Foreign Policy Problems Awaiting Barack Obama

Barack Obama has named his national security/foreign policy team at a time of great turmoil. While President-Elect Obama is not to be sworn in for another 60 or so days, a number of foreign policy problems await his immediate attention.

Susan Rice Named UN Ambassador

President Elect Barack Obama has rounded out his national security team by nominating Susan Rice to be Ambassador to the United Nations. It is an interesting choice, considering Rice's relationship to Secretary of State Nominee Hillary Clinton.

Is Bruce Bueno De Mesquita the New Nostradamus?

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is a professor of political science at New York University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is also called by many, with a straight face, the "New Nostradamus."

The Obama birth certificate issue is interesting only due to the fact that it hasn't actually be released to the public, which naturally raises suspicions. Rand Simberg posits an entertaining and scary scenario based on the supposition that Barack Obama is ineligible to be President.

It looks like Samantha Power, who once called the new Secretary of State Nominee Hillary Clinton a "monster", and whose views on Israel are just slightly to the crazy side of Pat Buchannun, is back working for Obama.

If this story about India's lunar plans comes to fruition, the Moon could be rather crowded around 2020.

John Mankins discusses The critical role of advanced technology investments in preventing spaceflight program cost overruns. What is The Future for Canada in Space? Taylor Dinerman wonders ESA: the Odd Man Out. And Jeff Foust delves into The uphill battle for export control reform.

Jonah Golderg discusses "change" (or lack there of), stimulus packages, and other subjects. One fascinating idea I could get behind:

But rather than blow money on a lavish re-enactment of the New Deal, or continue bailing out undeserving corporations, why not really think outside the box? Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) suggests an across-the-board reprieve on paying 2008 income taxes. This would leave an extra $1.2 trillion in the hands of Americans, who are the best stewards of their own money. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Mundell proposes a one-year moratorium on corporate income taxes in order to stimulate investment, job creation and the like. That wouldn't be as popular, for understandable reasons.

Not just a tax cut, but a tax holiday for an entire year. That would certainly be a great stimulus, especially if it is followed by serious tax reform.

Rome the Movie? I'm certainly all for it. My suggestion: a prequal dealing with Lucius and Titus killing Gauls.

Was the Mumbai attack a ploy to start a war between India and Pakistan, two US allies? If so, Obama is going to have his hands full.

Azam Amir Kasab Sole Terrorist Captured in Mumbai

The terrorist battle in Mumbai has resulted in perhaps three hundred dead, almost as many injured, and one captured terrorist, a young Pakistani named Azam Amir Kasab. Azam Amir Kasab is now talking under interrogation.

Addendum: And, apparently, the Israeli victims were tortured before they were murdered.

Space Shuttle Landing Delayed: Mission of Endeavour Ends Amid Uncertainty About Future US Space Efforts

Best Restaurants in Houston, Texas 2008 Nontraditional fare in Space City

Increased NASA funding as part of a stimulus package? Well, considering the plans Obama has for spending, not so much like a drunken sailor, but like a sailor on crack, I would not be surprised.

Amity Shlaes gives Paul Krugman's prescription for a depression the thrashing it deserves.

David Frum has eight reasons why George W. Bush's legacy will be brighter than the mainstream media likes to pretend.

Best Television Shows of 2008

Jon Goff offers a complaint that suggests the following question: How much should NASA spend on technology development and how much on missions? In an ideal universe, NASA would be given a budget that would allow for both. Unfortunately, and this is one of my few criticisms of Bush space policy, it hasn't been given that. So something has to give and, like it or not, getting human explorers beyond Low Earth Orbit is both a Presidential and Congressional mandate. Developing technologies that might prove useful down the road is not.

Mind, I think it should be. And it is hard to say whether the incoming Obama administration wil improve things. On the one hand Obama did promise to boost NASA's budget. On the other hand it looks like Team Obama is contemplating the possibility of cut backs, including outright cancellation of Orion/Ares, presumably to pay for other priorities.

