Allen West Runs for Congress a Second Time (Video Included)

Allen West, a retired Army Lt. Colonel and an African American conservative, is making his second attempt to take away the Congressional seat in the Florida 22nd District from Democrat Ron Klein. Allen West was recently on Hannity to make his case.

President Spock or why Obama lacks emotional intelligence.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is being summoned to the White House to talk about the Augustine options with President Obama.

Jon Goff has a comparison of the current program of record with what he thinks "Look But Don't Touch" would do. He performs a rhetorical trick of assuming all of the worse case assumptions for the current program while piling in some optimistic assumptions for "Look But Don't Touch", many of them which have nothing to do with the "Look But Don't Touch" scheme and could easily be done by tweaking the current program, by one of the Moon First Variants, or by a combination of Moon First and "Look But Don't Touch."

I'm particularly amused by the claim by Jon and some others that under "Look But Don't Touch" the first landing back on the Moon is only delayed by three or four years. Matt Wronkiewicz's analysis of the options presented by the Augustine Report tells a different story.

"Look But Don't Touch" (Ares Lite) First Lunar Landing, 2035

"Look But Don't Touch" ("Commercial HLV) First Lunar Landing, 2030

"Look But Don't Touch" (Shuttle Derived HLV) First Lunar Landing, 2030

In other words at least a ten year delay, provided there are no schedule slippages, to the first lunar landing.

Mind, the schedule offered in the final report (Figure 6.5 1-1)while somewhat vague as to dates between 2020 and 2030, suggests a return to the Moon in 2027 or 2028, again assuming no schedule slippages.

The Moon first scenarios (Figure 6.4 1-1) suggests a lunar return about 2024-25; not good, but better than "Look But Don't Touch." But that the Augustine Committee suggests that even the much criticized program of record gets us back to the Moon about the same time as the Ares Lite scenario.

This suggests that the problem is really just money. Mind, if I had to choose, it would be between an enhanced "program of record" plus commercial and an augmented (over what the Augustine Committee recommends) duo Ares Lite plus commercial. I would find creative ways to augment funding through international or, better, commercial partnerships, not matter which variant is chosen.

Tobey Maguire as Bilbo Baggins?

Plus a real life Hobbit House, albeit in a modern style. More here.

The EELV option. not so cheap after all.

Chris Kraft offers his views on how the civil space program should go forward. There are two problems with his approach.

First, he is far too pessimistic about the possibility of commercial launchers. Mind, it may be prudence to develop Ares 1 too as a "public option" but ultimately if human beings are going to travel in space in large numbers, a commercial launch industry is vital.

Second, while his ideas hold together technically, they run afoul of one singular fact; it will cost far more money than anyone is likely to be willing to spend. Keeping the shuttle flying, keeping ISS, and doing Constellation will cost more than the three billion a year Augustine says is necessary to do a proper exploration program.

'Robin Hood' Trailer Now on Internet

The trailer for Ridley's Scott's upcoming film, 'Robin Hood', staring Russell Crowe as the famous outlaw and Cate Blanchett as his lady, Maid Marion, is now up and on the Internet ready for viewing.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Make First Test Flight

Depending on weather conditions, the first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is scheduled to take place out of Seattle today, December 15th. The Dreamliner, touted as being the first airliner made from composite materials, has suffered numerous delays.

Apparently the follow up to 300 will be about Marathon.

From the creators of 24, a mini series about the Kennedys told like a season of the Sopranos

Senator Richard Shelby plays hardball with Augustine committee staff

Meanwhile Norm Augustine has a conversation about human space flight.

[Also], when the Constellation program was put together four years ago, the people who did that, primarily at NASA…had what they thought would be a budget that would be likely for the next 15 years or so. And that budget has not occurred.

Then there have, of course, been technical problems in the program that have placed greater demands on the budget, and in order to fulfill those demands, [NASA] has had to draw money away from other parts of Constellation [the next-generation spaceflight program] and delay them. So you have a situation where all these pieces are supposed to come together, but they appear at the wrong time. One piece appears, and the next piece you need won’t be here for a decade, and so on. So [with] what started out as a pretty well-organized train, if you will, today we’ve got the caboose arriving three days before the engine, and the boxcar, we’re not sure where it is. We’ve kind of lost the continuity of the program.

The question arises, why not just pay for the current program since any new program is going to cost more money anyway? I'm not sure Augustine has had a good answer to that.

