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  • Palin Blames Rape Victims (Joe)

    I don’t know how you could possibly construe this other than Sarah Palin saying, “It’s always the woman’s fault.” Palin’s town charged rape victims for rape kits. It was the only town in Alaska to do so. And the police chief who she appointed objected to the bill (which did become a law) because the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to gather the forensic evidence when it comes to sexual assault.

    Speaking to a teleconference audience of reporters around the nation, former Gov. Tony Knowles and current Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein — both Democrats — accused Palin of misleading the public in her new role as the vice presidential running mate of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

    While some of their complaints have already been aired, Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter’s question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

    True, Knowles said.

    Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill — signed into law by Knowles — that banned the practice statewide.

    “There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla,” Knowles said

    A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla’s newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.

    “(But) the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests,” the newspaper reported.

    It also quoted Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon objecting to the law. Fannon was appointed to his position by Palin after her dismissal of the previous police chief. He said it would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year if the city had to foot the bill for rape exams.

    “In the past we’ve charged the cost of exams to the victims’ insurance company when possible,” Fannon told the newspaper. “I just don’t want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer.”

    Is the Republicans’ best argument now that she’s just completely clueless and did not have any idea what was going on even with respect to her own constituents and responsibilities even when she was only responsible for one small town in Alaska?

  • The Veep Debate

    The upcoming vice-presidential debate on October 2 should be fun. The participants will be a heavily prepped, ignorant war monger parroting cliches and scripted sound bites and a perpetual gaffe machine.

  • A Storm Named Ike

    Those of you who have been paying attention to the news in the past couple of days must already know about Hurricane Ike which is poised to crash somewhere on the Texas coastline within the next twenty four hours or so. Ike is a huge storm that is expected to cut a wide swath and cause widespread damage. As of now, most computer models predict a landfall very close to Houston – near the Freeport – Galveston area. Depending on the punch it packs, Cat 2 or 3, the coastal areas will see huge storm surges, high winds, power outage and structural damage. Houston, the biggest city and the largest population center in the path of the storm will feel the effects of the storm and experience disruption of services. Tornadoes are likely to develop in places much further inland – as far as Austin and San Antonio.

    Unlike the time of Rita in 2005 when we evacuated, my husband and I decided to stay put this time although Ike’s impact is projected to be much more severe than that of Rita which eventually left Houston alone. As far as we can tell, it will be rough. However, after much thought, staying on seemed to be the easier decision than evacuating.  Most of our neighbors and friends too are staying back except the elderly couple next door who had some concerns with their health and mobility. They have moved in with their son in town for the duration of the storm.  Our county does not have an evacuation advisory. In fact, we have been asked to stay so that we don’t clog the roads for others who must get out from the low lying coastal areas.

    “We are still saying: Please shelter in place, or to use the Texas expression, hunker down,” said Judge Ed Emmett, the chief administrator for Harris County, which includes Houston. “For the vast majority of people who live in our area, stay where you are. The winds will blow and they’ll howl and we’ll get a lot of rain, but if you lose power and need to leave, you can do that later.”

    We are surely going to see very hight winds and the break down of electric power and possibly water supply – for how long, we don’t know. This morning, we took stock of our pantry and cupboards.  We have plenty of drinking water, bread, crackers, cookies, fruit, canned goods, candles, matches, batteries and flash lights. We also have a small charcoal grill and a short wave radio that can run on batteries. Also, our cars will be in the garage and their radios will be working. We plan to ride out the storm and keep in touch with our neighbors. If the power stays out for more than a couple of days after Ike, that is when we might leave town.

    There was a devastating hurricane more than a hundred years ago that caused total havoc in the city of Galveston. That was before the time when the National Weather Service assigned names to storms. Although the hurricane of 1900 did not have an official name, it too earned a name beginning with the letter "i."  Isaac’s Storm was named after the unfortunate meteorologist entrusted with the job of keeping an eye on the weather in Galveston that fateful September day.