Best Vampire Themed Movies, Books, Etc for 2008

Some of the Best Non Fiction Books of 2008

I had forgotten how funny Eleanor Cliff could be.

Enough with the Lincoln analogies; Reagan is the president that Barack Obama is most closely modeling himself after. Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation, a defeat abroad and a nation at its nadir in morale. Through the sheer force of his personality as much as his policies, four years later, it was "Morning in America," the theme of his 1984 re-election campaign when he won 49 states. Obama isn't president yet, but his determined calm and orderly transition pace appear to be soothing the financial markets, producing the first sustained gain in stocks since the mid-September meltdown.

The really funny thing, aside from the delusion these word sugget, is that Cliff absolutely hated Reagan back when he was President.

It looks like that Team Obama is looking at options for the Vision for Space Exploration, including outright cancellation.

The questionnaire, "NASA Presidential Transition Team Requests for Information," asks agency officials to provide the latest information on Ares 1, Orion and the planned Ares 5 heavy-lift cargo launcher, and to calculate the near-term close-out costs and longer-term savings associated with canceling those programs. The questionnaire also contemplates a scenario where Ares 1 would be canceled but development of the Ares 5 would continue.



While the questionnaire, a copy of which was obtained by Space News, also asks NASA to provide a cost estimate for accelerating the first operational flight of Ares 1 and Orion from the current target date of March 2015 to as soon as 2013, NASA was not asked to study the cost implications of canceling any of its other programs, including the significantly overbudget 2009 Mars Science Laboratory or the James Webb Space Telescope.



Obama's NASA transition team also asked agency officials to investigate how much it would cost and how long it would take to build a smaller version of Orion and human-rate an Atlas 5 or Delta 4 expendable rocket to serve as its launcher.



Additionally, the questionnaire requests that NASA "[e]stimate the feasibility of designing a resized Orion capsule that could be launched by international launch vehicles such as the [European] Ariane 5 or the [Japanese] H2A."

There may be less to this than meets the eye, as every incoming administration likes to look at all options. Or, perhaps, Team Obama is after all contemplating reneging on the campaign pledge to continue the exploration program. There is one bright spot:

The transition team also wants information from NASA about accelerating plans for using the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to fund demonstrations of vehicles capable of carrying crews to the international space station, a proposal Obama supported during his campaign. NASA is not asked what it could save by canceling COTS. Nor is NASA asked to contemplate canceling the space shuttle or space station programs, although the transition team does request the budget implications of flying the shuttle until 2015 and committing to U.S. utilization of the space station through 2020.

Addendum: The option to "resize" (i.e. cut back on capability, crew, etc) to fit the Orion on an EELV or an Ariane 5 strikes me as another example of politicians trying to be aerospace engineers. One supposes if that option is chosen, then maybe two people will get to go to the Moon at a time. This sort of thing nearly wrecked the space station project as numerous administrations and Congresses tinkered with the design for reasons that had little to do with anything besides political whim. It looks like Team Obama is contemplating repeating that folly with the Ares/Orion.

Addendum 2: Mr. X actually has some interesting things to say about the options apparently being considered by Team Obama. For instance, he rejects the Orion on EELV/Ariane option, which should get him burned at the stake by the Internet Rocketeer Club. He rightly suggests problems with accelerating the current program for any amount of money. He has an interesting idea that involves ramping up COTS and doing the return to the Moon on two Ares Vs (presumably the one launching the Orion would be on a stripped down core version.) That would doubly get him burned at the stake by the IRC since to them heavy lift as as anathema as eating pork is to a Taliban. My only quibble with his idea is that he wants to wait until the space flight gap is closed to commit to going to the Moon. There're a lot of things that have to happen before we go back to the Moon that have nothing to do with launch vehicles and should not be deferred. Obama needs to confirm the lunar goal shortly after being sworn in in order to alleviate uncertainty.

