This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • L’affair Petraeus widens

    Ya know, I’m not a big conspiracy guy, but there’s some really weird stuff going on. Tman sends us a link to Associated Press that says that somehow General John Allen, Petraeus’ replacement in Afghanistan, is involved in this whole Petraeus/Broadwell scandal;

    In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.

    Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.

    Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.

    And while that’s going on, The Blaze, in a link sent to us by Stu, reports that the FBI was searching Broadwell’s house last night;

    A spokeswoman for the FBI has confirmed agents went to Broadwell’s home in Charlotte on Monday night. However, FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch declined to say what the agents were doing there.

    FBI agents appeared at Broadwell’s home carrying the kinds of cardboard boxes often used for evidence gathering during a search.

    Obviously, the government is more concerned with investigating this illicit affair than they are interested in investigating the four deaths at the Benghazi consulate. Already, in four days, we know more about this affair than we know what happened in Benghazi over two months ago. And if it’s not related to Benghazi, at the very least, it was manufactured to distract us from the Benghazi investigation.

    Given the number of senior military officers who have fallen to scandal in the last several months, I think we need to clean house at the Pentagon. Or maybe flag officers needs a sensitivity class on how to conduct themselves, or at the very least a nice little semi-annual power point presentation on things NOT to do while in their offices.

  • Prisoners in Beghazi annex?

    Jennifer Griffin at Fox News has apparently verified that the CIA had held and interrogated at least three Libyan militia members at their annex in the Benghazi annex on the grounds of the consulate. And it may be that Paula Broadwell somehow got that information during her illicit relationship with David Petraeus when she publicly released that information in a speech at her Denver University alma mater.

    Of course;

    CIA adamant that Broadwell claims about agency holding prisoners at Benghazi are not true.

    Like it says at the link, President Obama had told us that he ended all of the CIA’s secret prisons. I wish we could all vote for him again.

  • Petraeus resigns

    So, I take a little nap and wake up to an inbox full of links to the story that David Petraeus has resigned as the director of the CIA. I’m only surprised that the White House hasn’t been calling me to replace him;

    CIA Director David Petraeus resigned Friday, citing an extramarital affair and “extremely poor judgment.”

    As first reported by NBC News, Petraeus disclosed the affair in a letter released to the CIA work force on Friday afternoon, writing: “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.”

    Petraeus told President Barack Obama of his affair and offered his resignation during a meeting Thursday, a senior official told NBC News. In a phone call on Friday, Obama accepted the resignation, the official said.

    The timing is a little odd, especially in light of the rumors that Secretary of Defense Leon Paneta is tired of flying at taxpayer expense every weekend to his California home and plans on resigning, and Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State is resigning. My only question is which job John Kerry plans on filling since he’s been leaning towards all three jobs over the past four years.

    Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

  • SEALs punished for video game participation

    EX-PH2 sends a link to an NBC News article about how seven Navy SEALs have been punished for helping to develop the video game Medal of Honor Warfighter;

    The official did not say what, if any, information the SEALs revealed by participating in the video game’s development. However, a written statement from Deputy Commander of Naval Special Warfare, Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli, indicates this is more about making an example of these sailors after a string of high-profile SEAL products.

    “We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as Sailors in the United States Navy. The non-judicial punishment decisions made today send a clear message throughout our Force that we are and will be held to a high standard of accountability,” Bonelli wrote.

    I don’t know what kind of information they could possibly give to the game developer that would be considered classified, but whatever it is, I’m sure it can’t compare to the stuff that comes out of the leaky-assed White House when it’s politically expedient to do so. Funny how there’s a double standard for punishing military folks and civilian political operatives when it comes to these leaks.

    Apparently, cooperating with movie makers is good, but writing a book or helping with a video game is bad. Although I agree that unauthorized release of classified information is terrible, but I didn’t see anything in “No Easy Day” that would fit that description, and I doubt there’s anything in a video game that would be useful to an enemy.

  • Flag makers in Pakistan joyous about Obama reelection

    Someone sent us this link to Al Arabiya News on how some in Pakistan are quietly celebrating the re-election of President Obama. I looked all over the place trying to find something that said it was satire or had it’s roots in The Duffel Blog or something, but apparently it’s legitimate news that flag makers in Pakistan are excited that Obama has been re-elected;

    Demonstrations against Washington’s program of missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are common in Pakistan, and no protest is complete without a Stars and Stripes being sent up in flames.

    Nadeem Shah, the owner of a flag business in Rawalpindi, the twin city of the capital Islamabad, said he expected more drone strikes — and more protests.

