Over at Democracy Arsenal, Lorelei Kelly channels Ike Eisenhower:

Today I walked through the Capitol South metro station on my way up to the Hill. Metro stations are full of large advertisements. This fall, the defense bills have been wending their way through committees. Hence fighter planes, guns,submarines and lots of gadet laden soldiers float along the walls of most DC metro stations like an X-box dream menu. Capitol South had a nautical theme.

I learned that the Coast Guard's Deepwater program is made in 41 states. That the shiny ship I was looking at was "the future of littoral combat" (Fire that ad agency!) and that the DDX destroyer was going to guarantee my freedom...

The final bit of unseriousness came when I picked up the Hill newspaper and read that a new Senate group the "Fiscal Watch Team" had joined House Conservatives on the Republican Study Committee in proposing offsets in the federal budget to mitigate the costs of Katrina. The Fiscal Watch Team proposes 5% across the board cuts to domestic spending. Defense and Homeland Security are off the table. Defense industry advertisers are probably very grateful for this decision as they can now spend their earnings on flu shots, which they will need, as American hospitals are in the cross hairs of conservative budgeteers just as avian flu marches closer to the Atlantic ocean. I thought the House's "operation offset would be more fair because it included a section on defense. But the only cost savings on defense ideas they have are a garage sale for old boats and some sort of privatization scheme for veterans health.

This is not a government that is serious about national security.

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