Hillary Continues Posturing To Right

[Roguish Lawyer]

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/071305/brief3.html

Dems aim to increase army size

A team of Senate and House Democrats today are planning to introduce legislation today aimed at significantly increasing size of the U.S. Army.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services (SASC) airland subcommittee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a SASC member, and Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), both members of the House Armed Services committee, are pressing for the passage of the United States Army Relief Act.

The legislation seeks to raise the cap of the Army’s end strength, said an aide to Tauscher.

The Army already is working on increasing its troop levels by 30,000. Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, has said on numerous occasions that it costs about $1.2 billion a year for every 10,000 people added to the Army.

Both the House and the Senate have called for an increase in troop levels in their 2006 defense authorization bill and it is likely that troop levels will be increased when the conferees meet.

[The Reaper]

The Army is having trouble recruiting enough people to man the current force, where do they think that extra volunteers to man their additional billets will come from?

TR

[Doc]

The Army is having trouble recruiting enough people to man the current force, where do they think that extra volunteers to man their additional billets will come from?

TR

Sir,

I think they will try to raise whatever additional benefits they can to attract new recruits. They are attempting to show that they are "hawks" on the GWOT and taking care of the troops at the same time. :rolleyes:

JMHO,

Doc

[The Reaper]

Sir,

I think they will try to raise whatever additional benefits they can to attract new recruits. They are attempting to show that they are "hawks" on the GWOT and taking care of the troops at the same time. :rolleyes:

JMHO,

Doc

It would have been better if they could see the requirement before the RIFed out all of the experienced troops the lost under the previous regime.

They can posture all they want, I am not fooled.

TR

[Doc]

It would have been better if they could see the requirement before the RIFed out all of the experienced troops the lost under the previous regime.

They can posture all they want, I am not fooled.

TR

Me neither but we're informed. Hillary will distance herself away from bubba as she no longer needs him. My guess is she thought he was too far to the right in politics anyway. She will appear in whatever role it takes to win the presidency and if she wins, she'll make FDR look conservative.

JMHO

Doc

[rubberneck]

It seems just like yesterday her husband was doing everything in his power to reduce the size of the Army. How ironic.

[tyrsnbdr]

It seems just like yesterday her husband was doing everything in his power to reduce the size of the Army. How ironic.

Thats not entirely true. Bush Sr did most of the cutting before Clinton took office.

[NousDefionsDoc]

The Army is having trouble recruiting enough people to man the current force, where do they think that extra volunteers to man their additional billets will come from?

TR
D R A F T

;)

[The Reaper]

Thats not entirely true. Bush Sr did most of the cutting before Clinton took office.

Not exactly.

President GHW Bush proposed and initiated it.

President Clinton accelerated it and continued the process that forced RIF actions.

He then cut funding for critical programs, resulting in us having to shoot up our "go to war" ammo stockpiles for raining.

TR

[The Reaper]

D R A F T

;)

Hey, a Dem (Rev Al Sharpton) proposed that last time it was brought up, maybe they would like to touch that rail among their constituency again?

TR

[Airbornelawyer]

It seems just like yesterday her husband was doing everything in his power to reduce the size of the Army. How ironic.To be (somewhat) fair, while he may have been doing all in his power, he faced a Republican Congress and did not accomplish much. The big reductions in the size of the Army are more a legacy of the administration of Bush pere.

Bush's first defense authorization act, for fiscal year 1990 (Public Law 101-189, signed Nov. 29, 1989) reduced Army authorized endstrength to 764,021. I am not sure how much of a reduction from Reagan's last defense authorization act this was, as I cannot find FY89 endstrengths online, but it was a reduction, as 2nd Armored Division began inactivating in FY90.

Bush's next defense authorization act was signed during the Desert Shield build-up, in November 1990 (P.L. 101-510). It reduced Army end strength for FY91 to 675,669, an 11.5% decrease.

The next two years, the end strength was further reduced to 660,200 and then 598,900.

Clinton's first defense authorization act chopped it further, setting FY94 Army end strength at 540,000. The next year, it dropped to 510,000.

Despite the GOP taking control of Congress, authorized strength fell again for FY96 to 495,000. It stayed there for the next several years, going down to 480,000 in FY99. It has stayed at 480,000 since.

