Sunday Morning Open Thread
— andy

Time change, huh?

Now they tell me.

Posted by: andy at 04:01 AM | Comments (202)
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Overnight Open Thread
— CDR M

Ah, the Green Navy. It just does not make sense to me how we're going about this or even why the Navy is involved. DoD And Navy Persist With Bio-fuels, Like It Or Not.

Whatever the ultimate source of the recent pushback to the Navy Department’s alternative energy plans, it apparently is not working. The service announced Friday that it undertook its latest test with biofuels at sea, this time aboard the frigate USS Ford. The Ford sailed down to San Diego from its homeport in Everett, Wash. on a 50–50 blend of biofuel and marine diesel, and the ship’s main engines drank it down just fine.
The announcement did not say how much the Navy paid for the biofuel the Ford burned, but at, letÂ’s say, $16 per gallon times half the 25,000 gallons, thatÂ’s about $200,000 for just the biofuel in this test. Compare that to roughly $75,000 for a load of standard marine diesel, and you can see where the cost argument comes from.

Mabus and other alternative fuel boosters acknowledge upfront the service is paying a lot more than it would for traditional petroleum, but thatÂ’s the point: The Navy has to help fuel-makers cover their research and it has to create a market and economies of scale that could one day make biofuel competitive. Even if biofuel does not cost the same as oil, Mabus has said, it could still be a better deal for the Navy because it would be immune from the price shocks that can hit the standard energy market.

It's all just BS. Pay a whole lot more for something that is much harder to get access to due to limited resupply points and its rarity in the global market. Not to mention it's many times more expensive in an era of DoD budget cuts. The Navy shouldn't be "helping the fuel-makers cover their research, create the bio-fuel market" etc. They should be focusing on readiness, training and maintenance. This news does not help the green cause either. Amyris Gives Up Making Biofuels.

This is a common theme for advanced biofuels companies. Range Fuels, one of the first of the current crop of companies, recently went out of business. Others are giving up on making biofuels too, also hoping to break into markets for higher value chemicals.

more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:48 PM | Comments (918)
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Old and Busted: This is the Summer of Obama
The New Hotness: Obama's Incomplete Greatness
[ArthurK]
— Open Blogger

Last year, Steven Marche of Esquire wrote a mash note to Pres. Obama that was so over the top it was ripped three times just on this blog.

You remember! this one...

Before the policy choices have to be weighed and the hard decisions have to be made, can we just take a month or two to contemplate him the way we might contemplate a painting by Vermeer or a guitar lick by the early-seventies Rolling Stones or a Peyton Manning pass or any other astounding, ecstatic human achievement? Because twenty years from now, we're going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph. Whatever happens this fall or next, the summer of 2011 is the summer of Obama.

That was fun. But we're fully in election mode now and it's time for another MBMer to step up and announce his devotion to our beloved God-King.

Paul Glastris... Come On Down!

Measured in sheer legislative tonnage, what Obama got done in his first two years is stunning. Health care reform. The takeover and turnaround of the auto industry. The biggest economic stimulus in history. Sweeping new regulations of Wall Street. A tough new set of consumer protections on the credit card industry. A vast expansion of national service. Net neutrality. The greatest increase in wilderness protection in fifteen years. A revolutionary reform to student aid. Signing the New START treaty with Russia. The ending of "don’t ask, don’t tell."

Many of these should be counts on a bill of impeachment...

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:32 PM | Comments (658)
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Romney Campaign Swag! AOSHQ **EXCLUSIVE!!**
— LauraW

We got this stuff through a friend of the guy down at the place near that bar that time.
Merchandise that was rejected by the top brass in the Romney campaign. But I don't know why. It's good stuff. Might as well put it out there. Besides, it didn't cost nuthin'.

We here at AOSHQ have decided to distribute these discarded tchotchkes to help conservatives cast their vote for Romney.

I have to say, I'm impressed with the quality, but especially the thoughtfulness. These Romney people, they know conservatives. They know you.

These are useful things. Behold. more...

Posted by: LauraW at 09:02 AM | Comments (359)
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NASA claims debate wins over Mayans*. [krakatoa]
— Open Blogger

NASA, finding that putting humans in space, much less on other solar bodies, is far too demanding has taken to debunking the Mayans.

(As an aside -- shouldn't they just drop the "S"? I guess "NAA" just sounds too negative.)

That whole 2012, end-of-the-world thing? Head of the Near-Earth Objects Program Office at NASA Don Yeomans says it's all a bunch of hoo-ha.

If that's not enough to kill your sense of wonder and doom, another NASA brain with apparently plenty of free time now that they aren't in the Space business anymore has gone and debunked this:

Now if only they could apply some of that logic, deductive reasoning and common sense to other doomsday myths, like, say, the whole AGW cult, they might actually start to redeem themselves. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:10 AM | Comments (138)
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Don't ruin your weekend. [krakatoa]
— Open Blogger

I'm warning you now not to read the link. It's going to make that vein in your forehead start to throb, which you would find morbidly ironic were you to click the link to see what I was talking about.

It's almost Spring. In a lot of places, the weather is turning for the better. Turn off the computer and go enjoy the real world for a day or two.

I read this before flying out of Sacramento, and while everyone before me got to go through the old-school metal detector, when it was my turn they closed that line and shuffled me through the cancer machine.

They then promptly closed the death-box, and everyone behind me got to go through the metal detector.

