Blackwater (Presidential Airways) gets new $92 million contract, but that's not the interesting part
I've just recently read about Presidential Airways at wired.com and thought that'll make a nice short little blog in itself, but, since posting to this website is all voluntary and only done in our spare time, I completely forgot all about it because I just didn't have the time until I ran across the following ... and had to make time

Ever see this plane??? ... Hold that thought

So, last week I'm reading thinkprogress.org and run across the story below and of course have to read it.

Pentagon Issues Blackwater New $92 Million Contract

[Scroll down to the third paragraph. I'm going to emphasize a few things]

    Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 Oct. 2007 to 30 September 2011.

Well, well, well, Presidential Airways, we meet again. Whooda thunk it? Do you know what an IDIQ contract is? IDIQ stands for Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity, which means they get their $92 million contract no matter what; they could make 1,000 flights for the DoD or they could only be obligated for one flight and they would still get the $92 million of your tax payer supported money.

Science Friday: 50th anniversary of Sputnik / Geekdads show how to build your own water rocket
First history, then scroll down for the fun

.

With Fear and Wonder in Its Wake, Sputnik Lifted Us Into the Future

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: September 25, 2007

    Fifty years ago, before most people living today were born, the beep-beep-beep of Sputnik was heard round the world. It was the sound of wonder and foreboding. Nothing would ever be quite the same again — in geopolitics, in science and technology, in everyday life and the capacity of the human species.

Healthcare video alerts
.

The first is on SCHIP and the second is on the hi-jacking of the California healthcare plans by the insurance industry

Send a message to Congress about SCHIP here, or here

Send a free fax to your legislators about California healthcare here
Comix
Click the pics
.
You how you can tell when she's lying? It's when her eyes get really big

Nancy Pelosi admits she's useless when it comes to Iraq ... and is contemptuous about it

      BLITZER: But you could in the House of Representatives use your power of the purse, the money, to stop funding the war if you really wanted to.

      PELOSI: I wish the speaker had all the power you just describe. I certainly could do that. That doesn't bar the minority from bringing up a funding resolution. They have their parliamentary prerogative as well.

So, is she admitting that every penny that goes to fund the occupation is at the prerogative of Dinos, such as herself, Rahm Emanuel and Harry Reid?

      BLITZER: So, are you telling your angry base out there in the Democratic Party that wants to see this war over with, wants to see the U.S. troops home, that you, as speaker, there's nothing you can do, you have to just throw your hands up and say...

Gary Webb Vindicated by the Crash of N987SA

CIA "Rendition" Plane brought down in Mexico with FOUR TONS of Cocaine on board

    U.S. authorities are assisting the Mexican government in the investigation of an American business jet that crashed near Cancun this week with four tons of cocaine on board, officials said Thursday.

    One of the men listed as the registered owners of the plane, Joao Luiz Malago, said in a telephone interview from Brazil that his Florida-based company sold the aircraft for $2 million on Sept. 16 to a Lakeland, Fla., man and his partner, who Malago believed was from Miami.

    Malago said he feared the man was dead because he hasn’t been picking up the phone.

    Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico had no information on any American citizens being killed or arrested in connection with the aircraft, a 1975 model Gulfstream II.

    “We’re in the process of a judicial investigation that the Mexican government is conducting and we are providing information,” said an embassy official, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. “Part of that investigation is to find out more about where this plane came from and who had it before.”

    Some news reports have linked the plane to the transport of terrorist suspects to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but those reports cite logs that indicate only that the plane flew twice between Washington, D.C., and Guantanamo and once between Oxford, Conn., and Guantanamo. No terrorist suspects are known to have been transferred to Guantanamo directly from the United States.

Science Friday: Birds Can "See" Earth's Magnetic Field

Birds Can "See" Earth's Magnetic Field

John Roach
for National Geographic News
September 27, 2007

    To find north, humans look to a compass. But birds may just need to open their eyes, a new study says.

    Scientists already suspected birds' eyes contain molecules that are thought to sense Earth's magnetic field. In a new study, German researchers found that these molecules are linked to an area of the brain known to process visual information.

    In that sense, "birds may see the magnetic field," said study lead author Dominik Heyers, a biologist at the University of Oldenburg.

California/Texas GOP scheme to steal electoral votes falls apart and Texas GOP voting hypocrisy

Electoral initiative backers give up

    Plagued by a lack of money, supporters of a statewide initiative drive to change the way California's 55 electoral votes are apportioned, first revealed here by Top of the Ticket in July, are pulling the plug on that effort.

    In an exclusive report to appear on this website late tonight and in Friday's print editions, The Times' Dan Morain reports that the proposal to change the winner-take-all electoral vote allocation to one by congressional district is virtually dead with the resignation of key supporters, internal disputes and a lack of funds.

    The reality is hundreds of thousands of signatures must be gathered by the end of November to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot.


