Nuna 5 vs Eleanor -- It's on, baby!

The World Solar Challenge, Darwin to Adelaide, Australia, a car race of 1800 miles across the Australian outback, has been run every other year since 1987. No flame breathing dragons allowed, all the entrants must be 100 percent sun-powered. A Dutch team from Delft University has won this thing four times in a row, and Nuna 5, this year's entry, is a heavy pre-race favorite.

MIT wants to give the Dutch something scary to look at in their rear-view mirror and has sunk a quarter of a million dollars into its entry, Eleanor.


Writers who are covering this event have pulled out all the metaphoric stops in describing the racers. Eleanor has been called 'a funky, hump-backed IKEA table,' and Nuna 5 'looks like a pool table that's gone through a Pininfarina wind tunnel.'

The starting flag drops on Oct.25, and the winning speed should be in excess of 90 KPH. Hey! Wanna see what these babies look like? Click on 'read more.'

Here they are! Delft is on top. (For the history of this race, click on the headline)

























Update: Click here for race results.


Addendum: In the Apres moi le deluge category, there is a fire-breathing Eleanor out and about, a licensed replication of the 1967 Mustang Nicholas Cage drove in the movie, 'Gone in 60 Seconds.' With a carbon footprint the size of a shopping mall, this piece of super-fast Detroit iron will cost you $100,000 plus!
Wanna see her built and running? Click here.

OK, the gloves are off!

In his first 200-odd days as President, Barack Obama has worked tirelessly to fulfill the promise of his election. He inherited a country that had become a philosophical, economic and political disaster, and to his credit never rubbed his opponents' nose in the sludge of their making; he just worked to fix it.


In his brief tenure, he has staunched the economic bleeding, restored worldwide respect, and has attempted to resurrect a two-party system of government that was on the brink of extinction.


Two out of three isn't going to hack it. Republicans -- notoriously bad winners and worse losers -- are using every ounce of their waning power to bring down a President this country elected freely with a substantial majority. Obama has attempted compromise everywhere, and everywhere he has been rebuffed. "Rebuffed" is a kind word; the GOP has vilified him, excoriated him, called him a Hitler and his followers Nazis, created and disseminated lies about him, his background and his policies.


Now they threaten to bring down his healthcare proposal, the touchstone of his campaign. While he has tried mightily to leave room for conservative dissent and ideas, the GOP has rejected them all.


Well, the hell with them! We have majorities in both Houses. We can go it alone. Let our rallying cry be that of the fictional Cleveland Indian slugger, Pedro Cerrano:



"Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come. I'm pissed off now, Jobu. Look, I go to you. I stick up for you. You don't help me now. I say "Fuck you," Jobu, I do it myself."

What are we, Children?

Clinton in Kenya

Our Secretary of State embarked on a ten-day, seven-country Africa trip to promote economic, agricultural and political development in a continent that has seen more than its share of turmoil and strife. Our vaunted fourth estate had an opportunity to bring the American public up to speed on the Dark Continent, but what do they do? Sound bites! Silly sound bites, too. Simple remarks, blown out of proportion for their supermarket tabloid possibilities.


Please, kiddies; the SOS is working hard to bring Africa up to speed. Check out her itinerary right here, and marvel at this woman's work ethic.

(Excerpted from 'All Things Hillary,' a great blog. Click on the headline to go there.)



Kenya

The trip will start at the U.S.-Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum, known mostly as the AGOA Forum, in Nairobi, Kenya, where she will deliver a speech at the ministerial opening ceremony of the forum on August the 5th.

She will also hold talks with Kenya�s senior leaders including President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. According to State, she will "encourage both of those leaders to move forward with their efforts to rewrite the country�s constitution and to prevent a return to the kind of violence that erupted in that country in January and February of 2007 following the very difficult and flawed presidential elections there."

Also, while in Kenya she will, on Wednesday afternoon, visit the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) laboratories along Waiyaki Way. She will be accompanied by US Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas J. Vilsack, together with U.S. Representatives Donald M. Payne and Nita M. Lowey. And it has been stated that "The visit will focus on KARI�s contributions to Kenya�s food security and agricultural development. It will include a laboratory tour, discussion with KARI staff and collaborating partners, observation of a maize research plot, and ceremonial tree-planting.�

South Africa

From Kenya, the Secretary will move on to South Africa, where she will have an opportunity to meet the leadership of South Africa�s new government. She will meet with President Jacob Zuma, and South Africa�s new foreign minister, Ambassador Mashabane.

