According to Elliott Abrams, Newt Gingrich’s claims of “working with President Reagan” to change things in Washington D.C. is bunch of hot air. Elliot Abrams was Reagan’s Assistant secretary of state. Newt was a new member to Congress and he ‘spewed’ insulting rhetoric at the president in his administration’s efforts to defeat Communism. Newt in fact was predicting that Reagan’s policies would fail and that the president was dead wrong.

Abrams goes on to explain the conflict and who the players were in the National Review article. But as a blogger looking at the 2012 Republican Race, I’m running out of options for a choice now.

In another article, this one by Fred Barnes for The Weekly Standard, he displays a page from The Reagan Dairies that mentions for the first and last time – Newt Gingrich. In it quote: “Newt Gingrich has a proposal for freezing the budget at the 1983 level. It’s a tempting idea except that it would cripple our defense programs. And if we make an exception on that every special interest group will be asking for the same.” end quote. This is from Chapter 3, page 123 in the dairies that covers the year 1983.

All the folks that I liked are now out of the running (Cain, Bachmann, Perry). I don’t like Mitt Romney or the ‘other’ Rick (Santorum) that is in the race. Ron Paul – his foreign policy sucks big time for this blogger. And the word ‘sucks’ is being kind to the man.

The third Newt Gingrich article I found today was the one where he pledges a moon base by his second term. Newt Gingrich is already thinking of having a second term?!  We got to get you in there for the first term dude!

Quote: “By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” Gingrich said to applause on the space coast of Florida.

He also said that the development would include commercial and private efforts, and will make apparent, “we clearly have the capacity that Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to us.” End quote.

Newt Gingrich also has plans to push propulsion development technology that will get manned crews to Mars quickly. He went on to emphasized that it doesn’t have to be expensive if done in partnership with private companies (which appears to be his main theme in this matter) that can lower the cost of exploration. Quoting again, “If it’s cheaper and it’s faster and it works, do it,” Newt Gingrich said. He also added at the end of this article the following quote: “Does that mean I’m visionary? You betcha,” end quote.

As far as I know, no other candidate has gone to even this much detail as far as to what the American space policy vision should be.

This is why I like him (Newt Gingrich). He’s a fighter. I see Mitt as someone who’ll go along to just get along with someone.

And Newt has his bad points. From what I heard on Rush Limbaugh’s talk radio today (January 25, 2012), Newt’s divorces and talks of open marriage are anchors and chains around his throat – dragging him down. One caller claimed that he wasn’t going to vote at all if Newt was going to be the Republician nominee.

Such boastful talk right now I’m sure. Closer to November’s election day and the chance that Obama might still get his second term in office, I think that caller will have to change his mind about not voting after all. Such a claim is really a vote for President Barrack H. Obama when you think about it!

And we cannot afford such stupid thinking this year from the Republican masses. This nations survival is at stake!

If Mitt gets the top position after all – I will vote for him. Even if I have to hold my nose while doing it. I would feel even better if it turns into a Romney/Gingrich team at this point.  Remember, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush didn’t get along in the primaries either back then.

UPDATE January 26, 2012:  Here is the summary from another article (link posted below) for Newt’s Space Vision.

Newt Gingrich gave his JFK-style speech in Florida today followed by a round table. As with Newt, it didn’t contain a single overriding goal (build a transcontinental railroad, land a man on the moon), but rather a series of grandiose goals. A summary, based on this video:

*Invoked both Abraham Lincoln (railroads) and John F. Kennedy (moon program).

*Proposed setting aside 10 percent of NASA’s budget for prizes.

*Promised to build a permanent lunar base on the moon by the end of his second term and it will be American (Jan. 20, 2021).

*Proposed commercial near-Earth activity including tourism, manufacturing and science based on the model of the airline industry in the 1930s because he’s sick of being told we need to be timid and we need to use 50 year old technology.

*Wants the U.S. to gain so much experience in space that that Chinese and Russians will never be able to match.

