Morning Coffee (138)

Your Brewer is still in the Coffee business, I assure you. There's just so little time these days.

Semi-Change We Can Sort of Believe In:
Everyone, how is your change? No, I'm not asking for a status report on your pocket change. I'm asking about the change you were promised during the recent election and how it's working out for you. Personally, I'm impressed. President-elect Obama's choices for his Cabinet consist largely of unknowns. Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, Emanuel Rahm. Arizona governess Janet Napolitano. Senator John Kerry. New Mexico governor and recent Presidential candidate Bill Richardson. I've heard Dick Gephardt's name thrown around too. Oh, wait. They're sort of well-known; infamous even. Good times. Well, when you're candidate's entire platform is as vague as "change" then I suppose you sort of get what you paid for. I mean, it is technically change, right?

Since we're talking about change, we might as well discuss the debacle of the Clinton nomination to the post of Secretary of State. Some say it's impossible, that Obama is suggesting her to placate some Democrats who feel jaded by Obama's failure to select her as his running mate. Some say that Obama will use Bill Clinton's many donors as a reason not to select her for the top diplomatic spot. Some say she won't accept it because after all, she's a Senator already. On one had, she should be wary, because as Colin Powell once noted, the Secretary of State serves at the President's leisure. He could fire her in two years. Then she'd be out of a government job altogether. But I say that she'll take the post, and will be confirmed with ease. This will be good in one sense, as New York will hopefully get a Senator who, you know, actually lived in New York.

"Let There be Jobs...and Other Stuff!":
By 2011, Barack Obama will "create 2.5 million jobs...to rebuild roads and bridges and modernize schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars." And on the Seventh Day, he will rest.

Final Political Thoughts of the Day:
Term limits. Term limits. Term limits.

Also, I would like to propose that all persons seeking higher office must relinquish their present position in order to run for that higher office. For example, if I'm a sitting senator, and I'm say, selected as a running mate to a Presidential candidate or if I decide to run for President myself, then I give up my seat in the Senate. If I fail in my VP/Presidential bid, then I'm out of a job. I'm welcome to run for office again in the future, of course.

Why would I have such a stupid idea? To avoid situations like in Delaware, where Joe Biden kept his seat in the Senate, but will not serve out his term as he's the next VP. I should also mention that he refused to debate his challenger, which meant that she was unable to do much campaigning. There are rules in Delaware that forbid certain campaigning unless both candidates are present. So now the governor of Delaware gets to pick the Senator, which doesn't sound terribly democratic in my humble view.

More pragmatically, I don't get to tell my boss that I'm going to leave work four days out of five in order to look for work elsewhere, but that I expect to be paid as if I were doing my job, and that if I fail to secure another job, I expect to be able to come back to work as if nothing had happened. Why should politicians be afforded something so utterly unfeasible most American workers?

Arrrr, these be pirate waters, matey:
Have you heard about this piracy situation? Well you would have five months ago had the Morning Coffee not been hijacked (pun intended) by the Presidential election. I had been planning on writing expressing my assessment that the problem would explode by 2009. Now I just look like a jumper of bandwagons.

Regardless, the problem has indeed exploded, most notably off the Horn of Africa (get a map), but also in the Gulf of Guinea. The Somali pirates have attacked more than 140 ships this year, and hijacked 36 of them, including the largest ship ever captured, the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which is carrying two million barrels of oil (~$100 million worth) and was destined for the United States. A few months ago, the pirates took the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying Soviet/Russian made weapons. The Kenyan government estimates that the Somali pirates have made $150 million so far. Nigerian pirates, both in and out of water, were blamed as part of the reason oil soared above $100 a barrel. Where is that money going? Some fear to Islamic extremists in Somalia. Check out THIS map to see the global activity of pirates.

Clearly, these pirates have become more brazen. I attribute this to companies' willingness to pay ransom demands for ships and crews captured. This is a cycle: pirates capture ships, demanding on average $2 million per, companies pay them, they buy new equipment intent on taking more ships and making more money. The problem grows. I think, though, that these pirates will become victims of their own success. The capture of the Sirius Star is likely the breaking point. Two million barrels of oil is a lot, and that does have an impact on the global markets. If these pirates get $35 million or more for the ship and its cargo, then they will be encouraged to do it again, and most nations don't like having their oil supply messed with.

The US Navy has been chomping at the bit for a mission, with the Army and Marine Corps getting all the glory in Iraq and Afghanistan. It now looks like they might have one. Problem is, the Navy has been shadowing the MV Faina since September, and hasn't really done anything. This is not due to a lack of capability, but a lack of guidance and direction from higher (i.e. the President/NATO/UN). The US Navy would make mincemeat out of most pirate vessels, and the Marine Corps and special ops units deploying from Navy ships have a capability called VBSS - visit, board, search, and seizure. I will say though, 2.5 million square miles of ocean is a lot of area to cover, so finding ships is sometimes problematic. But again, someone has to direct the Navy to act. This is all very touchy with the Law of the Sea and what not. Of course, the United States and its sailors and Marines do have some experience fighting piracy.

That is all for today. Perhaps more tomorrow?

Word of the Day: Nabob (NAY-bob) (noun): 1. A native ruler in India in the Mogul empire; by extension, a person from Indian who has made a fortune there. 2. A very wealthy and prominent person, a mogul.

On This Day in History: British pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) is killed off the coast of North Carolina by a boarding party led by Lieutenant Robery Maynard (1718). President John Kennedy is assassinated (1963). Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight champ in history (1986).

"Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned." - Anonymous.

Edit: Corrected my apparently atrocious spelling.