The LuLac Edition #279, August 6th, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: MILITARY GUYS YOU KNEW WHO COULD COUNT! ENSIGN CHARLES PARKER, COMMANDER QUINTON McHALE, CAPTAIN WALLACE "WALLY" BINGHAMTON AND SRGNT. ERNEST BILKO.

GUNS, WHAT GUNS?

When I was a kid, commercial TV was awash with stores about the heroic military men of World War II. But for every Gallant Men and Combat series, there were the offbeat comedies that portrayed military life as a farce. I found that my uncles, all WWII vets gravitated toward these shows because they didn’t have to relive the horror of what they had faced. To them it was comic relief and an escape. Yet, they made it crystal clear to my generation that this was just a show and not representative of what the Military did in the war. And the cautioned us that real life military men were competent and now buffoons. I believed them until today.
In case you haven’t heard, our Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.
The report from the Government Accountability Office indicates that U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons US distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by General David Petraeus who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.
This is downright scary. It is ironic that the government has no trouble keeping track of us through taxes, fees and applications for help. The Government will watch every penny a senior citizen made before they reach an income level to have them qualify for aid for senior care. And they’ll track every time a welfare parent makes so as not to spend too much money on the children of these people. But they can’t keep the weapons straight, they can’t take inventory? Plesae hand this war over to Srngt. Bilko and Quniton McHale and Captain Binghamton. They might skim off the top a bit but at least they’d know how to count.

A HEART OF GOLD

We all heard about the lady of the night with a heart of gold. How about a stripper who knows CPR. What every man should require. Here’s a video from MSNBC. All well that ended well but my question is this, “didn’t the guy know men were more susceptible to heart attacks between the hours of 8am and noon?”
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=b3ea66ea-9dcf-4114-b289-bbab06913d89&p=Source_NBC%20News%20Channel&t=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032525/&fg=

TV ITEMS OF NOTE

Tuesday night, NBC News will feature an interview with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on his battle with colon cancer. Snow, the first host of Fox News Sunday as well as a popular radio post before he became Press Secretary will be interviewed by NBC’s David Gregory.
And later on that night, on MSNBC, you’ll see the Democratic debate hosted by Keith Oberman. Let’s hope the Dem debate will be as lively as the one that was featured on ABC this past Sunday. As a political junkie, I find this stuff interesting. As a citizen, I find that a white break piss ant state like Iowa deserves too much consideration and power in picking who will be our President.