QuietDan

[quote name='monkeylizard' timestamp='1351707018' post='836698'] He's a general, not an admiral. the article mentions an admiral being releived as well, but for entirely different reasons unrelated to Libya. [/quote] It was the Admiral on the carrier task force in the Mediterranean off Libya, so it may in fact be related to the Libya debacle.

Congratulations Sergeant Major! I hope you always have commanders who allow you to save them from themselves.

How many is too many of the same make and model gun? I don't know . . . how many men in a platoon?

The Marines need to guard the White House to ensure he DOES leave . . . and doesn't take the silverware with him. I imagine after November 6th the shredders will be going full blast. They'll have to use 55 gallon burn barrels and diesel fuel to destroy all the evidence. They'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the White House on January 20, 2013.

We used the containers for a LOT of purposes in Iraq. My radio and television operation in Baghdad was set up in twelve techie connexes 8 foot by 20 foot. They used to belong to the British embassy and were originally set up as two person living quarters, quite comfy. Three 40 footers in a C-shape, with walkways in between, and you'd really have something, could make it quite livable. Thought about buying 5 acres of Texas land and putting one out there "deer camp" style, with a porta-potty, a water tank, and a generator. If it's out in the county, you might be able to skip some of the code stuff. You can make a great workshop out of one, leave the steel door open, and put a 2X4 and plywood "plug" just inside the steel door with a wooden front door, a window, and a hole for an air conditioner. I think you can get them cheap if they are no longer seaworthy, I think the world is awash in used connexes.

Not now.

Let us know if you want someone to take 'em off your hands . . . (!!!)

From my recollection, and subject to correction by those more knowledgeable than me: Every military officer of military rank beyond Lt Colonel is essentially a "political" actor. They deal with relationships and resources and policy. Every full Colonel and all ranks of General are there for their interpersonal, political skills. General Petraeus is an acknowledged master of this art. Yes. An interesting pick for CIA Director. As a serving General Officer who is also known to be conservative, he became a real hot potato for Obama. A lot of folks think (believe) that Obama put General Petraeus over at the CIA to bury him, to sideline him, to control him, to remove his impact from the Army and the Joint Chiefs. My understanding is that Generals and Admirals never truly retire. Instead, they are "Advanced to the Retired List." They can be recalled for National Service at any time, and I think, without regard to age.

Don't screw with the spooks. They know where ALL the skeletons are buried. They know how to sink your ash if you mess with them. Obama is making the biggest mistake of his miserable career if he thinks he's going to pin his crap on the CIA and the other crytpo-alphabets. Petraeus is a quality act. Just because you're not hearing much from him doesn't mean he's not busy. I met the amazing General Petraeus in Iraq and sat in on any number of his Iraq BUA's -- Battle Update Assessments. Very cool customer and brilliant in a way that is hard to describe. Expect targeted leaks in the near future: drip, drip, drip . . . deluge. Obama may just end up drowning in his lies and deceptions.

Lived in San Antonio for five years. The outside air conditioner has many pounds of COPPER in it, so there is an incentive to steal functioning units for the value of the copper in them. It happened four times in my subdivision. And, the installers are also the thieves. They pretend to fasten them to the concrete pads, but don't, to make them easier to steal and resell, or steal and recycle. Coming to a neighborhood near you . . .

My understanding is that all this incident was transmitted with a "Critic" Precedence, which I think is higher than "Flash." This all had to be received and understood immediately and afterwards in near-real-time at the highest reaches of the government. The highest reaches of the government. We know that the messages flowed through the White House Situation Room. If the President did NOT see these reports, it would be incredible. Who would be Crazy Enough to not tell the President? To think otherwise would be to deny reality.

Hillary leaving the White House? Count the spoons.

Ambassador Stevens is Uriah the Hittite from the Bible: 2 Samuel, Chapter 11:15 This is what he wrote in the letter: "Place Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and leave him to be struck down dead." Ambassador Stevens died to cover up the failure of Obama's Libya and Middle East policies; just as Uriah the Hittite died to cover up King David's adultery with Uriah's wife Bathsheba. http://www.usccb.org/bible/2samuel/11

Almost too pretty for Zombie work! Very well done!

I imagine that if I lived in Memphis I might share that view. Stay safe!

What'd you say!!?? What an awesome freakin' statement! They should have let you vote twice with that. More power to you, Brother. (And welcome home!)

We have a Hawk just like yours in our neighborhood that often makes a play for the birds eating at the feeders in the Crepe Myrtle in our front yard: Cardinals, Doves, Sparrows, Blackbirds and Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are like an early warning system, with a loud call that sound just like "Hawwwk!, Hawwwk!" and all the little birds scatter. The Jays stay in the tree where the Hawk can't get 'em. Three Jays will take on a Hawk. It is a sight to see.

