June 18, 2013, - 1:14 pm

Obama Affirmative Action: Half of All New Astronauts Are Women – War on Men

By Debbie Schlussel

Hey, it’s more of Barack Obama’s War on Men at work.

If you believe in the free market as I do, then you believe that the only restraints on what you can achieve and how far you can go should be the limits on your own talents and abilities. But affirmative action says something else. It mandates that if you aren’t of the right gender or ethnicity, your talents and skills are subverted to quotas and those who aren’t as qualified as you get a leg up if they had the luck of being born to the right preferred group. And so it goes with Barack Obama’s new crop of astronauts. The Obama Administration announced that half of the eight new astronauts picked by NASA are women. This isn’t because they were more qualified or even AS QUALIFIED as the men against whom they competed. It’s because they have female plumbing a/k/a vaginas and breasts.

obamasmiling.jpgnasa

newnasaastronauts
Obama’s New Crop of Irrelevant, Grounded Space Jockeys

I’m not sure that it matters much anyway, since our space program doesn’t really exist anymore without manned flights to the moon or elsewhere, while China is up-up-and-away into space. And, so, American astronauts are like grounded cowboys without horses or land. But, still, the fact is that the Obamaniks not only transformed NASA into a Muslim outreach program, but also into an affirmative action cesspool. 6,300 applicants applied to become astronauts, and the vast majority of that pool were men. Statistically, it’s highly unlikely that half those picked would be women if they were judged only on qualifications and merits and not on gender.

Below are the backgrounds of the eight new astronaut candidates. Although all are impressive, the women’s backgrounds are not nearly as impressive as those of the men, and it’s pretty obvious that there were four (and many more) other men among the 6,300 applicants who had more impressive credentials than the chick who’s hanging out in American Samoa or the one who flies a helicopter:

Josh A. Cassada, Ph. D., 39, is originally from White Bear Lake, Minn. Cassada is a former naval aviator who holds an undergraduate degree from Albion College, and advanced degrees from the University of Rochester, N.Y. Cassada is a physicist by training and currently is serving as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Quantum Opus.



Victor J. Glover, 37, Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy, hails from Pomona, Calif., and Prosper, Texas. He is an F/A-18 pilot and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. Glover holds degrees from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Air University and Naval Postgraduate School. He currently is serving as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress.

Tyler N. Hague (Nick), 37, Lt. Colonel, U.S. Air Force, calls Hoxie, Kan., home. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards, Calif. Hague currently is supporting the Department of Defense as Deputy Chief of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.

Christina M. Hammock, 34, calls Jacksonville, N.C. home. Hammock holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. She currently is serving as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Station Chief in American Samoa.

Nicole Aunapu Mann, 35, Major, U.S. Marine Corps, originally is from Penngrove, Calif. She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Stanford (Calif.) University and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, Md. Mann is an F/A 18 pilot, currently serving as an Integrated Product Team Lead at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River.

Anne C. McClain, 34, Major, U.S. Army, lists her hometown as Spokane, Wash. She is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.; the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, both in the United Kingdom. McClain is an OH-58 helicopter pilot, and a recent graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River.

Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D., 35 is from Caribou, Maine. She is a graduate of Brown University, has an advanced degree from the International Space University, and earned her doctorate from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Meir currently is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

Andrew R. Morgan, M.D., 37, Major, U.S. Army, considers New Castle, Pa., home. Morgan is a graduate of The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and earned doctorate in medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md. He has experience as an emergency physician and flight surgeon for the Army special operations community, and currently is completing a sports medicine fellowship.

So, does it matter that affirmative action based on gynecology is rampant at NASA, if we’re not going to the Moon again or having manned flights in space?

Yes, it matters. When you dumb down half the slots to meet sex-based quotas, you dumb down America. And, sadly, this continues to happen all over America, not just at NASA.

On the other hand, Barack Obama has decided our space program will be a space program in name only. And apparently mediocrity is as mediocrity does.




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31 Responses

There may be a War on Men at work, but thank goodness there is no War on Men at Work. I liked that band.

As an aside, Debbie is awesome.

