QotD, depressing translation edition.

Congress will always choose short-term pork over long-term development unless there’s strong Presidential leadership.” – Glenn Reynolds.

Translation: commercial spaceflight is hosed. This administration simply doesn’t do “strong Presidential leadership.” Particularly when it comes to private space exploration: liberal Democrats have hated space travel since the Great Society. Gotta spend that money right here on Earth, don’t you know?

God save the Republic from scientific illiterates. And from the people who vote for them when they really should have known better, too.

Obama administration kills 23K space-related jobs in Florida.

So they can spend that money right here on Earth:

Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles’ retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.

That sum includes 9,000 “direct” space jobs and — conservatively speaking — 14,000 “indirect” jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.

…(via Geraghty) more accurately, so that they can spend that money right here on Earth, and in districts that aren’t R+4 and that aren’t represented by a Democrat who voted against health care rationing.  I mean, seriously: they would have eventually killed the space program anyway.  But being able to do it in a way that would get maximum revenge against an apostate?  That’s just gravy.

Moe Lane

PS: You know, if we absolutely had to elect a Democrat President, it’s a darn shame that we didn’t at least elect the one who said (bolding mine):

We cannot cede our leadership in space. That’s why I will help close the gap and ensure that our space program doesn’t suffer when the Shuttle goes out of service by working with Senator Bill Nelson to add at least one additional Space Shuttle flight beyond 2010; by supporting continued funding for NASA; by speeding the development of the Shuttle’s successor; and by making sure that all those who work in the space industry in Florida do not lose their jobs when the Shuttle is retired – because we cannot afford to lose their expertise.”

Oh, wait. We did.

PPS: I had a nice chat with Republican FL-24 candidate Tom Garcia at CPAC, including some discussion of space issues.  Just saying.

Crossposted to RedState.