Timed Out

teh
Here’s a rare sports post from me (and it’s really not even my idea behind it). Kevin Drum has a better plan for basketball:

I have a suggestion for the gods of college basketball: reduce the number of timeouts allowed and don't allow timeouts at all during the final two minutes of the game. The 20 lumbering minutes that it takes to finish the last few minutes of most games is nothing short of excruciating, but in games where both teams have used up their timeouts the final minutes are some of the most exciting in sports.

So: no timeouts in the final two minutes.

Amen, brother. That should be the rule for pro and high school b-ball as well. Lord, how I hate it when timeouts become part of the end game strategy.

Slipping Down the Slope

teh
Paul Waldman traces the insidious history of the redefinition of marriage. Looks what happened since left wing radicals forced interracial marriage down the throats of Family Values America™:

The fact is, we've changed the definition of marriage many times before. At one time in America, marriage was a union between a white man and a white woman. Then the definition was changed to allow blacks to marry, but a black person and a white person couldn't get married, since that fell outside the definition. Later, we changed the definition again to allow interracial marriage. At one time the definition of marriage said that a woman became a man's property. We changed the definition when we decided that no longer accorded with our evolving values.

The Rush Limbaughs of 100 years ago surely would have warned us of the slippery slope of interracial marriage if only they had radios back then. The population would have been better educated about the “interracial agenda” and the impending destruction of the institution of marriage should there be a mixing of races. If we had only known…

Great Scott, He's Gone!

teh
I see Steve Scott has given up blogging, at least for now. When Scott first started his blog, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, despite his great credentials as a broadcast news reporter, his blog never did much for me. In fact, it took me a month to discover he had stopped blogging.

I do, however, like the explanation for his decision to quit:

I always wondered if my blog would eventually become the adult version of a kid's holiday gift: You're really excited about it when you first get it...but then, you start to play with it less and less as new stuff comes along...and, eventually, it ends up on a shelf in the closet, where you only see it while reaching for something else.

Well, that's kind of what happened.

I think anyone who does the blogging thing regularly- and without compensation- understand it can sometimes seem more like a chore. I feel that way sometimes but I know a day or two later I’ll be excited about it again so I hang in there. But burn out is easy and eventually we’ll all hang it up.

Speaking of absentee bloggers, I see Jim Leach is back at it after a nearly two week hiatus from the blogosphere.

Oops, I’m a Statue Again

teh
This is way too weird. I don’t think even pigeons will want to go near this statue.

Friday Beer Blogging: Tornado Edition

teh
I thought it might be nice to do some tornado beer blogging in honor of the tough couple of weeks we’ve had here in Springfield following the March 12 tornados that struck the city. I was going to do it last week but St. Patrick’s Day was more important in terms of beer blogging (tornados may huff and puff but they can’t blow St. Patty’s Day down).

Unfortunately I don’t have a whole lot of tornado beer action to report. You see, the crack TEH Beer Blogging research staff, while dedicated and resourceful, is also basically lethargic and lazy by nature.

Here’s what I do have. First, what I think is a defunct beer from the Great Grains Brewing Company called Texas Tornado. I can't find anything else about this beer or the brewery other than the above link.

However, there is this from the Pony Express Brewing Company of Olathe, Kansas. It’s called Tornado Red Ale.

Pony Express has given up its claim to Tornado and turned it over to Great Plains Brewery (no relation to the above mentioned Great GRAINS Brewing Co.) . Now Tornado Red Ale is brewed by a bunch of farmers:

Great Plain Brewery is part of TransCon Ag. A new generation co-op with Missouri and Kansas farmers making up the co-op. all the ingredients that go into the production of Great Plains products are grown and distributed by the co-op members. Quality is the overriding concern from the first planting through out the production o process. The result is a beer that reflects the Mid American pride of its producers, and when it comes to taste…it shows!

I hope this is the last Tornado edition of Friday Beer Blogging. Let’s all drink to that.

