Today's Train of Thought- Say "Adirondack"; October 28, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to the opposite shore of Lake Champlain and the Canadian Pacific's former Delaware & Hudson line between Albany, NY and Montreal, QC.

This end of the D&H wasn't historically as busy as the Mechanicville, NY to Binghampton, NY segment, which to this day serves as a bridge line between New England and the mid-Atlantic states and points west. However, besides being the railroad's gateway to Canada, the more northerly and scenic portion of the D&H was noteworthy in that it hosted one of the few post-Amtrak passenger trains where a freight railway used their own locomotives and rolling stock, when the railroad resumed passenger hauling with the Adirondack in 1974.

Amtrak eventually assumed control of the Rensselaer, NY to Montreal segment of the Adirondack and to this day is rated as one of the passenger carrier's most scenic routes. Through it all, the Adirondack has continued operating through the host railroad's acquisition and subsequent messy divorce from Guilford Transportation, the more amicable divorce from New York Susquehanna & Western and it's current ownership by Canadian Pacific.

In fact, traffic on the Albany-Montreal section of the D&H is expected to see an increase, with the Canadian Pacific and CSX reaching an agreement on hauling CSX freight between Selkirk, NY and Montreal, eliminating a lengthy detour via Syracuse, NY for CSX. In return, CSX would handle Canadian Pacific's freight between New York City and Selkirk. Aside from the already existing CP traffic and newly rerouted CSX traffic, the Adirondack also has to compete with trains 666 and it's less satanic counterpart 667, a unit ethanol train that runs between North Dakota and Providence, RI via Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and Rutland, VT (onto the Vermont Railway, New England Central and Providence & Worcester).

Railpictures.net contributor Frank Jolin knows this line well, and on October 23, 2009 he caught Amtrak P42CD #16 leading the southbound Adirondack (train #68 on most timetables), complete with a dome car, making it's way past the Red Rocks above Lake Champlain's Willsboro Bay, just north of Willsboro NY.

Bill For Illegal Immigrants' Medical Care Costs Bay State $35 Million

Gov. Deval Patrick's office- acting under orders from the Massachusetts Secretary of State- released figures showing that an estimated 52,000 illegal immigrants in the MassHealth Limited system cost the commonwealth $33.8 million in taxpayer funded in-patient care and another $1.9 million in emergency care [no word if this included coverage for Obama's Aunt Zeituni- NANESB!].

For some reason, Patrick doesn't want to talk about it.

The Patrick administration, which supplied the figures last week, refused to make state health insurance officials available to discuss them.

But critics were quick to blast the huge medical bill being footed by hard-pressed, law-abiding taxpayers.

“Incorporating illegal immigrants into any type of government-sponsored health care is legitimizing their presence here,’’ said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter immigration policies. “It’s a kind of piecemeal amnesty.’’

Keep in mind this is the same Deval Patrick who initially vetoed $500,000 to keep the outpatient clinic at the Soldier's Home in Holyoke open not even a year ago. It wasn't until after veterans and Soldier's Home staff protested the closure that Patrick did an about-face just days before the January special US Senate election between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley.

[Hat tip- Spitfire Murphy]

Feds Arrest Suspects in Northern Virginia, Hawaii in Seperate Alleged Terror Plots

Hmmm.....must be those dangerous Tea Party activists, healthcare opponents or the various and sundry right-wingers that the Department of Homeland Security and Mayor Bloomberg warned us about.

Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, conspired with people he believed to be al-Qaeda operatives to attack the stations at Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Court House, the indictment said.

An administration official said Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, first drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials. He later became the target of an undercover sting operation, officials said.

According to the indictment, in April Ahmed began to meet in hotels in Northern Virginia with people he believed to be affiliated with a terrorist organization. He agreed to conduct video surveillance of the stations, suggested the best time to attack and the best place to place explosives to maximize casualties, the indictment alleges.

Meanwhile in Hawaii, the FBI arrested a 21-year old man who had been turned away from Jordan and Pakistan who was hoping to link up with jihadi groups to learn guerrilla warfare tactics and bomb-making.

The 21-year-old [Abdel Hameed Shehadeh] born and raised in New York created websites and posted threats of radical Islamic violence, including one from another American expatriate, Anwar al Awlaki. Then Shehadeh flew to Hawaii and allegedly started taking target practice.

