If you can't even awnser a childs question properly...

What's the world coming to?

..so what if they're "Independence Day" aliens and have a huge primary weapon that levels NYC before Rudy can even climb into the F-18 that he hasn't got and doesn't know how to fly?

George W has a whole panel of advisors to answers these questions for him in pretty pictures why does he need to ask these questions in public? lol. (For those not in UK this joke may go over your heads and for that i am sorry) (but then if you arent in the UK and watch Family Guy you still might get it :) )

Seriously though the kid does raise a good piont we are not at a piont in our technoclogy where we could effectively take on a rac who are capable of interstellar travel! The shielding requirements for such a voyage alone would mean that non of our conventional weapons would stand a chance. I hate to be the one to explain this too him that his government is probably most likely completely less than unprepared!

N.B all the above is theoretical of course i am not some nut who sits at home worrying about alien invaders wearing Tinfoil hats! But i am up for discussing this kind of thing after about 10 pints!

Surely US immigration will fingerprint, iris scan, slap them with anti-terrorism law as they're not white christian, and send them for an extended residential experience at the Guantanamo Bay Holiday Home complex.

Is the horse dead yet?

If there was an Independance day attack it would be easy to defend against, all we'd need to do is implant some sort of virus into their spaceships' computer which will slow down and crash their spaceship systems, Microsoft has been developing this virus for years, it's codename is Windows, and they have been testing this virus for years on man-made pc's with great success.

Tin foils hats are almost useless at protecting you from alien attacks. Lead lined panties, on the other hand... /VOE

"you will have noticed, still failed to answer the poor kid's question."

Yes, he failed that spectacularly. Probably thought it was a joke. I wonder if the Plan Prepared is to buy them off or buy into them? Or would that really piss them off?

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance Permitting AI a QuITe Alien Disregard of Haste.

Thankfully, none of the aliens I've seen on TV wear tinfoil hats.

Unfortunately, you misquoted Mr. Rudy. What he actually said was:

"Well, if we're properly prepared for all the different things that can happen to us, then we'll be prepared for that as well. Right? I mean, so, we'll be prepared for anything that happens."

Begging the question, circular logic, stating the obvious...call it what you will, that's the biggest "non-answer" he could have come up with.

amanfrommars has made a post about alien invasion that actually made sense. Certainly the aliens will be attacking soon as the world is obviously coming to an end...

Oh come on... so they're thinking that if 250,000 UFO's armed with big-feck-off nuclear weapons - they're ready?! I doubt that!!

if this had been Clinton people would be fawning all over how "cute" the situation was. Guliani doesn't have a chance in hell, but for chrissakes, this propaganda hit piece is shameful. But the "non-biased" media's gonna run with this retarded bit for sure, working on the "hearts and minds" to convince people to vote for the woman who Gulianai allowed (by bowing out of the Senate race) to represent his state's Senate without a single bit of authentic residency or successful political experience.

If it had been Al Gore he would have lied out his @ss about a plan, and you all would celebrate and demand another Nobel for him.

But for you all to try to turn this non event into negative political commentary is a stretch that even Gebbels would be loathe to attempt.

I feel that any alien race capable of crossing interstellar distances would have...

- vats to grow any needed foods.

- robots to provide any needed labour.

- ability to plunder all the other planets on our solar system un-harassed for any needed mineral resources.

We would be ignored or, at most, laughed at as part of some sort of inter-stellar reality TV show.

The might decide to kill us off to save the rest of life on the planet, though.

there is bias in the media and it does slantleft... but it is a hugh conglomerate. the top layer with a few exceptions is BIG bussiness mostly republican, they set over all policy, and tend to be happy as long as they make money, once you go lower, the producers and editors who actully make day to day decisions on what story to run and how to run it thats where you hit the most liberal bias is, the joranlist themselves i think mostly just try to get attention getting stories, true ot not, no matter the bias, again there are many exception, but that tends to be the way it trends. and the media has been sharply critical of bush for many years, its just they are carefull, do to his strong republican support, meaning advertisers and money, and the fact if you snub bush, he snubs you, meaning you loose your white house press pass, so it was monetary more that right wing agenda that kept the stories...less critical, clinton was raked over the coles because sex sells, and sex, lies, cover up and politics sell REALLY REALLY well.

...as Porno for Pyros put it

Rudies a dickhead he treats his family like shit as for the whole I was there at 9/11 thing he trots out at the drop of a hat he didn't have any fucking choice in the matter it happened he was Mayor so what.As for not answering the kids question he doesn't have the ability to think on that broad a scale anyway which is why he'd make a piss poor president.What he would do if any country attacked us much less aliens is up to debate he doesn't have a clue.I get so sick of these cartoon people being foisted off as leaders rarely are they anything but a puppet for a guy like Dick Cheney for example.