Christmas is Nigh

Obama Gives Himself a B Plus on Oprah

As College students face their mid terms, President Obama faces the end of the first year of his administration. When asked by Oprah Winfrey to give himself a grade, President Barack Obama gave himself a good, solid B plus.

Space Frontier Foundation to start 'Take Back Your Space Program!' campaign

The alternate history of President Al Gore would be laughable if it were not so wide of objective reality. Gore manages to avoid 9/11 by bombing Afghanistan in August, 2001, but still passes the Patriot Act. He also both cuts taxes and passes health care reform. Vice President Lieberman becomes hated by everyone for supporting intelligence gathering. Obama becomes a Supreme Court Justice.

In alt-history circles we would call this "Gore-wank."

On the plus side, a ticket of Bush and Bush gets elected in 2008, beating Hillary.

Congressman Bart Gordon, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, to retire

Jeff Foust has an account of the roll out of SpaceShipTwo appropriately called Blown Away. Meanwhile, Taylor Dinerman discusses SpaceShipTwo and the modern imagination.

Dwayne Day asks Where's the Space Council?

David Ashford begs to inform us that Space Tourism is not a Hoax

Joe Lieberman a No on Health Care Reform

The Senate health care reform bill suffered a body blow Sunday when Senator Joe Lieberman, speaking on CBS's 'Face the Nation', announced that he would not vote for cloture on the current version of the bill. Democrats are howling double cross.

NASA's WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) launched

'Dexter' Season 4, Episode 12: 'The Getaway'

'Dexter' Season 4 Episode 12 'The Getaway' depicted the climatic cat-and-mouse game between Dexter and the Arthur Mitchell, aka the Trinity killer. It was the last 'Dexter' episode of the season and ended with a gut wrenching, heart breaking development.

Berlusconi Attack Causes Soul-Searching in Italian Media

A man with a history of mental problems launched an attack against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a political rally in Milan with a model of Milan's main cathedral, sending Berlusconi to the hospital.

Esther Dyson and Steve Forbes discuss the future of aerospace, among other things.

Mel Gibson's next film as a director is apparently a Viking epic staring Leo DiCaprio. Should be both fun and violent.

Emily Bazelon has a problem. Her sons are wild about all things outer space. She could care less and in fact would just as soon cancel all manned space programs to "fix social security."

Also, and inconveniently, my boredom plays straight into tedious gender stereotypes I hate to reinforce. What's the message I'm sending: Men are from Mars and women are from … not even Venus?

Over twenty five years after Sally Ride, and there are still people who think this.

My advice to learn some more about history and math (the latter because the entire NASA budget would never fix social security.) And resist the temptation to be such a buzz kill for the kids. Worst than becoming computer hackers, they could become climate scientists instead of astronauts.

Addendum: Rand Simberg has an lengthier response that is classic Simberg when it comes to space. Boiled down it reads "Yes, NASA is a turkey, but also Ms. Bazelon is an idiot." As is common with such things, the comments are more interesting than the original post.

Addendum 2: Glenn Reynolds asks that we all lay off Emily Bazelon for her anti space screed. I'm afraid I shall just have to agree to disagree with the good Professor on that one.

Emily Bazelon's sons love space exploration but she couldn't care less

Bumped

Annise Parker Elected Houston Mayor

Annise Parker has been elected Houston Mayor, becoming the first openly gay mayor of the fourth largest city in the United States. Annise Parker beat Gene Locke, an African American former City attorney with 53.6 percent of the vote in a runoff with 16.5 percent voting.

The NASA Watch post about an impending Obama decision on the space exploration program is less interesting than some of the comments, many of them pessimistic as hell, some of them inane. Such as this one:

I'm gonna make a prediction-if the President chooses some combination of Moon First and Flexible path, he'll pay for it by a combination of stimulus money AND cuts to other NASA accounts. Don't be surprised if all of the Earth science part of NASA gets peeled off into a new environmental science agency.
Just a guess-but I doubt that the top line of NASA's budget gets raised...I strongly predict that the Republican leadership will be against any NASA increases, no matter where they might come from, especially from John McCain.

While certainly a combination of "look but don't touch" and back to the Moon might be useful, depending on architecture and money, the rest is fanciful.

I think that John Logsdon is right, that Obama is going to split the difference and provide NASA with some money, but not all that Augustine says it needs. Obama will hope that some international partners will step in to close the funding gap. That's not a bad strategy, depending on which international partners and how their contributions are structured.