*Pledged to set up a $10 billion tax free prize for devising a way to get to Mars on the cheap.

*Promised to fund the development of the first continuous propulsion system in space to enable short-duration trips to Mars.

*Proposed that the U.S. launch 5 to 8 rockets per day instead of 1 per day — more like airports.

*Change civil service laws to make NASA more like Boeing than….well, NASA.

*Plans to introduce a “Northwest Ordinance” that would allow a lunar colony with 13,000 people to petition for statehood.

end of summary.

On first blush, Newt Gingrich is really getting his Klingon on.  Followers of this blog should know by now what I mean by that.  For newcomers, that really means willing to get into someone’s face to promote a point of view. No prisoners taken approach for politics that I like.  Those on the right always have to give.  The left never, ever does and its about damn time that they do.  Hence, that is why I invoke Star Trek’s fictional species of Klingon into this type of problem.

But I am worried that wrapping himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan and whats coming out now about how wrong Newt was and how right (correct) Reagan was… this I’m afraid will shoot down Newt for the 2012 election.  But with this vision for space he has, I think now that he will have a better chance as VP for Mittens.

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Ref.
1. National Review. “Gingrich and Reagan” By Elliott Abrams. January 25, 2012. ( http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/289159/gingrich-and-reagan-elliott-abrams ). picture from same article.
2. The Weekly Standard. “What Reagan THought of Newt” by Fred Barnes. January 25, 2012. ( http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/what-reagan-thought-newt_618549.html ).
3. Politico.com. by Alexander Burns and Ginger Gibson. January 25, 2012. ( http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/newt-pledges-moon-base-by-second-term-112319.html ).
4. image off of internet of lunar base (from old Britsh TV series ‘UFO’). (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_O_L1W8HmE8E/SfoSKvA0KuI/AAAAAAAAAjA/z3Xwy7uwTtk/s400/moon+base.jpg).

5. ParabolicArc.com. “Gingrich’s Gradiose Plans for American Space Exploration” by Doug Messier.  January 26, 2012. ( http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/01/25/gingrichs-gradiose-plans-for-american-space-exploration/ ).

Seems we have a Cyberwar going on now. There was a Twitter account boasting their successful strike on the US law enforcement agency. Other websites -basically media websites concerned over pirated programming and software have been shut down by Anonymous. Universal Music Group, US Copyright Office, MPAA.org, recording company EMI. French copyright authority HADOPI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also been attacked.

As far as DoJ vs Megaupload, that website is down and four people arrested.

The House and Senate gave the Cyberattackers a victory today. Lamar Smith (R) chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and Senate Leader Harry Reid (D) will postpone or reschedule critical votes until January 24th. Quoting Senator Reid, “in light of recent events.”

Rep Lamar Smith said the following in a statement released to the media, “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

SOPA/PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, and PROTECT IP Act in the Senate) are the reasons for the start of this Cyberwar. Basically, these two acts are aimed at curbing online piracy which costs billions of dollars a year for the entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical and other industies.

ON the other hand, the technology companies are worried that if SOPA/PIPA becomes law, it will undermine online freedoms which would be very difficult to enforce and that it would also encourage frivolous lawsuits.

Rep Darrell Issa on the 18th introduced a companion bill in the House saying that quoting the Reuters.com article; “SOPA and PIPA lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work. The technology sector has shown more optimism about prospects for Issa and (Senator Ron) Wyden’s alternative bill, called the OPEN Act.” end quote.

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Ref.
1. Gizmodo.com. “Anonymous Goes on Megaupload Revenge Spree: DoJ, RIAA, MPAA, and Universal Music All Offline” by Sam Biddle. January 19, 2012. ( http://gizmodo.com/5877679/anonymous-kills-department-of-justice-site-in-megaupload-revenge-strike ).
2. Reuters.com. “Congress puts brakes on anti-piracy bills” by by Thomas Ferraro and Jasmin Melvin. January 20, 2012. ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-usa-congress-internet-idUSTRE80J10X20120120 ).

