Remember when people used to complain about spending $1 B to go to the moon?

[bushmeister0]

Despite the United States achieving the amazing feat of going to another planet in just nine short years after John F. Kennedy issued his historic challenge, people said 'just think of all those things we could have used that money for; housing, poverty elimination, etc.'

I don't agree with that sentiment, I think us uniting the world in the wonder of men walking on the moon was well worth the cost. But, at least, people cared about other people back then.

Now, we're going to spend $700 bil. to bail out a few Wall Street fat cats and there's not a peep about any of this. I think most people would probably prefer to give all this $ to some white guys than to the tens of thousands of people out of work, being foreclosed, bankrupt because of medical bills, etc. Blame the victims of BushCo's econmoic darwinism!

What's wrong with this country? If people in the 60's could peer into the future and see all this, they'd think they were watching a foreign country.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are not only financing our mountains of debt, they've also got the wherewithall to stage a spacewalk, a natural precurser to going to the moon.

The WaPo:

"The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, China's third manned mission, blasted off atop a Long March 2F rocket into a clear night sky in northwestern China.

The spacewalk could occur either Friday or Saturday, depending on how well the astronauts adapt to weightlessness and other physical demands of their environment, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092500810.html?hpid=moreheadlines

What's funny is we've got this zillion dollar space station up there -- our great contribution to the knowledge of mankind -- we're not even going to be able to get to once we retire the Space Jalopy in 2010. Not only do the Chinese have us over a barrel, now we're going to have to rely on the Russians to get us into space for a decade or so while we wait on Lockheed Martin to bleed us dry with their dithering and cost over-runs.

How the mighty (that was us) have fallen!

Why can't this country do anything any more?

[liberal N proud]

1. Now we blow 700 Billion to shoot the moon

[bushmeister0]

2. Exactly. Wall Street moons America.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Here's a better plan

The Apollo Project cost about $26 billion (maybe 170 billion in 2008 dollars).

What would it cost to send the entire Bush Family to the Moon?

Make them buy air and it might pay for itself.

[bushmeister0]

4. I don;t think the moon is far enough away.

Mars, perhaps?

It is a Red planet, after all. Kind of like Wyoming.

[codjh9]

5. Ha ha! My dad, a pol. science prof., used to quote Sen. Everett Dirkson, who said

- in the 60's - 'a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money'. :^)

[bushmeister0]

6. Back then, money was real.

Now, it's just paper. Shhh, don't tell the Chinese. (Oh wait, they invented the stuff.)