The Hubble telescope is coming to the end of its run. Next year will mark the 15-year life-span originally planned for the super-important craft. NASA says it will move on in favor of return trips to the moon and beyond (Mars). It is unfortunate, while the idea of going to the moon again may have a popular appeal, the money spent could be used to do much more, truly scientific work that has substantial value in uncovering the history of the universe.

A grassroots (apparently) movement is afoot to make January 20, 2004 "Not One Damn Dime Day". The website got rolling when Jesse Gordon, a self-described 44-year old progressive activist, received an email with the basic suggestion. The protest suggests not spending any money on January 20th, Inauguration Day, in order to bring more attention to the view that the war in Iraq is "illegal and immoral."

Grodon says success would be getting President George W. Bush to acknowledge the protesters point of view.

Will it bring our troops home any sooner?

What will the protest really accomplish? I'm game for anything that will advance the question. The problem lies in defining a solution. A rapid withdrawal will likely leave the several factions of the Iraqis engaged in conflict with one another and strengthen the terrorist training camps and havens that exist today. Iraq is a quagmire and one we shouldn't be fighting. Owing in part to our misplaced aggression the people behind the September 11th attacks remain free.

I would like very much to bring our troops home. Too many, both Iraqi and Americans have died in bringing about the end of a tyrant's regime. The United States is engaged in trying to force a form of government on another country. It is a form that has served us well but not one that can be easily forced on another country. A key difference with the Declaration of Independence, is that in that historic document it was the people of a country establishing their own country and later government. Notably, even that dedicated group of people took more than a decade to form the foundation of the government we have today.

The UK paper Telegraph posted a story late last week saying "5,500 men and women have deserted since the invasion of Iraq." A search of Google shows a few articles from last year, even covering President Bush speaking on the topic, but very little is said about it in the mainstream press. There has been pretty widespread coverage of the casualties of the invasion of Iraq, but few mentions of the deserters who according to this article seem to be nearly five times as numerous.

In canceling Crossfire CNN's chief explained that they are going to do more "roll-up-your-sleeves storytelling". That is all well and good. Now surf on over to the CNN/Netscape home page and you'll see the image at the right. So there is a major roll up your sleeves story about election problems in Ohio with a forum titled "Dems Going Too Far?" So a major media outlet wants to get a conversation going and instead of asking a question about the election problems in Ohio chooses to focus on the means by which the minority party in the American government is attempting to raise a critical issue. Roll up your sleeves and jump into the mud instead of roll-up-your-sleeves storytelling.