Houston, We Have A Problem

I just wrote Larry:

I'm not the only one "swirling with emotion".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jonathanamos/2010/04/charlie.shtml

I dreamt last night that the space shuttle crashed into the space station and the whole thing blew up.  It was horrible.

Here is the deal for the 15th:

Next week, on 15 April, Barack Obama will visit Florida's Space Coast to take part in a special conference.

I am thinking of staying here, in Austin, until the speech.  I want some signature moment to come back.  Like the article said:

Simply put - many Americans want to know where US astronauts are going, in which ship and when; and right now "they just don't get it".

and:

There is a lot of emotion swirling around the American space agency (Nasa) at the moment, and it's not just among the thousands of US space workers who're losing their jobs.

It's not just about a job.

Shuttle becomes like a person to them, and so they're very attached to them and as each vehicle flies its last flight, they have a really difficult time. Unless you've been in this programme, people don't understand that; and they think we're crazy.

But the change from the shuttle is for something new:

It is time to move on. It's incredibly important for Nasa to try to get to the point where we can begin to explore again. [That's] not to say that what we've done in low-Earth orbit is not exploration.

And cutting is what we have to do, in order to do that:

It would cost something on the order of $2-3bn a year to keep the shuttle flying. It's a very expensive vehicle to maintain and operate.

What you'll probably see after that is:

Government "pig's ear".

Who knows.  Honestly, I don't think much is going to come out of the speech.  Honestly, I like Obama.  I really expected something else.  He keeps surprising me in the wrong way.  And I'm surprised with myself for thinking that on the 15th he's gonna roll out something unexpectedly good.  Bets are, he's not.  He's got a plateful and so did Bush.  It's funny, after a president has been out of office, you start getting these better memories, especially in the case of the goodtimes surrounding Clinton.  I laugh when I think about Clinton.  With Obama, I keep saying, "Wha?"