I am a bit perplexed on this, that everyone is acting like this is a surprise, that the “Outgoing Administration” passed in 2005. The DTV transition was passed 13 years ago as part of the “Telecommunications Act of 1996″ yup 1996 thirteen years ago, and it looks like it may drag on longer. The primary issue for the request is that there apparently is a shortage of about a million coupons for converter boxes, or to put that in perspective of the US population, about 3 tenths of 1 percent, and just how many of them really don’t need a converter, because they are on cable or satellite.

My bet is the problem based on 2 things, stupidity, and laziness. I wonder how many stupid people are out there with a government funded digital converter box hooked up between their cable box and the old Dumont waiting to see HDTV on it… BTW a cable box is a D to A converter… Then there are the Lazy ones, well at least procrastinators, waiting until the absolute laaaaast minute to do the conversion, to them I say you snooze you looze…

I guess there may be a third type of individual out there, the eBay entrepreneur, the ones that went out with their coupons and bought up a couple of converters, in hopes of big profits when the conversion happens….

So the next question on my mind is why…
With all the problems this country is facing, shouldn’t congress be addressing those issues instead of television coupons, well maybe not, look at how much time they spent on the Sirius XM merger.

Let’s say China invaded your home town and destroyed the water treatment plant, most of the schools, most of the grocery stores, and a significant percentage of roads, bridges, hospitals, telecommunication lines, sewage systems and houses. Ok, then they swarm in with tanks, trucks and troops and stand on every corner all day, every day. Now, they ask YOU to stand up a government and get the infrastructure back in place and instill not only ORDER but a sense of continuity of community, and oh yeah, have it all done and back to “normal” by 90 days? Oh yeah, the word “normal” is from THEIR dictionary, not yours.

Yep. Pretty much it.

Ok, so I over simplify. Granted most of the rebuilding is being done by US or western personnel. That’s mostly because (a) Iraqi skilled labor has either been killed or fled to another country, (b) the Iraqi’s don’t have any capital to support rebuilding, nor the equipment and raw materials, and (c) Iraqi’s are afraid that by going to construction sites, they’ll be targeted by terrorists as American allies and either killed or tortured and killed or just killed and killed again.

Any way you cut it, we invaded and messed up a lot of things and created a bees nest of problems. Now we’re angry at THEM for not having it all cleaned up and back in order on OUR terms. Yeah, that’s logical. Before this is “over” (if it will ever be), we’ll be pissing off the few that like us to the point where EVERYONE over there is against us. Pointing fingers at them in anger is not the way to smooth things out and make it all better. It ain’t going to help at all.

My 2 cents.

[Re: Blackwater aligns with the Bush administration and the religious right...] Actually, it makes sense for them to align that way. The regime is simply more favorable to their business model. No different than an environment-protection group, education organization, or labor union aligning with a more democrat-oriented regime. They attach to the bigger fish that doesn’t turn to eat them.

Most contractors feel they are vastly more patriotic in nature than regular forces. They find the “benefits” more appealing: greater flexibility in the field, and fewer political guidelines overall. They are adrenaline starved, pro-USA grunts that are (usually) fed up with the restrictions and rules that apply to regular military operations. They feel that regular service doesn’t allow them enough latitude to “do what needs to be done” to win a war. Add to that – that many have families in the US that they feel they are “protecting”, and you have a recipe for higher probability of NOT “turning” than most regular forces.

The press is missing the point. We’re simply following the path laid by the French and English. It just took us longer to figure out how much latitude this new “direction” affords us in sticky situations. The Foreign Legion and the Gurkhas are but two examples that we’re trying to follow after. The Russians have their contracted help as well.

One of the biggest problems we’re seeing, maybe *the* biggest, is that we’ve not yet figured out how to (or why) segregate the regular forces from contracted forces in the field of operations. The examples cited above are rarely placed into a given conflict together. They are usually relegate to specific (or general) jurisdictions, or simply entirely different conflicts or theaters of conflict. The reason is obvious: a single strategic initiative executed by two different tactical approaches, is going to fail. Even if they are not diametrically opposed views, confusion and redundancy will create major problems. Plenty of those have been reported already in Iraq, some in Afghanistan, etc. Our government just hasn’t spent enough on outside analyst reports yet to figure that out. They could save a lot of money by simply asking either our own generals, or French, British, etc. But that would be too easy (and they probably have a quota for paying consultants to report that on the proper letterhead).

Aside from contracted military ops, there are more obscure, yet more significant efforts underway: contracted intelligence for one. I don’t even need to explain why it is more prudent to have contractors interrogating captives than government employees. National boundaries don’t apply. Just like BW and other military-oriented contractors, the laws become vague as well. That affords even greater flexibility. Plausible deniability, etc. The recent exposure of so-called “secret prisons” uncovered in Poland and Romania, which are said to be run by the CIA, will only add more weight to the push for contracted intelligence. Over the next 50 years it will be interesting to see how far this goes. Can you imagine contracted replacements for the FBI? DEA? FDA? FAA? Don’t laugh. As ridiculous as it may seem, you can’t honestly rule it out either. Stranger things have happened in our history.

I would seriously vote for almost anyone I personally know rather than this pool of shit-for-brains idiots.  Given that that isn’t a likely outcome, I may sit this one out.  I’ve threatened to abstain from voting before.  I’ve voted in every election but one since I was old enough to vote (I’m now 43).  The whole “you can’t afford not to” argument isn’t going to fly with me this time.  I still maintain a defensible argument that not one single election in America’s history has ever been decided by a single public vote.  In fact, there has been at least one occasion where the public vote was reversed by the electorate.  And we still call ourselves a democracy.  Hmmm. 

Let’s get technical shall we?  A “democracy” does not mean a direct public control of government.  It means control by proxy.  Direct control of government is called Anarchy I believe, but that’s too messy, so we pick up our TV remotes and press the vote-for-___ button to do our dirty work for us.  Americans don’t want to miss American Idol after all.

As much as I hate American Idol (any sitcom/pop TV crap these days), I may actually prefer to watch TV than vote next year.  Actually, I will probably vote for everything else on the ballot (congress, senate, sheriff, school board, ass-wiper, gum chewer) but I may just do a write-in for president: my dog.  Yes, my dog would be a far better choice in my opinion. Her background is impeccable and clean, even though she is a Beagle.  She wouldn’t waste time with politi-speak.  No, she’d get right down to ankle biting and chewing up things.  I’d rather watch that than a State of the Union speech any day.