Author: COB6

I make no claim to authenticity but the speedo does look familiar.

Barely a week into the job and President Obama is feeling his oats as the neophyte CinC and as Democrats always do; he has targeted the Defense Department for cuts.

This was so unbelievably predictable.

The Obama administration has asked the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon’s budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent — about $55 billion — a senior U.S. defense official tells FOX News.

Last year’s defense budget was $512 billion. Service chiefs and planners will be spending the weekend “burning the midnight oil” looking at ways to cut the budget — looking especially at weapons programs, the defense official said.

I realize that as with any government program there is fat in the DoD budget but we are at war.

Cutting defense right now sends a dangerous message to our enemies around the world.

Why do I call this a “redistribution scam” instead of just good fiscal stewardship? Because I have more than two brain cells and I can see when someone is pissing on my leg and telling me it’s raining.

The defense cuts will cost jobs; lots of good paying (and likely unionized) jobs. These are middle class and upper middle class jobs for the most part.

So where does this windfall of federal money (at the cost of the middle class) actually go?

Look no further than the Democrat proposed, pork filled stimulus package that will stimulate nothing but Pelosi’s dream to drive the United States into a European Socialist state.

$83 billion in welfare payments
$20 billion for food stamps

Increases in welfare and food stamps will not create one job and in fact discourages one from seeking a job.

Cutting $50 million from defense will cost jobs and weaken a nation.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

On April 7, 1943, 22 year old Marine Lieutenant James Swett took off as a rookie division leader of four F4F Wildcats in VMF-221 on his maiden combat mission over the Solomon Islands.

His small band was part of a group of Marine and Navy aviators who were intercepting a wave of 150 Japenese aircraft.

A few minutes after take-off Lt. Swett and his four aircraft command ran into 15 Japanese bombers. Swett ignored the odds and ordered an immediate attack from above. Personally leading the tight formation of Wildcats, Swett opened the engagement.

Less than 20 minutes later, Swett had scored seven confirmed kills!

He became the first and only USMC flying Ace in his first day of combat. Swett disengaged with a severly damaged engine and a shattered windshield that left lacerations across his face.

Oh yeah, and he was out of fuel. He skillfully brought his battered aircraft down in the sea off Tulagi where he was picked up without further injury.

That was a great day for America and for James Swett Sr.

Yesterday was his last.

Colonel James Swett Sr. passed away at the age of 88 in Redding, California.

To the entire Swett family I say “On behalf of a grateful nation”.

I have seen a lot of discussion on this very question over the past few weeks. I think it’s an idiotic discussion but it is there nonetheless.

Michael Medved (the only human being further up McCain’s ass than Lindsey Graham) thinks that we should all be on our knees praying for Obama to be successful.

Rush Limbaugh takes an entirely different view and hopes that Obama fails miserably based on what Rush thinks he wants to do.

Let’s analyze these two learned positions shall we?

Medved is an old time law school, Jewish liberal who is far more armed to do his movie review stuff than political commentary. In fact, he was very involved in far left, liberal politics until he met with President Gerald Ford’s Chief of Staff who somehow did some kind of mind meld and turned him into a Republican. Who could have such powers? Oh yeah, Ford’s Chief of Staff was no less than Dick Cheney.

The truth is that Medved is not a conservative, he is a Republican and a squishy-moderate at that. Think Lincoln Chaffee with a radio show.

His position is dead-assed wrong! More to follow on that momentarily.

Rush is a true black and white idealogue. I believe that Rush is a true conservative but he is woefully uneducated and that is of his own accord; he had every opportunity and chose not to pursue it. Though he is the son of a lawyer, his brother David is a lawyer, he has an uncle on the federal bench and a cousin on the Missouri Supreme Court; Rush has a high school diploma and sometimes it shows.

By the way, both Medved and Limbaugh avoided the draft during Vietnam. Medved through college deferments and Rush through some kind of cist on his ass.

I have a lot of respect for Limbaugh, not so much for Medved but that’s not the issue.

Both of their positions are wrong and wrong for reasons worth discussing here. Both of their positions are based on the hope for successor failure of an individual not an ideology. That is an intellectually lazy and reasonably stupid position to start from.

I voted for President Bush twice but I never wished him 100% success because I knew that I would disagree with him often. I disagreed with McCain-Feingold which Bush signed into law. I disagreed with the Medicare drug benefit program and had Bush been 100% successful the open borders law would have passed.

Bush was, from my view, far better than Gore or Kerry but also far from an infallible figure that I was prepared to blindly follow.

The point is that we should be wishing for and working for a better country and not let that goal be nuanced by personality politics.

I wish no ill will on President Obama but don’t give a damn about his personal agenda.

I only wish the best for this nation that so many us of have shed blood for.

