasing the seperation of church and state.

Hang up.

Repeat.

Repeat.

It still would be a good thing to do Monday morning.

You know, the underground ISP industry that's likely to pop up if dumb asswipe heavy regulatory requirements like this are foisted on legitimate businesses?

During his speech, Gonzales also warned that Internet service providers must begin to retain records of their customers' activities to aid in future criminal prosecutions--a position first reported by CNET News.com--and indicated that legislation might be necessary there as well. Internet service providers say they already cooperate with police and appear to be girding for a political battle on Capitol Hill over new regulations they view as intrusive.

It Was The Worst of Times.

Time for my daily busting on State Newspaper Association web sites. Today, I'll pick on the Nebraska Press Association, although it's representative of most of the state press association sites I've seen. I try to use these associations' links to individual member newspaper sites, but really... dead links, links to sites where the domains have expired, and a strong suspicion that there are other legitimate newspaper member sites that aren't even linked make it very frustrating. If I were a member of this association, I'd be on their communications people about getting the benefit to the newspapers on the site with accurate, up-to-date links. This seems like pretty basic membership service kind of stuff. C'mon!

I'm going to hit a benchmark of sorts. This blog will reach its 100,000th visitor, according to SiteMeter, probably sometime in the next week. It seems like that will be a good point for some personal reflection.

So, I'm making a mirror suit. Stay tuned!

We're heading towards Pennsylvania's prime political fundraising season - the spring/summer before fall elections. That's probably a lot of golf and cocktail receptions... You can sign up for weekly emails at the events at the PAFundraisers.com website. Kind of an eye-opener.

It looks at this point like the Washington Post doesn't look too favorably at Lynn Swann's chances, or the importance, of his candidacy. Does this reflect National Party perceptions?

There must be some money to be made in building huge pink pigs for groups who want to protest government spending.

See? I'm not kidding.

It is quite hard to be impressed with the use of power by the nation's State Press Associations. Many of the web sites suck, so much so that I couldn't tell you what the priorities are of several of the organizations, other than self-promotion and luncheons and working to sell advertising for members.

Does the public value by the efforts of State Press Associations? If so, how? What are they doing for their members that are to the gain of the reading population?

From PCNBlog:

According to an e-mail from PCN President and CEO Brian Lockman, the network is planning an upcoming Call-In Program featuring political bloggers.

We just posted audio of the whole debate:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/14388717.htm

Carl Lavin, deputy managing editor, news Philadelphia Inquirer

Sure, for many of us the weather has been absolutely great the past few days. But this photo from the Fallon County Times in Montana ought to make you appreciate the weather a bit more...

Winter weather won't let go of eastern Montana. Rain and heavy, wet snow, accompanied by high winds descended on Baker the evening of April 17. The wind and wet snow kept coming on the 18 and 19 to add up to approximately two feet. The area had electrical outages of over two hours in some cases and flickering outages at other times.

I don't know if it is Sean Sebastian of Birchmere Ventures who is sending out spam about helping fund Lynn Swann's run for Governor, but seriously, whoever it is needs to spend some effort in targeting. I'm not a Steelers fan, I'm not from Pittsburgh, I'm not a Republican, and I haven't heard one word from Lynn Swann that would suggest he'd make a decent Mayor of Pittsburgh, let alone a Governor of the State. I don't know Sean Sebastian, never met him to my knowledge, never given him my business card.

Bleh, political spammers, gotta hate 'em.

I'm really getting sick of the conservative complaints about Republican members of Congress going spending-crazy and lacking fiscal control. Quit your bitching, and say the magic words. Vote those people out.

Otherwise, it's just more slipknot ropetricks by conservative pundits.

Apparently, the press in the State of Missouri feel the need for further protection via the law. Missouri Press Association poll:

Does Missouri need a shield law for journalists, protecting them from being required by government to divulge their news sources?

