Is a joke...the US has been there, done that.  I read it in the paper this morning and laughed in disgust.  How can this man propose spending so much money on going to Mars and other planets when the DC public school system is horrfic.  I worked at a DC public school a year ago and met a seven year old who could not read and minimal action was being taken to correct this disgrace!!  Bush wake up and set your priorities in order!!  Rock the vote!!

Amen Sista! And what about the deal he cut with Mexico last week! You're 100% right on the money! We have too many problems right here in our own backyard to be going to outer space, or anywhere else for that matter when those billions could be put to better use right here!!!!

Let's get together to discuss over cocktails....

I kinda have to think a lot of Spaniards said pretty much the same thing in 1492.

One can argue that social problem 'X' will be solved by throwing more money at it.  It's my experience that social problems are just that...  social in nature, not financial.  To address your specific example, DC already spends more per capita than any school district in MD, VA, WV, PA, and DE.  The problem's not the money.

The space program on the other hand is the one govt program that has demostrably produced a financial return.  Many of the things you take for granted today were invented or improved with space dollars.

All that being said... the real reason for doing this is intangible, but no less real.  Knowledge.  Exploration.  The eternal human quest to expand and improve our situation.  It's bigger than Bush, Clinton, or the next goober to occupy the seat.  Species either grow or die... and I'm to young to die! LOL

You want one more reason?  How's this...  look me up in 20 years, and we can give each other our first Martian 'O'!  :^)

Regards!

As eloquently stated before - if money was the only answer the DC school district would be the finest in the nation as they per child expenditures are waaaaay higher than NYC, which is second and nearly tripled if considered on a state basis.

The space initiative is the most forward looking proposal yet from this administration. Remember JFK's vision to go to the moon? DO we even want to discuss the huge advancements in medicine, science, computers, etc. that THAT created!

Let's go on and move forward!

don't approach the hobby that way!  Guess you don't like repeat business -- and a second pop must be totally out of the question.  Afterall . . . been there, done that!

Mybe he will find those "Weapons" that he has lined Cheney's pockets looking for in Iraq.  Or better yet, maybe he will find Osama on Mars.  All Bill did was get a hummer in the white house and lied about it, but noone died.  Americans that beleive and Support Bush should call me, and I will sell them some ocean front resort property in Anacostia.

Its an insincere political ploy to give him the image of a bold visionary leader during an  election year.  I say this because he announced increasing NASA's budget by a billion a year for the next 5 years.  To achieve this goal would require dedicating close to a trillion dollars which is impossible and politically not feasible.  This is no different than the "No child left behind" proposal.  It makes him look compassionate and noble but for some reason he can't find the 7 billion to fund his own program he touts on the campaign trail all the time.    
    Meanwhile, the ban on human cloning is wise and prudent in my opinion.  However,  other forms of stem cell research offer the possibility to heal a lot of human suffering and misery yet he opposes it.  Here human scientific ingenuity has put mankind on the brink of curing so many ills and diseases on earth yet he completely banned all stem cell research.  A ban on human cloning
is understandable, and I can respect him for that.  But banning other forms of stem cell research is as logical as the Church maintaining that the earth is the center of the universe and completely inhibiting anyone from proving to the contrary using science.  
    My point is that this is a election year ploy, and all politicians do this.  Space exploration, stem cell research, alternative energy, and other scientific endeavors hold great possibility for advancing the human cause if there is sincere political will backing such programs, however I doubt Bush is gonna fight hard for this one.

If we did not go to the moon in the 60-70's, you would still be using a typewritter to write letters.

Cell phones....only in comic books....palm pilots etc, etc.


We owe it all to the SPACE program. If you want something out of life...count on yourself to do it. Not looking for someone else to blame for not succeeding. Life is tough, nobody is owed anything but the freedom to be what you want to be.

Reach for the STARS...several black patriots died for that ideal..they are now STARS forever.

MM

Couldn't have said it better myself.  As a child of the era (one of my earliest memories is watching the first moon landing as a nearly six-year-old boy), I've only read about the rhetoric of the socialist welfare types opposing the space program.  And while I'd rather see private industry doing it as a matter of principle, I recognize the virtual necessity of government funding.
As for those who would say the money is better spent here, there is little evidence of that.  DC's schools are a disaster not for lack of funds, but for total control by government and teachers' unions.  'Course, if government didn't have a monopoly on schools, how could the leftists ever hope to win elections?  Ignorance is a necessary precondition to election of big government types, which is the main reason that they so vehemently oppose any form of school choice.  DC spends more per pupil than any state in the nation.  California is a close second.  Where are the worst schools?  DC and California.  Throwing money at schools is brought to you by the same people who want to throw money at poor people.  That has gotten us nothing by destruction of families (in the case of black families, something that four hundred years of bondage wasn't able to do) and the same number of poor.
Big, socialist government only guarantees an equal level of misery.  Turn that $12K per year spent per pupil on DC students, give them real school choice, and their education would, in the aggregate, be improved immeasurably.  It's no coincidence that most DC pols and teachers send their kids to private schools.  It would be nice if they'd give the average citizens the same choice.  If we accept the notion that government should guarantee an education (a principle that I'm not sure that I would endorse), nothing requires that we mandate that it be a government-controlled education.  The only people who insist on that are those who want mind control and an ignorant populace, one whose votes can be bought with more government handouts.

As far as my repeat clients...I have ALOT...and for two or three cups of coffee...I am even the one to suggest more with lots of sugar...but what I would like to know is what does the HOBBY have to do with  going to space which we have done before and have other pressing issues at home we Bush should be focusing on?

Ah, young one you forget how we benefitted from Apollo program
in ways not related to space. Technology developed for the Apollo program later had civilian uses that paid back the tax payer at 2 or 3-1 ratio. Advances in computer technology and especially medical technology today had their roots in the Apollo program. Many peopel are alive today because of this technology. If you really want to gripe abut something gripe about the pork that goes to Alaska and WV all at the behest of scum like senator Ted Stevens and the KKK Senator Robert Byrd.
Both of fine examples of what is wrong with this country. There is a interstate in WV that ends at VA border and basically goes nowhere because of Senator Byrd. Senator Stevens likes to keeps his children high on the hog by supporting their lazy carcasses with tax payer money going to corps his kids do work for.

It's all bullshit.  The majority of the expenses will be incurred AFTER Bush leaves the White House.  He's dropping the ball and wants someone else to pick it up.  The fact is we (Americans) have too many issues to currently deal. This is the wrong expenditure at the wrong time. Period!  This country sincerely have some real matters to deal with now-and I'm not just talking about social problems.  It's a known fact that our national infrastructure is deteriorating at an ever faster pace; our borders are open like a hole in the Titanic- both with Canada and Mexico; we are still fighting two major conflicts aboard; the health care issue is in desperate need of repair; and "homeland security" remains to be a joke! This president continues to "talk" a good game, but only applies the cosmetics to make everyone believe and feel that they have a real sense of security. You don't have to be a Rhoades scholar or an Oxford grad to know that as a nation we are still vulnerable and no better off than prior to 9-11.  [Speaking of security, why is it that law enforcement agencies across the nation are still complaining that they are not being fully funded?]  I'm amused at how folks here are so fully supportive of a president [that wasn't elected], that now wants to waste money traveling and experimenting in the Cosmos while such resources could be used in a more tangible means here.  Personally, I don't buy it.  But every man and woman has to think for him or herself. {And quite frankly, there isn't too much thinking going on in this country at the moment-and that includes both Democrats and Republicans.}