Here are several postings regarding NASA's dependence-perpetuating mistreatment
of minorities at nearly everyone's expense (including that of practically all minorities)...

SA , (along with what we think NASAWatch.COM's reaction would be
if injected with a healthy dose of truth serum)

NASAWatch.INFO: Isn't it remarkable how NASA pretends to offer certain ethnic minorities (but not others) a racial spoils system of government contracting preferences in exchange for their political support, while nevertheless sneakily keeping them down & dependent on the bureaucratic & parasitic central planners'  "NASA plantation"? Have you noticed how little NASA traditionally tells them of its competitive prizes program?  Notice its absence here, for example?

NASAWatch.COM:  Oh stop it!  Just stop it!  Race-baiting is only politically correct when it supports growing government programs, not outsourcing them away from my bureaucrat allies who favor me at taxpayers' expense in so many ways.  

NASAWatch.INFO:  Since such prizes empower entrepreneurs to break the traditional aerospace contractors' stronghold on NASA contracting, is it not amazing that NASA's tax leeching African American central planners who pretend to care about their fellow private sector African-Americans' well-being are ignoring that legal breakthrough?   Ah but otherwise what would taxpayers need those central planners for?   They'd have to stop driving such fancy cars at taxpayers' expense.  Instead they would prefer to ignore minority-empowering competitive prizes and have us continue to shiver whenever African Americans are portrayed in AFL-CIO ads like this one saying that Bush's Mars priorities supposedly aren't sufficiently close to home.  

     Is anyone surprised that Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization [SADBU] offices like NASA's are commonly called SADBU offices instead of OSDBU [Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization] ones? After all, they're SAD and BOO-hooing all the way to the bank not only at taxpayers' and efficiency's expense, but also at African Americans'. They're also doing it at the expense of potential Mars missions, which are consequently politically vulnerable.

      It's worth noting that Puerto Rican-owned BST Systems provided the battery for NASA's 1997 Mars Pathfinder Mission, which impressively lasted 3 times as long as NASA had contracted for it to last. Surprisingly though, BST's batteries have not been included in any subsequent Mars endeavors. Here's a quote from Max Solis, the CEO: "If NASA finally offered Mars-related competitive PRIZES instead of contracts then at least we'd stand a far better chance of getting to compete on a team that can outperform the likes of Lockheed Martin, which has puzzlingly had a stronghold for years regarding obtaining NASA's Mars-related dollars despite its less than reliable track record."  And yet how are such minority entrepreneurs supposed to even know about such alternatives to the good ole' boy procurement system if NASA's SADBU opportunistically won't even let them know about the prizes breakthroughs?

NASAWatch.COM:  "I can't think of a rebuttal but I almost never make significant waves where NASA's bureaucracy is concerned because of my numerous conflicts of interest.   After all, bureaucrats leak national secrets to me and protect my "soap opera digest of space" sites from being banned from government-subsidized networks so that they can instead be lazily read on taxpayer-subsidized "work" time.   NASA bureaucrats also funnel potential advertisers in my direction, reward my allie$ and even let me occasionally tag along with them at taxpayers' expense.   So I guess that as a rebuttal I'll simply say that anyone who criticizes how NASA mistreats minority entprepreneurs is, in fact, a racist or something.   Yeah, that's it.   Racists!  Every one of you who disagrees with the NASA monopoly is racist!   Oh you racist, you!"

NASAWatch.INFO:  Oh?  Curiously enough, NASA typically requires minority-owned businesses to call themselves ethnically "disadvantaged" in order to get to share in the bureaucrats' loot through government sub-contracting.  And African Americans like that???

USA govt. jobs board: NASA HQ shamelessly refuses to outsource its small business outsourcing czar job...(i.e. Those who are not civil servants [bureaucrats] need not apply to run NASA's small business office.).  Like they really want to improve upon their abysmal  outsourcing record?

Previously... 

NASA HQ press release: NASA HQ's Small Business Utilization Office director leaves after 13 year career...

Previously... 

WashingtonPost.com article: "[NASA Administrator Mike Griffin] expressed dismay that NASA over the past several years had put a lot of people in top management positions because of what one source described as "political connections or bureaucratic gamesmanship -- not merit." "

NASAWatch.INFO: Just how aware of the problem IS he, though?  And isn't it remarkable how NASA pretends to offer certain ethnic minorities (but not others) a racial spoils system of government contracting preferences in exchange for their political support, while nevertheless sneakily keeping them down & dependent on the bureaucratic & parasitic central planners'  "NASA plantation"? Have you noticed how little NASA tells them of its competitive prizes? 

NASAWatch.COM: Bureaucrats enjoy substantial career protections.  So why did his stellar NASA career just end?  Wasn't his performance not only flawless but also fabulous?

Previously... 

FederalTimes.com propaganda / article:  "The Democratic staff of the House Small Business Committee recently released its [2005] annual report card that purports to grade federal agencies on their small and disadvantaged business utilization....[T]he House report card gave NASA an F.  This report demonstrates more than ever the need for an alternative, uniform measurement that yields a fair and credible assessment of the government in this important arena."

  NASAWatch.INFO: Things went from bad to worse.  Have you seen this  2003 Congressional Score Card which evaluates the small business procurement records of all the U.S. federal agencies, based on official records reported by agencies such as NASA to the Small Business Administration?  NASA has the nation's 3rd largest procurement budget but scored a D-, as one can confirm beginning on page 47.  That grade placed NASA in the bottom tier of federal agencies in terms of complying with its legal obligations to spend 23% of its prime contracting dollars on small businesses. Indeed, NASA's percentage during 2001 was merely 14.52% and during 2002 it was 14.69%, which is actually a slight improvement over what the previous administration "achieved."  Anyhow, within the aerospace sector the Small Business Administration says that companies can employ "up to 1,000 [one thousand] people" and still remain classified as small businesses, as the following SBA u.r.l. can confirm [see "Subsector 541"].
      Who audits NASA for truthfulness, though?  Meanwhile, do you believe their predictable claims that it's not possible for NASA to outsource more to small businesses such as MirCorp, Bigelow Aerospace, or any rocket company seeking investment to revive the DC-X or some other potential competitor for the Shuttle monopoly?  Regardless, kudos go to the House Small Business Committee Democrats (led by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, D, NY)  for compiling this study that's potentially helpful to all the excluded small businesses.   Some at NASA predictably claim that Nydia doesn't have her facts right but are these not statistics reported directly by NASA to the Small Business Administration?
     To learn more about NASA's jealous hostility towards privately owned ventures that could potentially outperform whatever the NASA clique still gets to deceptively push on taxpayers, please read this article.      Meanwhile, how is it that NASA's Small Business Office (portrayed here: http://www.osdbu.nasa.gov) got to host a tax-subsidized  "annual" minority awards ceremony on September 24th of 2002 when they just had such an "annual" event on February 20th, of 2002?   Is that a public relations-driven entity, or a performance-driven one?   Don't the numbers seem to speak for themselves?   To learn more about how NASA's supposedly pro-minority programs actually stifle minorities by keeping them dependent on NASA's bureaucrats, please click here.

