Damn the Blue Dogs anyway ......

"There is no real direction here, neither lines of power nor cooperation. Decisions are never really made – at best they manage to emerge, from a chaos of peeves, whims, hallucinations and all around assholery. " Gravity's Rainbow

A stage in Biloxi

A small stage in Biloxi
Center stage to a large degree was his for the taking as some of the bigger lites of the Republican party were no shows Arnold Schwarzenegger ,Sarah Palin ,Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal failed to attend .Governor Mark Sanford may still be resting after hiking to South America . This past weekend Vermont’s Governor Jim Douglas debuted as chairman of the National Governors Association. Recently greenwashed online as the 8th greenest governor in the nation Douglas moved his performance on to Broadway or eh Biloxi. Haley Barbour RGA head and the former head of the RNC back in the Contract for America glory days has a soft spot for the new chairman Gov.Douglas .After the last election he described Douglas as “being stronger than a field of garlic up there in Vermont”. (It is wonderful to think when they are alone together Barbour calls him Jimbo.)

Last week some here in Vermont were most atwitter in anticipation about this milestone in Douglas’s career. “This month Douglas adds to his resume the chairmanship of the National Governors Association. The timing is fortuitous. He assumes a leadership position that will give him incredible national exposure in what will primarily be a bipartisan setting.” Chris Graff corporate spokesman for National Life of Vermont gushed
Sadly it looks like Governor Douglas may see his new role in simpler terms, mainly balking, balking at unfunded federal mandates.

Several governors joined Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in calling on Congress to revise requirements by this fall for secure driver's licenses that are intended to help boost national security. The governors said federal mandates for the licenses are too expensive, and 13 states have voted not to participate in the Real ID Act passed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In response NGA Chairman Douglas sagely noted that "Security standards are only useful if people are willing and able to use them," said Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican.
Such comforting simplicity in a world so complex , many things in life are only useful when people are willing and able to use them.
Who could have predicted that he would shine so brightly in Biloxi, a star in the Republican field of garlic indeed?

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Post post pre-9-11 world ?

Maybe the problems are built right in..... “We decided on the name “TRAZE” for our brand of RFID products, considering that RFID is a “Track and RAce” technology; “Z” was used instead of “C” to denote “the spirit of Zorro” which is the passion, energy and excitement that we have for this technology.” MR PRADHYUMNA VENKAT, CEO, GEMINI TRAZE (India’s prime RFID manufacturer)
Who could have predicted that RFID’s in our pockets with hackable identifying codes could lead to privacy concerns .Vermont and Washington State are using and testing enhanced drivers ID with RFID’s for easier fast border crossing. California and Washington have passed anti RFID hacking laws .But with a $ 190.00 tag reader from EBay a man in California easily hacked passers by identifying codes.
Unlikely but perhaps Senator Lieberman’s Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will jump into action on this with a little oversight on this potential privacy problem. Is privacy still dismissed as a pre -9-11 concern or have we entered a post post pre 9-11 era?

Hacking RFID ……his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet
Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card — credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.
…….."enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show..
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but rather "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."

RFID implants: a footnote
Pennsylvania’s House of Reps. recently passed a bill banning the forced implantation of microchips in humans. VeriChip the Inventor and Only FDA-Cleared Implantable RFID Microchip chimes in with some heavily qualified support . “In general, we are supportive of legislation that prohibits forced implants. VeriChip, like any other medical device, should be an election by the patient or his or her physician, loved one or guardian. As long as legislators understand the primary application of VeriChip and the benefits it can provide, we support – in fact we started – the voluntary nature of implantable RFID.”

Foot power of the masses harnessed

The foot falls of the masses in heavily traveled pedestrian areas may be a new source of electrical power generation .In Tokyo a small scale test has been done on the practicality of generating electricity from the heavy foot traffic at subway stations.Here in Vermont we have no daily concentrated mass movement of people large enough to produce power but maybe something could be accomplished with cows or some tourist related movement.I see it now a ,Vermont piezo state inititive. Please step here .
One of the busiest subway stations in Tokyo has installed hatsudenyuka floors which generate power through the use of piezeoelectric elements that convert pressure and vibration of foot stepping crowds onto electricity to power the stations lights. Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials (notably crystals and some ceramics) to generate an electrical charge.This is caused by applied pressure(foot falls )to thin 0.4mm floor tiles of piezo elements covered with mats located throughout the station to generate the power .
At Victoria Underground station in London engineers have calculated that 34,000 travelers passing through every hour could power 6,500 light bulbs. David Webb, a structural engineer at the consultant Scott Wilson, which is in discussions with Network Rail and with retail firms to install the devices, said:

“It’s just picking up on the fact that all structures move a bit. This technology says, okay, we can do something useful with that energy.”

