protein wisdom: “Your health care bill is a fraud, Mr. President, and you lied”

"Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg."

Special Operations: Instant Gunships

"The U.S. Marine Corps has long noted the success of the U.S. Air Force AC-130 aircraft that SOCOM uses. But they couldn't afford them, as an AC-130 costs more than three times as much an a marine KC-130J aerial refueling aircraft. But the marines developed a solution. This is something the marines often do.
The KC-130J is the latest, and largest, USMC version of the C-130 transport used for aerial refueling. But the KC-130J can also carry cargo, and weapons (bombs and missiles) hung from the wings. Thus the Harvest Hawk version of the KC-130J adds a targeting pod, with the data going to a special cargo container containing control equipment (computers, commo and displays) enabling operators use of the day/night sensors of the targeting pod, to fire Hellfire missiles hung from the wings."

The Image at Drudge was Just too Good to Pass Up

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Another ObamaCare mandate we had to discover after its passage

"Nancy Pelosi told the public that we’d have to pass ObamaCare to find out all of the surprises Democrats had loaded into it. Since its passage, we’ve discovered a number of them, including the elimination of a tax credit that kept seniors on private medication coverage that has forced publicly-held corporations like AT&T, Caterpillar, John Deere, and Verizon to take massive charges against this year’s earnings. Earlier this week, the Associated Press discovered a new mandate, this time on chain restaurants, that is at once petty, paternalistic, and anti-growth"

The Associated Press: Prudential to take $100M health care charge in 1Q

"Insurer Prudential Financial Inc. said Monday that it will take a $100 million charge in the first quarter in relation to the recent health care overhaul legislation.
The life insurance and annuities provider said in a regulatory filing that it will take the charge against earnings in the first quarter.
Prudential joins a growing list of companies that have said they will take accounting charges because of the health care bills. AT&T said last week it would take a $1 billion charge in the first quarter. AK Steel Corp., 3M Co., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy have also said they would take smaller charges."

Health Reform Law: Expanded IRS a Threat to Taxpayers? - ABC News

"'When most people think of health care reform, they think of more doctor exams, not more IRS exams,' said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, ranking member on the House Joint Economic Committee. 'Isn't the federal government already intruding enough into our lives?'
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act authorizes the IRS, the agency that collects taxes and enforces internal revenue laws in the U.S., to collect penalties imposed on individuals for not having health insurance, and on companies for not offering it when the mandates take effect in 2014."

Canada tells Clinton troops are leaving

"But Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Harper, says Harper told Clinton on Tuesday that after 2011 Canada will be involved in a civilian mission focused largely on aid and reconstruction.
Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon also ruled out any form of a military mission post-2011 at a news conference late Monday night following Clinton's remarks."

Support: iPad As A Secret Weapon

"This relationship enabled the army to recently run a programming contest for troops and civilian employees. The goal was to create the most effective smart phone software for the troops. Mainly, this was for the iPhones (and iPod Touch), but also for other smart phones like the Google Android. The army believes their military and civilian personnel know what applications are most needed. The troops have already decided what hardware they most need, because they have been buying iPods and iPhones with their own money.
The army sees these portable devices as key battlefield devices. Not just for communication, but for a wide range of data handling (computer) chores. The army wants to work closely with Apple to ensure the troops get the software need, as well as customized hardware. Details are largely kept secret."

Armor: The Bomb Eating Kat

"The U.S. Army and Marine Corps have had a lot of success with the VMMD (vehicle mounted mine detector). Which is strange as few people have heard of it, and the vehicle looks more like an exotic piece of construction equipment, than a combat vehicle. This odd looking vehicle is designed to survive bombs and mines, and continue looking for them. VMMD is based on (and looks very similar to) the earlier Meerkat. Originally designed to detect landmines on dirt roads, it was made light enough (using special tires) to not set them off while rolling over them. This is excellent for Afghanistan, where dirt roads are the norm (actually, no roads at all is more the norm.)"

The American Spectator : Obama in Rude Denial

"'My CEO sat with the President over lunch with two other CEOs, and each of them tried to explain to the President what this bill would do to our companies and the economy in general. First the President didn't understand what they were talking about. Then he basically told my boss he was lying. Frankly my boss was embarrassed for him; he clearly had not been briefed and didn't know what was in the bill.'"

Investors.com - Constitutional Convention As A Last Resort?

"I refer you to the decision last year by the donut chain Tim Hortons, a Delaware corporation, to reorganize itself as a Canadian corporation 'in order to take advantage of Canadian tax rates.' Hold that thought: 'In order to take advantage of Canadian tax rates' — a phrase hitherto unknown to American English outside the most fantastical futuristic science fiction."

Mexico: American Air Power Joins The Fight

"The post-9/11 increases in security on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande and recent attempts by the Mexican government to root out corruption in Mexico's border patrol service, have made crossing the Mex-Tex border (in either direction) very difficult during the morning and evening hours. The traffic really jams on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. People living on both sides of the border were used to crossing frequently and easily. The new hassles have ticked off the locals, both Texan and Mexican. Many Mexicans have jobs in the U.S. Americans living on the border often shop in Mexico. Shopping, however, is not a one-way deal. It all depends on the goods the customer wants. Mexicans shop for bargains in U.S. discount stores and there are grocery stores in a couple of Texas border towns that do a brisk trade with Mexican nationals. Americans like to go to dinner or go club-hopping in Mexico, but there are also a number of Americans who visit Mexican doctors. The new border security situation, however, has reduced this traffic. The U.S. side has taken a hit, but the Mexicans have suffered more substantial losses. Cross the Rio Grande into a Mexican border town and the experienced Mex-Tex border aficionado will note that a lot of businesses that thrived on American trade are shuttered. As a result, there have been demonstrations in some of the smaller towns on the Mexican side of the border protesting the new restrictions."

Warplanes: F-35 Buyers Back Away

"Denmark has decided to wait, until 2014, to decide what to replace its elderly F-16 fleet with. Meanwhile, 18 of the F-16s will be retired. But the other 30 will be refurbished so that they can continue to operate for the rest of the decade. Denmark had wanted to replace the F-16s with F-35s. But the F-35s keeps getting delayed (now more than two years behind schedule), and is becoming more expensive (nearly a hundred percent over budget). The Danish F-35 buy is no longer a sure thing. The delays have lots of users concerned. The U.S. Navy has been nervously watching as the costs of the new F-35C and F-35B carrier aircraft versions go up."

