July 31, 2012

With Mars mission and rover Curiosity, NASA hunts building blocks of life

The last time the United States landed a mission on Mars to look for extraterrestrial life or its building blocks, Gerald Ford was president and the nation had just finished celebrating its 1976 bicentennial.

Next week, the long-delayed second attempt will try to deposit a rover on the planet’s surface.

Curiosity’s journey to Mars:?NASA’s sedan-size Mars rover is scheduled to land on the Red Planet’s surface Aug. 6 to learn whether it was, or ever could be, home to extraterrestrial life.

The descent and landing in the early hours of Aug. 6 will be the most complex and hair-raising in planetary history. The destination is a deep crater with a three-mile-tall mountain that NASA could only dream about using as a landing site until very recently.

It’s the most ambitious, the most costly ($2.5 billion) and the most high-stakes mission ever to another planet. It was also described last week by the agency’s top scientist, former astronaut John M. Grunsfeld, as “the most important NASA mission of the decade.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/with-mars-mission-and-rover-curiosity-nasa-hunts-building-blocks-of-life/2012/07/30/gJQAi7WALX_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

July 31, 2012

Republican Candidate In Arizona Accused Of Voter Fraud

While Republicans trying to justify voter suppression bills continue to struggle to find any actual cases of voter fraud, once again a Republican politician may be the exception that proves the rule.

While voter fraud is exceedingly rare — a person is more likely to be hit by lightning than to commit it — then-Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White (R-IN) was convicted of it earlier this year. Now, a candidate for Pinal County Supervisor in Arizona has dropped out amid questions about who cast ballots on behalf of his long-deceased girlfriend.

The Arizona Republic reports:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/31/612911/republican-arizona-voter-fraud/

July 30, 2012

Ancestry.com owned by Spectrum Equity links Obama to first American slave ...

Ancestry website: Obama's mother descended from first US slave

CHICAGO -- A family history website claims it has linked President Barack Obama to the first documented African slave in the American colonies.

Research by Ancestry.com from early Virginia records and DNA analysis shows Obama is the 11th great-grandson of John Punch, an indentured servant in Colonial Virginia who became enslaved for life after trying to escape in 1640, according to the website.

The findings were released about 100 days out from the presidential election. Obama's campaign headquarters are based in Chicago.

"Remarkably, the connection was made through President Obama's Caucasian mother's side of the family," the site said in a statement.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/30/13036039-ancestry-website-obamas-mother-descended-from-first-us-slave

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The issue I have with this announcement is that Bain Equity/Romney and Spectrum have done business together in the past.... http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/04/21/bain-capital-spectrum-equity-acquiring-surveymonkey

I believe they will go to any lengths to smear the current President, and a slave in the house painted white is smear material.

July 30, 2012

The New York Fed Confirms the Economy Runs on Zombie Money

The world is waiting for more of those cryptic messages from the head of the Fed, who today listens to the name Ben Bernanke and speaks on Capitol Hill. Today may not be an FOMC announcement occasion, but there's still the eternal hope that Ben will give a sign, even though it will undoubtedly be excruciatingly small and ambiguous, that more free public money is on the way for the financial system. There's a nice report out on how and why that works. But first, to give some perspective, here's this from UPI today:

Bernanke likely to point to new stimulus

Ben Bernanke was expected to tell U.S. lawmakers Tuesday the Federal Reserve is poised to embrace new stimulus measures but won't say when, economists said.

Bernanke's message to the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m. EDT is expected to be that the Fed is "prepared to take further easing action as appropriate, but will give no indication that such action is imminent," economists at Barclays Investment Bank said in a research note ahead of the Fed chairman's semi-annual report to Congress. Bernanke is to testify before the House Banking Committee Wednesday.

Minutes of the Fed's June meeting, released last week, indicated "a few" of the 12 officials who vote on Fed policy thought quantitative easing and other stimulus measures "likely would be necessary to promote satisfactory growth." Several others said they would consider such steps only if economic conditions deteriorated, the minutes indicated.

The Fed announced after its June 19-20 meeting it would continue until year's end an effort to reduce business and consumer borrowing costs by rearranging its portfolio.

http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/the-new-york-fed-confirms-the-economy-runs-on-zombie-money.html

July 30, 2012

Oh my goodness DebbieDee, purple kush is not sheet ...

far from it, its some purple mountain majesty sheeet ... Hillary wants nothing to do with the Presidency

and anyway, politicians don't make these kind of deals, our .0005%er plutocrats make these decisions

... Politicians are just told to recite the plutocrat mantra and march to the beat ...

