Obama the Fraud

As a law professor, Obama stood apart

Former students say he tested many ideas of campaign in classroom

THE LONG RUN

By Jodi Kantor

CHICAGO - The young law professor stood apart in too many ways to count. At a school where economic analysis was all the rage, he taught rights, race and gender. Other faculty members dreamed of tenured positions; he turned them down. While most colleagues published by the pound, he never completed a single work of legal scholarship.

*Hmm, never completed a single work of legal scholarship*

At a formal institution, Barack Obama was a loose presence, joking with students about their romantic prospects, using first names, referring to case law one moment and “The Godfather” the next. He was also an enigmatic one, often leaving fellow faculty members guessing about his precise views.

Mr. Obama, now the junior senator from Illinois and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, spent 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School. Most aspiring politicians do not dwell in the halls of academia, and few promising young legal thinkers toil in state legislatures. Mr. Obama planted a foot in each, splitting his weeks between an elite law school and the far less rarefied atmosphere of the Illinois Senate.

Before he out raised every other presidential primary candidate in American history, Mr. Obama marched students through the thickets of campaign finance law. Before he helped redraw his own State Senate district, making it whiter and wealthier, he taught districting as a racially fraught study in how power is secured. And before he posed what may be the ultimate test of racial equality — whether Americans will elect a black president — he led students through African-Americans’ long fight for equal status.

*Obama claims he's not old school politics, sure seems old politics to me redrawing districts for power, same old ploy Pols have been doing for years.*

Standing in his favorite classroom in the austere main building, sharp-witted students looming above him, Mr. Obama refined his public speaking style, his debating abilities, his beliefs.

“He tested his ideas in classrooms,” said Dennis Hutchinson, a colleague. Every seminar hour brought a new round of, “Is affirmative action justified? Under what circumstances?” as Mr. Hutchinson put it.

*Meaning he knew even then he wanted the power of the President of the United States.*

'Thoughtful listener and questioner'

But Mr. Obama’s years at the law school are also another chapter which he seemed as intently focused on his own political rise as on the institution itself. Mr. Obama, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was well liked at the law school, yet he was always slightly apart from it, leaving some colleagues feeling a little cheated that he did not fully engage. The Chicago faculty is more rightward-leaning than that of other top law schools, but if teaching alongside some of the most formidable conservative minds in the country had any impact on Mr. Obama, no one can quite point to it.

*Isn't it funny how he claims he engages people in conversation and he's the only one who can do this.*

“I don’t think anything that went on in these chambers affected him,” said Richard Epstein, a libertarian colleague who says he longed for Mr. Obama to venture beyond his ideological and topical comfort zones. “His entire life, as best I can tell, is one in which he’s always been a thoughtful listener and questioner, but he’s never stepped up to the plate and taken full swings.”

*Yet Obama has told us or thinks he's the only one who can fix this countries problems. How am I or anyone to believe this if he isn't willing to step up to the plate and TRY to hit it out of the park even if he can't. I'd rather someone tried and fail than someone whose even afraid to try.*

Mr. Obama had other business on his mind, embarking on five political races during his 12 years at the school. Teaching gave him satisfaction, along with a perch and a paycheck, but he was impatient with academic debates over “whether to drop a footnote or not drop a footnote,” said Abner J. Mikva, a mentor whose own career has spanned Congress, the federal bench and the same law school.

Douglas Baird, another colleague, remembers once asking Mr. Obama to assess potential candidates for governor.

“First of all, I’m not running for governor, “ Mr. Obama told him. “But if I did, I would expect you to support me.”

He was a third-year state senator at the time.

*Again here we see he has been looking to the largest office twelve years ago, not just recently as he tries to claim and that even then he was power hungry.*

Mr. Obama arrived at the law school in 1991 thanks to Michael W. McConnell, a conservative scholar who is now a federal appellate judge. As president of The Harvard Law Review, Mr. Obama had impressed Mr. McConnell with editing suggestions on an article; on little more than that, the law school gave him a fellowship, which amounted to an office and a computer, which he used to write his memoir, “Dreams From My Father.”

*Surprise Surprise! Once again no experience, hasn't paid his dues and he has it handed to him. Is it no wonder why he thinks and believes he's qualified and deserves to have the office of the President of the United States even though he isn't and doesn't!*

The school had almost no black faculty members, a special embarrassment given its location on the South Side. Its sleek halls bordered a neighborhood crumbling with poverty and neglect. In his 2000 Congressional primary race, Representative Bobby L. Rush, a former Black Panther running for re-election, used Mr. Obama’s ties to the school to label him an egghead and an elitist.

*Obama is an elitist and has been as we can see most of his life. I thought he was so worried about the plight of the poor inner schools and blacks. So why didn't he give up his position, salary he had there and move up the block to teach those he claimed(s) he cared(s) so much about to improve their lives. To better and further them and their lives, because there wasn't anything in it for him, thats why. No power was to be gained doing that.*

At the school, Mr. Obama taught three courses, ascending to senior lecturer, a title otherwise carried only by a few federal judges. His most traditional course was in the due process and equal protection areas of constitutional law. His voting rights class traced the evolution of election law, from the disenfranchisement of blacks to contemporary debates over districting and campaign finance. Mr. Obama was so interested in the subject that he helped Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University, develop a leading casebook in the field.

*Again something handed to him not earned. Only a few FEDERAL JUDGES hold that title, yet her Mr. Obama who was not at the time nor is currently, or has ever been a Federal Judge is giving this title, there's a nigger in the woodpile that's for sure.*

His most original course, a historical and political seminar as much as a legal one, was on racism and law. Mr. Obama improvised his own textbook, including classic cases like Brown v. Board of Education, and essays by Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Dubois, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as conservative thinkers like Robert H. Bork.

Mr. Obama was especially eager for his charges to understand the horrors of the past, students say. He assigned a 1919 catalog of lynching victims, including some who were first raped or stripped of their ears and fingers, others who were pregnant or lynched with their children, and some whose charred bodies were sold off, bone fragment by bone fragment, to gawkers.

“Are there legal remedies that alleviate not just existing racism, but racism from the past?” Adam Gross, now a public interest lawyer in Chicago, wrote in his class notes in April 1994.

For all the weighty material, Mr. Obama had a disarming touch. He did not belittle students; instead he drew them out, restating and polishing halting answers, students recall. In one class on race, he imitated the way clueless white people talked. “Why are your friends at the housing projects shooting each other?” he asked in a mock-innocent voice.

*That isn't racist? So why is it if a white male prof would do this same thing in a black voice saying, "Why are you so safe in your white neighborhoods?" that prof would be fired. Reverse racism is reverse racism. Oh wait, I forgot, Obama gets a pass on everything, that's right. Sorry!*

A favorite theme, said Salil Mehra, now a law professor at Temple University, were the values and cultural touchstones that Americans share. Mr. Obama’s case in point: his wife, Michelle, a black woman, loved “The Brady Bunch” so much that she could identify every episode by its opening shots.

