Doofus's Comments (1098)

“What is often forgotten is the significance of the Mayflower Compact,
which is said to be ' the first basis in the new world for written laws.'

The Mayflower pilgrims (men anyway) agreed to 'solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony...'

This goes well beyond the notions of earlier settlers.”

“' Name the last governor you know of -- ever -- who quit. At any time. Out of the blue, unprompted­.' ...

Name one? That'd be Repo man William Weld, native NYer & 'retired' governor of Massachusetts.

' Weld resigned the governorship after being nominated United States Ambassador to Mexico by President Bill Clinton. He was never confirmed by the United States Senate, however, and hence never served as Ambassador. This was due mainly to opposition from Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman Jesse Helms, who refused to hold a hearing on the nomination, effectively blocking it. Though both were Republicans and though that party held the majority in the chamber, Helms objected to Weld's moderate stance on several social issues. This refusal to hold hearings was also rumored to be at the request of former attorney general and friend of Helms, Ed Meese. Meese had a long standing grudge against Weld stemming from Weld's investigation of Meese during the Iran-Contra affair. ' ... (Wiki)

Then there was Weld's successor & fellow Repo man, Paul Cellucci, who quit to become Ambassador to Canada. It is no fun being governor of MA (OR AK), evidently, no fun at all.”

““By the way (as seen out on the web, so it must be true):
' (Ohio’s Republican) senior senator, George Voinovich, vehemently opposes the
bill and, strangely, for reasons unknown at this writing, was not present to vote. ' ...””

“By the way (as seen out on the web, so it must be true):
' (Ohio’s) senior senator, George Voinovich, vehemently opposes the bill
and, strangely, for reasons unknown at this writing, was not present to vote. ' ...”

“6. Democrats are toast in 2010 without health care reform
7. Democrats deserve to be toast in 2010 without health care reform
And, yet, Democrats might still be toast if they legislate BAD health care reform.

Of course, who else you gonna vote for? Oh, yeah, Greens, right!

But, quite the victory when you can get ALL the non-progressive
Demos to join the 'Democratic wing of the Demo party' for such
an important vote! Even Joe Lieberman!

Then you have Bernie Sanders saying maybe he won't vote for the
final bill. Him & others from the 'Democratic wing', most likely.”

“Not only is the 'public option' weak, there's still no
anti-trust regulation for Big Insurance, and (no
doubt) no windfall profits taxation either.

The Senate and the House are doing separate three-
card monte deals to produce 'acceptable' bad legislation.”

“This seems like just the place to insert
a shameless plug for 'Going Rouge', the
OTHER Sarah Palin bio due out tomorrow.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/going-rouge-ithe-nationi_n_330682.html

I know which one I'll be reading.”

“'Removed by whom?' That's a good question. It's not going to be up to
the NYS Board of Elections, that's for sure. Rather it'd be up to the House
of Reps itself, so it probably won't happen. It has been said that this election
was more about what George Pataki will be doing if/when he runs for the Senate
next year. Look for the same strategery: a Demo vs a Repo vs a Conservative.”

“Far better then to scream bloody murder. It's not too late for that.

It definitely seems to be true that DLC Democrats would just as
soon not bother with anything that would offend Big Insurance, but
not getting costs (& revenues) under control will be catastrophic.”

“It might help to scream bloody murder if there's to be no anti-trust
regulation or windfall-profits taxation, otherwise not so much. The
progressives seem to have shot their wad on 'single payer'. Even
if 'Romney care' is not a huge rousing success in MA, it's not having
much effect on Demo party loyalty either, so far. ('What? Like this
would turn us into Republicans?')”

“From the Syracuse Post-Standard article:

' Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.

(John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections) said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested -- two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.

"We sent a letter to the clerk laying out the totals," Conklin said. "The key is that Hoffman conceded, which means the race is not contested. However, all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed. ' ...”

“Look for a GOP strategy where they support two 'flavors' of candidates
against one Demo, in any given race. A 'moderate' Repo with a
Conservative wing-man running against a 'liberal' Demo opponent.
The scheme would be that the the Moderate & the Liberal would split
the vote (especially if there are a lot of Independents voting), leaving
the Conservative with a plurality. This is a way to win when your party
is just barely hanging on as an erstwhile sparse minority.”

“If the GOP gets much tinier, the Demo party could split in two,
the conservative 'New Democrats' picking up Repo support,
the 'Progressive Democrats' going long. This could work.”

“So far, it seems to be a minimal sort of bill. To be acceptable, there needs to
be more assurance that it provides affordable coverage for most (if not all),
that it puts Big Insurance under anti-trust regulation, that it provides for wind-
fall profits taxation (because Big Insurance stands to make even huger profits).

