Well, that's one of those headlines that's a lot better poetically than literally, I'll admit up front. But yesterday's news in spaceflight deserves some sort of mention, because it could be the start of a new era. A private company launched a capsule into orbit, and then recovered it by splashing it down in the Pacific Ocean. This was a test flight, but eventually the company will use this arrangement to ferry astronauts up to the International Space Station for the United States, after N.A.S.A.'s space shuttle is retired forever.

This is truly a stunning development. It may be the largest government "privatization" program ever to be accomplished. This is the first time in history an entity other than a government has achieved this technological advance. From the Associated Press story:

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As I write this, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is attempting to move forward on the Pentagon budget bill, which includes a repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (DADT) of forbidding gays from serving openly in the military. At this point, most Senate-watchers expect it to fail to get the 60 votes it needs to move to the floor for debate (it could always succeed, and surprise everybody, but I wouldn't bet much on the prospect right now). But if Senate Democrats were smart, they'd change tactics after losing this procedural vote. Democrats, led by Harry Reid and Joe Lieberman, should strip the DADT repeal out of the military appropriations bill and, instead, attach it to the tax cut bill being prepared. Because doing so would not only change the entire tone of the debate in a big way, but it might actually work.

Congressional Democrats are fuming right now that the tax deal President Obama worked out with the Republicans isn't much to their liking. It extends the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy for two years, which is seen as a serious defeat for the Democrats' (and, supposedly, Obama's) agenda. It is a defeat, politically, there is no doubt about that. But Democrats in Congress should realize two things about this deal, before deciding what to do next.

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President Obama's recently announced deal with Congressional Republicans on the Bush tax cuts (which I will hence refer to as "The Deal," because it is way easier to type) certainly seems to be burning up the blogosphere. Being a denizen of this mythical realm, I suppose I'm expected to weigh in on things here.

As usual, though, I'm reluctant to do so right away because I have a profound distrust of knee-jerk reactions from anyone -- myself included. I prefer to take a few days, study the details as they emerge, and see how things play out before leaping into the fray myself.

Today, although it may not please everyone, I'm going to compromise somewhat on this anti-knee-jerk position. Feel free to regard that as some sort of cruel irony, if you wish (in other words: insert your own "compromise" insult here). But my initial reactions weren't so much to The Deal itself as to peripheral or microscopic aspects of it. So perhaps I'll be ready to write about The Deal itself (subtext: Was It "A Good Thing" Or "A Bad Thing?") tomorrow, but today I'm just going to dance around the edges of it, as it were. I've got two points to make from 30,000 feet (as they say), in terms of an overview of the politics of the situation, and two points to make that are quite targeted and specific. But, just to warn everyone, there will be no sweeping conclusions today. Instead, we'll start with the two Big Picture overview points, and then jump down to the microscopic level for the last two.

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President Obama gave a speech today in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Billed as a speech on the economy, it may provide an early forecast of what is likely to be the overarching theme of Obama's State Of The Union speech next month. While this speech has not gotten a whole lot of attention so far, one phrase of it is garnering some mild interest: the idea that America is experiencing a "Sputnik moment." What remains to be seen is whether this talking point is going to catch on and become an actual Democratic narrative next year. It certainly is worth mentioning, due to the almost complete lack of any Democratic narrative these days. Whether it inspires the public's imagination, though, is an even tougher row to hoe.

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So the good news this week was apparently that giant mutant space monsters are not, in fact, about to arrive and (assumably) enslave humankind and eat our children for snacks.

In other news...

Sigh.

What caused the alien freakout was a press release by N.A.S.A., in which they announced the discovery of an arsenic-based lifeform, which could be a clue in the search for extraterrestrial life. The carbon-based lifeforms on the blogosphere interpreted this to mean saucers full of bug-eyed monsters would soon be landing on the White House lawn, which (shockingly) turned out not to be the case. Whew!

On a more serious note, this week dawned full of promise, and is ending in a rather downbeat fashion for Democrats. The current subject of discussion among Democrats on Capitol Hill seems to be not whether, but in fact how much President Barack Obama is going to cave on the Bush tax cuts fight. That, to be blunt, is not a very good place to end the week on.

