Lobbying

SEA, ProSpace set plans for lobbying blitzes

If your idea of space advocacy can’t be contained to 140-character tweets, you’re in luck: a couple of organizations have set plans for grassroots lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill early next year. The Space Exploration Alliance has announced plans for its 2010 Legislative Blitz, scheduled for February 21-23. (Some of the language on the web site, though, still refers to their 2009 event.) The exact legislative agenda isn’t listed, although the site does refer to the Augustine committee report and the need to increase NASA’s funding.

ProSpace has also set a date for its March Storm 2010: February 28-March 2. Preliminary agenda items will be posted in the near future. No word, though, on the state of the controversy between ProSpace and the Space Frontier Foundation, which announced plans last week for its own March Storm event.

19 comments to SEA, ProSpace set plans for lobbying blitzes

  • Robert G. Oler

    speaking of politics. I have not read Sarah Palin’s book, other then excerpts that are on the web…but this Paragraph comes from Whittington’s blog and seems to be about Palin’s impressions of the lunar landing

    “My first clear memory of school was when our kindergarten teacher wheeled a black and white television into the classroom so we could watch American astronauts land on the Moon. The lunar landing had happened on July, 1969, before school started, but even watching taped images of an American walking on the Moon stirred in me an overwhelming pride in our country–that we could achieve something so magnificent”

    That implies that her parents did not sit with her and watch the “thing” live…

    Not to imply that the story is like some of the interviews of Schmidt and Wallace…and some of the charges against McCain’s campaign…a fraud…but Video recording/playback technology was not all that common in schools…there was no such thing as “Umatic” equipment (ie the Sony BVU series..) in the late 60’s….that would come much later)… and in the reel to reel equipment that existed direct recordings off of TV’s was nearly impossible (“gen lock”).

    HMMM aside from wondering about the significance of the memory…I am wondering about the actual event…

    oh well

    Robert G. Oler

  • Robert G. Oler

    My wife says I should have signed the above post (in honor of Rand)

    Robert The Skeptic…

  • If your wife wanted to give you good advice, she’d tell you to stop making a fool of yourself here with inane and off-topic posts.

  • Robert G. Oler

    It is OK Rand…we are both laughing over the post on your blog that Obama has been to hard on H. Karzai. As for the Palin comment…I picked the space reference of hers…

    still trying to get my hands around her watching it on video tape…not even the networks were using “tape” all that much in that era. Maybe she is having joe biden moment.

    Robert G. Oler aka Robert the skeptic

  • Mark R. Whittington

    Sarah Palin is pretty clear that television in Alaska was broadcast on a tape delay basis until well into the 1970s. It is likely that the show her kindergarten teacher showed was a broadcast from tape from a local TV station.

    Mind, it would be remarkable if Oler were to catch something that the crack team of 11(!!!) fact checkers from the AP had not caught. But then Oler does have a rather extensive fantasy life…

  • Anon

    If that is her earliest memory then its likely about Apollo 12, which did take place during the school year and had an EVA that would be available during school….

  • Mark R. Whittington

    Anon, Sarah Palin is very specific that it was a broadcast of Apollo 11 from tape.

  • Jeff Foust

    Let’s keep the comments to the subject of the post, please. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Mark R. Whittington wrote @ November 20th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    Anon, Sarah Palin is very specific that it was a broadcast of Apollo 11 from tape….

    well “OK” it is alaska …2 inch quad (ampex machines) were in use in the 60’s so it is “possible” that a local Anchorage TV station had one and was doing some sort of rebroadcast of the landing and maybe the schools did still have BW sets. Context is everything, I had interpreted the statement as her teacher showed the thing to the class on a TV with a tape machine (that would be very unlikely).

    Of course that still doesnt answer why she didnt see it “when it happen” but things change quickly at her age then and it is possible she just didnt recall the actual event.

    Benefit of the doubt time…just having a bit of trouble after her 50,000 dollar claim, the conversations she made up out of thin air on Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt…and her botched effort on Hannity where she got Iran and Iraq all confused (yes I watched sigh).

    I know Alaska had the lunar landing live…it was one of the triumphs of the ATS 1 satellite…the earth station at Elmendorf made it available. There was a neat story in QST about one of the techs who made it happen.

    11 fact checkers…pretty common.

    Robert G. Oler

  • Robert G. Oler

    sorry Jeff…my bad I’ll stop Robert G. oler

  • Anon

    Ok, back to topic.

    “No word, though, on the state of the controversy between ProSpace and the Space Frontier Foundation, which announced plans last week for its own March Storm event”

    Pity ProSpace didn’t trademark the term March Storm. If they did they could be suing the SFF for infringement on it. But it says a lot about the SFF that they would just hijack the term for their own purposes.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Anon. I think that a tug of war over a rope, which goes into a mud pit…perhaps to Adam Ants “Strip” thats how we use to do it.