Information Warfare: A Wee Bit Offensive

"Department of Defense Internet systems, increasingly under attack, are now being equipped to fight back, sort of. Taking a page from the corporate playbook, the Pentagon is sending off many of its programmers and Internet engineers to take classes in how to hack into the Pentagon. Not just the Pentagon, but any corporate, or private, network. It's long been common for Internet security personnel to test their defenses by attacking them. Some 'white hat hackers' (as opposed to the evil 'black hat hackers') made a very good living selling their attack skills, to reveal flaws, or confirm defenses. Seven years ago, this was standardized with the establishment of the EC (E Commerce Consultants) Council, which certified who were known and qualified white hat hackers. This made it easier for white hats to get work, and for companies to find qualified, and trustworthy, hackers to help with network security. Now the Department of Defense is paying to get members of its Internet security staff certified as white hats, or at least trained to be able to do what the black hats do. While many in the Department of Defense have been calling for a more attack-minded posture, when it comes to those who are constantly attacking Pentagon networks, the best that can be done right now is to train more insiders to think, and operate, like outsiders."

Morale: Be Cool

"American commanders on Okinawa have ordered all their troops to undergo 'behavioral training.' The goal is to reduce the incidents of troop misbehavior that affects the locals. These embarrassing incidents are used by local politicians to put pressure on the Japanese government to remove all foreign troops. For many Okinawans, this means Japanese troops as well. Until the 17th century, Okinawa (and the surrounding islands) was an independent kingdom. For over two centuries, the islands were dominated by Japanese warlords, and in the 19th century, was made part of Japan. The Okinawans never forgot. Making the American marines and sailors behave extremely well is meant to persuade the Okinawans to pursue their dispute with the Japanese without involving U.S. troops."

Murphy's Law: Protection Money

"This year, Japan will pay for 70 percent of the cost of maintaining American bases in Japan, a contribution that amounts to over $4 billion. Japan has been making these payments since 1978. Because of this 'host nation support,' stationing American forces overseas has not always been as large a financial burden on the United States that it appeared to be. As the economies in West Germany, South Korea and Japan recovered after World War II, they all reached a point where the United States demanded, and got, payments from those countries to cover part of the expense of keeping American troops there. Since then, over a hundred billion dollars in such payments have been. South Korea began making payments in 1991."

Russia: Sweet Oppression

"Efforts to negotiate the new START treaty, were stalemated over Russian insistence that the U.S. promise to not install any anti-missile systems anywhere that could possibly intercept Russian ballistic missiles. The U.S. refused to make such a promise, partly because, missile defenses against Iran or North Korea would also be capable of intercepting Russian missiles. Russia reacted with considerable hostility when Romania recently announced willingness to host American anti-ballistic missile systems. Romania, like most East European nations, likes the idea of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles. There was also some disagreements over verification and monitoring."

Intelligence: Canada Goes Dark

"Canada has stopped reporting individual incidents where their soldiers are wounded in Afghanistan. This is to deprive the Taliban information on the impact of their combat actions, particularly roadside bombs and mines. The Canadians found that the Taliban had a very fragile communications system, and senior commanders have a hard time determining which of their actions (like placing roadside bombs and mines) are inflicting damage. The Taliban were getting most of their information from the media, particularly the Internet. Reports from the Taliban men who actually carried out the attack could not always be trusted, especially when bonuses were provided for killing or wounding foreign troops. The Taliban liked to have someone take videos or pictures of each attack, but this was not always possible. But the Canadian government casualty reports were always there, until now."

India-Pakistan: We Have Created A Monster

"This just gets worse for Pakistan. For example, the U.S. has arrested a Pakistani American Islamic terrorist, David Headley, who admitted that he had worked with Pakistani army officers while helping plan the November, 2008, terror attack in Mumbai, India. Pakistani eventually admitted that Pakistani Islamic terrorists were responsible for this attack, but have resisted admitting that Pakistani military and intelligence officials helped out. The U.S. and India insist there's lots of evidence to back this up. The Pakistani government does not want the political and media blowback from going after Islamic radicals in the military and intelligence services, so they insist these connections do not exist."

Ronald Reagan on Socialized Medicine (1961)

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association

CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP - Washington Times

"The federal public debt, which was $6.3 trillion ($56,000 per household) when Mr. Obama entered office amid an economic crisis, totals $8.2 trillion ($72,000 per household) today, and it's headed toward $20.3 trillion (more than $170,000 per household) in 2020, according to CBO's deficit estimates."

AT&T to Book $1 Billion Cost on Health-Care Reform (Update3) - BusinessWeek

"AT&T, the biggest U.S. phone company, joins Caterpillar Inc., AK Steel Holding Corp. and 3M Co. in recording non-cash expenses against earnings as a result of the law. Health-care costs may shave as much as $14 billion from U.S. corporate profits, according to an estimate by benefits consulting firm Towers Watson. AT&T employed about 281,000 people as of the end of January.
“Companies like AT&T, that have large employee bases, are going to have higher health-care costs and, therefore, lower earnings unless they can negotiate something or offer less to their employees,” said Chris Larsen, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in New York, who rates AT&T shares “overweight” and doesn’t own any himself."

2,000 House staffers make six figures - Erika Lovley - POLITICO.com

"Nearly 2,000 House of Representative staffers pulled down six-figure salaries in 2009, including 43 staffers who earned the maximum $172,500 — or more than three times the median U.S. household income."

Bernanke Says U.S. Fiscal Outlook ‘Somewhat Dark’ (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

Idiot or Trying to please the boss? You decide.

"“Clearly everyone agrees that the overall fiscal outlook for the government is somewhat dark over the medium term, and it would be very useful if there could be a bipartisan, concerted effort to explain, demonstrate and decide how the government is going to achieve a more sustainable fiscal trajectory,” he said during testimony today to the House Financial Services Committee." [emphasis added]

RealClearPolitics - The VAT Cometh

"That's where the value-added tax comes in. For the politician, it has the virtue of expediency: People are used to sales taxes, and this one produces a river of revenue. Every 1 percent of VAT would yield up to $1 trillion a decade (depending on what you exclude -- if you exempt food, for example, the yield would be more like $900 billion).
It's the ultimate cash cow. Obama will need it. By introducing universal health care, he has pulled off the largest expansion of the welfare state in four decades. And the most expensive. Which is why all of the European Union has the VAT. Huge VATs. Germany: 19 percent. France and Italy: 20 percent. Most of Scandinavia: 25 percent."

Sea Transportation: Armed And Dangerous

"For the first time, private security guards killed a Somali pirate during an attempt to capture a merchant ship off the Somali coast. The Arab owned ship Almezaan was carrying cargo to Mogadishu when a speedboat, with four armed men, tried to board. The Almezaan's guards had fired warning shots, and the pirate boat turned away. But then the pirates came back shooting, and the security guards, standing on a much more stable firing platform, returned fire, hitting the pirate boat several times. There were no injuries on the Almezaan. When the pirates were initially spotted, a call was put out to the international anti-piracy patrol, and a nearby Spanish warship rushed to the scene. The Spanish frigate launched its helicopter, which spotted the fleeing pirates. The Spanish eventually caught up with the pirates, arresting three and finding the body of another on the speedboat. The Spanish also seized a mother ship the speedboat was operating from, arresting two more pirates. Both pirate vessels were sunk. The Almezaan, bringing cargo from the UAE, continued on to Mogadishu."

