Afghanistan: Armed And Ready To Rumble

"While the media plays up the very real tragedy of every foreign soldier killed in Afghanistan, even with the rising casualty rate (520 last year, and currently running at the rate of 600 a year), it has no real military impact. The casualty rate (killed in combat) is less than a quarter of what it was in Vietnam or World War II. Non-combat losses (from accidents and disease) are higher, and have more impact on morale. The Taliban avoid combat, and cause most foreign troop casualties with mines and roadside bombs. The Taliban strategy is not to defeat the foreign troops, but to survive until the foreigners get tired of being in Afghanistan, and leave.

Since the Taliban cannot defend territory, they seek to maintain some control via terror. This includes threatening local officials (both government and tribal) with kidnapping or murder. When they can afford it, the Taliban will obtain this control with bribes. The drug gangs prefer bribes, and rely on the Taliban to do the dirty work. The drug gangs don't want to start any feuds, which can continue for generations. The Taliban are on a religious rampage, and care much less about who they offend, and are hated by most everyone."

My Way News - Regulators shut down banks in 5 states

"Regulators shut down a big bank in California on Friday, along with two banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Minnesota and Washington. That brought to 15 the number of bank failures so far in 2010 atop the 140 shuttered last year in the punishing economic climate.
The failure of Los Angeles-based First Regional Bank, with nearly $2.2 billion in assets and $1.9 billion in deposits, is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $825.5 million."

3 Americans now held in Iran for half of a year

"The mother of one of three Americans jailed in Iran for six months says even hiring an attorney in Iran has brought no new information about the welfare of her son or his friends.
Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minn., is the mother of Shane Bauer. He and his friends Sarah Shourd (SHORD) and Josh Fattal were hiking in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region at the end of last July when Iranian authorities arrested them. The Americans are accused of illegally crossing into that country. Their families say it was an accident."

Information Warfare: Over Two Billion Served

"The most common solution is to keep people too poor to use the Internet. Thus while Western nations have 60-90 percent of the population connected, the dictatorships of the world keep it at under ten percent, or even under one percent. In places like North Korea and Cuba, the government tightly controls Internet use. China, however, is a unique communist police state that has allowed a market economy to flourish, and with it came the largest Internet community on the planet.
There, the government has continued to add restrictions to Internet access to sites outside China. While there are ways around this, and millions of savvy Chinese take advantage of these technologies, most Chinese Internet users are not adept enough to understand the workarounds."

Electronic Weapons: Satellite Substitutes Seriously Sought

About bloody time, too.

"The air force believes that it has the answer, by using alternatives like weather balloons equipped with satellite commo or intel gear. The high altitude 'satellite replacement' balloons are based on existing weather balloon designs, but carrying communications, surveillance or GPS gear instead of weather sensors. As long as you can pick up and broadcast the same kind of signals satellites handle, you can put the equipment in a high altitude (up to 100,000 feet) balloon, or even a bomber or tanker that spends hours circling the battlefield. This is particularly useful for communications. Much of the satellite communications needed by combat troops is with other people in the same general area. So the commsat replacement (a balloon or B-52) can do the job, passing off the long distance stuff to the real commsat."

India-Pakistan: Taliban Seek New Base Areas

"Islamic radicals are again attacking trucks carrying NATO supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi, into Afghanistan. These attacks have diminished now that NATO and the U.S. have additional supply routes coming in via Central Asia. If the Pakistani transport companies cannot protect NATO shipments, then the supplies are sent in via Central Asia. The Pakistani firms have lost a lot of business, and had apparently made arrangements with the Taliban, to halt attacks on the emaining Karachi-Afghanistan NATO truck traffic. The recent attacks appear to be by Islamic radicals operating against India, and perhaps looking for a share of the protection money. Islamic radical groups often encroach on each other, and are frequently openly at war with each other."

Leadership: The Culture of Loot

"Let us never lose sight of how important loot is in Afghan culture. Out in the hills, raiding other tribes, or foreign visitors, is considered great sport. Especially if you steal valuable, or neat, stuff. In the last century, a growing source of loot has been payments to the Afghan leader (formerly a Pushtun king, now a Pushtun president) by foreigners, to keep the Afghans from raiding outside their borders, or not providing sanctuary for Islamic terrorists. In other words, protection money. Which tribe got what piece of that bit of loot often led to the kind of tribal violence you now see in Afghanistan. And many of the Taliban factions are fighting over the issue of how much money, or other favors, they should get from the national government. Having the government leave the Taliban, and their drug gang buddies, alone, is a much sought after favor."

Hayeku

"Why do we pretend
That “mandatory” spending
Is mandatory?"

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

"In contrast, prominent among the self-interested actions that are popularly suspect are those whose fulfillment requires self-interested actors to provide benefits to others. Of course, the business firm that earns profits in the market yields benefits to its self-interested principals – but it does so only insofar as it yields benefits to others. And the greater the benefits provided to others, and the greater the number of others provided with these benefits, the greater are the benefits that the self-interested, profit-seeking business principals enjoy. That is, when someone selfishly jogs to improve his or her health, we applaud. When that same someone selfishly seeks financial profit by offering goods or services for sale to consumers, many of us are wary. (And even most of the other of us who aren’t wary don’t positively praise this variety of self-interested behavior. We merely tolerate it as necessary.)"

