Something to Know - 8 February

1.  DRONES.  The subject is being debated and used to confront Obama's nominee to head the CIA.   The word "drone", in itself is not as nasty as it is being cast currently.   It is however very much associated as a delivery system for Hellfire missiles that are used in targeted killings with great accuracy, and associated collateral damage.  I think that it is a great tool to gather intelligence, and it is less expensive than on-the-ground boots, and less dangerous.  Where it is now going wrong is the use of drones to deliver missiles into questionable areas of ill-defined war zones and unintended targets.  In addition, their use is a political hot-button where Congress is having no over-sight on the President conducting a war against a loosely defined enemy in countries that we may not have any business being in:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-remote-control-assassinations/2013/02/07/4d13e024-715e-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_print.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/us/politics/senate-panel-will-question-brennan-on-targeted-killings.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=print

2.  The next mayor of Los Angeles, succeeding  Villaraigosa, is not going to be an automatic demographic of the new majority of the city.   No, and Gregory Rodriguez (who contributes on about once every month or two) has his views on why:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez-politics-l.a.-mayor-demographics-20130107,0,401451,print.column


3.  Now, back to the manhunt for Christopher Dorner.  I have a feeling that he had a time-delayed fire on his truck up in the Big Bear mountains, which allowed him plenty of time to get into a second vehicle, and was probably up and over into the Antelope Valley before the fire was out.  He's probably in hiding somewhere in Central California by now.

--
Juan

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

 by Kurt Vonnegut