Griffen sounds like just the sort of no-nonsense leader that Obama needs at NASA.

The question is, will Obama have the courage of his convictions to appoint the best people, or will he continue to appoint yes-men as he has so far?

Faith-based scientists can sometimes be a bit overly sensitive - as though no one gives them the respect they deserve.

Sounds like a typical Bush appointee to me.

The Bush administration has always people to blindly trust them and paints anyone who dares to check under the hood as unpatriotic or worse.

If someone is hiding something, it means they have something to hide. This could get ugly.

I love NASA, or at least what it is supposed to be doing: space, aviation, and science. Some of the choices the agency has made lately seem less than optimal.

"maybe if i dont tell them enough for a new person to get up to speed, they'll have to keep me as administrator! bwahahahahaha! I win!"

dolt.

The real question is whether Al really believes the idiocy he spouts.

Awesome post Al. Your Troll-fu is good.

Yea, no reason to trust a Bush appointee.

Since, unlike Griffen, I'd have a hard time trading up on my political connections (since I don't HAVE any) if my NASA job (well, contractor position) got cut, I sincerely hope he STFU and that Obama's team doesn't hold grudges.

Although I suspect the absolute BEST form of therapy for dealing with people like that is getting to be the guy that informs him that no, in fact, you are not staying on.

Speaking of NASA in general: They could use slightly more money (most people are unaware of how little money NASA actually GETS) and it could be far better allocated. As for the Moon/Mars stuff -- I think we should go there, but I'd like to state that NASA's approach to that sudden mandate was a responsible and useful one.

They took the money and claimed the first goal was to replace the retiring shuttle, then split apart the manned and heavy lift portions. Which means, as far as NASA's concerned, that when the Moon/Mars plan is abruptly canceled or massively changed, NASA at least spent it's time and money on something it needed anyways.

Frankly, given the number of times Congress or the White House either jacks with the budget or rewrites goals, it's surprising NASA ever gets ANYTHING done.

You try designing something that takes 5 years to go from requirements to prototype (if your lucky), when every year your bosses jack your budget by 10 to 15% in either direction, while radically changing the end requirements. And then try to keep your temper when they ask why it took 10 years and three times the budget initially forecast.

DJ - I suspect Al has a very wry sense of humor, and chuckles when he gets comments like yours.

Griffen sounds like just the sort of no-nonsense leader that Obama needs at NASA.

The question is, will Obama have the courage of his convictions to appoint the best people, or will he continue to appoint yes-men as he has so far?

Griffin sounds more like a primadonna than a no-nonsense leader if you ask me.

All organizations need transparency, the no-nonsense leaders, who don't want transparancy usually have a lot of nonsense going on. And at the very least, consider: NASA runs programs that total in the billions. Wouldn't you want to know what was going on under the hood every 10 years or so?

Obama's transition team may not be "rocket scientists"; however, that's not their job. Their job is to see how the evaluate the organzization as a whole and to look over the books to make sure the organization is running the way the president-elect feels it should be run. Obama is the decider after all. It's pretty simple actually. After this display Griffin put on, why would this be the type of no-nonsense leader Obama needs? This is all complete non-sense if you ask me.

NASA has become a sad thing under Bush - an aerospace organization that is prohibited from reporting on its aerospace findings.

Griffin should be tarred and feathered. Ask James E. Hansen about Griffin.

Fire his silly ass. There are other competent engineer/administrators who would love that job, and do it well.

There is an under estimated ideal of research, development, and business achievements in a serious economic engine for America’s future resulting in how NASA evolves. The rich elite know this and the basic power struggle is in motion.

There is no doubt in my mind that the next great leap in science is at the solar system level. Simply put we need to be in it. We need to be on the moon in research and development projects. Here being able to make the break through in classical mechanics developing the unification theories in what we call quantum science. Might as well since we are going to turn the Health Industry on its head, or better put right side up where Universal Health Care should have been. It all just begs the issues to include America as a leader in moving forward.

All this terrorist stuff is just side tracking the issue. Powers that be know it is inevitable for all those that are sitting on primary oil reserves in the world do not want a change away from fossil fuels. So, the Middle East could very well be an endless controversy till a new wave of non-fossil vehicles appear before them. That will be one of the most serious ways to break the chaos and fighting in the Middle East.

Heck if our scientists could resolve the issue in Gravity manipulation imagine the national and international economic impact. Very uncertain, don’t you think. With all those in the know unloading their portfolio’s. Bush and Company should know, and likely moving in that direction right now. The Bush family is smart and know where the money is.

"Faith-based scientists can sometimes be a bit overly sensitive - as though no one gives them the respect they deserve."

Actually, they're afraid someone WILL give them the respect they deserve.

