The White House released a copy of a memorandum summarizing the review of the April 27, 2009 VC-25 flight over New York City. The memorandum seems to suggest that the controversial flight was planned at the level of the Deputy Director of the White House Military Office down onto the Presidential Airlift Group. The memorandum appears to hint that Director Caldera was not fully functional at the time he received a crucial email informing him the flight, being under medication for a back spasm, and for seem reason didn’t carry out a suggestion to mention the flight with Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. On April 24, according to the memorandum, Caldera received this email from his deputy, George Mulligan.
Sir: per our conversation about Scott Turner’s plan to fly over the Statue of Liberty — it’s scheduled for this Monday, April 27th. All has been coordinated. AF PA plan/statement is below and will be released only if asked. Will probably receive some local press, but WH shouldn’t catch any questions about it. Provided in case you want to pass to Jim Messina or Robert Gibbs for awareness. This is an AF operation, in close coordination with FAA. Happy to discuss with out as necessary. v/r, gm [George Mulligan -- Wretchard]
The memorandum, taken at face value, appears to establish the existence of a ‘wall of ignorance’ between those who planned the operation and the core White House political staff. It will be argued that the “true facts” are just as set forth in the memorandum because it is the most consistent explanation with the known facts. After all, if the VC-25 flight was a junket, wouldn’t there be some involvement by Messina and Gibbs in the planning for the flight and Gibbs appeared not to know about it when asked. If the flight were part of footage for a “Tuskegee Airman” movie, then one would have expected a premier aerial cinematograhic platform, capable of following high performance F-16s and jet commercial aircraft in the vicinity.
But the memorandum doesn’t totally dispel all the mysteries because it is confined by its own admission to examining events after they bubbled up to the WHMO; the DOD is conducting its separate own investigation. And it doesn’t address the central question of why anyone should mount surprise low-level flyby of NYC involving extensive interagency coordination when public notification was apparently envisioned. Page 2 of the memorandum notes that “coordination with the general public was to commence two days before the flight” and that while coordination should not mention “Presidential aircraft”, it was in fact suggested that reference be made to “DOD aircraft”. In other words there did not appear to be a prohibition against telling the public that the US Air Force would be conducting some mission over Manhattan and that nobody should be alarmed.
On Friday, April 3, 2009, representatives of the PAG, the FAA, and several local authorities held a teleconference to discuss “operational issues and public affairs/outreach issues.” According to a written summary of the call, the participants discussed the details of the proposed flyover inlcuding the date, time and location of the operation; the altitude of the plan (1,000 feet), and the preferred flight path. The participants recognized “the sensitivity of the aircraft involved,” and concluded that “public affairs and outreach efforts must be carefully coordinated and timed.” Coordination with “the general public” was to commence two days before the flight. The written summary of the call further specified that “[n]o reference should be made to the Presidential aircraft in any public outreach.” However, it suggested that public outreach could reference “DOD aircraft”.
So was it simply a matter of people thinking the “outreach” had been done when it had not; a case of Mulligan thinking that Caldera had taken care of the political and PR end when he had not? And what of the photos? The memorandum says that nobody in the WHMO knew that a PR disaster had occurred until 10:30 am that day, when calls began flooding into the White House. So the photographic shoot mission should have unaffected and the photos should have been taken as per plan.
I have read this twice and all I see is fog. Assuming it is all true, it makes me think the White House is a pretty chaotic place. Finally, if this was Scott Turner’s plan, has anyone been permitted to ask him what his motivation was?
Just read the memo and by the standards of historical white-wash it is pretty low. Someplace I have a copy of Lord Denning’s Report on the Profumo Scandal. Now that was a fine bucket of white-wash. The best bit in today’s offering is that the current Acting Director of the WHMO is really a Mulligan. The report includes the Deputy Director’s weasel worded email assigning his boss the responsibility to tell other WH staff and creates a passive expectation that everyone thought that everyone else was handling public notification, with the attached For Official Use only (FOU) boilerplate mysteriously attached to excuse the failure to notify. In fact the report does not offer any evidence that would disprove the rumors about the flight being a junket or political favor initiated from the WH. All we have here is a description of a hapless low level functionary shuffling papers and complaining about his bad back. A scene from Yes Minister ensued. It is entirely possible that the flight was stuffed with Hollywood A, B and C listers, we just don’t know.