Information Warfare: The Killer Collective Memory

"But even before the Internet became widely available, some branches of the military were trying to capture, organize, and make available large amounts of useful data. For example, the U.S. Army Center for Lessons Learned has been around since the 1980s, and U.S. commanders use it to determine what works in combat and what doesn't. This is more important than ever in the 21st century, where urban combat and counter-insurgency conflicts dominate. In urban warfare and counter-insurgency, the potential for mistakes to be made is exponentially larger than in conventional, large-scale warfare."

Afghanistan: It Gets Worse

"The Taliban are concerned about their survival, especially once they realized that the American 'surge offensive' has been taking place even though most of the 30,000 additional troops had not even arrived yet. So whatever hurt the Americans are inflicting now, will be getting worse for the rest of the year. Then there's the damn cell phones. For several years, the Taliban have been resisting the spread of cell phone service. Most Afghan adults now have cell phones, and they like them, a lot. The Taliban know, from the experience in Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq and Gaza, that cell phones are a deadly menace."

ObamaCare and American Power « Inebriated Press

"The United States currently spends roughly as much on defense ($661 billion in fiscal year 2009) as the rest of the world combined. But that’s a pittance compared to what we spend on three major entitlement programs—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Combined, they cost $1.38 trillion or almost 35% of the budget, compared with 17% for defense. And entitlements will only grow dramatically. The current unfunded liability for Social Security and Medicare, according to the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report, is nearly $107 trillion—seven times the size of our economy."

Paramilitary: Literacy And Victory

"Currently, two-thirds of police recruits fail to complete their training, and illiterate recruits have the worst time of it. Despite that, the national police force has been expanded to 76,000. The illiteracy problem has always been recognized as a problem. Currently, only 35 percent of all policemen are literate. While this can be ignored for many of the lower ranking personnel, police supervisors need to read. Moreovev, illiterate recruits take longer to train, and more effort to work with.
The U.S. has provided an intensive literacy course for soldiers, which gets most of them to basic ('functional') literacy within a year. A similar program was implemented for the police. They needed it, and it was noted that it made a big difference. In addition to learning how to read signs and maps, the newly semi-literate police were taught to sign their names, and write out the serial number of their weapon."

Peacekeeping: The War On Poverty

"Some 42 percent of the $36 billion was spent by military commanders. The U.S. quickly realized (and were reminded by the U.S. Army Special Forces) that commanders of combat units could use development money very effectively, both for the economy, and military situation. This led to the development of PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams), who put much of the remaining aid money to work, along with some of the money local American military commanders have.
About half the development money was spent on security items (mainly the police and army.) Rural development (especially roads and agriculture) got 18 percent, education got nine percent, health got six percent and a bunch of other stuff got the rest."

Morale: Pain Killers

"The military has had great success with the use of vacation time for troops in a combat zone. Four years ago, troops in Iraq also became eligible for four day mini-vacations at a U.S. base in Qatar. These 'four day passes' are usually given to combat troops, who did the most intense work in Iraq, and needed the break the most. Qatar is one of the many small principalities along the west coast of the Persian Gulf, and one of the more welcoming places, especially for Westerners. You still have to dress conservatively, but for the troops on pass, just being out of uniform, and not under fire (or threat thereof), is a major benefit. Being able to go swimming, visit Quatari shopping malls and other purely civilian (and friendly) locations is a big deal."

ObamaCare's Effects Are Already Showing - WSJ.com

"Mr. Reed specifically cited a change in the tax treatment of retiree health benefits. When Congress created the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003, it included a modest tax subsidy to encourage employers to keep drug plans for retirees, rather than dumping them on the government. The Employee Benefit Research Institute says this exclusion—equal to 28% of the cost of a drug plan—will run taxpayers $665 per person next year, while the same Medicare coverage would cost $1,209.
In a $5.4 billion revenue grab, Democrats decided that this $665 fillip should be subject to the ordinary corporate income tax of 35%. Most consulting firms and independent analysts say the higher costs will induce some companies to drop drug coverage, which could affect about five million retirees and 3,500 businesses. Verizon and other large corporations warned about this outcome."

Not how I remember it...

But it has the ring of truth to it. 

Tyranny of Compassion [Darleen Click]

"“I have never understood why it is “greed” to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.” ~~ Thomas Sowell, Twitter 3/23/2010
If one wants to see true greed in action — the lust for the unearned — then the sore-winner stylings of the pro-ObamaCare are perfect examples. This is Howard Dean’s infamous “unlike Republicans, we don’t want children to starve” writ large."

The Attorney Generals’ Initiative - Stephen Spruiell - National Review Online

"“The Constitution drafted by our Founders,” Abbott says, “the Constitution most Americans understand, is one that provides Congress with limited powers and reserves most of the powers to the individual states.” But the Commerce Clause has served as Congress’s way around the doctrine of enumerated powers ever since the Supreme Court lost its nerve in a showdown with Franklin Roosevelt over his New Deal legislation. The Commerce Clause has been “let out” to accommodate the present size of government; were government to shrink back to the size conservatives prefer, the Commerce Clause would hang from it like Jared from Subway’s old pants."

Sales of New U.S. Homes Dropped in February to Lowest on Record - Bloomberg.com

"Sales of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in February to a record low as blizzards, unemployment and foreclosures depressed the market.
Purchases decreased 2.2 percent to an annual pace of 308,000, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median sales price climbed by the most in more than two years."

Reuters AlertNet - Saudi says arrests militants planning attacks

"Those arrested included about 50 Saudis and dozens from Yemen, which jumped to the forefront of Western security concerns after a failed December bombing on a U.S.-bound plane claimed by the Yemen-based regional al Qaeda wing, the media said.
The militants were organised in three cells, two of which were planning to attack oil and security facilities in the oil-producing Eastern Province. They included a Yemeni who security officials describe as being a prominent member of al Qaeda.
'We seized belts of explosives which they were planning to use in suicide attacks,' one security official said."

Questions and Answers

Your Medical Records Aren't Secure

"But electronic medical records won't accomplish any of these goals if patients fear sharing information with doctors because they know it isn't private. When patients realize they can't control who sees their electronic health records, they will be far less likely to tell their doctors about drinking problems, feelings of depression, sexual problems, or exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. In 2005, a California Healthcare Foundation poll found that one in eight Americans avoided seeing a regular doctor, asked a doctor to alter a diagnosis, paid privately for a test, or avoided tests altogether due to privacy concerns."