Yes (69%) = 218
No (31%) = 99
TOTAL 317

Wonder if that would be about the standard results for any similar poll done by a statewide press association for their members at the current time?

If so, is it really so believable that newspaper associations are so weak that they can't get that accomplished legislatively? Or is it that press corporations really just don't care that much about this issue, as opposed to whatever business advantages they can get via lobbying?

Apparently, the "teledildonics" industry is growing rapidly.

I think there's a good point in here about homeowners' associations going too far. I also think that the issue of the enforcement capabilities and responsibilities of homeowners associations is going to be a sizeable issue for state legislatures across the country in the next 20 years. They are unofficial mini-governmental entities in many ways, with a lot of legal issues to be defined..

Duncan Sheik will be playing at the Whitaker Center on Friday, June 2. I'm not sure why the tickets are so damn cheap, at $20 each, but I'm not complaining. Good deal.

Do you Flickr?

No surprise.

I'm all for a Crawford Rocking Chair Facility after Bush leaves office. Put all of his administration on the porch and keep them there.

Anyone else find this story pretty damn discouraging? From the Carthaginian:

Grove could host new labor

New sources of labor for a Sebastopol plant struggling to fulfill operation capacity may bring a touch of the Orient to Walnut Grove.

'Grove city officials Thursday night gave tacit support of a plan to turn a warehouse in the town into dormitories for Chinese nationals brought to the area to work at Peco Foods of Mississippi, Inc.

According to Alderman Marcus Ellis, Jimmy Wilcher, partners with Dale Rogers in ownership of a building used by CamoKids, a sewing operation, appeared before the town board in a special meeting Thursday. Wilcher, the alderman said, explained a plan that is in the works between Peco and "the Chinese consulate" to bring 50 to 100 Chinese nationals to work at the company's plant in Sebastopol.

For the 'Grove the plan would mean turning a warehouse into a dormitory, Ellis said. The building, he said, is privately owned, so the town's permission wasn't required, but Wilcher wanted to get a feel for reaction to the plan. "He just wanted to know what we thought of it,"

Ellis said. "They didn't want to go forward with it if there was opposition."

The board, minus Jerry Darby, who was out of town, voiced no objections, Ellis said. "We kicked it around for awhile," he said, "and we couldn't find any why-nots in it."

Rogers, in a Tuesday telephone interview, emphasized the plan was in the most preliminary stages. "It really isn't a done deal yet," he said. Peco, Rogers said, had recently constructed a third processing line at its Sebastopol plant on Highway 21, but had not been able to use the line.

"They're trying to open a line," he explained, "and they're trying to branch out in the Chinese labor force." Telephone calls from the newspaper to a Peco official and Mayor Grady Sims were not returned Tuesday. Housing concerns for the potential labor force, Rogers said, brought Peco officials to him and Wilcher.

What exactly is Peco going to pay their Chinese workforce? Room and board?

I really wonder if Republicans will appreciate the irony in Melvin Laird's editorial wrap-up in today's Washington Post:

We do not advocate a silencing of debate on the war in Iraq. But care must be taken by those experienced officers who had their chance to speak up while on active duty. In speaking out now, they may think they are doing a service by adding to the reasoned debate. But the enemy does not understand or appreciate reasoned public debate. It is perceived as a sign of weakness and lack of resolve.

It's Bush-backing conservatives that are not appreciating this reasoned debate, suggesting it is a sign of weakness and lack of resolve. Is that who Laird means as "the enemy"?

He hasn't made it clear to his boss that when Bush isn't seen as particularly competent by a majority of Americans, Bush's endorsement of Rumsfeld's competency ain't worth squat to those Americans.

If Bolten was good, he'd have McCain and Lieberman cued up already. But then again, it's the Bush Administration.

PCN will air live coverage of the second debate between the candidates for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat on Wednesday, April 19 beginning at 7:00 p.m. The debate will take place on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

Scheduled to appear at the debate are Bob Casey, Jr., Alan Sandals, and Chuck Pennacchio. The gentlemen will discuss the issues leading up to the statewide primary election. The winner of that election will go on to face Republican incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum in the November general election.

