April 7, 2009

And then Obama went against the Military Industrial Complex, and started scraping stupid weapons systems.

Hopefully some of that money saved will be diverted to the Secret Service.

Ike warned us.

The defense contractors won't go down without a fight. War is their business, so pulling out of Iraq already had infuriated them. Now canceling their stupid programs like the F22, that's declaring war on them. "Oh, the jobs!" they (and their corrupted Congressmen) will exclaim.

F*ck them, and their employees. Like realtors, it's time for them to find new work. Hopefully work that contributes to society, unlike the evil they do today.

And hopefully this is just the start. The military needs a haircut. About 50% for starters. But of course, that won't happen. No president could do that and live.

Big cuts seen for F-22, other big weapon programs

WASHINGTON – The nation should stop pouring billions into futuristic, super-expensive F-22 jet fighters, pull the plug on new presidential helicopters and put the money into systems U.S. soldiers can use against actual foes, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared Monday.

Major overhaul plans laid out by the Obama administration's Pentagon chief would slash several giant weapons programs — and thousands of civilian jobs that go with them. With recession unemployment rising, Congress may balk at many of the cuts in Gates' proposed $534 billion budget for the coming year.


24 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Hopefully work that contributes to society, unlike the evil they do today."

Swords to plowshares!

duarte said...

...and spends the money he saves on stupid energy systems.

Anonymous said...

Judging from the massive amount of media hype over the North Korean 'missile test', Raytheon and Boeing are working the scare tactic routine to preempt any cuts to their mega-billion$ in missile defense contracts...

And WTF is up with the Presidential Helicopters contract 'won' by Lockheed Martin?

Does the President really need a FLEET of 23 helicopters??

Ross said...

Why is the F-22 stupid and the Predator Drone, which will be getting a huge reinvestment, not?

Anonymous said...

'No president could do that and live.'

Not necessarily.

But another 9/11 or anthrax *event* might take place...

Anonymous said...

.


Let's all just bend over drop our pants like a true Kennedy and take one for the team.


.

Anonymous said...

you ended right before mention that the budget INCREASED

Guberville Smack said...

We can use some of the leftover money for the counseling and training of released gitmo prisoners during their adjustment period into the US population. Obama can also place the rehabilitated terrorists into bank owned properties and offer the financial institutions a tax break for lending a hand.
We can also send another $250 million to ACORN, Obamas pet organization, since the ACORN pork in the Stimulus Bill will probably run out quickly. ACORN might not produce any jobs, but they supply the needy with cigarettes as long as they vote Democrat.
And once again, Soot & Ashes is keeping pace right with the MSM headlines.
Yawn.
When do we get our weekly Kramer quote?

moretroops said...

Ross, the Predator Drone isn't stupid because, well, we actually USE IT. We use it all the time, in all theaters, against all kinds of opponents. The F-22, not so much. Last time I checked the Taliban wasn't flying around in Migs.

Obama is right on this. Wingnuts, as usual, will protest. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Does Obama give cheese......???

"We have a crisis of confidence, because fraud permeates most of our banks and financial institutions. The solution is law enforcement, not handouts. On Jan. 31, 2009, Santa Barbara police held a 53-year-old homeless man on $20,000 bail for shoplifting $7.69 worth of soup and bread. Yet Bush did not move to prosecute a single executive at any of these banks, and Obama likewise doesn't want to be "vengeful" by investigating the crimes of investment bankers."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/04/INR316Q4F5.DTL&ref=patrick.net

Anonymous said...

Scary stuff:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5096524/The-G20-moves-the-world-a-step-closer-to-a-global-currency.html

Anonymous said...

keith,

damn you are so naive...to think that a u.s. politician will cut some stupid project and not spend it on some other stupid project.

Hawver said...

Ross: Unit cost for a predator drone is about 30 million , as opposed to almost 180 million for a f-22. Also UAVs are far more useful for counter-insurgency operations than space age cold war fighter jets.

Anonymous said...

He's 'scraping' them? What, do they have barnacles on their hulls?

Ross said...

Thanks for the help on that one. I was aware of the cost, but maybe not the underutilization of the F-22.

However, I do not really believe in this terrorist boogeyman stuff anymore. That may be shocking and unpatriotic, but being lied to for years will bring that out of a person. I don't think we need more predator drones. I do think Raytheon is about to cash a huge check, however.

Sorry to be so cynical.

les said...

We spend $65 billion a year on the CIA. I think I'd rather have F-22s.

After spending $500 Billion on the CIA, they still can't catch Osama bin Laden. CIA is absolutely worthless.

