Tap The Rockies

Remember that commercial where the giant hand suddenly appears and drives a beer tap into the Rocky Mountains? Being a baseball fan, “W” must have seen it dozens of times.

While the concern is that Bush wants to militarize space, its seems just as likely that he wants to sell it off.

If he could figure out how to acquire a sports stadium with the public’s money, why couldn’t he help his corporate buddies piggyback on the publicly-funded space program to start carving up the moon? After all, the moon is apparently conducive to various applications, including solar power generation, radio broadcasting and certain kinds of manufacturing. Supposedly, mining is also a possibility.

According to a recent piece in the Village Voice, the moon is legally “fair game” for private development. According to the article:

“The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 barred nations from owning property upstairs but left companies with an all-clear. Later, the 1979 United Nations Moon Treaty declared Earth’s satellite part of the Common Heritage of Mankind, exploitable only for the mutual benefit of all nations. But the U.S. and the Soviet Union never signed on.”

In spite of the recommendation to concentrate on Mars, it’s easy to see why “W” would try to throw in the moon for a “two-fer.”

It’s how he’s always done business.