Land of Enchantment

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07/12/09--15:00: Rocky Mountain High (chan 1055640)

I've been having shoulder trouble lately, and it's kept me pretty close to home.  (Driving's a problem and there's a lot of places our very limited rural public transportation can't take you.)  Yesterday was the Native Plant Society's annual outing to one of my favorite places - up the Rio Santa Barbara towards La Jicarita Peak.  I grabbed a ride, and loaded up the day pack for the first time in ages.



I ain't got a lot by most standards, living modestly.  But America's public lands make us all rich - with access to things that only monarchs and the highest aristocrats had in most of the world throughout history.  It's been a wet spring, so the wildflowers are pretty good this year.  No big story today, it's mostly just pix.




07/19/09--07:46: NN09 Roll Call & Logistics (chan 1055640)

Four weeks from today, some 1500 people will be starting to make their way home from a fun-filled long weekend in Pittsburgh at the end of Netroots Nation 2009.  I've been getting email from people looking for hotel roommates, wanting to sell registrations, and a variety of other loose ends.  I've got a few of loose ends of my own, so I figured I'd do a diary where some of these unresolved arrangements can be worked out.  Might post a followup in a few days, too, if needed.

First things first, a little music to set the tone.  Turns out there's not a whole lot of songs about Pittsburgh.  I made a YouTube myself with a bit of its history from Woody Guthrie (via Pete Seeger):




07/30/09--09:49: My Mom's Dying (chan 1055640)

Dying pretty soon - might be a coupla years, max.  Most likely sooner.  The purpose of this diary is not to bare my heart and ask for personal support.  It's instead a pointed response to the Virginia Foxxes of the world.  That toxic talking point that Obama's health plan includes massive euthanasia of old people.

First off, we're all gonna die.  Death and taxes, right?  Some people maybe can cheat their way out of taxes.  But not out of death.

My mom's got lung cancer.  She smoked for 30 years, quit 30 years ago.  And now she's got smoker's lung cancer.  She went through a coupla rounds of chemo, and went into remission.  They said 80% chance of it coming back in a year.  It's back.  More chemo now.




08/20/09--05:52: Steppin' Out in Pittsburgh (The NN09 Shoe Diary) (chan 1055640)

Those of you who are new around here will be unfamiliar with the tradition, now in its third year, of me posting "shoe diaries" from Yearly Kos/Netroots Nation.  I fell into it kinda by accident.  And now, even though I post well-researched diaries on various topics (which often get 100s of Recs), I'm often referred to as "the shoe lady", and am sometimes called a fetishist even.  Sigh.

I guess this diary will just reinforce that notion.  So it goes.  But even though this is a shoe diary, I must open with this delightful picture of navajo - a moment of grace with the camera.  She titled it, not me.  Three Sheets to the Wind



On to the shoes.




09/17/09--09:42: Stranger than Fiction (chan 1055640)

I'm partial to the fiction of Alexander McCall Smith, in which the dramatic tension over whether a neighbor stole a teacup can carry a scene.  It is in that spirit that I'm sharing a coupla news stories came to my attention this week.  One's about a guy in jail for mining on public land without a permit.  He won't promise to stop, so they won't let him out of jail:

At some point, Tracy posted a hand-written sign near the entrance to the site:

Warning. Placer mining. For those who may be offended take heed and proceed no further. For if you violate the sanctity of my sanity, know everything you say can and will be held against you personally in a competent court of law.

It's worth reading the whole story.  What a piece of work!




09/25/09--19:50: Former Rep. John Doolittle (R, CA-04) named co-conspirator (chan 1055640)

Those of you who have been around here for awhile know that I spent much of my first year on Daily Kos as part of the dragon-slaying effort to get Richard Pombo (CA-11) booted out of the Congress.  We succeeded, and many newer users here may never have even heard of that noxious Tom Delay lieutenant.

One of Pombo's habitual sidekicks in malfeasance, corruption, etc. was one John Doolittle, who declined to run again in CA-04 last year, after the FBI raided his home, etc.  This from Roll Call today:

Federal prosecutors named ex-Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) as a co-conspirator Thursday in the public corruption case against former House aide-turned-lobbyist Kevin Ring.






