He's goin' to da moon!

Had to check the date on the calendar to make sure it's really January, not April 1st. But it's no April fool. Elect "Hold `er Newt" Gingrich and America will build a permanent base on the moon!

I know. I had trouble believing it too. But Reuters is reporting it, so it must be true. Right? Speaking in Cocoa Beach FL, the erstwhile Republican presidential contender called for a base on the moon and an expanded federal purse for prize money to stimulate private-sector space projects.

Said Newt, "We want Americans to think boldly about the future." [Surely "boldly go where no-one has gone before"! Ed.] In order to do this, he explained, it will be necessary to cut NASA's bureaucracy and expand on private-sector space programmes already proposed by President Hussein Obama.

But for now, America will stop at the moon. "It will take some time and further research to put a man on the sun," Gingrich said. "We'll have to figure out a way he could go at night, when it won't be so hot."

Reports that Newt had been out in the Florida sun too long could not be verified.