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"Don't know if it was possible given fuel remaining, orbits, etc, but I was wondering why no one has asked if rendezvous with ISS would have been possible"

ISS was WAY above them (115 miles) and in a completely different orbit. Colombia is not capable of reaching ISS altitude anyway from the start, given its weight (the other 3 are lighter and for whatever other reasons, can).

These guys were on their own in space. Their only option was to land.

We could have had a shuttle up to them in a week. It would have been incredibly dangerous to attempt a turnaround timew that short, and the shuttle astreonauts in orbit would have been on fumes, but we could have attempted it. If ground control hadn't been so positive there was nothing wrong. They'd better hope they were right.

" These guys were on their own in space. Their only option was to land. "

This fact seems lost on "Send Bruce Willis and his lovable misfits up to save them" crowd. Nonetheless, it is still an indisputable fact.

These guys were on their own in space. Their only option was to land.

If so, then thats not good for NASA. Not to point fingers, but you've got an operational station, an alternative in an emergency, but no plan to use it?

I just did a search and see that the ISS orbit inclination is 51 degrees while Columbia was at 39 degrees, so I can believe that a rendezvous was not possible due to fuel constraints (inclination change cost far more than altitude change). So, hindsight being what it is, you could argue that by putting ISS at the compromise inclination for russian inclusion, or by not requiring shuttle to fly at similar inclination for rescue contingencies, increased risk of loss of a crew was permitted. This is one of those things that you could trace back as far as you care to go. I have to believe that a contingency where a crew gets to orbit but can not return has been thought about before. Question is what was done to mitigate risk?

Again, not trying to point fingers but this is the type of fault/risk discussion you will hear in months to come.

ISS was WAY above them (115 miles) and in a completely different orbit. Colombia is not capable of reaching ISS altitude anyway from the start, given its weight (the other 3 are lighter and for whatever other reasons, can).

Not quite. Columbia could and often did make it up to ISS altitudes. The real story is that it was too heavy to carry ISS components -- its payload capacity was significantly less than the other Shuttles.