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Now this looks like an accident to me, but I have to admit its alittle wierd. This is the proposed memorial to UAL Flight 93, that crashed after its passengers challenged the hijackers on 9/11. Many bloggers have observed that...

I say problem, and so does Doug Powers:Since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast, federal government programs gained an unlikely critic: Democrat politicians. Some Republicans are also joining in, but Democrats criticizing the federal machine is the shocking political equivalent...

Roberts Rebuffs Democrats' Questions

THe Chief heard some of the hearings with Judge Roberts - one thing that was readily evident was that one good, sound judge was able to run circles around a whole klatsch of LibDonk senators out to try to Bork him. How sweet it is!

Chief Justice-nominee John Roberts repeatedly refused to answer questions about abortion and other contentious issues at his confirmation hearing Tuesday, telling frustrated Democrats he would not discuss matters that could come before the Supreme Court.

This has become known as the Ginsburg Standard, after the absolute refusal of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to answer ANYTHING specific about any case that might POSSIBLY come before the court.

Roberts struck sparks when he indicated his refusal to answer certain questions was based in part on a precedent of "no hints, no forecasts, no previews" that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg set at her hearings a dozen years ago.

What drives the Donks crazy, is that the sauce for the goose has turned out to be sauce for the gander - plus the fact that it is apparent that Judge Roberts is far and away the intellectual master of the law, and that senators like Kennedy, Biden, and Leahy don't have enough background to do more than run through obviously canned questions prepped by their staff flunkies.

The Cheif remains cautiously optimistic on Roberts' overall legal orientation, but in spite of the Donks' fulminations in the hearings, it looks more and more like there will be a decisive and positive vote on the confirmation.

Today's FARK headline: Today's "I'll never drink again" story brought to you by Denver, where man on painkillers, who hadn't slept for two days because of tooth abscess, decides to have a few beers and go four-wheeling at night in...

From NewsMax: MSNBC averaged 220,000 viewers in daytime in August, according to the Post, compared to 998,000 for Fox News and 432,000 for CNN....

Start-up Firm Building New Space Capsule System

No links to this YET - but the October issue of Popular Science reports on a firm called T/Space which is developing, with NASA backing, and some project collaboration with Rutan's Scaled Composites, a capsule system called the CXV or Crew Transfer Vehicle capable of carrying three or four astronauts to low Earth orbit, and returning for a wet landing, like the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo had.

The launcher is an aircraft launched propane & liquid oxygen rocket. The whole emphasis has been on economy and simplicity of design - and seems to be making some real progress - possibly having things ready to go b\y '08 or '09 - an unheard of timeline for NASA projects.

Best of all, this will be privately owned/operated, flying as contractors to NASA, or whoever else wants/needs to get to orbit. Meanwhile, NASA is proceeding with its plans for vehicles to replace the shuttles also apparently based on a larger, more advanced capsule design for personnel, and a heavy lift cargo launcher, for well, cargo. NASA doesn;t plan to be ready to fly before 2012 at best, so the T/Space CVX could fill a gap to help keep the International Space Station in business until then.

The folks at T/Space emphasize that they are NOT building a shuttle replacement - but perhaps a modern replacement for the truly antiquated Soyuz technology.

This is truly good news - the US must maintain an effective capability for space, if for no other reason, to prevent a default ceding of the ultimate high ground to China, Russia, or whoever else goes after it.

Chad Schuldt, the Clear Cut Kidder, thinks conservatives are failing because we have yet to shrink the size of government. Rush Limbaugh has an answer for that:But, you know, the idea that conservatives have taken over the government and the...

NASA to Unveil Plans to Send 4 Astronauts to Moon in 2018

NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday.

Phew! It's about time. The only concern the Chief has about this is why take so long to get back there, when we did it for the first time in less than a decade - well, I guess it is NASA, after all.

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