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Obama Team Considers Cancellation of Ares, Orion
HanzoSpam sends us this story from Space News, which begins:
"US President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking US space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year. ... The questionnaire, 'NASA Presidential Transition Team Requests for Information,' asks agency officials to provide the latest information on Ares 1, Orion and the planned Ares 5 heavy-lift cargo launcher, and to calculate the near-term close-out costs and longer-term savings associated with canceling those programs. The questionnaire also contemplates a scenario where Ares 1 would be canceled but development of the Ares 5 would continue. While the questionnaire, a copy of which was obtained by Space News, also asks NASA to provide a cost estimate for accelerating the first operational flight of Ares 1 and Orion from the current target date of March 2015 to as soon as 2013, NASA was not asked to study the cost implications of canceling any of its other programs, including the significantly overbudget 2009 Mars Science Laboratory or the James Webb Space Telescope."
Further proof that he is no JFK - how about instead he challenge us to get to Mars before the decade is out !!!
Why does everyone keep saying "president-elect" Obama, when the Electoral College hasn't voted yet? (And the scheduled Supreme Court consideration of his natural born citizen status is still ahead of us.)
Private enterprise has something going against it far greater than any technical challenges ... our constant government growth and the belief of the people that government should solve their problems means government has become the initiator, facilitator, checkwriter, approver, middleman, evaluator, and savior in all activities, which are not allowed to die because it's somebody's rice bowl. As Mr. Reagan so accurately said about government's belief of what their job is (my paraphrasing): "if it moves, tax it, if it keeps moving, regulate it, and when it inevitably stops moving, subsidize it".
Funny.
Last year ~1.8 TRILLION on entitlements.
~600 Billion on defense.
Now I am sure he will butcher defense much like Clinton administration did, but "if" you want to make a real dent you would at LEAST flatline spending on entitlements. Something with a Democratic controlled house and senate will never happen. So the debt will probably go up as well. What will be interesting and sad will be after he cuts defense spending (and NASA spending also), to see how long before we have another attack on American soil. Given what has just happened in India, and an Obama presidency it is only a matter of time. I wouldn't want to live in a large city that is for sure.
NASA cuts are only the beginning. I personally hope and pray that I am wrong about him, and hope that he does such a great job that I and others are excited to vote for him in the future, but I have a feeling that the next 4 years will be "I told you so" post on Slashdot.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.
When the times required it amendments have been made to the US constitution, do you really think that (a constitutional amendment) is the only way to include healthcare in the list of things the federal government has the right to promote as part of the general welfare?
YES, we aren't changing the rules because liberals don't like them.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
Way to pander fud.
"We mustn't cut spending lest the terrorist win."
I await being able to tell you so in 4 years when he gets re-elected.
Your sig speaks volumes about your (delusional) nature.
IMAGE VERIFICATION IS EVIL!
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare,
It is right there in the section you quoted, but because you don't like it your brain edits it out before whatever excuse for a frontal lobe you have can parse it. Justice. Domestic Tranquility. Promote the general welfare. I guess to you that means nothing at all. You're exactly the kind of ignorant little shit that likes to enjoy government benefits while they rail about how everyone else is enjoying government benefits. Selfish shits like you ruin the planet for the rest of us. Learn to think already. Do some research, figure out what makes a civilization work and what doesn't. If you really hate taxes so much, move to somewhere with one of those small government/no services/defense only philosophies and live it up. I hear Nigeria is quite nice this time of year, if you can find fresh water and don't get murdered that is.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
Along with a spend-thrift congress, senate and president, comes also a shutdown of any and all technological advancements for potentially the next 8 years. All so we can make sure all those people who do not want to work, can live rent free and job free in those condo slums in various parts of various cities in the US. Oh yea, and that includes giving them all 3 square meals a day and they can get check bumps every month simply by having more babies...
We've already seen the predicted "Welfare State" coming to pass with the Dems getting into power and handing out free money to any CEO willing to come and ask for it. The rest is only around the corner.
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Oh yeah, because now community service is evil? It's really getting me down lately that I live on the same planet with such simps. Right in front of our eyes, the president we currently have has been taking our rights away... but the new guy wants community service and he's starting the Nazi party here at home.
I didn't even vote for Obama, but stuff like this is rock-stupid.
They don't believe in letting people decide democratically what the state should or shouldn't do. They want to enforce their own views on the matter on everyone else.
You're always welcome to avail yourself to the free market of nations if you don't like the one you're in.
It's much better to base currency on work units directly rather than some arbitrary physical medium which is scarce until it's not... or abundant until someone decides to hoard it all.
So if I work for a thousand hours alphabetizing papers and you work for an hour writing a script that eliminates the need for my job, I should be paid 1000x more than you?
Seems like a great plan.