Veteran wire reporter Helen Thomas is vowing to 'kill herself' if Dick Cheney announces he is running for president. Go ahead, Helen. Make my day!!! Yo, HT? Can you invite Al Franken, Molley Ivans, and Maureen Dowd?
The newspaper HILL first reported the startling claim on Thursday.
"The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself," she told the HILL. "All we need is one more liar." Please, VPOTUS!!! Run for President. You can withdraw tomorrow!!
Thomas added, "I think he'd like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does."
Is the looney left as looney as they seem? How many conservatives threatened suicde, or to leave the country when the Clinton-Gore braintrust were on the bridge. We ranted...we raved. She talks about liars...how many lies did Billy-boy tell? Who really believed that idiot Gore when he said he was responsible for the internet...when it was born in a DARPA project when he was still in college?
A high school student convicted of battery for vomiting on his Spanish teacher has been ordered to spend the next four months cleaning up after people who throw up in police cars. Yuck.
Johnson County Magistrate Judge Michael Farley said during the sentencing Tuesday that he considered the boy's actions "an assault upon the dignity of all teachers." The teen, now 17, vomited on teacher David Young as he turned in his textbook on the last day of classes at Olathe Northwest High School. His attorney, Brian Costello, said the student vomited because he was nervous about his final exams. No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks
But two other students testified that the teen said he threw up intentionally. One girl said he told her in advance that he planned to throw up on Young on the last day of school. The girl wasn't in class when the teen threw up, but she testified that the boy later told her, "You missed it. I did it." Young said the student, who was failing his class, made no effort to avoid throwing up on him. "I was just sort of stunned," he said.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Johnson County White Trash: It's like regular white trash, but they drive Escalades.
A 26-year-old vagrant was charged with indecent exposure after police found him standing naked in a cornfield chewing on a cob near a country club. "He said he wanted to see the house where Forrest Gump lived," said Police Chief William Nale. My momma always said, "Life is like a naked 26 year old vagrant."
Gump is the fictional character in a novel by Alabama author Winston Groom that became a hit movie. "Fictional"? Wha...?
The Littleville police chief declined to release the man's name Tuesday but said his family lives in Michigan and he had been in a California institution earlier this year. Shocking.
After his arrest, the man was taken for a mental evaluation. He was spotted Monday morning near twin Pines Country Club. "He was standing in a cornfield, picking the corn and eating it raw," Nale said. "He didn't have anything on, not even his shoes. He was as naked as the day he was born."
"Don't look, Ethel!"
Authorities said the man was taken into custody without any trouble. "I asked him where his clothes were and he said he got hot (Sunday night), took them off and laid them on the railroad tracks and then couldn't remember where they were," Nale said. The suspect told authorities that he was a homeless drifter following the railroad tracks to south Alabama, where he thought he would find the Gump home.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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"He was standing in a cornfield, picking the corn and eating it raw," Nale said. "He didn't have anything on, not even his shoes. He was as naked as the day he was born."
Sounds like he's ready to matriculate to the lovelyest Village on the Plain.
Drinkers in the Greek capital who suspected their tequila sunrise was too bright or thought their rum tasted strange might be right after all. Government inspectors carrying out spot checks in the greater Athens area found a staggering 100 percent !!! of samples from rum and tequila to be adulterated, authorities said on Tuesday. The checks took place at 39 restaurants, bars and nightclubs. Unscrupulous bar owners in Greece frequently serve their clients locally made moonshine, saving huge sums in state alcohol taxes. Such adulterated alcohol, made with cheap and often toxic raw materials, can cause drinkers a splitting headache, permanent blindness or, in extreme cases, death. So that's why Jackie Kennedy married a Greek... they run illegal booze just like Jack's family did.
The finance ministry's financial crime squad, SDOE, said half the vodka samples tested were found to have been adulterated, and 20 percent for whisky. Greeks usually drink rum, tequila and vodka in cocktails, while whisky is more often consumed neat - making adulterated batches easier to detect. That's why you should always drink like a man - straight booze, no girlish mixers.
SDOE also found that two in three establishments inspected - 26 out of 39 - had been breaking laws on bookkeeping. Cooking the books? In Greece? Get outta here.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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Greek moonshiners. Greek moonshiners.
Sorry, but I just can't get my head wrapped around that concept.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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A great advertisement for the reduction of taxes. If you make them high people will find a way not pay them. On Crete we used to drink something called "Raki" not sure of the translation but it had a very numbing affect on the drinker. If you asks for Bacardi and the drink you get doesn't taste like it, the bartender used to make ammends and claim he didn't understand your order. Again it's telling how all of the bar owners were not paying large amounts of taxes, must be conservatives!
A Kenyan city councilman says he offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter's hand in marriage five years ago. He's still awaiting an answer. Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor wrote Clinton asking for Chelsea's hand in 2000 when Clinton visited Kenya, Chepkurgor told the East African Standard newspaper. Chepkurgor, 36, vowed to remain single until he gets an answer to his proposal to marry Chelsea, 25. And they call it puppy love...
Chepkurgor, a city councilor in Nakuru, told Clinton of plans for a grand wedding presided over by South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Had I succeeded in wooing Chelsea, I would have had a grand wedding," he told the Standard in an interview published Friday during Clinton's recent visit to Kenya. Chepkurgor said his letter praised both Clinton's leadership and his wife, now Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for standing by her husband in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. I'm sure Monica had to be worth at least 50 goats and 60 cows... throw in a few dozen chickens too.
The electrical engineering graduate !!! said he promised to pay 40 goats and 20 cows in dowry for Clinton's only daughter in accordance with African tradition. But he said the letter prompted security checks - on him, his family and his classmates , not to mention various barnyard "friends"..
It's unlikely Clinton ever received the offer. A security official told the Standard the letter probably never made it out of the office because authorities thought Chepkurgor "just took the joke too far." What joke?
I think Bill should take him up on his offer. The nice man was just expressing himself via the traditions of his authentic culture, and surely deserves a chance to be self-actualized. And think of how this small gesture on Bill's part would cement our future relations with Kenya, and appease the world community that looks at our current regime with such hostility.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 00:01 ||
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He'll be offended if you don't accept, Bill. He's connected, too, so you'd had better strike the bargain while you can - they might hate us and seethe or something, if you don't. In Billy's own world view, our standing in the International Community is the Most Important Thing. Sometimes you gotta overlook petty personal concerns and give, y'know? It's for the greater good, Billyboy. Fork her over.
#2
If buddy Bill wants to take Kofi's spot, he best not offend the natives. Besides, one of those cows could fill in for Monica.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 5:53 Comments ||
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"Y'all can keep the goats and chickens . . . got any 22-year olds and a box of cigars, though?"
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2005 6:33 Comments ||
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When I saw this the other day, I forwarded on to several buddies. One replied:
"40 goats and 20 cows for 1 dog? Sounds like a deal to me."
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2005 8:13 Comments ||
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I attempted to post this yesterday. My proposed headline was "Clinton Offered 40 Virginia Kelleys and 20 Hillary Clintons for Chelsea." BA, I like your buddies headline even better.
Posted by: Tibor ||
07/28/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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Just tryin' to forward the discussion, Tibor! lol.
Posted by: BA ||
07/28/2005 10:22 Comments ||
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#7
"What daddy, you did what? Do you know the size of the mosquitos in Africa? You can't drink the water! Mama mama mama - You need to throw a vase at him again..."
"Farewell snow. No more skiing. alas. I now have a life in a lion's playground!"
Update: No, not a disgruntled recepient. Seems he picked up three hookers to party with, they mickeyed him and beat him to death when he came out of it early. Boo hoo hoo...
