On hiatus for a time --

I will be away from this blog for a time due to illness in the family. I will try to post as I can, but it will be sporadic. Thanks for your patience. Carol Gee

Updated at Making Good Mondays, December 9, 2008

Home for the Holiday

At home today -- It is going to be hard work for a lot of people, no holiday. It will not be a day of rest for everyone. We will be treating is as normal day here at our home. Perhaps hot dogs and potato salad will be the extent of our minimalist celebration. And I do not feel particularly “at home” this day. I feel unsettled and watchful, carried along by outside events. There is a surreal tone to the day, as if I am in a theater watching a cheap movie. It is partly because of stuff like this on John McCain's homes: HT to Jon (8/30/08): "ABC News: Political Radar -- Cindy McCain tells Stephanopoulos that Obama Offended Her." To quote:

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports: Democrats' attacks on her family's wealth are unfair and offensive, Cindy McCain said today in an interview airing tomorrow on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

For nearly two weeks, Democrats have repeatedly hit Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for saying he is unaware of how many houses he owns, calling the presumptive Republican presidential nominee out of touch with everyday Americans. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention on Thursday, Democratic nominee Barack Obama turned up the heat on McCain, saying he "doesn't know" about the lives of middle-class Americans.

"I'm offended by Barack Obama saying that about my husband," said McCain's wife Cindy.

When asked if Obama went too far in his criticism of McCain, Cindy responded, "I do. I do. I really do."

Homes in the Gulf empty out – The uninvited guest, Hurricane Gustav is currently at Category 3. Three years ago about now, a bigger Hurricane, Category 5 Katrina, came ashore in New Orleans, Louisiana and a long nightmare began for the entire Gulf Coast region. It is reported that 95% of the population heeded the evacuation orders of officials this weekend. A number of them had just gotten back into their repaired homes after waiting years to do so. Many had been living in our region, the diaspora from other hurricanes. Now they are back.

Not where expected -- Many others of us around the nation will not be in our usual places today. This Labor Day was to have been the day when the Republicans convened in Minneapolis to nominate their candidates for President and Vice-President. That event will be scaled back to the minimum required under election law, because of the impending hurricane. The presumptive Republican candidates will be out and about, however, looking properly concerned and self-sacrificing for the occasion. We can assume they are relieved that our current president (OCP) and his Veep will not be attending. At the same time OCP and his officials have seen to it that a number of protesters are neither at home nor in the streets, according to Glenn Greenwald's Sunday post. This is no cheap movie (see *videos referenced below). They have been rounded up and put in the Minneapolis jail without being charged, probably until Wednesday.

Hosting the police state? -- The "question of the day" was asked by my blog friend "betmo:" How much truth can we handle? Her own personal answer is pretty gloomy. An earlier Glenn Greenwald post at Salon.com has chilling implications for the possibility of things to come. Titled, "Massive police raids on suspected protesters in Minneapolis," Saturday Aug. 30, 2008. The story begins with this:

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided.

Targeting citizen homes -- "BREAKING: FBI, ATF, and St. Paul Police Massing at 1162 Juliet Ave." This is the Sunday midnight headline from Lindsay Beyerstein for The Campaign Silo and Firedoglake. This same writer also has the raid story on Saturday: "Inside an RNC Raid," by Lindsay Beyerstein, August 30, 2008. It begins and ends with these mind-bending facts:

Thanks to the miracle of cellular technology, I was able to talk to a homeowner while his home was surrounded by police conducting an RNC-related raid. At approximately two-thirty this afternoon, I reached Mike Whelan, a waiter and army veteran, at his duplex at 951 Iglehart Ave. in St. Paul, Minnesota. Whelan said he'd invited independent observers from the group LegalWatch stay in one half of his side-by-side duplex while they monitored RNC protests.

Whelan described himself as a supporter of the RNC demonstrations, but said he is not affiliated with any particular group. "I want to build a country that's based on good social values," he explained. . . Whelan said it was especially perplexing that the police would target his home.

"There's nothing here," he said, "These are the "checking" people. They're not even going to be in the demonstration. Some are lawyers."

Whelan was watching a large crowd of legal observers gathering across the street, many wearing red or green hats. The police officers he could identify were from St. Paul, but he thought there might be other forces on the scene as well. The officers were wearing black uniforms. Their vehicles were "non-descript" vans, not police cruisers. TV cameras were also on the scene. Whelan couldn't be sure because a tree was blocking his view, but he thought City Council member Melvin Carter had arrived. Whelan called him when the raid started. (Talk about constituent service.)

"You figure this would be going on in South Africa, or Russia, not in St Paul," Whelan said, marveling at the incongruity of it all,"St. Paul is nice."

Is this homeland security? In May of this year I posted about the FBI and its plan to infiltrate the Minneapolis groups. Marcy Wheeler adds current perspective to this bizarre story. "This Is What Happens When You Use Terrorism Laws to Investigate Hippies." By: emptywheel Sunday August 31, 2008. To quote her conclusion:

. . . all the more reason to find out the precise role of the JTTF in these raids. If the Bush DOJ approved the use of terrorism techniques to prepare for the convention--in spite of the fact that such an approval would violate DOJ guidelines--we'd have a crystal clear example of why it is inappropriate to interpret terrorism as broadly as the Bush Administration has been pushing to do.

Two of my blog friends left home for the Veterans for Peace march in Minneapolis. "Spadoman" did not have far to go, but "Kitchen Window Woman" traveled all the way from California, saying, " Today we are on our way to the Veterans For Peace Convention in Minneapolis and are real excited." By some stroke of luck they met in person there. Spadoman tells the story:

I am currently working as a volunteer for the Veterans For Peace National Convention right here in my backyard. The turnout is great. The lineup of speakers is fantastic. I had the pleasure to meet a member of The American Patriot Institute as well, none other than Kitchen Window Woman and her husband. I am looking forward to speaking with her more.

References:

• *Dandelion Salad (8/31/08): MPLS Liberty Parade (videos) and Bruce Gagnon's piece, "Space For Democracy Declines + Live video of police raid on anti-RNC activists + stimulator #2"


• ACLU Blog (8/30/08): Scoops!! Are We Safe and Free Yet?


• ACLU Blog (8/29/08): Katrina Remembered


• South by Southwest posts labeled "civil liberties or security"

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics 2008 election [republicans gustav minneapolis mccain hurricane

Unconventional women

Conventional blogging -- (8/22/08) A New York Times headline* (in the Fashion and Style section) reads: "The Year of the Political Blogger Has Arrived." Many bloggers raised money for the trip to Denver on their websites. But getting credentials has been a big challenge for less well known, less well-off political blogs, such as Pam’s House Blend and Phillip Anderson's the Albany Project. But both of them managed somehow to do so because of generous readers. Others with more clout, such as Matt Stoller of Open Left, fared better.

There are two kinds of blog credentials, says the NYT. "The first is a national credential, which offers the same access granted to members of traditional news media organizations. The second, more coveted credential is the state blogger credential. It allows one blogger per state to cover the convention alongside its state delegation, with unlimited floor access." Or they can hang out at The Big Tent. To quote further:

This year, both parties understand the need to have greater numbers of bloggers attend. While many Americans may watch only prime-time television broadcasts of the convention speeches, party officials also recognize the ability of bloggers to deliver minute-by-minute coverage of each day’s events to a niche online audience.

. . . But some bloggers see the procurement of credentials as less of a privilege and more of a right, in recognition of their grass-roots influence.

. . . One perk that bloggers will have access to in Denver is the Big Tent, an 8,000-square-foot two-story structure adjacent to where the convention is being held. For a $100 entrance fee, 400 credentialed bloggers will be allowed to enter the air-conditioned space, hosted by a coalition of progressive blogs and organizations and sponsored by the Web sites Google and Digg, where they can eat meals and find work spaces with Wi-Fi.

. . . Among the devoted readers who believe Mr. Odum deserves their donations is Nate Freeman, one of two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor of Vermont. Mr. Freeman, 40, gave about $100 to Mr. Odum’s laptop fund, and said he would contribute $50 for Mr. Odum’s convention trip. "Barack doesn’t need my 50 bucks, Mr. Freeman said, but John does."

Texas Politics reported that a "San Antonio lawmaker has a prime convention spot. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, a co-chair of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, said she just found out she'll be chairing the gathering on Wednesday." But the entire Texas delegation did not fare as well. They got snubbed in the general seating. "When it comes to seating at the Democratic convention, Texas is no Idaho," according to Trail Blazer's blog at the Dallas Morning News. Perhaps it will help that Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas was to have been the speaker at the Texas delegation's breakfast meeting today, according to DemConWatch.

My blog friend Fayrouz In Dallas wants us to know this. Her path is "The Pursuit of Happiness." She has become a U.S. citizen. Congratulations, Fay!

My blog friend Txsharon at BlueDaze wants this -- "Obama/McCain: End America's Oil Addiction, " partly because of this: "Big Oil. HUGE Money. ENORMOUS Influence."

From WE/WeCanSolveIt.org., an 8/4/o8 e-mail from Cathy Zoi also decried the huge Exxon profits. She said:

Last week, Exxon Mobil announced record profits -- at the same time that the rest of us were paying record high prices at the gas pump. It doesn't need to be this way. Our energy prices don't need to be this high. If we repower America and generate 100% of our electricity from clean sources within ten years, we can bring our energy costs down.

A lot of people are surprised when they find out how quickly we can make this transition. We've built a fun quiz to help show the way. How well do you know America's energy? You might find the answers surprising.

Texas has always had a reputation for gutsy women. We will see some of them at the Democratic National Convention this week. And we will also read about it from some good progressive women bloggers who will give us more of the scoop on what is actually happening. I'll get back to them as the week progresses.

*link from a gutsy woman from New York, betmo at life's journey

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics democrats convention texas women bloggers oil

Exploring Rights and Wrongs

Knowing the difference between right and wrong . . . is at times a murky business. It is not always easy to see what is beneath the surface.

Fallout the so-called "war on terror" -- Telecommunications companies achieved immunity from lawsuits in the latest Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act revision. And insurance companies are exploiting terrorism fears as they set museum insurance rates. These items from my CQ Behind the Lines free e-mail newsletter, by David C. Morrison, of 8/15/08:

State and local: . . Vermont’s two-year investigation into allegations that telecoms released customer data to NSA snoops appears to be drawing to a close, The Barre Times Argus tells.

Kulture Kanyon: . . Since terror fears spiked seven years ago, insurance hikes have “threatened to strangle museums’ ability to present important art to the public,” a curator tells the L.A. Times’ Mike Boehm

"This is so wrong," -- is the headline about this item from the NYT in, "Police State USA" at Yes, I take it personally. My blog friend, "betmo's" link* describes how a man got caught up in an immigration sweep, was shuttled from facility to facility, and then died due to failure to receive even minimal medical care. The map at this site is also very revealing. To quote:

. . . fifteen years of an exemplary life in the U.S. only to get thrown into a detention center. . . detention watch network has put together this handy map...

Hate speech is flat wrong -- Conservatives have long called for the heads of prominent liberals. Looks like they got their wish. This story came from my friend Jon. It was posted by Steven D. at AlterNet, and titled, "The Tragic Arkansas Shooting and Conservative Hate Speech," taken from the Booman Tribune, August 14, 2008. To quote:

. . . there was no personal connection between the shooter and Bill Gwatney, and apparently there wasn't one. Instead, there are some initial eerie similarities between the shooter Timothy Dale Johnson, and the man who massacred members of the Unitarian church in Knoxville, Tennessee last month. Both, for example had just lost their jobs, and both were very, very angry about that fact

. . . It's past time for members of the the right wing wurlitzer to apologize for their hate speech and to renounce any further use of the language of extermination with respect to their political, religious and ideological adversaries, as well as their demonization of minorities.

Stealing the words of another to use as one's own is wrong. Jody Rosen posted an article* "Dude, You Stole My Article" -- How I investigated a suspicious alt weekly -- at Slate Magazine on Aug. 6, 2008, about someone at a Texas newspaper, The Bulletin, who plagiarized an article about Jimmy Buffett.

What is wrong with this picture, if anything? This item* came from World Changing: "Virtual Transgender Suit, Avatar Termination and Other Online World Tales," by Regine Debatty, August 15, 2008. To quote:

You might remember that a year ago Marc Owens designed the Avatar Machine, a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface.

. . . A study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University has found that 54 percent of all males and 68 percent of all females "gender swap"--or create online personas of their opposite sex.

. . . Another of Owens' projects, Sabre & Mace - Second Death, was concerned more specifically with the online environment Second Life.

Collaborating with Tony Mullin, he created SABRE & MACE, a company that offers virtual characters the opportunity to experience death as a way to close their user account permanently. The project examines the notion of feeling sentimental toward a virtual character and examines the link between sentimentality and tangibility.

The ability to become invisible likely would never be allowed by our government's security apparatus. Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the FBI, the National Security Agency and many other government entities all want their full range of rights to search for terrorists and other suspicious people. This intriguing little blurb* is from The Raw Story, "Invisibility Cloak Now Within Sight: Scientists," 8/11/08. To quote,

The age-old fantasy of making yourself invisible has taken a step toward reality, with scientists saying they have created three-dimensional materials that can bend visible light.

*Thanks for these links from "betmo," who writes life's journey.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news national intelligence ethics and morals domestic surveillance terrorism opinion

Progressive Texans are on to "the awl bidness."

Happy Birthday, dear Barack. Senator Barack Obama turns 47 today. He took the initiative and gave a major energy speech in Lansing Michigan. With the following Memeorandum headline, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet set my blog's energy agenda for today: "Energy fueling Monday's agenda. Obama, 47 today, acts, McCain reacts." To quote:

The Obama campaign jumped in first to try to set the storyline of the day, producing a new spot called "Pocket," hitting McCain by picturing him with oil man President Bush and for taking contributions from "Big Oil."

The GOP is giving out tire gauges according to Memorandum's headline, "GOP won't let go of its new tire-gauge toy." They are attempting to make a mocking point against Obama's suggestion that drivers keep tires properly inflated to save gasoline. Meanwhile Memorandum is also reporting that House Republicans are trying to force Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call a vote on the offshore oil drilling question. Their ploy is not likely to be successful, in my opinion.

Texas progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up Aug 4, 2008, by nytexan who blogs at Bluebloggin. The roundup reports threats from Big Oil against my fellow Texas blogger, Txsharon*; eforts to defeat Blue Dogs; and a possible replacement for Senator Kay Bailey Hutcheson. Some Alliance exerpts:

Last week on Bluedaze , Big Oil threatened TXsharon*. In “Big Oil” Threatens Harm to My “Lovelies” and Me she calls out the abuser and includes a new PR plan that will save Chesapeake Energy millions of dollars and help clean up Big Oil’s act.

Mike Thomas of Rhetoric & Rhythm is critical of a campaign to knock off Blue Dog Democrats , even if it means electing Republicans, all in an effort to punish Democrats for failing to hew the line on certain progressive issues.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones is going to run for U.S. Senate if and when Kay Bailey Hutchison vacates her seat to run for Governor.

Texas' fierce opponent against energy corporation exploitation of the oil crisis -- Her point is that House Republicans grand stand play is rather easy to penetrate. "Off Shore Drilling: Fool Me Once, Fool Me Again and Again and Again...," by Txsharon* (8/2/08)at Bluedaze. To quote:

Today, I heard people trying to make the case for off shore drilling because, suddenly oil prices dropped and all it took was Bush calling for off shore drilling.

. . . Maybe if you think real hard, you can remember another time or two when oil suddenly and mysteriously dropped. Hint: Just before the last two elections. . . This is manipulation and speculation.

Another fierce advocate, Firedoglake's Blue Texanventures snarkily that, "McCain’s Solution To High Gas Prices Is To Obey Those Making Record Profits Off High Gas Prices" (7/23/08). Barack Obama, meanwhile, is talking about reviving the "windfall profits" tax. Quoting the post conclusion:

He’s gonna go with the appeal to authority logical fallacy … to oil executives? That’s like asking child molesters what we should do about kiddie porn. Memo to the McSame campaign: people really, really hate oil companies. Pimping their agenda is politically retarded.

Progressive Texans are all over the corporate greed coming out of the "the awl bidness." Exxon made record profits this past quarter. At the same time Texan Boone Pickins is looking to make a profit from the wind "bidness." And the big wind, Hurricane Edouard barrels down on the Texas Gulf Coast. Things are not so quiet in the Lone Star State these days.

*Bonus from Txsharon - fabulous and unusual pictures of a Texas cloud.

Additional References from Propublica:

1. "Expansion of Pipeline Stirs Concerns Over Safety: Natural-Gas Grid Increasingly Reaches Into Sensitive Areas." By BEN CASSELMAN at the Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2008.


2. "Texas: Report Faults BP on Refinery," from the AP at The New York Times, 7/29/08.


3. "Government Could Lose Billions to Oil Industry on Royalties," by Joaquin Sapien - May 28, 2008 original in Propublica.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics obama energy oil prices texas blogs

Cautious anticipation by NASA

STS-125 -- The next NASA shuttle mission is scheduled for 11 days in space beginning October 8, 2008. This mission to service the Hubble telescope is on track to be able to meet its scheduled launch date. To quote NASA:

An ambitious week is wrapping up at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Preparations for the STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope remain on target.

Inside Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility, Atlantis' payload bay doors were closed Thursday night, a few days earlier than scheduled. Finishing touches on the spacecraft's orbital maneuvering system will continue this weekend. . .

