Neil Armstong during the flight of Apollo 11.

Some of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood revolve around the space program in general, and Apollo 11 in particular.  I do remember spending that Sunday afternoon of July 20, 1969 at my grandmother’s house, my eyes glued to the television as we watched NBC’s coverage of the moon landing.  The broadcast (hosted by Chet Huntley) might have been boring by current standards - it largely consisted of the audio feed from NASA and some pretty basic animations of what was has happening.   Still, for this eight year old boy it was fascinating stuff.  As evening approached, I remember the anticipation of the moon walk.  In the early evening, I was sitting on the floor, playing with my paper pop-out model of the lunar module provided by one of the local service stations (either Shell or 76). being lovingly watched by my parents and mocked by my seventeen year old brother.  My sister, just short of her sixth birthday, understandably was not quite as taken with this historic day as I.   My anticipation grew (as did my fatigue) as the day wore on, and I worried about falling asleep before the event took place (around the 10:00 p.m. hour in our part of the country). 

Finally, network coverage of the event began (we were watching Cronkite on CBS, which had a great visual and musical theme to begin their coverage). The lunar module’s camera was deployed, and images  transmitted were ghostly black-and-white and difficult at times to make out.  Regardless, it was incredibly exciting to see Neil Armstrong descend that ladder and become the first man to set foot upon the moon.  In spite of my sleepiness, I did stay awake for most of the moon walk, watching the fuzzy images and listening to the commentary of Armstrong and Buz Aldrin.  Shortly after the planting of the American flag and the phone call from President Nixon to the astronauts, I lost my battle to remain awake.  This young, tired boy, sprawled out on the multi-colored shag carpeting in our family room, finally drifted off to sleep on that hot and humid Indana night. 

The following day, Mom took my sister and I downtown to see a movie matinee (the “Love Bug”).  I always have loved going to the movies, but on that day my feelings were mixed.  The networks were scheduled to cover the blast-off from Tranquility Base and I didn’t want to miss it.   When I got home, I found out that the camera that had broadcast the moon-walk was not functioning at the time of the launch, and once again it was just the NASA audio feed and a few animations.  Even so, I felt like I had missed out.  As a result, I insisted on being home when the networks covered the splashdown and recovery of the Apollo 11 command module and the crew.

There were several other moon missions, and I fascinated by them all.  The quality of the television broadcasts improved dramatically (although Apollo 12’s first ever color moon broadcast was cut short when the camera’s tube was burnt out by being pointed toward the sun).  But the following missions didn’t quite have the same magic as the first one.  Apollo 11 would always be special and unique, because it was the first.  Late one night, during the flight of Apollo 12, my parents and I sat in our darkened front room watching NBC’s coverage.  An image was broadcast marking not the spot on the moon of the prospective Apollo 12 landing site, but that on Apollo 11.  That’s about all I really remember of that evening’s coverage (other than the really neat promo for the oil company that was sponsoring the broadcast, which featured a great theme with the company’s name superimposed on a field of clouds - can’t remember if was Gulf or Texaco).  I fell asleep on that old, scratchy green couch, and my father carried me up to bed.

Neil Armstrong never cashed in on his fame.  He retired from the space program and entered academia (working for a time at my old stomping grounds of the University of Cincinnati).  During the forty-three years after his momentus walk on the moon, he remained a very private person, only surfacing on rare occasions (such as appearing at the White House with his fellow Apollo 11 crew-mates to mark the anniversary of the flight or issuing written statements about his hopes for the future of the space program).  Like so many others, I really would have liked to have known more about Armstrong and his personal feelings and observations about that historic flight.  But Armstong let Apollo 11 speak for itself, and perhaps that is just as well.   

Obviously, I share in the nation’s sadness at the news of his passing, but also celebrate his accomplishments, his service to this nation, his contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge and the dignity with which he lived out those post-Apollo 11 years.  Thanks Neil for those thrilling memories from my youth that will last with me to my dying day.

Puerto Rico was no day at the beach for Rick Santorum

This past weekend’s Republican presidential primary in Puerto Rico was notable for several reasons.  One was the low level of turnout, with only 118,696 people participating.  For comparison, the last time the island had a truly contested Republican primary (in 1980), the turnout exceeded 180,000.  Also notable were the embarrassingly poor performances by Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.  Gingrich finished with only two percent of the vote (actually finishing behind former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, who ended his quest for the Republican nomination several weeks ago).  Paul fared even worse, finishing last with barely one percent of the vote (trailing even Fred Karger, a gay rights activist).

