Northrop and Boeing were expected to win the contract to build the ‘Orion’ moon module because they ran the Apollo program in the 1960‘s. They have experience moon landing. The contract for the 8.1 billion dollar contract ended up with Lockheed-Martin on August 31, 2006.
We could probably chalk it all up to Mike Griffin. Who is he?
He walked into the White House on 9/15/2005 and presented his plan to replace the dangerous space shuttle. Two of the shuttles disintegrated and exploded killing their occupants.
Mike Griffin is a rocket scientist and has a Masters Degree in Business Administration.
That may be why his new plan is to use rockets to replace the poorly designed shuttles. It may also be why approval was given without any figures or information on how to pay for it.
Griffin’s new fleet of rockets will be a rework of rockets used during the moon shots in the 1960’s.
The rockets will draw on design information and experience the United States has had in building and deploying nuclear weapons.
Mike Griffin served as CEO of In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel is described by it’s first CEO Gilman Louie as being formed "...to ensure that the CIA remains at the cutting edge of information technology advances and capabilities."
Mike Griffin is taking NASA ‘Back to the Past’.
Several board members of In-Q-Tel apparently have connections with Lockheed-Martin Corporation.
Why should we continue to pay these folks to do this? What happened to the NASA we used to know?
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Iraq and 9/11 NOT Connected
President Bush had a press conference on August 21, 2006.
I read something from it today that I think is very important.
The exchange between the President and a reporter went like this :
President Bush : “You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.” Reporter’s Question : “What did Iraq have to do with that?”President Bush : “What did Iraq have to do with what?”Reporter’s Question : “The attack on the World Trade Center?”
President Bush responded : “Nothing…”
He then went on in what reads like a fluster about how no one in his administration ever suggested that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack.
He said something else that is cause for concern.
Talking about the recent invasion of Lebanon by Israel he said, “Today, I'm announcing that America will send more aid to support humanitarian and reconstruction work in Lebanon, for a total of more than $230 million.”
He said, “The funds will help the Lebanese people restore key bridges and roads.“
Those ‘key’ bridges and roads were the ones destroyed by the Israelis.
He is proposing $42 million to train and equip Lebanon's armed forces.
At the same he said, “…I'll also work closely with Congress to extend the availability of loan guarantees to help rebuild infrastructure in Israel, infrastructure damaged by Hezbollah's rockets.”
Israel and Lebanon have received billions in American funds already through many different channels. What did they do with that cash? The Israelis spent it on invading another country.
President Bush’s paying off both sides.
He is forgiving these peoples for hating and killing each other even though they do not forgive each other. He does not look like a big man when he does this. He does not make the United States look like a benevolent and wise country - he makes us look the fool.
What is happening here is like paying the murderer and the victim’s family.
It is like giving money to a rapist and the person who has been assaulted.
You can’t buy the world with money.
If you stand for everything you stand for nothing.
What will they do next? The answer is that after years of occupying Iraq no one can predict that.
They are undependable.
There is another issue at hand.
In this post cold war world - the weapons the Israelis were using were American made for the most part.
The weapons fired at them from Lebanon were primarily Russian made.
The United States and Russia should both be held responsible for the murders and deaths their weapons have caused. The makers of these weapons have sold them at a profit to people spending aid money and living in countries that are still living in the past.
These people were killing each other and innocent civilians in full knowledge and cold blood.
There is no excuse.
They should not get any money.
They should be punished.
They have not acted in a civilized manner and they spat at the world in general so that they could slake their thirst for blood.
Today I was talking with an acquaintance and I saw on her computer a picture of a city in Japan. I asked what city it was and she told me Hiroshima.
Hiroshima is where one of the atomic bombs was dropped by the United States on Japan in World War 2.
There was a gate in the water so I asked what that was. I think I might have been changing the subject but I could not escape the answer.
The gate in the water marked the entry way to a Shinto shrine on a sacred island just off the coast of mainland Japan.
I had seen photos of Hiroshima from the other side but never from the water - never from this holy island.
