None But The Blind...

In retrospect, quite pitiful:

I am pleased to be able to focus here on our R and D programs, many of them new, in our budget. We are incredibly excited that the President’s budget provides $6B in new funding to NASA over the next 5 years.

This investment is a testament to our innovative workforce, our forward looking programs,and our ability to connect our work with societal needs to drive prosperity for people across the Nation.

With President Obama’s new direction to NASA, we will be investing billions in the best peer reviewed research, innovative new technologies, dramatic flight demonstrations, and in building an inclusive new space industry, all of which are designed to again position NASA a national leader in research and development activities, and in meeting critical national needs.

That was the start of a speech by NASA's Deputy Administrator Lori Beth Garver on February 1, 2010.

Peer reviewed research. Dramatic flight demonstrations. Connect with societal needs to Help drive prosperity.

Not a word about space exploration.

Good grief, Even I, uninformed and out-of-touch as I am, knew back in February 2010 that Obama would cripple - if not outright kill - NASA, not give them six billion dollars to keep on keeping on.

What the Deputy Administrator should have been talking about was how to batten down the hatches to survive the then-coming storm.

Well, the storm has arrived, and the reality of a pathological liar as president has gut-punched NASA. Will Congress toss NASA a lifeline?

Only if China will loan them the rope.