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Monday, July 20, 2009
safe-sender repost
Remembering Apollo 11
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40 years ago, three human beings - with the help of many thousands of others - left our planet on a successful journey to our Moon, setting foot on another world for the first time.
The entire trip lasted only 8 days, the time spent on the surface was less than one day, the entire time spent walking on the moon, a mere 2 1/2 hours - but they were surely historic hours. Scientific experiments were deployed (at least one still in use today), samples were collected, and photographs were taken to document the entire journey.
Collected here are 40 images from that journey four decades ago, when, in the words of astronaut Buzz Aldrin: "In this one moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind". (40 photos total).
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Apollo 11 hoax: one in four people do not believe in moon landin
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A quarter of Britons believe the Apollo 11 mission moon landings in 1969 were a hoax.
Eleven of the 1009 people surveyed thought Buzz Lightyear was the first person on the Moon.
Eleven per cent of people polled thought the Apollo programme was a recent as the 1980s, with just 68 per cent knowing that the first moon landing took place in 1969.
"If one in four Britons today don't believe the moon landings ever happened, then I'm afraid that says a lot about one in four Britons. And what it says isn't very complimentary."
He pointed out that moon rocks brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts were very similar to those returned by a series of unmanned Soviet probes.
"The Apollo moon landing is mankind's most outstanding engineering event so it's deeply worrying that such a large number of people should think the first moon walk never happened and that the public's belief in the legitimacy of science and technology seems to be declining over time."
Veteran astronomer Sir Patrick Moore said about those who believe the moon landings were a hoax:
"If ignorance is bliss they must be very happy."
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Lunar orbiter photographs Apollo landing sites
Forty years after the Apollo 11 voyage to the moon, NASA released photographs from the new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft Friday showing five of the six Apollo landing sites. Shadows cast by the Apollo descent stages are clearly visible and in some cases, the moon walkers' paths can be seen in the disturbed dust.
The Apollo 11 landing site, photographed by the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene is 925 feet across.
Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene is 925 feet across.
"We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill - and to see how well the cameras had come into focus," Mark Robinson, principal investigator of the LRO's main camera, said in a statement. "Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus."
The Apollo 14 landing site as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Launched June 18, the Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter braked into an initially elliptical orbit around the moon on June 23. It eventually will be maneuvered into a circular 31-mile-high orbit, allowing it to photograph surface features - including the Apollo landing sites - with three times greater resolution than the pictures released Friday.
[More fakes > Apollo 11, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landing sites ]
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ABC's Greenburg: Sotomayor Not 'Liberal Activist' But 'Almost Conservative'
“Sotomayor -- calmly, persistently, repeatedly --
described herself differently, sounding almost conservative.”
described herself differently, sounding almost conservative.”
[You can't make this stuff up.]
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WaPo Mag Editor: 'Any Latina Could Make a Better Decision Than a White Man'
In today's "She Really Didn't Say That, Did She?" segment, a contributing editor to Washington Post magazine claimed that if Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor were being really honest with America,
"[S]he probably would want to say, 'Not only do I mean a wise Latina, I meant any Latina could make a better decision than a white man could.'"
With that in mind, appearing on CNN's "Campbell Brown" Wednesday, Areu made statements that if made by a white person would certainly be deemed racist (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t NBer dronetek):
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Sotomayor wins 3 GOP senators' support
Three Senate Republicans endorsed Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court on Friday, giving increased momentum to securing President Obama's choice a place on the high court by early August.
Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, joined veteran Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Olympia Snowe of Maine in support of the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court. The senators dismissed allegations from some of their GOP colleagues, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that Sotomayor had shown herself to be a partial jurist... [snip]
Some candidates for other offices used Thursday's conclusion of her confirmation hearings as an opportunity to appeal to Latino voters. Christopher Christie, the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, quickly announced his support. But McConnell, who had hinted at his opposition in Senate floor speeches leading up to the hearings, issued a harsh verdict.
He said her previous speeches were a more important barometer of her future rulings than what she told the Judiciary Committee...
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Clinton Urges Global Fight on Terrorism
By VOA News US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged US support in the global fight on terrorism Saturday, as she met with victims of last year's terror attacks in India's commercial city, Mumbai.
[Well, at least she's not using 'overseas contingencies against man-made disasters'.]
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The Gang That Couldn't Shoot -- Period
Last weekend, the New York Times reported that after 9/11, the CIA developed a "secret counterterrorism program" to train hit squads to kill top al-Qaida leaders. It seemed like good news to me. After all, why bankroll an intelligence agency if you can't use it to kill an enemy against whom America has declared war? [snip]
The part of the story that undermined the story: The covert program "never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year." In plain English that means: Nothing happened -- and no one 'informed' congress because they don't (and aren't required to) share every idea they're kicking around... [snip]
The House Intelligence Committee is now laying the groundwork for a formal investigation. If so, the committee might start by probing how it is that Intelligence Committee members didn't know about a plan that had been reported on the Dec. 15 2002 front page of the New York Times... [snip]
The message to agency staff may be unintended, but it is clear: If there's anyone left at CIA headquarters who wants to defeat al-Qaida, that person would be well advised to hire a lawyer first...
