Finally
ArchPundit
D-Squared has taken up my call for a Reader’s Digest version of Den Beste. I’m glad it is someone else unfortunate place to decipher the ramblings for the rest of us with a life.
Fawell: “The first rule in this business
‘Never write anything down,’" or so says Rich Miller. As I mentioned on Political State Report. No one is surprised the list existed, they are surprised it is in writing.
The Sun-Times has the list up here.
Beginner’s Mistakes
Rich Miller over at the is going apopolectic over the lack of information flowing from the G-Rod administration along with State-Journal Register columnist Bernard Schoenburg. While they are correct that this could turn into a problem, the immediate impact is pretty non-existent. Primarily it is the press wringing their hands over insider baseball and voters don’t care.
Three posts upcoming at Political State Report
Check out The Political State Report in the morning. I have three posts that will be up then:
1) Tollway Authority Reform
2) South Suburb Revolt
3) Daley has to bother with an election?
Snyder out at Corrections
One of the areas in Illinois government that has long had a bunch of cockroaches hiding in the dark is the Corrections Department. In 1999 that changed a great deal when George Ryan appointed Don Snyder. Snyder put an end to the inmates running the prison system. It was so bad in some facilities that some areas were painted with gang colors. Discipline for inmates and guards were non-existent and peace was largely maintained by buying off gangs with privileges. There is a lot of dirt there for an enterprising reporter to dig up. Snyder put an end to that and reformed the system in pretty damn record time.
For those who wonder how bad it could be remember, Richard Speck, a convicted serial killer, receiving illegal hormones to grow breasts, having a cocaine party with some pals and having a video recorder to tape the whole thing. But that wasn’t the real scandal, the real scandal was how quickly Edgar quashed the investigations into the prison system.
There is nothing dark about his replacement, Ernesto Velasco. It appears he is competent and should maintain a reasonable level of professionalism in the DOC. Snyder deserves praise for his service to the State of Illinois.
Updates done, back Sunday!
Sorry for the unplanned absence, but I needed to update the template, blogroll and busy personal life. Tomorrow I’ll return.
Later, but
Get your fix of Illinois Politics at the Political State Report. Two posting up today.
Fixing the Template
And updating the blogroll. Check out the new links while you are here!
Shuttle Accident and the Legend of Pad 39- B
The loss of the Columbia’s Crew is a tragedy and my prayers go out to their familys.
The cause of the accident will take a while to determine, but a couple things to keep in mind are the shuttle doesn’t glide into its landing spot, it falls like a controlled rock with some wind resistance. The process of reentry is pretty hairy and a minor malfunction or human mistake at the wrong moment can distribute heat to the portion of the shuttle and cause a massive failure such as this. Finally, from an interview with one of the crew members aired on CNN, the shuttle was returning with its heaviest load since the beginning of the program.
While I understand the administration explaining there are no signs of terrorism, the notion that this was terrorism is a bit silly. The meme after any disaster continues though with the Reynolds two-step of mentioning terrorism as unlikely, but offering up the who knows line adding a dark overtone. The problem as with other similar instances is that it encourage hypervigilance instead of rational calculation of risks. In updates he points out why it is unlikely terrorism. Less bright individuals have chimed in as well.
One of the long held legends around Kennedy Space Center is that Pad 39-B is jinxed. Today’s flight originated from that pad as did STS-25, the Challenger accident. STS-25 was the first shuttle launch from 39-B, as it had just finished being retrofited. In the more strange forms of the legend Apollo I and XIII are included in the list of mishaps, but Apollo I occurred on 34-A and XIII launched from 39-A. Several incidents while working on the pad have also occurred, but I don’t have any details of those handy. Like many legends, the legend overtakes the facts.
The shuttle will fly again once the cause is determined. Unfortunately, given the current fiscal situation it seems unlikely that we will be seeing the next generation of space vehichle for some time. That is unfortunate. One interesting statistic regarding the Challenger accident is that if one takes the required probability of essential systems functioning properly, and multiply those by each other, there was a one in 25 chance of the shuttle facing a catastrophic failure. In a Kennedy-Lincoln like coincidence, STS-25 was the first shuttle lost.
As a tribute can I suggest the rerelease of Hail Columbia! I remember seeing years ago in Huntsville,Alabama as a part of Space Camp. Given it isn’t regularly played around the country anymore, a rerelease would be a wonderful way to remember Columbia and its crew. For those who haven’t seen it on an Omnimax screen, it is amazing.
Up DATE: I thought this would show up as a parody at Eschaton. I was wrong:
Via phone, my mother just reported that William Burrows (on NBC) called Congress an "unindicted co-conspirator" for its bad policy and budgetary neglect. That’s about right.
The sheer number of problems that can happen to an experimental craft boggles the mind. Before declaring Congress an unindicted co-conspirator, one might want to know WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!
As a note, the Challenger didn’t occur because of inadequate funding, but because of bad safety decisions made due to political pressure from a different branch to get the teacher into space.