What is it with the Air Force and Bronze Stars?

As a follow up to yesterday's post about excessive fruit salad on military leadership, it seems that this is a persistent problem with the Air Force in particular.  Here's the relevant bit from Wikipedia (yeah, I know - Wikipedia; but it is all sourced):

In 2012, two U.S. airmen were allegedly subjected to cyber-bullying after receiving Bronze Star Medals for meritorious non-combat service. The two airmen, who had received the medals in March 2012, had been finance NCOICs in medical units deployed to the War in Afghanistan. The awards sparked a debate as to whether or not the Air Force was awarding too many medals to its members, and whether the Bronze Star should be awarded for non-combat service.^[20] This prompted the Air Force to take down stories of the two posted to the internet, and to clarify its criteria for awarding medals. The Air Force contended that meritorious service awards of the Bronze Star outnumber valor awards, and that it views awards on a case-by-case basis to maintain the integrity of the award.^[21]

This is not the first time that the USAF has been criticized for offering this award. The Department of Defense investigated the award of the Bronze Star Medal (BSM) by the USAF to some 246 individuals after operations in Kosovo in 1999. All but 60 were awarded to officers, and only 16 of those awarded were actually in the combat zone. At least five were awarded to officers who never left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. During this campaign, the Navy had awarded 69 BSMs, and the Army with 5,000 troops in neighboring Albania (considered part of the combat zone) awarded none.^[22][23] In the end, there was a Pentagon review and decision by Congress in 2001 to stop the awarding of Bronze Stars to personnel outside the combat zone.^[24]

So Gen. Wolters came by his Bronze Stars honestly, at least by Air Force standards at the time.  Your standards might be different, as are mine.

The problem with our Military leadership, in a single picture

Zerohedge has an article about how NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Tod Wolters had to walk back Biden's comments on Ukraine.  That's embarrassing, but the photo of Gen. Wolters caught my eye:

Man, that's a lot of ribbons.  Here they are in expanded form (via Wolter's Wikipedia page):

That's thirty-four ribbons by my count, plus Pilot and Basic Space Operations badges.  Now compare with a different General who only had ten ribbons after a longer career:

It makes you wonder which General had the more impressive career, doesn't it?  (Actually, it doesn't).

Our Navy ships are covered with rust and keep running into huge container ships in an empty Pacific ocean, we evacuated Afghanistan while leaving tens of thousands behind - after losing a 20 year war), the Military spends more time on correct pronoun use than on actual warfighting training.  A fish rots from the head.

Acting SECNAV makes two new envelopes

Don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out, Scooter:

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly has officially resigned, capping perhaps the most tumultuous 24-hour public relations period the Navy has encountered. 

Modly notified Secretary of Defense Mark Esper of his resignation Tuesday following a meeting between the two, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

... 

Modly’s resignation offer comes less than a day after numerous Democratic members of Congress called for his firing over his handling of the dismissal of the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier, and subsequent decision-making that raised eyebrows throughout the fleet.

Congressional Democrats went after his scalp and I can't for the life of me see why Trump would stick up for the doofus.

When culture collapses

This is perhaps 2300 years old:

ambisinistral describes it well:

The Boxer at Rest is a bronze Hellenistic sculpture dating from somewhere between 330 - 50 B.C. Rather than showing a heroic figure, it shows a battered boxer. His nose is broken, his lip is split and he has cauliflower ears as well as numerous cuts. The statue also has copper inlaid to represent splattered blood.

There are more photos at his place, and I strongly encourage you to go look.  The anonymous artist knew well how to represent a timeless subject, these two millennia ago.

We've lost this.  The so-called "art community" not only lacks the talent to produce a work as timeless this, it doesn't have any interest in doing so.  Here are a few examples of the wasteland that is modern sculpture.

Alberto Giacometti, Cat

Henry Moore, Double Oval

David Smith, CUBI VI 

Lest you think that I'm being unfair to the "art community", these are all from the Wikipedia page on Modern Sculpture.  These are the sculptures highlighted by people who are jazzed by the subject, and this is the best they can come up with.

