Electronic Writer

This is a lovely little video showing Mitt Romney as the front-man for Wall Street. Listen to his rhetoric, but watch the images. It is all double-speak.

The President has launched a campaign to get all of the first-time voters from the last election to come back to the polls for the 2010 Congressional Election.  But, you can hear it for yourself . . . .

Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden (R) has made some absurd claims during her recent bid for Nevada Senate.  Her most famous is:

Let’s change the system and talk about what the possibilities are. I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I’ll paint your house,” she said. “[That's] what people would do to get health care with their doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people.   [Source: Talking Points Memo]

A surprise externality of this lovely talking point has been the meme that Susan Lowden is suggesting that we trade chickens for heath care services–you know, because Insurance Companies and Doctors are so generous with their services.  To help understand the gravity of Lowden’s concept, someone has created the Lowden Plan Chicken Counter–to help us get a general sense of how many chickens we would need for certain procedures.  Of course, if you can find a doctor who will accept chickens in exchange for medical procedures . . . we would love to know.  In the meantime . . . you should check it out.

The Lowden Plan Chicken Counter

Try it yourself:  LowdenPlan.com

There are lots of reasons to really feel the doom-and-gloom of the day: Republican obstructionism is at an all-time high, right-wing Tea-Baggers, ratings-chasing media organizations, and their governmental enablers are fomenting revolutions, we are still losing human lives in the Middle East, and right now, an oil rig is burning and sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico–and, spilling 300,000 gallons a day of oil.

But, there is a bright spot in the news today. A 99-year old woman is able to read and write again using a smart, new piece of technology–an iPad!

Don’t you just love technology?

These are some superb opening remarks. Finally, someone not pulling any punches–and, someone with some experience who is not pulling any punches.

I hope the trial is fair and a representative case of the American legal system . . . and, that those responsible are brought to justice. As I have said before, the homeless people, those who have lost their jobs and/or businesses, those who have lost their retirements are not just numbers. They are suffering people . . . and, it was no accident.

Today marks a special moment for the GOP “Party of No.” It objected to 97 Presidential nominees in a single day. The idiocy of the Republican Party (as well as the shamelessness) has no ends . . . .

Thanks for the video from the Huffington Post

Cheers to bi-partisan solutions . . . .

One of the first major loves of my life was Joni Mitchell, and it was this album, Hejira, that opened my ears and transformed me from someone who listens to whatever is on the radio to a lover of music . . . .

Thank you, Joni.

Although NASA funding is actually seeing an increase, they are shifting the goals to research, exploration and unmanned flight.  In short, canceling the Constellation program.

First, I must confess: I am a space junkie.  I love everything about it, and have since I was a young kid.  So, I should have guessed that after watching the NASA video about the program would feel emotionally “connected” to the program.

There were those who criticized the program as being “over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies,” but I still feel as if I were losing something that I hold dear . . . .

Some are concerned about the jobs that will be lost at NASA because of the cancellation of the program.  Former astronauts wrote an open letter to President Obama and have cautioned that without a manned-space flight program, we would lose our position quickly as the leader in space exploration (and waste money buying bus passes for the Russian Soyez spacecraft).

My opinion is much simpler.  The program looks so cool–with all of the in-flight docking and rockets and boosters that it is hard to imaging anyone NOT enthralled by the program . . . .

UPDATE: A bit more research uncovered this Popular Science article that put a lot of things in context.  Namely, the goals o NASA have been shifted to help privately-owned American companies to do the grunt work of Low Earth Orbit trips (like supplies and people to the International Space Station), and to take some time an come up with something NEW for going into deep space.  The entire Constellation Program used a lot of existing designs (from the 60s) to meet the time deadline of 2020 to the moon.  There was no time for research and/or innovation.  Every NASA program gets left behind, eh?

Still not sure how you feel about the quirky micro-blogging service?

Well, the Library of Congress has determined that your 140 character posts on Twitter are invaluable to recorded human history.  So, they will be storing all Tweets that were not private–starting from the very beginning back in 2006.

As a result, you might be famous.  Or, your grandkids might be able to gain some valuable insight into their grandfather’s habits and behaviors in his early twenties.  For me, the LOC will now house my real-time recorded collection of transgressions of AC Transit of Alameda County, CA.  (Arguably, not the best example of historical stuff.)

Library of Congress blogger, Matt Raymond, wrote:

I’m no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive.

I have to agree . . . those are some historical documents in the making.

Huffington Post has the full story >>

Remeber when Orly Taitz was the legal counsel representing the Reservist, Stefan Cook, who challenged his deployment orders . . . because he hadn’t seen President Obama’s birth certificate?  Well, we appear to have a copycat offender.  The difference is that this one is a little higher up (and, so far, Orly Taitz is no where to be seen).

According to MSNBCs first read,

From NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Mark Murray
U.S. military officials tell NBC News that the U.S. Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan because he considers orders from President Obama to be “illegal.”

A little more digging, and it turns out that Army doctor Lt. Col. Terry Lakin has got a lot of street cred, or at least, he did.  Now, I don’t go around hanging out on right wing blogs, but some of the stuff of the stuff they listed you can’t fake (and no, Fox News, that is NOT a challenge).  Chief of Care and Flight Surgeon for centers and Staff Generals . . . .

But, he is getting court-martialed now.

What’s my take on this?  One of the comments at the Family Security Matters (ugh, I have a hard time typing that) website said it best:

I believe they call that insubordination. It’s my hope that he is relieved of duty, stripped of his rank and benefits and tossed in prison where he belongs for withholding treatment to wounded soldiers in a time of war.  I would have more respect for him if he had moral objections to the wars, but no, he wants to play the right-wing reindeer games instead.  I’m a veteran too, and when I was in, if you disobeyed a lawful order, you faced legal repercussions.

America is watching and noticing the breathtaking hypocrisy of the right wing elements in this country.There is nothing “patriotic” about the hatred and vitriol spewed on an almost nonstop basis by these type of people.

Face facts, you have a black President.

PS. Wanna see our President’s birth certificate?