Another truly spacey candidate

[Freddie Stubbs]

Of course we are all very excited by President Bush's new "Lost in Space" program, which aims to put a person on Mars, well, sometime in the distant future, perhaps after the pacification of Iraq. But there is one politician who is not so wild about Bush's new vision of infinity and beyond, because space exploration has been a lynchpin of his presidential campaign. Alas, no one has heard of him. Meet the man who says he has "a clear vision and sound policies to make America a safe and beautiful place to live."

Fern Penna, 40, is a well-to-do business consultant from Kingston, N.Y., and the son of an engineer who worked on the Apollo space program. "Our long-term goal is to be the first nation to have a man step foot on Mars," says some agitprop posted on the Penna for President website, www.penna04leadership.com. "Like Kennedy in the '60s, we need to give ourselves concrete goals that set America as the world leader in scientific and technology research."

So, Mr. Penna -- wuz you robbed? "Yes, it's been my policy for 10 years, and he definitely took it," Penna says. "He'll do anything to get votes or attention. He doesn't have any ideas of his own."

Penna sees the space effort as a vast public-works project, calling for a new fleet of space shuttles, with 24 control centers and launch sites scattered around the country. That, coupled with a doubling of the size of the National Guard, would add more than 7 million jobs to the nation's workforce. "Everyone goes back to work immediately if I'm elected," he says. "No other candidate can offer that."

more: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/01/22/another_truly_spacey_candidate/