Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

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Unintended consequences.

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

Actual headline from the Y Combinator Twitter feed that made me click through to the article:

So why did the train cross the border 24 times and never unload? My first thought was “to get to the other side”. Turns out that was wrong.

I’ll spoil the riddle for you:

The cargo of the train was owned by Bioversal Trading Inc., or its US partner Verdero, depending on what stage of the trip it was at. The companies “made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.” Each time the loaded train crossed the border the cargo earned its owner a certain amount of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which were awarded by the US EPA to “promote and track production and importation of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.” The RINs were supposed to be retired each time the shipment passed the border, but due to a glitch not all of them were. This enabled Bioversal to accumulate over 12 million RINs from the 24 trips, worth between 50 cents and $1 each, which they can then sell on to oil companies that haven’t met the EPA’s renewable fuel requirements.

This was all perfectly legal, at least according to the companies involved. The US and Canadian governments are investigating, according to the article, so the “perfectly legal” part may be in dispute.

(Wouldn’t you have enjoyed being a fly in the cab of that train and listening to the crew talk as they went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth across the border?)

Posted in Clippings, Law, Politics, Trains | Comments Closed

Happy Spaghetti Carbonara Day: November 21, 2012.

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Okay, technically, Spaghetti Carbonara Day is tomorrow, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to post tomorrow.

Plus, today’s NYT has an amusing article about the dish, complete with recipes.

Carbonara also inspires strong, almost religious, passions, particularly about what exactly it is. Mr. Trillin’s recipe — pancetta, fontina and prosciutto — would be scoffed at in Rome. But according to one Italian food historian, there are at least 400 versions, from the most classic Roman to variations that are delicious but drive traditionalists mad.

Obit watch: former senator Warren B. Rudman, of Gramm-Rudman fame.

Posted in Clippings, Food, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Here. Have some more crap.

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

A/V Club obit for Elliott Carter.

NYT obits for Darrell Royal and influential former wine columnist Frank J. Prial.

Another election result that amuses me:

The referendum in Tuesday’s election asked voters whether Michigan should retain a recently enacted state law that allowed the governor to appoint “emergency managers” with broad oversight of financial decisions, budgets and union contracts for struggling local governments. The law was intended to help municipalities avoid bankruptcy or default, but it has been criticized for infringing on the rights of local governments.

The referendum failed, 53% – 47%.

Emergency managers currently oversee three school districts in Michigan, including the Detroit public schools, and the city governments in Benton Harbor, Escorse, Flint and Pontiac. Now it is unclear what the vote means for their work, as well as for a fledgling financial consent agreement between the state and Detroit, which has wrestled with billions of dollars of long-term debt and nearly ran out of money this year.

And another one: voters in San Francisco actually rejected a proposal “that would have taken the first steps toward draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and drastically revamped the way much of the Bay Area gets its water.”

The Prop. F initiative was the culmination of a years-long effort by environmentalists to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. The valley was flooded in 1923, when the city dammed the Tuolumne River to create a water system that now serves 2.6 million people in San Francisco and 29 other Bay Area cities.The measure, supporters said, would have compelled the city to take a much-needed look at its water usage and come up with a plan to replace the water and power now supplied by the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. A separate vote in 2016 would have been required before the O’Shaughnessy Dam could be demolished.

From the Department of Wow: University of Houston cornerback D.J. Hayden is in the hospital. His condition is listed as “critical but stable” according to the HouChron. What happened?

Hayden had surgery to repair a tear in the main blood vessel that leads to the heart, an injury suffered when he collided with a teammate during Tuesday night’s practice, a person familiar with the situation told the Chronicle on the condition of anonymity.

This Statesman “story” is…just…odd.

Edited to add: A little more information on D.J. Hayden and his injury:

In a statement released by UH, [team physician Dr. Walter] Lowe confirmed that Hayden required immediate surgery Tuesday night for a tear of the inferior vena cava, the large vein that carries blood from the lower half of the body back to the heart.

More from Dr. Lowe: “This injury has never been seen or reported in association with a football injury and is more associated with high-speed motor vehicle.” Huh? There’s a photo caption: “…a freak injury normally associated with high-speed motorcycle wrecks.”

