Did you know NASA's no longer protecting the Earth?

link
via Grist
Shouldn't it be possible to find something about our government out without its making me want to cry? I'm a grown man!

[A] stealth budgeting maneuver, a 20 percent reduction in Earth Science R&A funding retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year, inserted at the time NASA delivered a mid-fiscal year operating plan to Congress [, massacred the Earth Science Research and Analysis budget in February 2006]. By making the reduction retroactive, the about-to-be-released budget for the next year, the one that Congress pays attention to, appeared to show nearly flat funding for Earth Science R&A.

In the same document, the NASA Mission Statement was revised to drop the first line: “to understand and protect the home planet”. The Mission Statement had been developed by a committee with representation from NASA Centers and communication with the NASA troops. In contrast, the changes appeared with the submission of the operating plan, which is a joint product of the Administrator and the White House OMB, to Congress, without consulting or even informing lower levels in the agency.

James Hansen really has emerged as the leader in the scientific community's outreach on global climate change. So, I should mention him more as a policy.