Something happened on the way to the post I had planned for yesterday.

I did not write the post I had intended for yesterday, "A fine day for surfing."*  Terrible events intervened.  An Army psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage at a deployment center at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others.  Very little information was available and the base went into complete lock down.  From when the shooting spree occurred at about 1:30 PM and thereafter there had been only one short news conference, so there was a lot of TV anchor and guest expert speculation.

 

For some time it was thought that the assailant had been killed and that there may have been more than one person doing the shooting.  The next news conference was not until well into the evening.  But it was learned that during the shootings he was brought down by a female police guard.  She had surgery for her wounds and is also alive. "Major Nidal Malik Hasan" is in the hospital, on a ventilator, unconscious and (last night) reportedly in stable condition. It was reported from early on that Major Hasan had experienced problems with his professional performance ratings and that he had expressed great reservations about his upcoming deployment to the Middle East.  A family member said "he thought it was the worst that could happen to him."  It was also reported that he was known to have expressed some inflammatory opinions on the Internet about suicide bombers.

 

Everyone is trying to figure out his motivation for such terrible actions.  And like millions of others, my husband and I did our own speculating about the psychiatrist's motivations, based on all the little pieces of information that emerged.  It was a major shock for me, a retired psychotherapist, to hear that the shooter was a mental health practitioner who was a specialist in working with PTSD.  It was hard to believe.  These are the ideas we talked about: Could it be secondary PTSD resulting from years of listening to others' trauma stories? Could he be a "homegrown terrorist?"   Could the psychiatrist have terribly intractable  ambivalence about his national identity – though he was born in the United States – seeing himself neither as a Jordanian nor an American?  Could it be that Major Hasan have has sexual preference issues around the military's "don't ask; don't tell" policy?  We wondered who his victims were, random or known to him?

 

The tragic events happened not too far down the road from where we live.  It makes us sad.  It is unnerving, confusing and shocking that it could have happen the way it did. Much more information has come out in the interim.  We hope to find out more answers to these troubling questions soon.

 

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* Returning to the subject of my planned post of yesterday — I had been on the computer since very early in the morning.  I was doing routine tasks, reading Email, cleaning and clearing files and reading TweetDeck.  Of particular interest were a series of tweets by Mark Knoller documenting President Obama's at conference of representatives of over 500 Native American tribal nations.  I also learned from the tweet stream that Senator Barbara Boxer had discharged a climate change bill without amendment from her committee, following Republican members' boycott of the markup sessions.  The vote was 12-1, with two Democratic senators absent.  (My posted about that event is here).  

 

At midday I closed out my web surfing, got dressed and turned on the television to C-SPAN, the Senate channel.  On the agenda was the second try at passing the appropriation bill for Commerce, Science and Technology, which includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  Before getting to the bill, however, the Senate had to vote on a cloture motion.  Democrats were successful in getting the 60 necessary votes.  Debate on the bill began.  Florida's Senator Nelson made an excellent speech about the future of NASA.  He laid out three things he would like to see happen: 1) The administration and Congress should allocate the amount of money needed based on the Augustine Commission report.  2) Based on the Augustine reports' set of options, the President should instruct NASA to decide upon the appropriate architecture for future space exploration.  3) The government should take care of NASA's work force during the process.  

 

Flipping to the NASA channel, I joined a live broadcast of an event at NASA's Washington headquarters.  Four members of the STS-128 crew were making a public appearance.  The centerpiece of the event was a wonderful video of their recent flight to the ISS and back to a successful landing in California.  Following a lively Q and A with delightful questions from young children, my husband interrupted me by saying that there had been a horrific big shooting at Fort Hood.  My day for good news surfing was at its terrible conclusion.  Now much has changed for the worse.

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Boxer Pushes Through Climate Bill Despite GOP Boycott – Roll Call

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Thursday pushed climate change legislation through her committee on an 11-1 vote despite a boycott of the markup by panel Republicans. The lone no vote for her bill was from Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

via rollcall.com

11/5/09 — Political jockeying is very complex in the Senate’s efforts to start climate change legislation on its way. Not the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman coalition that announced a “parallel track” yesterday.
See also this Washington Independent story that focused on the sexual politics of the matter:

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House Committee Considers PATRIOT Reform | Electronic Frontier Foundation

The House Judiciary Committee has recessed its meeting to “mark-up” Chairman Conyers’ PATRIOT renewal and reform bill, the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009 (HR 3845), so that the committee members can attend a vote on the House floor. We don’t know when they’ll be back — we’ll try to tweet via @EFF if and when they do return — but in the meantime, here are the major developments that you missed if you weren’t watching the live webcast. Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute also has a great blow-by-blow with characteristic snark via @Normative.

