Army Maj kills 12 and wounds 31 at Fort Hood.

However, this turns out it will be bad for the Army, political correctness, a promotion system broken and signs everywhere.

I would advise bloggers to wait a day or two and information will come out.  Right now while assumptions are being made facts are few.

It seems every year here in Colorado Springs a new initiative to raise taxes is proposed.  Every year it’s defeated.  This year was no different.  Measure 2C which would have tripled property tax in a time when jobs are being cut and foreclosures are at an all time high was soundly defeated. 

  
Of course the city continues to warn that this will mean cuts in service.  Well no kidding.  They continually point to fire and police.  But the people aren’t buying it.  First off there are more police, deputies and troopers in this town than any other place I’ve ever lived.  They are necessary but the attempt to scare us into voting for higher taxes doesn’t work well in this military town.

 
They also tried to use the cutting of recreational services and slashing bus lines.  Umm.. maybe they haven’t seen our trails which are filled with Dog Feces and brush or the fact that the bus system loses money because the number of people riding them are very limited.  Probably due to a route line that was never planned very well.  I’ve never seen a bus in my neighborhood.  They say they’ll have to cut city pools.  I don’t even know where a city pool is.  I had to pay for a private pool for my son to swim in and it’s pretty damn expensive for a little neighborhood pool. 

 
Mayor Lionel Rivera said voters delivered a clear message Tuesday: reduce the size of government.
“We can only do the services that we have revenue to do,” he said. ”Like any other business, if revenues decrease, you have to cut services, you have to lay off employees, and that’s what we’ll be doing.”

 
There you go mayor that’s the idea…. Maybe you shouldn’t always be on the limit of what you bring in?  Of course in government accounting If you don’t spend it you don’t get more.

 
This letter to the editor in Sundays Gazette says a lot about the situation in America today.

 
Vehicle fees getting out of hand
This year I went to renew the plates on my old ’76 pickup truck. Last year the total was $15.63 and the service at the county registration office was bad. This year my taxes were $76.71 which included ownership tax of $3, license fee of $41.71 ($8 last year), road fee of $23 and a bridge fee of $9, and the service was worse than last year. And they added two new fees areas, “Special” fee and “Other” fee that have yet to be determined on the registration form, just in case they need more of our dollars.

 
Being unemployed and with the economy in the toilet, I feel the county/city/state governments have been living on poor management and falsely inflated budgets. Why can’t they live within the money they get through normal tax channels? The tax on gasoline was supposed to take care of the roads and bridges; however, they must have spent the tax on other things. It’s time to vote them out.
Ron Bowser
Colorado Springs

You said it  brother.

Ok here are the key points.

1. End the unfair tax on the uninsured (and self-insured), giving them a tax-break similar to that which is already available to those with employer-provided insurance. Provide refundable and advanceable tax-credits of $2,000 per person, up to $5,000 per family. LEAVE EMPLOYER-PROVIDED INSURANCE, ITS TAX-EXEMPT STATUS, AND THE REST OF THE TAX CODE, INTACT. (Increase in government spending: none. Average reduction in taxes: $26.5 billion/year (see * below), offset by using unallocated economic stimulus funds.)

 
2. Allow Americans to buy insurance across state lines. Allow Americans to shop for coverage from coast to coast — whether from lower-mandate states at lower prices, or from higher-mandate (additional-coverage) states at higher prices. Allow plans bought in one state to be transported to another. (Increase in government spending: none.)

 
3. Expand Americans’ ability to keep their insurance when they leave their job. COBRA allows former employees to pay the costs of their insurance premiums (including the employer’s former share) and thereby keep their insurance in effect, but only for 18 months. Expand COBRA by 12 months, allowing people to keep their insurance for up to 30 months if they have not yet secured a new job with an employer-sponsored plan. (Increase in government spending: none.)

 
4. Allow lower premiums for healthier lifestyles. Existing federal regulations ban private companies from offering more than a 20 percent discount to those who eat and drink in moderation, exercise, or don’t smoke. Such regulations handcuff private efforts to reward healthier lifestyles and to thereby cut health costs — and they should be eliminated. (Increase in government spending: none.)

 
5. Cut costs by preventing runaway malpractice lawsuits. Relieve doctors from having to practice defensive medicine, by capping punitive damages at $250,000 per provider and $750,000 total, while continuing to allow unlimited economic damages to compensate for financial loss. (Increase in government spending: none.)

 
6. Provide further help for those who are uninsured and have expensive preexisting conditions, by increasing federal support for state-run high-risk pools. Thirty-four states already have pools to help those who have been denied affordable coverage because of prohibitively expensive preexisting conditions, and we should incentivize their establishment in all 50 states. (Federal (DSH) funds currently covering emergency-room care would gradually fund the pools, as reliance on emergency-room care is reduced. Increase in government spending: $15 billion in the first year, gradually dropping to $0.)

Ok that is nearly the entire bill.  So we can have a bill that runs over 1900 pages or a one page bill that actually addresses the countries concerns and not special interest.

No it has no chance….

Tick Tock Tick Tock…..

Obama seeking options on forces

MEETING WITH JOINT CHIEFS
President looks to send fewer additional troops

So these meeting so far have produce……um… nothing?

My favorites

Dracula – original Bela lagosi

Frankenstein – original Boris Karlof

The Mummy – original and the updated one

Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein – I mean come on this is great stuff

Yes I like the old stuff.  The newer horror, not so much.

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.”- Bertrand Russell

Taken for the REFDESK site.  Check it out…

Here you go Chuck, I just seen this.

There hasn’t been a single recruit in a month and a half. 

Update:  Wrong link.  Updated to correct link.

Recruits for the Afghan Public Protection Force are usually sent to Laghman to be trained by American Special Forces. “There hasn’t been a single recruit for more than a month and a half,” General Agha said. “More than a hundred people were rounded up and sent to the training centre, but the commander in charge told me they ran away. Iran opened the border [in the west] and they all thought it was better to go abroad.”

There is an old quote. Not sure who it is from but it is “When in doubt empty the magazine” That is what you have to do. Empty the magazine. Put all we have into this fight!  We started a job and we must finish it or it will simply be left to the next generation.

Read the whole thing.  It’s important.

Teamwork baby

Project Valour IT….. If your gonna give, give to something worthwhile…..

Another interesting post.  This concept is interesting although I don’t know if the higher ups would ever buy into.  From a SF Teams perspective it works but regualar army?  Something to think about.

There is an amazing paper out by a Special Forces officer MAJ Jim Gant about how to win in Afghanistan which Grim references in the post below. It comes from his team’s personal experiences and it is absolutely spot on. All of his ideas are well-grounded in reality and all of his strategic concepts reflect the best possible solutions to an incredibly difficult problem. I only wish there was a chance in hell they would be adopted. You can read his paper here and I highly recommend it.

Check out Uncle Jimbos post then the paper.