Some more politically incorrect thoughts by Victor Davis Hanson.

Mumbai Terrorist Attacks by "Deccan Mujahedeen"

Islamic terrorists have attacked targets in the Indian city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) killing, as of this writing, over a hundred people, wounding nearly three hundred, and taking numerous hostages. Indian security forces are responding,

Proof that Ann Coulter's recent accident has not dulled her eloquence.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

Looks like the One has not brought forth the age of universal peace and siblinghood. Or at least the terrorists in Mumbai did not get the memo.

Details Magazine has one of those nice end of the year lists they call, the Power 40.

Though overshadowed by the yelling and screaming over the anti same sex marriage Proposition 8, Proposition 11, which banned Gerrymandering in California, has even greater implications.

Weilding wounds shut using lasers.

The Shield Series Finale

The series finale of The Shield has aired. The ending of the FX show about the most corrupt cops in the history of television ended with a kind of Shakespearean splendor that was awesome to behold.

Astronomers may have imaged a second extra solar planet orbiting Beta Pictoris.

Carleton University has cancelled a fund raiser for cystic fibrosis because it is supposed to only kill white men. That is a vile, racist, sexist reason. It is also not true, as CF kills other people too.

A radio telescope peeks at the celestial object known as Hanny's Voorwerp, named after Hanny van Arkel, the Dutch schoool teacher who discovered it as part of the Galaxy Zoon project.

Now we have the war on Thanksgiving.

Ann Coulter's Jaw Wired Shut After Accident

A liberal dream has been made reality. No, we're not talking about the election of Barack Obama with a Democratic Congress. It seems that Ann Coulter, the willowy, blond conservative bomb thrower has been forced to shut up, after she took a fall last month and sustained injuries that have required that her jaw be wired shut.

Barack Obama has named Peter Orszag as Director of Management and Budget. Of somne interest to space advocates, Orszag is an advocate for prizes as a means to encourage technological innovation. On the minus side Orszag seems to have drunk the climate change koolaid.

Addendum: More on Peter Orszag and Technology Prizes

President Elect Barack Obama has named Peter Oszag, current Director of the Congressional Budget Office, as his Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The selection will bring into the Obama White House an advocate of prizes to foster technological innovation.

Russian Warship 'Peter the Great' Arrives at Venezuela

A Russian Navy flotilla, led by the cruiser Peter the Great, has arrived at the port of La Guaira in northern Venezuela for joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan Navy to coincide with a visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Do Economic Stimulus Checks Stimulate the Economy?

Part of President-Elect Barack Obama's plan for a stimulus package consists of mailing people rebate checks, similar to the ones mailed by the government earlier this year. But experience suggests that this is a poor way to stimulate economic growth.

The trailer for the last ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica is not up.

One certain accomplishment of Barack Obama - millions of ex-Democrats.

India begins to plan for a manned space program.

Marine General Jim Jones in Line as Obama's National Security Advisor

One of the most intriguing stories to emerge from the Barack Obama transition is the possibility that retired Marine General Jim Jones may be selected to be Barack Obama's National Security Advisor. It is a selection bound to enrage many liberals supporters of Obama.

Alan Colmes to Depart Hannity and Colmes

Alan Colmes, the liberal half of the Fox News Show Hannity and Colmes, will be leaving the show at the end of 2008. Alan Colmes will remain at his Fox syndicated radio show and will possibly develop a new weekend show for Fox News.

Dave Barry Blogs the Return of Jack Bauer
My favorites:

OK, we get it. Jack is done with violence. Great. Now let's get to the shooting.

and:

I guess there's very little chance that President Woman President's son's girlfriend will revert to Lingerie Mode for the inauguration.

and, of course:

Why don't they call Chloe and get the land-mine schematics?

Christina Romer to Chair Obama's Council of Economic Advisors

Christina Romer, a Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkley, has been chosen by President Elect Barack Obama to chair his Council of Economic Advisors. An early Obama supporter, Professor Romer has written extensively on tax policy.

