I'm George Bush and I want you to meet my little green friend here....

People really need to go watch the Right Stuff, Apollo 13, and the Tom Hanks series on Apollo that was on HBO.

It will be money well spent, and I am sure we and the world will get more than we put into just in the technical advances regardless of what is found on Mars or other places.

We are treading water with our space program, and we could and should be pushing ourselves to do more.

This is not about deficits. I am sure we can find some socialist welfare program to cut and put the money into something that will actually help this country. The is a lot of stuff in Health and Human Services that could be cut, but liberals do not scream about deficits when getting funding for these programs.

 

Socialist programs? Like Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid?

I absolutely despise you ignorant of right wingers.

 

Wow! on the hate and Wow! on the mastery of our language.

 

Im so glad people like cotton bowl are in the minority.

 

Lyndon Johnson managed to implement the Great Society (results were a mixed bag at best), fight the Vietnam War (poorly though) AND help get us to the Moon all at the same time. True, Kennedy came up with "The Vision" and Nixon was actually in office when the Apollo 11 mission made the lunar landing, but most of the painful steps up the ladder of scientific advancement to get us to the Moon took place on LBJ's watch.

No schoolchildren were deprived of their milk to get us to the Moon. Funds were not taken from Head Start and diverted to NASA. Nobody was ever made poorer, or hungrier, or dumber by the space program.

In fact, the space program has been responsible for helping our society in immeasurable ways. Many of the advances in jet propulsion and computer technology we have today are the result of discoveries made during our quest to reach the Moon.

I applaud President Bush's decision to re-invest in the space program with the goal of going to Mars and setting up a permanent human colony on the Moon. It will usher in a new age of scientific advancement and exploration that, I believe, will help us to finally discover the technologies and propulsion means necessary to launch humanity into deep space. This could really be the start of a breakthrough here, one that advances humanity by leaps and bounds. Who knows what discoveries await on Mars and beyond?

Humans are by nature explorers. Let's do what we were made to do, explore and expand. Those who oppose space exploration and insist on space exploration vs. balancing the budget or universal health care, as if it's an "either/or" proposition, are not seeing the big picture. We must go to Mars. Why? Because it's next, that's why! Because potential discoveries in natural resources on Mars or new technologies developed to get us there and keep us there could have life-changing positive effects for humanity. Because reaching another planet for the first time in recorded human history will be an amazing achievement. We will all be better and richer for doing it, worse and poorer if we don't.

While I have criticized some of President Bush's actions and budget priorities in the past, this is something I am very happy about and welcome. And when we finally land on Mars, some 15 or 20 years from now (hopefully sooner!), I will be watching with my kids, and I know I'll get that same feeling of joy, pride, amazement and wonder my Dad felt as a young kid when he watched Neil Armstrong step off the Eagle and proclaim "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind."

Here's to the next Giant Leap!

 

Great post Jetstorm. I will never forget watching the landing of the Eagle. We all ran out of our hotel room and stood on the beach in Miami and stared up at the moon. Of course we couldn't see anything any different from before but we all knew that we had witnessed a great moment for mankind with Neil Armstrong's "One small step for man." At the time I believed that by now men would have set foot on Mars and beyond but what do I know. I also believed that by now we would all have George Jetson type flying cars.

Mankind will eventually set foot on Mars and even go beyond our solar system. Most of us will be long dead by the time it happens. To make a long range prediction, there will always be politics involved and arguments about how the money would be better spent now to improve the lives of the voters. Witness the great advancements from the time JFK first committed tp putting a man on the moon and the stagnation of NASA in recent years. The centuries long advancements of man reaching the cosmos will probably come in similar starts and spurts. Great advancements followed by stagnation due to whoever is in power and the world economic and political situation but makind will eventually reach the stars. Why? Because its the only way that the human race will survive and propagate in the long run. Nobody knows what the future holds. Disease, war or even an errant asteroid could eventually exterminate all human life on Earth but if the human race has established itself throughout the Universe by then the human race will survive.

Yes, there are plenty of things that money could be spent on to improve the lives of the downtrodden here on Earth. Vast sums of money will always be spent on those projects but if it costs a $Trillion dollars spent over the next 20 years to put men on Mars it will be a huge bargain and that is only the beginning.

George W. Bush wants to initiate a project for the benefit of all mankind that neither he nor I or a lot of us will live to see its fruition.

 

well i guess if everyone else wants it, they might as well take forcibly take my money and do it.

 

Nowhere near this money has been spent nor do I believe will be spent. Its one of those big ideas that people love.
None of the money will be sent to Mars. They haven't established a banking system yet.
We don't need to supplement ADM's bottom line any more, nor Midwest politicians bankrolls with ethanol money.
You should know you dont' hire the first teacher, without hiring 2 administrators.
Will health insurance for All Americans include visitors?
The homeless problem is a figment of your imagination.
We don't need to do anything more with American cities, we need to do more for American towns and villages.

 

Yep, he started a massive new entitlement program while fighting a war. Sound like anyone we know?

Maybe we'll be trying to "whip inflation now" in a few years.

 

One of LBJ's programs was Medicare. The results of this program are not a "mixed bag," although if the right wing filth that controls the Republican Party has its way, that will be phased out over the next fifty years, so private healthcare companies can multiply their profits many times over.

Medicare is a very successful program and has saved many elderly people from premature death and save them from poverty.

The Republican Party serve the Fortune 500, not common Americans, or America.