FBI agent Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, confirmed that investigators had found pieces of black nylon from a bag or backpack and fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker. He said the items were sent to the FBI for analysis at Quantico, Va.
Pressure-cooker explosives have been used in international terrorism, and have been recommended for lone-wolf operatives by Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen. But information on how to make the bombs is readily found online, and U.S. officials said Americans should not rush to judgment in linking the attack to overseas terrorists.
DesLauriers said that there had been no claim of responsibility for the attack, and that the range of suspects and motives was "wide open."
Site preparation has begun and plans are being finalized for a formal groundbreaking ceremony to be held in the next few weeks at the country’s first sweet sorghum-to-ethanol plant being built by Southeast Renewable Fuels LLC in Hendry County, 15 miles of Clewiston, Fla.
The process technology for 20 MMgy plant is being supplied by Uni-Systems do Brasil Ltda, CEO Aaron Pepper said, and the facility is being built by them as well. Financing was arranged through the Bank of Brazil. “We give a big thanks to Uni-Systems, the Bank of Brazil, the state of Florida and Hendry County,” he added. “They’ve all been very supportive of our project.”
The groundbreaking has long been awaited. The project received a $2.5 million Florida Department of Energy grant in March 2009, had lined up financing and begun the permitting process in early 2010 when the progress was halted due to a third party issue, “that had nothing to do with us,” Pepper said.
The project is finally moving forward. Groundwork began in early April and the detailed earthwork preparing for the laying of foundations should begin in a couple of weeks, Pepper said. The first equipment is expected to arrive on site in October and the facility is scheduled to come online in January 2015. The footprint of the plant is being planned to allow the eventually doubling of its size, he added.
The integrated facility will include power generation and CO2 capture. The plant will produce 25 megawatts of electricity from bagasse in a combined heat and power plant. A yet-unnamed company will feed the projected 65,000 tons of CO2 into a liquid gas plant to be co-located on the 100-acre ethanol plant site. A letter of intent has been signed for for the CO2 capture, Pepper said. An offtake agreement is in place with Shell for the ethanol itself.
Located in the middle of Florida’s sugarcane production area, the ethanol plant will require about 25,000 acres of sweet sorghum production, figuring two harvests per year. “During three years of field trials we were getting yields well above the published reports,” Pepper said. “And at 30 tons per acre, we actually might only need 18,000 acres of production.” They expect to be able to produce 800 gallons of ethanol per acre of feedstock.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior U.S. intelligence official says two more explosive devices have been found near the scene of the Boston marathon where two bombs detonated earlier.
The official said the new devices were being dismantled.
It was not immediately clear what kind of devices had been found Monday. The official said the first two did appear to be bombs.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been increasing for a third year in a row and is heading for a record high, the United Nations said in a report Monday.
MEXICO CITY – A Mexican judge has acquitted a former drug czar who was charged with organized crime after he allegedly accepted $450,000 to leak details of police operations against members of the Pacific cartel, an alliance once headed by the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Noe Ramirez was Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor and the highest-ranking law enforcement official detained in 2008 as part of then President Felipe Calderon's sweeping effort to weed out corrupt officials with ties to organized crime.
Mexico's Federal Judiciary Council said in a statement that a federal judge acquitted Ramirez on Monday after determining the main witness in the case lied and prosecutors might have fabricated evidence.
Ramirez was one of five top officials and two federal agents detained in 2008 as part of Calderon's "Operation Clean House."
Defense lawyer Jack McMahon was trying to counter attacks by prosecutors that Gosnell let patients pick their anesthesia based on how much they could pay.
The trial is now in its fifth week, and could last another month.
An influx of reporters attended the trial Monday, spurred by criticism that some broadcasters were not covering the trial. A gag order prevents lawyers from speaking outside and no cameras are allowed inside the courtroom. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart reminded jurors not to read or view anything about the case.
A White House spokesman said Monday that President Barack Obama is aware of the trial, and the spokesman called the case "unsettling."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama, as president, "does not and cannot take a position on an ongoing trial." But Carney added that "the things you hear and read about this case are unsettling."
Gulino described his bafflement when police in 2010 turned over bags seized at Gosnell's clinic with the 47 sets of fetal remains, along with medical waste and other debris.
"It was really an unprecedented situation," said Gulino, who talked to colleagues and searched medical literature. "There was no guidance for how to proceed."
Former workers have testified that Gosnell had the aborted fetuses in the freezer because of a billing dispute with his medical waste disposal company, which had stopped coming.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/15/3344907/pa-abortion-docs-murder-trial.html#storylink=cpy
Others always find reason to point out when the criminal or suspect is a Muslim, I like to maintain an editorial balance. Reminding reader that not all the criminals we discuss are Muslims, that many criminals are Jews and Christians, some atheists and a few pagans are thrown into the mix.
In Washington, President Obama was told of the incident.
“The president has been notified of the incident in Boston. His administration is in contact with state and local authorities. He directed his administration to provide whatever assistance is necessary in the investigation and response,” a White House official said.
Shortly after being notified around 3 p.m. local time, the president got a briefing in the Oval Office from homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco and other members of his senior White House staff, the White House said.
Obama then called Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to express his concern for those who were injured and to make clear that his administration is ready to provide needed support as they respond to the incident, officials said.
Vice President Joe Biden interrupted his remarks on a telephone call with gun control advocates after an aide turned on the television, reports said.
“Apparently there has been a bombing. I don’t know any of the details of what caused it,” he said. “Our prayers are with those people in Boston.”
We're now witnessing what happens when all of the economic gains go to the top, and the rest of the population doesn't have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going.
Four years into a so-called recovery and we're still below recession levels in every important respect except the stock market. A measly 88,000 jobs were created in March, and total employment remains some 3 million below its pre-recession level. Labor-force participation is it's lowest since 1979.
Businesses won't hire and expand unless they have more customers, but most Americans can't spend more. Last Friday's retail sales report showed sales down .4 percent in March. Consumer sentiment has fallen to its lowest level in nine months.
The underlying problem is the vast middle class is running out of money. They can't borrow more -- and shouldn't, given what happened after the last borrowing binge.
Real annual median household income keeps falling. It's down to $45,018, from $51,144 in 2010. All the gains from the recovery continue to go to the top.
Widening inequality is not inevitable. If we wanted to reverse it and restore middle-class prosperity, we could.
This week, we join a bipartisan group of six senators to introduce comprehensive immigration-reform legislation. This is the first step in what will be a very difficult but achievable process to fix the nation's broken immigration system once and for all.
...
Our group's effort included the active participation of some of the most conservative and liberal members of the Senate. We engaged in hundreds of hours of very tough negotiations, which nearly broke down at several points.
A woman in her forties went to a plastic surgeon for a face-lift.
The surgeon told her about a new procedure called "The KEY," where a small key is placed on the back of a woman's head and can be turned to tighten up her skin to produce the effect of a brand new face lift.
Of course, the woman wanted "The Key."
Over the course of the years, the woman tightened the key, and the effects were wonderful -- the woman remained young looking and vibrant. After fifteen years, the woman returned to the surgeon with two problems.
"All these years, everything has been working just fine.
I've had to turn the key and I've always loved the results.
But now I've developed two annoying problems:
First, I have these terrible bags under my eyes and the key won't get rid of them."
The doctor looked at her closely and said, "Those aren't bags, those are your tits."
She said, "No point asking about the beard then..........."
Over the years, some of the wealthy have been enormously successful in getting special treatment, shifting an ever greater share of the burden of financing the country’s expenditures — defense, education, social programs — onto others. Ironically, this is especially true of some of our multinational corporations, which call on the federal government to negotiate favorable trade treaties that allow them easy entry into foreign markets and to defend their commercial interests around the world, but then use these foreign bases to avoid paying taxes.
General Electric has become the symbol for multinational corporations that have their headquarters in the United States but pay almost no taxes — its effective corporate-tax rate averaged less than 2 percent from 2002 to 2012 — just as Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee last year, became the symbol for the wealthy who don’t pay their fair share when he admitted that he paid only 14 percent of his income in taxes in 2011, even as he notoriously complained that 47 percent of Americans were freeloaders. Neither G.E. nor Mr. Romney has, to my knowledge, broken any tax laws, but the sparse taxes they’ve paid violate most Americans’ basic sense of fairness.
Paddy had been drinking at his local Dublin pub all day and most of the night celebrating St Patrick's Day. Mick, the bartender says, 'You'll not be drinking anymore tonight, Paddy'. Paddy replies, 'OK Mick, I'll be on my way then'. Paddy spins around on his stool and steps off.. He falls flat on his face. 'Shoite' he says and pulls himself up by the stool and dusts himself off. He takes a step towards the door and falls flat on his face,
'Shoite',
Shoite!'
He looks to the doorway and thinks to himself that if he can just get to the door and some fresh air he'll be fine. He belly crawls to the door and shimmies up to the door frame. He sticks his head outside and takes a deep breath of fresh air, feels much better and takes a step out onto the sidewalk and falls flat on his face.
'Bi'Jesus.... I'm fockin' focked,' he says.
He can see his house just a few doors down, and crawls to the door, hauls himself up the door frame, opens the door and shimmies inside.. He takes a look up the stairs and says 'No fockin' way'. He crawls up the stairs to his bedroom door and says 'I can make it to the bed'. He takes a step into the room and falls flat on his face. He says 'Fock it' and falls into bed.
The next morning, his wife, Jess, comes into the room carrying a cup of coffee and says, 'Get up Paddy. Did you have a bit to drink last night ?'
Paddy says, 'I did, Jess. I was fockin' pissed. But how'd you know?'
'Mick phoned . . . you left your wheelchair at the pub.'
Over the weekend, we came four votes away from the United States Senate giving our Constitutional rights over to the United Nations. In a 53-46 vote, the senate narrowly passed a measure that will stop the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
The Statement of Purpose from the bill read:
To uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
The U.N. Small Arms Treaty, would have effectively placed a global ban on the import and export of small firearms. The ban would have affected all private gun owners in the U.S., and had language that would have implemented an international gun registry on all private guns and ammo.
Astonishingly, 46 of our United States Senators were willing to give away our Constitutional rights to a foreign power.
Here are the 46 senators that voted to give your rights to the U.N.
Baldwin (D-WI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cowan (D-MA)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hirono (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
People this needs to go viral. These Senators voted to let the UN take our guns. They need to lose the election. We have been betrayed.
These 46 Senators Voted to Give your 2nd Amendment Constitutional Rights to the U.N.
If it does turn out that the guilty person in this bombing is the 20-21 year old Saudi national here on a student visa, and not some right wing group like the Tea Party, perhaps we would do well to consider adopting the AIPAC and Israeli view, and simply not allow certain groups into our country at all. Some would say though, that isn't 'fair'.
"According to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the treaty will not do any of the following: interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in Member States; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm States' legitimate right to self-defence; or undermine national arms regulation standards already in place."
...interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in Member States; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm States' legitimate right to self-defence; or undermine national arms regulation standards already in place."
Then why bothwer with it?
I would trust the UN's assurances about as much as I would trust Obama's.
“We are deeply saddened and shocked by the news from Boston,” Nick Bitel, London Marathon Chief Executive, said in a statement.
“Our immediate thoughts are with the people there and their families. It is a very sad day for athletics and for our friends and colleagues in marathon running.
Our security plan is developed jointly with the Metropolitan Police and we were in contact with them as soon as we heard the news.”
