Russia won the space race - thank you Obama



This NASA image released on July 10, 2011 shows space shuttle Atlantis on approach to the International Space Station prior to docking during mission STS-135.


How the world has changed in 50 years


"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."   - - - John F. Kennedy


By Gary;

It is amazing.  The American space program is dead.

In the space of only 50 years this nation has gone from the most powerful and wealthy Capitalist country on earth to a Bankrupt Cradle-to-Grave Welfare state.

The Democrat Party used to build dams, freeways and go to the moon.  Today Democrats are obsessed with MARXISM, destroying wealth, Luddite-ism and making people welfare slaves of the all powerful Big Brother state.

The Republican Party does not get off the hook.  They have marched in lock-step with the Democrats to ignore the Constitution, spend us into oblivion and grow a Beltway Socialist Elite to rule over what they view as those stupid little people back home.

So ends the U.S. space program.  The politicians lie to the people that there is no money for NASA while they allow everyone from illegal aliens to labor unions to multi-national corporations to rape the taxpayers and loot the Treasury.

Thank you NASA.  We had a good run.  The party is over.  Please have the last fired NASA employee turn off the lights when he leaves the building.

NASA's space shuttle "Atlantis" launches at 11:28 AM from Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on July 8, 2011.

This NASA image taken on July 15, 2011 shows the International Space Station Expedition 28 crew and the mission STS-135 Atlantis astronauts as they form a circle for a portrait aboard the orbiting complex's Kibo laboratory of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.



NASA astronaut Mike Fossum during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station



NASA's space shuttle "Atlantis" returns "home" to the Kennedy Space Center's

Landing Facility Runway 15 for the final time at 5:56 am on July 21, 2011.

The death of network TV



True Blood on HBO ranked #40 in ratings out of 130 programs in the United
States beating out dozens and dozens shows offered by the "major" networks.

Freedom of programming and true consumer choice in the market place is slowly killing the old monopoly of the network giants


By Gary;

As a fan of television I usually scan the weekly Nielsen ratings published in the Los Angeles Times.  I am always interested in how well my favorite shows are doing and checking to see which ones are headed for cancellation.

But this last week was different.  Very different.

For the first time I noticed that the Times had published in one list the combined ratings of the so-called broadcast network shows and those on cable TV.  And that list spells the doom of the old system of the major TV networks.

THE #8 SHOW IN AMERICA:   I was staggered that the #8 show in the United States was "Pawn Stars" on The History Channel.  Moving down the list I saw the #12 show was "The Closer" on the cable channel TNT.  The #15 show was "American Restoration" also on The History Channel.  The #16 show was "Baseball: Home Run Derby" on ESPN. 

I was floored.  20% of the top 20 shows in America were on cable.  It is amazing what a free market in entertainment can do.

Pawn Stars from The History Channel came in as the
#8 rated TV program in the U.S. last week.

Now I do come from an era when there were only three networks.  Then along came Fox.  Suddenly one of the three major network's shows would be coming in fourth place in their time slot.  But things have advanced.  My children have known nothing but cable TV.  The fact that one channel calls itself ABC has no meaning to them.  In their minds ABC is on an equal footing with the Food Channel, and that is starting to be reflected in the ratings.

Here are the combined ratings for the networks last week.  (I tried to get an L.A. Times link for the reader, but that is not available.)

Ratings are for the week of July 11 - 17.

• 6.04 million   -   CBS
• 5.23 million   -   NBC
• 5.04 million   -   FOX
• 4.66 million   -   ABC
• 3.32 million   -   Univision

Yes Univision.  The times they are a changing.

20% of the top 50 shows are cable

The major networks still dominate the top 50 programs, but they are slipping away week by week.  Freedom of choice for viewers has imploded the old model. 

A look at the top 50 programs in the U.S. shows the major inroads being made by the cable TV channels.  Again, 20% of the top 50 shows were cable channels.

Here is the breakdown:  History Channel (3 shows); TNT (2 shows); USA Channel (2 shows); HBO (1 show); Nickelodeon (1 show) and ESPN (1 show).

