Pretender-In-Chief – Galganov…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

A very interesting Editorial from last month that just came across the email transom…

I’ve extracted a few parts to give you the general tone.

Pretender-In-Chief – Howard Galganov

As much as I and everyone else is trying to get a handle on what makes Barack Hussein Obama tick, and what is his OWN agenda, opposed to everyone else’s who surround him, everyone seems to be all over the board.

Many people, especially on the more extreme RIGHT think that he’s some sort of a plant who has been put in place by a shadowy group that is representative of a vast LEFT WING conspiracy.

Some closer to the MIDDLE see Obama as a Socialist who has planned-out how he wants to move the USA to a more European style Socialist Society.

And then there are the LEFTISTS who just love what Obama’s doing, as long as he’s sticking it to “big” business, taxing the crap out of so-called “rich” people, taking over banks, insurance companies, the auto-industry – etcetera.

The LEFT also loves it when Obama humbles the USA in the sphere of world politics, which he doesn’t seem to be doing anymore. Maybe someone told him that scumming out the country he leads, is no less repugnant than publicly ‘dissing his wife and family…

I think he is so far over his head, that he doesn’t have a clue as to what he is doing, or what has to be done.

I don’t believe for a second that he is NOT from the far LEFT, but I also don’t believe that he has any concept of what real Socialism is all about, since he and his family absolutely love the joys of being rich, while hanging-out with the rich folk. While the last thing he wants is to be rubbing shoulders with the “little” people who chant his name.

Obama has the attention span of a spoiled child with far too many toys and doting parents, flipping from the MOST important toy of the moment, to the next MOST important toy of the moment, to the next one after that, and so on.

Obama has no obvious concept of what integrity means and the absolute value of his word, since he throws whomever is no longer useful to him under the bus, and lies like a cheap rug over everything he’s said and promised…

OBAMA SEES HIMSELF – And that’s it. He doesn’t see the people around him. Nor does he see the domestic and international chessboard upon which the entire World plays for position and advantage.

I believe that in his mind, if it is what he thinks, than that MUST be right, and everyone else SHOULD think the same way. And if they don’t, then there is something wrong with them.

The American people didn’t vote for a BRILLIANT strategic thinker, or a man of remarkable principle – JUST THE OPPOSITE.

I never heard one pundit, not even his most ardent media supporter ever speak or write about anything brilliant he has accomplished. As a matter of record, I don’t remember even one of them speaking or writing about a single Obama accomplishment of any sort. How sad is it that the American people voted for someone with no accomplishments and no personal history to be proud of, that anyone can point to? …

You can read the whole Editorial HERE. What makes me wonder, is how long before editorials like this are verbotten by the new leadership at the FCC and DISCLOSE???

Just sayin…

Happy 4th!!!

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Four of us old retired farts got together this morning and we went out and played golf on base… This is what we saw when we got to the first green 🙂

Gotta love military bases and what they do; every hole had an American Flag as the flag for the hole…

And yes, they had stands to place the flags on so they never touched the ground! Just finished off hamburgers, hot dogs and watermelon, now I need a nap…

I hope each of you had a chance to enjoy yourselves today, and for those who had the ‘duty’, our heartfelt thanks…

Happy 234th Birthday America!!!

Posted on by March 6, 2013

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD , INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!


And this is a rather interesting picture, taken in 1918 at Camp Dodge in Iowa.

FACTS:Base to Shoulder: 150 feet
Right Arm: 340 feet
Widest part of arm holding torch: 12 1/2 feet
Right thumb: 35 feet
Thickest part of body: 29 feet
Left hand length: 30 feet
Face: 60 feet
Nose: 21 feet
Longest spike of head piece: 70 feet
Torch and flame combined: 980 feet
Number of men in flame of torch: 12,000Number of men in torch: 2,800
Number of men in right arm: 1,200
Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000

Total men: 18,000

I wish each of you a Happy Fourth of July, where ever you may be! Enjoy the time with friends and family, and please remember our Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Soldiers spread across the globe defending our freedoms, as they have been for 234 years (well, except for the Air Force).

“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the U.S. ARMED FORCES don’t have that problem.” ….. Ronald Reagan

Finally…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Well, like the proverbial bad penny, I’m BAAACCKKKK…


Comcast FINALLY showed up today (six days late), and got me online, not without a few problems though…

Package deals are not bad, having said that, it’s a REAL pain when “everything” is co-located on one outlet (ain’t happening, know what I mean?) and they expect you to move things around.

After a ‘conversation’ with the tech, he finally got the point that what he wanted and what I wanted were mutually exclusive, and since I was the ‘customer’ I should be right (and I didn’t even have to beat him)…

In other news, the move has been less than successful, I’m still living out of boxes, and trying to find stuff…

I did find the TV… 🙂

Oh yeah, and one ‘other’ little welcome to the neighborhood…

My truck and two other cars in this ‘secure’ garage, and one a block away were broken into/vandalized/wheels etc. stolen…

Entered through the sunroof (I didn’t know it, but this doesn’t set off any alarms)…

The ‘duty’ investigation-Truly nice guys, very upfront and honest about the probability of success, but I told em to try anyway… Didn’t get a single @$&* clear print, but did get a good shoe print (size 6 Nike Air)…

Tore the hell out of the center console, trying to get to the Nav computer…

Oh, yeah, and all four wheels, and the security lug nuts too!!!

So, I’m in a POS Passant UFN… sigh…

Sometimes the Upgrade is Just Not Worth It!!!

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Back on the road again, IAD to FCO to NAP yesterday…


Got an upgrade to business, and lucked into an aisle seat, which is good! The bad? My seatmate (and I should have known SOMETHING was up), was one of a party of ELEVEN from Chicago all going to the “old” country…

Turns out she was the harridan from Hell… The reason for the open seat? Her HUSBAND didn’t even want to sit with her! And she was yelling at the kids, family members, etc. plus up and down like a damn jack in the box…

And the kids? Well, the 14 year old (dressed by Pimps, Inc.) was caught in the bathroom dry humping her “cousin” by the flight attendant, the 18 year old boy was caught trying to sneak booze out of the cart by another flight attendant, and the Aunt and Uncle got drunk and got in a fight with each other… Of course the Harridan weighed in on each and every incident, ALL of which were ‘obviously’ the faults of the flight attendants, not any of her brood… And the best comment? “We’re from Chicago and we’re connected!”

I actually asked the flight attendant if there were open seats in Coach, and if so, could I move back there… sigh…

And I end up behind them in the Customs line, and sure enough, they’ve lost a passport… And refused to let people by while they found it (the Harridan was in “fine” voice at this point).

I finally made it to my connecting flight, which proved to be very interesting in an of itself. I ended up seated next to two 10 or 11 year old Russian girls, part of a tour group of I’d guess 30 people (mostly young kids up to teens), as best I could understand. They were VERY polite, and did know some English. They were fascinated by both my I Phone and Nook reader, and were so well mannered it was unbelievable after the last flight.

The one sitting next to me introduced herself to me and I wish I’d recorded it; it was so serious, and she was working SO hard to get the English right. It went something like, “Hello, I am named Alexandria, but my little name is “Sash”. I am pleased to know your name?”

So I responded, and we shook hands, then her friend in the next seat did the same, but had more problems with her English. We spent the 45 minutes to Naples trying to communicate and that was interesting… From what I “understood”, they were from Moscow and Leningrad, on a week tour, and had spent the last semester in school learning Italian. And that little girl was impressive… At 11 she seemed to be a leader not only within her age group, but even the teens would answer her and interact with her. She definitely had a ‘presence’…

It’s pretty sad when a 10-11 year old speaks Italian better than I do… sigh…

Well, off to work and try to do good.

%^@&$ Comcast…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Well, I’m moved, crap piled everywhere and sitting at the airport, so the first log in since last Wed. I STILL have no internet at the new place thanks to Comcast’s screwups, and Cox turning my old addy off a week early… Ya know, not having TV, Internet, etc. IS actually kinda restful 🙂


The way it looks, it’ll be next week at the earliest before I’m back on line, so if any of y’all have sent email to my old addy, it’s bouncing, just hang in there and I’ll (hopefully) be back on line next week sometime.

And Jay, next time I’ll PAY for you a plane ticket to come help… 1700 lbs of ammo bout killed my back…

Oops, boarding, so gotta run! Y’all be good, and if you can’t do that, at least have fun!!!

I "HATE" Moving…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


I’m gonna be off the net for a bit, in the process of moving, then overseas so I “hope” to be back up in about a week… My timing just SUCKS!!!

