The Daily Dystopian

Saturday, September 20, 2003

FrontPage Dummy

Meant to tell you--I finally made some progress in figuring out my website-building software. Blogging helped a lot--HTML is no longer a foreign language. Found my FrontPage for Dummies book, too, which had migrated to the bottom of the office closet, so I guess it's been longer than I thought since I last looked at it.

I'm sure that if I had ever built a website before, it would be a piece o' cake to do what I have in mind. I've just never built a website before.

My motivation level has finally surpassed my aversion to tech lore, so I'll blunder onward and see what happens.

Wish me luck.

dystopia 2:40 PM - [Link]
...

Blog, Interrupted

Sorry--over the past few days I've been dealing with electricians and a loved one with a cornucopia of personal travails, plus one of my kids had a birthday, so blogtime has been nil.

Got more stuff I have to do on Monday. Maybe by Tuesday life will be back to normal. I hope.

dystopia 2:14 PM - [Link]
...

Today in Dystopian History: September 20

1565: Spanish soldiers massacred French settlers at Fort Caroline.

1664: Maryland passed the first anti-amalgamation law.

1782: Chickamauga Cherokees fought Gen John Sevier's militia force at Lookout Mountain.

1797: The USS Constitution was launched in Boston.

1838: William Lloyd Garrison and others founded the New England Non-Resistance Society.

1850: Slave sales were banned in Washington, DC, as part of the Compromise of 1850.

1863: The Union line collapsed in chaos at the Battle of Chickamauga.

1873: The NYSE closed due to the Panic of '73.

1876: The Savannah yellow fever epidemic reached its highest daily death toll.

1884: The Equal Rights Party was founded.

1906: Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, exposing conditions in the Chicago meatpacking industry, was published.

1945: Dr Wernher von Braun and 6 other German scientists arrived in the US as part of Operation Paperclip, which was supposed to exclude Nazis.

1946: Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace was fired for being soft on Russia and replaced by Averell Harriman.

1957: The THOR ballistic missile was successfully fired for the first time.

1957: Gov Orval Faubus was forced to remove National Guard troops from Central High School in Little Rock.

1958: Rev Martin Luther King, Jr, was stabbed in the chest while on a book tour in NYC.

1962: Gov Ross Barnett blocked James Meredith from entering the University of Mississippi.

1968: In Saigon, US military spokesmen defended the use of defoliants, claiming their use had caused no harm.

1972: The Air Force revealed that it was mining the waterways of Quang Tri, south of the DMZ.

1973: Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes.

1974: Gail Cobb was the first woman police officer killed in the line of duty in the US.

1974: The Kootenai of Idaho declared war on the US government.

1977: The first Boat People arrived in San Francisco.

1981: President Jose Duarte called for increased US aid to El Salvador.

1982: President Reagan announced he was sending US troops back to Beirut after the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

1984: A car bomb exploded at the US Embassy in Beirut.

1986: National security advisor John Poindexter approved a meeting between Manuel Noriega and Oliver North.

1986: The Punta del Este Declaration called for international trade negotiations.

1991: UN weapons inspectors left for Iraq.

1996: The FAA said trace chemicals found on the TWA Flight 800 wreckage came from bomb-sniffing dog practice.

2001: The US Forest Service proposed extending categorical exclusions in roadless areas.

2001: PG&E, California's largest utility, filed its bankruptcy plan.

2001: Pennsylvania Gov Tom Ridge was named head of the new Office of Homeland Security.

dystopia 12:47 PM - [Link]
...

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Today in Dystopian History: September 17

1692: 9 people were condemned for witchcraft in Salem.

1774: The Suffolk Resolves declared the Intolerable Acts illegal.

1776: The Presidio was established in San Francisco.

1778: The first Indian treaty with the US was signed at Fort Pitt with the Delaware.

1787: The US Constitution was signed by 39 Convention delegates.

1814: The British assault failed against Fort Erie.

1859: Joshua Norton declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the US.

1862: The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle in US history.

1862: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion killed 78 workers.

1863: General Order No. 77 prohibited using black troops to "perform menial duty for white troops."

1868: In the Battle of Beecher's Island, US troops were besieged by Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne warriors.

1900: 100,000 Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike.

1908: Lt Thomas Selfridge became the first airplane fatality in history when a plane flown by Orville Wright crashed.

1911: The first transcontinental flight began when Cal Rodgers left NY, arriving in Pasadena on Nov 5.

1922: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded.

1934: Southern employers met in Greenville, NC, to plan their offensive to break the General Textile Strike.

1941: The US began escorting Halifax to Britain convoys and guarding traffic to Iceland.

1942: All atomic research was put under military control; Gen Leslie Groves was named head of the Manhattan Project.

1944: In Operation Market Garden, US paratroopers landed behind German lines in the Netherlands.