We caried that story, tu. I replaced it with your update, cuz we love hooker beating spammers to death stories here.
The murder of Russiaâs biggest spammer Vardan Kushnir was not connected with his Internet activity, but with a straightforward robbery, Moscow investigators reported. Kushnir, 35, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head. Investigators, quoted by the Kommersant newspaper, said this was not a contract murder or revenge for spamming. âThings are simpler. He became a victim of clonidine. For now, this is the only theory.â
"Vlad, pickup the usual suspect hookers!"
At the scene, investigators discovered soporific, a sleep inducer, in a glass and a womanâs dressing gown and blouse. Apparently, the spammer had met three girls in a club called the Hungry Duck, and invited them to his apartment.
"Hic...say girls...hic...hows about we go back....hic...to my place. I'll show you ....hic....my hard drive."
The girls then poured soporific into his wine, but it is suppected that the dose was insufficient, and that Kushnir woke up when the girlsâ accomplices arrived to rob his house.
"Man, what was in that.....hey, who are youse guys?"
During the ensuing scuffle, he was killed.
....rosebud...
The robbers took his credit cards, laptop, digital video camera, gold and money. On Monday, police detained one of the suspected girls.
"Ok, Natasha, where's our cut?"
Kushnir headed the English learning centers, which included the Center for American English, the New York English Center and the Center for Spoken English, all known to have extremely aggressive Internet advertising policies which featured sending millions of e-mails every day. In the past angry Internet users had retaliated against the American English centre by publishing the Centerâs telephone numbers extensively throughout the Web to provoke telephone calls. The Centerâs telephone was advertised as a contact number for cheap sex services, or bargain real estate sales.
Looks like one of those cheap sex services may have come back to....bite him.
Reports have been going around for a few days of bird flu/Ebola hybrid virus as the cause (I initially thought it was Nipah virus). This is not a weird and unlikely as it may sound. New diseases are more common than generally appreciated, and the genetic evidence indicates flu and Ebola may have exchanged genetic material in the past. Latest is 10 cases in Hong Kong and 1 in Singapore, which appear to be the same thing, strong evidence that this is transmitting H2H.
CHINA's official Xinhua news agency confirmed this week earlier wire reports about the mysterious deaths of 27 farmers in several villages around the cities of Ziyang and Neijiang in Sichuan province.
Another 41 people in Sichuan have also fallen seriously ill.
All victims had been exposed to swine and developed high fever, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and 'became comatose later with bruises under the skin', according to Xinhua. The provincial health authorities insist that 'the disease is absolutely not Sars, anthrax or bird flu'.
Instead, they ascribed the outbreak to a common swine bug called streptococcus suis. Based on information from the Chinese, the World Health Organisation (WHO) agrees that the symptoms 'seem consistent with' the diagnosis.
Could the WHO be wrong? Are the provincial authorities prevaricating?
But, first, what is this bug and why are these Sichuan cases less likely to be it? According to The Merck Veterinary Manual, this is a bacterium that lives in the noses, throats, guts and genitalia of pigs. Thus, farmers exposed to droplets of swine saliva, as well as slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and cooks who have open wounds who handle pork and pig innards could become infected.
Yet, despite its prevalence in pigs - up to 15 per cent of a herd could be carriers - human cases are rare as only one out of a total of 35 serotypes of the bacterium causes serious infections in people.
In humans, the bug invades the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord causing meningitis, with severe headaches, high fever, vomiting, confusion, stiff neck, loss of hearing and coma. There can also be bleeding from blood vessels beneath the skin, and the patient can go into toxic shock, with damage to the heart.
Sounds like the mysterious illness in Sichuan?
A total of 68 patients in Sichuan sounds unlikely for various other reasons too.
First, the bacterium is easily treated in pigs with penicillin. Though it can survive for long periods, it is also easily destroyed with soaps and dilute disinfectants.
Secondly, the high mortality also makes the cause somewhat less likely to be bacterial in origin, as bacterial infections are rarely as lethal.
Thirdly, the bug seems to spread between herds not only through the introduction of apparently healthy carrier pigs but also by flies, which can travel up to 2km between farms on their own. If flies got on to vehicles, they could go farther. Carcasses of dead pigs could also transport the bacteria.
But up to 75 villages are affected in Sichuan. These are clustered around 40 townships in different counties, which represent large geographical distances. This suggests the possibility of transmission by migratory birds.
Quite apart from the fear that pigs, which often carry the human flu virus, could contract bird flu and act as a 'blender' to speed up the process of its mutation, several facts suggest that the mysterious illness sounds a lot like influenza, some scientists believe.
#1
I thought both pigs and birds have been implicated in the new flu viruses. Since 1918, that is. Pigs and birds swap s*it (not spit) and the virus mutates....
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 22:04 Comments ||
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More on the 'secret pact' on carbon emissions. There are hundreds of reports. I picked this one for its ease of Fisking. Sydney - Environmentalists on Thursday condemned a new pact against global warming by the United States and five Asia-Pacific countries, saying it was self-serving and would not work. Well they are experts on self-serving so we should listen to them.
The agreement by the US, Australia, India, China, South Korea and Japan calls for a non-binding compact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which are blamed for climate change. "Skulking around making secretive, selective deals will not accomplish" a reduction in emissions as called for in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which the US and Australia have declined to ratify, said Greenpeace Australia. Neither will a $1000 a day conferences blatherfeasts. So whats your point.
"No doubt the (Australian) government has been cooking this scheme up for a while to cover up for their failure to ratify Kyoto, and to try prove that developing countries are abandoning Kyoto," said spokesperson Catherine Fitzpatrick.
Ahah! It's a scheme! I knew it! Cooked up by sinister men of dark visage in a smoke-filled room! Bilderberg's involved, y'know...
"This is not the case. Unlike Australia, China, India and South Korea have all ratified Kyoto and are moving forward to implement their commitments," she said. China and India together the biggest CO2 emitters on the planet don't have any commitments under Kyoto, doubtless the reason they signed up.
"The suggested scheme is, unlike Kyoto, a voluntary scheme and all evidence shows that voluntary schemes do not work." Unlike Kyoto which doesn't work either. Oops!
The Kyoto accord legally commits 39 industrial nations and territories to trim their output of six greenhouse gases - especially carbon dioxide, the by-product of burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Friends of the Earth Australia said the proposed alliance "does not address the immediate need to cut greenhouse pollution by at least 60% by 2050. Neither does Kyoto. Whats your point?
"Although detail on the 'secret plan' is difficult to access, it appears to contain no binding commitments," spokesperson Cam Walker said. "By staying out of the 'main game', the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases, the US and Australia continue to be open to criticism that they are only looking after their narrowly defined interests at the expense of the rest of the world," he said. Completely ignore that this agreement commits far more of the carbon emitters to do something than does Kyoto.
The leader of the opposition Australian Greens party, Bob Brown, dismissed the new agreement as "a coal pact" involving four of the world's biggest coal producers - China, the US, India and Australia. Bob Brown is a raving moonbat.
It was designed to "defend the coal industry in an age where it's the biggest industry contributing deliberately to the global warming threat to Australia and the planet," he said. Actually opponents to nuclear power at any cost are the real threat, and you Mr. Brown are the leading exponent.
I'm waiting for nuclear winter to come back. I haven't been skiing in a long time.
#1
reduce greenhouse gas emissions which are blamed for climate change.
There is but one god.....
Sorry, boys, but the real science is out and humans are not driving climate change outside the actual land they occupy, and even then its marginal. When the nitwits can show me the carbon generating industries and machines man had 18,000 years ago to melt the ice covering most of North America and Europe, I might listen, but till then, go rant to your little god.
#3
This cracks me up, for the left it's motives that matter, not if something works or not. If the pact works, but is self-serving, its bad. If Kyoto won't work, but was done for rightious reasons it is good.
#4
Not to mention that Kyoto was/is "self-serving" for the French & Germans. It was always intended as economic warfare against the US. And yes, I did say "warfare".
Poland has recalled its ambassador from neighbouring Belarus amid escalating tension between the Polish government and Belarus' president. President Alexander Lukashenko has accused the Polish minority in Belarus of plotting to overthrow him. On Wednesday, Belarussian police raided the headquarters of an organisation representing ethnic Poles in Belarus and briefly detained its leader.
Each country has expelled the other's diplomats in recent months.
About 400,000 ethnic Poles live in Belarus, in areas that were part of Poland until World War II. Mr Lukashenko has accused Poland of interfering in Belarussian affairs and seeking to provoke mass protests against his government. Poland says Mr Lukashenko's government is persecuting the Polish community.
Riot police with guns and dogs raided the Union of Poles headquarters in the western town of Grodno, about 280 km (175 miles) west of the capital, Minsk, on Wednesday, detaining those inside for several hours.
Mr Lukashenko has criticised the recently elected leadership of the association, saying it is illegal. Some Poles outside the building on Thursday said they feared rising anti-Polish sentiments among the Belarussian people. "The authorities of Belarus are provoking the conflict by using force and politicise the organisation themselves," Leon Podlach, 37, told the Associated Press. "I am afraid of anti-Polish sentiments in the republic."
Europeans, why do they hate each other?
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 08:38 ||
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Interesting artifact of WWII, after which the borders of Poland were shifted about 100 miles west forcing the displacement of Poles from what had histroically been Poland and Germans from what had historically been Germany. The USSR (now Belarus) was the gainer.
#2
Ah, yes the Silesian Germans. Do they get a 'Right of Return'? The left and their terrorist buds talk a lot about the Paleos, but no one ever talks about the Silesians.
#3
Lukashenko is an ass... A totalitarian thug that is a holdover of the old Commissar days. Poland is free-wheeling and democratic. All the folks in Belarus, not just ethnic Poles, see what is going on next door...
George W. Bush, US president, on Wednesday signalled US hopes of a smoother relationship with Germany by holding an unexpected meeting with a leading figure in the opposition Christian Democratic Union just two months before Germans go to the polls. Those famous "unexpected presidential drop ins"...
Wolfgang SchÀuble, the top foreign policy expert to Angela Merkel the CDU leader expected to be elected the next German chancellor told reporters he spoke with Mr Bush for 45 minutes in the Oval Office. He also met Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, and Stephen Hadley, national security adviser.
The red carpet treatment for Mr SchÀuble, though discreet, underlines the expectations in the White House that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will be defeated and that the CDU will adopt a more traditional Atlanticist approach to the US.
The CDU election manifesto says a ânew startâ to US-German relations would be a cornerstone of a Merkel-led administration, following the strain over Germany's opposition to the Iraq war and other issues, such as the International Criminal Court.
In private, US officials say few tears will be shed in the White House should Mr Schröder lose, although they stress that US-German relations had improved over the past year. In private? LOL
Posted by: True German Ally ||
07/28/2005 02:46 ||
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TGA - what do you make of this? I found the statement by Nile Gardiner - some analyst with the Heritage Foundation of particular interest... Seems to be seriously at odds with your take, or at least as I understood your thoughts.
#2
For my money, I agree with Gardiner. There is only so much that a different regime can do, given the large portion of the German populace that are anti-American.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 5:59 Comments ||
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CDU leader Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany under Honecker... That gives her a perspective some wouldn't have... In foreign policy terms, being what goes for "Conservative" in Germany, things just might get better...
#4
Well Nile Gardiner says: âI don't think a Merkel administration will fundamentally alter the relationship. It will somewhat improve it, but we won't see a revolution in German foreign policy. We will see an administration just as wedded to further political and economic integration in Europe and not inclined to support the US in overseas adventures.â
Well Germany won't and can't give up European integration but it will try to return to the old balance between France and the US.
"Overseas adventures" sounds a bit strange. I see more German participation in international missions but don't expect German divisions marching into Iraq or Iran anytime soon.
But nobody knows how the War on Terror will evolve. Bavaria's Interior Minister Beckstein said that a terrorist attack on Germany will happen, it's just a question of how and when. After that, we'll see.
#5
TGA - I remember the Baader-Meinhof gang and their anarchist terrorist exploits back in the 1970's.
It appeared to me at the time that the Germans seemed resigned to it, almost accepting - not pissed off, like Americans generally would be at the same thing.
What do you think the reaction of the average German will be when the moslems start blowing up people there? It's not like they can blame it on Iraq, like the usual suspects and fellow travelers in England are trying to do.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/28/2005 18:36 Comments ||
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The Louvre will get a new wing to showcase its vast collection of Islamic art thanks to a multi-million euro gift by a Saudi prince bent on bribing mending post-9/11 ties between the West and Arabs. The museum's 10,000-piece collection of art from the Islamic world rivals those of the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, but is rarely seen for lack of display space. Some pieces have not been shown for two decades. Architectural plans were unveiled Wednesday for the 4,000 square-meter (43,000 square-foot) wing, to be built by architects Mario Bellini from Italy and Rudi Ricciotti of France and scheduled to open in 2009. Nearly a third of the EUR 56 million project is being underwritten by Saudi Prince Al-Walid "The Jooos Dunnit" Bin Talal, whose EUR 17 million gift is one of the largest in France's history, French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said at a ceremony Tuesday. "Your gesture is a testament to the generosity of the Islamic world," the minister said.
*Splutter*
The French state and oil company Total will cover most of the balance. The decision to create a new department of Islamic art in the Louvre came directly from French President Jacques Chirac, who is said to maintain very good relations with Al-Walid.
The springs all just sprung from my surprise meter.
A statement from Chirac's office said the president was "particularly attached" to the project. It will create a new space for this "exceptional collection" and reinforce the avocation of the Louvre -- which houses such priceless treasures as Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' and is visited by more than six million people a year -- as a world cultural heritage centre, it said.
Chirac's last grasp at a legacy... a France-centric EU constitutionthe 2012 Paris Olympicsthe resurgence of France to the forefront of international relevance selling out the Louvre to the Soddies.
This latest endeavour, helping finance the Louvre's new Islamic wing, will allow the museum to showcase a much larger percentage of what critics have called one of the greatest concentrations of Islamic art in existence. Only some 1,300 objects from the Louvre's Islamic collection are currently on display. It is the youngest department in the museum, created only in 2003 with pieces spanning 13 centuries and three continents, showing the spread of Islamic civilization from Spain to India. The collection is especially strong in the areas of medieval Persian and Arab art and the Ottoman Empire and claims one of the world's most prestigious collections of ancient Oriental carpets. It also has major archaeological holdings and a well-preserved archive of papyrus documents from the first centuries of Islam.
And a nice collection of beheading CD's and car bomb dioramas from the most recent century of Islam.
#1
The collection is especially strong in the areas of medieval Persian and Arab art and the Ottoman Empire and claims one of the world's most prestigious collections of ancient Oriental carpets. It also has major archaeological holdings and a well-preserved archive of papyrus documents from the first centuries of Islam.
Straight from looted Baghdad museums to you! Who are you to resist it, ah?
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 0:15 Comments ||
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Does that mean that the Islamists will only boom the nudies' section of the Louvre?
