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While his memory is failing a bit and does make a few factual errors, I think this interview of Jerry Pournelle does a pretty good job of being a source for this little fact:

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=86&load=5745

Dr. Pournelle was involved with much of the planning and policy setting at some level or another since the end of the Apollo program (he was the lead science planner for the Apollo 20 mission) and also chaired the "Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy" during the Reagan administration. He has forgotten more about space policy than the entire readership of Slashdot has ever learned.

The point is that had the SSMEs not been pushed beyond 100%, that they certainly wouldn't need the extensive repairs needed after each flight. Even now, the SSMEs used by Atlantis are being overhauled for the next flight. It sort of disgusts me that they are going to be dumped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean on their next flight rather than being kept in a museum. What a wonderful way to dispose of re-usable hardware.

While there are a couple of factual errors with this interview (I'll forgive somebody in their 70's who otherwise was actively involved in the development efforts of a great many spacecraft programs) this interview by Jerry Pournelle covers many of the problems that happened with the Shuttle development:

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=86&load=5745

It could have worked, but too many compromises were made on the Shuttle where those compromises compounded on each other to create many of the problems involved, including what ended up killing 14 astronauts.

I personally think there should have been a Shuttle II program that would have taken the lessons learned and built a new version of the basic design. Sadly, that never happened. What I hope does not get learned from the Shuttle is that reusable lifting bodies should never be used for spaceflight. The real problem with the Shuttle was trading development costs for operational costs, and expecting a government bureaucracy devoted to keeping jobs is going to help lower costs.

Alan Greenspan hasn't been a capitalist since the 60's, any more than Hillary Clinton is (who professed to be a deep fan of Atlas Shrugged).

here are answers to all your doubts. This video states it better then I could.

Find one sub-Saharan African mayor or governor amongst the Europeons.

http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/___MSNBC_&_The_Great_Liberal_Narrative:_The_Truth_About_The_Tyranny_of_Political_Correctness/2343/

They changed a black guy into a white guy, but they used cropping.
A black man took a gun to an anti-Obamacare rally. MSNBC showed his picture, or at least a picture of his shirt and gun (no hands or head), claimed it was a white guy and that he was motivated by racism.

Link here: Instapundit and Afterburner video

Don't spread your FUD here without backing it up.

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/obama-campaign-disabled-credit-card-address-verification-donors
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/14/report-credit-card-fraud-for-obama/
http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=684
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-campaigns-massive-credit-card.html
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/official-acorn-employment-application.html
There, fixed that for you.

Ok, the last one was just for fun.