In government the difference between a good idea and a great idea is:
1) You steal a good idea
2) You steal a great idea and backdate a memo for the record to show you thought it up first.
Caldera’s been dumped. He “authorized” the operation.
Problem with the language. You “authorize” an operation somebody else thinks up.
IOW, somebody else thought this up and we don’t know who.
IT was “planned” at the level the deputy director of the WH military office. In big organizations, you “plan” what somebody tells you to do.
The general says the corps will do…and the staff works forty-eight hours “planning”.
I want to know who the general in this case was.
This is a screw up on the scale on the WH blowing the protocol for the British PM visit.
Amatuer hour in the WH again. A lot of incompetenet staff.
Somewhat OT: Ace has Obama apologizing in Germany for Dresden. Hotair has this also.
No word yet on whether Dick Winters and other Easy Company Survivors will be charged with War Crimes.
How quick from Band of Brothers to War Crimes.
It’s the triumph not just of a foreign, alien, hostile to America and it’s traditions and sacrifices President, but the profoundly yuppie and female people who cannot stand the heroism of men like Winters and his men. Who cannot let their sacrifice against evil be vindicated. Who are small and useless against them and so feel the need to destroy them and their memory.
Obama is a man who feels nothing but hatred and contempt for America and Americans in his every fiber of being. And it was no accident he was elected. His backers feel the same.
Don’t be alarmed, the Air Force said
We won’t hit someone’s building
All we want from A to Zed
Is just a little gilding
For Air Force One, that special craft
The President must ride in
We know the mission turned out daft
That’s nothing we take pride in
We’re sorry that some people took
Our flying low for terror
And while we did this by the book
We will admit the error
The man in charge has been dismissed
Thank goodness he’s not Air Force
And while it’s good that he’s been dissed
We’ve straightened on a fair course
So in the future when we need
That Air Force One go hopping
We’ll get our pictures but we’ll heed
That stuff called photoshopping
If the memos released by the White House are fabricated, God Help the U.S.
If someone will lie about little crap, that’s a clue about how they will handle larger issues.
But if the memos released by the WH are TRUE, GOD HELP US!
Incompetence at ALL LEVELS
Caldera was the President of University of New Mexico for a time. He sowed so much dissent and would not do as his handler Gov. Richardson asked that he was run off. Heh.
O/T – I went looking for local supplies of ammo today. All there is is odd calibers in 3 shops. No 9mm, .380ACP nor .223REM. Not one box. Ya’ think the gov’t would look around and go “H’mmm?” or something? That the citizens are hoarding boo-lets would be noticed by some? I probably made another list for that comment.
The kidz are in charge of the zoo and don’t know that the wild critters are getting restless.
#7 Mad Fiddler: I think you’ve got it just about right. Now, how to tell if the memos are false (a minor disaster) or true (a major disaster)? Oh, I’ve got it! We’ll ask Dan Rather! What was his formulation? False but accurate? F
Robohobo,
Is this shortage caused by a surge in demand the represents a short time anomaly until the market adjusts to increase the available supply or does it indicate some other impediment to the production and distribution of ammunition? I do not want to start some crazy internet rumor here so I am just asking. If it is the former then how long does it take the producers to increase production? If it is the latter then there would be some indication from ATFE I would think and we would be flooded with complaints from bloggers.
“I want to know who the general in this case was.”
I second that emotion. When reading bureaucratese, it is always important to pay attention to what is NOT said. That is the key issue — who gave the order for this in the first place?
The “photo op” would be more convincing as an excuse if there were a thousand photos. This is the digital age. The memo would be more useful if there were a passsenger manifest.
Hey, this is a great opportunity for Congress to do its job & exercise oversight of the Executive Branch. Maybe deny funds to the White House airforce (which has 2,300 staff!!) until they come clean on who ordered what, and when he ordered it.
Not holding my breath, of course.
Ammo shortage is real. The manufacturers have been running multiple shifts for months. Just that many more are buying and this shortage has been on going for months so when any come in it is grabbed by the police or the first person.
