25
Feb
Angry senators demand answers from NASA chief Bolden
Bolden pleads for patience
BY BART JANSEN • FLORIDA TODAY • February 25, 2010WASHINGTON — Senators lashed out at President Barack Obama and the head of NASA on Wednesday for canceling the space agency’s program to replace the shuttles with new rockets and spaceships that would carry astronauts to the moon and someday Mars….
In the first congressional hearing on the White House’s 2011 budget, which calls for retiring the shuttle fleet as planned later this year and shutting down the over-budget and behind-schedule replacement program, senators grilled NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about worse-than-expected job losses in states such as Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. They also urged the White House to clearly set landing humans on Mars as NASA’s top goal.Bolden, a former astronaut who flew in space with subcommittee Chairman Bill Nelson and got NASA’s top job in part because of strong lobbying from the Orlando Democrat, said he agreed that Mars ought to be the space program’s “ultimate destination.”
But he said he couldn’t set a date because first NASA needs to complete research — funded in this new budget — to identify faster propulsion systems to shorten the trip and better ways to protect astronauts against the health risks of long-duration spaceflight.
“We want to go to Mars,” Bolden said. “We can’t get there because we don’t have the technology.”
The clash came during the first of two days of congressional hearings on NASA’s budget and its future. Today, Bolden will go before a House committee expected to have its own tough questions about the proposal to cancel Constellation, which NASA now says was unrealistic because it was never adequately funded.
“We were living a hallucination,” Bolden said. “Vision without resources is a hallucination.”
Obama proposed $6 billion more for NASA over the next five years. But Obama would spend $6 billion during that period to encourage private companies to develop rockets and spaceships capable of delivering cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. Obama also would boost research at the International Space Station, which he proposed to extend from 2015 to 2020.
However, killing Constellation also eliminates current and future jobs that were expected to offset the layoffs caused by the retirement of the shuttle fleet in Brevard County and in other communities, including New Orleans, Houston and Huntsville, Ala.
Nelson said the budget “gave the perception the president was killing the manned space program” and that the administration needs to better explain its goals. He questioned how the budget could spend $7.8 billion over five years on developing technology and only $3.1 billion on developing a heavy-lift rocket necessary for any human spaceflight missions beyond the space station.
“The goal is to get to Mars,” Nelson said. “The question is, How do you do it?”
Other senators were harsher.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., criticized NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver as the architect of the “radical” plan to abandon Constellation.
“We just fall off a cliff,” Vitter said of the workers dependent on Constellation, which includes thousands of people in Louisiana who would have worked on Ares rocket components at the factory where shuttle external tanks are now made. “I will fight this budget with every ounce of energy that I have.”
Bolden defended Garver as a capable deputy who was misrepresented. Bolden said budget decisions were made by him, Garver, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Office and Management and Budget.
Bolden said research funded under the budget would support robots that would do tests necessary to allow future human trips to the moon and to Mars. Research also could produce breakthroughs in propulsion to cut the estimated eight-month travel time to Mars and reveal ways to deal with astronauts’ bone and muscle loss from long-term space travel, Bolden said.
When Sen. George LeMieux, R-Tallahassee, asked who recommended canceling Constellation, Bolden said, “I’m not at liberty to share with anybody.”
LeMieux asked about extending shuttle flights beyond the fleet’s scheduled retirement later this year, a shutdown expected to cause the loss of at least 7,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center. Bolden said he wouldn’t recommend flying the shuttles longer because of cost and safety concerns.
“That is something I would not recommend to the president,” Bolden said. “There is little value in trying to stretch the shuttle until we have the commercial capability to get to low Earth orbit.”
LeMieux said that providing the agency’s proposed funding without a detailed plan, including deadlines and destinations, concerned him. Bolden replied that a plan for travel to the moon, asteroids and Mars would be developed within months rather than years.
“We’ll develop a plan over the coming months,” Bolden said. “I’m not capable of giving you a complete plan on how we get deeper into the solar system.”
Was listening to Foxnews on the radio going to lunch. Didn’t get to hear much, but I did get to hear Obama tell of when he was a young man, he was rear-ended. So, he called his insurance company and they laughed at him. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that insurance companies are greedy and don’t want to pay claims. They just want to be there because the law says they have to be.
