Hi Tom,

There is a lot of good news for space fans although it is really a DOD fans wishlist.

This was high on the wishlist:
<A HREF="http://www.dote.osd.mil/reports/FY00/airforce/00aehf.html"MILSTAR replacement

When this baby is up - NOTHING short of extraterrestrial communications will be faster or more secure.

The super high frequency bit is a testing bed for a lot of technologies on the edge.

As for homeland security - this IS civil defense in its new name. Civil defense carries coldwar baggage that was obviously deemed better left untouched. We all know the left would love to say Bush's leadership is so poor you are in danger of being nuked again like in 1953! It would not matter that the nuclear threat is a growing threat - and that so many nations are on the verge of having nuclear weapons that in a sane US - we would be building ten mile long mass fallout and blast shelters in tunnels under our major cities. The expense will be well worth it - even if it just saves hundreds of thousands of people.

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The political angle is why it was not called civil defense. Yet CD is exactly what it is - with the added role of being observant of terrorists and recognizing that water, nuclear and population centers are subject to terrorist attack and sabotage.

The last civil defense radiation detectors were calibrated in 81 or 82 I think. I hope not to need it, but I have one handy. Sometimes one can obtain the electronic ones made by the Russians - they are much more accurate than our old D battery-powered CD ones.

The danger is that some of these units themselves have been exposed to radiation in their service duty and so give false readings - because they are themselves now radioactive. (God knows the Chernobyl ones must still practically be glowing)

The yellow CD ones have usely only been exposed to a small amount of Uranium in testing and calibrating and so are still 'clean units'.

Yes, Bush probably has some folks whispering in his ear the need for these things, but probably realizes the futility of shelter funding in the face of a democratic controlled senate (Who would gladly see their constituents perish so long as they get to go underground in their bunkers - which are likely being retrofitted and expanded as we type) which will use such an expenditure to point at Bush and say, "This man is bringing about the end of the world!" and proceed to kill the expenditure and the idea - but also damage Bush politically.

So money for some shelters will be stealthily incorporated into the homeland security budget - and possibly if Bush gets a second term we might see a real shelter program emerge.

Of course if some terrorists succeed in damaging a reactor or releasing airborne contaminants - or help us - a nuclear attack - then the shelters will become a top priority and the people will wake up from their lethargy and say, "Why didn't we have these long ago! Who dropped the ball?"

Missile defense, the Milstar replacement and a lot of recon satellite stuff will keep the aerospace firms in the black for quite awhile.

The nuclear genie is not feared by this administration either - and unlike Germany which is moving backwards to dirtier sources of power - the US will move forward and let the nuclear servant grant us our three wishes:

POWER
FOOD AND HEALTH
PEACE

The Enron debacle is being used to undermine the energy needed changes to our policy and energy companies will all be looked at as if they are Enron.

All in all, the budget meets my expectations for the circumstances.

Best wishes,

SDAI-Tech1