Reason.tv: Porker of The Month (June 2010) – Sen. Richard Shelby, Who Made Pigs Fly in Outer Space!
Reason.tv presents Citizens Against Government Waste's Porker of the Month for June 2010. CAGW makes this award to a politician or special interest who takes pork-barrel spending to new heights.
This month's winner is Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)!
The Constellation Program was intended to modernize NASA and replace the aging Space Shuttle, but has been plagued by cost overruns and blown deadlines. President Obama and NASA have proposed canceling the unsustainable program—turning instead to the emerging private space industry to oversee launches.
In response, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) co-sponsored a measure protecting Constellation, which was attached to an emergency war funding bill. Such a measure ensures millions of taxpayer dollars will continue being funneled to politically connected NASA contractors.
Contractors like Alabama's own Radiance Technologies, which—wouldn't you know it—just happens to be one of Shelby's biggest campaign contributors.
Congratulations Sen. Shelby, you are the Porker of the Month for June 2010!
For more info on Citizens Against Government Waste and the Porker of The Month, go here.
Written, produced, and narrated by Austin Bragg. Co-produced by Ted Balaker and Hawk Jensen. Approximately 1.15 minutes.
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Round and round and round I go. What I accomplish, nobody knows.
Would you mind at least picking up some space junk while you're up there?
Sorry. I'm not tasked for that.
You should hear the insults he flings at SpaceX.
It is, literally, beneath me to comment.
But we are working on these delicious, edible space condoms that...but I've said too much.
Well, I'm against Constellation for the usual libertarian reasons, but I'd still much, much rather spend money on it than the bank/car... bailouts. We could even be going to Mars for a tiny fraction of what Obamacare will cost.
Right. If we've simply got to waste money, let's do it on something worth doing.
Exactly.
I concur. If we're going to piss money away, better we should piss it into space.
Where it will orbit the sun for aeons.
Tell me again how the Republicans are the party of limited government?
Its all relative, Pablo.
Space X proved so many people wrong with their first test flight of Falcon 9 a couple of weeks ago. What an awesome flight. GO Space X!!!
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The amazing thing is I bet there are a high number of libertarian or libertarian minded people who are employed in the space industry because of the high number of SF nerds like myself. Trouble is that the Cape is also heavily unionized because of Ike.
I really find it bewildering for a reasonable libertarian (assuming that's not some kind of oxymoron) to jump on the "anti-pork" bandwagon.
I thought the premise of libertarianism was a pretty cynical view of the motives of government? I mean, why oppose government per se if you think it can dedicate itself to doing things efficiently and for only the most selfless of motives? If you think that about government, then you should be a big-government liberal, pining to use that awesome power for Doing Good.
On the other hand...if you think Senators are always going to be doing things largely in their self-interest -- like bringing home the bacon -- why would you be so anxious to join a crusade against that inevitable activity? You're only going to drive it underground, where it's far harder to detect and limit. Isn't this kind of like trying to outlaw drugs, prostitution, ticket-scalping, or price "gouging"? It's got that same A Moral Offense Against The People smell.
Why not assume Senator Shelby is always going to be largely motivated by his ability to bring home the bacon -- and try to modify the system so he can do that, while also, willy nilly, serving the greater good, or at least doing no harm?
I really find the sanctimony inherent in this kind of screed -- OMG! A politician more concerned with his own re-election fund than The Good Of The People! -- more appropriate for statists and moralizers. For someone with a healthily cynical view of government and power, it would be much more appropriate to assume Senators will be greedy porkmeisters forever, and instead focus on what systemic features could channel their cupidity into useful directions.
confused, long winded, boring, lacking any meaningful point, something that sounded smart in your head, retarted, ... racist?
Word salad? Off your meds? ADHD?
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