CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Discovery Blasts Off

Space shuttle Discovery launched on time and heads for the international space station.Image courtesy of NASA.

GM Testing Fuel Cell Vehicles In Westchester

Yesterday I attended a news conference announcing the launch of GM's “Project Driveway.”

The program will place 100 fuel cell powered Chevrolet Equinox SUVs in the hands of private and commercial customers. Those folks will test drive the fuel cell powered SUVs for three and 30 months. More than 11,000 people have applied to participate in the program.

The Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell SUVs are powered by GM's fourth-generation fuel cell propulsion system.

Project Driveway will test the fuel cell vehicles in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York, because those areas have hydrogen fueling stations.

In Westchester, the vehicles can be refilled at the hydrogen filling station installed at the White Plains Public Works depot. White Plains plans to buy five of the hydrogen-powered vehicles.

This is an important step towards weaning America from foreign oil.

Colbert Beats Richardson

Stephen Colbert has announced plans to run in both the Democratic and Republican South Carolina Presidential primaries.

A new Public Opinion Strategies poll finds Presidential wannabe, Stephen Colbert, takes 2.3 percent of the vote. That's better than Democratic candidates Governor Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Representative Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Senator Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent).

Richardson, Kucinich and Gravel should take the hint. It's long past time for them to withdraw.

More at Outside The Beltway and Shakespeare's Sister.

Weather May Delay Shuttle Launch

The weather forecast for Tuesday's launch of space shuttle Discovery calls for rain and low clouds right around launch time:

Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters put the odds of favorable conditions at just 40 percent for Tuesday morning, considerably worse than earlier forecasts.

Discovery is scheduled to liftoff at 11:38 a.m. EDT.

Image courtesy of NASA.

Hillary Maintains Fifty

A new Zogby poll finds half of likely voters would never vote for Hillary:

Older voters are most resistant to Clinton – 59% of those age 65 and older said they would never vote for the New York senator, but she is much more acceptable to younger voters: 42% of those age 18–29 said they would never vote for Clinton for President.

Things are getting worse for Hillary. In a March Zogby poll only 46 percent said they could never vote for Hillary. At the same time, the Harris Poll found 50 percent of U.S. adults would not vote for Hillary, including 21 percent of Democrats.

The Zogby poll was conducted October 11–15, 2007 and has a +/– 1.0 percent margin of error.

Smoking For Kids' Health

An idea so dumb only the Democratic-lead Congress could think of it.

Obama Disrespects The Flag

Time Magazine published this picture of Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin during the national anthem at Tom Harkin's Iowa Steak Fry.

Three of the four people in the picture want to be President of the United States. One of the three is disrespecting the Flag of the United States during the playing of the National Anthem.

United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10 - Patriotic Customs, provides:

During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart.

If you wanted to be president, wouldn't you give proper respect to the Old Glory during the National Anthem? Barack Hussein Obama would rather dispaly another testament to his patriotism.

Thanks to Theodore's World for the tip.

Unintended Consequences

Presidential wannabee, Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, says he will block a Senate vote on a White House-backed terrorist surveillance bill.

Dodd's move would stall a measure that President Bush and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell have said is essential to protect national security.

As I have posted before, I still don't find the Terrorist Surveillance Program very bothersome. We are at war, even though too many pretend we are not. I like the idea that someone is keeping an eye on suspected terrorist communications.

The following video shows the possible unintended consequences of letting liberal-progressives stop the Terrorist Surveillance Program:

Thanks to directorblue at the Doug Ross Journal for the tip.

Jindal Did It

He did it.

U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal, the 36-year-old conservative Republican and the son of Indian immigrants, defeated 11 opponents to become Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction

Jindal won 54 percent of the votes. More than enough to avoid a runoff.

Jindal, pledged to fight corruption:

"They can either go quietly or they can go loudly, but either way, they will go," he said, adding that he would call the Legislature into special session to address ethics reform.

This is a really big deal. Democrats make up about half of the 2.8 registered voters in Louisiana, outnumbering Republicans by nearly 2 to 1. As Stuart Rothenberg said, coming on the heels on Jim Ogonowski's unexpectedly strong showing in last week's Massachusetts special election, Jindal's win is more evidence that the political environment is not as bad for Republicans as the main stream media wing of the Democratic Party reports.

Jindal is exceedingly smart and grounded in substance, truly an inspiring transformative figure.

Patrick Ruffini calls the Jindal landslide "an historic mandate for change against the most corrupt political culture in America." I agree.

Much more at RedState and Outside The Beltway.

Can Jindal Avoid Runoff?

Can Republican Bobby Jindal get enough votes to win the Louisiana gubernatorial election outright and avoid a runoff? According to the Associated Press, it depends upon black voters:

If he gets more than 50 percent of the vote in Saturday's primary, the 36-year-old, Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants will become Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction and the youngest U.S. governor in office.

The Republican's prospects have brightened thanks to three years of congressional experience, a splintered Democratic field and an incumbent whose political fortunes were done in by Hurricane Katrina.

Polls have shown Jindal has the support of nearly half the state's voters, and no one else is even close in the field of a dozen candidates.

"I personally think that Bobby Jindal will take it in the first round," said Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette political scientist.

[. . .]

Political analysts think Jindal's chances of winning without a runoff hinge on black voters, who make up 29 percent of registered voters in Louisiana and have historically voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. Polls have indicated many black voters are still undecided in the governor's race.

Patrick Ruffini, a strategist campaign staffer, activist, and analyst dedicated to helping Republicans and conservatives, calls Bobby Jindal, the anti-Huey Long.

Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, also thinks Jindal may avoid a runnoff:

But private polling suggests that Jindal has been improving his standing over the past week, and the Republican's get-out-the-vote operation appears to be a considerable additional advantage for him.

According to Rothenberg, this would be a great way to follow the strong Republican showing in Massachusetts earlier this week:

Coming on the heels on Jim Ogonowski's unexpectedly strong showing in the Massachusetts 5 special election, a clear-cut Jindal win would allow Republicans to press their case that the political environment is not as bad as it was for them.