Kevin Feige on Upcoming Marvel Studios Films - Superhero Hype!

"'My only concern is that when we launch a franchise--whichever character's franchise that may be--it should stand on its own two feet... So by the time 'The Avengers' comes in 2012, it's not just a team superhero movie with a bunch of characters with powers. It's three people - four including the Hulk; five including Nick Fury - who you've seen before in other movies, coming together for the very first time.'

Catch that Hulk bit? Feige also said that he won't rule out the possibility of a second Incredible Hulk film with Edward Norton. 'That would be post-'Avengers,' if it happened... I think there's a chance. It's certainly our intention to use the same actors from film to film where we can.'"

Counter-Terrorism: Selling Suicide To Children

"Palestinian terror groups have developed a unique method of recruiting suicide bombers; childrens' television. The programming directed at children has, for over a decade, increasingly encouraged kids to aspire to be a suicide bomber. Since these shows are in Arabic, they rarely attract the attention of Western media, and there is no media outrage at the practice."

Winning: Taliban Try A Little Tenderness

"Afghan and foreign troops have been moving into areas of southern Afghanistan, where most of the population used to be pro-Taliban, and finding many villages willing to form a self-defense militia to keep the Taliban out. People are willing to arm themselves, and organize to resist the Taliban, as long as they have backup. The new American strategy is to provide that backup, and this is creating more areas where the Taliban can't approach most villages, without getting shot at."

Colombia: Venezuelan Meltdown Has Consequences

"Venezuela continues to complain that Colombia, and the U.S., are preparing to attack Venezuela. There's no evidence of this, but that doesn't matter. The Venezuelan government needs some way to distract Venezuelans from the collapse of their economy, and starting a war is a traditional short term solution. To that end, Venezuela will send most of its 92 new (well, slightly used) T-72 tanks to the Colombian border. This is not good tank country, there being lots of forests and hills, and few roads. Colombia has no tanks, but its aircraft have American anti-tank weapons that have proved very effective against T-72s. Venezuela also has 200 older tanks, which would probably have a hard time moving around a lot, and are more useful in the cities, keeping an eye on unhappy Venezuelans."

pw PUB

"Paxton is not actually critiquing Liberal Fascism, he’s defending himself against its charges—both arms up to shield his face and his voice in a high girly pitch—because he recognizes on some level that Jonah is right: the modern Left can trace its ideological roots back to Progressivism and therefore back to the other totalitarian movements—including Fascism—that were in play among the Western intelligentsia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."

Poll: Fox is most trusted name in news - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

"A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.
Thirty-seven percent said they didn’t trust Fox, also the lowest level of distrust that any of the networks recorded."

Murphy's Law: Why Politicians Want Them Dumb

"But there's still one unguided 'dumb' weapon that the army just can't seem to get away from; their unguided 70mm (2.75 inch) rockets. Back in 2003, the army planned to begin phasing out these rockets. But, instead, during the last five years, the army has purchased nearly a billion dollars worth of 70mm rockets. Not because they wanted to, but because the politicians from Vermont, where the rocket is manufactured, had enough clout to force the army buy over 100,000 70mm rockets they don't want, won't use, and will eventually have to dispose of. That last step will cost more money, unless they can find some foreign country that wants to buy them, cheap.

Meanwhile, there is a 70mm rocket that is worth buying. These are 70mm rockets that have been turned into laser guided missiles. These can be fired from a standard 70mm unguided rocket launcher. Two years ago, one of the American missiles, DAGR was declared ready for service, but the U.S. Department of Defense didn't respond with any orders. The big advantage of 70mm missiles is that they are one fourth the weight of a Hellfire, and one fourth the cost. That means AH-64s burn less fuel carrying them, and the these smaller rockets are just as effective as a Hellfire in destroying many of the small targets found on the battlefield."

Somalia: The Bad Boys Just Got Worse

"A lot of Islamic radical gunmen appear to have become bored with the religious life. Al Shabaab, and other Islamic radical groups, are having an increasing problem with some of their factions turning into common criminals. It starts with Islamic radical gunmen 'taxing' locals for food and other basic supplies. But now some radicals are stealing cash and consumer goods. Islamic radical leaders say they will halt these crimes, but appear unable to do so."

Murphy's Law: Moslems Fighting Moslems Becomes Respectable

"Until quite recently, Moslem, particularly Arab, nations had sent troops to Afghanistan, but had kept it quiet. But the December 30th suicide bombing of a U.S. base in Afghanistan, revealed that one of the eight people killed was Ali bin Zeid, an agent for Jordanian intelligence. The fact that Zeid was identified was unusual. But Zeid was a cousin of the king of Jordan, and it was apparently thought better to just announce his 'martyrdom' and avoid all the rumors that would appear otherwise. There was no uproar in the Arab world over this Jordanian presence in Afghanistan. Apparently, Islamic terrorists have become so unpopular in the Moslem world, that it is no longer considered scandalous for Moslem troops to work with non-Moslem troops to kill the common enemy."

Morale: The Marines Have Left

"The U.S. Marine Corps has left Iraq. The U.S. Army will remain behind to wrap things up. This is another old custom, going back to World War II. During the first American offensive in the Pacific, the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal, the marines led the way. But once the heavy fighting was over, the marines departed, and the army finished up."

Gregg's Agent Coulson to Appear in Thor - Superhero Hype!