So what if they catch a few bomb plots. It would be cheaper to pay off the victims.

k.w. - Southern said...

Military - like our health(no)care system, is bloated, wasteful and designed primarily to benefit the relatively few, while bilking tax-payer's out of their money.

I'm looking forward to both getting clipped heavily.

Here in HB Ca. the roads are becoming quieter and quieter, while more consumer items (including all the over-built houses) have sale signs attached to them.

It's all going down folks, and no one can really say where the bottom will be, or when we'll ever get there.

Anonymous said...

I have a feeling we're going to need the F-22 someday soon. What? You think our future adversaries will always be towel heads riding around on camels? Wrong! You have to rule the sky if you expect to win any type of confrontation with a half way modern military. China has plans and they don’t include us as the top superpower.

But then again you probably think the whole world will hold hands and sing kumbaya with your messiah Hussein Obama from here on out.

Anonymous said...

Kieth,

We might want to save at least a few industries/jobs don't ya think?

Giant industrial organizations are not easy to get going these days. When was the last "new" US car builder created? Once you get your wish and these big companies die, you may be surprised to find that not much shows up to take their place.

In today's world we need to get smart and decide to build stuff or not. If we choose not, then smarter countries will quickly snatch up what we abandon; there will be no new US manufacturers.

I know you hate GM. Do you know that all the while GM was building the Hummers and giant SUVs they also offered very reliable and fuel efficient alternatives such as the Buick Rendezvous (7 passenger, 24mpg) SUV and 6 cylinder standard transmission full size trucks that get high 20s mpg. Its not GMs fault that what we chose to buy during the bubblishious years was the big gas hogs. Would you have had them turn the business away?

We should demand they save GM. We should demand they take the stolen money back from the bankers and give it to GM, a company that actually builds something.

Just getting sensible about competing on a global level in regards to healthcare would make GM competitive with countries that enjoy Government health plans.

Maybe our healthcare system is better than their NHC, but at what cost? Our businesses must compete at a huge disadvantage.

STop calling what GM needs a "Bailout". Lets transfer all the healthcare benefits over to something else. Maybe a "too many years being the only country without NHC, toxic unfair disadvantage to American manufacturing and jobs agency".

Bankers need a bailout to keep rich people from losing money. GM needs a restructuring of US policy to help it compete on a level playing field. TPTB try and lump the two together into "bailout" mania so we don't see the differences.

GT Charlie

Mitesh Damania said...

It's a military and overconsumption society. Good luck changing the mentality.

unomyname said...

I like Ike!

patrat said...

I wonder if you can build a preadator drone in your garage.

Anonymous said...

See sheeple, that's how smoke & mirrors works:

1. The Messiah fakes cutting back military expenses.
2. Corrupt mainstream media advertises it ad nauseum to give cover to Messiah.
3. Keith gets all wet.
4. Cut is sent to the paid-for Congress, which is in collusion with BO and the shadow gov pulling strings.
5. Nothing gets cut. Justifications vary: saving fluffy polar bear, protect the children, jobs, etc.
6. Outrages, fingerpointing, again corrupt media gives cover, all forgotten.
7. Rinse and repeat.

How many times have you seen this game being played and how many times more are you going to believe in it? Please, aren't you tired of being stupid? At least pay attention how the game is played, would you?

Enjoy:

MSNBC -- Defense consultant Jim McAleese said Gates will face stiff resistance on his plan to end production of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 fighter jets over lawmakers' fears that union jobs with salaries between $60,000 and $80,000 will be lost.

"That will be the job fight," said McAleese, who anticipates that Congress will add 16 more of the planes to the approved total of 187 into the war budget expected Thursday.

Lockheed has said almost 95,000 jobs — mostly in California, Texas, Georgia and Connecticut — could be at risk if the Pentagon didn't buy more F-22 jets. Boeing and its Capitol Hill supporters have said 4,000 jobs in St. Louis, plus thousands more could be at risk if the C-17 is cut.

Anonymous said...

Here's the real BO you won't see on MSNBC, CNN, Keith's blog:

(Some Fools) -- Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration's made two deeply troubling arguments.

First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue "would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security." As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.

It's an especially disappointing argument to hear from the Obama Administration. As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court."

Sad as that is, it's the Department Of Justice's second argument that is the most pernicious. The DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying — that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.


http://tinyurl.com/d6p5ae

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. So Keith, are you going to ignore this? Your hero is applying the same policies as GWB. Nothing to say about the fact that your Messiah is giving cover to a serious issue, going against his own promises and harsh criticisms during the campaign? No threads about it? Yeah, I didn't think so, troll.

Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices