Atlantis - At Last!

After all the delays, they're finally on their way, and as I write this, everything looks good. As often as I see that sight (thanks, Stella, for reminding me of this morning's launch), I never get over the thrill. Godspeed, Atlantis and crew.

(Sorry, no pics of the launch available yet.)

UPDATE: WaPo link; may or may not be stable...

Steve
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A Thing That Makes One Go 'Hmm' -- UPDATED

Or perhaps it makes one use some stronger language. AP via Houston Chronicle:

WASHINGTON — The former No. 2 State Department official said Thursday he inadvertently disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame in conversations with two reporters in 2003.

Confirming that he was the source of a leak that triggered a federal investigation, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he never intended to reveal Plame's identity. He apologized for his conversations with syndicated columnist Robert Novak and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.

     ...

"I made a terrible mistake, not maliciously, but I made a terrible mistake," Armitage said in a telephone interview from his home Thursday night.

He said he did not realize Plame's job was covert.

Armitage's admission suggested that the leak did not originate at the White House as retribution for Wilson's comments about the Iraq war.

     ...

"I did what I did," Armitage said. "I embarrassed my president, my secretary, my department, my family and I embarrassed the Wilsons. And for that I'm very sorry."

     ...

Armitage embarrassed the Wilsons? He's sorry? Does destroying Valerie Plame's career and endangering her life and the lives of her contacts count as "embarrassing" her? Does being an accessory to a widespread public smear of Joe Wilson's character (remember, this is the same Joe Wilson on which Poppy Bush heaped a lot of praise) count as merely "embarrassing" him?

Forgive my skepticism, but to me it looks a lot as if Armitage has agreed to take one for the team. Perhaps he is indeed the person who revealed Plame's role to reporters, and perhaps he is genuinely sorry now. But I pointedly disbelieve him when he says he did not do it on instructions from Dick Cheney et al, and that there was no conspiracy to destroy Plame and smear Wilson. There's just too much independent evidence that Cheney was out to get the Wilsons. If Armitage did what he says he did, and if he is now lying about how it happened, to protect any or all of the Bush administration's leaders, then Armitage is as big a scoundrel as any of them.

Armitage's claim of responsibility for a purportedly innocent disclosure would be more believable if this administration, particularly Bush and Cheney, did not have a documented history of revealing classified information, without first declassifying it, whenever it suited their political purposes. State secrets mean nothing to these people. The careers of CIA NOC operatives also mean nothing. Apparently the same is true of members of the diplomatic corps who have served with distinction under administrations both Democratic and Republican, and who have received high praise from presidents of both those parties.

You know, if a Democrat had done this, on his or her own, or on instructions from a Democratic president or vice president, you wouldn't be able to hear yourself talk for the cries of "treason" from every TV commentator to the right of Jim Lehrer. Where are those cries now? IOKIYAR.

What a bunch of lying bastards our current Republican leaders are. I cannot believe that they are not lying now, through Richard Armitage. Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and yes, even Barry Goldwater are surely spinning in their graves.

UPDATE: Bryan of Why Now? has a quite different take on Armitage, which he has given us in the comment thread to this post. The short version: whatever Armitage told the reporters, Armitage did not know that Plame was NOC, and someone else had to have told the reporters that fact. Read Bryan's own words in the comment thread.

Steve
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Day Of The Long Claws

Samantha deploys hers. Sometimes a girl's just gotta show what she's got...

Now that's a "don't mess with me" look! Of course, this was fifth in a series of flashes in her face; she was pretty disgruntled with the whole photo-shoot by this time.

Yes, I know it's a whole day early for cat blogging. So sue me! (Um, please don't. No contractor should ever speak or write those words.) These days, I have to do what I can, when I can... and I have no idea when I'll get another break soon.

