U.S. Losing Ground in Science & Engineering

After all the turmoil of this silly season of political campaigning has settled down, and politics has returned to a lower energy level, it will be time to get back to the work of making a better life for folks in U.S. and around the globe. Americans have always been willing to explore the frontiers, and breakthrough barriers of all kinds. Wishing and hoping for a better world is not a method. We will need a renewed focus and investment in science and engineering education, K-12 through college, to compete in a global marketplace in the 21st century.

It's time to get the train of scientific progress and engineering innovation back on track.

U.S. Experts Bemoan Nation's Loss of Stature in the World of Science
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post

Excerpt

Speaking at a science summit that opens this week's first World Science Festival, the expert panel of scientists, and audience members, agreed that the United States is losing stature because of a perceived high-level disdain for science. They cited U.S. officials and others questioning scientific evidence of climate change, the reluctance to federally fund stem cell research, and some U.S. officials casting doubt on evolution as examples that have damaged America's international standing.

"I think there's a loss of American power and prestige that came about as a result of our anti-science policies," said David Baltimore, a biologist and Nobel laureate and board chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Raising questions about the science of evolution, he said, "leads to a certain disdain for American intelligence." He added, "What we need is leadership that respects science."

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Although the United States has long been the recognized global leader in science, Fedoroff said, that position is now being challenged by others, specifically China, which is raising its global profile. "They're educating 10 times as many students as we are," she said. "The next generation of scientists in other countries might not speak English."

The National Academy of Engineering: Looking Toward the Future

Charles M. Vest, President-elect
April 26, 2007

"To lead in the knowledge age, we need knowledgeable people – men and women who have vision, deep understanding of engineering, and the ability to participate in the system that translates innovative new ideas and technologies into new products, processes, and services. Such engineering leaders must successfully address the Herculean national challenge of being competitive in the emerging world economy while maintaining our standard of living.

We must inspire and educate a new generation of diverse young men and women to pursue careers in engineering for the purpose of improving the quality of human life and strengthening American and worldwide economies. We must develop engineering leaders to drive transformative technological advances, and to turn globalization from a threat to an opportunity.

Engineering in the 20th century was based on physics, chemistry, and electronics, and largely focused on energy, transportation, communication, and defense. In the 21st century, engineering will additionally be based on life science and information science, and must increasingly focus on the environment, sustainability, and new approaches to energy. The nation’s well-being and our place in the world community depend in large measure on our leading and implementing the new, cutting-edge innovations that come from both basic research and sophisticated development.

Going forward, the National Academies must sustain and enhance synergy across science, engineering, and medicine to strengthen the nation’s ability to discover, create, and heal."

VA GOP - AFP - JBS Links Explored @ SCH

With full permission
By Hank Bostwick, Star City Harbinger
May 29, 2008

New Generation Virginia GOP: Talkin’ John Birch Paranoia Blues
. . . and there ain’t nothing wrong with this song.

The Family Tree of Right-Wing Extremists

Frederick Chase Koch (pronounced ‘coke’) is the founder of Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately owned company in the United States with an annual revenue stream of approximately $90 billion. Koch, Sr.’s sons now run the company: Charles Koch serves as chairman of the board and the company’s chief executive officer, David Koch is the company’s executive vice president. Koch Industries, Inc., is one of the most closely-held private corporations in the country. The Koch brothers have used their significant financial resources to fund far-right, radically anti-environmentalist fringe groups like Americans for Prosperity.

Frederick Koch was heavily involved in the spread of the radical, extremist agenda of the John Birch Society after becoming a member in 1958. Though it has been sanitized and repackaged as a legitimate conservative organization, the John Birch Society has been on FBI watch-lists for its organized opposition to immigrants-rights as well as the rights of African-Americans and their hard-fought efforts to pass civil rights legislation in the mid 1960’s.

The Koch brothers, Frederick’s sons, are founding members of the far-right, anti-environmentalist group Americans for Prosperity. Many pundits argue that the AFP represents an extension of the agenda of the John Birch Society re-imagined for the 21st century. Sources indicate that there is some overlap in membership between Americans for Prosperity and the Council of Conservative Citizens, a late-20th century outgrowth of the Ku Klux Klan. The Koch brothers often funnel their contributions to groups like the aforementioned through Triad Management Services, an organization connected to former US Representative Tom DeLay (R).