"Variety reports that Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Coulson in Iron Man and the upcoming Iron Man 2, will reprise his role for Thor as well.

Coulson is an agent of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D). In the Marvel Studios films, Samuel L. Jackson plays S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury, who will make multiple appearances as well."

Peacekeeping: Haiti And The Military Response

"Within 24 hours, an aircraft carrier, three amphibious ships and a destroyer were on the way to provide assistance. The carriers and amphibious ships provide helicopters, relief supplies, equipment, hospital facilities, communications and housing for relief workers. The destroyer is there to provide offshore logistics support for U.S. Coast Guard personnel already there. The navy is helping to get equipment into the Haiti to repair port facilities. The army has alerted a brigade of troops, as well as engineers and medical personnel, for movement to the stricken island nation. The air force was actually there first, with a team of specially trained airmen, equipped to fly in and get a wrecked airport quickly working again. They did this with the country's main air port."

Leadership: The Commanders' Intent For Major Hasan

"It is unknown if the army will deal with the atmosphere of political correctness that underpinned most of the bad decisions that enabled Hasan to stay in uniform, and even get promoted. In the army, as in any large organization, all the rules are not written down. In the army, many of the unwritten rules come in the form of 'the commanders' intent.' Sometimes this 'intent' iss spelled out, but in many cases, subordinate commanders have to figure it out. In the Hasan case, the commanders' intent was that Moslem officers, especially doctors, are to be kept happy and in uniform. When in doubt, look the other way, and hope for the best. In the case of Hasan, no one expected the guy to turn into a mass murderer. But, then, Hasan's superiors were encouraged to be optimistic about their Moslem problem child. So Hasan's radical rants and abusive behavior towards non-Moslems was, if not ignored, then played down."

Attrition: Minor Injuries Aren't

"The portable scanners would also enable medical researchers to determine which kinds of battlefield abuse is most likely to cause brain trauma. That's because roadside bombs are only one of several sources of concussions. Currently, the military medicine experts believe that roadside bombs are, by far, the biggest source of these concussions, and the resulting brain injuries. The proposed 'three bombs and you're out' (of combat) rule, is not expected to pull more than one or two percent of troops out of action. But this would have a higher impact on combat units, which always suffer most of the casualties. Thus infantry units might lose another 5-10 percent of their troops."

Paramilitary: Refitting The Guard

"NG troops were heavily used in Iraq (less so in Afghanistan), and this led to vast improvements in their training, combat experience and equipment. The army bought vast quantities of new gear for everyone sent to Iraq. Not just replacements for existing stuff, but many newly designed items. The NG quickly wore out their existing, already threadbare, equipment and weapons in Iraq. At first, replacement stuff was slow to come, but a public outcry over the shortages solved the problem. The NG now has more modern, and recently manufactured, equipment than they have had in a long time. The NG is even getting the latest computerized combat simulations and UAVs. This is having some interesting impacts on what the NG does most of the time; disaster relief."

Mark Strong in Talks to Play Sinestro - Superhero Hype!

"'He's not only a wonderful actor, but he looks like Sinestro. If you look up old pictures of Sinestro, he's very like him,' he told them. 'The Jackie Earle Haley thing, somebody told me about it this morning; I had never heard it before in my life.'"

This is good news. Better news is that the script will apparently include Kilowog, ya poozers!

Joe Johnston Talks Captain America - Superhero Hype!

Mixed message. The parts I've bolded, worry me. The rest sounds good.

"It's not going to be a Captain America that you expect. It's something different. It is influenced by the comic book, but it goes off in a completely different direction. It's the origin story of Captain America. It's mostly period—there are modern, present-day bookends on it—but it's basically the story of how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. The great thing about Captain America is he's a super hero without any super powers. Which is why this story, among the hundreds of super hero stories, appealed to me the most. He can't fly, he can't see through walls, he can't do any of that stuff. He's an every man who's been given this amazing gift of transformation into the perfect specimen—the pinnacle of human perfection."

Information Warfare: The War Below

"The biggest victory took place in 2008, when a small ISP, McColo Corporation, was taken off line. This caused worldwide spam traffic to decline by over 50 percent in one day. Before that, two similar ISPs, the Russian Business Network and Intercage, had a less dramatic impact on spam traffic, and Internet based criminal activity in general, when they were shut down.

The basic tactic here was to compile a report of the known criminal activity being conducted via a particular ISP, and then present it to police authorities (like the FBI in the U.S.), who can get court orders to shut the ISP down. What made the McColo take down work was the discovery that child pornography sites were hosted on places like McColo. While ISPs cannot be held legally responsible for most customer activity, copyright infringement and child pornography are two things the ISP can be prosecuted for it they know it's on their servers, and do nothing about it. While the ISPs doing the hosting, like McColo, will play games with the authorities (moving the criminal sites to another server, or shutting them down and then letting them start again under a different name), you can take the same evidence to the ISPs that 'peer' (connect to) the offending ISP, and get them to disconnect with the offending ISP. Since the Internet is a network of networks, if an ISP cannot connect to the 'web' of thousands of ISPs (especially the major ones), they are not connected to the Internet. That's how McColo, the Russian Business Network and Intercage got shut down. And that's how new ISPs, specializing in supporting criminals, will get shut down."

