SCIENCE BUDGET: ROUND-OFF MONEY AVERTS LAYOFF.
As WN pointed out last week, $400 million in the $186 billion supplemental war spending bill, or about 0.2 percent, is for science. It's divided among four agencies. Still, it allowed Fermilab, the nation's top accelerator laboratory, to resume its research program and avoid the lay off of 80 employees. Fermilab has been paying employees from an anonymous $5 million gift since May. For the top high-energy physics research facility in the world's most powerful nation to be reduced to operating on private charity is a national embarrassment. We desperately need change in our science policy. Somebody's campaign slogan is "change," but neither candidate ever mentions science.
As WN pointed out last week, $400 million in the $186 billion supplemental war spending bill, or about 0.2 percent, is for science. It's divided among four agencies. Still, it allowed Fermilab, the nation's top accelerator laboratory, to resume its research program and avoid the lay off of 80 employees. Fermilab has been paying employees from an anonymous $5 million gift since May. For the top high-energy physics research facility in the world's most powerful nation to be reduced to operating on private charity is a national embarrassment. We desperately need change in our science policy. Somebody's campaign slogan is "change," but neither candidate ever mentions science.
CHANGE: IT SOUNDS GOOD, BUT WHICH WAY IS IT GOING?
It is standard political lore that anyone seeking nomination must fish in friendly water. Once nominated, they should begin casting their lines in the direction of their opponent. So it is that having secured the nomination Obama is now trying to hook a few evangelicals, even calling for expansion of Bush's controversial faith-based initiative. His fund raising now targets the big fish rather than the ten-dollar mom-and-pop donations he boasted of during the nomination. Yesterday, according to the NY Times, Obama gave a talk in Fargo, ND in which he made his usual point that the United States cannot sustain a long-term military presence in Iraq, but then added that he might "refine" his policies on Iraq after he meets with American commanders in Iraq next month. This, I'm assured, is smart politics, but I liked him better when he wasn't that smart.
It is standard political lore that anyone seeking nomination must fish in friendly water. Once nominated, they should begin casting their lines in the direction of their opponent. So it is that having secured the nomination Obama is now trying to hook a few evangelicals, even calling for expansion of Bush's controversial faith-based initiative. His fund raising now targets the big fish rather than the ten-dollar mom-and-pop donations he boasted of during the nomination. Yesterday, according to the NY Times, Obama gave a talk in Fargo, ND in which he made his usual point that the United States cannot sustain a long-term military presence in Iraq, but then added that he might "refine" his policies on Iraq after he meets with American commanders in Iraq next month. This, I'm assured, is smart politics, but I liked him better when he wasn't that smart.