I just received this email from a staff member here:

Dear Chicago Colleagues, Please forgive me for using your work emails this once. The current situation in Washington is negative toward science, and President Bush will veto the next appropriations. This will definitely hurt science. As you know former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has stepped down, and a special election will be held in three months. Illinois 14th Congressional District has the chance to elect a scientist with stellar credentials in his place. Bill Foster holds a Harvard PhD and is a former Fermi lab physicist. Leon Lederman has organized a Nobel support group of which I am a member. Dick Durbin has endorsed Bill. The grad and medical students students and faculty at UIC, NW, and UC have a great opportunity to contribute to an important congressional election in Illinois. Bill is in need of volunteers and donors. Is it at all possible for you reconvene the groups from NW, UC, and UIC that I met in Chicago? It would mean a lot to me if my Chicago friends could extend their help to Bill. This would be a big coup for science to replace Dennis Hastert with a card-carrying scientist. Please let Bill’s team know directly.  I feel that we really need to get behind Bill! Best holiday wishes, [name]

So I looked into this Bill Foster guy, whom I’d never heard of before this. After perusing his site and reading up on him a bit more, I’d like to announce that I hereby endorse Bill “Scientist, Businessman, Democrat for Change” Foster in the upcoming elections, even despite the really cheesy tag line. Science has become somewhat of an afterthought in Washington over the past 7 years—hell, all rational decision-making has apparently become an afterthought—and this guy seems to have his head on straight and appears to be as fed up with the current administration as anyone, which is refreshing compared to the democratic Presidential candidates who tend to tiptoe around the subject of Bush’s shortcomings way more than they should (or could get away with), in my opinion.

Regarding the science thing, I think that if Mike Huckabee is elected President, which is looking like more of a possibility every day, as a scientist I will seriously consider moving to another country to pursue my work (sorry honey).