I found a photo online identified as “USAF F-16C block 30 #87-0217 from the 160th FS is seen wearing special tail markings for the Alabama ANG commemorating the reactivating of the 100th FS Tuskegee airmen, formats with a P-51 Mustang in Tuskegee markings on September 12th, 2007.”
LOTM @ 10: “Is this shortage caused by a surge in demand the represents a short time anomaly until the market adjusts to increase the available supply or does it indicate some other impediment to the production and distribution of ammunition?”
In two parts: “…a surge in demand the represents a short time anomaly until the market adjusts to increase the available supply…”
One would have thought it was short term back in Nov ’08. The ammo shops were running normal shifts the summer of ’08 and increased to 24×7 when demand spiked pre-election. We thought it would be temporary until people stocked up.
“…some other impediment…”
The cost and lead times of the quite large and expensive machine tools to turn out ammo are a choke point as it were. Most of the machines turn out one type of ammo or family. Pistol and rifle are two different things. One thing I have picked up is that the producers used to use slow times to run .380ACP and run a years worth or so. Then they would retool for 9mm and make it as a steady diet.
Another choke point is availability of the base metals. Copper, tin and others are very high cost right now and hard to get.
So, there are probably a few factors and I am not an expert, just a shooter who wants to buy some cheap practice boolets.
1. Raw materials are hard to get.
2. Tooling up is a gamble that might or might not pay off. Most manufacturers do not consider the risk worth it right now. What happens should The Won let the UN come in and confiscate all the guns?
3. The surge in demand was expected to be short term. It has now been going on since mid-September ’08.
4. Police and other LEOs get first in line for their orders and THEY are coming up short now.
The last thing I will say is that I expect that this will be a long term shortage as few private citizens can add to their stocks at the moment. There are just not any decent calibers to be had. Also, semi-auto handguns and rifles are at a premium. Lead times are WAY, WAY out there.
Again, why the hoarding? Anyone want to try that subject without getting on a list? I think it speaks of how little the populace trusts the current regime. I mean it wasn’t this bad during the assault weapons ban. Also, I hear of more new shooter reports than ever. In the same vein, concealed carry permit requests are off the hook everywhere.
Is it possible the government is using TARP funds to buy up all available slug-throwing devices and the myoo-nishins that fit their launch parts?
Might be worth examining the progression of events that de-clawed the civilian poopulations of several countries that have lately been rendered personally defenseless.
UK, Oz, Canada? Others?
Anyone have any links? Suggested Key word search?
The released picture is of laughably bad quality. There’s a reflection of the F-16 canopy in the image, part of the F-16 fuselage at lower right, and a sun glint over the word “United” on AF1′s fuselage.
No professional photographer took this picture.
It was likely the souvenir picture taken by the F-16 pilot himself.
Hoarding is due to expectations of back-door gun bans by ammo bans. California is already banning ammo sales, and that is driving a lot of the shortage.
As for Obama, you must remember his team is incompetent. They’ve never run anything, bigger than his legislative office. There is not even the baseline competence of Bush-Cheney (Cheney was a Defense Secretary, knew Washington, Bush’s cronies at least had experience in the Texas Governor’s office).
Worse than Clinton, worse than Carter, it’s a disaster.
I’m starting to think I made a mistake getting a .45 (first gun, picking it up tomorrow) since there won’t be any ammo for me to buy!
Whiskey, are you talking about AB962? If so the bill has been shelved.
There’s good news on the CA 2nd amendment effort. That stupid roster of certified guns is being challenged in court. Hopefully they will make some headway.
Back to the topic… I tried explaining this to my online lib friends and all I got back were the equivalent of blank stares: Either PotUS knew what the VC-25 was doing or he didn’t because he is so busy running car companies and/or out hopelessly of the loop; and too many people in the loop never stopped to consider the consequences or knew what might have happened and didn’t care.
Any combination of the above predicates shows us just how out of touch the washington elite are. I just pray to God that when they finally go down in flames they don’t take the rest of us with them.
It’s a sad commentary on the general interest / intelligence of Americans that the White House believes it can get away with this story that some low-level loose cannon can authorize a flight of a 747 and 2 F-16′s at 1,000 feet over Manhattan. Stunning.