NASAWatch.INFO:  Wasn't he Dan Goldin's first appointee, who later somehow burrowed in as a career civil servant despite laws protecting taxpayers from such self-perpetuation?

NASAWatch.COM: Shhhh!  Of course I didn't rock the boat by disclosing this litigation news.  You should hide this story, too, just like NASA must!  Otherwise it will be harder for NASA to continue fighting its eventually offering adequate competitive prizes, which NASA pretends it must not offer so that it can self-perpetuatingly claim to fight outsiders' supposed discrimination!  C'mon, folks know that almost nobody can accuse African Americans at NASA HQ of discrimination without risking upsetting alliances maintained with others there (and elsewhere) who are of the same ethnicity (to varying, admittedly potentially conflicting degrees), who have similar career protections, and who are similarly eager to sell out the well-being of other members of their race so that they can personally enrich themselves at their overall ethnic group's expense (tragically enough).  Can you imagine what would happen if they stopped helping NASA hide its inefficiencies from voters & taxpayers? Why can't you embrace the double standard? There's no shame in being a coward when it's "politically correct".

Washington Times article: "According to the affidavit, Mr. Neal and Mr. Jones, both of whom are black, engaged in a wide range of criminal activities during their tenure at the Pentagon, using their positions as leverage to receive illegal extortion payments, bribes and gratuities from minority or disadvantaged Defense Department contractors seeking to participate in the preference programs....Mr. Neal has been awarded the Secretary of Defense's Outstanding Public Service Medal and Outstanding Achievement Award, the OMB's Special Performance Awards, OMB's EEO Award and OMB's Divisional Awards for Special Performance."

NASAWatch.INFO: And some folks still wonder why there's been so much (self-perpetuating) reluctance by the federal government to simply offer competitive prizes as a means of procurement?   Isn't it remarkable how NASA pretends to offer certain ethnic minorities a racial spoils system in exchange for their political support, while actually keeping them down & dependent on the "NASA plantation"?

NASAWatch.INFO: Even so, NASA's race-related contract preferences continue to exclude Jews, Arabs, and Europeans because they supposedly lack the historical "disadvantages" of other ethnic groups.

Previously...

GovExec.com article: "A prominent civil rights group on Saturday vowed to step up its efforts to protect federal work from contractors, arguing that the Bush administration's competitive sourcing initiative disproportionately endangers jobs held by minorities and women. "We need to get together and lay out a game plan [to prevent outsourcing]," said Leroy Warren, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Federal Sector Task Force..."

Previously...

  There is NO federal holiday dedicated to a single American in this country other than Martin Luther King day.  It began in 1986, after bureaucrats threatened to withold federal funding from states refusing to celebrate the birthday of this doctor of divinity who nevertheless engaged in a considerable amount of marital infidelity.   Anyhow, in practically any other country there's a holiday dedicated to the parent of the country, but not in the USA.  Not even George Washington has a federal holiday in his honor nowadays.  All presidents' birthdays were consolidated into merely "Presidents' Day".   Does this peculiarity not show an inherent bias on the part of federal bureaucrats to pretend to be helping blacks even as they keep them down & dependent on the bureaucrats' plantation?  For instance, the bureaucrats won't offer competitive prizes to empower black entrepreneurs like billionaire aerospace enthusiasts such as Robert Johnson or Donald Watkins. Central planners insist on offering contracts instead, and merely for those who  (counterproductively) certify themselves as being ethnically disadvantaged.  Ironically, though, Dr. King said "judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin."  But we're talking about a cash cow for the central planners, so instead of liberating blacks with competitive prize offerings that they can win, they get a special holiday instead.  Wouldn't the majority of them prefer to have the prizes, no matter what fundraisers pretending to represent them say? 

(NASAWatch.COM: "What does this have to do with space?!?")

NASAWatch.INFO: Oh who are you fooling, you predictably statist, hypocritically pandering bigot...   As for anyone with integrity, feel free to read more...

     Newsday.com article:  John Ashcroft has fairly recently announced modified federal hiring policies for the Justice Department, which will give weight not only to race and gender but ALSO to economic and geographic background. The latter approach extends attorney outreach to otherwise neglected groups, including economically and / or geographically diverse white men. "We made a concerted effort to not just concentrate on race and ethnicity" said Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, who was in charge of the diversity initiative before accepting a job at the Brookings Institute. Economic and geographic background are not covered by discrimination law and are not found in most affirmative action or diversity hiring plans.

   FoxNews.com article:  "[In a move that would seem to support racial profiling, only 43% of California voters supported Proposition 54 on October 7th, 2003, which would have prohibited the government from collecting racial data basically except in medical matters.]  "The effort to enact Prop. 54 was led by Ward Connerly, a University of California regent who in 1996 led the push for Proposition 209 (search), the successful campaign to ban racial preferences in California. From the beginning, Connerly and his allies had trouble raising funds for the effort. The initiative also suffered from low voter awareness. Before the results were in, Connerly acknowledged the uphill battle, quipping that Tuesday night's "victory party" would better be dubbed a wake.  After the defeat, he added that he is waiting for the day to come "when the American people will not be divided into racial categories."  "And we can look back on this period as the beginning of that process," he told supporters in Sacramento as part of a concession speech."

Previously...

  FoxNews.com article: "[As a result of an October 7th ballot initiative called Proposition 54] California's state government and public universities may soon be barred from collecting information about race, ethnicity and national origin....The effort is being led by Ward Connerly, a University of California regent who in 1996 also led the push for Proposition 209, the successful campaign to ban racial preferences in California."

NASAWatch.INFO: Didn't Martin Luther King, Jr., whom the modern day race hustlers and shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson pretend to respect, preach that he had a dream of a world in which people are judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin?   Are his supposed disciples truly practicing what Dr. King preached, though?  

Previously...

WashingtonPost.com article: "In two split decisions, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled [5-4] that minority applicants may be given an edge when applying for admissions to universities, but limited how much a factor race can play in the selection of students...The ruling affects tax-supported schools, and by extension private schools and other institutions, that have looked for ways to boost minority enrollment without violating the Constitution's guarantee against discrimination...The two Michigan cases directly address only admissions at public, tax-supported institutions. But the court's rationale is expected to have a wide ripple through private colleges and universities, other government decision-making and the business world."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "[According to Justice Clarence Thomas' lengthy, dissenting opinion, t]he majority of blacks are admitted to the law school because of discrimination, and because of this policy all are tarred as undeserving.  In a pusillanimous age, the courage and common sense of Clarence Thomas stand out a mile. Black "leaders," who should be his biggest fans, can't stand being in the same room with him."

