Obama now more unpopular in Arizona than any other State

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AZ about to go fully GOP?

From Eric Dondero:

Stunning new poll numbers just released from an Arizona polling firm. Reported on by the Arizona Daily Star, July 18:

PHOENIX - Most Arizonans no longer think Barack Obama is doing a decent job as president.

A new Behavior Research Poll released Sunday shows that nearly four out of every 10 Arizonans now rate Obama's performance as poor or very poor. That's up 5 points from the same survey taken in January.

What's different is that the number of those who think he's doing an excellent or good job has plummeted.

Three months after taking office, fully 51 percent of Arizonans gave Obama positive ratings, even though the state went for hometown favorite John McCain in the 2008 election.

A 28% approval rating beats even hardline Republican Red States like Idaho, Utah and Alabama.

In the crosstabs other stunning info: Only 52% of all registered Democrats now support Obama. His support among Independents is down to 22%. Only 8% of self-described Republicans still give him a positive job approval.

Note - Arizona has three Democrat Congressmen. The three of them are in tight races for reelection. With two GOP Senators, a Republican Governor, and Republican control of both legislative bodies, the State could go all GOP in November.

Muslim Youth riot in South of France, fire on police using automatic weapons

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U.S. Media ignores the story

From Eric Dondero:

Karim Boudouda, and another man attempted to rob a casino in Grenoble, France last Thursday. They fired at police while fleeing the scene. One officer was shot and injured. The police then shot Boudouda dead. Muslim Youth then went on a rampage in the streets of Grenoble to protest the shooting.

From the UK Daily Mail, July 18:

France was on riot alert yesterday after hundreds of Muslim youths went on the rampage in Grenoble. Shots were fired at police and dozens of shops and cars were set on fire in the Alpine town. Trams and buses were also held up by gangs brandishing baseball bats and bars, and a service station was looted.

At about 2.30am a handgun was used to fire shots at the police.

The European press has played down the Muslim angle, preferring to describe the rioters and shooters as simply "Youths."

There has been a media blackout in the American press. Only Right blogs in the U.S. and U.K. have reported on the story.

The libertarian blog Gates of Vienna commented, "Culturally enriched mayham in Grenoble":

The unacknowledged fact about these Muslim kids is that their routine behavior — beating, killing, raping, and stealing from the kuffar — is not considered criminal behavior under Islamic law. As a matter of fact, slaughtering the infidel and seizing his goods as booty is considered a duty under sharia.

See dramatic video of the police counter-attacking the rioters at our sister site WorldwideLiberty. Photo of Muslim riots in Paris 2005.

Bloomberg Aide calls Sarah Palin a "Racist" for opposing Ground Zero mosque

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Has close ties to Van Jones

Sarah Palin sent out a simple message via Twitter yesterday:

"Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing"

Now, according to Politico, a top aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has responded with a vicious attack on Palin, also via Twitter.

Andrea Batista Schlesinger Tweeted:

"@SarahPalinUSA whose hearts? Racist hearts?"

Hours later Schlesinger sent out an apology via Twitter - "I regretted curt response." And a Bloomberg spokesman scrambled to put out a statement that "Andrea was speaking only for herself."

Schlesinger is a frequent contributor to the far-left Huffington Post and the communist Nation.

She is also on the Board of the Applied Research Center which is based in Oakland, California. According to an investigative piece by NewZeal.blogspot on Obama's New York fundraising ties, the Board "is closely aligned with Van Jones' Ella Baker Human Rights Center."

What is to become of the general surgical pathologist?

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There was a story in the New York Times yesterday entitled "Prone to Error: Earliest Steps to Find Cancer" (Tuesday, July 20, 2010) written by Stephanie Saul, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist.  There is also a 7 minute video that accompanies the article produced by Shayla Harris, an award winning video producer with the New York Times.  

CANCER-3-popup In short, the article deals with examples of errors in breast cancer diagnoses and personal stories of women affected including a case involving a misdiagnosis lawsuit.  

The video mentions the "American College of Pathology" I think referring to the College of American Pathologists, refers to pathologists "helping doctors diagnose cancer" while we "work in a lab rather than seeing patients".  It also says that the biopsy samples may be the size of a "few grains of salt".  

There are some excellent comments by Dr. Shahla Masood (note the clipboard and seeing a patient in her web profile picture) and reference to a certification program for breast pathology credited to Dr. James Connolly citing possible financial implications for referrals to "breast pathologists".

There is no doubt this is a confusing area of pathology, even among experts as the story points out, and no one likes to hear about adverse outcomes and second and third opinions in some cases may be warranted.

This brings up a number of complex issues and the story is not favorable to pathology or pathologists.  The "American College of Pathology" and a "few grains of salt" and call out a pathologist who did obtain a second opinion?  Come on.  