*I highly doubt this as she is a bigger racist than even her husband Obama is, just look at her thesis paper.*

As his reputation for frank, exciting discussion spread, enrollment in his classes swelled. Most scores on his teaching evaluations were positive to superlative. Some students started referring to themselves as his groupies. (Mr. Obama, in turn, could play the star. In what even some fans saw as self-absorption, Mr. Obama’s hypothetical cases occasionally featured himself. “Take Barack Obama, there’s a good-looking guy,” he would introduce a twisty legal case.)

*AH HA! See his superstar and messiah complex began long ago as well as people being duped and hypnotized back then as they are now.*

Liberals flocked to his classes, seeking refuge. After all, the professor was a progressive politician who backed child care subsidies and laws against racial profiling, and in a 1996 interview with the school newspaper sounded skeptical of President Bill Clinton’s efforts to reach across the aisle.

*Funny against racial profiling? Yet at the very same time he promoted racism in his class and Bill Clinton did reach across the isle successfully several times. What did he say several times in past Presidential debates about people getting stuff wrong the first time. He was right then (about Clinton) so why should I think his perception is any better on any other issue?*

“On the national level, bipartisanship usually means Democrats ignore the needs of the poor and abandon the idea that government can play a role in issues of poverty, race discrimination, sex discrimination or environmental protection,” Mr. Obama said.

*A point I believe Mr. Obama proved by not leaving the University of Chicago Law School to go right across the street in the slums and teach there.*

But the liberal students did not necessarily find reassurance. “For people who thought they were getting a doctrinal, rah-rah experience, it wasn’t that kind of class,” said D. Daniel Sokol, a former student who now teaches law at the University of Florida at Gainesville.

Life better under segregation?

For one thing, Mr. Obama’s courses chronicled the failure of liberal policies and court-led efforts at social change: the Reconstruction-era amendments that were rendered meaningless by a century of resistance, the way the triumph of Brown gave way to fights over busing, the voting rights laws that crowded blacks into as few districts as possible. He was wary of noble theories, students say; instead, they call Mr. Obama a contextualist, willing to look past legal niceties to get results.

* Wait remember what Obama did in the beginning of this article? He helped redraw his own State Senate district, making it whiter and wealthier, he taught districting as a racially fraught study in how power is secured. Wow, who would have thought it, let's do what ever is necessary to "win" or get results. So what he is doing now he was doing back then. I am beginning to see a trail, a history, the SAME OLD POLITICS, beliefs, or maneuvers as are what is done by politicians today. And he's different again how?*

For another, Mr. Obama liked to provoke. He wanted his charges to try arguing that life was better under segregation, that black people were better athletes than white ones.

“I remember thinking, ‘You’re offending my liberal instincts,’ ” Mary Ellen Callahan, now a privacy lawyer in Washington, recalled.

*RACIST RACIST RACIST*

In his voting rights course, Mr. Obama taught Lani Guinier’s proposals for structuring elections differently to increase minority representation. Opponents attacked those suggestions when Ms. Guinier was nominated as assistant attorney general for civil rights in 1993, costing her the post.

“I think he thought they were good and worth trying,” said David Franklin, who now teaches law at DePaul University in Chicago.

But whether out of professorial reserve or budding political caution, Mr. Obama would not say so directly. “He surfaced all the competing points of view on Guinier’s proposals with total neutrality and equanimity,” Mr. Franklin said. “He just let the class debate the merits of them back and forth.”

*Letting others do his dirty work (old school politics), not answering the hard questions, letting the truth shine forth (old school politics)*

While students appreciated Mr. Obama’s evenhandedness, colleagues sometimes wanted him to take a stand. When two fellow faculty members asked him to support a controversial antigang measure, allowing the Chicago police to disperse and eventually arrest loiterers who had no clear reason to gather, Mr. Obama discussed the issue with unusual thoughtfulness, they say, but gave little sign of who should prevail — the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the measure, or the community groups that supported it out of concern about crime.

*Why? Why was he so worried about helping those that again he claims he cares so deeply about when it would lower crime? I'll tell you why, because he can't make the tough decisions when the time comes for fear of what HE might lose or what will happen to HIS future if he does and pisses someone off. That translates into OLD SCHOOL POLITICS once again, something I thought he was against. Well BOY that's what the President of the United States has to do everyday. So again why should I want you as the President when you show you can't even make a decision an easy decision on street crime? Why showed I trust you to make the hard decisions the ones that really count that could and will at one time or another have real dire impacts on the world. You're a fink.*

“He just observed it with a kind of interest,” said Daniel Kahan, now a professor at Yale.

Nor could his views be gleaned from scholarship; Mr. Obama has never published any. He was too busy, but also, Mr. Epstein believes, he was unwilling to put his name to anything that could haunt him politically, as Ms. Guinier’s writings had hurt her. “He figured out, you lay low,” Mr. Epstein said.

*OLD SCHOOL POLITICS, COVER MY ASS, DON'T REALLY CARE AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T AFFECT ME, PATICUARLY MY CAREER!*

‘Not sure he was close to anyone’

The Chicago law faculty is full of intellectually fiery friendships that burn across ideological lines. Three times a week, professors do combat over lunch at a special round table in the university’s faculty club, and they share and defend their research in workshop discussions.

Mr. Obama rarely attended, even when he was in town.

“I’m not sure he was close to anyone,” Mr. Hutchinson said, except for a few liberal constitutional law professors, like Cass Sunstein, now an occasional adviser to his campaign. Mr. Obama was working two other jobs, after all, in the State Senate and at a civil rights law firm.

Several colleagues say Mr. Obama was surely influenced by the ideas swirling around the law school campus: the prevailing market-friendliness, or economic analysis of the impact of laws. But none could say how. “I’m not sure we changed him,” Mr. Baird said.

*Oh, please. The reason he didn't join in was he couldn't have cared less and was once again afraid about his future political career. So he wasn't interactive with his peers, why should I or anyone else he'll be interactive with the American people, Congress, or anyone. Why should we the American people believe him when he says he's the only one who can fix our problems with the World. You have to be interactive to get anything done.*

Because he never fully engaged, Mr. Obama “doesn’t have the slightest sense of where folks like me are coming from,” Mr. Epstein said. “He was a successful teacher and an absentee tenant on the other issues.”

*Like I have been saying the whole time, why should we believe in him when we look not only at his personality and what people who know him say. Obama has a long history and we only have to look at his current history to see his past follows him, case in point look at his voting record and attendance record for Congress. He hasn't the slightest clue about anyone's problems particuarly the common working man, nor could he care. He's not engaged as he tries to fool everyone into believing he is.*

As Mr. Obama built his political career, his so-called groupies became an early core of supporters, handing out leaflets and hosting fund-raisers in their modest apartments.

*Again as I stated before his superstar messiah complex began a long long time ago.*

Humilitating Campaign

“Maybe we charged an audacious $20?” said Jesse Ruiz, now a corporate lawyer in Chicago. Mr. Obama was sheepish asking for even that, Mr. Ruiz recalls. With no staff, Mr. Obama would come by the day after a fund-raiser to stuff the proceeds into a backpack.