1950: A US Military Assistance Advisory Group arrived in Saigon.

1958: Early testing showed the new birth control pill to be as effective as any other contraceptive method.

1978: The Camp David Accords were signed.

1979: The Justice Department dropped its case against an H-Bomb article in the Progressive.

1980: The CDC issued a warning about tampons and toxic shock syndrome.

1981: The FCC recommended that Congress give up most of its power over the broadcast industry, calling for repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.

1986: The Senate confirmed William Rehnquist as the 16th chief justice of the US.

1989: 98 miners and a minister occupied the Moss 3 plant in Virginia during a strike against Pittston Coal.

1992: Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh ended his investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal.

1997: The US refused to endorse the international land mine ban.

1999: IBM backed down on its cash-balance pension plan after an employee revolt.

2001: Following the 9/11 attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters "there were no warning signs that I'm aware of that would indicate this type of operation in the country."

2002: An investigation found evidence that the California energy crisis was manipulated by power and energy companies.

dystopia 3:55 PM - [Link]
...

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

News Burnout

So tired of bad news and bad people.

I'm noodling around with my website-building software today, working on some ideas for a website for my history research.

It's not going that well. I just can't get interested in techie stuff. I keep trying, but it's like that part of my brain throws up a deflector shield or something. I dunno.

dystopia 5:01 PM - [Link]
...

Today in Dystopian History: September 16

1620: The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England.

1779: The Siege of Savannah began.

1782: The Great Seal of the US was impressed for the first time, on a document negotiating a POW agreement with the British.

1810: Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores called for the end of Spanish rule in Mexico.

1812: US forces tried to capture a British batteaux convoy at Toussaint Island.

1814: US troops destroyed the pirate stronghold at Barataria, south of New Orleans.

1837: William Whipper's An Address on Non-resistance to Offensive Aggression was published.

1844: The last Texans were released from Perote Prison.

1893: Homesteaders rushed to claim shares of the Cherokee Strip in Indian Territory.

1908: William Durant founded General Motors.

1915: The US took control of Haiti's economy.

1918: The USCGC Seneca lost 11 crewmen while trying to bring a torpedoed British ship into port.

1918: The US Army executed 6 black soldiers for involvement in the Houston Riot.

1920: A bomb exploded on Wall Street, killing 33.

1940: President Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act.

1945: 43,000 oil workers went on strike in 20 states.

1967: UN Secretary-General U Thant called on the US to end the bombing of North Vietnam.

1968: Orlando Bosch fired a bazooka at a Polish freighter at Dodge Island, FL.

1968: President Nixon appeared on Laugh-In, uttering the immortal words, "Sock it to me?"

1974: A federal judge dismissed all charges against AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means from the occupation of Wounded Knee, because the government's conduct had polluted the "waters of justice."

1976: The Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women.

1991: Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega went on trial in the US.

1991: The Iran-Contra case against Oliver North was dismissed after hearings on the immunity issue.

1991: The Philippine Senate rejected a treaty extending the operation of US military bases in the Islands.

1994: The US filed a motion to reduce the cocaine trafficking sentence of Oscar Danilo Blandon.

1996: The United Methodist Church, holding 61,700 shares of stock, introduced a shareholder resolution to force Nike to clean up its labor practices.

1998: Salon's website was hacked after it broke the story of Rep Henry Hyde's adulterous affair; the author received death threats.

2001: The Cayman Islands issued a statement describing an August 29 letter received by a local radio station warning of terrorist attacks against the US.

2002: The Denver Police Department admitted its collection of Spy Files was more extensive than previously disclosed.

2002: The SEC began an inquiry into Jack Welch's retirement package from GE.

dystopia 2:11 PM - [Link]
...

Monday, September 15, 2003

States Sue EPA Over Food Pesticide Levels

Per Newsday:

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency Monday, contending that it is allowing unacceptably high levels of pesticide residues in some foods favored by children.

The suit argues that the EPA is failing to adhere to the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act's mandate that since children's developing bodies are far more vulnerable than adults to harm from pesticides, the agency must account for the lower tolerances when approving pesticides for commercial use on foods...

In March, the EPA proposed altering its policy of assuming cancer risks to a fetus or an infant from pesticides are not greater than for a similarly exposed adult. It was the first time the agency has formally taken into account the differences between exposure to adults and children when assessing cancer risks.

dystopia 6:02 PM - [Link]
...

L Jean Lewis to Audit Pentagon Contracts

Felt like this after reading this Newsweek piece, via Cursor:

The Bush administration has quietly installed a surprising figure in a high-level Pentagon post: L Jean Lewis, the former federal fraud investigator who kicked up major controversy in the '90s over her allegations about the Clintons' Whitewater dealings.

