“While Al Franken, Harry Reid and their allies will likely continue their efforts to short-circuit Minnesota election law, you can be assured that I will continue fighting to ensure the Minnesota voters — and nobody else! — will truly decide who won this election.”
Source: MnIndy
The following is the latest missive from Shawn Otto:
Last Friday you and others in the science community took action and helped to restore $3.1 billion in cuts to science that had been planned in the Senate compromise version of the stimulus bill. That was a good victory for U.S. Science, but it was just the warm-up act. Now we all need to come together as a community for the real show.
Even after the $3.1 billion restoration, the final approved Senate version of the stimulus bill falls far short of the House version when it comes to science and technology. You can look at the differences between the two here.
As you can see, DOE/OOS, NSF, and NIH all get much less in the Senate version than they do in the House.
We believe this is a mistake, and we want your help in doing something about it.
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW:
The House and Senate have each appointed members to a conference committee. The conference committee is charged with bringing these two versions of the bill into conformity. Then the final, unified bill will be presented to both bodies for a vote, and if it passes, to President Obama for his signature. Acknowledging those among us who question whether research should be included in a stimulus package to begin with, now is the time that you can have a major impact on the future of science in this country. Rep. Rush Holt, one of the two bipartisan co-chairs of Science Debate 2008, gave this speech on the House floor on Tuesday.
HERE’S WHAT TO DO:
Contact the 10 members of the conference committee. A personal telephone call is by far the most powerful, followed by a personal email or fax. Here is their contact information. Click the name to go to an on line email form:
David Obey (D-WI)
Phone: (202) 225-3365
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Phone: (202) 224-3542
Fax: (202) 224-7327
Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Phone: (202) 225-4365
Fax: (202) 225-0816
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Phone: (202) 224-2651
Fax: (202) 224-9412
Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Phone: (202) 225-3976
Fax: (202) 225-4099
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Phone: (202) 224-3934
Fax: (202) 224-6747
Dave Camp (R-MI)
Phone: (202) 225-3561
Fax: (202) 225-9679
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Phone: (202) 224-5054
Well, that’s not exactly what they are saying, but it is what they are doing. Or at least trying to do.
To stamp out voter fraud, GOP legislators have offered a proposal that would make Minnesota’s voter-ID laws the most restrictive in the country. But according to their own party, no actual cases of voter fraud have been reported here. Still Reps. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, and Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, have sponsored a bill requiring photo identification for every voter.
…
Hat tip: Ana
Hat Tip: Hello Negro. Read HN’s commentary on this, here.
This was at the Washington Press Club. A sample of her jokes:
“I’d like to make this as short as Bill Richardson’s tenure as Commerce Secretary,” she opened. “I raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends — true story! I know that is the record in the Senate, but in the House it’s held by Barney Frank.” Roars of laughter, even from Frank.
Then she turned to the “great reporters? in this room — all of whom got scooped on the John Edwards story by the National Enquirer.” She promised not to be too rough with them, though, since “I’m all about protecting endangered species.”
Perhaps best of all: “Typically a Republican and a Democrat speak at this — you could have saved a lot of money by asking Joe Lieberman.” […]
She may have even been too funny. One line — that her position as a member of the subcommittee on oceans from Minnesota was as incongruous as an ethics committee member from Illinois — led an audience wag to crack that, “she may be on the committee on oceans for a long time.”
Source of story: MnIndy
Hat Tip: Ana T. Blogless
This is direct from Shawn Otto:
This is direct from Shawn Otto:
Several people have emailed suggestions I will share with everyone:
1. WHAT TO DO: call and email your two U.S. senators. Contact from a constituent on a wonky issue like this will have enormous influence. Calling is better than email, but do both if you can.
Go here to find your Senator, and select your state in the drop down box in the upper right hand corner.
Tell them in your own words to reject the reduction effort in the stimulus bill led by Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME) when it comes to science.
Note that most Senator’s web pages contain a form (e.g. – CONTACT ME) that you can fill out to contact the Senator. Also, use your own words since identical messages get rejected by the Senators’ staff. You can adapt language from my previous email or from below, but be sure to personalize it.
2. TALKING POINTS:
A) Science & technology have produced half of the economic growth of the United States since WWII.
B) Spending on basic research is the single greatest economic engine this country has ever known.
C) Funding to federal granting agencies is about as “shovel-ready” a stimulus as you can get. If the granting agencies lower their score thresholds for awards across the board the money will be flowing within months, leading to rapid hiring and increased purchasing from technical service and supply companies that are largely American, and creating thousands of the kinds of high-quality jobs the country needs.
I just received this note from Sean Otto of ScienceDebate 2008:
I am writing to alert you to efforts underway this morning to zero out a large portion of the science funding from the Senate American Reinvestment and Recovery Act as a part of a $77.9B reduction effort led by Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME).
As you know better than most, science and technology are responsible for half of the economic development of the United States since WWII and yet, if current trends hold, some, such as the Business Roundtable, have predicted that 90% of all scientists and engineers will live in Asia within 5 years.
The United States simply MUST renew our investment in the single greatest economic engine this country has ever known. Small federal investments in scientific research have helped produce things like the internet and the transistor that have consistently delivered multi-trillion dollar economies.
The United States is at a critical juncture, and if this concerns you we suggest now would be a time to contact your Senators and urge them to support science funding. Here is what is being proposed to be cut from the bill, according to TPM:
NASA exploration $750,000,000 = 50%
NSF $1,402,000,000 = 100%
NOAA $427,000,000 = 34.94%
NIST $218,000,000 = 37.91%
DOE energy efficiency & renewable energy $1,000,000,000 = 38%
DOE office of science $100,000,000 = 100%
Every state (except mine) has two senators. You need to contact them immediately in order to fix this. Find your senator here
Those of us who have been following former Sen….So it is no surprise that Norm wants to sidestep campaign finance law and use his campaign funds to pay for his defense against the FBI investigation into the charges of not reporting the gifts totaling $75,000.
Hat Tip: Ana.
Human Events is a right wing email newsletter and magazine/publishing thingie that regularly spews out the puss produced by such notable festering sores on the asscrack of humanity known as Anne Coulter and Pat Buchanan, with frequent contributions by Chuck Norris and others. I used to subscribe in order to keep an eye on them.
But now that they have been rendered utterly irrelevant (and will soon be joining David Duke in the new party to replace the Republican Party, which in turn was totally ruined by being led by a black guy), I’ve stopped paying attention.
That is all.
At 1:00 PM Central Time court procedings being in the Franken-Coleman senate race. A three judge state court will ultimately hear and rule on a lawsuit essentially filed by Coleman’s team. The suit, an “election contest,” alleges a number of problems with the current nearly-certified recount which gives Franken a small lead over Coleman.
All of these issues have been previously aired, and some but not all addressed by the State Canvassing Board. Most analysts currently believe that none of these alleged problems are real, or material in relation to the outcome of this election. Coleman may well agree with this as he has already accepted a position as a lobbyist for a Republican Jewish interest group. Which is kinda funny, but might make sense in a Minnesota context. But not really.
I’ll keep you posted.
The following is a proof developed by a number of economists at Harvard. It is a proof of the inability of women to understand technologically complex problems, math, engineering, that sort of thing. it is claimed that it almost always works.
Now, I’m not saying that Larry Summers was party to this proof, or even in the room at the time. I’m. Not. Saying. That.
Continue reading I’m a little worried
I don’t pretend to understand everything I see.