Bush pere inherited an Army of almost 800,000 and reduced it by 25% to 600,000 in four years. Clinton inherited a 600,000-man Army and reduced it by 20% to 480,000 in eight years. Bush fils inherited an Army of 480,000 and has kept it basically the same (there have been tiny increases in the other services).

This doesn't exonerate Clinton, of course. The reductions in the Bush years were rapid and precipitous, but they were of an Army which had increased as a result of the Reagan defense buildup, and with the Soviet collapse, some reduction was justified and could be absorbed. But once the floor was set (based on the two-MRC strategy), the Clinton Administration just kept lowering the floor.

[dedeppm]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/13/news_6129021.html

Hillary Clinton to take on Rockstar over Hot Coffee

Washington, DC press conference Thursday will see the New York Senator call for a Federal Trade Commission inquiry into the San Andreas mod.

"Tomorrow in the country's capital, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will call on the Federal Trade Commission to launch an inquiry into the "Hot Coffee" mod, sources have told GameSpot...

Clinton is expected to call on the FTC to determine who is responsible for the Hot Coffee mod, a modification that unlocks sexually explicit minigames in Rockstar's recently published PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas...

Although there are far more outspoken politicians when it comes to regulating game content inappropriate for children, this is not the first time Clinton has looked into the issue. On her official Web site, Clinton lists "fighting the culture of sex and violence in the media" as part of her platform, and in March, she joined with Senators Joe Lieberman (R-CT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Rick Santorum (R-PA) to cosponsor legislation seeking $90 million over five years for research into how viewing different types of media (television, video games, and the Internet in particular) affects children's development."

She also seems to be shifting right on this issue as well. Trying to appeal to all those "values" voters who have been so turned off by the Democratic Party for the last couple decades. Good luck to her with that. :boohoo

[Smokin Joe]

Here's a novel concept.....

Instead of increasing the size of the Army why don't they increase what we PAY our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines? I think they have earned it.

Just a thought for an outsiders point of view.

[The Reaper]

AL:

785,000 was the Reagan end strength, IIRC. It was 16 divisions.

I believe that it dropped to 12 under Pres. Bush and then to 10 under Pres. Clinton. It has been at 480,000 soldiers plus or minus a few since then.

Anyone recall when the Reserve Component realigned and we lost 2 Reserve SF Groups?

TR

[CommoGeek]

Anyone recall when the Reserve Component realigned and we lost 2 Reserve SF Groups?

TR

I do. I came in in 93 and there wasn't any talk of it around the head shed. By 95 or so guys were looking for homes.....

[The Reaper]

I do. I came in in 93 and there wasn't any talk of it around the head shed. By 95 or so guys were looking for homes.....

Who was the POTUS then? :munchin

TR

[Razor]

On her official Web site, Clinton lists "fighting the culture of sex and violence in the media" as part of her platform...

How ironic, considering the legacy of her husband's presidency.

[Jo Sul]

I do. I came in in 93 and there wasn't any talk of it around the head shed. By 95 or so guys were looking for homes.....

Yep, that's about right - I left 12th group in late 91, I think they shut down in early 94.

[Airbornelawyer]

Anyone recall when the Reserve Component realigned and we lost 2 Reserve SF Groups?

TRI missed the deactivation ceremony for 11th Group because I was in OCS at the time. That was July 1994.

The official decision predated that, and was made by a cabal of (i) some Clinton appointee to Deputy Undersecretary for Reserve Affairs (a woman who I think was a former Aspin staffer), (ii) Bin Peay, then VCSA, (iii) the director of the Army National Guard Bureau (a MG whose name escapes me) and (iv) the Chief, Army Reserve (a MG whose name escapes me). The first three basically ganged up on the last one.

SF wasn't the only issue in the off-site agreement (what they called the deal). The big issue was the combat arms vs. CS/CSS realignment. Peay seemed indifferent to reserve component combat units to begin with (probably because of Desert Storm). The Guard wanted its combat units for tradition's sake and because the governors needed bodies for state mission. Of course, the Guard also wanted its CS/CSS units, because many of these - medical, aviation, engineers - were valuable for state missions, especially disaster relief.

