Its Friday and you know what that means!
But first the news. Seen below is Thursday’s front page from the Asahi Shimbum:
What all that Kanji is telling you is that the US and Japan have come to an agreement about closing Futenma Marine Corps station in Okinawa, long a sore point with Japan, by consolidating units into Camp Schwab. That is seen as a backdrop that will allow other movements of units in Japan to occur. Near and dear to my heart is the mention of moving all aircraft but the helicopters of CVW-5, from NAF Atsugi to MCAS Iwakuni in 2009. It also discusses moves involving Yokota AB, Increasing the Army presence at Camp Zama and moving units from Kadena up to Kyushu and Atsugi. The CVW-5 move is the one that obviously concerns me, and means I’ll need to dust off the old resume I think. Particularly because it is dumber than dirt, and does nothing to improve the readiness of the air wing. Reason #1 to cry in one’s beer.
A major pillar of the planned realignment is that the
U.S. Army’s I Corps headquarters in Fort Lewis, Washington state, will be reorganized and relocated to Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The Air Self-Defense Force’s Air Defense Command, now based in Tokyo’s Fuchu, will be
transferred to within the U.S. Air Force’s Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.
In Okinawa Prefecture, the site in Ginowan that the Futenma air station now occupies will be returned to Japan. The Futenma heliport functions will relocate to Nago, while the Futenma air tankers will move to the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kanoya Base in Kagoshima Prefecture.A reduction in the number of U.S. Marines in Okinawa Prefecture is expected with the relocation of the Third Marine Division’s command headquarters at Camp Courtney in Uruma in the prefecture to Guam, among other measures.”The two sides have agreed to the reduction of several thousand (U.S. Marines in Okinawa),” Defense Agency Director-General Yoshinori Ono told reporters Wednesday. Some of the training drills of the F-15 fighters now conducted from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture will move to the ASDF’s Tsuiki Base in Fukuoka Prefecture. This and other plans to move military functions out of Okinawa are expected to help ease the noise and other problems Okinawan residents have had to endure for years.
In Kanagawa Prefecture, about 70 carrier-based aircraft at the Atsugi Air Base will be transferred to the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Night-flight drills at Iwakuni will be conducted on Iwojima Island to help solve the noise problem.(IHT/Asahi: October 28,2005)
Meanwhile in Washington DC, it sucks to be George Bush this week. First, it seems as if Tom Delay is not the only prominent Republican who will be posing for mug shots…..but the Presidents “employee of the month” nominee just withdrew her name for nomination to the Supreme Court. Torpedo’ed by the liberals you say? Nope, she was submarined by wacko conservative members of the Presidents own party. Now I will grant you, I’m not sure George thought the whole nomination of Harriet Miers through, especially when the charges of cronyism seem to be gaining adherents……but her nomination had not even gone to the Senate, something I was actually hoping for. I wanted her to go in front of the Senate and then see the Senate vote her down, handing G.W. exactly the kind of embarrassing legislative defeat he needs to suffer. Sadly we will have to wait for that since: a) G.W. has forgotten where his veto stamp is…and b) he’ll probably cave into James Dobson and the other right wing nutjobs and appoint one of their darlings. Meanwhile, back at the Executive Office building, hopefully Harriet is crying into one or 2 of these:
Probably the President would like a couple too, but First Lady Laura Bush won’t let him have them anymore……..
And always after a good cry, Ms Miers would probably retire to the ladies room to fix up the make-up:
THANKS AND A BIG HAT TIP TO LOST NOMAD! I keep going back to his blog just to look a this picture over and over again………Woodrow shows up too!
Skippy-san
