New Year, Old Job

As you may know, I've recently returned from a deployment to Iraq. Before I left for my deployment, I was informed that I would be reassigned to a different job and base here in the Capital Region. Even upon my return from Iraq, I immediately started the process to change jobs and move to my new base. But during my reconstitution time over the holidays, big Air Force decided that I would be a much better fit at my old job - at my old base. So I sit here in the same office, at the same desk I left in May. 2011 has already thrown me a curveball and we're just 11 days into the new year. This curveball, however, is not that bad. As I ponder and prepare for my upcoming retirement from the military (as early as November 2011), I think this old desk and job are not a bad place to be. Now if they'd just get the heat on in the building, my first day back at work in a month would be not bad at all.

Gates Cuts General/Flag Officer Positions

As he says,

I have approved the elimination of more than a hundred general-officer and flag-officer positions out of the roughly 900 currently on the books. Of those, 28 are billets that were created after 9/11, primarily for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They will be reduced as appropriate, as major troop deployments wind down.

It's the right move as we (finally) start moving away from our war-time posture. There's still more that can be done though.

Hardball Politics

I get on the Democrats for not playing the same hardball as the Republicans do. So I was glad to see this. More please.

The Beginning of the End

Yeah, DADT has been repealed legislatively. And even signed by the President. But, as today's Washington Post points out, there's a lot left to do.

Pentagon officials are working quickly on a three-part plan: overhauling applicable military personnel policy and benefits; providing training for top brass and military chaplains; and then formally instructing the nation's 2.2 million troops on the ban's repeal.

Troop training will be done "as expeditiously as we can," the secretary said, but it will prove challenging, because "there's just a certain element of physics associated with the number of people involved in this process."

Each of these changes takes a lot of coordination at many levels. In the Air Force at least, there has been annual training for all Airmen on the military's policy on homosexual conduct. That training is more extensive for certain personnel (JAGs, commanders). It's a good thing that this policy was repealed (IMHO), but the process of actually getting it implemented is not going to be very simple or quick. Stay tuned on this one and especially look out for the issue of how UCMJ Article 125 (sodomy) is handled. This has been a touchy issue in the past.

Deficit Hawks

One of the hypocritical stances I like to point out among politicians (mostly Republicans, but a few Democrats as well) is the claim of being a deficit hawk. There are some out there who jump up and down and scream bloody murder when it comes to any government spending. They claim they can't possibly vote for a given piece of legislation because it will add to the deficit. They proclaim loudly that the deficit is the single most important issue we face as a country. But then we encounter an issue like the expiration of the Bush tax cuts (which will end up adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit over the next 10 years) or the issue of the day,

A Congressional Budget Office estimate suggests that the Republican plan to repeal the new health care law would increase the deficit by $230 billion by 2021.

Suddenly an issue that the deficit hawks care more about becomes more important than their deficit hawkishness. So here's my rule of thumb. If you rule out tax increases in all cases, you're not really a deficit hawk. Does that make you a bad person? Not necessarily. But if you go off about how the deficits are terrible and need to be fixed immediately (if not sooner), but then you vote in a budget busting way on a regular basis, you're not a deficit hawk, you're just a politician.

Speaking of New Year's Resolutions...

Maybe I can get my Mom and wife to come over here and give a read if I put some personal stuff down. So here's one. My main new year's resolution has to do with losing weight. That's typical for most people right? And certainly I don't mind being thinner and in better shape as a general proposition. But the reason for this resolution is more health related. Due to a less than healthy diet and more weight than I should have, my cholesterol has been borderline the last few times I've had it checked. Since I'm in my mid-40's and both sides of my family have some heart problems, it's not just my vanity that leads me to want to lose the weight. Last year around this time, also spurred by the cholesterol levels, I stopped eating meat. This was part ideological, but more based on the desire to see my cholesterol numbers improve. I survived all of 2010, including a stint in Iraq, without meat and am currently waiting for the results of my most recent blood test. Since I stopped eating meat, but not cheese and eggs (vegetarian, not vegan), I suspect my cholesterol is not going to be hugely improved. So, before a doctor tries to prescribe me Lipitor or something similar, I've decided to try to lose some weight (I'm at least 25 pounds over what is considered a healthy weight for my height). That's pretty much the last thing I can do behavior-wise to affect my cholesterol at this point.

I'm currently 4 days into the program I've started (I'll do another post later to describe the plan I'm on). It's not fun, but I consider it necessary. Despite my wife's urging, I'm not going to turn this into a fat blog. But I will check back in occasionally to give some updates.

Happy New Year

Among the usual new year's resolutions about losing weight and doing other virtuous things, I've added a goal of trying to write on this blog a little more. As we start out 2011, I'm looking at some changes in my professional and, perhaps, personal life. There's a good chance that I'll be retiring from the Air Force in 2011. The next thing I do with my life (since I'm a military lawyer and I'm leaving the military to become a civilian lawyer is it a job or career change? I'll leave that question for another post) may lead to a move from my present location and may also lead to a house purchase as well. So hopefully there will be plenty to write about. My primary focus here will probably be politics and current events as it has been in the past. But I'll probably also sprinkle in some personal stuff as well. That's probably OK, since I only have one reader to speak of. And speaking of that one reader, thanx to Professor Mondo for the nudge to get me going over here again.