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston Atlantis' crew members ended their week reviewing the operation of the IMAX high-definition camera that will capture the repairs on Hubble from Atlantis' cargo bay. They also practiced entry simulations.

During the STS-125 mission, NASA astronauts will install new instruments on the telescope, including the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. A refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor will replace one unit of three now on board.

Crew members will also install new gyroscopes, batteries and thermal blankets on the telescope enhancing the abilities of Hubble for several more years of service.

This final visit to Hubble by the crew of the shuttle Atlantis, STS-125, is unusual for NASA for several reasons.

• It is the last visit to the Hubble Space Telescope before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010.
• This crew – Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Gregory C. Johnson and Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino and Megan McArthur – will be the fifth to fly to the telescope.
• In contrast to assembling the "erector-set" elements of the International Space Station, this mission will be characterized by tasks that are very delicate and complicated. Five space walks will be needed to complete the repair and refurbishment that will allow Hubble another five work years in orbit.
• The mission must be conducted out of the shuttle alone, much more confining and difficult than it would be out of the ISS.
• The shuttle crew will be responsible for doing all the inspections necessary to assure the integrity of the vehicle for reentry into the earth's atmosphere.
• In case of trouble, the shuttle Endeavour and the flight deck crew of STS-123 will be on the launch pad in Florida, ready to rescue a stranded crew in a few days.

International Space Station news -- Meanwhile the Expedition 17 crew, Russians Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, have recently completed two space walks outside the Russian segments of the ISS, beginning with installing exterior experiments. To quote:

In this spacewalk, their second in less than a week, they also continued to outfit the station's exterior, including the installation of a docking target on the Zvezda service module. It will help with the docking of a Russian mini research module on the space-facing side of Zvezda. That module will be launched next year. . .

As he did last week, Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff remained in the Soyuz during the spacewalk. That was part of contingency preparations for the unlikely event the Pirs airlock could not be repressurized.

The July 10 spacewalk by Volkov and Kononenko focused on inspection of their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft and retrieval of an explosive bolt, one of 10 that help separate the spacecraft's return module from its propulsion module. The bolt will be returned to Earth for examination.

Failure of those two modules to separate on time during re-entry on the most recent two Soyuz returns resulted in ballistic entries. Those steeper-than-normal entries, while safe, resulted in high-G rides for Soyuz occupants and landings several hundred miles short of the planned area.

For dessert after this blog post's "meal in space," I recommend some delicious "eye candy." Explore the new website, NASA Images.org., a service of the Internet Archive. The image above is from this site.

Technorati tags: news nasa hubble iss space program
View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.
(Cross-posted at Making Good Mondays).

Jucicial vs. executive . . . again!

The place of the Judicial Branch in today's news -- If it were not for the courts regularly stepping in, things would be even worse for citizens interested in exercising their civil rights and civil liberties during the two terms of the Bush administration. Every day there is a new story about the court finding the administration's actions did not comply with the rule of law. The first story is about Janet Jackson's bared breast at the Super Bowl.

• FCC was wrong about Janet Jackson. To quote Wired News today:

  A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction."The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.
  The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them children,heard Justin Timberlake sing, "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song," as he reached for Jackson's bustier.
  The court found that the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so "pervasive as to amount to 'shock treatment' for the audience."
  "Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without judicial second-guessing," the court said. "But it cannot change a well-established
  course of action without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its
  policy departure."

• McCain campaign adopts Bush suppression of free speech at campaign events. ACLU will have to go to court again, you can bet on it. And I bet they would win. To quote Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com:

  At the center of this dissent-suppressive policy was Gregory Jenkins, the former deputy assistant to President Bush and White House director of advance, as well as a former Fox News producer. Jenkins was sued by the ACLU for his role in the removal of the Denver attendees and in several other cases. Bush officials originally denied any role in this conduct, but a Presidential Advance Manual for which Jenkins was responsible uncovered by the ACLU explicitly instructed event workers on when and how "to stop a demonstrator from getting into the event" and "calls for Bush volunteers to distribute tickets in a manner to deter protesters and to stop demonstrators from entering." As the ACLU put it:
  

  The American Civil Liberties Union national office today filed a federal lawsuit against a former high-level White House staffer for enacting a policy that unlawfully excluded individuals perceived to be critical of the administration from public events where President Bush was present. The policy is laid out in an October 2002 "Presidential Advance Manual" obtained by the ACLU. . . .
  The ACLU is suing Gregory Jenkins, former Director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance and a Deputy Assistant to President Bush for setting the policy in the manual. Jenkins' policies have led to the removal and, in some cases, arrest of innocent people from taxpayer-funded events.

  
  One of the lawsuits brought against Jenkins -- Rank v. Jenkins, brought by the ACLU on behalf of two Texas citizens who "were arrested for trespassing, handcuffed, and hauled away in a police van" on the West Virginia State Capitol ground when trying to attend a Bush July 4 speech wearing anti-war and anti-Bush t-shirts -- ended with a settlement under which the Government paid them $80,000.
  Earlier this month, the same Greg Jenkins joined the McCain campaign to oversee the campaign's advance planning:

Today in history -- Constitutional Convention, June 21, 1787: Constitutional Convention debated the nature of the Judicial Branch.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

Monday,Monday is the song

The meadowlark is the State Bird of Wyoming. The photo is by Karen Hollingsworth.

I am visiting my family of origin in Wyoming. Therefore blog posting has sometimes been sporadic. But I have been tuned in to the web as much as possible, given technology and circumstances. I was "off" for the weekend, due to Blogger problems, which I was able to remedy this morning. And I return today to posting, revived a bit by an outdoor cookout. The event, hosted by my brother who makes a dynamite potato salad, was complete with his resident meadowlark moving from fence post to fence post.

My time here is dwindling fast. Soon I will be singing the blues because I am leaving my mom and three siblings, these bright blue skies, the clear rushing water, the blue snow-topped mountains, and the town where I was born that I love so much.

