I am so grateful that the world doesn't follow the lead of the US in stem cell research. At least somebody's making progress despite our government's best efforts...

Wow, I was actually excited for about 10 seconds yesterday when Bush unveiled his new energy plan. But, I am either completely naive, Bush is a liar, or Bush is a f*cking moron... well, it's probably a combination of all three.

Bush started off by stating, "We need to get on a path away from the fossil fuel economy." Wow! Yes! Amazing. We most certainly need to get away from fossil fuel. Let's throw money at cold fusion, fuel cells, and get solar panels on the roof of every home and business in America!!!

He continued, "I have asked congress for more than 2 billion dollars over 10 years for my coal research initiative." Uhm... ok... uh... excuse me Mr. Bush... Coal IS a fossil fuel!!! And, uhm... there's not that much of it left... oh, and it's kinda dirty and harmful to the environment, and uhm... why are you still talking?

Maybe since he doesn't understand science, he feels the need to prevent everyone ELSE from learning about it. He has just announced intentions to cut NASA's annual budget from $75 million to $53 million in the proposed 2006 budget. Let's take a moment to consider how SMALL $53 million really is...

$140 million - Bill Gates' weekly earnings [1]
$2.2 billion - B-2 Bomber [2]
$200 million - F-22 Fighter [2]
$730 million - 2004 budget for war-on-drugs in the Andean region [3]
$380 billion - 2004 US military budget [3]
$41 billion - 2004 US homeland security budget [3]
$7.4 billion - 2003 US missile defense research budget [4]

I was listening to FreshAir today, and the first segment was an interview Salam Pax, the Iraqi blogger/. If you haven't read his blog, I highly suggest it. It provides so much more insight than any western journalist ever could... and now his blog is getting published to bring his message to the technically challenged...

So... the Supreme Court is going to decide on the legality of the delay of the California Recall election. I think they're decision will force the election to take place as scheduled under the pretense that the delay of an election is undemocratic. Such delays, they will argue, could delay democracy indefinitely to the point where elected officials are not accountable to their constituents. The true motive, however, will be in their desire to avoid setting precedent where elections were concerned. They did this after the 2000 presidential election, and I'm willing to bet the same thing will happen here. Why can't the "highest court in the land" take a stand to support democracy?

The following exchange took place at the Chicago airport between Robert I. Sherman of American Atheist Press and George Bush, on August 27 1987. Sherman is a fully accredited reporter, and was present by invitation as a member of the press corps. The Republican presidential nominee was there to announce federal disaster relief for Illinois. The discussion turned to the presidential primary:

RS:
"What will you do to win the votes of Americans who are atheists?"
GB:
"I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me."
RS:
"Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?"