Hat tip JWF.
5 hours ago
Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
It was health care that nationalized the special election for what we now know is the people’s Senate seat. But it was national security that put real distance between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. “People talk about the potency of the health-care issue,” Brown’s top strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, told National Review’s Robert Costa, “but from our own internal polling, the more potent issue here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants.”
"I am not surprised. This decision is not about policy or principles. It is about what he believes is in his political self-interest."
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Navy official in charge of legislative affairs has been nominated to be the new superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.RADM Miller - we wish you the best success with the seed corn!
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Wednesday that Navy Rear Adm. Michael H. Miller has been nominated for appointment to the rank of vice admiral and assignment as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Rear Admiral Michael H. Miller, a native of Minot, N.D., was commissioned at the United States Naval Academy in 1974, and earned his “Wings of Gold” at Pensacola in January 1976. Subsequent flying tours were primarily out of Naval Air Station Cecil Field, Fla., flying the S-3A/B Viking on carrier deployments around the world, including combat operations against Libya, the Achille Lauro terrorist incident and squadron command in the Persian Gulf during Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
Rear Adm. Miller’s shore assignments include duty as Flag Lieutenant and Aide to the Deputy Commander in Chief, U. S. Atlantic Fleet (1979), Chief Staff Officer to Sea Strike Wing One (1986), and Executive Assistant to the Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific (1994).
Rear Adm. Miller has served at sea as Air Operations Officer for Commander, Carrier Group 8, Executive Officer onboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), and in command of the Third Fleet Flagship, USS Coronado (AGF-11). During this tour, he was responsible for a state-of-the-art technology infusion into the command ship for the eastern Pacific.
Following Coronado, Rear Adm. Miller was assigned as the Operations Officer for the 7th Fleet on board USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), home ported in Yokosuka, Japan. He returned to John F. Kennedy in August of 1999 as Commanding Officer, and left almost immediately for an extended deployment to the Persian Gulf. He reported for duty as the Deputy Director of the White House Military Office in November of 2000; Rear Adm. Miller was commissioned as a Deputy Assistant to the President and the first-ever active duty Director of the White House Military Office in November 2002. He next assumed command of Carrier Strike Group 7/USS Ronald Reagan Strike Group in April, 2005, and subsequently led the Reagan Strike Group on its maiden deployment to the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific in 2006.
In April 2008, RADM Miller reported as the Chief of Legislative Affairs following a tour as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Global Force Management & Joint Operations (N3/N5), U.S. Fleet Forces Command (2007).
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., is pressing the Defense Department for justification of why the military has so many flag and general officers, ... In the case of flag and general officers, Webb said he wants an explanation why the number of senior officers continues to grow. He has not concluded there are too many, but is asking why there are so many, and what exactly they are all doing. Those kinds of questions began Glenn’s multi-year push to reduce the number of admirals and generals, which he based on the officer-to-enlisted ratio and termed “brass creep.”After recovering from his Iraq epic fail, unfortunate amnesia about strategic homeporting, and the fact that he no longer has to defend Murtha - I think Senator Webb (D-VA) may have found his grove.
Defense Department statistics show there were 38 four-stars, 149 three-stars, 299 two-stars and 464 one-stars on active duty at the end of March.
Webb also said he is not happy to have learned that there are officers taking part in fellowships at advocacy think tanks in the Washington, D.C., area, receiving full military pay and benefits, while the government is paying tuition to the think tanks. He has been trying for months to get details from the Defense Department about the number of officers involved, and an explanation of how the fellowships benefit the military more than the think tanks, but he said he has received only a small amount of information that did not answer his questions.
He warned that he might resort to holding up all Defense Department civilian nominations if he does not get the requested information. “The Department of Defense invented computer technology and the internet, despite what some other people might claim. This kind of information should not take three months to get. I should not be put in a situation where I have to put a hold on nominations to get it,” he said.
UNCLASSIFIED//Oh, and in case you don't know about organizations called "Affinity Groups."