09/28/09--18:09: Got a Happy Story? Farmer's Market (chan 1055640)

This week has been crazy busy, because of the first frost, and all that does to harvest.  Tomatoes have to be dealt with, green or not.  Apples and other fruit sweeten up from the frost.  I went to the Farmer's Market Saturday, for the sheer joy of the colors.  Here's one pic, and I'll fill out the diary once it goes up.



My old camera was dying a slow death.  After 7 years, it didn't owe me anything.  I went to the Farmer's Market to look at colors, and work on getting a feel for the new one.  What a time!




10/12/09--17:43: Got a Happy Story? Golden Aspens (chan 1055640)

I've been having some shoulder trouble past coupla years.  Had surgery last spring, and some of the healing and rehab went slowly.  I've just started back on physical therapy, and had an appointment this morning.  The physical therapist I'd been working with last spring got transferred to an affiliated office in the Village of Angel Fire.  It's up in the mountains, just over a half an hour's drive away.

This is a fabulous time of the year to head up into the mountains.  The aspens are in full glory.






10/13/09--17:31: The CCC - FDR's Forest Army (DK GreenRoots) (chan 1055640)

This is a quote from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the FDR Memorial in DC.  Those who would like to hold power in our government today would be well-advised to keep this thought in mind:



And this, the site of the nation's first CCC camp at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia:



I could call this diary How I Spent My Summer Vacation, I suppose, since I visited the FDR Presidential Library (Hyde Park, NY), the FDR Memorial (in DC), and the Shenandoah National Park (home to the nation's very first Civilian Conservation Corps/CCC crew.)  I was groundtruthing what I've been researching all year.




10/20/09--18:24: CCC in Texas State Parks (Greenroots) (chan 1055640)

Last week, I published a diary called The CCC - FDR's Forest Army, focussing on the very first Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crews, who worked on construction of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.  This week, I'll continue the focus on the CCC, but head to the (then) largest state in the union, Texas.


1950s postcard

Texas is a huge state, and nearly 30 (or more) of its State Parks benefited from CCC projects.  The purpose of this diary is to go into more depth as to all the different work the CCC did.  One diary about one National Park just isn't enough to show what millions of young men, at work across the nation, accomplished for the benefit of us all.  To show how much of our public landscape - too often taken for granted - still endures from that time three generations ago.




10/28/09--21:02: Joe Lieberman is NOT "off the reservation" (chan 1055640)




The use of the expression "off the reservation" is a pet peeve of mine.  When considered in historical context, its use never seems to make sense.  Jane Hamsher used it in the piece that ignited today's firestorm/ brouhaha. (emphasis added)

It’s really, really hard to believe that Lieberman is off the reservation here. He owes his chairmanship to Obama’s and Reid’s intercession after what he did during 2008.

I read through some of the comments, and found quite a few users employing that same expression.  If only people would think for two seconds before tossing that phrase around, they might never say it.  (One can hope.)  This from kossack cacamp:

btw, I live on a reservation (Rosebud) but I'm going off it to get groceries later this afternoon... just sayin :)

The expression's origins are in the 19th century.




11/01/09--18:26: El Dia de los Muertos (chan 1055640)

This is a spiritual time of year in Mexico.  And New Mexico, one of those "the border crossed us" places, has similar traditions.  And so, this weekend, it's more than costumes and candy corn amongst la gente.  It's deeply religious, too, in that way the Catholic Church incorporated indigenous traditions in Mexico.






11/13/09--12:26: Markos: A Name Not Fit for Management (chan 1055640)

At least if Larry Whitten had his way.  Back in mid-September, I diaried about this nitwit Texan who bought a hotel here in Taos, New Mexico.  He stirred up a hornet's nest by demanding employees Anglicize their names, and by generally being a jerk.  It has become national news after simmering for a few months.  CNN and the AP have picked it up, and Barb Morrill linked in Midday Open Thread a few weeks back.

       

The fired employees announced they're getting ready to file suit against Virginia-born former Marine Larry Whitten.  And they're planning a demonstration this weekend, Saturday November 14.  (I wish I could go, but I'm presently out of town.  Dagnabbit!)




11/26/09--11:00: For Ashley, now with poll (chan 1055640)

For a waitress friend who's working today.  And Nan, too.  Today's opening day at Taos Ski Valley - there's been enough snow that it's not delayed this year.  That's good, 'cuz the local economy needs it.  But it also means a lot of people have to go to work today.  So here's to them.

And a happy holiday to all!  Enjoy!  Have fun!  This diary's the result of some rooting around in You Tube...