Reduced one grown adult cousin to tears by outlining Obama failures during family gathering. She was absolutely unable to counter any of the Obama failure points with anything other than her feeeeeeeelings. She felt that she was being personally attacked and fled the gathering in tears and drove home, leaving her husband and son to hitch a ride with other family members. Very pitiful. The rest of us sat there and watched the melt-down in total amazement.

Good on her. She waited until there was absolutely no other choice and then did what she had to do. She will come out of this just fine I think. A lot of good judgement on her part, and good back-up for her from her Mom and the 911 Dispatcher.

A national story with a LOT of Nashville interviews in it. ***************************************************************** Gun Sales Soar During Obama’s First Term: ‘He Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Firearm Industry’ (Photo credit: Getty Images) WASHINGTON (AP) — Tennessee lawyer Brian Manookian says he never considered himself a gun enthusiast. He owns just one handgun and was raised in a gun-free home. But the firearms industry has proven so successful in recent years that he decided to give up practicing law and make guns his livelihood. It’s a decision that’s put Manookian on track to earn four times what he made as a corporate health care attorney, a job that earned him six figures right out of law school, he said. And he’s far from alone. An analysis by The Associated Press of data tracking the health of the gun industry shows that President Barack Obama has presided over a heyday for guns. Sales are on the rise, so much that some manufacturers cannot make enough fast enough. Major gun company stock prices are up. The number of federally licensed, retail gun dealers is increasing for the first time in nearly 20 years. The U.S. gun lobby is bursting with cash and political clout. Washington has expressed little interest in passing new gun laws, despite renewed calls to do so after recent deadly shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin. Four years ago the gun lobby predicted Obama would be the “most anti-gun president in American history.†Yet it is hard to find a single aspect of the gun world that isn’t thriving. “The driver is President Obama. He is the best thing that ever happened to the firearm industry,†said Jim Barrett, an industry analyst at C.L. King & Associates Inc. in New York. Obama has made no pledges to push for new gun control legislation and does not have the support in Congress or among voters even if he did. During this week’s presidential debate, he did suggest renewing a U.S. ban on assault weapons and coming up with an overall strategy to reduce violence. But both Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said the real need is for the government to enforce gun laws already on the books. Meanwhile, sales are brisk. Since opening a $5 million armory in Nashville last month, Manookian and his business partner have outdone their own expectations, selling inventory three to four times faster than they expected. The facility has high ceilings and granite fixtures in the bathroom and provides instructional courses and a shooting range in addition to firearms for sale. “It is a very strong investment,†Manookian said. Others agree. For the first time since 1993, the number of federally licensed retail gun dealers in the U.S. increased slightly in 2010 and 2011. The country added 1,167 licensed retail gun dealers, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives records. After the assault weapons ban of 1994 – now expired – the number of gun dealerships dropped annually until 2010. As of October 2012, there were 50,812 retail gun dealers – 3,303 more than in 2009. “Business has been very good,†said Frederick Prehn, who a year ago opened a small gun store above his dentistry practice in Wausau, Wis. In the past year, Prehn has relocated twice to larger spaces and gone from one employee to eight. Gun enthusiasts look at weapons at the Browning booth on the floor at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meetings and Exhibits on April 14, 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images) Some gun store owners can’t keep shelves stocked, said Brian Jones, owner of Bullseye Shooter’s supply in Painted Post, N.Y. Jones said he opened his gun store in November 2010. In his first year, he said he sold between 600 and 700 guns. A little more than halfway through his second year, he’s already sold 700. For the first time in the company’s history, Sturm Ruger & Co. Inc. stopped taking orders for a couple of months this year. Ruger, one of the nation’s largest gun manufacturers, has since resumed taking orders, though gun-sellers say demand is still outpacing production. Dan Wesson Arms, Inc., a small gun manufacturer that sells to a niche market, stopped taking orders this spring because the company had sold out the entire year’s production, spokesman Jason Morton said. The company has stopped taking orders before, but never so early on the entire line, he said. “Wouldn’t you want to be in a business where customers are just begging to hand you money?†said Bill Bernstein, owner of East Side Gun Shop in Nashville. Obama is not yet through his first term, but the federal government already has conducted about as many background checks for gun owners and prospective buyers on his watch as it did during the first six years of George W. Bush’s presidency. In the first 3 1/2 years of the Bush administration, the FBI conducted about 28 million background checks. During the same period of the Obama administration, the FBI conducted more than 50 million. The gun industry uses the number of background checks as a reliable indicator of demand. Ruger and Smith & Wesson represent nearly 30 percent of the U.S. gun manufacturing industry and lead the market in production of pistols and revolvers, according to government statistics. The two companies have been running production lines around the clock, hiring workers and operating at maximum capacity, said Barrett, an industry analyst who also owns Ruger stock. Ruger’s sales have increased 86 percent since Obama took office, and Smith & Wesson’s sales have gone up nearly 44 percent, compared with 18 percent for overall national retail sales. And the companies have big expectations for the industry’s future, as they’re spending more money on research and development than ever before. Illinois gun owners and supporters file out NRA applications while participating in an Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day convention before marching to the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in Springfield, Ill. (Credit: AP) The NRA itself has done well, too. The lobbying organization has had more cash on hand during the Obama years than it had since 2004, finishing 2010 with more than $24 million, according to the most recent figures available. “Which makes it incredibly ironic that the gun lobby is opposing Obama,†said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Gross said Obama, who initially campaigned to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired under Bush, has done what he said was “disappointingly little†on gun control. But the gun lobby says the success of the industry does not indicate that Obama is good for Second Amendment rights. “This is the most dangerous election in our lifetimes,†NRA chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre said in February, a point he’s made regularly during the NRA’s campaign to defeat Obama. The gun lobby stands by its 2008 predictions that Obama would be anti-gun. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam noted Obama’s appointment of two Supreme Court justices whom the NRA considers anti-gun, plus Obama’s support of a United Nations arms trade treaty and the botched operation called Fast and Furious, which the NRA says was concocted as part of a plan to enforce new gun restrictions. “Gun owners and hunters fear that a second Obama administration with no future political campaigns to worry about will try to destroy this great American freedom,†Arulanandam said. Fears of a Democratic president taking office and issuing stricter gun control laws led to an initial spike in gun sales in 2008, giving dealers some of the highest profit margins they’d ever seen. But even after it became clear Obama was not going to make gun control a priority as president, the industry has continued to do well. Fear of crime may be driving some sales. The number of violent crimes rose by 18 percent in the U.S. in 2011, according to Justice Department figures released this week. It was the first year-to-year increase for violent crime since 1993, marking the end of a long string of declines. Firearm sales typically increase during poor economic times, said Steve Sanetti, chief executive officer and president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the industry. More Americans are hunting and shooting for recreation as well, he said. Sanetti attributes that to military servicemen and women with firearms experience returning to civilian life and wanting to keep up with shooting as a pastime. He also said recreational shooting is a relatively cheap and accessible hobby, drawing in new buyers. Voters have made clear that gun control isn’t a priority. A recent AP-National Constitution Center poll found that 49 percent of adults felt laws limiting gun ownership infringe on the public’s right to bear arms, while 43 percent said such laws do not infringe on those rights. After the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, 52 members of Congress sponsored a bill to track bulk sales of ammunition, but the legislation went nowhere. The firearms industry entrepreneur Manookian said it is clear that guns are a priority for Americans. People around the country are waiting in lines at shooting ranges, he said, cash registers at gun stores are ringing with $1,000 purchases and his brand new armory in Nashville is in the black two weeks after it opened. ___ Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Pete Yost, AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius, and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