Gasoline prices are currently running between $4.12 and $4.22 per gallon. The roads are filled with big hunky motorcycles of all makes and vintages, as singles and couples filter in to Wyoming prior to heading for Sturgis, South Dakota. All the small towns are full of tourists, a surprising number utilizing a recreational vehicle. The alfalfa hay is being cut and baled in the irrigated fields, and the grain crops are getting some height. Perennial flower borders are a signature of this lovely town, along with huge old trees and long hiking and biking paths.

Wyoming politics have been a bit hard to deduce. Phil Roberts at The Wyoming Almanac debunks a few myths, however. My sisters are Democrats; my mom and brother are Republicans. Therefore political discussions vary, depending on the company. My mom worked at elections in years past, and my sisters attended this year's caucuses.

Today I am off to another town, and another computer, to visit my sister. Wish me luck.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: travel travel thoughts wyoming

Monday's Travel Digest

What are traveling bloggers up to these days? Steve Clemons of The Washington Note, is currently in China, staying at the "Beijing Friendship Hotel, built for Soviet technocrats," Steve says. He writes "Some Initial China Trip Reactions" today. Grant McCracken, who writes This Blog sits at the: . . ., was in a hotel in Princeton a few days ago and posted very thoughtfully about "How Obama Speaks." He closes with this:

I think Obama has studied other oratorical exemplars. And I think he has made this a very careful and purposeful study. I leave it to someone with an ear better than mine to "reverse engineer" Obama's style speech and figure out what these influences are.

Traveling this summer has brought me some surprises. I have been surprised at the number of Recreational Vehicles on the road. I have been delightfully surprised to eat tomaotes again in Colorado and Wyoming. And I have been surprised at the gree, green grass gracing the plains. Ours has been a road trip, and the gas pump surprises have brought breathtaking costs. Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, according to Think Progress, says, "It doesn't matter that he does not know the price of gas." That is certainly no surprise. To quote:

McCain’s cluelessness about gas prices is compounded by the fact that he is clueless about what to do about it. He is promoting a gas tax holiday for drivers because he claims to understand Americans are hurting.” It will provide “a little psychological boost,” McCain said of his plan.

Tips aplenty -- The Independent Traveler.com gives "Ten Tips for Road Trips" that have been useful. You might also want to look at their "Summer Travel Preview 2008."

Send yourself to camp -- A bit of research on travel trends found five summer trends in "summer camps" for adults, according to Independent Traveler.com. They include Dog Training camps, Sports camps, Wine, Beer and Cooking camps, Rock 'n' Roll camps, Arts and Crafts camps, and Fitness camps. This website is a rich source of ideas and contacts for each of these specialized vacation possibilities.

Settling for a while -- I now have reached my destination and a working computer, so posting will be more regular for a while. Safe trips to all.

This day in history - Constitution Convention, June 30, 1787. Convention continued discussion of state representation.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

NASA and Congress

NASA shuttle Discovery landed safely Saturday in Florida after completing its mission STS-124, according to NASA. The crew had been gone almost two weeks and had traveled 5.7 million miles. STS-124 launched the main segment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's – or JAXA’s – station laboratory. Kibo’s Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, is so big that it barely fit inside Discovery's payload bay. The bus-sized module is the station’s largest laboratory.
Hubble updating is next -- Kibo, Japan's "hope" for a space science presence is the last big component to be added to the International Space Station. As building the ISS has almost come to a close, NASA's next efforts will focus on transitioning out of using shuttles towards the development of the next generation of rockets and spacecraft to go to the moon and Mars. Space.com reports that:

the stage is set for NASA's next flight: the final visit to the Hubble Space Telescope.

. . . Discovery's return to Earth clears the way for the planned Oct. 8 launch of its sister ship Atlantis, which is set to fly one last mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope before NASA turns its full attention to completing the space station by 2010 and retiring its three-orbiter fleet.

But first, NASA has to fix blast damage to its prime shuttle launch site — Pad 39A — after Discovery's liftoff ripped some 5,300 heat-resistant bricks from their concrete moorings at the 1960s-era pad.

. . . In the meantime, NASA plans to make the most of the months between now and the next shuttle flight to the space station, a logistics flight currently slated to lift off on Nov. 10 aboard the Endeavour orbiter.

William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator of space operations, said he expects U.S. astronaut Gregory Chamitoff and his two Russian crewmates aboard the station to take advantage of the shuttle lull to perform science in the station's new Kibo laboratory and Europe's Columbus lab, which was delivered earlier this year. Chamitoff arrived at the station last week aboard Discovery and replaced U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman as an Expedition 17 flight engineer.

Not enough money for staying in Iraq and staying with a robust space presence, says Bush. NASA's budget for fiscal year 2009 is currently making its way through the legislative process on Capitol Hill. The House debated HR 6063 last week. It has not yet come to a vote. The bill mandates three more shuttle flights than NASA had planned. Congress and the White House are currently "squabbling over NASA's mission," explains New Scientist Space Blog in an excellent post on 6/13/08. (OCP) our current president strongly opposes the bill, according to the Orlando Sentinal. Congress is resisting budget cuts that will retire the shuttles before it is prudent or necessary, according to many space advocates. To quote:

In particular, the White House opposed a directive in the bill that orders NASA to launch another space shuttle flight to carry a scientific experiment to the International Space Station.

. . . To help accommodate the extra flights, the measure authorizes a NASA budget in 2009 that is $2.6 billion more than the $17.6 billion proposed by Bush. The White House objected to this increase, which it defined as “inconsistent with the Administration’s fiscal policies.”