Steve
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This Is Not Good

AP via Washington Post:

Lung Problems Rife Among WTC Responders
By AMY WESTFELDT
The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 5, 2006; 4:52 PM

NEW YORK -- Nearly 70 percent of the rescue and cleanup workers who toiled in the dust and fumes at ground zero have had trouble breathing, and many will probably be sick for the rest of their lives, doctors said Tuesday in releasing results of the biggest Sept. 11 health study yet.

The Mount Sinai Medical Center study is conclusive proof of a link between recovery work at the World Trade Center ruins and long-term respiratory problems, doctors said.

"There should no longer be any doubt about the health effects of the World Trade Center. Our patients are sick," said Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the group that has monitored the health of nearly 16,000 ground zero workers.

     ...

That's 16,000 workers, 70 percent with breathing problems. I didn't read the study, but with an n of 16,000, p has got to be microscopic. This is proof beyond reasonable doubt. That didn't stop some people from doubting, Mayor Bloomberg among others:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg cast doubt on the study's claims, saying, "I don't believe that you can say specifically a particular problem came from this particular event."

These days, even the least unreasonable of Republican politicians at least pretend to be ignorant of, if not hostile to, science, especially if its results inconvenience them in any way. Um, yes, Mayor, however little you like it, you can say that very thing, based on this study, with certainty approaching the certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow. But then again, I've worked most of my professional life among people whose craft... whose science... it is to elicit answers that can be validated from large numbers of samples and soundly based analysis. Mayor, what have you done with your life? Have you analyzed large populations for anything other than the votes they might give you, or the campaign contributions available from them? Don't scoff at disciplines about which you haven't a clue.

But that's politics for you. On 9/11/2001, all of us were Americans, all of us were attacked, and no one was contemplating partisan politics. (Well, almost no one; I can't vouch for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.) Everyone wanted to help, according to their abilities and their skills; I wrote some of my best essays and powerful poems (not online now) in response, urging all Americans to direct their sorrow and their anger in unity into constructive outlets. Those who responded by volunteering their skills and risking their very lives after 9/11 at Ground Zero certainly did that.

How times have changed. Many of those same responders, the vast majority of them volunteers from around the country, are now seriously ill, and a scientific study by a reputable institution has demonstrated beyond rational doubt that their work at Ground Zero was the direct cause of their illness. And members of one political party, the one holding almost all the genuine power at the moment, are trying to deny these heroes the help they are owed. For shame!

Meanwhile, the tragedy itself has been politicized beyond recognition, largely by Republicans seeking advantage in portraying Democrats as somehow to blame, somehow "soft on terror," somehow weak in defense of our nation. I have no sympathy for anyone who portrays us as "appeasers" for opposing Mr. Bush's inappropriate and ineffective responses in the intervening five years. On some days, it angers me. On others, I just find it immeasurably sad that anyone would politicize 9/11, which was, whatever else it may have been, an American tragedy. But I will not let such attacks go without a response. It was my tragedy too. It's my country too. My political forebears and my literal forebears have defended it as surely as anyone among the people perpetrating these false smears. Anyone who says otherwise can expect an earful or an eyeful... maybe more, if they say it to my face.

On a more personal note, I hope and pray (though he probably will not countenance my UU prayers as real) that occasional commenter ReaganConservative, who was one of those heroes who volunteered his services as an experienced firefighter in the aftermath of 9/11, is not among those who are seriously ill. If, Goddess forbid, he is among the sick, I sincerely hope our government relents, and offers him the treatment he is due, as all-too-little recompense for his services.

Meanwhile, in supposedly unrelated news, Houston had yet another bad air day today, "unhealthy for sensitive groups," according to the TCEQ air site (linked permanently at the top of the page). Who is in a "sensitive group"? According to John Wilson, now of Asheville but formerly executive director of GHASP (Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention, one of the most effective of our local clean-air organizations), just about everyone is in a sensitive group. I think it is not unreasonable to say that the air at Ground Zero was like Houston's air on a bad day... times 1000 or so. All of us who live in industrial cities are breathing crap, and dying of it in greater-than-average numbers; the public health professionals I worked with years ago used to call one nearby industrial area "Cancer Alley." The crap comes from many sources, but wherever it comes from, its victims deserve treatment. Companies which inadequately insure their employees and governments that lie to 9/11 volunteers and deny them healthcare are equally deplorable.

