FUNKY CONGRESS (PEOPLE IT'S BAD)

Via Def Agent bedsitter23 , the best political sign you’ll see during the 2010 mid-term elections.



And how.

Which isn’t to say a funky congress won’t have its share of political squabbling. But a little funk never hurts.

That said, they actually mean Dave Funk, who you may like to know is not only running for the GOP nomination for the 3rd District in Iowa, but also appears to be favored by the Tea Party and is a member of Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project.

So there’s funk, and there’s Funk, if you see what I’m saying.

Give up the funk,

This is dF

YOUTUBE SURVIVOR SERIES #83: SHE’S MOVING, SHE’S GROOVING

Good morning Internet.

It’s Monday. Back to the grind with you. But hopefully you’ve prepared for it by spending the weekend dancing.

Yvonne Craig did.

Observe.

Watch on YouTube

FUN FACT: Yvonne Craig turned 72 last week. She’s a trained ballet dancer, you know.

Superbad now,

This is dF

BAGRAM IS THE NEW GUANTANAMO BAY

ITEM: A three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the right of the US govt to arrest abduct people and ship them off to Bagram (like Gitmo, but further away) with no habeas corpus rights of any kind, and thus no right to contest the legitimacy of their detention in a US federal court.

The reason: unlike Gitmo, where detainees do have at least a right to habeus corpus thanks to a 2008 court ruling, that same ruling doesn’t apply to war zones.

Like Afghanistan, for example.

Here’s what that means, according to Glenn Greenwald:

If you are in Thailand (as one of the petitioners in this case was) and the US abducts you and flies you to Guantanamo, then you have the right to have a federal court determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold you. If, however, President Obama orders that you be taken to from Thailand to Bagram rather than to Guantanamo, then you will have no rights of any kind, and he can order you detained there indefinitely without any right to a habeas review. 

Which is ironic, considering that, during the 2008 campaign, John McCain was highly in favor of keeping Bagram a legal black hole, and Obama was dead set against it. And now the Obama admin is essentially fighting for the legal right to do what Bush did and what McCain would have continued.

Not that this is yr problem, as long as the govt doesn’t think yr a terrorist. I’m just saying.

But it’s times like this I marvel at how so many people just seem to accept this as though it’s the way things have to be now that 9/11 changed everything. Where’s the Tea Party outrage over excessive govt power when you need it?

Admittedly, the Tea Parties are probably making it tough for the same left-wing contingent who were furious back when it was Bush doing these things from staging protests against Obama’s foreign policy decisions. What if some Tea Party members actually showed up to support you? I mean, how awkward would that be?

On the other hand, imagine the fun of a conservative Obama Socialism protest and a liberal Obama Foreign Policy protest showing up at the same place. Result: two protest groups fighting each other over who hates Obama for the right reasons.

Fox News wouldn’t know who to sponsor.

Will it blend,

This is dF

LET’S SAIL TO VENUS ON MY SPACE YACHT, BABY

Yr Awesome 21st Century lede of the day:

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has launched the first spacecraft that will speed across the solar system using a hybrid solar sail—one propelled partly by solar pressure, partly by traditional solar power. [...]

First proposed in the 1920s, solar sails are large reflective membranes that allow a spacecraft to be pushed by radiation pressure from sunlight, negating the need for heavy onboard fuel.

"It's the space equivalent of a yacht sailing on the sea," said Yuichi Tsuda, deputy project manager for Ikaros. Like wind filling a boat's sails, particles of light—or photons—streaming from the sun bounce onto a mirrorlike aluminized solar sail.

As each photon strikes, its momentum is transmitted to the spacecraft, which begins to gather speed in the almost frictionless environment of space. A solar sail can eventually reach speeds five to ten times greater than a rocket powered by conventional fuels.

The reality-check downside is that solar sail technology won’t really work for manned missions because of the extra weight, which would make the craft take too long to reach acceleration speed. However, it could really kick open the doors to robotic space exploration.

"On the 2020 mission, we hope to be able to go to the Jupiter system and the concentrated belt of asteroids that exist nearby that are known as the Trojan asteroid region," Tsuda said.

Close enough.

Come sail away,

This is dF