Texas Hypocrisy

    Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle (R) says she is concerned about the same person voting twice at the polls, so she is trying to pass a law requiring that anyone who wants to vote must have a photo ID. Another Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill that would "criminalize anyone who delivers a ballot for someone unable to drive to the polls."

    Here's a video showing Rep. Riddle and many of her fellow representatives voting twice on the same issue in the legislature.

    Later in the video, Riddle explains why its OK for her to cast ballots in other people's names: "We have a lot of votes. We have a lot of amendments. And there's times where we don't break for lunch, and we don't break for dinner, we don't have bathroom breaks."

Security Guards and West Sac cops assault and arrest Port of Sacramento workers for "trespassing" (???)

From Wu Ming's blog, surfputah

    I came across this post a couple of days ago, and was waiting to see what the Sac Bee said about it, but I haven't seen any mention of it surface so far. From the Maritime Worker Monitor:

      On August 23, West Sacramento cops and private SSA security guards viciously attacked, two Local 10 brothers returning to work after lunch on the SSA terminal. When the guards demanded to search the car, the brothers asked to see the MARSEC (maritime security) reg and called the Local 10 business agent. This enraged the guards who called the cops. While talking by phone to BA MacKay and without provocation, they were assaulted, dragged from the car, maced and jailed, charged with “trespassing”. How the hell can a longshoreman be “trespassing”, after returning to work at the terminal. They’d already shown PMA ID and a driver’s license. This is racial profiling and police brutality. The longshoremen were black and the cops white. Such is the brutal face of the “war on terror” on the docks. It’ll get worse unless we take united action to defend these brothers. An injury to two is an injury to all!

    With noone else reporting on it, this is pretty much the only side of the story we've got, although I suspect more will come out at the trial in Woodland next Thusday morning. The longshoremen have called for protests at the Courthouse:

      All Out for ILWU Protest
      Rally at Yolo County Superior Court
      213 Third St.; Woodland, CA
      Thursday October 4, 2007
      BUSES LEAVE FROM LOCAL 10 @ 6AM — Oct. 4

Click header for the entire post with links

Lend a hand to kids in need! SCHIP vote today in the House!
Toll-free numbers to the switchboard (via katymine):

1 (800) 828 - 0498
1 (800) 459 - 1887
1 (800) 614 - 2803
1 (866) 340 - 9281
1 (866) 338 - 1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437

Christy @ FDL:

    SCHIP is also up for a vote TODAY, and there are several legislators that need a big nudge toward doing the right thing for children in America. Here’s the bottom line: the amount of money we would spend for 6 weeks in Iraq, could cover 10 million children in America for five whole years.

    Having worked with at risk children in abuse and neglect cases, I can tell you first hand how important early intervention health care can be for these kids. This is especially true for children with developmental and other medical delays and with chronic medical conditions, where early and appropriate health care can remediate and often help to somewhat correct issues that would cost taxpayers a lot more down the road in educational services and chronic medical care.

The edgy-kay-shin prezidint
Humor · News · Video
Click

Tue, 09/25/2007 - 11:13am.

    President Bush concluded his remarks several minutes ago, and I just got my hands on the text of his speech. Several of the foreign names in the draft include handy phonetic pronunciations. Want to talk like the president? Here's how to do it:

      * Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan]
      * Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a]
      * Harare [hah-RAR-ray]
      * Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee]
      * Sarkozy [sar-KO-zee]
      * Caracas [kah-RAH-kus]

    Oddly, there are no training wheels in the draft for the toughest name of all: that of Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, which I can't even pronounce.

Science Friday: Video on Stem Cell Research / New Cancer Tests; one for Lung Cancer, and one for Oral Cancer
Stem Cell video [click]

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Lung-Cancer Blood Test

A pharmaceutical company is developing a highly sensitive test that could catch the deadly disease in its early stages.

By Katherine Bourzac

    Lung cancer kills more Americans than any other cancer. Doctors know that smokers and former smokers are at much greater risk than the rest of the population, yet there's no safe way to screen them, and lung tumors are rarely discovered in early, more curable stages.

    Now researchers at a Gaithersburg, MD, pharmaceutical company say they have found that 99 percent of patients with all stages of lung cancer have detectable levels of a particular protein in their blood that healthy individuals do not. The company, Panacea Pharmaceuticals, is reporting encouraging preliminary results for its test for the protein this week at a conference of the American Association for Cancer Research. The company is working toward federal approval to market the test for high-risk patients.

    "Lung cancer is the only major cancer with no approved screening procedure," points out David Carbone, director of Vanderbilt University's Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's research program in lung cancer. Smokers and former smokers have a ten- to fiftyfold greater risk of developing lung cancer. But "there's no way to detect [lung cancer] before they're coughing up blood and suffering shoulder pain," signs of advanced cancer, says Carbone.

These lunch sacks issued by the State of California and 'Made in China' may contain lead

State issues warning on lunch boxes

The promotional items handed out by health officials may contain elevated levels of lead.

By Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:46 PM PDT, September 20, 2007

    More than 50,000 lunch boxes given out by the state as part of its nutrition education effort may contain elevated levels of lead and the public should stop using them, officials said today.

    The California Department of Public Health said testing found increased lead levels in three lunch boxes, which were made in China. They are green canvas and bear a logo that says, "Eat fruits & vegetables and be active." Officials urged the public to stop using the roughly 56,000 such boxes that have been handed out at health fairs and other events.

Greenspan's Legacy

Sad Alan’s Lament

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 17, 2007

    When President Bush first took office, it seemed unlikely that he would succeed in getting his proposed tax cuts enacted. The questionable nature of his installation in the White House seemed to leave him in a weak political position, while the Senate was evenly balanced between the parties. It was hard to see how a huge, controversial tax cut, which delivered most of its benefits to a wealthy elite, could get through Congress.

    Then Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, testified before the Senate Budget Committee.

Happy Constitution Day! Celebrate by helping to restore Habeas Corpus
Listen to our friend Dave, on what Congress
did by passing the Military Commisions Act [click the pic]

You can do something to change this by calling ...

Sen. Feinstein
phone # (202) 224-3841

Sen. Boxer
phone # (202) 224-3553

Christy @ FDL:

    The Senate will again take up the Habeas Restoration Act. Sens. Leahy and Dodd are asking for our help. While restoring the rule of law and voting to uphold the principles written into our nation’s constitution ought to be a given, it, unfortunately, has not been the last few years.

    From the restorehabeas.org website:

      The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act gives us a chance to reverse one of the Bush Administration’s many assaults on our civil liberties.

      We all want to make America safe from terrorism, but becoming a nation that sanctions the unlawful detention of its own residents — detaining and jailing them without the chance to appear before a judge — does not make us safe. Instead, it violates a value that we have held dear for centuries — safeguarding our individual freedom before arbitrary state action.

The Movie Proposal

"Would you like another cup of coffee, sir?" said the waitress as she walked by.

"No, no thank you," replied Jem as he sat in the old fashioned diner he and his parents went to when they needed to get out of the house and just have a piece of pie and see old friends

He looked furtively at his watch and thought, "Where is he? Where is George?" He again looked down, this time at his new screenplay, the one that is going to get him out of this too long of a slump and maybe then he can buy his house back that he had to sell because of his lean times. He was just asking himself if he remembered to put money in the parking meter when he heard a voice calling his name from across the diner.

"Jem, you son of a gun, this better be good. I was on my way to my house in Italy when I got your message."

"Oh, it is," said Jem, in his best fake confident voice, because he knew this might be the last shot.

George looked at him with a twinkle in his eye, "I believe you." He caught the waitress' eye and said, "I'll take a cup a joe and a piece of apple pie, please." He looked back at Jem and said "whaddaya have there for me?" As he picked up the script and looked at it, which said "Nukes at Midnight". Alright Jem give me the final scene.

Jem starts, "That's just a working title. Anyway it's a thriller. Sort of Seven Days in May meets Broken Arrow meets Dr. Strangelove meets Operation Northwoods that's set in .."

Science Friday: The speed of sound and the Prandtl-Glauert singularity
Quicktime video
Here's the story behind the picture:
    Through the viewfinder of his camera, Ensign John Gay could see the fighter plane drop from the sky heading toward the port side of the aircraft carrier Constellation. At 1,000 feet, the pilot drops the F/A-18C Hornet to increase his speed to 750 mph, vapor flickering off the curved surface of the plane. In the precise moment a cloud in the shape of a farm-fresh egg forms around the Hornet 200 yards from the carrier, its engines rippling the Pacific Ocean just 75 feet below, Gay hears an explosion and snaps his camera shutter once.

    "I clicked the same time I heard the boom, and I knew I had it," Gay said. What he had was a technically meticulous depiction of the sound barrier being broken July 7, 1999, somewhere on the Pacific between Hawaii and Japan.

Much of what's wrong with politicians brought to light in two stories in Sacramento
Two perfect examples of why people distrust their government

Editorial notebook: A small K Street restaurant goes under, leaving a void and a bitter owner

Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, September 9, 2007
Story appeared in FORUM section, Page E6

    Before McCormick & Schmick's, the upscale Portland seafood chain, opened its new eatery in the elegant Elks building on J Street in downtown Sacramento, it received $1.8 million from the city of Sacramento to help with remodeling. Half came in the form of a grant; half was a loan.

    In sharp and depressing contrast, Griselda Barajas, former owner of the now closed Texas Mexican Restaurant, received $60,000 in moving expenses from the city's redevelopment agency -- and the bum's rush.

    Tex Mex closed one year ago last month. At the time, I lamented in these columns its departure from the downtown dining scene -- a family restaurant that served good food at reasonable prices, popular with everyone, sacrificed to downtown redevelopment.

OMG it's true: Shrub takes orders from E.T. (1999 and 2007 editions) That's hot!
.

Wonkette has the video
Hillary v. Hillary
DINO's · War
.