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Obama's Space Plan — a Conservative Argument

MarkWhittington writes "The Obama space proposal, which seeks to enable a commercial space industry for transportation to and from low Earth orbit while it cancels space exploration beyond LEO, has sparked a kind of civil war among conservatives. Some conservatives hate the proposal because of the retreat from the high frontier and even go so far as to cast doubt on the commercial space aspects. Other conservatives like the commercial space part of the Obama policy and tend to gloss over the cancellation of space exploration or even denigrate the Constellation program as 'unworkable' or 'unsustainable.'"

20 of 433 comments (clear)

  1. Obama, space plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    As we all know, there are no niggers in space.

    1. Re:Obama, space plan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Get it right - no STRAIGHT niggers in space.

    2. Re:Obama, space plan? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0, Troll

      At least we have one conservative who's not afraid to say what's really motivating his opinion.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Obama, space plan? by toadlife · · Score: 0, Troll

      If by historically you mean before 1960's, yeah.

      If you want to include the last 40 years, historically the racists have been conservative.

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
    4. Re:Obama, space plan? by Boronx · · Score: 0, Troll

      Historically, Republicans don't know anything about history. Pretty good troll, though.

  2. Torn between their two favorite things: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Conservatives are confused, as they can't decide between their two favorite things: shoveling tax dollars to aerospace companies in Red states, or attacking science. After all, those NASA guys keep putting up satellites that tell us about the climate...

  3. Re:Space exploration is conservative. by tjstork · · Score: -1, Troll

    ?When did this happen? Last I heard, a NASA project that was even more horrendously delayed and over-budget than usual got canned. There's nothing to stop another, better, project from taking it's place.

    If Obama gets re-elected, there won't be one to even begin for 8 years, because in their hearts of hearts, liberals don't want to spend money on spaceships for white people, when there are so many suffering minorities. It's racial politics, is all this is.

    Of course, Jeff Sessions in Alabama did not help himself AT ALL when he bitched about GM getting a handout in Detroit. He's sitting there on top of a huge NASA budget coming into his state, and he's complaining about a fraction of that going into GM. Oh I was pissed off when he did it, and I could see this result coming from a mile away.

    The ironic end game though is that you'll see southern states waiving environmental, wage, and other regulations to get aerospace jobs, while the liberal north languishes, as usual, and so, when the south does "rise again", the Confederate Army will be in the position of having the spaceships while the North will be cut off and begging for some foreign powers to help it.

    God, the North is SO STUPID these days, and the liberals are just leading the charge of dumb.

    --
    This is my sig.
  4. Re:libertarian by jcr · · Score: 0, Troll

    You do know that NASA has a record for decades of doing all they could to prevent the development of any private competitors, right?

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Shorter Republicans: NONONONONONO by Mix+Master+Nixon · · Score: -1, Troll

    If Obama was smart, he'd publicly endorse air, leading immediately to the entire Republican party boycotting it.

    --
    Oppressing an entire population is never cheap.
    --Jeckler (/. Beta IS GARBAGE!)
  6. Easy enough to balance the budget by tjstork · · Score: 0, Troll

    It's a damn shame that there just isn't enough money for NASA right now, but blaming liberals for it is just asinine.

    I have the Federal Budget right in front of me as I'm building an application that details the number of days the average citizen has to work to fund each and every 600 odd line items, including details of entitlements.

    The fact is welfare has been a persistent and chronic drain on the federal budget now, for a generation. We've spend a trillion dollars a year to help urban centers and eradicate poverty, and what has it accomplished? I mean nothing.

    You want funding for NASA? I'll tell you what, I got it for your right in these line items:

    50 billion plus for food stamps
    20 billion for school lunches
    150 billion plus for unenemplyment
    150 billion plus for SSI disability

    And I haven't even started on Medicare or Social Security yet.

    So, here's the deal, I'll cut 10 billion from food stamps, 5 billion from school lunches, 30 billion from disability, and 30 billion from unemployment, and in just one year I've got nearly the entire cost of the Constellation Program.

    Entitlements aren't too blame.

    I thought liberals knew how to add.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Easy enough to balance the budget by QuoteMstr · · Score: -1, Troll

      Obviously, your not a Conservative as you don't know what the hell your talking about.

      You're a moran.

      Brutalizing a man is no way to "teach him to fish", to use your trite [and tripe?] metaphor.

  7. Two things about any OBAMA idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    One, he didn't come up with it.
    Two, it's bad for America.

    If you like America oppose anything he supports, if you don't, support it.

  8. Sure by copponex · · Score: 0, Troll

    There were lots of private companies trying to privately spend a small portion of US GDP for private research in order to get to space. And since we didn't need NASA for anything, it's amazing that the technology developed at NASA appeared worldwide in the same time frame without the subsidization of any other government.

    Consider the history of flight

    Indeed! The technology required to fly 200 feet and put a human on the moon are shockingly similar.

    Ahhh, I'm just kidding. You know you're full of shit. And so do I.

  9. In the meanwhile, we're spending $1 TRILLION/year by melted · · Score: 0, Troll

    In the meanwhile, we're spending $1 TRILLION a year on the military and two pointless wars. And Guantanamo is still right the way it was.

    Hope and change, my ass.

  10. Re:Conservatives? Who cares? by DigiShaman · · Score: 0, Troll

    You're confusing individual liberty with social justice.

    Well. If you put in that context, allow me to post a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln. I hope you find it as enlightening as I do.

    "We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  11. Re:Conservatives? Who cares? by ErikZ · · Score: -1, Troll

    When in power: transfer as much wealth as possible to the very rich

    What's the visible difference between that, and transferring as much wealth to those who can get things done? Also known as "Successful people that create wealth".

    --
    Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
  12. Re:Yay, mindless idealism! by jcr · · Score: -1, Troll

    Libertarians are often ignorant of the fact that they effectively lobby against civilization.

    Wow.. Does pulling that kind of lie out of your ass make the undergrads swoon? Governments kill people by the millions. Want to tell me how "civilized" that is?

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  13. Re:libertarian by timmarhy · · Score: -1, Troll

    replace renting with living for free in mom's basement, or house with 1 bed room with no bath room in a crack house down town and we might believe you.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  14. Re:libertarian by Toonol · · Score: 0, Troll

    I've been saying for 10 years or more: America is over.

    And saying it over and over, loudly, no doubt.

  15. Re:Space exploration is conservative. by tjstork · · Score: 0, Troll

    Look at health care. There's no fix more obvious that the government, and only the government can do to improve the course of this country, yet it drives conservatives completely around the bend. Even when the final bill turns out to be more conservative, more free-market, with less government than anyone could have imagined 12 months ago, conservatives are still around the bend.

    Government is the cause of the health care problem. Regulations that mandate services drive up the cost of coverage. Lawsuits drive up costs for everything. I love how everyone likes to tout how much the USA spends more on health insurance but by the same token what is never stated is that you effectively cannot sue for malpractice in countries with national health insurance.

    --
    This is my sig.