General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGOP files suit to prevent Democratic candidate from claiming to be an astronaut.
Hernandez was a crew member on the space shuttle in 2009.
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_0b053d76-f38e-11e0-9336-001cc4c03286.html
I wonder if he also listed that he was a farm worker they would challenge that title as well?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/24/jose-hernandez-astronaut-title_n_1377389.html?ref=politics
Guy lives out the American dream... Did not speak English until he was 12, worked with his family one farms while growing up. Finishes college, gets accepted to the space program, leaves the damn planet and they(GOP) want to challenge his credentials by carrying the title of astronaut.
What ass holes.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)He is an astronaut or maybe you could say he is a former astronaut, since he is now a politician.
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)Every single "retired" astronaut I've ever met(you meet quite a few in Coco Beach FL), was always given the title of "Astronaut". I'd agree. Even retired doctors are still given the salutation of Doctor.
How petty can they get?
is retired and still called an Astronaut...so what is the GOP's problem? Oh, I know, he's a Democrat.
ProgressiveATL
(50 posts)Gingrich was Speaker 1995-1999. I've often heard him referred to as "Speaker Newt Gingrich," and I quickly found an online example, via the neo-conservative Foreign Policy Initiative, from a September 2009 conference, "A Conversation with Speaker Newt Gingrich": http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/advancing-and-defending-democracy/a-conversation-with-speaker-newt-gingrich
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Fla Dem
(23,765 posts)addressed by the position they once held? I understand if when introduced or mentioned in the media they are referred to as former congressman (woman), former senator, former Governor, etc, but why are they addressed as if they still hold the position? In fact why do certain professions, (mostly political) insist on using their position as part of their name? We do not refer to most people by their occupations. Do we say Engineer John Smith, Mechanic Jane Jones, Store Clerk Mary Christmas? Lawyers are not addressed as Lawyer Don Adams and yet Judges are addressed as Judge Rabbit Warren. Yes we do address Doctors with their titles. Lots of people have doctorates who are not refferred to as Dr. Again, find that odd. Just my musing for a Tuesday morning.
Mz Pip
(27,453 posts)GOP refer to Noot as Mr. Speaker.
Can they get anymore petty? These are the same folks who kept insisting on calling Obama a community activist, a job he had decades ago right after college. Twits.
IMHO this will be great publicity for Hernandez.
ProgressiveATL
(50 posts)IDemo
(16,926 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,869 posts)The good thing is that this will backfire on the nasty little GOPers - it will only draw attention to the fact that Hernandez really was an astronaut, and will emphasize what a bunch of petty snots they are.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)mainer
(12,029 posts)Man, would they get called on that in a heartbeat.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)groundloop
(11,523 posts)The Wielding Truth
(11,415 posts)It's almost a first name.http://www.protectedsearch.com/websearchresults.aspx?si=36715&chrome=true&q=john+glenn
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,595 posts)And I like the comment about half-governor Palin.
sarge43
(28,945 posts)If this idioticy reaches a court, I hope the judge tells them to pound sand and get a life.
SDjack
(1,448 posts)Looks like they will never learn.
bluedigger
(17,087 posts)Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)THIS is the kind of thing that swings people. Petty bullshit.
denbot
(9,901 posts)But a guy with the surname Hernandez, who actually went up in space, he can't be an astronaut.
The fucking hypocrisy of the GOP is bottomless.
jmowreader
(50,563 posts)Even if he never flies again, he'll always be an astronaut.
And as already pointed out, Palin is referred to as "governor" even though she bailed when either (1) it stopped being fun or (2) they were this close to indicting her for all the slime she left behind her.
sakabatou
(42,176 posts)xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)than one tax return w/ that designation. (Or whatever IRS-ese for astronaut is). When I ran for state assembly, the SoS office called me about my designation (paralegal). It was cleared up in one phone call.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,368 posts)During the conversation, I mentioned the discrepancy between NASA's and the military's definition of "astronaut." The first issue was whether to select 50 or 62 miles as a defining altitude; Readdy selected 50 miles to eliminate any inconsistency between military and civilian pilots flying the same vehicle.
Beyond that, a major stumbling block in recognizing the X-15 pilots as astronauts had been, according to lore, the wishes of the Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center. To determine how the office actually felt about the issue and in an effort to resolve any potential concerns, I turned to Col. Michael J. Bloomfield, the Astronaut Office operations officer. Bloomer, as Mike is known, had flown on three space shuttle flights. Readdy also had flown three times. They seemed appropriate ambassadors. Between the two of them they smoothed the way; the chief of the Astronaut Office, Capt. Kent V. Rominger, subsequently agreed that recognizing the three NASA X-15 pilots would be appropriate and offered his assistance in the matter.
Figuring out exactly how to honor the pilots proved trickier. NASA does not issue metal astronaut wings, and has no official policy on the subject. In the end, it was decided that each pilot McKay and Walker posthumously would receive a set of the cloth-and-leather nametags worn by space shuttle astronauts on their flight suits, along with a certificate signed by Readdy, Rominger and Kevin L. Petersen, director of the Dryden Flight Research Center. Forty years after their groundbreaking achievements in the X-15 rocket plane, the three pilots finally got the recognition they deserved.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/X-Press/stories/2005/102105_Schneider.html
They recognise non-NASA Americans who have been into space as astronauts, so continued employment by NASA is not the qualification.
mainer
(12,029 posts)Sometimes the GOP just can't help shooting itself in the foot.