#3
Walid, yes. The Man of Success to the average Saudi. I'd say he has just secured himself a haven if things get too hot back in LalaLand. Walid is, easily, the most competent, cunning, and successful businessman in the Royal zoo. I had a very long and very interesting talk with the Bahraini guy that was "facilitator" for my employer in Saudi. He told me every Saudi man on the street knows Walid's name and it is commonly believed he would eventually become King, should the House fall. I'm sure the Wahhabis would have much to say about it, but this fellow, who was our go-between with the Saudi Govt, Aramco, etc, was adamant that if it all fell apart, the guy who could pick up the pieces was Walid. Of course, that said, I'm glad as hell Rudy gave him back his fucking check and told him to take a hike.
#7
One litle problem is that there is no way to ass a wing to the Louvre without destroying its architectonic coherency. It is basically a medievel palace. To the South a garden separates it from the river Seine. In the west there are the Tuileries and their garden (ie taboo), in the east it is heavily built and quite taboo too. In the North it is stil more taboo.
The political battles promise to be interesting. Now the simpler would have been to tell him to stuff his check and that we already the Institut of the Monde Arabe for organizing expos about arab art.
#10
Does that mean that the Islamists will only boom the nudies' section of the Louvre?
TGA - No. Remember the Taleban rules, and they were Wahabi. Not only the nudes but also all women not in full burka...
Also removed, like the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan...
1) Any portrait showing favorable to a religion not Islam...
2) Any portrait depicting anything musical.
3) Any portrait showing a chess board.
4) Any portrait depicting kite flying.
5) Any portrait of any person.
6) Any portrait depicting wine or any alcoholic beverage...
So what you would have left is a few landscapes
(Clearing in the Forest near Fontainebleau 1866 - Rousseau)
and paintings of barnyard animals (no pigs, of course)...
(Farm Courtyard in Normandy - Monet)
The children would be covered up by a black oval...
The former is to remind the faithful where they can find the 72 virgins in the afterlife, and the latter is for what is allowed before one martyrs one's self to get to "paradise"...
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's political alliance with the centrist-leaning Democratic Leadership Council, which once saw her as an adversary, will not weaken her support on the party's left because of her liberal voting record, a close adviser to the New York senator said yesterday. Mrs. Clinton's new agenda-setting role with the grass-roots organization that helped her husband launch his presidential campaign in 1992 has sparked attacks from liberal activists who say her embrace of the DLC will draw opposition from the left if she runs for president in 2008.
But supporters dismiss such criticism, saying her relationship with the DLC should not concern Democratic activists on the left. They say those on the far left should pay more attention to her voting record, which has earned her a near-perfect 95 percent approval score from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. "It's much more important to look at what she does and how she votes, and not that she has associated herself with the DLC," said Harold Ickes, who was deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and is now one of Mrs. Clinton's top campaign advisers.
Like we say, watch the hands.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 10:10 ||
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So how will we remember to bring this little item up again three years from now? Does Rantburg have a "tickler" file? (Save it so it pops up again on a certain date)
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 10:51 Comments ||
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#2
"Don't worry, the Pope's a Catholic"
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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#3
By gosh, it's like the campaign commercials are writing themselves.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
07/28/2005 11:49 Comments ||
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#4
Wow, he's been out of power for years and Ickes is still F#$cking things up!
#5
it's like the campaign commercials are writing themselves.
...sitting in his den, smoking a fine cigar and drinking a dry martini, Karl Rove laughs.....
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 13:47 Comments ||
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Hillary is a New Left true believer. It will not be hard to get her to show her true colors. She has the rep of being the highly controlled, smartest woman in the world, but the VRWC will drive her crazy.
#7
I am thankful she and her entire entourage of advisors are thoroughly steeped in the Kool Aid and suffer a total lack of dissenting voices that she preaches to the choir, instead of continuing her much more dangerous disingenuous charm campaign to the center. Thank you, Hilly, please continue...
From The Hill, via Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review. EFL & emphasis added.
If Vice President Cheney is indeed a âserious darkhorseâ candidate for president in 2008, as Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward recently suggested, he probably wonât want to enlist legendary barking moonbat White House reporter Helen Thomas ("American journalism's batty old aunt in the attic.") to help with his press relations, even though she has proposed a campaign strategy he could run on....But asked this week if she is promoting a Cheney candidacy, Thomas made it clear she isnât.
âThe day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for president, Iâll kill myself,â she told The Hill. . . .
I'll probably do time in Purgatory for saying this, but: RUN, CHENEY, RUN!
Posted by: Mike ||
07/28/2005 06:35 ||
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#4
Poor little DC troll lady who fancies herself a journalist should retire or just die and give others a chance to do what she cannot. Whatever skill and ethics she had as a journalist were lost a long time ago. She's a nasty partisan hack who is not intelligent, articulate, insightful, funny or talented in any perceivable manner. I don't care if she a WH press fixture either. Rip her out with a crowbar like unrepairable goods and off to the landfill in a dumpster!
#6
He should run as a distraction. Let the bile be hurled his way, let people call helen on her promise. Then Cheney can step aside before the real election season due to health issues.
#9
Its a brilliant strategy AE, but unfortunately the Reps are indeed old stick in the muds. Had the Dems been smart enough to allow Clinton to be impeached, Al Gore most likely would have been President for 9/11. See, they actually do somethings right, even though they don't mean to.
#10
He has a bad heart, and lacks a likeable personality. A Cheney presidency isn't in the cards.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/28/2005 21:23 Comments ||
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#11
I also like AEs plan but I think Cheney should have done it already to give Rice a few years in office.
The problem is that old Eddie Murphy joke that would have every blackman in the country taking shots at the Prez to get a black into the top spot. Even if caught they'd be heros in prison. Funny routine but there is a hint of truth to it. Fear of a Cheney Presidency on the other hand means Bush is somewhat safe from assassination attempts because "they" rightfully fear Cheney more. Sort of like Qual in a different sort of way.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the center of a storm in the labor movement, was re-elected to a fourth term Wednesday-- just days after the defection of two major unions that sought his ouster. One of those unions-- the Service Employees International Union-- was headed by Sweeney when he was first elected AFL-CIO president in 1995. It joined the Teamsters in leaving the AFL-CIO on Monday.
Sweeney, 71, faced no opposition. In remarks prepared in advance for his acceptance speech, the bus driver's son called the last week "contentious and stressful." "Despite the conflicts and even the divisions we've suffered, I think we all feel a new sense of clarity about our mission and new energy propelling us toward our goals," he said.
The goals seem to include crashing and burning. It's just as well. The unions are an idea whose time has gone. Graft, corruption, incompetence, and blatant self-interest turned them from organizations that fought for workers — rightly or wrongly, depending on the circumstance — into a mere drag on the economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
In remarks prepared in advance for his acceptance speech, the bus driver's son called the last week "contentious and stressful.
I was going to call him a mob-connected, knee-bashing Union thug, but now that I know that he's lived the hard and difficult life of being a bus driver's son, I suddenly find myself sympathetic to him.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 0:11 Comments ||
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Posted by: john ||
07/28/2005 06:25 ||
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#1
Masters of the indirect, I suspect they know they will not get a seat and are looking to cutting back on their donation of the corruption slush fund operated under the name of the UN.
#2
Currently, Japan's financial contributions make up about 20 percent of the annual U.N. budget, second only to the United States.
I didn't realize that. Talk about not getting any return on an investment, lol! I would love to see Japan eliminate their contributions - it might be the block that causes the whole monstrosity to crumble.
#7
Any chance of euthanasia for the UN, or are we going to have to watch the protracted death of a doomed entity? It's dysfunctional-that's clear. Now we get to watch all the ridiculous moves stretched out year after year to try to modernize the dodo.
