Straws and camels.

This has finally gotten to the point that a niggling thing is now chafed raw.

I am talking about the FMA.

Not a day goes by that I don't see at least two people telling me I need to call my senator and tell them to vote down.

Which seems silly because word on the Hill is it's Dead on Arrival.

Don't get me wrong, I think the FMA is a bilious bit of stuff, rancid and foul, a fetid, steaming, turd in in the water cooler.

Because it's working.

People are ignoring the real issues of the day, to bitch and moan about this.

What of the report on Iraq... the one which says there were no ties to Al Qaeda? Lost.

What of the detainees in Gitmo, who aren't being held by the DoD, and so will still be denied access to the courts?
Lost.

What of the White House arguing that Dept. heads can lie to Congress about what things will cost, and it breaks no law, despite that oversight being one of the duties of Congress?
Lost.

What of the continued decline in real wages?
Lost

What of...
Lost.
Lost.
Lost.

Which lets them run the debate. Issues that hurt them, swept away, in a tide of (justifiable, but short-sighted) indignation.

But that indignation helps Bush. His base can now go to the more indifferent of their fellow travellers, and say, "See what the homosexual agenda has done? Now they want marraige, then they'll want boyfriends for the sons they get to adopt, and pervert. Do you want them to pick your kids?"

And they might turn out to vote.

We need to figure out what the, "X", is in this election and remember, "It's the "X" stupid."

...

InsideDefense.com
July 12, 2004

Army Tightens Control On Enlisted Retirements


The Army this month began implementing a new personnel policy that could change how quickly enlisted soldiers are allowed to retire.

The policy, a revision to the Army regulation that guides active-duty enlisted “separations,” requires a high-level review of some retirement requests in light of force requirements, including operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The policy does not change the obligations soldiers must fulfill to retire.

Enlisted personnel with at least 20 years service are generally eligible for retirement, but soldiers must serve 30 years before being entitled to retire upon request. The policy change does not affect enlisted soldiers at the rank of staff sergeant and below.

The Army's personnel headquarters, or “G-1,” has always had the final say on whether a soldier could retire. In the past, enlisted soldiers wishing to leave the service submitted a request to their commanders, who routinely granted requests from those who fulfilled active-duty obligations. Once the commander granted approval, G-1 would rubber-stamp the request.

But as of July 1, according to a recent Army-wide message, approval authority of these retirement requests must come from the G-1's Army's Human Resources Command, where each request is being scrutinized more closely to ensure the service does not run out of soldiers specialized in tasks needed in operations.

“The forthcoming proposed change in policy is not intended to deny retirement to our soldiers who have faithfully discharged their responsibilities to our nation, but to ensure the timing of their requirements is consistent with manning priorities,” according to an Army-wide e-mail message by the Human Resources Command, which is headquartered in Alexandria, VA.

-- Anne Plummer


That's a shitty sort of stop loss... ten years.

Think about it... ten years.

What I just realised this article doesn't point out is that an E-6 (Staff Sergeant) who has more than 10 years in is listed as, "Indefinite" when he extends.

The idea is that someone who has the rank (enlisted grades only go up to E-9, an O-6 is a Colonel... who has more power, and respect than an E-6, but may have gotten there sooner [depends on the MOS].

Which is screwed a couple of ways. This is the Roman/British long service army model (enlist for 20 years, from the get-go), only they are doing it after they've got one for ten years already.

Tell me again the Army isn't in trouble for staffing. Tell me again we aren't back-dooring the draft.

Tell me again we aren't pissing of the (all important) middle ranks, wherein resides the institutional memory of the Army.

"Fuck," low and disgusted.