"Fixing" Social Security

Looks like the Republican playbook has been leaked.

Australian PM lashes out against European anti-Americanism

Good for him: http://www.news.com.au/story/print/0,10119,12100697,00.html

Hillary Clinton collapses during speech

Let's keep our fingers crossed she's OK. I might not like her politics, but....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6890519/

Hollywood being thanked for election role

Thanks, Hollywood! Heh. Please feel free to let us know what you think in '08!

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=6451

19 Years Ago Today

I was home with my wife; our baby daughter was 5 days old and my wife had a hard time getting around because of her Caesarian operation. Both of us were (are) ardent space nuts so we turned on the TV to watch the Challenger launch.

We watched it launch and, a minute later, explode. I was confused for a moment because the NASA mission control guys were still reading downrange data. I had seen enough of those launches to know that things weren't right, though. A minute later, the TV commentator, (I think it was a CNN guy named Holliman, who's now deceased), grimly announced that the Challenger was gone.

We continued watching for several more hours, hoping against all logic that the astronauts would somehow come out of this.

It was a very depressing day and it reminded me of the sadness I had felt as a young boy when I found out in my school's morning announcements that 3 astronauts had burned to death in the Apollo 1 fire.

That night, President Reagan gave a speech that worried most pro-space commentators before he gave it - they thought he might announce a cancellation of the Shuttle program or some other condemnation of NASA. In fact, he gave one of the most poignant and uplifting speeches of his presidency. Here's an excert:

I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute. We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: "“Your dedication and professionalism have moved an impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it. "

Take a moment today and reflect on the brave astronauts from the Challenger, the Columbia, Apollo 1, the Soyuz 1970 disaster, and others who have died in training both here and abroad. They live our dreams for us and willingly risk their lives doing so.

Seated Next To A Blonde

A Guy gets on a plane and finds himself seated next to a cute blonde. He immediately turns to her and makes his move.

"You know," he says, "I've heard that flights will go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger. So let's talk."

The blonde, who had just opened her book, closes it slowly and says to the guy, "What would you like to discuss?"

"Oh, I don't know," says the guy. "How about nuclear power?"

"OK," says the blonde. "That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow and a deer all eat the same stuff -- grass. Yet the deer excretes little pellets, the cow turns out a flat patty, and the horse produces muffins of dried poop. Why do you suppose that is?"

The guy is dumbfounded. Finally he replies, "I haven't the slightest idea".

"So tell me," says the blonde, "How is it that you feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don't know shit?"

U.S. firm sweet on offshoring deals gone sour

This seemed to be of interest on the VFUG List Server:

U.S. firm sweet on offshoring deals gone sour:
http://msn.com.com/2100-9589_22-5519780.html?part=msn&subj=ns_5519780&tag=tg_itdc

Global warming - 50,000,000 BC

"A sharp rise in global temperatures about 50 million years ago ... brief period in the Eocene epoch when the average global temperature rose by about 7C."

Must have been due to those Eocene SUVs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4213495.stm

Posting issues

When posting to the blog, be sure to strip all HTML out of your post (except when needed). If you just copy and paste from a web-site or HTML email, you can end up with lots of DIV tags, etc. This can really hork the blog.

Also pay attention to line breaks.

Consider pasting what you want to post in Notepad (or compose as Text email for the spell-check feature) and pull all unwanted HTML and line breaks, and then copy / paste from there.

Thanks!

BTW, all blog members currently have admin rights. This allows anyone to change posts, templates, etc. Please use with consideration.

Looks like I made it

Now I'll actually have to think of something pithy to post - considering I'm the only right-leaning poster and you guys will always be beating up on me

partisan chaos template

Working on look and feel. Any input is appreciated.

I've currently got this one selected for the following reasons:

- not Red or Blue
- comments are easy to read (other templates allow them to run-on)
- contributors, previous posts and archives are all listed down one side

1st post, ha ha!

Welcome to partisan chaos!

I'd like to open the discussion with:

Given that FNC is the undisputed cable new network leader:

1) How much influence does FNC have on shaping the opinion of it's viewers.
2) Is FNC bias?
3) If so, how?

-dta