I blame the bad luck and the promise of an early and painful death on having read this article.

Save yourselves, and don't read this article. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:37 AM | Comments (97)
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Saturday Morning Open Thread
— andy

I hate to kick the weekend off on a somber note, but Dave in Texas' father passed away yesterday evening. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Posted by: andy at 04:45 AM | Comments (229)
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Overnight Open Thread
— CDR M

As they say, history tends to repeat itself. Are current events in the Arab world beginning to look similar to previous historical times? Arnaud De Borchgrave thinks so. Is Syria 2011 The Spain Of 1936?

The Spanish civil war (1936-39) killed 500,000 as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union backed opposite sides -- and Franco's fascists emerged victorious and remained in power until 1975.

In the Middle East, Syria's civil war -- which some observers are calling Spain II, or a prelude to World War III -- has been under way since Feb. 17, 2011. Saudi Arabia is helping arm Syrian rebels who now call themselves revolutionaries. Russia and China are backing the Syrian dictatorship, which is allied with Iran.

Russia, China and Iran are on the side of Syria's "Alouite dictatorship" headed by Bashar Assad. He inherited the country's dictatorship from his father Hafez who died in 2000 after almost 30 years in power.

Last week, a hastily organized Syrian plebiscite for a new constitution theoretically dissolved one-party rule but, also theoretically, gives Bashar Assad 18 more years in power for a total of 28, just one year shy of his father's record.

Between the end of the French mandate in 1945 and the military takeover of air force chief Gen. Hafez Assad in 1970, Syria experienced 21 coups. So no one is taking any bets on Assad's political longevity.

Unless Iran's current view of a rapidly declining U.S. superpower can be reversed, a number of Arab Gulf rulers will be tempted into longer lasting accommodation with Tehran.

more...

Posted by: CDR M at 06:15 PM | Comments (757)
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Ed Shultz Pockets $200,000 From Unions While Shouting Nonsensically About Them
— Ace

Shouting nonsensically in a good way, I mean. I mean, he means it to be in a good way.

I don't understand what this Angry Red Faced Fat Old White Man is saying half the time. I assume he's pro-union.

Should this be a big story? I suppose it should, as MSNBC is supposedly a "news organization."

But it's a clownshow. Everyone knows it's a clownshow. The clowns on it know it's a clownshow.

In related news, a hooker will give you a blow-jay for $50.

In fiscal 2011, Schultz received $190,000 from the Communications Workers of America for what the U.S. Department of Labor categorized as "representational activities."

For swag like that, you'd think Schultz could at least get it right about the CWA name. Instead, he invariably refers to it as the "Communication" Workers of America when its president, Larry Cohen, is a guest on Schultz's radio show, as Cohen often is.

Schultz also received $9,900 in fiscal 2011 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), putting his union haul for the year at almost $200,000.

[breakdown of Howlin' Ed's union haul from 2007-2011 omitted; see the link]

All told, Schultz has been paid $337,490 by unions in the last seven years, according to the Labor Department. These same records show no payments from unions to Schultz between fiscal years 2000 to 2004 -- before Schultz became such a passionate advocate for unions over the airwaves.

Isn't this payola?

Even if Howlin' Ed broke no laws here, doesn't basic ethics require disclosure?

Disclosure isn't hard. Honest people tend to disclose reflexively, without being nudged to do so. If I have some conflict or interest, I can write about a story, but I should at least note that I may have some bias in the background.

Is that so hard? No, it's not.

Meanwhile Howlin' Ed is pocketing almost $350,000 from unions, while having their officials on for interviews frequently, and not saying boo about his direct financial interest in promoting unions.

And then in 2010 his payment is listed as "union administration." What does that mean? I guess "pay-for-play" sounded too... accurate.

Verum Serum wants to know if MSNBC knew -- and if they knew, why they didn't insist on disclosure?

Either Ed lied to MSNBC, or Ed told the truth to MSNBC, and then MSNBC lied to its viewers.

Someone lied.

Here's what I think: I think the left is all-in in this election. I think we stand on a teeter-totter between full-on socialism and a massive repudiation of it. I think the left knows that, and this is do or die for them.

I hope we get there, too.

Posted by: Ace at 05:11 PM | Comments (189)
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Peyton Manning Meeting With Broncos
— Ace

About replacing Tim Tebow.

A reporter -- this is an odd citation; the source is a reporter -- says this:

“This has to be exciting for the average Broncos fan. Certainly, this puts Tim Tebow’s future in doubt here in Denver and the reports that we have heard were if the Broncos were able to land Manning they would make an attempt to trade Tim Tebow. So there’s no question the Broncos are all in on Manning. They want to make him the next quarterback of the Denver Broncos,” said Miller.

“If things go the way they want, Manning will be playing for the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow will be playing elsewhere. The Broncos are determined that Peyton Manning is the man they want to be their quarterback.”

Not sure why you wouldn't keep Tebow anyway, let him get some coaching from an all-time great like Manning. That's usually the way with younger talents. They pick up some fading star to carry the load while the young QB learns from him. The Giants did that when they picked up Kurt Warner; they had him for a year, then started Eli.

Peyton Manning may have a Super Bowl left in him, but are the Broncos on the cusp of being a Super Bowl team? Unless they are ready for the big game, except for the quarterback, it doesn't make sense to pick up a very pricey older star.

Posted by: Ace at 04:33 PM | Comments (154)
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