UPDATE!!!  This really is too much of a browser clogging diary.  So I'm working through and replacing some of the embeds with links.




12/18/09--10:17: Republican bias on MSNBC noted (chan 1055640)

They tell us MSNBC is the "liberal" cable network.  Perhaps so, compared to Fox - but that's not saying much.  I just observed an interesting inconsistency in reporting connected to yesterday's Franken-Lieberman "incident."

Pretty much since Obama came in, and even before, Republicans have been squeezing every possible delay they can.  Not just on legislation they're opposed to, but wholesale holds on almost everything - appointments, bills in subcommittee, &c.  And "unanimous consent" has become increasingly scarce as well.




01/01/10--11:57: And When I Die (in memoriam videos 2009) (chan 1055640)

People die all the time, including in over the last year.  From Alan Livingston to Zeke Zarchy, talents who’ve contributed to the sound tracks of our lives died in 2009.  Enjoy and add whatever memories or other music in the comments.




02/12/10--08:21: Dakotas Snow Emergency: Charity and Beyond (now with Poll!) (chan 1055640)

Thanks to navajo and a robust crew of volunteers and diarists, the snow emergency on the Indian Reservations in the Dakotas found its way to the TV (thanks, Keith!) and more donations have started to flow.  (Navajo's excellent compilation of donation contact info and links here.)  My intention is to add a little background to the story, because it's annoying as all get-out that this has ever become a situation for charity.

In the early days of the United States, Indian Affairs was an agency under the War (later Defense) Department.  Not unlike the private contractors in Iraq, the Indian agents in the field typically did much better than the people they were charged with protecting and assisting.  Often much better.




02/23/10--18:04: Vote for Me! (chan 1055640)

Well, at least vote for someone.  A coupla weeks or so back, I came upon an effort, organized by Laughing Planet and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (PDNC) to have some kind of awards here on Daily Kos.  They called it The Daily kOscars.  It's all kinda informal and seat-of-the-pants.

By the time I happened upon these diaries, they'd already settled on the categories.  And, lemme tell ya, they left some categories out!  No "Best Green Diary"?  Nothing for "International" coverage?  It's not officially sanctioned by anybody, and there's a million things you could find wrong with it.  Hell, one of my diaries that was nominated mysteriously disappeared from the ballots.

BFD!!  It's a fun effort to remind us all of the depth of talent here on Daily Kos.  So use this as an opportunity to catch up on some of the great writing that you might have missed the first time around.




03/05/10--13:21: FL-08: Grayson leads in primary poll of Republicans (chan 1055640)


That's right!  324 registered Republicans were polled, and chose Grayson over all 13 potential GOP challengers - combined!  (Most of those polled - 57.7% - were undecided, so much of it's about name recognition.)

Florida Democrat Alan Grayson's Congressional campaign has been doing some interesting polling in his district.  Amongst Republicans in FL-08, he would win their primary were he on the ballot.  It seems that they like how he's been standing up, even if they don't agree with him on all the issues.  They like his style!

This finding just might contain lessons for Democrats in this fall's upcoming midterms.  For all the media cluck-clucking about Grayson's brash manner, it would appear that voters like his style.  So much so that if he were on the Republican primary ballot, he'd win!




03/31/10--20:00: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (with poll) (chan 1055640)

I ain't rolling in dough, but I'm a little better off now than a few years ago.  I can afford to make (small) political donations and decided to do so in time for the end of this quarter.  I went through a few steps to make my decisions.  

I looked at Palin's crosshairs map on Facebook.  I looked at votes on Stupak.  I thought about who the sitting Congresscritters defeated to get into office.  I looked at potential gains in Senate seats.  And mostly went for freshmen or sophomores in the House.  Bill Halter, challenging Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas, is the only candidate chosen for Orange-to-Blue by kos.  A few other things came into play, too.

You can get to any candidate you like through the ActBlue candidates page.




06/22/10--21:25: Ad Hominem (chan 1055640)

Listen up, assholes!  If somebody says something you don't like, calling them names doesn't refute their argument.  That's a logical fallacy known as an ad hominem attack.  From what I can see, there's some poor understanding of what that term means around here of late.

Calling someone a bad name, cussing them out, even getting abusive are not ad hominem in and of themselves.  The problem is thinking that launching criticism of a person's character or motives is adequate to disprove whatever argument they might be making.  First of all, it's damned hard to know anyone's motives for sure.  And most people's motives are generally complex, to boot.