Spanish Language Programming:   An interesting note.  The Spanish language cable channel Univision was listed in the Nielsens and they are starting to kick ass.  Out of the 130 programs on this list, Univision first came in at #56 with "Pequenos Gigantes" beating many major network programs.  Going down the list Univision productions continued to appear passing many English language shows.

The next part in the information - entertainment revolution in TV is the internet.  Consumers are not only selecting the show they want, but the time and location they choose to watch it.

For better or worse the news and entertainment monopoly of the giant networks is dead.  

The Closer from the TNT Channel was the #12 ranked show in the U.S.

Gay marriage is states' rights issue says Gov. Perry

NEWS ALERT:   Governor Rick Perry knows how to read and understand the Constitution.  This is a rare event, having a politician who can read the documents of our Federalist Founding Fathers.


Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential Republican presidential candidate, said Friday he supports state rights so much that he's fine with New York's approval of gay marriage but still called himself an "unapologetic social conservative."

Perry, who has been weighing a presidential run, said he opposes gay marriage — but that he's also a firm believer of the 10th Amendment says USA TODAY.

"Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me," he said to applause from several hundred GOP donors in Aspen, Colo. "That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business."

It's not the first time Perry has expressed strong feelings on state rights. He said he didn't think Arizona's divisive immigration law would be the best course for Texas but supported Arizona's right to push for its law.

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Islamist students terrorize Pakistan schools



Asif Mahmood Qureshi, principal of Government Islamia College in Lahore, has been unable to
rein in Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, which he says runs a parallel administration.


A science professor was attacked by Islamist students who stormed into his office, beat him with metal rods and smashed a flowerpot over his head.


After philosophy students and faculty members rallied to denounce heavy-handed efforts to separate male and female students, Islamists on campus struck back: In the dead of night, witnesses say, the radicals showed up at a men's dormitory armed with wooden sticks and bicycle chains.

They burst into dorm rooms, attacking philosophy students. One was pistol-whipped and hit on the head with a brick. Gunfire rang out, although no one was injured. Police were called, but nearly a month after the attack, no arrests have been made.Few on Punjab University's leafy campus, including top administrators, dare to challenge the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, or the IJT, the student wing of one of Pakistan's most powerful hard-line Islamist parties reports the Los Angeles Times.

At another Lahore campus, the principal disdainfully refers to the Islamists as "a parallel administration."

The organization's clout illustrates the deep roots of Islamist extremism in Pakistani society, an influence that extends beyond radical religious schools and militant strongholds in the volatile tribal belt along the Afghan border.

University administrators fear that the IJT's influence on many campuses will lead to an increase in extremism among the middle class, from which the next generation of Pakistan's leaders will rise.

"These people have connections with jihadi groups, and they are taking hostage our campuses," said Sajid Ali, chairman of Punjab University's philosophy department. "This is a real danger for the future of our country."

Fellow students and teachers regard them as Islamist vigilantes. In addition to trying to separate the sexes, they order shopkeepers not to sell Coca-Cola or Pepsi because they are American brands. When they overhear a cluster of fellow students debating topics, from capitalism to religion, they demand that the discussion stop and threaten violence if it continues.

Students at Punjab University's Lahore campus.  Insane Islamist students
attack other students and teachers who dare to advocate that men and women
can attend classes together.

The recent trouble here at Punjab University started when a posse of IJT members slapped a male philosophy student for talking with a female classmate. Students and faculty members organized a protest rally, which led to the dorm attack on June 26. Shahrukh Rashid, 22, who was among those attacked, said the police have been of little help.

"One of the police inspectors told us, 'Whatever is done is done,' " he said.

University officials say that government leaders in Punjab, the country's wealthiest and most populous province, have allowed the IJT to flourish rather than jeopardize their political alliances with hard-line clerics at the helm of religious parties. Even when students, teachers or university administrators seek criminal charges against IJT members, the police rarely respond.

"If the government wanted to solve the problem here, they could do it overnight," said Asif Mahmood Qureshi, principal of the Government Islamia College, a state university in Lahore, the provincial capital.

