$260,000,000

Just west of Fort Dodge, Iowa sits a corn processing plant. Cost to build: $260,000,000. A promise to the state of Iowa and Webster county to create 100 jobs.

Investments by Webster County, Fort Dodge and the state, huge.

None of it is going to happen.

The Crab Revealed!

Bovine Beauty

Update: I also learned the name of the juvenile delinquent who was pictured in a previous post: Poof!

Not All cattle in Iowa are black

A nice Friday afternoon

Milk robber

Drilling Mud and Utter Stupidity

UPDATE 10: Looking at the flow now, relative to the earlier pictures it does definitely seem to be reduced. So I would suspect that they have reduced the amount they are pumping in to balance against the leaks, while they monitor the pressure in the well and see if there are any problems develop. If there aren't any (and their chance is reducing) then the plan was to inject cement and create a plug. No-one has mentioned how much of that they have available.

Incidentally, I note from some of the comments below that there is an assumption that they measured 25,000 bd of leakage. That wasn't what I said, which was that if it took 22 hours to fill the well at 20 barrels a minute, then one could assume, knowing the volume of the well, that the rest was leakage. It looks as though it took about 7 hours to fill the well, which would mean (at that assumed pumping rate) that about 60% of the fluid injected was going out through the leaks, and this comes out at about 12 barrels/min or 17,000 bd. (5 am)

Expert discussion the Deepwater Top Kill effort from The Oil Drum.

Oh, and as Rachael Maddow explains, we've been here before:

One more thing check out the sugestions, like the following one, at America Speaks Out.

we should make english the official language of the US and stop spending tax dollars on translations for mexicans! if english is good enough for baby jesus, its good enough for americans.

Stuff Happens

Lately I have taken to the serious side on CCHSA. The right wing crazies and BP and their serious screw up have wieghed heavily on my small brain. Today some pictures.

A real Dutch windmill in Iowa

My first bloom of the year

Breasts only three miles from the windmill!

A plow someone forgot to move and an oak tree grew around it

And fianlly this aberation

What the World Needs????

Update: What's the point of this?

Pastor Jeff has apologized for the hate that he spewed. I believe him and forgive him. The things that a person believes can change over time.

Elena Kagan's thesis while at Harvard in 1981 is being used by the right to prove that she is a socialist and not fit to be a member of the Supreme Court. Is she a socialist just because she wrote about the failure of socialism while a student?

Why doesn't the right give people a chance to change their minds, as Pastor Jeff does?

Do we really need preachers like Pastor Jeff Owens?



Alas, he has apologized:

Get Pregnant and Get Rich

At least she's learned how to cross her legs!

It seems that child mother Bristol Palin has found a way to support the baby that she and Levi (his 15 minutes is up) conceived. And she is going to do it the old fashioned way; by telling other teens not to have sex. At $15,000-$30,000 per speaking engagement. Cool.

Of course she wouldn't have this opportunity if her mother, what's her name, hadn't been thrust into the national spotlight by a desperate John McCain. The rww* will point to Bristol and whn** as success stories of good old American capitalism. They worked hard to make good in difficult times.

*right wing whakos
**what's her name

story here

In other republican sex related news, Rep. Mark Souder, R-Indiana, resigned Tuesday, after acknowledging that he “sinned against God” by engaging in a relationship with a member of his staff.

via

Quote of the Day

"Bunch them up and stick them in that great big hole that they're trying to stop up. Excuse my being ugly, but that's what I think about them."

Doris Bishop, Point Clear, Alabama talking about using BP executives to stop the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

story from CNN

Flying Penquins Discovered

Read the story

The Downward Spiral Continues

There are a couple of real screwups in this screenshot from WGN news. The first correct answer wins a label in an upcoming post.

from Deadspin

Life's Been Good

Dedicated to some very special friends.

Happy Mother's Day

Patriotic Americans and Flags

The Flag Code states that the flag should never be worn. (Section 8d): "The flag should never be used as wearing apparel."On May 5th, some high school students had a bit of a problem with their attire. It seems the administration thought they were being disrespectful of the Mexican-American students by wearing American flag t-shirts to school. They were sent home and asked to apologize. One of the future voters had this to say regarding an apology:

"I'm not going to apologize. I did nothing wrong," Galli said. "I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag, but I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American."

I think they and the administrators should be put in a room and made to read the Flag Code.

According to the Flag Code, a flag is anything "by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag."

The words "flag, standard, colors, or ensign", as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America.
Source: Flag Code, Section 3

Therefore, a flag includes any representation of it of any substance, with stars and stripes of any number. This would include T-shirts and ties.

You should never sign the flag directly on it. If your flag has a canvas strip that holds the grommets, it is acceptable to have everyone sign along that canvas strip. Or, you can have everyone sign a separate document that can then be framed and displayed with the flag.

GW Bush hasn't read the Flag Code either.

Juvenile Delinquent

Sorry Mom, I'm on the wrong side of the fence.

Overheard

Interesting conversation this evening:

"I'm not sure whether being in the seafood business right now is good or bad."
______________________________________________________

"But it's a tax writeoff"!

"Yes, but we still have to pay for it."

A Wonderful Day

This calf was enjoying a nice nap on a beautiful, sunny spring day....

...until I decided to make noise and wake him/her up.

Mama and other friends

Chocolate Cake