A short History of Evil

Supporting our troops. NOT!

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey, testifying on troop strain before the Senate Armed Forces Committee Tuesday, said there is “no reason to doubt” Sen. Barack Obama’s military shortage story during CNN’s debate in Austin, Texas, last week.

Sen. Barack Obama says he knows of a platoon sent to Afghanistan with a shortage of personnel and equipment.

“You know, I’ve heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq,” Obama told CNN moderator Campbell Brown.

“And as a consequence, they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief,” he added.

War supporters have challenged the story, but Casey said he had “no reason to doubt what it is the captain says.”

UPDATE: Seems that the story doesn't pass the smell test.

The Anti-Hillary Conspiracy

A subprime Primer

This is quite good!

Some wonderful election snark

Mock, Paper, Scissors has some wonderful election Obama and Clinton snark!

“I glow in the dark…”
“…because the Care Bears filled me with goodness and light. I am my own rainbow!”

They're Republican red, and true blue to Obama

DELAWARE, OHIO — Chatter bounces off the bare walls and checkered linoleum floor as Josh Pedaline and other Barack Obama supporters burn through their call sheets.

A map of Delaware County splays across a tabletop. Another table is laden with cookies, pretzels and other snacks. Volunteers sit elbow to elbow, pecking at cellphones and pitching the Illinois Democrat in advance of Ohio's March 4 primary. The scene is a typical campaign boiler room.

Except that four of the 13 dialing away are lifelong Republicans, including Pedaline, 28, who reveres Ronald Reagan and twice voted for President Bush.

"I am so sick and tired of the partisanship," Pedaline says before starting his night shift at Obama's outpost in this affluent Columbus suburb. "I don't want to be cheesy and say, 'He'll bring us all together.' But he seems like someone willing to listen to a good idea, even if it comes from a Republican."

The whole article can be found in the LA Times

Hillary - buzz kill

Hillary just misses the point that her comments are really criticism of the voters and not Obama. If the voters want to see Obama as the messiah, her calling them fools isn't going to change their minds. Anyone notice that she spends too much time talking like a mother scolding a child. Adults do not respond to that sort of treatment.

Who says Obama lacks substance

Our Friends across the Pond

Our friends across the pond just don't get it. They definitely don't like the Hildabeast, but they don't understand Obama either.

Ralph rides again

Yah. America's favorite spoiler is at it again. Don't think that Ralph is a spoiler? They ask yourself why he only comes out of the ashes at election time. If his issues were really as important as he says, then why not fight the fight between election years. And in case you don't remember, in 2000 he convinced a significant number of voters that there would be absolutely no difference between a Gore and a Bush presidency.

Republican Clinton supporter stabs his Obama supporting brother-in-law

The cut-throat world of presidential politics usually doesn’t go this far to get its point across.

But Jose Ortiz, 28 — a Hillary Clinton supporter — is behind bars after stabbing his Barack Obama-supporting brother-in-law, Sean Shurelds, following a political argument, according to KYW1060.com.

“One is a supporter of Barack Obama, the other is a supporter of Hillary Clinton, and an argument of words turned bloody when one brother-in-law tried to choke the other and the victim then responded with a knife and stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach,” Montgomery County, Pa., District Attorney Risa Furman said, according to KYW.

Shurelds was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and police allegedly found the weapon in a dishwasher at the Collegeville home where the two brawled.
Ortiz faces felony assault charges and was being held on $20,000 bond.

KYW reports that if Ortiz is convicted of the felony charge, he won’t be able to vote.

On a side note: Voter registration records reveal that Ortiz, who supports Clinton, is registered Republican.

Report courtesy of Fox Noise

Clearly, a dog's best friend is a marine!

Kelly and her friends would like to nominate Marine Maj. Brian Dennis for a World of Good award, Canine edition.

It began with a simple act of kindness to save an abused, injured dog from becoming one more victim in the Iraq war.

But what followed for Marine Maj. Brian Dennis and the mutt was a tale of friendship and loyalty that spanned miles, borders, and overcame long odds — a tale that took a turn Friday afternoon when the dog arrived at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field airport.

“This dog who had been through a lifetime of fighting, war, abuse … is going to live the good life,” Dennis told his family in an e-mail from Iraq.

You can read the whole story at MockPaperScissors.