[Some way to fight a war.]
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Tax Increase on 'Rich' People Planned by House Democrats Would Strike More Than a Million U.S. Small Businesses
More than a million small business owners and about two-thirds of the profits earned by U.S. small businesses would be hit by the income tax increase on the ''rich'' that House Democratic leaders want to enact to pay for the health-care reform plan President Obama wants passed this summer...
[Exactly the wrong thing to do at this time {again}.]
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News Media Ignore Impact of Health Care Reform on Small Business
BMI's Julia A. Seymour discussed the media's sparse reporting on health care reform's impact on small businesses July 16 on the Fox Business Network.
"If you look at last night's evening news coverage of this health care reform bill, or as you, you called it, uh, wealth reform bill, two networks out of three ignored the plight of small businesses altogether. "
Seymour also told Varney the news media "constantly attack the wealthy" and get "caught up in class warfare rhetoric.""It's no surprise that they wouldn't be going out and looking for business owners who are going to be damaged, by tax increases or higher regulation in this health care bill."
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Obama wants to be able to set Medicare reimbursement rates
The White House is asking Congress to give the executive branch more power to limit Medicare's rising costs. A White House letter to top lawmakers on Friday said the move would be "a critical step forward" in controlling health care costs and providing better care.
The proposal would allow an independent advisory board to recommend changes in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors, hospitals and other providers. If the president approved the recommendations, Congress could still vote to reject them altogether. But Congress could not approve some recommendations and reject others.
Is there anything this president doesn't want control of? Has America ever had a president more interested in controlling all aspects of citizens' lives than Obama?
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House Panel Votes Huge $500 Billion Tax Increase; Networks Couldn't Care Less
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The House Ways and Means committee approved a half-trillion dollar tax increase overnight, but the ABC and NBC morning news shows offered only a single sentence to the development, while CBS’s Early Show skipped it entirely.
Neither NBC’s Today nor ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned the tax increases $544 billion price tag, as each newscast folded the development into larger pieces on President Obama’s push for health care “reform.”
MRC’s Geoff Dickens noted that neither the Guthrie piece nor a subsequent segment with NBC’s David Gregory on health care specifically mentioned the tax increase, although Gregory had time to dwell on the “sentimental” push on Capitol Hill to quickly ram through a health care bill in the next few weeks as an homage to ailing liberal Senator Ted Kennedy...
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Biden at Forum: ‘We’ve Got To Spend Money To Keep From Going Bankrupt’; It's Not News at AP
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Today Joe Biden was in Alexandria, VA, and said, as reported by CNS News:
People look at me and say, "What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we've got to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" The answer is "Yes,"I'm tellin' ya.
Anyone with a fifth-grade sense of journalism would know that Biden's statement is newsworthy.
But the Associated Press reported on Biden's Alexandria appearance. Here are the first three paragraphs of the wire service's unbylined story:
[All supportive fluff...][snip]
The AP didn't think Biden's incredible statement was newsworthy; it must see part of its job description as "covering Joe Biden's tracks as much as possible, even if we look like ignorant fools when we do it."
The "Essential Global News Network" ought to be renamed the Apparatchik Press.A related entry [with video] is at BizzyBlog.com.
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Obama's stimulus plan is not working
President Barack Obama's plan to attack the recession through massive deficit spending is not producing the results the president promised in February when he convinced the American people to go deep into hock in the name of creating jobs and boosting economic growth.
Obama is well into spending the $787 million approved by Congress for his stimulus programs, and yet the unemployment rate is still climbing and economic recovery remains elusive...
[It was never about economic recovery {tax cuts and regulatory liberalization bring that}. It was and remains about expanding government power - how else to explain it?]
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'Obama vs. Obama on the Stimulus'
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"Obama, then and now" summary of what the president said to get the stim bill passed back in February and what he's saying now.
Irrefutable to anyone honest enough to recognize deliberate deception when they hear it.
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ENVIRONMENT AGENCY SETS UP GREEN POLICE IN BRITAIN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY SETS UP GREEN POLICE IN BRITAIN
The Environment Agency is creating a unit of about 50 auditors and inspectors, complete with warrant cards and the power to search company premises to enforce the British Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which comes into effect next year, says the London Times.
