Just the NBC Political Take on today....

FIRST THOUGHTS.

FD: I was driving back from taking the granddaughter to school this morning, listening to talk radio. It seems that Obama's request for only a
total cut back of $100 million left a bitter taste in the mouth of some. I loved the comment (not yet checked) that amount represents only 18 seconds of federal government spending. We have really distorted any sense that numbers used to have for me...



*** Cheney Strikes Back, Again: The political back-and-forth over the Obama administration's release of those interrogation memos now seems like something out of a "24" episode.

Conservatives argue that the interrogations, including waterboarding, made the country safer. Some Democrats, on the other hand, want to prosecute the authors of those memos. And a former controversial vice president -- Dick Cheney -- who previously has contended that the current administration has made the country less safe, now says he has asked the CIA to declassify interrogation memos that apparently show successful results from the interrogation techniques. Indeed, in his interview last night on FOX, Cheney not only called for those memos to be declassified, he blasted Obama for "cozying up" to Hugo Chavez ("I think it's not helpful. I think it sort of sets the wrong standard"), and for what he said was Obama apologizing "profusely" overseas for America's past actions ("The world outside there . will be quick to take advantage of a situation if they think they're dealing with a weak president or one who is not going to stand up and aggressively defend America's interests"). Wow, did a former vice president just suggest that a sitting American president is weak? Is there a precedent to this in modern American history?

*** Firing Up Both Bases: Politically, as we've said before, Democrats are probably more than happy for Cheney to be back in the news as the defender of the Bush administration.

As one GOP strategist tells the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, Cheney "is a face of the past. A face of conflict and too polarizing. So, not a good face of the party." In fact, a December 2008 NBC/WSJ poll showed Cheney with a fav/unfav rating of 21%-58%. But this entire Cheney vs. Obama debate on interrogation, fires up both bases -- and thus makes for perfect cable chatter. Yet what are people in the middle thinking? The answer to that question will tell you the short-term winner of this debate. One other question we have: Does Cheney actually have the ability to declassify CIA memos?

*** Obama's Project "Dave": Republicans yesterday had a field day with Obama's request for his cabinet secretaries to cut $100 million from their budgets.

As the Republicans pointed out, that request amounted to just .0025% of Obama's budget. "Budget analysts promptly burst out laughing," the New York Times writes. "A reporter declared at the White House briefing that the initiative would become fodder for late-night talk show hosts." (Couldn't have Obama had asked each department to cut $100 million, pushing the total request above $1 billion?) But as Republicans laugh at Obama's paltry request, the DNC fires back with a Web video showing GOP leaders supporting increased spending during Bush's presidency.

First Read with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd, every weekday on MSNBC-TV at 9 a.m. ET.
For more: The latest edition of First Read is available now athttp://www.FirstRead.MSNBC.com !

UPDATE: Water Flow on Mars... Water Flow on South Pole

A spacecraft orbiting Mars has discovered compelling evidence that water has cascaded down the slopes of at least two Martian craters within the past seven years, forming mile-long gullies where the water has frozen instantly into brilliant ice, NASA scientists announced Wednesday.
The canyons, flood plains and deeply carved terrain all across the planet has long convinced researchers that millions of years ago Mars must have been warm and wet and easily capable of supporting life and within the past five years most scientists have talked about water flowing on the planet millions of years ago.

Now, however, recent images from the Mars Global Surveyor clearly show bright streaks on two crater slopes that the spacecraft’s cameras only caught within the past two years.

“These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars,” said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for NASA’s Mars exploration program in a Washington briefing carried live over the Internet.

But neither Meyer nor the scientists responsible for the camera that took the extraordinarily high-resolution images could explain where the water came from: whether it burst from deep underground, came from the melting of unsuspected snow that had formed in the deep, cold shadows of the crater walls or came from other sources.

This same type of melt water fountain occurs on Mars and other cold solar locations where live is expected to be found some day...

Researchers in have discovered ancient, extremophile life forms that survive with neither light nor oxygen underground in Antarctica.

From the surface, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Eastern Antarctica appears to be one of the most desolate places on Earth. And indeed it is. Apart from a few glaciers, the land is ice-free. No animals live here, and what few plants are able to are simple planktonic forms. But recently, a team of researchers have discovered evidence of a thriving community of extremophile microbes thriving several hundred feet below the barren surface.

