Dark Days

There were quite a few items about the effects of the looming sequestration action in today's Usual USAF Source.  Here are two:

Second-Rate Power: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday issued some dire warnings to lawmakers on sequestration during what will likely be his last time testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee before he steps down from the post. During the Feb. 7 oversight hearing, Panetta reiterated claims that the budget sequester would bring about a "terrible readiness crisis," and said the erosion of US military capabilities inevitably resulting from the across-the-board spending cuts would turn the United States "into a second-rate power." In addition, Pentagon leaders would be forced "to throw out" the nation's most recent defense strategy, he said. "My preference, frankly, is that the Congress would do the big deal. Get it done. Get this behind us, de-trigger sequester, [and] stop this constant uncertainty, this month-to-month situation where we don't know what the hell we're going to get," said Panetta. He is expected to retire later this month, pending the confirmation of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as his replacement. However, the committee chose not to vote on Hagel's nomination at Thursday's hearing, following a request from some GOP members for more time to receive additional information they've requested on Hagel. The committee had not set a new date for the vote, as of Thursday. (See also Controversial Nomination.)

—Amy McCullough

Sequestration Blues: Profound readiness decay, billions in unexpected costs, an unrecoverable maintenance backlog, and potential large-scale reductions in force are among the many predictable problems awaiting the Air Force if Congress fails to stop the looming budget sequester from taking effect in March and/or pass a budget for Fiscal 2013, said senior service officials on Thursday. At a press roundtable in the Pentagon, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer said: "As things stand today, we don't know how much money we will have to operate the Air Force, and we don't know when we will find out. But we do know sequestration will mean Air Force people will not be adequately trained, and will lack the equipment they need." Acting Air Force Undersecretary Jamie Morin said the Air Force's share of the Fiscal 2013 sequester hit would be $12.4 billion—not including another $1.8 billion in shortfalls from the overseas contingency operations accounts—and the Air Force would have to reduce spending that much in just six months. Flying hours would plummet; only those units in or going to war would get their requisite hours, leaving many units idle for as much as three months, said Morin during the Feb. 7 roundtable. After just 30 days of inactivity, "essentially all" functions in a unit—pilots, maintainers, loaders, fuelers, etc.—would be "non-mission-capable." and it would take a long time to get them back up to par, he pointed out. Spencer noted that the sequester problem just starts in Fiscal 2013; more years of sequestrations could come, and that would compel the Air Force to start thinking about a reduction in force to "balance" people with the equipment and funds available. Meanwhile, Morin said, the American people haven't signaled they want their Air Force to do fewer missions.

—John A. Tirpak

None of that sounds promising, it's all doom and gloom.   I'm generally an optimist about America and her prospects but this bullshit is really wearing me down.

And then there's this... or rather, these:

Heh.  Brings new meaning to the ol' "you can run but you sure can't hide."  Mebbe the sequester will ground the drones.

In other news... a couple o' folks have noted they're having difficulty leaving comments here at EIP.  I did some snooping around and the kind folks at Blogger had this to say about that:

Thursday, August 18, 2011

We have received reports from users not being able to create or edit posts. We are working on fixing this. In the meantime, you can change your language settings to English as a workaround. Thanks for your patience.

Update, 9:45AM PST: This has been fixed, thanks for your patience.

A comment MIGHT could qualify as a post and the issues could be related.  I'd appreciate an off-line if you have problems commenting. 

Update:  The perils of writing when not fully caffeinated are apparent above.  Note the date on that Blogger status message.  Fuckin' Blogger.  You can take that to mean both the software AND the guy using it.