WashingtonTimes.com article:  "If universities want to boost minority enrollment, for whatever reason, the place to begin is in the primary and secondary schools. Improved lower schools would ensure that minority (and majority) kids learn their subjects and qualify for admission based on merit instead of relying on a system designed to excuse underachievement. The National Assessment of Educational Process last week released "The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2000." It found that students in the dreadful D.C. school system are the worst readers in the country, despite annual per-pupil expenditures of $9,650 (second-highest in the nation in 2001) and teacher salaries that rank among the nation's highest. But D.C. students who don't learn to read shouldn't worry. If they are minorities (as most are), they can count on affirmative action to get them into college, illiterate though they may be. This is the message the Supreme Court has sent in its decision...Expect the ruling to influence private colleges and universities, as well as government and business."

 
WashingtonPost.com article:  "In 2001, underrepresented minorities from families with incomes of $80,000 or more averaged 21.9 on the Medical School Admission Test; whites and Asians from families with incomes under $30,000 averaged 25.7 and 25.5, respectively."

Washington Times article: "In 2000, 12 Hispanics who scored between a 159-160 on the LSAT and earned a GPA of 3.00 or higher applied for admission, and only two were admittted. ... Meanwhile, 12 African-Americans in the same range of qualifications applied for admission, and all 12 were admitted." Justice Rehnquist writes that Michigan never explained why Hispanics "should have their admission capped out." Nor does Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. And yet this is a case fundamentally about the 14th Amendment's equal protection guarantee."

Center for Equal Opportunity: "A detailed, 50-page study released by the Center for Equal Opportunity concludes that racial discrimination is widespread in Virginia law school admissions. The report focuses on the three Virginia public law schools -- the University of Virginia, William & Mary, and George Mason University -- and reveals odds favoring black applicants as high as 731 to 1. To put it in other terms: A student with an LSAT score of 160 and an undergraduate GPA of 3.25 had a 95 percent chance of admission into U.Va. if he or she was black, but only a 3 percent chance of admission if white, Hispanic or Asian."

CNN.com article:  "American Council on Education found that the number of minority high school graduates between the ages of 18 to 24 attending U.S. schools jumped from nearly 2 million in 1980-81 to 4.3 million in 2000-01.  Despite the gains, the ACE said only 40 percent of African-Americans and 34 percent of Hispanics attend college, compared to 46 percent of whites..."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "From what I can tell, the upshot of O'Connor's ruling is that special treatment for blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans is constitutional but giving special treatment to Italian-Americans, Jews or Asians (to randomly pick three non-preferred groups) will remain legally unconstitutional and socially racist."

Washington Times article: "the racial preference frolic in Metro Broadcasting vs. Federal Communications Commission (1990) authored by Justice William Brennan was soon jettisoned after he retired in Adarand Contractors Inc. vs. Pena (1995)."

Previously...

FoxNews.com article: "Bush, who has called the admissions policies "fundamentally flawed," supports what he calls a [race-neutral] "affirmative access" (search) system used in Texas and Florida."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "[Regarding] the U.S. Supreme Court's anxiously awaited decision on the University of Michigan's admissions policy...Experts said the impact will also be felt in American corporations as well as the military."

CNN.com article: The Supreme Court will decide in June "whether a state has a "compelling interest" to promote a diverse student body, or whether the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment forbids giving one ethnic group or minority special advantages over another." "While this case is about access to education, the Supreme Court's ruling could have rippling effects on affirmative action programs in job hiring and government contracts."

NASAWatch.INFO: Isn't it remarkable how NASA pretends to offer certain ethnic minorities (but not others) a racial spoils system in exchange for their political support, while sneakily keeping them down & dependent on the bureaucratic & parasitic central planners'  "NASA plantation"?

WashingtonPost.com article: Robert L. Johnson, the 56 year old founder of Washington-based Black Entertainment Television who has a reported net worth of $1.3 billion, will be awarded an NBA expansion franchise to play in Charlotte, sources familiar with the process said last night. Johnson will become the first majority black owner in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues.

USAToday.com article: "Johnson..[a U.S. Air board member].proposed a Washington-based airline to be built with assets shed from a proposed United Airlines-USAirways merger — an idea that was scuttled after the U.S. government vetoed the merger."

NASAWatch.INFO: Do you remember Robert Johnson's rather thwarted bid to launch D.C. Airways?  Why aren't there NASA-funded competitive prizes to help incentivize otherwise rather excluded [and essentially segregated] African American billionaires who happen to be  aerospace enthusiasts such as Robert Johnson and Donald Watkins?    They might stand a realistic shot at getting minor sub-contracts from NASA, but not prime contracts.   Why not offer competitive prizes and thereby incentivize such aerospace enthusiasts  to attempt to accomplish regarding space what the NASA cartel predictably has not?  Doesn't genuinely efficiency-rewarding competition happen to be the American way, even if it peculiarly isn't yet at America's rather monopolistic, Boeing-&-Lockheed-manipulated space agency?  Isn't it remarkable how NASA pretends to offer certain ethnic minorities a racial spoils system in exchange for their political support, while actually keeping them down & dependent on the "NASA plantation"?

  (NASAWatch.COM:  "How dare you further expose NASA's lies where certain (often deceived) minorities are concerned!  If NASA loses more of its minority political support base, then political backing for NASA's continuing monopoly status could diminish and its thousands of civil servants may end up having far less time to lounge around my websites while generating revenues and self-preserving news-leaks for me at taxpayers' expense.  Naturally I'm not comfortable with this possibility because [as with most people at NASA] my income matters far more to me than space does, just don't tell anyone ok?   That did it... I'm going to pretend to think that anybody who tries to liberate any minorities from NASA's self-serving deceptiveness is racist, or whatever else that the masses might potentially believe.  This is a very lucrative bureaucratic niche that you're exposing now.  I demand that you stop it immediately!")    

(NASAWatch.COM: "Of course I'm aware that the percentage of members who are middle class or better is nearly as high for blacks as it is for whites.  Nevertheless, you don't expect me to address the abovementioned scandals, do you?  After all, as even I finally admitted in writing on Sept. 23rd of  2002, I am "someone who writes slanted, biased opinion pieces."  Predictably, I favor bending the rules if it helps those who are more likely to vote for politicians representing the party of both big government, and lots of handouts.  And NO, I'm NOT going to touch upon the need for high school tuition vouchers in minorities' neighborhoods because if the teachers' unions get irritated with me, they could (among other things) ban schools' access to my usually frivolous websites. 
     Besides which, genuinely pro-entrepreneurial governmental policies still scare me.   After all, if bureaucrats suddenly have to compete more with private industry, and must consequently better justify their tax-leeching sinecures, then who in the Heck will subsequently have time to generate potentially sponsored pageviews for my web properties?  Meanwhile, who would still be empowered to spread gossip to me so that I can publish it and thereby personally profit, while I protect their jobs however I can?  How could I subsequently continue furthering my own agenda in ways that benefit close business affiliates such as the one currently directing the Space Transportation Association?
     Admittedly though, it's getting rather infuriating that despite my years of selling out, my allies in the NASA bureaucracy and entrenched government contracting realm still haven't found me any adequately paying sponsors to replace the recently departed Discovery Channel.  Here are my advertising rates, folks: http://www.spaceref.com/company/advertising.html .   Do you want me to keep needing handouts from the Space Transportation Association, which is presently run by a SpaceRef business affiliate with a sponsorship-accepting, government contractor-pandering, predictably statist agenda? I'd prefer to further my own statist agenda.")

