Then: "Shea-Porter won with a grass-roots, fiery message centered on opposition to the Iraq war and the president's agenda."
Now: "Shea-Porter also promised to continue fighting for new contracts at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and to draw the U.S. Air Force Cyberspace Command computer project to vacant property there."
"Shea-Porter also supports building more F-22s"
That's the ANTIWAR Shea-Porter, folks.
And then there is the GREAT LIBERAL, ANTIWAR LION!!
"Kennedy has been a longtime advocate of the fighter plane. Late last month he used his vote on the Senate Armed Services Committee to support the F-22 funding. He also voted to finance other projects that have an economic impact in the Bay State but that the Pentagon says it doesn’t need.... Kennedy cited the economic impact of terminating the program.... The project’s prime contractor is Lockheed Martin."
"Kennedy’s break with the president’s defense spending priorities goes beyond just the F-22. He voted in favor of buying nine more F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets for the Navy than the administration requested and providing more than $600 million that the Air Force didn’t ask for to build an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter."
Now I can see why the REST of the NATION HATES this FAT HYPOCRITICAL FUCK!!! The COMPASSIONATE LIBERAL is a WAR LOOTER!
Related: The Hot Fart Mist of Ted Kennedy
The Globe's Garbage Gates
And WHY NOT the OTHER SENATOR, too!
"Kerry reiterated his support for building more of the multibillion-dollar fighter jets even amid new reports that the aircraft may be experiencing technical problems. The
More WASTED WAR LOOT!
Yeah, Kerry would have got us out of Iraq!
You have ONLY ONE PARTY, America, and that is the WAR PARTY!
The D and R next to their name mean NOTHING!!!!
"A dog fight Obama seems bound to lose; Congress backs F-22 fighter the Pentagon doesn’t want" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | July 12, 2009
WASHINGTON - From the economic recovery plan to healthcare reform and creating clean-energy jobs, Representative Paul Hodes has been among President Obama’s staunchest supporters in Congress.
But when it comes to the administration’s proposal to end production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet to save billions of dollars over the next decade, the New Hampshire Democrat is drawing the line: Hodes has joined others members of the president’s own party to insist the Air Force buy more of the planes despite fierce objections from the Pentagon and even the threat of a presidential veto.
Hodes’s view on the F-22, shared by other usually stalwart Obama supporters such as Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, signifies the extent to which one of the president’s priorities - paring down costly weapons systems - is at risk of flaming out on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers in both parties are scrambling to protect jobs back home.
Welcome to the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!!
Thank God we have PEACE-LOVING, ANTIWAR DemocraPs in charge!!!!
Hodes’s district includes Nashua, where an estimated 1,400 workers at
Can't we BUILD OTHER THINGS?
The ultimate fate of the F-22, however, has wider implications for defense spending, according to military specialists and congressional specialists. If the plane continues to be produced, they predict, other weapon systems that Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has recommended cutting back could be revived as lawmakers are emboldened to push for their own pet projects.
“If Gates and Obama can’t sustain the veto, the defense budget is a ham sandwich and will be carved up,’’ said Winslow Wheeler, a former GOP defense aide who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information in Washington. “We are talking about a political system that watches these things very closely. Any perceived weakness only begets more weakness.’’
Obama still has some influential lawmakers in his corner, including Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. When the full Senate takes up the defense bill this week, McCain plans to lead an effort to reverse the decision in committee that would add $1.7 billion for 12 additional F-22s next year.
Oh, THAT will get included the budget. In fact, IT ALL WILL!!!
Nice that McCain is ON OBAMA'S SIDE, huh? That's the CHANGE we are getting?
One defense analyst estimates that $65 billion has been spent on the F-22 program to date; the price tag for each of the stealth fighters, designed during the Cold War for the next generation of air-to-air combat, is about $200 million.
Oh, my, WHAT could YOU DO with $200 MILLION dollars, huh, 'murkns?
That would PAY OFF a LOT of MORTGAGES, wouldn't it?
The House of Representatives, meanwhile, has already voted in favor of adding nearly $400 million to purchase parts for at least seven additional F-22s. The two chambers will have to ultimately come up with a common bill. The proposal not to build the final batch of 60 F-22s is at the center of Gates’s effort to scale back some costly weapon systems and free up resources for new capabilities such as intelligence-gathering tools to confront less conventional enemies, such as those in Iraq or Afghanistan.
