Link dumpage for a lazy holiday weekend

First off, via Janeen of SmartDogs [on Facebook], here's the Poop Fairy PSA. Awesome. And from the beautiful Northwest via Rachel Maddow, here's a swell video on the same topic. Martin Luther [with sidekick Lola] sings it:



More Dog Doogity goodness here [and a free sticker!].

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"Corporate personhood": much like a dog turd, it smells nasty, fosters parasites, and needs proper disposal. Consider that one little house on the prairie serves as the headquarters for 2,000 different corporations, some linked to criminals:

[The Reuters article] shows how critical these secrecy jurisdictions are to making corporations a vehicle of crime and other abuse. And, as [Nicholas] Shaxson has shown, secrecy jurisdictions are also a key tool for corporations to avoid paying their fair share and for dictators to loot their countries. These kinds of incorporation services are a key tool to sucking the money out of the legitimate economy.

At a time when SCOTUS is giving corporations –- even flimsy entities like the scraps of paper at 2710 Thomes –- more rights than actual citizens, it pays to understand how easy it is for people to avail themselves of corporate personhood.

The good folks at Move to Amend have the novel idea that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights. "End corporate rule. Legalize democracy," is their motto. Good luck [wry face]. Seriously, it would be nice if some vestige of government of the people, by the people and for the people rose up and kicked corporate personhood's fat butt to the curb.

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Poop Week over at the most excellent 10,000 Birds was totally awesome.

"First of all, every birder backpack, rucksack, or other holder of materials should have toilet paper, or, failing that, tissues. Don’t resort to what I had to do once in the vicinity of the East Pond of Jamaica Bay and emerge sockless from the bushes."

Still laughing at that one. Yes, I'm twelve. Check out links to all the posts here.

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You knew possums are resistant to snake venom, right? Turns out their ossum super power has to do with one blood protein:

Since the evolutionary origin of the family, the vWF [von Willebrand Factor] of opossum species that prey on snakes has accumulated more changes than vWF in non-snake-eating species. That's circumstantial evidence for the effect of natural selection continuously acting on vWF over millions of years. Jansa and Voss picked out several specific changes that are unique to snake-eating opossums, and found that they're associated with a region of vWF that is known to bind with one of the toxins in pit viper venom.

Read all about it at Jeremy B. Yoder's terrific Denim and Tweed science blog.

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India's vultures have all but disappeared. Feral dogs have filled the void:

In the decade of major vulture decline, from 1992 to 2003, one estimate showed dog populations increasing by a third, up to nearly 30 million. The escalation of the dog population corresponds perfectly with the disappearance of India’s vultures.

Read about the dogs and the last Indian vultures here.

[Both links above from Ed Yong'd addictive blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science.

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More links, and Pam Kling's you-are-there-as-the-rattlesnake-strikes photos, over at my newish, mostly-birding blog, Crow and Raven.

"We have met the enemy and he is us."

Peter Houser of Living with Birddogs visited China earlier this month and caught a glimpse of the future:

[N]early all of the enviroment that I saw was horribly damaged. During the entire time in country I saw only a handful of songbirds, a few magpies, no rodents, no hawks. Certainly no game birds. Anything that looks green is under mono-species cultivation. Most of the country is covered by a cloud of smog from the coal-burning electric plants. 5,000 years of human occupation have left a mark on the land and the animals that will not disappear until the next ice age. So, get out your checkbook and send some money to your favorite environmental advocate group. This trip really brought home to me how much we stand to lose if we do not learn to live in a balanced relationship with our environment.

Peter is just one of a number of fine hook-and-bullet bloggers to sound an alarm. Check out Chad Love here and here and here [and, heck, just nab Chad's RSS feed. He's good].

And don't miss Hal Herring's great editorial in Field & Stream, and Bob Marshall's special report, here.

Maybe you saw the April 15 NY Times article: G.O.P. Push in States to Deregulate Environment. [Alternate link via Google.] Quote:

In the past month, the nation’s focus has been on the budget battle in Washington, where Republicans in Congress aligned with the Tea Party have fought hard for rollbacks to the Environmental Protection Agency, clean air and water regulations, renewable energy and other conservation programs.

But similar efforts to make historically large cuts to environmental programs are also in play at the state level as legislatures and governors take aim at conservation and regulations they see as too burdensome to business interests.

If we hope to save our country from the big oil billionaires business interests that control so many of our politicians, we better get busy. Don't wait until the next Ice Age. Get busy now.