The Ten Debates

teh
Blagojevich wants 10 debates with Judy Baar-Topinka? Why on earth would he want that? He’s ahead in the polls and is the incumbent. Neither of those things usually lends one to want to debate. Further, Blago has a ton of money and Topinka not so much. Debates give her free exposure. Ahhhh…maybe that’s it. Perhaps Campaign Blagojevich thinks Judy isn’t as ready for TV as Rod. Politics aside, I do have to admit Blagojevich comes across better on TV (unless it’s the Daily Show) than JBT. Perhaps the Rod Squad thinks they can put the campaign to bed after a poor showing by Judy in the debates.

Illinois politics –not making sense since 1818.

The Windy County

teh
What is it about McLean County and it's wind? Is it "wind rich" like Saudi Arabia is "oil rich"? I ask beacuse a second wind farm is being proposed for the Bloomington area.

NORMAL - A second, large-scale wind farm could be sprouting turbines in McLean County as early as next spring. Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC plans to build the $200 million McLean Wind Energy Center, a network of 100 wind turbines scattered across an 8,000-acre swath of the northeast corner of the county.

[snip]

This project would follow in the footsteps of the High Trail Wind Farm. Construction on that project will begin next month in the Arrowsmith area of western McLean County.

The High Trail farm will be the first wind farm in the county.

It could be one of the largest in the nation, with about 275 wind turbines generating
power for 120,000 homes.

The McLean Wind Energy Center would generate up to 150 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 50,000 typical Illinois homes, said Hach.

Each turbine would be 213 to 330 feet tall.

And please, no jokes about how Springfield could also cash in by setting up wind turbines in the Illinois House and Senate chambers. That just wouldn’t be nice.

Tha Name Game

teh
TEH Exclusive!

Republican Rep. Raymond Poe, concerned by his Democratic challenger’s success in the primary election following a name pronunciation change, has followed suit with a name change of his own. Sam Cahnman rode to victory in the Democratic primary this week after he changed the pronunciation of his name from CON-man to CAN-man. Poe, concerned people will associate him with Po, the smallest and reddest of the Teletubbies, has decided on a pronunciation change too.

From now on Raymond Poe will demand to be referred to as Raymond Tinky-Winky (but still spelled Poe). Tinky-Winky is the largest of the Tubbies and has a focus group pleasing purple hue. Studies have also shown Tinky-Winky to be more of a leader than Po in most Teletubbies episodes.In a related note, Poe (pronounced Tinky-Winky) has announced he will hold a series of fundraising Tubby Toast breakfasts replacing his more familiar pancake events.

It Has Been a Long Time

teh
I previously wondered when Springfield last had an official blizzard. The National Weather Service has the answer here. It occurred over 24 years ago on January 29-31, 1982.

I must say though, this week’s blizzard was a pretty mild in Springfield. I had little trouble getting to work yesterday and by last night, less than 24 hours after the snow started, even the side streets were in good shape. It was a wimpy blizzard.

Dare to Repair

teh
Finally got a call back from a contractor. He said he is getting 150 calls a day since the tornado. I’m thinking I’m not going to get a break in price. Even disasters can translate into good times for some businesses.

The Can-Do Man Can-Does

teh
Wow. I never thought Sangamon County Board member Sam Cahnman would beat Springfield Alderman Chuck Redpath in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Illinois House's 99th District seat. But apparently he has. I guess the name change worked!

Seriously though, I think this is a strange upset. Congrats, Sam. Now how are you planning on unseating Mr. Poe?

Machine Politics

teh
So what did everyone think of the new voting machines? My biggest incentive to vote in today’s Illinois primary was to take the new machines for a spin.

Overcoming my earlier indecision, I wound up taking a Democratic ballot (I actually decided which ballot to take on the drive to the polls). I really wanted to vote against the name-changing Can-Do man. I don’t know much about the guy to be honest but the whole changing of the pronunciation of his name thing just weirded me out. Redpath is a known quantity and Poe will likely crush whoever wins anyway. I also wanted to cast a symbolic vote against Blagojevich. Are you starting to see my usual “vote against” predisposition emerging here?

As for the voting machines, I have mixed feelings. They are definitely cooler than the old punch cards but you know what, every vote I’ve ever cast, no matter where in the state I was living, has been cast on the old punch cards until today.

Most of my negative experiences with the new machine today were born out of unfamiliarity. That said, I do have a few problems with them.

