Hail Damage causes delay of STS-117 launch

Hail Damage on
external fuel tank

Houston Chronicle
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL
Golf ball-size hail that pelted space shuttle Atlantis earlier this week, dimpling its fuel tank, did enough damage that NASA has decided to cancel its March launch plans and send the shuttle back inside for repairs.
The launch, planned for March 15, was pushed back to at least late April.

More info at NASA.gov

Illinois Company wins NASA contract

NASA Awards Turbine Pump Assembly Contract for Ares I
"CLEVELAND - NASA has selected Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International Inc. of Rockford, Ill., to design, develop, fabricate, test and deliver engineering models of a turbine pump assembly for the Ares I upper stage thrust vector control subsystem. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract - a competitive award - has a two-year period of performance with a maximum value of $5,009,388.
NASA's Glenn Research Center is the agency's lead for the Ares I upper stage thrust vector control subsystem, part of NASA's Constellation Program...."

News cycle is stuck on stupid again

Michael Ramirez - Investors Business Daily

Black History Month - 'Revelation' about GOP

'Revelation' about GOP
"Nina May speaks with the zeal of a modern-day emancipationist, crusading to rescue the Republican Party's history on civil rights.
"The Republican Party was founded specifically to abolish slavery," says Mrs. May, a writer who lives in McLean. "The first nine planks for the Republican Party dealt with civil rights for blacks. Republicans fought for the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments ... [against] total opposition from the Democrats." Her quest to bring that history to life has resulted in a documentary, 'Emancipation, Revelation, Revolution'..."

DVDs of "Emancipation, Revelation, Revolution" are available online at http://www.errvideo.com
"Emancipation Revelation/Revolution has been released to the public during Black History Month to honor all the incredible achievements that Black Americans have accomplished yet have been left out of the revised version of Black History. . . and also it is exactly 200 years since the abolition of slavery in British Empire."

The liberal way doesn't work, Mr. Durbin

The liberal way doesn't work Belleville News Democrat

Thanks to Ellis Wyatt
for pointing out this editorial.

President Limbaugh

REAL conservatives in the White House in 2009!
Here is a clip from the new series to premiere on Fox News, the "Half Hour News Hour"

Romney is in

Romney formally announces presidential candidacy

Houston Chronicle

DEARBORN, Mich. — "Mitt Romney officially entered the 2008 presidential race today, a former one-term Republican governor of Massachusetts suggesting that his record of leadership inside and outside government uniquely positions him to tackle the country's challenges..."

Photo credit - Fabrizio Costantini for the New York Times

United Nations sanctions on Iran

IAEA Cuts Iran Aid Projects by Half
"The United Nations nuclear agency has suspended nearly half of its technical aid projects to Iran.
A review disclosed Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency found that almost half of its 55 projects with Iran would be affected. The agency is trying to comply with U.N. sanctions placed on Tehran, because of its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment..."





Why only Half? UN sanctions are regularly ignored by some of the member countries. When the UN can't get its own agencies to fully comply with sanctions, it shows the mounting irrelevance of the United Nations. Mad Maumoud is smiling. And still building his little mushroom cloud jihad.

Reagan and Coulter on Marx and Illegal Immigrants

A couple of quotes for the day from REAL conservatives...

"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx."
Ronald Reagan

"Of course illegal immigrants will "work for less." They don't have to pay taxes at all now, and under Bush's plan they will have to pay taxes for only -- at most -- three of the last five years. Not only that, but illegal aliens don't require their employers to comply with OSHA regulations, overtime and minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, disability laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, a slew of oppressive environmental regulations, and 4 million other ways the government has developed to make it extremely expensive to hire legal employees. Instead of creating a separate class of citizens who are immune from oppressive government rules, how about relieving all of us -- even us shiftless Americans -- from the cost of government?"
Ann Coulter
You can read all of Ann's columns on her website, AnnCoulter.com

Blagojevich's new tax pyramiding scheme

Guv's big new biz tax blitz
Crain's Chicago Business

Big biz, small biz: Blago may have tax for you (Quad Cities Online - subscription required)
Kim Maisch, Illinois director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses said, "The concept of a gross-receipts tax is really anti-free enterprise."

I think that our governor should look to see how this is working out in New Mexico before causing a pyramiding taxation disaster for Illinois busisnesses just to further fund his outlandish spending habits. A Gross Receipts Tax is regressive and unfair to citizens and businesses located in our state and to consumers everywhere.

New Mexico's Gross Receipts Tax:
What Not to Do in State Taxation

Warning to other states...
"In their new study, “New Mexico’s Harmful Gross Receipts Tax: A Warning to Other States,” Dr. Harry Messenheimer and Paul Gessing expose the ways in which services are often taxed multiple times for a single transaction. The authors also explain why gross receipts taxes like New Mexico’s are a boon to special interests, but killers for economic growth..." click here for more from FreeLiberal.com about this study...

The study can be found online here in pdf.

Non-stop Nancy

So...
Nancy Pelosi demands a jumbo jet, although no rep in Congress has ever had one before. She doesn't feel that the plane that Speaker Dennis Hastert used is big enough for all of her assistants, lobbyists, family members, AND her oversized ego, nor can it fly non-stop from DC to the Left Coast.
Her "request" for a military transport jet with all the bells and whistles will cost over 5 times the rate that the former Speaker's plane would have cost. (more than $15,000,000 per year)
Is the projected $300,000.00 per trip in the best interests of the taxpayers? I don't think so.

Getting in touch with reality, here in fly over country, a few moments of her time would be well spent during refueling at an Illinois, Kentucky or Kansas Air Force base and could likely do her some good.
Put your feet back on the ground, Nancy.

More on this story:
Of Nancy Pelosi, Air Travel Excesses, and "Military Free" San Francisco

Hillary Rodham Chavez

Hillary seems to have been listening to Hugo, and is convinced by her loony leftward moonbat focus groups that the government should be allowed to spend the profits of American businesses.

Hugo Chavez (Anti-American, Ruthless Socialist Dictator, confiscator of property) = Hillary Rodham Clinton (Anti-American values, Ruthless Socialist presidential candidate)

Birthday of a true conservative

RNC Chairman Mike Duncan today released the following statement honoring President Ronald Reagan’s birthday and his vision for America:
“Today, we celebrate Ronald Reagan and his principles: lower taxes, limited government, the power of the individual, and the strength of freedom over tyranny. These are ideals we continue to strive to follow today. We miss President Reagan, but we honor him by working to realize his vision for a strong, safe America.”

Looking For the Exit

Chris Muir - Day By Day

Global Warming strikes the Midwest

Al Gore Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

We got your prize right HERE, Al...

Translation Guide - Speaking Democrat

The Republican's Translation Guide: What Are Democrats Really Saying?
by John Hawkins
Have you ever noticed that famous Democrats like Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and Jessie Jackson seem to lie all the time? Well they're not really lying! You just need to learn to speak Democrat. That's why RWN created this handy, dandy, translation guide so you can understand what Democrats actually mean.

Trusting a mad man

THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP AND JAMES BAKER - TRUSTING A MAD MAN