How the White House Bullies the Press
How the White House bullies the press.
Tag: policy
TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation
Does this make you feel safer? The TSA is going to retest the radiation levels of all its airport body scanners after maintenance records on some showed levels 10 times higher than expected. Also this:
The TSA is responsible for the safety of its own X-ray devices. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it does not routinely inspect airport X-ray machines because they are not considered medical devices. The TSA’s airport scanners are exempt from state radiation inspections because they belong to a federal agency.
Senators defend NPR funding
The squealing continues: Senators defend NPR funding. I like this quote in the comments:
What part of being broke do they not understand?
Discovery has landed, for the last time
Discovery has landed safely, for the last time.
148,221,665 Things to Know About Space Shuttle Discovery
Obama administration appeals judge’s ruling on Obamacare
Not surprisingly, the Obama administration has appealed a Florida judge’s ruling that Obamacare is unconstitutional.
“They Prostitute Themselves for Money”
“They prostitute themselves for money.”
Some further background here.
Chaos in aerospace
The future of Obamacare: bureaucracy and pulling strings
The future of Obamacare: bureaucracy and pulling strings.
Discovery has undocked from ISS, for the last time.
Discovery has undocked from ISS, for the last time.
Senate budget for NASA cuts the program, though less than the House
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.
Number of healthcare reform law waivers climbs above 1,000
If Obamacare was so great, why have the number of waivers the administration has issued to the law now climbed to more than 1,000?
Some interesting comments about NASA’s future from Clark Lindsey
Clark Lindsey of www.rlvnews.com/ has posted some interesting thoughts in reaction to the successful launch of the Air Force’s second reusable X-37b yesterday and how this relates to NASA’s budget battles in Congress. Key quote for me:
Charles Bolden doesn’t seem prepared to make a forceful case against the clear and obvious dumbness of the HLV/Orion program. Perhaps he in fact wants a make-work project for NASA to sustain the employee base.
As I’ve said before, the program-formerly-called-Constellation is nothing more than pork, and will never get built. Why waste any money on it now?
Alfred E. Obama: What, Me Worry?
Texas Legislation Proposes Felony Charges for TSA Agents
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.
NASA to announce future museum homes of shuttles on April 12
NASA administrator Charles Bolden revealed at House hearings this week that NASA will announce the future museum homes for the retiring shuttles on April 12.
There is something terribly sad and ironic about having this announcement occur on the 50th anniversary of the first manned flight into space by Yuri Gagarin.
Obamacare “has already yielded profound, destructive changes that will not be undone by repeal or defunding alone.”
Read the whole thing. The details will horrify you.
U.S. House Votes to Cut $61 Billion in Government Spending
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.
The uncertainty of climate science
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
Science budget map
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.