Bush sticks DC with $12 Million Inauguration Expense

[Embar Angylwrath]

Holy crap, Rsak dragged us back on topic.

Did I enter bizarro universe?

Even a broken clock shows correct time twice a day.....

[Rsak]

And in this case 3 or 4 times a day showing I am not broken!

[Eidolon Faer]

You know, Osama has to have left tissue samples and blood samples around somewhere. He has to have regular dialysis, since diabetes thrashed his kidneys.

With a sample of Osama's tissue, it should be possible to engineer a virus, say a flu or poxvirus, to mimic Osama's cellular surface proteins.

This virus would be released into the environment and if or when Osama caught it, he's a dead man. His immune system would be completely unable to fight the virus. At all. There'd be no way for his immune response to identify it as anything other than his own tissue.

Oh, sure, it'd scythe down close relatives of his fairly efficiently too, but do we really care? The rest of the world wouldn't notice it any more than any other routine cold or flu going around through the population. Unless Osama's living in a big plastic bubble, it WILL kill him eventually...probably fairly quickly.

A true "fire and forget" weapon. And it could probably be done for a few million bucks.

If you want to take bin Ladin down in a way that inspires proper feelings in Al Qaeda, howsabout "We just killed Osama and anyone who looks like him. Because we could. And we didn't even have to weld armor onto a single humvee. Wash your hands when you put down that assault rifle, you don't know where it's been." And that's assuming that anyone figures out his death was from something other than natural causes.

Sorry, this wasn't exactly on topic, but it is within the realm of possibility given recent advances in molecular biology.

[Ddrak]

What's the chance of something like that mutating or nailing something other than Osama and his family (including animals)?

Dd

[Partha]

100%.

[Eidolon Faer]

Which is exactly the same as the chance of a natural virus mutating and affecting someone other than Osama and his immediate family (including animals).

Just saying, if we are REALLY determined to kill Osama bin Ladin and deprive Al Qaeda of a charismatic and dynamic leader, there are ways to do it that don't involve finding him. For that matter, the old "Wanted: Dead or Alive" reward posters are similar except they operate socially instead of biologically. Make the reward big enough and suddenly anyone who Osama sees could be his killer.

[Ddrak]

Well, the "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters worked for Saddam and his boys.

Doesn't the US have a bounty up for Osama yet? I kind of assumed they did and Osama just made sure he only associated with Al Qaeda members who had a rather strong interest in not dealing with the US.

Dd

[Rsak]

Oh yeah its $10 million if not higher.

[LayraLilliane]

http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm

Say up to 25 million for any information leading up to the capture of Mr. Bin Laden.

[LayraLilliane]

Anyone want to put together a team to go get the bastard? lol

[Narith]

Embar, no offense but people like you scare the hell out of me. Willing to kill innocents just to get 1 target. Not to mention the idea of a virus that would most certainly mutate and kill alot more than just Osama and anyone with close dna or blood types or whatever. So you are willing to endanger the entire world and kill who knows how many innocent people to get 1 enemy... Like I said people like you scare the hell out of me.

[vaulos]

Dd- Bounty's done genereally work in the area which Osama is believed to be hiding. The main reason is because these people have no concept of $25 million dollars. When one reporter asked a herbsman what he would do with that kind of money he said something to the effect of "I'd buy another donkey, because this one is getting old".

[Relbeek Einre]

I notice nobody's defending the Administration's actions. This is a good thing.

[SicTimMitchell]

Killing or capturing Osama is important.

The WRONG message is, "Go ahead and mastermind terrorist attacks on American soil. We'll just go after some other guy anyway while you make propaganda tapes to show we can't touch you."

[vaulos]

I doubt anyone would disagree.

[Rsak]

What actions are you referring to Relbeek?

[Relbeek Einre]

Sticking DC with an $11.9 million bill.

[Rsak]

Then since it appears I was not clear I do support that stance.

It is not something that the Government should be funding by specific appropriation for variuos reasons.

The funding for DC since it is the national capital is for these very type of events as well as the Homeland security funding for the added security needed compared to before September 11th are going through the proper channels.

No city should assume that someone else is picking up the tab and they should have planned or received written contracts during the earlier stages of the planning. If that mean that the city needs to demand some of the donation funds should be used for city services then I can support that.

[Tromor]

Rsak, DC is a HUGE special case when it comes to funding.

There is so much that differentiates DC from any other city in the US.

The people of DC have no representation in Congress. They have no state infrastructure to absorb some of the costs associated with being an urban area. Congress has the freedom to control how DC collects and spends it's own money along with the federal money it gets. (remember, DC people have no say in who these yahoos in Congress are, this is truely "taxation without representation".)

No city should assume that someone else is picking up the tab and they should have planned or received written contracts during the earlier stages of the planning.

The trouble with this, is that even if the feds tell DC what they are doing (they almost NEVER do), DC can't do anything by itself to raise the money, except beg congress.




Oh, and before it looks too much like I'm some sort of DC fanboi, I do happen to believe that the DC government is made up of the best collection of fuck-ups ever assembled into one joint cause.

[Rsak]

The people of DC have no representation in Congress.

Not true at all. There current representative is :

Norton, Eleanor Holmes; District of Columbia, At Large

So no they are not taxed without representation.

They have no state infrastructure to absorb some of the costs associated with being an urban area.

Agreed which is why they have special funding for being the host of the nations capitol that other states and cities do not have.