If you want to make a dent in the international weapons trade and gun running, begin by impeaching Obama. Some hundreds, at least, of people have died because of his gun running.
What Federal agent "Ran" guns? What Federal agency "Ran" the guns? Where did they "Run" them to? When did they "Run" them?
If you are referencing "Fast and Furious" no Federal agent ever "Ran" a gun. They watch miscreant suspects do so. As part of a mismanaged "sting" operation. Not at all the same as doing it themselves, or Obama ordering done. Perhaps there is some other episode of Federal malfeasance ordered by the President you are referring to?
Now Ronald Reagan, he ordered guns run from Iran to Nicoland. Had Ollie North do it. The entire episode done covertly, outside the lines of Federal agency stovepipes, from the basement of the White House. It was not considered an impeachable offense.
Authorities say they are searching for a darker skinned or black male with a black backpack and black sweatshirt, possibly foreign national from the accent of the individual. Five minutes before the first explosion, officials said this person attempted to gain entry to a restricted area.
...
Law enforcement is also looking for a yellow Penske box truck that tried to gain access with "medical supplies" approximately 1 hour after the explosion.
Hi there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing months of hard work due to no back up. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?
...and the public will support all of it. There is no way to prevent something like this from happening. There are many draconian methods to try and stop it.
Some New York detective is on Fox now thinking at least two people were involved from the way the bombs went off. I don't follow his reasoning though. It looks as though the first bomb left some unexploded powder behind, not detonating correctly.
A critique of John Kerry's work as SOS to date. Not very impressive and, in some cases, downright embarrassing.
This is the problem, of course, with putting lawmakers (Les Aspin, Chuck Hagel, Hillary Clinton, Kerry) in charge of managing huge organizations and constructing a national security agenda. Lawmakers can flap their gums at will. They really aren’t responsible for anything. They manage their office staff and that is about it. But, as we warned regarding Hagel’s nomination, these jobs are largely executive in nature. They require organizational skill, the ability to prioritize, finesse at bending the permanent civil service their way and working on the big picture while trusted underlings get the small stuff right. The president doesn’t have these skills in great abundance and so far most of his second term appointments, named primarily for their political loyalty, haven’t demoonstrated them either...
Lord, get clue. The man's speeches on NK have made him look like a simpering fool. His proposal for direct talks with NK without precondition makes the US look like chumps.
The man hasn't accomplished a damn thing since he has taken over the SOS duties. Given that he works for Obama, in a sense, I guess you could say that is good for America.
He played to the vanity of Kim. The NorKs have not moved, offensively.
His remarks were not molded to play in Detroit, but in North Korea. And they succeeded, there was no invasion of the South, Seoul was not bombarded with chemical weapons.
Get a clue, judge the results, not the posturing rhetoric, which is lost in the wind. The lack of military action the only measure of real success.
If had delivered a flawless speech, to the listeners in Detroit, that goaded Senor Kim to action, then he'd have failed, how truly embarrassing that would be, with thousands in Seoul dead.
Idiot. He played into Kim's hands, the same mistake previous administrations have made, building up Kim's status and legitimacy in hopes of promises Kim will make but never keep. We have history as a guide.
The NorKs have not moved, offensively.
How long has this been going on? Do you really expect Kim to attack the U.S.? South Korea?
And they succeeded, there was no invasion of the South, Seoul was not bombarded with chemical weapons.
The reason Kim is carrying on like and idiot right now is to distract his people from the unrest that is rampant throughout the country. Giving in to him merely promotes his 'dear leader' role amongst his people.
The lack of military action the only measure of real success.
Once again, you confuse correlation with causation. Kim has not attacked anyone because he realizes he would be blasted back to the stone age if he did.
Even China has come around and blasted the Norks at the same time that Kerry offers to do his Chamberlain impression.
Now, Q, you object to the Obama Administration staying the course.
The Federals are maintaining coufse and speed, with regards Korea. You object to current and past US success. The NorKs are contained and as you said their stalwart ally, Charlie Chi-com, is backing away from Mr Kim. Yet another sign of successful long term US policy.
In most all of our foreign relationships the US is maintaining policy, keeping our allies secure, our enemies on edge, fearing that they could be blasted into the stone age if they step out of line. North Korea and Iran, mostly.
The Saudis and Pakistani need not fear US retaliation, or being blasted back to the stone age. We Stay the Course charted by Mr Bush and Cheney.
Personally I advocate for a US military withdrawal from Korea, have ever since I went there and saw the ground, first hand. While there is more domestic political support for withdrawal now, than in the past, it is still not a "Mainstream" position. There has been no Congressional out cry in protest to our military presence in Korea.
When your enemies fear being blasted into the stone age, what need is there for diplomacy?
Exactly, the point. Even Hillary, as bad as she was, understood that you leave NK to stew in its own juices. You don't go there and build them up at the same time you profess to be isolating them. Denouncing them loudly and continuing or increasing the sanctions on them is the only way you have a hope of bringing them around.
NK has played us for a fool a number of times before. How many times must it happen before we get it?
The fact that you lack the nuance to see the difference between policies that result in controlling NK and policies that result in controlling NK while making the US look like a chump is telling.
Kerry hasn't been on the job that long yet his inexperiance and/or naivete is evident. Not only in NK but also in Turkey, Israel, and Iran. In Syria, the administration's policy is so jumbled no one knows what it is.
Trying to get Turkey and Israel back together, Kerry pursauded Bibi to apologize to Turkey for the Turkish deaths in that blockade running incident. The WaPo waxed dreamily about the raproachment this action was bound to bring about. The actual effect? Zip. Turkey pocketed to apology and walked away. (Perhaps, this 'success' is where Kerry got the idea to sit down with Kim.)
While in Israel, Kerry reiterated current U.S. policy that Iran will not be allowed to even attain 'capability' of getting a bomb. Foolish, if it is just an idle threat as it will paint the U.S. as both a blustering paper tiger and an unreliable ally. Foolish if it is actual U.S. policy since it will likely lead to war with Iran.
Now, Kerry is talking about the U.S. initiating a new round of peace talks bewteen Israel and the Palestinians. You would have thought he would have learned from the embarrassing example of Hillary when she first came to office and tried the same thing. As I recall, the talks only lasted a few weeks. Kerry is merely setting himself up for failure.
As I said, inexperianced and/or naive. Or, maybe it is just a wondrous hubris.
He should take the advice others have offered him and come back to the U.S., vet and hire the appropriate qualified lieutenants, discuss all these policy issues with them, and then open his mouth.
I would say that Mr Kerry does suffer a wondrous case of hubris. He represents the President who represents the US. Little wonder some hubris rubbed off upon him. He's married to a rich man's widow. Little wonder some hubris rubbed off upon him.
As for Syria, the lack of a plan of action is policy. Inaction is sufficient to achieve the goal of the US.
The Wahhabi are fighting their "Near Enemy". In Yemen, Libya and Syria They are fighting in Afghanistan, 'cause that's where we are nearest to their power base in Pakistan.
As Doc Z is reported to have said of Iran's part in the conflict ...
Despite Iran's repetition of the slogan 'Death to America, death to Israel,' we haven't heard even one Fatwa from one Shiite authority, whether in Iran or elsewhere, calling for Jihad against the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ayman al Zawahiri: Review of Events: As Sahab's Fourth Interview with Zawahiri
The special medal for the Pentagon’s drone operators and cyberwarriors didn’t last long.
Two months after the military rolled out the Distinguished Warfare Medal for troops who don’t set foot on the battlefield, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has concluded it was a bad idea. Some veterans and some lawmakers spoke out against the award, arguing that it was unfair to make the medal a higher honor than some issued for valor on the battlefield.
Maybe the Boston bombing will bring some sympathy for the innocent people in Iraq that put up with this on a daily basis:
DOZENS of attacks across Iraq, including a brazen car bombing on the way to Baghdad airport, have killed 50 people, just days before the country's first elections since US troops withdrew. The violence, which mostly struck during Monday morning rush hour amid tightened security ahead of the polls, also wounded nearly 300 people and raises further questions about the credibility of the April 20 vote, seen as a key test of Iraq's stability and its security forces' capabilities. A total of 14 election hopefuls have already been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part in the vote. Officials said more than 30 bombings and a shooting hit 12 different areas of Iraq, leaving 50 people dead and making Monday the country’s deadliest day since March 19.
In Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, six people were killed and 67 wounded by three nearly simultaneous car bombs, and in Kirkuk, five people were killed and 44 wounded by six more car bombs. Attacks elsewhere killed nine people and wounded 92 others.
The Iraqi are having a problem with Wahhabi terrorists. The same type of folk that are running riot in Syria.
The government in Iraq is addressing the challenge, but "Western" conscience keepers are sparking concern about the Iraqi government's course of action.
AFP - Iraq put 21 men to death on Tuesday, a senior justice ministry official told AFP, the latest in a series of mass executions that have drawn international condemnation.
All of the men were Iraqis and had been convicted on anti-terror charges, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The latest executions brought to 50 the number of times Baghdad has carried out the death penalty so far this year, despite widespread calls for a moratorium on the country's use of capital punishment.
Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari insisted last month that Baghdad would continue to implement the death penalty in the face of widespread calls for it to issue a moratorium.
Iraq's executions have sparked concern from the United Nations, as well as from Britain, the European Union and rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Iraq is an independent sovereign country that is seeking to stop a wave of Wahhabi influenced violence by cracking down on the terrorists. Hanging a few, at a time.
Good for them.
Notice that there are no Iraqi groups listed amongst those in whom interest has sparked a "wide spread" call for a moratorium. Not a single Iraqi is quoted, but the government official. Not a word of any local protest to executing these terrorists.
A summary of the bill, seen by the Guardian, is "surprisingly generous", according to immigration experts who say it has the potential for transforming the lives of the estimated 11 million people currently living in the legal shadows. A further 400,000 people are deported each year, and about half of these –with no criminal convictions and already out of the country – may also be eligible under an unexpected clause that may prove controversial among Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Now read down to the last bullet point. That should pretty much finish off the Republican party forever:
The bill, agreed by a bipartisan group of eight senators, is perhaps the most tangible consequence of President Obama’s second term-election win. Republican leaders have concluded they need to do more to reach out to voters in Latino and other minority groups.
The Republican senators John McCain and Marco Rubio will be among those publishing the full bill later on Tuesday, although they chose to cancel a scheduled press conference following the explosions in Boston.
The publication of the bill follows weeks of backroom negotiations to square off conflicting interest groups such as labour unions and big-business lobbyists, but the proposals retain much of the radicalism outlined by Obama when he first announced it as a second-term priority.
Among the other key measures are:
• $1.5bn to look at fencing parts of the southern border with Mexico, possibly by the National Guard.
• A requirement that border security reaches 90% before legalisation begins.
• A new quota system for lower-skilled workers, particularly farmhands.
• The end of quotas for higher-skilled workers.
• Funding to speed up the 20-year backlog in family applications.
We could get some of those flyboys that are depressed about not getting a drone medal to do some test runs over the designated fence area and have a look see.
Pro-austerity flagship paper (Reinhardt and Rogoff, for goodness sake) riddled with errors. Errors of a magnitude that essentially render it worthless as anything other than toilet paper.
Even before the errors cited in the new study came to light, many economists doubted Reinhart and Rogoff's conclusion that high debt causes low growth, given the glaring chicken-and-egg problem at the heart of the research. Did these countries have slow growth because they had high debt, or did they have high debt because they had slow growth?
