Check this Link to See How HealthCare Reform Would Affect Your District

Here is a link that shows what would happen in your Congressional district if healthcare refrom passes. For example, in my TX CD22 district it would:

Improve coverage for 578,000 residents with health insurance.

Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 143,000 families and 13,400 small businesses to help them afford coverage.

Improve Medicare for 76,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.

Extend coverage to 99,500 uninsured residents.

Guarantee that 19,700 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.

Protect 600 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.

Allow 72,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.

Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $50 million annually.

Hit the link and see what would happen in your district (unless of course you are so crazy that you WANT to have your insurance denied for a pre-existing condition or your insurance canceled after you get a serious illness like cancer)....!

What is THAT Swimming in Clear Lake?

WHAT is THAT Swimming in Clear Lake?

Lately, sitting on the balcony overlooking the lake, my eye was caught by ripples from a strange creature that came into view. Most of it is below the surface b,ut you can tell it is a big creature compared to what you usually see on the water (where kids where sledding behind a boat yesterday).

Only a small part protrudes above the water. It doesn't dive or look like a duck or anything else I've seen on the lake.

It slowly swims along the shore of Clear Lake. An eel? A gator? Just WHAT is that thing?

This morning I ran and got some video of it (the sun wasn't up yet so it is dark). Notice how the water forms a curve when it turns in the second video as it neared some docks.

We used to have small ducklings (actually Cormorants?) of over 30 swimming together in a group. Now I see about 5 or 6 in a group.

It's enough to give one a pre-existing condition. Hope the ducks don't get their policies cancelled for reaching their policy cap!

WHAT is that thing? Umm.

"I have been Mugged in England and Need $$$ to Get Home" Scam

While I was out on a job yesterday I read a disturbing email from a friend which said the following:

"Sorry I didn't inform you about my trip to the UK England for a program,I am presently in England,something extremely dreadful happened to me,I was mugged at gun point on my way to the Hotel by some Hoodlums and they made away with my Bag and other valuables. I called my bank for a wire transfer but it has proven almost Impossible to operate my account from here as they made me understand international transactions take 7 working days to be effective which i can't wait.

I feel so devastated,now my passport and other belongings are been retained by the hotel management pending the time I pay my Hotel bills.This is shameful,I need you to help me with a loan of (2,150 pounds= $3,250) to pay my hotel bills and get my self home.I will reimburse you soon as I get back Home.I will appreciate whatever you can assist me with.Can you help?"

That message was followed by the following (I have deleted the person's name for privacy reasons):

"I'm really happy to hear from you and thanks for your concern, at the moment am not my self and I cant even think straight but I will like you to loan me the money and will refund it back to you as soon as I get back.You can help me wire the money through western union money Transfer to my personal details and to the Hotel address bellow.I will be receiving it here with an ID and was also told that you can send it online on the western union website www.westernunion.com or go to any Walmart around you and get it sent from there. You can call on the Hotel receptionist number +447035930781

Name: Barbara XXXXXX
Address:12 London Road, Guildford
Surrey.England
United Kingdom

As soon you get it done,send me the Transfer details Including the (money Transfer Control Number).Get back to me as soon as you can.

All hopes on you."

Getting that kind of message is a wake up call. It was sent with what appeared to be her legitimate email address.

It turned out to be a scam by someone who somehow had used her email address. But before it was discovered to be a phony, her friends (many of whom are members of the League of Women Voters) were scrambling to raise money with some even thinking of hocking their jewelry etc to come up with money to help her out.

When she found out what was going on, the alleged victim sent out an email saying "I have NOT been mugged, and I am not in England."

This a NEW twist to the scam machine. If you get a strange message from someone you know claiming they have been mugged on a quick trip overseas and need money to get home, check it out before you panic and wire off funds. Try to contact the person through their cell phone and family first.

If that doesn't work, try contacting the FBI who should be informed of it even if it turns out to be a scam.

Texas GOP Chair believes that the Earth is only 6,000 years old

By the way, the current Chair of the Texas GOP believes that the Earth is only 6,000 years old! (Nor did she deny it when I asked if it was true she believed that).

