Bush's space monkey business

The Orion, California State University Chico ^ | January 28, 2004 | Travis Souders

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Travis Souders
Opinion Columnist

Looks like someone's a "Star Wars" fan.

And taxpayers get to spend billions of dollars because of it.

President George W. Bush is making plans to redefine the nature of our space program.

His biggest goals are creating a space station on the moon and using it as a sort of checkpoint to send people to other planets, most notably Mars.

OK, so George likes spaceships. That would be great, if it weren't for the fact that our economy still sucks, and domestic programs like education and health care are continuously getting screwed out of money.

CNN.com reported that Bush's proposed space plan could run in the hundreds of billions of dollars, based on previous space endeavors.

We could do so much more with that money. We could give it to health care programs, or pump it into public school systems, or line somebody's birdcage with it or give it to me.

It's all part of Bush's like-father-like-son campaign. For some reason or another, there's a Bush family obsession with Mars. NASA (which should stand for Nauseating Allocation of Spending by America) just put a $400-million rover on Mars. So far, it's discovered that Martian dirt is indeed still red.

The rover, called Spirit, is supposed to act as a robotic geologist (leave it to a dorky space-nerd to come up with an analogy like that) and examine the dirt for signs of water and possibly even alien life.

But it's only two weeks into its Martian adventure, and it's already sending back unintelligible binary messages. Instead of sending back a message like, "Our time would be better spent giving each other violent wedgies," it sends back messages like "0000111010101011."

The funny thing about these signs of life is that they're not even looking for current aliens. They're trying to see if Mars ever was an inhabitable planet ages ago.

Who cares?

Yeah, that's great for history and stuff, but is it really worth sacrificing all that money? Even if there are aliens around now, they haven't been bothering us (unless, of course, you're from a cornfield in the Midwest or something).

If they do exist, let's hope they're friendly enough to not get pissed and destroy us when we molest their planet.

Don't think that Bush didn't have this planned out, either. This marks the second highly criticized policy proposal since the capture of Saddam Hussein.

A couple of weeks ago, he lost popularity by talking with Mexican president Vicente Fox about giving illegal immigrants three-year renewable work visas to fill up the jobs Americans weren't taking.

Bush is going to be reelected because he got Saddam. He knows he will, so now he's going to start pushing his agenda more and more because he knows he can get away with it.

The most frustrating part is that Bush is stubborn enough to push this worthless agenda item when he knows he doesn't even have the country's support.

A CNN.com poll showed that 48 percent of the Americans surveyed liked Bush's idea, but another 48 percent was against it. Either way, he's going to be irritating half the country.

But when asked if the money he's going to spend to start the man-in-space program ($1 billion from taxpayer money and $11 billion from NASA) could be better used for domestic programs, 51 percent said yes.

The new space plan is merely a pawn in Bush's attempt to maintain the United States' superiority in the world.

The whole space race is nothing more than what it was during the Cold War: a penis-measuring contest between world powers to establish a lead over one another. It's probably not any coincidence that Bush is pushing this field trip to Mars only days after China started putting people in orbit.

When Bush starts his second term, we'll see just how many stunts he tries to pull, and I'll wager that they'll be significantly more dramatic than his current attempt at being a space cowboy. Maybe he'll want to send people to colonize the bottom of the ocean. But for now, Curious George wants to be an astronaut.

And all we can do is hope that he'll grow out of it.

Travis Souders can be reached at tsouders@orion-online.net

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This student need some curiosity, some imagination. Maybe he'll grow out of his LIBERAL stupor. If he ever grows up, he'll understand how lucky the world is the U.S. is strong and that George W. Bush was our president for 8 years.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

With this clown's attitude,we'd all still be living in caves.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Akkk! I just noticed the pic of the author. Turn the cap around, pull up your pants and get a clue son! (with apologies to P.J. O'Rourke)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He reflects what he's learned. Thank God there are sane, conservative students out there. But from what I've observed, the tread of LIBERALS going into journalism and education careers, doesn't bode well for the country.

[11B3]

And this POS kid deserves media time why? Someone should remind this twerp that there is a WAR going on, and he's back here loafing like some fag instead of being a MAN and serving his country.

As for any references to the Cold War, that little girl wasn't even alive then. What does she know about the space race? NOTHING.

God help us if attitudes like this one's prevail among our youth. (But when his ex-friends get back from Iraq and kick his sorry ass maybe he'll get the message.)

[jim35]

And close that fly-trap! Looks like Buckey Beaver.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He's a leach.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He's a leach. ---- As in leech.

[WestTexasWend]

...Travis is just grumpy that he didn't get in at Berkley.

[apillar]

What I think is ironic is that if John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean Etc. had come out and made the EXACT SAME space proposal that President Bush made, the liberals would be falling all over themselves about the brilliance and forward thinking of the proposal. They would be singing it's praises on the highest mountains, and saying we should spend what ever it takes to make this come to pass.

[Gorzaloon]

and domestic programs like education and health care are continuously getting screwed out of money.