(Reinhart and Rogoff noted in their Tuesday statement that they have been careful not to claim that high debt causes slow growth, but rather that it has an "association" with slow growth.)
Beyond that, Baker notes, there were lots of other reasons to question Reinhart and Rogoff, including the fact that their gloomy conclusions about debt relied heavily on slow U.S. economic growth immediately after World War II. At the time, the U.S. was deep in war debt and dismantling its war machine. That relatively brief state of affairs was quickly followed by arguably the greatest economic boom in history.
Saudi national no longer ‘person of interest’ in Boston bombings, no other suspects Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 4:02 PM Share
The Saudi national injured during the bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon Monday has been cleared and is no longer even a person of interest, intelligence officials told lawmakers Tuesday.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed members of the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors in a pre-scheduled hearing that was supposed to focus on the budget, but Clapper began with an update of the bombings. Ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) emerged from the briefing and said he was told the 22-year old Saudi student who was injured during the bombings and remains in the care of a local hospital was no longer a focus of investigators.
"He was never categorized as a suspect; he was a person of interest. My understanding is that he totally cooperated and that he is no longer a person of interest," Chambliss said.
Obama administration has SLASHED budget for domestic bombing prevention by 45 per cent, says former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary
$20 million budget under Bush became $11 million under Obama Both administrations neglected domestic bombing prevention, devoting a tiny fraction of the $1 billion earmarked for IED prevention overseas Obama issued a lengthy 'National Policy for Countering Improvised Explosive Devices' in February but a spokesman won't say if it failed
By David Martosko
PUBLISHED: 17:02 EST, 16 April 2013 | UPDATED: 17:44 EST, 16 April 2013
Barack Obama's administration has cut the budget nearly in half for preventing domestic bombings, MailOnline can reveal.
Under President George W. Bush, the Department of Homeland Security had $20 million allocated for preventing the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by terrorists working inside the United States. The current White House has cut that funding down to $11 million.
That assessment comes from Robert Liscouski, a former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 that killed three Americans and injured at least 173 others.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310110/Obama-administration-SLASHED-budget-domestic-bombing-prevention-45-cent-says-Homeland-Security-Assistant-Secretary.html#ixzz2QfcfC1g3 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Good thing that the Obama Administration did not waste that $9 million that the Bush Administration was spending, domestically, on a project that was bound to fail.
As the Israeli have shown, bomb threat are handled locally, by policing loose bags in public places. There is no need for the Federals to spend $11 million on that, let alone $20 million.
Good thing that Obama is cutting some of that wasteful Federal spending of borrowed money.
No conservative that favors smaller government can righteously complain that Obama has really cut a wasteful spending program at DHS, by 45%.
boobie is now complaining about Obama cutting Federal spending. What other wasteful Federal spending can be cut, in the future, an interesting discussion. One we can have, later.
Obama does not have a ranch or farm, so the Federals did not have to install helicopter pads and other infrastructure, freeing money that other Presidents have spent on property upgrades for goodwill trips and recreational purposes.
Let's view Mr GW's use of Air Force One, for his private use.
Number of George W. Bush flights for vacation in Crawford, TX: 77
Cost of running Air Force One: $179,000/hour
Flight time one way from the White House to Crawford: 4.5 hours
Cost of one way flight: $805,500
Roundtrip cost: $1,611,000
Total cost to taxpayers of Bush’s vacation trips to the ranch: $124,047,000
Let;s take the Way Back Machine back a tad further, looking for Presidential "Waste"
$250,000 in Drug-Fighting Money Spent on Bush's Visit
June 15, 1989|DAVE LESHER | Times Staff Writer
The Sheriff's Department revealed Wednesday that it spent about $250,000 from its drug-fighting budget to prepare a remote canyon ranch for an Orange County visit by President Bush in April.
The expense was immediately criticized by a county Democratic figure who said it was inappropriate to spend money intended for drug investigations on a "dog and pony show" for the President.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars could go a long way to build more drug rehabilitation centers, pay more adequate salaries for our law enforcement personnel and help train more officers so we can stop drugs, instead of paying for a public relations campaign, which is what that was," said John Hanna, former county Democratic chairman. Most of the money was used to turn a rustic backwoods ranch into a 90-minute staging area for the President on April 25. Workers graded and spread gravel on a 3.5-mile dirt road, added a stage and put in telephone lines, electricity, toilets and furniture for a closed-door lunch for Bush and local drug agents.
The money also paid for several buses from the Orange County Transit District to carry about 1,400 invited guests to the ranch, near Ortega Highway and Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park.
The 213-acre site, known as Rancho del Rio, was formerly owned by a notorious drug smuggler and was seized in 1985 during an investigation conducted by the Sheriff's Department. The county now owns the ranch.
Promoters of Bush's visit selected the site as a good setting for his anti-drug speech, during which he presented the county and other local law enforcement agencies with a $4.39-million check for money seized during a separate county drug investigation.
Assistant Sheriff Walter Fath said the $250,000 will be paid from the county's share of that check.
Under a 1984 federal law, the money seized during a drug investigation must be spent on suppression of drugs. Fath said the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles--at the county's request--ruled that the President's anti-drug speech constituted a drug education expense and was therefore a proper use of the seized money.
You extend a couple of posts stating the obvious, rat.
However, Mr. Bush is no longer around. Obama is, and he is the one I have left to complain about. Rationalizing doesn't excuse. It merely points out that most, if not all, of the residents of OZ are dicks.
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On this day 10 years ago, Michael Jordan played the last game of his legendary NBA career. As a member of the Washington Wizards, the Hall of Famer scored 15 points in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
"Others always find reason to point out when the criminal or suspect is a Muslim, I like to maintain an editorial balance. Reminding reader that not all the criminals we discuss are Muslims, that many criminals are Jews and Christians, some atheists and a few pagans are thrown into the mix.
I try to be interesting."
---
...even when it is AGAIN a son of one of our greatest Allies and Trading Partners in the WOT.
Better to cast suspicions and aspersions at Christians and Jews.
...I live in mortal terror of being taken out @ Safeway by a Jewish Terrorist or a Mormon Samoan Warrior.
'
'Rat would be a good follow-up to our fraudulently and intentionally clueless POTUS.
Seems as tho most of the mass killings here @ home have been carried out by sick young perps of no particular religious or political persuasion from perverted homes who were strung out on video games, the internets, or some such.
Good time to point out again tho, that only AFTER BHO became POTUS have we had any Muslim-inspired attacks on the Homeland following 9-11.
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"There have been more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by ... Muslims in Obama's first 18 months in office than in the six years under Bush after he invaded Iraq."
Ann Coulter on Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 in a column Ann Coulter says there have been more terrorist attacks in U.S. under Obama
So, Coulter's numbers may be meticulously circumscribed, but they're right: There were zero attacks during the six years cited under Bush, and two attacks in the first 16 months under Obama.
Even if the Fort Hood soldier on soldier killings were classified as terrorism, which they will not be, that is one shooting incident.
Not a "Mass Casualty" event of political terrorism.
That Major a lone, nut case shooter. He makes a better case for more gun control than for Obama's lack of diligence fighting terrorism, per the 14SEP01 Authorization.
The same Army that fights terrorism knows terrorism. They also know workplace violence.
The voice of the sheeple responds, "If the government says it's workplace violance, it must be workplace violence."
Just as this same government points out that Cosco or Sams Club customers who buy more than a weeks worth of food are eligible for the 'terrorist' watch list.
A key source for a private report that sent health-care stocks on a tear earlier this month is a former top congressional aide who is now a health-industry lobbyist, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Mark Hayes is currently an outside lobbyist for health-insurance giant Humana Inc. His email to Washington investment-research firm Height Securities, alerting it to a government decision that will save the industry billions of dollars, was a final piece of confirmation Height received before blasting a news alert to its clients, according to emails and people familiar with the matter.
If it's regarding the onerous Medical Device Tax, Huzzah!
Rufus told us to regard it as inconsequential, being only 2 or 3 percent, and that Big Pharma could easily afford it.
Truth is, it's a tax on gross revenues, and would have wiped out the profit margins of hundreds of small device makers, taking down one of the few remaining sectors in which we still lead the World.
Officials repeatedly called on the public to hand in any photographs or videos from the scene saying they might contain important information even if it is not obvious at first glance. “There has to be thousands of photographs and videos. I would encourage you to bring forward anything, you might not think it's significant but it might be of value to this investigation,” said Sate Police Colonel Timothy Alben.
The Police Commissioner of Boston, Ed Davis, was pressed on whether enough had been done ahead of the race to protect runners. He revealed the areas where the bombs went off had twice been swept, the second time just an hour before the winners crossed the line.
He said he was now confronting “the most complex crime scene we have dealt with in the history of our department”.
Brad DeLong links to a Forbes piece by Tim Lee from last year that I missed, which in turn quotes Milton Friedman on the macroeconomic views that prevailed in the early 1930s:
Lerner was trained at the London School of Economics, where the dominant view was that the depression was an inevitable result of the prior boom, that it was deepened by the attempts to prevent prices and wages from falling and firms from going bankrupt, that the monetary authorities had brought on the depression by inflationary policies before the crash and had prolonged it by “easy money” policies thereafter; that the only sound policy was to let the depression run its course, bring down money costs, and eliminate weak and unsound firms.
Friedman viewed this as evident nonsense, and commended instead the then Chicago view that banks should be rescued, government should act to reflate the economy, and that there was a strong case “for the use of large and continuous deficit budgets to combat the mass unemployment and deflation of the times.”
But as Lee notes, the doctrine Friedman considered self-evident nonsense is now more or less the official doctrine of the Republican party, while the Chicago view he praised are now, according to conservatives, tyrannical socialism.
" But as Lee notes, the doctrine Friedman considered self-evident nonsense is now more or less the official doctrine of the Republican party, while the Chicago view he praised are now, according to conservatives, tyrannical socialism."
---
Pubs are for less spending than Dems, but folks like 'Rat and Rufus II choose not to recognize any faults by the Dems, only Pubs.
Unfair, unbalanced, and stupid as two boxes of rocks.
I have to disagree with you, Doug. The GOP is not for cutting spending they are for reducing the size of government, two very different things, although there may be some overlapping results.
The boys in OZ view it all as a zero sum game and both sides (GOP and Dem) will support their prime constituencies which in all cases is not you and me.
If you look at his actions, rather than his words, you will see that Obama has proven his prime constituencies are in most cases the same as those of the GOP.
Those who argue that without the continuing FED policies (five years of it) we would now be much worse off have no proof of it but their speculation. However, we have seen the result of the continuing FED action. It is truly a zero sum game. Bernanke is no prophet. Fed actions have saved and inriched the banks while only exacerbation the TBTF problem that was a leading contributor to the current malaise, it has done nothing to spur growth, it has done nothing to spur employment, and it has helped increase the continuing diversion between rich and poor in this country.
Kid is currently hauling PV Panels I bought which will be one of the first of it's kind on the Island, benefitting from the pluses of central inverters (higher efficiency) w/o the downsides. (lower output when 1 or more panels is partially shaded) - 10kw worth. No ethanol needed, except for Dad.
