yo

Howdy Blue Texan!

demi, if you’ve migrated here:

You have mail at rr.com…*g*

I wish I was sittin right under the X
in Texas!

Good morning Blue Texan.

OT - I can’t believe the bullshitreports that the press is echoing about the logic behind shooting down the spy satellite.

1) Hitting the satellite will cause all the resulting pieces to slow down
Conservation of momentum, anyone? For every piece that slows down, another will speed up, not counting the accelerating effect of the blast itself. Some of the pieces may possibly be blown back into orbit, into an unpredictable orbit until it stabilizes.

2) The resulting pieces will more reliably fall in the ocean
Instead of being all or nothing, they are settling for 60-70%?

3) The impacts will be easier to predict
Since when has 10,000 pieces been easier to keep an eye on than just one?

Like someone said yesterday, its just an opportunity to show off the capabilities to intercept a missile…if it works at all.

Happy Friday.

Or…

Will Hillary Latino Advantage Hold in Texas?

Just sayin’.

Actually, also in Austin, I have seen numerous Obama I approved this message spots; sometimes up against the HRC ones. His are primarily about health care, and he tells the story of his mother’s cancer death and problems with health care. He ends with something like “in order to change the system, we have to change Washington.” I probably saw them on NBC, but not sure. But they have been quite regular and frequent. (I know because I have been home sick for several days!)

It will be a real novelty, voting in a primary that actually matters.

How many of the 126 each senate district gets, however, is determined by complex formulae that reward high turnouts of Democrats in the last two elections. And because the six most-heavily Latino senatorial districts have recorded such low turnouts, each will get only three or four national delegates.

Because turnout is much higher in Texas’ two most heavily African American districts, in Austin’s District 14, and in District 25, one district will get eight national delegates, one will get seven, and two will get six nominating delegates each.

Wonder if Hill will challenge that?

As a Democrat and political junkie in a state that normally isn’t in play, I’m psyched.

As a Wisconsinite, I totally agree. I too am psyched!

Anecdotal (sp?) only but the people I talk to here in Tx, including r’s, prefer Obama by a 3 to 1 margin. I am in the Austin area which is heavily Dem. Everyone seems to be very excited by the upcoming primary.

Interesting RB. I’m watching at primetime only.

Here in Denton, TX, we started seeing equal numbers of Clinton and Obama TV ads yesterday. So far, she has been all over south Texas, where the hispanic population is highest. I hope to get a chance to see both, if they come to Dallas or Fort Worth.

My understanding is that the hispanic population is larger than the African-American population, but voter population has been about equal. Hispanics haven’t been as solidly Democratic as African-Americans, so they would not end up with as high a portion of delegates due to the formula you noted. My impression is that it will be very hard for HRC to win by the percentage she needs.

Ohio and Texas are going to be the Battle of Kursk moment for both campaigns. They will test them to the limit. This is all to the good, because the winner will come out tested for what will still be a rough campaign in the fall.

I’ve only heard short reports on the radio, but I kinda figured it was:

1. Smaller pieces are more likely to burn up and less likely to do catastrophic damage if they do hit.

2. The hydrazine will definitely burn up if it’s released, instead of making a toxic mess somewhere.

I agree that the aspect of showing off occurred to me as well, but it doesn’t seem entirely useless on a practical level.

How will the white vote break in Texas?

Thanks for the good research, ‘Tex. WADR, I don’t think the Lone Star’rs can do it for her, solamente.

At this point, I think she needs to win all three of the biggies: Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Of course, anything’s possible, and she could spring an upset in Wisconsin, but that seems unlikely, and it looks like she’s basically conceding a win there to Obama. Same thing with Hawaii, where he grew up. He should increase his lead…some, next Tuesday.

And, some of the superdelegates are re-thinking their support for Hillary.

For example, a black congressman from Atlanta, Rep. John Lewis, whose district went 3-1 for Obama, is still supporting Clinton, but it sounds like he’s squirming some. He may have gotten a phone call from Donna Brazile. :o)

Anyway, some resolution cometh, methinks, and man, am I ready for it.

:o)

U.S. will down failed satellite

The Pentagon’s plan to shoot down a failed satellite with a missile defense interceptor in the coming days is aimed at preventing toxic fuel from reaching earth. But U.S. officials and experts said yesterday it would also signal that U.S. missile defenses can be used to counter China’s strategic anti-satellite weapons

I don’t think anyone can say. My wild guess would be that an inordinate portion would be college students and professors and tend toward the idealistic side. So I would guess Obama.

It just seems to me that the vast majority of what used to be called conservative Democrats showed their real colors long ago.

I always wanted to know all 14 intelligence agencies, I only know three, DIA, CIA and NSA.

OT
I just got another one of those Who is Obama mass produced e-mails with fear mongering words like muslim, Islam, radical, Koran, etc.. in it.

So far I have replied with snopes, wiki or news articles, but they continue to send this trash out.

