Sunday, July 31, 2011

Prop 13 to Lower Arizona Property Taxes

Well, those pesky school boards and local politicians in Maricopa County are at it again. Raising our taxes instead of cutting back on the lazy employees that show up and work two hours a day. Luckily someone is finally doing something about it.

Prop 13 AZ

Friday, July 22, 2011

McChrystal's Ganjgal Debacle

I confess, I didn't know much about Gen McChrystal before this morning other than the fact that he was a dumbass for letting a Rolling Stone reporter get embedded with his staff (seriously, who's next...Vanity Fair???).
Now I understand he had the fool's role in the battle Ganjgal where a Marine was awarded the medal of honor.

Battle of Ganjgal

Reprimands in Marine Deaths In Ganjgal Engagement

Ganjgal Investigation Shows Lack of Support from 10th Mountain

McChrystal's rules of engagement ixnayed the use of artillery to keep civilian casualties down. Of course, this rule should have some common sense attached to it, like: If 100 Taliban are attacking four Marines, then you can use artillery. Very much like the ixnaying tanks in Mogidishu. The bottom line is this: there comes a time in many battles where the commander must decide whether to break the rules or preserve his career. The commander who puts his career and life on the line for his men deserves our respect. The commander who puts his career in front of his men (and we have plenty of those) deserves our contempt.


Thursday, July 21, 2011

Plenty of fat to cut in DOD Budget

This may sound odd for a Government Contractor to say, but there is PLENTY of fat to cut in the DOD Budget.

Example: 300 Million Dollars in Navy Ships that were never finished

Example: Three billion a year the Army wastes on programs that go nowhere

Paper on Army program wastage

Example: Marine Buck Rogers piece of crap that we wasted three billion on before canceling

And that's just the crap we know about.

None of these take a crack at the 650 billion in personnel costs of DoD. You could fire half of the DoD federal employees and recoup a couple of hundred billion on that alone. The cost of firing them would be steep, all you processes will speed up by an order of magnitude and there will be less bureaucracy. The bad news is, is that every village in the US would now have two idiots as they moved out of Washington.


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Strange Case of Franz Gayl

Franz Gayl is a retired Major who had the unlikely and long title of Science and Technology Adviser to the Marine Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies, and Operations. There are an ungodly number of articles on how Gayl was persecuted for raising a red flag on MRAP procurement: (or lack thereof)

Marines Wreck Super Geek’s Career

Marine whistleblower Franz Gayl: Security clearance removal is retaliation

Gail Testimony PDF

And here is his initial report:

Gayle MRAP Report

A problem with Gayl's reporting on the MRAP is he already came up with some wacky ideas like Marines in Space:

Space Marines’ Reality Check (Updated and Bumped)

Maybe after that anything out of his mouth became to wacky to believe.

Maybe he hit people on the head too many times and pissed them off. Or maybe his report was too damn long. The Executive Summary is ten pages long. Franz: next time one page, maybe two is good enough for the Executive Summary.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

US Army AKO (Army Knowledge Online)

Another system I've been forced to use is AKO. AKO is an website that the Army spends 67 million a year on. For a website. That has horrible reliability and performance metrics. Another example of how the government does IT: crappy. For some reviews and funny AKO videos:

AKO Sucks

GIs, officials disagree on effectiveness of AKO

But I sure can't say it as eloquently as Associate289:

"...Did anyone see the ArmyTimes article about AKO? They basically said how the majority of Soldiers thought AKO was terrible. And they interviewed some General who's in charge of the whole thing and he gave his typical General/Politician bullshit answer about how it's a good system that works within it's resources and accomplishes the mission and BLAH BLAH FUCKING BLAH. I really couldn't believe that someone, even someone in charge of AKO, would go on the record and defend it. It's unbelievable. The website is a complete piece of shit. And all these extra layers of security just add more frustration to the whole thing. Oh what's my favorite thing to do on vacation? You really want to know, AKO? It's flying across country and hiring underage prostitutes to choke me while I beat off with a broom stick up my ass. I don't know how you active duty assholes feel, but on the Guard side dealing with this fucking website is more painful than a highway rest stop abortion. All this admin shit is moving to AKO: NCOERs, clothing records, EPP packets, etc. And they all need CAC logins. Well great fucking idea asshole, there's like 5 fucking DEERs offices in the entire state. So let me stop what I'm doing on a drill weekend to bus everyone over to West Point so they can unfuck their CACs. Oh wait, they're not open on weekends. FUCK YOU

If there's anyone out there reading this that has any power (and I really hope not, because I'd be out of a fucking job after they read this post), let me say it loud and clear. AKO absolutely fucking sucks. It's a good idea gone terribly, terribly wrong. It's terrible to navigate. The search engine blows. The clutter on the home page is ridiculous. I don't give a shit what your budget is. Whatever you're given, it's too fucking much. Fire every web design idiot you have and take some of the money that's obviously not going to funding equipment for my company and go talk to someone at google or apple to unfuck this. Please."