Just heard this on the radio. It's all I can find right now:
LAST WEEKEND, SOMEONE STOLE FLAGS FROM THE YARD OF A FAIRFIELD FAMILY'S HOME, AND SET THEM ON FIRE, ALONG WITH THEIR CAR. TODAY, FAIRFIELD POLICE SAY THEY'VE GOT THE VANDALS IN CUSTODY. 2 BOYS, 13 AND 15 YEARS OLD, HAVE EACH BEEN CHARGED WITH ONE COUNT OF ARSON, AND 2 COUNTS OF CRIMINAL MISCHIEF. BOTH ADMITTED THEIR INVOLVEMENT AND WERE TURNED OVER TO THEIR PARENTS.
CHIEF MIKE DICKEY SAYS THEY DON'T BELIEVE THE BOYS KNEW THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FLAGS. THE WESSEL FAMILY HAD JUST BURIED THEIR SON IN LAW, P-F-C TIM HINES. HE DIED FROM INJURIES SUSTAINED IN IRAQ.
All caps in original
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 21:13 ||
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#1
Burn these little bastards and their folks who are I bet leftist turds of the first order, fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. A car was torched, a felony. These little creeps should still be in jail! Want to bet the folks are rich and influential local donks.
#2
You don't suppose the boys and their parents would be interested in buying the widow Hines a brand new car to replace the one the boys destroyed? Maybe that will help them understand the significance of their act. A few months in jail might help,also.
#3
Fairfield may be a Donk-heavy neighborhood (I'm not sure), but I don't think it's the haunt of wealthy families.
The kids should get the maximum, and their families should be held responsible, too.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 21:45 Comments ||
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Fairfield Ohio? I bet they're "challenged" from the shallow end of the gene pool. Make em pay and let the community know who did it. Punishment enough in a small town :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/28/2005 21:46 Comments ||
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"CHIEF MIKE DICKEY' needs to look and see where he leftr his balls. He shouldn't be letting arsonists loose, no matter their age.
First there was PGP e-mail. Then there was PGPfone for modems. Now Phil Zimmermann, creator of the wildly popular Pretty Good Privacy e-mail encryption program, is debuting his new project, which he hopes will do for internet phone calls what PGP did for e-mail.
Zimmermann has developed a prototype program for encrypting voice over internet protocol, or VOIP, which he will announce at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas this week.
Like PGP and PGPfone, which he created as human rights tools for people around the world to communicate without fear of government eavesdropping, Zimmermann hopes his new program will restore some of the civil liberties that have been lost in recent years and help businesses shield themselves against corporate espionage.
VOIP, or internet telephony, allows people to speak to each other through their computers using a microphone or phone. But because VOIP uses broadband networks to transmit calls, conversations are vulnerable to eavesdropping in the same way that e-mail and other internet traffic is open to snoops. Attackers can also hijack calls and reroute them to a different number.
Few people consider these risks, however, when they switch to VOIP.
"Years ago, people kind of stumbled into e-mail without really thinking about security," Zimmermann said. "I think that what's happening today with VOIP is that we're kind of stumbling into it (as well) without thinking about security." People don't think about it, he said, because they're used to phone calls being secure on the regular phone system -- known as the Public Switched Telephone Network.
"The PSTN is like a well-manicured neighborhood, (while) the internet is like a crime-ridden slum," Zimmermann said. "To move all of our phone calls from the PSTN to the internet seems foolish without protecting it."
Interest in VOIP is growing rapidly because the user pays less for the service and pays no long-distance toll charges. Some services are free. According to one recent survey, 11 million people worldwide use a subscription VOIP service, compared to only 5 million in 2004, and at least another 35 million use free VOIP services. That leaves a lot of people potentially open to eavesdropping.
It's not as easy to eavesdrop on VOIP as it is to intercept and read e-mail. Phone conversations aren't stored or backed up where an attacker can access them, so the conversations have to be captured as they occur.
But a program available for free on the internet already allows intruders to do just that. Using the tool, someone with access to a local VOIP network could capture traffic, convert it to an audio file and replay the voice conversation. The program is called Voice Over Misconfigured Internet Telephones, a name clearly chosen for its catchy acronym -- VOMIT.
Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security and author of the Crypto-Gram newsletter, said that the need for VOIP encryption is a given.
"If you're concerned about eavesdropping, then encryption is how you defend against it," he said. "And it's not that hard to do. It's just a matter of writing the code."
But David Endler, chairman of the VOIP Security Alliance industry group and director of security research at TippingPoint, said a protocol for encrypting and protecting VOIP data already exists and companies are starting to make VOIP phones that support the protocol. But he said that people typically don't enable the encryption option.
"Probably because we're not seeing attacks yet," he said.
He said most users are less concerned with eavesdropping than with having VOIP service that provides the same quality and reliability that they expect from regular phone service.
"Some people can see clearly that there's a need for this, and others wonder if anyone cares about protecting phone calls," Zimmermann said. "But those are the same people who wondered why anyone would want to protect e-mail. I think as people gain experience with VOIP they're going to have a great appreciation for the need to come up with extra measures to protect it."
Endler also said that companies using VOIP are reluctant to implement encryption because of the overhead involved in managing the public key infrastructure, or PKI.
"You have to be able to store a key on most of these end points," he said.
PKI requires two keys for encryption: a public key that a user gives to anyone who wishes to communicate with him or her, and a private key, which decrypts messages that the user receives.
That won't be a problem with Zimmermann's system, which doesn't use PKI. Zimmermann said PKI is unnecessarily complex for VOIP.
"There's no need to centrally manage public key infrastructure to make a phone call, in my view," he said.
He won't elaborate on how his system works but is preparing a protocol document that will describe it in detail, which he'll post on the internet when the program is ready.
The program is currently only a working prototype and still has non-security bugs that need to be worked out. For example, sometimes the program fails to hang up after a call, forcing the user to exit the program to end the call.
It's designed for a Mac, but will be adapted for PCs before Zimmermann makes it available for download. He's looking for investors to back a startup company that will support the product and oversee its distribution.
Zimmermann envisions it both as an add-on for manufacturers to put into VOIP phones and as a software client that users can install on their laptop to use when they don't have a VOIP phone with them. Both parties in a conversation will need to have the software on their phone or computer. If only one person has it, the call will still go through but it won't be encrypted...
Discovery linked up with the international space station Thursday after performing an unprecedented back flip with a full twist in pike position, rating 9.3 so that the station's crew could snap photographs of the shuttleâs belly and check for signs of damage.
About an hour after the 360-degree flip, the shuttle docked with the station. After checking for leaks, the astronauts opened the hatches between the two spacecraft and hugged each other in welcome.
âDiscovery, arriving,â station astronaut John Phillips declared as he rang the stationâs bell, following a routine picked up from naval tradition. I actually kind of like that. If we disband NASA have a future in space, it's good to establish service culture and traditions.
Thursday's linkup comes after a huge setback on Wednesday, when NASA decided to ground future shuttle flights because a chunk of insulating foam flew off Discoveryâs fuel tank during liftoff â as it did in Columbiaâs doomed mission. This time, the foam apparently missed the spacecraft.
The space agency thought that it had solved foam problems associated with its external fuel tank, but learned Wednesday that it was wrong. âWe have got to go take a look at this, and we have got to go find a solution to this problem. And we will,â shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said.
âWe were very lucky, and we know it,â NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said Thursday on NBCâs âTodayâ show. You are very incompetent and we know it.
A crew last visited the outpost in November 2002.
Discovery comes loaded with 15 tons of much-needed supplies, including a replacement gyroscope for one that failed in March. Gyroscopes help steer the station.
