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

Leon Panetta unfurled his plan for slashing defense spending yesterday. I got the feeling that we are now in the post-Korean War era, with Eisenhower touting the “bigger bang for the buck” strategy of relying on our nuclear dominance for our defense. Except now Panetta thinks that relying on our technological dominance is the cure-all for our national security concerns.

Panetta cloaked the smaller force in terms like “agile” to make it seem as if he’s improving the force.

Although some have been predicting slashes to manpower up to 100k troops, the Washington Post says 57,000 slots will be cut;

Aside from the cuts to the Army, which will eventually reduce the number of active-duty soldiers to 490,000 from 547,000, most of the reductions revealed Thursday had been previously announced or involved less costly items. Panetta noted that the Army and the Marine Corps will still be slightly larger than they were in 2001, before the invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent war in Iraq.

The plan for Europe is to leave just two brigades behind says Stars & Stripes;

The move will send the 172nd Separate Infantry Brigade, based out of Grafenwöhr and Schweinfurt, and the Baumholder-based 170th Infantry Brigade, back to the States.

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany, and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy, will remain as the only Army brigades permanently based in Europe.

Ya know, all of that is fine, if the Europeans are willing to pick up their end of the rope and pull for a change instead of relying on the US to rush to their aid, And while Eisenhower was planning on the nuclear edge for our defense, history had other plans and we were later embroiled in a close-up, hand-to-hand primitive sort of warfare that negated any impact our nuclear arsenal. In other words, our enemies will make plans to exploit our weaknesses, not our strengths.

So while Panetta and Obama plan to fight the next next war with drones and ninjas, our enemies are planning a manpower-intensive war.

According to Stars & Stripes, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) has taken over the investigation of the video you guys have been emailing me for a week. Initially, the Army was investigating until it was determined that the members of the military who were abusing the sheep were wearing Air Force uniforms. I guess investigators were fooled by the old saying: The Army; where men are men and sheep run scared.

I’ve resisted writing about this, because it’s pretty disgusting. I won’t post the video, because I’m squeamish about abused animals and I won’t compound the media frenzy over the little shit.

It doesn’t help investigators that PETA, another group of perpetually outraged hippies, brought the video to the media’s attention.

Just like the Marines’ urination video, it’s bad enough that they did the act, but they filmed it and then some dim bulb decided to post it on the internet. What are these ass clowns thinking?

ROS sent us this link to an article I’ve seen around the internet about a guy named Michael Lee Mitchell near Eglin AFB who was arrested for using an electric dog collar on his two small girls.

Michael Lee Mitchell, 28 — an Army Special Forces soldier living in Crestview — was arrested this week when detectives discovered that he allegedly shocked two girls, ages 8 and 4, and made them do extreme physical exercise regularly until they threw up, according to FOX 10.

Yeah, you knew he had to be a Special Forces soldier, right? I mean only someone trained in the most martial of arts would be that cruel to torture children. And it was probably the things he was made to do at bidding of Darth Chaney which made him spend his garrison time torturing children. I mean that’s the standard line right?

Well, it seems that Mitchell is indeed assigned to a Special Forces unit at Eglin Air Force base, but he’s a mechanic;

Yeah, he was little too butter-ballish to be a “special forces soldier”. He may have eaten a special forces soldier once recently. It’s like Jeffrey MacDonald who murdered his wife and children in 1970 will always be known as The Green Beret Doctor even though he never trained as a “green beret” and was merely assigned to a Special Forces group as their surgeon, this Mitchell guy will probably be the Green Beret Dog Collar Guy.

Yeah, this is getting out of control. The Australian publication, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that “Troubled veterans pose special risk for US police” (apparently it was reprinted from the LA Times, but I can’t find that one);

The Department of Justice, which is developing the program, said there was an ”urgent need” to defuse crises in which police faced tactical disadvantages against mentally ill suspects who were trained in modern warfare.

”We just can’t use the blazing-guns approach any more when dealing with disturbed individuals who are highly trained in all kinds of tactical operations, including guerrilla warfare,” said Dennis Cusick, the executive director of the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute.

”That goes beyond the experience of SWAT teams.”

Does anyone else think that sounds just f^cking stupid? Aside from the fact that police haven’t had to face anyone who is “highly trained in all kinds of tactical operations, including guerrilla warfare”, what are they doing going up against people who aren’t highly trained with blazing guns, if they’re looking for alternatives for veterans? But what is the impetus for this sudden bout of hand wringing and panty-wetting?

There is no data that specifically tracks police confrontations with suspects now or formerly associated with the military. But an army report issued this year found that violent offences in the service were up 1 per cent while non-violent offences increased 11 per cent between 2010 and last year.

