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State of Alabama Fighting NASA's New Plan
FleaPlus writes "Alabama politicians have formed a 'task force' dedicated to fighting NASA's new plans to cancel the costly Constellation/Ares program, which is largely based in Alabama. The chronically mismanaged Constellation project attempted to build new rockets in-house and replicate an Apollo-style lunar program with minimal investment in new technologies. NASA's new boosted budget revives formerly suppressed R&D efforts into critical technologies needed for a sustainable push towards Mars and intermediate waypoint destinations, works with (instead of trying to compete with) existing commercial rockets to transport cargo/crew to orbit, and funds a stream of robotic precursor missions to scout other worlds and demonstrate new technologies. The Alabama task force fighting the new plan includes former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and former Ares project manager Steve Cook."
Now, I dun know so much about rockets and flyin' to the moon and all that, but hooey, when you wanna start talkin' bout putting some downhome good ol' boys out of work, well, sir, I just gotta speak my mind. This ain't a threat, son. You take those jobs away from us here and God Almighty help us, we ain't gonna have nothin better to do than march on up to Washington and have us an ol' fashioned conference with each individual congresscritter that 'pposed us. Alabama style.
You catch my drift, fellas?
The Alabamans want to save their pork, plain and simple.
Their efforts should be attacked as being pure pork-barrel politics and characterized as a deliberate attempt to save a bad program purely for the money.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Two can play the racist game. In essence, the post is, "the NASA space program is something for white southern people", so therefor, we should all want to kill it.
I should be ok with that, except that, I'm white, and my spin on it is this:
The reality, is a bunch of homeboys and liberals don't want to have any possibility of people going into space ever. As long as there's some crack head out there to keep their aids infested homo bodies alive on the federal dole, no one else will ever be allowed to do anything visionary with the federal government. This is the essence of the chicago politics and pretty much what the current democratic leadership is all about.
The liberals have finally won. This country is ruined, utterly ruined, taken over by bunch of a fucking insects posing as people.
This is my sig.
Typical, people complain about taxes and wasteful spending, then shit themselves when the government stops spending wastefully ON THEM.
I guess I understand it. People don't really care about whether taxes are high or being spent wisely. They only care about how much of it goes to them. To most, the government is nothing more than a big ciculating fan that sucks money from somewhere and blows it to somewhere else. You jockey for position to stand where the biggest cash dunes collect, and from there use the money to shape the future direction of the wind.
That's all this is. It's got nothing to do with actual space exploration or engineering or research.
This crappy, backwards, stupidass state I live in (I'd move if I could, bad economy hit me hard) actually doing something I agree with?
The end times are here.
Not surprised Griffin is trying this. He's always had some agenda. When he took office, the constellation program was based on building a new capsule onto existing launch vehicles, while doing R&D on new launch vehicles and other approaches. (Essentially the exact same program that is being put back in place). He threw out years worth of development to develop 2 launch vehicles and manned capsule concurrently, which is a much more expensive and complicated process.
About the only thing that survived was the X-37 and that is because it is a USAF run program. It is scheduled to launch in April.
It is much, much easier to design a single system than interlocking systems. Each weight gain on Ares results in a weight loss on Orion. Until they finalize the design of the launch platform, they can not really make much of a guess as to the final design of the manned capsule. In the 1960's, they were able to do that for Saturn and the CSM because Von Braun did not believe the initial weight budgets for the proposed Saturn rocket, so he allowed for a large degree of error in those estimates before giving the base design requirements for the CSM. That did not happen with Ares and Orion. They made their mass budgets with little room for error, so any growth outside the projected mass had a rather large impact on Orion.
(Seriously, it was bizarre how Griffin came in and years of design work on X-38, OSP, CEV, X-33.. *everything* was thrown out. The one R&D program he could not touch that started in 2006 is set to fly a demo in about 2 months. X-38 and others were much further along in their development path than Orion is now. If he had not monkeyed with the OSP program, its a pretty reasonable guess we would be flying hardware now).
So, to recap:
Alabama congresscritters vote to cut taxes and argue that we should reduce government. The citizens call Obama everything from a socialist to a fascist, and argue that they are Taxed Enough Already (that's the TEA in teabagger) and that government is full of waste. Yet when the Democrats want to cut a program that hasn't produced in an effort to save money, the Alabamanites are upset?
Pure hypocracy.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Of course Mike Griffin is involved. How could he not undermine every effort to fix the horrible damage that he's done?
It's all about pork-barrel income and this is why NASA has failed to do anything on the manned spaceflight for decades... At least UK doesn't have that much money sunk in manned spaceflight, yet. The existing-but-soon-on-its-way Government have decided to have an astronaut and has cut many science projects already.
Taxes bring in money from that state ... its the job of congressman to earmark it back to the state they represent. Anything not earmarked is handed over to the executive branch to spend however they want without any sunlight/oversite. The war against earmarks is a smoke screen to provide the executive branch more money to throw around doing who knows what. As far as I am concerned ... every damn cent should be earmarked. At least then we know where its going.
Remember the Republican mottos, kids:
- Earmarks are bad, except in my district!
- Government spending can't create jobs, except in my district!
"Troll" ?!? Excuse me!?!?
That's how it works in Washington. We have the same thing here in GA. Saxby Chamblis (R) and the rest our mostly Republican congressional team bashes Obama's spending ALL the time but when it comes to the F-22 project (they're made here in Marietta), he's got his hand out just like any other politician.
Both parties are guilty of it. WTF is it with you people, someone makes an observation that's actually true but says something negative you mod it down?!?
Some of you people are such ignoramuses! Troll indeed!
How many weasel words and how much blatant bias is there in this summary ? We would not even dare to speak of Microsoft like this - and we are on slashdot.
List your qualifications and show you have the knowledge and experience to determine that a rocket program is "chronically mismanaged". Or shut your mouth. And quoting the critics is not allowed, since they are by and large either inexperienced shysters trying to use their "knowledge" to wring appearances fees out of the media or interplanetary roboticists look to get more funding for their own late, over budget, and problem-laden programs.
Unless there's a very different story that I've never heard of:
a) That was Indiana
b) They never considered a law making it anything
c) They certainly didn't consider making it 3, because that's what the Bible says
d) No such law was ever passed.
Basically, they were looking at a law recognizing some local crackpot who offered them free use of his method of squaring the circle (which intrinsically involved pi, of course). As it turned out, pi can be read as having multiple values in his work anyway. (It's not entirely clear what he was saying since what he claims to have done isn't possible to begin with.) They were set straight by a friendly, passing mathematician. (More or less literally true, I'm pleased to say.)
Underwood Dudley has written about the whole, weird story, but the short version is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill
Most people in this state are idiots, and the politicians are even worse. Alabama is hell on earth and...
Oh, hey, wait, this really isn't so bad.
You are all fired. Go home and start looking for a new job.
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
oboma cutting jobs in good ol BAMA? say it aint so master say it aint so!
I'm all pro NASA. As an Alabama resident I love what it does for Huntsville.
The real blame here should go to Parker Griffith. You don't leave the majority party, this is what happens when you do. If he hadn't become a turncoat there would be no way the administration would have cut funding to his district.
But he made the decision easy for them... good luck Parker getting re-elected with the right and the left wanting to taste your blood.
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
Like most federal government, NASA needs a reboot, it's full of corruption from top to bottom. Years of nepotism and minority set asides when hiring has the federal employees they have a bunch of unqualified crooks that are way more interested in getting paid rather than science. While like all federal agencies, the contractors do all the heavy lifting, but don't get much done, because they hands are tied by the federal drones they work for, and under paid because most of the money the contractors should get is paid to the owners of the 8a firms they work for, or kicked back to members of congress election campaigns.
As has been said several times. NASA has matured into the worst possible of outcomes. After NASA's early years of being lead by Engineer visionaries it has degenerated into what happens to all old monopoly based organizations. The ultimate proof is in the past management of Mike Griffin and his present antics that prove overtly one of his biggest agendas. 'Protect your empire' or even more basic, 'your turf'.
Sadly the whole management structure needs replacing with fresh blood. How many major and deadly mistakes does NASA management get to make before it is torn down and rebuilt. It has become the worst type of 'Old Boys Club'. Much of the promotion structure has allowed for 'those who can't' to move up the corporate ladder. The best and brightest are left to struggle because they believe more in the science and technology than the politics of promotion. Management once infiltrated with a political majority will do anything to protect their positions. Who get's hired into management are those that won't cause their boss trouble or try to take the boss's job. In other words, they hire someone that appears more stupid than they are and certainly never someone that might try for their job. The trick is to play the game and fool that manager that you are no threat to him/her. So without a doubt, in a few short years, all the leadership positions are filled with those skilled only in the 'company politic'.
All capable visionaries are soon lost forever. Only a fluke chance could any intelligent, capable management style ever gain control again. Who am I kidding.... Only a complete and utter shakeup from the top down ever crack that rock. NASA needs a new NASA. Perhaps Obam could do it. But once again... who am I kidding. What has Obam done yet other than make good speeches. Like health care, NASA is an embedded institution with all the self interested states and politicians, along with all the other pork barrel camp followers to contend with.
As for the right and wrong way? The programs, where there, are there or could be there. But how could the correct choice be made? I doubt ever, unless a properly sized competent and truly independent team of aerospace professionals decide, or the alternative. A President that is in fact a rocket scientist.
America can afford one of two things:
1) cut program spending and cripple NASA to maintain
as many federal programs as possible while paying down
debt.
2) continue funding NASA, continue cutting taxes,
ignore the national debt, Fight and kill as many debt
holders as possible. Defeat china. Manhandle europe.
gl, its a tough choice.
States rights seem to be popular on this board. I'm not sure why-- I'm not particularly inclined to trust "those idiots down in Richmond" over "those idiots down in Washington." But perhaps the states could fill a void and start up space exploration programs of their own.
This is the legacy of Ronald Reagan. He believed that if we replace federal workers as much as possible with private contractors, we could shift the size of government at will - increasing or decreasing the labor force in tune with the changing priorities and budgets.
The fallacy is that when you have federal tax dollars flowing into a locale, that locale becomes dependent on the influx. To cut that flow off - whether through salaries or contracts - means killing growth in a district. A district which will look to its congressman as their champion to right that "wrong." In effect, all we've done is add more overhead (contract administration on both sides, procurement processes, and profit for the contractors). Well, that and forced the core engineers and scientists out of NASA, so that when we really need continuity we can't get it.
There are things that can be outsourced efficiently. I outsource cleaning my office, office supplies, and telecommunications. If I chose a different vendor for any of those, it's no big deal. But when you're dealing with a $4T budget, it means that switching vendors or stopping a project has a major impact on whatever area your vendor was set up in. Sadly, we don't really have the money to pay everyone - no matter what your congressman promised two years ago.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The Second To None Initiative is fighting *for* the future of the program -- not *fighting it* as the summary suggests! Slashdot should be ashamed for posting this summary.
or Missile Defense Agency in 2005, I have actually seen just how pushy some of the Alabama crowd can be. We were training a group of their users on some office automation software they'd licensed from us, and during the training, the 'gentleman' from Alabama nearly derailed the class as he tried to use it as a platform for his conspiracy theories that this was just another attempt to push them out of the decision-making loop (and thus on to the unemployment line).
Alabama is certainly a vocal constituency.
This is a lot like how communities fought military base closures. We don't need an air base in the Dakotas to defend ourselves from Canadians. They want it because the base contributes to the local economies. A lot of times, the Pentagon gets hardware forced on them because a contractor in key district makes them, it had nothing to do with whether it was needed or wanted. The bigger projects made with components from many different districts are even harder to kill.
I didn't realize Alabama believed in science.
Give trillions to the bankers for nothing in return.. and then, cut a couple of billion from NASA to make-up for the trillions lost..
I should've been a banker, lawyer, or politician... naaaa, I have a conscience.
Doesn't matter if the new approach represents a better use of funds, PORK is at stake. Fighting for PORK is the work of True Patriots. Taking PORK away is the work of Godless Commie Terrorists. Please think of the Children. The CHILDREN!
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
States rights seem to be popular on this board. I'm not sure why-- I'm not particularly inclined to trust "those idiots down in Richmond" over "those idiots down in Washington." But perhaps the states could fill a void and start up space exploration programs of their own.
But if we can keep "those idiots down in [insert your state capitol here]" and "those idiots down in Washington" at each others' throats, we might be able to accomplish something while they are distracted. You can't fight 'em, but you can get 'em to fight each other.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Alabama is the home of US Senator Richard Shelby, who is currently single-handedly holding all of President Obama's nominations hostage for pork-barrel earmarks to his home state. Let the retaliation begin!