Phillips and station commander Sergei Krikalev, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, used two cameras â one with a 400mm lens and another with an 800mm lens â to snap 100 seconds worth of photos. The photographs were expected to provide resolution similar to a person standing within a few inches of the shuttleâs tiles.
âI thought the process went really fine,â Phillips told NASA mission control. âNeither of us saw anything really alarming.â
The digital photos, downloaded after docking, are what NASA officials said theyâre most interested in. A team of special analysts at NASAâs Johnson Space Center in Houston plan to examine them for any indications of damage.
In addition to the chunk of foam that broke from Discoveryâs external fuel tank during launch, several smaller pieces broke away as well. A thermal tile on Discoveryâs belly was also damaged soon after liftoff.
One tile near the doors for Discoveryâs landing gear â a particularly vulnerable spot â lost a 1Âœ-inch piece that was repaired before the flight.
Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said none of the tile damage looked serious and likely wouldnât require the use of untested repair techniques in orbit designed after Columbia.
A planned inspection of Discoveryâs wings and nose using a new 50-foot (15-meter), laser-tipped extension to the shuttleâs robotic arm turned up nothing alarming, he said. However, analysis will continue for the next four to five days.
#2
Mixed emotions. Shuttle was a mistake from the beginning with compromised designs. Still, it is exerating to watch it go up and it is all we have.
Hopefully the non-government boys will get some orbital space planes in service soon that can get people up and we can send the equipment in unmanned rockets.
Here is a thought, don't ground the shuttle, just run it on autopilot without people and use it to carry bulk stuff up there. i'm thinking water (drink, split for air, and use hyrdogen for fuel) or kerosine (rocket fuel with less bang than hydrogen but also easier to handle and transfer). If the shuttle blows no big whoop, if the shuttle doesn't blow we've got stuff up there that will allow us to build a freaking gas station to tank up and get us out of Low Earth Orbit.
The shuttle was built so that the autopilots could handle _everything_ from the reentry burn to the landing on the runway.
Except landing gear deployment.
Someone argued that if the landing gear were to deploy at Mach 5, due to some sort of malfunction, it would wreck the craft, so it has to be manual.
(Never mind that if the autopilot starts malfunctioning at Mach 5 there's probably going to be lots of other stuff going wrong too).
Anyway, if you try to land on automatic, the shuttle will do everything flawlessly right up to the point where it pancakes onto the runway because the landing gear didn't come down.
Or so I've heard.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/28/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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If true Phil, that's gotta be cheaper to fix than redoing the entire thing. At least short term.
#6
We had an after-hours talk about the Apollo (and Mercury and Gemini) program at work today. They accomplished so much back then and so little now. I really think government agencies can only last 20 years or so. Then you have completely shut them down and start a brand new one, with new people.
#7
Jackal, I wouldn't go that far, but I would say a government agency needs competition to stay healthy. The US military has that. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are all in pretty good shape.
NASA has no competition, they should be split up into at least two (manned and unmanned) and they should not be cooperating so much with other nations and the Air Force. It might seem counterintuitive but sometimes cooperation takes longer and costs more, and for some reason the US always ends up paying the lions share of those costs.
#8
They also need to get over the old "failure is not an option" mantra that has made the entire organization overly safety concious. Why do we shrug when test pilots die in service but freak out and cancel things for two years when astronauts die? Yeah you want to be safe, but it shouldn't be crippling.
Scientists at the Nevada Test Site said they generated a current Wednesday equal to roughly four times all the electrical power on Earth. The current, which created pressures in materials millions of times greater than normal, was part of an experiment to better understand nuclear weapons.
The experiment was conducted at the test site's Atlas Pulsed Power Facility by scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, along with staff from the test site and contractor Bechtel Nevada.
During the few millionths of a second that it operated, the 650-ton Atlas pulsed-power generator discharged nearly 19 million amps of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna can, the National Nuclear Security Administration said.
Atlas, which works as a giant power multiplier, was designed as part of an Energy Department program to determine the readiness of the nation's nuclear stockpile without underground testing.
It was built at Los Alamos and recently moved to the Nevada Test Site, a proving ground just north of Las Vegas.
#2
During the few millionths of a second that it operated, the 650-ton Atlas pulsed-power generator discharged nearly 19 million amps of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna can...
spraying the lab with vaporized tuna.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/28/2005 10:21 Comments ||
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Nah, it'd certainly be atomized tuna! Or maybe quarkized?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/28/2005 10:42 Comments ||
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19 million amps of current ...
Yeah baby... Now we get to use this on those Magic Mullah Meetings in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and turn those terrorists into Carbon ash with impurities (I'm sure the Mullahs have a lot of gold teeth)
#12
...designed as part of an Energy Department program to determine the readiness of the nation's nuclear stockpile without underground testing.
On the other hand, may I suggest that we test 5% of our stockpile of 10,000 warheads above ground to see if they are ready. Say somewhere in North Korea, Iran, and Syria to start with.
British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, has teamed up with aerospace designer, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites to form a new aerospace production company. The new firm will build a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft. Called The Spaceship Company, the new entity will manufacture launch aircraft, various spacecraft and support equipment and market those products to spaceliner operators. Clients include launch customer, Virgin Galacticâformed by Branson to handle space tourist flights.
The Spaceship Company is jointly owned by Bransonâs Virgin Group and Scaled Composites of Mojave, California. Scaled will be contracted for research and development testing and certification of a 9-person SpaceShipTwo (SS2) design, and a White Knight Two (WK2) mothership to be called Eve. Rutan will head up the technical development team for the SS2/WK2 combination. The announcement was made today at the Experimental Aircraft Associationâs (EAA) AirVenture gathering being held July 25-31 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The yearly event spotlights homebuilt aircraft, antiques, classics, warbirds, ultralights, rotorcraftâas well as the emerging commercial spaceflight business.
Both rocket ship and the carrier aircraft will draw from Rutanâs work on SpaceShipOne and the White Knight mothership. The SS2/WK2 system will adopt the reentry concept and hybrid rocket motor design work hammered out for SpaceShipOne, licensing that technology from Paul Allenâs Mojave Aerospace Company. SpaceShipOne successfully snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize last year by staging back-to-back flights of the piloted craft to the edge of space. Both of the new vehicles, however, are to be twice the size of the earlier designs.
âWeâre taking the technology of SpaceShipOne and developing it into a usable commercial vehicle to give thousands of people the chance to experience the majesty of space,â said Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galacticâthe space tourism venture that is a subsidiary of Sir Richard Bransonâs Virgin Group. Branson told the Oshkosh crowd that the commercial spaceship can carry 7 paying passengers, along with a two-person flight crew. âWe hope that we can get those spacecraft built roughly two and a half to three years from now,â he said.
Once the fleet of suborbital craft is built, a base from which to operate the spaceships is to be set up within the United States. âWe still havenât decided on which state the base will be,â Branson said, adding that the space tourist-carrying vehicles could rocket spaceward from the Mojave, California desert, Las Vegas, New Mexico, or possibly Florida. âThatâs all to be decided,â Branson said.
At present, seats onboard Virgin Galactic spaceships are price tagged at $200,000 each. But Branson hopes that this seat price will drop over time. âOur aim is to bring the price down,â he said. âOur principal aim behind this is not to make money. The principal aim is to reinvest any money we make into space exploration,â Branson said. âWe expect to double, triple, quadruple the number of astronauts in the next few years that have currently experienced space,â he said. To date, Branson said, about a 100 pioneers have been willing to pay $200,000 to be the first people to go into space via Virgin Galactic. âThese are the kinds of people who are going to enable us to bring the cost of space travel down,â he stated.