The Koch brothers and their financial ties to Virginia politicians

Koch Industries, Inc., has several holdings in Virginia, including Georgia-Pacific and INVISTA. Apparently, few politicians from the right and, perhaps, the left are immune from the influence of this highly visible, but curiously secretive company. Governor Kaine’s inaugural committee received a $5000 donation from an INVISTA subsidiary in North Carolina. We have outlined the connections between the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and its financial ties via Georgia-Pacific, the Dominion Leadership Trust, and the VA Conservative Action PAC to Republicans like Jeff Frederick and Ben Cline.

Additionally, the Harbinger has already documented the special-interest group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and its efforts to roll back environmental legislation and its denial of climate change evidence as well as its attempts to undermine the financial integrity of publicly funded education. An extremely busy organization, AFP has been hard at work trying to convince Congress that credit companies and financial institutions should be given preference over Americans whose homes are facing foreclosure. As recently as February 15, 2008, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, AFP has advocated against greater ozone restrictions under consideration by the EPA.

Environmental offenders tied to Dominion Leadership Trust, Frederick, Cline, AFP, and the VA Conservative Action PAC

In 2005, the Koch brothers acquired Georgia-Pacific and Koch Industries, Inc., became the largest privately owned company in the United States. According to Media Transparency,

[d]uring the late 1980s and early 1990s, Congress investigated their company over allegations that they had stolen over $30 million worth of oil from Indian tribes in Oklahoma. In January 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency leveled “the largest civil fine ever imposed on a company under any federal environmental law to resolve claims related to more than 300 oil spills from its pipelines and oil facilities in six states,” according to Justice Department press release; the fine was severely reduced after John Ashcroft became Attorney General.

In 1989, a US Senate Committee on Investigations concluded that “Koch Oil, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, is the most dramatic example of an oil company stealing by deliberate mis-measurement and fraudulent reporting.” The case at issue, a finding that a Koch Industries affiliate poured approximately 90 metric tons of cancer-causing benzene near a Koch refinery around Corpus Christi, Texas. Eventually, Koch officials faced a ninety-seven count indictment. The Koch brothers covered themselves by donating nearly $800, 000 to George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign. When President Bush took office, the fine was reduced to $20 million, jail time was taken off the table and Koch Industries pleaded guilty to falsifying documents.

As a final matter, conspiracy groups have strong opinions about the clandestine activities of the Koch brothers. Some even go so far as to accuse the Koch brothers of recklessness and murder. Notwithstanding the unlikeliness of these outlandish claims, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to deplore the connections between the Koch brother’s Americans for Prosperity and Virginia politicians. Their influence over the next generation of Virginia GOP leaders, like Frederick and Cline, cannot be denied. (In fact, Ben Cline serves as the AFP’s Western Chairman for the Commonwealth of Virginia.)

Republicans have a clear choice on May 30th

This weekend, Virginia Republicans will choose the future leadership of the Virginia GOP. They have a choice between a lesser-known set of young Republicans with ties to shady organizations like Americans for Prosperity and Koch Industries, Inc., and the moderate Old Guard represented by current state GOP chairman John Hager.

It will be interesting to see which direction Virginia’s Grand Old Party choses to go.

Emerging Story: Candidate running to lead Virginia’s Republican Party financially tied to conservative extremist groups

By Hank Bostwick

Star City Harbinger

May 28, 2008

This weekend (May 30th), Virginia Republicans will choose new leadership for the Commonwealth’s Grand Old Party. Among the serious contenders for first chair of the VA GOP is Delegate Jeff Frederick (R). Hailed by right-wing bloggers as “the face of the future,” Frederick seems poised to win his Party’s top seat.

While liberal bloggers in Northern Virginia practice their rhetorical gamesmanship tearing their fellow Democrats a proverbial new one, right-wing fringe groups have deftly moved into key leadership positions within Virginia’s Republican Party.

