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In an effort to make the economy look a little rosier than it is, the Obama administration is basically coercing defense contractors so as to prevent news of layoffs hitting voters before the election. With sequestration about to result in some major cuts to the defense budget, contractors will lose government business -- and that means, employees will lose jobs. But to prevent poor numbers ahead of the November election, the Obama administration has made it very, well, fiscally unwise for companies to issue layoff notices too early. The Labor Department issued guidance in July saying it would be “inappropriate”...

Citing cuts in the federal defense budget and a continuing weakness in its military helicopter business, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. announced Monday it will close its military completions center in Big Flats at the end of the year.

“A self-inflicted wound” to a struggling economy. “Ham-handed cuts” nobody thought would actually happen. “The big, dumb spending cuts that no one wants.” Those are just three descriptions given to the looming federal budget reductions that are scheduled to take effect Jan. 2, 2013, unless Congress stops them. If they are enacted, more than $1.2 trillion would be cut from federal spending in the next ten years, including nearly $110 billion next year alone. The specter has produced jitters around the country. Heightening anxiety is the broader, so-called “fiscal cliff,” a term that adds in the tax cuts also set...

July was a tough month for the Pentagon. The Washington Post revealed that three U.S. special-operations soldiers died in Mali when their vehicle plunged off a bridge with three Moroccan prostitutes in the vehicle at the time. The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction issued one of his final reports on U.S. reconstruction efforts in that country and estimated that $6 billion to $8 billion of the $51 billion spent on reconstruction was likely wasted, embezzled or misplaced. The inspector general’s investigations have produced 90 indictments, 72 convictions and $177 million in fines and other penalties, with the highest percentage...

The Marine Corps has tapped Colt Defense LLC to make more than 10,000 new Close Quarter Battle Pistols for the service's elite special operations troops. The July 19 contract, which has a total value of $22.5 million, brings an end to the Corps' exhaustive search for the top .45 caliber, 1911-style pistol to replace the fleet of worn-out Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, or MARSOC, M45 pistols

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The U.S. Army will not return to Stewart-Haas Racing next season, effectively ending its sponsorship in NASCAR altogether after a decade. SHR said Tuesday it is pursuing a new sponsor. ... The Army has been in NASCAR for 10 seasons, .. ... The decision to leave NASCAR comes as Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota and Rep. Jackson Kingston of Georgia are pushing an amendment that would prohibit military sponsorship of sports. McCollum lost a House vote a year ago to end military sponsorships of NASCAR, professional wrestling and fishing, but is trying again to have the...

Marine Corps’ NC air base undergoing big expansionPosted on: 10:05 am, March 5, 2012, by Ryan Sullivan MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. — The military’s big expansion in North Carolina continues as the Marine Corps builds a $140 million mega-hangar to hold four squadrons of a revolutionary aircraft. **SNIP** ...preparing to break ground on one of the Marine Corps’ largest single structures. The super hangar will house dozens of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

<p>PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. — The Navy's Blue Angels have been thrilling audiences for more than six decades with their acrobatic flying in fighter planes, but a new era of federal budget worries and proposed deficit cutting has some inside and outside the military raising questions about the millions it costs to produce their shows.</p>

The courtiers in the Hall of Mirrors that is Versailles on the Potomac are lining up to give Leon Panetta advice on how to manage the Pentagon in the coming era of budget “constraints.” Most of this wisdom takes the form of platitudes of how important it is to have a strategy and to make the hard choices needed to budget for that strategy. Duh! My current favorite is Dr. Daniel Goure's recent blog on the web page of the Lexington Institute, a pro-defense “think tank.” Goure starts his advisory by saying: Let's be honest. The current U.S. defense program...

Federal Agencies Prepare for Shutdowns, No Hints of a Deal Between Republicans and Democrats. Soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan will not receive paychecks next week if the government fails to come together on a resolution to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown, senior government officials said today. Military personnel will be paid eventually but not until Congress appropriates money to the Department of Defense. "Our military men and women put their lives on the line and sacrifice every day to ensure our security. They should not have to worry about getting paid on time," said Sen. Bob...