Morale: Making It Easier To Mend

"All this is part of a three year old U.S. Army program to provide long term care for wounded troops. This resulted in a network of Warrior Transition Units (WTUs). There are now 35 WTUs, serving the needs of soldiers requiring six months or more of medical care before they are well enough to return to civilian life, or resume their military career. The average stay in WTUs is 220 days. The new building program will replace 23 of the existing centers. Most WTU patients have combat injuries, but there are many with accident injuries, and a few recovering from diseases contracted overseas. The WTUs were actually a development of a concept that first showed up in 2004.

Each WTU is staffed with a few officers and 15-20 NCOs (platoon sergeants and squad leaders). In addition there are nurses and other medical professionals. The WTU staff sees to it that those under their care receive the proper medical treatment on a timely and sufficient basis. The WTU staff deal with any paperwork problems, helping the patients cope with the many bureaucracies that come out of the woodwork. The WTU NCOs have the hardest jobs, because they are often combat veterans themselves, relate well to the patients, and they are the main problem solvers. This is particularly useful for WTU patients who are reservists, and are not familiar with a lot of the active duty paperwork and procedures. Because of the stress placed on the WTU NCOs, they will be special-duty pay of $225 a month. Sort of like combat pay, but given to any troops in particularly difficult jobs."

India-Pakistan: The Avengers

"Many Pakistanis feel humiliated by the greater prosperity and political stability in India. The much larger GDP makes it easier for India to spend more on defense. Part of this tension is the result of competition that has existed, for centuries, between 'Moslem India' (now mostly Pakistan and Bangladesh) and 'Hindu India'. The Hindus have won, and the Moslems, especially the rich and powerful Pakistanis, don't like it. Some of these Pakistani swells have clung to Islamic radicalism as a solution, and are particularly humiliated at the American use of UAVs to attack Islamic terrorists in the tribal territories. But many Pakistanis also believe it is bad policy to stir up the Pushtun tribes. For thousands of years, these tribes have periodically invaded the lowlands, going as far as central India, causing much death and destruction. Their first targets were always the current Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sind (where 80 percent of the Pakistani population lives). Despite the fact that modern Pakistan has armed forces that are better armed and trained than the Pushtun tribesmen, there is still the fear. On the other end of the spectrum are Pakistanis who believe that now is the time to subjugate the tribes once and for all, and end thousands of years of fear. The idea is not to just militarily defeat the tribes, but to educate and civilize them. To exorcize the demons that have caused so much violence for so long."

Winning: Down And Out In Karachi

"But hundreds of Taliban have fled to Karachi. That's because the city is home to over two million Pushtuns (out of a city population of 12 million). About half these Pushtuns are Afghans (refugees from the 1980s war with Russia) and their children. Since Pushtuns, as a group, are ill equipped for urban living (low literacy, and few technical skills), most are poor. The low rent neighborhoods are full of Pushtuns, who are also overrepresented in criminal gangs. But the Pushtuns are closely watched by the police, and have earned some peace by not encouraging or supporting terrorists. Whenever this understanding is violated, as it is from time to time, the police lock a lot of people up, and even expel Afghans from the country. This last threat is much feared, and there's really no way to protect yourself from it, other than having done the cops some favors in the counter-terrorism department."

Leadership: The Enemy You Can't Shoot Back At

"The big fight will be with Congress over calls to divert money to high profile spending programs that provide jobs in politically vulnerable districts. Then there's the growing problem of cutting billions from the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) budget for 'earmarks' (pet projects that help politicians get reelected). In addition, there is also the Congressionally mandated procurement of expensive items the military does not want, but whose continued production will help some people in Congress keep their jobs. Congress denies all this, and has their staffs prepare a blizzard of PowerPoint briefings that make it all look good.
Most legislators don't see cuts of a few percent from the O&M budget as a problem. So what if it takes a little longer for vehicles to get repaired, or that the crews of ships, aircraft and tanks spend less time training as a result?"

Armor: Motown Has Moved

"The government has not released any numbers, but people living near army bases have noted a sharp increase in new military vehicles, and more frequent road movements by units (something that invited massive breakdowns if attempted with the older trucks). Some divisions appear to have replaced half or more of their old vehicles in the last year. Part of this is believed to be an effort to keep truck factories going, after many companies cut back on orders because of the global recession. Thus, if the world economy gets going again, and the Chinese economy with it, the vehicle upgrade program will suffer."

New 'bubbles' in global economy could burst: noted economist

"For more than a decade, White and one of his senior researchers warned in BIS annual reports and at public events that the global economy was facing growing risk because of speculative bubbles, particularly in areas, such as the overpriced U.S. housing market.

While they weren't alone in expressing concern about weak government regulations covering the lending practices of financial institutions, they took the provocative position that central bankers should play a far more active role by raising interest rates to contain speculative excesses — even during periods of low inflation." (emphasis mine)

And shockingly:

"Among those who dismissed White's concerns were Alan "The Maestro" Greenspan — the once-revered chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve who held the position from 1987 to 2006 — and current chair Ben Bernanke."

Don't screw up the Captain America movie - CraveOnline.com

"Hot on the heels of the uber-successful film debut of the armored avenger in “Iron Man,” Marvel Studios revealed their plans to create a Marvel filmiverse centered on the Avengers and announced dates for “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” and “Captain America.”

Perhaps that last true icon of the industry never successfully adapted outside the printed page, Captain America may be one of, if not, the most important character in modern storytelling.

