RETRACTION: When I searched Google for this, I found nada from America, but when I specifically tried "Fox News Edgar Mitchell" I found it.
So, no media blackout, just a UFO story like any other. Sorry to waste peoples time (I am not a believer in this stuff but I like to read about it sometimes).

Two days ago (July 23rd), a respected NASA astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, said in an interview in Britain's Kerrang! radio (a rock music station), that "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real."

He continued: "It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it."

You'd expect tabloids to be interested in this kind of news, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. certainly was - the story was printed in Britain's Daily Mail and Austrailia's Daily Telegraph. But given that the astronaut was American, why not print it in the New York Post? Why no mention on Yahoo News' "Odd News" feed?

More below the flip.

Through inaction, distraction, and just plain stupidity, BushCo has sold, privatized, and given away the economic strength of America to foreign governments.

But, the problem began with Reagan.  If the leaders of the free world concern themselves only with enriching their friends and supporters, a lot of stuff can slip through the cracks.  They have provided welfare that allowed corporations to maintain self-destructive models, destroyed the working class, and sold America to the highest bidder.

Now we see what may be the final indication of the Republican dismantling of the science and technology strength of the United States, Reuters is reporting that NASA is negotiating with Japan for the purchase of the next generation of space craft.  

Space policy made a pretty decent splash at Netroots Nation.  We had an excellent panel on space policy, and an excellent platform meeting.  For those of you who don't remember, we had Andrew Hoppin moderating, and Chris Bowers, Lori Garver, Patricia Grace Smith, and George Whitesides all speaking.  You can about the panelists here.

Join me over the fold to read, and see it

Photo from Reuters

Hello my fellow progressives and healthcare providers,

Thought I'd let you know I'm going to the Netroots Nation Convention (formerly Yearly Kos) in Austin Thursday-Sunday.  I've been planning it for a long time and am really excited.  There are a lot of great panels and discussions being offered and an opportunity for me to meet some of the people I've been blogging with for the last year.  If you have any issues you'd like me to explore, write about, relate to the other bloggers or to some of the politicians who will be there (Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Wes Clark, Rick Noriega, and more), let me know.  I've posted a link to the convention program below.

Hey Everyone,

I figured now would be a good time to remind everyone (again) about some upcoming space events, that would be worth going to.  We have a couple of major events this week, as well as future events upcoming.  I promise reports to any and all I attend, and I suggest that you attend as well  

Generally, when I do a diary about space, its either about current events, proposing good space policy, or remarking on the fact that Senator Obama hasn't fully developed a space policy.  But today's is a little different - its actually not about space, so much as reaction to 1 line, I wrote, about Senator Obama.  What was the line, and who reacted?  Well, come over to the flip side, and you can find out (although you can probably guess who was doing the reacting

Human life is important.  We in the progressive space advocacy community believe in the mission of human space precisely because - if cause and effect can be deliberately confused - consciousness is practically the purpose of the universe, and worth elaborating upon ad infinitum.  Yet space is so big and impersonal, terrifying the animal hindbrain beneath all our pretenses, that our reaction is highly emotional when danger in theory becomes catastrophe in fact.  Something in us quails at the notion of death in space above and beyond death itself, and has in ways both subtle and overt held back progress on this most important frontier.  I would like to argue for a fundamental change in emphasis in our approach to these risks, and raise some red flags about how space is being sold by our most promising entrepreneurs.  

I thought I had lost hope. In 1968, I was convinced that if we could just elect Bobby Kennedy, all would pan out into an age of peace, prosperity and love. But we lost him.
Instead, we got Richard Nixon. Then I told myself, once we got rid of Nixon, the world would pan out into . . .

In many of my past diaries, I commented on Senator Obama, and his lack of a space policy, and the concern that he is anti human spaceflight.  These diaries have ranged from long explanations, to something that was probably close to a rant.