July 30, 2012

Crash of the Bumblebee - Krugman

Last week Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, declared that his institution “is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro” — and markets celebrated. In particular, interest rates on Spanish bonds fell sharply, and stock markets soared everywhere.

But will the euro really be saved? That remains very much in doubt.

First of all, Europe’s single currency is a deeply flawed construction. And Mr. Draghi, to his credit, actually acknowledged that. “The euro is like a bumblebee,” he declared. “This is a mystery of nature because it shouldn’t fly but instead it does. So the euro was a bumblebee that flew very well for several years.” But now it has stopped flying. What can be done? The answer, he suggested, is “to graduate to a real bee.”

Never mind the dubious biology, we get the point. In the long run, the euro will be workable only if the European Union becomes much more like a unified country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/krugman-crash-of-the-bumblebee.html?_r=1&smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

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When the investor finally gets it and says "sell immediately" ... then we are all in deep doodoo ....

July 30, 2012

Syria: Aleppo is nail in Assad's coffin, says Panetta

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's assault on the city of Aleppo will be "a nail in his coffin".

Mr Panetta was speaking at the start of a five-day Middle East tour.

Heavy fighting is continuing in Syria's largest city where government forces are trying to oust rebel fighters.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said 200,000 people had fled the fighting in Aleppo and that an unknown number were trapped.

She said that the city urgently needed supplies including food and water.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19043654

July 30, 2012

AP SOURCES: KEY ROLE FOR CLINTON AT DEM CONVENTION

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton will have a marquee role in this summer's Democratic National Convention, where he will make a forceful case for President Barack Obama's re-election and his economic vision for the country, several Obama campaign and Democratic party officials said Sunday.

The move gives the Obama campaign an opportunity to take advantage of the former president's immense popularity and remind voters that a Democrat was in the White House the last time the American economy was thriving.

Obama personally asked Clinton to speak at the convention and place Obama's name in nomination, and Clinton enthusiastically accepted, officials said. Clinton speaks regularly to Obama and to campaign officials about strategy.

Clinton's prominent role at the convention will also allow Democrats to embrace party unity in a way that is impossible for Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-sources-key-role-clinton-dem-convention

July 29, 2012

The bag of hot, nasty, narcissistic filled gas, speaks again ...

Supreme Court Justice Scalia Addresses Nation’s Gun Laws

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Sunday that there “undoubtedly are” limits on the second amendment’s right to bear arms but that these must be limitations that were viewed as reasonable at the time the U.S. Constitution was written.

A little more than a week after a mass shooting in Aurora, Colo. drew attention to the nation’s gun laws, Justice Scalia addressed a series of questions on gun rights while touting a new book on Fox News Sunday.

“Yes, there are some limitations that can be imposed,” he said. “What they are will depend on what the society understood was reasonable limitation” when the Constitution was written. He cited, for example, a misdemeanor at the time, of carrying a frightening looking weapon such as a “head ax”.

Fox’s Chris Wallace asked about weapons that can fire off a hundred shots in a minute, in reference to the recent mass murder in a movie theater in Aurora.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/07/29/supreme-court-justice-scalia-says-addresses-nations-gun-laws/?mod=e2tw

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Trying to sell his latest hot gas inflated opinions .... like our current society needs another originalist interpretation of gun laws ... I thought Wayne and his world was doing enough work on that front..and look where that got us ....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021021325

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Love you Carly .... Thank you

July 29, 2012

BILLBOARD COMPARES OBAMA TO AURORA SHOOTER |

A billboard in Idaho is comparing President Obama to James Holmes, the 24-year-old accused of killing 12 people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. The electronic sign, sponsored by the libertarian-leaning Ralph Smeed Foundation, says: “Kills 12 in a movie theater with assault rifle, everyone freaks out. Kills thousands with foreign policy, wins Nobel Peace Prize.” “We’re all outraged over that killing in Aurora, Colorado, but we’re not outraged over the boys killed in Afghanistan,” a member of the group explained, adding, “We’re not saying that Obama is a lunatic.”

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/28/602101/billboard-compares-obama-to-aurora-shooter/

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Out of the 1.5 million people that live in Idaho, wonder how many are gun crazy ....?

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