According the Rudy Giuliani, on Fox tonight, it may still be the Saudi youth, the police not having enough on him, and misleading him, and us, into thinking he is off the hook, then watching his every move. So, who knows. Rudy seemed to be thinking it was domestic terrorism, which doesn't mean it isn't moslem connected, just not formally part of the big movement. A small personal franchise, so to speak.
Really? The billions that Americans spend for the CIA, FBI, DHS, NSA, JTTF, and all the other various counterterrorism agencies, and they don't have a clue? All they have for us is 1-800-CALL-FBI? This is unconscionable. If that's where we are, disband these incompetent, inane agencies that call jihad "workplace violence" and name Atlas Shrugs as a "domestic hate group," when in fact Atlas Shrugs is battling violence and mass murder across the world. How did this happen eleven years after 9/11?
This is where the status of the investigation is. In Europe, and in Israel, whenever there is a terrorist attack, they have someone or some group in their sights or in custody every time. Take 3/11 in Madrid, 7/7 in London, the Glasgow jihad plot -- every jihad attack and jihad plot in Europe, European authorities are right on it, identifying and apprehending the perpetrators. They know exactly who the bad guys are. They know exactly where to go. This is a historical first: that America is not dramatically ahead of the curve, but dramatically behind the curve. So American citizens are now considered expendable, just the way our soldiers are in Afghanistan.
I think she is laying it a little thick here, but has some points, too.
"Check Google girls and boys. About 10-12 hours after the event all my Google results through 2 pages for 'Boston Bombing' turned up exclusively left wing sources. NY Times, Guardian, HuffPost, Daily Kos. Bing immediately gave me less ideologically filtered results. Google has softened slightly. Now - about 11:45 PM Tuesday in Boston, Fox news manages to make it onto the last entry on page two. No Drudge, no Breitbart. I'm a Google fan boy - I'm even writing this on a Google Chromebook. Love thier services. But their search algorithm looks like it severely biased politically. It is certainly an effective way to extend MSM 'curation' onto the Internet. At least the Chinese Internet users understand their results are being filtered. "
The company’s tri-mode seeker fuses millimeter-wave radar, uncooled IIR and digital semi-active laser sensors on a single gimbal. The result is a powerful, integrated seeker that seamlessly shares targeting information between all three modes, enabling weapons to engage fixed, relocatable or moving targets at any time of day and in adverse weather conditions.
SDB II’s tri-mode seeker can peer through storm clouds or battlefield dust and debris to engage fixed or moving targets, giving the warfighter a capability that’s unaffected by conditions on the ground or in the air.
The warfighter also gains enhanced security with SDB II as it can fly more than 45 miles to strike a mobile target. And, because of SDB II’s small size, fewer aircraft can take out the same number of targets that used to require many jets,each carrying a handful of large weapons. SDB II’s size has broader implications for both the warfighter and taxpayers as it means fewer sorties — and less time spent flying dangerous missions.
Key Attributes •Keeps aviators away from many surface-to-air missiles by flying 45 miles to its target •Aircrews spend less time in harm’s way because fewer aircraft are required to take out large numbers of targets
Here, more evidence that the US government no longer needs NASA. Private enterprise can carry the ball.
A new private spaceship is one step closer to flying its first passengers after acing a spectacular test flight over the California desert last week.
Virgin Galactic's suborbital SpaceShipTwo successfully conducted its first "cold flow" flight test above the Mojave Desert last Friday (April 12). During the test, oxidizer was run through the rocket's propulsion system and out the back nozzle of the ship, though the vehicle's rocket engine was not turned on.
"As well as providing further qualifying evidence that the rocket system is flight-ready, the test also provided a stunning spectacle due to the oxidizer contrail and for the first time gave a taste of what SpaceShipTwo will look like as it powers to space," Virgin Galactic officials wrote in a statement.
Mars One, the Netherlands-based organization that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a global reality television phenomenon, is encouraging anyone who is interested in space travel to apply.
Previous training in space travel is not required, nor is a science degree of any sort, but applicants do need to be at least 18 years of age and willing to leave Earth forever.
As of now, a flight back to Earth is not part of the Mars One business model.
Mars One — a plan to colonize Mars in stages, with the first humans arriving in 2023 (see video below) — won't begin accepting 60-second video applications until July. The journey as they've designed it is explicitly a one-way ticket. Nevertheless, "so far, almost 40,000 people from all over the world have applied to become Martians,"
Mars One will largely be financed through an application fee of up to $25 and a global reality TV show that will help vet the candidates. That's "the world we live in today," says Hooft, who's an "ambassador" for Mars One. "Governments are not prepared to finance projects like Mars One, so the money has to come from some other source, and if it is a TV show like Big Brother or X Factor, then so be it."
Inspiration Mars plans to get humans to Mars first, in 2018, but only in a quick fly-by. Two astronauts — possibly a married couple — will spend 501 days on a slingshot mission around the Red Planet. (Watch video below.) And this is what they can expect, according to Stephanie Pappas at Space.com:
They'll be crammed into a space the size of an RV for more than a year, breathing recycled air, subsisting on dehydrated food and drinking their purified urine. If they die, they'll be freeze-dried in a body bag. And if they survive, they'll have to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at a screaming 8.8 miles (14.2 kilometers) per second.
We're a bunch of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with helpful information to work on. You've performed a formidable process and our whole group will probably be thankful to you.
I guess "Boston's Finest" needs to cut back on the reality show budget, and go back to work.
ReplyDeleteNY Post is reporting that they have a Saudi National under guard at a Boston Hospital.
ReplyDeleteA Saudi, our ally against Syria?
ReplyDeleteWho'd a thunk it?
DeleteProbably ought to take it with a grain of salt, however; it is the NY Post.
DeleteA member of the Religion of Peace? No, I don't believe it.
DeleteFBI agent Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, confirmed that investigators had found pieces of black nylon from a bag or backpack and fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker. He said the items were sent to the FBI for analysis at Quantico, Va.
DeletePressure-cooker explosives have been used in international terrorism, and have been recommended for lone-wolf operatives by Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen. But information on how to make the bombs is readily found online, and U.S. officials said Americans should not rush to judgment in linking the attack to overseas terrorists.
DesLauriers said that there had been no claim of responsibility for the attack, and that the range of suspects and motives was "wide open."
Site preparation has begun and plans are being finalized for a formal groundbreaking ceremony to be held in the next few weeks at the country’s first sweet sorghum-to-ethanol plant being built by Southeast Renewable Fuels LLC in Hendry County, 15 miles of Clewiston, Fla.
ReplyDeleteThe process technology for 20 MMgy plant is being supplied by Uni-Systems do Brasil Ltda, CEO Aaron Pepper said, and the facility is being built by them as well. Financing was arranged through the Bank of Brazil. “We give a big thanks to Uni-Systems, the Bank of Brazil, the state of Florida and Hendry County,” he added. “They’ve all been very supportive of our project.”
The groundbreaking has long been awaited. The project received a $2.5 million Florida Department of Energy grant in March 2009, had lined up financing and begun the permitting process in early 2010 when the progress was halted due to a third party issue, “that had nothing to do with us,” Pepper said.
The project is finally moving forward. Groundwork began in early April and the detailed earthwork preparing for the laying of foundations should begin in a couple of weeks, Pepper said. The first equipment is expected to arrive on site in October and the facility is scheduled to come online in January 2015. The footprint of the plant is being planned to allow the eventually doubling of its size, he added.
The integrated facility will include power generation and CO2 capture. The plant will produce 25 megawatts of electricity from bagasse in a combined heat and power plant. A yet-unnamed company will feed the projected 65,000 tons of CO2 into a liquid gas plant to be co-located on the 100-acre ethanol plant site. A letter of intent has been signed for for the CO2 capture, Pepper said. An offtake agreement is in place with Shell for the ethanol itself.
Located in the middle of Florida’s sugarcane production area, the ethanol plant will require about 25,000 acres of sweet sorghum production, figuring two harvests per year. “During three years of field trials we were getting yields well above the published reports,” Pepper said. “And at 30 tons per acre, we actually might only need 18,000 acres of production.” They expect to be able to produce 800 gallons of ethanol per acre of feedstock.
The Clewiston project is located between . . . .
Groundbreaking
Good grief, the nation suffers a probable terrorist attack and we're back to ethanol already.
DeleteIt's Bahston. I never have liked anything about "Bahston."
DeleteI suffered my own "terrorist" attack, today - at the U.S. Post Office.
DeleteI mean, really - a couple of pipe bombs in Bahston? I cain't get excited.
All I can say is, "it's a start."
2 dead? We get 5 times that many every weekend in Memphis.
DeleteI'm reading ten dead now.
DeleteA severed leg flew past my head.
DeleteOh, well, only one leg. Even a hundred legs, what's the big deal?
Two dead would be "a very slow Tuesday afternoon."
Deletefuck, I've got boobie and sick puppy rufus here at the EB to deal with...
Delete...pitiful!
as if the body count of dead marathoners is the measurement one should use to deal with Monday explosions in Boston!
Fuck You, Ash. You didn't worry your pretty little head about me when I was spending my 13 months in a place where 2 dead was an extremely good day.
DeleteAnd, not many of those assholes in their cute little shortie-shorts did, either.
DeleteLARA JAKES
ReplyDeleteAP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior U.S. intelligence official says two more explosive devices have been found near the scene of the Boston marathon where two bombs detonated earlier.
The official said the new devices were being dismantled.
It was not immediately clear what kind of devices had been found Monday. The official said the first two did appear to be bombs.
Maybe, we can pass a "bomb control" bill.
DeleteIs there such a thing as a "National Pipebomb Association?"
Oh, wait, we can't control pipe bombs; they might contain "gun" powder. The NRA would never hear of it.
DeleteIf a Saudi suicide team blew up an ethanol plant, well, that would be something to take notice of, even if there were no dead other than the Saudis.
ReplyDeleteDamn heathens, trying to keep us hooked on their oil.
And if it happened in MIssissippi, watch out. The ethanol vigilantes would be out scouring the countryside for the perps.
DeleteThese were pretty sorry explosives for a Saudi Team to be responsible.
ReplyDeleteAh, they had a child killed; I guess I'd better tone it down a bit.
Deleteassholes
DeleteYour tax dollars at work ...
ReplyDeleteKABUL, Afghanistan - Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been increasing for a third year in a row and is heading for a record high, the United Nations said in a report Monday.
ReplyDeleteMEXICO CITY – A Mexican judge has acquitted a former drug czar who was charged with organized crime after he allegedly accepted $450,000 to leak details of police operations against members of the Pacific cartel, an alliance once headed by the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Noe Ramirez was Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor and the highest-ranking law enforcement official detained in 2008 as part of then President Felipe Calderon's sweeping effort to weed out corrupt officials with ties to organized crime.
Mexico's Federal Judiciary Council said in a statement that a federal judge acquitted Ramirez on Monday after determining the main witness in the case lied and prosecutors might have fabricated evidence.
Ramirez was one of five top officials and two federal agents detained in 2008 as part of Calderon's "Operation Clean House."
This fella, Kermit, he's no Muslim.
ReplyDeleteDefense lawyer Jack McMahon was trying to counter attacks by prosecutors that Gosnell let patients pick their anesthesia based on how much they could pay.
The trial is now in its fifth week, and could last another month.
An influx of reporters attended the trial Monday, spurred by criticism that some broadcasters were not covering the trial. A gag order prevents lawyers from speaking outside and no cameras are allowed inside the courtroom. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart reminded jurors not to read or view anything about the case.
