Lockheed Martin Corporation

This new full-footer advertisement in the Wash Post from Lockheed Martin claims that technology companies like Lockheed will make the world safer. The arguments are in few words.

In one ad, the graphique shows "Market. Aparment Complex. Missile Launcher. Challenge: Engage the enemy with pinpoint precision. Solution: Net-Centric Systems. Force Application. Turning Data into Knowledge. And Knowledge into Action. Lockheed Maring. We never forget who (sic) we're working for."

That's right, Bubba Martin. Development of "pinpoint accuracy" provides precisely the pretext needed by the Bubba Bushes to claim "low civilian casualties" against all facts and figures. This kinda data is then turned into "action": warlike, garrolous, inhumane, Bubba-like action. And we can all feel good about it because it's so "accurate". We might feel bad about lobbing a big dumb bomb into a civilian area, but if we think that, after all, they are "smart bombs" then we can feel OK about it, right? Certainly, let's not talk about those "cluster bombs".

Clicking on the banner last night and this morning Paris time, you get this message:

"Site unavailable for maintenance
We're currently doing maintenance on our system.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and ask that you try the site again in a few hours.
If you are here for Open Enrollment click here.
© 2003 Lockheed Martin Corporation. All rights reserved."

At least we can feel good about how efficiently our tax money is being spent on civilian defense firms' marketing.

The clincher is the company slogan: "We never forget who we're working for." The marketing folks understand that they mostly work for Bubbas who don't know when to use the objective pronoun "whom".