New York Times on the Web Forums Science

Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

idenbade - 09:10pm Jan 12, 2002 EST (#10739 of 10755)

And some people like lchic think Bush and Enron are together like flint! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Those in glass houses should not throw stones! That means you Dems! HAHAHAHAHAHA

From the AP:

"Don't expect certain Democrats to be too eager to investigate Enron. They won't like what will come out about Bill Clinton and his favorite illegal campaign donor, China.

Here's a fascinating item from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's "Dateline D.C." from Dec. 9, headlined "Clinton-Gore sales team eased Enron's path to success." We might have overlooked it if not for an alert from Progressive Review's Sam Smith, that rare honorable leftist who has never flinched from examining Clinton's reign of corruption.

"The so-called 'popular press,' in its usual searches for the clay feet with which they invest every well-known person, will now try to link Enron's present woes to the White House. Too bad, guys, you should have started investigating Enron's ties (ties not links) in 1993 and onward to the sales team of Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Ron Brown," says the Tribune-Review.

And this: "... look at their 1994 sales team - Clinton, Gore and the late Ron Brown - a trio unlimited and uncontrolled in their cunning and greed.

"In what seems to be eons ago, before Gov. Bill Clinton became president, the late, much loved and little lamented Ron Brown was Clinton's good friend and a power broker in the National Democratic Party. Ron Brown had a friend, a congressman from Houston, the late Mickey Leland, who died in 1989. Until his passing, Leland was a shining light in the Congressional Black Caucus and a dedicated socialist, who was one of the Institute for Policy Studies' delights.

"From 1984, when Enron was conceived, Brown and Leland were there snapping up unconsidered trifles of money for use in their campaigns against the free market. Mickey was able to ease a lot of Enron's early problems through the Houston City Council by playing his 'equal opportunity card.' He had also become an African expert who initially took the Enron message to that continent, a chore that was taken on by Ron Brown, Clinton's secretary of commerce, before the latter met his untimely death in a highly controversial plane crash in Croatia. (Untimely, because had Secretary Brown lived, he would have faced multiple criminal indictments that could have precipitated an even earlier fall for Bill Clinton and his gang.)

"Now we get to that old puzzle about chickens and eggs, and what came first! Ron Brown, Al Gore and Bill Clinton introduced Enron to market managers in Russia, China, Indonesia and India. In

rshow55 - 09:19pm Jan 12, 2002 EST (#10740 of 10755)

From
MD10439 RobertShowalter "Missile Defense" 12/19/01 7:00am
MD10440 RobertShowalter "Missile Defense" 12/19/01 7:08am

"In the Enron disaster, some people knowingly (or at least half knowingly) pushed the limits of honesty and public spirited conduct (to say no more) overclaiming, overcharging, hiding detail, and setting up a situation which, because of quantitative misjudgements, great damage was done, not only to those immediately involved, but to the web of trust, the web of assumptions, on which our society is built, and on which free societies must be built. Some of what was done may have involved political corruption by most reasonable definitions - perhaps not, but there was that appearance.

"Very many more people, employees of Enron, as well as investors, were swept along - - did trust - - did participate on bases which are normal, and expected. These people got hurt - sometimes terribly hurt.

There are analogous problems at the level of human function, accounting, and technical checking all through our "missile defense" programs - - some close analogies.

rshow55 - 09:46pm Jan 12, 2002 EST (#10741 of 10755)

Facts matter. These issues have been evaded by the administration, which, unless I err, has been much involved, directly or through paid proxies, with this forum, for a long time.

MD10721 rshow55 1/10/02 10:16am ... MD10722 rshow55 1/10/02 10:21am
MD10723 rshow55 1/10/02 10:26am .... MD10724 rshow55 1/10/02 10:27am