Previously...

WashingtonPost.com article:  "Jayson Blair is lashing out at the New York Times, saying that "racism had much more of an impact" on his career at the paper than affirmative action did and boasting about his repeated deception of Times editors.  In an extraordinary interview with the New York Observer being published today, the former reporter laughed about the Times's investigation of him and seemed angry that his serial fabrications weren't being properly appreciated.  "I don't understand why I am the bumbling affirmative action hire when Stephen Glass is this brilliant whiz kid, when from my perspective -- and I know I shouldn't be saying this -- I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism," he said. Glass, who was fired by the New Republic for inventing stories five years ago, "is so brilliant and yet somehow I'm [an] affirmative action hire. They're all so smart, but I was sitting right under their nose fooling them. If they're all so brilliant and I'm such an affirmative action hire, how come they didn't catch me?"

CNN.com article: "NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York Times has concluded, after an extensive internal investigation, that one of its former reporters committed "frequent acts of journalistic fraud." In a 7,500 word article published Saturday on its Web site, the prestigious newspaper accuses the reporter of making up reports from other cities while writing from his apartment in Brooklyn. The paper says the reporter invented quotes, wrote about scenery from published photographs and stole material from other news organizations. The article, to be published in Sunday's print editions, details how reporter Jayson Blair, 27, was quickly promoted through the ranks from intern to the national desk despite a history of corrections, sloppy reporting and lectures from his editors. The Times articles calls Blair's career a "profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper." Blair, who is black, came to the Times as part of an internship program designed to help the paper attract more minority reporters. Times officials insisted that fact had nothing to do with his subsequent hiring and quick rise to full reporter status, despite editors' concerns about his work."

MSNBC.com article: This article includes a video of that particular habitually lying, underachieving, double standard-enjoying beneficiary of racial quotas.

NASAWatch.INFO: The Columbia Shuttle disaster marks a similar "low point" in the several decade history of NASA (the "quotas over quality" space program), doesn't it?   Nevertheless, why has the self-deprecating New York Times  all but ignored the story of how NASA has monopolized the market of launching humans into space from the U.S., at our country's expense?   For an analysis of traditional U.S. media corruption regarding the aerospace industry, feel free to click here.   

(NASAWatch.COM: "This doesn't mark the low-point in the New York Times' 152 year history.  That was reached on various occasions whenever they looked the other way while space entrepreneurs were getting stepped on by tax-subsidized, monopolistic NASA.  It all sure has been profitable for me and my business affiliate running the Space Transportation Association nowadays, though")

Previously...

USAToday.com article: "Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., was forced out of his party leadership post Friday after a furor over his remarks about the role of American Jews in a possible war with Iraq."

NASAWatch.INFO: Do you know what percentage of NASA's minority contract set-asides go directly to Jewish-owned small business?  Is the answer not zero?  And is the silence not rather puzzling? 

   Washington Times article: "Why does big business want racial quotas? Because it is in their own self-interest. If a corporation does not have enough minority employees to satisfy government agencies, that can lead to racial discrimination lawsuits. But if they hire by quotas and quotas are outlawed, they can be sued by whites for reverse discrimination. Keeping affirmative action legal solves their problem."

NASAWatch.INFO: Should we keep predictably underachieving aerospace companies strapped in this double-bind, or should we encourage initiative, innovation and competitiveness among ALL ethnic groups & aerospace companies by having NASA simply offer competitive prizes instead of central planner-intensive contracts?

Previously...

WashingtonTimes.com article:  "Instead of blaming racism for the woes of the black community, Oakland, Calif.'s NAACP believes self-responsibility should replace "civil rights" as the new cornerstone of black activism.   Today, it will sponsor a "self-help" summit to focus attention on ways the black community can improve itself from within, without the help of the federal government. "We aren't here to talk about racism, but to talk about what the black community can do to help itself," said Shannon Reeves, chairman of the Oakland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.   "We've had a civil rights movement already. Now it's time for a self-help movement." 

NASAWatch.INFO: "Without the help of the federal government"? What help?  To see how NASA's bureaucrats have opportunistically, parasitically and deceptively kept photogenic black potential space entrepreneurs down & dependent upon NASA's contract dollars and other "free" candy, please feel free to consult our NASA & minority contracting analysis here.   And to read about how NASA hypocritically mistreats small busineses in general, please click  here.

Previously...

MSNBC.com article: In paraphrasing this article: President Bush recently spoke out against racist college and graduate school admissions policies.  He mentioned that racial diversity can be achieved through means that are an alternative to socially abrasive & divisive race-based reverse discrimination, such as through guaranteeing college admissions to the top 10% of (for example) predominately African-American or Hispanic high schools.  This approach neither penalizes higher academic scorers possessing the politically incorrect skin color, nor stigmatizes highly accomplished minorities who resent having their prestige diluted by the existence of quotas that erode the status of all members of their race.   While the shakedown politics of racial victimhood and affirmative action have NOT improved the saddening poverty rate of blacks, "affirmative access" could finally empower blacks to demand reforms of corrupt teachers unions which opportunistically still won't tolerate possible tuition voucher -relatedlegal breakthroughs that many blacks want, but peculiarly still aren't receiving.

NASAWatch.INFO: The soft bigotry of low expectations has also kept minority-owned space businesses down & dependent on the federal trough, much to NASA bureaucrats' opportunistic delight.   Before "helping" them significantly, such bureaucrats require blacks to officially and embarrassingly declare that they're disadvantaged merely because of their skin color.   Again, please feel free to consult our NASA & minority contracting analysis here.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide by June on the constitutionality of admissions policies at private & public universities that accept federal funds but also give preferential treatment to admissions applicants merely on the basis of skin color, as opposed to a colorblind socioeconomic background analysis.  There are some interesting parallels between the two-tiered university admissions system still intact in some states, and NASA's highly criticized small business outsourcing program. As numerous space entrepreneurs already know, the latter favors politically useful photogenic minorities while astonishingly underperforming regarding outsourcing from small businesses in general. Ironically though, rather than push for NASA to offer playingfield-leveling competitive prizes as a means of procurement, NASA's small business outsourcing office conveniently allows minority contractors to remain relatively down & dependent on NASA's self-perpetuating bureaucrats for space-related revenues.    Unsurprisingly, black billionaires (such as aerospace enthusiasts Robert Johnson & Donald Watkins) justifiably still shun the space industry. 
     Anyhow, here's more regarding the racial injustices on which the Supreme Court will rule...

