Pic of the Day: Poodle.

Faithful lapdogs are important to politicians who want to seem influential. George Bush had British Prime Minister Tony "Bush's Poodle" Blair. Senator John McCain has South Carolina's Lindsey Graham.

This poodle stood with McCain and another idiot (The Replacement Lieberman) a few months ago to grandstand for the media, demanding briefings on the Horrible Bengazi Tragedy while other Senate members were attending a briefing on the Horrible Bengazi Tragedy.

Good dog.

Apollo 1, Challenger, Columbia

I consider anyone a hero if they're willing to ride a column of flame into space. This week we mark the anniversaries of losing some heroes in the line of duty:

Apollo 1, January 27, 1967
--Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom
--Senior Pilot Edward H. White
--Pilot Roger B. Chaffee

Shuttle Challenger, STS-51L, January 28, 1986
--Commander Francis R. Scobee
--Pilot Michael J. Smith
--Mission Specialists
----Ellison S. Onizuka
----Judith A. Resnik
----Ronald E. McNair
--Payload Specialists
----Gregory B.Jarvis
----S. Christa McAuliffe (Teacher in Space)

Shuttle Columbia, STS-107, February 1, 2003
--Commander Rick D. Husband
--Pilot William C. McCool
--Mission Specialists
----David M. Brown
----Kalpana Chawla (Flight Engineer)
----Laurel B. Clark
--Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson
--Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon

Best way I can think to honor their memory is to put up this NASA Astronomy Pic of the Day, Atlantis (STS-30) taking the Magellan Venus probe into orbit (click on it to enlarge, or follow the link).