Oh, goodness, violent offenses rose a whole percent!? One year?! So how many more is that? One? Two?

However, during that time crime in much of the US declined. ”What we’re seeing is that the volume [of violent incidents involving military personnel off base] has ratcheted up to a level we have never seen before,” Mr Cusick said.

A one percent increase in one year is “ratcheted up to a level we have never seen before”? Oh, for f^ck’s sake. And to prove their point, they recount ONE story of ONE combat veteran who wounded two cops in a standoff in Fayetteville, NC near Fort Bragg. That’s all you got? It seems that if violence has ratcheted up, they’d have more stories than that. or maybe some journalism school-inspired research from calling the State AGs and coming up with some numbers instead of an hysteria-inspired hyperbolic hit-piece on veterans completely vacant of real facts.

But, hey, the Justice Department has inspired the hysteria, so there must be something to it, right?

So I went to the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute’s website and apparently they are in receipt of a federal grant from the DoJ to develop a training program entitled De-escalation Tactics for Veterans in Crisis. So there’s the motivation for the impending crisis – federal handouts.

Yeah, you rich Americans are expected to pay your fair share, well, unless you rich Americans work for the Obama White House (Investors’ Business Daily link fixed);

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

Raise taxes on the richer Americans, raise healthcare costs on veterans, end COLAs for retirees, so our betters can skip out on paying what they owe.

Thanks to ROS for the link.

I mentioned the other day that Ponsdorf called me to tell me that he couldn’t tell me something. Well, this is it, from our friend, Captain Larry Bailey;

Folks, this is the official launch of our effort to convince the Secretary of the Navy that LPD-26, the ship that is to be launched next year, should be named after either a great American city (like her sister LPD, the USS San Antonio) or a true American hero.

Here is our brand-new website: No Murtha Ship Take a look. Scott Swett did a great job of putting it up, and Linda Eddy did a great job of designing our logo.

We intend to serve notice on Navy Secretary Ray Mabus that it is intolerable to name this fine vessel after John P. Murtha, arguably (and demonstrably) one of the most corrupt politicians ever to sit in Congress.

It should be made clear that we are not connected to any political party or movement; we just want our Navy’s ships to be named appropriately.

Pass the word, please, to your mailing lists. And tell recipients that any money raised over what our actual costs are (website management, advertisements, etc.) will be donated to a worthy military charity. Nobody is on salary, but contributions will be required to keep us up and running.

You will note that checks must be made out to “Larry Bailey/Sink Murtha.” That is because my bank (USAA Bank) would not allow me to open an account under an organizational name. We also have a PayPal account, as you’ll see on the website.

You have my permission to simply forward this e-mail. However you pass the word is all right with me; just get the message out there that we will not allow a corrupt congressman to be honored by the US Navy!

Many thanks to you all!

Larry Bailey

It’s especially timely now that the Haditha trials are all but finished.

Got a few things, none of which actually warrants it’s own post.  However:

1) For some inexplicable reason, the Army wants to award me a GCM 6 years after I got out.  There is no way I can accept it, right?  Although technically I suppose my conduct might be construed as “good” it takes a pretty liberal interpretation.  Among my highlowlights were helping to start up the Sniper newsletter that accused our command of gross incompetance, getting VTWoody off on charges of assaulting a superior by arguing self defense, and then arguing the other guy as self-defense as well, and managing to piss off my 1SG to the point that he “1″ blocked me on my NCOER and my complaining in response that I felt I deserved even less than that.  Anyone thinking I deserve a GCM must be high.

2) Speaking of getting high, WTF is Demi Moore doing?  Seriously, don’t rich folks have any better way of getting high than Whip-Its?  I remember my best friend doing Whip Its at the 4th of July Dead Show in Rich Stadium (Buffalo) in like 1992(?) and he walked up an off ramp and didn’t ajust his body accordingly and just kind of rolled down the ramp.  But come on, we were just dumbasses, she should have better means, no?

Either way, as I remarked last night on Facebook, maybe she is trying to ressurect the Askesian Society.  That comment was responded to with the greatest compliment I have ever receieved from Loopy Libertarian who said: “you’re turning into quite the Dennis Miller, with your obscure references.”  If there is one person I would like to be in this world besides the Tom Brady’s manservant, it would be Dennis Miller.  Nonetheless, regarding the Askesian Society (from an excerpt from the greatest book on Science that exists:

“In the early 1800s there arose in England a fashion for inhaling nitrous oxide or laughing gas after it was discovered that its use ‘was attended by a highly pleasurable thrilling.’ For the next half century it would be the drug of choice for young people. One learned body, the Askesian Society, was for a time devoted to little else. Theaters put on ‘laughing gas evenings’ where volunteers could refresh themselves with a robust inhalation and then entertain the audience with their comical staggerings.