A White House spokesman said Monday that President Barack Obama is aware of the trial, and the spokesman called the case "unsettling."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama, as president, "does not and cannot take a position on an ongoing trial." But Carney added that "the things you hear and read about this case are unsettling."
Gulino described his bafflement when police in 2010 turned over bags seized at Gosnell's clinic with the 47 sets of fetal remains, along with medical waste and other debris.
"It was really an unprecedented situation," said Gulino, who talked to colleagues and searched medical literature. "There was no guidance for how to proceed."
Former workers have testified that Gosnell had the aborted fetuses in the freezer because of a billing dispute with his medical waste disposal company, which had stopped coming.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/15/3344907/pa-abortion-docs-murder-trial.html#storylink=cpy
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOthers always find reason to point out when the criminal or suspect is a Muslim, I like to maintain an editorial balance.
DeleteReminding reader that not all the criminals we discuss are Muslims, that many criminals are Jews and Christians, some atheists and a few pagans are thrown into the mix.
I try to be interesting.
.
DeleteI like to maintain an editorial balance.
:)
.
In Washington, President Obama was told of the incident.
ReplyDelete“The president has been notified of the incident in Boston. His administration is in contact with state and local authorities. He directed his administration to provide whatever assistance is necessary in the investigation and response,” a White House official said.
Shortly after being notified around 3 p.m. local time, the president got a briefing in the Oval Office from homeland security advisor Lisa Monaco and other members of his senior White House staff, the White House said.
Obama then called Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to express his concern for those who were injured and to make clear that his administration is ready to provide needed support as they respond to the incident, officials said.
Vice President Joe Biden interrupted his remarks on a telephone call with gun control advocates after an aide turned on the television, reports said.
“Apparently there has been a bombing. I don’t know any of the details of what caused it,” he said. “Our prayers are with those people in Boston.”
We're now witnessing what happens when all of the economic gains go to the top, and the rest of the population doesn't have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going.
ReplyDeleteFour years into a so-called recovery and we're still below recession levels in every important respect except the stock market. A measly 88,000 jobs were created in March, and total employment remains some 3 million below its pre-recession level. Labor-force participation is it's lowest since 1979.
Businesses won't hire and expand unless they have more customers, but most Americans can't spend more. Last Friday's retail sales report showed sales down .4 percent in March. Consumer sentiment has fallen to its lowest level in nine months.
The underlying problem is the vast middle class is running out of money. They can't borrow more -- and shouldn't, given what happened after the last borrowing binge.
Real annual median household income keeps falling. It's down to $45,018, from $51,144 in 2010. All the gains from the recovery continue to go to the top.
Widening inequality is not inevitable. If we wanted to reverse it and restore middle-class prosperity, we could.
We could . . . . .
Why this is the worst recovery on record
This week, we join a bipartisan group of six senators to introduce comprehensive immigration-reform legislation. This is the first step in what will be a very difficult but achievable process to fix the nation's broken immigration system once and for all.
ReplyDelete...
Our group's effort included the active participation of some of the most conservative and liberal members of the Senate. We engaged in hundreds of hours of very tough negotiations, which nearly broke down at several points.
- McCain and Schumer
On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln passed away after he was shot nine hours earlier by John Wilkes Booth in Washington.
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A woman in her forties went to a plastic surgeon for a face-lift.
ReplyDeleteThe surgeon told her about a new procedure called "The KEY," where a small key is placed on the back of a woman's head and can be turned
to tighten up her skin to produce the effect of a brand new face lift.
Of course, the woman wanted "The Key."
Over the course of the years, the woman tightened the key, and the effects were wonderful -- the woman remained young looking and
vibrant. After fifteen years, the woman returned to the surgeon with two problems.
"All these years, everything has been working just fine.
I've had to turn the key and I've always loved the results.
But now I've developed two annoying problems:
First, I have these terrible bags under my eyes and the key won't get rid of them."
The doctor looked at her closely and said, "Those aren't bags, those are your tits."
She said, "No point asking about the beard then..........."
Over the years, some of the wealthy have been enormously successful in getting special treatment, shifting an ever greater share of the burden of financing the country’s expenditures — defense, education, social programs — onto others. Ironically, this is especially true of some of our multinational corporations, which call on the federal government to negotiate favorable trade treaties that allow them easy entry into foreign markets and to defend their commercial interests around the world, but then use these foreign bases to avoid paying taxes.
ReplyDeleteGeneral Electric has become the symbol for multinational corporations that have their headquarters in the United States but pay almost no taxes — its effective corporate-tax rate averaged less than 2 percent from 2002 to 2012 — just as Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee last year, became the symbol for the wealthy who don’t pay their fair share when he admitted that he paid only 14 percent of his income in taxes in 2011, even as he notoriously complained that 47 percent of Americans were freeloaders. Neither G.E. nor Mr. Romney has, to my knowledge, broken any tax laws, but the sparse taxes they’ve paid violate most Americans’ basic sense of fairness.
Paddy had been drinking at his local Dublin pub all day and most of the
ReplyDeletenight celebrating St Patrick's Day. Mick, the bartender says, 'You'll
not be drinking anymore tonight, Paddy'. Paddy replies, 'OK Mick, I'll
be on my way then'. Paddy spins around on his stool and steps off.. He
falls flat on his face. 'Shoite' he says and pulls himself up by the
stool and dusts himself off. He takes a step towards the door and falls
flat on his face,
'Shoite',
Shoite!'
He looks to the doorway and thinks to himself that if he can just get to
the door and some fresh air he'll be fine. He belly crawls to the door
and shimmies up to the door frame. He sticks his head outside and takes
a deep breath of fresh air, feels much better and takes a step out onto
the sidewalk and falls flat on his face.
'Bi'Jesus.... I'm fockin' focked,' he says.
He can see his house just a few doors down, and crawls to the door,
hauls himself up the door frame, opens the door and shimmies inside.. He
takes a look up the stairs and says 'No fockin' way'. He crawls up the
stairs to his bedroom door and says 'I can make it to the bed'. He takes
a step into the room and falls flat on his face. He says 'Fock it' and
falls into bed.
The next morning, his wife, Jess, comes into the room carrying a cup of
coffee and says, 'Get up Paddy. Did you have a bit to drink last night ?'
Paddy says, 'I did, Jess. I was fockin' pissed. But how'd you know?'
'Mick phoned . . . you left your wheelchair at the pub.'
Over the weekend, we came four votes away from the United States Senate giving our Constitutional rights over to the United Nations. In a 53-46 vote, the senate narrowly passed a measure that will stop the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
ReplyDeleteThe Statement of Purpose from the bill read:
To uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
The U.N. Small Arms Treaty, would have effectively placed a global ban on the import and export of small firearms. The ban would have affected all private gun owners in the U.S., and had language that would have implemented an international gun registry on all private guns and ammo.
Astonishingly, 46 of our United States Senators were willing to give away our Constitutional rights to a foreign power.
Here are the 46 senators that voted to give your rights to the U.N.
Baldwin (D-WI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cowan (D-MA)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hirono (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
People this needs to go viral. These Senators voted to let the UN take our guns. They need to lose the election. We have been betrayed.
These 46 Senators Voted to Give your 2nd Amendment Constitutional Rights to the U.N.
That's horseshit.
DeleteAll Democrats. Who would believe that?
DeleteCouple of Independents too.
What a pile of horse manure are those people.
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DeleteI will get a response from Levin and Stabenow.
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If it does turn out that the guilty person in this bombing is the 20-21 year old Saudi national here on a student visa, and not some right wing group like the Tea Party, perhaps we would do well to consider adopting the AIPAC and Israeli view, and simply not allow certain groups into our country at all. Some would say though, that isn't 'fair'.
ReplyDeleteNot allow any person from the Islamic Arc entrance to the US.
DeleteEgypt, Jordon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, India etc.
Not likely to happen, the Saudi had extra special passage authority, under Team Bush.
Little chance the Stay the Course Kid will swerve.
"According to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the treaty will not do any of the following: interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in Member States; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm States' legitimate right to self-defence; or undermine national arms regulation standards already in place."
ReplyDeleteEmail sent from my mom's boyfriend. Don't know where he got it.
DeleteThe question is where does Rufus get his bullshit?
DeleteWe should just get out of the United Nations.
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DeleteRight.
And they invaded Libya for humanitarian reasons.
...interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in Member States; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm States' legitimate right to self-defence; or undermine national arms regulation standards already in place."
Then why bothwer with it?
I would trust the UN's assurances about as much as I would trust Obama's.
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The UN is a US proxy.
DeleteWe pay about 24% of the operating expenses.
We own it.
Could close it, if it was considered in US interests.
It is not.
As to trust, you all have issues, with that.
.
DeleteTrust issues?
Yea, I guess you are right, rat.
Unlike you, some here do not just salute, bend over, and beg, "Thank you sir. May I have another?"
:)
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.
“We are deeply saddened and shocked by the news from Boston,” Nick Bitel, London Marathon Chief Executive, said in a statement.
ReplyDelete“Our immediate thoughts are with the people there and their families. It is a very sad day for athletics and for our friends and colleagues in marathon running.
Our security plan is developed jointly with the Metropolitan Police and we were in contact with them as soon as we heard the news.”
If you want to make a dent in the international weapons trade and gun running, begin by impeaching Obama. Some hundreds, at least, of people have died because of his gun running.
ReplyDeleteHow many hundred people, where?
DeleteWhat Federal agent "Ran" guns?
DeleteWhat Federal agency "Ran" the guns?
Where did they "Run" them to?
When did they "Run" them?
If you are referencing "Fast and Furious" no Federal agent ever "Ran" a gun.
They watch miscreant suspects do so. As part of a mismanaged "sting" operation.
Not at all the same as doing it themselves, or Obama ordering done.
Perhaps there is some other episode of Federal malfeasance ordered by the President you are referring to?
Now Ronald Reagan, he ordered guns run from Iran to Nicoland.
Had Ollie North do it.
The entire episode done covertly, outside the lines of Federal agency stovepipes, from the basement of the White House.
It was not considered an impeachable offense.
More than hundreds died, according to "quote & unquote"
DeleteReagan also had guns run from Israel to Afghanistan, through Pakistan.
DeleteTens of thousands died.
Again, no one was impeached.
Why do you propose a different standard for Obama, if he has ordered guns run, and people subsequently died, than we held President Reagan to?
Authorities say they are searching for a darker skinned or black male with a black backpack and black sweatshirt, possibly foreign national from the accent of the individual. Five minutes before the first explosion, officials said this person attempted to gain entry to a restricted area.
ReplyDelete...
Law enforcement is also looking for a yellow Penske box truck that tried to gain access with "medical supplies" approximately 1 hour after the explosion.
Hi there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have
ReplyDeleteany problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing months of hard work due to no back
up. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?
My webpage www.wheelhousebikes.com
My best guess is that it is not someone attached to any group and that there will be an overreaction from government.
ReplyDeleteIf it is any organized group, best bet would be the IRA.
DeleteThey are active in Boston, it's said ...
... in Hollywood.
...and the public will support all of it. There is no way to prevent something like this from happening. There are many draconian methods to try and stop it.
ReplyDeleteSome New York detective is on Fox now thinking at least two people were involved from the way the bombs went off. I don't follow his reasoning though. It looks as though the first bomb left some unexploded powder behind, not detonating correctly.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteA critique of John Kerry's work as SOS to date. Not very impressive and, in some cases, downright embarrassing.
