I don’t understand this.  Over the last six months, piracy off the coast of Somalia has increased radically.  That in itself isn’t surprising since it’s mostly displaced fishermen who have turned pirate because they fished the place clean and now have no other way to sustain themselves.  The idiocy of that predicament is fodder for a different post.  However, what does surprise me is the type of vessel these pirates are going after.  Some are understandably easy prey.  Luxury yachts with little or no defense are prime targets.  But an oil tanker?  These things are HUGE!  Sure they’re slow, but how exactly does this work?  Do the pirates come up in their little skiffs and say, “give up or we’ll shoot at you!”  With what?  Bullets?  I would hope that the oil tanker’s hull could handle more than a little arms fire.  Grenades?  Same thing.

I read in one article that the pirates had an anti-tank rocket.  I suppose that might be effective in breaching a hull, but how many of those things do they have?  And it’s really not in their interest to sink the ship.  It’s a little hard to seek ransom on a vessel that’s resting on the bottom of the ocean.  Another article said that the pirates boarded their ship in minutes.  Again, have you even seen an oil tanker?  I can’t imagine trying to get aboard what is basically a wall of steel fifty feet high.  They supposedly used grappling hooks and ladders.  Ok, and once they are aboard your ship, It’s probably time to pack it in, but sheesh!  How hard is it to protect a vessel like this?  Were talking about a substantial investment here.  Millions and millions to make, let alone any cargo it might be carrying (not to mention passengers and crew).  You couldn’t spring for a few 50 caliber machine guns mounted at the front, back and sides?  If the pirates are coming in under the radar, are they also invisible?  Post a guy up high just like they used to do in the times of old Bluebeard.  When the pirates are headed your way, you break out the ammo and turn their little skiff into swiss cheese.  How much would it take to sink one of those things?  Not much I would think.

And then there’s the issue of captured pirates.  The various naval vessels that have actually snagged these slippery fish have simply had to release them back to sea because no government will actually take them.  But why are we releasing them at all?  They used to hang pirates with a minimal or no trial.  In my view, if you attack a vessel in international waters, you’re toast.  Throw them overboard and let the sharks settle the bill.  It may seem barbaric, but so is demanding millions and threatening the lives of people on board a vessel that doesn’t belong to you.  Terrorists get no quarter in my books.  If we are foolish enough to keep sending unarmed ships into dangerous waters, then we have no one to blame save ourselves.  But having pity for these pirates is even more foolish.

So it seems that some over-zealous Prop 8 supporters are placing Yes signs at various San Diego polling locations.

But, you know, that’s ok, because it’s the “right” thing to do.  I mean, who cares about the law?  Who cares about democracy.  Hell, why not just overthrow the government and start a nation based entirely on someone’s interpretation of God’s written word… oh, I guess that’s Vatican City.  But still!  Why should you follow ANY laws?  Surely you can come up with SOME reason to justify it in the name of Christ?

Idiots.  You are perfect examples of why you should never confuse (or mix) God’s law and Caesar’s.

The San Diego Union Tribune has an article on the possible pardon of Randy “Duke” Cunningham by the President on his final day in office.

It amazes me that we would even consider this.  Here is a person who personifies everything that we hate about government - greed, corruption, arrogance - who got caught seriously screwing over the public and the nation as a whole, and who already got off with a much lighter sentence than was requested simply because of his age, and he wants a pardon?  

It’s not like he’s the only old guy in prison.  Are we going to pardon everyone over the age of 65 simply because they might die in jail?  Cunningham KNEW what he was doing.  He was a powerful public official, an example and representative to people everywhere.  If anything, they should have thrown the book at him instead of lightening his sentence.

Unfortunately, we have a president in office that basically has nothing to lose.  I mean, it’s likely he’ll go down in history as the worst U.S. President ever, and he’s already shown us he has absolutely no respect for the law by commuting the sentence of Libby.  The article says he wouldn’t do it because it the criticism would be too great.  Right.  When you’re already a complete lame duck who is an embarrassment to your own political party, why not?

There was a time near the beginning of this Presidential campaign that I actually thought that McCain might not be all that bad.  He was one of the most liberal Republicans to burble to the surface in a long time.  And then he tapped Palin as a running mate and I started scratching my head and wondering what in the world he was doing.  He certainly wasn’t putting her on the ticket because she was the best person for the job… I mean, come on, he couldn’t find anyone else among the entire Republican party with more experience?  He should be picking the most able person for the position, right?  Apparently not. 

Apparently the only thing that matters is snowing the American public into believing exactly what you want them to believe.  Palin was picked for only one reason- she has a vagina.  The votes of women were up for grabs thanks to bad blood in the Clinton campaign, so why not throw a female, ANY female up on stage and rally around the flag.  I can just picture the top Republican political operatives sitting in a room trying to find a female to add to the short list.  Suddenly one of them remembers the attractive woman in Alaska… “Alaska?  Oh hell… but she’s pretty, right?”

