Saturday, September 24, 2005
Rita:
I'm blogging from the comfort of my sofa while the rain and winds fall outside. The region yesterday was a mess trafficwise, as hundreds of wide-eyed Houstonians apparently made their way up US-69 in search of dryer pastures. Today, not a car is in sight on the roads, which is as it should be.
The wind and rain have been falling at a considerable clip, but not nearly as much so as many anticipated. We've been seeing sustained winds of 20-25 MPH and gusts up to 50. By the time Rita makes her way up the TX-LA border, she'll be a tropical storm, if she isn't already. Really, the only inconveniences thus far have been periodic power loss (seconds, not minutes), and some of my lawn furniture has blown over.
I'm guessing this storm is going to be here awhile, since it's moving at about 12 MPH. Texas, to be sure, was far better prepared for a storm than New Orleans was. Fortunately, the magnitude of this hurricane has dwindled somewhat. Kudos to the local and state government agencies for implementing an evacuation pan that should be the model for all coastal regions in the future.
Unfortunately for the Crescent City, she's flooding all over again. I've heard also that Beaumont has been hit quite a bit by Rita. But by and large, this storm has been much less destructive than most thought it was going to be.Labels: Archives_2005
.: posted by
Dave
2:20 PM
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
The Agony:
It's been eight years (at least) since I picked up my softball equipment and played competitively. Well, I figured since I now live in Texas (with its perpetual warm weather compared to the frozen tundra of New England), I would sign up for a nice recreational C-league. My employer just happens to have a team or two, so that is convenient.
Well, last night was our first game, and the other team only had four guys show up. So, after the forfeit was officially "written into the books" (an aside: I never actually saw the "books". In fact, I am suspicious that they even exist) , we decided to scrimmage amongst ourselves. The consequence of that was that I had to play the same position for 45 minutes without retiring to the dugout. That position - catcher.
Now those of you out there that maintain an active lifestyle might well have no idea what atrophied muscles feel like when they are put into unanticipated and unusual positions. Needless to say, my legs and back were not up to the task of being contorted for such a period of time as if required to handle about 100 softball pitches.
When it was finally my turn to bat, the spasms in my legs were so pronounced, I could barely stand in the batter's box. Fortunately, I wielded a 28 ounce bat, which allowed me to swing freely without relying on much leg strength. This morning, I can barely move... which might explain why I am sitting here blogging instead of attending to the IT needs on our shop floor.
Anyway, some advice from one former-athlete-turned-couch-potato to another (assuming that you are one, too): never crouch in a catching position for longer than 5 minutes at a time, and for the love of all that is holy, stretch those quads and lower back muscles for at least 15 minutes before next week's game.Labels: Archives_2005
.: posted by
Dave
9:44 AM
My Next Great Geek Toy:
Last week, MobiTV was rolled out for the Treo 650. Now I can watch CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, CSPAN, and ESPN on my Treo.
My first impression is that this software is more akin to streaming video than broadcast video. The picture quality is somewhat pixellated, and choppy. The sound is much more clear than a typical Real or Windows Media transmission, but still not the type of quality I would expect from a 3G service. The quality does improve when I am closer to a Cingular tower, but still not to the level that I expect.
The channel selection is limited to news and political geeks (like me!) with some nominal entertainment content thrown in, such as a cartoon and a comedy channel. Mainly, I have been using the software to watch the Roberts' confirmation hearings in my office. I doubt that I will be using it to watch the latest colloquy from Jon Stewart.