FBI agents said he wanted to join a jihadist group to learn “guerrilla warfare and bomb-making.” Had he been welcomed into the U.S. army, they said, his plan was to defect in Iraq and turn against his comrades.

Shehadeh’s journeys ended last Friday. He was arrested in Honolulu and accused in a federal criminal complaint, unsealed Monday, of making false statements in an international terrorism case

Wait....what? They're not with the Tea Parties? That can't be right....I mean it's not like the SPLC or NAACP would lie about or exaggerate such things.

[Hat tip: Eat It or Wear It]

Indonesian Islands Hammered by Quakes, Volcanoes, Tsunamis

Authorities in Indonesia are attempting to cope with no less than two disasters that have struck seperate parts of the country. Television reports from Java indicate that at least 28 people were killed when the 9700 ft Mt. Merapi volcano erupted, unleashing a plume of toxic gases and superheated ash throughout the reigon.

At least 11,000 people scattered thoughout small villages live at the foot of the volcano. Authorities have tried setting up a 4-mile exclusion zone around Merapi, but locals can easily circumvent it with a network of footpaths that lead back to their properties ignoring official warnings to check on their houses and livestock.

Vulcanologists have indicated that pressure is building up under a lava dome inside of Merapi, a likely precursor to a larger and more devestating eruption. The volcano is located in the Yogyakarta province of Indonesia's most populous island.

Meanwhile, about 800 miles to the west, at least 154 people are dead and another 500 missing off of Sumatra's west coast after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake triggered a tsunami on Monday. The quake took place along the same fault line that started the devestating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Rough seas, bad weather and the remote location of some of the stricken areas have hindered relief efforts, leaving survivors to make do with what they could salvage for two days. Fishermen were scouring the waters for survivors while corpses littered beaches and roads in some parts of Sumatra. Cargo planes carrying tents, food, fresh water and medicine were expected to arrive in the area later on today.

Frostbite Falls in Mourning as Rocky & Bullwinkle Creator Passes Away

Alexander Anderson Jr, the creator of the Rocky & Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right cartoons, passed away at age 90 in his Carmel, CA home on Tuesday.

Anderson was the nephew of Paul Terry, whose Terrytoons included Mighty Mouse and were distributed in theaters. After working with his uncle, Anderson and his longtime friend Jay Ward got together and began producing cartoons for the emerging television market in the late 1940s.

Voting Machines on Auto-Pilot? Irregularities Showing At Early Polling in Nevada, North Carolina, Texas

Well, they couldn't get the absentee ballots off in time in New York or Illinois, so why on earth would any of us think the early polling go any better elsewhere?

Early voting for the Nov. 2nd mid-terms got off to a rocky start in some jurisdictions this week.

By Tuesday night, there were reports that polling stations in at least two counties in North Carolina were experiencing problems with the touchscreen voting machines.

Laughinghouse cast his ballot at the [Craven] county administration building at about 2:30 p.m., he said. After voting, he located a Republican worker on site and asked to speak with her about his voting machine issue. A man interrupted, he said, directing Laughinghouse to talk with him instead. That man said the machine likely needed to be calibrated, Laughinghouse said, and set about the method to do so

Nearby New Hanover County also experienced similar problems on the first day of One Stop Voting earlier this month.

Out in Nevada, there have been reports coming in from Las Vegas and elsewhere in Clark County that voters have found their touchscreen voting machines had already checked Harry Reid's name.

Voter Joyce Ferrara said when they went to vote for Republican Sharron Angle, her Democratic opponent, Sen. Harry Reid's name was already checked.

Ferrara said she wasn't alone in her voting experience. She said her husband and several others voting at the same time all had the same thing happen.

"Something's not right," Ferrara said. "One person that's a fluke. Two, that's strange. But several within a five minute period of time -- that's wrong."

As it turns out, the technicians for the voting machines are represented by SEIU Local 1107, which has supported Reid's bid for a fifth term as senator. Perhaps even more ominously, Reid's son Rory also happens to be the chairman of the Clark County Commission and is running for governor of Nevada.

In Texas, there have been reports of votes for Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rick Perry being switched to the Green Party's Deb Shafto and votes for Democrat candidate Bill White being shifted to show Rick Perry, again using touchscreen technology.

And in Troy, NY, New York State Police investigators have taken DNA samples from a Troy city councilman and the city clerk as part of an ongoing absentee voter registration fraud case from last year. The two officials are suspected of forging dozens of absentee ballots and attributing them to voters who had no role in filling them out.


