respublica

When animals attack

Continuing this week's 'wildlife invades populated areas' theme, the Discovery Channel will air a program sometime next week titled, When Animals Attack.  Park of the program will feature SIU-Carbondale in a look at the deer attacks that occurred on the campus a couple of years ago.

Anniversary Day

It's been 4 years to the day that I began this blog.

I've never tired of doing daily postings, there is always so much going on in the world, the community, that every day brings something new.

During the past four years I've skipped only two days on the blog due to the death of my father, with a current total of 4,732 posts.

Thank you to everyone who has visited.

The 50 most beautiful people on Capitol Hill-2008

The Hill's annual parade of the handsome and beautiful is now online.  Many of these chosen ones are congressional or administrative staffers, but there are other occupations in the mix.

The 50 most beautiful link.  There are actually two links, the top ten and the other 40.

McCain trying to scare voters?

That's what the Obama people are saying in response to the new McCain ads.

I'd submit the McCain people are doing a fine job of scaring their own voters, not Obama's.

For example:  News reports of McCain at a townhall meeting somewhere had audience members behind him and every single one had the most dejected face.  Some might well have been asleep.  Whoever is running his campaign had better rev up those audiences if they want news viewers to see any enthusiasm for their candidate.  Sheesh.

KTVN news Reno

Contrast that to the Obama campaign stops where the enthusiasm is unstoppable.  Don't doubt the power of these pictures to a news audience.

The Lutheran Review

I'd like to introduce everyone to a new blog, The Lutheran Review, which came online a couple of weeks ago. 

It's a site with information Lutherans and even non-Lutherans would find interesting, informative and thoughtful.

Give them a look.

Green power gone wrong

From the Miami Herald 

"For almost five years, Florida Power & Light trumpeted green energy, saying customers could help the environment by contributing as little as $9.75 a month to buy renewable power. 

About 39,000 customers signed up.  In April, the U.S. Department of Energy called the program, Sunshine Energy, one of the top 10 residential green power programs in the country. 

On Tuesday, angry state regulators killed the program by a unanimous vote after a Public Service Audit Commission Staff Audit found that about 80 percent of the contributions went for marketing and other administrative expenses." 

In Missouri and parts of Illinois serviced by Ameren, the alternative energy source touted to customers is Pure Power, People Using Renewable Energy.

 

Turkey part 2

The turkey who came to our yard yesterday is still here.  All day long one person after another in the immediate neighborhood came across him and the conversations were all the same:

"There's a turkey in the yard, street, on the fence, under the tree."

"Do you know why there's only one?"

"Where do you think he came from?"

"Could he be lost?"

"Can he fly?"

"Is he in any danger to himself?"

No one really knows anything about turkey habits, but this morning he was sitting on the top of our next door neighbor's fence watching me put out the bird seed.  As soon as I went in the house he was on the ground eating the seed.  One good thing about this is that the presence of the turkey makes the squirrels give him a wide birth and so they stay away from the seed.

We have a ground level bird bath which I filled this morning and within 3 minutes the turkey was over there having a drink.  The photo was taken from the second floor of the house and through a screen so the quality isn't great, but it's enough to get a feel for this new pet.

Obama's presumptuous victory tour

A report by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post on remarks Barack Obama made to House democrats yesterday:

He told the House members, "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

Milbank:  "Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee."

Who is that man behind the curtain?  The great and powerful Oz-bama.

Bridge project in jeopardy because...

All the experts and political big whigs have been preaching fuel conservation for weeks as the price of oil has gone up.  Drive less, save money, conserve fuel.  A good thing.

Well it didn't take long before the flip side of all this is showing up.  Because drivers are trying to use less gas in order to save themselves money at the pump, Missouri and Illinois fuel tax revenues are going down.  The first project MoDOT officials hint may be delayed or not begun at all is the Mississippi River Bridge connecting Illinois to downtown St. Louis.

Somehow it isn't surprising that Missouri officials would flag this project right off the bat as a possible 'no go'.  They haven't been out-front in their enthusiasm for this new bridge all along.

In the end, though, this is just the beginning.  Drivers buying less gas equals less state and local revenue. 

Campaign soda

The Jones Soda company has come out with a new version of soda.  You might remember the Jones company as being famous for their odd flavors, turkey and gravy etc.

Now they are giving consumers and political partisans a chance to cast their vote for McCain or Obama through the buying of their campaign edition soda.  Campaign Cola 2008 has a way for you buy your vote.  Each candidate has a special bottle with their picture.  The more bottles you buy, the more votes they get.

Even better, you can customize a bottle with your own name and photo so you can pretend you're running for president.  With every order you will receive...absolutely free...a special Campaign Cola 2008...button.

This might be fun to have on a shelf or in a refrigerator if you worked in a party's campaign office.

If you're a collector, there might be two ways of looking at these bottles.  Obama's could well have some future value since he is a unique candidate and if he wins, this will be something that might bring in some dollars down the line.  On the other hand, if McCain should pull off a win, his could be worth something and if he loses, his bottle might be worth money just for the curiosity of losing to Obama.