  • It almost happened in Texas

    The Hadron Super Collider near Geneva, Switzerland has been in the news recently. Today is D-Day (some think Doom’s Day), the day scientists all over the world will be eagerly waiting to find out what happens when a bunch of accelerated protons are made to collide with each other, resulting in a spectacular smash-up of matter. [see here for several related articles]

    What many remember but others may have forgotten is that the building of the Super Collider was originally begun in Texas until the US govt (under the Clinton administration) decided to drop the project. Now that the atom smashing party has begun and all eyes are on a tunnel in Switzerland, many in Texas are experiencing a "what if" feeling.

    Super_colliderIf you are reading this, rest assured the startup of the world’s largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland early this morning, did not immediately fulfill naysayers’ predictions that it would create a black hole that would gobble up the world.

    Scientists planned to fire the first stream of protons around a 17-mile tunnel at 2:30 a.m. Houston time, a prelude to experiments that will send them crashing head-on into each other at velocities previously unattained in laboratories. The LHC will be more powerful than any existing atom smasher.

    In theory, the collisions should reveal traces of elusive theoretical particles, including the Higgs boson, postulated to be the missing link explaining how the building blocks of the universe attain mass. It could also reveal the nature of mysterious dark matter that makes up much of the cosmos.

    It’s a bitter sweet moment for Texas physicists, who 15 years ago were working on the Superconducting Super Collider project, a $4 billion effort near Waxahatchie that would have created a particle accelerator three times larger than the LHC.

    After spending $2 billion on the effort, Congress pulled the plug in 1993, handing off future leadership in a vital scientific field to the CERN laboratory near Geneva. It resulted in an exodus of American scientists to Europe to work on the hottest physics project on Earth. Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the legislation killing the project, later admitted he thought the cancellation was a mistake.

    Although Americans are contributing to the LHC experiment, it will not have the impact on U.S. scientific development or the economic and academic benefits for Texas that would have come with the Supercollider.

    We wish the venture scientific success, and no black holes, but we can’t help regretting that it didn’t happen in Texas.

  • Pit Bull, Barracuda, Moose … But Where’s the Beef?

    Sujatha has posted a timely piece on the inane backing and forthing between the Obama and McCain camps that is currently passing for serious political debate. The inanity is being generated mostly by the McCain campaign whose manager Rick Davis has publicly stated, "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."  Hence we are mired in controversies about pit bulls, barracudas, moose, polar bears …. and lipstick.

    The truth however is that for all the intimidating talk of Sarah Palin "field dressing" her Democratic opponents, Palin has not answered a single question directly about her stand on any of the several issues that concern voters this election year. So far she has appeared at public events in the company of her seasoned running mate and read the same speech from the same script that she used in her acceptance speech at the GOP convention. Palin is scheduled to talk to ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson tomorrow, Sep 11, a day whose emotional symbolism is not lost on anyone just as all the other propaganda the Republicans are disseminating as substantive political message. Is Gibson going to behave like a professional journalist who acts as a fact checker and digs for real information or is he going to play along with Palin’s self promoting truisms about "a hockey mom who juggles BlackBerries and breast pumps" and who is also a "pit bull with lipstick" when the situation demands?  If Gibson needs help, Maureen Dowd has a few suggestions.

    Sarah_palin (cartoon by Nick Anderson; click to enlarge)

    [Palin] has rocketed in the polls, drawing women and men with her vapid – if vivacious and visceral – scripted cheerleading. But if you’re reading this, Charlie, we want to know everything, including:

