Jonah Goldberg repealed Godwin’s Law…

Thank doG someone did, all the PC that goes on, sure gets the art of communicating meaning befouled. ;-)

Q: Is blowing up a satellite with ‘new’ technology a warning or sabre rattling for the Soviets Russians?

Hoyer is a very eloquent individual, I have always considered him to be a gifted orator.

I didn’t think he did well at all on the NewsHour tonight. He was mainly arguing with the rethug and not making his points very clearly, esp for people who aren’t already familiar with the issues. It made the whole thing look like nothing more than a partisan fight. And later, Lehrer Sheilds and Bobo dismissed it as exactly that. Not very scintillating news coverage given what’s at stake. But what can you expect from PBS (sigh).

Something does not compute, here.

We have a 10-ton satellite which has not responded to human control since it arrived in orbit. We have a suggestion that the Navy shoot it down. But …

Did we know that the Navy was capable of shooting down satellites? armscontrol.org seems to have been of the opinion that such capabilities were not to be acquired and tested for several more election cycles:

Some ABM Treaty antagonists also saw great promise in fielding ship-based strategic interceptors, pointing to the then-Navy Theater Wide program as a possible model or starting point. Now known as Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, the program has recorded eight intercepts in 10 tests involving shorter-range missiles, and MDA officials are seeking to expand its capabilities. As with the ABL program, however, the schedule has slipped. Whereas a first attempt to hit a long-range target had been predicted for as early as 2007, now it is set for 2014.

Ship-board ABM capabilities were forbidden under the ABM treaty that Bush backed out of. One supposes that some other nations are not very happy to see this new capability, so what better way to introduce it than to use it “in the service of mankind”, rescuing some region from the danger of hydrazine (since when has that been a concern?).

I am lapsing far too easily into suspicion these days, but what if they just launched a big, inert target into orbit, waited a while, and then “saved” us from its falling on our heads by using a new ability that would not have been available if we had stayed observant of the ABM Treaty? The U.S. gets a free test of the system along with a PR coup?

Incidentally, when the Chinese blew up their target in orbit, the debris cloud posed at least a short-term hazard to everything at that altitude; for all that I know, the cloud is still there and remains dangerous. Does the chosen mode of destroying this satellite avoid a repeat of that problem?

This isn’t new, folks. I’ve thought that since I was first old enough to vote in 1972.