Hot Astronaut Babes Fight Over Lipstick, Crash Space Shuttle

On Monday morning, April 5th, seven brave astronauts climbed aboard 1,387,457 lbs of liquid oxygen, 234,265 lbs of liquid hydrogen, and struck a match. They rode a fireball into orbit, tumbled the space shuttle, Discovery, end over end in a difficult gymnastics maneuver, and safely docked with the International Space Station. Never mind the shuttle's broken Ku-Band antenna, or the missing insulation.

Three of the astronauts were women, and they joined a fourth launched separately in a Soyuz rocket. Monday's launch marked a new record for women--four in orbit at the same time. In a good way, it wasn't shocking news. But some of the (painfully unedited) comments posted to Yahoo!'s 4/2/10 announcement were quite the opposite:

1. "Oh, boy, catfight. Four women at the same time cleaning the capsule, got to be a fight sooner or later. Hope they are not steering that thing.......," (Bubbal).
2. "Great. So now we'll get 3 weeks of work done per month ;-O" (Lightfoot).
3. "...girls cant get along and are always in competition for male attention and wont focus on their work. and that is a really expensive mistake when they are trying to land and they are too busy bickering and putting on make-up to successfully land the shuttle," (Fighting Possum).

Conservatives argue that civil rights issues are old news, but comments like those on Yahoo! tell a different story. They yell, Hot Astronaut Babes Fight Over Lipstick, Crash Space Shuttle. Even more astounding, these comments generated 100 thumbs up in just a few hours.

According to KMB Legal of Washington, DC, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and related state agencies received 12,510 charges of sexual harassment on the job, just in 2007. That means it's more important than ever to support government representatives and candidates who make civil rights a priority.

Eleanor Walters is a clear choice for WA State Representative, pos. 1. As a member of Women to Women International, the Snohomish Human Rights Commission, and the Snohomish/Monroe Diversity Council, she takes civil rights seriously. She knows that astronauts, both male and female, are so much more to our country than hot babes bickering over lipstick. In fact, we all are. ~Elizabeth A. Scott