[Kip Russell]

Some scientists, armed with recent findings of extrasolar planetary systems, have plugged that data into the famous Drake Equation and have concluded that there could be as many as 12,000 planets harboring intelligent life in our galaxy alone.

I'm skeptical...if even a small fraction of those had technology comparable to ours (or significantly higher) I think we would have detected their radio emissions by now.

I fully expect for planetary explorations in our own solar system to turn up some forms of microbial life in the next few decades. Europa is an excellent candidate for that.

And not just Europa! There's increasing evidence that subsurface oceans of liquid water are downright common in our solar system, even in bodies as small as Ceres and Enceladus!

[Windflier]

...if even a small fraction of those had technology comparable to ours (or significantly higher) I think we would have detected their radio emissions by now.

Who says they're using radio to communicate? I've long thought that a space faring civilization would develop communication technologies superior to radio. Perhaps using light, or even some phenomena that we're not familiar with yet.

As far as their terrestrial broadcasts, I suspect that the signals are too dispersed to be more than background hiss when they reach us.

There's increasing evidence that subsurface oceans of liquid water are downright common in our solar system, even in bodies as small as Ceres and Enceladus!

Yep. The next several decades are going to be some of the most interesting the history of human exploration. Hope I get to see just a bit of it before I go :-)