--Obyron
What about neophyte startups like ULA, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed, and of course Boeing proper. Much of the new 'commercial' sector is going to be the same people as before, just acting through fixed-price rather than cost-plus contracts.
Comparing Ares 1X to Falcon 9 is foolish. Falcon 9 is the potentially final vehicle, with a first and second stage. Ares 1X was a 4-segment SRB (as opposed to the required 5-segment), a second stage mass simulator, and a Titan control system. It was intended only as an aerodynamic test, and yet managed to cost as much as all of Space X's development combined. A better analogy would be Ares 1X:Ares 1 as Falcon 1:Falcon 9, in terms of progression of technology. And to answer your question, F9 is coming along quite well. Should see the first test flight in the next few months -- if it doesn't go off, we're fortunate because F9 isn't a single point of failure in this new plan, unlike Ares 1, and there are still other, completely separate vehicles in development that will be able to take up the slack.
Finally, Bolsheviks in the Augustine Commission??? Its socialist to want to privatize something??? Clearly I'm confused in my understanding of these words.
This plan is no less vacuous than the program of record, and has the advantage of having results that can be built off of within an administration -- if CxP were continued, it would just be at risk of being cancelled by the next administration change, and the one after that, and the one after that (no landing till the 2030s). A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. NASA hasn't managed to build a new vehicle using traditional contracting methods since the 1970s, it would be insanity to keep doing it this way.
Oh I see. Just because Obama does it its wrong. Now I get it!
No, Making fun of ignorant "$YOUR OWN ETHNIC GROUP" is always accepted. But attempt to make the same type of humorous blanket commentary about the ignorance of "$NOT YOUR OWN ETHNIC GROUP", and you'll immediately be branded a "$NOT YOUR OWN ETHNIC GROUP"-hating racist.
is to kick it out of government, and put it into the hands of private business. NASA, as with ANY government agency, does not have to be "concerned" about being a lean, mean, efficient agency. Why should they worry about being efficient? It's a government agency, with an "unlimited" budget. Bloated, short sighted, lacking in any oversight(for the most part), NASA is lost. Their only concern is as with any government agency. Making sure they spend their entire budget (if not more) just to make sure they can come back next year and ask for the same amount if not more. NASA lost its way after they landed on the moon. After that, they gave up on a PERFECT rocket, the Saturn, and instead of pushing on for Mars, they thought the shuttle would be the end all. Now that they found the moon, now what? Lets just circle the earth for 30 years.
I have a graduate degree in rocket engineering and have been testing rockets longer than most of you have been alive.
Constellation is way over budget, way behind schedule, with a bunch of sniveling managers trying to hide both facts. That's classic mismanagement, in any goddamn field. These guys should be put out to pasture and whipped for attempting the endeavor in the first place with inadequate resources. Rocket science may not be hard anymore but IT IS EXPENSIVE, always will be. These fuckers knew better, they were pretty clearly just showing up for a paycheck.
So, fear not. All is going to be well. http://www.theonion.com/content/video/nasa_scientists_plan_to_approach
And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceedest on to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it." Amen.
Yeah lets make fun of southerners, when we could just as easily look at the long story of blacks hating space spending. I mean, if we're going to make fun of white people, let's have a look at the other side.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081129115539AABRPXx
http://www.niggaknow.com/technology/white-people-dont-know-shit-about-space/
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080911165052AAbljAt
http://ericstoller.com/blog/2008/09/09/space-race-matters/
and it goes on and on...
and then you have Obama's own plan to cut NASA manned space flight and dole out bucks to the third world...
This is my sig.
Pork? When people read this article or when they heard about Richard Shelby putting a hold on seventy Obama appointees, they call it pork. Take a moment and think. Whom is a congressman or senator appointed to serve? Their constituents, their people back home, the jobs in their districts. I smiled and laughed hard the other day when I heard about Shelby putting the hold on Obama's appointees. If you think when the people of Alabama heard that they were appalled, you're wrong. They heard that and said, 'Hell yea, give me my pork.' Like it or not, this is the way our founding fathers set up the legislative body. Representative are supposed to represent their districts. Political parties aren't mentioned anywhere in the constitution, not once. Alabama's representatives are doing exactly what they should be doing, fighting for their piece of the pie.
No, small businesses are the source of jobs. Big federal contracts are the source of large campaign contributions. So yes we're talking pure pork.
