A Two-fer Week!

Our lame-duck (quack - quack) president's approval rating seems to be a boon for our environment.

Three cheers!

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is indicted on seven felony counts. Most stem from his cosy-oily connections with VECO Corporation, a oil services contractor.

Ted claims he is innocent.

Prosecutors from the Justice Department had a lot to choose from:
L.A. Times, in 2003 published accusations of influence peddling and insider trading.
He has been accused of doing favors for companies who employed his son.
His son had options to buy a share of a seafood company while Ted was working to supply millions of dollars of fish for the company.
The list goes on.
Source: SourceWatch - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens#Alaska_pork

Too bad he couldn't be indicted for his pro-logging work. He proposed clear-cutting more than 2 million acres of old-growth forest and building thousands of miles of logging roads at taxpayer expense.
Or indicted for his pertinacious efforts to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A lot will depend on the U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.
One can only hope he doesn't follow the example set by District Judge William J. Martini. More on that another time.

Finally - A Victory for the Florida Everglades

A long fought battle - four years of litigation against the EPA and the State of Florida. I know there will probably be appeals, if for no other reason than to delay, delay, delay. But I'll celebrate anyway with a Smuttynose IPA and thumb my nose at the Bush administration's Environmental Prevention Agency.

Federal Judge Alan Gold today found against the EPA and Florida's Legislature in their attempt to again delay compliance with the Clean Water Act to reduce phosphorus pollution levels. A 1994 Florida law pushed out the deadline of 2002 to 2006. Then in 2003 Florida got approval from EPA to push the deadline out to 2016!

"Federal law does not authorize anything like a twenty-two year compliance schedule..."

Congratulations to the Miccosukee Tribe and the Friends of the Everglades!

Press release on their website here: http://www.everglades.org/pressrelease.html

Piteous Pathetic Phony Phishing Proposal

This is as real as it gets!!

In my email inbox this morning was this entry in the Pathetic Phishing Award of 2008

Ta-da...

Message From Shell Petroleum Development Company
Subject: Congratulation You Have Won Our Grand Price (One Million Unite States Of America Dollas)
thank you, bob.Lxxxxx@murraystate.edu

I suppose that Bob of Murray State figured that if I can read I'm probably not a good phish.

Actually the scam is more interesting than it appears on the surface. You see the real Bob is Dr. Robert Lxxxxx Chair, Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Murray State University.

Talk to your daughter...Before the beauty industry does!!

October One Liners 2

Headline: Dateline, Atlanta, Reuters - Lipsticks contain lead, consumer group says Thu Oct 11, 6:59 PM ET
One Liner: A kiss to die for!!
~ ~ ~ Thank you George Bush!

Headline: Dateline, New York, Reuters - IRS says rich getting richer: report Fri Oct 12, 2:48 AM ET
One Liner: And the poor get poorer - daa dit daa daa...
~ ~ ~ Thank you George Bush!

October is "One Liners" month - WTF

How about one liners inspired by internet headlines? Rarely read newspapers anymore so that's kind of a no brainer.





Headline: Dateline: Bagdad (10/09/07): Violence in Iraq kills 56


One Liner: Yes! Damn good thing are so much better in Iraq!


~ ~ ~Thank you George Bush!





Headline: Dateline: Bagdad (10/09/07): Guards fire on car in Iraq, kill 2 women


One Liner: Oh, not Blackwater; slow news day!


~ ~ ~Thnak you George Bush!





Headline: Sirnak, Turkey: (10/09/07): US warns Turkey to stay out of Iraq//


One Liner: You had your turn, butt out!


~ ~ ~Thank You George Bush!





Isn't there any news that's not Iraqified?


Headline: Dateline: Cambridge, US (10/05/07): Hamsters on Viagra take center stage at Ig Nobel awards


One Liner: Slow News Day for sure; where were the Yankees when you needed them?


~ ~ ~Thank you George Bush!

(stolen from http://www.petwebsite.com/hamsters/hamster_pet.htm )

Harvest Time

Attended the Fall Harvest Festival at the Historic Village in Allaire State Park last month. Many events featured workers in period dress. The week before was a Jazz and Wine Festival. It's a great place to visit almost any time of the year.

Took a few photos of course.

Cider Press:

Horse Team Rides:

Steam Powered Locomotive:

Wine Selection from New Jersey Vintners:

Summer's Over - Sigh...

I have a love-hate relationship with seasons. I would miss any one of them I'm sure. But damn they end too soon. There were so many things I wanted to do this summer that didn't get done. It's not as if I usually get things done but maybe I getting old and staring to worry that the number of "next years" are shrinking. Sigh...

We lost a few fish early this summer to a predator. At least that's the best guess. They were some of our most fecund females so we didn't have the schools of tiny goldfish this year.

Our first suspect, a stranger!

But certain facts have shed doubt on this suspect. She isn't in the clear yet but I have another, as yet, unseen suspect. A raccoon would be a more likely nighttime hunter and more likely frightened by the bamboo shishi-odoshi, "deer-scarer", that we installed. Nighttime disturbance of rocks and moss stopped after it was installed.

Beyond the Whales

The whales "lost" in the Sacramento River inspired this editorial piece on Sacbee.com yesterday. (I know it's a pain to register! I know it's a pain! OK? Just register. You can curse me while doing so - thanks, thanks, tanks, tanks, tnks, tks... [ok? - I'll be your best friend?])
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/185809.html

Photo: Reuters - Wed May 16, 11:39 PM ET

Looming crises like this one are far too common now. The fate of Horseshoe crabs and dependent migrating shore birds is another.

From the Cape May County Herald last week.
http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/articles/3629/1/River-Dredging-May-Doom-Horseshoe-Crabs

Easter Problems - What?

A little known, much less understood, side-effect of Easter...

THE VICTIMS:

THE SAD TALE IN THEIR OWN WORDS...

AH, BUT THERE IS MORE...