The Next Episode of the Grand War

Quietly, ever so, the Air Force is preparing to acquire (either buy or lease) at least three dozen RC-12 twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft. While the story is mostly unfolding....there are likely a number of pilots and intelligence folks who are standing there....in a bit of shock, and some shaking their heads.

The purpose of this agenda....as handed to them by the SECDEF....is to take the RC-12 aircraft, jammed with sensors of various shapes and colors.....and fly missions daily over Iraq and Afghanistan. A crew will typically include the three onboard, and a ground crew of analysts sitting at some point where they are getting the data and trying to "manage" the data in some valuable database.

The trigger? Well....the unmanned Predator flight is pretty much maxed out. The Army is calling for even more intense intelligence data, and the AF has much ran out of "get-outta-jail" cards and must play war with the Army now. The predator situation was the best situation because only the ground crews sat in the country affected. The pilot and the analysts sat back in the US at a site where they could quietly go home each night. But the truth is that good intelligence....makes a difference on the ground and saves lives.

For the last two or three years....Air Force pilots have been quietly accepting this entire situation but those who got stuck into the unmanned pilot status were never very happy. It was a deal where they had to do one tour, and that would be it. This was all true until this year when the shortage of pilots was obvious and former predator pilots were being drafted back.

So this requirement for three dozen RC-12s.....a non-fighter aircraft....will likely trigger additional negative feelings amongst the pilots. You can figure at least one hundred pilots going toward this twin-propeller game for the first round....and another one hundred pilots coming up for the period behind them.

The RC-12 will not have fantastic speed or grand defense devices onboard....and if some guy is standing there with a surface-to-air missile....he might get lucky on one shot and knock one out of the sky.

Adding to this entire episode....is that necessity for intelligence personnel from the Air Force to look over the data and provide real analysis. So they will go by increasing numbers....to the hostile zone and become part of this grand tour as well.

The only great news of the week to make either group happy....was that Iraq is discussing a end-game by October 2010. Then we'd only be stuck with Afghanistan and half the deployments for such crews would be gone.

So, all in all, its just another week in paradise for some folks. And for those in the sand bucket.....who've wrapped up their fourth or fifth tour.....they can rest easy for eight months.....and hope that the Iraqis will agree to the October 2010 date.

The Kilt

This week...some dude came up to the Postal Service and put in a request to wear a kilt. The management guys will likely spend a month or two evaluating this.....and I suspect that they will deny the dude this clothing option.

My dad worked for the kindly postal folks for thirty-odd years. To say that they are a bit conservative.....would just be the start of a long-winded joke. The least that I can say is that they don't insist on a color or type of underwear.....but if they had a preference....they would.

I'm not much of a kilt dude. I can wear shorts on a pretty hot day, and not feel silly (at least for a 49-year old dude)....but the kilt thing would be pretty hard for me to accept. Most southerners aren't exactly believing in this as being acceptable gear. And for a postal employee....it'd be the butt of a number of jokes on the rural route ifing you were to drive around and deliver mail in such a get-up. Several older ladies would likely come out each day and chat with you....smiling and gazing upon your legs in the mail truck. They'd ask silly questions about if you were wearing underwear or felt real "hot". Eventually....they'd invite you over to the house for a ice-tea....then suggest some indecent acts....and you'd just get into trouble at that point. Its just inviting incidents to get you fired.

So we are better off....without this kilt business....in my humble opinion. Unless, we'd like to meet some kindly hot older women for lusty affairs on the mail route.

How To Screw Up An Honest Business

Imagine yourself in the Surface to Air Missile (SAM) business. You've been doing fine work within your country and then decide that you need to take your best work and sell it outside of the country. Course, this is for cash, which would kinda make Larry and the assembly crew happy to have real cash, instead of fake cash as their pay-off.

So you market this fantastic system you have....the S-300 SAM. Lots of bells and whistles, plus its got dynamic chairs for the crew to sit in and feel real military-like.

The country you decide to sell this missile system to.....has cash....and has enemies. Both mix quiet well in the SAM business. Ifing you ain't got no enemies....that really tears the heart out of any negotiation.

