Planetarium-related Archives - Page 4 of 12 - The Spacewriter's Ramblings

Building that Bridge to Nowhere

The McCain folks really ARE on the bridge to nowhere. As of today (Friday, October 10), the Senator and his feckless running mate continue to bash Senator Obama for asking for planetarium funding (not to mention ranting about the whole Ayers thing, which is a non-starter for a majority of voters).

Apparently fact-checking isn’t part of Senator John McCain’s skill set. Nor do his handlers seem to have grasped the truth of the matter about the planetarium funding that didn’t actually happen. As countless numbers of us have shown in OUR fact-checking since Tuesday (which Mr. McCain’s handlers could easily do if they cared to), the funding never happened. Yes, Senator Obama asked for it, but so did other elected officials of BOTH parties.

Asking for earmark funding is part and parcel of any Senator’s job (and Mr. McCain has done quite well in the past with his spending requests for his home state, despite his much-vaunted bragging against earmarks).

The bottom line is that I don’t know what’s more despicable: bashing education and planetariums, or continuing to do so even after the facts are known (facts which can be found in the Congressional Record). Then again, watching the campaign incite voters with overt racism is pretty despicable, too. If this is all they have to run on, their well is running dry. We should be a nation/world of people looking FORWARD and working together to solve problems and provide good educations for all, not a mob ruled by hatred and ignorance.

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Who Knew?!

Wow… it’s amazing just how much of a charlie-foxtrot John McCain created with his ill-timed and inaccurate attack against Senator Obama over the Adler Planetarium. Ever since he lobbed that attack from completely out in left field in last night’s debate, all of us planetarium supporters, workers, vendors, and friends have been rallying to the cause of some of the most under-funded yet FUN places to go in the world! (Alan Boyle of MSNBC has a good listing of blog entries you might find interesting, including mine!)

Of course you’ve read MY entries (some 700 of you in less than 24 hours), and loads of other people have leapt on the bandwagon. Which is great — planetariums have now become another “third rail” in this political race. I’m not saying that they are more important than things like the housing issues and social security and the financial crises and getting over the war in Iraq and other causes.

But, perhaps the attention paid to the Adler and other planetariums in the world will help people focus on the fact that science education — all education — is a bridge to the future. Planetariums are certainly doing their part to hold up that bridge. So, we should be supporting them and the educators who teach us about the cosmos. It’s way better than deriding planetariums and science education (by inference). Doing that is like… building a bridge to nowhere.

Update: Well, gosh darn it, the planetarium intrigues just keep growing. At CBS2Chicago, there’s more info about the planetarium funding shows up:

And despite McCain’s attack, records suggest the GOP nominee has voted for millions of dollars worth of similar earmarks himself, including a $200,000 education grant to the Adler Planetarium.

McCain’s vote came as part of a vote on appropriations for the FY06 Commerce/State/Justice appropriations bill.

Again I have to ask: why didn’t McCain’s aides know this? Or if they did, did they think it didn’t matter? That people are too stupid to look things up (Mark found that news as part of a Google search) and find out about his voting record as well as his opponent’s? If his campaign is getting this wrong, what else is it flubbing up?

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(Note: U.S. citizens — have you registered to vote?)

Building that Bridge to Nowhere

Who Knew?!

Exploring Science and the Cosmos