The evidence came in the form of an outpouring of meltwater from the base of Taylor Glacier, one of the outlet glaciers of the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The samples were collected from a feature known aptly as Blood Falls, due to the rust-red coloration of briny effluent that occasionally issues from it. The source of this effluent is believed to be a 3 mile diameter, high-salinity “pool” (which doesn’t freeze due to the salt content) buried inland and deep under the glacier.

The results of sample analyses revealed an abundance of microbial life similar to some present day oceanic and land microbes, but also quite different in key ways-they are capable of reproducing in the complete absence of either light or oxygen. These microbes are in some ways closer to Archaea, a branch of simple unicellular organisms believed to be amongst the most ancient microbial forms to appear on earth.

READ MORE AT : http://ecoworldly.com/2009/04/20/ancient-microbes-found-thriving-under-antarctic-glacier/

Japanese and the Italians are major consumers of Scot Whiskey... now the Japanese have the wards for making the BEST Scot Whiskey

FD: Article on how the Japanese Distillers have won both the Single Malt and Blended Scot Awards this year. I have never tasted this product, so you are left to your own vices. I gave up whiskey for politics in 2008, donating my money to campaigns and not drinking it. Even if you are a coffee and carbo fiend like me... you will find this article interesting. My Scottish ancestry is just as mixed as these well-blended whiskies. By the way, Single Malts are just as blended as the Blended Brands ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/21/japan-whisky-industry

While Scottish distilleries are free to buy in whiskies from other makers to orchestrate the desired blend, their Japanese counterparts do everything in-house. This arrangement, with a variable climate and reverence for traditional distilling methods, is turning this relative newcomer into a whisky powerhouse. Suntory, which controls 70% of the domestic market, has more than 100 types of unblended whisky at its disposal.

"Although some Japanese people are the last to believe in the quality of their own products, their malt whiskies are as good as any in the world," said Chris Bunting, an expatriate Yorkshireman who blogs about the country's whisky at Nonjatta. "No one can say that Japan isn't making the genuine article."

Man behind the malt
Suntory and Nikka have Masataka Taketsuru to thank for their success. He fell in love with whisky while studying chemistry at Glasgow University in 1918, trained as a blender in Campbelltown and Speyside, then returned to Japan. Taketsuru was headhunted by Suntory's founder, Shinjiro Torii, to launch the firm's Yamazaki distillery in 1923. Ten years later he and his Scottish wife, Rita, opened the Yoichi distillery. He died, aged 85, in 1979.

MORE ON THE HISTORY: http://www.allbusiness.com/asia/japan/610359-1.html
MORE ON THIS THEME http://www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/japanese.htm

MORE ABOUT THE SCOTCH http://www.papaya.net/wordpress/?p=48
MORE OF THIS STORY http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/21/japan-whisky-industry

Spy vs. Spy

from The Wall Street Journal

Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project -- the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever -- according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html#mod=djemalertNEWS

WOW. How they don't let Hubble drop out of orbit any time soon...

It looks like a hand of God reaching out into the cosmos, but scientists say it's something just as incredible: electromagnetic energy pumped out by a neutron star. NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory captured a photo of the Pulsar B1509.

TO SEE MORE: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/chronological.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Nasa posts a daily photo on this location and has an explanation for what you are seeing from out there in Space.....

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090420.html

Flowing Barchan Sand Dunes on Mars Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA
Explanation: When does Mars act like a liquid? Although liquids freeze and evaporate quickly into the thin atmosphere of Mars, persistent winds may make large sand dunes appear to flow and even drip like a liquid. Visible on the above image right are two flat top mesas in southern Mars, where the season is changing from Spring to Summer. A light dome topped hill is also visible on the far left of the image. As winds blow from right to left, flowing sand on and around the hills leaves picturesque streaks. The dark arc-shaped droplets of fine sand are called barchans, and are the interplanetary cousins of similar Earth-based sand forms. Barchans can move intact downwind and can even appear to pass through each other. Over the past few weeks, winds on southern Mars have been kicking up dust and are being watched to see if they escalate into another of Mars' famous planet-scale sand storms.