Obama is a blithering idiot.
In lieu of calling the wrong company to pay for an accident, he’s gonna fix the whole industry:
- You’ll no longer have to worry about calling the wrong company any more as I’m sure there will be one government run company, of which you’ll get to choose.
- Eeveryone will pay the same premium, since they won’t be able to discriminate by giving good drivers discounts ( that punishes the bad drivers and that makes them feel bad ).
- Everyone will have to have insurance even though some people don’t drive ( like kids ).
- Since some people can’t afford it, their greedy employers will have to chip in.
- Since deciding who’s at fault in a wreck makes someone feel bad, we won’t have awards any more.
- If you wreck your car, you’ll just get a new car and all is good.
- If you’re hurt, Obamacare will make it all well for free.
- It’ll cost $13.232 trillion dollars that will save us $9.22 trillion dollars and we’ll start paying for it in July and collect the benefits in 2015.
- If you don’t think this makes sense, you’ll be turned over to the White House gripe line and subsequently publicly taunted by The White House Press Secretary. If that doesn’t shut you up, well, there’s always the SEIU.
Time for another senseless distraction. The Missile Defense Agency recently took some pretty hard PR hits. When Obama ran for President, he promised all kinds of change. Here’s some:
Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you’ve been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.
First, I’ll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I’m the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.
Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
I will slow our development of future combat systems.
And I will institute an independent “Defense Priorities Board” to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.
Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.
You know where I stand. I’ve fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don’t switch positions or make promises that can’t be kept. I don’t posture on defense policy and I don’t take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.
A bunch of things he hasn’t done. However, he did cut the hell out of the Missile Defense Agency. So much so that countries in Eastern Europe decided they regretted voting for Obama too.
However, the missile defense people are no dummies apparently. Knowing that Obama apparently doesn’t like anything that goes boom, they went for plan B. They took a logo they knew he liked:
Mixed it with a cause they knew he liked:
That of course would be the Organization of the Islamic Conference. They represent the 57 states Obama campaigned in. And, you wind up with something like this:
Yup, the agency that has nothing to do with the Moon now features a crescent moon as their logo. And, of course, the agency that used to take us to the Moon, doesn’t.
Probably just a bunch of coincidences that crescent moons keep popping up all over the place since Obama took over.
Liberals think it’s silly that some people wonder why in the hell our nuclear missile defense system, which features rockets that blow things up here on Earth, would have a crescent Moon. Or for that matter, anything to do with the Moon since Obama specifically targeted cutting any more trips to the Moon. I’d just like to ask them how they would have reacted if the logo had been in the shape of a cross?
Y’know, some things are kind of common in the universe. Circles, squares, straight lines, etc.. One thing that is not is the crescent moon. You really have to go out of your way to come up with one of those. I”m not willing to think this is purely happenstance or coincidence. Someone in DC’s got an agenda.
A few days ago Obama told a crowd in Michigan that the stimulus was working.
Then the jobs claims showed people weren’t being hired.
Now the housing market is taking a hit:
New U.S. Homes Sales Plunged to Record Low in January
This is what it’s looked like since Obama took over:
Jan 2009 24 Feb 2009 29 Mar 2009 31 Apr 2009 32 May 2009 34 Jun 2009 37 Jul 2009 38 Aug 2009 36 Sep 2009 30 Oct 2009 33 Nov 2009 26 Dec 2009 24 Jan 2010 21
Somehow I’m sure Obama’s peeps are figuring exactly how this is someone else’s fault. They’ll get back to us soon I’m sure. In the meantime, I’ve suggested not too long ago he use some of that returned and unspent TARP money to prop up small regional banks and spend a lot less time shaking down large banks and trying to unionize everything.
23
Feb
Went to recovery.org to see how many jobs had been saved this week. Particularly, I was interested in my home town. It had seven projects listed. I had a problem with a few:
- Chattanooga (TN), Independence (OH), Seven Hills (OH), Madison (TN), Nashville (TN), Lexington (KY), Louisville (KY), Nicholasville (KY), Knoxville (TN), Kings Mountain (KY), Lebanon (KY), Nancy (KY), Murfreesboro (TN), Memphis (TN), Mountain Home (TN), Huntington (WV). As compared with 109.