What is most notable is the lopsided nature of Rick Santorum’s defeat at the hands of Mitt Romney.  In spite of the fact that Santorum actively campaigned in Puerto Rico, he lost by an eighty-three percent to eight percent margin.  Romney was generally considered to be the favorite in the primary, enjoying the support of the island’s popular governor.  Santorum’s prospects in the primary were considerably dimmed after making a statement that seemed to indicate that Puerto Rican statehood would be dependent upon the Spanish-speaking island shifting to English.  Still, the Santorum campaign had hoped to at least keep Romney from gaining a majority of the vote, which would lead the twenty delegates at stake to be allocated proportionally among the candidates.  With Romney’s majority of the vote, all the island’s primary delegates were awarded to the former Massachusetts governor.

Santorum’s seventy-five point loss might very well have been the worst defeat suffered by a candidate in an actively contested presidential primary in modern American history. During the epic Ford-Reagan nomination contest of 1976, Ford scored several landslide victories in several midwestern and northeastern states.  Still, Reagan was able to secure at least 31 percent of the vote in those states in which he was listed on the ballot (Reagan chose not to contest Ford in the the presidential preference primaries in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont).  Reagan’s greatest strength was in the south and west,  but even in these areas Ford never slipped below 25 percent. That same year,  Jimmy Carter scored some landslide victories in his home region of the south, particularly late in the cycle (when his principle regional opponent, George Wallace, had effectively ended his active candidacy).  Carter’s greatest victory was an 83-11 percent margin in Georgia over Jerry Brown (who didn’t actively campaign in the state).  The biggest margin of victory on the Democratic side in 1976 was actually Robert Byrd’s 89-11 percent thrasing of Wallace in West Virginia.  Byrd was essentially running as a favorite son candidate, and Wallace’s active candidacy was effectively over before this May 1976 primary.

In 1980, George Bush lost several southern and midwestern primaries to Ronald Reagan by margins in the fifty to sixty percentage range before abandoning his campaign in late May, but most of those contests were ceded by Bush to Reagan without a fight.  That same year, Edward Kennedy was crushed by Jimmy Carter in several southern states, but once again those states were largely uncontested.

While a good number of primaries were lopsided during the 1984  Mondale-Hart contest, Mondale’s largest margin was his 32 point caucus win in Iowa (along with 18 point margins in the Maryland and New York primaries).  Hart’s largest primary margin was in Vermont, where he defeated the former vice president by a fifty point margin.  A similar pattern occured in both the Democratic and Republican nomination battles in 1988.  During the active, competitive phase of the George Bush-Robert Dole Republican nomination battle (the Michigan and Iowa caucuses through the Illinois primary), the largest primary margin was a fifty point Bush victory in Texas).  During the more lengthy Michael Dukakis-Jesse Jackson contest, Dukakis (the ultimate winner of the nomination) won a long series of primary landslides, but none rivaled the margin scored by Romney this past weekend.  The same could be said of the 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Democratic nomination battles,  as well as the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2008 Republican nomination battles.  

What Rick Santorum “achieved” in Puerto Rico was truly unique in modern American presidential politics.

From a DailyKos diary on February 3rd entitled “Orly Taitz Loses Birther Case To An Empty Table.”

“The court decision is in:  http://www.scribd.com/…  

I guess with that hairdo her tin-foil hat won't stay on.

Orly Taitz represented one of four plaintiffs challenging President Obama’s eligibility for placement on the Democratic ballot in Georgia. The President and his counsel were subpoenaed to appear in court to defend against these challenges, but the President’s attorney issued a nice letter to the judge stating that the Court had no business or jurisdiction even hearing the case and therefore the defense would not be in attendance.

So Taitz and her fellow attorneys presented their best arguments without challenge from the defense, and requested a summary judgment on the merits.

And the Court’s judgment: the plaintiffs have no case and no credible evidence, and there is no law to support their claims. Judgment for the defendant, represented only by an empty table, on the merits. Or in this case, utter lack thereof.”

How many times now have the birthers lost in court?  It’s obvious that this judge - like all the others who’ve had to deal with this lunacy - found no credibility in the rantings of Orly Taitz and company.

One of the comments on this diary summed it up perfectly  “Orly Taitz has wasted enough judges’ time.  Her next day in court should be a sanity hearing.”

 

Just another example of the rank hypocrisy of one of the biggest assholes in American politics, Rick Santorum.

