Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Democrats In Honduras

56 Comments

…have to cave in to the fascist dictator huggers in Washington. This is shameful. Obama has given this country something to really apologize for.

[Update mid morning]

More thoughts:

The Obama team did an excellent job of undermining the Honduran economy by cutting off economic assistance, throttling tourism with travel warnings, yanking visas away from Hondurans, and creating a climate of massive uncertainty that spooked U.S. investors and businesses. The U.S. embassy in Honduras did yeomen’s work watching out for the interests of the Zelaya clan, leaving many to wonder which side it was pulling for. In short, against a small, friendly, anti-Chávez ally, the administration mustered the sort of muscle it would never dare use against Iran, Russia, or Venezuela.

Guess it’s just more of that bullying people that you vastly outweighspeaking truth to power, like they did with Fox News.

[Late morning update]

Heh:

…the administration can’t show that it actually saved any jobs — other than Manuel Zelaya’s.

That one may prove very expensive.

Business, Economics, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Eightieth Anniversary

3 Comments

I just realized that it was eighty years ago that the stock-market crash occurred, setting off the initial recession that Hoover and Roosevelt turned into the Great Depression. And we don’t seem to have learned the lesson. In fact, George Soros is spending millions to ensure that we don’t. Thanks, George!

[Update a few minutes later]

A little relevant history.

Political Commentary, Space

Not So Great A Success

8 Comments

Apparently, in addition to the recontact after stage separation and tumbling second “stage,” the parachutes on the Corndog failed and damaged the cases of the first stage. But hey, what do you want for half a billion dollars? I mean, besides a whole new launch company and launch vehicle, as SpaceX managed to do for that amount.

[Update a few minutes later]

The obvious question, of course, is if the recontact damaged the chute system.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Most Transparent Administration In History

9 Comments

That phrase is going to seem as ironic as the Clinton pledge to be “the most ethical one.”

The administration repeatedly has stiff-armed Congress, the media, outside organizations and even a prestigious independent government commission. It has raised “none of your business” from an adolescent rejoinder to a public policy – to keep the public in the dark.

What is most disgusting is the hypocrisy, after all the sanctimonious criticism of Bush and the Republicans. It’s akin to Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to “drain the swamp” of the Republican “culture of corruption.” Yeah, tell it to Chris Dodd and Charlie Rangel.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

Success Of The Corndog

27 Comments

Clark Lindsey has some useful thoughts. As he notes, it would have been pretty amazing if this test had failed, considering what a trivial thing they were doing, and how much they spent on it. If it had failed, it would (or at least should) have been the end of NASA, or at least Marshall, as a credible developer of rockets (not that they should have such a reputation now, given the history of the past three decades). Another SpaceX could have been founded and another Falcon 9 developed for the cost of that test. Which tells you all you need to know about the cost effectiveness of the NASA jobs program.

[Update a few minutes later]

Jeff Manber says that it was the wrong test, at the wrong time.

[Thursday morning update]

Chair Force Engineer has some thoughts on the Potemkin Rocket:

While Ares I-X was a low-fidelity test of a bad rocket design, the test’s fundamental flaws should not detract in any way from the Ares I-X program personnel who devoted the last three years of their life to making this test a success. While I strongly believe that Ares I-X should have waited until the 5-segment SRB was available, Ares I-X still taught NASA personnel much about ground handling operations and ocean recovery for the Ares rockets.

It would be churlish to imply that people who work on a bad project are bad people, and I’ve never intended to do that. I know from personal experience in the industry that sometimes you have to do what you have to do, and the real tragedy is that so much talent, and not just taxpayers’ money, has been wasted on this program. It was a huge opportunity cost, in time, dollars and people. The people who work on it both happily, and otherwise, deserve plaudits for doing as good a job as they could under the circumstances. Let’s just hope that their talents can soon be turned to more useful ends.