Of course, it’s all of a piece – we are supposed to believe that President Obama is a former “constitutional law professor” who never managed to publish a single piece of scholarship, and whose academic grades are a secret so deep and dark they can not even be asked about.
The White House is using extortion and blackmail to defraud investors in Chrysler, and again, a story that can not be followed.
Ahhhhh. Let’s look on the bright side, here’s some interesting news:
Some other fun facts, buried in the Pentagon’s just-released budget docs:
Money for “Directed Energy Technology” — real-life ray gun research — jumps from $62.7 million last year to $105.7 million in 2010.
Cash for “Prompt Global Strike Capability Development” — weapons that can hit anywhere on the planet, in just a few hours — jumps from $74.1 million to $166.9 million.
The high-flying Global Hawk drones get an an extra $486.8 million.
Pentagon’s Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion
I have seen this before.
The Obama Admin has indicated a desire to control essentially everything, especially information flows. Favors and punishment are meted out in accordance with this concept, and ruthlessly when required.
In that environment you do not foster either personal initiative or open communication. Failures like these are inevitable because not every possible situation can be forecast by the Master Controller and any slip-up that occurs as a result is dealt with harshly.
Unfortunately, this applies not only to silly little mistakes such as this one but big ones as well. We have just seen how the Obama Admin would react to a real attack. Enemy aircraft inbound? Suspected nuke in the NYC subway? Buncha guys with AK’s in front of a high school? Call Rahl Emmanuel and leave a message, and Have a Nice Day.
That White House memo is a keeper, put it in your book of templates under “CYA -Urgent-With Human Sacrifice.” Caldera has been thrown into the caldera, as it were. A fitting end, but not fit that it should end the inquiry for the reasons stated above. You don’t take toys this big out for a ride without getting the top guy to agree, if not author. But in the new state of public hypnosis and media co-optation (press corps all hoping to get government jobs once their own businesses collapse), there is little chance we will hear anything more. Nothing to see here, move along.
RWE (21): so true. That “high control need” may stem from pathological narcissism. That personality type is often that of the bully. And bullies can abuse the decent for a long, long time before their depredations are checked (at enormous cost). I think we’re on that path. Well along it. Note also that the trajectory accelerates when the “decent” are, too often, confused by the endless scolding of moral free-riders, weary of self-direction and personal sacrifice, and generally disgusted with the unrewarding work of being the only adults on the bus. As they go Galt, the power vacuum is filled by dangerous scum.
On the ammo shortage.
After the Obama Admin came in the government ordered that all used brass from fired military ammo be rendered unreloadable by crushing or otherwise converting it to scrap that could only be melted down. This had a major impact on the ammo industry, both greatly increasing costs, especially for calibers such as 5.56MM and 9MM, and drastically reducing supply.
I understand that this policy was reversed when people screamed to Congress. But some damage had already been done, both through destruction of many tens of thousands of round of reloadable brass and the consumer run on ammo supplies when this was recognized.
Since we do not have separate factories for producing each caliber, even part-time elimination of the commercial reloading industry means that producers of new ammo have to take up the slack for 9M and 5.56MM, reducing availability of all ammo.
And note that currently we get quite a lot of ammo from Russia and China. So Socialist O gave his overseas friends some big windfall profits.
If the flight had something to do with honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, why are not the powers that be up front about that?
This does not excuse scaring people in New York City, but at least there would have been some proper national purpose to the flight (who can be against honoring a group of distinguished veterans?) instead of the corrupt purposes that are the object of the speculative gossip.
Ammo suppliers here say when ammo comes in it’s not what is ordered the ammo company’s send what ever they have on hand to send.
Ya just got to own a lot of different calibers of guns to be able to get ammo for one.
The fly by was a total screw up from get go.
oMan #23: Yes, that is all true. But I have found that most often the “Top Down” control freak people find it necessary to employ the 2,000 mile long screwdriver approach because the way they want things done won’t work. It becomes obvious to them that the real problem is not that their brilliant strategy is at fault but that the lesser beings that can’t float on clouds are all screwups. So they start issuing orders of the type that says “Insert Tab A into Slot B, NO! I said Slot B! Whadda mean there is no Slot B? If I told you to make a Tab A then you must have known to make a Slot B too! Okay, I have to do everything!”