ROUTINE
R 222245Z APR 10
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SUBJ/2010 JOINT NATIONAL NAVAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION AND ASSOCIATION OF NAVAL SERVICES OFFICERS CONFERENCE//
RMKS/1. THIS NAVADMIN ANNOUNCES THE FIRST EVER JOINT NATIONAL NAVAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION (NNOA) AND ASSOCIATION OF NAVAL SERVICES OFFICERS (ANSO) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING CONFERENCE TO BE HELD 26-30 JULY 2010 AT THE PORTSMOUTH RENAISSANCE HOTEL, PORTSMOUTH, VA. ANTICIPATED SPEAKERS ARE: ADM GARY ROUGHEAD (CNO), GEN JAMES T. CONWAY (CMC), ADM ROBERT J. PAPP JR. (USCG), MASTER CHIEF RICK D. WEST (MCPON), SERGEANT MAJOR CARLTON W. KENT (SMMC), AND MASTER CHIEF CHARLES W. BOWEN (MCPOCG). THE 2010 JOINT CONFERENCE THEME IS "NNOA/ANSO: PASSIONATE PARTNERS IN ACHIEVING THE POSSIBLE - NOW AND IN THE FUTURE."
2. NNOA IS THE LARGEST AFRICAN-AMERICAN OFFICER AFFINITY GROUP RECOGNIZED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. ANSO IS THE LARGEST HISPANIC AMERICAN OFFICER AND ENLISTED (ASPIRING OFFICER) AFFINITY GROUP RECOGNIZED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. THEIR COLLECTIVE MEMBERSHIP EXCEEDS 2,000 NAVY, MARINE CORPS, AND COAST GUARD PERSONNEL. BOTH ORGANIZATIONS HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF ASSISTING THE NAVY, COAST GUARD, AND MARINE CORPS IN RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF MINORITY OFFICERS.
3. THIS YEAR'S THEME IS CONSISTENT WITH NAVY'S DIVERSITY POLICY, WHICH DIRECTS LEADERS TO ANTICIPATE AND EMBRACE THE DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES OF TOMORROW AND BUILD A NAVY THAT WILL REFLECT THE MAKE-UP OF OUR COUNTRY. THE NAVY, MARINE CORPS AND COAST GUARD SERVICE CHIEFS ARE DEMONSTRATING THEIR COMMITMENT BY ENCOURAGING FLAG AND GENERAL OFFICERS TO PERSONALLY PARTICIPATE IN THE MANY MENTORING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS THAT WILL TAKE PLACE DURING THE WEEK. COMMANDING OFFICERS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO SUPPORT JUNIOR OFFICER ATTENDANCE, IF REQUESTED, IN ORDER TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS UNIQUE MENTORING FORUM.
4. THIS YEAR ALSO MARKS AN ELEVATED FOCUS ON OUR FAMILIES. A WORKSHOP FOR SPOUSES WILL BE HELD ON 29 JULY 2010, HIGHLIGHTED BY THE NAVY DAY LUNCHEON FEATURING ADM ROUGHEAD AS GUEST SPEAKER. CONFERENCE ATTENDEES ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WORKSHOP AND THE LUNCHEON WITH THEIR SPOUSE.
5. DRESS FOR NAVY PERSONNEL WILL BE SERVICE KHAKI FOR MILITARY AND BUSINESS ATTIRE FOR CIVILIANS. NAVY UNIFORM FOR THE FORMAL AWARDS BANQUET WILL BE DINNER DRESS WHITE JACKET (OR OPTIONAL SERVICE DRESS WHITE FOR O-3 AND BELOW) AND BLACK TIE (OR EQUIVALENT) FOR CIVILIANS AND GUESTS.
6. USE OF COMMAND TRAVEL FUNDS IS AUTHORIZED. IF COMMAND TRAVEL FUNDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE, NO-COST TEMPORARY ADDITIONAL DUTY ORDERS MAY BE ISSUED. USE OF AVAILABLE GOVERNMENT TRANSPORTATION IS ENCOURAGED TO ENHANCE CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION AND TO HELP DEFRAY THE COST OF TEMPORARY ADDITIONAL DUTY ORDERS. THE ADDRESS FOR THE EVENT IS PORTSMOUTH RENAISSANCE HOTEL, 425 WATER STREET, PORTSMOUTH, VA 23704. THE DEADLINE FOR RESERVING ROOMS AT THE PER DIEM RATE IS 5 JULY 2010. THE CHIEF OF NAVAL PERSONNEL WILL FUND THE FIRST 100 CONFERENCE REGISTRATIONS EACH FOR NNOA AND ANSO (200 TOTAL).