True Blood Season 1 Concludes>

True Blood Season 1 has concluded, with certain story threads tied up, but others set up for True Blood Season 2, to come the HBO next summer. True Blood proves, along with the hit movie Twilight, that blood suckers are popular.

More on space based solar power. Alan Stern's piece (see below) doesn't touch on this as a way to make NASA "relevant", though perhaps he should have.

The winners of the 2008 SpaceVid Vision Contest

Alan Stern believes that he has the prescription to making NASA more relevant.

The new administration could accomplish this by combining NASA’s space exploration portfolio with new and innovative initiatives that address hazards to society, make new applications of space, and foster new industries.

And how to do that?

Such new initiatives should include dramatically amplifying our capability to monitor the changing Earth in every form, from climate change to land use to the mitigation of natural disasters. Such an effort should also accelerate much needed innovation in aircraft and airspace system technologies that would save fuel, save travelers time, and regain American leadership in the commercial aerospace sector. And it should take greater responsibility for mitigating the potential hazards associated with solar storms and asteroid impacts.

So, too, a more relevant NASA should be charged to ignite the entrepreneurial human suborbital and orbital spaceflight industry. This nascent commercial enterprise promises to revolutionize how humans use spaceflight and how spaceflight benefits the private sector economy as fundamentally as the advent of satellites affected the communications industry.

Such a retooled NASA could also serve an educational purpose—inspiring a new army of students and young workers to careers in technology fields, further fueling America’s economy into the 2020s, ’30s, and ’40s.

I'm a little skeptical about tasking NASA with monitoring "climate change." It seems like, if the government does it at all, it should bee something NOAA does, not NASA. The aeronautics technology development program seems like a good idea, but how that relates to exploration I'm not sure. Fostering commercial enterprise is a good idea. Maybe the rumor we here that Obama is going to put off his tax increases for business will help in that regard. Education? NASA has been dabbling in that since I was in grade school.

I'm a little dubious about this obsession with connecting with "youth." Teenagers and even some twenty somethings are generally not the best judges of public policy, at least until they start careers and start raising families. Then their political sense begin to mature. Catering to young people may be fine for selling video games and sporting equipment, but not, I think, for public policy.

Addendum: On the other hand, Alan Stern has some sobering but relevant things to say about cost inflation plaguing certain NASA projects.

I was puzzled just a little by this latest post by Rand Simberg until I realized that he was being a little humor impaired.

For those gentle readers who don't get the joke, the "Internet Rocketeer Club" consists of people who like to bloviate or even rant about space policy on the Internet, generating quite a lot of heat, but very little light. The name, which I bestowed on them, is just my gentle way of poking a little fun. And, no, I will not give out the membership list, as it is a deep, dark secret, but in their hearts, they know who they are (g).

SpaceX has tested the nine engine Falcon9 at a facility in MacGregor, Texas.

Giving thanks to George W. Bush.

24 Redemption a Review

It loooks like that the One True Obama, the Merciful, the Compassionate, has after all found the value of the Bush tax cuts.

It looks like NASA is going to study manrating the core stage of the Ares V, possibly as an alternative to Ares 1. This news has stirred up the Internet Rocketeer Club to ome extent, though for reasons hard to fathom. Launching Orion in a core Ares V might solve a number of problems now facing the Ares 1, which I thought was the whole point. But maybe I'm missing something.

Victor Davis Hanson has ten politically incorrect thoughts.

Hillary Clinton has even been officially announced as SecState, not to mention confirmed, and already the anonymous sniping by Obama aides have begun.

Rashid Rauf is now burning in Hell thanks to a Predator missile.

The Kennedy Assassination 45 Years Ago

Forty five years ago, on November 22nd, 1963, a disturbed man named Lee Harvey Oswald pointed a rifle from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas and fired at a passing convertible in the street below.