The Virginia National Guard could still exclude gays from service once federal regulations repealing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are issued, but it would likely lose its lifeline of federal funding, according to an opinion issued by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. The opinion, released Friday, came in response to a request by Del. William R. Janis, R-Henrico, and on the heels of House Bill 2474, submitted by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, that would keep in force the current "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the Virginia National Guard. Cuccinelli issued another opinion Friday advising that two...

1/6/2011 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Defense Department officials will reduce senior ranks and freeze civilian staffing levels, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Jan. 6. "The monetary savings from ... reductions in senior personnel will be relatively modest, and mostly consist of the extra staff and amenities that, by tradition, follow high rank," Secretary Gates said. The secretary and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to reporters at the Pentagon on the results of defense efficiencies initiatives begun in May to trim support costs and ensure funding for military modernization. The primary purpose of...

NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Saturday urged "paper tiger" Europe to ramp up investment in a costly missile defence umbrella. The alliance chief's remarks at a security conference in Brussels were largely aimed at the likes of EU heavyweights Germany, Italy and Spain, who fall substantially short of NATO military spending targets. Britain and France, whose budgets are under ferocious pressure over the coming years having dug deep in a bid to insulate citizens from the worst economic slump since the 1930s, were also clearly in the Dane's sights. "The Lisbon treaty provides the EU with a stronger...

The Obama administration plans to spend more money than ever on secret military projects, commonly referred to as the Defense Department’s “black budget.” Just over $50 billion will be allocated, which representing a 3% increase over last year’s total and the highest amount any administration has budgeted for classified programs. To give it some perspective, the U.S. black budget will consume more money than all defense spending in Russia, the U.K., France or Japan. All in all, about 7.5% of the Pentagon’s total spending is now classified. Although the total amount for the black budget is revealed, its specifics are...

Obama's plan to weaken America continues to move forward at a record pace. Obama will continue to spend our money like a drunken sailor on his things like his 9000 earmark "stimulus' plan, illegals and increasing foreign aid. But when it comes to keeping America's military strong he will be making making massive cuts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Monday threw his support behind Defense Department plans to refocus spending for key defense programs. "I strongly support (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates' decision to restructure a number of major defense programs," McCain said in a statement.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday will unveil his latest initiatives to reshape the U.S. military into a force better suited to today's unconventional wars. Mr. Gates has warned for months that the Defense Department would face "hard choices," and he is expected to announce that several major weapons programs need to be cut or curtailed. His 2010 budget proposal is expected to be Mr. Gates's boldest move yet in reshaping the priorities and capabilities of the U.S. military. He has argued that the military is still too oriented toward fighting a peer nation like China and hasn't devoted enough...

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, will on Monday offer proposals to slash spending on major military projects in what aides called a "fundamental shift in direction". Mr Gates, who spent the weekend finalising his budget plans for 2010, is expected to take aim at several major weapons conventional warfare programmes, in favour of spending on technologies more useful to the "asymmetrical" wars that US forces are embroiled in. After eight years in which the defence budget doubled, and with the economy in deep recession, Mr Gates is targeting systems that have gone way over both budget and schedule. The...

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. economy in crisis and military spending at its highest level since World War II, military officials and experts are worrying that America may have to start reining in defense spending. In the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. spent $694.2 billion on defense, up 52 percent from the 2000 defense budget in constant dollars. (That year, the department spent $292 billion .) The fiscal 2008 total includes $514.2 billion in the defense budget and another $180 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , which have been financed through so-called "supplemental"...

http://www.mikefrancesa.com/wordpress/?p=1048Thanks to the McCain campaign for bringing this out, video at the above link, I can't believe that any of the conservative talk show radio hosts or other conservative media have not highlighted this "Obama Doctrine", this is huge and it would reverse over fifty years of American defense policy. Can one useless reporter ask Barack Obama about these statements, the Great O'Reilly failed to address this, and another rant, can one reporter ask Obama what he and Jeremiah Wright discussed after 9/11, how is it possible they did not have a conversation about 9/11, obviously Obama knows Wright believes...