Bush is just kissing ass with Martian voters. Either that, or some people in the aerospace industry have given him some money. Either that, or he's just trying to make himself look progressive and visionary in an election year.

But how "visionary" is this? "We'll be on the moon in, I dunno... 2018, maybe?" Who the fuck is coming up with that timetable? Me? Christ, remember when Kennedy said we'll be on the moon by the end of the decade, and we were? Now, though, it's gonna take us around a decade and a half.

Of course, if this is just a ploy to make Bush look cool, it's a decent ploy. By setting the proposed mission dates out so far, it's a very safe thing to do. Bush won't really have to commit much in terms of money or resources for awhile, and there's plenty of time for the plans to be scrapped.