      • What kind of budget-cutter makes a show of getting rid of the state plane, then turns around and bills taxpayers for the travel of her husband and kids between Juneau and Wasilla and sticks the state with a per-diem tab to stay in her own home?
      • Why was Sarah for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against the Bridge to Nowhere, and why was she for earmarks before she was against them? And doesn’t all this make her just as big a flip-flopper as John Kerry?
      • What kind of fiscal conservative raises taxes and increases budgets in both her jobs as mayor and as governor?
      • When the phone rings at 3 a.m., will she call the Wasilla Assembly of God congregation and ask them to pray on a response, as she asked them to pray for a natural gas pipeline?
      • Does she really think Adam, Eve, Satan and the dinosaurs mingled on the earth 5,000 years ago?
      • Why put out a press release about her teenage daughter’s pregnancy and then spend the next few days attacking the press for covering that press release?
      • As Troopergate unfolds here — an inquiry into whether Palin inappropriately fired the commissioner of public safety for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law ” it raises this question: Who else is on her enemies list and what might she do with the F.B.I.?
      • Does she want a federal ban on trans fat in restaurants and a ban on abortion and Harry Potter? And which books exactly would have landed on the literature bonfire if she had had her way with that Wasilla librarian?
      • Just how is it that Fannie and Freddie have cost taxpayers money (since they haven’t yet)?
      • Does she talk in tongues or just eat caribou tongues?
      • What does she have against polar bears?

  • Lipstick Lines (Sujatha)

    Lipstick
    Too much lipstick on everybody’s brains and the airwaves. (Word origin c. 1880,as per Merriam Webster Collegiate dictionary, history going back 5000 years all the way to ancient Egypt)  Whether it’s on a pit bull or a pig or a Vice presidential candidate, it has exploded into the news cycle like nothing else, despite the amazing list of alternative stories to focus on. But I’ll give in to this temptation and keep the lipstick on the top of the page, at least for today.

    From Juan Cole:

    "John McCain announced that he was running for president to confront the "transcendent challenge" of the 21st century, "radical Islamic extremism," contrasting it with "stability, tolerance and democracy." But the values of his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God’s will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick."

    From the New York Times:

    "Last week, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, introduced herself to the Republican National Convention by asking a question: What’s the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom, which is how she typically describes herself.

    “Lipstick,” she said, in the line of the night.

    Here in Lebanon today, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois also made his own lipstick allusion, drawing on a very old aphorism as he belittled attempts by Senator John McCain and Republicans to embrace the change mantle that has been central to his campaign.

    “John McCain says he’s about change, too – except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not change. That’s just calling the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig – it’s still a pig.”"

    –snip—

    "Palin campaign spokesman Maria Comella: “Barack Obama’s comments today are offensive and disgraceful. He owes Governor Palin an apology “

    Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki: “That expression is older than my grandfather’s grandfather and it means that you can dress something up but it doesn’t change what it is. He was talking pretty clearly about the fact that you can’t just call yourself change when you’ve voted with George Bush 90 percent of time.”"

    Seriously, is the McCain campaign insulting Sarah Palin by claiming that Obama compared her, rather than the McCain policies, to a pig? I wonder why they would sabotage the perception of their own VP candidate by doing so. I think Sarah Palin ought to castigate her own campaign for being so foolish as to put lipstick on the McCain campaign pig, and point out that she, if anything, is the lipstick on the campaign, not the other way round. Or the pitbull with the lipstick, if she prefers the other mixed metaphor.

    (In the interest of full disclosure, I do not use lipstick and have no pitbulls or pigs in this particular race for metaphors.)

  • Mavericks: The cattle and the men

    John McCain never tires of reminding us that he is a "maverick," a dissenter "who marches to his own drum," he said in his acceptance speech. We know the common dictionary meaning of the word that referred originally to wayward cattle and later to a public figure with an independent mind. The owner of the maverick cattle herd who gave us the word in its current form was Sam Maverick, a South Carolinian turned Texan. Maverick fought in the Texas Revolution, spent time in a Mexican prison, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, served as a state legislator and the mayor of San Antonio.

    Columnist Rick Casey writes in the Houston Chronicle that there were other Mavericks before and after Sam, the lousy Texas cattleman and some of them too were mavericks.

    Maverick

    (more…)

  • The “Vicktory” Dogs

    Taking a bit of a break from the faintly sinister and patently ludicrous political theater surrounding the US presidential campaign, I am happy to bring you news of a different kind.

    Stories that lift our spirits very often describe the triumph of the utterly vulnerable – the miserable underdog beating incredible odds. In this particular case, the underdogs happen to be real dogs and this is the heartwarming story of their rescue from debauched cruelty and certain death.

