George W Bush's budget suggests aliens could exist somewhere in the depths of space.
A brief passage called Where Are the Real Space Aliens? mentions scientific discoveries in the past decade which indicate "habitable worlds" in outer space may be much more prevalent than once thought. The finds include evidence of large bodies of water on Jupiter's moons and Mars.
With the threat of war on the horizon, Mr Bush could learn something from UFO enthusiast Ronald Reagan who, addressing the United Nations General Assembly in 1987, said: "In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognise this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."
Ronald Reagan had a keen interest in UFOs and often spoke of alien invasions. His daughter Patti Davis described him as "fascinated with stories about unidentified flying objects and the possibility of life on other worlds". His alien interest may have stemmed from UFO sightings he had when he was governor of California.
After one, in 1974, he said: "I was in a plane last week when I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, `Have you seen anything like that before?' He was shocked and said, `Nope.' And I said to him: `Let's follow it!'
When Reagan became President, White House staff went to great lengths to conceal his assertion that he had seen a flying saucer and his belief that there was a ghost in the Lincoln bedroom. There was also an effort to discourage Reagan from talking about two other topics he liked - Armageddon and astrology.