If that isn't proof of failure of our (TX) Education system, nothing is...(The charts on climate change, taken from ice core drilling samples, show climate changes going back over 800,000 years! (not 6,000!)

That is the same kind of ignorance that would support dropping Thomas Jefferson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, from our history books --which our TX School board just did.

This is the same kind of mindless narrowness exhibited by the Taliban who oppose secular education. Dropping Thomas Jefferson from our books (after 200+ years of being a key figure) because he espoused "separation of church and state" fits with that kind of thinking.

Rice Univ Climate Expert: Rapid Loss of Greenland Ice Would Stop Ocean's Currents

You thought because of our weird weather with snow in Washington DC to Atlanta that climate change was not happening? Wrong.

Rice University climate expert Ron Sass gave a presentation to the League of Women Voters in Houston this week and showed how it was still a record HOT year for the planet overall. We didn't feel it in the middle of the U.S. because this year the HEAT went to the Canadian north and arctic regions - which were about 40 degrees WARMER than normal.

All the data on climate change shows is that the temperature trend is UP - only how much and how soon it becomes an irreversible disaster is in question. Who cares if it doesn't kill us at a specified time when the evidence is that if we don't act fast, climate change will kill us?

In his presentation, Ron Sass showed how just one aspect of climate change could have fatal and catastrophic consequences -- the loss of Greenland's icecap would stop the ocean current cycle that brings life to our planet by bringing up nutrients from the ocean floor. The Gulf Stream would terminate because of massive influx of fresh water from the Greenland ice melt, stopping that life cycle.

The two photos provided by Dr. Sass above are shots of the increase Greenland ice melt causing by the warming trend.

Sass also said another truth – that scientists are not split. Most agree on the science an overall conclusion we are beyond the normal natural cycle that existed the last 800,000 years.

The problem is with our media that if there are 10,000 people on one side and 5 on the other, the media makes it look like a "split" by giving the 5 equal time -- which does not reflect there their true proportion.

Health care reform won't matter, nor will anything else, if don't have a surviving planet.

If the climate proponents are wrong, we end up with cleaner energy, air and water. If the climate skeptics are wrong and we do nothing, we end up with an overheated, dying planet. Which is worse?

Dumbing of American Education by the Texas Board of “Hillbillies”

Eight people in Texas control what your child anywhere in America will see or not see in his or her school textbook – and it is leading to the dumbing of America.

A 15-member Board of Education in Texas determines what school children see in their textbooks – or don’t see. Because Texas is a huge market, what they pick goes into texts used by schools nationwide. The 15 members are politicians, not teachers. And the majority of eight has shown a remarkable ignorance about history and a racial and religious bias that goes against what America is all about. These eight people will determine if your kid is dumber than dirt, or an educated 21^st century citizen.

An example: “Mavis Knight, D-Dallas, was unable to attract any Republican support for her motion to teach students that government is not supposed to favor any religion. Knight's proposed amendment: “Examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from protecting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others,” was defeated.

If the eight had their way, your children would learn only about one religion and about white people only. Minority success stories are routinely cut out even as minorities are becoming the majority in Texas and America. Political censorship is applied – no socialists are to be mentioned! As a result of this small group, Texas textbooks are becoming more partisan and narrow when all textbooks should be nonpartisan and broad to give students greater perspective, as in “education”.

One member of the board, a lawyer who teaches law, fails to understand that when our founding fathers established America, they were sick of the English system that favored only the state religion. Religious wars in Europe pushed the Founding Fathers to guarantee religious liberty to ensure a strong and united country. They wanted religious freedom for all, not just the “chosen.”

Yet board member Cynthia Dunbar, from a small Texas town, missed that part in law school and history class. She wants schools to become churches and only educate students about the Christian religion, instead of exposing them to ALL the religions that exist in America -- Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, how Islam recognizes Jesus and Mary in their texts, etc.

Instead, Ms. Dunbar insisted that our founding father, Thomas Jefferson, be dropped from the history book entirely! Why? "Because he supported separation of church and state" she said. That shows how little these people know about our founders and their vision.

