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Senators Demand NASA Continue Spending On Ares

FleaPlus writes "Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL and ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee handling NASA funding) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) have added an amendment onto an emergency spending bill for military operations in Afghanistan, reiterating that NASA must continue spending its funds on the Constellation program, particularly the medium-lift Ares I rocket. Alabama and Utah have strong ties to Ares/Constellation contractors, and both senators are opposed to the new direction for NASA, with Shelby describing it as a 'death march' for US spaceflight and criticizing the emphasis on commercial rockets."

4 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Pork! Pork! Pork! by Third+Position · · Score: 3, Informative

    These actions speak louder than words, and I hope the voters are listening this November.

    You don't have to wait until November. Bennet already lost his party's nomination.

    --
    American Third Position
    Finally, a real choice!
  2. Re:NASA is Military Spending by pnewhook · · Score: 4, Informative

    NASA is military spending because most of NASA's contractors contract for the military. NASA is also a military organisation, believe it or not

    Yes, most of NASAs contractors also contract for the military because it just makes sense, but that does not make NASA a military organization.

    Did you know that the Air Force budget for space development and operations actually exceeds that of the entire NASA budget?

    Speaking as a NASA contractor, NASA is definitely NOT military.

    --
    Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
  3. Re:It's about jobs in this economy by butlerm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Worse, they didn't want to engage in rational discussion of the issues and were unwilling to consider compromise. They also seem to misunderstand what exactly one senator, or every Republican senator could do with respect to HCR. All you got was just a drumbeat about the "loving" the Constitution. This will get them nowhere in Congress.

    That is a poor generalization based on a few anecdotes. There were ~3500 state delegates and the idiosyncrasies of a small number of them does not a proper analysis make. The thing about Senator Bennett is he doesn't actually seem to get it.

    Conservative Republicans in the state haven't liked him very much for years. This year there were just a lot more conservative delegates - in large part due to horror at the prospect of trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.

    Perhaps Bennett thinks earmarks for such projects as the "bridge to nowhere" are fine. Perhaps he thinks that sponsoring health care reform bills that have stronger individual mandates (at the federal level) than the bill that actually passed is legitimate. Perhaps he thinks that granting $800 billion to the Treasury department to spend as they saw fit was a good idea. Perhaps he thought that opposing reasonable reforms of Fannie Mae back in 2003 was a good idea.

    The merits of those positions notwithstanding, most of the delegates disagreed, and they chose two candidates (excellent candidates I might add) that more closely reflected their views. It has nothing to do with "anti incumbent" feeling. It has to do with the rise of movement conservatism, something that Senator Bennett doesn't seem to have much sympathy for. So the serious conservatives voted him out, and by a rather overwhelming margin at that. He couldn't command more than 27% of the vote.

  4. Re:Science and Politics by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2, Informative

    You actually hit that right on the head, funny or not.
    What counts is raising money to stay in power,
    and both parties are dirty to the tops of their eyeballs
    Democratic Party: Top Industries
    Republican Party: Top Industries

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office