Nonetheless, the story highlights errors made out of "hundreds of thousands of breast biopsies performed in this country a year", presumably from imaging guided biopsies detected from screening mammograms.  The debates continue about appropriate screening.

One mistake is too many but in my opinion the story puts pathology in a bad light and will only further undermine patients' confidence in the accuracy of their testing and diagnoses.  

I don't know which is worse the public thinking all pathologists are like "Quincy" or worse, like Dr. Kevorkian or have anything at all to do with the movie "Pathology" or this.   

Today, the CAP (aka "American College of Pathologists) sent a letter to the editor of the New York Times addressing pathologists’ commitment to continually improve the accuracy of diagnosing DCIS.

Having spent enough time in small community hospitals by myself for periods of time as a part-timer in doing so, I have a lot of respect for those folks who do it as a career without immediate "next door experts" or having renown "experts" in your department as I have enjoyed.  Add to that problems with classification and reproducibility and a drive towards one having their own "breast radiologist", "breast oncologist", "breast surgeon" and "breast pathologist" - what is the general pathologist to do?  And what happens when your "breast pathologist" is on vacation or at a "breast meeting" and these cases come across your microscope?

It is a delicate balance with significant push-pull involved with sub-specialty designations.  

And what are we as patients to do?  Go to cancer centers or specialty hospitals and seek out internal medical sub-specialists or surgical sub-specialists bypassing generalists and community hospitals? 

Latina counter-protester at L.A. Tea Party shouts Whites "Go back to Europe"

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From Tim Daniel, Left Coast Rebel:

"Brown power, go back to Europe, Nazis, this is America, you are too white to be American"

Can you imagine if a Tea Party group displayed this kind of vile, racist militancy? Imagine how the main stream press would jump all over themselves to cover it.

Los Angeles is a filthy, rotting third-world hell-hole where this kind of disgusting, Marxist race-centric militancy is all-too-common. Wake up America.

Photo safari – black girdled lizard | Not Exactly Rocket Science

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The browser you are currently using does not support the Discover photo galleries. Supported browsers include recent versions of Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 7 or later), Google Chrome, and Apple Safari.

If you have any questions or feedback, please email webmaster@discovermagazine.com. Thank you for reading Discover, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

I'm guessing that the black colour helps the lizard to absorb the sun's heat more effectively. There appears to be some confusion among photographers as to whether this species is the Cape girdled lizard (<em>Cordylus cordylus</em>) or the black one (<em>Cordylus niger</em>) - I'm going with the latter. <br />There are at least 47 species of girdled lizards (belonging to the genus <em>Cordylus</em>), and most are characterised by the bony spiky scales that you can see here.


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When The White House No Longer Has Your Back ….

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Diplomacy: Nothing new about NASA outreach, editorial, Houston Chronicle

"Bolden's comments are a reminder of what we could do, what we could be and how we could continue to help create a better world. He could make it happen if he had the political backing of national will. That his comments ring hollow and make him appear nearly foolish to many shows the tragedy of having an American president who thinks we are unexceptional, arrogant to assume we can lead and too poor to tell our children there is more to see, to do and to learn. What he said was, "Yes, we can!" What he did was, no, we can't. So, it makes me sad for my friend Charlie. And, it makes me sad for my country."

The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

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Frank Sietzen Jr.: Last week, the Senate Commerce, Science and Space Committee marked up a draft of a proposed FY2011 Authorization bill for NASA. That bill maintains the Obama administration's top line budget for the civil space agency, but otherwise it contains virtually none of the individual funding areas for human spaceflight that the administration had sought.

But it's my contention that the bill, whether or not it ever gets passed into law, is an historic development in legislative space affairs. Back in 2004, in our book "New Moon Rising", Keith Cowing and I used the phrase "opening a hinge of history" to describe how the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster provided an opening for an historic new direction in space policy. We initially perceived that direction as being the first era of human spaceflight since 1972 that was not to be dominated by the Shuttle program. But what really emerged would eventually become the so-called "Vision for Space Exploration".

We also wrote that NASA was given an extraordinary opportunity by President George W. Bush, to embark on a whole new space objective, just 10 and a half months after killing seven astronauts in a highly public catastrophe. It would seem that the VSE is now dead. But what follows it is not exactly what President Barack Obama wanted, either. In acting independent from the Obama Administration in crafting a space budget that interprets Flexible Path in a slightly different way than Obama's original FY2011 proposal of February 1st, it marks an historic departure for the Senate.

Here's why:

As observed by reporter Terence Samuel, Congressional oversight became extinct once President George W. Bush took office after the Florida recount in 2001. Think of all of the major issues of the time: the decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, the development of a new Homeland Security bureaucracy, the torture revealed at Abu Graib, scandals at the IRS, in nearly every case Congress abdicated its Constitutional oversight requirements.

