In April of this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended several military budgetary cuts, including for the production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet to stop at 187 aircraft, which means that only four more F-22s will be produced. It was a move that drew a firestorm of criticism from Congress, the military, the military aerospace industry and the military aerospace community. The move, however, wasn’t...

I am and have been in favor of publicly honoring our fallen heroes when they touch American soil for the last time at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. My personal motto is “Nothing to hide here. Everything to Honor.” A lot of controversy and apprehension had surrounded this issue. Finally, on February 26, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a policy consistent with what we presently have at Arlington...

When I tell friends that the next major tax debate should focus on parking tickets, the response is almost always the same. They tell me about how they were recently screwed by an overly aggressive ticket-slinger, then relate tales of similar abuse experienced by other people they know.  Sure, they finally acknowledge, parking metering and ticketing is a stealth tax. A curb tax. But a major taxing issue? Nah....

Hard to say if Joe Wilson is another Joe McCarthy. He did call the President of the United States a lair as Obama spoke to an official joint session of Congress, which is certainly a McCarthy thing to do. Don’t debate the issue, attack the individual. McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin in the early 1950s, did it by claiming the target individual, whoever it happened to be, was “a Communist.” His...

I want to take a breather for a couple of minutes from bashing Joe Wilson and other stupid Republican claims about our health care legislation and discuss a condition that has bothered me the past several months. For no apparent reason my brain insists I sleep 10 to 12 hours a day. Anything short of that, I feel like I’m hungover but I don’t drink booze. Furthermore, less than that amount of sleep...

No, calling the President a liar is not the same thing as beating a fellow Senator to a pulp with a cane. But there was something intriguing about the response to the Joe Wilson outburst that reminded me of the infamous 1856 caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina Senator Preston Brooks. Consider a bit of the background to that incident. The Democrats passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act...

In an attempt to regain control of the health care debate if not his presidency, President Barack Obama crafted a speech a fifth grader could grasp and Congress could follow allowing all Americans to receive affordable medical services. What struck me was all the goals and specifics outlined by the president seem reasonable enough for Congress to adopt with all sides of the equation giving up some of their hallowed...

This morning, Mid Stream Radio will be back on the air picking through the aftermath of Obama’s health care speech. Cindy and I will be joined by Rick Moran, of Right Wing Nuthouse, to replay a few of the highlights and lowlights and see what it all means. You can listen live at the show’s web site, join in our comments section (if you have done your free registration at the BTR home page) or call...

There is a new consortium of media entities who propose to replace the venerable Nielsen ratings with a new, high tech viewership tracking service. There’s no question that Nielsen’s numbers are fraught with problems. College students living away from home between the ages of 18 to 24 remain virtually uncounted. Minorities in urban areas are consistently over-represented, and the sweeps period ratings...

I watched the speech earlier but for me it came right around dinnertime so I decided to eat and take some time to gather a few thoughts before posting. As always I thought his speech was quite good on style, there is no doubting that the man can give a superb speech. His skills are such that even if you disagree with what he is saying you can’t help but to be charmed by him anyway. I also felt that Congressman...

Now I can understand that perhaps Mr. Friedman doesn’t like what he sees as corporate influence over our government, I think most of us don’t like it. While I would strongly disagree with him, I could even understand if he wanted to ban anyone more conservative that Ted Kennedy from being allowed to participate in politics. But looking to CHINA as an example of good government ?? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html?_r=2 Reasonably...

, , We have been so absorbed by issues such as what health care reform will do to our national character and what the President of the United States will say to our kids (and I am not minimizing the importance of these concerns), that other issues and stories have tended to go completely off the public’s radar screen. One such story is the never-ending personal tragedy of David Goldman, the New Jersey...

Shortly after President Obama took office I wrote that if he were wise he would look to Eisenhower rather than Nixon when it came to dealing with overseas wars. Given the discussions in the news lately I thought it was worth reposting my thoughts for your consideration In my post, I pointed out that both Ike and Nixon faced wars when they came into office and that along with Obama they were the only ones to...

Bill Schorr, Cagle Cartoons This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I am the first to admit that I am the king of dumb mistakes. Whether it’s in my personal life or my professional one, I am quite capable (indeed sometimes it seems eager) to make dumb blunders. Normally they are pretty minor but once in a while I do make a whopper of a blunder. I accept this as simply part of being a human being But I have some friends who work in the entertainment industry and I have...

… not to go back to the moon. Moon Cat has already rendered the effort meaningless.

The evolution of the health care debate has taken us on a wild ride. At first the goal was to have national health care, which sparked fear into conservatives based on the argument that innovation will be stifled by lack of competition. This led to a compromise between Democrats and Republicans which produced the public option. This way, the insurance companies were not directly cut out of the picture with...

The White House has just released the text of a controversial back-to-school speech that President Barack Obama will be making to our children tomorrow. The speech will be broadcast directly into the schools, mainlining into the minds of our vulnerable children in a brazen attempt to, in the guise of civics education, indoctrinate our young ones and to fill their little heads with communist propaganda. No...

Why is President Obama’s popularity fading? You can hear a lot of answers to this question. But for me the answer is obvious, and comes down to the two C’s—change and continuity. He promised the former, but when it comes to the most basic issues facing the country, the economy and foreign affairs, he’s governing in keeping with the latter. On this Labor Day, just consider who is setting this...

Buried in the weekly Sunday back-and-forth wrangling over the health care reform bill – and the public option in particular – was a particularly important comment from Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson today: I think [Obama] has to say that if there’s going to be a public option, it’s going to be subject to a trigger. Nelson added in his remarks on CNN that this shouldn’t be just a...

Part of the spirit and the culture of the U.S. military is the creed that you don’t leave anyone behind—whether injured, captured, or dead. For example, the U.S. Army Ranger Creed, the oath Army Rangers take, includes these words: “I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy …” Several books and numerous articles have been devoted to this honorable subject. The risks...

I’m not gloating but two New York Times columnists agree with my assessment that U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is untenable although neither go as far as my desire to pull out all our troops. Normally, opinions by New York Times columnists are not those that sway the powers in Washington. But in the case of Afghanistan the White House and Pentagon should be taking notes. One columnist is Thomas...

I have a story to tell that relates to the brewing controversy over President Obama’s speech to the nation’s school children next Tuesday. It was during the war years of 1943-45. Our grade school teachers made it a contest. Who could raise the most money for Infantile Paralysis. The money was for research to cure the disease that crippled President Franklin Roosevelt in the prime of his life. The...

Obama and his crew may think they can fool us conservatives. These folks think we can’t spot a con or an outright conspiracy when we see it. Well, Mr. President, it turns out you’re wrong about that. That value of education speech you were planning to broadcast to school kids. Sounds innocuous, doesn’t it? At least at first hearing. Well, if you have the kind of smarts we’ve got, there’s...

President Obama this weekend at Camp David is studying a classified report submitted by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that some say could be a game changer by putting a larger emphasis on “protecting the Afghan people.” You can bet he will not take my advise and that of a growing number of both liberals and conservatives that the U.S. should pull its forces...