Above is a recent GE commercial touting it's Electronic Medical Records.  The intended goal of GE here is to promote "Electronic Medical Records from GE, all of a patient’s medical history is in one place, to help doctors treat their patients better."


But it inadvertently highlights the end of privacy. The use of an undressed man in an auditorium with hundreds of people doesn't seem like to best way to make ANYONE comfortable with exposing themselves to GE's Electronic Medical Records!

Gap in health care law's protection for children - Yahoo! Finance

It is, of course, shocking that such massive legislation would have loopholes. And by "shocking" I mean "predictable."

"Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.
Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday."

Yemen: Suffer The Women

"Thousands of women are demonstrating in front of parliament, for and against a new law that would ban child brides. Girls as young as nine are married off, and often impregnated as soon as they are able to conceive. This is an ancient Arab custom, and enshrined in the Koran. But Yemeni women, and many men, oppose it. The conservative clergy accuse those who back the law of being anti-Moslem. The government has the votes to pass the bill, but does not want to defy conservative clergy. Then again, it's support from conservative clergy that keeps Islamic radicalism going, and abuse of women that keeps the Arab world poor, illiterate and a hospitable place for religious terrorists."

a little over four years ago…#comments

a little over four years ago…: "[Jeff Goldstein] wrote this:

[...] today’s liberal-Democrats are nothing but opportunistic and increasingly reprehensible tin-plated Macchiavellians; to many of these people, rhetoric trumps truth; spin is paramount, and power is all.
Never before in my lifetime did I find it even remotely possible that our country could fight another civil war. But I’m beginning to think that a (non-violent) civil war is coming—and that, frankly, it needs to happen. How it transpires, I have no idea—though I suspect migration patterns and a strong move to re-affirm federalist principles could provide the groundwork.
Philosophically, we have lost our way. And we’d better find our way back to our founding principles, or—as powerful as we are—we are doomed to slip into nannystate socialism, while a feckless foreign policy permits radical Islam to spread across the globe like the cancer it is."

The reality of Obamacare - latimes.com

"They will clear a small, government-approved profit on top of their government-approved fees. Then, when healthcare costs rise -- and they will -- Democrats will insist, yet again, that the profit motive is to blame and out from this Obamacare Trojan horse will pour another army of liberals demanding a more honest version of single-payer.

The Obama administration has turned the insurance industry into the Blackwater of socialized medicine."

Investors.com - 20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms

"Of course, the bill is supposed to provide us with security. But it will result in skyrocketing insurance costs and physicians leaving the field in droves, making it harder to afford and find medical care. We may be about to live Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”"

NRCC - Code Red - Media

"Three airports in the district of infamous fence-sitting and ultimately kowtowing Democrat Bart Stupak were awarded $726,409 in grants by the Obama Administration just two days before a vote on Obama and Pelosi’s government takeover of healthcare.
Did Stupak compromise his supposed principled stand against taxpayer funding of abortion in exchange for taxpayer dollars for pet projects?"

SpaceShipTwo Makes First (Captive) Flight | Autopia | Wired.com

"Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made its first captive carry flight early this morning at the Mojave Air and Space Port. SpaceShipTwo, which was christened the VSS Enterprise at its unveiling in December, is being carried by WhiteKnightTwo on its first test flight."

Bill Gates, Toshiba in early talks on nuclear reactor - Yahoo! News

"A company backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Toshiba are in early talks to jointly develop a small nuclear reactor, the Japanese electronics giant said Tuesday.
The Nikkei business daily earlier reported that the two sides would team up to develop a compact next-generation reactor that can operate for up to 100 years without refueling to provide emission-free energy.
The daily said the joint development would focus on the Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR), which consumes depleted uranium as fuel. Current light-water reactors require refueling every few years.
'Toshiba has entered into preliminary talks with TerraPower,' said Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori. 'We are looking into the possibility of working together.'"

Tea partiers vow revenge over health overhaul

"Instead of being discouraged by passage of health care reform, tea party activists across the country say the defeat is a rallying cry that makes them more focused than ever on voting out any lawmaker who supported the measure.
'We're not going to stop. Obviously, the whole tea party movement started because we're about smaller government and less spending and less taxes. There is absolutely no way we can pay for this,' said Denise Cattoni, state coordinator for Illinois Tea Party, an umbrella group for about 50 groups from around Illinois."

CNSNews.com - IRS to Enforce Health Reform

"In order to carry out its new monitoring and enforcement duties, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the IRS will need $10 billion in additional funds, funds which were not made available under the health reform bill."

Morale: China Cancels The Revolution

"Without any fanfare, China has changed the names of its armed forces. Gone are the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) prefix for the navy (PLAN) and air force (PLAAF). It's now just the Chinese Army, Chinese Navy and Chinese Air Force. Since there was no official announcement, there was no explanation for why the old PLA prefix was dropped. The PLA was the original armed forces, founded in 1927, of the Chinese Communist Party. This force was initially known as the Chinese Red Army. After World War II, the PLA name was formally adopted for all the armed communist armed forces."

Weapons: Blind Faith

"In response to the fertilizer bomb threat (which mostly killed Afghan civilians), the Afghan government banned the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in January. Mixed with the right amount of fuel oil, ammonium nitrate can be detonated as an explosive. Some 90 percent of the roadside bombs use ammonium nitrate. Farmers were given 30 days to sell their ammonium nitrate to the government, or have it seized without compensation. The government has, for years, been urging farmers to stop, for environmental reasons, using ammonium nitrate. But farmers don't like urea based fertilizers, which are now the only kind they can legally use."

Support: Kitchen In A Box

"The U.S. Army is buying 103 Rapid Deployment Kitchens (RDK), for about $182,000 each. These cargo container (8x8x20 feet/ 2.6x2.6x6.5 meters) size units can be quickly moved, and take only an hour to get ready for operation. The RDK was designed to be very energy efficient, thus it consumes only 10 kilowatts, and 2.5 gallons (11 liters) of fuel, an hour."

Israel: The Impossible Dream And Media Reality

"The head of the UN has demanded that Israel lift its blockade of Gaza. This was originally imposed to cut off weapons and other supplies for terrorist groups. But the UN now believes that this policy undercuts moderates and encourages the extremists. The Israelis point out that the extremist groups like Hamas thrived when there was no blockade, and are having more problems now that there is a blockade. But the UN has its mind made up, and will not be dissuaded by reality."

Chris Evans Confirmed for Captain America - Superhero Hype!

"Chris Evans ('Fantastic Four' films) has accepted Marvel Studios' offer for him to play Steve Rogers/Captain America in the Joe Johnston-directed The First Avenger: Captain America. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote the script.