Reference LBJ on a host of issues, McNamara on the Vietnam War, F-111, C-5A, Carter on the Desert One fiasco, NASA HQ on the Space Shuttle, and typical military administrative types at approx 10 min intervals on any given day.
Paul @25 The official story we’re getting out of the White House is that this Caldera guy just decided to fly a 747 and 2 F-16′s down the Hudson a low level for kicks, on his own dime, nobody don’t know nuthin’. Will never happen again, as the “furious” President Obama says.
The saddest part of all is that half of our country will accept this answer and move on with the rest of their unthinking lives.
I guess even worse, if this story is even vaguely true, this Administration has no control over huge national assets, anybody can do anything they want at the White House?
This story smelled bad from the outset. But, I’d not heard of the “Tuskegee Airman” movie
connection before. I do like conspiracy theories, however, and this situation is perfect.
If there was a connection with the [black] “Tuskegee Airman,” and a 747 was coming from Andrews AFB, who might be on the 747? Why, the group of blacks who profit most from being black, the fully segregated, no whites allowed Congressional Black Caucus!
Doesn’t this answer the questions about how low level bureaucrats could pull this off with little apparent oversight? “Yes, Major, but it’s a familiarization flight for some members of the CBC, and the boss, himself, said “OK.” Great morning boondoggle; drive from downtown to Andrews, fly up to NYC, circle the Statue, fly back to Andrews and drive back downtown for lunch. I haven’t calculated times and distances but that trip should be doable in under 3 hours.
What other group of passengers, what, 25 or 30 of them, could be told to shut up and then relied upon to do so?
Yep, I believe that’s the answer!
13. Mad Fiddler:
I found a photo online identified as “USAF F-16C block 30 #87-0217 from the 160th FS is seen wearing special tail markings for the Alabama ANG commemorating the reactivating of the 100th FS Tuskegee airmen, formats with a P-51 Mustang in Tuskegee markings on September 12th, 2007.”
If the F-16′s were F-16C models, that is a single seat version, thus no room for a photographer.
Just who was on that VC-25?
What frosts me about this incident as much as the fact that it happened at all is BO’s knee-jerk reaction to find some underling to throw under the bus for it. He must have a sign on his desk saying, “The buck passes here”.
I find it interesting that the White House was totally prepared to hunker down and ignore the Air Force one story / scandal until it went away, depending upon the short-term memory loss of their constituents. But that evidently there was enough pressure from “out there” that they felt a need to respond and both lop off the head of Caldera and release the one (lousy) picture.
What was it it tipped the balance in the Obama mind between ignoring it until it went away, and taking further action beyond releasing a statement that it “would never happen again”? Is furor on the blogosphere enough, or does the NY Times *have* to weigh in before Obama reacts?
Finally, I’m seeing “Tuskagee airman” being mentioned for the first time yesterday afternoon and this morning. The thought occurs that this is supposed to distract everyone from the way more interesting question of who-all was on board that flight.
Molon Labe, excellent observations.
Here is the original photo from the White House website.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/photos/AF1_photo1.jpg
They should have used Photoshop or the Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program!) to modify a non-crappy photo of AF1.
1. $300,000+ and the result was ONE picture?
2. Where are the other pictures? We know there were more.
3. WHO WAS ON BOARD? I am sure The One would not have missed the opportunity to stuff that airplane full of useful fools. The idea was that they would get off the plane and talk about how much they love Obama and how people of their ethnic group, religion, social class should vote for a wonderful man who gave regular folk such a thrill. When the jaunt turned ugly, everyone had to take a vow of secrecy. OR, it was money well spent to thrill some of The One’s largest donors. “This is the kind of special privilege your money buys you, friend!”
(Sarcasm ON) Hey its all there. Its due to the Ambiguities in the WH in re to the WHMO.
AM BIG, U ITTY!
Sorta like we won.
Get over it. Duh!!
(Sarcasm OFF)
We must demand to know who was on the plane. An acknowledgement (don’t hold your breath for that) or much better a leak/revelation that this was a campaign favor payback junket blows all this fog away and becomes an even bigger embarassment for BHO, so no wonder the white wash.
