“The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON.” It further states that the request is endorsed by Pacific Command (which has responsibility over North Korea) and Central Command (which has responsibility over Iran).

link to official USAF request to speed up procurement of special bunker buster bomb

The Marines’ Infantry Immersion Trainer combines live role-players, virtual characters and pyrotechnics in an intense simulation.

Key to Adm. Rohrer’s analysis is Obama’s dependence upon the development of the new proposed F-35, Joint Strike Fighter, that was “originally designed to save costs by providing a single fighter-jet platform that could then be custom fit to serve the Air Force, Marines and Navy.”

Problem is the development, currently at an estimated cost of $400 bil is overbudget by 45%, and years behind schedule.

Obama’s budget foregoes meaningful funding for F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets in favor of the yet to be delivered F-35, Joint Strike Fighter, which was originally designed to save costs by providing a single fighter-jet platform that could then be custom fit to serve the Air Force, Marines and Navy.

The reality is that GAO has recently reported what many people who follow defense programs already knew — that the JSF is years behind schedule and at a current cost of $400 billion, is 45 percent over budget. So far, the F-35’s lifetime program costs could well top $1 trillion, making it the most expensive single item in the history of Pentagon spending.

The delays are even worse. Even the most optimistic estimates say the Navy’s version of the JSF will not be operational for another six years, and this will create a shortfall in the Navy’s inventory of carrier-based fighter aircraft of 200 jets.

Since an aircraft carrier will typically carry about 50 fighter aircraft, that shortage is equivalent to taking four aircraft carriers out of service.

It’s far better to continue to provide our aircraft carriers with currently available F-18 Hornets than risk this kind of shortfall. As we saw during the recent standoff with Somali pirates who kidnapped American ship Capt. Richard Phillips, whenever there is trouble in the world, the Navy is certain to get the call.

The cuts don’t make sense. Pouring hundreds of billions more into the F-35 JSF program after it has gone way over budget and fallen way behind schedule is no way to enforce budget discipline in the Pentagon.

The Bush admin 2009 defense budget and supplemental spending on Iraq and Afghanistan came to $647 billion. Obama’s 2010 defense budget, together with his supplemental request to fund Iraq and Afghanistan, comes to $617 billion… a $30 billion cut, or less than the the $36.5 bil the taxpayers gave to Citibank.

The Admiral suggests this is a fool hardy return to the Clinton “hollowed out military” days, aided by a majority GOP Congress, during a time when the nation is at war in not only Afghanistan and Iraq, but on the high seas with Somalian pirates and their jihad movement buddies.

He also noted that in the wake of a North Korean missile test – and I might add Iran’s March test of a new air-to-surface missile, as well as today’s announcement that NK is threatening a 2nd nuclear test – Obama’s timing for his suggested $1.4 billion cut in land-based missile defense systems could not be worse.

Instead, Adm. Rohrer finds himself depending on Congress to straighten out an inexperienced CIC… not one of his favorite remedies.

The cuts don’t make sense. Pouring hundreds of billions more into the F-35 JSF program after it has gone way over budget and fallen way behind schedule is no way to enforce budget discipline in the Pentagon.

Let’s be clear: Any cut in the availability or readiness of our top fighter aircraft compromises the effectiveness of our carrier groups and safety of the sailors and Marines serving in them.

As a military man, I’ve never been fond of having 535 secretaries of defense. But given what Obama is proposing, it is imperative that Congress restores the critical combat readiness that is threatened by the Obama defense budget.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy shrank at a worse-than-expected 6.1 percent pace at the start of this year as sharp cutbacks by businesses and the biggest drop in U.S. exports in 40 years overwhelmed a rebound in consumer spending.

The Commerce Department’s report, released Wednesday, dashed hopes that the recession’s grip on the country loosened in the first quarter. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a 5 percent annualized decline.

The Labor Department on Wednesday said that all 372 metropolitan areas tracked saw their jobless rates rise in March from a year earlier. The rate in Indiana’s Elkhart-Goshen region soared to 18.8 percent, a 13 percentage-point increase that was the most in the country.

The national jobless rate is now at a quarter-century high of 8.5 percent and is expected to hit 10 percent by the end of this year. It will probably rise a bit higher in early 2010 before starting to slowly drift downward. Still, the Fed predicts unemployment will stay elevated into 2011, and economists don’t think it will return to normal — around a 5 percent jobless rate — until 2013.

Help me out here….
6-7million Americans out of work
Obama and Democrats’ pseudo-”stimulus” plan is sold as a way to “save or create” 2-3 million jobs.

Now, my math might not be as good as theirs, but that seems to leave juuuuust a little shortfall. No?

