[meteorite-list] Good By Bush - the nightmare is over

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

Hey List,

In an effort to pull this topic  from the realms of Hate onto some topics 
both political AND meteorite  related.

Army First, NASA Last, at least that was the order in the  Inauguration 
Parade.    
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-watch/2009/01/heres_the_order_of_the_parade.html

It  seems President Obama wants to add several billion more dollars to the 
NASA  budget.   
http://www.smartbrief.com/news/aia/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=2166D29F-1CEA-460F
-9E54-719B34CB061A&copyid=6C817626-281D-49DE-BC60-F90256CC4D69

It  seems President Obama has seen fit to not keep on the Bush appointed 
Michael  Griffn head of NASA with a new person.  It seems Griffin could not 
support  the direction Obama wanted to agency to go, so he resigned:  
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=f3f1e104-22e2-418a-aed2-cf0b
c6ec1ee0

It  will be interesting to see if the new president wants to spend the money 
to go  to Mars and/or possibly back to the Moon, like Griffin wanted to. Or if 
 President Obama will want to use NASA to combat climate change instead, as 
some  people think NASA should do.   
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=nasa-and-climate-change

As for the  direct relationship to Meteorites, I think if NASA sends people 
to the Moon  again, or takes astronauts to Mars it would provide more PR in the 
news that  only helps in generating interest in planetary specimens.  If our  
exploration in space stops, then I think it only slows down the spread of the 
 popularity of meteorite collecting.

With much of NASA being in Texas, it  will be interesting how much of the 
"extra government spending" will be made  there to stimulate the economy, of if 
extra government money will go to other  areas in more need.  Many of the "Big 
Oil" companies are in Texas, and it  seems their economy is doing much better 
than many other places in the  country.  A case might be made that "stimulus" 
spending might be better  used elsewhere such as with the big auto makers in 
Detroit, rather than with big  space ship makers elsewhere.

I noticed that President Obama made the  comment something today about 
returning science to it's rightful place.  So  maybe that means more money will be 
spent on science, even if it might not mean  space travel.  Maybe more will be 
spent going to Antarctica.  Maybe  there will be more grant money for 
institutions to buy more meteorites.   

We can only Hope...

Steve Arnold #1
Arkansas  

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