This Letter to the Florida Today newspaper references ISS Re-entry – NASA Documents and my comments to Burt Rutan on the subject.

Hello, Florida Today Editorial Desk (I was unable to find an e-mail for an individual) :
This is a shot in the dark, so to speak.
I can’t imagine you simply ignoring the e-mail I’m appending to this message.
But I could not imagine all the others to whom it was originally sent doing so, either.
The immediate question that must surely rise in your mind when you’ve read it is:
“What would be the consequences to me, my newspaper and to our relationship with NASA; the prime source of a great deal of our news, were we to break this story?”
Well, there’s another, and I believe more important question that really needs answering:
“What will be the consequences to our nation if NASA is allowed to repeat, but on a much larger scale, the near-catastrophe of Skylab” ?
If, as I sincerely hope and pray, you check out what I’ve said, and find it is basically true, you will face a classic moral challenge, one faced by news people over the ages, one that requires you to choose between professional advantage and public duty.
My hope is that you and I, and your Editors can serve our nation, and dare I say the world, by preventing another NASA catastrophic and monumentally irresponsible  act of stupidity.
NASA’s response to your initial inquiry about what I’m reporting will be that  there is no problem and that the re-entry has already been thoroughly planned and will not constitute a threat of any significance.
Well, just remember: What I’m describing has already happened once!
If you simply allow yourself to be put off that way, you will have joined those who will share responsibility for the looming potential catastrophe … by essentially doing nothing.
There is, of course, a reasonable possibility that the debris from the ISS will, indeed impactin the “broad ocean area” … but that will occur after a period of days during which the world will once again be in suspense, hoping that the looming blow will again  impact harmlessly in the ocean.
But even if NASA is again let off the hook as far as actual damage or human casualties are concerned, in a world filled with so many eager to denigrate our nation, including many
Americans, there will be recriminations and campaigns against NASA and our human space flight endeavors that can spell an end to US space aspirations for a generation or more.
And this is all aside from what I think is a significant related issue:
How can NASA possibly justify what they have already announced:
Terminating the ISS less than five years after it is finally completed ?
I am simply astounded at all of what I am discussing with you.
The sheer stupidity is really breathtaking !
I know that  this is no favor that I am doing you, even though it may lead to the most important story of your career.
I seek no personal gain by reporting this to you.
Hell, I’m 86 years old !
And if you check my BLOG, www.timeleft.org, you’ll see that I’ve had a very good ride, so far.
But I’ve never been able to turn away from what I’ve seen as my duty.
And this is no exception.

Hello, Tracy Wilkinson:
In your LA Times article today, you persist in calling the ouster of Zelaya a “coup”.
My Mac computer dictionary defines a “coup” as:

coup d’état – a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government

Note that it is seizure “from a government”.
Zelaya’s deposing was “by a government”.
Does that essential difference somehow escape your attention, and that of the LA Times Editorial Board?
Zelaya was removed from office by near unanimous votes of the duly authorized Honduran Congress and by its Supreme Court.
I wonder; if Clinton had been convicted in his impeachment  trial, conducted by our Senate and under the authority of our Constitution, presided over by the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court, would the LA Times have deemed that a coup also?
I am persuaded that you would have.
That the Obama Administration has joined the leftists in power in the majority of Latin American nations in attempting to override the will of the Honduran people (who just clinched the matter by overwhelmingly electing a Zelaya foe to the presidency) is a disgrace, and documents where our present government leaders really stand on issues of freedom and democracy.
And that the LA Times is supportive of such obviously anti-democratic actions is revelatory of where your once great newspaper stands.

Sincerely,
William E. Haynes

Hi Peter Nicholas

My on-line Dictionary says:
“Rebut” means “attempt to refute.” Refute means “defeat (countervailing arguments).” Thus one who rebuts certainly hopes to refute; it is immodest to assume, however, that one has refuted another’s arguments.”
Now I’ve watched both arguments and concluded that the Obama advocates/staffers have NOT ” rebutted” the charge; they have simply contradicted it.
The original charge, that Obama is on record as advocating an eventual Single Payer Plan as an outcome of his Health Care Plan, is in the video record several different times, and is shown in the ads that so claim.
Thus those in the Democrat Party and their spokespersons who deny the fact (and surely they know better!) are deliberately shall we say, “misleading” their viewers/listeners.
And you, a purported “objective news reporter” are aiding and abetting by contributing to their false claims by failing to report that.
Is it any wonder that print news publishers are facing imminent shut downs of their “news” producing enterprises?
Is this what you have dedicated your life and career to … aiding and abetting the dissemination of the claims of one political party?
But then, that’s what we expect from the LA Times.
And that’s why we seek other sources … yes, opposing sources … so that, as in this example, we are able to discern the truth, knowing that we can no longer trust
our once great newspapers to provide it.

William E. Haynes

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