Consider this my 9/11 post; I will not write one on 9/11. The day itself has become filled with so much hoopla that I pointedly opt out. Right after the event itself, I wore an American flag pin on my lapel for several months, until it became clear that Republicans considered it their symbol, their event, even their memorial on anniversaries, and most especially, their club with which to beat up on their political opponents. How distasteful. Goddess forbid I should be mistaken for a Republican!

Steve
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Flying While Muslim

Al-Muhajabah has the details. And sordid details they are: the number of different ways Muslims and others have been mistreated while traveling is almost astonishing.

Almost... but not quite. As one raised in the pre-civil-rights-movement South, I have to say, the treatment of Muslims who fly (and Orthodox Jews, and Sikhs, etc., indeed, anyone who might look a bit different from Caucasians like me) is beginning to look a lot like Jim Crow from days of yore. Who is suspected, and of what? Why are they suspected... their color, their faith, their apparel, their prayers in-flight (and who among us hasn't subvocally prayed that the plane would stay in the air until it landed safely)? Who is oppressed because he or she is suspected? Haven't we been through this before, in the antebellum South and for decades after the Civil War, with a different group experiencing the oppression? If we're going to resurrect a part of our past, couldn't we choose a less unsavory aspect of it?

I am growing really, really tired of this. I have already decided not to fly again until the gross civil liberties violations cease. I encourage more people to do so: let the airlines suffer the direct financial consequences of bowing to some unreasonable people's unreasoning fear.

Soon enough, though, gas prices will drive the cost of flying to a point at which only wealthy people will have the option of flying. But so many wealthy people in the world are Muslims... what will airlines do? What will governments do? As Al-Muhajabah asks, after enumerating enough offensive and even dangerous incidents to make one cry, "Where will this end? Muslim-only lines at the airport?"

Unfortunately, her question may not be merely rhetorical. I have a vivid memory of an incident when I was a very young child, accompanying my mother to the grocery store. I was thirsty; Mom lifted me up to the nearest drinking fountain and started the water for me. The store manager saw us, came rushing over and practically shouted, "NO! that's the colored people's drinking fountain!" To her credit, Mom looked him in the eye and said quietly, "It's the same water." Indeed it was, and is. But the incident proves that it happened here before, and it can happen here again: raw bigotry and fear can induce otherwise reasonable people to place irrational burdens on other reasonable people doing very ordinary things, such as flying home to visit their mothers.

Muslim-only lines at the airport? Not if I can stop it. But I wouldn't bet against its happening anyway, despite our best efforts... efforts that are our sacred obligation to our founders. Tom Paine would have understood: "These are the times that try men's souls." And women's, of course.

Steve
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An Engine Needs A Governor

And so, regrettably, does Texas. Two articles from the Houston Chronicle:

• Bell criticizes Democrats for not discussing religion
• Friedman addresses immigration, crime, taxes, state spending

Chris wants Dems to talk about Jesus more, and proceeds to do so himself; Kinky wants to put 10,000 National Guard troops on the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration. Not everything these two men propose is as nutso as these items... religion doesn't belong in politics, and thanks to Mr. Bush and his cabal, we haven't got 10,000 Guard troops to spare, even if putting them on the border were a good idea... but the fact that they're running on these "issues" means they have underestimated the voting public once again.

In other news, Mr. Bush "reveals" what we've already known for some time: there are secret CIA prisons holding terrorist suspects in other parts of the world. Some of those suspects are being moved to Gitmo for trial. Bush:

It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held in secret, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts.