That fresh hell in the photo at the top of this post? Not China. It's Canada. And it kills me to think of it, but that toxic landscape used to be a boreal forest. Did I mention that Canada is the #1 supplier of oil to the US? Countless wildfowl die in those tailing ponds. The air, the rivers and the people — the men, women and children — who live nearby are being poisoned. But we mustn't burden the business interests! Oh, no, mustn't do that.

See also:
Boreal Songbird Initiative
Contact Elected Officials Seriously: they are public servants. They work for us.
iLoveMountains.org Because mountaintop removal mining is in a horror category of its own.

"If you think it's a socialist plot... drop out of the federal employees' health benefit program."

Like the good people at Obsidian Wings, I'm impressed to hear a senator say this stuff. Sen. Durbin Destroys Republican Arguments on Malpractice Reform:



And in related health care summit news, an ObWi commenter links to right-wing media coverage.

Irony deficiency

Can't wait for their anti-spay/neuter campaign.

There is a law pending here in California that will prevent cities and counties from passing ordinances banning medical procedures. This law goes into effect on January 1. You'd figure that politicians who let kids die on their watch would so not give a damn, right?

You would be wrong.

County Supervisors in Los Angeles have put on their righteous faces, rolled up their sleeves and drafted an ordinance reforming and streamlining child protective services once and for all opposing elective veterinary procedures that cause “unnecessary pain, anguish and permanent disability” to pets.

Elective procedures like neutering, right? No, silly.

The L.A. Supes think neutering dogs should be mandatory. Opposition to mandatory spay/neuter would require, let's see... a heightened sense of irony, under the circumstances, and a certain amount of, gosh, I dunno, research, maybe. And a degree of... literacy, reading comprehension, that kind of thing. Don't take my word for it: if you want the straight dope on spay/neuter, ask your vet. She'll take a good look at you, and if she figures you're sane, she'll pull the door closed and lower her voice and say, "Based on all the science we have, most male dogs are probably healthiest if they're not neutered."

Hear that, Villaraigosa et al? Whoops! Sorry, dudes, didn't mean to interrupt the photo op.

When you remember that Ed Boks and Judie Mancuso were able to lead the L.A. County Supervisors around by their noses, you'll understand why the Department of Children and Family Services, among other county agencies, is in such sad shape. But hey, we wrote that cat bill! Countywide epidemic of declawing stopped cold, yay us Supes!

[What's Judie Mancuso up to these days? Given the nature of her hubby's blog, I suspect she's not busy fostering abandoned pit bull puppies. Yeeesh.]

Here's a visual for you, Pat

Televangelist and wild-eyed homophobe Pat Robertson:

The noose has tightened around the necks of Christians to keep them from speaking out on certain moral issues. And it all was embodied in something called the Hate crimes bill that President Obama said was a major victory for America.

The photo above was taken at the July 2005 execution of two young Iranian men, ages 16 and 18, for the crime of homosexuality, as reported by the Iranian Student News Association. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals."

Pat, maybe you should give Iran a visit — experience the joys of theocracy for yourself. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Good cop/bad cop, live dog/dead dog

Barney Fife, we hardly knew ye: San Diego Navy SEALS sheriffs don't mess around.

Here's a story about a loose dog that charged a cop. Not a garden-variety loose dog, either, but a fast, medium-sized loose dog with no collar, a loose dog barking like the furies and charging with hackles high and teeth bared like a crocodile's — a loose dog with malicious, or at least tumultuous intent. All this happened in the middle of the night, and I know these details because the dog involved was my landshark.

Flashlight farmers have to feed very late sometimes, and on the night in question I drove to the farm an hour or so before midnight to feed the sheep. As always when I feed after dark, I took some dogs. Friendly Twig, shy Gray and landshark Lu rode shotgun, and I was too lazy to put on their collars for the 20 minutes we'd be away from home.

I turned on the barn light and fed and watered the ewes, and when I was done I turned off the light and started back to the truck. All of a sudden the dogs charged ahead of me, barking the way dogs bark when they mean trouble. I'd left the truck headlights on, and through the glare of the headlights I could see the shape of a man. He was standing next to the truck door.

That was scary, but only for a split second. Much scarier: I realized he was a cop. Gun and badge. Gun. And my dogs were circling and the landshark was roaring and diving at his legs.

This happened in a fraction of the time I'm taking to tell it, of course. Believe me when I say that never in history have three sheepdogs been called off and loaded into the safety of a truck cab faster than I loaded up my three girls that night.

