GUESS WHO'S NOT COMING TO DINNER – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  Some exciting space research going on.  From AP:

MOSCOW – After 257 days in a locked steel capsule, an international crew of six researchers on a mock trip to Mars is preparing to simulate landing on the Red Planet.

The crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese entered a cascade of modules at a Moscow research center last June to imitate the 520-day flight. Three of the crew are to don space suits to perform the mock landing Monday.

As part of the simulation they are to plant the national flags of Russia, China and the European Space Agency, take rock samples and test scientific equipment.

COMMENT:  Notice which nation is missing.  President Obama has cut the guts out of the American space program, shattering the dreams of a generation of space scientists and astronauts. Within a few years, the U.S. won't even have a manned vehicle capable of going into space.  We will depend on others, the dream of the multiculturalists and left-wing activists who came to town with this administration. 

Apparently, the money cut from space can be better spent on social "programs" that too often go nowhere and achieve nothing.

Obama's cuts have come over the objections of Neil Armstrong and other pioneers of America's winning space program.

As a nation, we are falling behind in critical technological areas.  Just as important, the symbols of American achievement – and symbols are important to a nation's standing – are being eroded.  What will young Americans dream about in the future?  A new stimulus package?  The cash-for-clunkers program?

When man plants a flag on Mars, I want it to be American, and I have no apologies for saying that.

February 14, 2011