Sunday, May 07, 2006

Rohrabacher Is No Fan Of American Cooperation With Chinese Government On Earth Or In Space

Representative Dana Rohrabacher came out strongly against cooperation with China today at the ISDC 2006 luncheon. He said "until there is reform in China he will oppose any cooperation with that dictatorial regime." He said cooperation with China without political reform by the communist government sends the wrong message to the regime.

The California Republican said he hoped that Michael Griffin remembers America's ideals as he visits China and not just profits. Earlier in his remarks he said America would not be the same country if it abandoned its values of freedom in favor of becoming a nation of mere profit-seekers. He also said that the United States is a diverse country held together by allegiance to the ideals of freedom embodied in the Declaration of Independence. In his view, our country's diversity is representative of the world's diversity and imposes a duty on America to lead the way into space.

Rohrabacher also praised the space entrepreneurs at the luncheon. He framed the questions today as being how to ensure that government gets out of the way in space and how the private sector can get into space bypassing the government. He argued that the private sector should lead America into space and said "we need to empower people in the private sector so they can do a better job in space." To do that, he touted two bills of his designed to jump-start America's private space ventures.

HR 1024, the Zero Gravity, Zero Tax Act of 2005, would give tax breaks to companies that do business in outer space. (Here.) HR 1021, the Space and Aeronautics Prize Act, would set up a government space prize commission to give large multi-million dollar prizes for the achievement of significant milestones in space. (Here.)* Not surprisingly, his remarks were well received by the special interest crowd of space advocates and would-be space captains of industry.

-tdr

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* Rohrabacher is sponsor of two other space-related bills. HR 1022 and 1023 both involve setting up programs to search for Near Earth Asteroids. (Here and here.)

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Comments:
It just shows that Rohrabacher doesn't understand the value of diversity on a world scale. Diversity requires difference to exist even at certain times some species in the ecosystem look apparently infereior than the strongest. For example we should be thankful that soviet/russians space program was different enough from that of the US but still was allowed to exist by being an independent program so that when the (all)mighty spaceshuttle runs into trouble human still have the option of Soyuz to send human to ISS. That is an example of how diversity translates into resilience in an ecosystem of world space programs. Now if only Rohrabacher and co could realize China is one unique species in the ecosystem of world countries.
 
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