Griffin's a missile defense scientist and global warming denier and a liar. "No nonsense" = "partisan military industrialist".

Heck if our scientists could resolve the issue in Gravity manipulation imagine the national and international economic impact. Very uncertain, don’t you think. With all those in the know unloading their portfolio’s. Bush and Company should know, and likely moving in that direction right now. The Bush family is smart and know where the money is.

Didn't President Bush seriously cut funding to NASA until the Chinese revealed their intention to put a man on the moon? After that, I think Bush said he wanted to put a man on Mars and put NASA back in the driver's seat. I'm not so sure Bush was in it for the science or possible innovative breakthroughs for America. He probably didn't want to be the president to have a smaller **** than the Chinese.

With that said, the Bush family is not "smart", nor are they visionaries. However, I will concede that the Bush family is very politically motivated and are drawn to power.

And I do agree with your general statements about NASA, I believe there is a bigger picture at work here - namely, how do we reach those goals the quickest and with the most efficiency? Maybe reviewing NASA and how it is run is a good place to start??

Excellent! I picked the right morning to read the comments! Props to whoever is doing Al today. That is some damn fine parody trollin' there.

(I have long thought that we ought to give a yearly parody troll award. We could name it after Norman.)

Why lab notebooks aren't erasable...

"If you are looking under the hood, then you are calling me a liar. Because it means you don't trust what I say is under the hood."

It's called examining the data.
I believe science works that way...

(I have long thought that we ought to give a yearly parody troll award. We could name it after Norman.)

Roger that.

Clearly, this dingleberry Griffin hasn't heard of "trust but verify."
Oh, and while we're on NASA, just think about this: we could have had a moonbase for the cost of the Wall Street bailout. I mean, a serious Clarke-2001-style moonbase. Ouch.

To Kenga or Blue girl

Norman? Norman who?

I seem to have missed the in-joke.

(I am aware of the apparent multiple identity sources of the trolls by "Al.")

Rick,

Google "Washington Monthly Norman Rogers."

Prepare to laugh.

I think I'll be having a toast when they get this yahoo away from our science.

Mr. Obama's transition team should do the best it can with Mr. Griffin still in the NASA position. On January 21, 2009, Rahm Emmanuel, as chief of staff, should announce that Mr. Griffin is joining the White House staff. His new position is Special Assistant to the Chief Science Advisor deployed to monitor ice melt on the lakes of the Texas Panhandle. His office would be in Earth, Texas, a settlement west of Plainview. I don't know if there are any lakes nearby, but it seems appropriate.

Memo to Republicans: You lost. You don't get to have your way anymore.

IMHO:

Day after Obama takes office... "You're fired"

Rick,

Google "Washington Monthly Norman Rogers."

Prepare to laugh.

Definitely go pee first, and it should go without saying to get all liquids away from your computer beforehand.

For all you with troll radar. You can find a troll in forums but in the comment section there are only minority opinions.
I think Griffin has something to hide. I imagine he is just the tip of the iceberg for Obama. The entire Washington bureaucracy is filled with his ilk. It's time to go. You gotta know when to hold 'em and you gotta know when to fold 'em .

We are aware of all internet traditions...:) But they were "trolls" long before I got here four years ago. Certainly wasn't my place to quibble over what terminology to apply to the trolls.

Anyone want to bet that someone has been using NASA as a private slush fund?

Hmmm...he isn't sure if global warming is real?

I must have missed the memo. Global warming has been proven? Can one of the supersmart scientists here direct me to a site that states this is unequivacaly true and that all reputable scientists agree?

Thanks in advance.

Not look under the hood? These guys are supposed to have an engineering culture - they always want to look under the hood, if only to see the shiny things go whirl.

Whoops - I should have looked myself. Found it -

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6

With all those PHDs, Nobel Prize winners, etc coming out in this uniform way, he really looks stupid doesn't he?

IMHO:
Day after Obama takes office... "You're fired"
Posted by: Buford

IMHO, Buford: Ten minutes into the inaugural address, Obama reads a list of names and says to the American People, "These people no longer work for you; you no longer pay their salaries, and they have until the end of this speech to clear out their desks and get their disingenuous selves off US Government property."

Bushylvanians---meet the Anvil and Hammer....

KMan:

The smoke alarms in my building are going off. I smell smoke. There is a bright orange glow visible below the door to the supply closet. The door is hot to the touch.

I guess I'll just better open that door to see if there's a fire, since I missed the memo.

Yes, KMan, if anyone has credibility on climate change it would be a flunky of Inhoffe...a guy wo was once known as "Limbaugh's 'man in Washington' and a former "journalist" for Cybernet News, the original catapulters of the swiftboat propaganda.

