It’s a great pleasure to host this Book Salon for My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer, by Anousheh Ansari with Homer Hickam. It’s an engaging read, from a unique perspective, and an enlightening story of real determination.

I wasn’t familiar with Anousheh Ansari’s story before reading this book, but I did know the name “Ansari,” from the Ansari X Prize. That was a contest that offered ten million dollars to the first private enterprise to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space. The prize money was collected in 2004, in an event that captured the attention of space enthusiasts throughout the globe. Most of the prize money was put up by Anousheh Ansari and her brother-in-law Amir Ansari, who are true space enthusiasts themselves.

The last afternoon of panels is stacked, and three of our best have been scheduled at the same time, so FDL will attempt the unprecedented, unscripted and extremely dangerous triple liveblog!

Over on Emptywheel, Rayne will be covering Marcy as she takes on one of Obama’s signature broken promises: the failure to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. On our Elections page, Michael Whitney will liveblog a panel on marijuana policy and politics featuring Jon Walker. And at the FDL News Desk, my fingers will do their level best to keep up with David Dayen as he tackles the foreclosure crisis.

I had a chance to talk briefly with Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) last night, and we discussed a variety of issues. Udall’s here at Netroots Nation today for a panel on his effort to change the Senate rules at the beginning of the next Congress, an initiative for which he is getting “a lot of support,” not just from members of the Senate Democratic caucus but from incoming candidates. Talk of changing the Senate rules is hanging over this conference, most recently from Speaker Pelosi, who basically could have summed up her hourlong remarks in the morning session by saying “the Senate sucks.”

According to a new official analysis (PDF) of Proposition 19 by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, passage of the measure to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana would result in increased state revenues amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars

I ran into Lt. Dan Choi again Friday at Netroots Nation and he graciously discussed D-Lister Kathy Griffin’s comments with me.

More on what Van Jones might have meant with his Titanic metaphor. Have we already struck the iceberg, or is it still in front of us?

I got a phone call last night from a seminary classmate. An old college friend of hers had just committed suicide. Sadly, calls like this are far too common — whether related to military service, the economy, disasters like the Exxon Valdez or Katrina or the BP spill, or a hundred other causes.

More than ever, tough times call for us to care for one another.

Amid the frustration of a sidelined policy agenda despite large majorities in both houses of Congress, attendees and policymakers at Netroots Nation turned to procedural reform as a way to break the deadlock and bring some accountability back to the legislative branch.

Why does our wonderful corporate media unquestioningly push every right-wing smear that comes down the pike? Why do they continue to pretend that there is no such as truth, just a strange sort of “balance” that always seems to skew in favor of promoting lies and hiding the truth? Cowardice and complicity.

I don’t know what it’s like everywhere else in the country, but we are in the middle of a HEAT WAVE here! It’s been HOT all week. And today it is supposed to reach 100 degrees…feeling like 110! I think I am going to stay in the house working today.