When Congress reviewed it, the DUSD seemed out of her element on military matters, and Peay ran the show. The commander of 12th Group lobbied heavily against it, but the then-commander of 11th Group basically spent most of his time looking for his next job.

[Airbornelawyer]

785,000 was the Reagan end strength, IIRC. It was 16 divisions.

I believe that it dropped to 12 under Pres. Bush and then to 10 under Pres. Clinton. It has been at 480,000 soldiers plus or minus a few since then.So a drop of about 785,000 to 598,900 in the Bush Administration, and 598,900 to 480,000 in the Clinton Administration.

When President Reagan left office, the Army had 18 divisions, with 48 active maneuver brigades. Six of these divisions had roundout brigades from the Guard or Reserve. There were also three separate maneuver brigades and three armored cavalry regiments.

When President Bush left office, it had dropped to 14 divisions, with 36 active maneuver brigades and 5 roundout brigades. There were also two separate maneuver brigades, two armored cavalry regiments and one cavalry regiment in transition to light cavalry.

When President Clinton left office, it was 10 divisions, with 29 divisional maneuver brigades (no roundouts) and one separate brigade (172nd, nominally attached to 10th MTN as its third brigade). Another separate brigade, the 173rd Airborne, had been stood up in 2000, but only had 1 battalion until 2002. Plus one heavy and one light ACR.

[Airbornelawyer]

Well that wasn't a very detailed response on my part. For more detail:

As noted, Reagan's Army reached 18 divisions - 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armored; 1st Cavalry; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 24th and 25th Infantry; 10th Mountain; 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne (Air Assault). Of these, several weren't at full strength when Bush was inaugurated. 1CD, 5ID, 6ID, 24ID and 10th MTN only had two brigades, with their third being a roundout brigade. 2nd BDE, 9ID had just been deactivated in 1988, to be replaced by a roundout brigade.

When Bush came into office in January 1989, as noted above, the active Army had 51 maneuver brigades:

• 1AD: 1/1, 2/1, 3/1
• 2AD: 1/2, 2/2, 3/2
• 3AD: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3
• 1CD: 1/1, 2/1 (roundout was 155th ARMD BDE, MSARNG)
• 1ID: 1/1, 2/1, 3/1
• 2ID: 1/2, 2/2, 3/2
• 3ID: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3
• 4ID: 1/4, 2/4, 3/4
• 5ID: 1/5, 2/5 (roundout was 256th IN BDE, LAARNG)
• 6ID: 1/6, 2/6, (roundout was 205th IN BDE, USAR)
• 7ID: 1/7, 2/7, 3/7
• 8ID: 1/8, 2/8, 3/8
• 9ID: 1/9, 3/9 (roundout was 81st IN BDE, WAARNG).
• 10MTN: 1/10, 2/10 (roundout was 27th IN BDE, NYARNG)
• 24ID: 1/24, 2/24 (roundout was 48th IN BDE, GAARNG)
• 25ID: 1/25, 2/25, 3/25
• 82ABN: 1/82, 2/82, 3/82
• 101AASLT: 1/101, 2/101, 3/101
• 193rd IN BDE
• 194th ARMD BDE (roundout was 2-136 IN, MNARNG)
• 197th IN BDE

Various changes took place before, during and after Desert Shield/Desert Storm:

• The brigades of 1AD were inactivated in 1992, and 8ID's three brigades were reflagged as 1/1AD, 2/1AD and 3/1AD.
• 2/2AD was inactivated in 1990, 1/2AD was reflagged to 1CD in 1991 and 3/2AD was inactivated in 1992. 1/5ID and 2/5ID were reflagged as 1/2AD and 2/2AD in 1992 when 5ID was inactivated.
• 1/3AD was inactivated in 1991, and 2/3AD, 3/3AD and the division as a whole were inactivated in 1992.
• 1/1CD, 2/1CD stayed intact, while 1/2AD was reflagged as 3/1CD, giving 1st Cav three active brigades.
• 1ID's 3rd Brigade was deactivated in 1991, and the 218th IN BDE (SCARNG) became roundout.
• 3/2ID inactivated in 1992 and the 81st IN BDE became 2ID's roundout brigade.
• 2/4ID was inactivated in 1992, replaced by 116th CAV BDE (IDARNG).
• 5ID was inactivated in November 1992, with 1/5ID, 2/5ID reflagged as brigades of 2AD
• 8ID was inactivated in January 1992 and 1/8ID, 2/8ID, 3/8ID became 1/1AD, 2/1AD and 3/1AD.
• 1/9ID was inactivated in 1990; 9ID as a whole was inactivated in June 1991, with 3/9ID becoming the 199th IN BDE (and then the 2nd ACR) and the 81st IN BDE becoming 2ID's roundout.
• After Desert Storm, 48th IN BDE was removed as roundout brigade to 24ID, and 197th IN BDE officially became 3/24ID

