Some people that would make good astronuts to send to Mars:

Ted Kennedy
Jessie Jackson
Tom Daschle
Hillary Clinton

Can you think of any?

Rosie O'Doughnut
Oprah Winafreytriptohell

Edited to add:

Louis Farrakhan
Spike Lee
John Singelton
David Duke
Jerry Falwell
Pat Roberts
Alec Baldwin
The assholes who came up with the Infect Truth ads
Barbara Strident

Why would you want to live on Mars?  It is completely inhospitable.  No air, no deer (or other huntable critters), no trees, no rushing rivers, no roaring waterfalls, no whispering creeks, no big lakes filled with fish.  Earth is the place to be dude, the Eurotrash and commies belong on Mars.

I have a much beter idea. Let's support the space prograrm the way we support our second amendment rights. Say 20 years down the line when private colinization become viable lets organize a program to get as many pro freedom people there. Create a new society the way the U.S. was supposed to be. Anyone for another july revolution...say 2076 [:D]

Ahhh, but you see, mars is a blank slate. All indications are that the volitiles inventory are much higher the the baseline models assumed, and the temprature and atmospheric preasure are slowing increasing on there own. This makes the case for terraforming, or making the planet habitable more feasible and in a faster time line.

Think of the possibilities. We can design the Biosphere how we see fit, a hunters paradise, or majestic desert, or any combination of the above.

Yeah, and be dead by the time it's ready.  Thanks, but I like Earth just fine.  Fixing things here isn't going to anywhere near as difficult or expensive as building a colony on Mars and terraforming it.  Besides, do you really think that the commies who run the space program would ever let us evil gun owners reap the benefits of their outrageously high spending of our tax dollars?  I don't think they would.

A terraformed Mars would have a manufactured quality to it (duh, it would be entirely man-made).  It would be like a giant golf course.  I like wilderness, which is not something man can create very well.  

Also, why are we willing to run from the problem.  Inevitably the idiot liberal mentality will follow us to Mars.  What do we do then, terraform a planet in another solar system?  We can't run.  We must stand and fight our enemies lest we disappear forever.  Send the liberal trash to another planet, don't run.  Earth and America are OURS!

/Rant mode off

I think we can find a suitable compromise.  I propose that instead of sending the people you suggested to mars, we just send them straight towards the sun.  Then, if we feel like it later on, we can terraform mars into a giant hunting ground or something else that is worth taking vacations to.