I must have babbled something to the cop about raising sheep and feeding late, but I can't remember what I said.

What I do remember is this: the police officer didn't reach for his gun. He stood still. He was quiet and calm while the dogs were barking and circling and the landshark was lunging. After the dogs were put up he checked my ID and explained that a neighbor had seen the barn light and called the police. There had been some minor vandalism in the area, and he was walking around the buildings to make sure everything was all right. He was polite and professional. I drove home shaking like a leaf.

Yes, I live in Pleasantville. I'm lucky and I know it, and I count my blessings whenever I read about incidents like these:

[T]he shooting of dogs by police has become troublingly common across the country. My beat as a journalist includes police misconduct, and I've noticed an increase in media accounts of police officers shooting the family pet—with a notable lack of remorse or disciplinary consequences. This sad trend appears to be a side effect of the new SWAT, paramilitary focus in many police departments, which has supplanted the idea of being an “officer of the peace.”

[...]

The raid on [Cheye] Calvo's home was actually the second in 10 months in which police in Prince George's County burst into a private home during a drug raid, shot and killed the family dog, then realized they had raided the wrong house. But national statistics on police-involved pet shootings are difficult to come by. Randal Lockwood of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recently told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he sees 250 to 300 incidents per year in media reports, and estimates another 1,000 aren't reported.

The Indianapolis Star reported that between 2000 and 2002, police in that city shot 44 dogs. A recent lawsuit filed by the Milwaukee owner of a dog killed by police found police in that city killed 434 dogs over a nine-year period, or about one every seven-and-a-half days. It's impossible to say how many of those were pets (versus strays), or in how many of those shootings the dog may have actually presented a serious threat to the officer or someone else. But in too many reported accounts of dog shootings, it seems doubtful that lethal force was necessary.

It is easy to imagine that some breeds of dog might legitimately pose a threat to police officers in volatile situations. But that Calvo’s two black labs posed any serious risk to an armored, heavily armed SWAT team stretches the bounds of credulity. The same can be said of a host of recent dog shootings in which a police officer said he felt “threatened” and had no choice but to use lethal force, including the killing of a Dalmatian (more than once), a yellow Lab, a springer spaniel, a chocolate Lab, a boxer, an Australian cattle dog, a Wheaten terrier, an Akita, and even a Jack Russell terrier. Not small enough for you? How about a 12-pound miniature dachshund? Or a five-pound chihuahua? [Source: Dogs in a Deadly Crossfire.]

Cops are tough to generalize about, so I won't. But I will say that paramilitary fervor [one TPM commenter called it "weapons porn"] and a bully mentality are a bad mix, and a mix that doesn't make communities safer. Pleasantville may not be the most exciting place on earth, but we have really excellent cops. [Also, about that ridiculous photo: you're civil servants, for god's sake, not extras in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Fire your publicist at once. Thank you.]

Related:
Your tax dollars at work: "A lawless act by law enforcement"

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave"

Andrew wrote yesterday:

In situations like these, peer-to-peer media is essential. Send all you've got to me. We'll do our best to assess, edit, and post. There is no neutrality in this. Every blogger is now an honorary member of the resistance. We are at war too - for peace and democracy.

Which seems very dramatic — except that today his site may be under some sort of digital attack and yesterday this site, this little dog-and-whatnot site, was getting hits from Iran.

So the world really is watching. It's nightfall now in Tehran, and there are reports of gunfire, but the crowds earlier today, marching for democracy — just incredible.



The title of this post is from a familiar speech, and it was no trouble to cut and paste the last two paragraphs into this post here in the peace and quiet of my California home. Yes, I'm very lucky. Would I be brave enough to join the protesters, if I were in Iran? I hope so. I don't know.

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable - and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

I will never laugh at Twitter again

Not for a while, anyway. On the left, you see what happens — that and worse — when an entrenched regime feels threatened. Peep this:





Meanwhile, over here:

Today, as global geopolitics is shaken to its core by events in Iran, I turned on cable news this morning, and saw endless ads for a Larry King Jonas Brothers “interview”, Morning Joe yukking it up discussing Kuwaiti massage therapists, a video of a tomato throwing contest on CNN, talk radio blowhard Bill Bennett…and occasionally a phone call from Christiane Amanpour in Tehran. I can’t even bring myself to turn on the network morning programs, I might vomit.

Again, huge thanks to Andrew Sullivan. His blog and Nico Pitney's HuffPo blog put the media heavyweights to shame.