- Chattanooga (TN), Independence (OH), Nashville (TN), Lexington (KY), Louisville (KY), Knoxville (TN), Kings Mountain (KY), Lebanon (KY), Nancy (KY), Murfreesboro (TN), Memphis (TN), Mountain Home (TN), Huntington (WV). As compared with 109
- Chattanooga (TN), Independence (OH), Seven Hills (OH), Madison (TN), Nashville (TN), Lexington (KY), Louisville (KY), Nicholasville (KY), Knoxville (TN), Kings Mountain (KY), Lebanon (KY), Nancy (KY), Murfreesboro (TN), Memphis (TN), Mountain Home (TN), Huntington (WV). As compared with 109
- Hopkinsville (KY).
- Chattanooga (TN), Independence (OH), Madison (TN), Nashville (TN), Lexington (KY), Louisville (KY), Nicholasville (KY), Knoxville (TN), Kings Mountain (KY), Lebanon (KY), Nancy (KY), Murfreesboro (TN), Memphis (TN), Mountain Home (TN), Huntington (WV). As compared with 109.
- Somerset (KY) – As compared with 208
- Pulaski (KY) – As compared with 0
Lookin good so far. Except for some minor bugs.
- Four of them list Nancy. There are no jobs in Nancy. None. There is nothing there to have those types of jobs. Total jobs created, 0. Total jobs saved, 0. Total jobs listed on this report, 327.
- Hopkinsville is nowhere near here. It’s about 300 miles west of here. Total jobs created here, 0. Total jobs saved here, 0. Total listed on this report, didn’t say.
- The Somerset (KY) is for the electric co-op. It says it saved 208 jobs. They only have 163 to begin with. According to my very casual research, the economic downturn didn’t cost any jobs.
- And, the one that actually is specific to my county is estimated to save 0 jobs.
So, this is how the report is stacking up against reality:
| recovery.org | real world | |
| Jobs | 644 | 0 |
| Money | $ 59,101,467 | $ 25,000 |
Anyone want to take a stab at the error rate?
Obama then went to Michigan to tell them how well it’s working for them.
Eric Holder was quite proud of himself yesterday. Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to planning a terrorist attack on New York City. This according to Holder, was proof that his decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City was justified.
Now, there are some differences between the two that Holder apparently doesn’t consider important in the least bit.
Zazi went to high school in Queens, NY. He bought all hist stuff in Denver, drove it back to New York City, and was arrested. And, most importantly, Zazi is a citizen of the United States. Zazi never actually harmed a single person. Stupid, yes, dangerous, not proven.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was reportedly born in Kuwait to Pakistani parents. He is reputed to have been involved with, at the very least, the ’93 and ’01 WTC attacks. He’s responsible for the deaths of thousands.
Now, let me see if I can put this in such a way a liberal attorney can understand it.
- US Birth = civilian
- non-US Birth = foreign
and:
- killing fellow citizens is murder
- foreigners attacking US citizens within the US, war.
And finally:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
That, Eric Holder, is the #1 legal document in the US. It trumps all the others. It is the set of laws that all other laws have to respect. Some of the laws are fairly vague intentionally. The Preamble is not. It is quite clear. Let’s parse it, shall we?
- We the People of the United States….. That does not include Pakistan. Pakistan is a different country. Their Constitution would say something to the effect of “We the People of Pakistan….”. Now, this is kind of important. If Eric Holder were arrested in Pakistan, they won’t give him the rights of the US Constituion. Most people within the US feel that KSM doesn’t deserve those rights either.
- to ourselves and our Posterity….. That means ourselves, and future generations. “Ourselves” in this instance is referring to those who consider themselves subject to that document. In this case, that would be US citizens. What’s important about this part is the definition of “ourselves”. That doesn’t include those people who do not consider themselves subject to this document. Therefore, if they are not subject to it, then they are not protected by it.
