Here's hoping they never have to try this.

NASA officials revealed a new plan on Thursday that might allow a last-ditch effort to save a damaged space shuttle by guiding it back to Earth without astronauts aboard.

The system, which could be used if astronauts were forced to abandon the shuttle and take refuge in the International Space Station, makes use of a 28-foot-long braided cable, weighing about five pounds, that can be attached to various control boxes on the shuttle. It would allow flight controllers on the ground to activate systems that previously had to be switched on by members of the shuttle crew, including power units, landing gear and drag chutes.

I'd love to know the odds of a successful landing in such a situation -- then I'd plunk down a C-note in Vegas, figuring that could retire on the winnings if the shuttle did make it to landing relatively intact.

Texas Democrats plumbed the depths to reach a new low with the nomination of Barbara Radnofsky, a precinct chair who could not even carry her own county in the primary, to challenge Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Senate race.

If you need evidence that they scraped the bottom of the barrel, just look at this response in a recent interview over at MyDD.

Singer: Final question. If there's one message that you could send out to the progressive blogosphere, to the Netroots, what would that message be?

Radnofsky: I guess the bottom line that God's gift to the Senate is sitting in Houston right now having won 60 percent of the vote in the runoff and raised more than a million dollars and spent less than that to win two statewide races, her first two statewide races.

Yeah, you read that right -- "God's gift to the Senate"! Is it just me, or is that not a bit much?

I'm curious -- when will the demands start that Ms. Radnofsky quit injecting religion into the race? When will the condemnations of her exclusion of atheists, Satanists, and other unGodly members of the Democrat coalition begin? Will Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the ACLU sue to get her removed from the ballot over the church/state conflict implicit in having "God's gift" in the race? And what of the dangers of allowing theolibs to grasp the reins of political power to impose their religious will on the rest of us?

Enquiring minds want to know!

(Hat Tip: Texas Safety Forum)

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Republican precinct chairs from the Harris County protion of CD22 met to pick our representative to the Congressional District Executive Committee that wil (hopefully) meet to select a candidate to replace Tom DeLay on the November ballot. As one of the participants in the meeting, I have got to comment on the Chronicle's coverage of the meeting.

Despite a continuing legal dispute over the process, Harris County Republicans chose on Thursday their representative on the committee that will select a nominee to replace former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

"Why wouldn't we proceed if time is of the essence?" asked Harris County Republican Party Chair Jared Woodfill. "Given the fact that the election is approaching, it's important we do everything as quickly as possible within the confines of the law."

And the reality is that there is absolutely noting in the law which prevented us from acting tonight. The TRO the Democrats obtained a couple of weeks ago expired last week, and so we were legally free to act. Yes, there are still questions about what the federal court will do (and what will happen regarding the appeals that will no doubt follow), but no one is adversely impacted by this gathering. At worst, it was all wasted motion on our part.

We all began gathering at about 6:00 at the courthouse in Webster, not far from the Johnson Space Center. By the time we began the meeting, we actually had an amazing 41 our of 45 precinct chairs in attendance -- a phenomenal rate that will likely never be duplicated for any gathering of precinct chairs in the county. After a little tussle over the agenda -- some of us wanted to include a straw poll to publicly express the sense of the body on who the candidate should be even though it would be binding, but were defeated -- we headed straight into the election of our representative.

We had two candidates seeking the position, Kathy Haigler and Steve Williams. While Kathy is a charming lady and has been my friend for as long as i have been active in the Harris County GOP, I was backing Steve. Why? Not just because I consider him to be a man of great integrity and keen insight, but because I preferred more of a grassroots candidate and felt that having an SREC member as our delegate smacked of insider politics and created the appearance of a conflict-of-interest since the SREC will pick the candidate if the District Executive Committee should fail to do so (which is quite unlikely, I'll concede).

Votes were cast, and I was appointed by Steve to serve as his observer as teh votes were counted. I was. . . disappointed by the margin of victory, as i expected it to be relatively close.

Harris County Republicans selected Kathy Haigler, a precinct chair in Deer Park who is on the State Republican Executive Committee, as their committee representative.

She has not stated a preference among at least nine Republicans seeking the nomination.

Or at least not publicly -- Kathy has not really made a secret of her personal preference, but I will respect her decision not to divulge it and refrain from posting it here. Besides, she voluntarily made a public committment to accept the guidance of the precinct chairs on the matter. After the meeting adjourned, Kathy distributed ballots for an unofficial straw poll which allowed us to rank the declared candidates. The ballots will be tabulated at a later date, after the absent chairs have been given the chance to vote as well. We will see what the results will be after the other counties have selected their representatives next week.

Democrats, of course, are spinning away on this one.

Cris Feldman, an attorney for the Democrats, questioned the Harris County party's decision to go forward.

"It would appear not to be the wisest to do, in light of the court's statements," he said. "The court seemed pretty clear that the process wasn't to go forward until a ruling was handed down."

Where I grew up, that is called a lie. By allowing the TRO to expire, Judge Sparks made it pretty clear that it was accptable for the process to go forward. If it wasn't, he would have continued the restraining order until after he had ruled on the case. He didn't, so it was OK. And after all, with Fort Bend not meeting until July 6 and Galveston and Brazoria not doing so until the following night, the earliest a candidate could be selected by the District Executive Committee would be be around July 15 -- a date that almost certainly falls after the date that Judge Slade will decide the case.

One thing which should be noted about the meeting was the level of grassroots support shown by one candidate for the congressional nomination, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a local physician. There is strong support for her among the precinct chairs in Harris County, and at least half of the members of the public who came to observe the proceedings were wearing Shelley stickers or shirts. I endorsed her back in April, and I still believe that Shelley has the best chance of winning in November. I just have to hope that the District Executive Committee listens to the voice of the people in this regard.

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