Monday, July 18, 2011

Playing your computer media on your TV

So you have all these avi, mkv, wmv and a host of other formats you can's play directly on your TV. What do you do?

A friend of mine pointed out this handy little device, that uses an hdmi cable to hook up to your TV, and the thing works like a charm. Problem solved!


Friday, July 15, 2011

California Gov Signs Law Requiring Public Schools to Teach Gay History

So if you have kids in public school in California, this is what they're gonna see in class:





I guess you can send them to private school. Which is too bad, because you are paying through the nose to send them to public school, whether they are going or not.


California Gov Signs Landmark Law to Teach Gay History

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Luke AFB ID Card Office

Well, it's that time of the year again. Time to go to the dreaded ID card office. This is where the government wastes billions of dollars in taxpayer money to make contractors travel to a DOD ID card office and sit in a room filled with zombies for hours to wait for the lazy-ass-slower-than-the-DMV clerks to type two words into a computer which takes 1/2 hour per customer but should take 5 minutes. Another problem is that the computer which loads a pitifully small amount of data takes 10 minutes to do it. Ten minutes to load a 144k chip, which is a tiny amount of memory for a modern computer. But that's how the government does everything in IT: BAD.
Today I went to Luke AFB in Glendale AZ. There were two enlisted AF clerks there to serve a roomful of people. One of them was a Master Sgt I think (who did he piss off?) proved he couldn't even do that job correctly because he spent half of the hour and a half time I was there talking on the phone to his buddies, reducing the amount of effective clerks to one. I could have been in and out of there in 20 minutes if the place was well run, but instead it took half the day to get there, get the card, and get back. Cost to the Taxpayers:$300. And that's not counting the security classes and forms I need to fill out to get the ID card, that's another $300. Total cost: $600. The officer in charge of that place should be booted out as an example.
And to add insult to injury, they have the camera set up to take really bad pictures. Probably on purpose.

At least there not as bad as the MARCORSYSCOM ID Card office in Quantico. Those morons are only open on Tues and Thu from 1-4 for slimy contractors, disrupting the schedule even worse, and wasting even more taxpayer money.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Another piece of left wing trash from the Arizona Republic

Well, the gun lobby has a firm grip on the state, but not firm enough. One citizen with a weapon could have stopped the Giffords shooting. Too bad it was full of Democrats, Arizona Republic writers, and other pussies.

Guns in Arizona: Gun lobby has firm grip on state


Another reason why Arizonans hate the Republic, and why they're laying off people like it's cool. Hey, Arizona Republic! Last one out turn off the lights!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Viva Mexico

Does the Texas execution of Humberto Leal really endanger American's travelling abroad?

This is the left's new claim, after their claims of "it costs too much" and "it doesn't deter" have failed. I would say the risk to Americans from illegals from Mexico is much higher:

Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

My US Air Neighbor

I have a neighbor who is a US Airways flight attendant and she is just a nasty bitch. Never waves or says hi to me or my fiancee, never is neighborly, seems to be in a bad mood all the time. She really can't afford to live in this neighborhood, her parents bought the house for her, she is home all the time yet still hires a made to clean up after her fat, nastiness. Apparently her bad attitude is common for US Air:


Woman Escorted Off US Airways Flight For Snapping Photo

US Air Sucks

One man's story

US Air Sucks Facebook Page

The 19 Most Hated Companies In America

Monday, July 4, 2011

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Misleading Journalism

Power out as Phoenix temps hit record 118 screams the CBS website. The reader concludes a global warming catastrophe, it must be a power spike from all the air conditioners, right? Not so fast. We had a big storm that knocked down a bunch of power lines. Is this misleading headline malicious design by CBS or incompetence? The question is known as Hanlon's Razor.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Fake but accurate

I got a newsletter in my in box that claimed Obama said:

"Navy Seal Team 6 is Cheney's private assassination team."

A short Google search revealed this claim may be untrue. Of course, I was busy clinging to my guns and my bible so I could only search with one hand. Actually not my bible as I'm a deist, but you get my point.


Friday, July 1, 2011

On raising the debt limit

A great conservative once said this about raising the debt limit:

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. [...]

This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we'll spend on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.

And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on.

Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America's priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans--a debt tax that Washington doesn't want to talk about. If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies. [...]

Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.

Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that "the buck stops here." Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."


Just kidding. Obama said it on March 16, 2006. Maybe he'll finally get his wish!