It is really sad when the CJCS is not sure if warfighters on the front lines of the Global War on Terror will be able to get paid on time or not. 

It is unclear if the United States will be able to pay troops on time in the event of a debt default, the top U.S. military officer told troops in Afghanistan on Saturday.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pentagon officials were working hard to plan for a potential default but cautioned that the circumstances were extraordinary.

“So I honestly can’t answer that question,” he told troops at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan, as several expressed anxiety over budget wrangling in Washington.

Potentially suspending pay to U.S. forces waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is an extremely sensitive subject in the United States and Mullen acknowledged that many troops lived paycheck to paycheck.

“So if paychecks were to stop, it would have a devastating impact,” Mullen said, answering questions from troops.

“I’d like to give you a better answer than that right now, I just honestly don’t know,” he said.

 

Devastating impact is an understatement. It will cause a huge issue in morale among all soldiers and especially the families.

The other day I was contemplating our national state of affairs while sipping a beer at my local VFW. Somewhere amidst the swirling smoke emanating from cigarettes and the hamburgers sizzling on the grill it occurred to me that our President and my ex-wife have a lot in common.

Promises made but not kept - Too many to mention here, but here’s a good one: “Forsaking all others”. Remember that line from traditional marriage vows? Yeah, three months after she uttered that line she was screwing a guy in her squadron behind my back. Sort of like Obama and the union bosses/far left activists/Democratic party leadership cavorting behind closed doors after promising “the most transparent administration” ever.

Complete lack of fiscal responsibility – I paid off approximately $5000 in credit card bills in a year. All hers (I didn’t have a credit card then, and still don’t). Debt that I did not accrue. And I did it with my own money, not hers. What was my thanks? She kept piling on debt, expecting me to pay for it. Sound familiar, America?

It’s someone else’s fault – My ex actually thought that I would buy into the idea that her wanting a divorce was my fault with no actual logic provided. She couldn’t tell me why it was my fault, she could only tell me that it was my fault (while denying that she was having an affair). Sounds like a certain President we all know who keeps telling us it’s all Bush’s fault (while satisfying the needs of the unions).

Excuses, excuses - “I can’t make height/weight because I’ve had two kids.” No, you couldn’t make height/weight because you don’t do an iota of PT and eat large quantities of fatty foods. Sort of like, “We can’t cut the deficit because the mean Republicans want to kill old people and starve children.” No, we can’t cut the deficit because you are beholden to the entitlement class and special interests that put you in office.

Which brings to the one that irks me to no end:

“It’s for the children” – At one point, I had purchased one of those large assortments of frozen meat from the guys that roll around with a chest freezer in the back of their truck. You know, a few hundred pounds of pork, chicken, seafood, and steak. Again, paid for out of my account, not hers, although she certainly didn’t mind noshing on it. When I moved out, I took the prime cuts of beef that were still left and a few other odds and ends. I left the things like the chicken strips, chicken breasts, hamburgers and shrimp. My ex had a fit, accusing me of taking food from the mouths of her children. Sorry, lady, but the last time I checked their 6- and 8-year old palates hadn’t developed a taste for filet mignon. Not to mention I was CONUS taking care of them while she was deployed and screwing around. Evidently I’m some kind of child abuser because I needed food for my new apartment and took what I bought and knew the kids wouldn’t eat. Likewise, every time I hear anyone in this administration try to justify some asinine expenditure because “it’s for the children” I want to scream. No, it’s not “for the children” and we all know it. It’s to satisfy the pockets of the teacher’s unions and special interest groups, just like my ex wanted those filet mignons for her own fat ass.

Hopefully 2012 will give us the divorce we so desperately need.

Becuase it sure does keep me awake. This is very scary ladies and gentlemen, and just becuase the MSM isn’t covering every night at 6 and 10PM or on every half-hour headlines please don’t take that as a sign of unimportance. 

The clock is counting and I can tell you that our military sees the edge of the cliff coming up. They are no different than if you were driving towards cliff’s edge, they are starting to pump the brakes. Our military’s training, readiness, effectiveness, and ability to defend this country are all starting to show signs of those brakes being pressed. If Congress does not do something quick, our military is heading over that cliff and will suffer. 

 
The failure of Congress so far to pass the fiscal 2011 defense appropriations bill — which creates the possibility of funding the department under a year-long continuing resolution instead — is “the crisis on my doorstep,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview yesterday.
Failure to pass the funding legislation will represent a $23 billion cut in the defense budget in the current fiscal year, the secretary noted.