If you don’t know that, it is because Texas hillbillies are dumbing down America’s education – at a time when our kids need a GLOBAL education to even have a chance at staying competitive in the high tech 21^st century. In a recent poll 40% of Americans who were asked could NOT identify a "fossil fuel" (as in oil, gas. "Ethanol" is not a fossil fuel). Fifty one percent (51%) could NOT name a renewable fuel (as in "solar" or "wind"). Does that sound like an educated public?

We have to get a lot smarter not dumber, to stay in the game. How does America lead a world when its students and future leaders learn nothing about it -- because of eight extremists on the Texas School Board? How many of our leaders went into the Iraq war not knowing the difference between Muslim Shiites and Sunnis – and how they really don’t like each other? That was an expensive lesson.

It’s past time to abolish the Texas School Board authority to dictate the education levels of United States students. Write your State leaders and representatives. Texas’ Board of Education is gutting our national education when other countries are improving theirs.

We can’t compete or win with our own version of the Taliban in charge of education.

Go VOTE March 2 - Or Don't Complain For Wasting Your Citizenship Right

Got to go to Dallas today - RAIN all the way. Coming back to do a last minute Vote Tuesday before the polls close at 7 March 2.

To all those who have been complaining, go VOTE so you are entitled to complain (and suggest solutions). If you don't vote you wasted your citizenship right, so don't waste our time with your opinions!

Preferably, voting is for the best candidate. Sometimes it is for the least worst! Either way, it's better than doing nothing about who gets into office and expecting things to improve.

As the six retiring Congressmen (both Republican and Democrat) said in a CNN interview I saw over the weekend, our primaries favor the more extreme candidate instead of the more moderate, common sense one (like all of them). Try to change that if you want a better government system.

The likelihood of both extremes working together to solve our problems is pretty low.

So try to pick someone who isn't so nuts they can't talk to regular people on the other side in Congress for the purpose of getting real things done instead of the political volleyball blame game that never seems to end.

The world is moving on past us while we remain self obsessed and oblivious to what is going on beyond our country/state/county.

That's not a recipe for success in the 21st global-techno century where China is building Mag Levs while we were building paper empires of credit default swaps and borrowed billions to give tax cuts to the top 5%, concentrating wealth on pyramid paper empires to the point where our economy collapsed and took down a lot of other countries with it.

Go vote...Our future depends on it.

NASA and UFO's: Official Policy -Ignore What You See

Did you know that if a UFO passed a Shuttle in flight, that no astronaut will mention it? Why? Because the official policy of NASA is to ignore UFO's! I'm not making this up.

I confirmed this with a person who works at NASA and has been there for decades. I asked if acknowledging a UFO was off limits at NASA even if one is visible during a flight. The answer: "Yes." Why? The explanation was something like: "We don't want people to panic."

Check out this video from a shuttle flight. As the astronauts talk, you can see something flying in different directions over the earth below (not just the same direction like satellites might do). This is one of many strange flying objects captured by NASA on space flights - which used to show real time video until UFO's starting showing up on tape.

There is another video clip showing an object hanging on space - until it rapidly changes direction when another object appears to shoot a light beam at it!

Here are some clips of NASA astronauts on early missions including a clip of a 1989 Discovery flight discussing "alien spacecraft" hovering nearby.

Would acknowledging UFO's make people doubt our superiority? Would it make funding for NASA less or more important?

For the record, I love NASA, but this policy seems to be the opposite of what having a space agency is all about. Explore new worlds? Go where no man (or woman) has gone before?

To do that the policy should be willing to disclose that we don't have the most advanced technology circling our globe. Shouldn't we be curious about these objects? Where they come from? What do they want with us and/or our planet?

Putting our heads in the sand and pretending not to notice advanced technology isn't a solution. Having a space agency with a policy prohibiting acknowledgment of UFO's - even when they fly past our Shuttle -- isn't dealing with the real world.

This policy should be reversed. Maybe that change will spark the public's interest in developing the next generation of space technology.

Link From Chile's Earthquake to NY Hurricane Winds

Link From Chile's Earthquake to NY Hurricane Wind. Details at:

http://armorglass.blogspot.com/2010/02/chile-earthquake-to-hurricane-winds-in.html

Fuel cell made from sand = End of Power Plants, Carbon Emissions and Storm Outages

Photo: Testing Fuel cell powered computer servers for eBay.