3ID, 6ID, 7ID, 10MTN, 25ID, the 82nd and the 101st were left unchanged, although one of 3ID's brigades was detached to 1AD in Desert Shield/Desert Storm and 10MTN lost its roundout brigade. Also unchanged were the 193rd IN BDE in Panama and the 194th ARMD BDE at Fort Knox. As a result, when Clinton came into office, the Army had 14 divisions, with a total of 38 maneuver brigades (including the two separate brigades):

• 1AD: 1/1, 2/1, 3/1
• 2AD: 1/2, 2/2 (roundout: 256th IN BDE, LAARNG)
• 1CD: 1/1, 2/1, 3/1
• 1ID: 1/1, 2/1 (roundout: 218th IN BDE, SCARNG)
• 2ID: 1/2, 2/2 (roundout: 81st IN BDE, WAARNG)
• 3ID: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3
• 4ID: 1/4, 3/4 (roundout: 116th CAV BDE IDARNG)
• 6ID: 1/6, 2/6, (roundout: 205th IN BDE, USAR)
• 7ID: 1/7, 2/7, 3/7
• 10MTN: 1/10, 2/10
• 24ID: 1/24, 2/24, 3/24
• 25ID: 1/25, 2/25, 3/25
• 82ABN: 1/82, 2/82, 3/82
• 101AASLT: 1/101, 2/101, 3/101
• 193rd IN BDE
• 194th ARMD BDE

Among others, 6ID and 7ID were already on the chopping block, though. 7ID's 2nd and 3rd Brigades inactivated in 1993 and the division officially inactivated in June 1994. The 1st Brigade held on, but was reflagged as 1/25ID in 1995. 6ID's 2nd and 3rd Brigades (the latter a USAR unit) inactivated in 1994, and the division followed in July 1994, while 1/6ID held on as a brigade of 10th Mountain until being renamed the 172nd IN BDE in 1998. Other reductions and reflaggings in this period:

• 193rd IN BDE was inactivated in 1994.
• 2/3ID was inactivated in 1994, leaving 3ID with two Germany-based brigades.
• 194th ARMD BDE was inactivated in 1995.
• As noted, 10MTN gained 1/6ID in 1994, giving it three brigades.
• 1/25ID in Hawaii was inactivated in 1995 and 1/7ID at Fort Lewis was reflagged as 1/25ID.
• 3/1AD moved to Fort Lewis and in 1995 was reflagged to 2ID as its 3rd Brigade.

That gave the Army a 12-division force in the mid-1990s, but several divisions still had roundout brigades and some were otherwise reduced to two brigades. The next step was the reduction to the 10-division force, along with the ending of the roundout concept. The 1996 game of musical chairs was the most visible part of this reorganization:

• 2AD cased its colors and dropped its roundout brigade. It was reflagged as 4ID and its two active brigades became 1/4 and 2/4. 1/4ID was inactivated and its flag went to 1/2AD. 4ID's roundout was also dropped. 3/4ID at Fort Carson remained the same. As a result, where before there were two divisions – 4ID and 2AD – with 4 active and 2 Guard brigades between them, there was now one division – 4ID – with three active brigades (the two Guard brigades continued as separate brigades, and both have served in Iraq).
• 3ID cased its colors in Germany and took them to Fort Stewart. 24ID cased its colors and was reflagged as 3ID. Its three brigades (1/24, 2/24, 3/24) were renamed 1/3, 2/3, 3/3.
• The two brigades of 3ID left in Germany were renamed as 2nd and 3rd Brigades of 1ID. 1/1ID at Fort Riley remained with the division, while the old 2/1ID became the new 3/1AD (replacing the brigade which had gone to 2ID in 1995).