So your buddy looks over the system and starts to talk real business....real cash....and a real transaction. Then, like a sudden touchdown in Auburn....things go out of kilter and you start thinking about whats going to happen here. The enemy of your friend....says that if you deliver such a system to so-and-so.....they will put a electronic ka-boom onto the electronics of this SAM, and basically make it totally worthless. Then you suddenly wake up from a sweaty sleep to realize that if they can market this electronic ka-boom stuff....your entire SAM sale to other countries goes down the drain fast. You get one sale....and then thats the end of that deal.

So this week....Russia woke up to be that salesman, and Iran was the intended customer, with Israel as the enemy of Iran. Based on press coverage so far, it is a sad woeful tale for Russia now. They'd really like to make some cash, but then they kinda realize that Israel will develop some counter electronic system....that will make the S-300 worthless. Maybe you could build some features into the system.....to counter the Israel improvement....then they'd just add a few fixes to their system....and thats the end of any S-300 threat.

Russia has to be standing there....wiping the sweat off the brow.....wondering where things went wrong. They had such a great deal....and great future deals going on. Life was improving for Larry and the assembly crew.....actually making real cash now. And now this mess.

I'm thinking Russia will surge ahead and deliver the dang system....because any real cash is better than no cash. And when the missiles fail....well....thats the end of this sales gimmick, and you can start developing the S-301 series....which might be marketable in three years. And maybe the next regime of Iran will kinda desire this weapon. Thats life in the weapon sales business....things come....and things go.

How DailyDixie Came to an Abrupt End

In the faraway land of Bama.....was a blogger who built up his name over a couple of years. It is safe to say that his name become kinda known around the state....as was his blog. He was pointed on a number of issues....and cast a bit of hard analysis over state politics. Some folks appreciated his analysis....and some were fairly upset. This past week.....the DailyDixie finally came to an abrupt end. Dan said enough....and walked away.

The reasons? He wrote:

P.S. - Reasons to quit blogging. This isn't even an exhaustive list.

1. My wife
2. My career
3. I slept for 11 hours straight the night I shut it down
4. People have been introducing me as "a blogger"
5. About half my (real world) work is just thinking... it's too easy to drift off thinking about a post I've been mulling in my head
6. Too much time being distracted with dumb blogs, dumb comments, and dumb emails
7. Sick of being called a Marxist
8. Sick of being called a neocon
9. Need to work on the upcoming FTH LegSys
10. I often spend too much time on it
11. When I try to spend less time on it, it becomes a chore
12. I've been trying to convince myself to do this for about a year
13. My feeling of obligation increases with traffic
14. Karl Rove asked me to
15. I'm becoming more and more convinced that the blogosphere is the domain of partisan hacks
16. Politics can get really boring after I while
17. I've found myself becoming jealous of other bloggers who "scoop" me
18. Cleaning out the spam filter was getting really annoying
19. There's virtually no financial benefit
20. I've been talking about the blog-world drama with my friends too much
21. I was starting to consider yet another layout re-design
22. After almost three years, I think I had finally finished my venting about politics
23. The last post I was mulling in my head was going to be titled -- "Why I hate blogging."

There are several problems to having an active blog. First.....you really need to work via an anonymous site. The first time that folks really get into your blog and start quoting you....then it starts to get around. Once you get past 200 folks a month reading it.....you are chancing the moment when folks get upset, or you start getting your name mentioned in the local press of Bama (behind the football scores usually). So your name and your identity ought to remain kinda like some wrestler with a mask on.....just dropping your blog and no real connection.

I adopted this idea in the very beginning.....mostly out of accident. I'm a thousand miles from Bama and really only write once a week on the state. Most of what I write is sarcastic in nature and not worth quoting....although it does make you have a fit of laughter on occasion.

Another problem with a active blog....is that you do write a fair amount......Dan was putting out several analytical pieces per week....with intense thought attached. I thought about this type of blog in the beginning and just said no. I never spend more than twenty minutes writing any of my blogs....and half of them are 8-minute wonders. You may notice....I'm not exactly into wonderful or pure artistic graphic displays.....nor do I care if I'm using entirely the King's English or not.....it's mostly Bama English, for those of you who care.

