Adam's Logic

A New Kind of Politics?

I spent last Saturday at the Barack Obama and Joe Biden rally in Springfield, IL.  It was my first political rally and I found a lot of it fascinating. First off, a ton of people. Secondly, the security. You walk through a metal detector and have all your bags searched.Snipers are on all the building roofs.

Oh also you can't bring in any bottles. So the 3 1/2 hour wait for the candidates to make their appearance is a long one. The campaign did of course sell water that they would pour in cups for 2 bucks. After the wait they passed out signs for people to wave. No one was allowed to bring their own in, so those handmade signs are products of the campaign. It's all perception.

Even if you trust Obama, don't trust everything you see on TV. During our long wait I was talking with a very nice Obama volunteer. It seems the campaign is very tight with their money: for volunteering he didn't even get a free t-shirt. He had to buy his. He also bought his pin and hat. He did say in the very beginning of the campaign that you could get a free pin. Now the free stuff is reserved for swing state voters I guess. All I had to do was look behind me to see there was quite a media presence for this historic day.

 

The media was able to bring in bottles though and some were eating Jimmy Johns. It made me thirsty and hungry. During this time after several people fainted from the heat we started to get cups of water circulating through the crowd. The campaign was finally giving us some free water to relieve the heat. Next, Obama comes out to a surge of applause. He gives a nice speech introducing Joe Biden. Who apparently has been in the senate since the ago of 30. That is just crazy I believe he is turning 65 in November.  I didn't find his speech to be anything amazing and wasn't so impressed. Anyhow Joe came out and gave a speech of his own. Again wasn't so impressed.

Now it was time for everyone to smile and wave the event was over.

 

My conclusion it was an interesting experience and something I am glad I saw but just take all this stuff with a grain of salt if you didn't already know. To me it's the same old politics.

Goodbye Mars?

With the whole Russia/Georgia conflict. NASA will have trouble getting the required congressional waiver to purchase rides to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Russian craft. If you want background as to why NASA needs congressional waiver check out the Houston Chronicle article. The Space Shuttle is to be retired in 2010 after completion of the ISS. The Orion spacecraft that is to replace the shuttle just got pushed back another 6 months or so and is not slated to start operations until 2016.

This potential gap in the American manned space program could be catastrophic. If we have a 5 year gap in our manned program it's possible we will never get it back. That will mean the dream of a return to the Moon and a mission to Mars will forever remain just dreams. Even if Congress gives the go ahead to buy flights what happens the next time Russia acts up?

If we end up with no way of getting to the International Space Station, what a major fuck up. Imagine building a dream home with some friends on an island. But you were the one who put most of the work in getting it built. Meeting with contractors, putting in most amount of time and money, and of course everyone used your barge to get the materials there. Then one day your wife insists that you retire that old barge it costs too much to maintain and is falling apart. She says after a few years of not throwing money at that barge you will have enough to buy a great new speedboat.  You're great friends with Vlad and Catherine and you can hitch a ride on their boat. Vlad takes you back and forth on his boat until one day he accuses you of looking at Catherine the wrong way and throws you off his boat. Then while sitting on the shore staring at your home you see Vlad and all your other buddies having a grand old time and all you think is "what the fuck? That is my place. I spent the most money and I can't enjoy it?" That is  what can happen to NASA.

A lot of this is NASA's own fault. The Russians first launched Soyuz in late 1968. It's still up and running and in its 5th generation. The Space Shuttle was first launched in 1981 and is too expensive to maintain. It is on its last leg with retirement set for 2010. Instead of building upon what it already knew, NASA had to recreate the wheel and the new wheel isn't as good as the old one. NASA looks like it has learned from its mistakes with the new Constellation Project that will create the Orion spacecraft and Aries rockets. They are simpler and build upon shuttle and previous programs technologies. 

You might ask why even go into space?

The manned space program (aside from military conflicts) is the only government program that brings Americans and well the whole world together.  When Apollo reached the moon and Mercury reached orbit Americans saw what our nation could accomplish if we dedicated ourselves. It showed the world that America was at the cutting edge of science of engineering. At the same time it inspired a generation of children to become scientists and engineers. Today we desperately need more homegrown scientists and engineers. The manned space program is America at its best. Without it we lose that glowing beacon that leads us into the future.

The Russian Georgian thing- Chechnya Anyone?

Ok I'm not a Russia expert but I will still shoot off my mouth. It seems to me that Georgia trying to crack down on it's break away region of South Ossetia is the same thing Russia did when trying to reestablish control in Chechnya. So how can Russia not expect a State to not try and maintain it's territorial sovereignty if they did? Aside from that, the Russians could also be persuing this for payback.  Georgia supposedly gave haven to Chechen fighers some years back. So who knows what is really going on?