Category Archives: Political Commentary

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Community Organizer

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…who would be king:

Obama entered office on a groundswell of a disconcerting mania, a mania in which voters imagined on this blank slate of a candidate all sorts of truly fantastic abilities and policies, none of which were warranted in his paltry, truly shabby history.

The man with no available school records, for example, was painted as a genius and his brief time as a University of Chicago adjunct (basically teaching assistant) puffed up to a professorship in constitutional law. The guy who cannot speak a logical, coherent, grammatical sentence on his own was pawned off as a literary genius to unsuspecting, foolish voters. It was inevitable that the reality of his time in office could never match the dream. It was unfortunately equally inevitable that he would prove inadequate to the difficult job of the presidency.

Still, which of those who voted for him could have envisioned the hash he’s made of things in every respect? Unemployment far exceeds what he warned it would reach if we didn’t pass his stimulus package; the housing market shows no sign of lift off; the dollar sinks more each day; manufacturing is at a virtual standstill, and Americans grow more pessimistic about the economy each day. The landmark legislation of his first (and I hope final) term, ObamaCare, is so badly conceived and drafted that Americans are likely to see the best medical service in the world destroyed unless it is soon repealed or ruled unconstitutional. In the meantime, as uncertainty about its future grows, more and more businesses are paralyzed and unable to plan for their futures.

Internationally, we keep alienating our allies and boosting our enemies. Like the Duke of York* in the nursery school rhyme, he had “10,000 men marched them up the hill and then marched them down again.” He ordered a surge in Afghanistan, the place he argued in 2008 we really should be instead of Iraq, and then order pulling them out before the job is done, and in a manner sure to increase the danger to them. Without Congressional authorization, he’s committed our troops and weaponry to a rather pointless fight in Libya; pushed Mubarak out of office in favor of heaven knows what successors; failed to do a thing to prevent Iran from going nuclear; done nothing to stop Syria’s Assad from daily slaughtering his own people; and each and every day puts the life and welfare of our staunch ally Israel at risk.

This week’s press conference revealed him as a man desperately clinging to the same rhetorical devices that have long worn thin: demagogic false choices, class warfare and a preposterous description of himself as the reasonable adult in the legislative process.

As she notes, once it becomes politically acceptable to attack him, he may be like a wounded antelope beset by the jackals of the press, who he has “unexpectedly” disappointed so many times.

He has never disappointed me, and never will.

[Update later Sunday morning]

Et tu, Evan Thomas?

Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is this, because he is not doing that. He’s not being honest about just how bad this is going to be — no, he was partisan. He was God [bleep] Democrat! He was just, you know – being a party guy. I applaud the energy but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. He has got to rise above that and then in private, in private – he’s got to make a deal.”

I am sensing a disturbance in the Force. Thomas may not be able to, or willing to get him that automatic fifteen percent next year.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space

An Open Letter To Certain Senators

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…who are writing open letters to the NASA administrator.

Dear Senators Shelby, Boxer, Feinstein, Warner, Chambliss, and Murray:

Why are you only calling for competition on one particular component of the SenateSpace Launch System? It is a huge project, estimated to cost many billions of dollars. If the taxpayer would be best served by competing the side boosters, why not increase the joy by competing the entire system, including main engines, tanks, upper-stage engines, and design? Why is that only the boosters would benefit from this novel procurement approach? For that matter, why not simply have a competition for the most cost-effective proposal to get humans beyond low earth orbit, or to resupply space station, since these are the reasons that we have been given when asked about the requirements for the SLS. Of course, such a competition might result in no SLS at all, if someone can come up with a cost-effective way of meeting those goals without it, but this is about the taxpayers, right?

Most sincerely and cordially,

Rand Simberg

[Cross posted at Competitive Space]

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space

Uh, Guys?

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The supply chain is gone:

To avoid any gap in providing independent repair spacewalks as a safety contingency for the space station, Congress, NASA and the ISS partners should evaluate the option of postponing the launch of STS – 135 until more external fuel tanks and other parts can be built to support additional shuttle flights in 2012.

2012? What are they smoking?

It would be at least two years, probably three, before they could resurrect the tooling and manufacturing needed to do this, and it would cost billions of dollars that NASA does not have, and isn’t going to get. Meanwhile, we’d have thousands of workers sitting around, forgetting how to launch safely. This is just crazy, and disappointing, considering the sources. Do they really so completely lack imagination that they can’t conceive of ways to do EVA and ISS repair and maintenance with what is currently coming on line, and not relying on an unsafe hyperexpensive vehicle? This is the product of emotion, not thought.

[Update early afternoon]

I have a sort-of-related bleg. I’m working on an article about the false lessons learned from the Shuttle, and how they’re continuing to screw up space policy. Suggestions in comments are appreciated. The first and most obvious one is that it proved reusables don’t reduce cost.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

Public Support For Space

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With the approach of the final Shuttle launch next week, Pew has done a survey of public opinion, that shows continuing support for maintaining our “leadership” in space, whatever that means.

As is often the case with such polls, put together by people who don’t understand space policy themselves, those questioned are presented with a false choice:

Q.17 Thinking about the space program more generally, how much does the U.S. space program contribute to:

a. Scientific advances that all Americans can use

b. This country’s national pride and patriotism

c. Encouraging people’s interest in science and technology

You’d think that if they lacked imagination to come up with anything else on their own, they’d at least provide a d) Other, so they would know to think harder next time. I can think of at least two:

d. Increasing the nation’s wealth and standard of living

e. Increasing the potential for human freedom and opportunity.

I’d like to raise the money to do my own poll, that would actually be useful in guiding policy.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Force Him To Drop The Mask

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Some thoughts on Republican electoral strategy:

Karl Rove’s right: The 2012 GOP nominee should “fiercely challenge Mr. Obama’s policies, actions and leadership using the president’s own words, but should stay away from questioning his motives, patriotism or character.” Still: If the GOP nominee uses good-natured humor to needle Obama’s record, then the president likely will show his bad side. And the country won’t like it.

It occurs to me that these polls showing that the public still “likes” the president, even though they disapprove of his performance, are probably overstating the former. I think that there is still some residual resistance to being accused of being racists (unsurprising, given the media climate over the past two years, in which that was the instant response from the president’s defenders, both in and out of the media, to any criticism of his policies). I’d imagine that we’re seeing some “Bradley Effect” for the presidential popularity, though they feel a little more free to speak their minds on the policies themselves.

[Update a couple minutes later]

I’d say that, after the rank hypocrisy of the AWOL president lecturing the Republican House (which has actually passed a budget) to buckle down and do their homework, this video is well deserved.

[Update late morning]

Change it back:

[Courtesy of Jeff Dobbs]

Political Commentary, Space

The Ground Continues To Shift

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For years, since its founding in the wake of the Challenger disaster by June Scobee (not June Scobee Rogers), widow of perished commander Dick Scobee, the Challenger Center has been a strong defender of the Shuttle program and traditional NASA human spaceflight. So this press release supporting commercial human spaceflight is sort of a big deal (or as the vice president would say, a BFD), I think. At some point (and particularly if we can get a new president, and people have forgotten that it was Obama who came up with the new direction), the only supporters of the Senate Launch System will be those who benefit from the pork. Most others who are truly interested in actual space accomplishment will see it for what it is.

[Update late morning]

It’s nice to see Bolden standing up for sanity at the National Press Club:

Bolden: ‘When I hear ppl say last shuttle launch marks end of human space flight, I say u must B living on another planet.

We’ve been getting lots of dispatches from other planets over the past year and a half.