F-35 Swoops In To Save Gays

The Democrats are up to their usual games with America's national security. By dumping the funding for the F-22 Raptor (considered by many to be the finest jet fighter ever produced), the only new generation fighter in the arsenal is one we will share with our weak sister allies in NATO, the F-35 joint strike fighter.

Back in July the Senate, with the enthusiastic support of Nobel Prize winner and part-time Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, killed the F-22 Raptor. Those few which have been manufactured will stay on-duty, but there will be no new ones until we elect a Congress and a president willing to have the best air force in the world. On the other hand, they don't mind having a good plane with which we can play sharesies with the Euroweenies. Oh, and of course the American production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter produces jobs which produce pork which produces Congressmen.

In fact it produces so much pork for greedy Congressmen that the House (soon to be followed by the Senate) have played chicken with the Republicans, and will then play chicken with the White House. Remember, this isn't about national security or winning wars, it's about bringing home the bacon. So the Democrats were willing to take a risk on a couple of games of chicken.

That brings me to the title of the article. Knowing that Republicans are willing to fund a very good fighter if they can't have the best fighter, the Democrats added a rider to the bill. The rider is the latest hate crimes (thought crimes) legislation, this time protecting gays from people who would make nasty faces and say bad things to homosexuals. By attaching the rider to the military appropriation, the Democrats left Republicans, who are national security minded, with the choice of no new fighters at all, or new fighters with gay pilots. Nevertheless, 15 Democrats joined 131 Republicans in opposing the bill because of the noxious gay rights rider.

The gay rights portion of the bill contains the usual politically-correct garbage equating racial discrimination with sexual discrimination, but adds extra enforcement powers for the Justice Department and specifically makes it a crime to target gays or lesbians in the military. I had to ponder that one for awhile. If you beat up a soldier because he's a soldier, it's assault and battery. But if you beat up a soldier because you perceive him to be gay and a soldier, you are guilty of a much more serious hate crime. A separate procedural vote to remove the gay rights rider from the bill failed on a close vote of 216-208, with two cowards voting "present."

Having gotten that out of the way, the Democrats now face the next game of chicken. And since Obama received his Peace Prize, the analysis gets even more complicated. Obama wants to win the war in Iraq, but without killing anyone or spending any money on weaponry. Since the initial America-Euroweenie joint venture is already firmly in place, this bill was just continued funding of the old program, plus additional pork for a new General Electric/Rolls-Royce engine for the F-35 which would produce new union jobs for states previously out of the picture. This adds a nother $560 million to the price tag. Obama had already said that he would veto any bill that contains additional funding for the new engine. He's very concerned about reducing government spending, you know (or at least military spending). That would leave the F-35 without future funding, and gays immediately vulnerable to hordes of pitchfork-wielding gay bashers.

In all fairness, I have to say that the bill wasn't all bad. Military commissions must now work under stricter hearsay and coerced testimony guidelines than previously, but the bill specifically still allows for and provides funds for military commissions. We won't be trying all the terrorists as common criminals in civilian courts as if they were O J Simpson after all. The bill also prohibits the president from transferring terrorist suspects from Guantanamo to the mainland without giving Congress 45 days notice and a comprehensive plan for how he intends to protect national security if the transfer occurs.

The great decision-maker Obama would have had to make an actual decision on a veto if just the extra pork funds had been included. But by adding the gay rights wording, it becomes a decision which would be tough, even for a real president. If he kills the funds for the plane, he is also ordering the mass murder of homosexuals. What a dilemma! I can smell the smoke from burning rubber being emitted from the ears of Hope-a-Dope already. He may be forced to rush back to Copenhagen to demand reconsideration of the Chicago Olympics.