As an aside, I worked as an election worker in a statewide special election a few years back. The only position that was available at the time was to set up and inspect the touchscreen voting machine. I was assigned to a polling station in a village of about 1800 and maybe 40 people showed up all day. The county gives you the choice of paper ballot or the touchscreen, and none of the voters who showed up wanted to use the touchscreen, so I was basically the Maytag repairman throughout the day. And even though nobody used the machine, we had to secure the memory card and printout with the paper ballots as though there really were votes to be tallied on there before handing them off the the Sheriff's department.

So with that in mind, the million dollar question is "Do each of these jurisdictions offer a choice between paper ballot or the touchscreen, or is it exclusive touchscreen voting?". Although clearly not 100% tamper-proof, I would prefer to use a paper ballot myself come election day in light of recent events.

Today's Train of Thought- Peak-a-Boo! October 26, 2010

I already mentioned that New England doesn't necessarily have the monopoly on fall colors, right? True enough, the foliage in Michigan's upper peninsula or upstate New York's Adirondack and Hudson Valley regions explode into similarly brilliant displays of reds, oranges and yellows- all making for impressive photographic backdrops.

Although many areas in the Southeast or mid-Atlantic can be hit or miss, West Virginia has no shortage of autumn foliage. Railpictures.net contributor Chase Gunnoe reported that a particularly mild summer in 2009 resulted in noticeably brighter oranges and yellows. Here, he snapped CSX (ex-Conrail) GP38-2 #2751 heading south through Ben's Run, WV in October 2009 with a local. The local train originated at Brooklyn Jct. in New Martinsville, WV and is heading south parallel to the Ohio River and WV Route 2 en route to switching some of the industries along the former B&O Ohio River Subdivision.

Obama Urges Hispanics to 'Punish Enemies' in Univision Interview

This from our post-racial, post-partisan President of course.

“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2,” Obama said in the interview, which was taped Friday in Los Angeles.

And what 'enemies' is the Commander in Chief referring to? Al Qaeda? A nuclear Iran? The Mexican cartels and their murderous enforcers?

Gosh no, you naive rubes. He's talking about Republicans- you know, the political party that's been out of power for the last four years.

Obama sought to place blame directly on Republicans, who he said have turned on Latinos by focusing only on border security, supporting Arizona’s immigration enforcement law and opposing the Dream Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for some students and those who serve in the military.

“Those aren’t the kind of folks who represent our core American values,” Obama said of Republicans

Yes, apparently focusing on border security and enforcing this nation's laws is contrary to core American values in Obama's eyes. I mean anybody who opposes wholesome Democrat supported legislative items like 0bamacare, Card Check, Cap & Trade or another stimulus clearly hates mom, baseball, apple pie and all things American.

Let that sink in. We have a sitting president of the United States of America who is exhorting one ethnic group to 'punish their enemies', referring to other US citizens as the 'enemy'.

Nov 2nd cannot come fast enough.

[hat tip- Lonely Conservative; Hugh Hewitt]

Upright Sports Chowdah Recap- Posting Gains in San Diego; Texas Sized Upset; NL Champs? They Might Be Giants; BC Spiral Continues at Turtle's Pace

NFL: OK now....you can unclench.

In the end, it looked like the Patriots wanted to give it away, but the Chargers were having none of it.

The Chargers were headed into week 7 hosting the Patriots in a must-win scenario after dropping two in a row. With 4 turnovers by the Chargers in the first half- including a botched lateral that nearly everybody on the field walked away from before realizing it was a live ball and rookie Richard Goodman leaving the ball on the field after his first career reception (a 25 yard pickup) San Diego was fortunate to be trailing New England by a 13-3 margin at halftime.

The Patriots opened up the second half with an eight minute drive culminating in a Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis TD run from the San Diego 1 yard line to make it a 20-3. But as badly as San Diego played in the first half, the came on strong in the 4th quarter, moving the ball down the field efficiently and outscoring the Pats 17-3. New England got the ball back at their own 40 after the Charger's kickoff went out of bounds, but couldn't convert on 4th and 1, turning the ball over on downs. San Diego was able to get the ball as far as the Patriots 27, running the clock down to 28 seconds in regulation in the process. However, a procedural penalty against the offense forced newly-signed San Diego kicker Kris Brown to attempt the field goal from mid-field. The 50-yard attempt hit the post and New England barely holds on to win by a final of 23-20 on the road.