Commenter on June 18, 2013 at 1:36 pm

If these were one way trips this might not be such a bad idea. There are a lot of women I would like to send in to outer space. My soon to be ex-Mother in Law for one.

I_AM_ME on June 18, 2013 at 1:40 pm

When is the Supreme Court supposed to outlaw affirmative action anyway? The ruling has been decided, it just needs to be made public. The Supremes are milking it for all the drama they can get I guess …

And even though they are going to win the case, Abigail Fisher is no Barbara Grutter. Unlike Grutter, even her own lawyers concede that Fisher wouldn’t have gotten into the University of Texas anyway, affirmative action policies or no. So the heroine of the anti-affirmative action movement will be just another of many who exhibit the “blame affirmative action” syndrome. Too bad the lawyers for this case couldn’t have found a more deserving plaintiff ..

Gerald on June 18, 2013 at 1:45 pm

Hammock doesn’t belong. Mann is borderline. McClain would have been a decent candidate down the line after she had more flight time (on a plane, not a helicopter). As far as Meir goes, some astronaut spots do go to scientists that want to do research projects in space, not just the pilots and the mission specialists. The problem is that Weir doesn’t seem to be up to snuff. Oceanography is within NASA’s mission, but it doesn’t justify being an astronaut. And anesthesiology? Sure missions do include doctors at times, but … I am not buying it. Weir likely wasn’t even the most qualified female scientist that applied. So throw her in the “doesn’t belong” category with Hammock. So of the 4, 1 is borderline (which is OK I guess), 1 would have been a very strong candidate in 5-10 years but not today and the other 2 obviously fall short. I guess Debbie is right on this one.

Gerald on June 18, 2013 at 1:54 pm

    Hammock is a meterologist. She absolutely belongs. Most of NOAA’s work is with satellites now. I have questions about McClain, What are her degrees in? The others are no Christina McAuliffes. They all have solid credentials. Having said that, I have no use for the Space Program and I have big problems with women who are so driven, in general, but most of these women are qualified.

    Italkit on June 18, 2013 at 2:55 pm

      Sorry to see you back, Italkit. Surprised you haven’t changed your nick.

      As usual, you miss the point. Debbie notes that an overwhelming majority of applicants were male. To end up with 50/50 ratio necessarily sacrifices merit. It is entirely possible that some of these chicks are competent, but “competent” is not the relevant threshold. Nor is it a fair one.

      skzion on June 18, 2013 at 5:32 pm

I wonder if this is the only type of Affirmative Action involved. The way most of these women look…who knows what their proclivities are.

And let’s remember that under AA, credentials are inflated. The schools they went to and the positions they hold/held may not have been completely earned. Some of them, also may have been the result of AA. There is a compounding. The earlier credentials are often unearned, but look impressive, which makes it easier for the more recent credentials.

Little Al on June 18, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    That’s a valid point, Al. If they got into college on AA, it’s a problem. As I said to Gerald, on the surface, their credentials are ok, with the exception of McClain. She seems like a marginal candidate for astronaut.

    Italkit on June 18, 2013 at 2:57 pm

The whole manned flight system is a waste of money. It is cheaper and easier to use unmanned satellites to explore space and to study earth from space.

People do not know how corrupt the space program is, nor how much of a waste of money it is.

Jonathan E. Grant on June 18, 2013 at 3:08 pm

Italkit:

She’s a meteorologist? Wow. So are like half the people who do the weather for local TV newscasts. I’d rather take the NOAA station (top oceanographer) leader lady over the meteorologist. No need to question McClain as much: a West Point grad and helicopter pilot. She would either be the shuttle pilot or a mission specialist type. It is just that she doesn’t have enough experience flying planes: “a recent graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.” With 10 or maybe 5 years flying Navy fighter jets and test planes, she would be certainly qualified to be an astronaut. But it is amazing that a meteorologist would be considered to be more qualified than someone who got through the Navy’s test pilot school. Or that a meteorologist would be considered more qualified than someone who runs an oceanography outpost.

I looked up Weir and she is a more accomplished scientist than I thought: she is doing her postdoc on comparative physiology. But I would still take McClain, the West Point grad and Navy test pilot, over her in a heartbeat.