A new fuel cell made mostly from sand instead of precious me just announced by Bloom Energy may make power stations and carbon emissions a thing of the past. It could remedy both our need for power and to reduce carbon emissions at the same time.

With this technology, a house could generate its own power without being hooked up to a grid -- and without generating gas fumes or carbon emissions. If the technology develops as expected so that you can buy a residential size unit to power a house for $3,000, it would also make power outages after storms a thing of the past (remember how long we were without power after Hurricane IKE?)

Presently it is being tested and it works. It is also cutting power costs in a big way. These are some of the new industries and jobs that will be created by moving to greener, cleaner energy sources.

Stay tuned...

LWV and a Republican pollster: If the Scientists are Wrong on Climate Change..

" ...a presentation that was put together by Republican pollster Frank Luntz with the Natural Resources Defense Council and NRG Energy. Their conclusions on the need for a Climate Bill in the US are summed up as follows:

"If we do it right, we get cleaner air.
We get less dependence on fossil fuels and enhanced national security.
We get more innovation in our economy.
More jobs and more sustainable jobs.
And that's if the scientists are wrong."

Didn't expect that did you?

Moral: Fighting climate change will produce the next generation of jobs, technical advances needed for our economy to keep up with the rest of the world, and cleaner air -- even if the scientists are wrong.

(If the climate skeptics are wrong, we end up with dirtier air, an over-heated, dying planet - definitely bad for business). Which is worse?

See the above link for details on the LWV study on climate change...

3 Little Pigs, Flying Bricks, Presidents and Climate Winds

A new study suggests that global warming aka climate change could reduce the number of hurricanes (the good news) but that the ones who occur could be stronger (the bad news).

The study estimates that future hurricane damage could be 28% HIGHER.

A Professor who lives near Rice University in Houston told me that their neighborhood has had a series of break ins lately - people throwing BRICKS and PAVERS through people's windows, then grabbing a laptop, TV, etc., then fleeing in the blink of an eye.

I got another call from a couple who could not sleep until security film was installed on their windows -- after someone broke a 4’ x 4’ window one day, and stole everything. They felt insecure even with a new window in place, until security film was installed on all the windows.

A recent explosion in Seabrook rattled windows for miles around. Another one in New York blew out the windows of a Starbucks. A special energy saving film sold by Armor Glass would have avoided a breach – and injuries from flying glass in each case.

It is estimated that the damages from Hurricane IKE that hit Texas in 2008 was $22 billion, including flooding, roof and window losses.

Add 28% to that figure for the next storm that hits - assuming it isn't a CAT 3 or 4, which would do even more damage than CAT 2 IKE. Katrina was a CAT 3.

Nearly 25% of the U.S. population lives near the coast, meaning that bigger storms will threaten a significant portion of our citizens and destroy more property unless the property is protected (and building codes improved).

I have heard estimates that the damage to Chase Bank at 600 Travis in Houston is about $40 million. Had Armor Glass security film been on those windows, millions in damages would have been avoided -- because the film with attachment would have kept those windows from being sucked out even if they had been broken! The cost of installation would have been a fraction of the cost of damages, not including lost productivity, computer files destroyed, data lost, etc. And it would have also cut their energy consumption and tenant UV exposure.

Remember the story of the three little pigs? One built a house of straw, one built a house of sticks and one built a house of bricks. Only the pig with the house made of bricks survived - but only if that pig had installed our security film on its windows to keep out (1) the bad wolf throwing a brick through the window and (2) hurricane-force winds and windborne debris breaching a window that leads to roof loss in a storm!

Now, the CPAC has just proposed Ron Paul for President – who believes the Federal Reserve should be dissolved and big institutions should have failed instead of being bailed out. If he -- or someone else with a similar view -- becomes President and unemployment surges higher as institutions are allowed to fail, expect more unemployed desperate people to be assaulting your property. (Remember President Hoover in the 30's? Doing nothing in a depression cost him the next election to FDR).

So get protected today before things get worse. The good news is that protection is available and that Armor Glass security film is Large Missile rated (4.5 lbs -- or the size of a brick hurled at the glass).