"[Q]uestioned by experts..." right. To paraphrase an old saw, the beatings will continue until the GOP's poll numbers improve. Torture is always torture, but it's OK as long as you call it something else.

(I took a blog break while waiting for something to arrive from the client. It still hasn't arrived, but it isn't as if I don't have other things to work on. Back to the dilithium mines...)

Steve
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Another Day, Another Laugh

GOPers have decided to run Katherine Harris for U.S. Senate. (I probably could have just said her name and gotten the same laugh.)

For Republicans, this is the downside of name recognition. Every GOPer in Florida knows Harris's name. (Every non-Republican also knows her name, in Florida and elsewhere.) In primaries especially, some people vote for the most familiar name on the ballot. Or maybe they really, really like her. Either way, absent a rigged election, we will very likely have the pleasure of seeing her go down on November 7. (The thought of Katherine Harris going down on anything is rather repulsive, actually.) May she provide us many laughs on many days between now and Election Day.

Blogging is down to once a day at most. Work is eating all my time. I'm not complaining; I have taxes to pay this week, and the Bush administration needs the money so it can kill some more people...

Steve
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Laugh Of The Day

Ironic laugh, that is. AP via Houston Chronicle:

White House claims progress in war against terror
By MERRILL HARTSON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration proclaimed significant progress in the war on terror today but said the enemy has adjusted to U.S. defenses and that "America is safer but we are not yet safe."

Releasing an updated counterterrorism strategy in advance of a speech that President Bush was set to give later in the day, the White House said: "The United States and our partners continue to pursue a significantly degraded but still dangerous al-Qaida network."

     ...

It must be tough to be a Republican spinner. You have to claim progress in the war on a noun... if you don't, why would anyone vote for you. But you can't claim too much progress; you can't let people feel safe... if you do, why would anyone vote for you. It's a real dilemma, because the GOP delivers such godawful results in every other area of governance. Fear-plus-hope in the war on terra is all they've got to sell. I hope they get caught on its horns. The dilemma, that is.

Blogging will be really sparse today. The work just keeps coming in. As a contractor, I think that's good news... as a blogger, I despair of finding the time. Go read Glenn Greenwald instead; he's been on a roll lately.

Steve
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Labor Day

Heh. I'll be laboring almost all of Labor Day. It is a sign of the times that there is no Code Cowboys Union; the entire industry arose after the heyday of organized labor had passed. But I'm not one to complain; hey, I have work, and I've pulled only one all-nighter this week...

My other occupation is unionized. I'm a member in good standing of Local 65-699, AFM (American Federation of Musicians). Since I joined that union over 15 years ago, I have never once been screwed out of payment for a job I've played, something I could not have said about nonunion jobs I played before I joined. It really works. Our local has been effective in behalf of everything from the HSO to Tejano artists. I am pretty much retired as a musician, but if you are a younger musician, please join the union; over the span of your career, you'll get a lot for the price of your dues.

In honor of the day, as I dishonor its intent by working, I am wearing a blue work shirt. Stella agrees that I look good in shirts like this. Maybe I should have done something else for a living, something more... physical. Nah! Tapping code suits me fine.

To those of you who have a holiday, have a safe one.

Steve
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Lights Out

Specifically, traffic lights in Houston, and they're out to get you if you run them while they're red. HPD has issued some citations based on the output of its new red light cameras and the analysis of the photos by (surprise, surprise, as PFC Pyle used to say) the vendor of the cameras, to whom they've outsourced the analysis.

I have some reactions as a driver, a citizen, a taxpayer a technology professional and a civil libertarian.

As a driver, I think this sucks. If I'm going to be busted for skating a light Texas-orange (i.e., red), I should at least be confronted with a cop at the time, someone who witnessed the violation and at least in theory could testify in court to what he or she saw. I've only been nailed for skating a light once (in part because I seldom do so), and I didn't bother with court; I apologized to the police officer and promptly paid my fine. But the part of the process in which I was apprehended and ticketed should not be omitted: law enforcement is a matter for people, for police officers, possibly using technology, but it is not a matter for technology alone.