Dr. Lowe also apparently said that this kind of injury has a “95 percent fatality rate”. I have no problem believing that.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Food, Law, Media, Music, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

What next?

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Or, what I would do if I was put in charge of the Republican party (and “resign immediately” wasn’t an option):

  • Complete abolition of the TSA, eight o’clock, day one.
  • No more foreign adventures. Pull our troops out of everywhere, including Korea and Europe. We need to stop being the world’s policeman.
  • Write off Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry. Those people aren’t going to vote Republican anyway.
    What do I mean by “write off”? Simple: announce that the Republican party plans to work for the repeal of the DMCA, opposes any legislation similar to SOPA/PIPA, and plans to roll back copyright to life + 25 years (50 years for “work for hire”). That’s to start with. I’d also suggest ending criminal penalties for copyright violation, the abolition of patents on computer software, and the explicit legalization of software designed to circumvent access controls (even though I think that is covered in the repeal of DMCA). It probably won’t be enough to get Cory Doctrow to vote Republican, but a tech-friendly platform might sway many younger voters. Especially if you stop trying to control people. To be more specific:
  • Come out for drug legalization. Not just pot, but all drugs. Stop trying to control what adults put in their bodies. Stop denying painkillers to people in chronic pain. “Oh, but THE CHILDREN!” Bullshit. You can legalize pot and X for adults only, like we do with booze.
  • Be the party of justice. Ending the drug war is a good start in that direction. There’s not a whole lot that can be done with this at a national level. But, at a local level, I’d love to see Republican district attorneys stating that their primary concern is making sure that justice is done, not pumping up stats. I’d be delighted if they started aggressive reviews of convictions, and tightened up procedures in crime labs. It would be awesome if Republican mayors and council people made it clear they wouldn’t tolerate police abuses, and followed through on that with firings.
  • STFU about abortion and contraception. The battle about sex is over. You lost. Deal with it.
  • Ditto gay marriage.
  • Stop prosecuting porn producers.
  • Embrace gun owners. That means, at a minimum, working for repeal of the Hughes Amendment, as well as a promise not to pursue a ban on normal capacity magazines and modern sporting rifles. I’d go a step further and add removing silencers from NFA 1934 and nationwide concealed carry to the list.
  • Stop running idiots as candidates.
  • Back off on immigration. Let’s make it easier for good people from other countries to become US citizens. I want those people to move here and open Chinese and Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese and Thai and Afghan and Nepalese and Russian restaurants. (I could do with fewer TexMex joints, but that’s just me.)

So looking over this list, what I’d do is…turn the Republican party into the Libertarian Party. That’s a recipe for success. Then again, if the LP can’t get traction in a two-party system, maybe subverting one of the parties isn’t such a bad idea…

I started writing this yesterday, but decided to wait until this morning to hit the big “publish” button. Oddly enough, it appears I’m not the only person thinking this way.

Posted in Food, Guns, Politics | 3 Comments »

A few election results that amuse me.

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

Edited to add: Left out one significant result:

Louisiana voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a proposed constitutional amendment that gives the state the strongest gun laws in the nation, according to nearly complete state elections office returns.

(Hattip: Sebastian.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, HCDA, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: November 6, 2012.

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Sigh. Election day, and TMQ day. But before we begin, how about a diversion?

After the jump…

(more…)

Posted in NFL, Politics, Sarcasm, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Ch-ch-change, change of fools…

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

Every election, I tell myself I should go vote early, just so I can get it out of the way, rather than rushing to my precinct after work and trying to beat the crowd.

After waiting in line for an hour during the primaries, and what with being fed the f–k up with this election cycle, I decided this year I’d make the big push and actually go do it. I was out with a friend on Saturday when we accidentally found one of the early voting places, and there was no line.

(We were actually visiting a Sears store. I haven’t been in a Sears since…well, I can’t remember how long, but I think it was before the K-Mart merger. They haven’t changed. At all. And I have no desire to go back.)

But, even though my friend generously offered to wait for me (he’d already voted early), I didn’t feel like asking him to do that. So I skipped early voting until yesterday, the next-to-the-last day I could do it.

