John Raese isn't just a multimillionaire, Floridian, Republican carpetbagger running for Senate in West Virginia. He's a kook.
"If there is a rogue missile aimed at our country, we have 33 minutes to figure out what we're going to do," Raese said at an event sponsored by the League of American Voters. "We are sitting with the only technology in the world that works and it's laser technology. We need 1000 laser systems put in the sky and we need it right now. That is [of] paramount importance."
Raese said the system would cost $20 billion.
Laser-based technology has been long discussed as a promising method for deterring missiles, but experts say that components of a system like the one Raese described are in the infant stages of research and development and would require the negotiation of staggeringly complex international treaties.
Damn the fact that it's completely implausible that the nation be defended by one--let alone 1,000--lasers. We need them! Now! $20 billion? Pshaw.
Update: Oh, and btw--the minimum wage? Abolish it.