Twilight Film Review

Twilight is the film version of the first of Stephenie Meyer's hugely popular novels about teenage vampires who dwell in the Pacific Northwest. The books have been compared to Harry Potter in their popularity with younger readers.

Obama Girls to Enroll at Sidwell Friends

Barack and Michelle Obama have decided to send their daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, to the Sidwell Friends School, an elite and very expensive private school in Washington D.C.

Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson?

Media reports are suggesting that Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson is a top choice to become Barack Obama's Secretary of Commerce. Bill Richardson would be the first Hispanic to run the Department of Commerce.

Jeff Foust thinks that this potential appointment might benefit commercial space in the Obama administration.

Turkey Executed During Palin Press Conference

Governor Sarah Palin went to a turkey farm near her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska to perform the annual thanksgiving ritual of "pardoning" a turkey. Palin inadvertently facilitated two things, thanks to the video camera that was running.

Barack Obama may have his first confirmation fight over Eric Holder for Attorney General. The latest revelation is that Holder favors regulating Internet speech.

National Intelligence Council Releases Global Trends 2025 Report

The National Intelligence Council, which reports to the Director of National Intelligence, has released as report called Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World which contains the best guess of what the world 17 years hence will be like.

A Cornell study suggests that computer models are overestimating global warming. I'm not surprised.

John Dingell Ousted as Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce

In a sign that the Democratic controlled House is lurching to the left and toward environmental regulation, Congressman Henry Waxman has ousted Congressman John Dingell chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Keith Cowing expresses surprise that stupidity takes place on Bill Maher's HBO show. The entire purpose of Real Time is for people to express stupid, ignorant opinions in an entertaining fashion.

The nascent Obama administration may be facing its first scandal over illegal campaign contributions.

Janet Napolitano Chosen for Homeland Security, According to Media Reports

Governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano appears to be President Elect Barack Obama's choice to be Secretary of Homeland Security. If chosen and confirmed Janet, Napolitano would become just the third Secretary of Homeland Security

Ferris Valyn begins a discussion of the folks doing space policy for Obama. The one thing that jumps out at me is how top heavy the list is with Clinton retreads (Garver, Ladwig, Heffernan.) Now if policy follows people, are we therefore in for a revival of the Clinton era space program with tight budgets, deemphasis on exploration and commercial development, and more focus on science? Stay tuned.

Rob Coppington comes out against space based fuel depots. Clark Lindsey responds. I've always thought of space based fuel depots as a pretty good idea as an enhancement for Ares/Orion once the system starts taking people and cargo to and from the Moon. It can be used by private space craft, which will be necessary to maintain and expand a lunar human presence, as well.

Addendum: Jon Goff responds.

Tom Daschle Selected as Secretary of Health and Human Services

President Elect Barack Obama has selected former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services. Tom Daschle will also wear another hat as White House Health Czar, helping to write Obama's health care reform.

Gettysburg Address, the 145th Anniversary

145 years ago, on November 19th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made some brief remarks at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The brief, two-minute Gettysburg Address entered into American political literature.

Al-Zawahri Calls Barack Obama a "House Negro"

Ayman al-Zawahri, the Al Qaeda number two leader, used a racist slur against President Elect Barack Obama, translated as "house negro." Al-Zawahri's insult of Barack Obama is likely to enhance his stature in the United States, however.

Vice President Dick Cheney Indicted by South Texas Grand Jury

Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted by a grand jury in Willacy County in South Texas in a bizarre case involving a privately run federal prison and a prosecutor who himself has been under indictment.

The pirate war near the Gulf of Aden is heating up, with the Indian Navy Ship Tabar blowing a pirate ship out of the water. Meanwhile, lots of handwringing about the pirate situation:

But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the 5th Fleet said naval patrols simply cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.

"Given the size of the area and given the fact that we do not have naval assets — either ships or airplanes — to be everywhere with every single ship" it would be virtually impossible to prevent every attack, she said.