Oh yes there were hearings, independent commissions established and reported out (remember the 9-11 Commission and their hugely popular report, published as a book? Whatever happened to their recommendations? You guessed it...) In an article in Foreign Affairs magazine Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, two highly respected Congressional scholars wrote "In the past six years congressional oversight of the executive across a wide range of policies but especially on foreign and national security policy has virtually collapsed."

A Washington, DC conference on the future of Congressional leadership held just before the 2006 elections in which Democrats recaptured control of the House and Senate observed that in today's Senate, the typical members were "mavericks, party hacks, and ideologues", rather than the statesmen for whom the Senate was conceived.

If all of this is true, then the action of the Senate with regard to NASA is all the more remarkable. The language of the compromise bill passed unanimously takes something from everybody. It slashed the administration's request for commercial crew services as well as advanced technology demonstrators, potentially alienating the White House and Florida officials who were looking towards the new commercial space industry to create jobs that could ease some of the losses that canceling Constellation might cause.

It took the administration's restructuring of the Orion CEV into a rescue vehicle for the ISS and made it into a "Multipurpose Crew Transportation Vehicle", basically the CEV by another name, also capable of flying to the ISS. The effectively makes a government competitor to the commercial crew vehicles whose development funds were cut to pay for it. By cutting so much of the planned technology budget, it risked prolonging development of "game changing" systems that could advance human exploration beyond Earth orbit.

Yet within minutes of the Senate press conference announcing the compromise bill, both the Obama administration and NASA announced their support for the bill.

Even if one expects much of these funds to be restored either by Senate appropriators or the House, this was an extraordinary achievement for a Senate normally locked in partisan gridlock.

So my questions to NASAWATCH readers:

-How do you think this compromise came about? Who gave what and when?

-What do you predict Sen. Shelby and the approps committee will do with it, and what is the House likely to change?

And, lastly, if you were NASA, how would you go about building a new public outreach and legislative coalitions to pass the bill?

Let's have a thoughtful conversation that mirrors the seemingly careful and politically artful actions of this past week.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan notes the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird. The lead character, Atticus Finch, was a sort of father figure, the wise and mature adult that watched over his child as she slept at night "and would be there when Jem waked up in the morning", in other words still engaged in the day to day work that would follow. A rooted, unflappable solid presence in the life of his family and community, whom you always knew where he stood but without blustering. In the life of his community, he would always be engaged for the long haul. Noonan laments the absence of such adults in today's political climate and discourse. But she's wrong in the case of the Senate's NASA bill.

There were "adults" on both sides working behind the scenes to develop and sell this compromise, even if there are to be changes made ahead. No posturing, no noise, no lines-drawn-in-the-sand. Just a compromise that, on the face of it now, appears everyone can and will embrace. For the first time in years, the Senate has taken an administration proposal and made substantive changes to it that a bipartisan coalition supports-and the White House, too. This was not done when America went to war in 2003, nor was the Senate able to make substantial cuts to federal spending proposed by Bush in his second term, or the tax cuts for the wealthy that added to the deficit.

But after five months of hearings that generally failed to shed much more light on the Obama space proposals, the Senate committee, largely acting in secret, rearranged the boxes of the Obama plan while restoring that part of Constellation with the most support: the Orion capsule and a new booster to launch it different from the previously faulted Ares rocket family.

If this isn't a hinge of history I don't know what is. The true story of how these developments came together, as someone recently observed, would make a great future PhD. thesis, or a book. On the oft chance I should live so long, I'm taking good notes. And listening for the ones that will be there, still engaged, when we all "wake up in the morning".

Thoughts?

Farewell (Again) Constellation, Welcome Back Orion

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NASA appears to no longer be shooting for the stars, opinion, LA Times

"The $150-million facility was built to contain the next-generation manned spacecraft for the Constellation program, NASA's project to send humans back to the moon. It is the largest acoustic test chamber in the world, created to buffet the spacecraft with intense sound waves, simulating the stresses of launch. The only problem is that the Constellation program almost certainly will be dead within months. President Obama in January proposed cancelling the troubled moon program, and a key Senate committee voted this week to kill Constellation."

NASA 'compromise' a good start, editorial, Huntsville Times

"Portions of the Constellation program, including the Orion crew capsule and a heavy-lift rocket designed to travel to Mars, appear likely to survive in some form but details won't be known until the final vote. The $19 billion budget provides for another shuttle flight some time next summer in addition to planned launches in November and February next year."

JSC rescue: Senate bill bolstering manned space flight welcome news for Houston, Houston Chronicle

"There's a lot for Houstonians to like in the $19 billion spending plan. While it cancels the Constellation program moon missions, it substitutes Mars and asteroids as long-term destinations. It will extend the life of the International Space Station through 2020, direct NASA to build a new heavy-lift launch rocket to be operational in six years, and continue development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle. At the same time it preserves the thrust of the Obama plan to support development of commercial launch crews to low Earth orbit."