Obama's NASA reorganization backs long term R&D efforts, always a sound investment, while supporting our commercial launch vehicles. We need a successful commercial space program. X Prize, hello?
p.s. I'm now happy any time that Alabama's federal dole gets cut given Sen. Shelby ridiculous behavior, please cut their highway funding too!
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Perhaps some brilliant strategy will emerge such as holding health care reform hostage unless they get what they want. Then again if they don't play nice perhaps the administration could cut down a few more projects in Alabama. Closing a military base or two might get their attention.
Man, I remember how the military hated Clinton for BRAC back in the 90s. I totally understand where they were coming from, because a military base is a massive economic and cultural driver. But it just goes to show that when people say they want smaller government, what they really mean is they want spending cuts for everyone else and tax cuts for themselves. Most fiscal conservatives aren't nearly as noble as their own rhetoric leads them to believe.
Small businesses pay a lot of employment taxes, even if they aren't profitable. The business has to match the employee's contribution to Social Security and Medicare, and pay into federal and state unemployment funds.
Yes, but on the other hand, all competing employers have to pay these taxes as well. So the taxes essentially reduce the cash wages that you can afford to pay an employee, but it's not unfair (to the business owner) since it has the effect of reducing the employee's market wage. It can be a problem when you bump into the minimum wage, since these taxes essentially increase the loaded cost of a minimum wage employee.
The real problem --- and I say this as a small business owner with 14 employees --- is healthcare. Healthcare costs do /not/ impact all employers equally, and small businesses are particularly vulnerable to rate increases since we have very little bargaining power. Blue Cross is much less likely to hike IBM's rates when Joe Employee's wife get cancer, but small businesses have to worry about this constantly.
My city wants to create a "no-mail list" so that people can sign up to stop receiving junk mail.
The very first story about it on the news interviewed several people who's entire job was to pack and sort all the crap that was sent out, who were of course very much opposed to such a list.
People will fight for their jobs, but when your occupation is doing something that no body wants/needs or doesn't make sense to do in the first place, it deserves to die.
I was bummed out when the giant company I work for did NOT win the constellation business we wanted. But NASA and its contractors do a TERRIBLE job of promoting success and good work to the public. Instead all you hear is bad news. The press helped when it was fun but they've left. Don't believe me? How many of you can draw a reasonably accurate diagram of Apollo? Now how many of you can sketch a reasonably accurate floor plan for ISS? How many modules are in it? Does it have one truss, two, or none?
If you want to see what they have REALLY been up to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2IQVZmHnJQ
Or, it might be that the people who created the plan and work on the project actually believe their plan, ideas, and what they've been doing with their lives isn't a giant waste of time and money?
I'm not saying their idea and plan IS the right one or not, I just think it's far more likely that the project manager and his staff believe they are on the right track than the possibility that they know their own ideas aren't good and are being hypocritical gravy train riders. People tend to have the belief that their own work and ideas are good the world over.
what you do when you are unable to amount to anything on your own.
since Homo sapiens is a species, whereas a racial group is by definition a subgroup of a species.
As for Alabama pork I am demanding that my Senators put hold on any pork in Alabama and have that redirected to our state instead.
It is not only a better use of the money, but serve Alabamians a good lesson of never again electing a shill like Shelby to use the US Senate to grease the palms of foreign defense contractors.
I would encourage fellow citizen's in the other 49 states to do likewise, with respect to pork that some Alabamians regard as their birthright.
Let the Chinese and the Iraqis pay for our Army and National Defense. Let the Europeans pay for the cost of our bureaucracy, the Mexicans the cost of our sewage disposal, and the Columbians for the cost of our police.
Why should any republican be forced to pay taxes? Taxes are for democrats and socialists.
At least one more time, since social security and medicare haven't been eliminated yet and there are still plenty of opportunities to play the war card, the true path to a bright future for the republican party and the rapture.
Just ask sister Sarah!
Its obvious that rubes like you failed to notice what disappeared during the Regan presidency that set us up for the mess we are in now. The give the rich a tax break crowd succeed (and still succeeds) in hollowing out our economy, social and physical infrastructure, and educational systems, and offshoring jobs, while leaving health care solely in the hands of private corporations, so now the government nor the middle class doesn't have enough money to do anything well and we are now all forced to borrow from China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and elsewhere, while somehow thinking that our bankers won't have their own price to exact.