So I considered the enormity that was done and I pictured the fireball rising over the sleeping city and I wondered what the monks living on the holy island must have felt as hell was unleashed before their eyes. I wonder what they felt as they realized that this murder had been done directly before the eyes of God.
Then I considered the murder and rapine in the Middle East. I considered how the most holy Christian places are in Jerusalem and nearly every day the Jews and Moslems living there commit atrocities upon each other within sight of them. Even though they are descended from the same wandering tribes they tear at each other with a fury that is unholy.
Instead of calming this situation and demanding that they stop profaning our most holy places George Bush is giving them money so they can do it again.
The Republican Party has lost its head, its heart and its soul.
During the Civil War the Republicans could have taken money from the British and allowed the United States to slide down into anarchy and finally come to rest like the fat and lazy Canada to the north, but they did not. The Republicans of those days fought tooth and nail for freedom and the right to preserve our nation.
What would have happened if President Lincoln had taken a handout from Britain and stepped aside?
What would have happened if Britain supplied both the North and the South with arms and ammunition?
No sane person would consider a situation like that.
Yet our President has not only proposed it he is acting on it with the help of the Republicans in the House and the Senate.
Whatever happens in the next election is of no long term concern for me but I have an unnerving feeling that these actions are not going unnoticed by the highest power and that the wrath of God will be swift and sure to right these wrongs against humanity.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html
I read something from it today that I think is very important.
The exchange between the President and a reporter went like this :
President Bush : “You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.” Reporter’s Question : “What did Iraq have to do with that?”President Bush : “What did Iraq have to do with what?”Reporter’s Question : “The attack on the World Trade Center?”
President Bush responded : “Nothing…”
He then went on in what reads like a fluster about how no one in his administration ever suggested that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack.
He said something else that is cause for concern.
Talking about the recent invasion of Lebanon by Israel he said, “Today, I'm announcing that America will send more aid to support humanitarian and reconstruction work in Lebanon, for a total of more than $230 million.”
He said, “The funds will help the Lebanese people restore key bridges and roads.“
Those ‘key’ bridges and roads were the ones destroyed by the Israelis.
He is proposing $42 million to train and equip Lebanon's armed forces.
At the same he said, “…I'll also work closely with Congress to extend the availability of loan guarantees to help rebuild infrastructure in Israel, infrastructure damaged by Hezbollah's rockets.”
Israel and Lebanon have received billions in American funds already through many different channels. What did they do with that cash? The Israelis spent it on invading another country.
President Bush’s paying off both sides.
He is forgiving these peoples for hating and killing each other even though they do not forgive each other. He does not look like a big man when he does this. He does not make the United States look like a benevolent and wise country - he makes us look the fool.
What is happening here is like paying the murderer and the victim’s family.
It is like giving money to a rapist and the person who has been assaulted.
You can’t buy the world with money.
If you stand for everything you stand for nothing.
What will they do next? The answer is that after years of occupying Iraq no one can predict that.
They are undependable.
There is another issue at hand.
In this post cold war world - the weapons the Israelis were using were American made for the most part.
The weapons fired at them from Lebanon were primarily Russian made.
The United States and Russia should both be held responsible for the murders and deaths their weapons have caused. The makers of these weapons have sold them at a profit to people spending aid money and living in countries that are still living in the past.
These people were killing each other and innocent civilians in full knowledge and cold blood.
There is no excuse.
They should not get any money.
They should be punished.
They have not acted in a civilized manner and they spat at the world in general so that they could slake their thirst for blood.
Today I was talking with an acquaintance and I saw on her computer a picture of a city in Japan. I asked what city it was and she told me Hiroshima.
Hiroshima is where one of the atomic bombs was dropped by the United States on Japan in World War 2.
There was a gate in the water so I asked what that was. I think I might have been changing the subject but I could not escape the answer.
The gate in the water marked the entry way to a Shinto shrine on a sacred island just off the coast of mainland Japan.
I had seen photos of Hiroshima from the other side but never from the water - never from this holy island.
So I considered the enormity that was done and I pictured the fireball rising over the sleeping city and I wondered what the monks living on the holy island must have felt as hell was unleashed before their eyes. I wonder what they felt as they realized that this murder had been done directly before the eyes of God.
