Just about the only thing I can sort-of agree with the current Republican party about is that they consider the Space Program to be one of those government programs that, like the military, "doesn't count" for some reason in their no-government-programs rhetoric.
I don't buy for a second that they're actually "committed" to it, of course - there's no way the party of Creationism and Climate Change-Denial is really devoted to the idea of expanding human knowledge of space, and with private space-travel companies coming into their own I'm sure the GOP's make-believe affection for NASA will dry up at roughly the same pace.
Either way, for now the question of whether or not to restore federal funding for space exploration is up to whoever is President in 2013. And Bill Nye wants your help in convincing them to do just that:
The thing is, public-pressure is really the ONLY way this is going to get done. I'm sure a President Romney ::shiver!:: would make a nice show of being pro-NASA, but don't kid yourself - he and his party are whole-hog on the side of the guys who want First Contact to be made by some corporate-sponsored junker covered in Doritos sinage (and before anyone brings it up, YES, I do in fact think that Felix Baumgartner's big space-jump yesterday is rendered significantly less awesome than it otherwise might have been by the fucking Red Bull logos all over his spacesuit.)
Obama, meanwhile... I dunno. Democrats, obviously, are better friends to science on-average because they actually acknowledge that it exists, but I don't detect any special affection for space travel in Obama and frankly he seems very much like he'd be a "Why are we paying to collect rocks in space when PEOPLE HERE are STARVING you guys!!??" bleeding-heart about it.
But WHOEVER wins is going to come out of the election looking bloody, dirty and in need of some easy pandering... and if they can be convinced that re-funding the space program can BE that easy pandering, then I'd call that a win.
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