IJT members don't allow him access to their dormitory, and physically force students and teachers to join their protests. With support from a bloc of teachers sympathetic to the IJT's cause, they have managed to control the school's teachers union, Qureshi said.

"They don't want the principal to do anything without their consent," said Qureshi, the administrator who referred to the organization as running a parallel administration.

At Punjab University, IJT sympathizers include some teachers and even some of the security guards, teachers and students say.

Ali, the chairman of the philosophy department, said students and teachers in most of the university's academic departments do not resist. The IJT won't allow music classes on campus, Ali said, so the music department's teachers meet their students at a concert hall off campus.

Standing up to the IJT can trigger severe consequences. Last year, an environmental sciences professor, as head of the school's disciplinary committee, expelled several IJT members for unruly behavior. A group of IJT students stormed into his office, beat him with metal rods and smashed a flowerpot over his head. He survived the attack.

When IJT members attacked the philosophy department dorm late last month, the students fought back, chasing the fundamentalists. Within 15 minutes, the IJT youths had fled.

"We've never been cowed by them," Ali said. "So we're on an island at this university."

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Iranians lined up and hanged in front of a mob

A shocking video has been released by Amnesty International showing a public execution in Iran

At least 28 public executions in Iran in recent months


Lined up standing on buses in front of a baying mob with their necks tied to a bridge, these are the final moments of three men subjected to a public hanging.

But rather than originating from decades ago, these pictures were taken last week in Iran, where the death penalty is still publicly used to this day reports the UK Mail.

After the ties are secured, the buses on which the men stand are driven away, leaving the hastily-convicted criminals hanging in front of crowds of onlookers, many of whom are children.

The footage was released by human rights group Amnesty International, who have denounced the renewed surge in the use of the death penalty across the Islamic republic.

The video was shot on July in Azadi Square, in the western city of Kermanshah and features the public execution of three men convicted of rape.

During the 26-second clip in which the crimes of the men are announced over a loudspeaker, numerous onlookers are seen photographing or filming the graphic executions.

Human rights officials are concerned not only about the executions, but also the legal system preceding them.

It is thought the three men seen hanged were tried and convicted of rape within two months, raising questions about the fairness of their trial.

Amnesty International say the deaths are among at least 28 executions acknowledged by the authorities.

The executions follow several widely publicized gang rapes of women this year in Iran. In some cases, officials blamed the victims for failing to adhere to the official code on dress or gender segregation.



Grisly: At the end of the video the buses move away and the prisoners die in front of the crowd


Note: Some readers may find the footage disturbing.

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North Korea: "Let them eat cake"

A Communist Big Mac attack.  The Comrades of the Communist ruling elite are importing
freshly made Big Macs every day from China along with other luxury goods.

There is little difference between the corrupt Ruling Elites of North Korea, Czarist Russia or the United States . . . all Elites in history work to concentrate wealth and power to a favored few.


North Koreans are said to be facing debilitating food shortages, the government continues its shopping spree for the pampered elites of Pyongyang flouting international sanctions against the authoritarian regime, South Korean government officials say.

News reports detail such conspicuous consumption as imported top-shelf whiskey and designer brands such as Gucci, Armani and Rolex, not to mention Big Macs flown in daily from China reports the Los Angeles Times.

North Korea spent $10 million on luxury items from January through May of this year. Imported through China, the items reportedly include Marlboro cigarettes, Hennessy cognac, whiskey and Japanese beer, South Korean officials said this week, quoting the Chinese customs report.

The imports included about $500,000 worth of high-grade beef, apparently for luxury meals, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Il uses to maintain the support of the power elite, Seoul officials said.


A brave Communist North Korean soldier crushes the evil United States.  But the
Communist Elite, like all Elites in history, are living well on the very best foods and
drink while their Serf subjects live in poverty.


Children begging, Army starving

Footage shot inside North Korea and obtained by the Australian ABC News has revealed the extent of chronic food shortages and malnutrition inside the secretive state.