Times have really changed. Even small town areas. What's the impact on the kids?

Courtesy of the Dakota County Tribune

World Intellectual Property Day is coming up April 26, 2006. So who owns the rights to this idea?

I said earlier in the year that Rick Adelman was gone as head coach of the Sacramento Kings. And I'm still not a fan of Adelman as a playoff coach, his record of 0 championships with as many quality teams as he has had is underwhelming.

But give credit where credit is due - if you give him some talent, he'll put together a team that wins and gets to the playoffs. He's a great regular season coach. I'm impressed with Adelman's achievement in 2006.

Well written piece... you can't tell which corporate master of the Detroit News paid for this editorial.

I missed it, selfishly going for my own petty purposes. ("Nice" find by Apartment 2024, btw)

Your adoring public is getting anxious.

Sara Bozich is putting together information about wireless availability in the Harrisburg area - favorite hotspots, surprise connectivity, etc. Share the wealth.

It's Newt Gingrich.

One thing about Klein: it seems to me that he can't distinguish between political tactics and governing policies.

Okay, I lied. One more post about easter eggs - actually, about easter egg blogging. Check out the Technorati trend line for blog posts on the term "easter eggs":

We have two Christian holidays of Jesus birth, actually. Christmas, obviously, but also Easter. In some ways, you would think that Easter would be the more jubilant holiday, the bigger holiday - after all, it is arguably a greater miracle than the initial birth of Jesus, the message of salvation is perhaps more personal to the devout - so why doesn't Easter dominate the U.S. cultural landscape like Christmas does?

My personal opinion is that Christmas has clearly been hijacked by economic interests and the pursuit of profit promotes the holiday into a true season. Although there's been some of that with Easter, it's so much smaller that it's really not that comparable. Why is this? Why has Christmas been infused and homogenized with commercial interests, but Easter still seems split between the faith and the marketing of candy? Is Easter just behind the curve still? Is it because organized religion fights for a more faith-oriented treatment of Easter, and business was more sensitive to the somberness of the holiday? Why is it that Christmas is a season for almost anyone that lives in America, but Easter is limited to a day or three?

Here's hoping your day is full of fun and joy.

Remember...

Starlings eat just about anything.

There are so many to choose from... add your choice here.

I don't often post about religion, but I found this to be a rewarding story.

Imagine my luck - I get to go up against I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake and blog heavyweight Whiskey Bar in Philly Future's Featured Blog Poll. That's right... WHISKEY BAR!!!!

States are trying to curb roadside memorials for traffic accident victims. It was bound to happen. I'm not quite sure where or when the practice of memorializing the spot where someone died on the road, but there's little corollary anywhere else. You don't see homemade semi-permanent memorials at people's homes when they die, or on golf courses or at supermarkets or almost anywhere else that people die, often tragically.

There is a safety issue involved. Often the memorial is eyecatching but has a tiny sign, almost impossible to read from the road, and yet human curiousity draws the eye to the sign. Eyes on the road? No. Eyes on the sign not made for reading from the road traveling at speeds and a location where obviously bad things can and do happen. People stop at the memorials and then return to the road, often not at a place expected or built for exit and return.

It is a tough balance for the government to try to meet. Those grieving want to honor the dead. Often, it is more than one victim to be memorialized. But government does have an obligation to make sure that roadside memorials don't cause a less-safe environment for drivers.

If you're any branch of government, and you're looking for some kind of slogan to define your entity's relationship to the community, you might want to reconsider any suggestion to use:

Where People Come First

because it is pretty commonly used. For example...