However, today I want to talk about something that, Senator Obama can do, which doesn't require massive new spending, but would show an openness to the idea of manned spaceflight, and would fit well within his comments and concerns about having a coherent space policy.  Senator Obama, please bring back the National Space Council.

Hey everyone,

We've had diaries about Obama picking his VP, his AG, his Secretary of State, and so on.  

But we haven't had a diary about who Senator Obama should pick for NASA administrator (should he win).

So here is an attempt to rectify that.

A couple weeks back, Chris Bowers wrote a piece over at openleft about our space priorities, and what he thinks they should be.  As I mentioned in an earlier piece, I had family issues this month that chewed up my time big time, and therefore was not able to actively comment at the time.  

Normally, I don't comment on other peoples' written pieces (well, normally anyway), but given Mr. Bowers' prominence in the blogging community, and the fact that he will be speaking at the NetRoots Nation Space policy panel, I decided to go ahead and comment on what he wrote.  Besides, it gives me an excuse to write about space policy, and you, humble reader, an excuse to read about it. :D  

To raise some issues seen by space activists, I have decided to open up my diary to fellow space enthusiasts who do not have a dailykos account.  This is the first, in what will hopefully be a series of diaries, from various people.  

BTW, everything in italics are my comments.

Hansen spoke at the National Press Club today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...

"Special interests have blocked the transition to our renewable energy future," Hansen writes in an opinion piece posted on the institute's Web site. "Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil fuel companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, just as tobacco companies discredited the link between smoking and cancer. Methods are sophisticated, including funding to help shape school textbook discussions of global warming."

"CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of the long-term consequences of continued business as usual," Hansen continues. "In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature."

I don't know what venue can prosecute business people for lying. But kudos to Dr Hansen, anyway for trying to make people wake up.

Wired is breaking a story right now on the Phoenix Mars Mission -- NASA scientists have confirmed that small white patches of material photographed by the rover are (or were) small pieces of water ice.  Via Wired:

"It must be ice," said the Phoenix Lander's lead investigator, Peter Smith. "These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice."

This is more of a whimsical subject than my previous essays, but I recently came to an odd realization whose significance is too bizarre not to discuss.  Through incredible teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and in association with space agencies around the world, NASA has in the past sent or is currently sending dedicated robotic missions to study Mercury, Venus, the Moon, the Sun, Mars, asteroids, comets, Jupiter, Saturn, 134340 (aka Pluto), other stars, other galaxies, and the universe as a whole.  The dedicated probes to Jupiter and Saturn - Galileo and Cassini - were Flagship class missions each costing several billion (with a 'b') dollars, and both returned priceless knowledge and awe-inspiring imagery.  Two years ago, the New Horizons mission to study Pluto and the Kuiper Belt was launched with vast support and fanfare from the space science community.  And ever since 2003, NASA has been fighting ever-tightening budgets to keep a dedicated Flagship-class mission to Neptune in development, although the launch schedule has slipped as far back as 2030.  What's missing here?

There is a strong undercurrent that seems apparent when liberals start talking about NASA and the U.S. space program, and that is one of disdain. I have heard from numerous people the question "why waste time and money to send space probes to other planets and men to the moon when so many people are starving in America?" Other sentiments often ask what benefit the average person gains from the U.S. space program and why the U.S. spends so much money on "wasteful" scientific programs when we should be "taking care of our own people" back on Earth.

According to Jay Barbree, Space Program reporter for MSNBC, there is an unidentified piece of debris trailing closely behind the Space Shuttle. The image of the debris glinted in the sunlight as it rotated in a way that suggested to me that it might be metallic.

Barbree reported that the debris was first noticed following a standard re-entry check of the Shuttle's rudder.

He also reported that if re-entry is not safe, the Shuttle would have to return to the International Space Station, and the astronauts would have to camp out there until either the Soviets Russians can bring them back three at a time on Soyuz landing capsules, or Endeavour can be launched to get them IN SEPTEMBER!