We all know neo-conservatives in the Bush regime are into empire like Darth Vader was into the darkside, but it wasn't until today that we learned the extent of their aims. In the spirit of the recent Mars landing, the present occupant of the Whitehouse let us know just how out of this world his dreams of conquest really are. A permanent U.S. moon base seems to be the ultimate expression of neo-con empire building. It was James Roche, the US Air Force Secretary, who said: "America's allies would have "no veto power" over projects designed to achieve American military control of space", and if nothing else, the Bush regime is all about commanding the world; why stop in the upper atmosphere?

But George W. and his handlers aren't going to settle for just some piddling little lunar hacienda, no sir, the....um....Bar "W" Moon Ranch? will more likely resemble a launching pad for both the militarization of space and, as indicated by Bush, an eventual manned landing on Mars. In this case,the Man on Mars will be a representative of the U.S., a sort of Chris Columbus type, there to plant the stars and stripes and expand the American Empire into the stars. Look out martians, your days are numbered.

If you liked that old tv series "Space 1999", you'll love the Bar "W" Moon Ranch. In the television show so much nuclear waste was stored on the moon that it went critical and blew that sacred orb right out of the solar system. In the Bush regime's version perhaps only surplus bullshit will be stockpiled up yonder, because Goddess knows there's waaaayyy too much of it in the Whitehouse. In short, the Bush moon initiative is nothing more than election year pie-in-the-sky. Bush the Lesser, and the Whitehouse puppet masters are merely attempting to hook their tarnished star to the successful Kennedy legacy of landing a man on the moon. But, we voted for Jack Kennedy, Bush is not Jack Kennedy.

I think I'llpass on that holiday junket package for two at the Bar "W". After all, imagine the security checks, not to mention those God-awful space fries floating all over the cabin. In any case, chances are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (or will it be Universal Security?) won't allow the likes of this observer anywhere near the ranch. It's just as well, I'd rather be home on planet Earth watching the Bush regime as it buys the ranch.

I always knew Bush was loony, but now it seems that the description in not only accurate, but more literal than we though. A permanent base on the moon? Preparations for a voyage to Mars? Needless to say, this is going to cost billions - enough money to save Africa from AIDS, to provide housing for everyone who needs it in the US, to give a free college education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to everyone who wants one, to provide health care to everyone with no involvement of private vultures from the insurance industry. But I thought we couldn't afford this, that only hopeless utopians even expressed a desire for it? But when it comes to pumping money into the coffers of aerospace companies so human beings can be blasted into space to land on two giant hunks of rock the dough miraculously appears!

Those pictures beamed from Mars make it absolutly clear that we simply must go there. True, they look just like the ones taken a quarter of a century ago during the Bicentennial, and bear a strong similarity to pictures of Kern County, California, but how can we miss walking around there? And besides, if by some miracle simple forms of life exist in that inhospitable place, this is our chance to infect these forms with earth-grown bacteria and viruses and possibly wipe them out! What could be better than that? And, in the unlikely event that the astronauts make it back to earth safe and sound, they might even start spreading some deadly microbes from Mars around the earth. Think of the profits that would mean for drug companies.

The terrible costs of these projects would be justified, in my opinion, only if the staff of some libertarian think tank were required to live on the moon base for the next decade and if the crew of the rocket to Mars was made up of Bush, Falwell, Sharon, Blair,

Rumsfeld, Cheney, Ashcroft, Allen Dershowitz and Rush Limbaugh. Even the impoverished peoples of the earth might be willing to contribute money to a worthy cause like that.

I heard on the radio that this mission to mars is possibly a ploy to fund a nuclear power program under the guise of a space program. Any object like a space station, a space platform, a mars orbiter, or anything that requires energy in space will use atomic power. The big things will use alot of power, perhaps requiring a nuclear reactor.

So what? Well, this could lead to the development of small nuclear reactors, perhaps leading to inexpensive atomic cogeneration plants. They could be sited in office parks, like the ones thousands of people work in. Just make sure that some hick in a pickup doesn't shoot at that "Danger Radiation" sign.

That's just idle speculation on my part, no doubt influenced by the daily news about Iraq.

^^^^^^^^people subscribing to "Lets be SOOO politically correct here, on earth, before we go there", what a fucking joke and an unnatural mentality, perhaps shaped by toomuchschooling//or political b.s.

How could anyone believe something that crazy? Obviously dressing up like Flash Gordon and pumping billions into aerospace companies is way more important than building schools, providing housing, funding hospitals or national health insurance. Isn't obvious? Anyone who thinks otherwise has had "too much schooling," meaning they probably made it past the fourth grade. That leaves you out.

"let's take care of poverty before we blast off for Mars

"

And just how do you propose to "take care " of poverty? Let me guess. You simply want to take money away from those that earned it and just give it to those that don't. That's what it boils down to in your world Meyer.

You have utter disdain and contempt for anyone who's worked hard and made a financial siccess of themselves. You champion those who refuse to motivate and better themselves and instead, hold fast to the concept of the world owing them a living.

Well guess what? Sending a dead dog to MARS for a trillion dollars is still money better spent then handouts and "programs" for the sycophants of society.

We will always have poverty because we will always have a large part of the population who feels entitled to that which others have worked for.

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They are called the major owners of aerospace companies. Or the Pentagon. Or military or engineering school careerists. Or manufacturers of rocket fuel. Or investors in Houston and Florida. Or the nuclear industry.