The Chargers fall to 2-5 while the Patriots have a fairly spiffy 5-1 record. New England has an identical record with the idle Jets, while elsewhere in the AFC East Miami fell to 3-3 with a 23-22 loss to the Steelers in South Florida Sunday afternoon. Tom Brady went 19-32 with 159 yards and a touchdown. Pretty quiet day from Wes Welker, although on special teams Zoltan Mesko acquitted himself fairly well after a couple of bad snaps (including some one-hoppers).

I think when all is said and done, I'm going to have to nominate the right upright of the goal post at Qualcomm stadium as Sunday's MVP for the Patriots.

Next weekend, the Pats will be reunited with Randy Moss at Foxboro as the Vikings come in to town fresh off their Sunday night loss to Green Bay at Lambeau Field.

A picture's worth a thousand words- BWA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

MLB: So....has anybody gone with the 'Steers & Queers' World Series moniker yet?

All I can say is remember when a starting pitcher signing with or getting traded to the Rangers was more or less a career death sentence?

The Texas Rangers had Cliff Lee ready to go for Game 7 should the ALCS get that far. As it turned out, there was no need. With the Rangers heading back to Arlington, TX holding a 3-2 advantage in the ALCS, Colby Lewis got the start for Texas while Phil Hughes was given the start for New York in a do-or-die situation.

If you had heard of Colby Lewis prior to the 2010 ALCS and aren't from the Lone Star state, raise your hand. In which case, I'm probably going to say you're full of crap (altho' I had heard of him in passing after losing against the a close game Sox back in August). On Friday night, the journeyman Rangers starter went eight innings, giving up only one earned run and striking out seven with the growd chanting 'Col-by!' as the innings progressed. The only run allowed by Lewis came on a wild pitch (that apparently hit Nick Swisher) that brought Alex Rodriguez in from third to tie the game at 1-1 in the top of the 5th inning.

That was as close as the Yankees would get.

Rangers 1B Mitch Moreland led off the bottom of the 5th with a single before moving to third on back-to-back groundouts. The Yankees decided to pitch around Josh Hamilton to get to Vlad Guererro with two on and two away. Vlad would make the Yankees pay with a booming double to center field. That was the end of the night for Phil Hughes, but the first batter David Robertson would face was Nelson Cruz, who homered to center to make it a 5-1 game. After an Ian Kinsler sac-fly in the 7th to make it a 6-1 game, there was no looking back.

Unlike Game 1, there would be no furious comeback by the Yankees. Neftali Feliz would close out the top of the 9th 1-2-3 (A-Rod was caught looking to end the game and series) good for the Ranger's first-ever World Series appearence and copious amounts of ginger-ale being sprayed everywhere.

Outfielder Josh Hamilton was named ALCS MVP after hitting .350 and belting 4 homers.

The Rangers would have to wait at least until Saturday to find out who they'd be facing in the World Series, with the Giants taking on the Phillies for Game 6 in the city of brotherly love.

Things were looking good for the Phillies as they managed to get two runs off of Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez in the first inning. The Giants would come right back with two of their own in the top of the 3rd, including Aubrey Huff reaching home safely after a fielding error by Phillies 1B Ryan Howard. Sanchez would get pulled and the benches cleared in bottom of the 3rd after hitting Chase Utley with a pitch.

San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy would go to the bullpen early and often, with Jeremy Affeldt, Madison Bumgarner, ex-Red Sox pitcher Javier Lopez and starter Tim Lincecum combining for a shutout before Juan Uribe gave San Francisco the go ahead run on a solo shot.

New Hampshire's own Brian Wilson came on in the 8th to close things out- he got Ruiz to line out into a double play to end the 8th, but was in for a hairy and somewhat wild 9th, where he had two runners on with two away and managed to strike out Ryan Howard to end the game and the NLCS with a 3-2 Giants win. Despite the electric and attention-grabbing start to the playoffs, it's all over for Philly as the Giants won the series 4-2. Neither defending pennant winner has advanced to the World Series this year.

Game 1 of the World Series is set to take place in San Francisco Wednesday night at 7: 57 ET. A well rested Cliff Lee gets the start against Tim Lincecum and the game will be televised on FOX.

So in either case, the 2010 World Series will end a long run of futility for the Rangers (who have never been) or the Giants (who haven't won a title since moving out to San Francsico in 1958).