First, it actually takes LONGER to vote with these machines than the old punch cards. I often do not vote for candidates running unopposed. There’s just something too Soviet style in voting for the only candidate on the ballot. There’s nothing nefarious about it, especially in a primary, but it just feels wrong to me casting a ballot when there is no choice. Anyway, the new machines make you revisit any portion of the ballot where you didn’t cast a vote the first time through. I understand the rational but I found it annoying when I skipped over so many sections.

Second, I thought it poorly thought out that inserting the paper ballot covered up the voting instructions. That’s a design flaw that can be corrected. I’m just not sure why it was not fixed before today when everyone was using these machines for the first time.

Finally, it seemed like there were still too many moving parts. You get a paper confirmation ballot that is coded when you are done voting electronically and a key card to insert into the machine when you vote. The guy in front of me forgot to remove his key card and I stood there for some time until he came back for it. A minor inconvenience but certainly one we never saw under the old system.

Those are some minor gripes and I’m sure it will be easier for me next time. I did fumble around a bit because it was all new but that’s OK, it’s a small learning curve and I’ll whip right through it come November.

Cut and Run

teh
The lucky winner of the 2008 presidential election will get an inheritance!

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday the decision about when to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq will fall to future presidents and Iraqi leaders, suggesting that U.S. involvement will continue at least through 2008.

How cool for Bush. He can make a mess and have someone else clean it up. You’d almost think he was brought up as some spoiled rich kid or something. That’s OK, George, we’ll take care of it. You go retire now like a good little ex-president.

I feel the MF word wanting to cross my lips about now.

The Ch. 20 Snooze

teh
Marie hilariously live blogs the WICS 10:00 pm news.

She also live blogs the Great Blizzard of ’06. My take, tornados make for better live blogging until the electricity goes out.

Operation Misdirection

teh
This is pure speculation on my part but I think the U.S. military in Iraq was just played.

Remember the grand photo-op, I mean air assault, in the Samarra area north of Baghdad dubbed Operation Swarmer. Well, Operation Swarmer was a failure, not a single shot was fired and while some “suspects” were picked up and a few samll arms caches found it was a lot of effort for nothing other than some cool pictures of helicopters.

But get this. Not all that far away, a large formation of Iraqi insurgents stormed a police station and freed some detainees. They were opposed only by Iraqi police:

Baghdad — Insurgents stormed a jail about dawn Tuesday in the Sunni Muslim heartland north of Baghdad, killing at least 17 policemen and a courthouse guard. Authorities said all 33 prisoners in the lockup were freed and 10 attackers were killed in the battle.

As many as 100 insurgent fighters -- armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades -- stormed the judicial compound in Muqdadiyah, about 100 kilometres northeast of the capital. The assault began after the attackers fired a mortar round into the police and court complex, said police Brigadier Ali al-Jabouri.

After torching the police station, the insurgents detonated a string of roadside bombs as they fled, taking the bodies of many of their dead comrades with them, police said.

A formation of 100 insurgents operating in a coordinated effort is a big deal. I’ve not heard of such an organized attack since Mission Accomplished™.

Operation Swarmer was supposedly launched based on some sort of homegrown Iraqi intelligence. Hmmm. Could that bad intel have been planted as a distraction while the real insurgent effort was many miles away? Probably the two had nothing directly to do with each other but it makes for an intriguing conspiracy theory. This is the internet after all.

Sold Out

teh
Is the Just-In-Time inventory concept used in manufacturing now creeping into retail? I think maybe. I have no direct evidence, but I’ve noticed grocery stores seem to run out of items more often than they used to. I’ve noticed the same thing at fast food places.

I think an experience I just had at Circuit City may indicate Just-In-Time is being used there. I was interested in a very inexpensive DVD player they had on display ($24.00 after rebate!) but there were no boxes of the unit on the shelf. When I asked about it, the sales person looked it up on the computer and indicated they had none in stock but that there were five units on a truck headed our way. He gave me the option of reserving one, which I did. I was the second person to do so. It’s entirely possible they could sell out again before any of the units are put on the shelf. Interesting.

A Mell of a Hess

teh
Blizzard warning? When's the last time we had one of those?

From the National Weather Serivce tonight:

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM CST TUESDAY.