Ahmadinejad's epic fail

The government's plainclothes goons head out. Click for big.

From the Guardian via Andrew Sullivan, who is doing great work covering the revolution:

Robert Tait, the Guardian's former Tehran correspondent, has been poring over leaked reports of the official results, allegedly leaked by disaffected officials.

He and our diplomatic editor Julian Borger write: "The figures have been accompanied by claims from interior ministry sources that fake statistics were fed into a software program and then distributed to vote counts among polling stations to produce a plausible outcome. The same sources have also claimed that the interior ministry's statements announcing the results were prepared before Friday night's count."

Such claims are being reported on websites that Iran is frantically trying to block, according to our blogs editor, Kevin Anderson. He explains the cat-and-mouse game between the authorities and internet users.

We can only watch and hope for peace and freedom.

The revolution will also be blogged

Interesting times, these. Tehran, night of June 13, 2009. Photo from mousavi1388 at Flickr. More Flickr photos of the election and its aftermath here and here. [The election was held on the 22nd of Khordad 1388, according to the Persian calendar.]

The thing about the great immigrant gateway of California, especially the university towns and the high tech/geek-to-live parts of California, is that public school classrooms here are full of kids from all over the world.

This means any time you want immediate, informed comment on events elsewhere — in Iran, say, during, oh, let’s imagine a fiercely contested national election that could have a tremendous impact on life as we know it — you talk to a kid. A kid from Iran. “Did you hear anything from your cousin in Shiraz?" Pure catnip for a news junkie. Need a Farsi speaker? No problem! It just kills me that the school year ended Thursday and all my sources, er… students are on vacation.

OMG, I can’t believe I’m actually wishing the school year had been a week longer [slaps self].


On a much more serious note, my thoughts are with my students’ relatives and their compatriots. This is just unreal. Stay safe, people. Stay strong.

Looks like a former student: a voter in Iran on June 12. Photo from the Mail Online.

SB 250: As if California didn't have enough stupid shit to deal with right now

No, this isn't an artist's interpretation of SB 250. This is every sane person's interpretation of SB 250.

I'll cut to the chase: this giant inflatable poo rotten little mess of a mandatory spay/neuter bill could be voted on in the California State Senate as early as Monday, and yes, that's Monday, June 1. This week. Like, right now.

Here's a link to the Save Our Dogs site. Visit the link and then call and fax as if your dogs' lives depended on it, because they might just. Save Our Dogs has all the contact info you'll need.

If you have the time, you can check out my posts on the Dead Dog Act, AB 1634. Yes, the same chuckleheads are behind SB 250.

The when and if of spay neuter should be decided by pet owners and veterinarians, not politicians and dog killers. As Christie says, please act now.

The day I let a politician or animal control officer force me to perform a medical procedure on my dog or cat against my will be a cold day in hell. All my current pets are altered so it’s all hypothetical, but I would never, ever comply with this legislation. I find it profoundly offensive, and if you can find someone who loves animals more than I do, I have no idea who it is. [Christie Keith]

I speak illegal alien

And I belong to la raza, just like all my relatives in... wait for it — U.S. law enforcement and the U.S. military! And education and entertainment and medicine, OMG, how scary is that. We're everywhere!

It's enough to scare Tom, G. Gordon, Rush and Newt right out of their wits.

What if a white man had said what SCOTUS nominee Maria, er, Sonia Sotomayor blah blah blah blah blah?

Get back to me on that after there have been latinas from hardscrabble backgrounds, and only latinas from hardscrabble backgrounds, on SCOTUS for... gee, I dunno, say the better part of two centuries. Sheesh.


In other news, Tom Goldstein of the most excellent SCOTUSblog has actually studied each and every one of Judge Sotomayor’s race-related cases. From his SCOTUSblog post:

In sum, in an eleven-year career on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has participated in roughly 100 panel decisions involving questions of race and has disagreed with her colleagues in those cases (a fair measure of whether she is an outlier) a total of 4 times. Only one case (Gant) in that entire eleven years actually involved the question whether race discrimination may have occurred. (In another case (Pappas) she dissented to favor a white bigot.) She particulated in two other panels rejecting district court rulings agreeing with race-based jury-selection claims. Given that record, it seems absurd to say that Judge Sotomayor allows race to infect her decisionmaking.

Read Goldstein's complete post here.

Next-to-last word goes to Peggy Noonan: "Republicans, let's play grown-up."

