*DIVINE VESSEL: The officially atheistic regime of the People’s Republic of China launched a manned spacecraft, Shenzhou 5, or Divine Vessel 5, into Earth orbit on October 15. The craft orbited the planet 14 times in 21 hours before landing October 16 in the Gobi Desert.
Chinese television broadcast neither launch nor landing. Even the name of the single "taikonaut" on board was carefully guarded until the mission was about to begin. After it was completed, Chinese authorities lauded Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, 38, as a hero of the Peoples Republic and launched a massive propaganda campaign to signal their nation’s arrival, along with Russia and the United States, in the elite club of manned spaceflight.
*REASON FOR SECRECY: The Chinese authorities had good reason for secrecy about their first manned space flight. They haven’t always succeeded at rocketry. As reporter William Broad of the New York Times pointed out: "Chinese rockets failed in 1991, 1992, 1995, and twice in 1996, according to Chinese figures. It was a real crisis, given Beijing’s interest in winning orders for satellite launchings and its ambitions for Chinese citizens in space."
*GOOD FOR US, BAD FOR THEM: The Chinese failures were bad for them, but good for U.S. security. The same technology that launches a man into Earth orbit can also be used to launch spy satellites and nuclear warheads that can be targeted at U.S. cities. In 1996, the same year two Chinese rockets failed, a Chinese general blustered to former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman that China could incinerate Los Angeles if it wanted to.
*WHO HELPED CHINA? How did China improve its rocket system? Reported William Broad of the Times: "The improvements came from toil as well as American companies eager to use Chinese rockets for launching satellites, the analysts said. Ultimately, the United States, worried that such aid could improve nuclear-armed missiles, fined the companies heavily for helping Beijing."
"American companies, including giants like Hughes, the world’s largest maker of communications satellites, helped iron out the problems," reported Broad. "This March, Boeing, which acquired Hughes Space and Communications, agreed to pay a record $32 million in fines to settle federal charges that the two companies had unlawfully transferred rocket and satellite data to China."
*MARRIAGE PROTECTION: Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to pass laws limiting the jurisdiction of the federal courts, thus trumping the ability of liberal federal judges to advance their social and cultural agendas from the bench. Rep. John Hostettler (R.-Ind.) wants to do just that in protecting the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which authorizes states not to recognize same-sex "marriages" contracted in other states.
"The Marriage Protection Act will remove the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction, as well as remove inferior federal court original and appellate jurisdiction over DOMA’s full faith and credit provision," says a summary of Hostettler’s bill. "This provision in DOMA codified that no state would be required to give full faith and credit to a marriage license issued by another state, if that relationship was between two people of the same sex."
*HELPLESS AMONG DEMOCRATS: There was a truly beautiful moment at the Democratic presidential debate October 9 at the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix, Ariz. It came when the host, Judy Woodruff of CNN, chose a member of the audience, African-American restaurateur Joy Clayton, to ask the candidates a question.
"I didn’t know how helpless I could feel until I went into business for myself," said Clayton, "because in doing such I found that there were so many taxes associated with going into business. There are taxes upon taxes. And there’s a privilege tax that you’re levied just for the privilege of doing business. I want to understand from someone up here . . . what you would do to try to help those of us who are trying to be in small business?"
*JUDY, JUDY, JUDY: Woodruff hurled the small businesswoman’s question at Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri. "Your plan would be to roll back not only the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy," Woodruff said to Gephardt, "but also on the middle class. That would, in effect, be a tax increase, wouldn’t it be, for Ms. Clayton?"
Gephardt tried to evade the question by saying he had a plan to give small businesses like Clayton’s a tax credit for buying health insurance. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts ascertained that Clayton didn’t buy health insurance for employees, and said: "I have to tell you, both [former Vermont] Gov. [Howard] Dean and Mr. Gephardt have said they want to get rid of the whole Bush tax cut. . . . You’re going to pay more tax if you do what they want . . . anybody earning $40,000 is going to pay an additional $2,000."
*MODERATE JOE: Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, presumably the most moderate of the Democratic presidential candidates, unveiled the general outline of his plan to balance the budget last week. He intends to raise taxes by $700 billion over ten years and slap a 5% "surtax" on "wealthy" families.
*LEAVITT ADVANCES: Speaking of the moderate Lieberman, the two votes on the Senate Environment Committee against the nomination of Mike Leavitt to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency last week came from Lieberman and Hillary Clinton of New York. Six other Democrats joined ten Republicans to send the nomination of the Utah governor to the Senate floor, where confirmation could be blocked by a Democratic filibuster.
*TO THE SECOND-HIGHEST COURT? With John Roberts’ confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, there are still three vacancies on that court. Deputy White House Counsel Brett Cavanaugh and California Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown have been nominated for two. Two names now being floated for the other position are Lee Lieberman Otis, onetime Senate Judiciary Committee counsel for former Sen. Spence Abraham (R.-Mich.), and Tom Griffith, general counsel to Brigham Young University.