Other than minor changes, this is essentially the maneuver Army we have had since, up to the UA/UE restructuring taking place right now. Each division except 10th Mountain had three active maneuver brigades (the 172nd having become a separate brigade again in 1998).

[brewmonkey]

You missed a BDE in there. From 1989-1994 the 177th Armor BDE at Fort Irwin was Heavy Seperate with 1 Armor BN, 1 INF BN & the 177th FSB (with HHC, 87th ENG CO, 177th MI CO and 31st Maint. CO) and then an Armor BN from the CA NG for roundout. While they conducted missions as OPFOR they were organized by MTOE and were part of I corps.

I know people like to forget about us out there in the sand.

[Airbornelawyer]

You missed a BDE in there. From 1989-1994 the 177th Armor BDE at Fort Irwin was Heavy Seperate with 1 Armor BN, 1 INF BN & the 177th FSB (with HHC, 87th ENG CO, 177th MI CO and 31st Maint. CO) and then an Armor BN from the CA NG for roundout. While they conducted missions as OPFOR they were organized by MTOE and were part of I corps.

I know people like to forget about us out there in the sand.My bad. I though they were a TDA unit.

[lksteve]

AL:

785,000 was the Reagan end strength, IIRC. It was 16 divisions.

i thought it was more like 790,000 (nitpicky, i know) and 17 divisions...that last division was the 6th ID in Alaska...to my knowledge, it never got beyond 5 infantry battalions....and truth be known, we had a hell of a time keeping those units up to strength...of course, several divisions in the Army had a RC round-out unit....the 6th had an infantry brigade out of Oregon, i think...and the 24th had the (in)famous 48th Brigade, which i believe, holds the record for the most consecutive unsucessful rotations at the NTC....

[brewmonkey]

My bad. I though they were a TDA unit.


We were up until 1989 when they decided to make us part of the Regular Army. :D We did not go through Bradley NETT though until the Spring of 1991 so up until then we were a regular old mech unit running around the desert on 113's for ARTEP.

And yes, the 48th was part of the 24ID. We spent MANY MANY (<-- in my Commandant Lassard voice) wonderful nights in the Granite Pass training those folks. I think their original 14 day rotation turned into something like 60 and change and in the end not only did they not deploy their BDE CO was relieved as were some other folks. We then trained the 155th & 256th BDE's.

[The Reaper]

3rd Brigade of the 25th ID was a roundout brigade from the HIARNG/Army Reserve (100th/442nd) even under President Reagan.

TR

[CommoGeek]

Who was the POTUS then? :munchin

TR

A quasi-Socialist womanizer with health problems.... Roosevelt? ;)

Well that wasn't a very detailed response on my part. For more detail:

This kills me. ABL's "wasn't a very detailed response on my part" is better, and more detailed, than 90% of the posts on this board. I have research envy.

[Airbornelawyer]

This kills me. ABL's "wasn't a very detailed response on my part" is better, and more detailed, than 90% of the posts on this board. I have research envy.It didn't have, shall we say, my trademark level of detail. ;)


Of course, as brew catches, the more details you provide, the more opportunities you have for mistakes.

[Airbornelawyer]

3rd Brigade of the 25th ID was a roundout brigade from the HIARNG/Army Reserve (100th/442nd) even under President Reagan.The 29th Infantry Brigade was 25ID's roundout third brigade from 1973 to 1985. Part of the Reagan-era buildup was bringing the Electric Strawberry up to full strength and converting it into a light infantry division.