The video is some of the most revealing footage ever smuggled out of the impoverished North Korean state.

Shot over several months by an undercover North Korean journalist, the harrowing footage shows images of filthy, homeless and orphaned children begging for food and soldiers demanding bribes.

The footage also shows North Koreans laboring on a private railway track for the dictator's son and heir near the capital Pyongyang.

Strolling up to the site supervisor, the man with the hidden camera asks what is going on.

"This rail line is a present from Kim Jong-il to comrade Kim Jong-un," he is told.

The well-fed Kim Jong-un could soon be ruling over a nation of starving, impoverished serfs.

The video shows young children caked in filth begging in markets, pleading for scraps from compatriots who have nothing to give.

"I am eight," says one boy. "My father died and my mother left me. I sleep outdoors."

Many of the children are orphans; their parents victims of starvation or the gulag.

But markets do exist - private markets that stock bags of rice, pork, and corn. The state no longer has any rations to hand out.

But the state wants its share of this embryonic capitalism.

In the footage, a party official is demanding a stallholder make a donation of rice to the army.

"My business is not good," complains the stallholder.

"Shut up," replies the official. "Don't offer excuses."

It is clear that the all-powerful army - once quarantined from food shortages and famine - is starting to go hungry.  "Everybody is weak," says one young North Korean soldier."Within my troop of 100 comrades, half of them are malnourished," he said.

Jiro Ishimaru is the man who trained the undercover reporter to use the hidden camera.  "This footage is important because it shows that Kim Jong-il's regime is growing weak," he said.

"It used to put the military first, but now it can't even supply food to its soldiers. Rice is being sold in markets but they are starving. This is the most significant thing in this video."

Kim Jong-il's grip on power depends on the military and if some of its soldiers have growling, empty bellies, it is bad news for the dictator and his hopes for a smooth transition to his son.

"The priority for Kim Jong-il is the succession," said Mr Ishimaru.

"But Kim Jong-un is still very young, just 27 or 28. He doesn't have any experience and hasn't achieved anything. So opposition to a third generation of the Kim family taking over is growing."   (ABC News)


The French discovered a way to deal with a corrupt Ruling Elite.


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Massachusetts Abandons Liberty

Massachusetts  -  The Birthplace of Liberty now has a love affair with Fascism.

A Frightened and Ball-less People
The State tracks your movements and then shares that data with the Federal Government . . . it's all for your "protection"


There is a certain amount of sick irony here.

Our Federalist Founding Fathers have been turning over in their graves a lot the last few years.  The people of Massachusetts fired the shot heard around the world.  They told the Crowned Heads of Europe to shove it.  We were free men and would bow down to no King. 


The newly adopted state seal of
Massachusetts

Fast forward to today.  The frightened, spineless and ball-less girly men of Massachusettes are dropping their pants and bending over for the new 1984 Big Brother Dictatorship.  They cry like little children to the all-powerful State, "Please take my Liberty and protect me from everyday life." 

But the march to 1984 is taking place everywhere with police scanners watching your car, 24 - 7 TV cameras recording your every move and ATM cards providing a record of the books you read, the movies you watch and the guns you purchase.

Civil libertarians are raising the alarm over the plans of Massachusetts to create a Big Brother database that could map drivers’ whereabouts with police cruiser-mounted scanners that capture thousands of license plates per hour — storing that information indefinitely where local cops, states, feds and prosecutors could access it as they choose reports the Boston Herald.

“What kind of a society are we creating here?” asked civil rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate, who along with the ACLU fears police abuse. “There comes a point where the surveillance is so pervasive and total that it’s a misnomer to call a society free any longer.”

The computerized scanners, known as Automatic License Plate Recognition devices, instantly check for police alerts, warrants, traffic violations and parking tickets, which cops say could be an invaluable tool in thwarting crime. The Executive Office of Public Safety has approved 27 grants totaling $500,000 to buy scanners for state police and 26 local departments. The purchases are on hold while state lawyers develop a policy for the use of a common state database all the scanners would feed.