Sure, it'll get more popular. Every new piece of legislation, every court decision
always gets more popular, right? We live in the best of all possible worlds, no?”

“What we can afford is robots, and more robots.”

“What to do: (since you haven't been able to figure this out on your own.)

Instruct all 'Coalition Forces' to leave, then head for the exits ourselves.
(Thanks for all your efforts, allies.) Afterwards, there will still be 'attractive
options'. We can supplant the bribery described above with strategic air
drops of cash bundles from B-52s. We should carpet-bomb opium poppy
fields with Agent Orange. We can continue unmanned drone missions
from Pakistan, until we have to leave there also, which should be soon.

Thanks for the memories! Hasta la vista & vaya con dios!”

“'Unfortunately, we cannot 'just walk/march away' from a war we sort
of already won, years ago, especially when there are a lot of allies
involved also. Geopolitically, this would be horrible, even worse
than staying.'

Ok, I take it back. Staying is more horrible. The Soviets left in total
disgrace. Maybe we can get out before that point.

' ...accordi­ng to the Nation ... the U.S. is paying off insurgents to prevent them from attacking U.S. supply lines.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. "It's a big part of their income," one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon's logistics contracts--hundreds of millions of dollars--consists of payments to insurgents. ...'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/11/karl-eikenberry-dissents_n_354657.html”

“' Here's what Sen. Lieberman said: "There are very, very strong
warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist
extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act." '

I think we have actual proof here that sometimes, just sometimes,
Joe Lieberman is actually right. Who would have guessed?”

“http://web.mac.com/jimgerard/AFGAS/pages/booster/sv-ksc.html”

“Or get one of these babies & just scale it up x 144. How hard could that be?

Revell 1:144 Saturn V Rocket (from Amazon)

The Apollo Saturn V was used in the Apollo manned spacecraft program of the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Weighing more than 3,000 tons, it developed over one million pounds of thrust and was the largest and most awesome rocket ever created. On the morning of July 16, 1969, Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins were perched atop a mighty SATURN V launch vehicle in preparation for their historic journey to the barren lunar surface.

Product Description
1-144 scale. Features detailed lunar module, all stages of the rocket are detachable, comes with display stand and commemorative pin. Over 20 inches tall when complete. 87 pieces. Molded in white, silver and yellow. Skill level 2 for ages 10 and up.”

“There's been much anxiety among rocket scientists (& no doubt former rocket pilots)
about 'man-rated' solid-fueled boosters. Mr Aldrin is reflecting that. Never been
done before. Strap on auxiliaries sure, but not *just* solid fuel. They vibrate
a lot, but they're relatively cheap & simple. Look, Buzz, this will either
work or it won't, and that's what the testing is about.

The bad news is, we can't even afford the cheap approach.”

“Brooks is as usual being disingenuous. It's ok to be suspicious (of him).
He's working an angle to ignore a reality that only 20% of voters are Repos.
As they say, there's truth, there's lying, and there's statistics.

If 62% of independents believe Demos are too liberal, and 87% of
independents are conservative or moderate (as Zogby says), then
an optimist will say 'There are more opportunities than ever
to convince peole to become Republicans!'”

“Actually just the opposite. The government no doubt has designs on the taxes that will eventually come out of retirement savings, since they don''t as yet offer any arrangements that would REDUCE taxes on withdrawals from these funds. And the fact is that the capital gains advantages that exist for other 'investments' don't apply to 401K & IRA money. Therefore, if advantages were created, people would spend more out of these funds sooner, stimulating consumption, which is what we are all about, after all.

More of a *scheme* than a 'plan' actually.”

“No doubt. We built the Shuttle so we can construct the ISS, and because
we have the ISS we need the Shuttle (or do we?) Meanwhile, we send
scrappy little robots to Mars & beyond, boldly going where no man goes.”

“(Somewhere in a warehouse with the Arc of the Covenant..­.)

HUNT IS ON FOR SCATTERED BLUEPRINTS OF POWERFUL SATURN MOON ROCKET
By WILLIAM J. BROAD-NYT-Tuesday, May 26, 1987

Rocket builders eager to tap the proven technology of the giant Saturn 5 moon rocket have been frustrated because long ago blueprints and other documents were scattered - a few even lost - and all the old dies, jigs and tooling were sold as scrap metal for pennies a pound.

The loss of part of the great rocket's past was to be expected but resurrecting that data has proven more difficult than some rocket builders expected.

Private contractors and the space agency are carefully studying everything that remains of the Saturn 5, the biggest launcher ever built, once the glory of the American space program. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/26/science/hunt-is-on-for-scattered-blueprints-of-powerful-saturn-moon-rocket.html”