As a citizen, I question the wisdom of outsourcing the evaluation of the photographs to the private company that sold the city the technology. Are they qualified to do it? Probably so, but they also have a strong financial incentive to "prove" their technology works by catching lots of people running red lights. How will they rule on borderline cases? Right... they'll rule, in essence, in favor of themselves, i.e., a tie will go not to the runner but to the camera. I don't know if that's cricket, but it surely isn't baseball.

As a taxpayer, I cannot see how such a system can ever generate enough revenue in fines to pay for the technology and the unending court cases challenging the citations. I am certain they made it a civil violation to avoid having drivers demand a jury trial, because no juror in Houston would vote to convict based on what these damned things show. Will Houston's streets be safer? I personally doubt it, but Houston's coffers will be emptier. And to use my father's phrase, "somebody's brother-in-law" will get rich in the process.

As a technology professional, I question not so much whether these devices do what their vendor says they do (although I have reasonable doubts), as whether it can ever really be demonstrated to the satisfaction of the citizenry (let alone a jury, if it ever came to that) that they really work. As we have learned from long suffering under the current presidential administration, one must have executive processes that are not only fair, but visibly fair, processes that one can have confidence in. Do you have confidence in red light cameras? I thought not. Is there a basis for such confidence? Who knows. I certainly don't.

As a civil libertarian, I state firmly that we are watched by too many cameras for too many purposes already. One estimate I read (sorry; I can't find the source, but I probably read it over at Grits for Breakfast) put the number of cameras pointed at the typical city-dweller in the course of one day at something over 1,000. Damn!

"Smile... you're on 1,000 Candid Cameras!"

Aside: this is a working weekend for me. Opportunities to blog will be infrequent. I'll be here when I'm able.

Steve
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They Hate Us For Our Freedoms

Our liberties. Our rights. That's what "they" hate us for, right?

Then "they" must be the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature, the Governor and the Texas Medical Board, and "we" must be pregnant women under age 18:

AUSTIN — After 13 months of intense pressure from opposing factions, the state has adopted rules requiring written — and notarized — parental consent forms for girls under age 18 to get abortions.

The new forms span six pages, warn of medical risks and tout "women's right to know" brochures backed by abortion opponents, said those on opposite sides of the issue.

"There was just so much heat from so many different sources," said Dr. Donald Patrick, executive director of the Texas Medical Board, which adopted the rules. "We were trying to tread a pretty fine line. It's just sometimes hard to do when there are two diametrically different points of view."

The board plans to send a copy of the medical records rules regarding parental consent to the Texas Register next week.

The rules would take effect 20 days later.

Patrick said the governor's office backed the final form approved late last week, which requires parents' written consent be notarized, an administrative rule not required by the consent law.

     ...

Ah, yes, the governor. That would be Right-wing Republican Rick Perry, Mr. Bush's extraordinarily Bush-like replacement. Well, OK, Gov. Goodhair may not be as brainless, but he is at least as hateful and stubborn, and he may lie even further to the right on the political spectrum. Perry regularly vetoes legislation passed with strong a bipartisan majority in the Lege. He is out of step even with his own party. But his own party has some real pieces of work in it:

     ...

Parental consent legislation passed during the 2005 legislative session only after it was attached to a bill authorizing the continued existence of the Texas Medical Board.

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, who sponsored the consent legislation, had complained that more than a year after its passage, the lack of an approved consent form might allow doctors and abortion clinics to skirt the law.

     ...

Of course they had to resort to trickery to pass it. Even in Texas, it would be a very close call whether they could have obtained a majority on an up-or-down vote on a single-issue version of this bill. I can hear the proponents' chant in my mind's ear now: "Pass the Phil King bill! Pass the Phil King bill! Pass ..."