The 29th IN BDE was mobilized in 1968-69 but obviously did not deploy to Vietnam. It was mobilized last year and deployed to Iraq back in February-March '05. There was a picture a couple of days ago in the Army news service of a 1LT from American Samoa with the 442nd outside of Baghdad.

i thought it was more like 790,000 (nitpicky, i know) and 17 divisions...that last division was the 6th ID in Alaska...to my knowledge, it never got beyond 5 infantry battalions....and truth be known, we had a hell of a time keeping those units up to strength...of course, several divisions in the Army had a RC round-out unit....the 6th had an infantry brigade out of Oregon, i think...and the 24th had the (in)famous 48th Brigade, which i believe, holds the record for the most consecutive unsucessful rotations at the NTC....It was the 18 divisions I listed - 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armored; 1st Cavalry; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 24th and 25th Infantry; 10th Mountain; 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne (Air Assault) - with all the caveats in the detailed post about how many were short a brigade.

Since the ROAD reorg in the early 1960s, brigades are a better measure than divisions, anyway.

I mentioned to "Bin" Peay's apparent lack of concern about reserve component combat units when the off-site agreement was being made. The well-publicized problems with the 48th Infantry Brigade were the basis of this, I think, but the 48th wasn't the only RC combat unit called up during DS/DS.

The 256th Infantry Brigade from Louisiana was also mobilized in 1990-91, but did not deploy. It was the roundout brigade for the 5th Infantry Division. It too was called up last year and deployed to Iraq.

6ID's roundout brigade, the 205th Infantry Brigade, was an Army Reserve brigade, not a National Guard one, so at least 6ID wouldn't have had to go through a bunch of state governors to activate it. It was based in Minnesota and Iowa. The brigade from Oregon would be the 41st Infantry Brigade, which was roundout to 7ID from 1977-1984.

[BMT (RIP)]

Who was CSA when all these deals were made??

:munchin

BMT

[The Reaper]

Who was CSA when all these deals were made??

:munchin

BMT

Chiefs of Staff, United States Army:

GEN Meyer, 22 June 1979–21 June 1983
GEN Wickham, 23 July 1983–23 June 1987
GEN Vuono, 23 June 1987–21 June 1991
GEN Reimer, 21 June 1991–20 June 1995
GEN Sullivan, 20 June 1995-June 1999
GEN Shinseki, June 1999-June 2003
GEN Schoomaker, 1 August 2003-Present

I personally think some should have resigned in protest.

TR

[Airbornelawyer]

Chiefs of Staff, United States Army:

...
GEN Vuono, 23 June 1987–21 June 1991
GEN Reimer, 21 June 1991–20 June 1995
...

GEN Vuono presided over what were the quickest and deepest cuts, but GEN Reimer (i) allowed the active cuts to go even further, (ii) allowed the gutting of the Army Reserve (which would fall by a third in the Clinton years) and (iii) allowed the off-site agreement, which ended the Reserve's combat arms role (except for 100th/442nd, which Sen. Inouye managed to protect).

I have to admit I was wrong about one criticism I had of the off-site agreement in the 1990s. Then, I found it hard to conceive of a situation where Guard combat divisions and brigades would get called up for a warfighting mission. To its credit, the Bush Administration avoided the mistake of the Johnson Administration and did not keep the Guard out of the fight for political reasons.

[longrange1947]

GEN Vuono presided over what were the quickest and deepest cuts, but GEN Reimer (i) allowed the active cuts to go even further, (ii) allowed the gutting of the Army Reserve (which would fall by a third in the Clinton years) and (iii) allowed the off-site agreement, which ended the Reserve's combat arms role (except for 100th/442nd, which Sen. Inouye managed to protect).

I have to admit I was wrong about one criticism I had of the off-site agreement in the 1990s. Then, I found it hard to conceive of a situation where Guard combat divisions and brigades would get called up for a warfighting mission. To its credit, the Bush Administration avoided the mistake of the Johnson Administration and did not keep the Guard out of the fight for political reasons.

Actually the CSA has no choice in the matter, he is given his ordes and completes his assigned mission. As far as President Bush, he faught the cuts until the Dem Congress made it clear that the "Peace Dividend" would be taken advantage of. The continued cuts in the military came from the Dems in congress. I still remember the "oh crap are we screwed feeling when Congress demanded an estimate of what a 25% cut in the military would look like. The tehn CSA gave a chart show that showed how we could no longer fight a two front war and the Dems said that it wasn't that bad, "make it so."