A question of power
Perhaps jumping ahead slightly facetiously with a question; if the power generated in this way is to be sold do the pedestrians get credit/compensation of some type for their freely given energy? The energy of public traffic at a public location is being “harvested”. Does the public own the right to the energy of their footfalls?

The trial test at Tokyo Station, which started in 2006, was put on hold in March to analyze data, and early indications are that the energy harvesting system could be rolled out more widely. East Railway said it now hopes to eventually use the flooring as a clean source of supplementary power for other station technologies such as automatic ticket barriers and display panels.
Piezoelectricity applications have now been trialed at a number of locations around the world, including stations and nightclub dance floors, and while large-scale systems are yet be launched, wider roll out of the technology is being planned.The experiment is being run by subway operator East Japan Railway Co, Tokyo's Keio University and public research body New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

UPDATED :The greenest Jim ,Greenopia responds below

Vermont Governor Douglas may have found himself a little green piece .Who says he is green ? Greenopia a glossy green website that looks to be based in California has rated all 50 U.S. governors on their greeness.Vermont's Governor Jim Douglas is in the top ten greenest governors.
Deserved or not the announcement appears useful for some purposes and already found it's way onto the Vermont State website "It's an honor to receive this recognition," said the ever eloquent and freshly green Governor Douglas.

Incomplete rating data for Douglas ?

Greenopia explains the ratings ...

Doug Mazeffa, Greenopia's director of research. "People want to know which Governors are the eco-leaders or laggards, and especially identify those making repeated eco-gaffes." Data for this study was collected from each governor's own web pages and cross-checked against credible sites such as VoteSmart and OnTheIssues. Energy and emission data was collected from the Department of Energy and the environmental platform data for each political party was collected from either the DNC or RNC's main site.As of this writing, Governor Douglas has not taken any Political Courage Test, but the Vermont Government page has a list of all of the Governor's initiatives and interested parties can read more about these programs.

Note that two of Greenopia's four rating criteria(Votesmart and OnThweIssues.org ) had no information available regarding the governor.
Votesmart Jim Douglas : No ratings on for this official.
No issue stance yet recorded by Jim Douglas :OnTheIssues.org.
Therefore they relied on information entirely from state of Vermont government sources.Such as the governor's website?

Greenopia does have a useful comment section

Greenopia.com responded to my email of 14 days ago expressing skepticism at their methods for Gov. Douglas being named 8th Greenest US Gov. .

We appreciate the feedback.
While Governor Douglas certainly did not have the most aggressive policies out there (we had him as above average), the reason for his higher placing was his much better than average transparency (something that hurt a lot of Governors) and the fact that there was measurable improvements based off some of his policies. We incorporated a scale that measured how successful various energy, water, and emissions programs had been and Vermont had one of the highest results. While this can certainly be argued was not entirely due to Governor Douglas, we felt this was important to consider and gave it a small part of the weighting.

We did not feel that looking at policies alone was good enough to pick the greenest Governors. So many of them never follow through and oftentimes resource conservation measures almost never have the intended effect.

At any rate, we know this result was a bit on the controversial side, but we stand by our scales and do not think the other green governor ratings out there do much justice. While we certainly concede that our scale is not perfect, we pride ourselves in considered more parts of the equation than most other groups.

Once again, we appreciate the feedback and if you want to see the criteria we used in their entirety, you can click on the icons on the governor's scorecard and it will take you to our criteria page.

Best,
Greenopia

George W. Bush to show his prize

The George W. Bush Foundation is now assembling trophies for his library. They may include on display the 9 millimeter Glock pistol taken from Saddam Hussein and given to Bush by soldiers that captured him at his hide out .
A professor and historian at Rice University in Texas said "the pistol opened a psychological window into Mr. Bush’s view of his presidency…"..You think ? The pistol in a glass case for five years was often shown to visitors in the Oval Office.

My gawd it really was all about George .Even out of office Bush can cause my jaw to drop in amazement at his horrid shallowness. No regrets...he has his little prize .

"That was a great day,” Mr. Bush told the Pentagon Channel in December. “I’ve had a lot of beautiful days in office; some not so happy. But my best days have come when certain milestones have been reached, and I love to share those milestones and those days with the people who actually made them happen.”

Mark Langdale, the president of the George W. Bush Foundation, said the library would use items to highlight 25 of Mr. Bush’s presidential decisions. “The gun is an interesting artifact, and it tells you that the United States captured Saddam Hussein and disarmed him literally,” Mr. Langdale said. “How we fit that into the decision to go to war, we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”

.......Glory and Tryumph !

Well why not celebrate ………….
The Declaration was signed on the second of July not the fourth .The quote below is from the now famous letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail from Philadelphia.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.