And it worked, suckers that we are.  Hurting middle-income religious families everywhere rejoiced that there was now a candidate on the ticket that “they could relate to.”  Wow, what a bunch of complete idiots we are.  Would YOU like to sit down and try to talk serious politics with a seasoned veteran like say, Vladimir Putin? Or how about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran?  They could care less about her “down-home” (read: Gomer Pyle) speaking style or Hockey Mom mentality.  They aren’t looking for generalities and simpleton answers.  Sarah Palin would get eaten for lunch by either of them, and the United States would be a mockery to the rest of the world.  

So, not more than a week ago, McCain was rushing back to Washington, setting aside his political differences, so that he could “help get the nation out of the economic mess it was in.”  Well, that didn’t work out so well, and he quietly recused himself to the children’s table so the adults could actually get some work done.

In other words, it, like everything else in his campaign, has been nothing more than a series of political ploys to gain emotional votes from those who are too stupid to recognize when they are being played.  And now, since the last hand that was dealt to them isn’t working out so well, it seems they have found a new card to play.  Or rather, an old card, smoothed out and polished up to look like something new.  It’s a dirty, nasty card….  a Last Resort card.  It’s the “Obama is a Terrorist” card.

Mind you, they don’t come right out and say that.  Instead they say that he’s hanging around with terrorists.  Never mind that the (one) guy they are referring to (Bill Ayers) is currently a university professor and that the riot and bomb conspiracy charges against him were dropped in 1974  when Obama was 8.  You might ask why they would make such ridiculous claims.  And the answer is because they know that there are enough idiots out there who will actually believe them and then shorten the whole story to just “Obama is a terrorist.”

So if you’re tired of having someone else pull your puppet strings while they turn our economy into (yet another) global disaster, cut yourself loose this year and please vote Democrat.

I was really looking forward to the Presidential debates.  Really.  So much crap has been spewed on both sides that a forum in which the candidates are actually held responsible for what they say would have been incredibly wonderful.  I was looking forward to finally understanding the deep differences between Obama and McCain, without party influence.

Well, it is not to be… at least for now.

We are facing a financial crisis that could literally sink the national, if not global economy, and frankly, the boys and girls in Washington are being stupid.  Stupid and stubborn.

For a while I watched the news and tried to understand where the different parties were standing on the whole bailout thing…  And I gave up.  It isn’t that I don’t care, it’s just that my understanding of economics pretty much stops with my own bank account.  We’re talking about so much money, that NO ONE, even the very best economists and business entrepreneurs in the world can agree on what is really going to happen, let alone the correct course of action.  Who the hell am I to say we should or shouldn’t dump 700 billion to fix things?  You put two dozen economists in a room together and tell them to solve a problem like this and what you end up with is two dozen “right” ideas that each one of them is religiously adamant about.

The real problem comes when they THINK they have a consensus when they don’t, and what the group thought would pass, falls flat on it’s face… and the DOW suffers it’s worst drop in recorded history.

DO IT ALREADY! OR NOT, BUT MAKE IT HAPPEN!  DON’T GUESS - KNOW THAT IT WILL PASS!

…okay, I feel better now.

So then I hear that John McCain has “suspended” his campaign so he can return to Washington to focus on the bailout package.  He, of course, is urging Obama to do the same.  AND, he is also canceling the debate.

Frak.

I see.  So, somehow, his presence in the Senate is going to help things?  The place is fraught with partisan lockup and the top representative of each party coming to join the fun is going to HELP?  If he has ideas that no one else has put forth, couldn’t he pick up a phone and let someone else bring them to the table?  Just because this is a huge mess, doesn’t make it any more important than any of the other millions of things that the congress and senate deal with on a daily basis.  Why didn’t he drop everything and rush back to Washington to fix any of that?  If he wasn’t needed there before, then he CERTAINLY isn’t needed there now.

But how convenient is it to have some excuse to bail on the debates!  I mean, it’s a really tough soapbox to stand on when the country is literally on the brink of falling apart and your party is currently “running” things.  It would be SO much better if he just waited a few weeks until the headlines have shifted to some other crisis… like another major hurricane or something.

I’m sorry, but that just stinks, Senator. 

The American people are desperate to hear something other than “my opponent is bad because…” and this just seems like yet another political ploy to make the Republicans look like they care.  The idea that you just want to get back there and do some good is comforting… and if your job was construction or brain surgery, I would agree with you.  But there is almost nothing that your job entails that can’t be done over a phone or passed on to someone else.  Stop stalling and TALK to us.  NOW, not when the lime-light has cooled off.  That IS your job right now, and has been from the moment you agreed to represent the Republicans in the White House.

Oop… it’s back on again?  What?  Someone in your polling center noticed that your ratings were dropping through the floor?  What changed?  Has the crisis been averted yet?  No?

Dodging bullets must be tiring.