And that makes it all so much easier to screw up.
As more and more hands get involved from other media, directors, screenwriters, producers, studio executives, and the like, the potential for error rises exponentially.

Hell, it’s almost expected."

Warplanes: UAVs Replacing Scout Helicopters

"In the last five years, scout helicopters have been doing a lot less scouting, having been replaced by Shadow 200 and Raven UAVs. The scout helicopter pilots are relieved at having UAVs take over some of the more dangerous missions they are called in to handle. But there are still situations where the superior situational awareness (two pilots with four eyes, four ears and noses) of humans are preferable. In particular, the scout helicopter pilots are glad to lose the job of going in to 'draw enemy fire' (and thus reveal where the enemy is). This sort of thing has gotten a lot of scout helicopter pilots killed."

Armor: Situational Awareness

"What the crews particularly liked about these SA (Situational Awareness) models was the many new sensors that gave the crew a better sense of what was going on outside, when all the tank hatches were shut (the vehicle was 'buttoned up.')
The new goodies included the new Blue Force Tracker (BFT) gear, which reliably shows them where all friendly (BFT equipped) vehicles are at all times, on a map display. Then there is the new and improved thermal sights, that provide better images at longer ranges (exact range is secret, but said to be over two kilometers). The .50 caliber machine-gun topside gets a thermal sight. There is now a phone box mounted on the side, for the infantry to use to talk to the crew. The gunner has a GPS powered 'Far Target Locate' function, which enables him to accurately locate and hit targets up to 8,000 meters away. The driver has better night vision gear, and a rear view thermal camera, making it a lot easier to back up at night, or in any weather. The commander now has periscopes and cameras which enable him to see what is going on anywhere outside the tank."

Sony Rebooting Spider-Man in 2012! - Superhero Hype!

"The new chapter in the 'Spider-Man' franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

'A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three 'Spider-Man' films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We're very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter's roots and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning,' said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment."

Principal Photography Starts on Thor - Superhero Hype!

"In THOR, Chris Hemsworth portrays the title character with Tom Hiddleston in the role of Thor’s brother Loki, and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. Additionally, the studio has cast Academy Award® winning actor Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Renee Russo as Frigga, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, Josh Dallas as Fandral, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, Idris Elba as Heimdall, as well as Colm Feore, Kat Dennings and award-winning actor Stellan Skarsgård. The film is slated for release in theatres domestically on May 6, 2011 via Paramount Pictures which will also release the film on a worldwide basis."

Electronic Weapons: The Down Side Of A Good Hack

"Recent reports, of terrorists eavesdropping on UAV video being sent to American ground troops, caused an uproar in the media. The video feed was unencrypted, which was unusual, and caused much indignation among pundits. But there was a lot more to the story. First, the ability of the ground troops to get the UAV video feed at all was a hack, a capability that was quickly developed because it was a matter of life and death. Second, the existing military radios did not have the capability to handle an encrypted video signal from UAVs. The rapidly developed Rover ground terminal used an improvised solution. The current radio (JTRS) was developed in the early 1990s, when the technology did not exist to get an encrypted video feed to the compact military radios. A decade later, the technology was there, but the JTRS did not get modified to incorporate it. In response, the air force developers of ROVER simply came up with a workaround (catching the unencrypted video feed on another piece of equipment, and passing it on the a JTRS network)."

Warplanes: More Than A Pilot Can Handle

"The heavy use of the U-2 has been hard on the pilots. Missions can be as long as 12 hours, and pilots operate in a cockpit pressurized to conditions found at 30,000 feet. This puts more strain on the pilots' body. That, and the fact that they breathe pure oxygen while up there, means they tend to be completely exhausted after returning from a long mission.
This wasn't supposed to happen. Four years ago, the U.S. Air Force wanted to retire its 33 U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, and replace them with UAVs like Global Hawk. But Congress refused to allow it, partly for political reasons (jobs would be lost, which is always a live political issue), and because some in Congress (and the air force) did not believe that Global Hawk was ready to completely replace the U-2. This turned out to be correct."

Intelligence: All You Have To Do Is Ask

"There have long been separate intelligence organizations to collect data on other countries, but the military intel units tend to concentrate on enemy fighting forces. However, in Afghanistan, while the enemy fighters may be from Pakistan, or some other province, once they arrive in Afghanistan, their goal is to persuade, or, more often, terrorize Afghan communities. Those communities, with the right support and motivation, can drive the Taliban away. But before you discuss this with the locals, you have to know who you are dealing with, and what their situation is. Thus the need for a new approach to combat intelligence. If you get tight with the locals, they will supply you with fresh, and excellent, information on the enemy. This is how the Special Forces frequently surprises regular army units with great info on the enemy. It's not just that the Special Forces troops are great intel experts, but that they know who to ask, how to ask them, and in what language."

Electronic Weapons: The Boss Wants A Smartphone, Or Else

"A French firm has developed a cell phone cryptography technology strong enough to satisfy French government and NATO security standards. The president of France was pleased, and his subordinates were relieved, because their boss is an enthusiastic smart phone user. Smartphones are popular because they can do so much, particularly accessing the Internet. But wireless devices, especially cell phones, give military and government security officials a very bad feeling. Moreover, in the last few years, several prominent heads-of-state (including the current American president), who were avid smartphone users, came to power. They were all told by their security personnel that smartphones were not secure enough (from eavesdropping) for the head of a major nation to use. But when you are the top guy in the government, you can order subordinates to find solutions, or else."