From Thinkprogress.com:   

That frothy mixture of bigotry, ignorance and right-wing economics known as Rick Santorum (photo from lefthemisphere.blogspot.com)

“While campaigning yesterday in Woodland Park, Colorado, GOP contender Rick Santorum told a sick child and his mother that they shouldn’t complain about the exorbitant cost of his medication because some people spend $900 on iPads. He appeared unmoved by the plight of the family, staunchly defending drug companies’ right to charge whatever they want.     The candidate also said that the parent and child unjustly felt entitled to get life-saving care at an affordable rate:

GOP contender Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday, arguing that drug companies were entitled to charge whatever the market demanded for life-saving therapies.[...]

“People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad,” Santorum said, “but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it.”

The mother said the boy was on the drug Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, and that, on paper, its costs would exceed $1 million each year.

Santorum said drugs take years to develop and cost millions of dollars to produce, and manufacturers need to turn a profit or they would stop developing new drugs.

Santorum proceeded to lecture the mother and suggest she should be grateful to the drug companies for saving her son’s life. “He’s alive today because drug companies provide care,” Santorum said. “And if they didn’t think they could make money providing that drug, that drug wouldn’t be here.” He also claimed it would “freeze innovation” if pharmaceutical companies were required to offer their drugs at a reasonable price.

Although Santorum has been a vocal opponent of health care reform, his callous reaction is somewhat surprising given that he himself is the father of a daughter with a rare genetic disorder. But if the Colorado mother thought Santorum might be sympathetic to families in similar situations who happen to be less wealthy, she was sadly mistaken.”

Santorum proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but he has precious little understanding of church doctrine involving protecting the poor or promoting social justice.

I spent a number of years in Cincinnati, affectionately referred to by many as the Queen City.  While there are many wonderful things about this scenic river city, it also has a dark side…particularly it’s history of racial strife.  Even considering that history, I was shocked by the following story (entitled “White Only Signs Still Exist in 2012?”) which appeared on Daily Kos today.

“There is an apartment complex in Cincinnati with a “Whites Only” sign posted in their pool area.  They claim it’s to “protect their assests”, but in a community that boasts a 45% African American population, far higher than the rest of the state, is this really the best solution?  Is this solving anything?

A new year, but the same old Republican duplicity and stupidity continues.

From the Huffington Post:

“Jonathan Bernstein has caught Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) making what is, in his estimation, the “best self-refuting argument ever.” From her press release, announcing her plan to introduce a resolution that will wag a finger at the recent appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board:

“It’s astounding to me that the president is claiming these are recess appointments and within his authority, when Congress was not in fact in recess,” said Black. “These appointments are an affront to the Constitution. No matter how you look at this, it doesn’t pass the smell test. I hope the House considers my resolution as soon as we return to Washington so we can send a message to President Obama.”

Republican U.S. Representative Diane "dog chasing it's own tail logic" Black of Tennessee (Photo from Huffington Post/AP)

Har. Of course, what gives Black a wobbly leg to stand on is that congressional Republicans have been staging pro forma sessions — which technically keep Congress from going into recess — so that the president can’t use a recess appointment to appoint the people whose up-or-down confirmation vote they’ve been obstructing anyway. (This is, in all fairness, a trick the GOP learned from noted trickster Harry Reid.)

That said, if you walk up to reporters on the Capitol Hill beat and ask them, “Hey, where is Congress?” they will all tell you that Congress is in recess, precisely the place that Rep. Black understands herself to be, while complaining that she isn’t.”

Today is the day we honor those who have served our nation through their military service.  Well, at least most of us honor them.  Yesterday, teabagger hero Jim DeMint “distinguished” himself by being the ONLY senator who voted against legislation providing tax credits to businesses who hire veterans (a group that currently suffers from a twelve percent unemployment rate, three points higher than the national average). 

While DeMint’s latest exercise in idiocy got ample media attention, the following story I haven’t seen reported anywhere except ThinkProgess.

“State representative Rick Womick (R-TN) has made no secret of his anti-Muslim views. A New York Times article from July described Womick on the statehouse floor, warning his constuents that Islamic law was the most urgent threat to their way of life. But in an interview on the sidelines of the “Preserving Freedom Conference” at the Cornerstone Church in Madison, TN, Womick went to new extremes to paint Muslim Americans as dangerous and seditious.

In the interview, which took place on Veterans Day, Womick told ThinkProgress that “I don’t trust one Muslim in our military” and “if they truly are a devout Muslims, and follow the Quran and the Sunnah, then I feel threatened because they’re commanded to kill me.” When asked if Muslims should be forced out of the military, Womick responded “Absolutely, yeah.” Read the exchange:

FANG: What about the thousands of Muslims that are still in the military that are veterans, that are translators, that are active personnel. Is there some sort of policy solution that you’re advocating? […]

WOMICK: Personally, I don’t trust one Muslim in our military because they’re commanded to lie to us through the term called Taqiyya. And if they truly are a devout Muslim, and follow the Quran and the Sunnah, then I feel threatened because they’re commanded to kill me.

