disconnect

Sometimes the sheer, unbelievable stupidity of Donald Rumsfeld staying on as secretary of defense while practically everyone else on Bush's cabinet leaves doesn't really hit you until you you read something like this:

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly two years after the start of the war that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said after asking again.

Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions they face and said the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

And, the defense chief added, armor is not always a savior in the kind of combat U.S. troops face in Iraq, where the insurgents' weapon of choice is the roadside bomb, or improvised explosive device that has killed and maimed hundreds, if not thousands, of American troops since the summer of 2003.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld then continued, "Oh, that reminds me, we're cutting back on tanks too. From now on you'll just be patrolling the streets in your underwear. Tanks are sitting ducks for RPGs, but the average enlisted soldier in his underwear presents a much smaller target for insurgents to hit."

So you're telling me that the United States, which mobilized and constructed god knows how many tanks, trucks, planes and ships during WWII, and presumably has no problem manufacturing the hundreds of thousands of pounds of ordnance that's dropped on Iraq, can't ramp up production on armor enough in TWO YEARS to properly armor the Humvees of an undersized number of troops in Iraq? What an incredibly piss-poor excuse. I guess Rumsfeld figured "We don't want to spend the money" as a response probably wouldn't go over so well, "Shut up and die" would have been seen as a bit harsh, and John Kerry's not around anymore to blame for refusing to give armor to our troops, so that's the best he could do.

Then I like his line of reasoning with the fact that even if their vehicles were armored, they could still be blown up in other ways. That's compassionate conservatism at work. Next, Bush will instruct the new secretary of health and human services to stop all Medicare payments for cancer treatments, as a lot of cancer survivors end up dying afterwards of heart attacks anyway.

The following perfect storm of irony and hypocrisy from the Bush administration is copied directly from Eschaton:

Yesterday:

Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.

Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they saved $2,800 on their income taxes.

They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to more efficiently heat their home, made some home improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the president said.

"Next year, maybe they'll want to come to Texas," Bush quipped.

Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, said the tax cuts also gave him additional money to use for health care.

He said he supports Bush's values.

"The American people are starting to see what kind of leader President Bush is. People know where he stands," he said.

"Where we are in this world, with not just the war on terror, but with the war with our culture that's going on, I think we need a man that is going to be in the White House like President Bush, that's going to stand by what he believes.

and today...

A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual exploitation of a child.

KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.

Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.

Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old in the church youth group this spring.