Spinning off NASA Earth science into a new science agency may be a good idea, but it's going to require Congressional approval. I'm not sure that Congress is up to the kind of squabbling that is going to entail, with climate-gate roiling and fights over how to rob us blind in the name of fighting global warming looming.

Any opposition to a funding hike for NASA is not going to come from just one party or another. Support for NASA programs and opposition to them tend to be both bipartisan in the current era. The fight will come from a handful of GOP deficit hawks and a larger number of liberal Democrats who are offended at any spending that doesn't go to social programs (i.e. people like David Obey and Barney Frank.)

Look for a fight if there is a drastic change in architecture too. If Constellation is technically sound, as both Norm Augustine and Charles Bolden say it is, then it will be very hard to convince Congress that a change in midstream is necessary. There is also, unfortunately, a great deal of skepticism on commercial solutions to space access in the Congress at this time. That will be hard to overcome.

It looks like Houston has its first lesbianm fiscally conservative mayor.

Stare at boobs for longer life: Study | TheMedGuru

Stare at boobs for longer life: Study | TheMedGuru

That's alright for someone like me, but what are women or gay men supposed to do?

It look like that a quarter of GOP elites would just as soon Sarah Palin just shut up and go away. They didn't like Reagan either, as I recall.

Sarah Palin Takes Revenge on William Shatner

William Shatner has lampooned Sarah Palin before, having read from her twitter messages as only William Shatner can, with the dramatic flourishes and pregnant pauses made famous by the man who was Captain Kirk and Denny Crane.

'Invictus' - a Film of Sports and Nation Building

'Invictus', the latest film by Clint Eastwood, staring Morgan Freedman and Matt Damon, tells the story of how South Africa became a country for all of its peoples through the unifying balm of sports, in this case rugby.

One of the good things buried in the 2010 NASA budget is a fresh infusion of four million dollars in cash for the Centennial Challenges, which will allow two or three new ones to be created.

Did George W. Bush take over President Obama's body for at least the first third of his Nobel Peace Prize speech? Some might think so.

Apparently inconvenient questions about climate-gate are stopped armed force.

Ann Coulter details the involvement of the current candidate for US Senate in Massachusetts in the more horrific miscarriage of justice to happen in that state since the Salem Witch Trials, the case of the Amiraults falsely accused and convicted of mass child molestation.

Enter Martha Coakley, Middlesex district attorney. Gerald Amirault had already spent 15 years in prison for crimes he no more committed than anyone reading this column did. But Coakley put on a full court press to keep Amirault in prison simply to further her political ambitions.

By then, every sentient person knew that Amirault was innocent. But instead of saying nothing, Coakley frantically lobbied Gov. Jane Swift to keep him in prison to show that she was a take-no-prisoners prosecutor, who stood up for "the children." As a result of Coakley's efforts -- and her contagious ambition -- Gov. Swift denied Amirault's clemency.

Thanks to Martha Coakley, Gerald Amirault sat in prison for another three years.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Become a Major Motion Picture

'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' by Seth Grahame-Smith is a strange mélange of Jane Austen and horror/slasher movies. 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' is now slated to become a major motion picture with Natalie Portman.

Blackwater Personnel in Secret CIA Commando Raids

According to a story in the New York Times, personnel of the controversial Blackwater Worldwide Company participated in raids conducted by the CIA against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq.

First Avatar reviews in; James Cameron's space epic film

Fight looming between Obama and the Congress over space exploration

The first reviews of Avatar are in and it doesn't look pretty.

With the use of such charged phrases as “shock and awe” and Sully’s curt summation of the situation (“When people are sitting on stuff you want, you make them your enemy”) Cameron adds a thought-provoking political dimension to the story.

It looks like James Cameron has spent a half a billion dollars on a scifi version of another cheesy, Hollywood lefty, anti Iraq War movie.

The Ten Dumbest Green Gadgets

Harry Reid's Health Care Conundrum

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in a lot of trouble. He is up for reelection back in Nevada next year and is behind in the polls against each of his possible Republican candidates. So Senator Harry Reid has made a request of the Republicans.

The Breitbart media empire continues to grow.

Barack Obama Picks Up His Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway with "deep gratitude and great humility", which was becoming of him since he had not actually done anything to deserve the honor, besides not being his predecessor.

First water on the Moon, now possibly life?

Talking about biting the hand that feeds him, Obama seems to be going out of his way to piss everybody in Norway off. The worse bit was not having lunch with the King of Norway. One would think Obama would be eager to meet another royal to bow to.