    “Of course Obama has become stronger now and he will push his policies harder and there will be more drone strikes because he himself is stronger now,” Shah told AFP.

    “When the drone strikes increase the protests against these strikes will also increase in Pakistan and it can have an impact on the flags and poster business.”

    Pakistan’s flag industry enjoyed a boom in September when a U.S.-made anti-Islam film sparked weeks of demonstrations, almost all lit up with “Old Glory” being burned.

    So there you go – more jobs for Pakistanis. I’m sure this administration can add this into Labor Department numbers somehow.

  • Boeing starts layoffs

    Now, I’m certain that this has nothing to do with the fact that election day just passed, but according to Fox News, defense contractor Boeing has begun sending pink slips to 30% of their management staff;

    Boeing, the Pentagon’s second-largest supplier, said it also will close some facilities in California and consolidate several business units in an effort to trim $1.6 billion in costs by the end of 2015, on top of $2.2 billion in reductions achieved since 2010.

    “We are raising the bar higher because our market challenges and opportunities require it, and our customers’ needs demand it,” Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, told employees in a message obtained by Reuters and confirmed by Boeing.

    He said the total savings of $4 billion would make the company healthier and better able to deal with an increasingly complex and challenging marketplace.

    Of course, there were rumors of this before the election, but the Obama Administration used it’s influence to wait until after election day for the announcement so as not to damage the positive, but false message that the economy is improving. You know, like the Labor Department padding the unemployment numbers in the weeks before the election. Kind of like that. It looks like Boeing expects sequestration to happen, not like the Obama Administration has been telling us in the past few weeks.

  • Can’t we all get along?

    Like these two sent to us by Old Trooper

    Sorry, I’ve been on my ass on the blog this week, but I’m four years tired, and only halfway through the Obama Epoch.

  • Jimmy Carter’s second term

    To say that I’m disappointed in the results of the election is probably a bit of an understatement. What is most disappointing is to see my “friends” on Facebook who are veterans celebrating a second term of the President. I can’t figure out what they’re celebrating about. Retirees in five western states are being forced out of Tricare Prime and into Tricare Standard which means that, unless they live near a military treatment facility, their healthcare are going to skyrocket. What’s to celebrate?

    And I put the blame for this loss of veterans squarely on the shoulders of the Romney team. When I brought the above subject up to John Noonan, Romney’s defense advisor, he responded that he hadn’t heard the Obama camp mention it in the campaign – so I guess he thought it wasn’t going to happen. It’s going to happen in April, whether Noonan has heard about it or not. A moment’s Google would tell him that.

    The Obama Administration has raided our healthcare premiums to pay for other defense projects. If a corporation had done that to it’s retirees, the Obama Administration would be crawling up their ass with a microscope.

    And what about the most egregious decision of the Afghan war? The one that forbade US troops from having loaded weapons when they were in the company of our “allies” just to make them think that we trusted them. That bit of brilliance cost us more than 50 young lives this year before they finally reversed the decision this summer. And let’s not forget that this Defense Department ignored a report last year that predicted an increase in “insider” attacks this year.

    While we’re talking about the war, how about the overall strategy – what is the overall strategy if it’s not solely to withdraw? It’s a rush for the exits and a dependency on drones. The lowest infantryman understands that an Army doesn’t control anything that doesn’t have a soldier standing on it. Air attacks from several thousand feet above the battlefield doesn’t win anything, and this administration was unwilling, for purely political reasons, to put the number of boots in Afghanistan that a winning strategy required.

    But the troops are coming home. If Desert Storm taught us anything, it was that if you don’t complete the mission, you’re going to end up fighting the war all over again.

    While we’re at it, let’s talk about the Veterans’ Affairs Department which has squandered it’s increased funding. the rolls of veterans awaiting a decision on their claims for service-connected relief has grown despite the promises of the Department. They promised to end homelessness among veterans and they’re not really any closer than they were when they assumed office. Veterans are loosing money everyday when ever a college term begins because the VA can’t pay them in a timely manner.

    All of that without even mentioning sequestration, which the Obama Administration claims won’t happen. I’m not sure how they think it won’t happen because it’s a law.

    And then to top it all off, folks in Afghanistan wrote yesterday to tell us that TAH has been blocked in Regional Command (South) because we’re “extremist”. I guess it’s extremist to point out the things that no one else will, the failings of the Big Army leadership. The fact that the Defense Department is screwing over veterans and the troops and blaming them for the failures of their own leadership.

    So yeah, your guy won, but who is going to pay for your jubilant celebration? It’s not American Idol or a sports contest. There is a real cost to real people out here in the real world.