Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary, Space

Mutiny

43 Comments

The Ares folks are reportedly defying the White House.

The problem, of course, is that they still have their budget, and they have allies in Congress. I feel sorry for them, because they’ve put a lot of effort in this, and don’t want to see it go for naught, and they’re caught in the middle of a war between the White House and the Hill, or at least a few key people on the Hill, and it’s a non-partisan battle. Unfortunately, if Congress doesn’t get a budget out this year (which seems likely to me) and does a continuing resolution, this could go on for many more months, wasting a lot more money and time, and delaying the start of anything useful in a new direction. And a Republican Congress next year could shut down or redirect the whole mess. Newt and Bob Walker and Dana are going to have to stay on the hustings to try to get their fellow elephants not to screw things up.

[Update a few minutes later]

This does nothing except increase the pressure on SpaceX for a successful Falcon 9 launch, of course. The political stakes are unfairly high for them.

Political Commentary

The Blago Trial

40 Comments

…may turn out to be quite interesting (in the Chinese curse sense) for the president.

[Update a couple minutes later]

The defense wants to subpoena him:

“President Obama has direct knowledge to allegations made in the indictment,” the defense said in its filing. “In addition, President Obama’s public statements contradict other witness statements.”The defense said it still has not received notes from FBI interviews of Obama even though it first sought that material in December.”

Goody. Another opportunity for a Democrat president to perjure himself and obstruct justice.

[Friday afternoon update]

Blago sends a not-so-subtle message to Obama.

It’s not good for Obama. But whether you agree or disagree with his politics, it’s clear that he’s in a difficult position.

His former close buddy, Rezko — “That’s not the Tony Rezko I know” — still swings like some albatross from his neck, and it’s getting quite stinky. It’s hard to transcend the old politics of the past with that dead bird weighing you down.

It’s going to get pretty crowded under that Chicago bus.

[Bumped]

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Say It’s Not So

4 Comments

You will be as shocked as I am to learn that ObamaCare is going to cost more than advertised.

Well, as Queen Nancy said, we had to pass the bill to find out what was in it. It’s a shame that there couldn’t have been a cheaper way. I wonder if my ObamaCare defenders in comments really believed those CBO numbers, or they were just lying leftists? Speaking of which, Matt Welch notes that, as with health care, the president is lying about financial regulation as well. All while being on the take from the industry.

As the old saying goes, the problem with socialism is socialism. The problem with capitalism is capitalists.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Speaking of which, thoughts on cronyism and the left.

[Update a few minutes later]

Some House Democrats who were stupid enough to believe the CBO estimates (if they really were) are hearing a snapping sound.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

Some Advice For Charlie Bolden

12 Comments

Next time a senator lectures him about Newsweak’s “invention of the year” (that doesn’t exist yet) and how Ares I-X proved that Ares I will be safe and work great, he should point out that it damaged the part of the rocket that was supposed to be reusable due to a parachute failure, that we still don’t know if we can do parachutes of this size that operate reliably, that it caused severe damage to the launch pad from scorching, and that it contained no elements of an actual Ares I.

[Update a few minutes later]

A depressing thought from Clark Lindsey:

NASA should at least have some sort of fact sheet that lays out the basics and is presented and discussed with the committee members and/or staff beforehand, especially those like Mikulski who are still open to new input. The written testimony from Bolden is clearly not doing the trick.

Of course, a fact sheet can never be long enough to inform a Senator on an appropriations committee, of all places, who doesn’t know the difference between marginal cost and recurring cost.

It’s sobering to realize that the state of confusion and superficiality displayed so vividly in these hearings on NASA, which involves funding in the mere nineteen billion dollar range, must certainly occur with most every item in the budget, including those that involve “real money”.

I think we saw this on full display with both the failed “stimulus” and health care, in which we had to “pass the bill to find out what was in it.”

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Question Authority?

2 Comments

Duuuude, that’s soooo 2008:

Joe Klein of Time magazine said the opposition rhetoric is bumping up against … SEDITION! It would make a great musical, wouldn’t it? “Teabagger on the Roof,” with everyman Bubya leading the townspeople in a rousing number. Sedition! Sediiiition! Why do we question the power of the state to regulate every aspect of our lives? (pause) I don’t know. But it’s sedition! And it is what Beck wants us to do.

Of course, Fiddler on the Roof had the tea party creed buried in the opening number. The townspeople crowd around the rebbe, and ask him to invent a prayer for the tsar. The rebbe is taken aback: a prayer, for the tsar, he says with astonishment, wondering how to reconcile his distaste with his duty as a man of God. He thinks. He says: May the Lord bless and keep the tsar. Far away from us.

Critics will note that tea baggerz want the tsar by their side holding their hand when it comes to the programs they want, like Medicare and Social Security, so ha ha, you’re hypocrites. Well, A) there’s no hypocrisy in wanting to get something out of a program into which you’ve been required by law to support for your entire working life, and B) the tea party, and its complaints, are not opposed to the existence of government. It’s the size and power they wish to debate. That’s okay, right?

No, not really. That would ruin the whole future. So we have to paint the opposition as a throbbing wad o’ Kluxers pinin’ for someone to boom up a Federal Building. Opposition to Bush was principled and civilized. Opposition to Obama is opposition to principles and civilization itself.

The double standard of these hypocrites is breathtaking.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

OK, We’ve Established What You Are

27 Comments

Now we’re just haggling over the price — what kind of socialist is Barack Obama?

[Update a few minutes later]

It’s a long piece, but I thought this a useful excerpt:

The non-hot socialism Hayek was describing often goes by the name of “social democracy,” though it is perhaps best understood as an American variant of Fabianism, the late-Victorian British socialist tendency. “There will never come a moment when we can say ‘now Socialism is established,’” explained Sidney Webb, Britain’s leading Fabian, in 1887. The flaw of Fabianism, and the reason it never became a mass movement on the Left, is that the revolutionary appetite will never be sated by its incrementalist approach. The political virtue of Fabianism is that since “socialism” is always around the corner and has never been fully implemented, it can never be held to blame for the failings of the statist policies that have already been enacted. The cure is always more incremental socialism. And the disease is, always and forever, laissez-faire capitalism. That is why George W. Bush’s tenure is routinely described by Democrats as a period of unfettered capitalism and “market fundamentalism,” even as the size and scope of government massively expanded under Bush’s watch while corporate tax rates remained high and Wall Street was more, not less, regulated.

This is the scam that they’ve been running for decades. Let’s hope that it’s finally coming to an end. The current polls, at least, would indicate that it is.

I would add that in today’s environment, it is not capitalism that is “unfettered” (and it’s been many decades since that was the case, if ever) but, given the rampant disregard for the Consitution, it is government that has no fetters. That’s what the Tea Parties are all about.