I read the WH memorandum. It didn’t seem very professional, and certainly lacks many of the elements of an “official” document. Where is the executive summary? Why is not on official letterhead or stationery? What is the provenance?
This little scandal stinks more every day.
There have been a couple of bloggers who have filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the manifest of the flight. You just know the White HOuse will stonewall those for a long long time, up to and including marking them Sooper Dooper Special State Secrets and not to be divulged.
I love watching Obama’s uncool rat-like scurrying which is becoming more and more frequent as his rat-like and uncool proclivities surface.
#17 Molon Labe: “No professional photographer took this picture. It was likely the souvenir picture taken by the F-16 pilot himself.”
Interesting hypothesis.
Further related fact: the WH copy of the photo has no metadata. I loaded it into Photoshop and found no info whatsoever about the camera that took the picture, or anything else about the picture.
By contrast, my own snapshots are automatically tagged with the make & model of camera, the exact date-time, the shutter speed, and so on.
***I am not a photographer,*** and I do not mean to get all Conspiracy Guy, but isn’t that a bit odd? Did the WH deliberately remove the metadata? Might intact metadata have told us something about the circumstances under which the photo was taken, e.g. taken from a $5,000 professional camera vs. a $150 consumer point-and-shoot? One would support the claim that a pro really did take the photo, the other would support ML’s hypothesis that the WH hastily posted the F-16 pilot’s souvenir snapshot.
People who *are* knowledgeable about such matters, please set me straight.
-Resident
@39 Resident
I noticed they stripped the EXIF data from the image.
However, the file does contain the three tags “JFIF”, “Ducky”, and “Adobe” which indicate that the image went through Photoshop at one time. They may have just used Photoshop to strip the EXIF data.
Google those tag names for more info.
Thank you, ML. That’s what I figured, that they processed it before releasing it, and the metadata was removed in the process.
Other questions:
1. Has a full-resolution version been released? The WH copy I found is only 0.7MP, one tenth the resolution of even a cheap consumer camera. If a high-res version does not exist, or never gets produced, that might lend credence to ML’s hypothesis. Also, perhaps a high-res original might contain intact metadata.
2. Why does the WH publicity photo show AF1 with a backdrop of hideous Jersey City commercial sprawl, not glittering Manhattan? If you’re buzzing Manhattan for the purpose of getting a pretty photo, why not take (and release) a pretty photo of Manhattan?
3. To reiterate ML’s question, if this photo were the fruit of a $300,000 PR effort, why is there an ugly shadow of the cockpit ledge and a reflection off the canopy?
In the absence of good answers, I am starting to think ML is right: this is not a professional shot because there are no professional shots and there never were any professional shots.
-Resident
In my 3+ decades of work in the “production” community, a third of my employment has been in companies which delivered live-action video & film programs. This means that when I wasn’t operating high-end electronic graphic systems, I was helping out on sets, moving lights, taping down cables, and WATCHING & Learning – helped me a lot in doing sketches for DPs, directors and clients (DP- directors of photography.)
About 1976 Steadicam came available for aerial cinematography. The elaborate counter-balanced and gyroscopically stabilized helicopter rig the size of a large refrigerater had to be bolted to the airframe around the passenger door. The camera operator sat on the sill with a safety harness, with feet braced on the skid.
Anyone who watched the absurd slo-mo cavalcade of the unconvictable celebrity murderer, or any of the hundreds of televised high-speed car chases around the country, has been watching these via the highly-sophisticated camera mount descendants of those early Steadicam units.
I don’t know how a professional still camera would be mounted in a high-performance fighter jet, but it’s completely absurd to expect the pilot to handle anything but a snapshot with one hand… Well, I suppose the jet could be on autopilot, but that sounds like something that would get you grounded or cashiered if done while flying close formation with AF-1.
I think the ammunition shortage stems from scores of millions of Americans who had been clueless for decades awakening at the same time and scurrying to prepare themselves and their loved ones for what they see coming.