Although there's been no public announcement of her return to government, Lewis has been given a $118,000-a-year job as chief of staff in the traditionally nonpartisan Defense Department's inspector general office. With 1,240 employees and a budget of $160 million, this office is the largest of its kind in the government. It investigates fraud and audits Pentagon contracts, including the billions of dollars being awarded in Iraq to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel.

dystopia 4:02 PM - [Link]
...

Radioactive Dust Covered Former Weapons Plant

Yahoo! News reports that leftover radiation and toxins from WWII contract work may still contaminate hundreds of buildings across the US:

The Linde plant was cleaned up in 1949, as its federal contracts were ending. It was decontaminated again in the mid-1950s because the earlier effort was inadequate. Yet a federal survey in 1976 still found "quite extensive" radiation contamination in two buildings. That posed a "potential radiation safety problem to personnel conducting maintenance or construction," the report said. A federal cleanup, still ongoing, has torn down several buildings and removed tons of contaminated soil.

The Harshaw Chemical plant in Cleveland was fouled for decades after refining thousands of tons of uranium from 1942 through 1953. The site was cleaned when its contracts ended, but a 1957 federal survey found radiation levels that limited one building's use. More cleanup followed. Yet surveys in 1976 and 1984 still found enough radiation to threaten maintenance or construction workers. Another federal cleanup is ongoing.

Vulcan Crucible Tool and Steel in Aliquippa, PA, cut and extruded hundreds of tons of uranium metal in the 1940s and was polluted with radioactive dust levels up to 200 times the safety standards of the day. Some decontamination was done, but a 1978 study still found radiation to exceed legal limits in some areas. During a cleanup in 1988, one building was fenced off because of health risks. Final decontamination was done in 1994.

Cancer-stricken workers have been left twisting in the wind by a rule that denies compensation to those who started work at one of these contaminated facilities after weapons production ended.

The Corps of Engineers says there are 46 FUSRAP sites in 14 states. The Yahoo! article says:

An unreleased federal study, ordered by Congress, identifies more than 150 former contracting sites that had "high potential" for leftover radiation and toxins. The study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which was supposed to be issued last December, is undergoing a pre-release review by other agencies that helped work on it.

A pre-release review? That's a load of crap. They're either doing a pre-release edit or, more likely, trying to bury the damned thing altogether.

dystopia 2:26 PM - [Link]
...

Today in Dystopian History: September 15

1776: The British attacked Manhattan at Kip's Bay, where inexperienced militia units fled in confusion.

1830: The first National Negro Convention was held.

1853: Rev Antoinette Brown Blackwell was the first female minister in the US.

1858: The first overland mail service to the Pacific Coast under government contract began.

1860: The California Stage Company began daily service between Portland and Sacramento.

1862: Confederates under Gen Stonewall Jackson captured Harper's Ferry.

1896: In the Crash at Crush, Katy Railroad staged a head-on train wreck in front of 40,000 paying spectators near Waco, TX; flying debris killed several.

1919: President Coolidge crushed the Boston Police Strike.

1923: Oklahoma Gov John Walton declared martial law due to terrorist activity by the KKK.

1942: Japanese torpedoes sank the USS Wasp and damaged the USS North Carolina.

1943: The 761st Black Panther Tank Battalion moved to Fort Hood, TX, for advanced armored training.

1945: A hurricane destroyed 366 planes and 25 blimps at the Richmond Naval Air Station in Florida.

1950: US forces landed at Inchon.

1961: The US resumed underground testing of nuclear weapons.

1963: The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, was bombed, killing 4 young girls.

1965: A 101st Airborne battalion took heavy fire in the Song Con valley, losing 4 choppers and 3 KIA.

1966: The MACV Recondo School was established at Nha Trang.

1970: President Nixon authorized covert intervention in Chile.

1972: President Nixon suggested that the Washington Post would have "damnable, damnable" problems getting its TV station's license renewed.

1980: President Carter accused candidate Ronald Reagan of playing politics with US hostages held in Iran.

1980: The convictions of 3 anti-Castro Cubans in the murder of Orlando Letelier were overturned.

1989: A US district judge ruled that the National Security Archive could sue President Bush to force the retention of White House e-mails.

1995: Lakota tribal elders protested the making of a film based on the life of Crazy Horse.

1996: 6,000 rallied near Headwaters Grove against logging in one of the last big redwood stands.

1997: US-based Bechtel and 2 other firms won a $2 billion contract to build a natural gas pipeline from Peru's Camisea gas fields.

1998: UN weapons inspectors were unable to confirm evidence that Iraq had deadly VX nerve gas.

2001: The NY Times reported that Mayo Shattuck had resigned as head of Deutsche Banc Alex Brown; he was soon named CEO of Constellation Energy.

2001: On MSNBC, Russian President Putin said that, in August, he ordered warnings to the US "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks.

2002: A train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed near Knoxville, TN, causing the evacuation of 200 homes.

dystopia 11:19 AM - [Link]
...