Well, it's been a couple of months now that our Goliath neighbour to the south has had a new leader.  So far I've been significantly unimpressed with a couple of recent decisions.

1 - Space Station Alpha.  Three upcoming modules have been axed:  the habitation module and crew return vehicle - both which would have allowed more people to be on the station at one time, and the propulsion module - which would have allowed the station to move independently, without relying on a space shuttle.

Looking at the budget, they have actually given more money to NASA than in previous, years, but the money seems to be going towards projects dealing with Earth (weather satellites, etc), as well as a 'more robust Mars program'

 

 

Now I'm all for going to Mars, but they have come so far with the space station, it seems kind of stupid to hold back on it now.

I have a really bad feeling that the space program in the US (and hence, unfortunately, the world) is going to sink lower and lower in priority.  

I'm hoping that Russia, or some other country will eventually put the 'race' back into the space race.  A little competition goes a long way.  Maybe Canada should mount it's own expedition...

 

 

 2 - Another issue, which a friend emailed me, concerns air pollution.   Everybody knows that it is a problem, and I had always thought that the US was doing something about it - hearing about the upcoming car emissions ban in California.   But this article, which can be found here, basically states that Mr. Bush will not do anything about all the coal-fired power plants spewing CO2 into the air.  To me, that would be the first, easiest place to start if you're trying to clean up the air.

Here's a section of the article describing a portion of a letter Bush (or his administration) wrote:

He also questioned whether any action was necessary, saying there is "an incomplete state of scientific knowledge of the causes of, and solutions to, global climate change".

This reminds me of a childhood song...

"Brain-dead, brain-dead, really, really, brain-dead.   Stick it with a red-hot-needle, didn't feel a thing."

 

 

 

All this seems to tell me that the current US government is extremely short-sighted.