The mark-up got off to a somewhat worrisome start when Chairman Conyers introduced a “manager’s amendment” making numerous changes to the bill to address concerns raised by the Obama Administration about some of the bill’s reforms. We have a copy of the amendment and a description of the changes it makes to the bill. Based on a very quick review, most of the changes seem relatively minor, but they are definitely not an improvement from a civil liberties perspective. So, once again, the Obama Administration is quietly working to stop reforms to the PATRIOT Act even though Senator Obama was one of the PATRIOT Act’s staunchest critics.

via eff.org

We’re not out of the woods on this, by any means. Three elements of the Patriot Act were due to sunset. The Committee is marking up the bill this week, and their work bears close watching. The Committee reconvene’s at 10:00 ET on Thursday to continue its work.

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A bit about Barbara Boxer . . .

Image via Wikipedia

California's Senator Barbara Boxer must have had a high level to patience to have gotten along for the past three years with her Ranking Member, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, on the Environment and Public Works Committee. She is tough but fair, warm and inclusive and scary smart. California's environmental leadership history has shaped her well for this most important time partnering with the Obama administration on its next big push — energy and climate change legislation.

How long could the leadership of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee paper over their vast differences? Now that it is time to mark up a climate change bill, Republicans on the committee have boycotted the planned meetings. Through their spokesman, Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio), they announced on Tuesday that they cannot be in the same room with their Democratic colleagues until they get another EPA cost analysis of the bill. That process would take about five weeks.

Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) did not agree to Voinovich's demands, leaving the committee at an impasse for the moment. Democrats on the committee are in agreement that they all have enough information to mark up a bill. The bill would put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and set up a market for trading the government issued pollution allowances, the so called "cap and trade" system. Reluctance to wait stems from the fact that this bill will eventually have to be blended with several other climate change bills in the Senate, just like Senator Reid is doing with the health care reform bills right now. And, in the same way, the blended bill would be costed out by the Congressional Budget Office before it comes to the Senate floor. To quote Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), according to the Congressional Quarterly,

We are very close to a completely accurate estimate. People might say, ‘Why not wait?’ Because as soon as you amend it, you change it again. What are they going to do, wait five weeks to analyze each amendment?

Senator Boxer may go ahead and move the bill through the committee without the Republicans. Committee Ranking Member James Inhofe (R – OK) calls this a "nuclear option." If you remember, this is the same man who has had serious doubts about the very idea of global warming's very existence.

In a related matter, CQ Politics also reports that Carly Fiorina will run against Senator Boxer in 2010. To quote,

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, is expected to formally launch her long-awaited Republian campaign against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer sometime this week.

. . . Fiorina is considered the desired nominee by party insiders in California and Washington, D.C. Fiorina is being feted at a Capitol Hill-area fundraiser next month headlined by a list of notable senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Among the others Republican senators listed as hosts of the Nov. 17 event at Bistro Bis are John McCain of Arizona, whom Fiorina served as a top surrogate in the 2008 presidential race, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. . .

It is probably safe to say that Senator Boxer's Senate seat is pretty safe. It is also safe to say that she will find a way through this morass of Republican obstructionism and report out a good bill that will fit in with other similar legislation that will eventually be passed and signed into law. It just seems destined.

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The story so far, in one picture – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com

The story so far, in one picture

World industrial production in the Great Depression and now:

via krugman.blogs.nytimes.com

The pundits will say that today’s elections are “the start of the Republican revolution,” or that the Democrats “averted disaster,” or spoutother hyped over-generalizations. But the question of whether a member of the official Conservative Party wins his election in upstate New York or not, pales in importance compared to Krugman’s published gift posted on this election day.

In 1929 it was industrial production in “the world,” but one consisting of much more separate elements than today. The remaining question is this: Is the industrial production being done by people with real jobs or by robots?

It would be interesting to see the U.S. stats broken out in the same manner at the world stats in the graph here. U.S. production is just barely up. And persistent Joblessness is still incredibly painful for every family in America experiencing it.

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Former Senators will again step up to the plate for the good of their nation.

From the New York Times (10/29/09) we learned that President Obama has reversed a number of Bush administration actions regarding the Intelligence Oversight Board.  The board will once again be able to forward information to the Attorney General, that would report intelligence activities that may break federal laws or go against presidential orders, leading to possible criminal investigations.  To quote:

President Obama has strengthened the authority and independence of an espionage oversight board made up of private citizens with top-level security clearances and a mandate to uncover illegal spying.