It continues to break my heart that so much of the treasure of the United States has been squandered in Iraq for war. I would so much rather those dollars had been spent in the peaceful use of space by the international community.
I will be traveling soon to visit my family of origin in Wyoming. Therefore blog posting may be much more sporadic. But I will be tuned in to the web as much as possible, given technology and circumstances.
Today in History -- Constitutional Convention, June 16, 1787: Convention heard arguments on both the N.J. and Va. plans.
View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.
(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)
My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.
Technorati tags: news news and politics politics congress nasa space program

Electoral politics in Texas

Texas Elections Explained (again) -- With 32 U.S. representatives and 2 U.S. senators, the total of 34 electors makes Texas the second largest electoral vote state (California first) in the nation. Texas is the only state that holds a primary that is a combination of precinct elections, followed by caucuses after the polls close. I voted and then attended my caucus. Senator Barack Obama was my pick. For those who do not understand, try Texas Demystified! Delegate Allocation and Caucus Process Flow Chart, via TXSharon. Also, this from the Texas Observer includes great graphs that show how many Republicans voted in the Texas Democratic primary: "Poll "Positions: How McCain Supporters Skewed the Democratic Primary Results" byLeland Beatty | May 30, 2008 | . To quote:

In the aftermath of the Democrats’ huge primary . . . speculation about whether the results had been tainted by Republicans encouraged by Rush Limbaugh to vote in the Democratic primary for the candidate they hoped would be weakest in the general election.

. . . First-time primary voters and crossover Republicans (those who had previously voted with the GOP) surveyed by the Observer between May 8 and May 19 preferred Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton by small margins. But John McCain also claimed a significant share, and about one of seven remained undecided.

McCain supporters, our poll revealed, made up 9.4 percent of the total vote in the Texas Democratic primary. Clinton’s margin of victory was only 3.5 percent. (The poll has a margin of error of 2.7 percent.) We can’t say that the McCain ringers in the Democratic primary changed the outcome, because we don’t know for whom they actually voted in March. But it is clearly possible.

Texas Democratic Party Convention Covered -- I did not go to the convention. So Texas Kaos is the site to find all the latest on the state party's convention that took place this past weekend, even "Hillary's Concession Speech," for those who missed it. For more extended coverage,(6/7/08) BlueBloggin's "nytexan" has all the latest on "Ann Richards and Ladybird Johnson," as well as a video that optimistically says Texas will be blue in November. It certainly cannot hurt to dream.

The general election in Texas is the next event -- Isiah Carey's (5/29/08) Insight headlines that "Baseline poll says McCain sixteen points ahead in Texas . . . When matched up with Obama McCain leads 52-36." DANGER DEMOCRAT, in "By the Numbers" (5/29/08) says,

. . . Jeremy Barlow used a recent Rasmussen poll . . . Unexpected Close Races: Texas 49 to 43 McCain over Clinton 34 Electoral Votes. Senator Clinton loses a point as compared with Senator Obama v. McCain in Texas, but Texas is still a close race at only 6 points.

Texas Republican running mate? There is considerable talk about the value of McCain choosing Texas Rep. Ron Paul as his Vice President. Conservative blogger Tony Phyrillas suggests (6/5/08) a John McCain-Ron Paul ticket would be a winner.

Senator Obama's chances of winning Texas this fall are not good. But that does not mean we Texas Progressives will give up our fight. There is much about Senator McCain that is worrisome. Here is a small example. There will be more, of course. John McCain's Texas friend, Phil Gramm is one of his five campaign co-chairs. A post by Cliff Schecter, June 3, 2008, for Firedoglake was titled, "McCain Advisor/Lobbyist pushed“ the most macabre investment scheme[s] ever devised by Wall Street” known as “death bonds.” Quoting from his quote:

McCain's campaign is already distancing itself from some of Gramm's other work for UBS: his involvement in attempts to sell financial products known as "death bonds," which BusinessWeek described last summer as one of "the most macabre investment scheme[s] ever devised by Wall Street." Not long after joining UBS, the Houston Chronicle reported, Gramm helped lobby Texas officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, to sign on to a UBS proposal in which revenue would be generated for a state teachers' retirement fund by selling bonds, whose proceeds would in turn be used to buy annuities and life-insurance policies on retired teachers. UBS would advance money to the retirement fund, then repay itself, compensate bondholders and pocket profits when insurance companies paid off on retirees who died.

References to other Texas connections:

• Hagee -- Pastor distances self from McCain


• Former Texas congressman, lobbyist Tom Loeffler

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics texas 2008 elections mccain obama texas politics

Monday Digested

Monday the space shuttle Discovery docked at the International Space Station to complete the very challenging STS-124 mission. Crew members will attach the Japanese science module, "Kibo" (meaning hope) to the ISS. The NASA space program is an area of continuing interest with me, as my Making Good Mondays blog readers know. Today's post explores what politics and the space program have in common. The first item is that U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona is newly married to Mission Commander Mark Kelly.

The space program competes with my other area of vital interest, the 2008 presidential campaign. What happens in the presidential race will inevitable have deep impact upon the future of the United States in space. NASA, like every other agency in the federal government must compete for presidential attention as well as for funds in the budget.

Space Politics -- Watching three representatives of the current Presidential candidates talk about space policy a few days ago was deeply dissatisfying to me. The 27th Annual International Space Development Conference, "The New Pace of Space," was held in Washington, D.C., May 29 - June 1, 2008. Friday afternoon the featured event, "Election 2008 Space Panel." To quote from the Space Politics story:

. . . featuring representatives of the three major presidential candidates (Sens. Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama), moderated by CNN’s Miles O’Brien. This was one of the few opportunities for the campaigns to speak out in detail and debate various elements of space policy. For those looking for grand new insights into the candidates’ space policies, though, or even settle some nagging questions, the panel was a disappointment.

Half of the four people on the panel were able to talk about space policy quite well: Lori Garver, representing Clinton, was well-versed in the issues, . . . However, Steve Robinson, an Obama advisor who works on primarily education issues, as well as Floyd DesChamps, a Senate staffer called in at the last moment to represent McCain, were not as fluent on the issues. More than one person remarked afterwards that Robinson has a “deer in the headlights” look when asked about export control, and only said he had nothing more to add on the issue. . .