7. CONFERENCE FEES ARE $325 FOR LIFE MEMBERS, $350 FOR MEMBERS, AND $375 FOR NON-MEMBERS. AN ADDITIONAL $50 LATE FEE WILL BE APPLIED FOR ATTENDEES WHO REGISTER AFTER 16 JULY 2010. FOR NAVY PERSONNEL INTERESTED IN JOINING AND REGISTERING FOR THE CONFERENCE UNDER NNOA, VISIT THE NNOA WEBSITE AT WWW.NNOA.ORG. FOR NAVY PERSONNEL INTERESTED IN JOINING AND REGISTERING FOR THE CONFERENCE UNDER ANSO, VISIT THE ANSO WEBSITE AT WWW.ANSOMIL.ORG. EARLY CONFERENCE REGISTRATION AND ROOM RESERVATIONS ARE HIGHLY ENCOURAGED.
8. POINTS OF CONTACT:
- CAPT CEDRIC [REDACTED] PRINGLE, AT (703) 614-[REDACTED]/DSN 224 OR EMAIL AT NAVY-REP(AT)NNOA.ORG OR CEDRIC.[REDACTED](AT)JS.PENTAGON.MIL.
- LCDR CESAR [REDACTED], OPNAV N134, AT (703) 614-[REDACTED] OR EMAIL AT CESAR.[REDACTED]@NAVY.MIL.
- LCDR BEULAH [REDACTED] (RET), AT (703) 922-[REDACTED] OR EMAIL AT EA(AT)NNOA.ORG.
9. RELEASED BY MS. STEFFANIE [REDACTED], N1B. MINIMIZE CONSIDERED.//
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Here are some others represented by a law firm Holland and Knight.Reflect America? Reflect your Navy? Even if you buy into the cancer of a racialist world-view, this sure doesn't reflect USA in 2040.
Affinity Groups
Through the firm’s seven Affinity Groups, our diverse lawyers and staff are able to address the distinct challenges and opportunities that arise as a result of our differences. By promoting and encouraging members, the Affinity Groups help to sustain an environment that is inclusive and supportive, which fosters both personal and professional success. Our Affinity Groups have helped to distinguish Holland & Knight through the visibility and opportunity extended to members.
The firm’s Affinity Groups are as follows:
African American Affinity Group
Asian/Pacific Islander Affinity Group
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Affinity Group
Gay, Lesbian Or Bisexual Employees (GLOBE) Affinity Group
Hispanic Affinity Group
Native American Affinity Group
Women’s Initiative
From Kansas to China's Sichuan province, farmers treat their fields with phosphorus-rich fertilizer to increase the yield of their crops. What happens next, however, receives relatively little attention. Large amounts of this resource are lost from farm fields, through soil erosion and runoff, and down swirling toilets, through our urine and feces. Although seemingly mundane, this process cannot continue indefinitely. Our dwindling supply of phosphorus, a primary component underlying the growth of global agricultural production, threatens to disrupt food security across the planet during the coming century. This is the gravest natural resource shortage you've never heard of.Ponder.
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The geographic concentration of phosphate mines also threatens to usher in an era of intense resource competition. Nearly 90 percent of the world's estimated phosphorus reserves are found in five countries: Morocco, China, South Africa, Jordan, and the United States. In comparison, the 12 countries that make up the OPEC cartel control only 75 percent of the world's oil reserves.
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The United States has only 12 phosphorus mines. The supplies from the most productive mine, in Florida, are declining rapidly -- it will be commercially depleted within 20 years. The United States exported phosphorus for decades but now imports about 10 percent of its supply, all from Morocco, with which it signed a free trade agreement in 2004.
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Already, signs are emerging that our current practices cannot continue for long. Between 2003 and 2008, phosphate fertilizer prices rose approximately 350 percent. In 2008, rising food prices sparked riots in more than 40 countries. Although the spike in fertilizer prices was only partially responsible for the higher food prices, the riots illustrate the social upheaval caused by disruptions to the world's food supply. The 2008 food riots were only stopped by government promises of food subsidies -- a viable strategy only as long as governments can afford the ever-increasing costs of food support.
"It seems as wisely and certainly adapted to its end as any plan of its kind." The report complimented the ... vessel's many attributes: simplicity, mobility, comparative invulnerability, safety and small size of her crew, "certainty of operation," and low cost- .... A fleet of (the ships) could protect the coastline and inland waters for far less than (present methods).Ah, the joy of history - it gives you such warnings, if you want to hear them.