When he rolled out his budget plan in April, Gates urged members of Congress to resist the temptation to fight for some of these programs solely on the grounds that they employ their constituents. He called on lawmakers “to critically and ruthlessly separate appetites from real requirements’’ - a reference to the longtime practice by lawmakers of funding pet projects whether they are justified or not.
It's called the MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX and WE WERE WARNED!!!
On Gates’s advice, the White House appears poised to fight for its position on the F-22. In a tersely worded memo to House lawmakers on June 24, the White House said that “if the final bill presented to the president contains this provision, the president’s senior advisers would recommend a veto.’’
The president’s party holds significant majorities in both chambers, but party loyalty only goes so far when it comes to defense contracts. It is unclear whether Obama can garner enough votes to make a veto stand, according to a number of close observers. If a two-thirds’ majority in both chambers backs the F-22, he will be forced to buy them.
This is MAKING ME SICK and BREAKING MY HEART!
Maybe the BEST THING for the WORLD IS for the United States to SELF-DESTRUCT and TAKE ISRAEL ALONG with it!!!
FUCK THIS WAR WORSHIP and MILITARISM based on LIES!!!!!!!!!
The signs aren’t good. So far, the House leadership has refused to even consider three proposed amendments to remove the F-22 funding from the defense bill. And Kennedy, perhaps the president’s biggest ally on Capitol Hill, has been a longtime advocate of the fighter plane. Late last month he used his vote on the Senate Armed Services Committee to support the F-22 funding. He also voted to finance other projects that have an economic impact in the Bay State but that the Pentagon says it doesn’t need.
He hopes that someday the Massachusetts Air National Guard will be able to replace their F-15 jets with the F-22, his office said in a statement. But in a letter in support of continuing the program sent to then-President-elect Obama in January, Kennedy and dozens of other senators cited the economic impact of terminating the program, including more than 1,000 suppliers nationwide and at least 25,000 jobs. The project’s prime contractor is Lockheed Martin.
Meanwhile, Kerry, who also signed the January letter, this week reiterated his support for building more of the multibillion-dollar fighter jets even amid new reports that the aircraft may be experiencing technical problems. The
“I can confirm that the senator’s position [in favor of more F-22s] has not changed,’’ said Kerry’s spokeswoman, Jodi Seth. Obama is facing opposition from Democrats across the region. Representative Carol Shea-Porter, from New Hampshire, also supports building more F-22s, according to her spokeswoman, Jamie Radice, as does Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
Related: AIG: Insults and Arrogance
Which pocket do you think Dodd is sleeping in tonight?
For his part, Kennedy’s break with the president’s defense spending priorities goes beyond just the F-22. He voted in favor of buying nine more F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets for the Navy than the administration requested and providing more than $600 million that the Air Force didn’t ask for to build an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - another provision that the White House warns could prompt a veto.
Engines for both the F/A-18 and the F-35 are built by General Electric’s aviation division in Lynn. In total, the Super Hornet program supports 102 companies across Massachusetts and employs more than 3,800 people, according to a briefing prepared for congressional staff by
But many watchdog groups fear that such reversals in Gates’s budget plan - especially on the F-22 - will jeopardize the integrity of the entire Pentagon reform plan in the years to come, including the recommendations of a defense strategy review to be completed by the end of the year. “Procurement of additional F-22s does not serve our national security needs and jeopardizes the Department of Defense’s higher priorities,’’ said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.
At least one supporter of buying more F-22s agrees. Loren Thompson, president of the Lexington Institute, a think tank that espouses a stronger defense, said he believes that other programs are more likely to be revived by Congress if the administration loses the F-22 battle.
“Obama either has to veto the whole bill or accept a significant legislative defeat,’’ he said. “He raised the symbolic value; if he loses, he loses big.’’
Pfft!
The WAR PROFITEERS are ALL GOING to WIN -- and SO are the POLITICIANS!
Some lawmakers have shown a willingness to accept the Pentagon’s arguments despite the possible political repercussions. Representative Chellie Pingree, Democrat of Maine, represents North Berwick, where Pratt & Whitney builds the F-22’s engines. Even so, she voted no on adding funding for the plane in the House Armed Services Committee last month.
Unlike the FIERY, ANTIWAR Shea-Porter, huh?
Pingree, says her spokesman, Willy Ritch, “is confident that the men and women at the Pratt & Whitney facility in Maine will continue working on other contracts.’’
Pingree will be gone next election.
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