Blogitos or-Short Takes

Ann Coulter is a strong believer that there is no such thing as “bad publicity” as long as they spell your name right. During the reign of the GOP government, this self appointed Right Wing successor to Rush Limbaugh held brief media attention with provocative Right Wing commentary. She was a novelty, an anorexic looking, intellectually anemic pseudo academic firebrand Barbie. With her 15 minutes of fame burned out, she apparently is desperate to regain the limelight. So she injects herself into the presidential debate by calling John Edwards a homosexual. Ann, please go away quietly and try to join a bridge club with Phyllis Schlaffly and Barbara Bush.

Democrats are acting like the simpleminded watchdog that chases after a piece of steak thrown by a burglar, while the thief raids the household coffers. The real issue with the proposed military budget is not that it contains funds for increasing troops in Iraq. The problem is that a host of military experts have expressed their opinion that the entire basis for the huge budget, an increase of combat troops in the military by more than 92,000, is a bad idea. In other words, the budget is bloated and needs to be trimmed. The trimming has political implications as well. As one military expert stated:
"The global war on terrorism and Iraq are being used as lame rationales" for enlarging the military, said retired Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman , a researcher at the Marine Corps Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities in Quantico, Va. "Unless you think we will have more than six brigades in Iraq in 2012, I don't see how this is relevant."
In simple terms, the ENTIRE military budget needs scrutiny to determine whether the priorities and assumptions upon which it is based are relevant, logical and prudent. As another expert observed, the proposed larger combat force will not be ready for any useful deployment for 3-5 years from now at the earliest. Unless we are committing the US to a policy of future military occupation in various parts of the globe, the budget does not make sense. However, most Democrats in Congress are lining up behind the proposed Bush military budget with their tongues wagging.