Two US astronauts who are soaring in orbit hundreds of kilometers from Earth will be able to vote in the US election on November 4, the US space agency NASA said.

I’ll have to look into it, but I’m quite certain that this is an American – if not worldwide – first.  Stay tuned.

International Space Station - NASA

Note to those considering skipping next week’s presidential election from the fellas’ in orbit:  “If we can do it so can you.”

From rawstory.com – Oct. 31, 2008 post:
…Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff, who are working aboard the International Space Station, are to vote by secure electronic ballot uplinked by Johnson Space Center in Houston, according to NASA.

Their votes will be submitted by secure link back to Earth, and recorded by local voting officials in Texas…

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In my imagination:  One astronaut said to the other, “If Obama loses, I’m not going back down.”

Key points from the debate on 10/7 for those who missed it, or want/need a recap.

Raw Story has provided a succinct set of highlights from last nights debate along with a couple of CNN video clips.

From the October 7, 2008 Raw Story post:

Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Obama (D-IL) sparred on issues such as government spending, war, the environment and health care Tuesday evening at the second presidential debate at Nashville’s Belmont University, moderated by Tom Brokaw…

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From the rawstory.com September 8, 2008 post by Nick Juliano:

…A lawsuit filed Monday would force Cheney to comply with the 1978 Presidential Records Act, one of an array of post-Watergate reforms meant to redress Nixon’s abuse of the office.

The act requires outgoing administrations to hand over executive branch documents to the National Archives, where the records are preserved for future historians. Problem is, Cheney’s crafty lawyers have argued he is not a member of the executive branch, and President Bush early in his tenure amended what could amount to a giant loophole to the act that would allow Cheney to simply toss his papers into the fireplace on his way out the door…

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See also:

From the LA Times online, Suit seeks to save Cheney files.  8 Sept. 2008.

From ThinkProgress, Historians:  Stop Bush/Cheney from destroying Presidential Records.  8 Sept. 2008.

From the post: “Thirty-two of the nation’s leading historians have sent letters to congressional leaders calling on them to strengthen the Presidential Records Act …”  The post also links to the correspondence sent to both houses of Congress.

From Rawstory’s August 19, 2008 post, by way of the AP :

“There has not been such an authoritative and intimate account of presidential decision making since the Nixon tapes and the Pentagon Papers,” Woodward’s longtime editor, Alice Mayhew, said Tuesday in a statement. “This is the declassification of what went on in secret, behind the scenes…”

According to Simon & Schuster, Woodward’s book “takes readers deep inside the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq.

“Based on extensive interviews with participants, contemporaneous notes and secret documents, the book traces the internal debates, tensions and critical turning points in the Iraq War during an extraordinary two-year period.”

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