Speaking of What Well-Run Military Strategerie

The latest twist is:

One of the ex-SEALs that disobeyed orders not to go help at the Consulate in Benghazi died because he was spotted by a mortar crew.  The mortar crew that was shelling the Consulate.  The mortar crew he was actively painting with a laser target designator.  They saw his targeting laser and had time to re-aim and fire on him. 

He will have watched them adjusting their aim to hit him.  He likely saw the round launched that killed him.

Why did he stay?

You don't just shine a laser target designator on bad guys in hope that somebody in the sky might see it.  You light up a target when you KNOW a weapon is up there, ready to rain death on a target - THEN you light them up.  This man was a pro-feshinul fighter and he knew what to do with that designator.  It is nearly certain that he KNEW there was a weapons platform in the air, and that they were ready to rain hot death on the peacefulreligionofpeace mortar crew.  Speculation is that there was either an armed drone overhead, or maybe an AC-130 gun ship. 

That aircraft did not fire its weapons.  Did the same "smart diplomacy" and "a gutsy call" leadership team who ordered the CIA Annex to NOT go help the Consulate, also tell the aircraft to hold its fire?

If so, why?

Fitghting the Good Fight

Iraq was bad.  Iraq was Bush's war.  The just war was Afghanistan because Bin Laden was there.  Now that he's dead there will be no more terrorism and we have pulled all our troops out of Afghanistan.  Oh, wait. . . .

Make that, Secretary of State Clinton tries to get Algeria to help us invade frikken MALI in the global war on not-specifically-islam-or-something. Great.

hat tip: Instapundit

HUGE News, Film at Never

FOX News broke the news: there were THREE separate phone call requests up the chain of command from the CIA Annex about a mile away from the consulate in Benghazi.

The agents heard gunshots and requested to be allowed to go help.  Denied

The agents disobeyed an order to stand down (sit on their hands and listen to the fighting) and went.  They rescued who they could, and brought back a corpse.  They asked for help.  And again.  Denied, and Denied.

We know now that there was a drone flying overhead watching the whole mess unfold, and that it was being watched in the USA at the State department, and probably in the White House Situation Room.  We are being told by the Obama Administration spokesmouths that we didn't have enough information to mount a response.  We are told They didn't get any military assistance moving toward the consulate even though 24 different recipients got e-mailed messages, because "it could take hours" to sort through all the intelligence, before someone might finally stumble across the message of the attack underway.

Then shortly after this news broke today, a caller came on the Rush Limbaugh show ("Doug") and claimed to be the sort of person who used to be in places where this sort of thing could happen.  He said, there were a hundred high-speed low-drag Operators that could all be on the ground with all their gear - killing goblins within 5 hours, probably a few dozen could have been there within a couple of hours.  He said, there is a Protocol.  When a certain type of classified "flash traffic" message is sent and the Ambassador is declared to be In Distress, there is a man on watch at the White House.  He gets this message and hands it to the guy next to him and says

"Get this information to POTUS"

The protocol is very likely to be strictly defined, probably down to the exact verbiage to be used.  The message is required to be handed directly from messenger to messenger, all the way to a man standing beside the President of the United States, within minutes.  There is ZERO chance this communication sat unread in any inbox waiting to be sorted through and found.

President
Obama
KNEW - IMMEDIATELY

And 

Did nothing.

THAT'S why the cover-up.

********
If we had a neutral press, he would be forced to resign tomorrow.  If.

I'm a Frikken Reporter Already!

The people where I work were concerned about a huge plume of smoke that looked to be just up the hill from where we were.  That would be, the heavily wooded hill, and our place surrounded by a wood.  I asked if we should send somebody to go scope it out and PB said it would be a good idea.  I had a camera in hand, so I jumped in the Hot Rod and went to snap some photos. 

From our parking lot, it looked close-ish.
From the highway, it was obviously across a four lane divided highway, across a ravine, and over a hill.  Much less worrisome to us directly.
Two alarm fire, at least.  Note the irony of the Emergency Room wait time billboard.
Somebody is going to come home to a pretty nasty surprise tonight.

Kids Co-Workers Say The Darnedest Things!