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Social Security deficit slides to worst showing in a generation

"Orszag wasn’t even right in the month he made the prediction. Democrats used this analysis to paint Republicans demanding Social Security reform as hysterics who wanted to attack retiree benefits and suck up to Wall Street. Here’s the cash flow for the past two years as reported by SSA. See for yourself who had this right (amounts in millions)"

Attrition: Getting Them Young

"JROTC cadets and their parents are finding that the biggest benefit of JROTC is to provide more structure for an often chaotic adolescence. The JROTC program demands discipline, particularly self-discipline. Cadets have to keep their grades up in order to remain in the JROTC. The course work covers basic military matters (marching, wearing and caring for uniforms, lots of information on the service their program belongs to) and non-military matters (civics, physical conditioning, and volunteer efforts to aid the community). About two thirds of the programs have marksmanship programs (often only with air guns)."

Winning: Tears And Tribulations For The Taliban

"Opinion surveys have had the percentage of Afghan approving the Taliban going downward for several years, and it's now under ten percent. This is no surprise to anyone living in Afghanistan. The Taliban were always disliked by the majority of Afghans, but now their fellow Pushtuns overwhelmingly hate them as well. This has a lot to do with where the Taliban are operating. That is, mostly in the province of Kandahar, Helmand (where most of the heroin is produced) and Khost. About 80 percent of the violence is taking place in 13 percent of the country, and the Pushtuns in those areas are tired to the Taliban and all their self-righteous violence."

Intelligence: Switching Playbooks

"All this is being done because winning the war in Afghanistan is all about politics, tribal politics. Most Westerners don't understand how important tribal politics is many parts of the world. 'Tribal politics' is something most Westerns just can't take seriously, or even get their heads around. But consider that in the main combat zones of the war on terror (including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and many more), tribal politics cannot be ignored. U.S. appreciation, and exploitation, of tribal politics led to victory in Iraq. The same thing is happening in Afghanistan."

H&R Blockheads and the Regulating IRS - WSJ.com

From the Department of Crony Capitalism: "Cheering the new regulations are big tax preparers like H&R Block, who are only too happy to see the feds swoop in to put their mom-and-pop seasonal competitors out of business. Kathryn Fulton, senior vice president for government relations, told the Washington Post the company was glad to support rules that meant H&R Block 'won't be competing against people who aren't regulated and don't have the same standards as we do.' With fewer tax preparers in the market, H&R Block will find it easier to raise prices."

Morale: Don't Worry, Be Happy

"The U.S. Army is hustling to come up with ways to deal with troops suffering from too much battlefield stress. The latest effort consists of classes on how to be happy. OK, it's called 'resiliency training', and it's working. Based on similar training given to stressed out civilian workers, it's been around for years. The army plans to give the ten day course to over a million active duty and reserve troops. The first to receive the training are NCOs, who will then become instructors. Over a quarter of these students have PTSD (combat fatigue) to some degree, and most agree that the training has helped. It should, as the course was selected from work that was developed and peer reviewed at the university level, and successfully given to thousands of civilians."

Counter-Terrorism: The Arab War Against The Taliban

"One of the best kept secrets in the war on terror is the number of casualties among Arab commando and intelligence troops serving in Afghanistan. Several Arab nations have quietly contributed intelligence and commando units to the counter-terror effort there. This has been kept quiet, but is an open secret in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. These commandos are usually pretty busy back home, keeping local Islamic radicals in check. But some of their home-grown radicals have shown up in Afghanistan and Pakistan (usually after things got too hot for them back home), and it followed that these Arab governments allowed some of their counter-terror troops to continue the pursuit in the pro-Taliban areas of Afghanistan."

India-Pakistan: Taliban Terror Tactics Backfire

"As Pakistani security forces take over more Taliban facilities in South Waziristan, they are horrified to find religious schools that specialize in convincing poor, rural teenagers to be suicide bombers. It only works on a few percent of the students, which is why there were so many of these schools. Captured suicide bombers in Afghanistan had freely discussed these schools, but this is the first time Pakistani officials have been able to examine them closely. The Taliban have developed a curriculum that combines religion and Islamic radical preaching, and the promise of sex and luxury living, to produce suicide bombers. Lurid details of all this are being widely reported in the media, fueling even more enthusiasm for continued efforts against the Taliban. In the last three months, Taliban terror attacks have killed over 600 people, most of them ordinary civilians."

Submarines: Everyone With Sneaky Needs Does It

"It's estimated that about 75 of these subs are being built in northwest Colombia each year, and sent on one way trips north. Each of these boats carries a four man crew and about seven tons of cocaine (worth nearly $200 million on the street). The loss of each boat and its cargo cost the Colombian drug cartels over $10 million in costs (of building the boat and producing the drugs). The crews are often Colombian fishermen forced to make the long voyage, because their families were being held hostage. Running these boats is considered very dangerous work, and the crews are paid well if they succeed, whether they volunteered for the work or not. Because of the risks (about ten percent are believed lost at sea), the boats are nicknamed 'coffins.'"

