Friday Melange

The question sort of came out of left field. Would I like to take a little cruise down to Mexico today? Let our hair out and smell the breeze and all that. But my wife hates Mexico nowadays, a bad dental experience, corrupt cops, an interminable border wait. What was up and why the reason for the sudden day off? She finally gave in. They are doing a little field burning today, Ensenada style. Actually San Quintin, always wanted to visit. Largest pot plantation ever discovered by our neighbors to the south, about 300 acres of green gold. We could just park a bit downwind and feel the nice warm wind in our faces..

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Grumpy sent a translated page from Borges. A story of a young mentalist that would probably be a better read in spanish yet is still quite interesting. Funes el memorioso, written in 1944.

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Fauxgate:
As I predicted (god I hate being right) it didn't take long for the Fox defenders and enablers to come crawling out of the woodwork. Fox host Steve Doocy said the media was"piling on" and ignoring more important issues. Giuliani said not to be too quick to "rush to judgement." And to think I used to actually like the guy. He has certainly turned into quite the whore and pitchman over the years.

Most of the cognoscenti believe that the scandal will indeed blow over and it will be soon business as usual. Unless they uncover some more really nasty shenanigans like is being reported here in the Nation, "Has Roger Ailes hacked American phones" or something to that effect..

Les Hinton and Rebekah Brooks took the fall for the old man this time, couldn't exactly blame it on the kid, could we? Not the one named Murdoch, that's for sure.

Rupert was in "All ado about nothing mode yesterday, watch it all blow over." But last night and this morning the heads rolled. Les (pronounced Lez) who had been with the old man since he was a kid, 52 years ago and the red headed editor Brooks. Hinton was the guy that kept telling parliament that it was only one dirty trickster and that they just found out different.  My bet is that the editorial policy went something like this," Get the story any way you can and we don't want to know or ever find out how you did it. Capiche?"

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The Repugs have been braying for a shutdown for a month and now that it is nigh upon us, they are starting to scatter like rats on a ship. I heard radio shmuck Mark Levin say the other night that the Department of the Treasury is a federal department and so if social security checks do not indeed get mailed it is the administration's problem. Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert says that the administration must pay military pensions and social security first.

A bill by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla) and a group of other conservatives would channel government spending to first paying interest on the debt, then funding military personnel, national security priorities and finally Social Security and Medicare.

According to the lawmakers, after those priorities were funded, about $30 billion per month would be left over for the president to deal with other responsibilities. Gohmert says that there is no debt crisis, we still have Tarp funds and other things sitting around. Default won't be so bad. Most economists vigorously disagree. Republicans said today that Obama was using senior citizens as human shields. But who put him into the untenable position? Pollsters are pretty sure who americans will blame in the event the debt ceiling is not raised and there is a default. Interesting story  on the whole f'dup mess from Think Progress.

New York Senator Charles Schumer weighed in, “A default would pull the rug out from each and every family in this country for no good reason,” Schumer said.
    He pointed out that if Treasury chooses to pay Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, military troops and interest on the debt, there would be no money for anything else.
    “We don’t have a dime for student loans. We don’t have money for the FBI,” he said. “You don’t have anyone at the border. No one inspecting food.”

And another good piece from Think Progress where one of the most sane and honest republicans, Lindsay Graham weighs in on the nutsplitter the grand old party has foisted on themselves and the rest of us. It is entitled GOP Senators Get Cold Feet Over Standoff: ‘Maybe The Debt Ceiling Was The Wrong Place To Pick A Fight.’

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A story written by Debbie Ramsay for the Fallbrook Village News on the photography show, Local Color, that I participated in and curated last year has garnered her a regional first place award in journalism. The Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Pro Chapter gave the Village News 19 awards at their annual Journalism Awards Banquet. The story was so far above the competition that there was no second or third place prize awarded. Plus she had such great photography to work with.

From the Village News announcement quoting the award: In the Arts & Entertainment category, Ramsey's "Photography show to be shutter magic," published Oct. 26, 2010, was the only story presented an award in this category for 2010. Judges' comments included "Debbie Ramsey's [was the] most journalistically complete [story], with the most detail. This explains her first-place finish and the lack of a second and third."

Congratulations the the Village News and to Debbie, a dedicated professional and a friend of mine.