"Code Red Rally' to Oppose Government Health Care

As the health care reform bill grinds on in the Senate, with the paid-for abortions now in and the public option also out (sort of), Americans who oppose the bill are once again attempting to make their Senators listen with the Code Red Rally.

Is Sarah Palin this generation's Ronald Reagan? Yes and no.

'Cash for Caulkers' Proposed by President Obama

President Obama has proposed a program to help jump start the economy and facilitate job creation that some wags are already calling "cash for caulkers." The new program would provide incentives for people to weatherize their homes.

'Beast of Kandahar' in the Skies of Afghanistan

The United States Air Force has acknowledged the existence of a new type of unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) designated the RQ-170 Sentinel. The new jet powered, stealth reconnaissance drone has been dubbed "the Beast of Kandahar."

More proof that more and more people are missing George W. Bush.

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country's difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not be particularly effective for Democrats anymore, which is good news generally for Republicans and especially ones like Rob Portman who are running for office and have close ties to the former President.

Al Gore insists to Sarah Palin that ManBearPig really is real, serially.

James Cameron is now thinking of another remake of 'The Seven Samurai, this time in a Sci Fi setting.

Sarah Palin drops the hammer on climate-gate and its enablers.

Soviet 'Star Wars' space based laser program revealed

More evidence that George W. Bush is being missed, this time from the Hollywood Left.

Harry Potter is going to ?get nekkid in the next movie.

Copenhagen Climate Conference Praises EPA Carbon Dioxide Decision

The recent decision by the EPA that carbon dioxide is a "threat to human health" has garnered praise at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, even as certain European countries demand that the United States do more to curb "green house gasses."

Google Goggles Uses Visual Objects as Search Terms

Google Goggles is a new application, currently for phones running the Android operating system. It appears to be a quantum leap in searching the net. No longer will one have to point and click on a phrase. One just takes a picture with the phone.

Paul Spudis wonders about Another Moon Forming Collision.

Was the Democrat's Health Care Strategy Written in Federal Prison?

Apparently Obama's Safe School Czar promoted a sexual practice called fisting to fourteen year olds. Warning. The story the link leads to contains disturbing information not for children or more sensitive adults.

SpaceShipTwo and the promise of commercial space travel

'Dexter' Season 4, Episode 11: 'Hello, Dexter Morgan'

In 'Dexter' Season 4, Episode 11 'Hello, Dexter Morgan', the race between Dexter cornering Arthur Mitchell, aka Trinity, and ending him and Debra finding and arresting the same is turned up into high gear.

Copenhagen Climate Conference Begins with Fanfare, Doom, Gloom and a Big Carbon Footprint

The Copenhagen Climate Conference, held ostensibly to solve climate change but actually to rob the world blind, has opened with the appropriate pronouncements of doom and gloom amid glitz and glamor that would put Hollywood to shame.

SpaceShipTwo will be rolled out today. Jeff Foust examins some of the implications beyond space tourism. Then Foust looks at the safety issue.

John Jurist gives the back of his hand at certain dysfunctional space advocates about their rabid, uninformed rantings about Ares 1 and the Ares 1-X test. He provides a much needed balm of truth.

Taylor Dinerman asks How damaging is “Climategate” to NASA? Potentially quite a lot, I think.

Proponents of same sex marriage continue to undercut their own position with fascist legal tactics.

And They Say Bush was an Idiot?

The SNL Tiger Woods Skit and the Taking in Adultery of a Golf Legend

One of the perks of being both a celebrity and someone taken in adultery is the one gets to be made fun of on Saturday Night Live. The SNL Tiger Woods skit played on December 5th, as the poor champion gofer was mired in more scandal.

A recent episode of 'Bones', one of my favorite shows, depicted some of our characters camping out in line for hours to see 'Avatar', the new James Cameron scifi retelling of 'Dances with Wolves.' I'm not sure that 'Avatar' is going to be a megahit, the equivalent of 'Star Wars' om 1977, but of the producers of 'Bones' wanted a real world example, they could have used this.

The diplomatic option to deal with Iranian nukes was games at Harvard recently. The results were not good.

My scorecard had Team Iran as the winner and Team America as the loser. The U.S. team -- unable to stop the Iranian nuclear program and unwilling to go to war -- concluded the game by embracing a strategy of containment and deterrence. The Iranian team wound up with Russia and China as its diplomatic protectors. And the Israeli team ended in a sharp break with Washington.

