John Brennan and Drone Stikes; Rand Paul and his Filibuster Rant; North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and Sanctions; Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters Harlem Shake Across the 38th Parallel;Fox News Obituary for Hugo Chavez; A Fair Assessment of Hugo Chavez's Legacy

John Brennan and Drone Stikes

   America faces a myriad of threats abroad and John Brennan is the right person to help lead our Central Intelligence Agency in the face of them.  Drone Strikes and surveillance are vital to our success in active arena's of warfare including Mali and Afpak.   Every drone flight keeps an air force pilot out of harms way, avoids the risk of needing an extraction team to rescue him if shot down and they have proven themselves as an effective tool in the war against terror, specifically, Al-Qaeda.  These tools of war are not a panacea to our security issues, we still need covert-ops, special forces, clandestine CIA agents and the like to pursue our national interests in a world where our competitors aggressively are pursuing their own interests, however the public should feel confident in the rules of law regulating their usage.  Drones cannot be used against American Citizens domestically and are only used against approved high-value targets with a verifiable record of terrorism.

Rand Paul and Filibuster Rant

    The filibuster rant of Rand Paul was nearly as obnoxious as Alex Jones daily paranoid delusions.   What if instead of congress, we had a house of progress formed by the leading professors with the same number of congress members, only we'll call them progress members and they'll chosen according to merit.  Under the authorities of the Department of Education, the president may have the executive authority to do such, and our house of progress may just be the answer we've been looking for.   Of course, it couldn't write the laws, but it could tell us according to scientific models what is actually happening and advise as to what we should do about it.  

North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and Sanctions

   The most recent offensive statements by North Korea's leadership threatening preemptive nuclear strikes on South Korean and American targets highlight the threat nexus posed by wmds, terror groups and rogue leaders.  Nuclear Weapons in the hands of rational decision makers with populaces held accountable is one thing, nuclear weapons in the hands of irrational leaders with ties to terror groups and a lack of regard for the populaces at risk is another.   While the leadership in Iran may be rational, their blatant ties to terror groups HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH make the proliferation of weapons to Iran an unacceptable risk that would embolden their aggressive intrusiveness in the affairs of American allies, likely prompting a larger arms race in the Middle East with potentially catastrophic consequences.   North Korea, is the farthest thing from a rational actor, the reclusive hermit state controlled under the Kim Dynasties cult of personality has left it isolated from modernity, as its military build up and life-long brainwashing of its citizens by looped propaganda depicting the Kim's as demigods make them a horrifying security threat.  They have nuclear war heads, nuclear reactors and have recently tested long range missiles.  They threaten America, South Korea and Japan routinely, including firing on civillians and torpedoing South Korean Naval vessel killing 45 sailors this passed year.  America has close to 40,000 troops in the region, and our close ally, the makers of KIA and LG have a city of more than 10,000,000 people in Seoul that are in range of their weapons.  Sanctions have further isolated the region, causing further suffering for the population at large while the leaders of the regime have managed to insulate themselves.  New UN Sanctions targeted at the parties leadership are a necessary response, but unlikely to noticeably change the situation without tough action from China.

Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters Harlem Shake Across the 38th Parallel

   Bill Clinton, with all his successes, biggest mistake may have been to allow North Korea to go Nuclear; a hard lesson for Barack Obama has tries to figure out what to do with Iran.  With Iran we have a range of options on the table and as negotiations begin, Iran should take heed to continue cooperating with the UN by converting enriched uranium to forms useable only for peaceful purposes.  There is really not an easy solution to the North Korea problem, sanctions will only further hurt the North Korean People but are unlikely to push the regime over the edge.  There is of course one cause for hope in the North Korean/American relations, and he goes by the name of Dennis "the Menace" Rodman (former rebound champion of the NBA) and has the backing of the still undefeated Harlem Globe Trotters.  These would be super agents have all the athleticism to be superb assassins and after the success of Rodman's visit to North Korea this past week it seems a real possibility.  I'm confident he could at least get the leader drunk enough on his star power to give up the nukes.  Sending them back in on a mission with a different motive could be the carpool lane in gridlocked traffic solution we've been looking for since 1957.  Its ARGO meets ZOOLANDER, this one has potential, but its not a movie.  Its a strange world.  Those newport beach house parties seem along way away now don't they my friend.  

Fox News Obituary for Hugo Chavez
  
   Ding Dong, the witch is dead! Hugo Chavez finally croaks over ridding the world of one more damn commie!  Exxon has immediately assumed control of the oil fields and former mlb batting average champion, Andres Gallaraga, has just been appointed as the new interim leader.

A Fair Assessment of Hugo Chavez's Legacy

   With Hugo Chavez, dead, a mixed legacy is left.  The favorite problem child of the right and exemplary leftist victim to others, his influence is undeniable.  Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, and he managed to take control of all of them and use the proceeds to provide generous and wildly popular welfare benefits to not only his citizens, but at times even American poor.   For you die hard money lovers, he died 8 times wealthier than Mitt Romney.  He is no saint, he was undeniably a socialist and problem to American economic interests in the region, but he also served the interests of his populace at large, something that good political leaders should do before everything else.  He managed to survive a coup orchestrated by the Bush Administration and significantly increased his influence across South America amongst the communist world.   Unfortunately he also seemed to have tied himself up with elements of Islamist extremism, an unforgivable offense and real security threat to the US.  He also invested in groups unpopular amongst foreign populations at large, to help advance his national interests under the guise of  Socialist Universalism.  The ultimate villain of the far right, he won the friendship of Sean Penn and respect of Oliver Stone.  I never met him, I cannot speak one way or another but as far as leftist megalomaniacs yielding the unlimited power of the State he was a far cry from the disastrous dictators of the proletariat demonstrated by Mao and Stalin.  While his policies were problematic to American economic interests and the wealthy landowners of Venezuela, he did seemingly improve the overall prosperity and self-sufficiency of his country, despite high inflation rates and an expanded welfare state, easily winning re-election four times and making strides to diversify the Venezuelan economy.  His mistrust of American agents was understandable after the Bush Administration's failed coup attempt, providing a clear example of how the attempted removal of popularly elected leaders only further destabilize the regions they take place in and end up hurting American security interests and reputation abroad.  His vice president, uneducated, obese and lacking in the vernacular eloquence of Chavez will lose in the next election to the left-center candidate, Henrique Capriles Ridonski, Governor of Miranda.