Well now these bankers do as Senator Shelby's bidding on behalf of the major European Defense contractor indicates.
I guess its at least fitting that folks in States like Alabama who hate taxes will be the ones to shoulder the burden disproportionately. They are the one's who voted for the great Regan agenda and its followups during the Bush dynasty.
"So why do rich people have more of a "need" to hide tax breaks with a lower tax system than a higher tax system?"
Gee might it be that they have more money to hide and can afford to pay skillful accountants, tax lawyers, and Swiss bankers to help them hide it?
Duh, just wondering.
"Your pork is another citizen's investment for the future."
Not always. As Senator Shelby demonstrated, his pork is a gift to a european defense contractor under the guise of providing a few in Alabama with jobs at the expense of other Americans, who need the money be spent on things other than supporting European bankers who are heavily invested in EADS and want the US taxpayer to bail them out too. Another classic case of republican economics in action.
I've written my senators demanding that they place a hold on all bills that send pork to Alabama for this purpose. You should too, unless of course, you live in Alabama. In that case you can send a letter to Senator Shelby thanking him for his efforts on behalf of foreign defense contractors and why you think its great that the US government will now be saving a lot of money by killing these pork projects.
No wonder the GOP is so actively courting the tea-bag movement. They need them to keep pumping money to foreigners who are actively encouraging their borrow and spend philosophy of government.
Yeah, and I expect the tooth fairy should do her patriotic duty and leave me a million dollars under my pillow each and every night!
That way I would have money enough to pay for those socialist programs that provide the money for the pork being sent to Alabama every year.
Hey. Don't start trying to inject reason into this argument. If you did that Senators from Alabama wouldn't have anything to do.
Call your senator and demand that all pork going to Alabama be placed on hold and pulled from any budget decisions going forward and that money be spent either 1) to reduce the deficit or 2) spent on the needy in your state.
Ask them also to send a thank you note to Senator Shelby for giving them the opportunity to say no to pork.
In the case of the Alabama pork at issue, its mostly going to EADS the european defense contractor at the expense of the non-Alabama taxpayers.
Sure lets earmark everything and then make sure none of the earmarks are headed to Alabama where they primarily fund foreign outsourcing.
The problem of your proposal and why it will never be enacted is that you would rapidly discover that much of the earmarking is going into sending the money to our foreign creditors to keep our economy afloat. Thats what borrow and tax republicanism is all about, keeping tax rates low for foreign-owned corporations. Democrats for the most part at least have the decency of demanding that the bulk of US tax dollars be spent in the US, thereby supporting American labor.
"and set themselves in judgment of how other people chose to spend their own hard earned money",
as opposed to say health insurance providers, mortgage bankers, cable-companies and other corporations who perk up and listen to us every time we demand that their prices be reduced?
Might you be one of those Americans who spends hundreds of dollars each month to spend half of your time watching commercials, or am I just guessing?
As I listen to your wisdom, I am now beginning to understand why China is now able to spend about $145 billion dollars per year on high speed trains that run at over 200 mph and China now currently has 45 such high speed rail links between every major Chinese city, while America struggles to complete its first such link between two Florida cities a little over a hundred miles apart by 2014. It must be that we are spending way too much time listening to all those "enlightened socialists".
I agree, its time to stop spending money on pork in Alabama so that it can be funneled to foreign defense contractors, who grease the palms of Alabama senators.
who want to cut us off from our pork.
So, in other words, you're not a manager who has to deal with the reality of programmatics. It's always the test guys burning up static fire stands who run up the bill on engine programs.
Its not exactly like all the "borrow and spend economics" that have been the hallmark of republicanism for the past 30 years hasn't created a budget deficit so large as to hollow out the underlying solvency of our government.
Its precisely the core of the republican message that has created the crisis, "lower taxes means more money for the rich and corporate interests", which in turn will "trickle down to the masses", who can otherwise "vote with their feet" (or if that won't work playing the "war card" will do the trick).
The problem is that republicans did know what they wanted to do once elected, but now that they accomplished their goal, the damage is done and no one, save the Chinese, know how to fix it. But Oh, wait all we need to do now is eliminate social security and medicare and pay for ever more pork in republican districts.
Hope that what, that he would pilot and crash Air Force One?