Whitehorn said that Virgin Galactic has been negotiating with Rutan over the last several months to chart out how best to move forward and create a passenger-carrying rocket ship. âWe have decided that since this is such a new industry -- and so early in this investment curve -- that we are actually going to act as the manufacturer and developer of the ships alongside Rutan, Whitehorn told SPACE.com in a phone interview.
The Spaceship Company will own the intellectual property of the new spaceship design. Furthermore, the company will build spaceships -- not only for Virgin Galactic and its initial order of five spaceships and two carrier craft -- but for other customers as well, Whitehorn added. âWe would like to be in development and in experimental test flying by the end of 2007. And we would like to be operating commercially by the end of 2008,â Whitehorn said. âBut this is a unique project. Weâve made it very clearâŠthat we are not going to be hidebound to a particular timetable.â
Whitehorn said that the new space tourist passenger vehicle is under design, with a mockup to be unveiled at a future date. No details as yet regarding the interior and exterior of the vehicle, but progress is being made, he said. At least 50 to perhaps as many as 100 test flights of the new spaceship design may be undertaken at the Mojave, California spaceport. That shakeout test period would stretch out over 9 to 10 months, Whitehorn said. âThereâs nothing at the moment holding us up in our tracks,â he concluded.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/28/2005 08:57 ||
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"Virgin Galactic"?
How about "Virgin Orbital", Richard? Whaen you exit the solar system, then you can call it "Galactic", okay?
By Monica Davey and Jeremy Manier
Posted February 4, 2003
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- NASA officials on Monday were redoing their initial analysis of damage to Columbia from a briefcase-size chunk of debris that struck the orbiter, conceding they could have underestimated its risk to the shuttle and its crew.
...
Technicians had traced [the problems] to a new foam formulation NASA contractor Lockheed Martin introduced in the mid-1990s to comply with environmental regulations ... The change was prompted by environmental concerns over using freon to spray on the foam. ... Hundreds of the heat-resistant tiles were damaged during a Columbia flight in 1997 when chunks of the foam broke off and hit the spacecraft. Some of the gouges were 15 inches long. ... Technicians traced at least part of the problem to a chemical called HCFC 141b, which Lockheed Martin began using in the mid-1990s as a replacement for the freon gas used to help spray on the foam.
Yes this is old - but it shows you the same thing that happened in intelligence: when the politicians and old-boys get together and overrule the operational professionals and/or engineers, you get stuff like Columbia, and 9/11. Haven't seen an environmentalist yet step up and say they were sorry - and that they were wrong.
#1
posted from the other thread since the comments really belong here
The real culprit here is the Clinton Administration's give-in to the enviros back in the mid 1990's - letting the politicians tell NASA what they could and could not use for insulation. The EPA even offered NASA an exemption to the enviro regs. The problem is that politics of the Green/Left in the Clinton Whitehouse triumphed over engineering and you have the mess we see today.
The Clinton administration ordered the NASA change of the design of the external tank's insulating foam to stop using Freon Chloroflourocarbon (CFC-11) so that Clinton could trumpet that his administration would comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocols. These protocols were set up to address the Ozone depletion, which looks now like it was not man related but a cyclical natural thing in the upper atmosphere -- i.e. they were junk science.
Since the design changes to placate the enviros (1997 I believe), some reports say that there is up to ten times as much & ten times more often damage to the shuttle's tiles, for each and every flight, as compared to before (see the quotes above about damage in 1997).
Put this one squarely on the enviros - the blood is visibly on their hands.
Then say screw the nutjobs enviros and green weenies, and go back to the old design with the Freon process.
#2
Somewhat agree OS, but another culprit is the Nixon admin. This dawgs breakfast of a spacecraft should have had an air breather 1st stage since day one.... it's a mess. A well designed mess, but a mess.
Posted in full. Emphasis added.
In an astonishing setback for the shuttle program, NASA on Wednesday grounded future flights because the foam debris that led to the Columbia disaster still poses a risk to space missions. During Shuttle Discovery's liftoff, a chunk of foam flew off the external fuel tank just two minutes into the flight. NASA does not believe the debris hit the shuttle, but had it come off just a bit earlier it may have caused the same damage that doomed Columbia 2 1/2 years ago.
Even though the space agency doesn't think the lives of the seven astronauts are in danger, it plans a closer inspection of the spacecraft. "You have to admit when you're wrong. We were wrong," said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons. "We need to do some work here, and so we're telling you right now, that the ... foam should not have come off. It came off. We've got to go do something about that."
Since the Columbia tragedy, NASA has spent over $1 billion on making sure shuttles would be safe from falling foam debris. "We won't be able to fly again," until the hazard is removed, Parsons told reporters in a briefing Wednesday evening. "Obviously we have some more work to do." Parsons said, "Call it luck or whatever, it didn't harm the orbiter." If the foam had broken away earlier in flight, when the atmosphere is thicker, it could have caused catastrophic damage to Discovery. "We think that would have been really bad, so it's not acceptable," said Parsons' deputy, Wayne Hale.
Engineers believe the foam was 24 to 33 inches long, 10 to 14 inches wide, and just a few inches thick, only somewhat smaller than the chunk that smashed into Columbia's left wing during liftoff in January 2003. NASA has said all along that Discovery's mission was a test flight designed to check the safety of future shuttle missions. Parsons refused to give up on the spacecraft that was designed in the 1970s. "We think we can make this vehicle safe for the next flight," he said, declining to judge the long-term impact on the manned space program. "We will determine if it's safe to fly."
Atlantis was supposed to lift off in September, but that mission is now on indefinite hold. Parsons refused to speculate when a shuttle might fly again. "Until we're ready, we won't go fly again," Parsons said.
In less than 36 hours, the euphoria of what initially looked like a picture-perfect launch on Tuesday evaporated thanks to images shot from just a few of the 100-plus cameras in place to watch for the very problem NASA announced. [sigh] I really think space stuff is cool, even if it's "wasteful." But here, we are spending billions and getting nothing. Time to scrap NASA and start over. Not just a reorganization, but RIF everyone and have the new organization hire them on their merits (or lack thereof).
#1
Damn it! I thought we had this corrected? Its the same problem that brought down the former crew. Who is NASA hiring these days? The Kerry bunny?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/28/2005 0:21 Comments ||
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#2
Who is responsible for this? Which companies is NASA hiring?
I heard today that the idiotic, clumsy camera-arm-thing that is looking over the undercarriage for damage was built by some Canadian company. Why are my tax dollars going to Canada?
NASA has almost zero accountability, and for the same problem that costed LIVES to have happened again is beyond the pale. NASA uses a huge assortment of unaccountable, politically-linked companies, scientists, and individuals to put together their "projects" and nobody calls them on it. They seem to think that science and progress can only happen thru "committee" when it is perfectly obvious that that brand of thinking invariably leads to catastrophe.
Scrap NASA, let the telecommunications companies launch their own space programs, and if the gov needs a satellite or two sent up or worked on, hire someone to do it. NASA has overstayed it's welcome and I am tired of paying for a bunch of incompetent One-World-ers.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
07/28/2005 0:31 Comments ||
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#3
Before I actually worked at NASA (but not the space-flight part of NASA) I thought they could do no wrong. After I worked there for a couple of years I found out that the civil servant part of the workforce is just terrible. I would NEVER trust my life to these bozos.
The NASA civil servant workforce is probably as bad or worse than the teachers union. No matter how little work ethic you have or aptitude for your job... as long as you meet the pre-requisites of political correctness to get the job initially - you can keep the job. It's a sad, unhappy, unhealthy workplace. I'm glad I'm done with it.
