Day: April 28, 2006
Star-Spangled Banditos Stole Our Anthem
Bombs a-bursting: A British record producer has done something that is inspiring outrage among true American patriots — he translated the “Star-Spangled Banner” into Spanish. The renamed “Nuestro Himno,” or “Our Hymn,” was produced by Adam Kidron, and debuts today, featuring artists such as Wyclef Jean, hip-hop star Pitbull and Puerto Rican singers Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon.
The song will appear on an album, “Somos Americanos,” that will sell for $10, with $1 of each sale going to support the National Capital Immigration Coalition, a Washington group.
Excuse me, but far worse things have happened to our national anthem — like Whitney Houston’s version, for instance.
Ground Control to Major Tom — Four More Years
Spaced out: So Congress is pissed at NASA — again. Seems this time it’s over timing. See, NASA is hurrying to finish the International Space Station by 2010, which also happens to be the year in which the space shuttle program ends and the aging vehicles are retired.
Only problem is, the shuttle’s replacement, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, won’t be available until 2014. Doh!
“Do we have a techno Whoops?” Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., asked NASA Administrator Michael Griffin at a hearing Wednesday.
‘Do we have a techno Whoops?’“On the face, it’s correct,” said Griffin, who then speculated that the station might be used by other countries that are partners with the United States in developing it. He also suggested commercial companies might be enticed to invest in developing private vehicles to transport cargo, and eventually people, to the space station during those four years.
According to GovExec.com, Griffin told the Senate committee that he has set aside $500 million in seed money fin NASA’s fiscal 2007 proposed budget of $16.8 billion so businesses can use the money to explore ways to get to the station. Griffin said some commercial proposals have been submitted and he expects to award contracts this summer.
But Mikulski noted that previous NASA efforts to encourage commercial interests had failed. She asked Griffin if there was any way NASA could speed up its development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and Crew Launch Vehicle.
Griffin replied that development could be accelerated, but only by devoting money not available in the current budget to the program. However, Griffin added that doing so might only reduce the gap to a year.
The savvy senators came up with an insightful conclusion following Griffin’s testimony — NASA needs more moolah! Perhaps a supplemental spending bill would do the trick ….
Quote du Jour
It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.
— Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), German Nazi propaganda minister
Rove Knew before His Demotion That He Was to Face Grand Jury for a Fifth Time
The White House wanted us to believe that Karl Rove was demoted so he could spend more time cooking up political dirty tricks for this year’s congressional elections (because bombing Iran in October to create a rally-’round-Dear-Leader surge for the GOP in November may not be enough). Turns out that before he was reassigned last week Rove — and his new boss, Josh Bolten — knew he was going to be called back before the CIA Leak grand jury for fifth time to testify about White House efforts to smear Amb. Joe Wilson and reveal the secret identity of his wife:
A lawyer with knowledge of the case said that Mr. Rove had known for more than a month that he was likely to make another appearance before the grand jury, and that he had known since last fall that he would be subject to further questions from Mr. Fitzgerald before the prosecutor completed his inquiry.
