Fuck Texas

Well said, Lewis!

Although, it's really more like Fuck the GOP in Texas.  Or Fuck Texas Republicans.  Or, perhaps most accurately, Fuck you, Rick Perry!!

canine freestyle

...and why not?

Synchronized "dancing" with your dog!   But don't worry, GOP, I don't think this is going to result in men marrying their dogs.  Or what you're really thinking, WOMEN marrying male dogs!  Quit stroking yourself!

Naturally, there's already a "World Canine Freestyle Organization," and there's been a Canine Freestyle Meetup in Houston since 2006!!

I bet you there are not too many Feline Freestyle groups out there.

"we were wrong"

My mouth is agape.  Is it possible!?  Some Republicans are actually starting to work WITH Democrats?  This should not be so shocking, but it is!!

A rare "bravo" and "thank you" to Republican Senator from South Carolina Lindsay Graham.

'We were wrong'

by Steve Benen

It took over 700 days, a recess appointment, and a nuclear-option showdown, but a prominent Republican senator yesterday took stock of his party's efforts to reject Richard Cordray and nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He reached an interesting conclusion.

"Cordray was being filibustered because we don't like the law" that created the consumer agency, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. "That's not a reason to deny someone their appointment. We were wrong."

That's not a phrase we often hear from politicians, especially congressional Republicans, and it's a welcome concession. Indeed, since I made the same argument on Monday, I'm delighted by Graham's candor.

Perhaps, if Senate Republicans had come to this realization just a little sooner, Elizabeth Warren would be at the CFPB right now and Scott Brown would still be making Wall Street happy as a senator.

Regardless, the question many Senate Democrats are asking right now is whether yesterday's breakthrough -- which overwhelmingly tilted in their favor -- can help lay the foundation for broader progress, at least in the upper chamber. Greg Sargent reported this morning:

Democrats plan to seize on yesterday's events to exacerbate what they hope is a developing schism between the GOP leadership/hard right alliance and a bloc of GOP Senators who (Dems are betting) are genuinely fed up with that alliance's continued flouting of basic governing norms. They hope to renew the push for a return to budget negotiations, with an eye towards replacing the sequester."

Greg added that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chair of the Banking Committee and an influential member of the Democratic leadership, is set to deliver a pointed message on the floor this afternoon: "There is a group of Republicans -- led by Senator McCain -- who are very interested in ending the gridlock and working together to solve problems.... I am really hopeful that the bipartisanship we've seen this week will carry over into the budget debate, and that rather than listening to the Tea Party, Republican leaders will listen to the Republican members who prefer common-sense bipartisanship over chaos and brinkmanship."

There are obviously a whole lot of hurdles between the painful status quo and competent governing, and even if there's a Senate GOP contingent prepared to be responsible the odds in the House are far worse, but between low expectations and the events of recent years, "we were wrong" is a step in the right direction.

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too busy to post

...and too fatigued by all the pseudo-scandals over the last month...

The IRS "scandal" proved to be nothing but lies and distortions, which probably originated somewhere in the GOP.  The IRS was  NOT targeting conservative groups any more than they were targeting liberal groups.  The whole IRS 401c(x) code needs to be revamped to keep blatantly political groups, like the Tea Party, from obtaining tax-free status.  

You hear all the outrage when things first develop, but you usually won't see much follow-up to say that it was all political bullshit.  Go here.

And on an unrelated note, I thought this message was rather pithy, especially for GOP-dominated Texas.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a true visionary.   At age 42, he is responsible for some pretty amazing inventions and innovations.  And if his latest project comes true, it could revolutionize transportation.

It's amazing what big money can do when in the "right" hands.  Too bad most other billionaires just want to hoard their wealth.

The Evacuated Transport Tube is straight out of science fiction, but that's where many brilliant ideas have originated.

San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 Minutes with Proposed New Transportation System

Jared Feldman July 9, 2013

Commuting is a way of life for most Bay Area residents. Many people are accustomed to an hour commute each way without traffic. Some people even commute to Southern California several times a month, spending several hours each way either in the car or fighting through airports. What if there was an alternative to flights and car rides? If it was up to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a Colorado company, an answer could come sooner than we think.

Hyperloop System

Musk, the man behind both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has spoken about a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop, a tube transport system that would allow passengers to travel at high speeds. The proposed system could reduce trips between San Francisco and Los Angeles to minutes, and reaching the East Coast from California could take under an hour. Crazy as it seems, the company ET3, based out of Longmont, Colorado, has already been hard at work making this a reality, calling their project the Evacuated Tube Transport.

How Does It Work?

The Hyperloop has been vaguely described by Musk as a "cross between a Concorde, a rail gun, and an air hockey table." A better description might be an elevated tube system with a magnetic levitation system similar to high-speed bullet trains. The kicker would be the enclosed tube, which would provide a nearly friction-less surface for individual capsules to travel in.

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Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, who has proposed a new transportation system called the Hyperloop. 

ET3's Hyperloop-like project already has a number of schematics and plans already in place. They claim an automobile-sized, six-passenger capsule constructed for "outer space" travel conditions could easily reach speeds of 4,000 miles per hour on longer journeys across the country or across continents. In theory, this elevated tube system could be built for a tenth of the cost of high-speed rail and a quarter the cost of a freeway. The projected cost for a passenger to travel from Los Angeles to New York is $100.

The tubes could be connected to form a new superhighway across the United States. They could go underwater and connect to Alaska, Hawaii, and the rest of the world. ET3 has already built mock-ups and prototypes and is planning a 3-mile test run by the end of 2013.

Expanding on Older Ideas

Despite the ingenuity of the idea, it isn't actually that new. In 1972, a paper written by physicist R.M Salter described a tube system known as the Very High Speed Transit System (VHST) that could send people across the United States in under an hour. The system was composed of a series of underground tubes arranged in a network across the country. While several technical problems existed with the idea at the time, Salter also concluded, "The general principles are fairly straightforward: electromagnetically levitated and propelled cars in an evacuated tunnel." The one primary difference between Salter's plan and ET3's is that the VHST would need to be underground, with massive amounts of excavation required.

If the Hyperloop or Evacuated Tube Transport was built and succeeded, it could make California's current high-speed rail project obsolete. With a budgeted cost of $70 billion, the high-speed system currently under development would take passengers from San Francisco to L.A. in three hours, potentially six times slower than the Hyperloop.

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