July 5, 1975

The Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived in 1456, and the islands were thus made part of the Portuguese empire. Due to its location off the coast of Western Africa, Cape Verde became an important supply station, then sugar cane plantation site, and later a major center of the slave trade and whaling industry.

Although the Cape Verdeans were treated badly by their colonial masters, they fared slightly better than Africans in other Portuguese colonies because of their lighter skin. A small minority received an education; Cape Verde was the first Portuguese colony to have a school for higher education. By the time of independence, a quarter of the population could read, compared to 5% in Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau).

In 1926, Portugal had became a right-wing fascist dictatorship which regarded the colonies an economic frontier, to be developed in the interest of Portugal and the Portuguese. Frequent famine, unemployment, poverty and the failure of the Portuguese government to address these issues caused resentment. And the Portuguese dictator Salazar wasn't about to give up his colonies as easily as the British and French had given up theirs. After World War II, Portugal was intent to hold on to its overseas territories. When most former African colonies gained independence in the 50's and 60's, the Portuguese still held on. Consequently, the people of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau fought one of the longest African liberation wars.

After the fall of the fascist regime in Portugal in 1974, widespread unrest forced the government to negotiate and in July 5, 1975, Cape Verde finally gained independence from Portugal.

July 4, 1776

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When 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.

Boss. the plane! The plane!

We went down to the the 61st US Women's Open Golf Championship in Newport today.

We saw Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie. That was cool. But what really caught my attention was an airplane towing a banner that read “NBC – Give NABET A Fair Contract”

Who or what was NABET? Well, it is the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians. I googled the name and came up with this.

The Flight of Discovery on STS-121

From the pages of Daily Kos...

Discovery's STS-121 mission will the 18th assembly flight to the International Space Station and deliver badly needed water and other supplies. It will also ferry a European astronaut who will bring the ISS crew size back up to 3 for the first time since February of 2003. The crew will also perform a spacewalk to service a malfunctioning piece of construction equipment at ISS and another to test methods of repairing the fragile orbiter heatshield.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has bluntly stated that the program will end if another vehicle is lost. The shuttle program has been a white elephant of sorts from the day its design was finalized. Too many compromises had to be made for it to live up to its initial promise. And it wasn't as safe as many made it out to be and as 14 brave American men and women tragically proved.

The International Space Station (ISS) is another white elephant. It's in the wrong orbit and also will never live up to its hype. Studies have shown that in order for ISS to even begin to accomplish what it was meant to do would require a permanent crew of at least 7 people. To date the crews have spent the majority of their time just doing maintenance and housekeeping.

President Bush (yeah, I know) has decided that there will be no more space shuttle flights after the year 2010 and possibly sooner. This decideration was made so that NASA could focus more on his ambitious program to develop a new space flight vehicle and return astronauts to the moon, and eventually Mars. ISS still requires 16 assembly flights before it is completed and it's anybody's guess at this time whether or not they can actually be accomplished given the tight schedule. Deciding to end the program once the ISS was completed would have made too much sense I guess, but hey, what do you expect from someone whose age is about to match his IQ?

Others might speculate that his real motive is to militarize space. We must work to make sure that never happens. I take it as a bad sign that the rocket that will take astronauts into space starting in 2014 is named after the god of war. Maybe it's just me.

It's all but certain that once Bush is out of office his grand vision for space exploration will be scrapped no matter which party is in control of the White House and Congress. What emerges in its place is bound to be far less exciting. And for that I am sad. But as Discovery lifts off tomorrow I would ask everyone here, Democrats, Liberals and Progressives to think about what direction the country's space program should go in. Just start to think about it, and please try to remember that its value as an inspiration to young people all over the country from every conceivable background and culture is incalculable. Achievments in space are something the world, even the Arab world, respects and have been a justifiable source of global goodwill for decades. For what it costs to fight the war in Iraq for a week we could have something to be very, very proud of. How long has it been since this nation accomplished something all Americans could proudly point to and say, "We did that!"? Hint: the War on Terror and the War on the Constitution aren't getting it done for me.

I know many Democrats over the years have harshly criticized NASA programs. Walter Mondale almost single-handedly got the space shuttle program shut down before it ever started. The biggest criticism has always been that these programs are a waste of money and resources that could be better spent on earth where we have plenty of problems that need fixing. Mondale called it "an enormous federal boondoggle", and called Nixon's decision to build it an "example of perverse priorities and colossal waste in government spending". I wonder what he would say today about the war in Iraq and the Department of Homeland Security?

England versus Portugal

The FIFA World Cup is well underway with only six teams left as of Saturday morning.

My wife is from England and my parents are from the Cape Verde Islands (Portuguese speaking). Who do I support?


*** UPDATE ***
Portugal beats England and France beats Brazil