“…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…

Good for the Tea Party!

The dance is getting fast and furious in Washington: The Tea Party-led House is demanding $60 billion in cuts this year, the president has now offered $20 billion, and Harry Reid says the Tea Party is the problem in reaching an agreement.

Good for the Tea Party!

Left to their own devices, the Democrats will spend even more, and the Republicans will offer to cut far less, and we will become Spain, or Portugal or Ireland, take your pick.

The Democrats KNOW that the string will eventually run out, but that when it does everyone will argue over the existing crises at that time, and NOT on who caused it!

Do you know who supported the tax-eating Sprinter in North County? Do you know who pushed for the tax-eating California Center for the Arts in Escondido many years ago?

NO!

You just know them as failures, and that is what the Democrats, and to a lesser extent the old-line Republicans are counting on.

Only the Tea Party is saying that the Emperor has No Clothes!

 

Libya, Explained

There may be no cohesion of purpose for the attack on the government of Libya, but there are plenty of good reasons, nonetheless.

The US wants to retaliate for Pan-Am 102. Britain wants to save some face they lost when they approved the humanitarian release of the Pan-Am 102 bomber from Scotland. France and Italy want to halt a major route of illegal immigrants from the African continent.

Everyone SAYS it is for “humanitarian reasons.” That is nonsense.

In the back of everyone’s mind is Libya oil. In  fact it may be (and probably is)  that oil is foremost in everyone’s mind, and the rest of it is a cover story.

This is just another example of reality biting. EVERY president goes into office with ideals that end on the very first morning when the CIA Briefing Officer makes the first briefing, somewhere during which every president murmurs something like, “Holy s…” and everything changes.

Some people actually get into office with their eyes open, but few. George Bush 1 was one. Hillary COULD have been another.

Clearly, Obama had no clue, and it is taking some time for him to catch up.

It Would Not Be a Hard Decision For Me….

Caterpillar Inc. with 23,000 employees, has told the Governor of Illinois (who just raised taxes in Illinois) that he is wrong, and that Caterpillar Inc. is being courted to move to a more “business friendly” environment.

Doug Oberhelman, CEO for Caterpillar, showed the Governor of Illinois a letter from Governor Perry of Texas, suggesting a move to a low tax state, like Texas.

You can bet that Caterpillar isn’t going to move to California!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704474804576224743712760936.html