Not surprisingly, the Obama administration has appealed a Florida judge’s ruling that Obamacare is unconstitutional.
An NPR senior exec: “We would be better off in the long-run without federal funding.”
Stealth unionization. “Many day care providers didn’t even know they were in the union until notified after the vote had concluded.”
The future of Obamacare: bureaucracy and pulling strings.
Does this seem as crazy to you as it does to me? At the same time the Obama administration is fighting to prevent any new drilling for oil, it is also now considering tapping our strategic oil reserve to get more oil into the market.
Discovery has undocked from ISS, for the last time.
The new Senate budget proposal for NASA cuts the agency’s budget, though it does so less than the House.
Only a few months ago the Democratically-controlled Senate proposed giving NASA an increase from its 2010 budget. Today, the Senate, still controlled by Democrats, now proposes cutting that budget instead. It is remarkable to watch the impact of an election.
Maybe the airlines should consider this option: The Amtrak police chief has barred the TSA from the railroad’s security operations.
[Police chief] O’Connor said the TSA VIPR teams have no right to do more than what Amtrak police do occasionally, which has produced few if any protests and which O’Connor said is clearly within the law and the Constitution. More than a thousand times, Amtrak teams (sometimes including VIPR) have performed security screenings at Amtrak stations. These screenings are only occasional and random, and inspect the bags of only about one in 10 passengers. There is no wanding of passengers and no sterile area. O’Connor said the TSA violated every one of these rules.
O joy. The federal government posted its biggest monthly deficit ever in February 2011.
Progress! The Senate’s science budget proposals are higher than the House’s, but actually do include real cuts.
Progress! Two senators from both parties have proposed an anti-appropriations committee that would focus on cutting wasteful federal programs.
Alabama lawmakers express desire to protect funding of Huntsville NASA facilities.
Normally I would call this a typical squeal for funds (and we do see so-called conservative Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) squealing a bit) , but the article makes it clear that everyone involved (even the journalist!) has real doubts about the wisdom of funding these programs with the present federal debt.
Does this make you feel safer? The TSA spent millions developing the ability to do secret body scans of pedestrians as they entered train stations, bus depots or major events. Key quote:
EPIC lawyer Ginger McCall says the project is disturbing nonetheless because it shows the department “obviously believed that this level of surveillance is acceptable when in fact it is not at all acceptable.”
The Obama administration has appealed a judge’s ruling that the law requires them to issue oil drilling permits.
Go Texas! Legislators there have proposed making it a felony for TSA agents to perform full-body patdowns without cause. They have also introduced legislation that would make the body scan equipment illegal.
Freedom of speech alert: Democrat state lawmakers in Illinois want to ban photography at accident sites.
How can anyone take this administration seriously? On Wednesday Obama announces that Biden will be his lead negotiator with Congress on the budget, even though Biden already had a prearranged trip to Europe beginning on Monday. He attended one meeting on Thursday, and then said goodbye!
House Republicans attempt to impose a national ID card.
Read the entire article. For more reasons than one can count (with the most important of all being that the public doesn’t want it), this is a bad idea at a bad time.
Couldn’t be soon enough for me! Two senate Republicans introduced a bill on Friday to defund public radio and television.
Great Britain has slashed its UN contribution, including eliminating all funds to four UN agencies. Key quote:
The British actions change the focus of the debate, from gauzy generalizations about the need for and importance of the U.N. to a realistic look at what it actually achieves.
FOIA documents show that the TSA has plans to expand its jurisdiction to searching random people on city streets. More here.
Judge gives Obama administration seven days to appeal or Obamacare is dead. And he really means it.
Cutting the federal budget — two weeks at a time.
This is both good and bad: Russia appears to lack enough available rockets to fulfill its 2011 launch plans.
Some thoughts on how a government shutdown would affect NASA.
Faced with pressure from Congress and the courts, Interior Secretary Salazar finally stopped stalling and issued late Monday the first Gulf of Mexico drilling permit since the BP oil spill.
As the 14 Wisconsin Democrats run, meet the numerous Illinois Tea Party activists giving chase.
