Luke_Wilbur

Great post. I wonder why develop something that is already made and currently idle in Florida?

Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services since 2006. Phase One of the construction for the spaceport is expected to be complete in late 2011. Phase Two of the construction and pre-operations activities will follow, including the development of a world-class Visitors Experience for students, tourists and space launch customers. The State of New Mexico entered into a 20-year lease agreement with Virgin Galactic, Spaceport America's anchor tenant. Virgin Galactic is currently developing the world's first commercial passenger-carrying space vehicle fleet, including the WhiteKnightTwo mother ship and SpaceShipTwo launch vehicle. Officials at Spaceport America have been working closely with entrepreneurial space leaders like Virgin Galactic, UP Aerospace, and Armadillo Aerospace, as well as established aerospace firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Moog-FTS to develop commercial spaceflight at the new facility. The economic impact of launches, tourism and new construction at Spaceport America are already delivering on the promise of economic development to the people of New Mexico. For more information, please visit: www.spaceportamerica.com

I think we are missing mark here in this topic. First, read this article by Forbes. Then we need Congress and POTUS to start coming up with a solution to this National Security problem. We need to start thinking about manufacturing like Kennedy thought about the Space Race to the Moon.

I will try to find out. In the meantime here is an interesting factoid I dug up.

The name Columbia appears to have been coined by Samuel Johnson in his story, "Debates in the Senate of Magna Lilliputia" in Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 8 June 1738. Columbia was fictitious name given for the land known as America, substituting the base of the surname of the discoverer Christopher Columbus for the base of the given name of the somewhat less well-known Americus Vespucius.

People are tired of the tax debate and want Congress and the President to focus on more jobs. I am hoping that Gov. Perry starts talking solutions to our problems. 1. According to Gallop, Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States has fallen back to 11%, the lowest level since December 2008 and just four percentage points above the all-time low recorded in October 2008. http://www.gallup.co...tions-Dips.aspx 2. According to Fox News poll 64% of Americans are not hopeful of the direction we are going in the country. http://www.foxnews.c...ection-country/ 3. According to CNN only 45% approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? http://i2.cdn.turner...8/02/rel12a.pdf 4. According to New York Times/CBS News Poll a record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. http://www.nytimes.c...tml?_r=1&src=tp 5. According to The Mellman Group and Ayres, McHenry & Associates research poll 56% of Americans think jobs are the most important issue for Congress and the President to work on this year. 44% think reducing the federal deficit is more important. http://americanmanuf...tion%202011.pdf

Human is right. The last stimulus program gave a good chunk of money to our foreign competitors. Cash for clunkers was the best example. People could by a Toyota and get money back. Many infrastructure construction projects used foreign workers and foreign materials. How did that help unemployed Americans???

Free trade is a myth with exchange rates fixed in favor of our foreign competitors. That coupled with cheap labor and China's version of capitalism works against us. US manufacturing companies cannot compete against China's state sponsored factories. This reflects Fascism's theory of economic corporatism where the government invested corporations control sectors of the economy. Our leaders need to understand that the transfer of wealth and technology in the name of profit will destroy our country without a fight.

What we all should worry about from downgrade is the steady shrinkage of the purchasing power of our dollars. People with fixed income will be hurting the most.

I guarantee you that all sides are to blame for what has happened. People do not trust any of our leaders. The key is to move forward and start fixing the problems and better regulate the markets and banks. We can no longer allow interests groups to interfere in the legislative process. The revolving door policy has to stop. Congress and the President should skip their vacations and come back to Washington. Our nation needs its leaders to govern and calm the fears of Americans and foreign investors that everything will be ok.

Great article. I have another good read that was just sent to me. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/04/police-raid-milan-moodys-standard-poors Carlo Maria Capistro – chief prosecutor of Trani, a small Adriatic port – told Reuters that his office was checking to see whether the rating agencies "respect regulations as they carry out their work". The raids took place on Wednesday as Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, addressed parliament on the mounting crisis. He and other leading Italian politicians often cite speculation as a cause of market storms that involve a run on the country's shares or bonds. And the media habitually depicts sell-offs as attacks on Italy. S&P, which along with other rating agencies has been strongly criticised in Europe for downgrading countries such as Greece, said in a statement it believed the Trani inquiry "has no foundation". It added: "We shall strenuously defend our work, our reputation and that of our analysts." Moody's said it took "its responsibilities surrounding the dissemination of market-sensitive information very seriously", and was co-operating with the authorities. The Trani prosecutors began investigating Moody's in May last year after a complaint by two consumer associations about a report from the ratings agency which said the Italian banking system was at risk from the crisis in Greece. It sparked a round of selling on the Milan bourse.

This is such great news. This was the station I listened to most of my life. I believe WHFS started in Bethesda.

Thanks for the compliment. We do our best and charge a honest price that people can actually afford.

A friend of mine sent me this... The cut in U.S. Debt Rating was justified when "The Too Bigs To Fail", "The Corrupt FED", U.S. Congress, "The Military Complex---Pentagon", & "Inside-The-Beltway Pathology" Rotted into One--- & and Plastic replaced money.

I found the Oracle of Omaha statement pretty revealing. I want to know who benefits from a major selloff. Did all the big players know it was coming?

Have any dirt on S&P?