The only person who is a bigger lip-stained dumbass than Morano is the person who would cite that non-scientist as a source on scientific matters.

Matt:

You actually probably shouldn't open that door if it is hot to the touch, you should look for another way out.

Regarding the religion and farce of global warming - would your mind be changed if oceans have been cooling for the last 5 years?

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/sep/HQ_06318_Ocean_Cooling.html

Or if sea ice was being created at the fastest pace on record?

http://www.dailytech.com/Sea+Ice+Growing+at+Fastest+Pace+on+Record/article13385.htm

Or if the globe is actually, um, cooling not heating?

http://needsofthemany.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/the-dreaded-cooling-of-planet-earth/

But why let actual science get in the way of a good sense of hysteria? I mean in Al Gore says it and profits from it, ot MUST be true, right?

One thing that does keep me up at night is if Obama will axe expansion of manned space missions. This is one of the aspects of NASA that I know is criticized by many on left as largely made up of pointless grandstanding when, by sticking with orbital manned missions, and robots we can do the science but....

...the whole point is we have to reach a point where we can sustain humanity indefinitely off Earth so we can survive as a race and unless we continue to look into the possibilities it's not going to happen until it's too late (example: Maybe Apophis in 30 years).

Don't trust a person who says you have to trust him or her.
[I'm fighting non-plural "them" FWIW.]

Kman, climate goes through ups and downs like the stock market, but like the latter used to be - it's on a long-term upswing. Also, there's the theoretical basis, of CO2 trapping IR rays so you can't just talk empirical findings.

Believe it or not, 650 is not an impressive number of scientists. Sounds impressive but it isn't. At least not to scientists. There are that many working in my medium-sized midwestern city. I wish I had time to deal with this idiocy but I don't - hubby's birthday is tomorrow and I gotta go - but the scientists Moreno cites are industry whores. Pick one at random and google him up and dig a bit and look at which oil company funds his wingnut welfare lecture tours.

Toodles all - see ya later.

Oops. I forgot...Check the Union of Concerned Scientists site. We are tens of thousands of members strong.

"Al Gore says it and profits from it, ot MUST be true, right?"

And there we have the classic projection scenario.

Kman, it's not that liberals feel honor-bound to defend Mr. Gore's every word, even though his words on the subject of Global warming have been essentially flawless. They don't hand out Nobel Prizes for nothing.

It's that you and far too many of your fellow conservatives simply cannot stomach the thought that Gore could be correct. About anything, ever.

Bushylvanians---meet the Anvil and Hammer....

A jewish friend of mine told me that Barack and Rahm mean "lightening and thunder" in Hebrew. I don't know if that is true, but WOW, if it is!

Greetings to dirt bag liberals. To what do I owe the pleasure?

My in-box was "pinged" this morning because of the "mention" that occurred on this dead and dying blog. I do not "visit" this place anymore because I am a busy man with what is known as a "life."

Good golly, Steve Benen--you have threads that approach ten comments! Even when Kevin Dumbo was at his worst, he couldn't keep the numbers that low, sir. Perhaps you should try talking about things that people care about and post a lot of pictures of barechested slutty women. It works for the successful bloggers, or so I am told. Liberals don't have anything else to write about now that George W Bush is on the way out of office. Perhaps you can all just go back to hating yourselves for a change.

While liberals talk about doing something, I am a man of action. I believe in global warming and I'm doing something about it. I'm beginning with public service--I am at sea, on my personal vessel, helping to fight the war on drugs by serving as a volunteer "observation" ship in the Caribbean for the United States Coast Guard. What have you done for your country lately? Once I have made the seas safe, I will venture into the Arctic and help save polar bears from drowning. We are designing the special cages and we are studying how best to entertain an exhausted, starving polar bear who is mad with fear. Two words: Mozart!

I will blog about our interaction here. But I won't be kind.

As Harry Shearer would say: The ribs! They ache!

KMan tells me that polar bears are thriving because Sarah Palin has filed a suit to challenge their listing as an endangered species.
Dunno what Ima do now.

What on earth could Griffen be worried they'll find if they "look under the hood"? What's he got in there an A-Bomb or somethin'?

Griffin denying Orlando Sentinel story. Says its hearsay and wrong.

And after reading some of "Norman's" old comments, I think the dude is a complete fiction and should never be taken seriously. He sounds like my brother + a lot of wishful thinking.

And after reading some of "Norman's" old comments, I think the dude is a complete fiction and should never be taken seriously.

Um...yeah...that's why if we gave a parody-troll award we would call it "The Norman."

This obstinacy from Griffin does not surprise me. Ask them about the secret April 10, 2007 meeting? How did that go?

http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html