Ref the "They're cutting the defense budget"--"No they're

not" crap going around, Insty pointed to this.
Confronted by two costly wars and a collapsing economy, the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee is preparing to trim military spending on weapons, committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin said Jan. 30…. “We are going to cut weapons systems,” Levin said during a news conference in an ornate Armed Services Committee hearing room.

“That’s not just me speaking. The secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs [of Staff] have spoken about [how] we have got to face the reality that there’s going to be a reduction somewhere in the defense budget,” said Levin, D-Mich.

“We don’t want to reduce personnel; we don’t want to shortchange personnel” amid a war, he said. “So we’ve got to look to the future and make savings there. There’s the fact of life.”

Put bluntly, I don't trust Levin as far as I can throw my truck. I'll let Boot say it:
There is something deeply disingenuous going on when Levin says “That’s not just me speaking.” He then goes on to quote senior Defense Department leaders indicating that they have to face the reality of a cut in the budget. But note that Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen aren’t saying that the defense budget should be cut on the merits. They are perfectly aware that, notwithstanding a surge of war-related supplemental appropriations since 9/11, the armed forces have pressing demands — ranging from extra soldiers to newer aerial tankers and more ships — that desperately need to be addressed.

This is one of the things that scared hell out of me about Obama, and has pissed me off for years from people like Levin. Whether Obama & Co. realize it or not, those 'future combat systems' he wants to trash even research on are what give our troops the edge they have; the NEED those things. And Levin is one of the people who were whining and bitching and accusing "We didn't put enough troops into (fill in the blank)" and blaming Bush; but they've NEVER put forth a bill to increase funding so there would BE more troops to do the damned job, and if someone else did they did everything they could think of to prevent it passing.

I'm thinking Obama probably did do the 10% cut stuff talked about earlier, then when the screaming was louder than expected played "No, no, there needs to be an increase!", and now is using Levin and the other asshats to try and keep some of the heat off himself.

No, as a matter of fact, I don't trust ANY of them.