Steam Trek

Steam Trek: The Moving Picture
A Steam Punk version of the "The Devil in the Dark"

A Week, A Month, A Year, Half Your Life

KT Cat over at the The Scratching Post has a game called A Week, A Month, A Year, Half Your Life. Participants pick four places on the globe and explain where they would spend a week, a month, a year, and half of their lifetime.

1 week: Antarctica
I've always wanted to see the southern continent, but I think a week there is enough to see and experience what I want to see and experience.

(Photo courtesy of NOAA)

1 month: Japan
I've always wanted to experience a culture completely different from my own. Japan fits that bill. I'd love most to see the historical, cultural and religious sites, and to see the Cherry blossom festival.

(Photo courtesy of tourism site)

1 year: Chile/Patagonia
There is a lot of see in the southern continent. We spent two weeks there and barely scratched the surface. A year would also let us see the change of seasons on the landscape.

(Personal image)

1/2 life: SF
For the remainder of my life it was a toss up between two very different places; San Francisco and Taos. SF is an exciting city and is unlike anything else on the west coast. Its also close to many wonderful places and has a moderate climate. The only problem is that it is completely unaffordable! But since the game assumes you'll have a way to live there, I'll pick the city.

(Photo courtesy of Rick Lee)

Anyone else can play. Just pick four places on the globe. The first you will stay at for a week, the second for a month, the third for a year and the last one you will live half your life. You can add photos or text if you want to illustrate why you would live there or you can just give one word responses. Link back to this post in your response. Let me know when your answers are up and I'll link back to you.

Republican Family Values

Well Congress is investigating steroid use in baseball. Clearly the Mules have nothing important to do. It's a pretty sad story of greed and lies. But what is with the Republican members defending this scumbag? I just don't understand their position. Check out the show from 6 minutes and on.

Dog Humor

Clinton Leadership (SIC)

Hillary Clinton refused to even show up for the senate vote to amend the FISA bill to eliminate the proposed amnesty for telecommunications companies. Obama showed up. McCain showed up. They each voted their convictions. Hillary just hid in the shadows. Like I said before - its all about character.


Don't you just love photoshop! The proposed caption is I'll show you what to do with the damn cigar!

Let the snarking begin

This from Less Jobs, more Wars.


The cost of the Iraq war equals a half of an auto payment, every month, for every American.

Happy Valentine's Day

Rearranging the chairs on the sinking ship

This weekend Obama won in Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, giving him a slight lead in delegates. In response the Clinton campaign replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams. Not much of a shake up since both were long time Clinton insiders. Time will tell if it makes any difference.

Sinkhole

A sinkhole suddenly appeared today in the major north-south artery (I-25) through Denver, just north of the major east-west artery (I-70). From the image you can see the cracks radiating across the whole north bound section.

Mighty hunter

Even domesticated, dogs still have their inner wolf! Kelly doesn't just play with her squeaky toys - she hunts, subdues, and eviscerates them.

More canine humor

Colorado Caucus

Well I participated in my first caucus. The two hour exercise produced a single vote (actually 5 because we voted for county delegates and a state office). I'm reminded of the quote attributed to Will Rogers; I don't belong to an organized political party;. I'm a Democrat. Our caucus was like herding cats.

It starts with a straw pole for one of three options; Hilary, Obama, and none of the above. For an option to count, it must get at least 15% of the total vote. None of the above didn't make the cut, so the remaining folks then had the opportunity to try convincing the uncommitted voters to switch to one of the other two candidates. What was remarkable is that the Obama supporters spoke what was good about Obama. The Hilary voters, on the other hand, whined about how Hilary was under-appreciated and that it just wasn't fair. Their arguments didn't win over any of the undecided voters and in the end Obama won the vote 2 to 1.

The clinton's dirty past

Thanks to Wollf for pointing this one out.

Happy Mardi Gras

We used to live along the Endymion Parade Route and had a party every year for our friends. The next morning, was the Zulu Krew's Parade.

Network

Friday AMC showed the brilliant 1976 film Network. Its been years since I saw it for the first time. I can't believe how prophetic a story it was. Everything the character Howard Beale warns us about mirrors what the FOX network has become, and all this a decade before its creation.

Bought and sold

Another reason the stimulus package isn't a good idea, but hey it worked for the Dalai Lama.