    Little over a year ago, we learnt about the criminal activities of ex-NFL star Michael Vick who was caught and later sentenced to jail for the brutal torture of several pit bulls that he used in illegal dog fighting. Vick is currently in jail serving a sentence of 23 months (too lenient, in my opinion). But what about the abused dogs, some of whom were bred to be vicious killers and others as terrified bait animals? At the time of the court case, the conventional wisdom (including that of various animal welfare organizations) was that the dogs had been so severely abused that they were beyond rehabilitation and needed to be euthanized. But Best Friends, an animal rescue agency in Utah thought otherwise. Volunteers from Best Friends pleaded with the court for a chance to return Vick’s dogs to normalcy through patient and humane care. Luckily for the dogs, the judge agreed to give the animals a second chance after the hell hole to which Vick and his cronies had condemned them from puppyhood. The tragic story now has a happy ending. Read about the loving rehabilitation and amazing transformation of the dogs on the Best Friend’s website: (I have added Best Friends to the list of animal charities I plan to support regularly)

    National Geographic filmed the progress of the vicious, suspicious or coweringly nervous dogs to trusting, playful animals some of whom have already been adopted by dog lovers. The documentary aired on September 5 on the NG channel in their series Dog Town. (Unfortunately I missed the full documentary but saw a few incredibly touching and gratifying scenes from the film on a news show. I hope to watch the episode on September 12 when it will air again.) More about Dog Town and the Best Friends Animal Society in the L.A. Times.

    Michael_vick_pit_bullIt has been a summer of awe-inspiring, thought-provoking spectacle on television. First the Summer Olympics, then the Democratic and Republican national conventions and now the return of "DogTown." If that sounds sarcastic or snarky, it isn’t meant to. The two-hour season premiere of the popular National Geographic Channel show is titled "Saving the Michael Vick Dogs," and if there were such a thing as an Olympics for animal rescue and rehabilitation, this would be it.

    Last December, the Atlanta Falcons’ star quarterback Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for operating an illegal dog fighting venture on his Virginia property. Forty-seven pit bulls in various states of physical and psychological damage were found at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels; eight more corpses were discovered buried nearby.

    It has been a summer of awe-inspiring, thought-provoking spectacle on television. First the Summer Olympics, then the Democratic and Republican national conventions and now the return of "DogTown." If that sounds sarcastic or snarky, it isn’t meant to. The two-hour season premiere of the popular National Geographic Channel show is titled "Saving the Michael Vick Dogs," and if there were such a thing as an Olympics for animal rescue and rehabilitation, this would be it.

    Last December, the Atlanta Falcons’ star quarterback Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for operating an illegal dog fighting venture on his Virginia property. Forty-seven pit bulls in various states of physical and psychological damage were found at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels; eight more corpses were discovered buried nearby.

    At the time, many animal rescue experts recommended that the dogs be put down; so traumatic had the abuse been, so long had been their imprisonment that rehabilitation seemed impossible.

    Others, including the veterinarians and trainers at Utah’s Best Friends Animal Society, argued that the dogs could be saved. A judge finally agreed, and more than half were turned over to various shelters and rescues; the 22 most troubled dogs were sent to Dogtown.

    Located on 3,000 acres of canyon country in southern Utah, the Best Friends sanctuary is one of the largest and no doubt the most beautifully located no-kill animal facilities; Dogtown is its canine program. For the past two years, "DogTown" the show has chronicled the staff as it healed and trained various ill, hurt, abused, abandoned and behavior-issue-plagued dogs.

    In other words, it’s a hard-core dog-lovers kind of show.

    But even those folks who have never adopted a dog, loved a dog, pet a dog or met a dog will sit riveted as the four toughest cases of the Vick survivors are brought back from what can be described only as the brink of torture-inflicted canine insanity.