... the ship "is so simple, so easily understood, and so capable of reduction to mathematical certainty, that it can hardly be denominated an appropriation for 'an experiment.'" However if it did fail, then "much valuable and needed information" would be obtained. "Experiments, for purposes like these in view, no private individuals or corporations are interested or able to make; this government is interested, able, and competent to make them." The crew size would be unlike any other: ....
Any risks—whether, for example, singing onstage, starting a company, or rock climbing—pale compared with the risks a soldier takes in combat. A soldier risks his own life, the lives of his comrades, and the lives of innocent civilians. An officer has this burden, and more, because he also makes the decision to risk the lives of his soldiers, knowing that some of them will come to harm....and we could not have a better man on the job.
Marine Gen. James Mattis, 59, has been making these decisions for almost 40 years since his graduation from Central Washington University. He led combat troops in the first Iraq invasion as a lieutenant colonel. He commanded Marines as a brigadier general in Afghanistan in 2001. In 2003 he was the Marines ground commander in Iraq, leading the 20,000 troops of the 1st Marine Division for 500 miles over 17 days, the longest sustained march in Marine Corps history. He returned to Iraq months later to direct the fight against insurgents in the raging Al-Anbar province. Now a four-star, Mattis is commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command. It's his job to help the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines fight in coordination. He has also become a key figure in the debate over how the military should adapt to irregular warfare, the kind in which enemies hide in mosques or deploy computer viruses.
Mattis is an evangelist for risk with two core principles. The first is that intellectual risk-taking will save the military bureaucracy from itself. Only by rewarding nonconformist innovators will the services develop solutions that match the threats conceived by an enemy that always adapts. The second is that technology cannot eliminate, and sometimes can't even reduce, risk. Mattis warns about the limitations of sophisticated weapons and communications. They can be seductive, luring military planners into forgetting war's unpredictable and risky nature, leaving troops vulnerable.If you didn't just want to stand up and yell, "Yes, yes, yes! Great Caesar's ghost, yes! By all that is right and good - YES!" then you are truly lost. See why I am such a fan of Mattis?Note.
Mattis embodies the risk-taker's mix of head and heart. You can see it on the walls of his library. As one of nine combatant commanders, he was assigned the sprawling 17,000-square-foot Virginia House on Norfolk's huge Navy base. Unmarried, Mattis lives alone (Warrior Monk is one of his many nicknames). Walking into his pristine house I felt like I needed an admission ticket until I got to the two well-used rooms off a back hallway. The library shelves are packed with histories and military manuals. In conversation, Mattis regularly gets up to retrieve a volume—to cite a passage about the insurgency in Algiers or show a table about fuel use in the initial sprint into Iraq.Two things you will not see on an USN 4-Star's office; especially the last one.
One of his favorite photographs of many from his combat tours shows the men of the platoon he traveled with in Iraq. He did not command from a remote location as some generals do but made regular tours into the thick of the action. (In a five-month period in 2004, 17 of his platoon's 29 members were killed or wounded.) In another photograph, he's a young lieutenant in full combat gear, staring into the screaming mouth of his commanding officer. He is being chewed out for getting into a drunken bar fight the night before.For any service - the following should be kept for reference - on a wall somewhere preferably. The Sherman quote you would have found on mine.
Drone attacks and PowerPoint presentations give the illusion that war is more manageable than it is, argues Mattis, which is why, as he works to prepare the military for wars of the future, he abolished Effects-Based Operations, a method of planning that sought to determine actions based on quantifiable outcomes. "It is not scientifically possible to accurately predict the outcome of an action," says Mattis in explaining his decision. "To suggest otherwise runs contrary to historical experience and the nature of war."Getting tired of Nanny Navy? Well - you have a friend in Mattis.
In making this case, Mattis sounds like the economists who warned against the use of financial instruments like Value-at-risk measurements that sought to quantify risk and make it precise. He quotes Sherman: "Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster," but he could just as easily quote Nobel Laureate economist Kenneth Arrow, who warned of the same problem in economics: "vast ills have followed a belief in certainty."