Only an idiot would truly feel that an enemy combatent, captured on foreign soil, killing people to bring about the demsie of the US Constitution, deserves the rights afforded by that document. Only an idiot would believe the Miranda rights mean anything to a mercenary intent on killing women and children by the thousands.
Eric Holder is such an idiot.
I’m going to toss in another point that I think has not been expanded on enough. What Obama and Holder are doing is relegating prisoners of war to a situation where they were considered an asset in the past, to a menace at this time. If they’re given lawyers and subject to create a mess in NYC simply to put them in a trial no one wants, they serve no purpose being captured. Might as well just shoot them in the field and get it over with. It’s legal and leaves no lingering messes like civilian trials or anything.
I’m so sure that’s what Holder had in mind in the first place.
Eric Holder really is an idiot.
20
Feb
Just read this. It’s not quite what it seems:
To which someone actually had a Citi response to:
I saw your post on Citibank and wanted to get you some additional information. At issue is Reg D, which requires that in order for a NOW account to be eligible to earn interest or receive promotions, a bank must reserve the right to require seven days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal.
When Citibank moved to unlimited FDIC coverage in 2009, we had to reclassify many checking accounts to allow for immediate withdrawals in order to ensure all customers qualified for the additional coverage. When we moved back to standard FDIC coverage with most major banks in 2010, Citibank decided to reclassify those accounts back to make them eligible again for promotional incentives. To do so, Federal Reserve Reg D requires these accounts, called NOW accounts, to reserve the right to require a 7-day notice of withdrawal. We recently communicated this technical requirement to our customers. However, we have never exercised this right and have no plans to do so in the future.
Robert Julavits
Citi Public Affairs
By the time the commenter posted the response, the usual and expected damage was being done. If there is a board discussing anything, those who don’t like either side of the topic will post stuff that makes either side of the issue look as bad as they can possibly make it. In this case, the majority, about 99%, hate Citi.
Having worked in the finance industry for a short while, and being associated with a finance company today ( that’s a disclaimer, folks ), I understand some of what is going on here. However, I still hate Citi (C) as they have repeatedly issued me cards only to immediately revoke the terms they offered. I have one last card with them that is in the process of being cancelled. I won’t be doing business with them again any time soon. Ever, if I have a choice.
So, you’ve got a company with a wide reputation of not doing what they originally offered putting the most alarming words any bank customer could ever hear, you may not be able to get your money back. What Citi is doing here is required by law. However, in usual Citi fashion, it is being done with a complete lack of professionalism in not going into enough detail to buffer the shock of the initial concept. That’s just showing a lack of concern or respect for the customer that has their money there.
I don’t do business with Citi any more. The general consensus, and one I agree with, is the closer to home your money is, the safer you are. When there is an issue like the one above, it’s a lot easier to talk to the person in charge at your local bank than it is the President or CEO of Citi. Just trust me on that.
I doubt there will be a run on Citi over this, but there should be for plenty of other reasons.
Two sequential headlines on Seeking Alpha caught my eye this morning:
And So It Begins: Futures Plunge as Fed Raises Discount Rate
and
It’s being discussed, but not nearly enough in my opinion. How much investment money is going to China just to subsidize their ability to destroy our markets? Try finding a US made memory chip of any sort. Try finding a US made television or monitor. These at one time were very vibrant markets in the US. That translates to jobs. If Obama wants the jobs back, he’s going to have to find some way to entice US investors to try to compete with foreign companies to make stuff we used to make right here. Unionizing the entire country won’t accomplish that.
16
Feb
This week we had Joe Biden assuring as that allowing a bomber on an airplane and the fact his bomb failed to explode is proof their anti-terrorism plan is working just fine. Then, we had him assuring a crowd of people their stimulus plan is working:
Not sure how well the crowd bought it. He was in Michigan. I’m sure next he’ll come to Kentucky to speak in Lexington how well its working since Toyota just shut down the largest auto plant in Kentucky.
This same week, Evan Bayh decided he had had all he could possibly stomach in DC and quit.
Well, not exactly. Two headlines did catch my eye tonight tho:
and
Which is worse? After you’ve leaped to your conclusion, read both stories.
In one story, the government is trying to stop something. In the other, it’s the one doing it.