“It’s the worst of all possible kinds of reductions, in significant measure because it comes halfway through the fiscal year,” Gates told reporters traveling with him to a meeting with Canadian officials here.
The budget request was for $549 billion, and the continuing resolution would come in at $526 billion.
War funding will not be affected, however. The Defense Department will receive $159 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this fiscal year, a figure that will drop to $120 billion in fiscal 2012, which begins Oct. 1.
The department likely would use operations and maintenance accounts to compensate for the difference between the budget legislation funding and that provided by a continuing resolution, through stretching out programs and making cuts in training and readiness, Gates said.

“Frankly that’s how you hollow out a military, even in wartime,” the secretary added. “It means fewer flying hours, fewer steaming days, cuts in training for home-stationed ground forces, cuts in maintenance, and so on.”
The current continuing resolution runs out March 4. Gates said that if lawmakers don’t pass the appropriations bill before that date, “this new Congress would be responsible for a cut that’s nearly twice the size of our fiscal ’12 proposal, and much, much more damaging.”
Forces deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan probably will be protected from the more draconian cuts, but forces reconstituting or on watch in other areas of the world will be affected, the secretary said.
“Depending on how it comes out, as I say, it could have an impact on training across the entire force, on maintenance, on facilities maintenance,” he added.
Gates pledged to do all he can to ensure military families and wounded service members don’t bear any of the brunt.
“I will do everything in my power to protect all the money associated with family programs, and I mean that,” the secretary said. “I will protect the money associated with family programs and with wounded warriors, and so on.”

Gates questioned the seriousness of members of Congress who are up in arms about cuts to defense in fiscal 2012, but are ignoring the effect the continuing resolution will have on the services.
“In short, talk about not cutting defense in [fiscal 2012], as far as I’m concerned, is simply rhetoric without action on the [fiscal 2011] defense budget that’s already in front of the Congress,” he said.
Gates also discussed some of the congressional concerns over his proposed $78 billion cut in the projected defense budget over the next five years.

The impact on the services is very modest, he said. Of the $78 billion, $54 billion in savings come from reductions in defense agencies and other cuts. About $14 billion of the cut comes from changes in assumptions, Gates explained. For example, he said, inflation is lower than anticipated and pay raises will be smaller than the ones that were figured into budget projections.
“So $68 billion of the $78 billion don’t touch the services, really, at all,” he said. “An additional $4 billion comes from restructuring the joint strike fighter program, and I would argue that’s actually to the advantage of the services. And $6 billion is from the force reductions in ’15 and ’16.”
The bottom line, Gates said, is that “only about $10 billion come out of anything having to do with the troops or investment funds or capabilities.”

The fiscal 2011 budget is getting mixed into issues that range far beyond the Defense Department, Gates said, adding that he is addressing his responsibilities to the department.
“My view is these issues are not optional,” he said. “This has to do with the security of the country.”
The training cuts a continuing resolution would necessitate would work against addressing readiness concerns the service chiefs and some lawmakers have expressed, the secretary noted.

“The irony in this would be one of the service chiefs’ concerns and one of the Congress’s concerns, the Armed Services Committees’ concerns, have been the lack of readiness for the full range of combat,” Gates said. “We are just now beginning to get the kind of dwell time [at home stations between deployments] that would allow us to carry out that kind of training. “And it would be incredibly ironic,” he continued, “if now that we are able to do that kind of training, we are unable to do so for the rest of [fiscal 2011] because we don’t have the money, because we end up on this continuing resolution.”

This video says a lot and puts out a great message as we get ready to head to the polls in about 11 days.

A lot to be learned from this one.

Are we forcing our kids to make this pledge, whether they recite it or not? Stop the spending.

I know I spend too much time on YouTube.

This is a true waste of money. Want to see where yours and your kids tax dollars are going via the economic stimulus or just simply normal government spending? Want to see how it is decided what areas get what money? Want to see how we the many for for those that are few? Want to see why Murtha needs to be voted out of office and not just becuase he hates the Marines or hates our military.

Then watch the video below

H/T to SK for this video

Get this. 1948. With some minor changes it could be 2009… well, 2008 really. All too many already drank the brew and now we are seeing what it brings. Remember, in 1948 the United States had a national debt that was over four times the GNP as a result of WW-II. (And you thought we have a huge debt!) Our nation had a lot of choices to make.