The choice of the young and angry set of the conservative punditocracy, Frederick is also the beneficiary of a veritable truckload of campaign contributions from conservative extremist groups like the overtly obstructionist Americans for Prosperity and the more clandestine but equally insidious school-voucher lobby All Children Matter.

For example, Frederick has taken almost $50, 000 since 2002 from the Dominion Leadership Trust, a group with demonstrably strong financial ties to the radically anti-environmentalist group Americans for Prosperity.

Similarly, since he began his career in the General Assembly five or six years ago, Frederick has taken almost $11, 000 from the VA Conservative Action PAC, another far-right political action committee with financial ties to Koch and Fink’s Americans for Prosperity.

Perhaps Frederick’s most consistently strong relationship with conservative special interest groups is the young Republican’s ties to All Children Matter, a lobbying firm for school choice–a euphemism for school vouchers and the ultimate de-funding of the public school system. Since 2002, Frederick has taken over $50, 000 from Michigan-based All Children Matter.

Virginia Republicans have a choice this weekend, a choice between flashy new leadership with ties to fringe conservative PACs that seek to undermine public education and promote the irresponsible belief that global warming is a hoax and the voices of moderation represented by delegates like William Fralin (R) and state senators like Emmett Hanger (R) embodied in the other choices for chair of the state GOP committee.

Extremists Broadening Base in Virginia GOP

By: Hank Bostwick - Star City Harbinger
5/28/08, 7:00 am

The pig-circus that was the Augusta County Republican Committee in April and May of this year is well documented. The right-wing blogosphere followed the situation closely, despite the confusing narrative of shifting alliances between the old Guard and the newer voices in the Central Shenandoah Valley GOP ranks. The eventual victors viewed their fellow GOP rivals as too moderate and conciliatory towards their opponents in the center and on the left in the General Assembly, according to sources close to the Augusta County Republican Committee.

This highly publicized internecine Shenandoah Republican warfare has been cast as an epic, however comic, battle between moderates and extremists within the Virginia GOP. Many pundits have noted that the extremists appear to be connected to a DC-based group with an ironically apt Orwellian title Americans for Prosperity.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a seemingly innocuous conservative advocacy group, is well-healed enough to teeter between dubious legitimacy and obstructionist wing-nuttery. For example, AFP has used its significant cash reserves to single handedly stymie grassroots efforts to improve failing schools. Likewise, AFP has staged elaborate and expensive mock scientific displays to argue that global warming is a bunch of hot air.

Consider the work of AFP in North Carolina. AFP was the sole financial contributor to a fund with the sole purpose of defeating a local initiative to compel a county government to increase funding for improvement of its public school system. After Wake Citizens for Quality Education raised enough money, mostly from small, individual donors, to wage a grassroots referendum campaign for a $970 million bond for educational and school infrastructure improvement, AFP, a Washington, DC, based firm, swept in and gave the opposition group a huge chunk of change—the group’s only source of funding.

AFP members and adherents represent the far right fringe of the conservative movement and have deep roots in neo-conservative philosophy a la Wolfowitz and Cheney. Often espousing a pro-life stance which makes no room for exception, at times advocating for a return to a theocratic form of governance, and vehemently opposing any immigration policy that smacks of compassion or amnesty, AFP members fear compromise on principal and decry what they believe is a dangerous drift of the Commonwealth’s GOP toward moderation and defeatist centrism. During the primary campaign, AFP volunteers were excited by candidates like Huckabee and Romney and occasionally openly and passionately objected to a McCain nomination. In fact, McCain’s besmeared bow-out from the endorsement by Pastor Hagee he originally begged for is an example of the straight-talking maverick’s botched attempts to court the radical religious right and placate nervous Republicans desperate not to lose the radical edge of conservatism represented by groups like AFP in the general election.

AFP operates far outside the mainstream understanding of GOP moderates, Party pragmatists, and green evangelicals on issues related to climate control. Over the past few months, in flamboyant displays of pseudo-science and hubris, AFP has launched its Hot Air Tour.

Climate alarmists have bombarded citizens with apocalyptic scenarios and pressured them into environmental political correctness. It’s time to tell the other side of the story. Americans for Prosperity is working hard to bring you the missing half of the global warming debate. What will the impacts of reactionary legislation be for you, your family and our economy . . . learn more about climate alarmism and the looming Big Government “solutions.”