Then we come to the problem with boredom. He has a serious point there.....most politics....are deadly boring. If I wrote on Karl Rove each day.....I'd probably have to drink a case of beer each night to get myself to thinking correctly. I made it a rule from day one.....to write as varied a routine as possible. Whether its the king of Tonga or the problems of life in Germany or the issues of Cheney and Gitmo......it was always a varied topic list.

For the time being.....I think I can continue on. I salute DailyDixie. I read the blog about once a month to catch up on Bama political episodes.....and will kinda miss it. I'm pretty sure that Dan will put down the pen.....sip some ice tea.....mow the front yard a dozen times.....and eventually start a new blog (my ideal name would be "What Would Bear Say", after Coach Bear of Bama). But ifing I were him.....I'd get a pen drawing picture of myself (kinda like mine), and adapt a fictional name of Rhett (after some famous Civil War book).....and then kinda restart in second gear. Maybe we might see Dan, alias the DailyDixie again.....maybe, just maybe.

And as for me? Well.....I haven't peaked out.....and might have still another 1,000 blogs to go....before I have to attend bloggers rehab and drink mostly whiskey for a week to get it out of my system.

Killing the Dogs of Maryland

Mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Maryland is fairly upset. His home was raided...his dogs shot....he was paraded around in his underwear while they searched the house....and the entire incident was triggered by a drug shipment that someone else was sending to his house but intending to pick it up themselves. Then when the drug raid was grasped as a setup....the cops simply got up and left....with no apology.

I've blogged on this new mentality of law enforcement on a couple of occasions. Whats curious about this case is that the mayor got to the right folks....the feds.....and wants them to see if his civil rights were abused. If so....the Feds can actually sue the cops.....and then the Mayor can sue the cops as well.

Eventually, one day.....someone will go into court over one of these drug raids that went to the wrong house or was badly mishandled.....and demand $100 million from the town or county involved. Their insurance policy for such matters.....won't begin to pay off this situation...if the court agrees to the $100 million. The county will go bankrupt or end up having to close a bunch of libraries....to make the payment.

The other possible scenario is that the cops eventually come to the wrong house....where two of the couples kids are upstairs as they "break in", and the kids have access to weapons and promptly kill two or three cops before they get shot down. Frankly, this entire game of aggressive law enforcement has now gone past what any member of society accepts as "normal". We aren't exactly compensating folks for wrong house selections.

My guess on this case? Well....shooting the dogs will likely earn a court case by itself. I'm pretty sure that the law enforcement folks involved....will find a deep resentment in the community over this act alone. The Feds are going to say that the family's civil rights were "slightly" dumped during this episode....and some type of compensation is likely.....I'm guessing they suggest $100k. The court system of Maryland will likely get involved and I think a civil case will likely shock the police department over the end result (at least $20 million awarded). If I were the county....I'd start discussing options on funds revenue and more tax situations.

The Wiki Wars and John Edwards

While John Edwards was singing yesterday and admitting some of his affair business (but the kid isn't his).....we have to come back to the Wiki world and kinda revisit the dimmest of efforts to report world history.

The Wiki editors are now kinda stuck....they will have to allow in a paragraph to say that John Edwards did have an affair but the kid wasn't his. The whole National Enquirer paragraph will likely be pulled (entirely) . The discussion area on the whole topic....sanitized. It'll be a nice weekend to correct all of their heated issues and problems....thus getting rid of the predators who strolled on Wiki grounds....with heartless souls.

After viewing this entire episode.....one has to sit back and ask why Wiki exists.....if it is so tightly controlled and the editors control so much. I even sat and watched the Wiki visitors try to create new topics of Wiki over the name of this child in question. As of Thursday night....the topic had not been allowed yet. I'm pretty sure that the childs name will never be allowed in Wiki....just my humble opinion.

So onward we march....out of this amusing tale of John Edwards. Personally, I'm hoping that John gets cleaned up, that Obama wins the presidency, and then Obama blesses John with a ambassadorship to Thailand or Peru. I'm thinking John would really appreciate such a high position and quietly enjoy a tour of duty in Bangkok.