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Astronauts board shuttle for afternoon launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — With a sunny sky as the perfect backdrop, the astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery launched at 5:02 p.m. Saturday, bound for the international space station.

Everything seemed to go NASA’s way, including the weather.

Commander Mark Kelly and his six crewmates waved and smiled broadly as they headed out to their fueled spaceship at the launch pad. Good to be aboard, he told launch controllers.

Loaded aboard Discovery was Japan’s precious lab, a $1 billion addition for the space station that will be the biggest room by far. It’s named Kibo, Japanese for hope.

Also tucked away in the space shuttle: a new pump for the space station’s finicky toilet. For more than a week, the three occupants have had to manually flush the toilet with extra water several times a day, a time-consuming job. Watch why experts say the situation is not a health risk

NASA and Russian space officials are hoping that the pump, which was rushed to Kennedy Space Center from Moscow just three days ago, gets the toilet back in normal working order.

Nearly 400 Japanese journalists, space program officials and other guests jammed NASA’s launch site, their excitement growing with every minute of the countdown. Watch the shuttle and crew being prepared for launch

Their enthusiasm was catchy.

This is a real milestone, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said.

The Japanese lab is 37 feet long and more than 32,000 pounds, and it fills Discovery’s entire payload bay. The first part of the lab flew up in March, and the third and final section will be launched next year.

The entire lab, with all its pieces, cost more than $2 billion.

A large political contingent was also on hand, led by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, who’s newly married to Kelly, Discovery’s commander. They invited numerous bigwigs from Arizona and Washington.

Giffords acknowledged being nervous, far more so than the day she was elected to Congress in 2006.

It’s a risky job. I’m pleased that the vehicle’s in good shape, the weather is beautiful. They’ve had no problems, she told The Associated Press. But you don’t really relax until the shuttle is back from its two-week mission.

Kelly’s brother, Scott, didn’t need an invitation to the launch; he’s also a space shuttle commander. They’re identical twins.

Scott Kelly said it was more nerve-wracking to watch his brother launch than to be strapped in himself. Their parents and 91-year-old grandmother are always anxious on launch day, he said.

I know my grandmother; she would rather I work at Wal-Mart, Scott Kelly said, chuckling, as the countdown entered the final hours.

Three spacewalks are planned during Discovery’s 14-day flight: to install Kibo, replace an empty nitrogen-gas tank and try out various cleaning methods on a clogged solar-wing rotating joint.

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Fueling begins for afternoon shuttle launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — NASA began fueling space shuttle Discovery on Saturday for a late afternoon launch to the international space station.

Everything seemed to be going NASA’s way, including the weather. With no hurdles in sight, the launch team began pumping more than 500,000 gallons of fuel into Discovery’s big external tank soon after daybreak.

Already loaded aboard Discovery was Japan’s precious lab, a $1 billion addition for the space station that will be the biggest room by far. It’s named Kibo, Japanese for hope.

Also tucked away in the space shuttle: a new pump for the space station’s finicky toilet. For more than a week, the three occupants have had to manually flush the toilet with extra water several times a day, a time-consuming job.

NASA and Russian space officials are hoping that the pump — which was rushed to Kennedy Space Center from Moscow just three days ago — gets the toilet back in normal working order. Watch why experts say the situation is not a health risk

Japanese journalists and space program officials jammed NASA’s launch site, their excitement growing with every passing minute of the countdown. As many as 400 Japanese were expected for the liftoff.

Their enthusiasm was catchy.

We are on the verge of a very historic event, the launch of this amazing spacecraft, the first major manned element for the Japanese Space Agency, said NASA payload manager Scott Higginbotham.

The Japanese lab is 37 feet long and more than 32,000 pounds, and fills Discovery’s entire payload bay. The first part of the lab flew up in March, and the third and final section will be launched next year.

The entire lab, with all its pieces, cost more than $2 billion.

A large political contingent was also on hand led by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, who’s newly married to Discovery’s commander, Mark Kelly. They invited numerous bigwigs from Arizona and Washington.

Kelly’s brother, Scott, didn’t need an invitation to the launch — he’s also a space shuttle commander. They’re identical twins.

found here.