Marvel would not comment on the development, but we expect the official announcement will be made soon.

The deal calls for Evans to star in at least three 'Captain America' movies, with the first hitting theaters on July 22, 2011.

He would reprise the role in The Avengers, which will united Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton) in one film. That film is scheduled for May 4, 2012. The character also will likely make cameo appearances in Marvel's other films.

Hugo Weaving will play the villain Red Skull in The First Avenger: Captain America."

Eject Eject Eject » FREE WILL AND DESTINY

"It is true that no nation has in the past ever recovered from the cycle of entitlement, moral decay and aristocratic rot that we find ourselves in. But it is also true that no nation — not one in history — was established precisely in opposition to these cancers. It is also true that never before have common people — otherwise known as the Host Organism — had the means to speak directly to one another, as we are here. It is true that if there is to be an historical exemption to the Cycle of Civilization it is only here that it will occur, and it is also true that the concepts of Free Will and Destiny are antithetical to one another. One of them is true and the other is not. It is my belief that you can chose to abandon Free Will and chose to believe in destiny and historical inevitability, or you can take the risk to believe instead that there is a new world populated by optimists and dreamers, but dreamers with rifles as well as quills and parchment… People who have never surrendered and for whom the very idea of defeat and despair is anathema."

Welcome to the Village

The way ahead [Darleen Click]#comments

"Soon, we’ll see individual-market insurance companies go out of business and dump their people,” Ryan says. “Tax increases on capital are going to hurt the economy in 2011. These arbitrary Medicare cuts will adversely affect the providers and therefore their beneficiaries. You’ll have the Internal Revenue Service beefing up its enforcement of this new mandate, which people have no clue is coming. And you’re going to have employers dump employees in this exchange once it’s up and running — funneling everyone into a government-run rationing system. Then we’ll see a big spike in insurance rates, and the Democrats are going to wager that they can just blame the insurers for that, and therefore that means they will need to institute insurance price controls or have a public option."

VFW : Healthcare Bill Betrays Veterans

"“The president and the Democratic leadership are betraying America's veterans,” said Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran from Sussex, Wis., who leads the 2.1 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.

“And what makes matters worse is the leadership and the president knows the bill is flawed, yet they are pushing for passage today like it’s a do-or-die situation. This nation deserves the best from their elected officials, and the rush to pass legislation of this magnitude is not it.”"

India-Pakistan: The Greatest Story Never Told

"Now, with the unprecedented (in the history of Pakistan) presence of the army in the tribal territories, the tribal militias are able to hunt down the surviving Taliban groups, and demanding they disband. Many already have, but those who have not are being forced to fight, or keep running. Many are fleeing to Afghanistan, which is not very safe, but is marginally safer than the Pakistani tribal territories.
Despite this success, many tribal leaders are calling on the army to finish off the Taliban. But the army fears getting involved in a lot of 'Taliban fighting' which is actually a tribal feud. Then there's the matter of cost. It's costing the government billions of dollars to run this operation in the tribal territories. That's money the generals can't steal, and it's sorely missed. The Americans are unwilling to foot the entire bill, and Pakistani troops from the lowlands are not enthusiastic about fighting the tribesmen. Watching the tribal warriors kill each other, however, is another matter."

Will Dwayne Johnson Take on a Superhero Role? - Superhero Hype!

"In a Los Angeles Times interview with Dwayne Johnson, he was asked whether he may ever take on one of the superhero roles he's been rumored for:

'I would love that,' said Johnson, who might be a good fit as Luke Cage, Namor, the Martian Manhunter or Captain Marvel. 'We've been active in talking to these different companies and these different studios about making that happen and finding what makes sense. There's so much there and so much untapped. I'm sure it will happened (sic). We've worked to develop good relationships with the studios heads and executives.'

There's also ongoing chatter about a 'Jonny Quest' film with Johnson as Race Bannon, and he lighted up when the venture was mentioned. 'Oh, absolutely, we're talking about that, I love 'Jonny Quest.''"

Chinese Academics’ Paper on Cyberwar Sets Off Alarms in U.S. - NYTimes.com

"Larry M. Wortzel, a military strategist and China specialist, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10 that it should be concerned because “Chinese researchers at the Institute of Systems Engineering of Dalian University of Technology published a paper on how to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S.”
When reached by telephone, Mr. Wang said he and his professor had indeed published “Cascade-Based Attack Vulnerability on the U.S. Power Grid” in an international journal called Safety Science last spring. But Mr. Wang said he had simply been trying to find ways to enhance the stability of power grids by exploring potential vulnerabilities.
“We usually say ‘attack’ so you can see what would happen,” he said. “My emphasis is on how you can protect this. My goal is to find a solution to make the network safer and better protected.” And independent American scientists who read his paper said it was true: Mr. Wang’s work was a conventional technical exercise that in no way could be used to take down a power grid."

Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records (Update5) - Bloomberg.com

"The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.
The Fed had argued that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. A three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision.
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, “sets forth no basis for the exemption the Board asks us to read into it,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote in the opinion. “If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest, it should ask Congress to amend the statute.”"

US states sue EPA to stop greenhouse gas rules | Reuters

"Florida, Indiana, South Carolina and at least nine other states filed the petitions in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, states said.
They joined petitions filed last month by Virginia, Texas and Alabama.
The Obama administration has long said it would attack greenhouse gas emissions with EPA regulation if Congress failed to pass a climate bill.
The EPA is set to issue regulations later this month that would require autos and light trucks to increase energy efficiency. That would trigger rules on large emitters like power plants requiring them to get permits showing they are using the best technology available to reduce emissions.
The state petitions call for the EPA to reopen hearings on the so-called 'endangerment finding' the agency issued last year declaring the emissions dangerous to people.
'If EPA doesn't reopen the hearings we will move forward to try to stop them from regulating greenhouse gases,' said Brian Gottstein, an assistant to Virginia's Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli."

America's Comeback

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey: Mandatory Insurance Is Unconstitutional - WSJ.com

"The elephant in the room is the Constitution. As every civics class once taught, the federal government is a government of limited, enumerated powers, with the states retaining broad regulatory authority. As James Madison explained in the Federalist Papers: '[I]n the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects.' Congress, in other words, cannot regulate simply because it sees a problem to be fixed. Federal law must be grounded in one of the specific grants of authority found in the Constitution."

