Cat Blogging

Sage with Gisele's legs. Sunday Morning.

Lazier than the French

I'm counting down the seconds. In two weeks, Sarah and I will take our first vacation in two years - an eight-day road trip to Arkansas (Little Rock and the Ozarks) and Memphis. I am completely needing it. It was over a year ago that I started my little campaign project and the day after the election I was back to work. On top of it, I'm still recovering from being sick last month and working through it isn't working. I'm physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted and cannot wait anymore. Totally. Burned. Out.

It makes me wish I was the (p)Resident. From the Houston Chronicle :

Bush on track to become the vacation president

President Bush tries to set an example for Americans whenever he can, in terms of physical fitness, faith, optimism and a certain overall moral rectitude. He also sets an excellent example on taking vacation.

On Thursday, Bush left for a weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, and his family's summer compound, Walker's Point. On Monday, he heads to his Crawford retreat, where he has spent all or part of 418 days of his presidency, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS News White House correspondent and meticulous record-keeper...

...

The presidential vacation-time record holder is the late Ronald Reagan, who tallied 436 days in his two terms. At 418 days, and with 17 months to go in his presidency, Bush is going to beat that easily.

Even so, this year's August vacation for Bush is a contrast to previous years such as 2005, when he dragged out vacation in Texas to five weeks. That was also the year Bush remained on vacation immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit.

Vice President Dick Cheney generally takes August off, often heading to Wyoming or coastal Maryland. Congress left last weekend and is gone until Sept. 4. The Iraqi parliament is taking August off, too.

Still, all this governmental time off is more than most Americans are taking. A recent survey by Yahoo Hot Jobs found nearly half of American workers did not take all of their vacation days last year.

Bush, on his 10th visit to Kennebunkport as president (according to Knoller), is scheduled for lunch Saturday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Indeed, on the issue of vacation, at least, Bush is much like a pleasure-seeking Frenchman. According to Expedia.com, French workers get about 39 days off a year and generally take all but one.

Hopefully, this time as he's relaxing, I hope he finally pays attention if somebody slips a PDB with "Al Quaeda Determined to blah, blah, blah..."

Connecting the Dots - Utah Mine Disaster

I've been following news of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster and the efforts to recover the trapped miners. I've also noted how the mine has had safety citations over the years. From yesterday's The Plain Dealer:

Government mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah since January 2004, according to an analysis of federal Mine Safety and Health Administration online records. Of those, 116 were what the government considered “significant and substantial,” meaning they are likely to cause injury. Overall, the federal government has ordered the mine owner to pay nearly $152,000 in penalties for its 325 violations with many citations having no fines calculated yet. Since January, the mine owner has paid $130,678 in fines, according to MSHA records.

In 2007, inspectors have issued 32 citations against the mine, 14 of them considered significant.

Last month, inspectors cited the mine for violating a rule requiring that at least two separate passageways be designated for escape in an emergency. It was the third time in less than two years that the mine had been cited for the same problem, according to MSHA records. In 2005, MSHA ordered the mine owners to pay $963 for not having escapeways and the 2006 fine for the same problem was just $60.

How does a mine get this many violations and still get to stay open? A search at Opensecrets.org provides a good guess.

That's over $100,000 in political donations since 2000 - almost all exclusively to federal Republican candidates from GWB on down.