"Houston, We Have A Problem!

Wow... this seems like a topic tailor made for Jerry Brooks (aka Geraldo Rivera before he changed his name to appeal to a different ethnic minority), as in "Astronauts Who Kill When They Can't Get Their (Moon) Rocks Off" or "Did Little Green Men - Not to Mention Tang! - Make A Lady Space Shuttle Astronaut Wear Diapers To Kill Her Love Rival In Twisted Venus-Mars-Jupiter Love Triangle?" Neexxxxxt on Geraldo!

Now, regular readers know I'm a real proponent of innocent until proven guilty, but I admit I got a little pissy when NASA's shuttle program commander appeared at the arraignment of the space shuttle astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping and murder of another female astronaut to support this "dear and valuable woman" on our tax dollars and suggest she is just too wonderful an asset since she's supposed to be the communications point person on the next shuttle mission scheduled for March 15th (talk about the Ides of March!) to charge her with trying to do in her lover's other love interest.

From AP:

Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, who flew with Nowak to the international space station last July aboard space shuttle Discovery, and fellow astronaut Chris Ferguson attended the earlier hearing.

"Our primary concern is her health and well-being and that she get through this," Lindsey told reporters later. "Her status (with the astronaut corps) has not changed."

Ferguson said he was "perplexed" by Nowak's alleged actions.

Yeah, let's help her get through this so Ms. Numb Nuts can ignore her three kids and do this again (granted, if she is guilty as charged).

If she's so damned wonderful, perhaps she shouldn't have allegedly plotted to kill another human being. Nor do I particularly want to pay her salary - or the paycheck of the NASA officials who rushed to her defense today - while this gets sorted out.

I also have a problem with a judge who originally wanted to let her go on just $15,500 bail - and then raised it to a paltry $25K. The charges leveled against Lisa Nowak, a married mother of three who perhaps at 43 should know better, include attempted first degree murder, kidnapping, and intent to do serious bodily harm.

If Nowak were a person of color - even one of those "clean" ones Joe Biden so respects - she would be looking at a minimum of a quarter million dollars bond and more likely a half million or more.

I'm no fan of double standards or special treatment for white women gifted at crying either. People on her side today suggested it would really be too traumatic for her to spend even a few hours in jail. Well, boo frickin hoo; I suggest that had her alleged plot worked, being kidnapped and killed might have been traumatic for the object of her plot, Lt. Colleen Shipman.

While NASA and defense people played down the story, noting all Nowak had was a can of pepper spray and a BB gun and only wanted to "talk" with Shipman, police said they found a number of other items in her car, including a four-inch knife and a steel mallet (I doubt she packed it so she could tenderize a steak for Shipman, whom Nowak supposedly believed was romantically involved with Nowak's "love interest", a Navy commander named William Oefelein) along with garbage bags and other assorted goodies.

Nowak also supposedly wore diapers so she could make a 900 mile drive to Shipman without the need to stop for a restroom.

But they let her out on a piddling bond which, I must say, probably doesn't make Shipman feel any too reassured. Special treatment. And wrong.