C'mon J-man, you're gonna spook the herd with posting this topic.

The U of M GoverNerd says the pie faced dog eating commies are our savior.  Don't rock the National Statist agenda, J-man.

1. Michigan Engineering students and faculty are required to attain security clearance before working on military-sensitive applications. This includes most space-based projects, including satellite communication systems.

2. Kauffman is the opposite of a credible person here. He has been at odds with the university since 2000 because of a dispute he had with a previous department head, whom he claims plagiarized one of his proposals. The university began sanctioning him in 2006 when he began to publicize his discontent over this issue. Then in 2007, he decided to claim that the university was punishing him over his views on hiring a Taiwanese guy who has been a guest professor at Chinese universities. Link: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/embattled-profs-classes-cut

3. Kauffman regularly collaborated with Russian aircraft designers in his work, so I doubt that he takes major issue with cooperating with foreign bodies. Link: http://ns.umich.edu/new/experts/20-experts/19466-C-William-Kauffman

4. Both of the satellites that were successfully hacked were scientific satellites. This is far less concerning than a hack of a military or communications satellite. It is obviously not good, but it isn't the end of the world.