Also, how does killing the F-22 program (thereby killing another 100000 Lockheed jobs) and allowing GM & Chrysler to sink HELP the economy?

On the other side, we have Congressional Democrats who-like the former Senator/current President-opposed the war in Iraq, but these people STILL DO. Ouch!

So who do we believe? The guy getting his information from the Presidential Daily Briefs, the intelligence community, generals in the field (the same generals President Bush had), and the Department of Defense (led by the same guy President Bush had).
OR
the Congressional Democrats who still get their news from leftist faux news outlets while not bothering to read the Congressional Research Service reports, reports from the Department of Defense, or interviews with intelligence community leaders?

Ooooo, it’s a toughy! And yes, it’s a big one too because President Obama is now asking those Congressional Democrats for more money to fight the wars (we’re not supposed to call them wars anymore, but rather “overseas contingency operations”). Gonna be interesting.

Mr. Obama is expected to seek congressional approval of $75.5 billion for the wars, perhaps as soon as Thursday. The issue is already raising tensions on Capitol Hill, especially among liberals who are sympathetic to the president’s broader agenda but voice concerns about his timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq and his plans to beef up forces in Afghanistan.

“I can’t imagine any way I’d vote for it,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat and leader in the 77-member congressional Progressive Caucus. It would be her first major break with this White House.

Ms. Woolsey fears the president’s plan for Iraq would leave behind a big occupation force. She is also concerned about the planned escalation in Afghanistan. “I don’t think we should be going there,” she said.

Similar sentiments echo across the House. Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.) said he fears Afghanistan could become a quagmire. “I just have this sinking feeling that we’re getting deeper and deeper into a war that has no end,” he said.

Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) dismissed Mr. Obama’s plans as “embarrassingly naive,” and suggested that the president is being led astray by those around him. “He’s the smartest man in American politics today,” Rep. Conyers said. “But he occasionally gets bad advice and makes mistakes. This is one of those instances.”

ht Hot Air

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress for an additional $83.4 billion to fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday, saying the security situation along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier was urgent.

“The Taliban is resurgent and al Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” Obama said in a letter to Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, that was released by the White House.

Obama said 95 percent of the $83.4 billion in supplemental funds he was requesting would go to support U.S. military operations in Iraq and the U.S. effort to disrupt and defeat al Qaeda.

…and how did SENATOR Obama vote for the war (sorry, but I can’t yet stomach the “overseas contingency operations” newspeak of the new Administration)?

_May 2005: Congress approved an $82 billion bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and international anti-terrorism efforts. Obama voted yes.

_June 2006: Congress cleared a $94.5 billion bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as provide aid to hurricane victims. Obama voted yes.

_September 2006: Congress cleared a $448 billion Pentagon funding bill that included $70 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama voted yes.

_April 2007: Congress cleared a $124 billion spending bill that provided $90 billion for war costs but mandated the withdrawal of U.S. troops within six months. Obama voted yes, but President George W. Bush vetoed the legislation.

_May 2007: Congress approved a roughly $100 billion spending measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and domestic projects, including hurricane relief. Obama voted no.

_December 2007: Congress cleared a $555 billion catchall spending bill that included $70 billion for U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama did not vote.

_June 2008: Congress approved a measure to spend $162 billion for war costs as well as provide a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits and emergency relief for the flood-ravaged Midwest. Obama voted yes.

Why did he vote no?

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Gary J. Schmitt and Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute describe the cuts in our military that Obama and the Democrats are proposing.

After years of bashing Bush for either not having enough troops or not providing them the tools they need to do their job safely it’s interesting that the Democrats would be so eager to weaken our defenses at a time when threats around the world are multiplying fast.

Here are some highlights from Schmitt and Donnelly’s report:

• Termination of the F-22 Raptor aircraft program. Only 187 of the 21st Century fighters will be built. Hardly adequate numbers to replace the aging fleets of 660 F-16’s and provide air superiority (and troop protection) in any future conflict.
• Reducing the Navy below the 313 target agreed to only years earlier. New generation cruisers to be delayed and other projects stretched out, delayed or canceled.
• Delays in implementing the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program with direct impact on the safety and success of soldier’s future missions.
• Termination of the Airborne Laser (ABL) program (video here and here) which is the only tool we have in development that can shoot down missiles in the critical boost phase after launch. Laser technology is critical to the military of the future and setting it back will only cost lives at some point.

The lessons of History

From history we have learned that when the U.S. is strong and our defenses are maintained the risk of war is diminished. Few nations will start a fight with us or our friends if they have certainty that overwhelming military power will be used in our defense. The very threat to peace comes not from an America that is strong but an America that shows weakness and a disinterest in maintaining our military power. There is no other nation in the world that can provide that security and protect the peace.