#4
Re: The Canadian connection...A friend of mine (and occasional RB reader) in Canada works for the comapny that built the robot arm (and the camera at the end of the arm.) His company also developed IMAX. From his description, this company knows what it's about. The International Space Station also has one of these arms. You can see a good picture of it in the IMAX film about the ISS.
#5
I guess the Canadians built this iteration of the shuttle arm because the canadians (as a joint funding project between NASA and I think Canada's government) built the original shuttle arms back in the late 70's.
I'm disinclined to complain about the situation as it appears to be one of the only shuttle subsystems that's relatively trouble-free.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/28/2005 2:07 Comments ||
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#6
The real culprit here is mulit-culti. NASA (during the Clinton admin) sought to push itself to the front of his PC agenda, and thus secure more funding. The crux was that they would formulate a new foam insulation production process that did not involve CFCs. The result was, and is, a vastly inferior product which has cost lives and put the entire NASA operation at risk. And still, they persist. PC is the cancer of our time and it is going to kill us if we can't summon the fortitude to call it for what it is. C'mon!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/28/2005 2:11 Comments ||
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#7
So the Canadian company's not so bad, eh?
I say MILITARIZE SPACE - the USAF has an actual interest in quality control and keeping its personnel alive!
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
07/28/2005 2:28 Comments ||
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#8
That is why the USAF abandonded their shuttle program Edward.
#11
The real culprit here is the Clinton Administration's give-in to the enviros back in the mid 1990's - letting the politicians tell NASA what they could and could not use for insulation. The EPA even offered NASA an exemption to the enviro regs. The problem is that politics of the Green/Left in the Clinton Whitehouse triumphed over engineering and you have the mess we see today.
The Clinton administration ordered the NASA change of the design of the external tank's insulating foam to stop using Freon Chloroflourocarbon (CFC-11) so that Clinton could trumpet that his administration would comply with the 1987 Montreal Protocols. These protocols were set up to address the Ozone depletion, which looks now like it was not man related but a cyclical natural thing in the upper atmosphere -- i.e. they were junk science.
Since the design changes to placate the enviros (1997 I believe), some reports say that there is up to ten times as much & ten times more often damage to the shuttle's tiles, for each and every flight, as compared to before.
Put this one squarely on the enviros - the blood is visibly on their hands.
Then say screw the nutjobs enviros and green weenies, and go back to the old design with the Freon process.
#12
..From what my Dad told me (he retired as an design engineer from NASA Lewis-Glenn in '02) the PC culture at NASA had virtually paralyzed the agency. Even when there was both a clear technical problem and solution, the rules mandated a Byzantine decision making process that insured political, sexual, racial, environmental and gender politics trumped science and knowledge every time.
I'll tell you my solution - turn the manned spaceflight program over to DoD. (Read Tom Wolfe's classic The Right Stuff as to why this never happened in the first place.) DoD manages to send up more rockets every year than NASA does in any two or three years, and failure - though not unheard of - is rare, to say the least.
Second - and this may actually be more controversial than letting the military run the whole show - the 'no-risk' culture has gotta go. We have to strive for perfection, but present NASA policies now mandate a nearly unachievable level of safety before flight. We have to admit that in space flight, people are going to die, just as they died in the early days of ocean exploration. If you're going to insist on no risk before we launch, then the NASA manned space program is doomed.
And quite frankly, I think they just killed the Shuttle program anyways with the decision to ground any further flights while they sit there with their fingers up their asses and try to figure out why the foam that never worked still doesn't work. $1B USD and the damn foam is STILL coming off? Screw that. Change the foam or admit defeat.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/28/2005 7:45 Comments ||
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#13
The Canadian Space Agency has been involved with the shuttle program from the beginning.
Information on Canadian Built Shuttle Arm and OBSS
Comments by Commander Eileen Collins during flight ops yesterday.
"And we just flew over Europe, had a beautiful view, and the crew is all saying that the Canadarm is just amazing!"
BTW: CapCom (Or primary shuttle communications from Mission Control) for this whole mission is Astronaut Julie Payette from the Canadian Space Agency
Canada's whole political landscape is completely embarassing, but their robotics programs are top notch.
Posted by: gp ||
07/28/2005 8:17 Comments ||
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#14
I would say it's time to bring"Aurora"out of the closet.
#15
It was a pile of crap from day one, a money saving short term screw up. Stop it all, abandon the ISS (or give it one really good shove to a safe orbit) and get ready to go back to the moon.
#16
In other woids we f**ked around enough with microgravity dip shittery and riding the damn stationary bikes. Let's build something that goes somewhere, who cares how many perfect drugs and crystal are gonna come out of this pathway? It would already have happened!
#19
The Shuttle has never launched from Vandenburg. The whole design was a kludge from day one. Certain elements are useful though. THe SRB/ET combination is certainly adaptable to a heavy launch vehicle (which will be needed for any thing beyond LEO anyway but the orbiter was a compromise from the start. And the DoD was part of the problem in the design phase as the shuttles cargo bay was designed to their size requirements. Originally NASA wanted a simple manned winged orbiter to make launching crews easier. Both from a logistical standpoint and a physical one. The accelerations on the crew during a shuttle launch/re-entry are far lower than capsule type vehicles. The foam problem is actually a pretty well known item. The foam composition was changed to a non-CFC based foam and the problems started soon after that. As to whether NASA turned down an EPA exeption or was overruled by someone in the Clinton Administration I really don't know. But if they were forced by some politician or a NASA administrator made the decision then I think they should be sued in court by the families of the Columbia crew.
#20
Heavy Launch vehicle is a chimera. Don't need it. Orbital assembly has been proven during the Apollo Missions. It doesn't have to be really expensive, we just make it that way because the space station has become an international jobs work program that has not even kept the Russians from dealing with the Iranians.
Launch fuel as payload. Launch it on risky rockets if you have to to keep the cost down. 90% of most launch weight is fuel. Once we've got some kind of gas station up there the options open up drastically. Hydrogen burns off too easily and it's a bitch to transfer so we should use kerosine as Bob Zubrin the Mars Direct guy suggests. It's less explosive and easier to handle. Kerosine has the added advantage of being available at every airport in the world so any kind of launch system wouldn't require special emergency runways.
Use the current space station as an assembly point. Just hang things off of the struts in open space until they are ready to be transfered. Use the space station as a dorm during construction. At least let it be used for something practical. Follow the space station up with a simple Transhab space station more along the lines of skylab. Lots of internal space, inflatable so the whole thing is up in one shot. Set it up high enough that we don't have to adjust the orbit all the time and low enough that orbital space plans can reach it.
Use comercial space planes when available to get the people up there. Use existing rockets to get equipment up there. Use the risky shuttle to get the fuel up there. NASA needs to start thinking outside the box and abandon the "not invented here" bullshit. They should work with but not depend on the Air Force or any other military and everything they do should be a step towards creating space infrastructure so the next stuff is easier.
#23
I'll tell you my solution - turn the manned spaceflight program over to DoD.
USAF people who had to work with the NASA people in the early days of the shuttle, when it was used to launch a few military satellites, HATED and DISPISED the NASA folk. Couldn't wait to take back launch mission to rockets they could control so things got done right.
Posted by: space observer ||
07/28/2005 14:03 Comments ||
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#24
From what I've read the USAF/NASA combination was what screwed up the shuttle. Both had an entirely different set of requirements so the shuttle was built to satisfy everyone and thus wasn't particularly good at any one task. Then the USAF walked away after the Challenger and NASA was stuck with the boondoggle.
To be honest they should have started rethinking everything back then. Instead we've seen a lack of vision and a refusal to change plans because we've already spent so much.
Luckily the private industry will get America out of the space hole at some point. NASA should do whatever it takes to help them out, use them if they can do something cheaper, and provide access to infrastructure.
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