NASA is inefficient and exists only to employ government workers. But it's the only space program we've got. Barry "Boss Tweek" Obama has mentioned cutting funding for NASA, which will not only force them to extend the shuttle program but also push back the target date for a return to the moon even further.
The article says that NASA is "...poised to become a very new NASA" but I don't think that's actually so. What it will be is the same old NASA with a "very new" coat of paint on it.
Even that is better than what we've had for the past two decades. But it won't be so under Boss Tweek. He belongs to the category of Democrat who thinks that NASA's primary model is to load pallets of $100 bills onto rockets and fire them into the sun ("You're sending all that money into space when there are problems here on Earth that need solving!"). NASA's budget of about $18 billion per year doesn't even rate a line in the giant pie-chart of the US Federal Budget, which is $1.4 trillion dollars--with half of it consisting of transfer payments and various welfare programs.
*sigh* But it is tedious to tell a tale already plainly told.
* * *
They smell blood. They always do, and as I said before, if the story is big enough it doesn't matter whose blood it is.
The press apparently thinks there is some connection between Blago(D) and Obama--and in fact anyone who understands machine politics should not be surprised by this, as Obama did earn his "chops" stumping for the Chicago machine.
And machine politics are always dirty. By definition.
This guy says that the press is trying to cover Boss Tweek's butt, and I think he's right...but only to a certain extent.
The press knows it overextended itself during the campaign and that it's got to look tough on Obama in order to regain its credibility. (A "fallen" woman might as well try to "regain" her virginity, but that's an issue for another post.) If there is a connection from Boss Tweek to the Blago(D) fiasco, it will be found and it will be reported: "See? See? We're objective and stuff!"
Meanwhile the conservative media smells a rat, and I am not surprised. The common thinking seems to be that they're coming down hard on Blago(D) and trying to pin everything on him so that Boss Tweek won't be implicated.
Point of order: the FBI and the Attorney General's office are both beholden to the Executive Branch of government. If Boss Tweek decides to clean house in the AG's office, don't expect the press to wet itself in anguish over "politically-motivated" firings. (Clinton fired everyone and got a pass; Bush replaced 8 people and it was a national crisis. Expect Barry to get a pass, too.)
But the truth will out, and if Boss Tweek is involved someone will eventually find out and report it...and when that happens, anyone who has lived in the Chicago area for any length of time will shrug, because this is how things work in Illinois. It's wrong, but it's entrenched, and there is nothing the average citizen can do about it.
* * *
I really need to get my brain in gear. It's the 14th; I have basically ten days to do all my Christmas shopping. *sigh*
Dang it, it seems like there's just no time when you're an adult. When you're a kid, to quote Charlie Brown, "Christmas is at the top of a big hill, and the closer you get, the steeper it becomes." So as you get closer, it takes longer and longer to pass each day. (Which is why Christmas Eve seems endless when you're a kid.)
When you're an adult, it's the opposite. It's at the bottom of a valley, and the closer you get, the steeper it becomes, so that you accelerate towards it. Christmas Eve is the Schwarzchild radius of the holiday season. The closer you get to it, the faster everything moves. Christmas Eve is over in a blink and suddenly it's dinnertime on Christmas day.
*sigh*
This year, if I can possibly do so, I want to get everything done on the 23rd so I can relax on the 24th--no last-minute shopping, no traffic, no idiots at the stores--none of that. Just me, the eggnog, Christmas music, and maybe a new pair of slippers to keep my feet warm. That would be nice.
And while I'm wishing, Santa, please bring me a pony.
No don't really bring me a pony, damn it! Or if you do, make it a cool robo-pony with laser eyes and rocket propulsion.