<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the Duffel Blog at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ao2wnu2">http://tinyurl.com/ao2wnu2</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">--------------------------------------</div><div><p><h1 id="pf-title" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Obama’s Pick For Secretary of Defense Under Fire For Connection To ‘E-4 Mafia’</span></font></h1></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="text-node">WASHINGTON, D.C. – A political fight has been ignited after President Obama announced the nomination of former soldier and Senator Chuck Hagel to Secretary of Defense. The choice is seen as controversial due to past comments from Hagel about Israel, </span><span class="text-node">gays in the military, and shadowy connections to a group known as the “E-4 Mafia</span><span class="text-node">.”</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Chuck has served our nation in battle, and knows the burden our troops face,” President Obama told reporters. “I can think of no one better for this post.” Freshman congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also echoed the President’s sentiment: “He knows what it’s like to be in the shit [sic] taking orders. I think he’ll make a fine SecDef.”</span></p><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "></div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Despite the honor of nomination, even Hagel didn’t express excitement. ”I remember hanging up the phone cursing, and told my wife, ‘I’ve been out for almost 40 years, and they’re pulling me back in for another goddamned detail.’”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Although reluctant, Hagel feels he’s up to the task.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“You are damn right I can run the Pentagon,” said Hagel between victory shots of Tequila. “I don’t trust a man who hasn’t banged underage hookers in the DMZ.” He also added, “I’m the right candidate because I took correspondence courses to max out promotion points on my E-4 eval.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="text-node">Hagel also remarked that, as a former enlisted man, he understood aspects of military life that elude most career officers, including how the Army’s supply lines, physical training, distribution of labor, and maps work. He is not without skeletons however, including his rumors of association while an Army Specialist with the E-</span>4 Mafia<span class="text-node">, a suspected but unconfirmed league of conspirators, gamblers, and smugglers.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The guy was a Specialist in Vietnam while I was a Lieutenant Commander. You think I am going to put a former grunt in charge of the Pentagon?,” asked Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). “Some lower enlisted puke running the Pentagon? What kind of shit-show are we talking about here?”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hagel, who left the Army as a Sergeant, revealed some of the changes he’d like to see at DoD.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I’d like to see some good mentoring and helpful advice for the men who make the real decisions in the service branches,” said Hagel. “So I think I’d start with putting senior officer advisors in place to the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, the Sergeants Major of the Army & Marines, and the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Other plans according to Hagel, include “no more haircuts because it’s all bullshit anyway”, lowering the drinking age to 18 on base, and implementing “Kegger Thursdays” at all military barracks.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chuck Hagel in Vietnam</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span class="text-node" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img src="cid:646168EE-C60B-46A3-80D9-A604ECD07367" alt="image.jpeg" id="646168EE-C60B-46A3-80D9-A604ECD07367" width="338" height="346"></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">---------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom "Proud to be a Filthy Liberal Scum" Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></div></div></body></html>