Keith's note: The folks at the LA Times should do a little more fact checking. Yes, Constellation is being cancelled, but no Orion is not. So this test stand will still find use.

The Cape Week in Review – Orbital Wants to Launch Astronauts from the Cape

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This week at Cape Canaveral the final shuttle mission's external tank arrived. The Air Force announced that the launch of an Atlas V rocket at months' end would slip to August and Orbital would like to launch astronauts from the Cape. This week in Cape History focuses on Apollo 11.

Final Shuttle Mission's External Tank Arrives at Kennedy Space Center

The end of an era rolled out of a barge and headed toward its date with history. The 15-story tall External Tank (ET) that is currently scheduled to fly on the final shuttle mission was unloaded today around 9:30 a.m. EDT. Brought to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) by the Pegasus barge, the ET traveled some 900 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. When the ET left the Michoud Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana last Thursday it was given a send off that included NASA officials, lawmakers and even a brass band.

The ETs were built by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. This one, designated ET-138 will help space shuttle Endeavour blast into orbit no earlier than February 26, 2011 on mission STS-134. ET-138 is the last tank that is planned to be used. However, another tank will be built in case an emergency occurs on the final mission requiring a rescue flight. This tank is scheduled to be delivered in October. It is currently being discussed as to whether not another mission should be flown to the International Space Station (ISS) this mission, STS-135, if so approved the tank that arrived today would be used to fly this mission. In either case, the tank that arrived today will likely fly on the final mission of the space shuttle program.

These large tanks contain some 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen which is utilized by the three space shuttle main engines (SSME) as the orbiter barrels its way into orbit. After the tank has been emptied it is jettisoned and burns up in the atmosphere above the Indian Ocean. It is the only part of the shuttle that is not reused after launch.

Shuttle_ET_500x334.jpgET-138 arrives at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This External Tank will more than likely be used on the final mission of the shuttle program. If STS-134 with Endeavour is the last mission then it will be used on that flight. However, if STS-135 is approved, this tank will be swapped out and used on STS-135 instead. Image Credit: Alan Waters

Orbital Would Likely Launch Astronauts from the Cape

With the announcement that NASA is seeking commercial crew taxis to low-Earth-orbit, one private firm stated that it would launch from Cape Canaveral if selected. Orbital Sciences Corporation said on July 13. Former shuttle astronaut and current Deputy General Manager of the Advanced Programs Group Frank Culbertson confirmed this during a National Space Club luncheon in Cape Canaveral where he was the featured speaker.

Currently Orbital is working on building both the spacecraft and the infrastructure that would allow them to launch cargo to the International Space Station - from Virginia. The firm holds a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to launch eight supply missions to the space station by 2015. SpaceX has a similar contract with 12 missions total, they however will launch from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 40.

With President Obama's plans to make NASA reliant on commercially-provided launch vehicles Orbital is looking to launch its Taurus II rocket with their Cygnus spacecraft some time next summer. If successful, the private space firm could make its first cargo delivery as early as next fall. As the Senate has just passed the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2010 what will become of this push towards commercialization remains to be seen.

Air Force Pushes Back Launch of Atlas V Rocket

The next scheduled rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station has been pushed back 10 days from July 30 to Aug. 10, 2010. Engineers asked for more time to test the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket's part that assists the fairing that protects the payload during launch to separate properly.

When the Atlas V does launch it will carry the first in a new series of military communications satellites in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program. It will lift off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 41 and it is not expected to impact either the Oct. 19 launch of a Delta IV Heavy or the launch of another Atlas V currently scheduled for launch on Nov. 17.

This Week in Cape History

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July 13, 1995: NASA launched space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-70 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission marked the first use of the Block 1 Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) The mission lasted a total of nine days and included the deployment of the seventh Tracking Data and Relay Satellite (TDRS).

July 15-24, 1975: The United States and the former United Soviet Socialist Republic rendezvoused in space for he first time with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The mission was designed to test out rendezvous and docking procedures for American and Soviet spacecraft, and to open the way for future international space missions.

July 16, 1969: NASA launched the crew of Apollo 11 atop a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A. Four days later mankind would realize an eternal dream and two men would set foot on another world for the first time. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would spend just under a day on the lunar surface and would spend some two and a half hours walking on the surface of the moon. The crew of Apollo 11, rounded out by command module pilot Mike Collins would splash down safely back on Earth on July 24, 1969.

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The Cape Week in Review is compiled by Jason Rhian, the Cape Insider, and is a weekly
round-up of what's happening at Cape Canaveral. If you have information or suggestions for the Cape Week in Review please email us at capereview@spaceref.com.