Please take your political discussion elsewhere - the rest of us DONT CARE!!!

As for reg being biased one way or the other, this is a UK website (even if youve come in through the.com door) - we (the rest of the world) reserve the right to make fun of ANY political gaffs made by your incompetent, corrupt, moronic leaders. Just as we expect you to make fun of our leaders when ours do something equally stupid. Naturally we get to do this a whole lot more then you guys do, but them's the apples!

As for the aliens - well i hope they hurry up and get here! Hopefully they'll have something better on their TV's then all the shite reality TV and Idol shows were stuck with!

Charles,

No wonder the White House and the military is dying in USA if that is how they play the Game.

Holding the country and/or countries to ransom is NOT the way to win hearts and minds and will always lose you the battles and the wars.

The monumental arrogance and dumb insolence in such a hawkish position is probably truth enough of its veracity. But it is not one which media needs to follow, is it? IT can do Better with ITs new Betas.

Dumb schmucks make for bad Tele Vision and Zero ratings and inexorable, inevitable Collapse.

"Why are people speculating about how to defend against aliens? We *have* one right here! Just ask, IT's worth a ShoT iN tHE daRK.

amanfromMars, how would you do it?"

Sean Nevin,

Spookily enough, innovative transparent/ongoing clandestine soundings on earthly partnerships and methodologies have been whisked away from the Register main page, for the article, "MoD to centralise software procurement" is not to be found front and centre, today, being buried deep within its bowels ....... and just whenever it's comments were getting interesting .... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/16/mod_software_procurement/comments/

What you can be sure of though, is that what you can read there is only a small part of a much bigger Civil, Civilised, Civilising CyberSpace Program viewing ITs Option/airing ITs Opportunities ..... in Non Secret Encryption Algorithms for Steganographic Stealth 42 Capitalise Add AIdD Ventures with Venture and Vulture Capitalism.

If you're a Big Picture Player, Imagine a Global Virtual Bourse through which all IntelAIgents Pass for a Brief Debrief in a Rest and Recreation and Reprogrammable Refuelling Monopoly ..... AI Creative Thrust and Trust Fund.

Step into that Virtual Arena thinking to Lead A.N.Other with a Selfish Pleasure [which one might suppose to be the Present Status Quo] and the Future will leave one as Naked as needs be, unless one is prepared to bet one's shirt on IT with a Righteous Passion for IT does not suffer the Folly of Fools at all ...... and thus is the next Phase of IT protected from their vapid meddling and peddling.

And boy, is now ever the Time that the Markets need a valid replacement Market place to Regenerate Industry and Endeavour. Boom and Bust is such a Dumb Cycle. And CyberSpace is not a Taxing Environment when Magical Mystery Turing. IT has been So IntelAIgently Designed ....... and in dDutch GBIrish [and PerlyGatesPython] are ITs Mutual Benefits Manifest.

I trust that answers some alien questions. Ask not what your planet can do for you ......

I am so tired of those that go shouting this because they feel the media isn't being nice enough to their side. It's the media's job to provide information, but the only information the common man/woman wants is juicy stories of corruption and wrong duing. Basically the media gets paid for making well know figures (Presidents, leaders, movie stars, etc) look bad. If we had a President who was a Democrat the media would be all over him and all the liberals would complain about the media being too conservative.

@lglethal

Sorry, but you don't "have" to read our comments. Also you don't have to read the Reg's story on the US Gov. You wanted to come to this story and shout how Americans < Brits. And just because YOU don't care doesn't mean other people don't care. The Register reports for US, England, and technical people around the world. I tired of the f*ing elitism on both sides. WE ALL SUCK!!!!

I'll get off my soapbox now...

On the Eve of the Alien invasion I expect Guili Riuliani will stand down the national air defence as per 9/11, to allow an AA type 77 spaceship, looking suspiciously like a hairdryer to hit the Pentagon.

BTW, has anyone noticed that all the honey bees seem to be dying, possibly due to electromagnetic pollution?

Albert Einstein stated: " If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.

No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Because the Lizard Army will be the ones fighting them off. Our only hope of survival is that the alien invaders and the Lizard Army will weaken eachother so that mankind can stancd a chance at wiping them out for our own survival.

If I were asked that question, I would have used the opportunity to bring to the forefront a fundamental belief most Americans have "We can do anything!" He had a perfect opportunity to just say, "You know what son, we've thought about things like this and have done all we can to prepare but honestly, there's really no way to know for sure. What I can tell you is that if such a thing were to occur, I have full faith in the determination, dedication and enginuity of the American (subsitute for Earthicans) people to meet such a challenge and rise to the occasion."

Simple

Don't forget Skynet... being (possibly) carbon-based, both the Lizard Army and the Aliens will be prime targets for the roving armies of Terminators. http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html

Why no icon for our Robot Overlords? They will be offended...