How the End of NASA Affects US National Security

Hudson NY ^ | August 1, 2011 | Taylor Dinerman

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The world is watching. Our allies are alarmed. Our enemies are salivating.

It was no accident that President Barack Obama oddly "found" his capitalism gene when he killed the U.S. manned space program and pushed it (and initial funding) off to commercial.

This is a long article but it is fair and clear in its telling, and leads you to the logical end.

[raygun]

VERY long article.

I’ll leave the intimate decision - thumbs up / down - to my compatriates.

I defer to my compatriates for ONE reason: they know more collectively than I (or ANY of them) individually.

[Captain Beyond]

bflr

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It’s worth the time — knowledge is armor.

[Cvengr]

bflr

[olezip]

The Obama administration then wrecked the previous program on the grounds that it was underfunded and behind schedule, and replaced it with a new program that looks as if it is now underfund and behind schedule. Congressmen and women being human, and under massive pressure to cut spending, have now cut the guts out of the space agency's proposed budget.

In the past our National debt was war or disaster related. Today our National debt is growing because of social programs and entitlements. We are a Socialist nation. Obama has been successful in gutting our capability for technological innovation. He has shackled free enterprise with regulation and taxes.

He encourages "green" technology on a false premise of man made global warming. He is well on his way to trashing our military. Without a meaningful manned space program, NASA is in the twilight of its existence. ...very sad for our nation.

[livius]

This is just another phase of his program to trash the US, which has been his objective since day one.

The space program was emblematic of the US, one of those things that expressed us. Bambi sure couldn’t let that continue!

As for the spending, a lot of it is actually money that is being given or loaned (with little expectation of repayment) to Third World or non-European countries to improve their technology, their energy supplies, etc. at the cost of our own.

We can’t find the money for our own programs, but we’re giving Brazil 2 billion dollars for petroleum exploration and drilling. Oh, and of course, don’t forget that Obama redefined NASA’s mission as “outreach to the Islamic world.”

[Truth29]

If Obama gets a second term, and maybe not even then, it is not just NASA that is in the twilight of its existence. Obama is removing the spirit and vitality of the US that is necessary to go on and thrive. The High Frontier and the future will go to those countries that have the drive and the vision to see out 20 years, 50 years.

[bytesmith]

I cannot remember another event in our countries history that so fundamentally threatened us as Obama becoming chief executive. This man and his minions and czars despise the very fundamental values that have made us a great, strong and successful nation. We are truly rotting from the inside.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“What did the astronomers expect? Did they really believe that the US Government would demolish the human spaceflight program and leave their precious “science” programs untouched?”

I don’t know about astronomers specifically, but scientists in academic institutions tend to vote overwhelmingly democrat and are on board the liberal academic train. What they didn’t expect was that when you institute liberal policy and destroy the capitalist basis of our prosperity, there is no money left to give them grants.

[J40000]

Kruschev must be howling with laughter in his grave.

We ARE being buried alive, before our very eyes and are helpless to do anything about it in this country. So much for freedom.

I so agree - the rest of the world ARE watching us, most of them -in the same way WE once watched the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[stevie_d_64]

My entire family has worked at NASA/JSC here in Houston at one time or another since its inception...The only one left is my sister, who is a senior project manager for a contractor out there...She’s fairly safe, as she has shifted to strictly Station support issues...Both my parents have retired from there, and frackly, due to the change in attitude and direction of NASA and its “New Space” initiatives could care less...

I heard just recentl;y that the Falcon program was going to combine the two flights into one, and rendevous AND dock to the station this fall...They are still hashing out the details, and its not much of a leap or risk to accomplish both goals considering the situation...they are even ramping up the manned missions for the Falcon launch system as well...Apparently when thebean counters figure out it might be cheaper to get the commercial system up and working a little sooner, the technical and safety aspects of the issue are certainly still at the forefront of the effort...Nothing will be skimpt or cut from the safety aspect of crew and station operations...that we can be assured of...

When the Russian partners boosted the cost of a ride up on the Soyuz’s from 20 million to 50 million, that to me was a clear message that they are not willing to cut us a break whatsoever, since we’ve been carrying their water and crap up to the station for such a long time...