It reminds me of this:

The Golden Madonna, ca. 980 AD

This was made after the "Carolingian Renaissance" of Charlemagne, an age where the civilization of the post-Roman barbarian kingdoms had recovered enough to explicitly model itself on the Roman Empire.  It has been said that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor and empire, but it was marketed that way at the time.  And this was the best that they could do, 1300 years after The Boxer At Rest.  It wasn't nearly as technically proficient, but they were trying.

The Holy Roman Emperors at least wanted to restore art to its former glory, but it would be another 500 years before Michelangelo actually pulled that off.

Today's "art community" doesn't even want to do this.  The people who preen as a "cultural elite" are not even up to the level of Dark Ages barbarians.  At least the barbarians aspired to standards.

How many divisions has the International Criminal Court?

Time Magazine reported this on December 27, 1944:

Winston Churchill suggested to Stalin the possibility of the Pope 's being associated with some  of the decisions taken.  "The Pope," said Stalin.  "The Pope.  How many divisions has he?"

Stalin was a cold sonofabitch, but he sometimes summed things up.  And so to the news of this day:

On 5 March 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court decided unanimously to authorise the Prosecutor to commence an investigation into alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Not found in the statement at that link are the words "United", "States", "Military", or "Forces", but we all know that this is precisely the focus of the ICC.  And so to the USA's chief diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:

This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body ... "

He went on to refer to the ICC as a "renegade, unlawful so-called court."  He captured the ICC situation in precisely the manner that Stalin did the Pope.  Big hat, no cattle.  And this is America's chief diplomat.  Well done.  Quite frankly, this is an act of war.  Replying with contempt is an entirely appropriate first step.  But it is only the first if the ICC doesn't walk this back tout suite.

For the next step, how about barring entry to the USA to all ICC employees and their families?  If you need a further next step, applying international financial sanctions to ICC employees seems appropriate.  It's certainly more proportional than shooting at them.  But these stuffed shirts need to get a more realistic sense of their place in the world.

Quote of the Day, Wal*Mart edition

Heh:

But hey, TrailerParkTrashMart, thanks for opening the market up for every other brick-and-mortar firearms retailer in the country, and eliminating your loss-leader negotiating position to sell firearms below cost just to drive littler guys out of business. Firearms makers can now tell you to kiss their ass when you want their product cheaper year-over-year. That just ended too, whether you figured it out or not. Sam is probably spinning in his grave, and his half-wit kinfolk heirs clearly haven't the wits to run a roadside chicken stand. If he were alive, he'd kick their asses, then disown them all.

... 

I'll still visit your stores though.
Just to use the bathroom.
80-20 my turds land in the middle of the floor though, or in the sink bowl, every time.
Have fun with that. I sure will.
Be a real shame if something that simple caught on nationwide.

Remember, guys, the enemy always gets a vote. ;)
And I'll be eating a lot more ethnic foods, and voting often.
Got a hankerin' for some Panda Express broccoli beef today...

"Cleanup on Aisle 2..."

The whole thing is as good.  The Raconteur Report: purveyors of quality rants since 2008 ...

German Greens fighting new "green" power projects

Last week I posted about how wind farms are decimating wildlife, from insects to bats to birds to eagles, because environmentalists are ignoring the problem.  It seems that this is not true in Germany, of all places:

The expansion of wind power in the first half of this year collapsed to its lowest level since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in 2000. All in all, just 35 wind turbines were build with an output of 231 megawatts. “This corresponds to a decline of 82 percent compared to the already weak period of the previous year”, according to the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) in Berlin.

“This makes one nearly speechless,” said Matthias Zelinger at the presentation of the data. The managing director of the Power Systems division of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) spoke of a “blow to the guts of the energy turnaround”. This actual development doesn’t match “at all to the current climate protection debate”.

...

The most important cause lies in the legal resistance of wildlife and forest conservationists fighting new wind farms. The BWE President referred to an industry survey of the onshore wind agency. According to its findings, more than 70 percent of the legal objections are based on species conservation, especially the threat to endangered bird species and bats.

Well done to the German environmentalists for holding to their principles.  I've been very hard on the environmental movement in the past, mostly because the rampant hypocrisy so often on display.  But not here.  Anyone who loves the outdoors can applaud this victory, whether you believe in man made global warming or not.

