A number of my friends are scoffing at the space proposal. I tried to explain to an environmentalist friend that we live in a cosmic ecology, not just a terrestial one. The resources exist in space to alleviate many of the problems we have here on earth such as poverty and pollution. He just didn't get it. Short sightedness seems to be pervassive. Another friend said "it would be nice if we had universal health care before exploring the universe." Cute phrase but again short sighted. I pointed out this nation spends one hundred times or more NASA's budget on health care every year. Axing NASA and adding an additional 1% spending to health care will not solve the problem. There need to be some reforms. Again, not much progress convincing made-up minds. Yet another thinks it is nothing more than election year politics and Bush knows it won't go anywhere and will trade it off later for something else. This one is the toughest to debate because I'm not entirely convinced myself it isn't true. I can only hope. The thing I notice about Bush is he seems to realize what is wrong with NASA, ie, the shuttle and ISS, and has a real plan to fix it. It has the feel of a plan from a real space enthusiast, and not from someone just trying to wheel and deal politics.