WashingtonPost.com article: "After graduation recently, 2.5 million American seniors enrolled in either a two-year or a four-year college. Almost a million did not. They were overwhelmingly poor, male and white. Much to the surprise of social scientists who traditionally have looked for educational problems among minorities, low-income black and Hispanic men are more likely to go to college right out of high school than white guys. So are young women of any background, in fact."

AP.org article: "About 15 percent of the first year Michigan law students are minorities. The Supreme Court was told that without diversity considerations, the number of minorities in a [Michigan Law School] freshman class could plunge to less than .04 percent."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "These schools have sent a very clear — and, I believe, racist — message to all students: We don't expect black and Hispanic students to measure up, so we're giving them a pass, while we expect only the best grades and test scores from whites and Asians. Isn't this racism, pure and simple? Few college administrators are as blunt in their assessment as former Rutgers President Francis Lawrence was in 1995 when he told a faculty meeting, "The average SAT [score] for African-Americans is 750. Do we set standards in the future so we don't admit anybody? Or do we deal with a disadvantaged population that doesn't have that genetic, hereditary background to have a higher average?" Mr. Lawrence nearly lost his job over the ensuing flap, but because he was such a staunch liberal and defender of affirmative action, he didn't."

Washington Times article:  "Unfortunately, affirmative action is now little more than a euphemism for the use of quotas, though they often go under the cover of "goals" or "diversity" or some other verbal disguise. One result of all this doublespeak is that almost anyone black (or female, or Hispanic) gets tagged a quota kid, or a token appointment. No matter how great their merit or promise or deserts...This is a familiar sneer by now, thanks to the stigma that the current system of racial quotas places on those it is ostensibly designed to help."

WashingtonTimes.com article:   "Public-opinion polls consistently find that a majority of every racial group strongly opposes racially preferential treatment (i.e., racial discrimination) in college admissions — and for good reason.  It is immoral; it deepens racial divisions; and, at publicly supported institutions, it is unconstitutional. Yet, sadly, it is practiced by administrators at far too many American colleges. The justifications for this continued racial discrimination vary, including many that are well-meaning but deeply misguided."

Some of the following postings are repetitive of what's above.  We will remove them fairly soon.

Wilmington Star article:   Film director Spike Lee recently spoke his mind at the Coastline Convention Center during the Wilmington Black Expo:  "Blacks need to shake off the "slave mentality" and support minority-owned businesses.  A lot of us still have that slave mentality," he said, "the belief that we're inferior and that we can't be trusted in matters of business."

NASAWatch.INFO: Why does NASA nevertheless insist that minority-owned small businesses seeking contract-related preferential treatment refer to themselves (embarrassingly) as being Small And Disadvantaged ("SDB" or "SAD"), instead of perhaps as small and underutilized?  Far be it from NASA's bureaucrats to encourage entrepreneurs to think they can make it without being perpetually dependent upon tax-subsidized NASA, though. NASA needs photogenic politically correct supporters after all, so that anybody who advocates reforming NASA's wastefulness can more effectively be called a racist or whatever the bureaucratically fashionable slur of the month is.   To learn more about how NASA knowingly harms minorities while sneakily pretending to help them, please feel free to read this statistically-substantiated article.   If even Spike Lee (who benefited from favorable loan rates, grants and other government-related advantages over the years as a result of his minority status) is speaking out against the status quo then something must be REALLY wrong.

 NASAWatch.INFO: Isn't it remarkable how those who jealously cling to the status quo tend to ignore race-neutral means of making society more "fair and just"?   What's wrong with finally granting minorities' wishes for tuition vouchers despite predictable objections from such social planners' political allies, the parasitic & corrupt teachers' unions?   Meanwhile, have you considered the interesting story of Robert Johnson and Donald Watkins ?   They are two aeronautically inclined African American billionaires who would quite conceivably see fit to enter the launch industry for the benefit of the masses (or at least themselves) if only NASA would start offering competitive prizes to anyone who achieves technological milestones (regardless of race).   Instead NASA still insists on offering inefficiency-encouraging government contracts, which predictably tend to favor the traditional aerospace cabal.   Of course NASA also throws a few race-oriented small contract set-asides to minorities in exchange for political support that helps enable the rest of NASA's wasteful programs.   Will NASA finally open the door for minorities by offering pro-entrepreneurial prizes, or will NASA hypocritically  and sneakily seek to keep certain minorities dependent upon the NASA pork & gravy train?   To  learn what's REALLY going on behind the scenes within NASA's dependence-perpetuating, minority-harming socioeconomic goals programs, please feel free to read this at times painfully well-documented article.

  (NASAWatch.COM:  "How dare you further expose NASA's lies where certain (often deceived) minorities are concerned!  If NASA loses more of its minority political support base, then political backing for NASA's continuing monopoly status could diminish and its thousands of civil servants may end up having far less time to lounge around my websites while generating revenues and self-preserving news-leaks for me at taxpayers' expense.  Naturally I'm not comfortable with this possibility because [as with most people at NASA] my income matters far more to me than space does, just don't tell anyone ok?   That did it... I'm going to pretend to think that anybody who tries to liberate any minorities from NASA's self-serving deceptiveness is racist, or whatever else that the masses might potentially believe.  This is a very lucrative bureaucratic niche that you're exposing now.  I demand that you stop it immediately!")

NASAWatch.INFO: The soft bigotry of low expectations has also kept minority-owned space businesses down & dependent on the federal trough, much to NASA bureaucrats' opportunistic delight.   Before "helping" them significantly, such bureaucrats require blacks to officially and embarrassingly declare that they're disadvantaged merely because of their skin color.  What a great way to market one's company and boost one's self esteem, huh?  

 NASAWatch.INFO:   Have you seen the latest Congressional Score Card which evaluates the small business procurement records of all the U.S. federal agencies, based on official records reported by agencies such as NASA to the Small Business Administration?  NASA has the nation's 3rd largest procurement budget but scored a D-, as one can confirm beginning on page 47.  That grade placed NASA in the bottom tier of federal agencies in terms of complying with its legal obligations to spend 23% of its prime contracting dollars on small businesses. Indeed, NASA's percentage during 2001 was merely 14.52% and during 2002 it was 14.69%, which is actually a slight improvement over what the previous administration "achieved."  Anyhow, within the aerospace sector the Small Business Administration says that companies can employ "up to 1,000 [one thousand] people" and still remain classified as small businesses, as the following SBA u.r.l. can confirm [see "Subsector 541"].
      Who audits NASA for truthfulness, though?  Meanwhile, do you believe their predictable claims that it's not possible for NASA to outsource more to small businesses such as MirCorp, Bigelow Aerospace, or any rocket company seeking investment to revive the DC-X or some other potential competitor for the Shuttle monopoly?  Regardless, kudos go to the House Small Business Committee Democrats (led by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, D, NY)  for compiling this study that's potentially helpful to all the excluded small businesses.   Some at NASA predictably claim that Nydia doesn't have her facts right but are these not statistics reported directly by NASA to the Small Business Administration?
     To learn more about NASA's jealous hostility towards privately owned ventures that could potentially outperform whatever the NASA clique still gets to deceptively push on taxpayers, please read this article.      Meanwhile, how is it that NASA's Small Business Office (portrayed here: http://www.osdbu.nasa.gov) got to host a tax-subsidized  "annual" minority awards ceremony on September 24th of 2002 when they just had such an "annual" event on February 20th, of 2002?   Is that a public relations-driven entity, or a performance-driven one?   Don't the numbers seem to speak for themselves?  