Secondly, being flawed doesn't invalidate anyone's arguments.  We're all flawed, every last one of us.  One illustrative example: Being a smoker does not disqualify a parent from advising their kids not to smoke.  In this instance "But you smoke!" doesn't refute the anti-smoking argument.

And criticizing someone's arguments, even if insulting or abusive, is not an ad hominem either.  "That's an idiotic argument" is not the same thing as "You're an idiot!!" - though not everyone seems to recognize the distinction between the two approaches.




07/28/10--10:21: The NN Shoe Diary Strikes Again (pix) (chan 1055640)

First: This year, it's not all shoes.  (Though it still mostly is.)

   






We sure did miss Bill in Portland Maine and Common Sense Mainer.

Thanks to the inimitable, sleep-deprived navajo, we did have those masks (on inflatable dolls) for the C&J dinner she stepped up to organize in their absence.

Three cheers for navajo!

Most of you have been here (to the shoe diary) before, since this is the fourth annual entry in the series.  Three years ago in Chicago, it was a fresh idea.  Now it's a ritual tradition.  I didn't put all the pictures in - there were too many and some were blurry and my notes were imperfect.  Besides, I wanted to get it posted, plus not crash browsers.













08/15/10--17:57: Last Call for the Star Quilt (plus pix of 100+ signers) (chan 1055640)





Support INDN's List
and you could
win this quilt!  >>>




Sara R is donating a quilt to raise money for INDN’s List, the Indigenous Democratic Network which focuses on electing Native American candidates and mobilizing the Indian Vote.


Every contribution of $10+ today on this Act Blue page gets chance in a drawing for the quilt on August 31. No cash, no problem, see essay entry instructions (50 word limit) here.




08/30/10--06:42: Signs of the Times (chan 1055640)

Mostly just a bunch of pictures I've taken of things I've noticed lately, supplemented by a few from google maps.



Things that maybe, in daily life, one looks right beyond, without a second thought.  But, still, they are signs of our times.  Most of the pictures are from Nashville, not one of the hardest hit areas in the economic crisis (though there were the spring floods a few months back.)  Mostly just some pictures from the edge of town, and some nearby recently-built suburbs.




09/09/10--19:31: How to Follow the Money (FEC) (chan 1055640)

If you want to support some candidate's election, doing opposition research on their opponent can turn up interesting information.  As we heard in the movie All the President's Men, there are things to be learned from following the money.

The purpose of this diary is to show how to follow the money trail on the website of the FEC (Federal Election Commission.)  There's other sources like the IRS, Open Secrets, and even the Huffington Post.

There's a guy in Houston called Bob Perry, one of the nation's largest housing developers/builders.  He's a big Republican donor - one of the biggest of all.  He was the largest funder of the Swiftboaters in 2004 at $4.45 million, bankrolled a bunch of money into TV ads into the 2006 race in NM-01 between incumbent Heather Wilson and challenger NM Attorney General Patricia Madrid and pumped nearly half a million into the NM gubernatorial campaign of Sarah Palin-endorsed tagbagger, Susana Martinez.  So I chose Bob Perry as an illustrative example in this tour of the FEC.




09/10/10--09:35: Follow the Money Part 2 (IRS filings) (chan 1055640)

OK, so you see an ugly attack ad on TV from some "committee" you've never heard of before.  These things typically turn up in October, in the last few weeks before the election.  

So, you've got the name of your committee (say, "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth"?) and you want to learn more about who's behind it.  Just like in last night's diary (which focused on searching the FEC's public database, and is still open for Recs until 9:30 tonight), I'm going to continue looking into Americans for Honesty on Issues (AHI), which was active in the 2006 cycle in several Congressional districts, including one of particular interest to me: Albuquerque-based NM-01.

We already know that their only donor, to the tune of $3 million, was Bob Perry of Houston, who was also the biggest donor to the Swiftboaters in 2004 ($4.45 million!)  So, lets look into AHI at the IRS.




10/05/10--08:30: NY-23: Doug Hoffman OUT (breaking) (chan 1055640)

This'll make it harder for Bill Owens to hang onto the seat he won in a special election last year.  From today's Adirondack Daily Enterprise:

Doug Hoffman has dropped out of the race to represent New York's 23rd Congressional District.
...
"Our nation is at a crossroads, and it is imperative that on Election Day we wrest control of Congress from Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat majority," Hoffman said in a prepared statement. "It was never my intention to split the Republican vote."

