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From TBND blog:This has to make Senator Conrad's collar a bit tight. Survey USA has released a new surveyout on the approval rating of all 49 governor's and the one governator.John Hoeven is NOW tied for the most popular governor...

I love Thursdays. Not because there's anything special about them, or because super-extra-wonderful things happen on Thursdays, but because it's my very busy day, and because at the end of every Thursday I can relax a little and look forward...

I caught just a bit of former FEMA head Mike Brown in front of a House committee that is investigating what went wrong with Katrina relief. I must say watching Brownie in front of these jerks is like watching Florida...

NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake

Any good "hard" science fiction fan was capable of making this analysis. Among others, rocketeer Homer Hickham, author and main character of October Sky retired from NASA and wrote a novel titled Back to the Moon in which NASA is given a pretty good black eye for having become moribund with bureaucracy and political correctness.

Latest in this feeling that NASA had lost its direction comes from no less than the NASA chief administrator himself:

The space shuttle and International Space Station ? nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades ? were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth. ?It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path,? Griffin said. ?We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.?

Reading between the lines, it appears to the Chief that NASA needed more von Braun and less Rube Goldberg in its design philosophy:

Asked Tuesday whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin said, ?My opinion is that it was. ? It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible.? Asked whether the space station had been a mistake, he said, ?Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in.?

Sounds like we finally have a NASA chief worthy of the name after too many bureaucrats, program managers and barely-disguised political hatchetmen, and not nearly enough engineers in the lead. Hopefully now the Congresscritters will give Griffen the support needed to get us back on the road towards the stars. It's absolutely essential if our civilization is to continue to exist and improve itself.

Barbra Streisand is now declaring global emergencies. NEW YORK -- This summer's back to back superstorms are proof positive we have entered a new period of "global warming emergency," artist/citizen Barbra Streisand warns. Streisand is back on the scene to...

Remember this: anyone who tells you that free speech is alive and well on college campuses is a flat out liar. The First Amendment? Hell, they won't even let anyone tell the truth....

Larry Sabato handicaps next year's Senate and gubernatorial races. I sniff a good Democratic year coming, but I still put the Democrat's chanced of reclaiming the Senate below 50%. Hat Tip to No Left Turns....

Just When South Dakota Looked Safe appears on the very prominent blog, Captain's Quarters. It covers the story that SDP has been following closely. It seems clear that Daschle wants to be a player in politics, and he may well...

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