It didn’t take an hour. It was only 26 minutes from getting in line to exiting the polling place. The line was out the door and almost into the parking lot of the Shrine Temple that was hosting early voting; fortunately, since it was an early voting site, they had more than the usual number of machines, so things actually went relatively fast. But it seemed like an awfully high turnout, and looking at the count on the door, it looked like the turnout was pretty high on other days as well. I’m not sure what this means, or doesn’t mean, for the election. I just find it interesting that so many people are so motivated to vote early. (Let us hope that they are not also voting often.)

(Speaking of the Shrine Temple: when I was young, I saw the Shriners as being vaguely comic figures. Now that I’m older, I find that I have a lot more respect for the organization and the work it does.)

Anyway, I’m done until Tuesday and pizza with Lawrence. No, I won’t tell you how I voted; it isn’t any of your GD business, thank you very much.

(Ha. On a totally unrelated note, Groupon just sent me an offer for an “introductory beekeeping class”. I wonder if the apartment management would let me keep hives on the balcony? And I wonder how well things would work if I kept the beehives on one side of the balcony, and a chicken coop on the other side? How much space do beehives need?)

(My paternal grandfather kept bees as a hobby. He also sold Christmas trees.)

(“Wicker Man” reference goes here.)

(“Russian Origami” shirt by Linoge. “I Voted Early” sticker by Travis County. Camera by Canon.)

(Edited to add 11/3: The Statesman is reporting that Travis County early voting numbers were down this year. The HouChron is reporting that, at some polling places in Harris County, people were still in line three hours after the official 7 PM close. Interesting.)

Posted in Politics | Comments Closed

In other news…

Monday, October 29th, 2012

….wouldn’t “Mitt Romney’s Weather Machine” be a great name for a band?

Posted in Hysteria, Politics | Comments Closed

(Soccer) Field of Schemes.

Monday, October 29th, 2012

NYT story: “state of the art” soccer field is in progress. Initial cost estimate is $210 million. Current projected cost is $1.4 billion. Primary sponsor has pulled out of the project, leaving local government entirely responsible for the cost.

Punchline: the soccer stadium is in St. Petersburg. As in, Russia.

(Subject line hattip: if you’re not reading the “Field of Schemes” blog, why not?)

Posted in Clippings, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

More EarthQuest updates.

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

Promoted from a comment left by Heather Dobrott:

The judge in Ohio dismissed the remaining third-party defendants including myself. Holbrook’s bid to attack the Texas taxpayers commenting on Earthquest has been ended in Ohio!

Earthquest and its dubious consultant, Don Allen Holbrook, are getting excellent coverage on Click 2 Houston:

http://www.click2houston.com/news/Where-is-Houston-s-replacement-for-Astroworld/-/1735978/17114488/-/4gxd1yz/-/index.html

http://www.click2houston.com/news/New-questions-arise-about-amusement-park-project/-/1735978/17147970/-/5w8vfgz/-/index.html

I’m delighted that the legal troubles of the folks like Heather asking questions about EarthQuest seem to be ending, and that other media outlets are starting to ask questions about EarthQuest as well.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

Formula 1 is slightly less heckish.

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

I wrote previously about the proposals to close large swaths of downtown streets, including Congress Avenue, so people could party when Formula 1 came to town.

We have a deal. The Congress Avenue proposal (from an independent promoter) has been dropped, and that festival is merging with the official F1 “Fan Fest”.

Unfortunately, Congress Avenue is still going to be closed, but it looks like the closures will be for a shorter period than under the original “Experience Austin” proposal.

A bigger festival for 2013 could be held at the circuit in southeastern Travis County, Carroza said. “As COTA becomes more and more finished, it becomes apparent that people will want to spend more and more time there.”

This sounds like a fine idea to me, assuming there is an F1 race here in 2013. I wouldn’t recommend counting that chicken until it hatches, though.

Posted in Austin, Cars, Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 22, 2012.

Monday, October 22nd, 2012

Russell Means, controversial Indian activist, actor, Libertarian Party presidential candidate, and vice-presidential nominee during Larry Flynt’s attempt to get the Republican nomination in 1984, has died. (LAT. NYT.)

Noted:

Told in the summer of 2011 that the cancer was inoperable, Mr. Means had already resolved to shun mainstream medical treatments in favor of herbal and other native remedies.

How’s that working for you?

I thought I’d give the George McGovern obits a day, which is why I didn’t post them on Sunday. For the record: NYT. LAT. WP.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Almost as much fun as the circus.