I’m not saying any of this because of our close association to America’s Manned Spaceflight program fro all these years, and its benefit to the Houston Clear Lake areas economy...the benefit to the nation and the world for that matter is paramount...

And the one guy we can absolutely hang this demise on is Barack Hussien Obama, President Bush may have pushed the button to steer NASA into a new direction, but he didn’t pull the rug out from underneath the whole damn program like this guy did...

And what is ironic, yet funny as hell...There are a TON of former employees of this industry that voted for that shlup...I would literally laugh in their faces now if that ever came to public knowledge...I have zero sympathy for them...

I told my sister to make sure she turns out the lights before they lock the doors to that facility...

This collective denial that things are going to continue is a farce...We might get lucky if they can keepthe Falcon project properly motivated to continue its work on thier program...Otherwise, its lights out for America’s dominance in space, in ALL aspects...

And there will not be any reclamation of that dominance that I can see...

[BuffaloJack]

Gutting NASA has one of the most short sighted colossally stupid moves in history.
Where do these people think our advanced technology comes from?
NASA is responsible for everything from Velcro to personal computers. Without NASA and the peripheral organizations and private contractors that it feeds there just won’t be innovation and advancement on the scale that we are famous for.

[ETL]

From the campaign trail, February 2008...

Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs

February 29, 2008 :: News
MissileThreat.com

A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.

The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:

Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.

First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[not win it -etl]

Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.

I will not weaponize space.

I will slow our development of future combat systems.

And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.

Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert [they are NOT on "hair-trigger alert" now -etl], and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.

You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.

Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:
http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp

"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."
_____________________________________________________

"I will not weaponize space"

"I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems"

2008 Pentagon Report (March 2008):
China's Growing Military Space Power
By Leonard David
Special Correspondent, SPACE.com
March 6, 2008

GOLDEN, Colorado — A just-released Pentagon report spotlights a growing U.S. military concern that China is developing a multi- dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.

Furthermore, last year's successful test by China of a direct-ascent, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to destroy its own defunct weather satellite, the report adds, underscores that country's expansion from the land, air, and sea dimensions of the traditional battlefield into the space and cyber-space domains.

Although China's commercial space program has utility for non- military research, that capability demonstrates space launch and control know-how that have direct military application. Even the Chang'e 1 — the Chinese lunar probe now circling the Moon — is flagged in the report as showcasing China's ability "to conduct complicated space maneuvers — a capability which has broad implications for military counterspace operations."

To read the entire publication [29.67MB/pdf], see U.S. Dept of Defense:
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Report_08.pdf
_____________________________________________________

From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
_____________________________________________________

"Joint war games are a logical outcome of the Sino-Russian Friendship and Cooperation Treaty signed in 2001, and reflect the shared worldview and growing economic ties between the two Eastern Hemisphere giants."

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed092605a.cfm
_____________________________________________________

“We are creating a new world, a balanced world. A new world order, a multipolar world,” Chavez told reporters during a visit to Communist China, one of many. His “new world order” includes [RUSSIA], China, Iran,... and a significantly weakened United States, he explained.

Resurgent Communism in Latin America
by Alex Newman, March 16, 2010:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/south-america-mainmenu-37/3122-resurgent-communism-in-latin-america?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=
_____________________________________________________

President Obama and Venezuela dictator Hugo
Chavez at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
Note the "soul bro" handshake. (my caption)

Obama, Chavez shake hands at Americas Summit:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/04/17/2698451-obama-chavez-shake-hands-at-americas-summit
_____________________________________________________

Russia's Medvedev hails "comrade" Obama

Associated Foreign Press (AFP) ^ | April 2, 2009 | Anna Smolchenko

"Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade" Thursday after their first face-to-face talks"

http://www.france24.com/en/20090402-russias-medvedev-hails-comrade-obama

April 1, 2009:
"Obama, Medvedev pledge new era of relations":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090401/wl_afp/usrussiadiplomacynuclear_20090401152002

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“I cannot remember another event in our countries history that so fundamentally threatened us as Obama becoming chief executive.”

I clearly understand why you say that, but getting to this point has been a long insidious process that started decades ago. We have allowed the left to define basic premises in societal thinking that have contributed significantly to our current mess.