It’s decision day for Democrats

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Bleary-eyed Democrats failed to reach consensus early Saturday on how to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, setting up a potentially explosive hearing later in the morning.

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws panel convened for more than five hours behind closed doors Friday evening. The meeting ended at 1:30 a.m. ET Saturday — eight hours before the committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter.

Michigan and Florida held their primaries earlier than party rules allow, and the party penalized them by excluding them from representation at the August nominating convention.

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, locked in a tight race in which every delegate is crucial, disagree over how best to handle the situation. Watch what all the fuss is about

It was a full discussion, said Harold Ickes, a DNC rules committee member from the District of Columbia who supports Clinton. I think there was some agreement on some issues and still some disagreements on others.

Both candidates have said they want the Florida and Michigan delegates to attend the convention, but Clinton’s campaign is calling for the results of the primaries to be honored and the delegates awarded based on the results.

This approach would help her chip away at Obama’s lead in pledged delegates because Clinton handily won both states and would be awarded a greater share of the delegates.

Obama’s campaign disagrees, saying he followed the rules, took his name off of the Michigan ballot and did not campaign in either state.

Right now, with no Michigan or Florida delegates included, Obama leads Clinton by 202 delegates. He needs 42 more to clinch the nomination.

Right now what we have to do is to figure our way through all of this, and I believe we will, said Allan Katz, a DNC rules member from Florida who supports Obama. And I believe we will come up with something [Saturday]. There will probably be a little sort of tussling but we are Democrats. Follow a timeline of the dispute

The rules committee will address two main issues at the hearing Saturday morning: how many delegates each state is allowed and how those delegates will be allocated between the two candidates. Watch who will really decide the nomination

How do you recognize the people who didn’t vote and how do you recognize the people that did vote and how do we at the same time maintain the integrity of the process? said Martha Fuller Clark, a DNC Rules Committee member from New Hampshire and Obama supporter. And there are no easy answers.

James Roosevelt, Jr., the DNC Rules committee co-chair from Massachusetts, described the meeting as spirited because people on this committee have a strong feeling about the rules and about the importance of them. But he added, It was not unpleasant or heated.

Roosevelt also predicted a resolution will be reached, but said there would be dissenting votes.

I can’t predict that it will be unanimous, he said. I do think that it will be unifying for the party.

In a letter addressed to the co-chairs of the rules committee, Clinton lawyer Lyn Utrecht said Friday the panel is compelled to seat both delegations from Florida and Michigan fully and not award Obama any delegates from Michigan.

It is a bedrock principle of our party that every vote must be counted, and thereby every elected delegate should be seated, Utrecht wrote.

The letter said party rules do not allow arbitrary reallocation of uncommitted delegates to a candidate or arbitrary reallocation of delegates from one candidate to another. Read the full letter (pdf)

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told The Associated Press that receiving no pledged delegates from Michigan is not acceptable and I don’t think is a position that people find terribly reasonable.

Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod said his campaign wants a resolution that allows Florida and Michigan to come to the convention, participate in the convention and do it within the rules of the party.

But Axelrod took issue with the Clinton campaign’s approach to the issue.

Everybody agreed that these contests would not be valid, he said, adding that Clinton reconsidered when the race began to turn and her situation changed.

found here.

China plans mass exodus from quake zone

MIANYANG, China (CNN) — Authorities are expanding plans to evacuate people in southwestern China as water piles up behind a dam created by an earthquake landslide, state-run media reported Friday.

An additional 40,000 people in Beichuan county have been ordered to leave at-risk areas downstream from the so-called quake lake, bringing the total to nearly 200,000.

A report that China had ordered the evacuation of 1.3 million people, however, turned out not to be true. That report appeared Friday in China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua.

The Chinese authorities say they actually are planning a drill to make sure they are prepared in case they have to evacuate 1.3 million people. That’s an estimate of the number of people who could be evacuated if the dam breaks completely.

The earthquake in Sichuan province triggered a landslide that blocked Jianjiang River and created Tangjiashan Lake. But authorities are concerned the dirt wall created by the quake will not hold back the water.

