Grrrrrr!!!!!!!

(Author's Note: Yes, the title is not far off from the Strakalogue column on foxnews.com. No, I don't care).
So if you haven't figured it out, I do have a certain affection (or sickness if you prefer) for our space program. I'm reading news stories today and run across this article about recent statements from the current NASA Administrator, regarding the impending gap in our ability to launch our people & equipment on our own vehicle. Not surprising, as he is rightfully being questioned to justify his FY07 budget proposal. So why am I irritated? If you have a few minutes to kill, read the article, especially the part about losing the experienced workforce.
What I don't understand is that this is the same man who's current staff has offered to buy-out the older civil service employees (aka the experienced ones) and as soon as the deadline has passed they have been RIF-ing hundreds of people at every NASA Center, some to the brink of extinction. This week they have pretty much driven the final coffin nail into the Space- and Life Sciences programs, which will put more people out the door.
Now granted, the agency has tons of dead-weight (people wise) and cleaning house would tend to get rid of a lot of their "culture" problems. I just can't help but wonder what kind of message you send to the people who control your agency's budget when you say one thing and do another. Am I the only one who sees this as strange? If you are really bored & have time to kill, check out one of my favorite websites. It has lots of recent examples of all this and provides a clear picture as to why I think that 10 years from now NASA will still be buying seats to orbit from the Russians or maybe by then from Richard Branson & company, barring some major changes in the way they do business. This is a hard soapbox for me to stay off, though I didn't wanna spoil the good natured posts tomorrow for Good Picture Friday/The Good Life.
Remember, these are your tax dollars (still less than 1% of them) going to building a brighter future for your grandchildren's grandchildren.