NP was amazed at www.exoticmeatsandmore.com and he was glancing through their list of offerings. He said "oh sure, lion is out of stock, but we can get you some shark fin soup."

VFD: Oh, that's easy, you just go to the Sea of Japan...
NP: (disapproving tone) yeah . . .
VFD: (enthusiastic tone) well that's good though, because shark fin soup is sustainable! You cut off the fins and you can just throw 'em back in the water!
NP: (LOL) I don't think it works like that.
VFD: (LOL) I'm pretty sure it does.

Note: cutting off the fins and tossing a shark back in the ocean is a dick move. At least have the decency to shoot it in the head first! ********

A customer asked about a spectrum analyzer, which is an instrument that shows a display of amplitude vs. frequency (or wavelength, if you do the maths) of an electromagnetic signal. Wires have a physical property called "length." Wires have neither frequency nor wavelength on their own.

FOG: Customer Question: Will this measure the wave length of a piece of coax?
VFD: A piece of coax has no wavelength. This customer is worth blocking

********

Note: the links are what I was thinking at the time. FOG is slightly too proffessional to have caught my meaning over the instant messenger program.

VFD: Who likes candle smells up there in the office wing?
FOG: All the ladies ?
VFD: LOL
FOG: Not sure if understand purpose of your question
VFD: NP has a candle warmer which releases the scent without all the pesky burn-the-building-down action
VFD: this room = too big for one candle warmer, does nothing
VFD: is willing to donate to the front office wing
FOG: Do you have to have wax or anything?
VFD: have to have candle. in glass container
FOG: It is plug in?
VFD: is
FOG: How hot gets?
VFD: hot enough to melt candle?
VFD: !!!
FOG: Depends on candle
FOG: Hot enough to HURT?
VFD: wow

Kids People Say The Darnedest Things!

#4 is now 2 years old. Tonight he came into the kitchen as I was awesomeing around the house and said . . .

#4: My necklace!
VFD: (turns around, sees #4 with canteen hanging around his neck)
VFD: That's a pretty big necklace
#4: Yah!
VFD: It's like you've got a midget hanging from your necklace
#4: (goes and plays somewhere else, oblivious to adult humor)

For those who are too young to catch it, too non-afro-murikin, or both: you didnt' miss much, really.

¡Locura en el Trabajo!

We have cleaning buddies that are supposed to sweep & mop the floor 2x/week to keep the dust down inside where I work. Today, they came around with a big dustmop for a broom and swept up most of the big chunks prior to the mopping. A 2" screw was left calmly sitting where moments before it had been surrounded by other debris on the floor.

I asked NJ if he wanted to see something amusing. He did and he came over to my AO. I told him the story. He chuckled & said it would be funnier if I cordoned off the area and put a little caution cone or something.




















(Click to embiggen)

You may guess from the language on the cone what is the principal language of los amigos limpianos. I took a photo and then, because even I am not that obnoxious, I picked up the screw, threw away the cone and barrer tape (both made from post-it notes) and went on about my day.

USA Economy Unexpectedly To Improve Next Year

In case I have been insufficiently clear on the subject: When Romney begins to be perceived by the business community in America as the likely winner, the economic indicator polls will start to turn toward "right track" and "positive outlook."  After Romney wins the White House, a stronger-than-1% recovery will begin.  On or before Inauguration Day, the economy will begin to come roaring back as business owners realize they no longer have a self-declared enemy* for a POTUS.  

Then within a couple of years the initial headrush of freedom will wear off and things slow down, hampered by regulations that were never taken back when Romney got into office  -IF- we allow it.  IF the Tea Party hammers on Mitten/Ryan, the whole thing could be turned around.  IF Obamacare and a few tens of thousands of pages of executive department regulations are reversed, the economy picks up.  If Obamacare is allowed to stay, the economy only gets slightly better.  Either way: with Romney, we will see growth.  With obama, we would see a continued "growth" rate of ~1% but everyone will somehow be worse off except government and union employees, and maybe a few well-connected-to-Democrats businesses.