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[Below, in lieu of my usual daily article, is my weak attempt to convince everyone to dig deep, open your wallet, and send this site lots of your spare money. Truth be told, I hate these pledge drive sorts of things myself, and I fully admit I'm not very good at it, right up front. My plea below tends to meander all over the place before trying to brainwash you into making a fat PayPal donation (before your mental powers recover). But then, I guess, that's what you would be supporting in general, since that's kind of what we do here, isn't it? Well, except for the bit about brainwashing you into sending money, I was referring only to the "meandering all over the place" part of that, really. Plus, as a bonus today, there are kittens.

If you're interested merely in helpful nuts-and-bolts details on how to donate, please click on the fundraising logo (which should now appear both on the main page, and at the top of every article), and you'll get to such practical instructions. I know that both the instructions and the logo need a bit more work, I'll try to improve both this weekend. I should also mention that any donations you make are in no way tax deductible, so don't try to claim me on your 1040, because it won't work. Just to warn you. ]

The ChrisWeigant.com 2010 Holiday Fundraising Drive Kickoff

For your viewing enjoyment this year, we introduce... (drumroll, please...):

Kittens!

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Remarkable Stability

President Obama just had his most stable month ever in the public opinion polls. This month also caps off a truly remarkable year of polling stability for Obama.

Of course, were you to just read the headlines or listen to the soundbites on television, you may have a different impression. "Obama's poll numbers tanking!" seems to be the conventional stupidity (I just can't bring myself to call such nonsense "wisdom" even with a qualifier) parroted in the media for roughly the past year.

True, Obama's poll numbers did "tank" in 2009, but since then they have neither dropped precipitously nor recovered -- they have remained fairly stable. Which is the story pretty much everyone has been missing.

Before we get to all of that in more detail, let's take a look at the updated chart for Obama:

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America could be on the verge of finally getting rid of the officially-sanctioned discrimination against citizens willing to serve their country in uniform because of their sexual orientation. Then again, it could be on the verge of setting up an even bigger fight on the issue outside the halls of Congress. Either way, this historic debate is about to be put front and center in the political world this week.

The two officers charged with surveying the military's opinion on life after "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) have now issued their report. As was previously leaked, this report shows pretty plainly that the overwhelming majority of the people currently serving in the military would not have any problem with allowing gays to openly serve their country.

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President Barack Obama has a busy week scheduled, as Congress begins the lame duck session. Everyone in Washington has a few busy weeks ahead, until the 111th Congress wraps up business and heads off into the sunset, but President Obama will be at the center of this whirlwind. So it's worth taking a look at how the week is going to play out. To put it in football-watching terms, we're just returning from the "two-minute warning" commercial break, in the fourth quarter. And anything could happen.

Tonight, Congress may pass a few things which in normal times would be fairly unremarkable and likely passed by voice vote only, but in these partisan times may be fought tooth and nail by Republicans eager to deny any legislative victory to the president. The Senate is taking up the radical issue of insuring the safety of America's food, for instance. Listen for news from the Right that this is some sort of Socialist plot, I guess.

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[Program Note: I'm sneaking out of the office early for Thanksgiving this year. Below is last year's column, which I've posted for two reasons: (1.) the link to the Thanksgiving Proclamation site is worth it on its own, and (2.) it fills what would otherwise be a noticeably empty column space here today. If you'd like something better to read right before Thanksgiving, you could always look up my first Thanksgiving column, one of my early attempts at humor. It's a bit dated (you may have to Google some of the names to remember the references), I warn you. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone (except our neighbors up in Canada, who got the whole holiday out of the way with weeks ago, of course)! This column will return next Monday, just in time for prime lame duck season.]

This article originally appeared November 26, 2009.

Because yesterday's column was a wee bit un-holiday-spirit-ish, I offer up my thanks today. I am thankful for the web. I am thankful that I can sit in front of a machine and have at my fingertips perhaps not the sum of human knowledge, but a pretty close approximation (the closest the race has ever seen since, perhaps, the library at Alexandria).

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