March 01, 2010

I will never get tired of giving out B+'s.

In typical Teh Won short-sightedness, it looks like shutting down Constellation - the program that was supposed to get us back on the moon - is going to be harder than it sounds.  Funny how, when you sign a contract and then decide to reneg on it, you still have to pay the people you contracted.  Then, to further complicate matters, as I mentioned a few months ago, Congress has made it impossible for NASA to cancel any of its space programs without express consent from - oh, yes! - Congress.  Not Teh Won, but Congress.

Delicious, delicious irony.

Letters have gone out to Constellation contractors, asking how much it will cost to shut their work down. Monday, NASA wrote to ATK Launch Systems Inc., which is building the first stage of the Ares I, requesting estimates of termination costs "as of the end of this and each of the next three [financial] quarters."

The agency was careful to point out that the letter "is in no way to be construed as direction to cease [work]." Congress has forbidden NASA from canceling any part of Constellation without its permission, which so far it shows no signs of giving.

Indeed, about 30 members of Congress wrote Bolden recently to warn that his efforts to prepare for termination without permission from Congress — including gathering information about closeout costs — could be viewed as illegal.

Then, at a hearing Thursday, some of those same members berated Bolden for not having a cost figure.

"You really don't have a handle on what the cancellation cost will be," said U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R- Utah, in disbelief. "To me, it's somewhat of a backwards approach. It would be nice for a congressman or somebody making policy decisions if we knew what the costs would be before you actually make that decision."

This is such a giant clusterfuck, and it gives me immense, incredible joy to point out that The Suit-In-Chief hasn't had the foresight to consider any of this before he went about shutting down an expensive program that is all about the Hope and Change he tries to espouse.  Shit, the Congressional rule that NASA can't close shit down without their permission happened in 2009, which means that it crossed Obama's fucking desk! 

I hate to go back to an old meme, but seriously, Obama, good, solid B+.  Yep.

(H/T Slashdot via Joe Collins)

Posted by: Ember at 01:46 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 409 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Not to mention that those private contracts that NASA now wants to cancel are made with private companies.  So basically by shutting down the Constellation project, Obama has successfully removed business from the private sector and is now "destroying" jobs, rather than saving or creating them.

Posted by: conservativeinthecity at March 01, 2010 01:52 PM (i3tSP)

2 ^ In fairness, the new NASA budget does call for NASA to exclusively pay private contractors to develop space flight, which should "save or create" a few private sector jobs.  However, you're right - the contractors working on Constellation may not be the contractors that win the bids for the new projects, costing people who've been working hard for years to get us to the moon their jobs.  It's damn stupid.

Posted by: Ember at March 01, 2010 02:04 PM (LdRAG)

3 SMART Power!!!!1111111111!!!!eleventy

That ought to show all you racists that actually are experienced and competent in your job.  Putting someone with no experience nor much ability into the office of POTUS works just as intended.[/biden]

Posted by: jukin at March 01, 2010 03:13 PM (vkkNZ)

4 That's actually the only thing that's saving us.

They know far too much to learn anything so they probably never ask questions or allow some underling to tell them how to act.

That's how we got Hillary's Hilarity when she asked who painted Our Lady of Guadaloupe and the "Overcharge Button".

Obama probably had no idea he was supposed to trade gifts until that morning when someone said, "So, what did you get Brown?"
Who can forget his hilarious obeisances where he shakes hands while bowing.
That's the diplomatic version of wearing suspenders and a belt.
With shorts.

Eh, the children are in charge. This time, instead of just scamming as much as they can (Clintonistas) they're trying to remake America into some sort of Marxist/Daleyist state.
They were successful in the 90s because everybody was making money.
Now, they're taking our money and giving it to their friends while calling us names.
The next 3 years are going to be velly intellesting.
Velly.

Posted by: Veeshir at March 01, 2010 05:40 PM (GLfio)

Hide Comments | Add Comment






21kb generated in 0.0504 seconds; 67 queries returned 129 records.
Powered by Minx 1.1.4-pink.