(NASAWatch.COM: "You don't expect me to cover any of these scandals, do you? After all, as even I finally admitted in writing on Sept. 23rd of  2002, I am "someone who writes slanted, biased opinion pieces myself." Admittedly though, it's getting rather infuriating that despite my years of selling out, my allies in the NASA bureaucracy and entrenched government contracting realm still haven't found me any sponsors to replace the Discovery Channel.  Here are my advertising rates, folks: http://www.spaceref.com/company/advertising.html .  Don't line-up all at once, though!")

WashingtonPost.com article: "After graduation recently, 2.5 million American seniors enrolled in either a two-year or a four-year college. Almost a million did not. They were overwhelmingly poor, male and white. Much to the surprise of social scientists who traditionally have looked for educational problems among minorities, low-income black and Hispanic men are more likely to go to college right out of high school than white guys. So are young women of any background, in fact."

AP.org article: "About 15 percent of the first year Michigan law students are minorities. The Supreme Court was told that without diversity considerations, the number of minorities in a [Michigan Law School] freshman class could plunge to less than .04 percent."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "These schools have sent a very clear — and, I believe, racist — message to all students: We don't expect black and Hispanic students to measure up, so we're giving them a pass, while we expect only the best grades and test scores from whites and Asians. Isn't this racism, pure and simple? Few college administrators are as blunt in their assessment as former Rutgers President Francis Lawrence was in 1995 when he told a faculty meeting, "The average SAT [score] for African-Americans is 750. Do we set standards in the future so we don't admit anybody? Or do we deal with a disadvantaged population that doesn't have that genetic, hereditary background to have a higher average?" Mr. Lawrence nearly lost his job over the ensuing flap, but because he was such a staunch liberal and defender of affirmative action, he didn't."

Washington Times article:  "Unfortunately, affirmative action is now little more than a euphemism for the use of quotas, though they often go under the cover of "goals" or "diversity" or some other verbal disguise. One result of all this doublespeak is that almost anyone black (or female, or Hispanic) gets tagged a quota kid, or a token appointment. No matter how great their merit or promise or deserts...This is a familiar sneer by now, thanks to the stigma that the current system of racial quotas places on those it is ostensibly designed to help."

WashingtonTimes.com article:   "Public-opinion polls consistently find that a majority of every racial group strongly opposes racially preferential treatment (i.e., racial discrimination) in college admissions — and for good reason.  It is immoral; it deepens racial divisions; and, at publicly supported institutions, it is unconstitutional. Yet, sadly, it is practiced by administrators at far too many American colleges. The justifications for this continued racial discrimination vary, including many that are well-meaning but deeply misguided. But, thankfully, the Supreme Court now has a chance to end such discrimination."

        NASAWatch.INFO:  Curiously enough, NASA typically requires minority-owned businesses to call themselves ethnically "disadvantaged" in order to get to share in the bureaucrats' loot through government sub-contracting.   To learn more about NASA's jealous hostility towards privately owned ventures that could potentially outperform whatever the NASA clique still gets to deceptively push on taxpayers, please read this article.   Meanwhile, how is it that NASA's Small Business Office (portrayed here: http://www.osdbu.nasa.gov) got to host a tax-subsidized  "annual" minority awards ceremony on September 24th of 2002 when they just had such an "annual" event on February 20th, of 2002?   Is that a public relations-driven entity, or a performance-driven one?   Don't the abovementioned numbers seem to speak for themselves?  

(NASAWatch.COM: "Of course I'm aware that the percentage of members who are middle class or better is nearly as high for blacks as it is for whites.  Nevertheless, you don't expect me to address the abovementioned scandals, do you?  After all, as even I finally admitted in writing on Sept. 23rd of  2002, I am "someone who writes slanted, biased opinion pieces."  Predictably, I favor bending the rules if it helps those who are more likely to vote for politicians representing the party of both big government, and lots of handouts.  And NO, I'm NOT going to touch upon the need for high school tuition vouchers in minorities' neighborhoods because if the (admittedly corrupt & parasitic) teachers' unions get irritated with me, they could (among other things) ban schools' access to my usually frivolous websites. 
     Besides which, genuinely pro-entrepreneurial governmental policies still scare me.   After all, if bureaucrats suddenly have to compete more with private industry, and must consequently better justify their tax-leeching sinecures, then who in the Heck will subsequently have time to generate potentially sponsored pageviews for my web properties?  Meanwhile, who would still be empowered to spread gossip to me so that I can publish it and thereby personally profit, while I protect their jobs however I can?  How could I subsequently continue furthering my own agenda in ways that benefit close business affiliates such as the one currently directing the Space Transportation Association?
     Admittedly though, it's getting rather infuriating that despite my years of selling out, my allies in the NASA bureaucracy and entrenched government contracting realm still haven't found me any sponsors to replace the recently departed Discovery Channel.  Here are my advertising rates, folks: http://www.spaceref.com/company/advertising.html .   YOU can be the first to help out.  Do you want me to keep needing handouts from the Space Transportation Association, which is presently run by a SpaceRef business affiliate with a sponsorship-accepting, government contractor-pandering, predictably statist agenda? I'd prefer to further my own statist agenda.")

NASAWatch.INFO: TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch).    

WashingtonPost.com article:  "In 2001, underrepresented minorities from families with incomes of $80,000 or more averaged 21.9 on the Medical School Admission Test; whites and Asians from families with incomes  under  $30,000 averaged 25.7 and 25.5, respectively."

 WashingtonTimes.com article: "[According to Justice Clarence Thomas' lengthy, dissenting opinion, t]he majority of blacks are admitted to the law school because of discrimination, and because of this policy all are tarred as undeserving.  In a pusillanimous age, the courage and common sense of Clarence Thomas stand out a mile. Black "leaders," who should be his biggest fans, can't stand being in the same room with him."

