It's not hard to understand why politicians are avoiding science like the plague: It seems to be replacing reproductive rights as "the third rail of American politics".

The entire agenda under "The Environment" is the subject of bitter partisanship; stem cell research and bioethics (think Terry Schiavo) ditto under "Health and Medicine"; and under "Science and Technology Policy", you know that Improving Science Education will drag in Creationism, Preserving Scientific Integrity in Government will drag in the Bush Administration, and Energy Policy is a touchy subject for business supporters.

In other words, it would make for one helluva good debate.

When I went to the form to register support, I was tempted to list my institution as "The HabitableZone", but I thought I'd better clear that with everybody first. It'd be great if we could develop a consensus to get behind this, and probably more effective to speak as a community than as individuals. From time to time we idly debate getting into advocacy for science, and this seems like a good place to start.