Hubble Repair?

Over the last several years we've seen article after article about how the Hubble space telescope is a dinosaur and not worth repairing. Space geeks get all up in arms when talk of giving up on Hubble surfaces, and NASA officials always calmly explain why Hubble isn't worth maintaining at this point.

Each time this happens, I check Hubble off in my mind as a done deal. It's over. No longer being maintained. Fine.

And then I see stories like this. . . about a planned shuttle mission to repair the Hubble telescope.
I don't get it.

Is the United States Behind. . . or Ahead?

With Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for president, critics of the United States talk about how our country might just finally catch up with the rest of the civilized world and elect a non-white president.  The implication, of course, is that the rest of the world cleared this discriminatory hurdle decades ago.  

I got to wondering, though. . . has the United Kingdom ever elected a non-white Prime Minister?   I don't think so. And it goes without saying that they've never had a black king or queen.

Have the Germans ever elected a non-white Chancellor?  I'm pretty sure they haven't.  How about Italy?  Or Spain?  

For that matter, how about Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, or Sweden?  Have any of these countries ever had a black national leader?  

I'm not an expert on the history of any of these countries, certainly; to tell you the truth I can't even name the current leader of half of them.  I guess there may be one in there that has elected a black person as their national leader at some point, but I can't think of one off hand. 

Do we still have discriminatory hurdles to conquer here in the United States?  Sure.  But is the US really so far behind on this particular issue?  Or might it just be out in front on this one?