Rest in Peace, Hunter

Hunter S. Thompson has submitted his last piece. He shot himself to death last night, after 67 event filled years. I met him in the San Jose CA airport 25 years ago, when he was headed to Hawaii for the first marathon, and I was going to an EPA conference there on wastewater funding. I saw him loping through the concourse and with my usual aplomb ran up screaming "Hunter Thompson, you're my hero!!" (his real friends always left out the "S"). He bravely replied "shit, I thought I'd been busted."
He'll be missed.

Best Environmental History of Technology I've Seen

Here's a little 23 page wonder from The Nation. It's an excellent Secret History of Lead and worth reading. Seems that as an antiknock compound, ethanol has every virtue but patentability, so GM and Standard Oil needed to create a patentable profit making remedy to engine knock. Thank GM when your kids are stupid.

Let's Get Atrios Back on Top

Seems Google has somehow dropped Atrios from its search engine, and the only cure is for more of us to link with Eschaton. Do it wisely.

Getting Traction on Social Security

Seems we're getting some traction against Dubya's Social Security demolition. Republican Congressmen are realizing, as analyzed in another blog today, that 1) they have to get reelected in two years, 2) that gutting SS would gain them nothing personally but it's a great risk, and 3) that Dubya can't help them if their districts turn them out. Personally, I'm outraged that Dubya is trying to cheat Americans out of the extra withholding we've been chipping in since 1983, when Alan Greenspan ran the numbers and realized the system would go negative. By 2018, there'll be enough in the trust fund to maintain benefits until 2042 (at a minimum). The extra funding has been in Treasury notes, letting the Government cost a little less to run, but Dubya'd rather default than raise taxes on his rich pals.

Manifestation in Tampa Against Privatization

I prefer the French term Manifestation instead of demonstration, because we made our displeasure manifest on the occasion of George W. Bush's visit to Tampa to hype his approach to pillaging the future. Today in Tampa we manifested our displeasure with George W. Bush's privatization scheme, with approximately 300 Floridians turning out to witness against GWB's looting of the Social Security Trust Fund.

Speakers included Phil Compton of Florida Consumer Action Network (FCAN), John Russell, Democratic opponent for Ginny Brown-Waite in Congress seat FL-5, and several others. After the speeches, the demonstrators marched down toward the Tampa Convention Center to get as close to GWB as the police would allow.

Pictures are available upon request -- "hello" is screwing up.