Mississippi Levee Board

Hampden Township (that's where I saw it - on a truck)

City of Hamilton

Auckland International Airport

Hearthstone Retirement Community

West Texas A&M University

First National Bank, Henryetta

Hayes Hammer Hardware

Weichert Realtors

Guardian Angel Christian Village

Peoples Bank

There's probably something better - and more locally specific - available.

After all, the last crank-phone/switchboard operator telephone system in the United States existed until October 1983.

It is truly an Internet mystery to me why AOL continues to survive.

I'm a big believer in the power of active team recreation as it benefits the body and soul. For me, at this time, it is my 35 and older basketball league, Wednesday nights. Sure, today, like almost every Thursday morning, I'm a bit sore and gimpy, but my mind is relaxed, and, if anything, I wish I could play again tonight... but the rest of my worldly obligations must be satisfied.

I think the power of active team recreation could also benefit our society as well if applied with intent. Take any major schism of philosophy and break it down into the common denominators of physical humanity. When I play basketball, I judge other people by the amount of effort they're giving, their sense of fair play within the rules of the game, and their control of themselves as they strain to perform physically against another. Yes, I like to win. But more importantly, I like to have a good time, I like to see everyone else have a good time, and most of all, I don't want to see anyone get hurt by the actions of another.

In basketball, you can have "good" players, meaning they can score, pass and defend, and they provide effort. Too much effort. They lose their sense of fair play and/or their control of themselves, and they end up edging up tension within the rest of the group, because they freeze out "lesser" players and they try to intimidate defenders with banging. They can become hotheads, getting angry at perceived fouls and the slights of not receiving the ball when they're set. Basketball isn't a game for the timid, but you have to recognize who you're playing with, and try to improve everyone on your team while finding an enjoyable level to play for yourself. You have to work within the realm of everyone's reality.

Almost everyone decries that our nation, politically, has fumbled its ability to work within the realm of the electorate's reality. What we have today in Washington has a corollary in basketball. We have two teams, relatively evenly matched, but one team has the ball. That team has a forward that can shoot and dribble but will very, very rarely pass. That player is continually trying to score, and the other team, knowing this, has set their defenses to stop that player. Every time the forward fails to score, he calls a foul. Ticky tack perhaps, but every time.

What you end up having is one team with the ball the whole time, an incredibly boring game for most everyone, and no progress in the score. Sound like Washington?

In the 1970s, ABC had a sports program called The Superstars or something like that, where it took the best athletes around the world from various sports and made them compete against each other in sports where they didn't compete.

America would benefit greatly if all members of Congress were taken to some remote spot of the country to do something similar today. Put them in a sports complex for three weeks, and have them compete at different team sports. NO PARTY TEAMS. All squads have Republicans and Democrats. Have them play softball, basketball, tag football, swimming relays, aquatic ballet, whatever, but they have to be team sports.

Make them play every day, and different sports.

Think the world would be better if this happened? I do.

Mark Purcell, candidate for State Representative in Pennsylvania House District 20, was kind enough to respond to my questions about lobbyist registration policy in Pennsylvania. Below are his responses:

Question 1: What should be the goals of any lobbying laws or reform in Pennsylvania?

Mark Purcell: Total disclosure of all gifts and money spent on, or given to lawmakers in Pennsylvania.

Question 2: What entity or entities should be responsible for administering these laws?

Mark Purcell: State Department.

Question 3: Are there any other states that could or should serve as a model for lobbying regulation?

Mark Purcell: California.

Question 4: What kind of public reporting requirements should be required for lobbying? How much information should a citizen be able to find publicly about the activities of a lobbyist, and how should that information be made available?

Mark Purcell: Reporting requirements should give full disclosures like, name of entity, person, or firm working for, or representing entity. All information should be available for citizens to view. I can't think of any legitimate reason not to disclose all info. The information might be disclosed in a form submitted by the lobbyist.

Question 5: Should lobbyists be required to pay, through registration fees, for all costs involved in providing such registration/regulation/public reporting?

Mark Purcell: Yes.