It is a good first pass attempt at bringing broadcast TV content to handheld devices, but I'm not yet sure that it's worth the $9.99/mo. price. However, for the time being, the "wow" factor, and the hope that they will improve the bottleneck that causes intermittent interruption in transmission, will keep me as a paying customer.Labels: Archives_2005
.: posted by
Dave
9:23 AM
Quick assessment of the Roberts' confirmation hearings:
The Democrat Senators (and RINO Arlen Specter) want to get Judge Roberts to commit to a position on Roe, which he will not do. Joe Biden and Teddy Kennedy seem to enjoy listening to themselves talk, much more than anyone else does. Herb Kohl is likely the least recognized Senator in the US, and for good reason if you listened to him speak. Feingold, Schumer, Feinstein... oh, why bother with the Senators. It's all political grandstanding anyway. As for Roberts, he's been impressive indeed. I would characterize him and sharp, articulate, and above all, unflappable. I don't think there is any question that we are looking at the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Maybe that's why the Democrats didn't even bother to show up today for the hearings (or at least they weren't there for the opening).Labels: Archives_2005
.: posted by
Dave
9:13 AM
Jonah Goldberg on Joe Biden:
Listening to him speechify is like playing an intellectual game of whack-a-mole where every now and then the fuzzy head of a good point pops up from the tundra but before you can pin it down, he starts talking about how he went to the store and saw a squirrel on the way and it was brown which brings to mind Brown V. Board of Ed which most people don't understand because [TEETH FLASH] he taught Brown in his law school course and [TEETH FLASH] Mr. Chairman I'm going to get right to it and besides these aren't the droids you're looking for....
That's pretty much what I thought too when watching Biden question John Roberts.Labels: Archives_2005
.: posted by
Dave
8:19 AM
Sunday, September 04, 2005
In the last several days, there has been a lot of talk about the federal government's lackluster performance during the Hurricane Katrina crisis. Not many of the talking heads on the cable networks have bothered to ask about the state and local government's culpability. However, the more one reads of the facts, the more one begins to wonder:
From the Washington Post:
Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management.
[...]
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said. "The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."
In a Washington briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said one reason federal assets were not used more quickly was "because our constitutional system really places the primary authority in each state with the governor."
Chertoff planned to fly overnight to the New Orleans area to take charge of deploying the expanded federal and military assets for several days, he said. He said he has "full confidence" in FEMA Director Michael D. Brown, the DHS undersecretary and federal officer in charge of the Katrina response.
Brown, a frequent target of New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin's wrath, said Saturday that "the mayor can order an evacuation and try to evacuate the city, but if the mayor does not have the resources to get the poor, elderly, the disabled, those who cannot, out, or if he does not even have police capacity to enforce the mandatory evacuation, to make people leave, then you end up with the kind of situation we have right now in New Orleans."
New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas acknowledged that the city was surprised by the number of refugees left behind, but he said FEMA should have been prepared to assist.
"Everybody shares the blame here," said Thomas. "But when you talk about the mightiest government in the world, that's a ludicrous and lame excuse. You're FEMA, and you're the big dog. And you weren't prepared either."
In Baton Rouge, Blanco acknowledged Saturday: "We did not have enough resources here to do it all. . . . The magnitude is overwhelming."
No one is going to argue that the state of Louisiana had abundant resources to deal with the crisis, which makes Governor Blanco's actions that much more perplexing. In fact, President Bush seemed to have more prescience than the Louisiana state government:
(Governor Blanco) said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
So why weren't the warnings heeded? Why weren't the indigent and infirm bussed out of the area using the vehicles in this picture?
It seems that surely at least a few thousand could have been evacuated with these vehicles alone. In hindsight, if the Bush administration has forced thousands of New Orleanians to evacuate, would the ACLU have let that slide? It's doubtful. Moreover, how could the Feds have acted more quickly in the aftermath if Blanco wasn't even willing to cede authority to manage the situation? Just how exactly is this a federal problem if the federal authorities were not allowed to handle the mess in the first place?
Blanco and company have been more than willing to blame FEMA, DHS, and the executive branch without looking first at their own actions. If the sharks in the political water weren't so determined to pin this disaster on George W. Bush personally, perhaps we could find out more quickly what could have been done more effectively at all levels of government.
Labels: Archives_2005
.: posted by
Dave
4:40 PM
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