Things Like That Drive Me Out of My Mind

Remember that secret defense-project boondoggle, which Sen. Jay Rockefeller described earlier this month as "totally unjustified and very wasteful and dangerous to national security"?

Turns out that A) it's probably a stealthy spy satellite program first dreamed up under Reagan; B) its cost has escalated from $5 billion to $9.5 billion over the life of the program, and (according to the Washington Post) "would probably become the largest single-item expenditure in the $40 billion intelligence budget, is to be launched in the next five years and is meant to replace an existing stealth satellite, according to officials"; and C) because of the revelations of A) and B), the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees satellite programs, wants the Justice Department to hunt down and prosecute these loose-lipped "officials." Because the less we know about $10 billion defense programs opposed by both parties in Congress, the safer we'll be.