Decked out in green jackets, the enforcers will be able to demand access to company property, view power meters, call up electricity and gas bills and examine carbon-trading records for an estimated 6,000 British businesses. Ed Mitchell, head of business performance and regulation at the Environment Agency, said the squad would help to bring emissions 'under control':
- The central unit, based in Warrington, Cheshire, can call on the agency's national network of hundreds of pollution inspectors, many of whom will soon be trained in CO2 monitoring.
- It will also be able to demand energy bills from utilities without the companies under investigation knowing they are being watched.
- Perhaps most worrying for managers will be the publication of an annual league table ranking companies by performance in cutting emissions.
- The government hopes the potential shame of a lowly placing will drive organizations to greater energy efficiency.
[Global Warming Canard: a mechanism to control all activity...]
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Will Dems allow Goldman to manipulate a cap-and-trade market?
Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street leviathan that is heavily invested in the cap-and-trade carbon market scam, has admitted it has developed and used software that can 'manipulate' such financial markets...
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Media Ignore Boxer's Racist Treatment of Black Chamber CEO
On Thursday, NewsBusters asked if the media would notice Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.) being called out by the CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce for her racist and condescending treatment of him during a Senate hearing.
Such seemed a particularly important question as this disgraceful event occurred on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP.
Yet, according to LexisNexis, not one major media outlet other than FNC thought it was at all newsworthy that Harry Alford called Boxer "God-awful" for pitting the opinions of other black organizations against his.
You think this would have been boycotted, especially on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, if Boxer had an "R" next to her name instead of a "D"?
For those interested in hearing more from Alford, he was interviewed by LA radio host and Sarah Palin documentarian John Ziegler Friday, and made some comments about Boxer I guarantee media will also ignore (video embedded below the fold, h/t Hot Air):
Audio: Harry Alford calls Barbara Boxer a racist
If you thought Harry Alford had decided to forgive and forget the treatment he received from Barbara Boxer, think again. The chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce told John Ziegler on his KGIL radio show that the Senator treated him like “some ignorant jigaboo up there,” and flat-out called her a racist. In fact, Alford said that she’s worse than the explicit racists with whom he’d dealt over the years:
video
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Why Democrats Win, Why Republicans Lose
Why are the Democrats winning? Because they are not politely inert.
Barbara Boxer’s rude and imperial treatment of Black Chamber of Commerce head Harry Alford not only shows the disdain many liberals hold black American, it also showed why the Republican party has become incapable of convincing the American people that their a better choice.
Sitting to Boxer’s right at the committee hearing was Senator James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma. Inofe’s behavior during the dust-up is a veritable microcosm of everything that’s wrong with the Republican Party. Instead of sharing in Mr. Alter’s indignation and directly challenging Boxer on an attempt at political persuasion bordering on racism, Senator Inhofe was politely inert.
Why are the Democrats winning? Because they are not politely inert. Readers may recall an exchange between Boxer and Inhofe back in 2007 during which Boxer directly confronted and scolded Inhofe in front of a smiling Al Gore during Senate committee meeting on Global Warming.
Democrats are visceral about their beliefs and they confront, challenge, and “get in the faces” of their opponents. By doing this they control the debate on issues that will shape the future of America. When Republicans refuse to get outraged they send a dangerous signal to the public: maybe conservative beliefs just aren’t worth defending.
Senator Inhofe had a glorious chance to help defend a black man under assault by the imperial Senator Boxer. He failed, and for a crucial moment, so did the conservative movement.
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Only ABC Cites 'Devastating' CBO Judgment & 50%+ Tax Rates to Pay for Health Care
[Credit where due - and it's Tapper again...]
Of the broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday only ABC's World News related how, as Jake Tapper put it,“Congress's chief budget analyst delivered a devastating assessment yesterday of the health care proposals drafted by congressional Democrats,”
Tapper relayed how the Tax Foundation determined it would push top tax rates to over 50 percent in most of the country, and that “if the President signed the House bill into law, which he has not ruled out, he would be breaking this campaign promise.” Viewers then saw a clip of Obama from last September: “Everyone in America, everyone, will pay lower taxes than they paid in the 1990s under Bill Clinton.”
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[Jake's really in danger of losing his invite to the White House Correspondence Dinners...
FLASHBACKs >
ABC's Jake Tapper Hits Obama for Specifics on Health Care Plan
Kudos: Jake Tapper Critical of Obama's 'Tiny' Budget Cut Efforts
ABC Offers Skeptical Take on Obama's Stimulus Claims; CBS, NBC Uncritical
Janeane Garofalo: There Is Almost No Liberal News Outlet in America
"[T]he media in the States is much more to the right. I mean there is almost no liberal outlet for news commentary or editorializing."
[Right: and our MSM being center-right explains why it's constantly giving her airtime.
You can't make this stuff up.]
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