Mr. Obama never mentioned his humiliating, hopeless campaign against Mr. Rush in class (he lost by a two-to-one margin), though colleagues noticed that he seemed exhausted and was smoking more than usual.

*No, why we he do that and ruin his rockstar, god complex. Why would he show his human, or allow his students to dent his ass, as he had dented others. Hypicrosy that's why. Obama still smokes as in right now. Just what I want a President who is in the hip pocket of BIG TOBACCO!*

Soon after, the faculty saw an opening and made him its best offer yet: Tenure upon hiring. A handsome salary, more than the $60,000 he was making in the State Senate or the $60,000 he earned teaching part time. A job for Michelle Obama directing the legal clinic.

Your political career is dead, Daniel Fischel, then the dean, said he told Mr. Obama, gently. Mr. Obama turned the offer down. Two years later, he decided to run for the Senate. He canceled his course load and has not taught since.

*No he had a better plan as show just above. Besides he wanted something the university couldn't offer him, POWER! Power which he used to get his wife a job she didn't earn that got her a salary of 300K a year.*

Now, watching the news, it is dawning on Mr. Obama’s former students that he was mining material for his political future even as he taught them.

*In the scientific world we call that guinea pigs.*

Byron Rodriguez, a real estate lawyer in San Francisco, recalls his professor’s admiration for the soaring but plainspoken speeches of Frederick Douglass.

“No one speaks this way anymore,” Mr. Obama told his class, wondering aloud what had happened to the art of political oratory. In particular, Mr. Obama admired Douglass’s use of a collective voice that embraced black and white concerns, one that Mr. Obama has now adopted himself.

*So now we see this isn't something original that's his own but rather stolen. Obama's even an ENIGMA even to Obama (himself). Hell I'm my own man and can define myself, I haven't stolen anyone's self to define myself. Why again should anyone trust this man to be President when he doesn't even know who he is himself?*

In class, Mr. Obama sounded many of the same themes he does on the campaign trail, Ms. Callahan said, ticking them off: “self-determinism as opposed to paternalism, strength in numbers, his concept of community development.”

But as a professor, students say, Mr. Obama was in the business of complication, showing that even the best-reasoned rules have unintended consequences, that competing legal interests cannot always be resolved, that a rule that promotes justice in one case can be unfair in the next.

So even some former students who are thrilled at Mr. Obama’s success wince when they hear him speaking like the politician he has so fully become.

*Read that again*

So even some former students who are thrilled at Mr. Obama’s success wince when they hear him speaking like the politician he has so fully become.

*People he taught, people who know him intimately, say they hear him speaking like the POLITICIAN he has SO fully become! How many times has Obama claimed we're tired of OLD SCHOOL POLITICS? How many times have we seen that he is what he claims others are and he isn't. The most damming evidence: the people he taught say they WINCE WHEN THEY HEAR HIM SPEAKING LIKE THE POLITICIAN HE HAS SO FULLY BECOME!*

“When you hear him talking about issues, it’s at a level so much simpler than the one he’s capable of,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “He was a lot more fun to listen to back then.”

*LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I REST MY CASE! AS I STATED IN MY TITLE AND HAVE NOW PROVEN: OBAMA IS A FRAUD!*

Only Little War Criminals Get Punished

This was an article I came across and found very interesting in preparing to write a blog in the near future concerning:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defends her opposition to impeachment: "If somebody had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story"

*Within the next two weeks I will make a blog addressing this issue and bring proof that the President of the United States of America: George W. Bush has in fact committed not a crime but crimes including War Crimes as defined by the United States, the Geneva Convention, and the Hague.*

The following article was written by Paul Craig Roberts

National Public Radio has been spending much news time on Darfur in Western Sudan where a great deal of human suffering and death are occurring. The military conflict has been brought on in part by climate change, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Drought is forcing nomads in search of water into areas occupied by other claimants. No doubt the conflict is tribal and racial as well. The entire catastrophe is overseen by a government with few resources other than bullets.

Now an International Criminal Court prosecutor wants to bring charges against Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

I have no sympathy for people who make others suffer. Nevertheless, I wonder at the International Criminal Court's pick from the assortment of war criminals? Why al-Bashir?

Is it because Sudan is a powerless state, and the International Criminal Court hasn't the courage to name George W. Bush and Tony Blair as war criminals?

Bush and Blair's crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan dwarf, at least in the number of deaths and displaced persons, the terrible situation in Darfur. The highest estimate of Darfur casualties is 400,000, one-third the number of Iraqis who have died as a result of Bush's invasion. Moreover, the conflict in the Sudan is an internal one, whereas Bush illegally invaded two foreign countries, war crimes under the Nuremberg Standard. Bush's war crimes were enabled by the political leaders of the UK, Spain, Canada, and Australia. The leaders of every member of the "coalition of the willing to commit war crimes" are candidates for the dock.

But of course the Great Moral West does not commit war crimes. War crimes are charges fobbed off on people demonized by the Western media, such as the Serbian Milosovic and the Sudanese al-Bashir.

Every week the Israeli government evicts Palestinians from their homes, steals their land, and kills Palestinian women and children. These crimes against humanity have been going on for decades. Except for a few Israeli human rights organizations, no one complains about it. Palestinians are defined as "terrorists," and "terrorists" can be treated inhumanely without complaint.

Iraqis and Afghans suffer the same fate. Iraqis who resist US occupation of their country are "terrorists." Taliban is a demonized name. Every Afghan killed – even those attending wedding parties – is claimed to be Taliban by the US military. Iraqis and Afghans can be murdered at will by American and NATO troops without anyone raising human rights issues.

The International Criminal Court is a bureaucracy. It has a budget, and it needs to do something to justify its budget. Lacking teeth and courage, it goes after the petty war criminals and leaves the big ones alone.

Don't get me wrong. I'm for holding all governments accountable for their criminal actions. It is the hypocrisy to which I object. The West gives itself and Israel a pass while damning everyone else. Even human rights groups fall into the trap. Rights activists don't see the buffoonery in their complaint that President Bush, who has violated more human rights than any person alive, is letting China off the hook for human rights abuses by attending the Olympics hosted by China.

President Bush claims that the enormous destruction and death he has brought to Iraq and Afghanistan are necessary in order for Americans to be safe. If we are accepting excuses this feeble, Milosovic passed muster with his excuse that as the head of state he was obliged to try to preserve the state's territorial integrity. Is al-Bashir supposed to accept secession in the Sudan, something that Lincoln would not accept from the Confederacy? How long would al-Bashir last if he partitioned Sudan?

Last October the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a photo on its front page above the fold of an elderly man with mikes shoved in his face. Paul Henss, 85 years old, is being deported from the US, where he has lived for 53 years, because Eli Rosenbaum, director the the US State Department's Nazi-hunting bureaucracy, declared him a war criminal for training guard dogs used at German concentration camps. Henss was 22 years old when World War II ended.