Considering his indy run in the 2009 special, that last sentence doesn't pass the laugh test.  But I don't suppose that's really news.




11/18/10--16:12: Latest on Murfreesboro Mosque (chan 1055640)

Lead story in today's (Nashville) Tennessean:

Chancellor Robert Corlew III denied opponents of the mosque an emergency injunction that would block the construction of the project, saying they failed to prove that Rutherford County violated open meetings laws or illegally approved the site plan. In spite of the plaintiffs' fiery accusations that Islam is not a religion but a violent political movement looking to supplant U.S.laws, Corlew barely mentioned terrorism or public safety concerns, saying that the county's planning commission isn't the proper venue to vet such claims when approving a site plan.

Keep in mind, this is the same place that had equipment at the construction site hit by arson last spring.




01/08/11--10:47: Second Amendment Remedies (with pictures) (chan 1055640)

 

I did some picture research on "tea party darlings" last fall, including the guy who ran against Giffords and came close to unseating her.  These are from his campaign site, from his FB page.  Giffords won a close race over a man who held shooting range events to "target" her.

Damn.  They're saying now that she'll survive; here's hoping she can fully recover, too.  Others are confirmed dead.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office confirms.






01/30/11--17:29: Countdown to UID 300K (low-drama meta, w/poll) (chan 1055640)

Something over two years ago, I posted a diary about the approach of UID #200,000 here on Daily Kos.  It was a trip down memory lane.  Anyhow, the odometer's about to flip again - we're closing in on 300K, only a thousand or so new users to go.

Daily Kos screen capture, day 1:


I signed up here September 1, 2005.  I'm part of the Katrina cohort. Even having been around here for nearly five and a half years, there was plenty went on here before my time and I sometimes still think of myself as a relative newbie.  But, the truth is that most of our users are newer and know even less of our history.

Near as I can tell, we'll hit 300K about the same time as the launch of DK4 next week.  This diary's meant as a retrospective in honor of the upcoming milestone.  For the 200k diary, lots of very early users (as in 3- and 4-digit UID#s turned up to kibbitz and reminisce.  If that doesn't happen this time, one could still go back and read that last one...




01/31/11--18:04: The Grieving Room: No Easy Answers (chan 1055640)

My octogenarian mother has been in abysmal health for years now.  It kinda seems most of her "social" contact is with medical professionals any more.  Many of her friends have died or moved away; she doesn’t try to keep up with the others.  My father's been gone nearly 20 years.  Mom’s reached the point in life where she’s got little to talk about but her own health woes.




A special welcome to anyone who is new to The Grieving Room.  We meet every Monday evening.  Whether your loss is recent or many years ago, whether you have lost a person or a pet, or even if the person you are "mourning" is still alive ("pre-grief" can be a very lonely and confusing time) you can come to this diary and process your grieving in whatever way works for you.  Share whatever you need to share.  We can't solve each other's problems, but we can be a sounding board and a place of connection.




02/02/11--16:24: Egypt Liveblog: Sub-Diary #41 (chan 1055640)

You are in the the 41st Child Diary of the Liveblog of the 2011 Egyptian Uprising and other uprisings spreading throughout the Mideast.  We stand with our Egyptian friends and their courageous struggle for freedom.

DO NOT REC THIS DIARY!  Rec the Mothership here.

(The idea is to keep the Mothership visible on the rec list, with links therein to the child diaries where we can discuss the events.  This prevents multiple liveblog diaries taking up slots on the rec list.)




02/18/11--10:25: NM-Sen: Jeff Bingaman to Retire (chan 1055640)



WaPo says  Sen. Jeff Bingaman's not running  for re-election.  Not a surprise, as it had been known for years that he wanted to retire.  Though he might have been pressured to stay, since the rest of the delegation's not got much seniority.

Pearce (NM-02) will run (again) on the Republican side.  Heather Wilson - maybe?  It was fun watching them tear each other up in the 2008 primary.  Another question is who will take over as chair of the Senate Energy Committee.

I'd like to see Lujan (NM-03) stay in the House.  I think he'd make for good leadership there.  It's been said that Heinrich might be good senatorial material.  But it might be a little soon.