Thousands of Chinese security forces are assisting with evacuations downstream from the lake. They also are spearheading efforts to create a spillway at the lake to relieve pressure behind the dam. Watch footage of the landslides

The government told frustrated evacuees they were creating a safer place for them to stay. However, the residents told CNN the government-created site is not as desirable as the site they are being ordered to leave. They say they would like to return if possible once floodwaters recede.

As of Thursday afternoon, the water level of the quake lake was within 75 feet (23 meters) of overflowing the massive pile of rock and soil and was rising at about 6 feet (2 meters) a day.

Chinese military engineers said the spillway is about a third completed, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. Tons of earth-moving equipment and explosives have been flown to the site, but creating the spillway is expected to be a days-long process. Watch a report on evacuation plans due to flooding risk

The lake is holding an estimated 170 million cubic yards (130 million cubic meters) of water — equal to about 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to Liu Ning, chief engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources.

The official death toll from the quake stands at 68,858 as of Friday, with another 18,618 people missing.

China has begun talks with its former enemy Japan as it seeks help to boost its relief operations.

The discussions center around deploying Japanese military to the affected area — what would be the first significant military dispatch involving the two countries since World War II, The Associated Press reported Thursday. Watch report from tent city in Mianyang

Given the magnitude of this disaster, if some countries or militaries are ready to provide us with material in urgent need, we will express our welcome, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, AP reported.

found here.

McClellan backs some of Obama’s agenda

NEW YORK (CNN) — Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, whose tell-all book blasts the Bush administration on issues including Hurricane Katrina, the election and the Iraq war, didn’t say Friday whether he still considers himself a Republican.

But he did say he supports parts of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s agenda.

Some of what Obama says, his overall message, is very similar to the one we ran on in 2000 about changing the way Washington works and what I had so much hope in, said McClellan, who became the White House press secretary in 2003 after serving as spokesman for President Bush when he was the governor of Texas.

But it’s a very difficult thing to do, and I hope some of the Obama staff will take a look at [McClellan’s book] and consider what they need to do if they become president.

McClellan also said he has a lot of respect for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

In his 341-page book, What Happened, McClellan writes that Bush and his advisers favored a propaganda campaign to the truth in the days leading up to the Iraq invasion. Read excerpts from the book

McClellan also claims that key Bush aides intentionally misled him on major stories and that the administration’s botched handling of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath was the defining moment of Bush’s second term.

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, McClellan — who has faced withering criticism from the White House and other Bush allies since his book was released — declined to answer directly when asked if he still considers himself a Republican.

Well, you know, there are things I like about the Republicans, Republican ideas, and there are Democrat ideas I like, he said.

I’ve not made a decision in terms of the presidential election, he added. I’m someone who believes in centrist governing philosophy. And that’s what the president believed in as governor, but as president he moved too far to the right too often.

Earlier Friday, McClellan said he would be willing to comply with a possible congressional subpoena to discuss the administration’s handling of prewar intelligence, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he’d be glad to share his views if asked to testify.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Florida, said Friday that McClellan, who left the White House in 2006, would be able to provide valuable insight into a number of issues under investigation by the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee is looking into the use of prewar intelligence, whether politics was behind the firing of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity, Wexler, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said.

In the book, McClellan says President Bush told him he had authorized the leaking of Plame’s identity to the press. Watch Wexler call for McClellan to testify

Facing a firestorm over his book, McClellan also confirmed reports Friday that he apologized to Richard Clarke for questioning his honesty after the former counterterrorism official published his own book critical of the White House.

I don’t expect we’ll have a conversation [with Bush] any time soon, he said. I don’t need to ask forgiveness from him. My comments are sincere and honest and absolutely the truth from my perspective.

Speaking with Cooper, McClellan responded to one of the harshest criticisms he faced this week, from former senator and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole.

Dole reportedly sent McClellan an e-mail saying every presidential administration has miserable creatures like you … who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues.

The message accuses McClellan of reveling in the attention he received at the White House then cashing in with his book.

I have great respect for Sen. Dole — he’s a great public servant and someone who has served in the military as well and someone who actually did try to work across the aisle with Democratic leaders at times, back before things got so bitterly partisan in Washington, D.C., McClellan said.

But I would encourage him to see what I say in the book before he makes those comments.

found here.