In an executive order released Thursday by the White House, Mr. Obama rolled back several changes made by the Bush administration that had weakened the Intelligence Oversight Board, a panel that helps presidents make sure spy agencies are obeying federal laws and presidential directives.

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Mr. Obama’s order also makes it clear that the Intelligence Oversight Board will once again determine for itself what information and assistance the spy agencies must furnish for the panel to do its job.

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Mr. Obama has not yet announced whom he will appoint to serve on the body. But on Wednesday, he appointed Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, and David L. Boren, a former Democratic senator from Oklahoma, to be co-chairmen of the Intelligence Advisory Board, which focuses on making spy agencies more effective. The oversight board is a component of the advisory panel.

This is very good news for the protection of the rule of law, civil liberties and other areas where the intelligence community may have gotten out of hand, for whatever reason.  The appointments of former senators Chuck Hagel and David Boren to the Intelligence Oversight Board is a stroke of genius.  Both have good credentials and lots of valuable experience.  Filling the remaining empty seats is the next order of business for President Obama.   

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Accountability

Accountability is a word we have heard used a great deal this year. It as if the concept were new to the American experience, given the lack of same in the previous administration. As I think about it, the word means that people are held to account. Or people take the natural, normal and logical consequences of their own actions.

Though President Obama is often too reluctant to hold officials in the Bush administration accountable, he does not set that same lax standard for himself. I believe that he expects to suffer consequences for his decisions and actions, as a man and as President of the United States, the Commander in Chief of the military. What are some of those consequences? They might include feelings of embarrassment, ambivalence, or worry and being subjected to criticism, among many other outcomes. But our President is not deterred by such. In that same vein he is willing to feel the pain, perhaps even anguish, associated with his decisions to send members of the military into harm's way.

President Barack Obama met the caskets of the most recent war casualties at Dover AFB before dawn Thursday. Arriving just after midnight, he and several other officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, paid respects to 18 U.S. soldiers and DEA agents killed in multiple tragedies in Afghanistan. The President also met with the families of the fallen Americans. It was the right thing to do. On Twitter Josh Marshall posted a very moving set of Dover images at TPM Photo Galleries. The pictures of the President's middle of the night experience are particularly poignant.

That anyone would dare to say that President Obama's trip to Dover was inappropriate is an absolute outrage. How dare they criticize this good man with so much weight on his thin shoulders! He is holding himself accountable for his wartime decisions by accepting the normal consequences. The feelings of sadness, solemnity, regret, frustration and perhaps even anger come with his POTUS territory. And he has stepped up, as he should have.

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Lift Off Successful for Ares 1-X

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The Ares 1-X solid rocket flew beautifully on its second day of trying to find a little weather window.  Long, slim and powerful, this rather new machine made its originators proud.  I have been watching the camera replays with fascination, including two on the vehicle itself.  The control rooms broke out in applause, handshakes, high-fives and general celebration over the feat.  After they all settle down a bit (at 1:30 PM Eastern time), there will be a news conference by the principles on the NASA channel.

The next few days, weeks and months will be devoted to analyzing the data that was fed back to the control room from more than 700 sensors on the rocket.  This launch feels very different than the test launches of decades ago.  It will be interesting to see the next generation learn to do all this their own way.  I wish them well.

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Mission: Ares 1-X

NASA Targeting 11 A.M. for Rocket Launch
28 October 2009, 9:50 a.m. EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is now hoping to lift off its Ares I-X test rocket at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). Weather officers are still looking toward a break in the clouds that looks to reach the launch pad around that time.

The flight has been held on the ground by cloudy weather since its launch window opened at 8 a.m. EDT.

Click here to read the launch preview story.

Click here for SPACE.com’s NASA TV feed.

via space.com

Space.com has a very good page on the Aries 1-X project. It has been interesting to contrast this rocket test mission with the Shuttle missions. There is a huge difference between manned and unmanned rocketry. There is also a lot of difference between going into low earth orbit and going up for just a couple of minutes and parachuting the vehicle back into the ocean.
I wish this great bunch good luck and Godspeed today. I am a space junkie and still love to watch the big booms.

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Lieberman says he’ll filibuster Reid plan – Manu Raju – POLITICO.com

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. 

Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid’s has said the Senate bill will. 

“We’re trying to do too much at once,” Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now.” 

Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line.” 

via politico.com

This is not a big surprise to those of us who remember how changeable Senator Lieberman can be. People against a public option in its present forms forget how very limited it really is. Less than 10% of people will be eligible and it won’t go into effect for several years. The health insurance lobby still has the Senate by the throat, unfortunately. Keep in touch with your Senators and Representatives to let them know what you want.

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