The ammunition manufacturers apparently did not foresee the demand that would be created by The Greatest Gun Salesman In History, or maybe they did but they were already producing close to maximum capacity. The ongoing Overseas Contingency Operations have burned up a lot of it.
What capitalist wants to invest heavily in new plant, machinery and skilled labor to produce a product that may be outlawed with the stroke of a pen whenever the regime gets around to it?
The Underground Economy will gladly accept ammunition as specie. One .22 Long Rifle round may soon be the new penny, .38 Special and 9mm the new nickles, 5.56mm the new dime and 7.62 x 51mm the new quarter. Maybe .338 Lapua as the new double Eagle. And no sandwich coins or copper-plated aluminum.
Better than gold.
Don’t take no wooden bullets.
Who at the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service decided that small caliber fired brass had to be mutilated before it could be sold, and why? Nameless, faceless bureaucrats deep within the bowels of an obscure element of the Defense Logistics Agency reached out and touched millions of American shooters by monkeying with the disposition of expended Class V residue, which if you ask me is a bunch of expended Class I residue.
The Right to Keep and Bear Ammunition
There are only two explanations possible for the decision to deliberately make policed military brass un-recyclable (1) to make ammunition more expensive and less available to both the military and the public, or (2) utter stammering dumb-assedness.
I would vote for (all of the above) since it is the clearly stated purpose of the administration to reduce U.S. military capability overall; it has also been the clearly stated policy of the Democratic Party for the last 4 decades to deny U.S. citizens the right to own firearms. Finally, those people are certifiable.
idiots
The democrats have been trying to pass laws, AND ACTUALLY GETTING A LOT OF THEM PUSHED THROUGH, to restrict citizen’s access to guns for all purposes for years.
How anyone can doubt this? It’s not like they’re trying to be quiet about it. The press and every Democratic candidate keep alltime telling us that taking guns away from law-abiding citizens will end all criminal gun violence.
It’s insane. When I was a kid, most of the kids in my school had at least a pellet gun, and I don’t mean just BB stuff. A lot of kids had their own .22, and knew how to handle larger caliber firearms. There were rifle team competitions in PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
and you know what? YOu NEVER freaking heard of any kids stealing their grampa’s gun collection and shooting the crap out of their schoolmates.
What a bunch of brass-plated Idiots we’ve got running things, to try to tell us that having guns causes the current psychotic Satanic rampages.
Forty years ago kids had lots less restriction on access to guns, and no murders, no Colombines, no Va Techs. In some way, it’s mighty tempting to figure that the crummy leadership we have in this country – Hollywood shit-for-brains, lobotimized newscasters, lying Marxist professors and presidents who want their staff polished instead of paying attention to the job — that have gotten us into the mess we’re in.
Sorry. Time to take my meds.
(wink)
Regarding the mystery flight, where is the paper trail documenting the plans and approvals prior to the actual event? This sort of action doesn’t just happen – a lot of people and agencies are involved. The government surely requires paperwork for everything.
JJRedFan – No apologies needed! I take my meds regularly.
A thought. The best practice ammo is made by Wolf (Russian) or Blazer (US). The shortage is a true shortage. The plants are running 24×7 and cannot turn out more than they are. People are buying semi-auto handguns and rifles at an astonishing clip right now. Why? No one wants to open that can of worms.
I thought astonishing clips were no longer legal.
Actually, it sounds like a really “MOD” hair styling salon…
“During our interview, the Director also offered another explanation for his failure to read the email. When he returned from Mexico, he was suffering from severe muscle spasms in his back. Doctors prescribed pain medications, he had difficulty walking around the office, and he went home early a couple of days.” (p. 3)
So Mr. Caldera joins Paula Abdul in the ‘pain medication made me do it’ penalty box. 2 occurrences is a pattern, 3 is enemy action… The makers of Fentanyl must be proud.
That can has been opened on many a BC comment thread, robo.
It simultaneously dawned upon millions of apathetic, unengaged, distracted Americans that rights they had never previously properly appreciated could very likely be denied to them in the near future. A great many craniums popped out of rectal defilade last summer and fall, and with clearer vision they hastened to prepare for scenarios they had ridiculed but now recognized as painfully plausible.
People are preparing to resist the redistribution of their property. The sheep are growing horns,