Moral: Armor Glass security film would have stopped the unemployed Big Bad Wolf from breaking into Piggy No. 3's house, protect him from future Hurricane force-winds, while saving him energy (= $Money for the piggy bank) at the same time, regardless who is President!

Some AMAZING Katrina Photos - Tornadoes and Tidal Wave

Check out the photos on the Armor Glass Blog at:
http://armorglass.blogspot.com/2010/02/some-amazing-katrina-photos-tornadoes.html

Pilot's Kamikaze Attack on Austin IRS - Why isn't it terrorism?

Have you noticed? When a white guy shoots up a federal building and kills a guard, or dives a plane into a federal building -- like the one that just crashed in the IRS building in Austin -- that it is a "criminal" act.

But if the same thing is done by a Middle East guy, like the Ft Hood Shooter, then it's an act of "terrorism."

Frankly, they are the same and should be treated the same. A domestic terrorist is no better or different than one from a foreign land. Was Timothy McVeigh's blowing up the Murrah building in Oklahoma City just a criminal act? Killing someone because you are "mad" at people or the government is WRONG regardless of your color or country of origin.

It is terrorism.

That leaves the question how to head off these crazy acts. One way is to stop listening to the anti-government hysteria going around. The nut jobs running the "Tea Party" and people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have stoked the fires of irrational thought by giving one-sided, distorted commentary, the equivalent of shouting "fire" in a theater, causing panic. Crazy talk about Secession is tolerated as if it is normal.

Congress reps have done the same, like Iowa rep Charles Grassley falsely saying that the health care reform would result in a death panel for grandma.

It's no wonder why out of control anger is causing people to fly airplanes into a federal buildings, as if it will solve anything. These acts will only injure or kill innocent people.

How to protect yourself? Self defense is the best offense when you don't know what the next nut will do to make a point.

I just wrapped up a Homeland Security convention and posted some thoughts on why our film can even protect from Kamikaze pilots in small aircraft. It's at:
http://armorglass.blogspot.com/2010/02/austin-plane-crash-into-irs-building.html

Lessons from the Congressman Who Looked Beyond the Hot Tub

How Charlie Wilson Brought Down the Soviet Union & Congress “Screwed Up the End”

The opening scene of “Charlie Wilson’s War” is a hot tub party featuring both strippers and a Texas Congressman (no, not “Hot Tub Tom” DeLay) – but one who looked beyond the confines of the hot tub and saw something no one else did. Charlie Wilson had a vision that lead to the defeat of the Soviet Union. But it is the last scene that you really need to watch closely.

Charlie Wilson saw from the hot tub a TV news report by Dan Rather, portraying a people with no weapons fighting the Soviet Invasion of their country, Afghanistan, in the 1980’s. Joanne King Herring was the woman who got Charlie to see the global picture and its potential impact on the U.S.

So Charlie got other key Congressmen interested. With their funding --for Soviet anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles acquired with help from both Israel and Egypt -- he helped rain hell on Russian Gunships that had been shooting civilians until the Soviets couldn’t take the body count anymore and got out of the country.

But then, as he says in the book and movie: “We screwed up the end.”

After his fellow Congressmen had gladly voted for billions in weapons for the Mujahedeen, when the Russians left and Afghanistan was in shambles, Charlie couldn’t get them to fund even a couple million for a school. Without schools and an economy, a vacuum was created in which stepped Osama bin Laden, who provided money in return for a safe haven.

Moral: If we don’t provide schools and education to failed States like Afghanistan (Somalia, etc.) then the extremists fill the void and tragic events like 9/11 will happen, again.

Charlie would say the same today about Pakistan. If all we do is provide weapons and we don’t help countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan provide education for tens of thousands of children, then the extreme religious schools will continue to fill that void, filling their heads with extremist views instead of math and science. Instead of getting to know American books, the young students get a message of hate towards us, feeding the never-ending stream of suicide bombers willing to die.

Don’t forget Charlie’s lesson. It takes more than weapons to protect us. I am sure that Joanne King Herring will remind you of it -- if you listen to her. We need more Congress men and woman like Charlie Wilson and Americans like Joanne King Herring, people who think beyond the box.