Unexpectedly: What they say who were not paying attention before the fact

********
* the line is ambiguous, like the man himself.  If you want him to hate private enterprise, he does.  If you want him to feel like the token black guy feeling out of place in a corporate job vs. community organizing like he wanted to do, that's how he felt.  Either way: Barack Obama described -in his own book about himself- working at a real job vs. rabble-rousing as being behind enemy lines.

Going To Let Joe Just Be Joe?

So apparently it is okay to be rude, now.  Because Joe Biden was sure rude to Paul Ryan.  Make that, the man a heartbeat away from being the most powerful man in the world, was very rude to a member of the national legislature, on one of the most-viewed televised events of the day.  On purpose.

Rush says Biden was a very appealing debater, to the kooks in the core of the Democrat party.  Maybe.  I wonder if the obamaphone crow-voice lady would have been laughing at the 80+ times he interrupted his opponent.

The Narrative Falls Apart

The operators at the Department of State have refused to fall on their swords.  You remember how the murderous attack on our consulate in Libya was officially designated as the result of spontaneous protests over a movie nobody saw since its release several months ago?  Yeah, now it is coming out that State had NO intelligence to that effect and the Administration was LYING.

It was, in fact, a coordinated attack on the anniversary of 9/11, AND the now-dead Ambassador had REPEATEDLY requested better security and been denied. And the private local security people gave up the secret location of our hiding Ambassador. As our sensitive documents blow around on the ground, unsecured even still today, CNN told us how the Ambassador's journal recorded his security concerns leading up to the day.  The 'spontaneous protest' story is unravelled, and it is increasingly clear it was made-up.  State says they didn't make it up, and they were testifying before Congress as I write this.  They will be telling the truth or risk going to prison - and they didn't make it up.  This leaves a shortening list of people who came up with this story.  It includes various people who are or who want to be President of the United States of America.

This is not Soviet Russia.  This is America (still, for now) and we have the Internet (still, for now). You can't DO this sort of thing here and expect to get away with it. The only people who will buy the first official "movei protest" line a month from now are the low-informed voters who are voting for Obama regardless of anything.  He could rape and murder a school full of little boys and they would vote for him.  For everyone else, he has damaged his reputation very badly with this very badly-done cover-up.

IF "they" will knowingly make up stories and LIE about this event . . . about what else are you being misled?

we knew in first 24 hours that it was planned, not a result of the protesting.  First thing heard at embassy was explosion, gunfire.  Obama KNEW an attack was underway, and he . . . went to bed for the night, to get a good night's sleep.  THIS is the reason.  He is demonstrably -from this event alone- not suited to be the Commander-In-Chief of the most powerful military force on the planet.  But . . . if you could manipulate the Press into convincing the People it were just some protest gone out of hand and the guy with a rocket launcher just happened to show up, that is maybe not as bad as going to sleep when your people are under surprise attack.

P.S. going around spending our taxpayer dollars to tell people about the excuse/cover video story and getting them all worked-up, leading to days/weeks of violent protests all around the muslim world does NOT quite qualify as "smart diplomacy."  We'll see if Secretary Mrs. Clinton ends up under the bus on this one.

Well, There Goes Greece.

Greek society is officially circling the drain.  When the government is warning of a collapse like happened to Weimar Germany, and the citizenry storms the Ministry of Defense, and you're officially bankrupt and NOT even past the start line fixing your economy . . .

Stick your nation with a fork, it's done.  Coming soon to a united State near you?

Madness At Work!

Overheard where I work:

"HIGHLY unproffessional, men!"
(new employees walk in)
"Most work places, you don't have people poking holes in the ceiling by kicking the thigh bones of dead animals around."

Leave Well Enough Alone!

VFD: What are you doing?
Darling Wife: (unreadable facial expression)
VFD: Wait
VFD: Do I want to know what you are doing?
DW: (shakes head, giggles)
VFD: Okay. (walks away)

If someone says you don't want to know . . . trust them!

Way to Be, Sony

It took a day, but I finally came to an important realization:

Sony could give a flying [deleted] about users who want to run 64-bit MS Vista on older laptops.  You want drivers?  Suck it!  Because shut up, and buy a new PC already.

Okay, 32-bit it is.  Who needs an extra gig o' ram anyhow?