I have one word for Commander Campbell: Convoy. It worked in the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II, it could work now until the pirate nests are taken out.

Paul Spudis has a new blog, called, of course, The Once and Future Moon, which we are pleased to include on our blogroll. Lots of good stuff on Chandrayaan-1. Paul is the principle investigator on that probe's Mini-SAR radar instrument.

Eric Holder Tapped for Attorney General

Eric Holder, a Deputy Attorney General under President Bill Clinton, has been tapped for Attorney General in the upcoming Barack Obama administration. The selection is likely to cause controversy partly because of a man named Marc Rich.

Associated Content, which I use for some of my longer articles, has become one of the one hundred most visited websites in the world.

The Planetary Society responds to Harrison Schmitt's resignation with what I suspect they think is a tone of reconciliation, but manages to further annoy.

We represent public interest in space exploration - and thus we represent even those who disagree with some of the details in the Roadmap.

Oh, really? Paul Spudis responds:

Who assigned the Planetary Society the role to "represent public interest"?

Insufferable arrogance coupled with unsurpassed ignorance. Quite the accomplishment.

Indeed.

Economic First Aid and the Obama Administration

As anyone who has been awake for the past two months knows, the world economy is in trouble. Besides the credit crunch, the stock market has lost about a third of its value. A recession, possibly a depression, looms in the near future.

How Obama Got Elected

John Ziegler decided to have a little bit of fun with his How Obama Got Elected website, in the same way that Jay Leno has fun with his man in the street interviews. But behind the fun, there is a very sobering reality.

One of the more entertaining aspects of the arguments over such issues as 'Ares 1 - total turkey or pathetic travesty?" is the heavy reliance on anonymous sources to buttress some point or another. Usually these consist of people posting anonymously to the comments sections of certain blogs, claiming special knowledge. There is one blog, Rocketsandsuch run by someone calling himself "Rocket Man" that has to be read to be believed. One post that is making its way through the blogosphere is illustrative of "Rocket Man's" somewhat unique style.

Who would have thought that the cloth-less genius with so many degrees, who promised us a safer than shuttle CEV by 2011, would a.) miss the date by five or six years, and b.) miss the safer than shuttle part, too?

Next week, Viceroy Guyer's team will report out that CEVs flying to the space station will have a 1 in 30 chance of not coming home...at least not with anyone alive inside. And rather than figuring out what is wrong with the design that makes it that way, that is to say, besides BroomHilda's vacuous directives, the Emperor's minions will ask for a change in the requirement to reduce the probability of the loss of crew to...take a guess...yep...1 in 30.

We hope the Snow Princess and her elfish Changelings are paying attention to this latest criminal act. The IG should have a look, too.

And maybe an American taxpayer or three.

As the reader will notice, there is more purple prose here than in the average bodice ripper. It reads much like a teenage attempt at writing a fantasy sword and sorcery epic. "The Emperor" is NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. "The Snow Princess" is Lori Garver, now heading up Obama's space transition operation and working hard and long at NASA HQ. I'm not sure who BroomHilda is, but all the post needs is Conan the Barbarian and a good sword fight to complete it.

Rand Simberg links to this post somewhat uncritically because, of course, the news of the 1 in 30 LOC revelation somewhat meshes with his personal biases.

Mind, I don't know whether or not the 1 in 30 LOC will actually be announced or not next week. So many stories about Orion/Ares swirl about the Internet one cannot be sure what is true or not without a lot of checking and verifying, not to mention determining context and implications. But if I were working on a story about Orion/Ares development and brought this story to an editor, I would get some rather hard questions.

Q. Who is the anonymous source?
A. Don't know.
Q. How does he know that the Orion LOC will be estimated to be 1 in 30?
A. Don't know.
Q. Have you verified the story from a second source?
A. Not really.

