On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 20:12:46 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
(Greg Kuperberg) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

But if the Bush administration were to withdraw from the space station,
it would first of all have to want to. The steel tariffs were a conflict
between international good will and domestic graft. The space station
presents no such conflict - domestic graft and international agreements
go in the same direction. The only loser in the arrangement is the
American taxpayer. The taxpayers have been told that the moon and Mars
are the new plan, and that promise gives the government some extra cover
to continue the space station.

Are you saying that the purpose of the lunar/Mars announcement was to
*save* the ISS? Do you have any idea how ludicrous that is?