(photo at right is Bingaman at "energy independence day" in Taos a coupla years back)




02/20/11--07:42: An Apple a Day (chan 1055640)

From time to time, I comment that anyone with even a small patch of dirt should plant a fruit tree.  That's probably more true than ever, what with our "new normal" economy and all.  I hope some of you find this useful - or at least interesting.




An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Most everyone in the U.S. probably grew up with that saying.  Ever wonder where it came from?  It was a marketing slogan from the 1920s.  Why then?  Prohibition! (Which was in force in the US from 1920-1933.)  Before then, apples were mostly used to make hard cider and applejack brandy.  Apple growers had to hustle for new markets in a hurry back then!

Note: It's been four years since this diary was first posted to the (now-defunct) Vegetables of Mass Destruction series.  It predates most of DK4's current users, and it's been long enough that even those who read it before might enjoy revisiting this update.  Also published to History for Kossacks




03/02/11--06:26: Muslim Dissidents & Anti-Arab Racism (chan 1055640)

Yes, and how many ears must one man (sic) have / Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows / That too many people have died?…
Yes, and how many years can some people exist / Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head / Pretending he just doesn't see?
-- Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind," The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963

Just outside Cleveland, Ohio, in the liberal, quasi-integrated suburb where I grew up, overtly bigoted racism was frowned upon -- unless it was directed against Arabs or Muslims.




03/06/11--06:46: Up Against the Wall in Arizona (chan 1055640)

In The Score, Marlon Brando's last movie, the first scene has master thief Robert DeNiro working with a Mohawk accomplice (played by Gary Farmer) to smuggle his heist across the U.S.-Canada border.  The Mohawk are a border-straddling tribe, dating back to the American Revolution when the border was drawn through their territory.  Each year, there's an annual ceremonial crossing of the border sans interference of any kind from the border authorities in either nation.

The Mohawk aren't the only border-straddling tribe.  In the north, there's also the Blackfeet in Montana & Alberta.  And there's several tribes along the Mexican border in similar circumstances, including the Texas Kickapoo and Cocopah near Yuma, Arizona.  All told, there's 25 tribes divided by the U.S.'s borders.  But this diary's about the Tohono O'odham (formerly called Papago), whose territory, culture and people were bisected by the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 (yellow area).






03/16/11--06:51: Groups - Meta (chan 1055640)

There are 398 groups now, unless I counted wrong.  There'll be new ones created after I post this diary.  There were eight of them set up yesterday, and Frankenoid's already added another one on knitting today (so far, I'm the first of her two followers.)  I check every so often, and keep adding more.  I haven't founded any groups myself, since my interests seem pretty well covered by others.  A few of my own DK4 stats:

                    Following Tags - 5
                    Following Users - 172
                    Following Groups - 53
                    Group Contributor - 5
                    Group Editor - 9
                    Group Admin - 3

This gives me a fairly active stream, and that's the main way I read the site just like I used to read a lot off my subscriber list.  Though I do look to Rec List, Community Diaries, Recently Reccomended and even sometimes Recent Diaries, too.  A new activity I'd never imagined before is republishing diaries to groups.

                 ! ! ! ! ! ! --- This is important --- ! ! ! ! !

Doesn't matter if you're a group member (editor, contributor or admin), if you want the group's diaries in your stream, you have to follow the group, too.  If you just want to read a group's diaries and comment in them, you don't need an invitation - just click on the little heart to follow the group.  Easy as pie!

I'm publishing this diary to two groups:  Cranky Users and Meta Groupies.  One of these days, there'll be links to all groups a diary's republished to, automatically.  I look forward to that as a useful improvement.




04/02/11--11:44: NM-Sen: Martin Heinrich Makes it Official (chan 1055640)

Wow!  Martin Heinrich just announced for Senate, and the damn DK editor won't work.  I'm trying a Draft Diary that I could open, as a test.  But I did up a little diary about NM-Sen in the draft folder and it didn't save anything.  Here's a screen capture from Heinrich's FaceBook page.  Right click and "view image" to see the part the column cuts off - it doesn't reduce well.



Dang!

There's talk that Hector Balderas, currently the State Auditor, might run.  I like him just fine, but maybe like Martin even a little better.

Heinrich's in his second term in NM-01.  He was gonna run against Heather Wilson in NM-01 in 2008, till she decided to go for a Senate run when Domenici retired.  Now they're both running for Senate, though might be that neither one of them makes it onto the general election ballot.

