Arthur Carter Watch: And a point in the other direction

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in arthur vs carter, opinion/news
Tags: ,

Well after hitting the president for his decision on Missiles for a good chunk of the day comes a big win for the country

Law enforcement officials in New York have questioned at least 12 men about their connections to Zazi, who arrived in New York after a 1,777 mile drive from Denver. His trip to New York triggered a series of raids by heavily armed police and federal agents.

Authorities told ABCNews.com that Zazi’s computer contained bomb-making directions and an explosives recipe that would have produced homemade bombs of the same size and type used in the terror attacks on the London subways in July 2005.

Not only has he been caught but he might be of use in the War on Terror:

The Afghan national at the center of a reputed Al Qaeda terror cell probe was trying to cut a deal Friday after two days of FBI grilling, sources told the Daily News

Now one could say that this investigation has been going on since last year, but President Obama is the man in charge and whatever he might be doing it certainly was right.

I will be opposing the president on a lot of his domestic agenda but as long as he guys continue successfully defending the nation his presidency will be an overall success. You don’t have to be friends to celebrate.

Carter 15/ Arthur 10

Talk about a pay cut

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
Tags:

I noticed in the paper today that Worcester’s Cam am entry lost game 3 of the Cam Am championship series:

The Capitales have won the last two games and lead the series, 2-1.

Worcester pitcher Zach Zuercher allowed 7 hits and 5 runs in 7 innings, while striking out 5.

The Capitales took a 2-0 lead in the second, on an RBI single and a Zuercher balk that scored Dany Scalabrini.

Worcester scored its only run in the fifth when Alex Peña led off with a double and took third on a wild pitch before Yohanny Valera (2 for 3) drove him in with a single, cutting the lead to 2-1.

If you don’t know the Canadian/American Association of professional Baseball. Worcester is less than 30 minutes away and they are playing for the Championship. Fun little league, ticket prices a person can afford, nice game. The league draws an average of between 1,100 and 3,500 people a game over 39 games. The real surprise of the day however was the first line of the story:

Worcester couldn’t solve Eric Gagné, as the former Cy Young Award winner threw a complete-game six-hitter while striking out eight to give Quebec a 5-1 win in Game 3 of the Can-Am League championship series last night at Stade de Quebec.

Eric Gagne? I know Quebec is his home town but he can’t be making more than 20-25k pitching for them.

To get some perspective

Eric Gagne 2003

Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first relief pitcher in 11 years to win a Cy Young Award, easily beating San Francisco’s Jason Schmidt for the National League honor.

Gagne, who converted all 55 of his save opportunities, received 28 of 32 first-place votes and 146 points in balloting released Thursday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Salary $550,000

Eric Gagne 2008

The Brewers have signed Eric Gagne to a 1-year, $10 million dollar contract to serve as their closer

How the mighty have fallen.

Speaking of costs, what is the actual goal?

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

Speaking more of the Missile stuff it also a question of the deterrent value I have another question. What is the actual goal? If the goal is deterrence that you might not get what you are paying for. Consider the following:

Situation A: There are missiles deployed in and controlled by Poland and a threat (any threat) comes up. It is a question of Poland defending itself. It can employ it’s defense on their own terms. It doesn’t have to involve the US at all in terms of blood and treasure once they are deployed.

Situation B: The missiles are on a US ship and a threat comes up. It then becomes a question of the United States opening fire on another nation and all the political and geopolitical ramifications involved therein.

Not only are the costs greater for us, but if we decide that for whatever reason we don’t want to pay them, Poland is screwed.

If the goal is actual deterrence then situation A is better than situation B no matter what the technology is.

However if the goal is to appease Russia and Putin then it’s a great plan, but hey not to worry they said it’s ok and it’s not like the Pols think we are selling them out or something. Oh wait:

Strategic ally? Mainstay of our security? End of illusions. United States of America, for which we have for each call, turned his back to us. U.S. President lightly tossed into the trash heap construction of the Poland and the Czech anti-missile shield. The massive military installation was to give special meaning to us in NATO and to strengthen our position towards Russia. But America, instead of Warsaw, he prefers dialogue with Moscow. Yesterday the whole world went round decision Barack Obama Kremlin triumphs, and the Poles have been exposed to the wind.

Hey maybe it’s the Buchanan “Don’t defend Poland and WWII is a fight between Hitler and Russia” plan all over again! Change we can believe in!

Well I’m sure we can straighten it out with the Polish Prime minister, if we was willing to take our calls that is.

Don’t keep putting coins in the machine.

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

One of the more reasonable arguments concerning the White Houses’ missile defense move is the cost savings it entails. It sounds pretty good but it is deceptive.

First of all political capital and possibility monetary capital was spent to get the permission to put the stuff there in the first place. Now that it will not be deployed that is all now a loss.

Second of all it means if either the technology or threat changes then we would have to spend it all again, only this time we would have less credibility and it would have a higher cost in political and financial capital, in fact it might not even be in time. Sort of like the four stage strategy of diplomacy via Sir Humphrey starting around 6 min in this clip or if you just want the meat at 7:40

If your goal is to actually do nothing then it’s a great plan. If your goal is you know actual deterrence it’s not a good idea. It’s like losing money in a machine and then just putting more in again instead of getting your quarters back first.

But Datechguy you say: Aren’t these missiles actually better than the ground stuff and more flexable? It’s the arugment in the LGF thread on the subject that was offered and here is my answer verbatim:

Those things are true in the physical sense but it is a worse deterrent in a political sense. If a country is under actual threat there is little question in the mind of the potential aggressor that it will use a deterrent under it’s own control on it’s own soil.

If the deterrent is not on their own soil then the political will of the guarantor is taken into effect. Europe’s graveyards are full of casualties of the lack of political will.

That’s why US troops South Korea are a more effective deterrent then a promise to deploy troops would be. It’s also why we actually had troops in Europe instead of relying on a nuclear deterrent. Your more likely to stay in the pot if you already have money in it.

That is the reality.

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