The Candidates Policy Positions on Science, Technology & the Environment

Climate Change and Energy Policy
All three candidates agree that global warming is a serious issue and immediate steps need to be taken to combat it. All are for caps and trades, raising fuel economy standards, biofuels, and clean coal. They only differ with regards to nuclear power, where Hillary is neutral about its use.

John McCain

• Equates environmentalism with National Security.
• Supports a cap-and-trade system; capping emissions from utilities, industry, and transport at 2004 levels by 2012 and then gradually decrease emissions to about 30% of 2004 levels by 2050.
• Support fuel economy standards, but has not outlined specific goals.
• Supports renewables, but has not offered a specific target.
• Supports increased use of biofuels, but opposes subsidies for ethanol.
• Supports use of coal, and wants to find cleaner ways to use it.
  
• Significant support for nuclear power.
  

Hillary Clinton

• Cap and trade system for carbon emissions.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.
• Stronger energy and auto efficiency standards, specifically increasing fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030.
• Calls for getting 25% of U.S. electricity from renewables by 2025.
• Significant increase in green research funding.
• Supports clean coal.
• Is agnostic on nuclear power.
  

Barack Obama

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade auction program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050.
• Wants to establish strong annual reduction targets, with a mandate of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
• Would invest some of the revenue generated from the cap-and-trade in; advanced biofuels, plug-in hybrids, low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid.
• Supports expansion of biofuels.
• Supports clean coal technology.
  
• Supports Nuclear Energy.
• Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund, modeled after the Central Intelligence Agency In-Q-Tel program to partner with existing investment funds and our National Laboratories to ensure that promising technologies move beyond the lab and are commercialized in the U.S.
• Require 25 Percent of Electricity to Come from Renewable Sources by 2025.
• Improving energy efficiency.

Federal Funding of Basic Science Research
McCains science policy is ill-defined at this point, while the two democratic candidates pretty much agree on everything. A minor difference is that Obama would scale back on NASA's maned missions and divert the savings to other priorities, while McCain would maintain the president's current emphasis on space exploration.

John McCain's web site is pretty much devoid of any discussion on the federal funding of science research. Other than on climates issues and NASA, science policy is far down on his list of priorities. However, he did vote for the 2007 America COMPETES Act (H.R.2272), which supported greatly increased funding for the NSF, DOE Office of Science and other federal research agencies as well as increased support for math and science education at all levels. He did vote to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Hillary Clinton has a whole Web page devoted to her Innovation Agenda, where she describes her road map for moving U.S. science and technology into the 21st century.

• Establish a $50-billion R&D Fund for Green Energy.
  
• Increase the basic research budgets 50 percent over 10 years at NSF, the DOE's Office of Science, and the DoD.
• Increase the NIH budget by 50 percent over 5 years and aim to double it over 10 years.
• Establish a National Energy Council for Climate and GreenTech research.
• Re-establish NASA's mission to study the earth.
  

Barack Obama has his own Web page devoted exclusively to technology issues. His technology agenda is almost identical to Clinton's, but contains significantly more detail. Increasing federal science funding and education are top priorities.

• Double federal funding on basic research
• Proposes investing $150 billion over 10 years in R&D for renewables, biofuels, efficiency, and other clean tech.
• Delay NASA's return to the Moon and Mars projects to help fund his priorities.
  

Technology
All three candidates support expanding the H-1B visa quotas and making the the R&D tax credit permanent.

Barack Obama would go further by

• making it easier for foreign talent to live, work, and even attain permanent citizenship in the U.S.
• Deploy next-generation broadband.
• Protect intellectual property at home and abroad.
• Reform the patent system.

Science and Math Education
Both Clinton and Obama plan to increase spending on education, especially in math and science.

John McCain doesn't talk much about the need to focus on science and math curriculum. His Web site, which implies that school choice is his weapon of choice for creating a more competitive workforce. He has a history of waffling on the issue of teaching evolution in school.

References:
Looking for a Tech-Savvy President; HPC Wire

Science, 4 January 2008.

Campaign 2008: Where do they stand on Science; Physics Today

Coultergeist sings the praises of Hillary Clinton

Somehow this morning I woke up in an alternate reality.

On FOX Noise Coultergeist sings the praises of Hillary Clinton:

She's more conservative than McCain.

She lies less than McCain.

She's smarter than McCain.

And Ann Coulter would vote for Hillery if the only other choice is McCain.