This is the problem, of course, with putting lawmakers (Les Aspin, Chuck Hagel, Hillary Clinton, Kerry) in charge of managing huge organizations and constructing a national security agenda. Lawmakers can flap their gums at will. They really aren’t responsible for anything. They manage their office staff and that is about it. But, as we warned regarding Hagel’s nomination, these jobs are largely executive in nature. They require organizational skill, the ability to prioritize, finesse at bending the permanent civil service their way and working on the big picture while trusted underlings get the small stuff right. The president doesn’t have these skills in great abundance and so far most of his second term appointments, named primarily for their political loyalty, haven’t demoonstrated them either...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/04/16/whither-secretary-kerry/?hpid=z3
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There are very few executive positions for politicos to hold.
DeleteAbout 51 of them, across the land.
Few governors seem to want to become Federal department czars.
As for Mr Kerry, he stopped those pesky NorKs from launching an attack on the South, using rhetoric polished from his years in the Senate.
DeleteIf that is not considered success, what would be?
Goading the NorKs into military action?
Where has Secretary Kerry not well represented the position of the President?
Delete.
DeleteLord, get clue. The man's speeches on NK have made him look like a simpering fool. His proposal for direct talks with NK without precondition makes the US look like chumps.
The man hasn't accomplished a damn thing since he has taken over the SOS duties. Given that he works for Obama, in a sense, I guess you could say that is good for America.
.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHe played to the vanity of Kim.
DeleteThe NorKs have not moved, offensively.
His remarks were not molded to play in Detroit, but in North Korea.
And they succeeded, there was no invasion of the South, Seoul was not bombarded with chemical weapons.
Get a clue, judge the results, not the posturing rhetoric, which is lost in the wind. The lack of military action the only measure of real success.
If had delivered a flawless speech, to the listeners in Detroit, that goaded Senor Kim to action, then he'd have failed, how truly embarrassing that would be, with thousands in Seoul dead.
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DeleteHe played to the vanity of Kim.
Idiot. He played into Kim's hands, the same mistake previous administrations have made, building up Kim's status and legitimacy in hopes of promises Kim will make but never keep. We have history as a guide.
The NorKs have not moved, offensively.
How long has this been going on? Do you really expect Kim to attack the U.S.? South Korea?
And they succeeded, there was no invasion of the South, Seoul was not bombarded with chemical weapons.
The reason Kim is carrying on like and idiot right now is to distract his people from the unrest that is rampant throughout the country. Giving in to him merely promotes his 'dear leader' role amongst his people.
The lack of military action the only measure of real success.
Once again, you confuse correlation with causation. Kim has not attacked anyone because he realizes he would be blasted back to the stone age if he did.
Even China has come around and blasted the Norks at the same time that Kerry offers to do his Chamberlain impression.
.
Now, Q, you object to the Obama Administration staying the course.
DeleteThe Federals are maintaining coufse and speed, with regards Korea. You object to current and past US success. The NorKs are contained and as you said their stalwart ally, Charlie Chi-com, is backing away from Mr Kim. Yet another sign of successful long term US policy.
In most all of our foreign relationships the US is maintaining policy, keeping our allies secure, our enemies on edge, fearing that they could be blasted into the stone age if they step out of line.
North Korea and Iran, mostly.
The Saudis and Pakistani need not fear US retaliation, or being blasted back to the stone age.
We Stay the Course charted by Mr Bush and Cheney.
Personally I advocate for a US military withdrawal from Korea, have ever since I went there and saw the ground, first hand. While there is more domestic political support for withdrawal now, than in the past, it is still not a "Mainstream" position. There has been no Congressional out cry in protest to our military presence in Korea.
Nor do I expect there to be.
When your enemies fear being blasted into the stone age, what need is there for diplomacy?
Delete…Kerry always was an asshole.
Delete.
DeleteWhen your enemies fear being blasted into the stone age, what need is there for diplomacy?
Exactly, the point. Even Hillary, as bad as she was, understood that you leave NK to stew in its own juices. You don't go there and build them up at the same time you profess to be isolating them. Denouncing them loudly and continuing or increasing the sanctions on them is the only way you have a hope of bringing them around.
NK has played us for a fool a number of times before. How many times must it happen before we get it?
The fact that you lack the nuance to see the difference between policies that result in controlling NK and policies that result in controlling NK while making the US look like a chump is telling.
.
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DeleteKerry hasn't been on the job that long yet his inexperiance and/or naivete is evident. Not only in NK but also in Turkey, Israel, and Iran. In Syria, the administration's policy is so jumbled no one knows what it is.
Trying to get Turkey and Israel back together, Kerry pursauded Bibi to apologize to Turkey for the Turkish deaths in that blockade running incident. The WaPo waxed dreamily about the raproachment this action was bound to bring about. The actual effect? Zip. Turkey pocketed to apology and walked away. (Perhaps, this 'success' is where Kerry got the idea to sit down with Kim.)
While in Israel, Kerry reiterated current U.S. policy that Iran will not be allowed to even attain 'capability' of getting a bomb. Foolish, if it is just an idle threat as it will paint the U.S. as both a blustering paper tiger and an unreliable ally. Foolish if it is actual U.S. policy since it will likely lead to war with Iran.
Now, Kerry is talking about the U.S. initiating a new round of peace talks bewteen Israel and the Palestinians. You would have thought he would have learned from the embarrassing example of Hillary when she first came to office and tried the same thing. As I recall, the talks only lasted a few weeks. Kerry is merely setting himself up for failure.
As I said, inexperianced and/or naive. Or, maybe it is just a wondrous hubris.
He should take the advice others have offered him and come back to the U.S., vet and hire the appropriate qualified lieutenants, discuss all these policy issues with them, and then open his mouth.
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I would say that Mr Kerry does suffer a wondrous case of hubris.
DeleteHe represents the President who represents the US. Little wonder some hubris rubbed off upon him.
He's married to a rich man's widow. Little wonder some hubris rubbed off upon him.
As for Syria, the lack of a plan of action is policy.
Inaction is sufficient to achieve the goal of the US.
The Wahhabi are fighting their "Near Enemy".
In Yemen, Libya and Syria
They are fighting in Afghanistan, 'cause that's where we are nearest to their power base in Pakistan.
As Doc Z is reported to have said of Iran's part in the conflict ...
Despite Iran's repetition of the slogan 'Death to America, death to Israel,'
we haven't heard even one Fatwa from one Shiite authority, whether in Iran or elsewhere, calling for Jihad against the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ayman al Zawahiri: Review of Events: As Sahab's Fourth Interview with Zawahiri
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ReplyDeleteDead on Arrival.
The special medal for the Pentagon’s drone operators and cyberwarriors didn’t last long.
Two months after the military rolled out the Distinguished Warfare Medal for troops who don’t set foot on the battlefield, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has concluded it was a bad idea. Some veterans and some lawmakers spoke out against the award, arguing that it was unfair to make the medal a higher honor than some issued for valor on the battlefield.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-cancels-divisive-distinguished-warfare-medal-for-cyber-ops-drone-strikes/2013/04/15/62335492-a612-11e2-8302-3c7e0ea97057_story.html?hpid=z4
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: ) you can tell Hagel was an enlisted man.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Boston bombing will bring some sympathy for the innocent people in Iraq that put up with this on a daily basis:
ReplyDeleteDOZENS of attacks across Iraq, including a brazen car bombing on the way to Baghdad airport, have killed 50 people, just days before the country's first elections since US troops withdrew.
The violence, which mostly struck during Monday morning rush hour amid tightened security ahead of the polls, also wounded nearly 300 people and raises further questions about the credibility of the April 20 vote, seen as a key test of Iraq's stability and its security forces' capabilities.
A total of 14 election hopefuls have already been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part in the vote.
Officials said more than 30 bombings and a shooting hit 12 different areas of Iraq, leaving 50 people dead and making Monday the country’s deadliest day since March 19.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/iraq-bombings-kill-46-ahead-of-vote/story-fndir2ev-1226621188756#ixzz2QdtWU3oZ
In Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, six people were killed and 67 wounded by three nearly simultaneous car bombs, and in Kirkuk, five people were killed and 44 wounded by six more car bombs.
ReplyDeleteAttacks elsewhere killed nine people and wounded 92 others.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/iraq-bombings-kill-46-ahead-of-vote/story-fndir2ev-1226621188756#ixzz2QdtucnKA
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DeleteTo the Sheeple, these are merely bug splats.
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No, not bug splats, but Iraqi in Iraq.
DeleteThe Iraqi are having a problem with Wahhabi terrorists.
The same type of folk that are running riot in Syria.
The government in Iraq is addressing the challenge, but "Western" conscience keepers are sparking concern about the Iraqi government's course of action.
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DeleteYou speak for the Sheeple, rat?
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You've said I do, Q.
DeleteIt is easy to project, if I don't.
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DeleteNaw, I said you were of the sheeple. I didn't know you were their spokesman.
It's a good fit though.
:)
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AFP - Iraq put 21 men to death on Tuesday, a senior justice ministry official told AFP, the latest in a series of mass executions that have drawn international condemnation.
ReplyDeleteAll of the men were Iraqis and had been convicted on anti-terror charges, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The latest executions brought to 50 the number of times Baghdad has carried out the death penalty so far this year, despite widespread calls for a moratorium on the country's use of capital punishment.
Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari insisted last month that Baghdad would continue to implement the death penalty in the face of widespread calls for it to issue a moratorium.
Iraq's executions have sparked concern from the United Nations, as well as from Britain, the European Union and rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIraq is an independent sovereign country that is seeking to stop a wave of Wahhabi influenced violence by cracking down on the terrorists.
DeleteHanging a few, at a time.
Good for them.
Notice that there are no Iraqi groups listed amongst those in whom interest has sparked a "wide spread" call for a moratorium. Not a single Iraqi is quoted, but the government official.
Not a word of any local protest to executing these terrorists.
The sources said that, after the man was grabbed by police, he smelled of gunpowder and declared, “I thought there would be a second bomb.”
ReplyDeleteHe also asked: “Did anyone die?”
hhmmmm.......
A clue!
Support AIPAC, and the Israeli way.
.....
Axelrod: Obama Thinks Bombings Could Be Related to 'Tax Day'......drudge
Obama is right. It was related to Tax Day. It after happened on Tax Day.
DeleteIt after all happened on Tax Day.
DeleteMaybe you want to save the high fives until we get some more info.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I am premature. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteTwo of my family think domestic. I am in the minority here.
It has been pointed out to my by them that a lot of these Aryan type attacks happen in April.
DeleteA summary of the bill, seen by the Guardian, is "surprisingly generous", according to immigration experts who say it has the potential for transforming the lives of the estimated 11 million people currently living in the legal shadows. A further 400,000 people are deported each year, and about half of these –with no criminal convictions and already out of the country – may also be eligible under an unexpected clause that may prove controversial among Republicans in the House of Representatives.
ReplyDeleteNow read down to the last bullet point. That should pretty much finish off the Republican party forever:
The bill, agreed by a bipartisan group of eight senators, is perhaps the most tangible consequence of President Obama’s second term-election win. Republican leaders have concluded they need to do more to reach out to voters in Latino and other minority groups.
The Republican senators John McCain and Marco Rubio will be among those publishing the full bill later on Tuesday, although they chose to cancel a scheduled press conference following the explosions in Boston.