What can we do to stop this? How do others handle it?
Have you ever clicked reply and put in the person who sent its name?
Or a gop name, or a radio host name?

How can intelligent & religious people (friends and family) send this crap out with out so much as a minute or 2 of research.

I’m just frustrated with this crap.

I think I have read that Lewis has said he will go with the people. And has let the Clintons know that.

I send a really nasty reply and block the sender.

For the border probably!

Fourteen intelligence agencies? Yikes.

I’m here in Austin, also. I work at a non profit were it is against policy to talk about politics. We almost never do. However, we had a BIG discussion yesterday. Everyone is voting for Obama except the one Republican. She isn’t voting at all. The workforce is white, African American and Hispanic. Everyone is an Obama supporter. I am a life long Democrat. I have NO friends currently supporting Senator Clinton. I am a middle aged white women. That’s my 2 cents about where it stands here.

I think the Obama/Osama business is not getting much play anymore.

I hope TX has good voter lists, not corrupted by ES&S. In NM, we are still sorting out the issue of whether the list that ES&S gave to the SOS for our “caucus” has been scrubbed, merged improperly or has some other “glitch” that caused voters to be missing from the rolls.

This is part of the reason we had so many provisionals. The other good news is that a lot of Rs, Independents and others who are not registered Democrats wanted to vote and tried to, in NM. Of course they were not on the list of registered Ds, and their votes were not counted, but they also did go through a process to determine that.

It is clear that for a variety of reasons, turnout and interest in this race are unprecedented, for years. Good luck in TX, Ohio, and PA.

Let them know what the Bible says about character assassination.

Let them know that is what they are doing and then call them moral cowards.

-G

I never thought to google it, even though I google everthing else

http://www.slate.com/id/2099514/

including National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) (they do satellites)

Also, my stomach is still churning about how much of a despicable man Joe Lieberman is.

I ought to put together an honest e-mail about that war mongering torture advocate.

-G

Each of the services have their own intel agencies separate from DIA although not sure of the names nowadays so that would be three others.

If hydrazine is toxic here on earth I imagine it’s just as toxic is outer space. Any one know the implications of this toxin in outer space? Has it been studied? Probably not.

Yep, I fear war mongers might be up to some tricks here.

Wasn’t Russia asking about a ban on space wars just last weekend?

To whom would it be toxic in space?

Space cowboys and space monkeys!

The hydrazine almost certainly would burn up in the explosion. No problem

Like plastic, everything that has gone into orbit is still in orbit. . .I guess it will take a long time to fill up outer space with crap, but darn it, we’re gonna give it an All American try.

Come on, we want to WORRY about everything!

I know, the source, the source, but this was quite informative re: the satellite:

Satellite article

This is the part I found most interesting:

Such an operation, however, bears a striking similarity to a Chinese operation to destroy an aging weather satellite with a missile in January 2007. At the time, U.S. officials vigorously condemned the Chinese strike as a destabilizing antisatellite-weapons test. In particular, they were worried that China was aiming to threaten the U.S. military’s dependence on satellites for everything from communications to reconnaissance.

U.S. officials also protested the Chinese test because it generated an astonishing amount of space debris when the satellite shattered into thousands of pieces that continue to threaten other satellites in orbit.

The United States has tested its own antisatellite weapons before, most recently in 1985. But it is unclear what steps the Pentagon will take to minimize any new debris. Officials are expected to release more details before any strike, which would occur in the coming weeks.

I am commenting on one of the greatest web sites and watching MXC on SpikeTV, one of the strangest Japanese games shows ever, actually most Japanese game shows are strange.

Hi Blue Texan, thanks for the great post. I love the sort of “meat” you get here at the restaurant o’lake. Biodun, on Hamlet, every thought of getting a mouse trap?

Space monkey, space monkey
What ‘cha doin’ up there?

This is going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

Come on BT. I normally like your posts but what’s up with dissing us Iowans? If it were not for us Iowans, making this a contest in the first place, Texas would not be in play and we would already be coronating HRC. Boo-Ya!

What a ridiculous system we have for selecting a nominee.

When this is over, I hope reasonable people of good faith, from across the country can sit down to reform our party’s procedure for nominating a candidate. The party need to look at the timing of these events, the grouping of these events, caucusing in general, the fairness of assigning delegates other than strictly on the percentage each candidate recieves of the vote and whether to have superdelegates and, if so, better defining their role.

http://www.burntorangereport.c.....aryId=4972

Go here for an interesting TX poll.

Howard Dean has been promoting a change to this and gets no support from the top downers. We need to help him, do it from bottom up.

Good point there Irish Jim. My grandparents lived in Red Oak (whereever that is) so I consider myself part Iowanian.

Yesterday Rush told the Republicans in Texas to vote for Obama. It’s an open primary here.

Yeah, how do we get all the ones shouting “Dr. Paul” shouting “Dr. Dean!”