And last word to Matt Yglesias:

Conservatives ought to picture an anti-abortion, gun-owning, married, male, prosperous, Cuban-American small businessman living in the suburbs of Miami. Picture him reacting to the news of Sotomayor’s nomination. Perhaps he’s happy in some sense to contemplate a Latina on the bench, but perhaps not. Either way, the guy’s still a solid conservative. Now picture him listening to G. Gordon Liddy say “I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, ‘the race.’” That’s not going to play well.

[Oh, and it's So-toe-m'YORE, Mark. Easy-peasy.]

Related:
A Sotomayor core dump
Sonia Sotomayor and Identity Formation
Losing the Crucial “White People With Spanish Last Names” Vote
They Can't Help Themselves

Wonkette for the win

The new BFFs. [Click for bigger.] Photo by Chief White House Photographer — and American of Portuguese descent — Pete Souza.

Money quote [bowdlerized version]:

Hmm let’s see should Obama maybe not 100% please every [gosh-darned] animal fanatic in America or should he just look right into Ted Kennedy’s eyes — yes this is the same Ted Kennedy currently dying of brain cancer — and say, “You know, Ted, I just don’t want your [darn] dog, right?”

From the totally not PG-rated Rescue-Dog Fanatics Hope Obama Will Kill Ted Kennedy’s Elitist Water Dog over at Wonkette, via the most excellent YesBiscuit!

New pup in the White House and no one consulted ME, dammit!

The cat is out of the bag, so to speak: a returned-to-breeder Portuguese Water Dog will be the nation's new First Pup.

And not to go off on a tangent or anything, but I'm totally gobsmacked the Obamas chose a dog without consulting me. The nerve! The [how should I put it?] — the audacity!

After all, I love dogs more than practically anyone. I love dogs so much, in fact, that I am ideally qualified to determine not only who should be allowed to keep a dog, but what type of dog she should be allowed to keep. [I know what you're thinking: "Sounds like she'd also be a good one to decide who should be allowed to have children!" Obviously.]

In my world In a perfect world, no one, but no one would have the "right" to choose the size or age or coat-length or temperament of the dog she adopts.

People, when you choose a friendly dog, a shy dog dies! When you choose a small dog, a big dog dies! I trust that I am making myself clear. You'll take the dog I choose for you, thank you very much.

Also: a potential adopter should work at home, and should have six months' salary in an emergency savings account, a well-maintained house with a fenced yard, no children under twelve years of age and a body mass index no greater than 24.8. Needless to say, I am exempt from these standards since I care about dogs so much more than you do.

If the Obamas really loved dogs, they would have followed the example of humane movement leaders like Wayne Pacelle and John Goodman and Ingrid Newkirk. That's right: Wayne and John and Ingrid have stepped up to the plate and adopted pit bulls from their local shelters! Gamebred pit bulls... geriatric pit bulls with bad knees... big, untrained, energetic young pit bulls, and... what? Say again?

They haven't? You're kidding me.

But... all those other people jumping on the Prez for not getting a rescue dog — those people have shelter pit bulls, right? After all, pit bulls are totally over-represented in shelters — they're the dogs most likely to get killed! That's why Wayne and John and Ingrid promote pit bull adoption every chance they get, right?

Say what...?

They don't?

But that would mean they're just... sanctimonious hypocrites! Insufferably sanctimonious hypocrites. Say not so! OMG, my faith in the integrity of humane-movement talking heads has been shattered. Please excuse me while I take my pound pit bull and my pound pit mix and my pound border collie for a walk to mull all of this over.



Seriously, I'm delighted for the Prez and his family. They have years ahead of them to adopt strays, pound pups and lost kittens, if they choose.

And I invite anyone who feels the need to whine, "But... but... but... it isn't from a shelter" to visit her local pound and adopt a pit bull, because it's a pretty sure bet not one of the critics has a rescue pit bull or two or three already.

[L.A. Times photo by Mark Boster of a pit bull at the Los Angeles County animal shelter in Carson, CA.]

Related:
Two from Terrierman —
Barack Obama, Ordinary Consumer
Obama Is on the Edge of a Canine Mistake

Obama dog puppy to arrive Tuesday–TMZ is my source! [Retrieverman]

OBAMA GETS DOG FROM PUPPY MILL! [LA Animal Watch (with interesting comments/discussion)]

Memo to the Obamas: All You Need To Know About Portuguese Water Dogs! [The sort of boundless inanity you'd expect from "People Pets."]

