"... the greatest power trio ever, Rush." UJ, many people over a certain age would say Cream is the greatest power trio ever.

I'd love to believe we can put together a deception and/or "disinformation" (sic) campaign in cooperation with a news outlet like "The Nation" such that we could achieve the effects you suggest. We don't have to do in cooperation with them. Journalists, on average, are some the most easily played people in the world. Over the last few decades, with few exceptions, they haven't been very knowledgeable people. There's a reason why every few months one or more media outlets get caught running stories based on sources like The Onion.

That's a fallacious argument since there's no comparison between the two. If they are "volunteers" by your definition, why is it that it's such a hit with the prisoners? The number of prisoners wanting to do it is greater than the number of chain gain slots. And it's only available to problematic prisoners who have already been sentenced.

...put them on chain gangs All chain gang members in Maricopa Co. are volunteers, they aren't "put" there. BTW, anyone who's had the unfortunately experience of spending at least a night in jail knows very well that the vast majority of people in there belong there.

If you were from the South you would know that the "small town southerner" would be a Democrat just like his pals in the KKK.

I'm not aware of one, but then I did term my assertion as "ridiculous." But given that it's quite easy to find the education level of groups of people (including groups within the military) I maintain my assertation beats that of Rall since there is a documented difference in level of education that Rall ignores. Plus he’s douche based on general principles.

Tantor, not that is disputes your point, but Rommel was attacked by a Spitfire. I'm not sure if it was ever determined who the actual pilot was but the German report of the incident of the action specified that Rommel's staff car was attacked by a Spitfire, not a P-47 as was flown by the American pilot who claimed he did it. I'm not aware of any Americans still flying Spitfires that late in the war.

No, what I'm referring to that it is a documented fact that enlisted members of the military have a higher level of education than their peers not in the military. From that I extrapolate that they have a higher IQ (of course I don't know that to be a fact, but it is a reasonable guess). Thus when a military unit deploys overseas it represents a decrease in the number of people in the group that the members of the unit belong to (e.g. 18 - 25 year olds) so that the average IQ of all of those in the group who remain has slightly decreased. My point is that Rall is a POS douche bag. Like many other members of the left who are anti-military (openly or not) they tend to believe that you have to be a dumbass to be in the military. Unfortunately for them the facts show otherwise. In other words, my ridiculous assertion that the IQ decreases back home due to a deployment is derived from a factual basis while his assertion that the IQ increases at home after a deployment is derived out of his ass.

Yes, Rall is a real douche, but if one were to look at the actual documented facts then it would be obvious that every time a U.S. military unit deploys the IQ back home decreases.

A couple of weeks ago my son spent a couple of weeks in Portugal at the "Real Thaw 2011" CAS exercise. He got to jump with the Portuguese and you can see him in this video (he's first one out beginning at about 01:35 in the video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAZSXNLPPo&feature=related Apparently, if nothing else, the Portuguese put a lot of effort into documenting their military exercises. There are a whole lot of photos and videos at this link (in Portuguese): http://www.emfa.pt/realthaw/index.php?bd0b6f49=006&lang=PT

The problem is that H.R. 1363 has riders to do with abortion and other "social" issues that no Democrats will vote for. What the Republicans should have done is pass it with only the CR and DoD appropriations. That way both the Senate and Obama would have to pass it or be accused of abandoning the troops. As it is now they can say they support the troops but will not vote for it beacuse of the riders. The Republicans missed a great opportunity to nail the Dems to the wall.

The Collings Foundation out of Massacussetts also does shows around the country. They come to Arizona every year with a B-17, B-24, B-25 and/or P-51. You can pay to ride in them and, if you have a couple of K, they will sometimes let you fly the bombers (at least the B-25).

Georg Gaertner escaped from a POW camp in 1945 and didn't turn himself in until around 1985. He got married, had kids and was the last WWII POW "captured." I think he wrote a book about his experiences.

