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When U.S. President Barack Obama went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, last monyh for a highly publicized, but very private meeting with the commando team that killed Osama bin Laden, only one of the 81 members of the super-secret SEAL DevGru unit was identified by name: Cairo, the war dog. Cairo, like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, is a Belgian Malinois. The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and
more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 30-kilo range.
Like their human counterparts, the dog SEALs are highly trained, highlyskilled, highly motivated special ops experts, able to performextraordinary military missions by SEa, Air and Land (thus the acronym).The dogs carry out a wide range of specialized duties for the militaryteams to which they are attached: With a sense of smell 40 times greaterthan a human’s, the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosivematerial and hostile or hiding humans.The dogs are twice as fast as a fit human, so anyone trying to escape isnot likely to outrun Cairo or his buddies.
As well, the dogs are faithful, fearless and ferocious — incredibly frightening and efficient attackers. I have seen it reported repeatedly that the teeth of SEAL war dogs are replaced with titanium implants that are stronger, sharper and scare-your-pants-off intimidating; but a U.S. Military spokesman has denied that charge, so I really don’t know (never having seen a canine SEAL face-to-face). I do know that I’ve never seen a photo of a war dog with anything even vaguely resembling a set of shiny metal chompers.
When the SEAL DevGru team (usually known by its old designation, Team 6) hit bin Laden’s Pakistan compound on May 2, Cairo’s feet would have been four of the first on the ground. And like the human SEALs, Cairo was wearing super-strong, flexible body Armour and outfitted with high-tech equipment that included “doggles” —specially designed and fitted dog goggles with night-vision and infrared capability that would even allow Cairo to see human heat forms through concrete walls.
Now where on earth would anyone get that kind of incredibly niche hi-techdoggie gear? From Winnipeg, of all places.Jim and Glori Slater’s Manitoba hi-tech mom-and-pop business, K9 StormInc., has a deserved worldwide reputation for designing and manufacturing probably the best body Armour available for police and military dogs.Working dogs in 15 countries around the world are currently protected by their K9 Storm body Armour.
Jim Slater was a canine handler on the Winnipeg Police Force when he crafted a Kevlar protective jacket for his own dog, Olaf, in the mid-1990s. Soon Slater was making body Armour for other cop dogs, then the Canadian
military and soon the world. The standard K9 Storm vest also has a load-bearing harness system that makes it ideal for tandem rappelling and parachuting.
Just as the Navy SEALS and other elite special forces are the sharp pointof the American military machine, so too are their dogs at the top of acanine military heirarchy.In all, the U.S. military currently has about 2,800 active-duty dogsdeployed around the world, with roughly 600 now in Afghanistan and Iraq.Here’s the link to a dandy photo essay about U.S. war dogs that justappeared in the journal Foreign Policy.Several of the photos I have included here are from Foreign Policy, as youwill see. Other photos are from K9 Storm Inc.
As debt talks hit the skids yet again, the Great Compromiser seemed to finally lose his cool has he reached his breaking point? Howard Kurtz on whether the GOP can push him any further.
There was a momentafter he appealed for reason, blamed the Republicans, recited the numbers, invoked Ronald Reaganthat President Obama seemed filled with fervor.
He was not going to be party to “driving a bunch of poor kids off the Medicaid rolls,” or penalizing the “working stiffs out there,” the people who “don’t have lobbyists.”
These are standard Democratic talking points, to be sure, but when you strip everything else away, when you try to locate the remnants of the audacity of hope, this is why Obama thinks he ran for president.
As he announced the collapse of the debt negotiations Friday evening after House Speaker John Boehner pulled the plug, Obama appeared to offer an answer to those, many of them in his own party, who wonder: Does he have a breaking point?
To some diehard Democrats, Obama always seems willing to meet the opposition more than halfway in the service of getting a deal done. He put their sacred programs, Medicare and Social Security, on the table without securing a Republican commitment to raise a dollar in taxes. His own partisans weren’t clear whether he had a line in the sand that he would refuse to cross.
It’s not that the president is certain to prevail in this debilitating impasse. Both parties, as has been clear for some time, are headed for an ugly short-term fix to avoid a government default on August 2. Whatever promises they make about grand bargains, it’s all about dodging an economic bullet at this point.
As Obama sees it, he has given ground time and again, taking on his own party over entitlements, and can’t get the House Republicans to cede an inch. As Boehner’s side sees it, they have made clear from the beginning that they don’t think tax increases are the answer, even if Obama portrays it as closing loopholes for oil companies and jet owners.
There was a plaintive tone to the president’s voice as he listed the $1.6 trillion in spending cuts he has offeredalong with $1.2 billion in increased revenuesthat if anything was “unbalanced” toward the GOP side. Can the Republicans “say yes to anything”?
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a Town Hall meeting at the University of Maryland July 22, 2011 in College Park, Maryland. Obama answered questions about the deficit reduction, the debt ceiling issue and the economy., Yuri Gripas, Pool / Getty Images
What does a guy have to do to get a deal around here, anyway?
Recent polls show more people blame the Republicans than the White House for the gridlock that has brought the country to the brink of default. In a Fox News survey, 47 percent put the onus on the GOP, 32 percent on Obama. Still, Obama is especially concerned about how the gridlock is being portrayed. He urged reporters not to portray the battle as a “food fight.” He said it was “inexcusable” for politiciansby which he meant Republicansto listen to “what some talk radio host says” or “what some columnist says.” It was as if Obama believes that Rush Limbaugh is holding up the deal.
The truth is Boehner probably couldn’t accept Obama’s package if he wanted to. He has to get to 218 votes, and his caucus hates anything that smells of a tax increase. He said the administration had moved the goal posts on Thursday by demanding an additional $400 billion in revenue beyond what had previously been worked out.
“This is a turning point for the Obama presidency, and he seems to know it.“
“The White House is simply not serious about ending the spending binge that is destroying jobs and endangering our children’s future. A deal was never reached, and was never really close,” Boehner wrote his colleagues.
In an effort to ratchet up the pressure, a senior White House official told Reuters that the country faces the “very real prospect” that its credit rating will be downgraded, and Obama laid the groundwork for blaming any change in Social Security payouts on the GOP.
On one level, the president can hardly believe he is up against this particular wall. Raising the debt ceiling is usually a “formality,” he said. Reagan did it 18 times. (Of course, Obama neglected to mention that he once voted against the formality during the Bush years.)
It is also true that Obama has made major compromises in terms of spending cuts. But the crisis gives the House Republicans a degree of leverage that they are loath to easily surrender.
In summoning congressional leaders to the White House on Saturday, Obama is starting an end game that will have one goal: getting the country off the default hook for now. Both sides will have an interest in papering over the compromise with elaborate formulas about future cutbacks.
But this is a turning point for the Obama presidency, and he seems to know it. He has been fighting some version of this budget battle since the day he started campaigning, and suffered a stinging setback last November. He is now signaling that he has gone as far as he can go in search of a deal. The question is whether he can make it stick.
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Howard Kurtz is The Daily Beast and Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief, and writes the Spin Cycle blog. He also hosts CNN’s weekly media program Reliable Sources on Sundays at 11 a.m. ET. The longtime media reporter and columnist for The Washington Post, Kurtz is the author of five books.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
New construction planned for the Weiner Home.
~ Brick
SO… WE’RE TOO STUPID TO GRASP BIG GOVT DEALINGS?
July 31, 2011
brasslugnuts
brasslugnuts 