  • Behind the scenes at the GOP Convention

    Walter_reed_middle_schoolAfter a shaky start, the Republican National Convention picked up tempo by midweek. The party reached its high point on Wednesday, the 3rd of September, when John McCain’s running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska brought the house down with her acceptance speech. McCain wrapped up the convention the next day with a patriotic story and a promise to "change" Washington during his own address. Those of us who watched the convention coverage on TV, saw the razzle dazzle and choreography of the orchestrated events. Now it is being reported that the GOP stagecraft wasn’t exactly flawless. For example:

    • Like any political gala designed to tug at the heartstrings of voters, the Republican convention was awash in symbolism and iconography, most of them easily understood. But for reasons that remained unclear for half a day, McCain delivered his acceptance speech before a giant image of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood. Neither the audience in the hall nor TV viewers recognized the building or its particular significance in relation to the speech. The McCain campaign cannot explain why this particular school was used as the back drop on McCain’s big night. Although the campaign won’t admit it, it is now widely believed that the image that was intended to be there for patriotic symbolism was that of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. and not the school. The inept stage crew got the props mixed up and the principal of Walter Reed School is now unhappy that her school’s photo was appropriated by the RNC without permission.
    • When anti-war protesters interrupted McCain who peppered his speech with references to patriotism, honor and national security, he placated the audience thus:

      "My friends, my dear friends … please, please don’t be diverted by the ground noise and the static," McCain said. "I’m going to talk about it some more, but Americans want us to stop yelling at each other."

      What McCain must have known but didn’t say, is that the protesters, who were "escorted" out by security guards were not mere "ground noise and static". They were Iraq War veterans who have hounded McCain at other public events because of his support of the war but not of those who are fighting it.

    • Sarah Palin delighted the audience at the convention with many homilies about her down-home, common sense, non-elitist approach to governing. One punch line that got thunderous applause was when Palin decried the unnecessary perks of the governor’s office.  "That luxury jet was over the top ….. I put it on eBay," she declared. But being the  consummate stand-up comic that she has proved to be, Palin knew exactly where to end her narrative to elicit the loudest cheer. It turns out that she did "put" the plane on eBay but she did not "sell" it.  The plane was later sold to a private buyer for $300,000 less than the asking price. Yet Sen McCain later told audiences during campaign stops that his running mate had sold the plane on the Internet for a profit.
    • McCain spoke at length about fighting corruption, reducing the size of the government, defeating terrorists, cutting taxes and of honor and pride. He spoke more briefly about the economy, energy independence and education. On health care, he had only this to say: 

    My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His [Obama] plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.

    Perhaps McCain had so little to say on this issue because he doesn’t really believe that health care is a problem for most Americans. John Goodman, a health care adviser to the McCain campaign has claimed that there are no "uninsured Americans" because everyone has access to the hospital emergency room.  (McCain’s campaign has now disassociated itself from Goodman)

    Senator McCain has admitted that he doesn’t understand economic issues very well. It is therefore not a surprise that he did not address the challenges facing the US economy in his speech. The day after the GOP convention ended, the US Department of Labor released a report showing that the US unemployment rate rose in the month of August to 6.1%, the highest in five years. Perhaps it is time for the McCain campaign to hire an economic adviser like Goodman who can redefine joblessness and declare, "There are no unemployed Americans;  there are only persons of leisure with access to eBay where they can sell at a profit all the accumulated junk in their basement and make a living."

    Post Convention Updates:

    The Invisible Sarah: The upcoming Sunday talk shows will be bristling with the presidential candidates answering questions of reporters and making their case to the public. One candidate who will not speak to the media is Sarah Palin. The McCain  campaign says that she will speak "directly to the American people."

    Pray Away The Gay:  The church attended by Sarah Palin has planned a conference to promote the conversion of homosexuals to heterosexuals through the power of prayer. The "Love Won Out" conference is scheduled for the 13th of September in Anchorage, Alaska.      

  • Republican Spelling Bee

    The champion:

    Republican_spelling_bee_2 (click to enlarge)

  • Bubble Buster

    See our own Andrew’s review of economist Robert J. Shiller’s new book The Subprime Solution, in The New York Observer.