The CIA is in Libya? Who knew? (EVERYONE!)

The announcement that the CIA has agents on the ground in Libya should draw a great yawn from anyone who understands how the world works.

Anytime there is close air support between opposing troops in close proximity, SOMEONE is doing the spotting. In the case of Libya, with no military on the ground – or at least non military visible – that falls to Arab speaking CIA agents.

Tanks sitting in the desert don’t take much spotting – even the French jets can find those – but in the interface between rebels and Libyan troops in the zones around cities, civilian deaths are minimized by someone putting a laser on the target.

When the Special Forces first covertly landed in Afghanistan prior to our troop arrival, the Special Forces were greeted by CIA agents who had been there for a long time.

That is the way the world works.

 

 

Filed Under: Nothing to see here…just keep moving along, please

 

(Headline) Berkeley scientists’ climate data review puts them at center of national debate

(Subhead) The head of the study, a longtime critic of the global warming consensus, will testify before a House panel. Leading climate scientists worry that the project, funded in part by an oil billionaire’s foundation, has an agenda.

(http://www.latimes.com/la-me-berkeley-climate-20110331,0,2446445.story?track=latiphoneapp)

You must read far into the article to find out that the funding by an “oil billionaire” is a major part of the PRIVATE funding (with no reference at all as to how it stands in reference to the OVERALL funding), and that the study – which will be by far the most exhaustive study yet made – is controversial because not only of the Koch brothers, but the fact that the study was “hyped” in advance.

Apparently, previous studies had not examined the fullness of the temperature measuring devices, but took random places and extrapolated the rest. This study will examine several times the previous number of stations.

I do not deny that the earth is warming, only that it has been hyped for political purposes and any study that tries to study the subject further cannot be bad. Any study that selects stations, extrapolates, then adjusts for various items and further presumed to predict has lent itself to questions, and that is the problem with previous studies.

GPS, No Doubt

The illegal’s are getting to be better mariners.

A boat, presumably carrying illegal aliens was beached NORTH OF MALIBU!

I suspect that there is less observation on the coast to the north, so the route has expanded far north from Encinitas where is the most northerly point I had previously heard.

California Republicans(sic)

Governor Brown has abandoned his search for several Republican legislators to join him in putting a tax increase on the June ballot. He blames, correctly, the John and Ken show on KFI in Los Angeles because they have threatened to put Republican heads on a stick if the republicans allow a tax vote.

John and Ken have the largest listener base in California for a non-syndicated talk show, and, although accused of being “conservative,” they are actually Libertarian.

And they have clout, clot they not afraid of wielding like a scythe. I have been an almost constant listener to their show throughout their career, which included at least one excursion outside the state.

And Brown will not get cooperation because the Republicans have previously sold out the taxpayers, and John and Ken made them pay at the ballot box.

The Republican’s in Sacramento are the least impressive Republicans in the nation, and that is a tall order. To their credit, they have recently grown a pair  and I would hope that the California Tea Party is operating to get us better people in the primaries.

 

 

 

Hey! Apple! Get a Move on!

Apple Computer is so good at marketing, it makes my teeth ache!

Apple knows that some of us are awaiting our iPAD2 delivery, and it knows we are annoyed that Apple is delivering to 15 other nations around the world while their American base is sitting. Further, Apple is letting lots of other retail stores share in the experience – like even Radio Shack (!), while the Apple faithful continue to wait.

Even those of us who have owned Apple Computer stores!

So, they dwindle out our accessories, one per week to keep us from driving up to Cuppertino and beating on desks. Last week, my elegant remote keyboard arrived by FedEx. Today, the magic magnet cover.

Next week, it will be the cables…each delivery absolutely useless, except to tease.

It is annoying. But it also keeps us from going out and buying a Motorola Xoom.

Apple is a great marketing company.

Quick Question

Can anyone explain how our president had weeks to gain support from UN members, but no time to explain the Libya situation to the US Congress?

Money Tree People Speak

I see the Money Tree People are alive and well in Escondido.

The Escondido City Council needs to close a $2 million gap.

“Despite pleas from frustrated residents, the Escondido City Council has endorsed a plan to help balance the city budget by closing the East Valley library branch, both municipal pools and the Escondido Skate Park.”

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_a6a4678d-a26d-52b3-b36d-917e282635b4.html?mode=story

The Special Interests are out in force to get those libraries, pools and skate parks to remain open. They do not say where the money is going to come from, presumably the Money Tree.

Cries were heard that “the children” will suffer — they will become more obese and commit more vandalism. The teachers also cry that they work “for the children” – but children are being harmed all over America as their families lose their homes, and all of this places a greater tax burden on the few productive members who remain.

“They were particularly critical of plans to cut $863,000 from the city’s roughly $4 million annual recreation budget, contending that cutting recreation programs would increase local obesity rates and spur more vandalism and graffiti.”

ibid

What is it about being broke that these Special Interests don’t understand?

In their own families, they have had to reduce their expenses because of the recession, or the gas prices, or something – but somehow they believe that the City can continue to spend at the same level as before, or more likely, the City can cut someone else’s program, some yet undefined program, to leave their special project alone.

Every city is going through this same dance. Every city is out of money, as is every county, state and indeed the nation.

Reality bites.

 

The WSJ Looks Ahead

The Wall Street Journal analyzes the moribund state of 10 industries who expiration date is in evidence.

Some are obvious: DVD stores, wired telephone companies, and apparel makers. Some are questionable, like newspapers.

I say newspapers are a mistake because they are changing, rather than dying. The WSJ itself has morphed successfully to on-line, and today NY Times begins its journey to charging for on-line content. Publishing on newsprint my be dying, but news collection and distribution is not going away.

Some dying industries will probably return – like manufactured housing. I still see a future for that industry, because it is simply more efficient than stick-built. I am not talking about “mobile homes” here, but rather well-built and assembled homes that will keep people as warm and dry as those built on-site.

“…We Hardly Missed you”

I guess that I was so absorbed by the Wisconsin Democrats fleeing the state that I plumb forgot about the Indiana Democrats who fled the week after, and just returned after six weeks!

The Indiana Democrats claim that they have rung some concessions in order to return to the statehouse after six weeks, but the news analysis is that it was mostly face-saving except that the Republicans did agree to kill a “Right to Work” bill.

Regardless, the votes will now take place on subjects like limited school vouchers, which after a trial two years will become the largest in the nation.

I sure hope the lawmakers were more missed in Indiana than they were in the press.

The US Ups the Ante

The US has now deployed both a_10 aircraft and C-130 gunships into Libya, raising the ante substantially. These two weapons are game-changers when deployed against massed troop concentrations, and that is a given in Libya were there is a single thread hundreds of miles long across a desert with an ocean on one side and a trackless desert on the other.

Getting off that road means leaving the necessary supply route, and now staying on means serial target shooting.

As Libyan troops and highly paid mercenaries from the south dig in around cities that dot along the single highway, like store fronts on a long strip mall,  they make tempting targets. Once they are within the population centers it becomes a subject for more accurate missile efforts but attempts to deny the rebels access to the city will now be a chancy operation.

The Europeans are working the diplomatic efforts to get the Libyan Army to defect, and that will end the episode.

The questions then will remain in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain…