Wasting Time With Alex

That’s how you do it: money for nothing and chicks for free!

Remember when the democrats where all up in arms that evil BushMcHitler sent our troops to Iraq without adequate equipment? The endless stories about the lack of body armor, mine resistant trucks, inadequate armoring on Humvees, the overstretched military which lacked enough manpower, bad MREs, or adequate internet connections so the troops would not have to watch slow loading porn? OK, that last one was a joke, but you get my drift. All that sudden caring about the troops, seemed to take a back seat to the obvious fact that it was these same democrats that defunded and drastically reduced the size and fighting capability of those troops they now worried about, so the money could be funneled elsewhere. Increased social spending that buys them votes, being the most obvious and likely target. And we will avoid the whole rigmarole about if they actually were worried about the troops or just playing politics and hurting the troops efforts because they had a vested interest in making the mission fail for now, because this would just cloud the issue I want to bring up.

Anyway, so now that they are in power and able to “help” those troops fill those gaps they agonized over and do their jobs better, this is how they choose to do it:

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis. Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, “in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.

I guess those democrats really knew what the troops really needed now that they are in charge. Educational institutes named after the U-Boat commander of Chappaquiddick and museums are essential war fighting materiel. And I am sure the MSM will report how much better off our troops are, now that they are still fighting a war these people tried their best to make us lose, with these guys calling the shot. Don’t worry though! Just like the big O plans to use the power of government to make jobs - because this has always worked so well every time it was tried and never ended up costing the tax payer a fortune while bloating up government with more useless people that just happen to vote for democrats – I am sure he will magically find a fix for this stuff too.