Like the headline says, this blog has suffered this year from bandwidth issues that kept me offline for days and sometimes, even weeks.

For that, I apologize for not being able to update the site with the latest news and such.  I was not able to wish the blogging universe a Merry Christmas this year, but I am able to wish you a Happy New Year.

In the year and a half since that explosion, we have found out what really happened. But this blogger’s warning of how vulnerable the United States is to our oil industry infrastructure out in and on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico fell on deaf ears I’m afraid.

Then today on World Net Daily (November 18, 2011), there is an article from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin entitled “Shocking gap in defenses: Nation risking catastrophe”, posted on that website. Joseph Farah is the founder of World Net Daily. For link to that article (as well as my previous post on this subject, check out the Ref section below).

I quote the first two paragraphs of Mr. Farah’s article: The prospect that countries such as China and Iran soon will have submarines trolling in waters in the Gulf of Mexico and up and down the East and West coasts of the United States is resurrecting concern over the security of oil and natural gas pipeline platforms in those areas, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Also, drug cartels have begun to use submarines to carry their cargo into the United States. Given the cartels’ flourishing relationships with terrorists with various goals, the subs could be used to destroy important platforms, according to Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. End quote.

That undersea infrastructure is “soft targets” for our current or future eneimes can strike at.

Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, had this to say in his interview with Joseph Farah. Quote: “This vast infrastructure was built with the assumption that while it would have to weather natural disasters, it would not be a target in war,” Krepinevich said. “In military parlance, much of the infrastructure comprises ‘soft’ targets that would not require much in the way of explosives to cause significant, and perhaps catastrophic, damage. Fortunately, many of these targets have not been easy to reach, until now.”

Krepinevich went on to add the “proliferation” of UUVs (Unmanned underwater vehicles) has increased. What was once only operated exclusively by the Western military powers is now open to others. Both commercial and for scientific purposes. UUVs can go deeper than manned submarines-equipped with cameras and other electronic sensors, and as a focus of this article; carry mines or other explosive devices. Such a capability will not only affect ocean floor pipelines, but undersea communication cables. They are vulnerable to sabotage – period.

One final quote from Mr. Krepinevich who called upon the US to diplomatically work with countries such as Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Norway and the United Kingdom, which have similar offshore platforms, to coordinate defensive efforts against any potential attack. “Given the stakes involved, just as the U.S. and its allies developed the forces, capabilities and methods needed to defend their economic assets at sea during the Battle of the Atlantic (during World War II against German submarines), a similar effort is needed now with respect to America’s undersea economic interests,” Krepinevich warned.

“The alternative is hope for the best – and hope is not a strategy.” end quote.

Its nice NOT being the only one out there worried about this.

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Ref.
1. World Net Daily. “Shocking gap in defenses: Nation risking catastrophe” by Joseph Farah. November 18, 2011. ( http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=368405 ).
2. The Shanks Dimension. “One Year Ago-Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Explodes” by Don W. Shanks. April , 2011. ( http://www.theshanksdimension.com/2011/04/one-year-ago-deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-explodes/ ).
3. The Shanks Dimension. July 15, 2010. “BP Says it Stopped the Oil Finally”. ( http://www.theshanksdimension.com/2010/07/bp-says-it-stopped-the-oil-finally/ ).
4. The Shanks Dimension. “Deepwater Horizon Target of North Korea Special Ops Service?” ( http://www.theshanksdimension.com/2010/05/deepwater-horizon-target-of-north-korea-special-ops-service/ ).

U.S. Navy photo by Chief Photographer’s Mate Andrew McKaskle.

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Ref.
1. yahoo news(Forbes). “New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hold In Global Warming Alarmism” by James Taylor. July 28, 2011. ( http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html ).

North Korean Mini Sub

Well. Time has flown by hasn’t it?  It is now one year after the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon oil Rig explosion.  BP, on the first year anniversary; is sueing other companies.  Transocean, Cameron International and Halliburton.