Ken Blackwell : Liberal Ninth Circuit Praises Limited Government - Townhall.com

"The Becket Fund’s legal brief on this point is a historical tour de force—tracing the idea that government is limited because it is “under God” from the writings of Bracton and Coke in the 13th and 17th Centuries, to Blackstone and the Founders in the 18th, to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, and to the present day. Men are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” said the Declaration of Independence; “[t]he fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army,” said General Washington of his troops; and the Civil War was fought “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom,” said Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Thus, as the Becket Fund said, “From this history, it is incontestable that since even before the Declaration of Independence, it has been an important part of our national ethos that we have inalienable rights that the State cannot take away, because the source of those inalienable rights is an authority higher than the State.” To strike down “under God” would not only be historically wrongheaded, but would also rule anathema the very political philosophy of limited government on which this country was founded."

Obama’s last last pitch for Obamacare.

"Remember: a vote for Obamacare is a vote against reactionary racist Bible-thumping treasonmongers who haven’t yet figured out that the real Jesus would have been so totally on the side of Obama."

Hatch Says It’s ’Nuts’ to Think House Vote Ends Health Issue - Bloomberg.com

"If the measure passes, Senate Republicans have enough votes on at least two points of order to alter the measure and send it back to the House for a second round of votes, Hatch said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.
“If those people think they’re only going to vote on this once, they’re nuts,” Hatch said as House Democratic leaders rounded up support before the scheduled vote on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority."

Michael W. McConnell: The Health Vote and the Constitution—II - WSJ.com

"Defenders of the Democratic strategy say that a self-executing rule has been used many times before by both parties. But never in this way. Most of the time a self-executing rule is used to incorporate amendments into a pending bill without actual votes on the amendments, where the bill is then subject to a final vote by the House and Senate. That usage may be a dodge around House rules, but it does not violate the Constitution. I am not aware of any instance where a self-executing rule has been used to send one bill to the president for signature and another to the Senate for consideration by means of a single vote."

Counter-Terrorism: Evolved Taliban Walk In The Sunlight

"The evolved Taliban are also trying to control the more fanatical factions that oppose secular education in general, particularly for girls. These fanatics also oppose vaccinations and health clinics. The evolved leadership backs health care, especially if foreigners are paying for it. The fanatics still have their way when it comes to opposing movies, music and videos. Keeping women covered up and out of the workplace is still a hot topic within the Taliban. It's these divisions that make the government optimistic about convincing more pro-Taliban tribal leaders to side with the government. While the government is corrupt, so are a growing number of Taliban leaders. All that drug money has a corrosive effect on even the most pious Taliban.
Most Western media are beginning to catch on to these new developments. Gone are the news stories about Afghanistan becoming America's new 'Vietnam.' This angle always grossly misinterpreted what went on in Vietnam (a civil war between equal populations, each backed by superpower patrons)."

Chris Evans Offered Captain America? - Superhero Hype!

"THR is reporting that Marvel Studios has offered The First Avenger: Captain America to Chris Evans, who played Johnny Storm/Human Torch in the 'Fantastic Four' movies.

Marvel Studios would not confirm the development to ComingSoon.net/SuperHeroHype saying they don't comment on rumors.

The Hollywood trade says the offer would include starring in up to three 'Captain America' movies plus The Avengers and appearances in several other Marvel movies."

Regulators shut 7 banks in 5 states; 37 in 2010 - Yahoo! Finance

"The closings follow the 140 that succumbed in 2009 to mounting loan defaults and the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over First Lowndes Bank, in Fort Deposit, Ala.; Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga.; Bank of Hiawassee, in Hiawassee, Ga.; and Century Security Bank in Duluth, Ga.
The agency also closed down State Bank of Aurora, in Aurora, Minn.; Advanta Bank Corp., based in Draper, Utah; and American National Bank of Parma, Ohio.
The FDIC was unable to find a buyer for Advanta Bank, which had $1.6 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits. The regulatory agency approved the payout of the bank's insured deposits and it said checks to depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday.
The failure of Advanta Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $635.6 million."

Jihad as American as apple pie, says US-born cleric - Yahoo! News

Go for it, bud, but remember that this is a blade that will cut both ways.

"'Western jihad is here to stay,' warned Awlaqi as he commented on a blonde American who dubbed herself 'JihadJane' and has pleaded not guilty to trying to recruit Islamist militants to murder a Swedish cartoonist.
'Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea,' the US-Yemeni cleric said in an English-language message posted on militant forums and released by the US-based SITE monitoring agency."

FOXNews.com - Oregon Rep. DeFazio Switches 'Yes' Vote to 'No' on Health Care Bill

Don't rejoice too much though. His issue is "insufficient" spending.

"Just when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to be one vote shy of the 216 she needs for health care reform to pass, a Democrat who voted for the bill last year says he's switching his vote to no.
The opposition from Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., dials back the number of House members leaning toward voting yes to 214, and the number leaning toward voting no to 217.
DeFazio announced his opposition shortly after Ohio Rep. John Boccieri, also a Democrat, announced that he will switch his vote to yes, temporarily putting Pelosi within one vote of what she needs."

First Hover of the F-35B

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Caterpillar: ObamaCare will cost us $100 million in first year

"Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House would increase the company’s health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.
In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan “because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees.”"

I don't know about you, but this is the only kind of corporate opposition I've seen to Health Insurance Reform. If the insurance companies are lobbying against it, they are doing it stealth fashion. And why would they? Millions of mandated customers being driven to their bottom line? Why fight it?

The Greenroom » Forum Archive » The Terms of the Deal

"It would be a horrible mistake to accept a deal with the creators of history’s most staggering natonal debt, based on assurances they will place your interests ahead of theirs, for decades to come. As Darth Vader memorably explained to Lando Calrissian, the State can always alter the terms of the deal, and your only recourse will be praying they don’t alter it any further."

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Thought of the day: “If you don’t tie our hands, we will keep stealing”

"What this guy’s actually copping to is nothing less than the collapse of representative government. They could take up entitlement reform, but preserving the long-term economic viability of the United States simply isn’t enough incentive. Nothing short of a public initiative demanding that they behave in a responsible manner will get them to act responsibly. Once you’re at that point, you might as well have direct democracy. Which isn't a real swift idea either."

Logistics: What You See Isn't What You Get

"The United States accounts for about half the defense spending on the planet. That, plus innovative training methods, and lots of recent combat experience, give the U.S. the most effective armed forces on the planet (man for man and overall). All the training, support and force projection means that 84 percent of U.S. troops are in support, not combat, jobs. Norway, which spends about as much per soldier per year as the United States (close to $400,000) has a force that is 40 percent combat troops. That's because Norway is concentrating on homeland defense.
Many other nations have a lower percentage of support troops simply because they cannot afford to provide much support. This gives you the typical poor nation with a military composed of troops equipped with gear that is often not operational, because maintenance costs money. So does training, which means using a lot of that equipment (and wearing it out, and having to replace or refurbish it). You can also save a lot of money by purchasing second hand weapons and equipment, or simply cheaper models of new stuff. Many nations look at their neighbors, not everyone in the world, to determine how powerful their weapons have to be."