The publication of the bill follows weeks of backroom negotiations to square off conflicting interest groups such as labour unions and big-business lobbyists, but the proposals retain much of the radicalism outlined by Obama when he first announced it as a second-term priority.
Among the other key measures are:
• $1.5bn to look at fencing parts of the southern border with Mexico, possibly by the National Guard.
• A requirement that border security reaches 90% before legalisation begins.
• A new quota system for lower-skilled workers, particularly farmhands.
• The end of quotas for higher-skilled workers.
• Funding to speed up the 20-year backlog in family applications.
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DeleteI like this one.
• $1.5bn to look at fencing parts of the southern border with Mexico, possibly by the National Guard.
$1.5 billion to 'look' at it. Is it any wonder we are in the mess we are in?
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We could get some of those flyboys that are depressed about not getting a drone medal to do some test runs over the designated fence area and have a look see.
DeleteI forgot they are cyberwarriors, not flyboys anymore.
Delete11 million plus a 20 year backlog of family members should be good for about 30,000,000 more net benefit transferees and a Democratic vote of 75%.
ReplyDeleteLove those Republican Senatorial gangsters.
They held tough on that UN Treaty gun control vote.
DeleteOught to be enough to "satisfy" their "Base".
They're ALL Federal Socialists, back in DC.
Spineless twerp.
ReplyDeletePro-austerity flagship paper (Reinhardt and Rogoff, for goodness sake) riddled with errors. Errors of a magnitude that essentially render it worthless as anything other than toilet paper.
ReplyDeleteA Disgrace
Even before the errors cited in the new study came to light, many economists doubted Reinhart and Rogoff's conclusion that high debt causes low growth, given the glaring chicken-and-egg problem at the heart of the research. Did these countries have slow growth because they had high debt, or did they have high debt because they had slow growth?
Delete(Reinhart and Rogoff noted in their Tuesday statement that they have been careful not to claim that high debt causes slow growth, but rather that it has an "association" with slow growth.)
Beyond that, Baker notes, there were lots of other reasons to question Reinhart and Rogoff, including the fact that their gloomy conclusions about debt relied heavily on slow U.S. economic growth immediately after World War II. At the time, the U.S. was deep in war debt and dismantling its war machine. That relatively brief state of affairs was quickly followed by arguably the greatest economic boom in history.
I jumped the gun, alright -
ReplyDeleteSaudi national no longer ‘person of interest’ in Boston bombings, no other suspects
Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 4:02 PM Share
The Saudi national injured during the bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon Monday has been cleared and is no longer even a person of interest, intelligence officials told lawmakers Tuesday.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed members of the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors in a pre-scheduled hearing that was supposed to focus on the budget, but Clapper began with an update of the bombings. Ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) emerged from the briefing and said he was told the 22-year old Saudi student who was injured during the bombings and remains in the care of a local hospital was no longer a focus of investigators.
"He was never categorized as a suspect; he was a person of interest. My understanding is that he totally cooperated and that he is no longer a person of interest," Chambliss said.
Obama administration has SLASHED budget for domestic bombing prevention by 45 per cent, says former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary
ReplyDelete$20 million budget under Bush became $11 million under Obama
Both administrations neglected domestic bombing prevention, devoting a tiny fraction of the $1 billion earmarked for IED prevention overseas
Obama issued a lengthy 'National Policy for Countering Improvised Explosive Devices' in February but a spokesman won't say if it failed
By David Martosko
PUBLISHED: 17:02 EST, 16 April 2013 | UPDATED: 17:44 EST, 16 April 2013
Barack Obama's administration has cut the budget nearly in half for preventing domestic bombings, MailOnline can reveal.
Under President George W. Bush, the Department of Homeland Security had $20 million allocated for preventing the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by terrorists working inside the United States. The current White House has cut that funding down to $11 million.
That assessment comes from Robert Liscouski, a former Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 that killed three Americans and injured at least 173 others.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310110/Obama-administration-SLASHED-budget-domestic-bombing-prevention-45-cent-says-Homeland-Security-Assistant-Secretary.html#ixzz2QfcfC1g3
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Good thing that the Obama Administration did not waste that $9 million that the Bush Administration was spending, domestically, on a project that was bound to fail.
ReplyDeleteAs the Israeli have shown, bomb threat are handled locally, by policing loose bags in public places. There is no need for the Federals to spend $11 million on that, let alone $20 million.
Good thing that Obama is cutting some of that wasteful Federal spending of borrowed money.
No conservative that favors smaller government can righteously complain that Obama has really cut a wasteful spending program at DHS, by 45%.
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DeleteRight. Big bucks.
The $9 million would cover 9 weekend golf trips for Obama with Tiger Woods.
Or, one vacation for Michelle, the kids, and her entourage.
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Each voyage starts with a single step, Q.
DeleteIt's not the amount, but the direction.
boobie is now complaining about Obama cutting Federal spending.
What other wasteful Federal spending can be cut, in the future, an interesting discussion.
One we can have, later.
Obama does not have a ranch or farm, so the Federals did not have to install helicopter pads and other infrastructure, freeing money that other Presidents have spent on property upgrades for goodwill trips and recreational purposes.
Let's view Mr GW's use of Air Force One, for his private use.
Number of George W. Bush flights for vacation in Crawford, TX: 77
Cost of running Air Force One: $179,000/hour
Flight time one way from the White House to Crawford: 4.5 hours
Cost of one way flight: $805,500
Roundtrip cost: $1,611,000
Total cost to taxpayers of Bush’s vacation trips to the ranch: $124,047,000
Presidents spend other peoples money, freely.
Let;s take the Way Back Machine back a tad further, looking for Presidential "Waste"
Delete$250,000 in Drug-Fighting Money Spent on Bush's Visit
June 15, 1989|DAVE LESHER | Times Staff Writer
The Sheriff's Department revealed Wednesday that it spent about $250,000 from its drug-fighting budget to prepare a remote canyon ranch for an Orange County visit by President Bush in April.
The expense was immediately criticized by a county Democratic figure who said it was inappropriate to spend money intended for drug investigations on a "dog and pony show" for the President.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars could go a long way to build more drug rehabilitation centers, pay more adequate salaries for our law enforcement personnel and help train more officers so we can stop drugs, instead of paying for a public relations campaign, which is what that was," said John Hanna, former county Democratic chairman.
Most of the money was used to turn a rustic backwoods ranch into a 90-minute staging area for the President on April 25. Workers graded and spread gravel on a 3.5-mile dirt road, added a stage and put in telephone lines, electricity, toilets and furniture for a closed-door lunch for Bush and local drug agents.
The money also paid for several buses from the Orange County Transit District to carry about 1,400 invited guests to the ranch, near Ortega Highway and Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park.
The 213-acre site, known as Rancho del Rio, was formerly owned by a notorious drug smuggler and was seized in 1985 during an investigation conducted by the Sheriff's Department. The county now owns the ranch.
Promoters of Bush's visit selected the site as a good setting for his anti-drug speech, during which he presented the county and other local law enforcement agencies with a $4.39-million check for money seized during a separate county drug investigation.
Assistant Sheriff Walter Fath said the $250,000 will be paid from the county's share of that check.
Under a 1984 federal law, the money seized during a drug investigation must be spent on suppression of drugs. Fath said the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles--at the county's request--ruled that the President's anti-drug speech constituted a drug education expense and was therefore a proper use of the seized money.
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DeleteYou extend a couple of posts stating the obvious, rat.
However, Mr. Bush is no longer around. Obama is, and he is the one I have left to complain about. Rationalizing doesn't excuse. It merely points out that most, if not all, of the residents of OZ are dicks.
.
Of course, Q.
DeleteBush I, Bush II, Obama all spend the public's money prolifically, in and out of office.
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On this day 10 years ago, Michael Jordan played the last game of his legendary NBA career. As a member of the Washington Wizards, the Hall of Famer scored 15 points in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
ReplyDelete...and a few days back, Kobe blew out his Achilles.
Deletedesert ratTue Apr 16, 10:59:00 AM EDT
ReplyDelete"Others always find reason to point out when the criminal or suspect is a Muslim, I like to maintain an editorial balance.
Reminding reader that not all the criminals we discuss are Muslims, that many criminals are Jews and Christians, some atheists and a few pagans are thrown into the mix.
I try to be interesting."
---
...even when it is AGAIN a son of one of our greatest Allies and Trading Partners in the WOT.
Better to cast suspicions and aspersions at Christians and Jews.
...I live in mortal terror of being taken out @ Safeway by a Jewish Terrorist or a Mormon Samoan Warrior.
'
'Rat would be a good follow-up to our fraudulently and intentionally clueless POTUS.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBut doug, there is no suspect, there is no Islamoid being held as a "Person of Interest", there was just another victim, who happened to be Saudi.
DeleteAccording to boobie's post, up thread.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSeems as tho most of the mass killings here @ home have been carried out by sick young perps of no particular religious or political persuasion from perverted homes who were strung out on video games, the internets, or some such.
ReplyDeleteGood time to point out again tho, that only AFTER BHO became POTUS have we had any Muslim-inspired attacks on the Homeland following 9-11.
'Rat for POTUS, Holder for Veep!
Tell US doug of these terrorist attacks.
DeleteDescribe the times and places, please.
We have work place violence at Fort Hood and no perps in Boston.
What other terrorist attacks were there?
What were the casualty counts?
Who was convicted?
Who funded the attacks?
Tell US more
See
DeleteAnonymousTue Apr 16, 11:10:00 PM EDT
For some of the references.
But, you're right, Hood was an obvious case of workplace violence, just as this is equally obviously Sportsplace Violence.
POTUS Tells us so, or at least prefers not to say otherwise.
My hunch is it is also probably ANOTHER instance of Boston Police acting "stupidly."
I am not searching for your nonexistent references.
DeleteIf you got 'em, show 'em.
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"There have been more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by ... Muslims in Obama's first 18 months in office than in the six years under Bush after he invaded Iraq."
ReplyDeleteAnn Coulter on Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 in a column
Ann Coulter says there have been more terrorist attacks in U.S. under Obama
So, Coulter's numbers may be meticulously circumscribed, but they're right: There were zero attacks during the six years cited under Bush, and two attacks in the first 16 months under Obama.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/sep/10/ann-coulter/ann-coulter-says-there-have-been-more-terrorist-at/
Doug is correct, Rat, as usual, wrong.
What qualifies for a mass casualty attack?
DeleteTen or twenty dead?
One hundred wounded?
Ann Coulter an unreliable info whore.
You cannot tell US where, what, when, who about these fictional mass casualty attacks in the US by the Islamoids.
If you really insist on pretending Hood was "Workplace Violence," further argument would be as useless as arguing w/a fencepost.
Delete...or POTUS.
The same Army that fights terrorism knows terrorism.
DeleteThey also know workplace violence.
Ann Coulter is no expert on either.
Even if the Fort Hood soldier on soldier killings were classified as terrorism, which they will not be, that is one shooting incident.
DeleteNot a "Mass Casualty" event of political terrorism.
That Major a lone, nut case shooter.
He makes a better case for more gun control than for Obama's lack of diligence fighting terrorism, per the 14SEP01 Authorization.
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DeleteThe same Army that fights terrorism knows terrorism.
They also know workplace violence.
The voice of the sheeple responds, "If the government says it's workplace violance, it must be workplace violence."