They sure are not getting screwed out of mine.

My local property taxes have doubled because I am forced to throw more and more money down the rat hole of Unionized teachers and (spit) "Education Professionals" such as three superintendents in a town of 23,000.

The co-pays and premiums on my HMO continue to soar as MBA's play "doctor".

So I do not know whose money they are getting screwed out of, but it sure is not mine.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes. Just as they defended their commander-im-peached, they have no qualms about destroying our country, so long as they rule over the people.

[The_Eaglet]

This student need some curiosity, some imagination. Maybe he'll grow out of his LIBERAL stupor

His wording is not the most mature, but he is rightly objecting to spending excesses. In fact, he is criticizing the president's liberal stupor.

[Old Grumpy]

Does anybody really CARE what this California cretin thinks?

[The_Eaglet]

We could do so much more with that money. We could give it to health care programs, or pump it into public school systems, or line somebody's birdcage with it or give it to me.

Okay, so he is a liberal. However, the "give it to me" could be accomplished through further tax relief that goes with spending cuts. This could only amount to real taxpayer savings if the deficit spending is eliminated.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

So true. Education takes close to, if not more than, half of every state budget. And for their generosity, taxpayers have a bumper sticker proud educational system. But grades do not reflect knowledge learned. It's gotten so bad, students must be repeatedly tested before they're permitted to escape bad teachers and schools. But still the LIBERAL media and politicians stand with their political allies, the NEA, demanding they need more money.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Do you really think he's smart enough to grasp that?

[The_Eaglet]

Good question. He points out wasteful spending and then proposes that it be replaced with other spending for which the federal government has no constitutional authority.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

His wording is not the most mature, but he is rightly objecting to spending excesses. In fact, he is criticizing the president's liberal stupor.

He's only criticizing where the money is going. LIBERALS never criticize a spending program when it's under a democrat's watch.

I'd like to remind you, that with Apollo and the space program, we got something for the cost. In fact our economy grew, our national security strengthened and our schools graduated students skilled in math, science and engineering.

[The_Eaglet]

I don't object to SDI or other space efforts that defend the United States, but Mars exploration does not fall into that category.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Good enough. I too agree that the "search for life" is not a mission worth supporting. In the course of exploration, if we find some other life, it would be a nice by-product but since so many scientist believe it to be true, it wouldn't be a discovery.

Exploration works the imagination and keeps us and our country vital and on top. George Bush said we are going back to the Moon to learn to use it's resourcs. THAT IS A MISSION!! It is the key to moving beyond our current restrictions. Once we don't have to haul everything along with us, we will have created a passageway out into the universe. Our Moon is that passageway.

[petuniasevan]

Ah, the Orion. Still publishing whiny leftist rants courtesy of wetnosed spoiled brats who sponge off Mom and Dad.

Nice to see that some things haven't changed in Chico. /sarcasm

[Sabatier]

"When Bush starts his second term..."
Well, he's smart enough to say when Bush starts his second term, not if:)
The first time one of these kids gets a real paycheck and looks at the tax withheld a conservative is born.

[The_Eaglet]

The first time one of these kids gets a real paycheck and looks at the tax withheld a conservative is born.

Let's hope that we get more conservatives that will repeal the confiscatory system that withholds earnings and hold federal incumbents accountable who fail to do so.

[Tauzero]

Where's the barf alert?

[Travis42]

That's a good idea, to question why I'm not "serving my country"...what I'm wondering is how a question like that can come from someone who sits behind the safety of a computer with nothing better to do at 3 IN THE MORNING than use ad-hominem attacks against a 19-year old college student who has the balls to put his picture next to what he says.
And as far as your argument that I can't know about anything if I wasn't alive to witness it, I think you're totally right. I wasn't alive to witness anything before 1984, so I really shouldn't have any kind of opinions on the Constitution, slavery, Watergate, or the Civil War. What do I know about them? NOTHING.
Let's clear up some facts:
Chico State is the only school I applied to. "Travis is just grumpy because he couldn't get into Berkeley?" Yeah, I'm real pissed that I didn't get into a school I didn't apply for and instead had to settle for the journalism program that produces the best weekly in the country year after year. Yeah, I'm real grumpy.
My Mom and Dad do not pay for anything that I do. My mom is dead and my dad can't find work because his back was crushed during Vietnam when he was repairing a tank and one of the people "serving his country" smashed him between it with his truck.
But then again, I wasn't alive for that, so I shouldn't be able to comment on it, right?
For those of you who called me liberal, do some research and look at this.
http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/12/09/3fd66be071156?in_archive=1

[dallasgop]

He doesn't seem too bright, besides the childish rantings did you noticed he put his hat on backward? I wonder if he knows?

[kevkrom]

That would be great, if it weren't for the fact that our economy still sucks, and domestic programs like education and health care are continuously getting screwed out of money.

Then it must be great, because the economy is doing better than Clinton's "great economy", and is in fact the best growth since Reagan, and spending for education and health care has been dramatically increased, to the chagrin of many conservatives.