The Space Race, A Congressional Race, And Other Key Races

Let's all go to the races today, shall we? Tuesday's launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery brought reactions such as "mind-blowing and exhilarating" from Alex at DemSpeak. An Aussie sends best wishes for the astronauts' safe return, pointing out that "they're just looking around."

Second District Race
Here in BlogPulse's back yard, Ohio's Second Congressional District, politics are heating up in the heavily Republican territory, where Marine veteran and Democrat Paul Hackett (No. 20 among today's bursty people) is hoping to be the first first Iraq War veteran to serve in Congress. Off the Kuff blogger says opponent Jean Schmidt's questioning of Hackett's service (No. 3 top blog post today) smacks of Swift Boat attack tactics. Today's No. 28 link mentions the Cincinnati Post's endorsement of Hackett, while the ActBlue blog is helping with fund-raising.

Other Races of Note
There's a race on to change language in hopes that no one notices the "war on terror" isn't going so smoothly. Today's No. 6 link from the New York Times points out that Bush officials no longer refer to the war on terror; now it's the "global struggle against violent terrorism." "This is important" for a more comprehensive approach to the problems inherent in terrorist thinking and tactics, says the QandO blog, while Needlenose blog can't help but point out the sense of Orwellian language-shifting inherent in the new wording.

How's John G. Roberts doing on his way to Supreme Court nomination hearings? An op-ed piece, "The Faith of John Roberts" from the LA Times,(today's No. 2 blog post) draws some commentary from the Get Religion blog. As they're wont to do, some bloggers are attacking the messenger, not the message.

Listen up, Will Robinson!
If you've already got NASA on the mind, check out today's No. 19 top link from NASA's Cassini mission: woo-woo radio emissions from Saturn.