And today is a twofer in non-hypocritical environmentalist news:

Greta Thunberg to sail Atlantic for climate conferences

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has accepted a ride across the Atlantic by boat to attend two key climate conferences.

The teenager will make the journey aboard the Malizia II, a high-speed 18-metre (60ft) yacht built to race around the globe.

“We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to New York in mid August,” she tweeted.

Thunberg refuses to fly because of the environmental impact of air travel.

Miss Thunberg is a bit of a social media sensation in Scandinavia.  She and I clearly disagree on whether mankind is causing the heat death of the planet, but good for her sticking to her principles.  She has chosen a very inconvenient (and quite frankly pretty uncomfortable) alternative transportation mode to keep from being a hypocrite on the subject.  In this she is seemingly unique among all the world's climate activists - none of them have given up jet travel to climate conferences.  Thunberg is showing everyone that it really isn't easy being Green, but being Green is exactly what she is being.

And a little child shall lead them.

- Isaiah 11:6

Bravo to Miss Thunberg.  The kids are all right.  Maybe wrong, but all right.

The mirage of Technocratic planning

It's about prestige, not efficiency:

In particular, both Friedman and Epstein think we need to build more high speed passenger trains.  This is exactly the kind of gauzy non-fact-based wishful thinking that makes me extremely pleased that these folks do not have the dictatorial powers they long for.   High speed rail is a terrible investment, a black hole for pouring away money, that has little net impact on efficiency or pollution.   But rail is a powerful example because it demonstrates exactly how this bias for high-profile triumphal projects causes people to miss the obvious.

Which is this:  The US rail system, unlike nearly every other system in the world, was built (mostly) by private individuals with private capital.  It is operated privately, and runs without taxpayer subsidies.    And, it is by farthe greatest rail system in the world.  It has by far the cheapest rates in the world (1/2 of China’s, 1/8 of Germany’s).  But here is the real key:  it is almost all freight.

As a percentage, far more freight moves in the US by rail (vs. truck) than almost any other country in the world.  Europe and Japan are not even close.  Specifically, about 40% of US freight moves by rail, vs. just 10% or so in Europe and less than 5% in Japan.   As a result, far more of European and Japanese freight jams up the highways in trucks than in the United States.  For example, the percentage of freight that hits the roads in Japan is nearly double that of the US.

You see, passenger rail is sexy and pretty and visible.  You can build grand stations and entertain visiting dignitaries on your high-speed trains.  This is why statist governments have invested so much in passenger rail — not to be more efficient, but to awe their citizens and foreign observers.

A lot of the whining that we need to put the Technocrats in charge comes from people who couldn't find the actual solution if you gave them a GPS pre-programmed with waypoints.  The problem is that the Thomas Friedmans of the world don't know as much as the people actually, say, building and running railroads, but they think they do.

Technocratic government?  As Gandhi is said to have remarked about Western Civilization, that would be very nice indeed.

The thought for the day

I find it very hard to argue with this:

Leftism has not won these arguments, the Left has simply punished those who argue on the other side: and when I say 'The Left' I mean particularly Leftist intellectuals in the mass media, public administration, the education system, and bureaucracies generally.

...

What can be concluded?

Our society is far more corrupt than people realize - why wouldn't it be? What's to stop it? But just how corrupt it is impossible to know, even approximately, since any 'evidence' consists of lies built upon lies.

Our society is far less smart than people realize, because good arguments are punished and demonized so bad arguments (or no arguments at all, but merely faked moral outrage/ scapegoat hatred) wins vital arguments by default.

...

In sum, we live in a world ruled by dumb liars

Happy New Year, y'all!

Remember, that's why we call him "The Big Guy"

It would have been awesome if he'd said that to the guy's wife, LOL.

The inevitable failure of the Healthcare.gov "surge"

Failure is inevitable and in fact it has already started, 2 days after the announcement.  You see, the analogy is entirely wrong: the "surge" in Iraq (especially in al Anbar) was a dynamic of introducing additional, independent assets.  The key word is "independent".  The Healthcare.gov folks aren't.

This was explained nearly 40 years ago in Fred Brooks' software development classic, The Mythical Man Month.  Brooks expounded at length on the challenge today confronting Healthcare.gov, and summed up their agony with what has come to be called Brooks' Law:

Adding manpower to a late software project makes the project later.