At this point an editor will ask me to take a drug test, especially if he actually reads Rocketsandsuch blog. Or he might just advise me to take a permenent vacation.

Take this as a warning about getting your information from the Internet. A lot of it is rumor, much of it wrong, and even more of it out of context. Be skeptical. Otherwise you will be in a constant state of turmoil and aggravation, which will not be good for your mental or physical health.

Somali Pirates Seize Saudi Super Tanker

Somali pirates have taken their biggest prize yet, the MV Sirius Star, a Saudi owned super tanker with a crew of twenty five and possibly carrying 100 million dollars worth of crude, according to the AP. The Sirius Star is 1080 feet from stem to stern.

Happy birthday, Mickey Mouse.

It appears that the Cult of Obama has a new doctrine. It seems that Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Lyman Trumbull, an Illinois Democratic senator and the principal author of the Thirteenth Amendment, which put an end to slavery in US.

Of course he is.

A somewhat less flattering portrait of Elon Musk than one usually gets. Mind, there are some parts of this article to nitpick, such as the false statement that Falcon 1 would launch the Dragon into space (it's the Falcon 9.) Nor have I seen Musk anywhere else behave the way the writer depicts as someone with his own reality. He is a visionary, though, and thus perhaps someone who is capable of making reality.

Chandrayaan-1 is now looking for ice on the Moon.

How John McCain Could Help a Barack Obama Administration

Senator John McCain met with President Elect Barack Obama on Monday for the first time since McCain lost to Obama in the general election. The meeting was said to be about how John McCain could be of help to Barack Obama.

Not Evil Just Wrong Documentary to Take on Global Warming

The debate on global warming, that great climate expert Al Gore has opined, is over. However the makers of a documentary, Not Evil Just Wrong, now in development would beg to disagree. And they have some support from actual climate scientists.

Addendum: The trailer:

Is participation on ISS next for India? Jeff Foust examines two "alternatives" to the Vision for Space Exploration, one from the Planetary Society, one from the far left Center for American Progress. Both are controversial for various reasons. part two on the subject of a possible Russian resurgance as a space power.

Mark Cuban Charged With Insider Trading

Dallas, Texas, entrepreneur Mark Cuban has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading over his selling of his stake in a company called Momma.com Inc prior to a public offering of shares in the company.

The League of the South and Barack Obama

One of the more curious reactions to the election of Barack Obama is a slight uptick of interest in an organization called The League of the South, which wants to overturn the verdict of the Civil War and establish a southern Republic.

Barack Obama Interviewed on 60 Minutes

Barack Obama gave his first post election TV interview to 60 Minutes where he displayed his skills of saying not much very eloquently. 60 Minutes interviewer Steve Kroft made things easy for Barack Obama with a series of soft ball questions.

Harrison Schmitt leaves the Planetary Society over its roadmap that bypasses the Moon, while offering a devestating critique of the same.

This strategy would leave deep space activities, exploration and resources to others, i.e., China, India, maybe Russia, for the indefinite future. I believe that would be major step in initiating the decline of America's global influence for freedom and the improvement the human condition. Although I wrote the book "Return to the Moon" as an illustration of how it makes financial and national sense for private investors to provide the Earth with the benefits of lunar helium-3 fusion power, having NASA develop the initial Earth-Moon infrastructure may hasten the time when that alternative to fossil fuels and non-economic other alternatives becomes available.

Oh, and by the way, about Earth observation and global warming:

As a geologist, I love Earth observations. But, it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a "consensus" that humans are causing global warming in when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise. "Consensus", as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science. You know as well as I, the "global warming scare" is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society's activities.

Exactly.

No matter what the One has in mind, Charlie Rangel has his own ideas about taxes.

Addendum: Stacy Bartley comments:

I thought Charlie Rangel's ideas on taxes was to avoid paying them
unless discovered...?

Barack Obama channels Jimmy Carter.

Fraudulent data being used to support global warming hysteria? Perish the thought.