At first I was worried that Obama's new DoD hiring rules will devastate our military's institutional memory and put self-important morons in charge of weapons acquisition...

The Obama transition team has issued ethics guidelines that are likely to make it extremely difficult to attract qualified defense industry appointees. "No political appointees would be able to work regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration," the new guidelines say. "You can understand the motivation behind it, but it’s not clear that you will get the best and brightest people who understand what needs to be done to serve in the government. As you know previous administrations have had great difficulty attracting people under the existing guidelines," a procurement expert with experience in and out of government told me this morning.

... but then I remembered that Obama has promised to dismantle the military and is already locking that into the budget in the form of a projected 2010 spending peak. So I guess we'll be OK after all. In the meantime the underlings of Joe "zero out aid to Israel" Biden are preparing to spread out and take control of day-to-day operations at State.

References:
* Obama Tightens Ethics for Appointees [DoD Buzz]
* Obama Pledges To Basically Dismantle US Military In Minute-Long Campaign Video [Video] [MR]
* Shortlist Sketched for DoD Team [Defense News]
* Obama Surrogates Now Openly And Demonstrably Lying About Biden's Anti-Israel Policies [MR]
* Transition Rumint: Hill Staff Moves. [War and Piece]

Previously:
* Los Angeles Times Dishonest about Pentagon-Funded Report, Recommends Israel Disarm
* Rumors Of Zionist Neo-Con Infiltration Into The Pentagon A Touch Exaggerated (Plus: FBI Anti-Semitic Witch Hunts Becoming A Trend)
* State Department And Pentagon Plotting Insubordination, Pretty Much Lying To Prevent Action Against Iran