Obama and the Democrat’s plan threatens peace and risks war!

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is busy launching an online petition for readers to express their outrage at conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. This, coming on the heels of triumphant Democrats confirming a tax cheat as our new Treasury Secretary, which came on the heels of giddy Democrats spearheading a new bill through Congress that would require camera phones to make a sound when taking a picture.

Six Democrats were busy enjoying a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress obligingly approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October, while others were hard at work crafting a $819 billion spending package under the guise of stimulating the economy.

What spending millions of bucks on sexually transmitted diseases and giving billions of our tax dollars to corrupt left-wing groups like ACORN has to do with stimulation has yet to be explained. Instead, we’re urged to look at ‘the larger picture’.

The ‘larger picture’ that immediately comes to my mind is Father Earth, Algore, testifying before Congress, warning of the imminent demise of the human species because of global warming, while the storm of the century rages across 1,400 miles of the U.S. I digress…

President Obama meanwhile, continues his honeymoon, bravely shrugging off the arrest of his half-brother for dope and his aunt’s illegal status.

In response to news that Iran now has the ability to manufacture a nuclear weapon this year, Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo and changed the rules governing interrogation of terrorists, in order to assure these prisoners not be made “uncomfortable.” No mention was made of the 61 Gitmo inmates that had already been released and found, once again, engaged in jihad.

Obama then followed up by asking the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon’s budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent — about $55 billion.

Obama reacted to Republican Congressman and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra’s comment “There’s no way and no chance to stop the Iranian nuclear program,” by penning a Dear Achmadinejad letter to Iran, legitimizing the rogue regime by agreeing to direct talks, something Bush had refused to do.

Iran promptly responded, claiming that Obama’s offer signaled that America’s policy of “domination” has failed. “This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Iran gleefully retorted.

No fool, he, Obama had already pre-empted Iran by appointing Gary Samore as our new Weapons of Mass Destruction Czar, allowing him to continue focusing on his plan to do away with the military’s ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ policy regarding gays in the military.

Anticipating this new policy, Army Secretary Pete Geren has approved adding legal personnel to help combat sexual assault among soldiers, which he deemed “repugnant to the core values” of the Army.

Meanwhile, our dedicated public servants on the state level are just as busy. New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, facing shrinking tax revenues that have turned the $1.3 billion November budget hole into a now $4 billion chasm, took to the microphones and declared a war on – salt. I’m not making this stuff up.

In California, the state was unable to give the taxpayers their tax refunds because, oops, there’s no money left. Not to worry, California is counting on being a big winner in the stimulus jackpot as soon as our public servants in D.C. can get rid of the pesky opposition and pass the much touted ’stimulus bill’, thereby relieving them of personal responsibility for the bad decisions of oh, the last 40 years, that have left the state in default.

Undeterred by lack of funds, California continued doing the people’s business by enacting a new law that provides millions of Californians with limited English proficiency the right to an interpreter from their commercial health and dental plans.

This law comes on the heels of another California eco-mandate that requires owners of gas stations to purchase new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump.

In the name of Mother Earth, dozens and potentially hundreds of gas stations, unable to afford the cash to comply with these new mandates, are choosing to shut down. Unfortunately these small businessmen don’t have the promise of ’stimulus’ money to pay the piper so, poof, they’re green toast.

With foreign money fleeing the US at record rates, with a 2009 deficit already at $1.2 trillion, (your share is $175,000) and a 16-year high unemployment rate, states respond by continuing to spend money at boom-time rates, despite shrinking revenues.

Governors across the nation are reacting by making plans to levy higher taxes next year on clothes, soft drinks, gasoline, auto licenses and other items that likely will hit low- and middle-income families.

Joe six-pack will just have to cough up more dough. Obama has called on all of us to make sacrifices, and its our patriotic duty.

Noticeable only by its total absence, is any call for the one solution that would solve the economic crisis. Cutting taxes. Not only do ordinary Joes get to keep and spend more of their own money, thus doing some actual stimulating to the weak economy, but tax cuts, as shown by history, would also fill depleted government coffers.

But, hey, our public servants are the experts. And fortunately, they’re judged on their promises instead of their results. The recent election indicated that this is what Americans want. And now we’re getting it.

Soon, the government will own pieces of banks, insurance companies, mortgage companies, car companies, possibly airlines, media etc., etc. By this time next year, (if Iran hasn’t nuked us), you will be able to walk into any of those businesses and get the same service you now get from the government run post office – which by the way – will soon be cutting back on 6 day mail deliveries due to budget problems.

We asked for it, we got it. God bless America.