A kid who trained guard dogs is being deported as a war criminal, but the head of state who launched two wars of naked aggression, resulting in the deaths of more than 1.2 million people, and who has the entire world on edge awaiting his third war of aggression, this time against Iran, is received respectfully by foreign governments. Corporations and trade associations will pay him $100,000 per speech when he leaves office. He will make millions of dollars more from memoirs written by a ghostwriter.

Does no one see the paradox of deporting Henss while leaving the war criminal in the White House?

Bennigan's/Steak & Ale files for bankruptcy protection

NEW YORK - Restaurant chains Bennigan's and Steak & Ale have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and stores owned by its parent company will shut their doors.

The companies owned by privately held Metromedia Restaurant Group of Plano, Texas, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in the Eastern District of Texas, less than two months after Metromedia said it was not preparing to do so. Metromedia Restaurant Group is a part of Metromedia Co., owned by billionaire John Kluge, that has interests in entertainment, radio stations and medical equipment.

In a Chapter 7 filing, a company seeks to liquidate its assets and shut down.

Locations owned by franchisees were not part of the bankruptcy filing and will not be shut down, said Larry Briski, president of the Bennigan's Franchise Operator Association.

"They will be open today, tomorrow and months and years to come," Briski said of the franchise locations.

The 138 domestic and international franchisee-owned restaurants are "open and fully operational," Bennigan's Franchising Co. LP and Steak & Ale Franchising Co. LP said in a statement.

Briski said there are about 150 company-owned Bennigan's restaurants.

Meanwhile, employees at what appeared to be a company-owned Bennigan's in Plano were greeted by a sign Tuesday on the front door reading "WE ARE CLOSED. THANK YOU." Next door, a Steak & Ale sat empty in a deserted parking lot but there was no sign posted.

A waiter named Steve, who wouldn't give his last name, said the staff got a phone call Tuesday morning telling them the restaurant was closing.

Neither Bennigan's nor the Metromedia Restaurant Group returned calls for comment. A lawyer listed in the filing, J. Michael Sutherland of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal LLP, did not return a call.

The filing lists 38 separate entities that it classified as "debtors" but does not include a list of locations that are shutting down.

All restaurants have been struggling as consumers cut back on discretionary spending to better deal with high gas prices, the weak housing market and inflation. The hardest hit have been casual dining chains and bar and grill restaurants, which charge higher prices than fast food and other quick-service chains.

Bar and grill restaurants have also suffered from intense competition. Morningstar analyst John Owens said several chains expanded quickly, making it more difficult for customers to differentiate between them and forcing many companies to cut prices to lure diners.

"Bennigan's was the weakest of the major players," Owens said.

Meanwhile, commodity costs have soared, forcing chains to either raise menu prices or see profits plunge.

Credit has also been tight, making it difficult for companies to restructure their debt.

In June, Metromedia Restaurants said it was formulating a proposal to present to its lenders to restructure its debt, but said it was not preparing to file for bankruptcy.

In the filing, the company indicated that it has up to 49 creditors and owes less than $50,000. It said it will have no funds left after administrative expenses are paid to repay its creditors.

Jeffry Davis, a bankruptcy attorney at Mintz Levin in San Diego who is not involved in the filing, said he was surprised the company didn't file for Chapter 11 protection, which would have allowed it to reorganize and remain open, and instead filed to liquidate its assets.

"Typically, at that point, management sees no way to improve the business within a reasonable period of time to allow it to go forward," he said. "To me it's really indicative of the economy."

The news appeared to be a shock to most of the company's employees, but some may have had an inkling that the company was not doing well.

Steve, the Bennigan's waiter in Plano, said he recently went from making $30 on a good lunch shift to only $10.

"Business has been slow," said Steve, who said he relies on tips. "I went from making a lot of money on a shift to making very little.

*What was left out*

I live in Texas where the Headquarters of these two restaurants is located. There was some information left out of this article as it was described more in depth by local news coverage. Metromedia Co., owned by billionaire John Kluge, have been more interested in real estate recently and not been paying attention to their customers and what they want.

Anyone who has ever watched one episode of Hell's Kitchen knows this is a HUGE mistake. What made these two restaurants stand out was what they offered and what got them them was listening to the customer. The sad thing especially Bennigan's was that it was an Irish Pub/Bar/Grill.

Their problem was the got away from that in many ways, over the years and very recently they have changed their menu quite a bit as well as increased their prices, while stopping to listen to their customers. More and more people began to filter out the door, some never returning while others only ever so often. They lost a huge loyal base. Bennigan's was a Heavy Hitter not the weakest link as the Corp would try to sway you to believe.

What got them was this as well as the other problems listed in the article. In this day in age what has just happened should send SHOCK WAVES to all businesses: Listen to your Customers or you too may find yourself in this mess sooner or later.

In this day and age it's not a question of IF but When; when you lose sight of what's important and stop listening to your businesses most important person: The Customer!

Harsh Words

THERE WILL BE NO SPECIAL BILINGUAL PROGRAMS IN THE SCHOOLS

THERE WILL BE NO SPECIAL BALLOTS FOR ELECTIONS

ALL GOVERNMENT BUSINESS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN OUR OWN LANGUAGE

FOREIGNERS WILL NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE NO MATTER HOW LONG THEY ARE HERE

FOREIGNERS WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO HOLD POLITICAL OFFICE

FOREIGNERS WILL NOT BE A BURDEN TO THE TAXPAYERS

NO WELFARE, NO FOOD STAMPS, NO HEALTH CARE OR OTHER GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

FOREIGNERS CAN INVEST IN THIS COUNTRY BUT IT MUST BE AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO 40,000 TIMES THE DAILY MINIMUM WAGE

IF FOREIGNERS DO COME AND WANT TO BUY LAND, THAT WILL BE ALLOWED. BUT OPTIONS WILL BE RESTRICTED.......YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED WATERFRONT PROPERTY. THAT IS RESERVED FOR CITIZENS NATURALLY BORN INTO THIS COUNTRY

FOREIGNERS MAY NOT PROTEST; NO DEMONSTRATIONS; NO WAVING A FOREIGN FLAG; NO POLITICAL ORGANIZING; NO BAD-MOUTHING OUR PRESIDENT OR HIS POLICIES. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE SENT HOME

IF YOU DO COME TO THIS COUNTRY ILLEGALLY, YOU WILL BE HUNTED DOWN AND SENT STRAIGHT TO JAIL


HARSH YOU SAY???

THE ABOVE LAWS HAPPEN TO BE THE IMMIGRATION LAWS OF MEXICO!

HOWS THAT FOR AN EYE-OPENER?!?

America

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Nick Simmons Shirtless

Umm humm...sexy as Hell! I'd tap that, I'd do anything with that!

Calvin and Hobbes: Hmmmm....