Check out the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” in honor of Charlie, and pay attention to all of it. You’ll get a lot of laughs and be a wiser person as a result.

We salute you Charlie. You were no angel but you did a world of good.

Tea Party Convention Looked Like a Secession Cult

If the "Tea Party Convention" was the real Tea Party, then it showed its true nature - a whites-only, palm-reading, anti-Obama Cult with no platform but plenty of double standards and platitudes, hate and division.

One tip off? When Palin mentioned the word "Texas Secession" there was a huge cheer from the crowd! What? Breaking up the USA is patriotic? How many normal Americans go around talking like that? No one with a real brain that I know. That would leave Texas last in education in the world instead of just the USA 50.

And then there was the speaker who claimed our President was not born in the US (that again, despite existing Hawaiian birth certificate), while failing to mention that his opponent, John McCain, was born in Panama. What's the difference between foreign country X or Y? Do you think they'd be mentioning this if McCain had been elected? Of course not. So including this speaker makes the movement look racist to me.

Did you notice that 99.9% of the people at the convention were WHITE? How does that represent the wonderfully diverse America I know? No.

Finally, there was no platform. It was all about the speaker.

And the speaker had to use the palm of her hand to remember three simple things - using her "crib notes" within minutes after criticizing President Obama for using a TelePrompter. At least Obama can stand and speak to the opposition without a single note or paper to guide his brain.

This was the same speaker, Sarah Palin, who chastised the White House Chief of Staff for using the word "Retard" but then excused the use of the same word by her ally Rush Gasbag (aka Limbaugh) for saying the "Democrat retards were retards. Limbaugh can say retard anytime but not anyone else.

This is the same hypocritical double standard of politics, where sins are only sins when the other side does it, but not when your side. Lying, double standards and disrespect is wrong regardless of who does it.

That is not about real Americans. The Tea Party Convention appeared to be an anti-Obama cult without a plan or a platform.

It's unfortunate because we need teamwork on both sides of the aisle to compete in a global century. We certainly don't need more double standards and palm readers running our country.

NOAA New Study: Expect BIGGER Hurricanes Due to Warming

Details and NOAA link at Armor Glass blog:

http://armorglass.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-study-expect-bigger-hurricanes-due.html

Texas High Speed Rail - Sabotaged by Texas Leadership from DeLay to Perry

Map of the Dallas Rail System - Compare to Houston's one short line taxpayers had to finance when DeLay blocked federal funding for it...and gave it to Dallas instead!

This Houston Chronicle article is an excellent summation of the failure of our Texas leadership preparing us for the 21st Century - as we add another 2 million people in Houston alone.


The article is right about Tom DeLay's sabotage of federal rail money for Houston - money Houstonians pay as part of the pump price when they fill up. Their lack of leadership has left us crawling on over-crowded roads, and added extra costs on our taxpayers.


It was DeLay's singular cutting off Houston from rail money that was one of the reasons that drove me to run against him until he left office - our citizens were being penalized by his arrogance and lack of leadership. I sat in a Ft Bend lunch after lunch for 400 people when I heard DeLay declare "Dallas rail is a total failure." That was a total lie, but no one else in the room knew it. This was right after Dallas citizens had voted to increase their rail system they were so happy about its success.

Gov. Perry has continued this tradition of sabotaging the future for ordinary Texans such as his Trans Texas land grab that favored Spanish corporations over the Governor's own citizens.

We need a Texas Governor who hasn't been in office for a decade and really does have vision - unlike now.


Perry governs as if all decisions are approved by GOP primary voters. Having been in GOP primaries, I know that primary voters do not reflect the majority of all Republicans, not to mention everyone else. I found the November Republicans much more more moderate and practical in their views.

Unfortunately politics now trumps leadership.

Ed Emmett is right. We need a direct Dallas-Houston high speed rail link, not the Texas T Bonehead plan Perry floated and failed to coordinate.

People like Tom DeLay and Gov. Perry have cost Texan taxpayers more billions out of their pockets. When will they realize that leadership is about us, not them.

Think about that as you are crawling along our freeways.