“It wasn’t until 1846 that anyone got around to finding a practical use for nitrous oxide as an anesthetic. Goodness knows how many tens of thousands of people suffered unnecessary agonies under the surgeon’s knife because no one thought of the gas’s most obvious practical application. …

“A brilliant young man named Humphry Davy was appointed the Royal Institution’s professor of [the burgeoning new science of] chemistry shortly after its inception in 1799 and rapidly gained fame as an outstanding lecturer and productive experimentalist. … Soon after taking up his position Davy began to bang out new elements one after another – potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, and aluminum or aluminium, depending on which branch of English you favor. He discovered so many elements, not so much because he was serially astute as because he developed an ingenious technique of applying electricity to a molten substance – electrolysis as it is known. Altogether he discovered a dozen elements, a fifth of the known total of his day. Davy might have done far more but unfortunately as a young man he developed an abiding attachment to the buoyant pleasures of nitrous oxide. He grew so attached to the gas that he drew on it (literally) three or four times a day. Eventually in 1829 it is thought to have killed him.”

3) Jonn is about to bust out some phony busting on reporters that should have known better.  I am salivating at the thought.

4) I am headed with my wife to St Louis to the Iraq Vets Welcome Home Parade thing this weekend if anyone will be in attendance, you should come share a Guinness with me.

5) I don’t generally read Foreign Affairs.  It just seems like the kind of mental masturbation that only people who read the New Yorker and dream of owning a summer place in the Berkshires would give a shit about.  Virtually unreadable.  But there’s a semi-interesting piece in there today which I read because I had nothing else to read while at lunch.  It is entitled The Future of History: Can Liberal Democracy Survive the Decline of the?Middle Class?  From the summary:

Something strange is going on in the world today. The global financial crisis that began in 2008 and the ongoing crisis of the euro are both products of the model of lightly regulated financial capitalism that emerged over the past three decades. Yet despite widespread anger at Wall Street bailouts, there has been no great upsurge of left-wing American populism in response.

There are several reasons for this lack of left-wing mobilization, but chief among them is a failure in the realm of ideas. For the past generation, the ideological high ground on economic issues has been held by a libertarian right. The left has not been able to make a plausible case for an agenda other than a return to an unaffordable form of old-fashioned social democracy. This absence of a plausible progressive counter­narrative is unhealthy, because competition is good for intellectual ­debate just as it is for economic activity. And serious intellectual debate is urgently needed, since the current form of globalized capitalism is eroding the middle-class social base on which liberal democracy rests.

Our buddy, Jeff Schogol at the Air Force Times, sent us this link to an article by Joe Gould at the Army Time’s Outside the Wire, with a link to the video of The Daily Show segment of a pushup contest between Jon Stewart and Paula Broadwell, General Petraeus’ biographer. The bet was for a thousand smackers per pushup in the spread to the charity “Team Red and Blue“. It’s The Daily Show so it comes with a STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING for “F” bombs.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t grading because Broadwell would have had a lot fewer push ups counted. But, then I was always a dick as a grader.

Sporkmaster sent me this on Facebook from the Army WTF Facebook page, where someone snapped this in a casino in Las Vegas;

First of all, get your hands out of your pockets, Big Sarge. And when you have to put your CIB on crooked just so it’ll fit on your uniform, you’re doin’ it wrong.

I noticed there’s an ARCOM with what looks like a “V” and something to the right of that, so it must be an award that’ll get him a Stolen Valor charge.

Ans is that a two-tone shirt, or the lighting?

49-year-old Lehn Joseph Bundrick abandon his charity, The Long Road Home in Oregon when his phony record came to light. Sounds like something that happened in Colorado a few year back with Rick Duncan/Strandlof, doesn’t it? Local TV News reports;

The charity helps veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

This summer Bundrick led a ceremony in the town of Jefferson to honor Navy SEALs who died in Afghanistan.

Other veterans say he claimed to have known some of those SEALs because he was a Navy SEAL himself. They say Bundrick claimed to have won the Silver Star, Bronze Star and several Purple Hearts.

They say he faked a presidential citation for heroism before other veterans got suspicious and he took off.

“He was very convincing,” said Bill Stam, a member of The Long Trail Home. “He had a lot of people snowed. He’s good. I didn’t think I could ever be, especially in the military aspect of it, but when I’d ask him military questions, he had the correct answers.”

But it’s a victimless crime, right?

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating but says so far it appears Bundrick hasn’t used the charity’s money for anything illegal since he was an officer of the organization.

So there’s nothing to charge him with except The Stolen Valor Act, but it’s Oregon and falls under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit which has decided the Act is unconstitutional, so authorities won’t arrest him until the Supreme Court decides on Alvarez.