AFP has been spreading its discredited, though increasingly popular, obstructionist views in states like Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Recently, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the growing influence of AFP has been felt in two ways. For example, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation is led by founding member David Koch, who is also Executive Vice President of Koch Industries, Inc., an oil-and-gas conglomerate based in Wichita, Kansas. The Director of the AFP Foundation is Richard Fink, who is also an officer of Koch Industries, Inc. Fink sits on the Board of Directors of Georgia-Pacific, which operates in Virginia. Over the last few years, Georgia-Pacific has contributed funds to Virginia’s 24th House District Delegate Ben Cline and his campaign.

Another avenue of potential access of the AFP to the Commonwealth’s county GOP committees is through financial relationships to well-established PACs, like the Dominion Leadership Trust and the VA Conservative Action PAC.

The VA Conservative Action PAC made significant contributions to the State Senate primary campaign of Scott Sayre, who narrowly lost to State Sen. Emmett Hanger (R), a loss which some posit as the genesis of the brewing resentment and chaos within the Augusta County Republican Committee that erupted earlier this year. Curiously, in 2006-2007, Americans for Prosperity helped move around approximately $45, 000 for the VA Conservative Action PAC.

If the rise in influence in Virginia of fringe groups like Americans for Prosperity is any indication of the direction of the Commonwealth’s GOP, then centrist and moderate Republicans in the style of retiring US Senator John Warner and Delegate William Fralin will soon be in short supply. Virginia Democrats and Independents may relish the opportunity to present a stark contrast to their rivals on the radical right.

Sam Rasoul Secures Nomination - VA-06

Candidate Sam Rasoul, D-VA-06

Local delegates gathered for the 6th Congressional District Democratic Convention in Lexington on Saturday, May 24th. With a final stamp of approval, local Democrats ensured that Sam Rasoul locked up the nomination for the House of Representatives race against long-term incumbent Bob Goodlatte.

While local newspaper coverage was scant, the citizen-journalists of the blogosphere stepped up to provide great coverage.

Cliff Garstang, at Cobalt6, provides a good summary of the convention and the full text of Bill Bestpitch's stirring nomination speech. Bill is the First Vice-Chair of the Roanoke City Democratic Committee and former member of the Roanoke City Council.

Coarse Cracked Corn wryly noted the scarcity of local media coverage. Always observant, CCC provides some kernels on the convention details.

Augusta Free Press also provided interesting audio webcasts of Sam Rasoul's address at the convo and a speech by gubernatorial candidate Brian Moran.

At least the Roanoke Times devoted some ink to this determined campaign. It will be a tough road ahead for this grass-roots "common man", to get much attention while running against a special interest-fuled incumbent.

Rasoul raised $131,831 through the end of March, and after spending a little
more than half of that has $61,731 left in cash on hand. Goodlatte, meanwhile,
raised $733,653 -- more than five times more than Rasoul -- and has nearly $1.5
million to spend on the race.

6th District Dems seemed to be energized for the tough battle ahead. I suspect that Bob Goodlatte's ears were burning. The intensifying focus on Goodlatte's special interest fund raising, with large PACs and major business contributors, further exacerbates the perception that he has lost touch with needs of the middle class in the 6th District over the last 16 years in Washington.

Tagline from the convention:

" When Sam Rasoul gets to Washington, he'll be working for us!"

Best Bumper Sticker -- David vs. Goliath Theme:

"$1.5 Million. Sam... make Bob spend ALL of it!"

Tom Clark - MIA Laos - Never Forget!

On Memorial Day 2008, I wanted to make this a personal reflection, to honor those lost in service to our country. This is to overcome the sometimes mind-numbing STATISTICS of war ... to focus on one data point... one man.

My father was a WWII Army Air Corp vet, and an aeronautical engineer. One of uncles was a aircraft mechanic and pilot. I built scores of model airplanes. And read volumes of military stories, especially about fighter pilot aces! My comic strip hero was Steve Canyon, jet pilot! Even had the lunch box to prove it.