"Suppose you were an idiot. Suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." [Mark Twain]

Darn those inscrutable Asians and their impossible names! What's a real American to do?! Join us after the break when we discuss this problem with Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. Stay tuned!

It's California: water, and a wolverine

"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much." [Alan Paton]

He had me at "California drought."

Ari Kelman of the most excellent Edge of the American West responds to "several requests for some California drought blogging," and I am so there. West coast water is a topic near and dear to my heart. We used to depend on well water every summer up at the cabin, for one thing. For another, I love roses. And hate high water bills.

Ari turns the blog post Parched over to "a friend who works on state water issues and writes about water and climate change at On the Public Record." Both "Parched" and "On the Public Record" are good reads.

"If you’re a salmon in California, this drought could well be the end of you. This year’s salmon returns were historic lows, and tepid reduced rivers may finish them off. However, if you’re a wildfire in California, dying forests in the Sierras are waiting for you!"

Excerpt:

If you’re a farmer in California, or dependent on farming, the story is very different. The combination of drought and enforcement of the Endangered Species Act means that farmers are getting almost no water from the water projects this year (that may be revised to getting 5% of their usual water, because of the February rains). For many of them, this drought means putting in wells and fallowing everything but their orchards. Cattle and dairies are thinning their herds, because dry pastures are too sparse to feed their cows. Farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley are taking the hardest hit, with unemployment over thirty percent in some towns.

I'm not dependent in any financial sense on my livestock, and don't have enough sheep to talk of "thinning the herd," but I'm giving up all but a few of my Cheviots — I can barely afford to feed them. Hay prices are unreal.

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Drought? But... but... there's snow in the Sierras! Which isn't the same as "snowpack," unfortunately. You can see the white stuff in this short vid of a wolverine posing for a camera trap northwest of Lake Tahoe. Video from YubaNet.com, where you can read more about the handsome critter. I heart wolverines.



Related:
California Drought: Snowpack Inspires Consumers, Worries Water Experts, from Circle of Blue | WaterNews.

I'm Shepard Fairey!

And you can, too. Use this web site to make Shepard Fairey-like images of your iconic selves.

Obamicon.Me


[Hat tip: The Edge of the American West.]

Flashback

Indeed. From danagraves on Flickr: click for big.

Rikyrah over at Jack & Jill Politics makes a great point: the U.S. military allows people like this to join up — and kicks out people like this?

"Lax enlistment standards have inadvertently allowed thousands of gang members to join the military, including young men who belong to the Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, and various white supremacist groups."

From The Web of Language:

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates sees no irony in the fact that the military finds convicted felons and illiterates less morally problematic than well-educated homosexuals without so much as a parking ticket on their records who might actually be able to understand what the enemy is talking about (not to mention what our Iraqi “allies” are really saying). Gates insists that in drumming out the translators, the army is simply following the law, a law which he has no intention of reviewing.

It's long past time to review the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. As Barry Goldwater is reported to have said, “You don't need to be ‘straight' to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight.”

On Veterans' Day

Marine Staff Stg. John Jones. Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, via HuffPost.

The VA estimated that in 2007 it took an average of six months to reach an initial decision on a benefits claim [...] and processing appeals takes years.

"This is a national embarrassment," said [attorney Robert E.] Cattanach, a Navy veteran with a son who has served two Army tours in Iraq. "Every day that goes by that this isn't fixed, people's lives are being changed," he said, recalling his effort to obtain benefits for a veteran who committed suicide before his case was resolved. [Source: today's WaPo. Full article here.]

An excellent proposal from hilzoy:

While a veteran's disability claim is being processed, that veteran doesn't get disability. S/he has to live on a fraction of his or her active duty pay, which would be OK for someone who could get another job, but is not at all OK for someone who is disabled. As I wrote last June, it doesn't have to be this way: rather than putting the burden on vets to prove their disability, we could presume that their disability claims were true, and then audit a subset of them, the way we do with taxes. (This is an idea I got from Linda Bilmes, here.) That way, vets would get the money they are entitled to from the outset, rather than having to live off friends and family while the VA slogs through their mountains of paperwork.

This is the least we owe our nation's veterans. "On this Veterans Day, let us rededicate ourselves to keep a sacred trust with all who have worn the uniform of the United States of America: that America will serve you as well as you have served your country." [Barack Obama]

I LOL'ed

From The Root, where you'll find some terrific writing from Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alice Walker and others, in a special section in honor of our President-Elect.