By letting them paint socialism as ‘compassionate’ and different from communism, we let them create generations of government-dependent people who faithfully vote for whoever promises to sustain their government handouts.

By letting them define racial issues as simply ‘bad white people’ suppressing ‘good minority people’, and by letting them make it politically incorrect to openly and honestly discuss racial issues under any other premise we have gotten to this point at which ‘white guilt’ is assumed and embraced. Trying to do anything that stops the cycle of welfare dependence, teen pregnancy, fatherless homes, and crime that are rampant in the inner city is ‘racist’, especially if it might decrease the flow of government money that sustains this destructive cycle.

The list goes on and on, and is very long. Obama was elected despite launching his political career in the home of a known domestic terrorist, despite his association with Rev. Wright etc. etc. Why? Because we are no longer a thoughtful objective society that believes in personal freedom and liberty. That didn't happen overnight, and it didn't start with Obama. It just let him become our president.

[ETL]

Obama was elected despite launching his political career in the home of a known domestic terrorist, despite his association with Rev. Wright etc.

Ayers, the Weather Underground and Obama's "reverend" Wright all advocated communist "Liberation", as in the ChiCom "People's Liberation Army".

"Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal".--James (Jim) Cone,
African American Religious Thought: An Anthology (Paperback)
by Cornel West (Editor), Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Editor)
____________________________________________

SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.

HANNITY: But I'm a — reverend

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
____________________________________________

Obama's Church: Gospel of Hate
Kathy Shaidle, FrontPageMag.com
Monday, April 07, 2008

In March of 2007, FOX News host Sean Hannity had engaged Obama’s pastor in a heated interview about his Church’s teachings. For many viewers, the ensuing shouting match was their first exposure to "Black Liberation Theology"...

Like the pro-communist Liberation Theology that swept Central America in the 1980s and was repeatedly condemned by Pope John Paul II, Black Liberation Theology combines warmed-over 1960s vintage Marxism with carefully distorted biblical passages. However, in contrast to traditional Marxism, it emphasizes race rather than class. The Christian notion of "salvation" in the afterlife is superseded by "liberation" on earth, courtesy of the establishment of a socialist utopia.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=30CD9E14-B0C9-4F8C-A0A6-A896F0F44F02
____________________________________________

Catholics for Marx [Liberation Theology]
By Fr. Robert Sirico
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 03, 2004

In the days when the Superpowers were locked in a Cold War, Latin America seethed with revolution, and millions lived behind an iron curtain, a group of theologians concocted a novel idea within the history of Christianity. They proposed to combine the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Marx as a way of justifying violent revolution to overthrow the economics of capitalism.

The Gospels were re-rendered not as doctrine impacting on the human soul but rather as windows into the historical dialectic of class struggle. These "liberation theologians" saw every biblical criticism of the rich as a mandate to expropriate the expropriating owners of capital, and every expression of compassion for the poor as a call for an uprising by the proletarian class of peasants and workers.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=460782B7-35CC-4C9E-A2C5-93832067C7CD
____________________________________________

"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410
____________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
____________________________________________

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Dr. William Ayers
are greeted by Rebekah Levin with the Committee
for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine.
(Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune / May 17, 2009)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ayers_wrightmay18,0,6689521.story

[lentulusgracchus]

This is just another phase of his program to trash the US, which has been his objective since day one.

Cutting-to-the-chase bump.

In Texas, we smelled him coming two years ago and more. He has worked hard to bring down the Texas economy every which way he can, but he fully intends to screw the whole country.

[Truth29]

"In Texas, we smelled him coming two years ago and more. He has worked hard to bring down the Texas economy every which way he can, but he fully intends to screw the whole country."

Obama is a very punitive President and is at war with Red state America. One of his most telling recent decisions was to give one of the retired shuttles to New York rather than Texas. Just what did New York have to do with the space program? Meanwhile, Houston Mission Control got totally dissed.

[stevie_d_64]

Here’s a little more about what I was talking about in my last post on this thread...

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/01/spacex-founder-on-how-to-get-to-mars/?test=latestnews?test=faces

These guys seem to have their caca in one sock, for the time being...

Until someone in government screws them up...

[Jack Hammer]

Of COURSE NASA is critical to national security - that’s precisely why Hussein tossed it in the sh*tter.