During the session, O’Brien asked Robinson about the Obama education policy, which includes the now-infamous statement about delaying Constellation for five years, even though Obama is now talking about continuing to develop Ares 1 and Orion. Robinson never directly addressed the issue, saying that Obama would be willing to listen to the space and science community about this (a theme of consultation with scientists that he mentioned elsewhere in the panel). On the balance of human and robotic exploration, he suggested that younger audiences might find robots more inspirational (another theme) than human missions, or at least find them inspiring to some degree, whereas older audiences might not.

. . . I’ll have a more thorough review of the panel and its implications on the overall space policy debate in Monday’s issue of The Space Review*.

For panel discussion details - [*see more extensive article by Jeff Foust, June 2, 2008]. C-SPAN carried the panel: National Space Society 27th Annual Conference: Afternoon Session

What will happen to the International Space Station while NASA transitions from the Space Shuttle, retiring in 2010, to the Orion spacecraft, launching in 2014? The National Space Society considers this question and others during its 27th annual conference in Washington, D.C. 5/30/2008: WASHINGTON, DC: 3 hr. 38 min.

Evidently I am not the only one who sees a problem for Barack Obama. A group calling itself "Barack Obama Aerospace Community" held an organizational meeting May 31 in conjunction with the International Space Development Conference (above). Andrew Hoppin gets the shout out for his efforts. To quote:

We’ll make plans both for conducting outreach to the aerospace community on behalf of Barack Obama this summer around events such as the Netroots Nation convention in Austin in July.

We’ll also discuss Obama’s space policy platform and how we can best contribute our perspectives to it.

More discussion among progressives this summer -- Hoppin announced the "Space Policy Panel" at Netroots Nation/Yearly Kos in a related post at Globehoppin. To quote:

The Netroots Nation (Yearly Kos) Convention will feature a panel on space policy, July 18th or 19th in Austin, Texas. The panel, entitled, “Progressive NASA & Space Policy Under a New Administration,” is an opportunity to bring critical space policy issues to light within a potent progressive political constituency– the Netroots– that hasn’t historically paid much attention to space. It is also an opportunity for the Netroots to weigh in on what a new progressive space policy agenda could be under a progressive Administration in 2009.

The discussion will address space policy from the following perspective:

“NASA is in crisis–overburdened, under-funded, and inefficient. Yet the progressive legacy of space, which dates back to JFK, is being quietly reborn: NASA can reinvent itself as a critical resource in climate change mitigation; the UN and some in the U.S. military are collaborating to prevent space weapons from becoming an arms race with China; progressive “NewSpace” entrepreneurs are creating new domestic high-tech jobs. Before 2009, a new progressive space policy needs to be devised and advocated beyond the traditional space constituencies, to upgrade Bush’s failing space exploration vision. Who better to initiate this work than the Netroots?

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics democrats hillary clintonnasa space program national space society

News of Texas women

Southwest U.S. women makes national headlines occasionally. That has been the case with the "polygamist sect cases." On Monday, May 19, the parents of children taken into the custody of the State of Texas will begin to make their cases in a series of court hearings in five Tom Green County (San Angelo) court rooms, according to examiner.com. The parents of the 463 children in foster care will learn how they can regain custody of their children. There is still a great deal of missing information. Results of all the DNA testing, for example are still "two to four weeks away." The article further points out,

So far, 168 mothers and 69 fathers have been identified in court documents, though DNA test results are two to four weeks away.

More than 100 children still have not been matched with mothers . . . the case, which began with a raid on April 3, has been marked by confusion since the beginning.

Child Protective Services has complained that women and children have given different names and lied about ages. The agency has also struggled with identification of children and women because many have similar names, and some of the young women, who don't wear makeup and braid their hair, look much younger than their actual age.

As many as two dozen of the girls held in custody may be adults; authorities are still trying determine their actual ages.

NASA officials to meet today in Houston -- Commander Peggy Whitson was a record-making NASA astronaut now rehabbing after months of weightlessness and a recent very rough Russian Suyoz landing. The flawed landing made by three astronauts last month in Russia has NASA worried. And they have to decide what to do in response to it today. There is to be a news conference no earlier than 3:00 PM Central time to announce next steps with NASA's STS-124 mission to the International Space Station. A mission launch date is expected. An exclusive story in the Orlando Sentinel discusses many of the change possibilities within what will be discussed. It will no-doubtedly be broadcast on NASA-TV. To quote from ITWire:

NASA managers are meeting Monday, May 19, 2008, for a Joint Prgram (JP) Flight Readiness Review (FRR) of the space shuttle Discovery and the STS-124 mission. During the FRR meeting, it is being reported, that the health and status of the Soyuz capsule currently docked at the International Space Station will be discussed.

A FRR meeting consists of all officials directly responsible for preparing a space shuttle for an upcoming STS mission. These people look into all issues and concerns for the mission, in this case STS-124, and conclude whether to stick by the current launch schedule or postpone for one problem or various specific reasons.

. . . The space shuttle Discovery and the crew of STS-124 are currently scheduled to take off on a construction mission to the space station at 5:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), on May 31, 2008.

More on mothers and children -- And, of course, my two favorite BLUE bloggers have stayed on the job here in Texas. Bluebloggin's "bosskitty" posts thoroughly and thoughtfully on Appeasement; and also writes in an interesting and compassionate manner about tragedy in Burma and China (includes terrific photographs). In a much lighter vein Bluedaze, TXsharon, always does a roundup of the best blog posts from the Texas Progressive Alliance. Her most recent does not disappoint. To quote:

WhosPlayin notes that along with many more Republicans, Michael Burgess (TX-26) voted AGAINST supporting Mothers Day.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news texas women polygamist sect bloggers

Against the grain

Texas is an interesting place to live. Women here are multi-talented, and sometimes go against the grain of conventional wisdom. My late mother-in-law could make the best plate of fried chicken anywhere, and she was very independent for her time. And Texas women have a reputation for being sassy, Molly Ivins, for example. The founders of the state were often people who did not fit in somewhere else. And, fortunately, we are not all Republicans. Today's post is an amalgam of the anachronistic, a digest of digression, a roundup of news from and about talented women from Texas that might be of interest to you, too. Let's begin with the bloggers:

• "nytexan" posts at BlueBloggin. The blog leads with this motto: "James Madison -- If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." A great writer and a member of the Texas Progressive Alliance, she regularly covers Texas blogs. Here is an interesting post on the Clintons that I had not seen elsewhere.