McCain has done little in years but to grandstand and but to enrich himself and spend lavishly on overseas junkets at taxpayers expense. If you added up all the expenditures paid for by taxpayers to pay for John McCain's travel, which I can't think of a single piece of legislation that resulted from any of it, it would total nearly 100 million dollars taking account of security, meals, hotel accommodations, limos, party favors, baggage or cameras, etc.
I say its time to end all federal pork to Arizona until Arizonans have the sense to get rid of McCain. He has cost this country enough already.
I applaud Senator Shelby of giving every democrat in the Senate, especially those on the appropriations committee, an open invitation to remove Alabama's pork from the budget and stuff it into their own budgetary earmarks, especially those going to my home state, since after all what you say must be true. In doing so, the will of the majority will be served, even if it does come at the expense of foreign defense contractors who hire a few Alabamians.
Its now open season on Red States that have two sitting republican senators! We can now all watch America's budget get balanced. Perhaps this is a fitting way to make those who supported the republican philosophy of borrow and spend bear the burden of their profligacy.
Now that Senator Shelby has fired the first shot, let the battle of the budget begin. Alabamaians, Mississippian, Texans, Oklahomans, they love their guns so they will enjoy the hunt to root out "waste, fraud, and abuse".
And yes I have written my senators demanding that they place holds on any more federal monies being wasted in Alabama and other Red States, since too much of it will just head out the door to foreign defense contractors, foreign bankers holding US government debt, Saudi's with ties to the oil industry, and US subsidiaries of now mostly foreign owned health care corporations, in exchange for foreign campaign contributions by US subsidiaries. Its time to flush republican obstructionism from and plug the leakage within the plumbing of the US federal budget. No more republican junkets to Europe to cavort with foreign donors. No more republican favors for foreign tax shelters. No more protection rackets for insurance industries.
Republicanism has clogged the sewers of the federal budgeting process and its time for the draino and a good flush.
Down with republican corporate socialism and their reverse Robinhoodism!
Hooray for Obama for standing up to republican champions for Alabama pork, who have huddled with foreign interests instead of with American interests.
May he with the most power win!
Its ironic that Senator Shelby turns out to be a socialist in capitalist clothing, looking for a federal handout rather than supporting privatization that was supposed to the the hallmark of the republican approach to budgeting. Now that Obama wants to privatize the system, he's against it. The only thing consistent about republicans is that they continue to want everyone to do it their way.
Well Senator Shelby made the mistake of poking the wrong politician in the eye with a sharp stick and it looks as if Alabamaians are going to pay the price of not electing a wiser senator.
I for one have asked by Senator to place a hold on budget for creating more pork in an FBI counter terrorism center in Alabama. It would simply duplicate programs elsewhere and increase our budget deficit. Likewise, I would encourage others to write their Senators to find other federal projects in Alabama that can be privatized and save taxpayers in 49 other states a lot of money.
Thank you Senator Shelby for pointing out where our Senators can save federal tax dollars by not wasting them in Alabama.
Well not being from Alabama, but being the one paying for too much of the Alabama pork, I am opposed to further pork for Huntsville. That money needs to be diverted to other more needy projects.
I would encourage all readers to write their Senators and demand that all pork going to Alabama be immediately suspended and that the money be used to either pay down the deficit or go to projects much more needed in their home states rather than to foreign defense contractors, who use Huntsville as to base their corporate subsidiary.
Shelby definitely over reached on this one. Now he has placed in jeopardy every piece of legislation about to provide a dollar to a red state district. The reverberations of his action are only beginning to be felt.
Republicans are about to be very much unloved by their constituencies for saying no all the time to progress.
It looks as if Red States and red districts are about to help America balance its budget deficits. Perhaps this is only just, since it was republican profligacy that created so much of the deficit much in the first place.
is that these days both work for the same corporate masters, too often as in the case of Senator Shelby foreign masters at a foreign defense contractor or in the case of Senators from Oklahoma, the Saudi Royal family, Hugo Chavez, and British Petroleum.
Don't hold your breath hoping that you won't find yourself between the punch as they exchange blows. You might do well to be fast on your feet and do a lot of bobbing and weaving.
I guess its at least fitting that folks in States like Alabama who hate taxes will be the ones to shoulder the burden disproportionately.
I doubt it. It is one of the great ironies in tax debate that the "hate tax" states tend also to be the states that get more back from the feds than they pay in taxes. Maybe you should call their bluff and cut taxes and spending to show them what hypocrites you think they are.