Just as this same government points out that Cosco or Sams Club customers who buy more than a weeks worth of food are eligible for the 'terrorist' watch list.
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A key source for a private report that sent health-care stocks on a tear earlier this month is a former top congressional aide who is now a health-industry lobbyist, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
ReplyDeleteMark Hayes is currently an outside lobbyist for health-insurance giant Humana Inc. His email to Washington investment-research firm Height Securities, alerting it to a government decision that will save the industry billions of dollars, was a final piece of confirmation Height received before blasting a news alert to its clients, according to emails and people familiar with the matter.
If it's regarding the onerous Medical Device Tax, Huzzah!
DeleteRufus told us to regard it as inconsequential, being only 2 or 3 percent, and that Big Pharma could easily afford it.
Truth is, it's a tax on gross revenues, and would have wiped out the profit margins of hundreds of small device makers, taking down one of the few remaining sectors in which we still lead the World.
That pot was Underwriters Lab Approved!!!
ReplyDelete...last time I'll trust those bastards.
Officials repeatedly called on the public to hand in any photographs or videos from the scene saying they might contain important information even if it is not obvious at first glance. “There has to be thousands of photographs and videos. I would encourage you to bring forward anything, you might not think it's significant but it might be of value to this investigation,” said Sate Police Colonel Timothy Alben.
ReplyDeleteThe Police Commissioner of Boston, Ed Davis, was pressed on whether enough had been done ahead of the race to protect runners. He revealed the areas where the bombs went off had twice been swept, the second time just an hour before the winners crossed the line.
He said he was now confronting “the most complex crime scene we have dealt with in the history of our department”.
ReplyDeleteMilton Friedman, Currency Debaser
Brad DeLong links to a Forbes piece by Tim Lee from last year that I missed, which in turn quotes Milton Friedman on the macroeconomic views that prevailed in the early 1930s:
Lerner was trained at the London School of Economics, where the dominant view was that the depression was an inevitable result of the prior boom, that it was deepened by the attempts to prevent prices and wages from falling and firms from going bankrupt, that the monetary authorities had brought on the depression by inflationary policies before the crash and had prolonged it by “easy money” policies thereafter; that the only sound policy was to let the depression run its course, bring down money costs, and eliminate weak and unsound firms.
Friedman viewed this as evident nonsense, and commended instead the then Chicago view that banks should be rescued, government should act to reflate the economy, and that there was a strong case “for the use of large and continuous deficit budgets to combat the mass unemployment and deflation of the times.”
But as Lee notes, the doctrine Friedman considered self-evident nonsense is now more or less the official doctrine of the Republican party, while the Chicago view he praised are now, according to conservatives, tyrannical socialism.
It was also the view at the time of a poster here who goes by "Rufus II"
DeleteYou said the Economic World would otherwise collapse.
I argued that following the Japanese Model would result in a Japanese Outcome.
We did, and that was the result.
Now we pile on Obamacare and MORE restrictions on Domestic Energy.
Brilliant!
My stimulus idea was for a federal taxpayer holiday.
"
DeleteBut as Lee notes, the doctrine Friedman considered self-evident nonsense is now more or less the official doctrine of the Republican party, while the Chicago view he praised are now, according to conservatives, tyrannical socialism."
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Pubs are for less spending than Dems, but folks like 'Rat and Rufus II choose not to recognize any faults by the Dems, only Pubs.
Unfair, unbalanced, and stupid as two boxes of rocks.
Nice link tho.
DeleteNo, again, dougo/
DeleteSpending rose under every President and every Congress, since Ike, who everyone liked..
Makes no difference. Clinton was the most responsible President, fiscally, working with Newt to create a cash flow surplus.
The GOP was so upset by it, they fired Newt and impeached Clinton.
.
DeleteI have to disagree with you, Doug. The GOP is not for cutting spending they are for reducing the size of government, two very different things, although there may be some overlapping results.
The boys in OZ view it all as a zero sum game and both sides (GOP and Dem) will support their prime constituencies which in all cases is not you and me.
If you look at his actions, rather than his words, you will see that Obama has proven his prime constituencies are in most cases the same as those of the GOP.
Those who argue that without the continuing FED policies (five years of it) we would now be much worse off have no proof of it but their speculation. However, we have seen the result of the continuing FED action. It is truly a zero sum game. Bernanke is no prophet. Fed actions have saved and inriched the banks while only exacerbation the TBTF problem that was a leading contributor to the current malaise, it has done nothing to spur growth, it has done nothing to spur employment, and it has helped increase the continuing diversion between rich and poor in this country.
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Got solar water heat, Rufus?
ReplyDeleteIf not, why not?
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Kid is currently hauling PV Panels I bought which will be one of the first of it's kind on the Island, benefitting from the pluses of central inverters (higher efficiency) w/o the downsides. (lower output when 1 or more panels is partially shaded)
- 10kw worth.
No ethanol needed, except for Dad.
According the Rudy Giuliani, on Fox tonight, it may still be the Saudi youth, the police not having enough on him, and misleading him, and us, into thinking he is off the hook, then watching his every move. So, who knows. Rudy seemed to be thinking it was domestic terrorism, which doesn't mean it isn't moslem connected, just not formally part of the big movement. A small personal franchise, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteRudy was sure closer to reality than any other major figure following 9-11.
ReplyDeleteCan't remember now what he knew about Muzzie behavior well BEFORE Sept 11, too tho.
Pam Geller takes our security agencies to task -
ReplyDeleteReally? The billions that Americans spend for the CIA, FBI, DHS, NSA, JTTF, and all the other various counterterrorism agencies, and they don't have a clue? All they have for us is 1-800-CALL-FBI? This is unconscionable. If that's where we are, disband these incompetent, inane agencies that call jihad "workplace violence" and name Atlas Shrugs as a "domestic hate group," when in fact Atlas Shrugs is battling violence and mass murder across the world. How did this happen eleven years after 9/11?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/the_epic_failure_of_the_intel_agencies_on_the_boston_bombing.html
Wide open? Really?
This is where the status of the investigation is. In Europe, and in Israel, whenever there is a terrorist attack, they have someone or some group in their sights or in custody every time. Take 3/11 in Madrid, 7/7 in London, the Glasgow jihad plot -- every jihad attack and jihad plot in Europe, European authorities are right on it, identifying and apprehending the perpetrators. They know exactly who the bad guys are. They know exactly where to go. This is a historical first: that America is not dramatically ahead of the curve, but dramatically behind the curve. So American citizens are now considered expendable, just the way our soldiers are in Afghanistan.
I think she is laying it a little thick here, but has some points, too.
She seems happy that Obama did not waste that extra $9 million.
DeleteShe thinks most all the DHS funding was wasted borrowed money.
Thanks boobie.
No reps from Obamaland to attend Maggie's services.
ReplyDeleteSelf-hating half-white boy.
All the Republicans in Congress ought to attend that funeral.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNah, they ought to vote to repeal ObmaCare for the 34th time.
DeleteMaybe they ought to try legislating, not making half-assed political "statements".
Who would you have pay for this Republican politico adventure vacation, the taxpayer?
You, of course.
DeleteGoogle getting worse:
ReplyDeletelgude
"Check Google girls and boys. About 10-12 hours after the event all my Google results through 2 pages for 'Boston Bombing' turned up exclusively left wing sources. NY Times, Guardian, HuffPost, Daily Kos. Bing immediately gave me less ideologically filtered results. Google has softened slightly. Now - about 11:45 PM Tuesday in Boston, Fox news manages to make it onto the last entry on page two. No Drudge, no Breitbart. I'm a Google fan boy - I'm even writing this on a Google Chromebook. Love thier services. But their search algorithm looks like it severely biased politically. It is certainly an effective way to extend MSM 'curation' onto the Internet. At least the Chinese Internet users understand their results are being filtered. "
Punk takes on Wrong Mama!
ReplyDeleteheh
DeleteDamn the old gal is fierce. What if she had been carrying????
She was.
ReplyDeleteA Cane, I think.
...not a bad idea if I visit Cali again.
Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II)
ReplyDeleteThe company’s tri-mode seeker fuses millimeter-wave radar, uncooled IIR and digital semi-active laser sensors on a single gimbal. The result is a powerful, integrated seeker that seamlessly shares targeting information between all three modes, enabling weapons to engage fixed, relocatable or moving targets at any time of day and in adverse weather conditions.
SDB II’s tri-mode seeker can peer through storm clouds or battlefield dust and debris to engage fixed or moving targets, giving the warfighter a capability that’s unaffected by conditions on the ground or in the air.
The warfighter also gains enhanced security with SDB II as it can fly more than 45 miles to strike a mobile target. And, because of SDB II’s small size, fewer aircraft can take out the same number of targets that used to require many jets,each carrying a handful of large weapons. SDB II’s size has broader implications for both the warfighter and taxpayers as it means fewer sorties — and less time spent flying dangerous missions.
Key Attributes
•Keeps aviators away from many surface-to-air missiles by flying 45 miles to its target
•Aircrews spend less time in harm’s way because fewer aircraft are required to take out large numbers of targets
Mount that bad boy on US drones.
DeleteHere, more evidence that the US government no longer needs NASA.
ReplyDeletePrivate enterprise can carry the ball.
A new private spaceship is one step closer to flying its first passengers after acing a spectacular test flight over the California desert last week.
Virgin Galactic's suborbital SpaceShipTwo successfully conducted its first "cold flow" flight test above the Mojave Desert last Friday (April 12). During the test, oxidizer was run through the rocket's propulsion system and out the back nozzle of the ship, though the vehicle's rocket engine was not turned on.
"As well as providing further qualifying evidence that the rocket system is flight-ready, the test also provided a stunning spectacle due to the oxidizer contrail and for the first time gave a taste of what SpaceShipTwo will look like as it powers to space," Virgin Galactic officials wrote in a statement.
Mars One, the Netherlands-based organization that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a global reality television phenomenon, is encouraging anyone who is interested in space travel to apply.
DeletePrevious training in space travel is not required, nor is a science degree of any sort, but applicants do need to be at least 18 years of age and willing to leave Earth forever.
As of now, a flight back to Earth is not part of the Mars One business model.
Mars One — a plan to colonize Mars in stages, with the first humans arriving in 2023 (see video below) — won't begin accepting 60-second video applications until July. The journey as they've designed it is explicitly a one-way ticket. Nevertheless, "so far, almost 40,000 people from all over the world have applied to become Martians,"
DeleteMars One will largely be financed through an application fee of up to $25 and a global reality TV show that will help vet the candidates. That's "the world we live in today," says Hooft, who's an "ambassador" for Mars One.
"Governments are not prepared to finance projects like Mars One, so the money has to come from some other source, and if it is a TV show like Big Brother or X Factor, then so be it."
Another Private Project ...
DeleteInspiration Mars plans to get humans to Mars first, in 2018, but only in a quick fly-by. Two astronauts — possibly a married couple — will spend 501 days on a slingshot mission around the Red Planet. (Watch video below.) And this is what they can expect, according to Stephanie Pappas at Space.com:
They'll be crammed into a space the size of an RV for more than a year, breathing recycled air, subsisting on dehydrated food and drinking their purified urine. If they die, they'll be freeze-dried in a body bag. And if they survive, they'll have to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at a screaming 8.8 miles (14.2 kilometers) per second.
We're a bunch of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with helpful information to work on. You've performed a
ReplyDeleteformidable process and our whole group will probably be thankful to you.
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