Posted by admin on February 17, 2009 under Congress, Economy, Presidency, Science, news | 
Buried in the $800 Billion stimulus package is $8 Billion for high speed rail in the United States. It’s the most serious investment in commuter rail service in the nations history.
Additionally President Obama intends to ask for a further $1 Billion a year for high speed rail in his budget request to congress, starting with the 2010 budget.
High speed rail was one of Obama’s campaign pledges, speaking in Indiana during the campaign he said:
“The time is right now for us to start thinking about high-speed rail as an alternative to air transportation connecting all these cities. And think about what a great project that would be in terms of rebuilding America.”(Source)
Despite this campaign pledge apparently Congressional Republicans apparently overlooked the importance of High Speed Rail to the president as they tried to stymie all the major projects that the President was looking for such as building new schools, or modernizing the energy grid.
Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine and Specter of Pennsylvania, Republican moderates who had criticized Obama’s school construction program were more accepting of the rail funds, since the Northeast corridor is a major beneficiary of rail improvements.
Rahm Emanuel said of the rail provision, “the president wanted to have a signature issue in the bill, his commitment for the future.” (Source)
Posted by admin on January 18, 2009 under Environment, Internet, Politics, Science |
As we bid a fond farewell to George Walker Bush, here’s a sort of retrospective. A Bush by the Numbers if you will, excerpted from Harpers Index.
Days Bush was President: 2922
Days Bush was on Vacation: 964
Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0
Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20
Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069
Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677
Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500
Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8
Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200
Percent of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 75
Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196
Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890
Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
Percent of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 80
Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000
Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1
Posted by admin on September 18, 2008 under Crime, Environment, Humor, Politics, Science, news |
By now of course you’ve already heard that a McCain staffer claimed John McCain invented the Blackberry. Asked why he thought, McCain was qualified to lead America out of this economic crisis, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior McCain policy advisor, held up his Blackberry and said:
“He did this. The premier innovation in the past 15 years comes right from the commerce committee. So, you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.” – Holtz-Eakin (Source)
Blackberry, a Canadian company, had no comment on this revelation. However every American needs to ask themself, “If John McCain is a true American, why did he invent the Blackberry in Canada?” I’m not going to suggest, as some might, that such a thing borders on treason, just let every American make up his or her own mind on the subject.
Just consider this, in 2007 Blackberry generated $1.37 Billion in revenue for parent company RIM, a Canadian company! (Source) That’s enough money to pay for almost 2 days of the Iraq war! (Source)
Posted by javavoodoo on August 18, 2008 under Science, Weird |
Straight out of the Twilight Zone is the news that the US Military has been pouring money into a computer program that can literally read minds. If that sounds too fantastic to be true, but then let me remind you of the CIA’s MK Ultra, and “Star Gate“.
Armed with a $4 million grant from the Army, scientists are studying brain signals to try to decipher what a person is thinking and to whom the person wants to direct the message. – Source
Seems like the military might find use for this sort of thing in interrogations. Just pray the IRS doesn’t get hold of this technology.
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