This blog is right on target. It's why the whole idea of flying ISS out to 2020 without some kind of heavy lift support is short-sighted and ill-advised. Even if all the spares are on orbit, that doesn't guarantee that during the next nine years some piece of hardware could be needed and that something couldn't be put together on the ground to answer the call. Our only hope if that happens is that the equipment better be small or we better hope the Space X's heavy-lift is there to respond since NASA keeps balking at having their heavy lift ready until our plans with ISS end.
The shuttle has been the victim of bad press and shifting political agendas more than anything else. NASA was planning on flying the vehicles out to 2020 at one point. Believe me, we will miss the shuttle when it's gone; and it didn't have to be.
