Ron's Log

Gay Partner At U.N. Ignored By U.S.

Richard Grenell has been spokesperson for the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for more than seven years, making him the longest-serving spokesperson for the U.S. Ambassador ever. Grenell is gay and has a partner, Matt Lashey. They are not married because they are residents of New York [when does the NY law take effect, recognizing Massachusetts, Canadian and California marriages?]. Grenell has been trying to get his partner listed in the United Nations' Blue Book for four years. Since the White House treats Grenell's partner on an equal basis as others' spouses, he thought that there wouldn't be much of a problem getting the State Department to cooperate.

Wrong-o. After putting him off with various lies and misdirections, the State Department is falling back on the "Defense of Marriage Act" which forbids any department of the federal government to recognize any gay marriage, even if it's not a marriage.

Department of Homeland Security Knows Better Than Congress

This past July Congress repealed the statutory ban on HIV-positive visitors to the U.S. Now, however, the Department of Homeland Security is ignoring the repeal and instead is "streamlining" the process for admitting HIV-positive vistors.

Land Use Database

Hiding behind the unimpressive title of The Center for Land Use Interpretation's Land Use Database is this impressive list of, uh, Things. Things that take up a piece of land. In California alone that includes a list of hundreds of sites ranging from ghost towns to Disneyland. Each item includes a short description and a link to a Google map. Some also include links to other sites with more information.

For example, Navy practice targets in the Imperial Valley.

The CLUI is based in Los Angeles and may display some regional chauvinism. Rhode Island lists only three sites, but I imagine they accept nominations.

In August they organized a sold out bus trip to the landfill in Whittier. This is my kinda group!

Paranoia and a Solution

A scientist at JPL is working on technology that will allow a person to be identified from spy satellites by watching the shadow of his (or her) gait. A determined evil-doer could get around that by walking outside only at night, on cloudy days, or in shady areas (like a Manhattan street). But here's a more universal solution for those moments when you have to dash across the street in broad daylight. Of course, you may want to choose a less distinctive graphic.

Ducheny Bill Vetoed

In his rush to clear through a backlog of bills that he was holding to try to get the legislature to act on a budget, Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed SB 1326 which would have opened up the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District to more public scrutiny.

United Mine Workers Local #1702 Repudiate NRA Tactic

The United Mine Workers of America have endorsed Obama for President. On Monday Consol mine owners allowed a National Rifle Association film crew onto their property to try to get miners to speak out against Obama. So 440 union miners took a hike, calling it a "memorial day" thereby idling the mine.

Here's an interesting article on the union's website comparing McCain and Obama solely on the issue of coal. It seems that bastard McCain is opposed to "mountaintop removal mining" and wants to build 45 nuclear power plants by 2025. Saint Obama, OTOH, has pledged to fund "carbon capture and storage" research and calls the U.S. the "Saudi Arabia of coal."

I wonder how it might have gone if instead of using the NRA, they had brought in a veterans group and tried to interview the miners on the candidates' positions on "Don't Ask/Don't Tell."

Now I Understand

Sarah Palin explains an aspect of the coal and oil markets in this YouTube video. Here I have transcribed her words so that you might study them more easily:

Oil and coal, of course it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So I believe that what Congress is going to do also is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first.

How They Voted

The website of Congress has been suffering today under the strain of citizens seeking information on the bailout bill. But now it seems to be working well enough to display the vote of each Representative on HR 1517, the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008." I see that my Rep, Jerry Lewis, voted FOR it.

Tamarisk Control

The tamarisk tree (or salt cedar) is one of the most destructive of invasive species in the desert. Introduced in the southwest from north Africa in the 1850s, it has been used as a windbreak and an impressively drought resistant shade tree. Here's a map showing its spread in the U.S. It is able to grow in saline soils and send roots deep to find water. When you find tamarisks growing in a desert wash you may notice less vegetation downstream because the tamarisk is consuming so much of the water that occasionally flows down the wash.

A National Park Service article about the tamarisk in the White Sands National Monument.

Merely cutting down or burning the tamarisk will not kill it. So we are pleased to report that the introduction of the beetle Diorhabda elongata holds promise. Yes, we know that the introduction of invasive species to control other invasive species in the past has led to surprising disasters, but the tamarisk may be worth it. Scientists tell us that the beetle eats nothing but tamarisk leaves.

They were first released in the western U.S. in 2001 and they are spreading. Scientists say that it takes four years of defoliation to kill a tamarisk and that even after the trees are killed, the salinity they have added to the soil may prevent native species from returning. The federal government has not been funding re-vegetation efforts.

Sergey Brin Opposes Prop 8

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has posted a two-paragraph entry on The Official Google Blog expressing the corporation's opposition to California proposition 8, which would repeal the rights of Californians to marry.