Keith Cowing points out that this isn’t really new, but I think he’s missing the point. Yes, this isn’t the first time that NASA has said it is going to do an outreach. What has people upset is that Bolden said it’s one of the agency’s top priorities.
[Update a while later]
Thoughts on the business of government:
The true business of government involves converting limited authority, granted through reason, into a limitless moral imperative. The Founders were very logical men. Both the Constitution and Bill of Rights are tightly reasoned documents. So were the original charters of government agencies which have since swollen to grotesque size. A calm, logical application of Constitutional principle would have prevented this… but when government transforms itself into a moral enterprise, people become willing to let it bypass its restrictions. Thus, NASA began with a clear mission whose success was easily measured – is space travel advancing or not? It ends in a great, gelatinous mass of international outreach and Muslim self-esteem, open-ended projects that will never require less funding in any future year.
Success is punished, failure is rewarded.
[Update a few minutes later]
Thoughts on why the New York Times and others refuse to cover this:
The reason the MSM has the lid on NASA’s new “mission” to snuggle up to Islam (in between decapitations and floggings) is that it would be devastating to Obama if it became known. On the surface, the new NASA “mission” seems merely screwball, and thus a small story. But I think it’s a good deal more than that. It shows that Obama’s thinking is unrecognizable to the average person. It also shows that he’s unserious — frivolous, really — about something that made a generation of Baby Boomers take pride in their country. How many millions of people sat in their junior high auditoriums and watched the Alan Shepherd and John Glenn launches? How many millions more were up at midnight on July 20, 1969 to watch the first human being, an American, put his foot on the moon?
When the domestic roots of skepticism about America (and sometimes flat-out anti-Americanism) were being laid — in the 60’s assassinations, the Vietnam War, and the exposure of the country’s treatment of blacks — the one thing in which we all took pride was the space program. So for Obama, it’s now one thing that needs to be perverted. Making it a dumbed-down PR front for Islam is, in its way, a genius move for this purpose. But as the MSM recognizes by its silence, it’s a bridge too far.
This makes me crazy, though:
Under Obama, NASA has ended plans to go back to the moon, or go to Mars (something also underreported). Budgets are tight, you know. Time to hunker down and lower our sights. But we can do Muslim outreach.
There were never any serious plans to go back to the moon to end, let alone Mars. The only plan was to keep Marshall and Kennedy busy building big, unnecessary rockets. Work on the (unneeded) heavy lifter wasn’t going to start for years, and work on the necessary earth departure stage and lander wasn’t going to start for year after that. Constellation wasn’t going to get us back to the moon — it was going to collapse of its own fiscal weight at some point. It was better that it happen now than before we sunk too much more money down that rat hole. We have much better prospects for a lunar return now than we did with Constellation, and not just for a few NASA civil servants, but for private adventurers and wealth seekers, even if there isn’t a Glorious Fifteen-Year Plan to do it. Apollo is, finally, over.
Keith never misses an opportunity to accuse those he disagrees with, especially Fox News or the “far right”, of (to use his favorite derogatory term) “arm waving”. Sort of funny coming from someone whose figurative arms are constantly waving wildly about.
And Now Keith is questioning if the White House ever actually charged Bolden with the “Muslim Mission”. Bolden may be many things but liar isn’t one of them.
So…he’s throwing Bolden under the bus for Obama? Wow, that’s seriously devoted loyalty to Dear Golfer…
On the other hand, while this may not be news, to Cowling, it’s news to the rest of us because people like him never could be bothered to tell us about it.
In defense of Bolden here, the outreach to the Muslim world was a top priority of the Obama administration. While I personally think the philosophy is corrupt and out to lunch, Obama believes (by way of his words and actions) that the reason 9/11 happened and the root cause of the middle east wars of the last couple of decades is due to a lack of understanding of America by the residents of that part of the world. If only America was more of a friend to the Arabs and other Muslims, we would never have been forced to go to war there.
This is a central theme for the Obama administration, and focusing the efforts of other executive branch agencies to work in that direction at least shows the guy is consistent. I have no doubt that Obama actually said that Muslim outreach was a high or even top priority when he spoke to each of the agency heads upon their appointment.
It would be the sign of a true leader to step up to the plate and take the arrows on this issue. Obama standing up, holding a press conference or even a major policy speech and saying that Muslim outreach is and will continue to be a major part of his administration would do much to diffuse this issue. It is White House policy, and the guy should stand up for what he believes. To further drive home the point, other agency heads should be saying the same thing.
Then again, Obama is way over his head and doesn’t know how to run something as big as the federal government. In this case, Charles Bolden is being left hanging out to dry. I hope Bolden learns from that in some ways. Bolden had the previous benefit of having competent leaders in higher echelons who generally did back up their subordinates. It is something new, however, for Bolden to have somebody this incompetent as a superior officer.
Obama seems very competent at his stated goal, to move money from America to the third world (Oh, you thought redistribution of wealth was to poor Americans?) Not being able to do that, the next best thing is to simply destroy our economy… nobody does it better. All the while installing unvetted shills to continue his policies even after he’s gone in 2012.
Can we use his middle name without being racists now? Is he still publicly denying he’s a muslim? (while telling his muslim friends he is.) Is it ok to point out that liberation theology is marxism?
“Obama seems very competent at his stated goal, to move money from America to the third world”
I would argue that Obama doesn’t even accomplish this task very well, efficiently, or with gusto. That may very well end up as the net effect of his policies, but what is it that the guy is actually doing?
You can point to specific individuals within the Obama administration that are clearly trying to exhibit leadership and doing things. Obama has also been very effective at grabbing the spoils of electoral victory and spreading the wealth to his supporters while hurting his “enemies”, but I don’t see anything that is sustained that will leave any real mark on the republic other than Obamacare… and even that is going to face an uphill battle in the coming years.
Obama did little that was of lasting significance when he was senator, and his presidency is going to be the same. Even before he was elected, I suggested that his presidency was going to be as memorable as the Carter administration. At this point, I think I’m being too kind to the guy to give him even that kind of credit.
Other than a single minded determination to destroy capitalism in America, I can’t think of anything that Obama stands for where he is succeeding. From the BP oil spill to a growing quagmire in Afghanistan and a schizophrenic space policy, Obama can’t even figure out what exactly he wants to accomplish. If it was one area that was a problem, I might understand. The problems aren’t being resolved, and more issues are coming along that are of even more pressing concern.
Whoever takes over the Presidency is going to have a huge mess to clean up. Considering that we are still dealing with messes caused by the Carter administration, that may very well be a task for multiple presidents throughout the rest of this century.
What has people upset is that Bolden said it’s one of the agency’s top priorities.
I think he said the other day that it was one of NASA’s top outreach priorities.
Whoever takes over the Presidency is going to have a huge mess to clean up.
That’s it exactly. Socialist cockroaches have been installed everywhere. Banking and business have been subverted (not just under Obama but since Carter… CRA. er, since Stalin…)
If we start the unelection process; Then the real work should begin, but I suspect there will be too many people congratulating themselves while the cockroaches continue to breed throughout our infrastructure.