This will seem counter intuitive to non-Programmers, people like Health and Human Service Secretaries.  But it's a core concept of software, and one that's fundamentally different from most of the physical world.  In the physical world, there is a much greater degree of independence.  If I need a rush job for a big order of widgets, I can open a new widget factory.  The widgets are independent from each other, and so the manufacturing process can proceed in parallel.

The surge in al Anbar was precisely like this: multiple units acting in parallel.  It worked pretty well, because it was the physical world.

Not so with software.  The design is really an integrated whole.  Essentially, healthcare.gov itself is the widget.  There's only one widget, and it's massively complex.  And this is where we get to the heart of the matter, and Brooks' Law.

You see, there are a few people who actually understand how the widget works.  These, of course, are the ones who wrote the code.  Maybe the code is terrible and maybe its not (it is very plausible that the programmers simply weren't given enough time to do it properly; this is shockingly common in software projects even in the private sector, and is an almost universal constant in the government).  But this set of people quite simply are the only ones who know what the code does, and why it does it.

Now let's double the size of the team.  Sounds like we'll make good progress, right - after all, twice as many seems twice as good.  But the new guys don't have a clue about how the code works, or why the code was written the way it was.  The only thing that they really can do is trivial tasks like documentation or fixing trivial bugs.  Remember, Healthcare.gov's problems are not trivial bugs, it's fundamental breakage in architecture and design.

The new guys simply cannot help with that.  There's no schedule benefit they can provide, no way to accelerate the project towards completion - at least until they learn the architecture and the code.  Then they can actually help.

So how do they learn the architecture and the code?  They ask the existing core group of programmers.  And so the existing group now finds itself not fixing the fundamental architecture and design breakage, but acting as mentors and tutors to a bunch of (hopefully) smart but new team members.

And the schedule slips further, because actual work isn't being done.

It's actually worse than this.  Coordinating a large software team is much harder than coordinating a small one.  Having worked with both as a Product Manager, the small teams seemed to almost direct themselves in a delightful manner.  With large teams, you find your schedule filling up with Core Team meetings and Test/QA meetings and tracking meetings and meetings to brief the higher ups.  One wag once said to me that we were keeping excellent track of the progress we weren't making.  Morale on a big, high visibility project that is seriously off track is a big problem.  The danger is that the good people get fed up and leave (they're good, and so they will have options) because the team leans on them for more than their share of the progress.

And so the statement from Jeff Zients, the project honcho, that the site would be functional ahead of the deadlines is without doubt wrong.  Zients may or may not know this; he is, after all, a management wonk who took a company public during the dot com bubble - but it wasn't a software company.  So the hype* about him as a "Tech Savior" is just hype.  He can't change the dynamics of how software is developed.

And so my prediction is that Healthcare.gov will not really work for another year.  It will take 90 days for the "surge" programmers to become useful, and by then the project will be another 90 days behind.  60 days after that the surge project will get a timeline "break even" - i.e. will be at the same point that it would have been without the surge.  That's April 1.

And so the only question then is just how bad is the architectural and design breakage?  We don't know, but the government's track record on large software development efforts is miserable.  The FAA famously wrote off a $1.5B effort to computerize the air traffic control system.  I myself as a fledgling Electrical Engineer was involved in a government program that ended up $200M over budget and facing Congressional Hearings.  That project never worked, even after the Government "declared victory".

That may in fact be the fate of Healthcare.gov.  Certainly victory will be declared, likely repeatedly.  And the system will collapse repeatedly, shortly after the declarations.  Eventually nobody will care, because they will all mentally write the thing off as a lost cause.

* Who on earth thinks that Zients is some sort of tech guru, anyway?  This is nothing but White House spin, desperately served up to a compliant press.  But as with Obama himself, high initial expectations will not be met, and this will go down as yet another case of over promising and under delivering.

Climate Scientists burn skeptical book

I really don't know what to say other than scientists photographed themselves burning a book skeptical of the warming hysteria.  The took the picture in their office at the University, and posted it on the Meteorology Department's campus web site:

Idiots.  Can anyone please explain to me how these Professors are smarter than you and me?  I sure don't see it.

