Somehow, I'm not surprised. This is, after all, the US.

LOS ANGELES — Six passengers on an Alaska Airlines jet that suddenly lost pressure when a hole opened in its fuselage sued the airline and its baggage handlers Friday.

No one was seriously hurt when a 12-inch gash split the fuselage on a flight from Seattle to Burbank, Calif., Dec. 26. But James P. Kreindler, an attorney for the passengers, said in a statement that his clients' "lives are profoundly challenged by what they thought was their near-death experiences ... passengers were saying their last goodbyes to loved ones."

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Unity in the Community - Meeting to Plan Response to Upcoming Announced Nazi Activity

Please join local residents in building a community response to recent and announced Nazi plans for targeting Olympia for a 3-day Nazi presence over the 4th of July weekend. Our goal is to reinforce and organize a broad-based coalition of groups and individuals truly representative of our community to uphold diversity and say "No!" to hate groups.

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This is something that I'm going to try to do each week, a review of the Olympia City Council packet, which is typically available online each Friday here as a zip file.

This won't be a totally thorough or unbiased review, I'm mostly going to pick out things that I find interesting.

1. For the 18th and Fones Rd. improvement project to go forward, the city needed some property from developer Paul DeTray. He didn't want to sell, so they started a condemnation process, and now the city is willing to pay him $925,000.

2. What was Drew Hendricks photographing at the transit center? Interesting part of the Jan. 24 meeting minutes:

Councilmember Johnson reported Intercity Transit has revised its policy on photography and Drew Hendricks is no longer barred from the Olympia Transit Station property. He said the Board will be working on redefining and implementing regulations related to inappropriate behaviors at the Transit Center.

3. Work plans for all the advisory committees are in the packet because the council is starting its recruitment process and this is the time that they generally thing about what the committees should be for.

4. City manager pay may go up by $2,565 with a $4,000 performance bonus.

The National Socialist Movement is planning a whole schedule of activities leading up to July. They have tightened their security online and events are now divided into restricted and public categories.

They are quite actively recruiting.

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Medicaid: The House bill would allow states to make low-income families pay $25 or more for doctor's visits plus charging them for premiums for the first time in Medicaid's history. Total charges can reach up to 5 percent of a family's income - for example, a family of three with an annual income of $17,000 would be expected to pay $850. States would also be able to reduce the benefits package. Research shows that imposing these costs means children will go without care.

Child Support Enforcement: Reducing the federal share of enforcement costs means that children will go without $7.9 billion in child support they are owed over 5 years, rising to $24.1 billion over 10 years. Child support adds urgently needed stability to help families that have moved from welfare to work. Every one dollar spent results in more than four dollars collectd - it is a cost-effective investment.

Food Stamps: About 300,000 low-income people a month will lose food stamps from two provisions: (1) 225,000 people in working families who no longer recieve TANF cash benefits but recieve child care, training, or other services will lose food stamps, even though their work and housing expenses drop their income below the poverty line ($16,090 for a 3-person family). (2) 70,000 immigrants here LEGALLY will lose food stamps each month because they will have to wait 7 years to qualify, no matter how poor they are, instead of the current 5 years. A slight change proposed would allow a few people aged 60 or older who had already started to recieve food stamps to continue - but starting in 2008, the 7-year ban will apply.

From The Tacoma News Tribune:

La Niña’s arrival became official Thursday, according to scientists at the Climate Prediction Center in Maryland, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It’s about time,” said atmospheric scientist Ed Sarachik, a University of Washington professor and co-director of the Center of Science in the Earth System.

Equatorial sea temperatures began dropping below normal in November, but NOAA doesn’t define the condition as La Niña until it has persisted for three consecutive months.

“This pattern will favor continued drought in parts of the South and Southwest from Arizona to Arkansas and Louisiana, and above-normal precipitation in the Northwest and the Tennessee Valley,” said Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher, NOAA administrator.

[snip]

Since the start of the water year that began last October, 27.3 inches have fallen at Sea-Tac Airport. The average is 20, according to the National Weather Service.

Olympia, which is typically wetter, has outdone itself with 38.4 inches since Oct. 1. The average total for this time of year is almost 10 inches less.

From The Olympian:

One idea floated Thursday is to place the question on the ballot for voters to weigh in after the $1.14 million estuary feasibility study is completed in late 2008.

A ballot measure would probably be advisory, since the fate of the lake as part of the state Capitol Campus rests with the state Capitol Committee and ultimately the state Legislature, which would have to allot the money for dredging projects to maintain the lake or costly dam removal and bridge and road work to make way for a free-flowing river.

Here's a link to an article about Donald Rumsfeld comparing Hugo Chavez to Adolf Hitler.

I really can't take people seriously, whether it's moveon.org or Donald Rumsfeld, when they start making comparisons to Hitler, let alone ridiculous comparisons.

The comparison is based on Chavez consolidating power. I mean, I guess you could compare to Hitler since that's the trait being compared but there's also, oh, thousands (and a lot more) of people throughout history who consolidated power.

I think the Hitler comparison is meant for shock value. The GOP voters are going to start to believe Chavez = Hitler, just like the far left in this country believe Bush = Hiter.

LIVERMORE, California (AP) -- Officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have added a new weapon to their armory: a high-powered machine gun that can fire more than 50 rounds per second.

Lab critics questioned the wisdom of putting such powerful guns at the lab, which is across the street from suburban homes.

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I'd be curious as to whether or not the laboratory was there before the homes.

If that's the case, the people aren't the brightest for purchasing a home next to a laboratory conducting nuclear research.

It's like the people who live next to Fort Lewis and complain. Granted, the exercises at Fort Lewis shouldn't get stuff onto your property (or whatever it is people gripe about) but common sense would dictate that one probably wouldn't buy property next to a military base.

Our security rests on U.S. power and will, and not on whether Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria, Cuba or even China is ruled by tyrants. Our forefathers lived secure in a world of tyrannies by staying out of wars that were none of America's business. As for "the end of tyranny in our world," Mr. President, sorry, that doesn't come in "our world." That comes in the next.

If America is angry over what interventionism and free trade have wrought, George Bush cannot credibly blame isolationists or protectionists. These fellows have an alibi. They were nowhere near the scene of the crime.

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When I stated in another thread that Arabic (and, for all intents and purposes, Islamic) values and the West were bound to collide and needed to be dealt with "one way or the other," I did mean interventionalism. I did not mean, however, that it was the only option on the table.

I can't remember who it was but on Chris Matthews' Hardball today a man brought up the point that, as of right now, we can't do a ton in regard to Iran, since they'll simply stop the petroleum from flowing and leave our economy open to a recession.

Our dependence on foreign resources is dictating our foreign policy to the point that we have to be involved with what is taking place in other regions of the world not by choice but by necessity.

The sooner we are not dependent on foreign resources, the sooner we can leave and let them decide on their own just who they want to rule over them. If they want a backward government, let them have it.

I'm pretty mixed on free trade versus protectionism. On one hand, I think a consumer should be able to purchase the best product available on the market without the government artificially adjusting prices.