Question 6: How important is lobbyist regulation/registration to you as an issue? Is this something you would see as a top priority for the General Assembly in your first session?

Mark Purcell: It is one of my top priorities along with other reforms like, term limits, and reducing the size of the General Assembly.

Apparently FEMA has not told some Louisiana local government officials what should be done with the FEMA temporary housing trailers in the possibility of another large hurricane landing there at this point, even though those local government officials are requesting that info in order to plan for the upcoming hurricane season.

The National Review editors are wetting themselves.

Oh, and by the way, if Berlusconi, as the incumbent, "had little to show for his five years in office except noise and laughter and paralysis", then how could anyone logically believe that "a Berlusconi majority might have been able at the eleventh hour to address the country's many dilemmas"? Do the editors of the National Review all take turns, writing one sentence each, only paying attention to the sentence previous to it?

From The Hill:

Conservative activist Grover Norquist is seeking a trademark on “K Street Project,” saying Democrats and Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) have wrongfully acquired the term to describe unethical practices that have nothing to do with his organization.

“Some people say Kleenex when they mean tissue,” Norquist said. “We will jealously guard the real phrasing the way Kleenex and Coca-Cola do. We will sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money.”

I hope this fails. How many cities in the United States have a "K Street"? How many cities have construction projects in which they call the project by the location? Will Norquist sue these cities too?

BTW, has the name Grover Norquist been trademarked?

Bill Bostic has started his campaign to legitimize Pennsylvania's political bloggers by getting on a Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) talking heads show.

Specifically, he wants himself, or another blogger, at the table on Journalists Roundtable (JRT) that shows most Thursdays at 8 p.m.

Good luck to him, although I think it would be better if PCN came up with a Blogger Roundtable, and perhaps ran it every few weeks or so instead. I'm just not sure that the structure of the Journalists Roundtable lends itself to the richness and viewpoints of Pennsylvania's blogger community. But one step at a time, I guess.

Somewhere out there lurks a team or two that won 83 or fewer games last season that will make the playoffs this year. Bank on it. The sleeper team is no longer an anomaly but an October fixture in the wild-card era.

Kudos. I believe this is an effort to crush the underground worm planning of one Chris Matthews as he hopes to ascent to Pennsylvania's U.S. Senator in 2010, using the "Lynn Swann celebrity supposed liberal Republican candidate" technique.

It's important for any Matthews for Senate trial balloon be quickly popped before it fills too greatly with his political flatulence.

But here's some interesting Pennsylvania-related blog posts:

Rich Lowry displays his patriotism in describing what Bush should do - not for the country, but for Republicans - and just for appearances.

AMERICAblog and Bark Bark Woof Woof weigh in as well.

Researchers looking for clues in effort to cut manure odor

The smell from the big cattle feedlots found in many parts of western Kansas can be exceptionally powerful, which residents of Hays know all too well because Kansas State University's Agricultural Research Center is there.

But a Fort Hays State University professor, two of his students and a beef cattle scientist at the Kansas State center are working on a project to isolate the chemical that causes the strong odor from the manure.

...

The strong odor in Hays results from decomposition of the organic matter, particularly the anaerobic breakdown of proteins by bacteria, something that can be sped up by heat on a sunny day or by high levels of moisture. Certain anaerobic compounds in the manure cause the smell, and the problem for the researchers is determining which compounds are responsible.

"There's actually been over 168 compounds that have been identified by other researchers that contribute to the odor of feedlots," Jaeger said. "Different feedlots can smell for different reasons. There's a lot of reasons out there, so for Dr. Olmstead and his students to be able to tell me what's the most prevalent here is a good first step in reducing that odor."

This is actually a big issue anywhere that development is encroaching on farming. Housing is placed on land used previously for farming, but sometimes livestock farms still remain nearby, and after a few years, the homeowners actually have the gall to complain that the other farmers should leave because of the odor. Anything like this might actually help with the political issue.

Just get to pick one reason...