augie - fair enough
sorry I missed you humor.
I'm with you 100% on your characterization of Poindexter, whom I consider a much greater threat to my way of life than any middle eastern terrorist.
But your thinking on the "most plausible explanation" for how something like this gets off the ground, I'm afraid I can't. That mindset is what the true players always want the people whose material they use to think. So I have no doubt the mid-level agency folks you know actually believe it was them stimulating the execs to run with a pet idea or project -- but trust me, 95 out of 100 times, they are nothing but pawns and their ideas and concepts are only loved because they are a means to the political end the agency heads and the pols who give the agency heads their marching orders were already planning to pursue. In other words, the game is decided first, then there is a search for the pieces to use to rationalize and promote it.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
