Reality-Based Engineering: 2006/07

Great DarkSyde Science Open Thread

It's worth a read this morning...

More on NH Phone Jamming Records

This is one of the stories that I've been following over the past year and change (as have others) (AP quote):
MANCHESTER, N.H. - A judge gave state Democrats the go-ahead Thursday to question high-ranking Republicans in a civil suit over the jamming of Democrats' phones on Election Day 2002. Three former GOP officials have already been sentenced in the phone jamming scheme. In the civil suit, state Democrats want to know who knew about the plan. They point to a record of phone calls that show national GOP official James Tobin, one of those convicted, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down...

Democrats want to question the former associate director of the White House Political Affairs Office, Alicia Davis, and to see her phone records and those of her then-boss, Ken Mehlman, now RNC chairman. Also on their list: Edward Gillespie, who was RNC chairman when the decision was made to pay Tobin's legal expenses; Terry Nelson, former executive director of political operations for the RNC and now a political strategist for Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record); and Chris LaCivita, former national political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee who went on to develop the Swift Boat veterans TV campaign against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (News News Photos Images Web) in 2004.

Letterman v. bushborged-CNN

These two videos, which I dug out of the comments at dailykos, show Letterman doing his typical funny bushbashing (and being a comedian given so much material it's like being an adult playing t-ball) this time of a kid being bored to tears standing behind W giving a speech:

Then, apparently, when CNN ran it and commented on it, they went to the White House for comments. This clip is from the Late Show the day after:

Oh, and last I recall, Daryn Kagan is the surrogate user of that Viagra that was found in Limbaugh's bag coming back from the DR, so keep that in mind...

George Lakoff On-Point

Wifey told me about this so I'll have to listen to the re-run tonite.

Oh yeah, and liten to this OnPoint episode on Net Neutrality when I get the chance...

hereusnow.org

Two Related Economic Posts

These two posts I read today regarding the general slowing of the economy - one by bonddad from DailyKos regarding the record level of consumer debt being driven up by uncontrollable costs, like for fuel, and how the dafaults are skyrocketting, and this post from Robert Reich on his blog talking about the housing bubble "losing the fizz" and how it can have a cascade effect on the economy - he cites that ~25% of the new jobs in the past 5 years have come from home building and since there's a glut of homes on the market, those jobs will start to go away...this ties in a bit from this post I did - which is a glorified link to another bonddad post regarding the stagflation of the economy and the jobs post here.

This thing's spinning down the terlet and they're raising interest rates to stave off inflation worries.

One set of staggering stats from the first link above regarding current consumer debt levels:

• Even though tougher filing laws took effect Oct. 17, the number of monthly bankruptcy filings grew by more than 300 percent between November and March, from 13,758 to 49,977, according to a June report from the Administrative Office of the US Courts.
• Foreclosures on home mortgages were up 38 percent nationally in the first quarter of 2006, according to property tracker RealtyTrac Inc.
• The average American household owes more than $9,300 on credit cards, up from $2,966 in 1990, according to Cardweb.com.

Stunning.

"Kenny Boy" Lay Passes Away

Condolences go to the family...

My only question is whether W will show up to the funeral or any of the services. Sorry to be cynical over a man's passing, but they were good pals before Enron collapsed.

STS-121 Is In The Air...

OK, it's in near-earth orbit. This is of course the second shuttle flight since Columbia burned up upon re-entry. Use the link above to use all of NASAs viewing tools