And NM-01 is an open seat again.  2012 will be interesting in NM.  Hope the Obama campaign does a very thorough job of voter registration, canvassing & tracking like in 1008.  It'll help get a Senator elected in the Tom Udall vein.




04/20/11--14:34: 97 years ago today (chan 1055640)

Nowadays, the Rockefellers are probably best known as the namesake for the TV show 30Rock.  One of them, Nelson, was the unelected Republican Vice President under Gerald Ford after Nixon resigned.  A century ago, along with Morgan and Carnegie and others, John D. Rockefeller was just another robber baron getting rich beyond imagination on oil and coal and steel and railroads.



A brutal massacre of mineworkers on April 20, 1914 at his Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, in Ludlow, Colorado, became a shocking national scandal - not unlike the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911.  (The pic is of one of the militia guys who did the killing.)  Some say that Rockefeller's kids were so ashamed, they eventually put much of the family fortune into the various Rockefeller Foundations, as an attempt to redeem the family legacy.  However, it seems likely to me that the income and inheritance taxes likely played into it, too.





04/22/11--19:49: NM-Sen: Hector Balderas is In (chan 1055640)

Chris Cilliza posted on FaceBook that a guy at Bloomberg tweeted that State Auditor Hector Balderas (D) has filed to run for the seat of retiring Senator Jeff Bingaman.  Rep. Martin Heinrich (NM-01) threw his hat in the ring a few weeks ago.  We'll see if others join in, but these are both substantial candidates, so we'll have ourselves a contested primary.


Source:  Balderas's FaceBook page, caption saying he ran a 5k Law Enforcement Torch run with his 13-year-old son

Politico:


New Mexico State Auditor Hector Balderas, the youngest Hispanic statewide official ever elected in the country, filed statements of candidacy and organization with the FEC on Wednesday.

Formal announcement coming next week.





05/20/11--08:45: Volcano-Proof (chan 1055640)

The day before yesterday was the anniversary of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens main eruption in Washington State.  

Before 1980, snow-capped, gracefully symmetrical Mount St. Helens was known as the "Fujiyama of America." Mount St. Helens, other active Cascade volcanoes, and those of Alaska comprise the North American segment of the circum-Pacific "Ring of Fire," a notorious zone that produces frequent, often destructive, earthquake and volcanic activity. (Source: USGS)

The mountain had been "burping" ash for months ahead of the big blowout, and has continued to have occasional smaller eruptions.  But early that Sunday morning, while most people were still sleeping, the top 1300+ feet of the mountain blew off in less than 10 minutes.  This video of the blast is a mere 17 (highly dramatic) seconds long:




06/23/11--14:23: Steppin' Out in Minneapolis: The NN11 Shoe Diary (chan 1055640)

I was thinking of letting this series expire, as it's gotten a little repetitive.  Besides, I'm not sure I like being known mainly for this.  But I had the idea of auctioning off the above-the-fold picture for the Netroots Nation auction.  So, thanks to Kitsap River for supporting the event by winning the bidding.  And she sure did come up with a spectacular pair of shoes for the occasion!!



Over the fold for the annual immersion in excessive typography.




06/28/11--07:06: Upriver to Minneapolis & NN11 (pix) (chan 1055640)

Since there's only so much one can do with shoes as a subject, I do have other pictures to share.  Even if I am a little late for covering the confab from the weekend before last...

First: We gave ourselves the luxury of a slow drive up in the Great River Road scenic byway, starting where the Ohio River flows into in Mississippi at Cairo, IL.  This from a county road heading west out of Paducah, KY.



There's two parts to this NN11 diary.  First is the road trip to get there.  Second is some pictures I took at NN proper, including a few from the backstage pass experience.  Next year, with the location being an Amtrak stop, maybe there'll be pictures from "train parties" enroute.





06/28/11--14:19: Los Alamos Burning, Then and Now (chan 1055640)

When you live downwind from where some of the deadliest stuff ever known on earth is concocted, you mostly put it out of your mind.  But when the place is burning, and you're breathing the smoke, it's not so easy to ignore.  Mind you, most all of what they do is classified, so they're not going to announce what they're releasing anyhow.  The Las Conchas fire is bearing down on the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) now.  Time lapse from two days ago, with smoke billows visible from Albuquerque and from Taos, over 100 miles apart from each other:

Las Conchas Fire timelapse - 6/26/11 from RizzNizz on Vimeo.