So naturally I wanted to be an United States Air Force Pilot, in a big way. I had planned to attend the US Air Force Academy since I was in grade school. One of my personal heroes was Tom Clark, from tiny Emporium, PA. It was the hometown of both my parents, and many of my relatives lived there. Tom was well known to my relatives. My Uncle Jim attended Tom's graduation from the Air Force Academy in 1963, and I got a treasured USAFA sweatshirt as a souvenir.

By 1969, I was in high school, with my hopes of attending the Academy fading, as my eye-sight was now below the standard of "20-40 uncorrected", required for a USAF navigator, and a total No-Go for being a USAF pilot. Then I had a bigger reality check, when news came of Tom Clark's crash in Vietnam (Laos). By the time I graduated in 1971, the U.S. was starting to wind down the war in Vietnam, and I drew a very high draft lottery number. It meant that it was very unlikely that I would be drafted, and the Air Force seemed an unlikely career. I did follow part of my dream, to study engineering like my Dad. I started college at Penn State in the Fall of 1971. Tom Clark's first alma mater.

I occasionally think about the paths in life "not taken". And when I remember Tom Clark, I am thankful for his sacrifice, and how fortunate we are to have heroes like him, who have served our country.

Never Forget!

THOMAS EDWARD CLARK

Capt. Tom Clark

call sign: Sunvalley34

MAJ - O4 - Air Force - Regular
29 year old Married, Caucasian, Male
Birth date Apr 15, 1939
Home of Record EMPORIUM, PENNSYLVANIA
His tour of duty began on Feb 08, 1969
Casualty was on Feb 08, 1969 in LAOS
Hostile, died while missing
FIXED WING - PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was not recovered
Religion ROMAN CATHOLIC

Vietnam War Memorial -- Panel 33W - - Line 84

F-100D - Super Sabre over North Vietnam
37th Tactical Fighter Wing, 7th Air Force

Name:Thomas Edward Clark
Branch / Rank:US Air Force / Major ( O4)
Unit:37th TFW / 37th CSG - Phu Cat AB -- 7th AF Tan Son Nhut AB
Date of Birth:April 15, 1939
Home of Record:Emporium, PA
Date of Loss:February 8, 1969
Country of Loss:Laos
Loss Coordinates:171300N 1060500E
Status (in 1973):Missing In Action
Category:2
Duty:F100D Pilot
Other personnel in incident:(none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project, 01 September 1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.

Tom Clark graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1963, after having already spent two years at Penn State University. He was sometimes referred to as an "old man" at the Academy. He was interested in politics and flying and looked forward to a military career. Nearly 6 years after his graduation, Tom Clark was flying a mission in Laos over the Ho Chi Minh Trail just northwest of the DMZ when his aircraft was shot down. Circumstances surrounding his crash indicate that the enemy probably knows his fate, but in 1973, Tom was not released with other POWs. Tom Clark is one of nearly 600 Americans who were lost in Laos and did not return.

The Pathet Lao stated on several occasions that they held "tens of tens" of American prisoners, but that those who had been captured in Laos would also be released from Laos. The Lao wanted acknowledgement that the U.S. and Vietnamese had been waging war in their country. Laos was not included in the peace agreements ending American involvement in Southeast Asia, and not one American held in Laos was released - or negotiated for. By 1989, the U.S. had so thoroughly forgotten the men they abandoned that they began building medical clinics for the communist Lao government. At the same time, reports and evidence mount that Americans are still held alive as captives in Vietnam and Laos.

Tom Clark served his country proudly. He does not deserve abandonment. Thomas E. Clark was promoted to the rank of Major during the period he was maintained Missing in Action.

In reviewing the message traffic/abstracts maintained by the Library of Congress, I've determined that the crash site of Major Clark is at one of the following places: Saravan, Savannakhet, or Kammouan province, Phou Houat Mountain -- Vientiane province, or the Nam Mi Tributary. Reports surrounding Ban Houay Kasan and Ban Along Noi areas also included his name; I'm sure that further research of the loss coordinates above (if possible) will put us in the exact province.

One of the documents referencing Major Clark regarded him as 'Sunvalley 34.' This leads me to believe that his Call sign may be 'Sunvalley34.'