The new colonial movement: China’s first probe to Mars is now set for a November launch.
The second X-37B has arrived in Florida in preparation for a March 4th launch.
Hell has frozen over! Today, from both the Washington Times and the Washington Post: No pet projects are safe! Key quote from the Post:
Yet in last week’s feverish scramble to shrink government, House Republicans also ran the budgetary buzz saw through costly defense and homeland security programs that their party had historically protected. They left no sacred cows. “We held no program harmless from our spending cuts, and virtually no area of government escaped this process unscathed,” Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee said in a statement.
And from the Times:
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, watched lawmakers vote to defund a military project that pumps millions of dollars into his district, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, saw her colleagues vote to end federal funding for a park in her San Francisco congressional district.
Read the Times article especially, as it lays out in great detail many of the pet projects that got cut. I especially like the elimination of the project to fix the sewers in Tijuana, Mexico.
The Wisconsin protests, both for and against, as seen by a self-described “independent,” with video. Key quote:
That experience has led to these two independent voters, who have been fiscally conservative but socially divided on many issues, to a new understanding of how politics, unions, and the media work. I’m glad I didn’t rely on the descriptions and information from others about this issue. I saw the reality for myself, and we have both decided to stay actively involved. We will not trust or rely on any media to deliver primary information or facts. It really is true: there is biased reporting and organized, liberal oppression and hostility for all other viewpoints. I’m just little nobody wife, mom, and teacher in small town Wisconsin, and I experienced it.
The video clip shows the Tea Party rally begin its demonstration with the Pledge of Allegience, even as teacher union protesters blow whistles to try to drown it out. Is this how they perform the pledge in school?
Another reason to cut the federal budget: The U.S. government estimates it wastes about $125 billion per year.
More civility from the left: Watch this video of Twitter death threats against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker.
The civil tone of the left: A wheelchair-bound, wounded veteran was jeered, heckled, and laughed at by Columbia University students. Key quote:
“Racist!” some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.
Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military. “It doesn’t matter how you feel about the war. It doesn’t matter how you feel about fighting,” said Maschek. “There are bad men out there plotting to kill you.”
It was Tea Party protesters vs union protesters today in Wisconsin.
Two other Wisconsin stories that require mention:
Union protester attempts to destroy the Tea Party rally’s speaker system [with video].
Fake sick notes were being handed out to union teachers by doctors at Wisconsin union rally.
Listen to the squealing: Scientists criticize the House vote to cut off funds to the IPCC. Key quote:
Without the federal support, [Stanford ecologist Chris Field] said, “We’d have no ability to organize meetings, we’d have no ability to coordinate chapters.”
In other words, no more jaunts to Cancun in the midst of winter. What a shame!
Considering the insincere effort of the IPCC and its scientists to correct its numerous errors, as well as their admitted political agenda, it seems completely appropriate to stop funding it with U.S. tax dollars. If these environmentalists want to issue a report, they should pay for it themselves.
The memoir of a substitute teacher during a teachers strike. Key quote:
After the first week the phone calls in the evening began. After the first call, I had to not allow my children to answer the phone, as when the first call came, my seven year old answered and she heard an earful of cursing and threats that put her into tears. From that point on, we did not answer the phone in the evening unless I designated my husband to the task.
The House voted today to cut $61 billion from the federal budget.
It ain’t as much as they promised, and it ain’t as much as we need cut to get the budget under control. Nonetheless, this is progress.
In today’s listing of new science papers published by the American Geophysical Union, two papers illustrate quite clearly why the certainty of knowledge expressed by Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren in his testimony before Congress on Thursday is both mistaken and dangerous.
» Read more
Want to know whose getting what? The journal Science has put together this nice interactive table showing the various proposed budgets for the various science agencies in the federal government.
Though the magazine is undeniably pro-spending for science, the information is useful, as it shows clearly that even if every Republican cut is approved, the amount of money for most of these agencies will not be, on average, much different than what was spent in 2008. And it seems to me that in 2008 there was plenty of money for science in the federal government. Probably too much.
The space war continues. Obama’s proposed $18.7 billion NASA budget has already drawn fire in Congress.
As I have said before, considering the dire state of the federal debt, I think NASA will be very lucky to survive with even this budget.
The final launch for the space shuttle Discovery has now been set for Thursday, February 24.
Hotair has this nice summary of today’s madness in Wisconsin. Key quote:
Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he decided to adjourn the Assembly this evening because Gov. Scott Walker called minutes before lawmakers took the floor to tell him to get his caucus members and staff out of the building because their safety could no longer be assured.
The mysterious swarm of earthquakes in Arkansas keep coming, including a 4.3 quake today.
Showdown coming! The judge who ruled Obamacare unconstitutional has given the suing states until Thursday to respond to the White House’s request that the law be implemented despite his ruling.
Repeal the damn bill! According to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office, repealing Obamacare will reduce spending by $1.4 trillion over next decade.
The House today rejected an extra $22 billion in additional cuts, proposed by the tea party members of the Republican party.
Though this is extremely disappointing, especially considering the large number of Republicans who helped defeat these cuts, it really only indicates the long and winding road that lies before us. Getting the federal budget under control is going to take time and determination. And it won’t be a straightforward path, always ahead. There will be defeats along the way. The important thing is to keep up the budget pressure, pushing one cut if another fails.
Right on! House today approved several amendments to block significant areas of funding for Obamacare.
This is freedom of speech and religion according to ACLU: You can be Christian as long as you don’t follow your beliefs.
The uncertainty of science: The discoverers of the possibly habitable exoplanet Gliese 581g defend their work against recent science attacks.
The following story is why the advocates of global warming are losing the debate: At House hearings yesterday, Obama’s science advisor John Holdren admitted that using the term “deniers” to describe scientists who had doubts about global warming is inappropriate. “It was not my intent to compare them to Holocaust deniers, and I regret it,” he replied. “In the future I will find other terms to use.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Shortly thereafter, however, during the same hearing, Holdren then said this about a list of 100 climate scientists [word file] who remain skeptical about global warming:
“I haven’t seen the list,” Holdren began. “But in the past, most of the names on such petitions have turned out not to be climate scientists, and one could assume that they had not spent much time reviewing the literature.”
Without any knowledge, he slams these scientists, accusing them of being ignorant of the science.
» Read more
The robot arm on ISS shifted the Japanese freighter docked there to a different port today to clear a path for the shuttle.
How to follow the events in Wisconsin.
