As one of those procurement decisions made under Carter, the High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) replaced the old WWII-era Willys Jeep during the 1980s. Having operated several models of it over the course of my nine years in uniform, I can testify to this vehicle’s remarkable utility; I once took an M1030 model up a 40-degree slope with a 2,500-lb electronics shed on it. (That’s the very system I’m talking about there on the right.) The HMMWV can literally go anywhere.

Being designed for middle- and high-intensity conflicts, however, the humvee was never supposed to be a combat mainstay. Ironically, low-intensity conflicts require vehicles to carry more armor, not less, as ambush tactics predominate.

But what always stuck in my craw was that taxpayers shelled out $50,000 for a stripped-down military version with no A/C and a three-speed transmission while civilians could get the fancy version for roughly the same price. So now that the Army isn’t buying them anymore, I expect they’ll do exactly what they did with the Willys Jeeps: sell them. As a kid I saw ads for surplus jeeps priced to move. If that happens again, I might just buy a hummer.

Y’know, to prep for the zombie apocalypse. Or for mud-riding.

Do you remember when the right erupted over the CBS docudrama about the Reagans? It turned out to be a somewhat oversimplified telling of St. Ronald as good-hearted, if slightly confused old man. This is brought to you by the maker of Kiefer Sutherland’s torture porn TV show.

There is good news this morning however. From the Wall Street Journal, a tale of how one soldier’s life was saved by a Kevlar helmet. The Army’s decision to adopt Kevlar protection came in 1978 under the Carter administration. In fact, a lot of weapons we take for granted in the modern military were designed at his initiative: the AH-64, the Humvee, the M-1 Abrams and the M-2 Bradley were already in development when Reagan was inaugurated. Likewise, current procurement is helicopter-heavy and mine-resistant only after years of resistance from Donald Rumsfeld. The more you know!

The hold means no nominations can move forward unless Senate Democrats can secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold.

And what, pray tell, does Shelby want to extort from the administration? The Mobile Press-Register reports:

- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: “Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals.” Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.

- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: “[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won’t build” the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based “at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal.”

The story of the tanker planes is ridiculous. Northrop wants to team up with Airbus to build them in Alabama; rival Boeing wants to build them in Washington. Now Northrop wants the Air Force to change its criteria for selection or else it will take its football and go home.  The second one is new to me, but just how bad is the problem of improvised explosive devices in the United States? Because I don’t see the FBI deploying to Pakistan anytime soon.

Maybe I’m wrong; maybe Northrop/EADS should have the contract and the FBI desperately needs this facility to be in Huntsville. Or maybe Shelby is just a pig at the trough in Washington taking “the party of no” to petty extremes. As I noted back in September amid the “czars” nontroversy,  the GOP obstructionism is aimed at hampering Obama’s ability to govern. Effective leadership consists of delegation to competent subordinates; block the subordinates, and you block the leader. As of August, Obama still didn’t have half his team in place:

While career employees or holdovers fill many posts on a temporary basis, Mr. Obama does not have his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.

He sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Africa to talk about international development but does not have anyone running the Agency for International Development. He has invited major powers to a summit on nuclear nonproliferation but does not have an assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.

All of which suits Shelby and the GOP just fine, I’m sure. After all, they were willing to block Obama’s nomination for head of the Transportation Security Administration just to keep the people at the x-ray machines from unionizing. The funny thing is, I remember when Shelby was the Democrat who unseated Denton by accusing him of overconsuming pork.

Some U.S. special forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan may be at higher risk than usual of injury and death because the Pentagon has not equipped their units with enough helicopters to transport them safely around the countries, say six current and former military officials. Two of those officials, all of whom asked for anonymity fearing retaliation by Pentagon brass, tell NEWSWEEK that the roughly 800 Green Berets in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater engaged in what are known as “white” missions—recruiting and training local antiterrorist militias—have only three Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to move them around combat zones infested with snipers and roadside improvised explosive devices. By contrast, Green Berets assigned to “black” ops commando units hunting high-value terrorist targets are much more generously equipped. The white forces, assigned to vital but unglamorous counterinsurgency missions, are the Pentagon’s “bastard stepchildren,” says one of the officials. The helicopter shortage is so acute, say three of the officials, that requests for helicopters for white Green Beret airlift are rejected 80 percent of the time; some commanders no longer bother asking. (Link)(Emphasis mine)

One F-22 Raptor jet fighter: $350 million.

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