Maintaining this culture of ferocity is why Mattis bristles about excessive hand-wringing over Marines who might want to ride without motorcycle helmets. Marines need to be risk-takers. That's why the corps advertises at extreme sporting events. Ferocity is part of what the corps works to build in boot camp, and it is central to its storied history and traditions. If that's the kind of spirit you need to fight wars, then you have to accept that the kind of person you want is going to sometimes ride at 120 miles an hour on a bike and hurt himself. "It's not that I'm trying to extol this kind of behavior," says Mattis, "but you have to have people who know that risk-taking sometimes means that people are going to get hurt. If you can't accept that, if your view of warfare is always hurtful and you're psychologically damaged by it, you start putting up guardrails."Finally I will call for it again - Gen. James Mattis, USMC - the next Chief of Naval Operations.
“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina.
Following a review of its precision fires capabilities and requirements, the U.S. Army is recommending to cancel the XM-501 Non-Line of Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS) program. NLOS-LS was developed as a 'Platform independent Precision Weapon System', as a common system to be used by the U.S. Army and Navy. The program suffered significant setback in the recent Limited User Test, (LUT) scoring only two hits out of six launches. The system was jointly developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin under the Netfires industry team.This also exemplifies another example of "Joint Risk" that we saw with ACS.
...
While the cancellation will relieve the Army of financial burden of a weapon system considered too costly and redundant, since combat brigades already have other precision guided weapons that can deliver firepower at the precision and timely response as the NLOS, the U.S. Navy, which counted on the weapon will have to support the continued development and fielding of the system by itself. The Navy is scheduled to begin at-sea testing of the NLOS-LS medium range surface to surface missile module by 2012.
According to the Navy's plans, NLOS-LS would become the principal weapon for the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) 'Surface Warfare Module' enabling the vessel to dominate a large coastal and littoral area. Each LCS will carry three Command Launch Modules packed in two shipping containers, carrying a total of 45 missiles. The missile would be used as the 'long arm' of the vessel, enabling the LCS team to act upon information obtained by remote intelligence sensors and the vessel's own sensors – helicopters, UAVs, SIGINT and COMINT.
Launched at individual targets, or in salvos of multiple missiles, the Precision Attack Missiles would be used to defeat enemy over the horizon, inside the bases or at the shoreline, as well as defensively, eliminating attacks by swarms of fast boats. In escort missions, these missiles, supported by helicopters and UAVs, could be used to cover larger areas, protecting merchant ships from small boats attacks. The ability of the crew to control each of the missiles, and selectively aim at specific weak points enable the LCS to effectively engage and defeat larger targets, support friendly forces ashore and reducing the risk of collateral damage. Absent of such a weapon, the LCS will be toothless (the only other weapon on board is the single barrel 57mm gun).
Given the importance of the weapon to the Navy, it is likely that the program will not meet the fate of other FCS systems and continue through fielding, funded by the Navy. However, in this case, the missile would be tailored for the Navy's needs and will not necessarily have the operating modes the Army would eventually need. These modes are also likely to be more costly and complicated. Previous reports have indicated that Raytheon proposed to deliver the missiles at a unit cost below $200,000, given a multi-year production of about 9,900 units is secured. This cost is about a third of the cost of a typical naval attack missile currently available (like the Harpoon or Exocet) but it is about three times more expensive than the Javelin or Hellfire missiles, used extensively in Afghanistan. The current cost of a pre-production missile stands on $450,000 per unit.Epic fail.
Many of the demonstrators at the Capitol complex booed when Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox announced that "the governor did not listen to our prayers."... and sadly - The Washington Post:
"It's going to change our lives," said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old American citizen from Phoenix. "We can't walk to school any more. We can't be in the streets anymore without the pigs thinking we're illegal immigrants."
"It's going to change our lives," said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old U.S. citizen from Phoenix. "We can't walk to school anymore. We can't be in the streets anymore without the [police] thinking we're illegal immigrants."Hat tip from The Cabal.
Someone at Dan Savage’s blog started it, then Michael Moynihan at Reason picked it up, now I feel obliged to help push it out there. Says Moynihan:In line with Allah - if their hissy fit against Western Civ's love of satire is more satire - then maybe we can call it a little victory of sorts.I will be employing my tremendous skill as an illustrator, of course, and expect that my colleagues will do the same. If they refuse, they will be declared weak-kneed, namby-pamby, quisling infidels and will be shamed on this blog (Though such idle threats rarely work these days; perhaps I could threaten them with a painful death, which seems to do the trick). If readers would like to show their solidarity, please email your Mohammad masterpieces to me here: mmoynihan at reason.com. The best ones will be published on Hit & Run, which, along with the concomitant death threat, is reward enough.