Warplanes: Pretty Women Threatened Chinese Air Power

"The problem is the booming civil aviation in China. It's proved difficult to hang onto military pilots once they are trained and complete their mandatory term of service.
China has tried recruiting women. Last year, the first 16 female fighter pilots graduated from a 44 month course. The young lieutenants (age 21-24) are not the first female Chinese military pilots, as there were already 52 in service (flying non-combat aircraft) and another 545 in training. But women often leave when they get married, and want to have children. These are highly educated and motivated women, and even if the law restricts them to only one child, they want to make sure their 'little prince' (or princess) gets the best opportunities. This means most decide to give up their flying career."

Infantry: Basic Gets Back To Basics

"There is also renewed emphasis on making sure that, during Basic Training, the civilian recruits get that necessary mental adjustment needed to deal with stress and combat. Basic tends to get watered down in peacetime, mainly for political reasons. Too many (or just any) injuries during training can get the media and politicians demand that the problem go away. During the 1990s, there was a major flap over the problems female trainees had keeping up with males. It wasn't fair. It was made 'fair,' but that began to change after September 11, 2001. By now, everyone is getting pretty strenuous Basic, but that will change one peacetime returns.
There is also a growing trend for new recruits (and young people in general) not being in good physical shape (fat and weak). An extra week in basic helped out there as well. But many combat veterans still believe that the combat support troops, especially those running convoys, or otherwise outside the wire (working outside base camps) just have not had sufficient training in combat basics."

Afghanistan: Taliban Backed Into A Corner

"In Western Afghanistan, in Herat province, near the Iranian border, Afghan troops discovered three Taliban arms caches, containing over fifty tons of weapons, explosives and terrorist gear (like suicide bomb vests). The operation began with Afghan commandos pursuing a group of Taliban fighters, who eventually led them to their base area. In this part of the country, the Taliban and drug smugglers work closely together. Across the border in Iran, police and Revolutionary Guards make life very difficult for the drug smugglers. The arms caches apparently were used to support that battle, along with the suicide bomb vests (which are rarely seen in Iran, but are much more common in Afghanistan). Smuggling heroin through Iran is necessary to get the drugs to the Persian Gulf, where all that oil money has created a booming market for all sorts of things."

Landmark Legal Foundation

“Landmark has already prepared a lawsuit that will be filed in federal court the moment the House acts. Such a brazen violation of the core functions of Congress simply cannot be ignored. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution is clear respecting the manner in which a bill becomes law. Members are required to vote on this bill, not claim they did when they didn’t. The Speaker of the House and her lieutenants are temporary custodians of congressional authority. They are not empowered to do permanent violence to our Constitution.”

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama on Slaughter strategy: “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the … rules are”; Update: “Combative” video added

Obama-- “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the … rules are”: "That quote’ll look awfully sweet on a 2012 campaign button."

Capitol Hill cops decry bullying staff members - TheHill.com

Legislators should be screened too. Setting an example is also leadership. "Several officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Hill that without a written directive of the policy, they’re left to face bullying staffers and intimidating lawmakers who have been known to file complaints against the officers. The staffers have accused them of discourteous treatment after being stopped and directed to the magnetometers."

Local News | Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16 | Seattle Times Newspaper

"In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a 'continued reduction in reimbursement' under the state's Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.
Walgreens follows Bartell Drugs, which stopped taking new Medicaid patients last month at all 57 of its stores in Washington, though it still fills Medicaid prescriptions for existing customers at all but 15 of those stores."

Cable Network Rankings: FNC #2, MSNBC #26, CNN #32, HLN #37 in Prime - mediabistro.com: TVNewser

Forget Fox, Cartoon Network beats CNN, MSNBC and Headline News in ratings: "In total Viewers, Fox News was the #2 ranked cable network last week in primetime, averaging 233,000 viewers behind USA. MSNBC was #26, CNN was #32, and HLN was #37. In total day, FNC was #4, CNN was #29, MSNBC was #33, and HLN was #35."

Support: Calling All Competitive Programmers

"And not just smart phones. In the last decade, the U.S. military found the iPod music player an increasingly useful tool. This happened for two reasons. As time went on (the iPod was introduced just after September 11, 2001), more and more troops bought iPods. By 2005, most troops had them. The iPod was the perfect entertainment device for the battlefield. When you got a chance to take a break, you put in the ear buds, turned it on, and were in a different place for a few minutes. The iPod battery usually kept going until the next time you got a chance to recharge."

Counter-Terrorism: How To Deal With Unpleasant Guests

"Bangladesh has been successful in crippling Islamic terrorists operating in its territory. This has resulted in lots of arrests, and the capture of many useful documents (especially electronic ones on computers and cell phones.) All this revealed that many of the Islamic radical groups have shifted their bases to Nepal and Persian Gulf countries (like Dubai, which has long provided sanctuary for South Asian gangsters, and anyone else who will spend lots of money and behave while in residence.)"

Attrition: What Really Hurts You Isn't Combat

"Actually, while not caused by combat, a lot of the 'non-combat' injuries were the result of combat operations. For example, ten percent of those evacuated had musculoskeletal system problems. The infantry have to carry more weight (sometimes a hundred pounds or more), more often, than anyone else. Back and muscle problems are common. The combat troops are also out and about more, and more likely to catch exotic local diseases. Thus it's not surprising that in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, ten percent of the medical evacuations are for 'ill-defined conditions.' This was first discovered when thousands of American troops were stationed in the Persian Gulf during World War II. Before that, the British warned, from their World War I experience, that Iraq was a nasty place (from a disease standpoint) to hang out in. Afghanistan has proved to have its own extensive collection of exotic, and often unrecognized (by Western medicine) afflictions."

Paramilitary: Untouchable

"The army realized that too many reservists looked at their work as an easy part time job (troops worked, and got paid, for about a month of training a year.) Promotion standards were often low, and scrutiny of performance often nonexistent. No more. Particular emphasis will be on the performance of officers and NCOs (about a third of the force.) This program is seen as essential, because over 75 percent of army engineering, civil affairs, logistics and medicine specialists are in the reserve. These are essential to combat performance, especially in operations like Iraq and Afghanistan. Quality matters."