Went to the Rascal Flatts concert tonight at the Bridgestone -- they had the "Nashville" crew there to film the audience cheering and applauding an act for the show. It was a lot of fun! Twenty-thousand extras screaming and yelling. Awesome!

There IS something Supremely Satisfying in identifying yourself at the polls with a Handgun Carry Permit. VERY Bill of Rights, Very First Amendment, VERY Second Amendment.

You'd be surprised at how many folks associated with Music Row are: Just. Like. That. Every day another drama, you'd think you were IN a soap opera. Sometimes you wonder how the music gets made at all, what with all the drama and intrigue. It's not called "Crazy Town" for nothing.

Read the posts after the Tennessean endorsement for a laugh. A lot of liberals with exploding heads!

I've seen it. My wife works on Music Row and recognizes a lot of the folks in the show. The first episode was shot in the real Bluebird Cafe, the rest of the episodes are shot on a soundstage replica down to the pictures on the wall. This is actually a Big Deal for Nashville. The whole nation gets to see how dynamic Middle Tennessee is, and that we're not all a bunch of hicks. IMO. There's a ground crew from Los Angeles of about 200 shooting the episodes, and some of them are already talking about moving to Tennessee. If you bump into one, invite them out shooting or something. The freedom might tip the scales and you might be able to change them away from crazy California ways.