BT somewhere yesterday I either heard on the radio or read somewhere that the breakdown of the delegates (how many from each CD) was decided by voting back in 2006 where there was low Hispanic turnout. So if there are X number of Hispanic in a district but only Y voted they would get less delegates. This might work for Obama.

Do you know anything about that?

On Topic: Obama down 8% in Texas but UP 6 in delegates http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....373/457279

Hannity said to vote for Hillary to stop Obama. Man, they can’t even get their enemies straight.

Can you point me to some web sites of scientist that says this has been studied and is safe?

Earths children want to know.

Hi all.

List of US intelligence Agencies.

I have been to Red Oak a couple of times. It is a really nice small town. Has some nice industry there. It is about 1 1/2 - 2 hours drive from Des Moines. (Capitol)

I used to go fishin in Keokuck!

Nice! Thanks.

TMI, FHB, HEB…just to name a couple…

I’m kidding!!! I’m kidding!!!

Jim Hightower is endorsing Obama…scroll down in the comments and check out Obama in a cowboy hat…great picture:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....642/457002

Once hydrazine burns, it’s non-toxic. The question isn’t “safe,” but “safer”; there’s no way to go into space that’s completely safe. Hydrazine burning up in an explosion or on re-entry is definitely safer than a large satellite containing hydrazine falling to earth. And if for some reason it remained in orbit, it would be less dangerous to astronauts than a lot of other stuff floating around up there. (Speaking just about the hydrazine, that is — on whether the debris would be safer or not, I’d just be guessing.)

Has the US ever shot down a satelite before? This could turn into one of those “let’s show the world what we can do to their satelites- but if it doesn’t work?

But the Chinese did it a few months ago. Been there, done that.

-G

a missile for a satellite always seemed overkill to me when a nice big ball baring would do the trick.

FISA is being discussed on CNBC….

ACLU person and some Bushies…

Oohh…Rush is trying to engage in psy-ops. Imagine taking marching orders from a bloated junkie like him?

Pathetic.

-G

The ‘libertarian’ is afraid to die.

We are destroying America because of a pack of selfish cowards.

-G

CNBC….Americans and Congress are not taking the War on Terror seriously…Congress…shameful…other Bushie: “I don’t want to die!!!”
ACLU: No powers lacking, still have all the authorities.
Commentator: Why don’t they just go get a warrant?
Bushie: It takes too much time…it is physically impossible…
Other Bushie: Congress going on vacation so we are in danger.
ACLU: That’s ridiculous…

Good grief, get a life….

Could you believe he actually said that? What an ignorant bonehead!!!

Jim Hightower was president of my class throughout college. He’s always been a good one. He and Bill Moyers both graduates of U.of North Texas.

I’ve been waiting for someone to notice Obama has been present in Texas for a full year - organizing on the ground. It will be interesting at my precinct convention - the mighty 409 in 78704. Dean won in my precinct in ‘04 by a landslide. I expect it’s Obama’s turn this cycle. He is better at caucuses than Hillary and he is good at primaries too. I have been seeing his commercials on health care featuring his mother who died of cancer at 53. It is nice to have my vote count this time. A good way to live down W.

Here is a super good site by some UT young people that really explains the delegate situation. The Latino support will surely erode - heard on the local news that Bill and Gov. Richardson (NMexico) had a testy exchange when Bill phoned him and the gov refused to endorse Hillary and Bill apparently roared at him - what! two cabinet posts weren’t enough? Six months ago I was in Albuquerque at the VA hospital for 5x bypass surgery and even then the consevative vets were rooting for Richardson and Obama second -

The poll numbers have eroded for HRC from a 20 point lead to an 8 point
lead… that and the redrawn districts now give Obama an outside chance
to break even in delegates… Houston and East Texas are the key to
an offset of the Clinton Latino advantage, but that is what March 4 is
for, see who shows up. This is the first time the Piney Woods have been
important for a Presidential run in some good long time.

It will matter. Personally I see another bad angle here -bad for Hillary. From my southern experiences, southern whites now have more of thing against Latinos than they do against blacks. Hillary may lose much of her white support there because she’s now campaigning almost exclusively in all Latino communities along the border and is ignoring the bigger mixed districts of Houston, Austin, etc.

She’s playing a dangerous game among the ‘whitest’ anti-Latino people in the country -I predict she loses Texas.

The Clinton’s just don’t have the jizz in East Texas, as if they ever
did, he came here in ‘96 and flopped. Since all that trash talk in SC
Bubba’s vaunted charisma has gone, NAFTA is no help either. Obama has the
momentum for now… you may have called it, 75.

And here’s Ben Sargent :o) :

http://news.yahoo.com/edcartoo.....KvUvgXvTYC

It is late in this thread, but just saying: The Austin Mayor endorsed Obama this afternoon. The debate set here for Thursday is a very big deal.