In honor of the way things are going, enjoy the video…

Release the Hounds 🙂

Decade Of Navy Personnel Cuts Hinders Current Readiness…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Bet you haven’t seen THIS in any of the MSM have you??? Thank you Mr. Rumsfeld…


By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes, June 15, 2010

NAPLES, Italy — The Navy’s personnel cuts over the past decade went too far and were based on faulty assumptions, possibly resulting in reduced readiness, according to a recently released Government Accountability Office report.
The Navy has reduced the number of sailors assigned to destroyers and cruisers by 16 percent since 2001. Those reductions were based on a long-held assumption that at-sea workloads were heavier than in-port workloads, but that assumption didn’t jibe with what sailors told the GAO.


But, the Navy made these cuts without undertaking certain analysis to determine how such moves would affect the readiness of ships at sea or in port, the GAO report said.
In 2008 and 2009, the Navy performed readiness inspections on 26 guided-missile cruisers and destroyers. Of those 26 inspections, six destroyers were deemed unfit for sustained combat operations.

In the previous five years, only one destroyer of the 59 inspected failed.
While the report said it couldn’t draw conclusions from such small numbers, it noted that Navy officials told GAO they believed the crew reductions had a “detrimental effect on the condition of these ships.”

Cruisers and destroyers account for around 80 of the Navy’s 287 ships and submarines, with about 25,000 sailors stationed aboard.

The GAO study didn’t reveal issues that the Navy hadn’t already known about, said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello, spokesman for Naval Surface Force U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Several years ago, commanders began “scrubbing” reports to determine if the Navy had the correct number and type of personnel available for the varying missions within the Navy, he said. The scrubbing revealed that some ships’ crews were off by 10 percent to 15 percent. On a ship with a crew of 300, for example, that could mean staff deficits of 30 to 45 sailors.

As a result, commanders — though they might not be able to increase the size of the crew — could use the analysis to fine-tune the crew by seeking sailors with specific skills to get the job done, Servello said.

In 2002, the Navy increased its workweek for sailors from 67 to 70 hours as part of its ongoing “optimal manning initiatives,” and two years later, it reduced the number of enlisted sailors on cruisers and destroyers based on a reduced at-sea workload.
However the Navy didn’t complete the required analysis to justify the move, according to the GAO report.

Workweeks were established as guidelines for planning purposes only — they’re not requirements, according to the Navy’s manpower policies instruction from 2007. The policy gives commanding officers plenty of leeway to adjust work schedules based on operational requirements, but the instruction itself acknowledges the impacts of extended workweeks.

“Under certain circumstances it may become necessary to exceed the standard workweek; however, extending working hours on a routine basis could adversely affect such matters as morale, retention, safety, etc., and as policy, such extensions should be avoided,” the instruction reads.

An increase in force-protection requirements, including antiterrorism training, accounted for part of the added in-port workload, which the Navy didn’t take into account when calculating in-port workload, the GAO report says. Also, a reduction in the workforce at shore maintenance facilities meant crewmembers had to pick up the slack.

In another cost-cutting measure the Navy also made major changes to its training programs, shifting from classroom to computer-based training. But the Navy hadn’t properly measured the impact of computer-based training on job performance, or the time it takes to complete required qualifications, according to the report.

Other initiatives cited as impacting ship crews included the individual augmentee program which temporarily assigns sailors to Army and Marine Corps units. These sailors are sent downrange while they are on shore duty, but some are taken directly from shipboard assignments, the report said. The Navy agreed with the findings and told GAO it would conduct a study based on the report.

You can go HERE and read the full report, and it’s not pretty…


And from Global Security News…

Russia yesterday announced plans to conduct a new test of its experimental Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile in the third quarter of 2010, RIA Novosti reported.

The Bulava is designed to deliver as many as 10 nuclear warheads as far as 5,000 miles. The weapon has had problems; however, Russia’s armed forces have continued defending the weapon as an irreplaceable component of the country’s future nuclear deterrent.

“In the third quarter launches will resume. The first will be from the nuclear Dmitry Donskoy submarine. From which vessel the next launch will come depends on the first launch,” Col. Gen. Dmitry Popovkin, a member of the Russian General Staff, said.

It’s just getting ‘better and better’… sigh…


So what’s going to happen when the Russians deploy the new missile on their new submarine?


And more cuts are coming for the military in FY-11…

Are we having fun yet?

Not Impressed…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Well I, for one, was not impressed…

At least tonight he actually DID have the Flag behind him, but to be honest, I didn’t believe a word he said…

sigh…