Monday, October 15th, 2012

I’ve written previously about the election results in the notoriously corrupt California city of Vernon. When last we left Vernon, the city council had decided they were going to hire a hearing officer and conduct their own inquiry into alleged voter fraud, after the LA County registrar refused to throw out some of the ballots.

Well, the results of the hearing are in.

If approved by the City Council, the decision would tilt the race in favor of candidate Luz Martinez, a former secretary to Vernon’s top administrator, who had trailed 34 votes to 30. It would also reverse a previous decision made by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, which dismissed the voter challenges this summer and called the race for Martinez’ opponent, Reno Bellamy.

Mr. Martinez was endorsed by the Vernon Chamber of Commerce, which also supported the vote challenge.

To be fair, however, the hearing officer (who was paid “nearly $1,000 an hour” by the city) “sided against the Chamber in two cases where voters claimed multiple residences”. Good to know.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 15, 2012.

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Arlen Specter. (NYT. WP.)

Whenever I think of Arlen Specter, I think of the story Jerry Della Femina tells in his book, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War:

I had a special project to do a campaign for a Philadelphia politician named Arlen Spector (sp?). “When do I get to see Arlen Spector?” I asked. “You don’t.” Spector was a district attorney in Philadelphia, running for mayor. He wanted New York advertising but he had placed through a Philadelphia agency. I complained about not being able to see Arlen Spector. “Are you crazy?” his people said. “Nobody gets to meet Arlen Spector. We can’t even see him.” “All right,” I said, “what’s Arlen Spector for?” “Arlen Spector is for getting elected.” “All right,” I said, “what’s Arlen Spector against?” “Arlen Spector is against losing.” I did the campaign, but Arlen Spector lost.

Also among the dead: Norodom Sihanouk, former king of Cambodia.

…King Sihanouk allied himself with the Khmer Rouge at the urging of his Chinese patrons, giving the Cambodian Communists his prestige and enormous popularity. Their victory in 1975 brought the ruthless Pol Pot to power, with King Sihanouk serving, for the first year, as the figurehead president until he was placed under house arrest and fell into a deep depression. Over the next four years, the Khmer Rouge regime led to the death of 1.7 million people and nearly destroyed the country.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Quickies for October 11, 2012.

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

The vast majority of people renting homes for this weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival could be breaking the law, as only four houses out of an estimated 1,500 short-term rental properties had the required license to operate as of Wednesday.

The city implemented the new rules on short-term rentals ten days ago. Odd how that hasn’t been a problem for the last couple of ACL festivals, but yet the city felt compelled to make a new set of rules anyway. (Yes, it may also have something to do with the F1 race as well, but again, there haven’t been reports of massive short-term rental problems with ACL, or SXSW, or UT football games, or (fill in the blank).)

“It isn’t our desire to be punitive,” Christianson said. “We just want people to have a safe place to stay when they come to Austin.”

Because, of course, people are too dumb to make that decision on their own.

More Alex Karras: NYT. A/V Club.

The question before the court was whether Mr. Ndao was enough of an expert in Senegalese spells to testify at the murder trial of Bakary Camara, 42, who says he killed an ex-girlfriend last fall under the influence of evil spirits. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered the woman, Rita Morelli, 36.

The answer was “no”.

Unfortunately, the Squirrel Report is off the air this week. Which is a darn shame, as not only could they talk about “Commander Squirrel”, but they could also cover this story:

Since the beginning of September, the center has taken in some 400 abandoned baby squirrels, the most in three decades, if you leave out the Ike year.

(Story includes many cute photos of baby squirrels being fed, exactly the sort of thing that’s up Weer’d’s alley.)

Once again, I feel some obligation to comment on the Lance situation. It is looking like option #2 on my list may actually have turned out to be true. But I want to sit down and actually read the USADA report first, and I haven’t had time to do that. (I’m trying to finish the book I’m currently reading, I need to work on the Stanford Computer Networking class, I’m working on planning a birthday celebration, there’s still a movie I want to see, and some other things going on. Plus, tubular bells.)

Anyway, I’ll try to get to it, maybe over the weekend if I can manage to knock out the Stanford stuff.

Posted in Austin, Books, Clippings, Law, Obits, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

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