But let's be honest: the six-page consent form requiring three signatures and notarization ("with a paragraph on the back of each one, 'splainin' what it was") is an election-year stunt, raw meat for the Republican base. And never mind the consequences for young women, whose constitutionally protected right to an abortion (hey, it's not just my opinion; it's a Supreme Court opinion) is severely infringed.

And let's be honest about one more thing. The vast majority of young women who unintentionally become pregnant do tell their parents about their pregnancy and talk to them about whether to end that pregnancy. The remainder are the very ones who need to deal with the problem completely apart from their parents. Maybe they have abusive fathers. Maybe their fathers got them pregnant in the first place. Maybe their mothers are deceased or otherwise not around to protect them. Simply put, parental notification laws protect abusers and punish victims.

The six-page notarized form, though... that has nothing to do with protecting young pregnant women from anything. That is pure politics. It leads me to ask again: why do our Republican legislators and Gov. Goodhair hate young women so much? Obviously, they hate them for their freedoms.

(My standard disclaimer when I write about this issue: I am proud of the fact that my first contract programming job over 18 years ago was for the local Planned Parenthood. It was both a job and a labor of love. I make no pretense of neutrality on abortion or any other women's healthcare issue.)

Steve
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But I Have Promises To Keep

... and lines to code before I sleep / and lines to code before I sleep. (Forgive me, Robert Frost; you deserve better, but that's never stopped me before.)

This post marks the beginning of a month in which Houstonians all wonder why anybody, anywhere, is contemplating Fall. Here, it's midnight, and its 78°F. Fall lasts about a week in Houston; the leaves go straight from green to brown with no interesting colors in between (except for those of the Chinese tallow, which is ubiquitous but non-native). And Fall most certainly does not begin at the beginning of September here.

I am rambling, in part because I'm dog-tired (how else should a doggerelist be tired) from a serious crunch to release a beta of a software product in about a week. I just did something that should have taken a day... I predicted to the boss that it would take a day... in a very concentrated few hours, but that does not mean I may rest now; oh, no. It means that one potentially large crisis (and considering the state of the world these days, I am using the term very casually) is behind us now, and we who are on the project may face the next one. It's going to be a late night.

What's that? You're right, I did promise you a reprise of this picture:

There... now you have some Friday sleeping cat blogging. Let sleeping cats lie; they do it so much better than presidents.

Those of you in northern climes, enjoy some colorful falling leaves for me. Those of you along the East Coast and even inland, try not to get flooded out by Ernesto. Happy September, one and all.

Steve
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Selected Links To Recent Posts

 
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Cats May Safely Sleep

Steve
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Go To Hell, Rummy -- UPDATED

Steve
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Annoyances Big And Small

Steve
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Show This Bold Prussian

Steve
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The Blog Is Moving! The Blog Is Moving!

Steve
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Katrina: The Suffering Is Ongoing - UPDATED

Steve
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Firestarter

Steve
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Nutcases: 'Nuke 'Em All'

Steve
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Friday Falling Water Blogging

Steve
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Too Busy

Steve
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If Thy Bush Offend Thee...

Steve
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Of Horses And Barn Doors

Steve
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Veiled Threats

Steve
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Amazing Grace

Steve
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Friday Neighbor Cat Blogging

Steve
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Federal Court:
   Warrantless Eavesdropping Unconstitutional

Steve
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Stating The Obvious

Steve
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What Part Of 'Unconstitutional'

Steve
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What NASA Has Lost

Steve
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Günter Grass

Steve
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You Snooze, You Win

Steve
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Bush Successfully Avoids Press

Steve
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Where I Live These Days

Steve
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A Place On The Sun

Steve
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Stupid Security Tricks

Steve
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Money From My Pocket

Steve
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Oh Good Grief, Part 285714

Steve
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Birthdays

Steve
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Friday Paw-In-The-Face Blogging

Steve
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Morning In Houston

Steve
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