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Former Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell was named the new manager of the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. Farrell will replace the outgoing Cito Gaston, who retired at the end of the season last month. Toronto finished the season 85-77, good for 4th place in the very difficult AL East in 2010.

NHL: After downing the Capitals 4-1 for their home opener, the Boston Bruins lost to the NY Rangers by a 3-2 score at the TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday. New York's Henrik Lundqvist stopped 35 total shots and held off the Bruins to win by a 3-2 final, handing the Bruins their first loss on American soil this season. Tukka Rask got the start and stopped 27 of 30 shots faced in the loss while Zdeno Chara and Nathan Horton had the only tallies for the B's.

The Bruin's record is now 4-2-0 and they next face the Maple Leafs, who are off to a 4-2-1 start, on Thursday night at the Garden.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Not a good weekend for New England's Division 1 schools.

BC Safety Wes Davis was strapped to a backboard after laying motionless on the turf for nearly 10 minutes on Saturday's game against Maryland before being wheeled to an ambulance. The school said that Davis had 'full motion', but remained hospitalized for observation.

After falling behind to the Terrapins 24-7 in the third, BC managed to score two unanswered TD's in the 4th quarter, but successive drives late in the quarter stalled in the 4th when the ball was turned over on downs. Maryland wins by a final of 24-21 in Chestnut Hill. Montel Harris had 27 carries for 116 yards and 2 TDs in the losing effort for the Eagles. This makes it 5 losses in a row, and things aren't looking too good for next week when the Eagles host the Clemson Tigers.

UConn actually did worse, getting shut out 26-0 by Louisville on Saturday. The Huskies will host the West Virginia Mountaineers this Saturday.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NCAA: The New Jersey Nets announced that they would be donating $75,000 towards a fund for paralyzed Rutgers player Eric LeGrand. LeGrand has shown no signs of improvement since being hospitalized.

Oh Crap! Comedy Central D.C. Rallies Find Themsleves Short on Port-o-Johns

From what little I've seen of the Colbert Report and John Stewart's The Daily Show, both hosts struck me as inusfferable, smarmy, know-it-all hipsters. Stewart in particular hides behind the 'Clown nose' defense, where after a vitrolic personal attack on the un-person of the week (either on his own show, or appearing on other shows) instead of defending his comments, he'll just say 'but I'm just a silly clown on TV', basically. From what I saw of last month's testimony before Congress, Colbert reverts to his show's faux conservative persona when challenged with any sort of serious question.

So naturally, I wasn't too shocked to learn that Stewart and Colbert were going to try and counter Glen Beck's 8/28 rally with one of their own. Stewart's rally is going by the name of 'Restoring Sanity' while Colbert's, in keeping with his buffoonish faux-conservative persona, is 'Keep Fear Alive'- both set to take place on The Mall in Washington D.C the weekend before the Nov. 2nd election. Heck, Oprah Winfrey even chipped in by purchasing plane tickets and accomodation for The Daily Show's studio audience.

First of all, I think the title 'Restoring Sanity' is rather presumptuous.....it's wordsmithing on the caliber of the September 11th 'Truther' movement, as in one group is claiming they have a monopoly on truth or sanity and everybody else has been duped or is insane (but will be restored upon hearing Stewart's soothing, yet smarmy oratory).

Unfortunately for them, the Marine Corps Marathon- set to take place on Sunday of the same weekend- had already arranged for 800 port-o-johns, essentially leaving Saturday's Comedy Central rallies without facilities. The organizers have asked the Marines to share the portable toilets for the weekend, but the Marines declined and may even lock the latrines until Sunday morning. And for those of you inclined to howl 'No fair!', why exactly should the Marines burden themselves because of Comedy Central's lack of planning? They made arrangements long before Colbert or Stewart's people, so they should be rewarded with a bunch of overflowing and nastier than usual, slightly used port-o-johns after running a marathon?


But remember- while calling for a rally of an estimated 60,000 yet failing to make any plans along the lines of sanitation or toilet facilities in the nation's capital, it's conservatives and the Tea Party that are stupid and irrational according to Colbert and Stewart.

Others have pointed out the irony of Oprah Winfrey (and apparently Arianna Huffington) paying the way for people to attend this rally who might not otherwise be interested in going. The port-o-potty fiasco shows that not only do the limousine liberal schills for the progressive Democrats have no sense of irony, but they can't even plan for crap.

Remind me again why we're supposed to vote for the candidates they support?