Stone and Parker get what was at stake in the Danish-cartoons crisis and many other ostensibly footling concessions: Imperceptibly, incrementally, remorselessly, the free world is sending the message that it is happy to trade core liberties for the transitory security of a quiet life. That is a dangerous signal to give freedom’s enemies. So the South Park episode is an important cultural pushback.
Yet in the end, in a craven culture, even big Hollywood A-listers can’t get their message over. So the brave, transgressive comedy network was intimidated into caving in and censoring a speech about not being intimidated into caving in. That’s what I call “hip,” “edgy,” “cutting-edge” comedy: They’re so edgy they’re curled up in the fetal position, whimpering at the guy with the cutting edge, “Please. Behead me last. And don’t use the rusty scimitar where you have to saw away for 20 minutes to find the spinal column . . . ”
Terrific. You can see why young, urban, postmodern Americans under 57 get most of their news from Comedy Central. What a shame 1930s Fascist Europe was so lacking in cable.
In response to the ad, Mr. Sestak said in a phone interview on Tuesday, “I was given a tough job in the Navy,” and was assigned to challenge the establishment.Take a number shipmate. Here are the facts.
A source within the Navy Department said there were no allegations of misconduct on the part of Sestak. Rather, he said, the move is being made because of poor command climate.Being that Sestak won't talk about it more - he is using proxies.
In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer this month, Admiral Clark defended the work of Mr. Sestak, who was described as his protégé: “He did what I asked him to do; I wanted straight talk, and this put him in the cross hairs,” Admiral Clark told the newspaper. “People are going to say what they want to say, but he challenged people who did not want to be challenged. The guy is courageous, a patriot’s patriot.”That has nothing to do with the topic at hand Vern - pathetic - almost as pathetic as the Borg recruiting drive.
Sestak's campaign sought to rally veterans to defend him by recalling how the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth tried to discredit Democrat John Kerry's service in a Navy patrol vessel in Vietnam during Kerry's 2004 presidential race against George W. Bush.Yes - let's validate every stereotype of the mindless, easily led, incapable of independent thought vet. Pardon me if I don't take a glass of your kool-aid - click the Sestak link to get the history from here.
About two dozen veterans gathered Wednesday in an American Legion Hall in Clifton Heights to rebuke Specter and demand that he stop running the ad.
"We're all here because we're enraged at the fact that someone, anyone in the United States today, would question someone with 31 years of service," said Robert E. Kelly, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who flew 119 combat missions in Vietnam.
"We ought to get our act together in this country and recognize that the people who are serving today, who served yesterday, and will serve tomorrow deserve our respect," Kelly said.
...
"It's not as flagrant. It's more subtle," Tom Clay, 61, a Vietnam veteran and former Army helicopter door-gunner from Media, said about Specter's ad. "But it's there. A veteran should not attack another veteran's record."
Mike Hall, commander of the Clifton Heights post, agreed. "Vets don't go against other vets like that. It's a brotherhood."
The first of three Navy SEALs accused of mishandling a suspect in the high-profile killings of contractors in Iraq was found not guilty at a court-martial Thursday.
A military jury cleared U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas of all charges, a military spokesman said.
Huertas and two other Navy SEALs -- Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe -- have been facing charges in connection with the assault of Iraqi detainee Ahmed Hashim Abed.
U.S. authorities accuse Abed of being the mastermind in the slayings and mutilation of four U.S. contractors in Falluja in 2004, one of the Iraq war's most notorious crimes against Americans.
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Huertas and Keefe had been charged with dereliction of duty, based on the allegation that they failed to safeguard the detainee, according to the military. Huertas also was charged with impeding an investigation by attempting to influence the testimony of another sailor.
“You know this is a Protestant country,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded two non-Protestant members of his administration, “and the Catholics and the Jews are here on sufferance.”Funny thing happened after a few decades - I guess;
All eight justices left on the bench once Stevens steps down ... (are) all Ivy League graduates – predominantly white and male – and none of them are Protestant.I thought this was a good addition for DivThu.
With Justice John Paul Steven just months away from retirement, the White House says President Obama is considering a more diverse pool of candidates, including whites, blacks and Hispanics -- men and women -- to tap for his replacement.Do you need a translator? Didn't think so.
"I think he will have a broad group of people that represent many – that represent America as a way of looking at the nominee," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.
...these charity calendar shots have helped raise £26,000 for injured servicemen and women wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.I don't know if it will work well in the US though.