The Politico has a list of top Republicans likely to throw support for pretty much anything Obama tosses out.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.)
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)

I don’t necessarily disagree with any name on the list or the reasons put forth in their article but it must be pointed out how woefully incomplete it is. Of course this is exactly why blogs like this exist.

Pointing out all of the RINOs would take far too much time so I’ll just point out the top five RINOs that didn’t make their list.

1. Lindsey Graham – Given that Graham’s lips could not be more securely attached to John McCain’s ass through surgery, it is impossible to imagine how he was overlooked. Mark my words, Graham will continue to be an embarassment to conservatives everywhere.
2. Mel Martinez – Martinez has always been a big McCain supporter and he has already announced that he isn’t running for reelection in 2010. The lack of political pressure will free him for a run at the Lincoln Chaffee award for ass-hattery.
3. Olympia Snowe – Snowe practically caucuses with the Democrats on most domestic policies already so the jump would be of no shock to anyone. She is pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, anti-drilling, and she is also an open-borders hack.
4. Arlen Spector – Spector could be Obama’s best weapon when he decides to put a full blown communist on the Supreme Court. Spector is always a faithful RINO but his greatest legacy of idiocy is the Supreme Court.
5. Colin Powell – I know Powell doesn’t get a congressional vote but he is a Sunday morning darling and he’s totally in the bag for Obama.

Feel free to nominate more in the comments.

About an hour ago Fox News reported that Senator Robert Byrd had some kind of a seizure at the luncheon and was removed by medical staff.

Just now it was reported that Senator Ted Kennedy was removed after experiencing an apparent siezure.

Can a person overdose on socialism?

Ace has the movie of the IDF uncovering what appears to be an old Soviet anti-aircraft gun cleverly hidden in a mosque. Whis is of course, as Ace notes, a war crime and renders all protections for the mosque invalid.

I shouldn’t say “mosque.” The Geneva Conventions define a mosque with an anti-aircraft cannon in it as a “permitted military target.”

There is no question that this is a war crime and that the mosque loses its protections under these circumstances. But let’s talk remedies; what should be done in cases like this?

I realize that I have never been accused of being an appeaser and have even on occasion been called “savage” on my recommendations for dealing with terrorists. I will try not to disappoint.

My view is that by allowing this Mosque to become a military target, the elders of this congregation bare a huge amount of responsibility and should thusly be a significant part of the solution.

Sometimes being part of the solution is not pleasant.

Step one is very simple. Raze the Mosque. Make sure to use enough boom-boom to render it reduced to small managable pieces.

Next, round up all of the leaders of the Mosque and local elected officials who are in office only because of these terror supporters.

These gentlemen should then receive a fair hearing by a military tribunal headed by say, a recently wounded Infantry Corporal. Oh and a Corporal whose family has suffered from these terrorists, recently received a “Dear Jacob” letter, got “peered” in the mountain Ranger Camp and has had a case of the raw ass for a week.

After about twenty minutes and a smoke break, that docket should be just about cleared. Give another 15 minutes for the executions and I think this whole issue is fairly well dealt with.

This should be repeated at every Mosque that is guilty of such actions, which of course is probably all of them.

Recruiting is a tough business anytime but in a time of two wars these men and women have done a great job.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2009 – December was a recruiting success for all active-duty and reserve-component U.S. military services, which all met or exceeded their goals, according to a Defense Department news release issued today.

— The Army signed 860 new active-duty soldiers, 115 percent of its target number of 750 enlistees.

— The Navy signed 2,306 new active-duty sailors, meeting its target number of enlistees for the month.

— The Marine Corps signed 2,392 new active-duty Marines, 113 percent of its target number of 2,116 enlistees.

— The Air Force signed 2,967 new active-duty airmen, meeting its target number of enlistees for the month.

“All services continue to meet or exceed their active-duty recruiting goals, thanks to the tremendous efforts of our recruiters, and those who continue to step up and serve,” Eileen Lainez, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said. “It speaks volumes for the dedication and loyalty of our nation and its volunteers.’

Let me explain some of these numbers before the trolls weigh in and piss me off.

The Air Force, Marine, and Navy targets are far greater than the Army numbers for a reason and it has zero to do with some theory that the Army can’t recruit.

November through February are considered “bath tub” months for the Army because of the obvious dip in contracts during those months. The Army lowers its mission during these months and focuses on promotions and local potential recruit support activities.

The easiest answer is the almost exclusively Army “quick ship” option. The training base determines how many recruits per month can actually be assessed onto active duty. It is not uncommon for a recruit to join one of the other services and find himself/herself waiting several weeks to several months to ship because their training bases are small compared to the Army.

With the exception of a small summer surge, the other services essentially take their annual goal and divide by twelve. The Army targets goals by month with a massive surge between April and September to make its goal of over 80,000 per year which is more than twice that of any other service.

Hope that helps.

Anyway, congrats to all the recruiters and good luck to all of those patriots about to enter the greatest institution in the United States.