McCain's latest battle

McCain, as one of the top chairs of the Senate Armed Services Committee has to protect the taxpayer against wasteful DOD spending.

Or does he?

The Marines want to start training early at Eglin AFB, Florida, even if the capability, flight-envelop, and general management of the program is in serious question.

Amos, the cheerleader for the F-35 program, who went into a micro-manage mode last year with the need for daily updates on program metrics, conned a clueless Panetta (note the authors of the damning letter) into lifting a two-year get-fixed or death notice by a no-knowledge-on-airpower issues Gates in relation to the USMC F-35B. Amos is now dialing back; claiming going forwardness will put forth...something.

McCain goes to speak at Yuma; his home turf as an Arizona Senator.

Are the rent-seekers at Yuma ready to go? Well, there are no F-35s yet. Along with no credible pilot training program and robust operational test verification. It will be interesting to see how Yuma's F-35 reason to exist (training warfighters with the F-35) works out with an emperor-has-no-cloths scenario. They have high-hopes though. That is their future. Such as it is. The mission? Not the defense of the country. The mission is happy local businesses.

The rent-seekers at Yuma and the USMC have faith on their side.

At Yuma, McCain babbles generalities about the F-35 program and specifics about looming mandatory budget cuts. He goes on to fear-monger about Yuma not needing high unemployment as a result of budget cuts.

Not mentioned: the DOD would lose -$50B over ten years with the sequestration act. This would bring us back to a 2006-era defense budget. There are several wasteful defense programs which contribute nothing to killing stuff and breaking things in a war-like manner. That and we have too many flag-ranks and SES.

It is an election year.

Related? Well, it isn't synchronicity.