Glenn Beck's Nazism & Americans Shallow Focus - Not Good for America

Lawyers will confirm that free speech does not give one the right to stand up in the theater and shout "FIRE!" when there isn't one.

That causes panic that can injure or kill people.

But people in high places like Glenn Beck are doing exactly that. When he claims our President and his people are going to "slaughter Americans," his hate-mongering speech would make a Nazi proud.

It's not even based on true facts. That makes it a lie and un-American. If it causes a nut case to shoot someone, then the corporate sponsor of such verbal violence has potential liability for giving such over the top extremism a national voice. Why feed the hate when the ship was wrecked by the last crew, not this one?

We are in this mess after the past administration's doubled our total debt in 8 short years (after getting a $200 billion surplus from Pres. Clinton) and leaving the economy locked up like an engine without oil and heavily damaged.

Reality should be in discussion in America, not beating drums -- not screaming "FIRE!" "Hang him!" (remember those days before courts?) and false information.

We had Frankenstein. Now we have "Beck-enstein" a more dangerous monster because he is a real person influencing the vulnerable. It smacks of Nazism and hate-mongering. It's not even based on reality. After all, it was the last administration that lit the fuse by not paying for anything including two wars, Plan D and a fat tax cut for the top 5% (while everyone else got a few crumbs). Once the Exxon Valdez was on the reef, do you think it was cheap to fix the damage?

I have to wonder what has happened to Americans moral compass. It seems that no one really bothers checking the real facts, but everyone has an opinion -- usually based on an email from another Internet Cement-head. Reinforcing stupidity is not going to keep us ahead of our global competition. When I post articles on India going into space some Americans assume (wrongly) that is was with our money instead of their own money and technology.

If our general population remains this clueless, our leadership status in the world is toast. The last administration inherited a nice Mercedes, but turned over a smoking wreck. We can't afford to be stupid from here on out.

I see that the GOP has once again proposed its fix: Privatize social security. How would you like it if the last meltdown just cut your social security 50% like it did your stock portfolio? Come on dudes, repeating past mistakes is not going to fix our awful financial situation.

Americans should be dealing in reality and real numbers, if anyone paid attention to more then what is on the dinner plate.

This brings up something else. I am amazed by how shallow Americans seem. Look at the entries on Facebook. Who cares if you are staring at your toes. I'd like to see at least some wit and thought included.

Americans, we are better than hate-mongers and shallowness. We need to focus on real facts and ways to get out of this situation.

On that note, we need common sense instead of more stupidity - by both our leadership and Main Street.

And neither will morons like Glenn Beck. People like him are the problem, not the solution.

Entrepreneurs in Space - Give Obama Credit Dudes

Photo: SpaceX Falcon 9


Entrepreneurs in Space? Taking Over our Space Transport From NASA? Now that is a GREAT IDEA!

The strange part is that the GOP is horrified by the thought of entrepreneurs taking over. What's wrong with that?

It costs over $500 million for just one Shuttle launch, a machine originally designed with 1970's technology. Space Entreprenur Richard Branson and his team launched SpaceShipOne for under $25 million - peanuts. SpaceX is also a player. They were planning a private orbiting hotel. Obviously, you need a way to get to and from that hotel in a cost effective manner. I would bet on these guys and the others who will follow for our next phase: Space Business, led by private entreprenurs.

As India and China plan their own space launches to the Moon (with their own money and technology) NASA has been too slow to keep up in design. And it has been chronically underfunded. The Bush "Moon Plan" was not funded from the get-go, so it was never really going to achieve anything at a snails pace. Even NASA's head, Gen. Bolden, thinks it is a good idea.

Getting to space is not new technology. Getting to space economically will require entrepreneurs to keep us in the race with India and China. At the slow rate we are going the world will pass us by unless we do call in the American entrepreneurs.

The U.S. has too much financial debt to keep space transport an exclusively government enterprise. We don't need a government monopoly. That strategy has led us to having to ride on Russian rockets as the aging Shuttles are sent to museums and NASA struggles to build a replacement five years behind schedule.

Give the Obama administration credit for putting trust in America's entrepreneurs for the next frontier: Space. It isn't the final frontier, but it is mankind's next one.