In light of the recent Clint revelations about NASA, etc.

[NVMojo]

Read this article and see the names. It came out on Monday. Timing is everything.

DeLay's push helps deliver NASA funds
Bush's 'Vision' foresees manned missions to moon, Mars

WASHINGTON - Without a separate vote or even a debate, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has managed to deliver to a delighted NASA enough money to forge ahead on a plan that would reshape U.S. space policy for decades to come.

President Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration," which would send humans to the moon and eventually to Mars, got a skeptical reception in January and was left for dead in midsummer, but it made a stunning last-minute comeback when DeLay delivered NASA's full $16.2 billion budget request as part of the omnibus $388 billion spending bill passed Nov. 20.

DeLay, whose newly redrawn district includes the Johnson Space Center, and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe have all but claimed a mandate; but even with the money and parts of the project already up and running, the questions that once threatened to kill the initiative still remain largely unresolved.


more...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6656850/

[The Traveler]

1. Banging my head slowly against the wall

Look, I'm a space nut. A NASA fan. I worked in the aerospace biz for a decade (the defense side of things, rather than space exploration, alas).

The Chinese have ambitious plans for working in space. Why? Because, once you admit to problems like limited terrestrial resources, ballooning world populations, and global warming caused by a petroburning high energy civilization, you pretty much have to conclude there are only two alternatives: watching the civilized world fall down or going somewhere else for power and resources.

So they announce their intentions to establish a working colony on the moon, and they do this concurrently with confiding to their people that the world's resources cannot support China's acquisition of an American standard of living.

Bush and company respond with an idiotic plan to go to Mars. Me, I'd love it, especially if the entire BFEE bought a one way ticket, but it makes no policy sense at this time. I'd much rather see that go away and say $1 billion go for intense R&D into the study of alternate energy systems, including orbital solar power satellites.

We seem to have a government determined to spend the most possible money on the least relevant aspects of a problem.

[NVMojo]

2. don't hurt your head!!! They aren't worth it!!!

I didn't realize how cozy we were getting with the Chinese and space and NASA...

http://en.ce.cn/National/Science/200411/24/t20041124_2382136.shtml

snip..

The December 2 meeting with Chinese National Space Agency Administrator Sun Laiyan had been under discussion for months, O'Keefe said on Tuesday.

"It's not a major milestone by any means, it's more of an evolutionary thing," O'Keefe said of the meeting, which a NASA official called a courtesy visit.

[jamboi]

3. O'Keefe is specifically fingered in the 4th Madsen article as being the go

between (or bag man) to get the NASA money from Florida to Houston where Madsen speculates Russian ex-pat programmers and techs (formerly working for Enron and later for Diebold) did the dirty work on implementing the specific software for our vote-stealing machines. Interesting!

[The Traveler]

5. Bangs head on wall again

Why am I not surprised?

[The Traveler]

4. I didn't know that ...

and that doesn't make me feel any better about things. I don't trust the Chinese government. I don't think they have much interest in seeing traditional American liberty spread to their country. On the other hand, Bush probably doesn't want to see that spread to our country, either ... so they probably feel they can do business together. For a while, anyway.

Bet it works out that we'll lead the way with the useless Mars mission while they build their space infrastructure using our backing and knowledge ... what a deal for Americans.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. We should be doing this in a twofold approach.

This country should be encouraging people to be green AND should be spending money looking for other resources on other planets.

[Hamoth]

6. You know what's so damn ironic here?

Dems are more pro-space than anyone else. Remember Clinton's stunning speech regarding ALH84001 and his support of the findings? Now with the Clinton era rover missions having indeed certified that conditions on Mars were ripe for life Nasa SHOULD by ALL MEANS get more funding to send manned teams there.

The DNC charter gives our party credo, and places space exploration right next to civil rights. As a liberal, I find space exploration to be our most noble and richeous war. The only richeous war we face, is to conquer ignorance and boundaries, to advance the envelope of human achievement, and to protect our species by moving a few of the eggs out of this single basket.

I can't speak for liberals or democrats as a whole...but myself, and everyone that I know who is a Kerry supporter, loves space exploration, and wants to see an advancement of reasserting manned space exploration. If the DNC were to support the values in our charter and credo, then perhaps we wouldn't see so much pathetic skull-dugery surrounding an institution that I find utterly praiseworthy in its aims and contributions to human society.

As a techist, I demands progress and progress into space is the paper upon which many solutions to humanities sad technological problems will be drafted.

[SomthingsGotaGive]

7. So here is the list of names in that article.

Tom DeLay
President Bush
Sean O'Keefe
Michael Lubell
Rep. Bart Gordon (Tenn.)D
Craig E. Steidle
Caterpillar Inc
Hamilton Sunstrand
Steven J. Isakowitz
James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.).
Joshua B. Bolten
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)

Which ones look important and why?

Jamboi's connection is weak at best. Is that the reason for this post? I could look in the NASA company directory before I wrote a conspiracy piece.

[moesse]

9. Bart Gordon is a Dem and is on the

House Science Committee. He's a decent guy as far as I know and probably looking at this for purely scientific reasons.

[jamboi]

10. Madsen seems to think that O'Keefe is a key figure in this scandal. n/t

[merh]

11. Hmmmmhhhhhh!!!!!! Look at FEC complaint filed involving

NASA & Yang

Any of these names look familiar?

Do you see who represented Feeney?



Case # 5336
Case Name SEAN O'KEEFE
Case Type MUR
Total Respondents 5
Election Cycle 2002-General

Penalty Amount Disposition Respondent
Dismissed-Other Tom Feeney for Congress (f/k/a Tom Feeney Congressional Exploratory Committee)
Dismissed-Other Watkins, Nancy H.
Dismissed-Other Yang Enterprises, Inc.
No RTB O'Keefe, Sean
No RTB Space Gateway Support, LLC



Other Parties Relationship Respondent
Hunt, Chris R. Complainant
Ginsberg, Benjamin L., Esq. Respondent's Counsel Tom Feeney for Congress (f/k/a Tom Feeney Congressional Exploratory Committee)
Ginsberg, Benjamin L., Esq. Respondent's Counsel Watkins, Nancy H.
Kelley, James J., Esq. Respondent's Counsel Space Gateway Support, LLC
McKenna, Allen J., Esq. Respondent's Counsel Yang Enterprises, Inc.
Watkins, Nancy H. Treasurer Tom Feeney for Congress (f/k/a Tom Feeney Congressional Exploratory Committee)



http://eqs.sdrdc.com/eqs/searcheqs?SUBMIT=summary&key=0 (type in case number 5336)

Discussion at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x126092

:shrug: