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posts about #thomasmcinerney more → Fox News' Mercenary Campaign Against Military High Command
Fox's Pirate-Killing Jet Swindle
New York, 4:40 PM
Thu Dec 10
63 posts in the last 24 hours
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04/28/09
04/28/09
[gawker.com]
Then again, only an idiot like Bill O'Reilly thinks NBC, owned by the world's largest defense contractor, is liberal in any sense of the word.
04/28/09
Meet the Press still continues to be the best news hour on television.
04/28/09
The liberal tilt in the evening is obviously branding. Liberals learned long ago not to expect anything from CNN except for Mr. Mary Matalin arguing with another conservative and Wolf Blitzer pissing himself around Dick Cheney, and Fox News is Fox News. MSNBC went for an audience gambit and got it.
As for GE's "green" agenda, I'm surprised (not really, but I'll say it) by your naivete. The only shade of green that matters to MSNBC is money; to entertain otherwise is ridiculous. Finally, to say that Obama's victory (you haven't--but I know where this is going) is due to manipulation by this tiny cable network is an insult to everyone who voted in the last election for either candidate.
I usually end up shouting at Meet the Press and restraining myself from throwing something at my TV when it's on. Not necessarily because of any glimmer of personality on the part of the presenters, but because the guests just won't stop lying.
04/28/09
04/28/09
First paragraph I asserted that Joe Scarborough and Andrea Mitchell are conservative. The second part seems arguable, I guess, but not the part about Scarborough, who is as Republican as ever.
Second paragraph I argued that MSNBC's lineup is branding in order to capture a liberal audience that felt underserved by CNN and Fox News. Um, I'll stand by it.
Third paragraph, you seem to imply that you agree. Seems random, but whatever. Although now that I re-read it, I notice that I made a mistake. GE is the entity for which money is the principle driving force, not MSNBC (although all media needs the moolah these days).
Fourth, you like Meet the Press, I think it's a vacuous dog and pony show (like the other three Sunday morning panel shows). To each their own.
04/28/09
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Also, the current defense secretary is an idiot for blindly going along with Obama (who is unparalleled in his ignorance of the military). The changes and cuts that they're making are foolish and belie not just a lack of understanding, but a genuine disdain. It's pretty disgusting actually.
04/28/09
04/28/09
Well there's a huge difference between openly having a viewpoint and obviously collecting a paycheck from say an environmental group and secretly taking money from a defense contractor while posing as just an indepdendent military "analyst" who never discloses those connections.
The disclosure is what matters...
04/28/09
Yawn. Repulicans always say this about Democratic Presidents. But given how the last jackass circumvented the military's own leadership with a civilian leadership that rushed us into war against the wrong enemy with too few troops and inadequate preparation and equipment, I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on this particular meme. Ignoring the advice of his top generals and giving strategic decision making capability to Doug Feith, who Tommy Franks called, "the dumbest guy on the fucking planet," has forever earned George W. Bush the title of most ignorant CIC in history forever.
04/09/09
As a side note, I love it when Gawker degrades to two camps: one of tech talk and the other arguing the joys of grammar.
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I seem to recall that's exactly the strategy employed by THE EMPIRE IN STAR WARS. SERIOUSLY????!!
04/08/09
04/08/09
Drones are in fact quite useful for situations like this because they can stay on station for hours and even days at a time, uninterrupted, and monitor a very wide are while collecting huge amounts of data. Should it be necessary they can direct strikes or special ops teams, while also giving commanders a real-time look at the action as it happens. They're also a relative bargain.
As far as the F-22 itself goes, it is quite a mistake to cut it also. Our air power is literally the key to the success of our entire military. And while we still maintain with our current force a huge lead over the rest of the world, there are technologies being developed and proliferated very rapidly which will cut that lead drastically. Particularly since the retirement of the F-117 stealth 'fighter', there is a tremendous need for a small aircraft which can penetrate highly defended airspace in order to carry out precision strikes. Additionally, with more and more states purchasing advanced combat aircraft from Russia, we may find ourselves in a situation where our current air superiority fighters (most of which are pushing 30 years old), simply may not be up to the task. Are we prepared to take military losses because of dated technology? Are we prepared to deal with states that are emboldened because they think (rightly or not) that they have a legitimate shot at defeating our air power? In reality, a foreign air force would only have to shoot down two or three of our fighters in air to air combat for it to be considered a hopeless loss for us, such are the expectations these days.
But of course none of this matters. Lets take the money away from actually purchasing something from an American company, built across almost all 50 states by an American workforce, and hand that money to investment banks and auto unions, for free.
04/08/09
Anyway, the only thing you say about the F-22 is that it would be "quite a mistake to cut it." That's completely orthogonal to the discussion at hand, which is:
Is an F-22 an ideal platform for attacking pirates? Is it even usable?
That's what this general said. He tried to use a hot news event to falsely praise the F-22 for something it's not particularly useful for. The F-22 order was chopped to free up money for precisely the type of operation you'd mount against pirates: manpower and intelligence intensive.
Somehow, despite your self-professed aviation chops, you can't explain how an F-22 is the ideal plane for chasing pirates. Put up or shut up ;->
04/09/09
04/09/09
I don't think we have disagreed, then, as I didn't slam the F-22 as a platform, just pointed out this Fox thing is a disingenuous way to drum up support.
Though I do agree with Gates. The F-22 technology is there, given some apocalyptic war with China or some other air power we could restart production. And as someone else pointed out Obama INCREASED money for the F-35.
By the way, WTF was up (if you know) with the WSJ claiming the F-22 can HOVER in the article I linked? That's the F-35. There's some videos on YOuTube that will come up in a Google search of the F-22 in an airshow vertical climb and psuedo hovering in that position but that's not the same thing. I have never heard of F-22 referenced as V/STOVL platform before, although it can thurst vector.
04/09/09
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But given the very high cost, competing budget priorities (bailouts, Iraq/Afghanistan operating costs) and threats we face (Low Intensity Conflict), I see where Gates is coming from. It's a very, very tough call to let go of this shiny awesome superweapon with Congressional support but.... brave and probably neccesary IMHO.
04/09/09
04/09/09
[www.harkavagrant.com]
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04/08/09
Bloomberg says that he should be mayor for another term because he's a tough businessman who can lead the city out of this mess. Um, wasn't he is charge when we got INTO this mess? Where was his service-y business man skills THE LAST EIGHT YEARS????
Why is everyone an ass? WHY?
04/08/09