Another fire, dubbed Cerro Grande, burned through there eleven years ago in 2000.  June is generally the hottest, driest month in New Mexico.  This year, thanks to La Niña, it's worse than usual.  As has happened before, a fire's approaching through the rough terrain around LANL.  

In a 2009 report, the US department of energy said Los Alamos county firefighters were not sufficiently trained to handle the unique fires they could face with hazardous or radioactive materials at the site.





08/29/11--16:26: Deferred Maintenance (chan 1055640)

I'm not generally one to cuss out a stranger in public, but I did it today.  Well, strictly speaking, I only spoke harshly and didn't exactly cuss, unless muttering "Go to Hell!" under my breath counts.  Trust me, it was someone who richly deserved it.

Anyhow, here's the story:  Kossack jnhobbs was, for well over a decade, one of America's tens of millions of uninsured.  He's always made a good living in the music business, but studio work wound down in Los Angeles, he moved to Nashville in the early 90s.  Surprise!  The musician's union in Tennessee didn't have a group health plan like in California.  He could afford to pay, but because of pre-existing condition, no one would sell him insurance.




10/06/11--17:18: Signs of the Times: Occupy Nashville (chan 1055640)

The pictures speak for themselves.  Noon rally today, at Legislative Plaza by the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville.



The weather was perfect, a little on the warm side.  Someone pressed a bottle of water on me:  Keep hydrated!!  Probably in the ballpark of 300 people - not bad for a first effort.  Onlookers around the edges with various degrees of engagement.  And lots and lots of cameras; professional and decidedly vernacular.  And damned near as many devices as people, most recording or talking or messaging &c.

Update: I added a couple of pictures at the end of a school group on a field trip to the State Capitol.




10/17/11--06:50: Occupy Nashville Revisited (Saturday pix) (chan 1055640)

Went down to check it out Saturday.  There was a General Assembly, and then a march around downtown Nashville.  The legislative plaza was busy with a book fair, so Occupy Nashville went to City Hall/County Courthouse - a fine specimen of New Deal construction (PWA, not WPA.)

Some of the same people were there, some of the same signs.  One guy recognized me,  and had seen my previous posting about Occupy Nashville.  (There was a picture of him in that diary.)



There was a lot of organizational stuff going on.  They've been building a culture.  A lot is copied from New York, but it's also home grown.




10/18/11--16:45: Elouise Cobell, RIP (chan 1055640)

Elouise Cobell, one of the most important Native American leaders in recent decades, has died.



There’s lots of people who have offered up eulogies and tributes, including President Obama.  Several of those are excerpted to close this diary.

Cross Posted at Native American Netroots


An ongoing series sponsored by the Native American Netroots team focusing on the current issues faced by American Indian Tribes and current solutions to those issues.






10/30/11--10:01: OWS Nashville: The Kids are All Right (chan 1055640)

There were arrests in downtown Nashville on Friday and Saturday night.  It was kinda bogus, as Gov. Haslam (heir to the Pilot Truck Stop fortune) magically produced some New Rules as a pretense to the arrests/evictions.  Rules to which everyone but Occupy Nashville have been granted waivers.  These signs appeared, almost instantaneously, around the demonstrators' encampment at Legislative Plaza across from the State Capitol in downtown Nashville.






12/23/11--10:47: A Little Help from a Friend (chan 1055640)

Like most everyone else here on Daily Kos, it was a relief when I joined.  I wasn't alone any more! In my case, it was at the heart of the Katrina cataclysm—September 1, 2005. I'm grateful DK's been here all these years - more on that below the fold. As a small measure of thanks, I'm contributing this diary for the ongoing subscription drive.

The last few weeks, I've not spent much time here. I've gone along with Hobbs, who's been touring to play Christmas music. Only got done day before yesterday. I want to share something magical that happened that night. This is Ashley, who's got a horrible incurable respiratory affliction that qualified her for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.



I took the picture at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, legendary historical home of the Grand Ole Opry, also referred to as the Mother Church of country music. It was sold out on Wednesday night for the homecoming final night of the tour. And Make-A-Wish brought 20 or so kids for a special afternoon show, complete with a visit from Santa. And a few of the kids got on the stage. It was deeply moving.

Three, including this girl, were introduced to the stage during the public concert.  The song (same band, from last year, so-so quality shot from the audience):