The House voted 269 - 161 to raise the debt limit. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made a surprise visit to chamber to vote. The Tea Party has made history. They did what they promised voters. If they the debt rating does not go down from AAA to AA they will look like heroes. If the debt rating does go down and inflation begin, they will have alot of explaining to do. Congrats to the Speaker for rounding up support on a compromised bill.

It does appear that a compromise is coming closer together. Democrats get what they want by raising the borrowing authority through the next presidential election. Republicans get what they want with immediate $1 trillion in spending cuts and a automatic trigger to trim cuts in medicare. Democrats get a concession that Medicare cuts would only effect providers, not recipients. The rest of the trimming would be government departments and agencies. This includes defense spending. Removing corporate tax loop holes is the issue that remains. I hope the two sides meet half way. Corporations should not be taxed if they bringing jobs and investment to the USA. Corporations should be taxed if they are foreign investments.

It is quite apparent that our financial institutions have the tiller when it comes to economic direction. Both public and private institutions are thinking globally for investments and acquisitions. Are we ready as a nation to commit to this direction?

I find it interesting that the Debt Ceiling Default Crisis and the NFL Lockout have similar trends.

This is a serious allegation. We should wait until DOJ makes a statement.

Manchin would be ruined in West Virginia if he did not express the sentiment of the birthplace of the oil and gas industry. I wonder if this is really is QE3 in disguise? Manufacturing was slowing down. The dollar was getting weaker. Something had to be done and the Federal Reserve was getting real heat from its Quanitative easing. http://www.iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=418 International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka announced today that the 28 IEA member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the coming month in response to the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya. This supply disruption has been underway for some time and its effect has become more pronounced as it has continued. The normal seasonal increase in refiner demand expected for this summer will exacerbate the shortfall further. Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery. In deciding to take this collective action, IEA member countries agreed to make 2 million barrels of oil per day available from their emergency stocks over an initial period of 30 days. Leading up to this decision, the IEA has been in close consultation with major producing countries, as well as with key non-IEA importing countries. The IEA estimates that the unrest in Libya had removed 132 mb of light, sweet crude oil from the market by the end of May. Although there are huge uncertainties, analysts generally agree that Libyan supplies will largely remain off the market for the rest of 2011. Given this loss and the seasonal increase in demand, the IEA warmly welcomes the announced intentions to increase production by major oil producing countries. As these production increases will inevitably take time and world economies are still recovering, the threat of a serious market tightening, particularly for some grades of oil, poses an immediate requirement for additional oil or products to be made available to the market. The IEA collective action is intended to complement expected increases in output by these producing countries, to help bridge the gap until sufficient additional oil from them reaches global markets. “Today, for the third time in the history of the International Energy Agency, our member countries have decided to act together to ensure that adequate supplies of oil are available to the global market,” Mr. Tanaka said. “This decisive action demonstrates the IEA’s strong commitment to well-supplied markets and to ensuring a soft landing for world energy markets.” Total oil stocks in IEA member countries amount to over 4.1 billion barrels, and nearly 1.6 billion barrels of this are public stocks held exclusively for emergency purposes. IEA net oil-importing countries have a legal obligation to hold emergency oil reserves equivalent to at least 90 days of net oil imports. These countries are holding stock levels well above this minimum amount, currently at 146 days of net imports. (http://www.iea.org/netimports.asp) The IEA Governing Board will within 30 days of this notice reassess the oil market, review the impact of their coordinated action and decide on possible future steps.

There is no reason why we could not use nuclear technology. We have the capibility to build safe units. Currently Nuclear power plants generate nearly three-fourths of America's clean-air energy. The Calvert Cliffs plant has been safely producing energy for Maryland since 1975. http://www.nei.org/

It will be the banks that decide this, not our government. There are also other battery solutions coming down the pipe. http://www.polyzion.eu/ Current battery technologies for hybrid (HEVs) and small electric vehicles (EVs) have technological, costs or environmental limitations. Despite this, the global market for HEVs and EVs is growing rapidly and is expected to top $2billion by 2015. The PolyZion project aims to create a new class of fast rechargeable zinc-polymer battery for hybrid and small electric vehicles applications. The research program combines fundamental material and process advances in ionic liquids, rechargeable zinc electrodes, ultra-fast pulse charge injection techniques and conducting polymers, as well as constructing prototypes battery units for industry standard testing. The resulting battery device will be low cost, have low environmental impact and have the energy and power density necessary to compete with alternative battery technologies in the HEV and EV markets. PolyZion is a European-led consortium combining world-class research organizations in ionic liquids, conducting polymers, zinc deposition, pulse charging and batteries, as well as SME partners with expertise in technology development and specialised materials, and large industrial partners with industrial experience of battery manufacture and state-of-the-art testing facilities. The consortium also includes 2 organisations with world-class research expertise from an 'Emerging Economy' (Russia) and a 'High Income' country outside the EU (Canada).

How are we to secure commodities when we have nothing to do with them. We are just now starting to once again focus on batteries that for decades we outsourced. Although, the majority of electronic components that require lithium are MADE IN CHINA. That is why they need the resource. When our manufacturing base begins to grow, then we will gain purchasing power again. First we need to nurture our collective intelligence to better understand where we are economically in the world marketplace. We just have to win the technology race. That starts with our schools. I see robot competitions in the Midwest. We need to start treating teachers NOT like glorified babysitters and give them the same respect as doctors and lawyers.