Bill Egnor

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In June the Dawn probe from NASA decelerated into orbit around the mini-planet. Since then we have been getting more and more images. The picture above is one such. It is three large craters that overlap just enough make them look like a snowman.

So a member of the leadership in Washington is saying that Republicans should refrain from brinksmanship when it comes to the upcoming continuing resolution and the budget fight. That’s not that interesting, what is interesting is who said that, Majority Leader Eric Cantor!

Believe it or not but the oft confused Republican from Virginia sent around a memo laying out the reasons why the House Republicans should not engage in the same kind of economic and policy hostage taking they have been successful with for most of a year.

So, Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Ames Iowa Straw poll. One might be tempted to say “So what?” but it really is of a bit of importance. Think back the first time you really noticed Rep. Bachmann.

For all the conventional wisdom of the GOP operatives that she can’t become the nominee, winning this silly straw poll and all of the coverage of it will give her a patina of respectability and inevitability. It will attract donors and volunteers that Rep. Bachmann can use to fuel a chance at winning in Iowa sometime this coming winter.

Tonight is the peak night of the Perseid Meteor shower! It is one of my favorite things of the whole summer, the night when you either stay up really late or get up really early, go to some darkened field and watch little flecks of fire streak across the sky.

Now, not everyone can get out of their Mega-City to watch this yearly occurrence; but not to worry, the guys at NASA will hook you up! That is what we have at the top of this post a live composite of the meteors that have streaked across the sky.

Say what you like about the things the the US is no longer great at, we still are the Big Dogs when it comes to building and running long term space missions. Today the Opportunity Mars Rover finished a two year trip to the Endeavour Crater. There it will look for signs that water persisted on the surface of Mars for long periods of time. Not bad for a probe with a 3 month estimated mission life, eh?

Wisconsin Democrats came up just short last night, flipping two seats in recall elections but not the three needed to take back the state Senate. Currently the Senate will have a 17-16 majority for Republicans; there are two recall elections against incumbent Democrats Robert Wirch and Jim Holperin next Tuesday, August 16. It’s possible that the disappointment of not reaching the goal number in the Republican recalls will depress Democratic turnout, but the expectation is that Wirch and Holperin will hold the seats.

Hey what do you know? We actually had a modest gain in jobs this last month. The economy gained 117,000 jobs according the statistics released this morning. That is actually better than the number that analysts were predicting, which was around 85,000.

Unfortunately that is all the good news there is on this. The economy needs 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with the rate of population growth, so if you are a glass half empty person, we came up 33,000 jobs short of what we needed to break even.

What would you say if I told you that Republican Presidents are deadlier to the public that Democratic ones? It is the kind of thing that partisan Democrats would think would be too good to be true, no? Well that is exactly what researcher James Gilligan is claiming in his new book “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others.”

That’s right folks, if Rick Santorum goes after Dan Savage and gay people to raise money for what is surely going to be a losing campaign, Savage is going to redefine his first name as well. Now most of the time I’d take a threat like that with a big grain of salt, but this is the guy that made it so that all the little Santorum rugrats will never be able to cyber-slack by Goggling themselves. Him I’d take a little more seriously.