When Clinton wanted more cuts the Republicans started to refuse but the shut down of gov't over vetos had them over a barrel.

Need to look at some of the posturing by the Dems at that time to realize that Bush didn'thave much choice in the matter and that the Congress was writing their own budgets. Remember the old line from "I smell a fart Pat Schroeder"? "That budget is dead on arrival."

It is that "Peace Dividend" that drove the LEA to claim much worse crime then the stats showed. They did not want the hit that the Dems gave the military.

I remember this crap very well due to the arguements with some leftys I had over the whole deal and how they thanked the Dems for having the balls to force/trick Bush into those cuts.

[Gypsy]

Can you even imagine? I must have been living under a rock in 1994...I certainly don't remember hearing THIS before. Interesting how it's resurfacing now. Makes me ill.


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/7/19/124048.shtml

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 12:36 p.m. EDT
Hillary Clinton: I Tried to Join the Marines

USA Today's report on Sen. Hillary Clinton's newfound appeal as a possible commander in chief omitted a key part of her resume that proves she's long been a hawk on military and defense issues: her attempt to join the Marines 30 years ago.

Or at least that's what she claimed.

Seated beside her husband, the former first lady recounted her military experience during a 1994 TV interview.

"Gee, now it was probably 19 years ago - in 1975," Mrs. Clinton recalled. "I decided that I was very interested in having some experience in serving in some capacity in the military."

"Because we all love the military so much," Mr. Clinton interjected helpfully. :rolleyes:

Hillary resumed: "So I walked into our local recruiting office, and I think it was just my bad luck that the person who happened to be there on duty could not have been older than 21. He was in perfect physical shape."

She remembered telling the recruiter, "I wanted to explore - I didn't know whether I thought active duty would be a good idea, reserve, you know, maybe National Guard, something along those lines."

But Hillary's bid to become a leatherneck soon came unraveled.

"This young man looked at me and he said, 'How old are you?'" she recalled.

"I said, 'Well, 27' ... I had these really thick glasses on.

"He said, 'How bad's your eyesight?'

"I said, 'It's pretty bad.'

"And he said, 'How bad?'

"So I told him.

"He said, 'That's pretty bad.'

"And he finally said to me, he said: 'You're too old. You can't see. And you're a woman.' And then he went on ... this man, young man, was a Marine.

"He said, 'But maybe the dogs [Army] would take you.'"

"This is not a very encouraging conversation," Mrs. Clinton recalled thinking. "So maybe I'll look for another way to serve my country."

The original transcript of Hillary's "I-tried-to-join-the-Marines" interview has vanished from the LexisNexis archives, but excerpts from a rebroadcast on Rush Limbaugh's old TV show are still available.

[jasonglh]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&e=5&u=/ap/20050721/ap_on_hi_te/video_game_sex


'GTA' Game Rating Changed to Adults-Only


By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
35 minutes ago



SAN FRANCISCO - The video game industry on Wednesday changed to adults-only the rating of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," a best-selling game in which explicit sexual content can be unlocked with an Internet download.

blah blah blah


"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" was last year's top console game, selling more than 5.1 million copies in the U.S. after its October release, according to market analyst NPD Group. Xbox and PC versions were released last month.

blah blah blah

The developments did little to appease Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, who applauded the ESRB investigation but remained disturbed that the sex content appeared on store shelves in the first place.

"Apparently the sexual material was embedded in the game. The company admitted that," Clinton said. "But the fact remains that the company gamed the ratings system."

Clinton has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate, and said the ESRB must do more to police content.

"I think that the rating board has to be vigilant and really make sure that it's as thorough as it can be and not just take the game makers' word as to what's on there," Clinton said.


Over 5 million copies sold already so whats the real point now? Amazing all the things people of her ilk think should be protected by the 1st amendment and she is gonna go after video games?

[brownapple]

A little known fact is that the 101st also had a round-out brigade during the late 70s and early 80s. The Arkansas National Guard was the 4th manuever brigade for the 101st should we have gone to war in Europe.

At least up until 1982, the brigade had a large number of Vietnam veterans of the 101st and 1st Cav, especially in their Aviation elements (which were still flying UH-1Hs when the rest of the 101st had moved entirely to Hawks).