EXPECT LIGHT RAIN AND SLIGHT SLEET TO BEGIN THIS EVENING. THE PRECIPITATION WILL CHANGE TO ALL SNOW BEFORE MIDNIGHT AND ACCUMULATE TO 6 TO 8 INCHES BY DAWN. LOCAL THUNDERSTORMS MAY ALSO ENHANCE THESE AMOUNTS. STRONG EAST-NORTHEAST WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WILL GUST ABOVE 35 MPH AT TIMES... PRODUCING VERY LOW VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. THE SNOW WILL TAPER OFF GRADUALLY TUESDAY MORNING.

Oh nice, thundersnows are in the forecast. I've only experienced those once in my life, in Northern Illinois. The result was lots and lots of snow.

To make matters worse for me, the friggin' wind is pulling more and more siding off my house. We're having a hard time even getting someone out to give us an estimate on repairs. All the contractors are busy with bigger jobs I guess. I may not live in Jerome or in other hard hit areas of the city but considering I'm going to have to replace my roof and a lot of siding, the weather is costing me thousands of dollars. And I'll bet you anything, given my location, my storm damage hasn't been figured into the city totals.

Update: Don't forget to go out and vote tomorrow. I hear the Republican and Democratic parties will be providing free dog sled rides to the polls.

Money for Nothing

teh
The reason we have such a huge federal deficient isn’t just because the government spends “too much”. It’s because it spends more than it takes in. And here’s where conservatives talk the talk but can’t even begin to cut the cuts.

They are all for the federal government doing two things: cutting taxes and increasing (or at least not reducing) defense spending. Kevin Drum does the rest of the math:

Discretionary spending in 2005 was roughly $1 trillion. About half of that was for defense and national security... That leaves $500 billion, which funds the entire rest of the federal government.

The federal deficit for 2005 was over $400 billion.

So: if you support the tax cuts, and you don't want to cut defense spending, and you want a balanced budget, you need to slice about $400 billion out of the $500 billion that's left.

These are round numbers, but you get the idea. Cutting a few agricultural subsidies and eliminating Amtrak isn't going to do the trick. Even taking an axe to social welfare programs wouldn't do it. You'd need to eliminate about 80% of the federal government. So…tell us just which 80% he wants to get rid of. The FBI? Prisons? EPA? The federal courts? Housing assistance? Highways? The National Institutes of Health?

This is a peeve I’ve had with conservatives for some time. They say they want to cut spending but aside from extremely minor cuts (PBS, the arts), they really have no idea what to cut. Most of the time they will just tell you that money can be saved by cutting “waste”, whatever that is. Most “welfare” (another generic cutting place) is actually Social Security or Medicare and those programs are funded separately and are currently running surpluses.

The truth of the matter is conservatives don’t have the courage to cut 80% of the non-defense discretionary federal budget. And understandably so. They would be done, politically, overnight. But its a great talking point and helps them win elections. Problem is, they own the federal govenment now and as we can see the cuts still aren't coming, only an ever-ircreasing pile of debt.

The Can-do Con

teh
The latest Illinois Times has an article featuring the two Democrats running for the privilege of taking on Raymond Poe for the 99th district Illinois House seat in November. Chuck Redpath and Sam Cahnman are facing each other in tomorrow’s primary election.

But look at this little tidbit:

Until recently, Cahnman pronounced his name “CON-mun” but changed to “CAN-mun,” he says, because he wants people to think of him as the “can-do candidate.”

Well, isn’t that convenient. I mean CANvenient. When I run for office I’m changing the pronunciation (but not the spelling) of my name to Resolute Strongleader.

Faulty Towers

teh
Driving into Springfield on Veterans Parkway yesterday I looked to the west to see if the tornado had noticeably changed the view from where I was looking. The answer is, no not really, but what struck me was that all the cell phone towers. They were all still there. I guess they build those things to endure. At least one tower, WTAX’s radio tower on the east side, didn’t fare as well:

Why did the WTAX tower fall and not the west side cell towers? I can only assume the reason is the WTAX tower is much older and is of a completely different design. And perhaps because the WTAX tower is older, applying a little Viagra would straighten things right up.