The BBC says that Gates cutting Pentagon budget by $78bn over five years

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has announced a $78bn (£50.3bn) military budget cut, in part by scrapping a $14bn amphibious fighting vehicle.

The cuts over the next five years come in addition to $100bn in internal savings already announced.

Those savings will be redirected to other defence programmes, but the new cuts slow growth in the overall budget.

This isn’t cutting the budget, it is reducing the growth in the increase. The DoD budget will still increase, even with these “cuts”. It is unlikely that much of what Gates has proposed will make it through Congress as it impacts defense contractors who will use their tame Congresscritters to oppose them.

The BBC reports that Obama names William Daley as White House chief of staff

President Barack Obama has named bank executive and former commerce secretary William Daley as the next White House chief of staff.

Just what Obama needs, another banker in the White House. If he would push to put a few bankers in prison for fraud, instead of giving them jobs in the Executive branch, people might think he knows what he’s doing and might fix a few of our problems.

This smells like the handiwork of Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel may be looking for an endorsement from William Daley’s brother, Richard, the current mayor of Chicago.

The Miami Herald reports that Gov. Scott appoints corporate executive to lead Fla. growth management agency

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Rick Scott has appointed an executive of one of Florida’s largest land development companies to oversee the state department charged with managing growth.

Billy Buzzett, vice president of the St. Joe Co., will take over the Department of Community Affairs, the state’s land planning and community development agency that Scott is eager to overhaul.

Like Florida doesn’t have hundreds if not thousands of surplus and vacant houses, offices, and condos, so let’s make even easier for developers to build more to “generate jobs” in the midst of the foreclosure mess. The Republican policies created the problems, so the voters of Florida elected even more Republicans to fix them. The voters got the government they deserve.

Today marks the Feast of the Epiphany, end of the twelve days of Christmas, and Día de los Reyes in Spanish-speaking countries.

This is the customary day for gift exchanges in many Christian cultures because it is the day that the Magi finally arrived in Bethlehem with their totally inappropriate gifts after putzing around for over a week because they didn’t want to ask for directions.