WashingtonTimes.com article:  "If universities want to boost minority enrollment, for whatever reason, the place to begin is in the primary and secondary schools. Improved lower schools would ensure that minority (and majority) kids learn their subjects and qualify for admission based on merit instead of relying on a system designed to excuse underachievement. The National Assessment of Educational Process last week released "The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2000." It found that students in the dreadful D.C. school system are the worst readers in the country, despite annual per-pupil expenditures of $9,650 (second-highest in the nation in 2001) and teacher salaries that rank among the nation's highest. But D.C. students who don't learn to read shouldn't worry. If they are minorities (as most are), they can count on affirmative action to get them into college, illiterate though they may be. This is the message the Supreme Court has sent in its decision...Expect the ruling to influence private colleges and universities, as well as government and business."

FoxNews.com article: "Bush, who has called the [racially focused] admissions policies "fundamentally flawed," supports what he calls a [race-neutral] "affirmative access" (search) system used in Texas and Florida."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "[Regarding] the U.S. Supreme Court's anxiously awaited decision on the University of Michigan's admissions policy...Experts said the impact will also be felt in American corporations as well as the military."

Washington Times article: "In 2000, 12 Hispanics who scored between a 159-160 on the LSAT and earned a GPA of 3.00 or higher applied for admission, and only two were admittted. ... Meanwhile, 12 African-Americans in the same range of qualifications applied for admission, and all 12 were admitted." Justice Rehnquist writes that Michigan never explained why Hispanics "should have their admission capped out." Nor does Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. And yet this is a case fundamentally about the 14th Amendment's equal protection guarantee."

Center for Equal Opportunity: "A detailed, 50-page study released by the Center for Equal Opportunity [directed by Mrs. Linda Chavez] concludes that racial discrimination is widespread in Virginia law school admissions. The report focuses on the three Virginia public law schools -- the University of Virginia, William & Mary, and George Mason University -- and reveals odds favoring black applicants as high as 731 to 1. To put it in other terms: A student with an LSAT score of 160 and an undergraduate GPA of 3.25 had a 95 percent chance of admission into U.Va. if he or she was black, but only a 3 percent chance of admission if white, Hispanic or Asian."

WashingtonTimes.com article: "From what I can tell, the upshot of O'Connor's ruling is that special treatment for blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans is constitutional but giving special treatment to Italian-Americans, Jews or Asians (to randomly pick three non-preferred groups) will remain legally unconstitutional and socially racist."

 Washington Times article: "the racial preference frolic in Metro Broadcasting vs. Federal Communications Commission (1990) authored by Justice William Brennan was soon jettisoned after he retired in Adarand Contractors Inc. vs. Pena (1995)."

CNN.com article: The Supreme Court will decide in June "whether a state has a "compelling interest" to promote a diverse student body, or whether the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment forbids giving one ethnic group or minority special advantages over another." "While this case is about access to education, the Supreme Court's ruling could have rippling effects on affirmative action programs in job hiring and government contracts."

"On the moon in 2087, Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) is a nightclub owner who accidentally gets involved in a revolt against an evil corporation from Earth intent on taking over his lunar colony, and he soon becomes the leader of the lunar independence movement."

NASAWatch.INFO: Should this fact be totally off of our radar as we try and understand why the likes of Lance Bass can't drum up the entertainment-related sponsorship that they need to help open the space frontier? Murphy has had some box office smashes including Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop and even Boomerang. One would think this movie would have done far better if his market niche believed that space was potentially relevant to them.  Why doesn't it, considering how NASA always brags about how happy its (coincidentally government contract dollars-receiving) minority constituency is?   Interestingly enough, some African American billionaires DO like the aerospace industry to varying degrees although they won't touch space under NASA's dependence-perpetuating terms.  For details, please feel free to visit here.  If NASA finally offered prizes instead of corruptly administered contracts though, minority interest in space could dramatically improve (but not in time to save Pluto....Nash that is).

Washington Times article:  "Does a school's interest in diversity overcome the constitutional and statutory prohibitions against racial discrimination?"

NASAWatch.INFO: If we finally colonized space then wouldn't colonists subsequently have to harmoniously confront the hardships of the unknown while learning to view one another as fellow Earthlings instead of as enemies?   Would racism not fade if not vanish altogether, even in the unlikely event that we might not encounter intelligent life from another world whose presence could unify Earthlings even further?  Would tapping into the vast wealth available only in space not ease tensions that presently keep people on Earth competing in a Malthusian arena of diminishing resources? Thus, isn't it ironic that some NASA officials still self-perpetuatingly claim that their racially divisive procurement policies significantly help minorities even as their official refusal to more aggressively embrace genuine reforms favoring entrepreneurs of all races predictably keeps practically everyone confined to Earth, and consequently racially divided? 

NASAWatch.INFO: Please, think about what we've suggested above.    Isn't it clearly time for meaningful change at NASA, for everyone's sake?

USAToday.com article: "Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., was forced out of his party leadership post Friday after a furor over his remarks about the role of American Jews in a possible war with Iraq."

NASAWatch.INFO: Do you know what percentage of NASA's minority contract set-asides go directly to Jewish-owned small business?  Is the answer not zero?  And is the silence not rather puzzling? 

Washington Times article: "Why does big business want racial quotas? Because it is in their own self-interest. If a corporation does not have enough minority employees to satisfy government agencies, that can lead to racial discrimination lawsuits. But if they hire by quotas and quotas are outlawed, they can be sued by whites for reverse discrimination. Keeping affirmative action legal solves their problem."

NASAWatch.INFO: Should we keep predictably underachieving aerospace companies strapped in this double-bind, or should we encourage initiative, innovation and competitiveness among ALL ethnic groups & aerospace companies by having NASA simply offer competitive prizes instead of central planner-intensive contracts?

NASAWatch.INFO:  Could this tendency be why we don't see far more prizes offered by federal agencies, because it's tougher to make government procurement color-blind when awards are made to the most entrepreneurial, as opposed to the most colorful?  Ironically,  Robert Johnson and Donald Watkins are two aeronautically inclined African American billionaires who would conceivably see fit to enter the launch industry for the benefit of the masses if only NASA would start offering competitive prizes to anyone who achieves technological milestones (regardless of race).  Instead NASA still offers inefficiency-encouraging government contracts, though, which predictably tend to favor the traditional aerospace cabal.   Of course NASA also throws a few race-oriented small contract set-asides to minorities in exchange for political support for the rest of NASA's wastefulness.  
      Will NASA finally open the door for minorities by offering pro-entrepreneurial prizes, or will NASA hypocritically seek to keep certain minorities dependent upon the NASA pork & gravy train?   To  learn what's REALLY going on behind the scenes within NASA's dependence-perpetuating, minority-harming socioeconomic goals programs, please feel free to read this at times painfully well-documented article.

Washington Post article : If there's anything America knows about Justice Clarence Thomas's sister, it's that he once singled her out publicly as an illustration of what welfare dependence can foster. She is so dependent, Thomas told The Washington Post in 1980, "she gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check . . . What's worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check, too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation."

