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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."
I'm very disappointed in Obama. But then again, I always was.
Oh, yes, because FDR didn't leave any kind of lasting legacy...
I mean, who needs something like the FDIC these days? The Securities and Exchange Commission only restrains Wall Street from operating in a fully unencumbered and thus efficient way.
Lend-lease? Forward thinking? A forward looking leader would have kept us out of WW2 by being carefully neutral, rather than provoking an attack by Japan by preparing for eventual entry into the war.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
FDR was forward thinking but had some of the biggest problems to solve - making all else seem relatively insignificant. Avoiding WW2 was popular opinion! Provoking Japan to get the USA in WW2 early WAS actually long term thinking on FDR's part (and sneaky.) The Nazi's would have eventually attacked an unprepared USA and likely won (if they waited a few decades.)
NASA wastes tons of money. Bush redirected NASA; which should ring alarm bells... Didn't anybody notice that during the rise of earth science in politics Bush undermined NASA's role and aimed them towards a costly fast track to mars? Don't get suckered by Mars! Complain and get them to dump Mars and support better launch technology and earth science.
The Department of War (aka DoD since they got P.R.) can't have its budget cut due to corruption. See "Why We Fight" for an introduction on this topic.
USA Dollar is only alive because it is Oil backed. Green energy fundamentally undermines this.
How about no more bailouts? They are ready to do another one (they actually did 2 already;) however, the last one was larger the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the moon shot, the 80s S&L (Bush's brother,) the Korean War, the New Deal, the 1st Iraq war, the Vietnam War, and NASA budget (all years) cost less (adjusted for inflation.)
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France is the second-highest defense spender in the world, you fucking idiot. Stop talking out of your ass.