It’s unbelievable. I had my popcorn, a nice cold beer, and a stats sheet. I was all fired up to watch the unfolding grudge match of the Iraq War Supplemental. Now, I’m just tired of it. Who can keep track of it all? Democrats bypass the appropriators in the House. […]
Politics
277 posts
I found this interesting article on the whole ecosystem of the innovation crisis: the “Gathering Storm” report, the America COMPETES act, the failure to fund all of this last year, the efforts to get science into the supplemental, and the connections between science and the economy. Science Magazine’s article [1] […]
As many programs on TV and radio – both humorous and not humorous – have noted, whether you call the state of the economy in “recession” or “slow-down”, people are generally unhappy with the financial state of the nation. Making things frustrating for the high-tech sectors of the economy critical […]
The controversial Democratic House strategy for pushing the Iraq War Supplemental through the House and into the Senate has failed for now [1], partly owing to Republican protest but also a “revolt” of Blue-Dog Democrats, more moderate Democrats who opposed the strategy and some of the extra funding proposals. Sounds […]
I posted a short note about a week ago, expressing concern that the hyper-politicization of the war supplemental had begun. Well, it has begun. As reported in several online news articles [1] [2], the Democrats in the House are trying to bypass the appropriations committee (with what looks like at […]
In his press conference this morning, the President defined the limits of his tolerance on the Iraq war supplemental: $108 billion. More than that, he says, and Congress can expect a swift veto. Since this supplemental is potentially to include science spending, and needs bi-partisan support to even get the […]
Back in 2005, just after the March Washington lobbying effort by SLAC and Fermilab users, a few of us at SLAC decided to setup a website that could serve as a hub for political action by scientists. It was intended to be a resource more than an organization (unlike SEA, […]
A friend of mine sent along this cartoon. As she said, it’s rare to find politics and particle colliders combined in a single image.
Having just returned last night from Wisconsin, I find myself today in the San Jose airport waiting for my flight to the Tri-cities airport in Washington State. I had enough time to placate the cats, clean up the apartment a little (it was in excellent shape, actually, thanks to Roomba […]
In my previous musings on this topic, I noted that recently we in the HEP community had been suggested to come up with a concrete theory of spin-offs. This theory communicates the importance of funding basic research in HEP by selling the inevitability of beneficial spin-offs. I criticized the notion […]
On the recent SLAC/Fermilab/U.S. LHC trip to Washington D.C., a challenge was put to us: high-energy physics, as a field, needs a “Theory of Spinoffs”. We sell our field based on the compelling nature of the science, and it’s a great story. But, went the argument, the Congress (and […]
I just got my new U.S. passport today, after only sending the paperwork in about 1.5 weeks ago. Crazy. A little brochure came with the passport, its cover reading “With Your U.S. Passport, the World is Yours!” I’m writing an open letter to the U.S. State Department in response to […]