Then I considered the murder and rapine in the Middle East. I considered how the most holy Christian places are in Jerusalem and nearly every day the Jews and Moslems living there commit atrocities upon each other within sight of them. Even though they are descended from the same wandering tribes they tear at each other with a fury that is unholy.
Instead of calming this situation and demanding that they stop profaning our most holy places George Bush is giving them money so they can do it again.
The Republican Party has lost its head, its heart and its soul.
During the Civil War the Republicans could have taken money from the British and allowed the United States to slide down into anarchy and finally come to rest like the fat and lazy Canada to the north, but they did not. The Republicans of those days fought tooth and nail for freedom and the right to preserve our nation.
What would have happened if President Lincoln had taken a handout from Britain and stepped aside?
What would have happened if Britain supplied both the North and the South with arms and ammunition?
No sane person would consider a situation like that.
Yet our President has not only proposed it he is acting on it with the help of the Republicans in the House and the Senate.
Whatever happens in the next election is of no long term concern for me but I have an unnerving feeling that these actions are not going unnoticed by the highest power and that the wrath of God will be swift and sure to right these wrongs against humanity.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Global Trade
Global Trade isn’t that hard to figure out.
Maybe British Petroleum wouldn’t be pouring American oil all over the Alaskan tundra, blowing up workers in Texas or controlling more than 80 percent of the oil and gas reserves in the entire state of Wyoming.
How about a few suggestions?
Any company doing business in the United States should be charged a premium on their taxes equal to that of the loss to their American competitor.
Any company doing business in the United States that employs union workers in their home country will be required to provide union jobs and benefits to their American workers equal to that provided to their home country employees and adjusted to match the cost of living in the United States.
Any American company moving manufacturing off shore and them importing or moving finished goods back to the United States for sale will be charged a tax import fee equal to that amount to bring the product in line with prices provided by its nearest competitor based in the United States.
No foreign based company shall be allowed to own land in the United States. 7 year rental contracts may be provided to the owners of the land but no transfer of ownership will take place to a person, entity or corporation outside of the United States or with home offices in a foreign nation.
Any foreign based company will surrender all title and deeds to lands upon which their facilities are currently located and will pay all costs and fees for transferring the titles and deeds to local government and the rent collected from the land and for the real goods and manufacturing machinery will be used by the local government for off setting taxes of American citizens for a period of not less than and not more than 7 years. At the end of the 7 years the local government must surrender the lands in a closed auction that only American citizens will be allowed to participate in. At no time will these deeds and titles be transferable to an individual, entity or corporation outside of the United States.
No foreign company or American company owned all or in part by a foreign individual, entity or corporation shall be able to be engaged in real estate transactions in the United States nor shall they be able to conduct any commercial or home building businesses of any kind.
No foreign company or American company owned all or in part by a foreign individual, entity or corporation shall be able to own or operate farms in the United States for the purpose of growing and exporting from or selling within the United States.
Any American company hiring off shore workers to prepare work or goods to be used and sold in the United States shall pay a tax fee equal to 100 percent of the cost of hiring and paying the off shore worker.
Any foreign company importing materials or goods into the United States through a NAFTA or CAFTA partner shall pay a tax fee equal to 100 percent of the cost of manufacturing, shipping and selling the good in the United States of 1 and a half times the suggested retail price whichever is greater.
Maybe British Petroleum wouldn’t be pouring American oil all over the Alaskan tundra, blowing up workers in Texas or controlling more than 80 percent of the oil and gas reserves in the entire state of Wyoming.
How about a few suggestions?
Any company doing business in the United States should be charged a premium on their taxes equal to that of the loss to their American competitor.
Any company doing business in the United States that employs union workers in their home country will be required to provide union jobs and benefits to their American workers equal to that provided to their home country employees and adjusted to match the cost of living in the United States.
Any American company moving manufacturing off shore and them importing or moving finished goods back to the United States for sale will be charged a tax import fee equal to that amount to bring the product in line with prices provided by its nearest competitor based in the United States.