Of course, most of the people who owned US Bonds then were Americans… not Chinese. But now we are waaaaay too smart to buy our own junk. Goes for cars, too.

There is not much on this earth that cannot be undone… except death and the passing of time. Most everything else can be undone… or perhaps fixed would be a better word. Make no mistake, though, the bottle of “ISM” has already been purchased and consumed by more than half of the population. Call it what you want… “liberalISM,” “socialISM” or whatever.

It’s funny that this actually came from a college. Nowadays, you’d be more likely to have a college or university produce a cartoon extolling the virtues of “ISM.”

It’s still nothing new. You know what is new?

So many people bought it.

www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/12/irs-considers-taxing-personal-use-work-cell-phones-fringe-benefit/

“The IRS is weighing a proposal to deem one-quarter of employees’ use of work cell phones as personal use and therefore subject to tax as a fringe benefit.”

Is the Government and especially the IRS that desperate?

Do we not have enough financial hardships in the country right now?

Haven’t the American people lost enough money and enough of their savings because of the Government and their mishandling of the mortgage crisis and really allowing it to happen in the first place?

Is there nothing protected from the Government’s desire to tax just about everything?

Aren’t small businesses struggling to make it as it is, do they really need this burden now too?

What is next, a tax on every time we breathe air because it steals from the environment?

As CJ has stated clearly, it appears that VoteVets is a front for MoveOn.org. VoteVets has been quiet on the issue, but still claims to be a “non-partisan” organization whose purpose is to support veterans who run for office.

What part of legislation furthering the aims of organized crime labor involves veterans? By manipulating information, such as the percentages of combat veterans who are employed and those making less than $22,000/year, VoteVets claims that this is a veteran’s issue. It’s not. As a matter of fact, for all their claims of loving veterans, many unions don’t even give full credit for seniority for time spent on deployment. Now that’s love. How can they get away with that?

Well, they’re not subject to the same laws that real employers are. Real employers have to give that one-for-one credit. Granted, some of them try to get around it, but at least there are some baby-toothed critters out there who can call them on it. Not so with the unions… and they do take advantage of it. Because unions are the fairest and greatest and wonderfullest caringest organizations in the whole wide world. That’s why they can have legislation submitted the acronym for which is pronounced, “eh, fucya.”

We are talking about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, pronounced “eh, fucya,”) and it means that unions will have free reign to establish themselves wherever they set their sights. They want to do to the rest of our employers what they have done for Detroit. We are also talking about VoteVets, their liberal agenda, and their claims to further veteran’s issues when they are stretching the truth to find ways to support the liberal agenda, which is asshattery.

VoteVets points out that 18 percent of veterans return from deployment to unemployment, and claims that 25% of those who do find work are making less than $22,000/yr. They do not give statistics on how many veterans who return from deployment are still in the service (none of whom would make less than $22,000/yr.) They also do not give statistics on how many of these individuals are attending school, and if they recently left active duty, how many of them found jobs shortly afterwards. Painting a simple picture instead of the complex issue that exists is manipulation. If a goodly percentage of service members who left active duty were attending school, would their GI Bill benefits be counted as income? Probably not.

In short, they are painting another dire picture of the “predicament” of veterans, doing what is to veterans like myself inexcusable… they are painting veterans as pitiable in order to garner support for a cause that is not in the interests of veterans to push. A “veteran’s group” should have nothing whatsoever to say about this issue. I resent the living hell out of them for stepping in on it, and for claiming to speak for me when they do so.

“The freedom to organize is an American value, one of the many values we veterans fought to protect,” said Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran, and Chairman of VoteVets.org. “Past generations of veterans were able to enter the middle class because unions were there to fight for fair wages and benefits. The Employee Free Choice Act ensures that veterans and civilians in the workforce will continue to get a fair shake, which is why we’re proud to support it.”

Now, if there had been some major change, since all those veterans of past generations had been able to enter the middle class, this might make sense. There has been no such change. Why would what existed before not be good enough now?

Because Jon Soltz has to support the aims of his masters. If MoveOn says, “Jump,” Soltz has to find a way to make it look like it’s actually a veteran issue. For this lie, Jon Soltz, you are our second recipient of the “Asshat of the Month.”

Congratulations, bitch.

Jon Soltz, May, 2009 Asshat of the Month