Calvin and Hobbes: Death

Calvin and Hobbes: Self-Esteem

Calvin and Hobbes: House of Horror

Calvin and Hobbes: Hypothetical

Calvin and Hobbes: Inspiration

Calvin and Hobbes: Math Atheist

Calvin and Hobbes: Golf

Calvin and Hobbes: Math + Instinct

Calvin and Hobbes: Academia

Colors of the Wind

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ...

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew


Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends


How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

She's all we have guys and she's counting on us, let's not let HER down!
We're all in this together and it takes all of us each doing their own part to help save HER!

WHAT SAY YOU? WILL YOU DO YOUR PART?
ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE!
I HOPE IT IS A DECISION YOU CAN LIVE WITH!

Click on on the image to see what you a single individual can do to help HER.

SHE'S IN YOUR HANDS WHAT WILL YOU DO?

Turtles of Texas

I made the picture below for Sea Turtle, Inc. I couldn't find a logo for them thus why I made this one. This logo is not used by them, its only purpose is to show where their from and what they do. By clicking the image I made it will take you to their site. I urge you to do so, please help save our TURTLES in TEXAS!

Beloved Turtle Hugger of Texas

Click on Ila to see all she did to save our Turtles in Texas!


Click my shell to see all my other turtle friends who live in the Lone Star State.

Sun Bathing

This picture was taking by a guy in Texas while riding his bike. He stopped by this pond to rest for a few minutes when he saw this little guy. They are commonly called "pond sliders" although that isn't their species name, I'm really not sure what it is.

Although he looks big here he really is only a tad bigger than a Silver Dollar!

Sea Turtles picked to Champion cause for KIDS...

Read all about it, I promise you won't be sorry. Now tell me TURTLES can't champion or be a mascot to a and for a worthy cause!



Click Me and My Shell

Tracking turtles in Cozumel - really

Just when you thought we Texans couldn't do anymore. HA! Check out what kids, yes I said KIDS from Texas are doing!

Follow the sandy exploits of the youth group from Far North Dallas' Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration on an environmental mission trip to help the sea turtles on the beaches of Cozumel, Mexico. Some great live blogs by Michael Baughman, Jenny Burgos and Julia Piccolo at Turtle Diary.

Sea Turtles Survive "Dolly"

Adult Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle being examined, treated, and released by University of Texas Veterinarians! The best VETS on the planet.

(NBC News Channel) -- The sea turtle rescue mission in South Padre Island, Texas is in ruins after a direct hit from Dolly.

Each of the tanks is filled with debris but Lucy Guillan, who works at the center says she feels lucky that the turtle's holding tanks didn't fill with water or the turtles would have drown.

Lucy opens a Styrofoam container and says "yeah" when she sees that the youngest of the turtles made it through the storm unharmed.

The most precious are the Kemp's Ridley turtles.
*They are on the Endangered List*

Their eggs were collected from the beach in an effort to save the rare species.

They hatched just days before Dolly came ashore and they survived the critical time period.

"They only have about 6 hours of energy stored in their yolk sack so we don't let them go right away," said Guillan.

Gullian gathers the turtles one by one to the beach where she gently places them in the sand so they can make their way to the water.

For the Kemp's Ridleys to survive, they have to swim to their nesting area several miles off shore.

Hurricane Dolly made that easier because the water is still turbulent and that makes it harder for predators to see the tiny turtles.

*Ya! Go Kempies, Go!*

These little guys are being released at South Padre Island, Texas! Hopefully these little Kemp's will thrive from all the care and love that comes from deep in the HEART of TEXAS


See we TEXANS know how to treat and take of our turtles unlike OREGON and their NAZIS that live there, who cut off their heads! Why don't you learn a lesson from us TEXANS!!

Snapping turtle’s quest ends abruptly

By Theresa Novak
Gazette-Times City Editor No home found for the invasive species

A mossy-looking snapping turtle found walking along White Oak Drive east of Corvallis on June 30 has been humanely destroyed after no suitable home could be found for her.

The case is sad, said Susan Barnes, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, but it also is emblematic of the dilemma facing wildlife managers regarding all invasive species.

“I’d sort of hoped (your reporter) wouldn’t personalize this particular turtle too much,” Barnes, who is based in Clackamas, said Thursday. Although it’s understandable that the public might be sympathetic to a reptile that had survived for at least 20 years in the wild, it’s important to look at the big picture when it comes to invasive species and their impact on the native ecosystem, she said.

Snapping turtles are native to the southeastern part of the United States, and they are hardy. Even found in oxygen-deprived locations such as cattle sewage ponds, they are voracious, grow huge and are mean-tempered. Their powerful bite can take off a finger.

In Oregon, snapping turtles’ prey foods might include baby ducks and, more worrisome, the young of the smaller, less aggressive and plummeting population of the native Western pond turtle. This reptile, which used to be common in ponds found in farmland, already is under attack from yet another invasive species, the American bullfrog. To these wide-mouthed and aggressive frogs, the Western pond turtle hatchlings are “like Oreo cookies” — crunchy on the outside, with a soft and tasty center.

Bullfrogs also are a menace to other frogs, including the increasingly rare native red-legged frog.

Still, nobody is blaming the invaders, and Barnes said that ODFW officials tried to find a location for the old, mossy snapping turtle, which weighed more than 20 pounds and was almost two feet long. They’d hoped it might be useful in an educational exhibit about the impact of invasive species.

And just how did this lone female snapping turtle become an invader? It likely had been a pet at one time, captured from the wild back in its native range and brought to Oregon. It may have been released when it outgrew its enclosure or when someone moved or grew tired of it and released it. Barnes said that is both illegal and a bad idea, but people still do it.

Because snapping turtles are so aggressive and have such slow metabolic rates, the turtle no doubt lived for a long time alone, perhaps in a Willamette slough or a pond. She may have been in search of a mate when she went on her last journey and was found along the road.

Her life ended on July 14, when she was anesthetized and then destroyed, mostly probably by decapitation. Again due to their slow metabolic rate, turtles are difficult to humanely destroy using an overdose of anesthetic, which is the most usual method of euthanizing ailing or unwanted pets.

The contents of the turtle’s stomach will be studied to determine what it had been eating, but that analysis had not been completed as of Thursday.

Anyone who finds a turtle wandering far from its domain is asked to take the turtle (avoiding its head) to the nearest office of the ODFW.

* SO THESE FUCKERS CAN KILL IT RIGHT!*

So my question is how hard would it have been to ship this turtle to say Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, or some other southern state or state these turtles are native?

Not to terribly hard I'd bet, say as hard as contacting another states Game and Wildlife Division. How about we just cut the fucking heads off of the Officers from ODFW for being stupid, ignorant, and failing to do their job!

Oregon and the ODFW sucks! Shame on you, your state, and your Wildlife Division. You goose steeping jack boot wearing NAZIS!

PLEASE IF YOU CARE MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD AND COMMENT HERE; AND SEND YOUR THOUGHTS TO THE ODFW AS WELL! LET THEM KNOW HOW ROTTEN THEY ARE!

Dozens of dead sea turtles found on Mexican coast

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Environmental officials in Mexico say dozens of dead sea turtles apparently killed in fishing nets have washed up on beaches in recent days.

Authorities say 59 Olive Ridley turtles have been found on beaches in and around the resort of Acapulco.

Environmental protection officer Manuel de Jesus Solis says his agency found 12 dead turtles bearing marks apparently caused by fishing nets. It was unclear which fishing boats were involved.

Victor Berdejo says another 47 dead turtles were found by personnel at a turtle-protection area he supervises.

The sea turtles, once hunted in Mexico for their meat and eggs, were declared a protected species in 1990. Fishermen are required to include turtle escape devices in their nets.

*WHAT THE FUCK!*

I would like to know why the hell these fishing boats, crew, and men are not being checked to make sure they are in proper compliance. Why aren't periodic boat inspections being done when these morons are out on the water. Why and what the hell are the authorities doing to make sure these laws are being followed and why aren't they enforcing them. Oh wait! It's only some turtles, right.

This species of turtle is on the endangered list for a reason people, their almost extinct! So let us all once again just sit around doing nothing more than what we have letting another species die off only to ask after it happens; what happened to them, what can we do, how can we save them, so forth and so on. WAKE UP NOW! Before it's to LATE!

NASA should take a page from and REMEMBER Apollo 13

This is a lengthy blog full of History on the Apollo 13 Mission. It however needs to be read to understand my point which I make at the end of this blog. Take your time as you are reading and understanding history concerning one of our "FINEST HOURS" and achievements known to man! (The information comes from Wikipedia. The opinion at the bottom is my own. ENJOY!)

Apollo 13 was the third manned lunar-landing mission, part of Project Apollo under NASA in the United States. The crew members were Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise. It launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST. Two days after the launch, the Apollo spacecraft was crippled by an explosion, caused by a fault in an oxygen tank. The explosion damaged the Service Module, resulting in a loss of oxygen and electrical power. The crew used the Lunar Module as a “lifeboat” in space. The command module remained fully functional on its internal batteries, but they were needed for re-entry and landing so it was shut down shortly after the accident. Despite great hardship caused by severe constraints on power, cabin heat, and potable water, the crew successfully returned to Earth. The mission was thus called a "Successful Failure"

Crew

James A. Lovell, Jr (4) – Commander

John L. Swigert (1) - Command Module pilot

Fred W. Haise, Jr. (1) - Lunar Module pilot

Ken Mattingly was originally slated to be the Command Module pilot. After being exposed to rubella (German measles) – a disease to which Mattingly was not immune – contracted by backup Lunar Module pilot Charles Duke, Mattingly was grounded shortly before launch. He was replaced by Jack Swigert, and later flew with the Apollo 13 backup crew as CMP of Apollo 16. Mattingly never contracted rubella.

Backup Crew

John W. Young – Commander

John L. Swigert - Command Module Pilot

Charles M. Duke, Jr - Lunar Module Pilot

Support Crew

Vance D. Brand

Jack R. Lousma

Joseph P. Kerwin

Flight Directors

Gene Kranz(lead) - White Team

Glynn Lunney - Black Team

Gerry Griffin - Gold Team

Thomas Mullen III - Silver Team

Mission Highlights

The Apollo 13 mission was scheduled to explore the Fra Mauro formation, or Fra Mauro highlands, named after the 80-kilometer-diameter Fra Mauro crater, located within it. It is a widespread, hilly geological (or more properly, selenological) area covering large portions of the lunar surface around Mare Imbrium, and is thought to be composed of ejecta from the impact which formed the mare. With the failure of the mission, the flight to Fra Mauro was done on Apollo 14.

The flight's problems began during the liftoff with a lesser-known malfunction: during the second-stage burn, the center engine shut down two minutes early. The four outer engines were run for longer than planned, to compensate for this. Engineers later discovered that this was due to dangerous pogo oscillations which might have torn the second stage apart; the engine was experiencing 68g vibrations at 16 hertz, flexing the thrust frame by 3 inches (76 mm). However, the oscillations caused a sensor to register excessively low average pressure, and the computer shut the engine down automatically. Smaller pogo oscillations had been seen on previous Apollo missions (and had been recognized as a potential problem from the earliest unmanned Titan-Gemini flights), but on Apollo 13 they had been amplified by an unexpected interaction with the cavitation in the turbo-pumps. Later missions included anti-pogo modifications, which had been under development since before Apollo 13. Those modifications solved the problem. They entailed (a) the addition of a helium gas reservoir in the center engine’s liquid oxygen line to dampen pressure oscillations, (b) an automatic cutoff for the center engine in case this failed, and (c) simplified propellant valves on all five second-stage engines.

Explosion

As the spacecraft was on its way to the Moon, at a distance of 321,860 kilometers (199,990 mi) from Earth, the number two oxygen tank, one of two tanks contained in the Service Module (SM), exploded. (It is important to note that the report of the Apollo 13 review board does not refer to this incident as an "explosion", instead detailing how the oxygen tanks were designed with rupture disks and other safeties to prevent a catastrophic explosion.)

Mission Control had requested that the crew stir the oxygen tanks, a task required to prevent the oxygen‘slush’ from stratifying. The Teflon-insulated wires that provided electricity to the stirrer motor were damaged, causing a large fire when electricity was passed through them. The fire heated the surrounding oxygen, increasing the pressure inside the tank above its nominal 1,000 PSI (7 MPa) limit, and causing the tank to explode. The cause of the explosion was unknown at the time, however, and the crew and Houston conjectured that a meteoroid had struck the SM or even the Lunar Module (LM).

This explosion caused damage to other parts of the Service Module, including, critically, the number one oxygen tank. Because the Command/Service Module (CSM) relied on the oxygen tanks to generate electricity, damage to number one tank meant that very little power was available for the spacecraft. The Command Module (CM) contained batteries for use during re-entry after the SM was jettisoned, but these would only last about ten hours. Because the power needed to be saved for re-entry, the crew survived by using the LM, still attached to the CSM, as a "lifeboat". The LM "lifeboat" procedure had actually been created during a training simulation (in the simulator) not long before the flight of Apollo 13.

The damage done to the CSM meant that the planned Moon-landing at the Fra Mauro Highlands had to be scrubbed. To return the crew to Earth as quickly and safely as possible, only a single pass around the Moon was made, in what is called a free return trajectory, which uses the Moon's gravity to "slingshot" the spacecraft back to Earth. To enter this trajectory, a significant course correction was required. This would normally have been a simple procedure, using the SM propulsion engine, but the flight controllers did not know exactly how much damage the service module had taken, and did not want to risk firing the main engine. Therefore the course correction was performed by firing the LM's descent engine, an option settled upon after extensive discussion among the engineers on the ground. The initial maneuver to change to a free return trajectory was made within hours of the accident. After passage around the Moon, the descent engine was fired again for a PC+2 burn (PeriCynthion + 2 hours) in order to accelerate the spacecraft's return to Earth. Afterwards, only one more descent engine burn was required, for a minor course correction.

Considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure was required from both the crew and the flight controllers to work out how to jury rig the craft for the crew's safe return, with much of the world watching the developing drama on television. (Because of the severe electrical power limitations following the explosion, no live TV broadcasts were made from the craft for the remainder of the mission; network commentators used models and animated footage to illustrate their coverage).

A major challenge in keeping the crew alive was that the LM "lifeboat" was only equipped to sustain two people for two days, but had to sustain three people for four days, an increase by a factor of three. The lithium hydroxide canisters available for the LM's carbon dioxide scrubbers would not last for all four days. The CM had an adequate supply of replacement canisters, but they were the wrong shape to fit the LM's receptacle. An adapter then had to be fabricated from materials in the spacecraft. The astronauts called it the "mailbox."

Due to reduced temperatures on the return leg of the mission, there was extensive water condensation in the CM. There was some fear that this condensation could seriously damage the electronics of the Command Module by causing a short circuit. Until the electronics were activated, it was impossible to know whether this would occur. The equipment worked normally when activated, however, partly due to the extensive design modifications made to the CM after the fire aboard Apollo 1.

As the time for re-entry into Earth's atmosphere approached, NASA took the unusual step of jettisoning the Service Module before the Lunar Module, so pictures of the SM could be taken for later analysis. When the crew saw the damaged service module, they reported that the access panel covering the oxygen tanks and fuel cells, which extended the entire length of the Module's body, had been blown off.

The crew returned unharmed to Earth, although Haise had a urinary tract infection as a result of the scarcity of potable water on the damaged ship and the difficulty of urine disposal. (The crew was instructed to store urine and other waste products on board instead of dumping them into space, to avoid altering the trajectory of the spacecraft.)^[10]

Although the explosion forced the mission to be aborted, the crew was fortunate that it occurred on the first leg of the mission, when they had maximum of supplies, equipment, and power. If the explosion had occurred while in orbit around the Moon or on the return leg after the LM had been jettisoned, the crew would have had a significantly smaller probability of survival.

Ironically, the crew's lives may have been saved by another failure in the oxygen tanks. At around 46 hours and 40 minutes into the mission, the oxygen tank 2 quantity gauge went "off-scale high" (reading over 100%) and stayed there. As a result of this failure, and to assist in determining the cause, the crew was asked to perform cryo-tank stirs more often than originally planned. In the original mission plan, the stir which blew out the tank would have occurred after the lunar landing.

Cause of the Accident

The explosion on Apollo 13 led to a lengthy investigation of the underlying cause. Based on detailed manufacturing records and logs of mission problems, the oxygen tank failure was tracked to a combination of multiple faults. Individually, they were not critical problems; but together they led to near disaster for Apollo 13.

Cryogens, such as liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen, require great care in handling, and most storage containers holding them are unsealed so that pressure from expanding gas will not cause the container to fail. The Apollo’s liquid oxygen tanks were made capable of safely holding liquid oxygen at supercritical pressures for years before it evaporated, because of their design and insulation. Each tank was able to hold several hundred pounds of the highly pressurized liquid to supply the craft with oxygen, fuel for electricity, and water from the byproducts of the fuel cells. However, the very characteristics that made the tank useful made internal inspection impossible.

The tank was made of several basic components that were relevant to the accident:

a thermostat to control the heater within the tank, used to speed the evaporation of the liquid into gas; a thermometer to determine the temperature of the heater; valves and piping that were designed to allow the tank to be completely emptied of liquid, by forcing gas into the tank; an interior coating of Teflon that protected the wiring from the extremely cold gas; and an internal fan to stir the liquid oxygen (which will turn into a “slush” at these pressures if it is allowed to sit for a long period of time).

These were the basic design, manufacturing, and operational problems that led to the accident:

The thermostat was originally designed to handle the 28-volt supply that would be used in the command module. However, the specification for the tank was changed, so that it had to handle 65 volts on the launch pad. Most of the wiring was changed to handle the higher voltage, but the thermostat was not. Engineers at Saturn V subcontractor Beechcraft later admitted they knew they had put 65 volts on a line designed for only 28 volts. The tank then made it into the Apollo 13 Service Module which crippled the mission.

The thermometer was designed to read out at the highest operational temperature of the heater, about 100 °F (38 °C). As a result, higher temperatures registered at only 100 °F (38 °C). At the time, this was not an issue, because the thermostat was supposed to cut out at 80 °F (27 °C), making higher temperatures impossible.

The oxygen shelf carrying oxygen tanks no. 1 and 2 was originally destined to fly in the Apollo 10 mission. Due to potential electro-magnetic interference problems, it was removed from Apollo 10. During removal, the shelf was accelerated upwards then dropped a distance of about 2 inches (5 cm). The exterior was undamaged, but calculations of the force of the impact showed that a loosely fitting filling tube could have been displaced by this event. In addition, photographs suggested that the close-out cap on top of tank no. 2 may have hit the fuel cell shelf (installed above the oxygen shelf) during the initial upward acceleration. The report of the Apollo 13 review board considers the probability of tank damage during this incident to be "rather low".

For ground-testing, the tank was filled. However, when it came time to empty it, the problem with the piping was discovered. As such, the tank could not be properly emptied except by running the heater to evaporate the liquid gas. Not using this tank would have delayed the mission, and there was no alternate tank available. Lovell was aware of the decision to use the heater to evaporate the oxygen, which was calculated to take a few days at the highest operational temperature of 80 °F (27 °C).

However, when the heater was turned on continuously:

The higher 65-volt supply fused the thermostat, which was only designed to handle 28 volts.

This malfunction eliminated the thermostat's ability to switch off the heater, which in turn allowed the heater to keep heating up past 80 °F (27 °C), and eventually past 100 °F (38 °C).

The electrical current recorder in the power supply showed that the heater was not cycling on and off, as it should have been if the thermostat was functioning correctly, but no one noticed it at the time.

Because the thermometer could not register temperatures higher than 100 °F (38 °C), the monitoring equipment did not register the true temperature inside the tank -- an estimated 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 °C). Instead of taking several days, the gas evaporated in hours.

The protracted high temperatures then burned off the Teflon coating, leaving the wires inside the tank exposed.

When the tank was refilled with oxygen, it became a bomb waiting to go off. During the "cryo stir" procedure, the electricity needed to run the fans passed through the exposed wires inside the tank, setting off sparks which led to the explosion.

The proximity of the two oxygen tanks exacerbated the situation. Although the remaining tank survived the explosion, its valves were damaged, allowing the oxygen within to leak out. In subsequent Apollo missions, the two oxygen tanks were situated farther apart, while a third tank was installed in an isolated location.

Mission Notes

Following the established protocol for crew rotation on Apollo missions the original prime crew for Apollo 13 was the back up crew for Apollo 10 that would have seen Mercury veteran Gordon Cooper command the mission with Lovell's crew being Apollo 14 (as they were the backup crew for the historic Apollo 11 mission). Deke Slayton, the Director of Flight Crew Operations ("Chief Astronaut") bumped Cooper from the position in favor of Mercury 3 veteran Alan Shepard, who recovered from an experimental, yet successful operation to correct an inner ear disorder. In addition to Shepard's reinstatement, Cooper was also bumped due to his criticism toward the NASA management, criticisms that go back to the days of his preparation for the Mercury 9 mission that almost led to him being grounded and replaced by Shepard due to an unauthorized low-level flyby ("flathatting") of the Mercury Operations office at Cape Canaveral. In a change from the usual procedure, the prime crews of 13 and 14 were swapped, to afford Shepard more time to prepare.

Two days before the launch, backup Lunar Module pilot Charlie Duke contracted rubella (German measles) from one of his children, exposing the main crew. Although Lovell and Haise had had rubella as children, command module pilot Ken Mattingly had not, and the flight surgeons grounded him, replacing him with Swigert. This may have been a blessing in disguise for him – Mattingly never developed rubella, and later flew on Apollo 16, STS-4, and STS-51-C, retiring from both NASA and the U.S. Navy with the rank of Rear Admiral. Mattingly was also able, using the simulator, to map out a plan for the astronauts to get the module going again using the limited power supply they had left.

There was no time to properly replace the original lunar plaque on Aquarius (which bore Mattingly’s name), so Jim Lovell was given a replacement (with Swigert’s name) to put over the original plaque once they landed on the moon. However, because the lunar landing was never made, Lovell kept the plaque, which is one of the few mementos from the mission that he has on display at his home.

As a result of following the free return trajectory, the altitude of Apollo 13 over the lunar far side was approximately 100 km greater than the corresponding orbital altitude on the remaining Apollo lunar missions. This could mean an all-time altitude record for human spaceflight, not even superseded as of 2008; however, the variation in distance between Earth and the Moon, owing to the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit about Earth, is much larger than 100 km, so it is not certain whether the actual distance from Earth was greater than that of all other Apollo missions. The Guinness Book of Records listed this flight as having the absolute altitude record for a manned spacecraft, and Lovell should have received a certificate from them attesting to this record. (Lovell wrote in the book Lost Moon — later renamed Apollo 13, that apart from the plaque and a couple of other pieces of salvage, the only other item he possessed regarding the Apollo 13 mission was a letter from Charles Lindbergh.)

The splashdown point was 21°38′S, 165°22′W, SE of American Samoa and 6.5 km (4 mi) from the recovery ship, USS Iwo Jima.

Superstitious people have associated the belief that 13 is an unlucky number with the mission, due to the fact that the mission began on April 11, 1970 (4/11/70, digits summing to 13) at 13:13 CST from Complex 39 (three times thirteen), the problems began on April 13, and the mission is called Apollo 13. Other coincidental appearances of the number 13 connected to the mission included the explosion occurring at 19:13 CST, and a post-flight estimate that, had the explosion occurred on the ground, repairing the damage would have cost $13 million. In a feature on the making of the Apollo 13 film, Jim Lovell pointed out that NASA has never had another spacecraft numbered 13. However, in NASA's preliminary schedule for the return to the moon, an upcoming spaceflight is to be called Orion 13.

The A7L spacesuit worn by Lovell would have been the first to feature red bands on the arms and legs of the suit, as well as on the life-support backpack and lunar EVA helmet assembly, to easily distinguish him from Haise. This was done because during the Apollo 12 mission, Mission Control personnel watching the video feed had trouble distinguishing the two astronauts while both Charles Conrad and Alan Bean had their side sunshades extended down. The red bands were a feature for the remaining Apollo flights, and are used on the Extravehicular Mobility Units worn by the astronauts of the Space Shuttle program and on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Apollo 13 mission has been called “A Successful Failure”, in that the astronauts were successfully brought home despite not landing on the moon.

The Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their actions during the mission, as were the astronauts.

Insignia

The Apollo 13 logo featured three flying horses of Apollo's chariot across space, the motto “Ex luna, scientia” (from the Moon, knowledge, borrowed from the U.S. Naval Academy's motto, in which Lovell was a graduate, "Ex tridens, scientia," from the sea, knowledge), and the number of the mission in Roman numerals (APOLLO XIII). It is one of two Apollo insignias (the other being that of Apollo 11) not to include the names of the crew (which was fortunate, considering that Ken Mattingly, one of the original crew members, was replaced not long before the mission began). It was designed by artist Lumen Winter, who based it on a mural he had done for the St. Regis Hotel in New York; the mural was later purchased by actor Tom Hanks, who portrayed Lovell in the movie Apollo 13, and now is on the wall of a restaurant in Chicago, owned by Lovell's son.

Now having read all that we come close to me making my point, please bear with me for a little longer.

Kranz is perhaps best known for his role as lead Flight Director during the Apollo 13 Space Mission. Kranz's team was on duty when the Apollo 13 Service Module exploded, and they dealt with the initial hours of the unfolding accident. His "White Team," dubbed the "Tiger Team" by the press, set the constraints for the consumption of spacecraft consumables (oxygen, electricity and water), controlled the three course-correction burns during the trans-Earth trajectory, as well as the power-up procedures that allowed the astronauts to use the Command Module for the trip home. He, his team, as well as the astronauts received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their heroic roles.

Kranz would continue as a Flight Director through Apollo 17, the end of the Apollo missions, and then was promoted to Deputy Director of NASA Mission Operations in 1974, becoming Director in 1983. He retired from NASA in 1994 after the successful STS-61 flight that repaired the optically flawed Hubble Space Telescope in 1993. In addition to having written Failure Is Not An Option, which was adapted for cable TV for The History Channel in 2004, he also flies an acrobatic airplane and serves as a flight engineer for a restored B-17 Flying Fortress. He and his wife Marta, along with their six children (one boy and five girls) and several grandchildren, still reside in Texas.

And now my point:

This Mission happened in 1970 when technology is nowhere what it is or what we have today and yet these men worked to bring three men home ALIVE, because one man; Kranz pounded into them that “Failure is NOT an option!”

They did the impossible; they brought those men home making another of Kranz’s proclamations come true, “I believe this will be our finest hour.”

Since this time NASA has done nothing to top this and in fact has gone down the shitter. They lost Challenger, screwed up the Hubble, lost Columbia, and several failed missions to or dealing with Mars. Seventeen astronauts had died since Apollo 13 due to their arrogance and incompetence.

It seems to me NASA has lost Kranz’s spirit that: “Failure is not an option.” It seems that Failure is the only option they believe in or hold near and dear these days. I love space and its exploration. I have in fact had hoped we would be much further with it than where we find ourselves today. However until NASA once again adopts the spirit of the Apollo 13 Mission they will never get it right, advance our exploration, or have the success it should by now.

I can only hope the next time NASA fucks up, especially when it involves the live of our brave men and women astronauts it will be like Apollo 13 was:

“A Successful Failure”