MINORITY REPORT
The great Philip K. Dick saw frightening visions of an authoritarian
future.  His dreams of a 1984 world are coming to pass as the people abandon Liberty
in exchange for a nebulous promise of safety provided by the Master Ruling Class.   

People who haven’t committed a crime should not be tracked by Big Brother 

Some ALPR scanners already are deployed on Massachusetts roads. State police have two. Several cities use them for parking enforcement. Chelsea has four scanner-mounted cruisers.

EOPS spokesman Terrell Harris said the state wants the scanner information fed into the Public Safety Data Center, where local, state and federal authorities could access it.

“People who aren’t wanted for a crime, all of their information is stored in a database that is shared with another government agency,” the ACLU's Kade Crawford said. “The potential for abuse is very big. We don’t think people who haven’t committed a crime should be tracked by law enforcement.”

The two state police cruisers equipped with scanners patrol the metro Boston area, state police spokesman David Procopio said. He defended police use of the new technology.

Silverglate countered, “If you have cameras everywhere, of course you’re going to reduce the crime rate, but you’re not going to have a society worth preserving. To the American people, freedom means something. There is a line to draw in the sand, beyond which you don’t want the government poking its nose. This crosses the line.”



It was reported that the state of Massachusetts spent $1.7 million on these nifty new hats for the police.

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Death before Government Layoffs

Only death can get rid of a Federal worker.

Federal employees' job security is so great that workers in many agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired

Death — rather than poor performance, misconduct or layoffs — is the primary threat to job security at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget and a dozen other federal operations.

The 168,000 Federal workers in Washington state had the safest jobs — 99.74% job security in 2010. Least secure: Indiana — 98.35% reports USA Today.

The federal government fired 0.55% of its workers in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 — 11,668 employees in its 2.1 million workforce. Research shows that the private sector fires about 3% of workers annually for poor performance, says John Palguta, former research chief at the federal Merit Systems Protection Board, which handles federal firing disputes.

The 1,800-employee Federal Communications Commission and the 1,200-employee Federal Trade Commission didn't lay off or fire a single employee last year. The SBA had no layoffs, six firings and 17 deaths in its 4,000-employee workforce.

When job security is at a premium, the federal government remains the place to work for those who want to avoid losing a job. The job security rate for all federal workers was 99.43% last year and nearly 100% for those on the job more than a few years.

Still clutching a "vital" government study, only dead Federal workers leave the payroll.

HUD spokesman Jerry Brown says his department's low dismissal rate — providing a 99.85% job security rate for employees — shows a skilled and committed workforce. "We've never focused on firing people, and we don't intend to start now. We're more focused on hiring the right people," he says.

San Francisco State University management professor John Sullivan, an expert on employee turnover, says the low departure rates show a failure to release poor performers and those with obsolete skills. "Rather than indicating something positive, rates below 1% in the firing and layoff components would indicate a serious management problem," he says.

The government laid off 385 people in reorganizations last year — a 0.02% rate, or one in every 6,000 employees. No comparable private sector layoff rate is available.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database to examine job security in the federal workforce. Firings are for all reasons, including poor performance, stealing and sexual harassment. The Postal Service and uniformed military personnel are not included in the data. Departures from seasonal jobs, such as Census taker, are not counted.

"The notion that you can't fire federal workers is a myth because we do it. But it doesn't happen frequently," says Palguta, vice president of the Partnership for Public Service, which advocates for a high-quality government workforce.

White-collar federal workers have almost total job security after a few years on the job. Last year, the government fired none of its 3,000 meteorologists, 2,500 health insurance administrators, 1,000 optometrists, 800 historians or 500 industrial property managers.

The nearly half-million federal employees earning $100,000 or more enjoyed a 99.82% job security rate in 2010.

Only 27 of 35,000 federal attorneys were fired last year. None was laid off. Death claimed 33.

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UN security council to consider "Green Helmet" peacekeeping force

The Green New World Order

Special meeting to discuss 'green helmets' force to intervene in conflicts caused by rising seas levels and shrinking resources

A special meeting of the United Nations security council is due to consider whether to expand its mission to keep the peace in an era of climate change.

