Thursday Morning Joe: Pentagon budget yeas and nays, Army upgrades, frozen soldiers, rocket cats! ...

By Northwest Military News Team on March 6, 2014

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Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum within 10 days. 

The response at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the defense budget was expectedly frosty, from both sides of the aisle

CIA Director John Brennan fired back at reports that the CIA spied on Senate staffers' computers while accusing lawmakers of making "spurious allegations."

Under the Army's fiscal year 2015 budget request, soldiers will receive a 1 percent pay increase as well as a basic allowance for housing increase of 1.5 percent and a 3.4 percent increase in basic allowance for subsistence.

Top U.S. defense officials told Congress that if the Pentagon were allowed to bust its budget caps, it would save one aircraft carrier and tens of thousands of troop billets slated for elimination.

The U.S. Defense Department's proposed budget for fiscal 2015 would significantly boost funding for certain types of drones, helicopters and ships.

The Pentagon's fiscal 2015 budget request funds new projects aimed at making U.S. ballistic missile defenses more accurate and reliable, a senior official said.

The U.S. Air Force's top military acquisition officer expects the cost of the new long-range strike bomber to exceed an expected per-unit cost limit.

Progress remains steady in the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter's operational testing, reprogramming, fueling, and stand-up training.

If U.S. and NATO forces are required to leave Afghanistan at the end of the year in the absence of a security agreement, the Afghan government's long-term viability "is likely to be at high risk," the commander of U.S. Central Command told Congress yesterday.

William Kyle Carpenter, a Marine Corps veteran who was severely wounded during a November 2010 grenade attack in Afghanistan, will receive the nation's highest combat valor award.

Digital Training Management System is the Army's future for training.

The Army is fielding a major software upgrade to its electronic medical record system.

Twenty percent of U.S. soldiers had mental illness before enlisting.

Frozen World War I soldiers appear in the Alps.

You're a 16th century German prince plotting to crush a peasant rebellion, or perhaps you're leading an army against the Ottoman Empire or looking to settle the score with a rival nobleman. What's a guy looking for a tactical edge to do? Bring on the rocket cats!

It's legal in Massachusetts to secretly photograph a person's undergarments - without them knowing.

Pee-wee Herman's bike is on eBay.

The comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates is coming to IFC this summer.

Finally: a True Detective/Twin Peaks mashup.

A Game of Thrones mixtape is on the way.

Speaking of Games of Thrones ...

Game of thrones Opening Titles from Mathilde Loubes on Vimeo.