NASAWatch.INFO: Is this all that unlike the government contractor setting?  Have you noticed how its beneficiaries are the last to aggressively embrace long overdue legal reforms that could benefit genuinely entrepreneurial space entrepreneurs?  Incidentally, in 1995 Justice Thomas subsequently wrote "There can be no doubt that racial paternalism and its unintended consequences can be as poisonous and pernicious as any other form of discrimination. (Adarand Constructors v. Pena)"

  Washington Times article: "Jean-Marie Jean-Pierre, a quality assurance specialist at NASA and a black Haitian immigrant, said he doesn't approve of the idea of reparations for slavery. "I don't need them. I came here and I learned English and I got a good college education. This is the land of opportunity. Why does anybody need reparations?" "

NASAWatch.INFO: Ergo, are we supposed to conclude that NASA's minority dependence-perpetuating, social engineering-oriented, bureaucrat-enriching  procurement approach should supposedly not be reformed because it's the "lesser of two errors" when compared to the reparations demands recently made by nonslaves against nonslaveholders?   If (despite NASA) we eventually do colonize space, wouldn't the resulting economic growth and the rather unifying challenges & discoveries of the unknown prompt humans to view one another increasingly as Earthlings instead of as enemies? 

(NASAWatch.COM: "Do you mean that you do not agree with this elected official's attitude?")  

"I want to go up to the closest white person and say, 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing,' and then slap him, just for my mental health." Charles Barron, a member of the New York City Council (addressing the MillionsForReparations.com rally on August 17th, 2002)

CNN article: President Bush publicly criticizes Senate's version of a welfare reform bill that still does not require welfare recipients to work 40 hour weeks...

NASAWatch.INFO:  Why not also require more NASA bureaucrats  and their pet contractors' employees to actually WORK that much while we're at it?  Anybody can LOOK busy & productive while sneakily squandering our tax dollars and adding to our record high $6 trillion dollar national debt, but...

 (NASA press release) The U.S. Senate late Thursday confirmed Frederick D. Gregory as NASA Deputy Administrator.  Gregory, a veteran Space Shuttle commander who previously served as the Associate Administrator for Space Flight, is set to become the agency's first African-American deputy.

NASAWatch.INFO: Will he make any difference at NASA, though? Boat-rocking's not exactly a popular activity among complacent (and arrogantly self-justifying) bureaucrats. So does Mr. Gregory have the right stuff to change any of that at NASA?

 NASAWatch.INFO: Did such small companies not provide NASA with political cover over the years even as NASA jealously & vindictively stepped on genuinely entrepreneurially inclined small businesses such as Mir-salvaging MirCorp, Beal Aerospace, Rotary Rocket and folks involved with the DC-X rocket?  The NASA clique (with its pet small businesses included) feared Mir, and what its efficiency could do to their tax-subsidized contracts.   Are they finally starting to admit to where such short-sighted opportunism has gotten them?  Would the more efficient among them not benefit significantly if NASA would start offering prizes rather than favoritism-laden contracts?  Or will such companies not embrace such a potential reform even now, in hopes of getting additional favors from the potentially grateful NASA clique?   Unfortunately, it would appear that government contract-oriented companies carry too much political baggage to be able to adapt before newcomers emerge, hire any good employees that they might still have, and ultimately displace them.  But of course Marxist NASA is still not  much of a facilitator of capitalism, so the outcome likely won't be that orderly.  
         One thing that is sure though: small businesses that helped dig their own graves by remaining silent or even greedily defending NASA even as other small businesses were being stifled by it should brace themselves for the worst that is yet to come.  They would do well to remember the Malcolm X quote "the chicken comes home to roost" for those who deserve to learn that what goes around comes around.  Maybe next time, if they ever get another opportunity, they'll finally do the right thing and stand up to NASA for its shameless mistreatment of small businesses.  

(NASAWatch.COM: "The more small businesses there are involved with space, the more efficiency will be required in the industry and the less time folks will have to surf my soap opera digest of space web properties.  Additionally, if the space industry does ever become truly entrepreneurial, then obviously my bureaucrat allies will have diminished importance and consequently won't be able to leak as much confidential information to me.  Instead, they'll actually have to start adding value to taxpayers or move to any company in the private sector that might be willing to actually pay for their brand of services.  So I think I'll ignore the publicly funded space prizes issue for the most part, just like I tend to ignore the space tax incentives one." ) 

Washington Times article: [headline:] "President Clinton's administration pushed FBI director Louis Freeh to emphasize affirmative action and political issues over counterintelligence and national security."

NASAWatch.INFO: Of course NASA hasn't similarly forgotten its own mission while pretending to help minorities whom it actually betrays.  To learn more about how NASA knowingly stifles minorities while sneakily pretending to help them, please feel free to read this statistically-substantiated article (if you haven't already).   Meanwhile, as for failed missions, the Cato Institute maintains that prices come down over time even regarding heating oil, but space access from the USA peculiarly continues to serve as a rather unique exception to that rule...    Central planning went out with the Soviet Union, but not at NASA (yet).

NASAWatch.INFO:  Did you know that NASA's percentage is merely 14.69%?   Have you seen the latest Congressional Score Card which evaluates the small business procurement records of all the U.S. federal agencies, based on official records reported by agencies such as NASA to the Small Business Administration?  NASA has the nation's 3rd largest procurement budget but scored a D-, as one can confirm beginning on page 47.  That grade placed NASA in the bottom tier of federal agencies in terms of complying with its legal obligations to spend 23% of its prime contracting dollars on small businesses. Indeed, NASA's percentage during 2001 was merely 14.52% and during 2002 it was 14.69%, which is actually a slight improvement over what the previous administration "achieved."  Anyhow, within the aerospace sector the Small Business Administration says that companies can employ "up to 1,000 [one thousand] people" and still remain classified as small businesses, as the following SBA u.r.l. can confirm [see "Subsector 541"].
      Who audits NASA for truthfulness, though?  Meanwhile, do you believe their predictable claims that it's not possible for NASA to outsource more to small businesses such as MirCorp, Bigelow Aerospace, or any rocket company seeking investment to revive the DC-X or some other potential competitor for the Shuttle monopoly?  Regardless, kudos go to the House Small Business Committee Democrats (led by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, D, NY)  for compiling this study that's potentially helpful to all the excluded small businesses.   Some at NASA predictably claim that Nydia doesn't have her facts right but are these not statistics reported directly by NASA to the Small Business Administration?
     To learn more about NASA's jealous hostility towards privately owned ventures that could potentially outperform whatever the NASA clique still gets to deceptively push on taxpayers, please read this article.      Meanwhile, how is it that NASA's Small Business Office (portrayed here: http://www.osdbu.nasa.gov) got to host a tax-subsidized  "annual" minority awards ceremony on September 24th of 2002 when they just had such an "annual" event on February 20th, of 2002?   Is that a public relations-driven entity, or a performance-driven one?   Don't the numbers seem to speak for themselves?   To learn more about how NASA's supposedly pro-minority programs actually stifle minorities by keeping them dependent on NASA's bureaucrats, please click here.