These meetings are designed to give the U.S. an opportunity to talk with South African leaders about issues such as Zimbabwe and HIV/AIDS and to strengthen an important relationship in South Africa with a country which is the engine of that region�s growth.

Angola

After South Africa, it is on to Angola. Angola is one of the largest energy producers in Sub-Saharan Africa and is a major supplier of both petroleum and LNG to the U.S. market. The Secretary will meet with President Dos Santos, and she will also renew her acquaintance with the Angolan foreign minister with whom she met in D.C. about a month ago. It is the desire to strengthen that relationship with one of Southern Africa�s emerging countries, a country which has enormous economic potential.

Congo

Next stop is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Congo, she will first go to Kinshasa and then will proceed the next day to Goma for a meeting with President Kabila and the Congolese foreign minister. In the Congo, the Secretary wants to put a great deal of focus on the issue of sexual- and gender-based violence which is occurring in the eastern Congo. There is a great deal of conflict in this area since the mid 90s, largely as a result of the movement of ex-genocidaires from Rwanda into the eastern Congo. Hillary is of course deeply concerned about the gender-based violence and she will meet with some of the victims who have suffered from it.

Nigeria

Next, the Secretary will fly to Abuja, Nigeria. The State Department proclaims that "Nigeria is probably the most important country in Sub-Saharan Africa: 140 million people, 75 million of whom are Muslims." They also state that it is also a major source of petroleum imports for the U.S.

Here the Secretary will discuss with the Nigerian Government a range of issues, including West African security, the need to continue to move forward in strengthening its democracy, dealing with corruption, and also promoting stronger economic development.

Liberia

The Secretary will then move on to Liberia, an historically important relationship. Hillary wants to reaffirm U.S. support for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the only female African president, and to show and demonstrate U.S. support for the democratic progress that has occurred in Liberia, support and reaffirm U.S. commitment to helping in the development assistance area, and in security sector reform.

Cape Verde

Last stop is Cape Verde, which the State Department calls "an African success story." The island nation, off the coast of West Africa, is democratically run and well-managed.

This huge Africa trip comes only three weeks after President Obama�s successful trip to Accra, Ghana, and will highlight and underscore the Obama Administration�s commitment to making Africa a priority in U.S. foreign policy. Reports have stated that this is the earliest trip by any Secretary of State and President to Africa of any previous U.S. administration.

As with most of Secretary Clinton's international trips there are extra security measures being taken as well as street closures and statements make by police on safety and security. Here is a tidbit from Africa News:

Kenya Police announced on Tuesday that traffic flow would remain interrupted in Nairobi until Thursday following the ongoing AGOA Conference. A statement from Police headquarters said the measures are being taken to ensure smooth security operations ahead of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit.
The statement said the Parliament Road from the junction of Harambee Avenue roundabout to the City Hall Way near the Intercontinental Hotel would remain closed. Other affected roads include Parliament road to Kaunda Street junction.

�We wish to announce that the stated roads will remain closed from 9am Tuesday until late Thursday,� Police Spokesman Erick Kiraithe said. Where possible, he said, motorists should avoid the city centre to avoid being inconvenienced.

Visceral Clinton Hatred Redux

Freed U.S. journalist Euna Lee (left) is embraced by her daughter and former President Bill Clinton after arriving in Burbank, Calif., Wednesday.

To some people, the Clintons can do nothing right. They can turn a life-saving, selfless mission into something ugly. Consider North Korea and Bill Clinton's rescue of two American journalists held hostage there.

By Salon's Joe Conason

Aug. 7, 2009 | Like a seasonal flu, the verbal virus that is sometimes called Clinton derangement syndrome has struck again, beginning only moments after the 42nd president of the United States appeared on television screens around the world with the two journalists he had helped to rescue from prison in North Korea. And like certain viruses, the syndrome tends to hit hardest among a very specific segment of the population. Most Americans appear to be immune most of the time, as do the majority of human beings on the planet, so this pathology will probably never become a global pandemic.