FT.com / Columnists / Gideon Rachman - America is losing the free world

"But the assumption that the world’s democracies will naturally stick together is proving unfounded. The latest example came during the Copenhagen climate summit. On the last day of the talks, the Americans tried to fix up one-to-one meetings between Mr Obama and the leaders of South Africa, Brazil and India – but failed each time. The Indians even said that their prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had already left for the airport.

So Mr Obama must have felt something of a chump when he arrived for a last-minute meeting with Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, only to find him already deep in negotiations with the leaders of none other than Brazil, South Africa and India. Symbolically, the leaders had to squeeze up to make space for the American president around the table."

FOXNews.com - C-SPAN Challenges Congress to Open Health Care Talks to TV Coverage

"The head of C-SPAN has implored Congress to open up the last leg of health care reform negotiations to the public, as top Democrats lay plans to hash out the final product among themselves.
C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open 'all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings,' to televised coverage on his network.
'The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety,' he wrote."

Counter-Terrorism: The Baghdad Test

"The latest gambit is a car bomb, but without a detonator, and driven by a policeman. The care has explosives hidden in it, in the same manner that car bombers currently do it. The driver tries to get through some of the the 1,500 check points in Baghdad, and when he does, the guards who failed to detect the explosives, are arrested and replaced by a new crew, who now have an incentive to search more diligently.

The word got around quickly, and soon drivers found their vehicles being checked out with increased vigor, and success."

My Way News - Spotty enforcement for new US air screening rules

From the Department of "They ARE Ignoring that Man Behind the Curtain": "The United States demanded more careful screening for people who are citizens of, or are flying from, 14 nations deemed security risks. But enforcement of the U.S. rules appeared spotty.

'Everything is the same. There is no extra security,' said an aviation official in Lebanon, one of the countries on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Obama administration ordered the changes after what authorities say was a failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a jetliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day."

Ben Bernanke Won’t Take the Blame for Bubbles | Reuters

He may not be willing to take it, but it's his just the same. Last year wouldn't have been soon enough to start raising rates.

"Recently, though, “Bernanke said, ‘never say never,’ when asked whether the Fed should instead use higher interest rates to pre-emptively prick future bubbles, and he later said he wouldn't rule it out.”"

Security Alarm Causes Havoc at Newark - SmarterTravel.com

From the Department of Days Late and Billions Short: "A man reportedly walked through the exit lane at Newark International Airport's Terminal C yesterday, and entered the secure area of the airport without being screened. What followed was an absolute nightmare for travelers, as every single person in the terminal and aboard planes at the gates was evacuated from the terminal. The terminal, which is dominated by Continental, was closed for roughly four hours while officials completed a sweep, and then travelers were re-screened and allowed back to the gates."

Leadership: The U.S. Army Gets Transformed By Accident

"The rapid victory in Afghanistan, where 300 Special Forces operators and CIA field agents, won the war quickly, was a surprise to the public. The war in Afghanistan featured two weapons that were most responsible for victory over the Taliban. The most visible weapon was the smart bomb, usually a one ton, GPS guided weapon dropped from a B-52. The other widely used weapon was cash. Money. Defeating the enemy with a pile of greenbacks is often looked down on, but in Afghanistan it is often much more effective than bombs."

Weapons: In Search Of The Perfect Magazine

"Already, over half a million of the new magazines have been issued, mostly to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those headed there. The oldest magazines are being turned in right away, and replaced by the new model. The new magazine is mainly designed to prevent jams when the round comes up from the magazine and into the firing chamber. This is accomplished with a new follower (a tab at the top of the magazine) design, as well as a new, corrosion resistant, spring."

CDC, WTF?

While Maggie and I were in Florida last week, we received a phone call from the CDC. Maggie erased it and I thought that was that.

Yeah. The CDC—the Centers for Disease Control. They called our home. But, like I said, I thought the one call would be the end of it.

So I was surprised when, while taking down Christmas lights, I get handed the phone, "It's the CDC again."

I listened, politely, to at least find out what the CDC wanted with me. It was a survey, apparently about tobacco.

I guess the little fellow who was making the calls was used to a more vigorous response—He wasn't asking questions yet, just telling me what it was about and, like I said, I was being polite.

"Is there a better time for me to call, Sir? Is this a bad time?"

I replied, "Actually, there is no good time, in fact, you should make certain that my number is removed from your lists and don't ever call here again."

I could hear the confusion in his voice, "But we aren't collecting personal information, your responses can't be matched back to you."

"Fine," I said, "I'm still not going to participate."

After hanging up, I wish I'd said that I wasn't going to support fascism.

Tobacco survey. You know what that data will be used for.

Don't get me wrong. I don't smoke, not anymore. I gave it up over 20 years ago, and I didn't do it for long. But that's beside the point. Personal freedom and liberty are about the ability to make choices for oneself, and that includes the freedom to make choices that are bad for us.

So tomorrow, I will be calling my federal representatives and demanding to know what's going on with the CDC, and that they take whatever measures that they can to squash it. Because I still have that freedom.

Winning: There Are No Good Sanctuaries Left

"So, in the past year, al Qaeda people have been leaving Afghanistan and Pakistan and heading for Yemen and Somalia. In both cases, they have found themselves in even more hostile situations. In Somalia, there's a civil war among the local Islamic radicals, over whether they should support the al Qaeda goal of turning the world into one huge religious dictatorship, or simply concentrate on conquering Somalia for the cause of Islamic intolerance.

Yemen was supposed to be different, as the local government was willing to look the other way, as long as al Qaeda did no violence inside Yemen. That fell apart recently when the government learned that some al Qaeda factions were going to attack inside Yemen anyway. This was made worse when Saudi Arabia traced the attempted assassination of a senior Saudi prince back to al Qaeda in Yemen, and caught more al Qaeda members trying to get across the border with two suicide vests."

Murphy's Law: Use It, Or (Quietly) Lose It

"Security personnel, especially in dangerous times, have a lot to do. More work than the security personnel can handle. So what usually happens? Actions that serve no apparent purpose (like NBC detectors that cause false alarms, which require a lot of running around and paper work to deal with), are quietly put aside. This sort of thing commonly happens in wartime, in combat zones. When troops receive some new gadget, that seemed like a great idea back in the lab, but kind of sucks out in the field, they quietly, or otherwise, dispose of it."

Procurement: Replacing A Legend

"The U.S. Marine Corps still uses the UH-1N. But the marines have a remanufacturing program for them, which will convert UH-1Ns to UH-1Ys. Eventually a hundred UH-1Ns will be rebuilt at a cost of about $4 million each. New rotors, rebuilt airframes and new electronics will make the aircraft more capable, and eventually bring maintenance cost savings of about $14 million per aircraft. Part of this is achieved by installing sturdier and more reliable components. The marines expect the refurbished aircraft to be as effective as the successors to these designs (the UH-60.) For the marines, this is probably true. Marines don't have to move their helicopters as far, or carrying as much, as the army does. So for most jobs, the older helicopters, with new engines and electronics, can do the job just as well, without the longer range and greater carrying capacity of the UH-60."

My Way News - Flight diverted because of Christmas ornament

From the Department of "The horse is out, get those barn doors shut!": "A spokesman says a Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit was briefly diverted to Tennessee after someone found a suspicious package that turned out to be a Christmas ornament.

Delta Air Lines spokesman Carlos Santos wasn't sure who found the package midway through the flight to Orlando, Fla., or why they thought it was suspicious. He says the flight was diverted 'out of an abundance of caution.'

The 75 passengers and five crew members on Northwest flight 2364 were taken off the plane in Nashville around 8 a.m. Friday while dogs searched it."

So now everyone is alert. Must be due to the new slate of regulations that would not have prevented aything that happened on Chrismas day.

Napolitano announces international airport security campaign - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

From the Department of "Ignore that man behind the curtain." "“As part of the ongoing review to determine exactly what went wrong leading up to Friday’s attempted terrorist attack, we are looking not only at our own processes, but also beyond our borders to ensure effective aviation security measures are in place for U.S-bound flights that originate at international airports,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement Thursday."

Of course the process of "ensuring effective avaition security measures" overseas means strong arming the security agnecies of foreign nations. Takes a bit of arrogance, especially in light of recent US performance. Some might call it dimsissive, even derissive.

Warplanes: LEMV Lumbers Along Up There

"The U.S. Army wants aircraft manufacturer Lockheed to dust off and spiff off an old aircraft research project, and get it ready for service within 18 months as the LEMV (Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle). The old project in question is P-791, a blimp originally developed as an aerodynamic airship that would be a cheaper way to transport cargo by air. P-791 looks like three normal blimps smushed together to form one wide blimp. The army wants an unmanned blimp that can carry 1.1 tons of sensors, stay aloft for 21 days at a time, supply 16 kilowatts of power and move at up to 148 kilometers an hour."

Afghanistan: A Plague Upon The Land

"The Taliban Information War has also gotten the Western media to buy into the fiction that the Pushtun terror organization is a lot larger and more powerful than it actually is. The Taliban are actually a terrorist group with the support of a minority of the Pushtuns (mostly in southern Afghanistan), who are in turn a minority (40 percent) of the Afghan population. Most Afghans, including most Pushtuns, hate the Taliban, and were fighting them even before September 11, 2001. The Taliban thrive because they allied themselves with the drug gangs, who have grown rich producing heroin and opium. The majority of Afghans want nothing to do with the drug business, which is why most of the stuff is produced in Taliban Central; Helmand province."

A Story from Army.mil!

http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/12/30/32396-army-experiments-to-increase-network-connectivity-for-soldiers/package.xml

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Sea Transportation: Merchant Marine Leans Nuclear

"Since then, oil has become a lot more expensive, and nuclear power plants a lot cheaper. There are a new generation of nuclear power plants that are smaller, cheaper and more reliable than anything available in the 1960s. So ship builders are looking at nuclear power again. The math is pretty straightforward. Nuclear fuel costs half a dollar per million BTU, while coal costs $3, and oil $12 (and rising). Deliver a simple and reliable nuclear power plant, and ship builders will install it.

Not only is nuclear cheaper, but it’s a lot cleaner. Ships burn very dirty fuel, and the world's merchant fleet puts out as much pollution each year as 150 billion automobiles. That causes 60,000 early deaths a year from lung cancer and heart disease."

Wars Update: Violence Continues To Decline

"Worldwide, violence continues to decline, as it has for most of the decade. For example, violence has greatly diminished, or disappeared completely, in places like Iraq, Nepal, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Chechnya, Congo, Indonesia and Burundi. Even Afghanistan, touted as the new war zone, was not nearly as violent this past six months as the headlines would deceive you into believing."