CLIFTON: You believe they should be forced out?

WOMICK: Absolutely, yeah.

Watch it:

To see an extended version of our interview with Womick about Muslims in the military, click here.”

Just another example of teabagger douchebaggery!

I’m not really much of a boxing fan.  I couldn’t tell you who the current heavyweight champion of the world is.  Still, the news of the passing of one of boxing’s modern greats - Joe Frazier - made me sad.

One of the memories of my childhood was laying in my bedroom listening late at night to an old white clock radio.  For all the many nights listening to the static-filled AM station that it was tuned to, forty years later I can only remember two moments.  One was a news report about the death of French President Georges Pompidou.  Why?  I have no idea!   Perhaps hearing about someone dying as I laid there alone in a dimly lit room as a boy was a little jarring.

 The other memory involved a round by round summary of the first epic Ali-Frazier fight, with the the announcement of Frazier’s victory.  Once again, I’ve wondered from time to time about why this memory stayed with me.  Perhaps it was because of the overwhelming media hype surrounding this fight.  It could also be due to the personalities involved and what they seemed to represent during this time in America.   For many in White Middle-America, Muhammad Ali seemed to embody an alien ideology of  anti-Americanism (how could you be a patriot and refused to serve in Vietnam) and black radicalism.  Joe Frazier seemed less offensive and angry than the loquacious Ali, and seemed to be more in line with traditional, conservative American values.  Quite simply, Joe Frazier - whether he liked it or not - was pretty much the black fighter representing white America.  

At the time, I’m sure our family sided with Joe Frazier, although during the ensuing years I began to understand Ali’s political views better and appreciate that Ali was a performer putting on an act for the viewers at home.  Joe Frazier may not have been as colorful as Ali, but he certainly left his mark in the ring by his relentless and aggressive style.  Ali remarked after one of their epic struggles that it was the closest he had ever come to dying.

If Smokin’ Joe fought the cancer that ultimately claimed his life half as hard as he battled Ali, that cancer might have emerged victorious but badly battered and bruised.

So long to another iconic figure from the 1970s.

Well, the teabaggers are holding another lightly-attended  conference (TeaCon) this weekend in Chicago.  Of course, that hasn’t stopped the “liberal” media from lavishing extensive coverage of the event.  

One of the featured speakers was the violence-espousing, hygiene-challenged, habitually-lying hate-monger by the name of Andrew  Breitbart.  It was a tailor-made incoherent rambling for the teabagger audience, devoid of facts or substantive intellectual analysis.  Instead, it was filled with reactionary raw-meat rhetoric, obscenities, baseless accusations and personal insults.  In the course of his rant, Breitbart told organized labor to “fuck off” (because they ask for outrageous things like collective bargaining rights and decent wages and benefits).  He also sputtered that Janeane Garofolo was ”Hollywood’s sympathy fuck” and that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was a “bitch”  (Andrew has a problem with women who are obviously much more intelligent than himself).  Of course, the hate-filled, know-nothing attendees roared their ignorant approval.

This latest teabagger story reminded me of a recent “news story” in the brilliant Borowitz Report.

Rabid Dog Briefly Mistaken for Tea Party Candidate

Receives Standing Ovation at Missouri Rally

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (The Borowitz Report) – A rabid Doberman Pinscher jumped on stage at a Tea Party rally in Missouri on Labor Day and barked at the crowd for nearly twenty minutes before people realized he was not a candidate.

The dog, later identified by its owner as “Mister Buster,” held the crowd spellbound as he barked, growled, and frothed at the mouth, eventually receiving a standing ovation for his exertions.

Gwendolene Thomason, 42, a Tea Party supporter from Jefferson City, was one of the hundreds on hand who were convinced that the Doberman was a Tea Party candidate until he was outed as a dog.

“I liked what he had to say,” she said.  ”He reminded me of Glenn Beck, only furrier.”

The Doberman’s canine identity finally became clear when he lunged at a man in the front row and wrested a hamburger from his right hand, taking two of the man’s fingers with it.

While the discovery that Mister Buster was not a Tea Party candidate disappointed many in attendance, Ms. Thomason held out hope that, dog or no, he might consider running for office at some point.

“I liked the way he bit off that guy’s hand, and the way he did his business in the middle of the stage,” she said.  ”We need more of that in Washington.”

I wonder who was foaming at the mouth more…Mister Buster or the flea-infested Andrew?