But pundits everywhere -- from the newsrooms of the "liberal media" to the blogosphere to the Republican noise machine -- seem to be the preferred hosts of the pathogen. While not lethal or physically disabling, it troubles their minds -- and strikes the same people over and over and over again. Symptoms include the recitation of dull sexual japes, sour reflections on celebrity, mindless pronouncements on foreign policy, false accusations of grandstanding, and even furious attacks on innocent individuals who dare to express admiration or gratitude to Bill Clinton (on this particular occasion for saving their lives).

On display in the wake of his successful effort to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee is the purest and most virulent form of a disorder all too familiar to anyone who lived through the Clinton presidency.

Here was an effort that exemplified the best of America -- a society that values the lives of its citizens enough to send a former head of state, with all the power of government behind him, to the aid of two women in distress. Here was a happy reunion, bringing wives home to their husbands and a mother back to her little girl, that surely uplifted the spirit of anyone who actually believes in family values. Here was a moment of pride and joy.

But not for Gordon Liddy, the demented felon and radio bigot who cackled about "Ling Ling and Wee Wee being locked up for nine hours in an airplane with Bill Clinton." Not for Rush Limbaugh, the obsessive guttersnipe who wondered aloud whether Clinton "hit on those two female journalists on the long flight home." Not for Andrea Peyser, the curdled tabloid columnist who insisted that "the whole shebang was nakedly scripted and staged as a device to help rehabilitate the image of former President Bill Clinton" (and who neglected to mention that Clinton did not speak to the eagerly waiting press corps and has given not a single interview on the North Korea mission). Not for Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who predictably seized on Clinton's mission as an opportunity for gratuitous and ugly insults to his wife, weirdly imagining that the prisoner release was "some clever North Korean revenge plot, giving the limelight to Daddy to punish Mommy." And not for the editors of the Huffington Post, who posted a very strange headline -- "Bill Upstages Hillary ... Once Again" -- on an Associated Press story that didn�t mention her at all.

Analysts have long speculated on the sexual envy that may or may not predispose the syndrome�s sufferers to say these things. What seems clear, however, is that no matter what humanitarian acts Clinton may perform in his post-presidency, he cannot do anything without provoking such inappropriate and embarrassing outbursts. The result, of course, is that their remarks always reveal more about them than about their intended target.

Consider the reaction of the former president�s former advisor Dick Morris, who still pontificates on the Fox News Channel airwaves as a Clinton expert, although he hasn�t spoken with either of them for more than 10 years. Denouncing Clinton�s trip as "awful" and "ridiculous," he suggested with a sickening grin that Ling and Lee should instead have been left to "live with the consequences of their acts" -- essentially a death sentence in a hard labor camp. (Is that what any Fox commentator would say in the unlikely event that any of their colleagues had the guts to try to report on life in North Korea -- and got arrested?)


John Podhoretz didn�t go quite that far in Commentary, but he too felt deeply disturbed by Clinton�s achievement. As a "journalist" who spends most of his life watching television and eating ice cream, he felt moved to mock Ling and Lee for seeking to expose the dark side of the North Korean regime -- and to throw in a few bitter words about Al Gore for employing them at Current TV. If that sounds bizarre coming from a self-styled hard-liner, it is simply another symptom of the mental imbalance induced in some people by the sight of Clinton (and Gore).

Finally there are the "serious" commentators, most notably former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, the former diplomat best known for disdaining diplomacy and rattling the atomic saber until he was mercifully relieved of public responsibilities. In him the syndrome�s most noticeable effect is a severe case of amnesia. On the pages of the Washington Post, he complained that despite "decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages, it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so." Leaving aside the question of whether this situation in any way fits that description, Bolton has clearly forgotten the Iran-Contra affair, when his colleagues in the Reagan administration, all the way up to and including the president, negotiated with Iran�s leaders to release hostages in exchange for deadly missiles -- violating statute and policy. He also seems to have forgotten how he tried to help cover up that outrage as an assistant attorney general.

But perhaps this latest outbreak should be considered mild, when compared with the devastating episodes of years past. Nobody is claiming that Clinton murdered or drugged anyone on his trip to Korea, that he profited by selling a real estate parcel there, or that he is a secret agent of the Dear Leader.

They�re saving all that for Barack Obama.