Posted on 01/25/2004 9:12:37 PM PST by jwalburg
Prescott: Have you heard what the president is proposing now?
Howell: Something about exploration, isn't it?
Prescott: Right. He wants to send a crew out into the great beyond to explore uncharted territory. Have you seen the price tag?
Howell: Yeah. And I understand that much of the funding goes into the pockets of the president's close buddies. One of the guys in charge served as his personal secretary for years, and the other is his good friend, William Clark.
Prescott: There should be an investigation.
Howell: Definitely!
Prescott: It's almost as bad as that Louisiana Purchase deal earlier in the year.
Howell: Talk about wasting taxpayer money on frivolities! No one was even asked about this. The president just went ahead and squandered all this money on a bunch of wasteland no one will ever use!
Prescott: You're telling me!
Howell: How much was it? Twelve million dollars??? Man, you could do a lot of important things with 12 million dollars.
Prescott: Our sailors are being starved from Navy cutbacks and we are going to send 47 men to scamper around the wilderness at government expense? And you know what? Everyone thinks this exploration deal was because of the Louisiana Purchase, but I happen to know that the president was making plans for this back in January, BEFORE there was even talk about purchasing the territory.
Howell: That's pretty incriminating stuff! The Congressional Budget Office should get on this right away.
Prescott: No, I think we'll need a special investigator for this one. The thing is, it isn't 12 million. The public is being told it's 12 million - as if that wasn't enough - but really it's 27 million, with interest figured in. Talk about deficit spending!
Howell: You're kidding me!
Prescott: No. I've looked at the figures. This stupid idea is costing taxpayers 27 million dollars! And for what? It's all a public relations move for Jefferson.
Howell: I heard he thinks that by adding all this land we'll seem big and bad to the Europeans. They won't want to mess with us.
Prescott: That, and the stupid Northwest Passage idea. Northwest Passage! Only pea-brains believe in that Northwest Passage theory. But there's Jefferson for you.
Howell: I understand the vice president has some shady motives for this expedition, too.
Prescott: Aaron Burr! That guy's got ulterior motives in everything he does. And this Lewis and Clark thing is no exception. You knew he lost his seat in the New York Assembly when suspicious financial dealings were leaked to the public, didn't you?
Howell: I heard something about that.
Prescott: Well, now I hear he's been scheming to build up a Trans-Appalachian Empire using new land from this Louisiana Purchase.
Howell: Talk about conflict of interest!
Prescott: I wouldn't be surprised if this whole deal was secretly engineered between Burr and the French. Jefferson is just a puppet, you know. He's been a failure at diplomacy on his own. Burr's behind everything.
Howell: Well, just look at the mess Jefferson made of the Declaration. "Endowed by our Creator!" You'd think the new Republic was run by Church of England fanatics, with language like that inserted in the thing!
Prescott: Did you know that Burr's grandfather was that preacher, Jonathan Edwards? The two of them are in the pocket of the religious right, that's for sure. The explorers have already started this asinine trip, with no real public input, no hearings, no committee debate, no environmental impact reports - nothing! They're taking 6 tons of supplies along, mostly to bribe Indians with. Six tons! And much of it on a stupid keelboat.
Howell: Wonder how far they'll get.
Prescott: I don't know, but there are sure better things to be done with that kind of money. You know what Fisher Ames says about the Louisiana Purchase? "Now - we rush like a comet into infinite space!" He's right! This is a crazy idea. And the Lewis and Clark business is even crazier.
Howell: About as crazy an idea as going to Mars! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Donna Marmorstein writes and lives in Aberdeen. You can contact her at dkmarmorstein@yahoo.com.
Lack of Antibiotic Research Raises Concerns.
Well, at least you'll have something new to complain about.
Indeed I was. :-)
I left Venus out of the picture on purpose. I think it would be an incredible engineering challenge to land there, but I wont say it's impossible. :-)
And the taxpaying public would promptly yawn and forget about it, ignoring any national security concerns. By the time the public is worried about national security it is too late.
And as far as cost/benefit, every civilization needs some mechanism for such pie-in-the-sky speculation. You don't bet the farm on it, but if you don't address it in some way your competitor will and if it pays off he will eat your lunch.
Speculation pays off in ways that simply cannot be seen by a cost/benefit analysis. All the noise about colonies, etc. is just applying the analogy of Columbus to space exploration. Reality may be nothing like that, but experience teaches us to expect great things from great endeavours.
Besides which, NASA is not going away and this money will be spent regardless. The question is not whether or not to spend the money, but how to spend it.
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