ONE IN THREE HUMVEES IN IRAQ INADEQUATELY ARMORED

In case you were wondering just what kind of problems the defense authorization bill -- the bill that the Republican leadership pulled from the Senate floor to push through the GOP/NRA's pet gun bill -- would have addressed:

Two-thirds of the nearly 6,000 Humvees deployed across Iraq are factory-armored, coming off an Ohio assembly line with an extra 2,000 pounds of protective plating and bulletproof windows, and the Iraq mission has priority for getting new ones. With some members of Congress complaining that the work has been too slow, about 300 more vehicles are being upgraded each month by private contractors at bases in Iraq and Kuwait.

U.S. troops using Humvees and other vehicles are still not out of danger. On the highways, streets and alleys that are the battlefields of this conflict, soldiers traveling in the vehicles never intended for front-line combat now face suicide drivers and more powerful bombs capable of penetrating new defenses. -- LA Times

Note to GOP chicken-hawks: On the battlefield, 66% is a failing score.