NASA's Bold New Mission - Schmooz Muslims

It appears this president's vision for NASA, the iconic American space agency, is a little different from say, JFK's.

Obama once again impressed the masses with another stroke of visionary genius. After announcing plans a few months ago to all but gut the National Aeronautics and Space Agency - derailing a planned return to the moon, ending all manned space missions for the next who knows how many years, trashing over $10 billion in R & D on the Constellation program and leaving the U.S. dependent on Russia and other nations for any access to space at all - Obama apparently instructed his new NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, to focus instead on a bold new mission - schmoozing Muslims.

According to the Washington Examiner, Bolden said in an interview with al Jazeera that the President had given him a three-pronged mission as NASA chief to "re-inspire children to study science and math, to expand our international relationships, and to reach out to the Muslim world."

Interesting - Nothing in there about, say, exploring space.

It also seems a conflicting set of priorities: If kids aspire to work in Obama's aerospace agency they might be better served pursuing a degree in foreign diplomacy rather than science or math.

According to FoxNews,"Bolden further told al-Jazeera that the mission to reach out to Muslims is "perhaps foremost" because it will help Islamic nations "feel good" about their scientific accomplishments."

Of course, when confronted with the report, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, denied this insane objective. Still, FoxNews reports that Representative Pete Olson (R-TX) confirmed that Bolden had told him of this directive in a conversation they had back in June.

Further, according to CNN News, in a letter to President Obama, three previous Apollo astronauts, Neil Armstrong from Apollo 11, Eugene Cernan from Apollo 17 and James Lovell of the fated Apollo 13, criticized the President's new direction for the NASA space agency, calling his plans "devastating" and warning that "... the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity."

With this president's focus for NASA shifted to the nonsensical task of schmoozing Muslims, it's clear that with regard to America's continued pre-eminence in space exploration and aerospace technology, Obama's message for our nation is a clear and bold "No We Can't".

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/05/nasa-chief-frontier-better-relations-muslims/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/14/nasa-outreach-program-confirmed-despite-white-house-denial-rep-says/

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/space/04/14/us.space.program/index.html

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/obamas-new-mission-for-nasa-reach-out-to-muslim-world-97785979.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021003533.html

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/nasas-muslim-outreach-the-wh-denies