No foreign based company shall be allowed to own land in the United States. 7 year rental contracts may be provided to the owners of the land but no transfer of ownership will take place to a person, entity or corporation outside of the United States or with home offices in a foreign nation.
Any foreign based company will surrender all title and deeds to lands upon which their facilities are currently located and will pay all costs and fees for transferring the titles and deeds to local government and the rent collected from the land and for the real goods and manufacturing machinery will be used by the local government for off setting taxes of American citizens for a period of not less than and not more than 7 years. At the end of the 7 years the local government must surrender the lands in a closed auction that only American citizens will be allowed to participate in. At no time will these deeds and titles be transferable to an individual, entity or corporation outside of the United States.
No foreign company or American company owned all or in part by a foreign individual, entity or corporation shall be able to be engaged in real estate transactions in the United States nor shall they be able to conduct any commercial or home building businesses of any kind.
No foreign company or American company owned all or in part by a foreign individual, entity or corporation shall be able to own or operate farms in the United States for the purpose of growing and exporting from or selling within the United States.
Any American company hiring off shore workers to prepare work or goods to be used and sold in the United States shall pay a tax fee equal to 100 percent of the cost of hiring and paying the off shore worker.
Any foreign company importing materials or goods into the United States through a NAFTA or CAFTA partner shall pay a tax fee equal to 100 percent of the cost of manufacturing, shipping and selling the good in the United States of 1 and a half times the suggested retail price whichever is greater.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Amway Republicans
Who is the Republican Party putting in the field for 2006 and the Michigan Governor’s office?
Well – actually Dick (Dick) DeVos, President of Amway, has chosen the Republican Party to be his personal vehicle.
Dick is the son of Richard (Dick) DeVos and Helen Van Wesep.
In 1949, Richard (Dick) DeVos and Jay Van Andel formed the Ja-Ri Corporation and began distributing products on a direct sales basis. In 1959, he founded Amway Corporation with a man by the name of Van Andel.
Dick (Dick) DeVos worked for Daddy and inherited his position at Amway by working ‘hard’ as a salesman.
What is Dick (Dick) DeVos selling Michigan and what has the Republican Party bought? The Ada Christian school web site states that Richard (Dick) DeVos, Dick’s father produced "Selling America," a tape recorded talk he gives now and then, and that he has written three books: “BELIEVE!” , “Compassionate Capitalism”, and most recently “Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons for Life” which he wrote after his heart transplant.
What his son, Dick, who is running for Governor has done, isn’t exactly clear. It appears he went to work for Dad, then worked for Dad and then pretty much took Dad’s place at Amway.
In the year of our Lord 2000 the Grand Rapids Christian Schools built the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Arts and Worship – so you can guess that the Christian Crowd will be pulling the lever for DeVos.
Clearly Michigan needs something more than an salesman.
Well – actually Dick (Dick) DeVos, President of Amway, has chosen the Republican Party to be his personal vehicle.
Dick is the son of Richard (Dick) DeVos and Helen Van Wesep.
In 1949, Richard (Dick) DeVos and Jay Van Andel formed the Ja-Ri Corporation and began distributing products on a direct sales basis. In 1959, he founded Amway Corporation with a man by the name of Van Andel.
Dick (Dick) DeVos worked for Daddy and inherited his position at Amway by working ‘hard’ as a salesman.
What is Dick (Dick) DeVos selling Michigan and what has the Republican Party bought? The Ada Christian school web site states that Richard (Dick) DeVos, Dick’s father produced "Selling America," a tape recorded talk he gives now and then, and that he has written three books: “BELIEVE!” , “Compassionate Capitalism”, and most recently “Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons for Life” which he wrote after his heart transplant.
What his son, Dick, who is running for Governor has done, isn’t exactly clear. It appears he went to work for Dad, then worked for Dad and then pretty much took Dad’s place at Amway.
In the year of our Lord 2000 the Grand Rapids Christian Schools built the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Arts and Worship – so you can guess that the Christian Crowd will be pulling the lever for DeVos.
Clearly Michigan needs something more than an salesman.
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