Of course, now they're famous on teh Intarwebz, and so they flushed the picture down the memory hole.  Dudes - Ctrl+PrtScn takes a screenshot.  Just a helpful tip.

WEATHER, n. The climate of the hour. A permanent topic of conversation among persons whom it does not interest, but who have inherited the tendency to chatter about it from naked arboreal ancestors whom it keenly concerned. The setting up official weather bureaus and their maintenance in mendacity prove that even governments are accessible to suasion by the rude forefathers of the jungle.

- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

A modest (gunblogging) proposal

Linoge provides a service to the world, documenting the long history of copyright infringement at the site The Truth About Guns (no link, sorry - I only link to original sources).

It made me wonder what the community might do.  Offered as a modest proposal to reduce the amount of thievery is this suggestion: every gunblogger swipe one of his posts, once each week.  Just tag it in the category "Robert Farago and The Truth About Guns swipes content and infringes copyright".  A half dozen or dozen folks doing this will give a regular diet of swipery aimed back at him.

There are two benefits to this strategy, both of which will make the Internet a nicer place.

1. Mr. Farago will find that sauce for the goose is just as tasty when applied to the gander.  In particular it will give him a visceral understanding of the meaning of the expression if it's on the net it's fair game.

2. Google is very likely to start recognizing the HTML metadata Robert Farago and The Truth About Guns swipes content and infringes copyright.  Interesting search results might be forthcoming.

It is a modest proposal, as I said.  Doubtless the plan could be improved.  So get improving.

A Lack Of Trust

One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

- Thomas Sowell

I write this post not knowing whether the Greater Atlanta transportation bill (the TSPLOST) has passed by public acclaim or not*.  But the polls suggest a big problem for all big government programs.  The issue is far beyond the immediate question of whether Atlanta will spend $9B on transport improvements.  Here are the most important questions and responses.

STATEMENT: State and local officials will properly manage and implement these transportation projects.

AGREE:   34%
DISAGREE: 60%
NOT SURE: 6%

STATEMENT: State and local officials will end the sales tax as promised when the projects are fully funded and they will limit the spending to the specified project list.

AGREE:   31%
DISAGREE: 64%
NOT SURE: 5%

STATEMENT: The State's previous extension of the Georgia 400 toll beyond the original payoff period is a factor in my vote.

AGREE:   55%
DISAGREE: 27%
NOT SURE: 6%

QUESTION: Does Governor Nathan Deal's decision to end the toll on Georgia 400 next year make you more likely to vote for TSPLOST?

YES:   25%
NO:    41%
NOT SURE: 24%

The common theme running through all of these responses is I don't trust the government, by large margins.  If you click through and read the rest of the questions and responses, you will find that majorities agree that Atlanta traffic is a mess, that the bad traffic hurts the region's economy, and that they'd use mass transit if it were more wide spread.  And still very large majorities simply don't think that the government can be trusted with money to address the problem.

The last question I list here is very interesting.  Two years ago Gov. Deal said that the State simply couldn't get by without the tolls from GA 400, even though the tolls were originally set to sunset once the bonds were paid off.  Then suddenly a couple months ago the Governor found that golly, the State could get by after all.

Only a quarter of the respondents believe him.

This issue isn't about Atlanta's traffic, this is about the collapse of the Progressive vision.  The People simply don't trust any of them to be honest.  This makes Progressives sad. 

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.

- Charles Dickens

It's a serious mistake to identify the progressive position as only held by Democrats.

* It looks like "not" - with almost half the votes counted, it's losing by 65% - 35% in Atlanta, and similar margins around the city.

UPDATE 1 August 2012 07:49: It lost by a supermajority (65% - 75% NO vote) in 9 out of Georgia's 12 districts. It squeeked by (52% - 48% YES) in three rural districts far from Atlanta. 

Work ethic

Or more precisely, the lack thereof.

I find that I've not been putting as much consideration into my posts this last week, and frankly, the quality - or lack thereof - has shown.  As an apology to my long-suffering readers, and as a token of grateful appreciation to their repeat business, all blog posts today will be entirely free of charge.

The 100 worst cars of all time

Quite a list.

Some of these are expected, like the Edsel or the Yugo.  Some are perhaps more marketing FAIL than automotive fail (the Porche 914 wasn't a terrible car, it was a terrible Porche).  It also has surprises (to me):

70. 1953 Chevrolet Corvette: A fiberglass body atop an archaic chassis powered by a lame 155-hp six. And the transmission was a two-speed automatic. The first Corvette was crap.

Bleeding automotive turkeys, offered for your consideration.  Happy Monday.

Time for a chill pill

Remember how the Left went lunatic, off the hook crazy about George Bush?  Remember how anything that he did - no matter how inconsequential - was proof positive that he was zomg the worstest President EVER!!!!eleventy!!!!

Remember that?  Remember how we used to roll our eyes at them?

The talk radio guys are all over the story of the Secret Service guys stiffing the Colombian hookers.  Was it tacky?  Sure - I'm sure that Mrs. Secret Service Agent is more than a little unhappy, and may even be (justifiably) making hubby sleep with Rover out in the back yard.  And OBTW, stiffing hookers is what I'd imagine to be considered tacky - you enter into a commercial transaction, you're tacky (at least) if you stiff the other party.

But for the life of me I can't see (a) how this compromised national security and (b) how this is Barack Obama's fault.  But boy, howdy the Talk Radio guys all thought it sure is.

Remember rolling your eyes at the Lefties when their hatin' on old Shrub went Old Testament?  That's what I'm doing to the Talk Radio guys right now.  Of course, maybe it's all because I'm not as smart as the talk radio guys.

I sure hope so.

Look, there's plenty not to like about the current President's policies.  But I'm completely at a loss as to what he did here.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition

On December 7, 1941, the United States was deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.  Nobody had seen that coming, and the US Military personnel had to adjust as best they could.  The attack took place early on a Sunday morning, soon after reveille.  The defenders scrambled to their battle stations, plans for the morning Church service in shambles.  Some of the ratings asked Chaplain (Ensign J.G.) Forgy what they should do.  His reply is famous:

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Sometimes death seeks you out unexpectedly.  Sometimes, you're caught off guard, or unawares.  Chaplain Forgy tells us that you have to do the best you can with what you have.  Of course, it's better to make sure that what you have is something worth having.

Today the gun banning crowd wants everyone to light a candle for the people who have died from gun violence.  It's not a bad sentiment, as far as it goes, and I'm actually sympathetic to a lot of the thought.  People who found themselves facing sudden death, unexpectedly, deserve our remembrance.

But we should also remember Chaplain Forgy.  Violence can sometimes appear out of a bright morning sky.  At that point, good men and good women should praise the Lord, and use the tools that the Lord and human ingenuity have given them.  If some Meth addled thug pulls a knife on me as I walk back from the supermarket, I will put my faith in the Lord, in jacketed .45 ACP hollow points, and in 19-by-God-11.

I lit a candle for the innocent victims, praying that the gun banners would stop trying to disarm them.  And to those who would unleash violence unexpectedly on good people, I agree with Col. Cooper:

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that "violence begets violence." I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure—and in some cases I have—that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.

To the innocent victims, I pray: Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

And to the animals who brought unexpected violence to then, I offer this:

Or the 1911.  It'll kill the goblin just as dead.  Think of the muzzle flash as lighting a candle.

Texas Republicans: Big Hat, No Cattle

Well, now, look at this:

As the anti-TSA-groping bill was debated on the Senate floor today, Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) learned he no longer had the 21 votes necessary to pass the bill.

He thought he had 30.

The reason for the drop in support, Patrick said, was Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's intervention -- "peeling off the votes," he called it. However, a spokesman for Dewhurst denied that was the case.

...

Capitol reporters are tweeting that Patrick says HB 1937 is dead, and the Lt. Gov. has no intention of picking it back up.

Janet Napolitano rolled the Texas Senate Republicans.  There's no way that she'd follow through with her threat - basically to shut down Dallas/Ft. Worth airport and paralyze air travel during a fragile recovery during the run up to an election.  Not even Janet Napolitano is that dumb.

So who got bought off, and what was their price?  Man, the Republicans sure aren't making it easy to vote for them.  Coke party, Pepsi party.