• "TXsharon" writes Bluedaze. She lives, very modestly, not far north of here. She told us "How I became a “far-left-radical with a socialist agenda” etc. TXsharon is a recipient of the Texas Progressive Alliance 2007 Silver Star Award for Texan of the Year.


• Fayrouz Hancock writes Fayrouz in Beaumont, formerly called "Iraqi In America." Born and raised Christian and educated for computer science in Basrah, Iraq, Fayrouz immigrated in 1995 to Australia as a young adult. Fay met her husband online; they married in 2001 and now live in Beaumont. Mark is a photographer for the local paper; Fay works in the computer field. Fay and Mark rode out Hurricane Rita together with others working for the newspaper.


• "thankgodforpbr" is a contributor to Texas Death Penalty Blog: Texas Students Against the Death Penalty (TSADP) works to end the death penalty in Texas through campaigns of public education and the promotion of youth activism. Her own blog is Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) Austin.

Women are good communicators, including those from the Southwest featured today. "Spacey Women" at NASA headquarters in Houston play an important role in the program. The STS-124 Mission has a woman crew member, Dr.Karen Nyberg, who got her PhD from the University of Texas in Austin. She was chosen as an astronaut in 2000. The mission is targeted for launch May 31. It will carry the second element of the Japanese science module, "Kibo," into orbit.


View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.
(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)
My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.
Technorati tags: news news and politics blogs women bloggers women NASA Texas progressives

Here and there from the Southwest USA

The southwest region of the United States sometimes makes the national headlines, for good or for ill. Three events captured national attention this past week. A West Texas polygamist sect's compound was raided in order to protects its vulnerable women and children from sexual abuse. Hundreds of passenger flights in the region were canceled in order to do safety inspections on airplane electrical wiring. And NASA in Houston is transitioning their three-person crew aboard the International Space Station.

Texas polygamist sect story: Monday brings a Washington Post story of what will happen next in these troubling events regarding custody of the children, protection of spouses, etc. It will come under the auspices of the state courts, and even the governor could weigh in. To quote:

An investigation of abuse at the private ranch of a polygamous sect is moving to a San Angelo courthouse this week as the state argues to retain custody of 416 children removed from their parents. Texas bar officials say more than 350 attorneys from across the state have volunteered to represent the children for free.

"The size, the scope of this effort is unprecedented," attorney Guy Choate said. "It's terribly important to the State Bar of Texas that everyone have access to justice."

. . . Three mothers have appealed to Gov. Rick Perry for help in a letter the sect said was mailed to him on Saturday.

There is a new twist to the polygamist ranch story. Americans have been subsidizing the group with millions of their tax dollars, according to McClatchy. My Representative, Kay Granger, should probably urge an investigation, although what action might come out of it is unknown. To quote:

American taxpayers have unwittingly helped finance a polygamist sect that is now the focus of a massive child abuse investigation in West Texas, with a business tied to the group receiving a nearly $1 million loan from the federal government and $1.2 million in military contracts.

. . . A large portion of the awards were preferential no-bid or "sole source" contracts because of the company's classification as a small business, according to online databases that track federal government appropriations.

. . . U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, the Fort Worth Republican who sits on the House Appropriations Committee that deals with issues of defense, military and homeland security, said she is surprised that the federal government is doing business with a group accused of mistreating women and children.

"It makes me very uneasy," Granger said. "It needs to be investigated without a doubt."

Is it yet safe to fly? Travelers in the Southwest and elsewhere were affected deeply by the FAA safety inspection problems presented to Southwest and American Airlines. There is plenty of blame to go around in both the FAA and the airline companies. "Safety problems in grounded jets known for years by FAA," was written by Bob Cox at McClatchy Newspapers, April 12, 2008. To quote:

Airline safety regulators have known for years that MD-80 airliners could have a potentially serious electrical wiring problem like the one that led to the sudden grounding of American Airlines planes last week.

But a review of Federal Aviation Administration documents indicates that the agency was in no hurry to force airlines to make fixes.

NASA's Space Program is located in the Southwest region of the United States. Missions are controlled primarily out of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas as well as number of facilities in Europe. The current mission is ISS Expedition 17, now transitioning a new crew to be aboard the Space Station. Two members of the new rookie crew and a visitor from South Korea arrived at the station on April 10. To quote from Space.com:

Crewmembers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed the arrival of a Russian spacecraft bearing their replacements and South Korea's first astronaut early Thursday.

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, and South Korean spaceflyer So-yeon Yi pulled in at the station aboard their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft, which docked with the outpost's Earth-facing Pirs module at about 8:57 a.m. EDT (1257 GMT). The two vehicles were flying over northern Kazakhstan when they connected.

. . . Volkov, the first second-generation spaceflyer to reach space, received congratulations in Russian from his father, famed cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.

. . . Whitson, who served as ISS Expedition 16 commander, and Yuri Malenchenko, Expedition 17 flight engineer, will be relieved by Volkov and Kononenko. The third current station inhabitant, U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman, will stay onboard as a flight engineer for the new Expedition 17.

. . . Yi, Malenchenko and Whitson are slated to land on the steppes of Kazakhstan next week after a 3 ½-hour journey home from the space station.

NASA has launched a beautiful new science web site: NASA SCIENCE . . . for the benefit of all. Researchers, educators, kids and citizen scientists are invited to delve into the sections on Earth, Heliophysics, Planets and Astrophysics. Full featured, it also includes an image of the day, spotlights one of the science missions, and focuses on "NASA Science and Kids."

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news space nasa southwest travel texas polygamy airlines