Small island states, which could disappear beneath rising seas, are pushing the security council to intervene to combat the threat to their existence.

There has been talk, meanwhile, of a new environmental peacekeeping force – green helmets – which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources reports the UK Guardian.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, is expected to address the meeting on Wednesday.

But Germany, which called the meeting, has warned it is premature to expect the council to take the plunge into green peacemaking or even adopt climate change as one of its key areas of concern.


Small island states, which could disappear as sea levels
rise, want the UN security council to intervene.

 "It is too early to seriously think about council action on climate change. This is clearly not on the agenda," Germany's ambassador to the UN, Peter Wittig, wrote in the Huffington Post.

"A good first step would be to acknowledge the realities of climate change and its inherent implications to international peace and security," he wrote.

Bringing the security council up to speed on climate change could be a challenge, however.

The Pentagon and other military establishments have long recognized climate change as a "threat multiplier" with the potential to escalate existing conflicts, and create new disputes as food, water, and arable land become increasingly scarce.

Wittig seems to agree, noting that UN peacekeepers have long intervened in areas beyond traditional conflicts.

"Repainting blue helmets into green might be a strong signal - but would dealing with the consequences of climate change - say in precarious regions - be really very different from the tasks the blue helmets already perform today?" he wrote.


Don't worry.  We are from the United Nations and we are here to help you.

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Ethanol subsidies are driving food prices higher



Bi-Partisan government subsidies to different industries not only distort a free market, but are often
nothing more that payoffs out of the Treasury to favored industries who gave campaign contributions.


40% of the US corn crop now goes to make ethanol . . . not food

LEGAL BRIBARY:   The defination of bribary in the world of government subsidies is easy.  Politicians say to an industry, "Give us millions and millions of dollars in campaign money and in turn we will let you rape the taxpayer and loot the U.S. Treasury."

It is all legal and no one goes to jail.

Because of government subsidies (and campaign "contributions") demand for biofuels in the US is driving this year's high food prices, a report has said. It predicts that food prices are unlikely to fall back down for another two years.

The report, produced by Purdue University economists for the Farm Foundation policy organisation, said US government support for ethanol, including subsidies, had fuelled strong demand for corn over the last five years reports the Guardian.

A dramatic rise in Chinese imports of soybeans was also putting pressure on prices and supply, the report said.

Since 2005, a growing number of US farmers have switched to corn and soybeans from other crops.

Farmers in other countries have also switched to corn but, the report said, the demand kept growing.

The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University has estimated that 40% of the US corn crop now goes to make ethanol. But Tyner said the cobs and husks of corn used to make ethanol would go on to be used for animal feed.

"In 2005, we were using about 16m acres [6.4m hectares] to supply all of the ethanol in the United States and Chinese soybean imports," Wallace Tyner, one of the authors said. It took 18.6m hectares (46.5m acres) last year, just to satisfy that demand.

The US department of agriculture reported earlier this month that US ethanol refiners were for the first time consuming more corn than livestock and poultry farmers.

It took 27% of last year's corn crop to meet the demand for corn ethanol. Only about 10% went to make ethanol in 2005, Tyner said.

The other driver of rising food prices was China, which has been building up its soybean reserves since the last big global food price rises of 2008.

But the report focused strongly on a US government mandate for ethanol production and $6bn (£3.7bn) in annual subsidies for ethanol refineries. Others have also been putting the corn ethanol industry in the spotlight.

In an interview with the Financial Times, General Mills, which produces Cheerios cereal, Häagen-Dazs ice-cream and other major brands, also blamed ethanol subsidies for driving up food prices. Ken Powell the company's chief executive said the price of corn and oats was up by 30 to 40% over last year.

"We're driving up food prices unnecessarily," Ken Powell, chief executive of General Mills, said in the interview. "If corn prices go up, wheat goes up. It's all linked."

"These are scary, scary numbers," said Christopher Hurt, another author. "The cupboard is absolutely bare. We just are going to get out of this, at least on the basis of crops for this year."

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