Max Baucus Nominated Girl Friend Melodee Hanes for US Attorney

Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, was having an affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes in the summer of 2008. Senator Max Baucus nominated his mistress for the post of US Attorney.

'Monk' Finale Ends on a High Note

After eight years of solving crimes and driving everyone around him insane with his quirks, including an epic case of obsessive compulsive disorder, Adrian Monk ended the finale of his show having gotten two things he wanted.

'Stargate Universe' ends 2009 with a game changing development

April Ryan, Robert Gibbs and the Strange Gate-Crasher-Gate Question

President Obama's White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, a man not known for grace under pressure, had a bizarre confrontation with April Ryan, a reporter for the American Urban Radio Networks, over a question from Gate Crasher Gate.

A trailer for a yet to be produced British SF series called Slingers, described as Firefly meets Mad Men with an Oceans 11 plotline:

SLINGERS from Mike Sizemore on Vimeo.

Tea Party - The Movie.

Memories of Snow in Houston

Houston weather rarely contains even a hint of snow. There are rare exceptions, of course, and it looks like that Friday, December 4th is one of them. In fact today's snow in Houston is the earliest it has been in recorded history.

Visiting Ancient Pompeii Via Google Street Views

Thanks to permissions given by the Italian government, users of Google street view can now visit the ancient city of Pompeii, the most well persevered archeological site from ancient Roman times, virtually.

SpaceX trains NASA astronauts in use of Dragon cargo ship

A really stupid crook.

The Real White House Gate Crashers. Now are we going to get an episode of Barack Obama myths.

"What do we have this week?"
"Well, we have a series of Barack Obama myths including can we create money by spending money."
"Sounds exciting."
"And is human created global warming real?"
"It looks like these are going to be tough ones."

I want one of these.

Senator Boxer: Climate Gate Scandal E-Mail Hacking 'a Criminal Matter'

Senator Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is pretty sure she knows who the real villains in the climate-gate scandal are. Oddly enough they are not the scientists accused of data suppression and fraud.

Chris Horner to sue NASA for climate change data

Mitt Romney will not be at the so-called "jobs summit." Yet he has some helpful suggestions.

Addendum: So does Eric Cantor.

Mitt Romney will not be at the so-called "jobs summit." Yet he has some helpful suggestions.

Cimate-Gate Scandal Continues to Spread

The Climate-Gate scandal continues to grow in scope and in intensity. Climate-Gate is already starting to exact its first casualties, even while President Obama makes plans to attend the Copenhagen Climate Change summit.

Obama 'Jobs Summit' Not About Creating Jobs

Scheduled for tomorrow, December 3, the much ballyhooed "jobs summit" that President Obama has called for in the wake of the failure of the stimulus package will not have many people who have, in their careers, actually created a job.

John Birmingham gives the Australian government the back of his hand for not making a proper commitment in Afghanistan.

Obama is well past the point where he can be satisfied with tokenism from his allies. He's in it for real and we're not. Europe's not. Nobody but the US and the poor old Afghans themselves are.

I thin J.B. is giving Obama just a little too much credit. With the 2011 exit date, I'm pretty sure he's not really in it for real.

A hitherto unknown ancient European culture has been discovered.

Obama's Afghanistan Speech at West Point is Sleep-Inducing

It is a rule in politics and in life that when one proposes to send a lot of young men into harm's way, one ought to be inspirational about it. But President Obama's Afghanistan speech at West Point was less inspirational than sleep-inducing.

Chris Matthews: West Point 'Enemy Camp' for Obama

One of the most curious reactions to President Obama's Afghanistan speech at West Point came from MSNBC's commentator, Chris Matthews, who actually referred to West Point, the place where the cream of Army officers are trained, as the "enemy camp."

Dick Cheney, Michael Moore Attack Obama on Afghanistan

In the formulation of his Afghanistan strategy, President Barack Obama has had to perform a delicate balancing act. The left thinks Obama should withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. The right thinks he should fight to win.

Sarah Palin - children's book star.

Stephen King is working on a sequel to The Shining.

'The War on Kids' -- a Polemic Against Public Schools

A new documentary entitled 'The War on Kids', a polemic against public schools, is causing some comment. The message of 'The War on Kids' is that public schools in the United States greatly resemble maximum security prisons.

Climate change follow the money.

Ares 1 vs. commercial launchers - how to replace the space shuttle?