    Robert G. Oler

  • Robert G. Oler

    actually all this “lobbying” reminds me this morning as I read the various pieces of news…of the folks on the Titanic who instead of being able to get into the life boats could only keep running “aft” ahead of the water…and probably as space got tight on the fantail…pushing for space.

    Why?

    Unless one is the chef who stepped off the fantail drunk (and survived) or Leo and Kate the reality is that the water is going to win.

    None of the space activist groups are thinking in survival mode…ie how to survive the gloomy economic times that are inevitable after 8 years of Bush the dull (sorry had to take the cheap slam at the idiot not as good as “Blind Side”) and the policies of the current administration which seem to be getting out of control in terms of spending…few if any real groups are trying to figure out how to make human spaceflight relevant to the new changes that HAVE to occur to help American survive and eventually change to meet the challenges of this century.

    all these groups (who have no real chance of affecting policy) are all thinking in terms of the old reality…ie that there is essentially unlimited federal dollars. For pete sakes folks. Federal Revenues are running at 15 percent GDP and expenditures are at 25.

    Oh well…and the band played on

    Robert G. Oler

  • Mark R. Whittington

    “the policies of the current administration which seem to be getting out of control in terms of spending”

    Glad to see that Oler is now being honest about his cheap shots.

    As for the latter, Obama reminds me of the parent who blows his money on women, liquor, and coke and then turns around and tells the kids that they can’t go to college because now economies have to be made.

    The trick, of course, is to point out how a space program, adequatly funded and adequately run, can not only help to enhance national security but also jump start economic growth.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Mark…yeap the shots at Bush are cheap only because he is gone…except for that pathetic news conference he has mostly had the good grace to slink back to Dallas and stay there. But when he has done so much harm to The Republic, gotten so many people killed, and spent so much of our childrens money…well.. On the other hand…Cheney…nothing cheap about those shots…

    “As for the latter, Obama reminds me of the parent who blows his money on women, liquor, and coke and then turns around and tells the kids that they can’t go to college because now economies have to be made.”

    LOL that statement from you would have more validity if you had equally made it about Bush. Bush took a SURPLUS of federal tax revenue and not only lost that, but ran up a considerable national debt doing the things you claim Obama has done. The cash spent on Iraq/Afland, stupid homeland security stuff, the prescription drug thing, tax cuts for Limbaugh etc…not to mention the TARP all were an orgy of spending which “blew” not only a lot of cash but because of how ineptly it was done, blew a lot of possibilities for a better future.

    That includes BTW the Ares program you so love.

    9 billion dollars…9 billion dollars

    While that is small change compared to a trillion plus for wars of choice in Iraq and Afland…it is ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL (grin) the money that was available to replace the shuttle.

    9 billion dollars.

    You predicted at the time it would have a lot of commercial spending to it. 9 billion dollars

    What would it have bought had it been programed correctly? Well Musk is about to fly the Falcon 9 and a dragon mockup and he has spent less the 1 billion dollars.

    Bush and company had the chance with the loss of Columbia to really change the course of the US space program. Instead they programed in 9 billion dollars which has done just about nothing.

    So while I agree that Obama’s spending to this point has not been wise…at least I will label both administrations spending as poor. You on the other hand clutch the reed of Ares as if it is some magic wand against a Chinese threat you and other right wingers have made up…and defend big government programs to the hilt. See I tend to think that unless one is in France government jobs are less important then private ones.

    The trick is to point out how a space program that is in all respects different from the one you have blindly supported and which has spent 9 billion dollars for nothing…would create real American (read private) jobs, jump start small business, and open the environment of space to American firms to help create the economies of the future.

    BTW the context of the quote of mine that you used…labeled both administrations as big spenders and for nothing.

    try and be honest I know not being that way is a trait of the right wing

    Robert G. Oler

  • Major Tom

    “Obama reminds me of the parent who blows his money on women, liquor, and coke”

    Then what was the $400 million wasted on Constellation in the Recovery Act? Woman, liquor, or coke?

    “and then turns around and tells the kids that they can’t go to college because now economies have to be made.”

    The metaphor doesn’t fit. The taxpayers’ money is spent on the same departments and agencies, regardless of whether the spending was before, within, or after the Recovery Act. The appropriate metaphor would be spending all your money on women, liquor, and coke, and then having to cut back on women, liquor, and coke.

    “The trick, of course, is to point out how a space program, adequatly funded and adequately run, can… jump start economic growth.”