Paul Allen's group bought the old Champlin Fighter Aircraft Museum at Falcon Field near Phoenix a few years back. It had the best collection of WWI and WWII warbirds I've ever seen. A hanger for each war with dozens of planes and a big room full of stuff like weapons, flight outfits, etc. It even had a letter from legendary Japanese ace Subaro Sakai when he had visited the museum. Even if the Flying Heritage Collection only had the collection from Champlin it would be quite something.

SKK, maybe they don't care. After all, to them the ends justify the means.

Always take care of your combat multipliers.....JTAC's being waaay up there on that list. Now, if only the Air Force felt the same way. Only in the last couple of years did TACPs even have an officer component, having previously been represented by ALOs made up of a range of attitudes from "didn't want to be there" to "if I can drop bombs I just as easily can call them in" (sorry dude, it's a little different when you're lugging around 100+ lbs of equipment & weapons, you're being shot at and you're controlling a number of different aircraft all at once). Any JTAC with a couple or more tours will have a lot more awards from the Army than the Air Force since the Air Force prefers to give them to officers sitting in TOCs rather than JTACs in the field.

Who are the Russians supposed to get to man all these new toys? Really. They should spend a bunch on their soldiers and training, because the last thing I remember about the Russian army are those slovenly, undisciplined troops invading Georgia a couple of years back. All of those fancy high-tech weapons aren't going to solve the problems those guys have. At least maybe they can get better targeting systems because if I remember correctly, the Russian AF had a bit of a problem bombing the Georgian pipelines – they couldn’t hit them.

What surprises me is that with the MSM fawning all over him for years and him using them as the propaganda arm of the White House and the Democrat Party, Obama isn't prescient enough to know that their coverage of the Tea Party movement is complete BS without any evidence that "race was probably a key component in the rising opposition to his presidency." It is one thing for a politician at his level to assert such things in public to garner support and sympathy, but to indicate in a relatively private setting that he actually believes the propaganda on his behalf demonstrates a detachment from reality that is outright dangerous in the hands of a president. It has always been obvious that Obama is tremendously ideological but a disconnection from the real world of that magnitude is shocking!

No only different colors but with the blades offset at odd angles and tassels hanging off the ends! :)

When my son (USAF JTAC) was attached to A-Teams they used him as one of the Commo sergeants. His gear looks cooler than that. :)

B5, Under your nomenclature my son is a "Doggie Zoomie" since he is always deploys and trains with Army units, but he calls you guys "Joes."

The Liberal by temperament is a person who is a liberal for all sorts of non-ideological reasons. ... Further, they denigrate those who are unsophisticated, dumb, and trashy, often without appreciating that some of those they so denigrate are smart enough not to desire to conform to the latest media mediated intellectual and social classism. This reminds me of something I heard a few years back: Conservatives think they have better ideas while liberals think they are better people.

Penn & Teller's BS did an episode a few years back where they got a bunch of US environmental do-gooders to sign a petition to ban di-hydrogen monoxide. Just like these international tools they had no clue what they were doing.

To see how truly demented these so-called academics are, one need only look at point 10 in Professor Blake's letter: 10. Veterans' memories of their own experiences in the war are suspect and influenced by media and their own self-delusion (Rosenberg, 18, 24). Therefore, it is the role of academics to "correct" their history. As one organizer commented, this will be more easily accomplished once the WWII generation has passed away. Another wrote, "America's nostalgic war memories are beginning to fray around the edges" (White, 267). Disgusting. BTW, I presume with these types of academics it would be futile to point out that without the veteran's memories of what happened there would be little history for them to be able to "correct."

Since National Socialism, Fascism and Soviet communism are all collectivist ideologies, I'd say it's pretty obvious that they all belong on the same side of the political spectrum. So while they have some major differences (e.g. nationalism vs. internationalism, institutional racism or not), their statist collectivism makes them all left-wing by American standards.