A total of 50 volunteers, all wives and girlfriends of men from the three Armed Services, stripped off to be photographed at bases and training centres in Hampshire. But their modesty was preserved by carefully placed pieces of military equipment.
The number of multiracial people in the United States rose 3.4 percent last year to about 5.2 million, according to some estimates, and is one of the fastest growing populations as a whole. Interracial marriages increased threefold since 2000, with about 1 in 13 marriages of mixed race. If this trend continues, the question of an individual's race will likely only get more and more difficult to define.In many places and situations, it already is.
And the issue of diversity is very, very important to me, not just in terms of this kind of conference, but it’s a strategic imperative for the Navy. The world we’re living in is becoming smaller; it is a diverse world in many, many ways, as is our country. And in the year 2030, 2040, 2050, the majority in our country now become the minority and it’s vital for us, as a Navy, to be representative of that country, particularly from the – of our country in terms of diversity in order to carry out our mission. So there’s an internal strategic imperative that the Navy be set to do this in the future and it starts at the base. It starts with young officers, in particular.Last fall the CNO said,
Then I say, ‘I’d like to have all the officers step forward,’ they start to look an awful lot like me. Then I say, ‘I’d like all the senior enlisted leaders to step forward,’ they all look a lot a like, then I go to our civil servant leadership or our senior executives and ask them to step forward, it would look an awful lot like me. We don’t get the best solutions when everyone is the same. We get our best solutions, our best ideas; we get our best initiatives when you have diverse opinions in diverse positions and diverse experiences that inform those initiatives and those decisions. Also we as a nation, not unlike the demographics of the world and in 2040 the United States is not going to look like us. So now is the time that we build the Navy of the future.Well - it isn't all about you; and the future of America is one where race matters less and less - not more and more.
Mr. Obama had several options, as does anyone filling out the census. Starting with the 2000 census, respondents have been no longer forced to choose a single-race identity; they can now check one box, several boxes, or check "some other race" and then write-in their identity. Mr. Obama is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. He was born in Hawaii and raised there and in Indonesia. He chose to simply check "African-American."Supported by these types ...
From the perspective of science and biological anthropology, race does not exist. In other words, there is not one gene, trait, or characteristic that distinguishes all members of one race from all members of another. In fact, eighty-five percent of all human variation can be found in any local population, and a full ninety-four percent can be found on any continent. In other words, there are no sub-species when it comes to humans; we are, in truth, one of the most genetically similar to each other species of all species on earth.
You know how to test the proposition that a dog is a man's best friend? Lock your dog and your wife in the trunk of your car, drive out into the woods somewhere, and let them out. Which one do you think is going to be glad to see you?Check it out. 'Nuff said.
"Don't get your NWU dirty while at sea. They need to be clean to wear for your duty days when you get back."It was only a matter of time. Don't get a uniform dirty that was intentionally designed to get dirty.
Many straight boys simply need to have explained to them that not all gay men want them sexually. There is no evidence that gays are more likely to be rapists than straights are; and everybody can learn not to act on whatever s/he is thinking or feeling during working hours. However, there are situations where sexual orientation would pose a problem, and the military would be wise to acknowledge this.Sadly - I am afraid we will hear the later more than the former. Just look at what happened with Prop8 in CA. The fringe often drowns out the sensible center.
Advice to the civilians: Lose your exasperation with those in the military who are trying to say why they think integrating openly gay service members will be difficult. Instead, listen to them. We may be able to address some of their concerns; some may simply have to be acknowledged. But even just saying, "Yep, you're right. We'll have to deal with these problems as they arise" is better than saying: "Shut up, you racist, homophobic chauvinist." That's what the military — becoming the enforcer of its civilian masters — will certainly say. Stand by for the drop in morale.
Defense Department officials have favored the pact as a way to reward Colombia for its successful effort at beating back drug trafficking and the country's insurgency.Colombia has been a bright shining example of the progress of freedom in the last two decades.
At a news conference in Bogota, the Colombian capital, Gates said he met this week with James L. Jones, the White House national security advisor, to discuss an administration push for congressional ratification of the accord.
"I would hope we would be in a position to make a renewed effort to get ratification of the free trade agreement," Gates said. "It is a good deal for Colombia; it is also a good deal for the United States."
President Obama was skeptical about the agreement as a senator and during his presidential campaign, citing Colombia's record of labor crackdowns. But after meeting last year with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Obama said Bogota had made progress on human rights issues and ordered U.S. trade officials to move ahead on the deal.
Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva said Bogota was pleased by the Obama administration's growing support for the accord.
"This agreement will help further consolidate security in Colombia," Silva said.
(we completed) an 8 month deployment with the [REDACTED] Strike Group. We are getting ready to leave again ... for two more months of my cruise. I absolutely enjoy being part of a low-density, high requirement asset like the Electronic Attack platforms. I was sitting at the house on my two weeks off before I go back at work, the POM leave thing; while talking with my wife about the future of my career some thoughts have come together, ....Why do we still treat our Sailors like what is described in the last couple of paragraphs? Priorities and personalities, that's why. That, and because we can, we have, and we will.
As of this June I will have been in the Navy for [REDACTED] years. Out of that [REDACTED] years according to my latest LES, I have been drawing sea pay for just over half of that, or roughly [REDACTED] years. I am currently on my third sea tour and just extended myself to make the transition from the EA-6B over to the EA-18G. I have completed four cruises all of which have been extended anywhere from one month to two. My first was with the Big E in the summer of 2001 and my latest will be completed (if you add in us going out for two months for RIMPAC) in August of 2010. I have also done one shore based deployment to Iwakuni to gap the EA billet for the Marines in the summer of 2006. Interestingly enough, that was almost extended for a month because of the nuclear bomb testing and missile testing by the NORKS.
I am also a newlywed, since I got married just before my latest deployment. That has been a challenge and have had some interesting discussions about my career future with my new wife. I throw this at you mainly to let you know that there are some of us down in the trenches who look up at our leadership and wonder what the heck is going on. I perceive a leadership failing on the people at TypeCom and higher who aren’t throwing up the BS flag about deployments, doing more with less, and other BS bingo phrases/words. All they seem to care about is appeasing the civilian leadership above, while seemingly paying lip service to those of us below. Until the recent economic troubles, there seem to be a growing trend of personnel voting with their feet. I am not ready to be one of them, one because I have faith in that what I do is important, two I love my job of fixing airplanes on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, and three I am so close now to retirement (even with the threat of PTS over my head) that it only makes financial sense to stay until the end.
Transition for the Electronic Attack bubbas is going to be interesting and what is really throwing all of us for a loop right now ... the first deployment for the EA-18G is going to be shore based, expeditionary style to one of those fun tourist spots like [REDACTED]. Why? Because the CNO and all his OpNav advisors saw what happened to the USAF vis-a-via the F-22. The word on the flight line here in Oak Harbor is that after SecDef as the CG of the USAF what was the last mission the F-22 preformed was and then was basically told it was just now entering squadron and transition process. At which point the SecDef told them that their wonder weapon is done and the government isn’t wasting any more money on it.
There is probably a kernel of truth to that, but I would bet you the first two bottles of fine wine out of your choice Columbia River Valley that is why both LCS’s were sortied on deployments before all the kinks were shaken loose. Anyhow, as each one of the EA-6B carrier squadrons comes homes and enters the pipeline, one of the concrete (expeditionary) EA-6B outfits will replace it in the air wing. Only problem with that is this; there are three active and one reserve EA-6B squadron that are in the concrete role.
Those of us that are making transition are being told to sign open ended extensions, I just signed my on this morning. There were no dates in the when extension starts or ends and to expect at a minimum of three shore deployments to those tourist spots I mentioned earlier. The open ended extensions are to get us through schools, for example the [REDACTED] schooling takes about seven months out. We either go to [REDACTED] or [REDACTED] and go through the standard E/F schools for [REDACTED] stuff there and then return to [REDACTED] to finish up the [REDACTED]. So when we enter the training pipeline we enter the neutral duty loop. After we get out of the training pipeline they tack on a 24 month extension to our tour at the current command. If we choose not to go on the transition bus, then we get a phone call to the detailer and have to make a career decision in about five minutes.
This is really interesting to me that no one has applied lessons learned from the previous transitions like the F-14 to F-18E/F, A-7 to F-18, S-3 removal, SH-3 to H-60, etc. Not finding ways to have smoothed the process or taken the unknown factor out of this. Maybe it is because we are trying to do transition in the middle of a war, I don’t know. It just feels as if there are too many questions and too many “That is a great question, glad you asked that, let me get back to you about the answer…” replies or answers that seem to be set in snowballs being thrown in hell.