Leadership: Red Army Rebuilding Stumbles

"The senior political leadership is finding out that some problems are not getting fixed simply by applying more money. Efforts to purge the forces of over 100,000 unneeded (and not very effective) officers is running into stiff resistance. The senior generals and admirals want to at least let these men remain until they reach retirement age, and leave with dignity, rather than being, in effect, fired. Technically, the politicians could push this purge through. But this would make a lot of senior officers, including bright ones that the country really needs, very angry. So there's something of a standoff, despite the corruption that still persists among officers, especially those the government wants to get rid of."

protein wisdom

Read All of It: "For the last 8-years or so, I’ve been writing here about how the takeover of language has provided the epistemological cover for the strategies of the left; and now that they are so close to winning the culture wars — the end game being a fatal blow to the horrid notion that all men are created equal and so deserve equality of opportunity, and the freedom to make their own way in the world — they are no longer much concerned with keeping up appearances: this is, we all now know, a bald attempt to overthrow the US government as it was initially envisioned in favor of a soft socialist state, run by an “elite” political class, using nothing more, ultimately, than the weapons a perversion of language and meaning provide."

Peacekeeping: Polling Afghan Opinion

"This survey showed that 70 percent believed that their lives would be better in the next year, and 60 percent expected their children to have a better life than their parents. While the government is widely criticized for corruption and inefficiency, 60 percent were satisfied with it (up 12 percent in the last year.)
The impact of fewer civilian deaths caused by foreign troops (down 28 percent, to 596 in 2009 compared to 2008) and the Taliban (up 45 percent to 1,681) resulted in a shift in who was blamed for the most violence. In 2007, 36 percent of Afghans blamed the foreign troops, and 26 percent the Taliban. The recent survey had 42 percent blaming the Taliban and 17 percent the foreign troops. In both years, about 26 percent blamed both."

My Way News - Bernanke to wage fresh battle for Fed powers

Nobody's right, if everybody's wrong:

"'The insights provided by our role in supervising a range of banks, including community banks, significantly increases our effectiveness in making monetary policy and fostering financial stability,' Bernanke said in his prepared remarks to the House Financial Services Committee.
Bernanke's testimony comes as the Fed faces a significant shift in its supervisory duties.
In his effort to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory structure, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. has offered legislation that would strip the Fed of its power to supervise state-chartered banks and bank holding companies with assets of less than $50 billion.
That would leave the Fed with 35 of the biggest bank holding companies under its supervision. Dodd's bill, however, would also give the Fed new powers to oversee nonbank financial firms that are so large and interconnected that their failure could pose a risk to the economy."

Neither Bernanke nor Dodd gets it.

China in Midst of ‘Greatest Bubble in History,’ Rickards Says - Bloomberg.com

"The Chinese central bank’s balance sheet resembles that of a hedge fund buying dollars and short-selling the yuan, said Rickards, now the senior managing director for market intelligence at McLean, Virginia-based consulting firm Omnis Inc.
“As I see it, it is the greatest bubble in history with the most massive misallocation of wealth,” Rickards said at the Asset Allocation Summit Asia 2010 organized by Terrapinn Pte in Hong Kong yesterday. China “is a bubble waiting to burst.”
Rickards joins hedge fund manager Jim Chanos, Gloom, Boom & Doom publisher Marc Faber and Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff in warning of a potential crash in China’s economy. The government has raised banks’ reserve requirements twice this year after economic growth accelerated and property prices rallied."

Murphy's Law: The Chinese Menace

"American sailors are constantly exposed to examples of the poor training and leadership in the Chinese navy, whenever they encounter Chinese warships at sea. Foreigners living in China, and speaking Chinese, can pick up lots of anecdotes about the ineptitude and corruption found in the military. It's all rather taken for granted. But in wartime, this sort of thing would mean enormous problems for the troops, when they attempted to fight better trained and led troops.
You don't see much in the media about the poor training of Chinese troops, pilots and ship crews. You don't hear much about the poor leadership and low readiness for combat. But all of this is common knowledge in China. There, the military is not walled off from everyone else. Cell phone cameras and the Internet make it easy to pass around evidence (often in the form of 'hey, this one is hilarious')."

More Captain America Casting Rumors - Superhero Hype!

"Now the word is that Channing Tatum, of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Dear John, has been approached by Marvel Studios and director Joe Johnston. He joins the latest group of actors in the mix, including Chris Evans, Mike Vogel, Garrett Hedlund and Wilson Bethel.

Meanwhile, the studio is also testing leads for the female role of Peggy. So far, they're looking at Keira Knightley, Alice Eve and Emily Blunt."

Two Kiwi Actors Join Green Lantern - Superhero Hype!

"Kiwi filmmaker/actor Taika Waititi and Kiwi actor Temuera Morrison, Jango Fett from the 'Star Wars' movies, have joined the cast of Warner Bros. Pictures' Green Lantern.

Production begins this week in New Orleans on the 3D feature, which has Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, GoldenEye) directing Ryan Reynolds as the superhero.

Waititi plays the best friend of Hal Jordan, the test pilot who comes to wear the super-powered ring of the interplanetary police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. (Should be Thomas Kalmaku, who in the comics was an Eskimo.)

Morrison is playing Abin Sur, a member of the Corps who is instrumental in Jordan becoming the superhero."

Army drops bayonets, busts abs in training revamp

"Heeding the advice of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans, commanders are dropping five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and exercises that hone core muscles. Battlefield sergeants say that's the kind of fitness needed to dodge across alleys, walk patrol with heavy packs and body armor or haul a buddy out of a burning vehicle."

Axelrod threat to GOP: 'Make my day' | Washington Examiner

"There are holes galore in Axelrod's statement. The Senate health care bill, for example, does not eliminate the insurance coverage caps as Axelrod claims. Bans on discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions have been scaled back. And experts agree that taking money out of Medicare, as the bill does, would not extend the life of Medicare if that money is used to pay for the new health care entitlement instead of shoring up Medicare. Nevertheless, Axelrod said he is ready for a fight."

Air Defense: Zombie Missiles Infest The Pentagon

"Eight years ago, a multinational effort to replace the Patriot air defense system had reached a crises, with cost overruns and technical difficulties threatening to scuttle MEADS. This is a joint effort by Germany (paying for 25 percent of development), Italy (17 percent) and the United States (58 percent.) France was also once a partner, but withdrew as the problems mounted. The U.S. government wants the program continued to avoid offending Germany and Italy."

SIGNAL - AFCEA's International Journal

"The story about how this way of creating antennas occurred is a basic “right-time, right-place” anecdote that Dr. Michael Dickey shares with some amazement still in his voice. While at Harvard University, Dickey discovered that combining gallium with indium created a metallic substance that could be injected into hollow channels the width of a human hair and open at each end. The substance remains in liquid form at room temperature, but when exposed to the air, it spontaneously forms a skin around it that keeps the alloy in place while retaining liquid properties.
Dickey, now an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University (NC State), Raleigh, North Carolina, and co-author of the research, suspected that this discovery could have some significance for antenna technology. But it was not until he came to NC State that he had the opportunity to meet up with an expert in antennas who could move the work forward."