Gerald on June 18, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Ok, Gerald but what do these particular men bring? One is a legislative assistant in Congress. Wow! I guess after his space adventures, he can draft new legislation for NASA.
    Hammock is the NOAA woman, Chief of Station. You’re confusing her with Meir who is a graduate of Brown and an oceanographer.
    Given the vagueness of McClain’s degrees from the UK, I’d guess she’s some sort of intelligence wonk and her role is to develop spying from space capabilities.

    Italkit on June 18, 2013 at 5:09 pm

      Italkit seems to have a problem with rationality. Let’s stipulate, for the sake of argument, that the men were no more competent than the women. That’s waaay unlikely, of course. Given that the overwhelming majority of applicants were men, Hussein is therefore discriminating based on gender.

      In other words, Hussein is engaging in a war against men.

      Which was Debbie’s point.

      skzion on June 18, 2013 at 5:38 pm

They need to re-call that crazy bitch astro-nut that stalked the guy astronaut and drove non-stop from Texas to Florida wearing Attends so she wouldn’t have to take any breaks beside refueling.

Now *she* had that “git ‘er done” mentality that you want in your nation’s islamic outreach program.

DS_ROCKS! on June 18, 2013 at 4:09 pm

Men invent…women use.

malibu on June 18, 2013 at 7:39 pm

Vaginas in Space! New Mel Brooks movie. Send them all into space starting with my ex-wife and her cigarettes.

#1 Vato on June 18, 2013 at 9:34 pm

I’m not so sure all those chicks are really chicks.

I see at least 2 or 3 et Napolitano clones in those pictures.

Jeff_W on June 18, 2013 at 10:46 pm

Grrr….should have proofread better. That is “I see at least 2 or 3 Janet Napolitano clones in those pictures.

Jeff_W on June 18, 2013 at 10:50 pm

If you think that is bad you should look at how affirmative action has destroyed the intelligence agencies.

AR on June 19, 2013 at 12:24 am

Clearly Mann and Mclain had the skids greased for them at West Point and through rotary aircraft flight school. They simply lowered the standards and pushed them through the same as they do in all of the branches, the police academy and the fire department. They now just routinely promote them all the way to chief based on nothing more than being a minority or a woman.

This one LT in the SFFD, an African-American woman, ran out of a building screaming all the while leaving the male firefighters in the building that was engulfed in flames.

The media asked her why she ran out and her reply was that she exited the structure to coordinate the rescue efforts.

It looks like they just have baccalaureate degrees and it does not mention their discipline so that leads me to believe it was not in the sciences or engineering. More than likely it is a liberal arts degree, social sciences or phys ed. They would have indicated their credentials if it were otherwise. Remember a few years back when that one chick could not even get through Virgina Military Institute?

AR on June 19, 2013 at 12:40 am

I don’t need the services of an Astronaut. However, on occasion, I need the services of a Family Practice Physician.

1/2 of all doctors graduating medical school are now women. Many, if not most of them will opt for part-time jobs in order to raise children. All this in spite of the shortage of Family Practice Physicians!

The problem with America is that every good idea is taken to the nth degree of absurdity. It’s great to give women equal opportunity. However, it’s absurd to seek equal results in all trades.

There is NO Santa Claus on June 19, 2013 at 8:03 am

    Thanks to H-1 Visas, they are importing many doctors from 3rd world countries to work as general practitioners in rural communities. Personally, I do think I would want a foreigner trained say in Calcutta to do any doctoring on me?

    AR on June 19, 2013 at 11:28 am

I agree with Eisenhower’s assessment of the space race — he called Kennedy’s race to the moon a “stunt” and “just nuts.”

http://www.nps.gov/features/eise/jrranger/5accomp4X.htm

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9XVGLnIj3dEJ:www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/jfkconference/JFKChapter141.doc+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Dave Turson on June 19, 2013 at 8:10 am

Debbie is right.

Since the “space program” what ever that means is just another government black hole with no real “space” mission, subjecting it to affirmative action is “the mission”.