    How? Space hardware development takes years. How is that going to “jump start economic growth” on any timeframe relevant to the current recession?

    And we’ve already tried it, anyway. The Recovery Act included $1B for NASA. There’s no evidence it’s had any impact on the economy. NASA doesn’t even claim such on its Recovery Act website.

    http://www.nasa.gov/recovery/

    FWIW…

  • CATS

    ANON: “Pity ProSpace didn’t trademark the term March Storm. If they did they could be suing the SFF for infringement on it. But it says a lot about the SFF that they would just hijack the term for their own purposes.”

    Anon,

    The reason the Foundation proposed to pick up the name “March Storm” was not as nefarious as it sounds. What we have is a “failure to communicate”.

    A few facts are in order.

    1) The Space Frontier Foundation participated in the first March Storm (1995) and managed/led the second March Storm (1996). The 1996 March Storm was wildly successful, with 40 citizen-volunteers (called “March Stormers”) and over 200 congressional briefings, plus a $25 million line created for “RLV Technology Development” in the USAF’s DOD appropriation. As a result, the decision was made to create a new organization (a 501-c4, not-for-profit lobbying group) to manage this lobbying activity as it might subject the Space Frontier Foundation to losing its 501-c3 status.

    2) ProSpace was created in the Summer of 1996, and produced/managed its first March Storm since in 1997 (the third March Storm).

    ProSpace was at its peak in effectiveness in the late 1990s, when it routinely brought over 50 “March Stormers” to Capitol Hill to brief well over 200 congressional offices each year in just this one event. In the late 1990s, ProSpace always followed the March Storms with a second event in the same year (which were called “June Monsoons” or “May Breezes”, depending on the month they happened), and also routinely organized many other “legislative action alerts” during the year (asking prospace citizens to make phone calls, or write letters on very specific and targeted subjects).

    During these years, ProSpace produced major “measurable” progress on prospace related legislation and policies, from increases in investments in reusable launch vehicle technology, to the passage of the Commercial Space Act of 1998, to financial support for space solar power. By specific measures, ProSpace was one of the most effective grassroots space policy groups in the nation.

    3) The ProSpace MarchStorm has been slowly declining in energy and effectiveness for quite a few years.

    The 2008 MarchStorm had less than 20 participants and briefed less than 100 Members of Congress. This was the smallest MarchStorm that ProSpace has ever managed. The only March Storm that was smaller was the very first March Storm, before anybody in the space community had ever managed a private grassroots citizens-managed lobbying event.

    Then, the March Storm for 2009 was cancelled.

    Fast forward to the present …

    4) ProSpace’s website recently stated that the 2010 March Storm was cancelled, as well. (This has since been changed, as it was a mistake.)

    5) Reading the ProSpace website, it can be understood why some Space Frontier Foundation members, who presumably felt disenchanted with ProSpace leadership (and the lack of results from recent years), might decide to pick up the baton, and organize a 2010 March Storm.

    Does that mean that the Space Frontier Foundation are bad people?

    No.

    Does it mean they should have picked up the phone, and asked ProSpace leadership to confirm that ProSpace was cancelling the “March Storm”.

    Absolutely. This would have prevented the misunderstandings, as well as airing of the dirty laundry.

    Now that this dirty-laundry has been exposed, hopefully both sides will pick up the phone and talk, and stop the dueling press releases (which does neither side any good) and focus their limited resources on being effective advocates on Capitol Hill.

    Ideally, they will come to some sort of amicable agreement, and work together again. If not, and if they both choose to organize separate grassroots lobbying events, then prospace citizen activists with an interest in their issues will have a choice of where to commit their time and energy.

    Competition is good. It is possible that this “competition” is exactly what ProSpace’s current leadership needs to energize it to become effective once again.

    FWIW,

    – CATS

  • Robert G. Oler

    watching and reading all this I am reminded in total of the interplay between Brian Keith/Paul Ford and several others in “The Russians Are Coming”

    “why cant we all just get along?”

    Robert G. Oler

  • Anon

    @Cats

    So the question for the uninformed space public outside of this discussion forum, and I imagine for the members of Congress, is going to be which is the real March Storm this year? The SFF that started it, or its offspring, ProSpace, which took over the name and built it up? I suspect most of the current members of Congress will associate it with the latter since the former is ancient history in terms of Congressional memory.

    Given that, and given that the SFF is not suppose to be a lobby organization, as you noted above, then the answer to this issue should be easy. Let ProSpace go ahead with March Storm on its own and the SFF quietly bows out. Issue over.

    Or let the egos take over and make the current mess worst.

    In any case it will be interesting to see which path the leadership decides to follow.

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