Yeah, the space station is a weightless university so a women can measure fly farts effect on the ozone layer just as well as a man. but that is not the point. We are getting people selected for positions, under AA, based upon their “class” not based upon their quals. Or voting for someone becasue they are in the “black” class not because they have the quals, etc.

Marx would be proud.

In line with this is the Pentagon putting women on the frontline. Do we really feel safer with women defending us?
Or sending our mothers and daughter and sisters to fight for us men?

Panhandle on June 19, 2013 at 9:12 am

Countries going down the tubes and you’re arguing about affirmative action gender role crapola in NASA which BTW can’t even get into space without the Russians these days.
This is why you lose.

migraine boy on June 19, 2013 at 9:39 am

    Sorry Migraine Douche’ you ripped off my comment in an earlier post.

    AR on June 19, 2013 at 11:30 am

Lookv to Australia to see the results of the war on men. female primeminister ( lying ,theiving former ambulance chaser at Slater and gordon) Female governor general( mother in law of one of the prime ministers main backer) ,Queensland Governor,(labor party appointee) Female attourney general,(former lover of the governor generals son in law) .plus several female appointeees to plump government ministries where there abilities did not match burger flipping at maccas (Penny Wong,Lesbian lover of the prime minister) .So what is the male asnswer to this? Depression,to the point where a government funded group had to formed to find an answer to this resulting from social engineering and lots and lots of muder suicides.Many involving children in custody cases.
Be careful of what you wish for…..

Aron B on June 19, 2013 at 5:09 pm

Based on DS’ posting, NONE of these “flyboys” have combat sorties? Just an observation.
JIEDDO: As POLITICAL of an organization as most other DoD agencies. CECOM, NVESD, and some elements of DARPA ALL linked into using universities, with high tech labs, and their [univ] students to do the research coupled with “grants” under “OTA” [Other Type of Agreement] (not subject to congressional oversight). Exactly how many systems have been certified for global use by JIEDDO anyways??
Wow! An “astronaut” who calls “Jacksonville, NC” home? No Marine Corps experience? Remove the barber shops, pawn shops, a couple of box stores, and the mall…not much in/around. I can see why she didn’t attend Campbell University.
I agree with some of the comments; it ain’t ’bout equality of opportunity, it IS about advancing the Radical Lesbian Agenda through racketeering, coercion, and intimidation period.
Margaret Thatcher bad, Madeline Albright good. Jeannie Roberts bad, Ellen Degenares good. 9/12 Moms bad, League of “Women” Voters good etc etc.
Beware of attempting to get rid of AA; remember the Ides of March. “it’s ALL in the demographics)

Sick_Boy on June 19, 2013 at 8:06 pm

I got the breakdown from NASA. Of the 4551 applicants deemed “qualified” 78.4% were men, 21.6% were women.

NASA also rejected approximately 1800 applicants as unqualified – I have no breakdown as yet on those percentages.

If the initial rejection process was made “blind” to the applicants sex and if one assumes talent and experience is distributed equally among the remaining 4551 men and women applicants, then one would expect NASA to have selected 6 men (min) and 2 women (max).

Given the 4-4 split one can only conclude the qualified women applicants were more qualified than the men by a factor of two – or that affirmative action policies biased the decision process.

Denbert

denbert on June 20, 2013 at 6:50 pm

    Nice job, Denbert.

    skzion on June 21, 2013 at 10:22 am

Debbie Schlussel and all of her followers sound like bitter old farts who haters of anyone who is not like them…What are you doing besides discounting these fine human beings accomplishments? What have you accomplished besides shooting off your mouths trying to kill these high achievers’ reaching their dreams? As the mother of Victor Glover, jr. I can say that you don’t know JACK!!! For one, we believe in merit and not “Affirmative Action” I was one of those voting against it. I rather be held accountable for promoting myself on knowledge and skills…You’re not even skilled on offering the facts (PERIOD).
GET A LIFE AND A REAL JOB…!!! H-A-T-E-R-S

Cindy Maxwell on July 16, 2013 at 5:42 pm

    I meant to say who are but you got me so pissed…

    Cindy Maxwell on July 16, 2013 at 5:44 pm

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