Democrat Ben Nelson Opposes Kagan - The Note

"Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson announced late Friday he would vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
In a statement released this evening, Sen. Nelson said, 'I have heard concerns from Nebraskans regarding Ms. Kagan, and her lack of a judicial record makes it difficult for me to discount the concerns raised by Nebraskans, or to reach a level of comfort that these concerns are unfounded. Therefore, I will not vote to confirm Ms. Kagan’s nomination.'"

Shirley Sherrod to sue Andrew Breitbart

"Which, awesome! Can’t wait to get the transcripts from that cross examination.
Plus, I like this as precedent. Without knowing it, Sherrod’s suit might help beat back the incoherent linguistic assumptions that the left has built its entire epistemological foundation upon — and to which it hitches its entire rhetorical wagon. To wit: imagine what happens to the left if a court decides that you simply can’t make up your own shit, then attribute that shit you’ve just invented to others, as a way to harm or discredit them, under the guise of some form of personal “interpretation”."

Information Warfare: Android Goes To War

"To no one's surprise, an American defense manufacturer has developed a battlefield smart phone. In the works for two years, the RATS (Raytheon Android Tactical System) is a modification of the Android software used on millions of smart phones. Android actually outsells iPhones, and the RATS phone will be able to use existing Android apps, as well as special military apps. Some of these will only work on RATS, which handles encryption and military type communications. Currently, RATS is running on several Motorola and HTC type smart phones. Raytheon began working on RATS as soon as Google released Android."

DoD Buzz | Marine Doc Says Lighten Up

"• With the one exception of the KC-130 aircraft, every item in the Marine inventory must be able to be embarked on an amphib and be employable from ship to shore without the use of a pier.
• Consideration should be given to requiring that all combat vehicles have scalable armor protection capable of being embarked separately from the vehicle.
• Infantry companies must be able to operate independently without combat vehicle support. To further reduce vehicle dependency, the Marines should buy the aerial cargo drone; reduce equipment density; reduce energy demands by emphasizing renewable and alternative energies; and reduce battlefield contractor dependence.
• All units must be self sustainable for 72 hours.
• Reexamine the basic building blocks of the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to determine whether its current organization accurately reflects the realities of where and how it will be employed.
• Lighten the logistical footprint required to support the aviation combat element (ACE) by buying newer, less maintenance intensive, aircraft. The ACE must also reduce the amounts of fuel and oil it consumes.
• Add Joint Terminal Air Controllers (JTACs) to the lowest echelon possible."

Petraeus Issues New COIN Guidance for Afghan Theater | Defense Tech

"To this Afghanistan specific distillation of COIN best practices, Petraeus has added “confront the culture of impunity,” identifying Afghan corruption and abuses as an enemy of the people and giving U.S. troops the mission of reforming a failing government in addition to defeating a virulent insurgency. Corrupt “networks” of Afghan government officials are to be added to targeting lists. Once identified the COIN guidance extols troops to “confront, isolate, pressure and defund malign actors.”
Petraeus’ COIN guidance continues the careful recalibration of expectations I’ve been noticing in recent official statements and briefs regarding Afghanistan. “Avoid premature declarations of success… Strive to under-promise and over-deliver.”"

Mullah Omar Orders Attacks on Civilians

Five points of desperation: "According to the translation, Mullah Omar's five-point directive reads:
1. Fight coalition forces to the death without withdrawing or surrendering; attempt to capture coalition forces whenever possible.
2. Capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
3. Capture and kill any Afghan women who are helping or providing information to coalition forces.
4. Recruit anyone that has access to coalition force bases and have the ability to collect detailed information about coalition forces.
5. Purchase or obtain more heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns.
Points 2 and 3 are a dramatic about-face for the Taliban leader. In the summer of 2009, Omar issued a Code of Conduct for Taliban forces that explicitly commanded his shadow governors and other Taliban leaders to do the opposite."

Insurgents Said to Wear Burqas to Hide

You have to pay attention to the shoes: "Male insurgents dressed in women's all-cover burqa dresses have struck in southern Afghanistan -- including a failed suicide attack in March -- but never in the east.

'One of the tactics that has changed over the years is that you now see men dressed up in burqas going through villages, something that we had not seen in years past,' Campbell told reporters at the Pentagon via satellite from Afghanistan."

The Curious Case of Martin James Monti

"In August of 1942, Monti registered for the draft. Two months later, he traveled to Detroit to meet with his idol, Father Coughlin. What transpired at this meeting is unknown, but shortly after meeting Coughlin, Monti attempted to enlist in the Navy, in which four of his brothers would serve honorably, and then on November 29th enlisted in the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet. He reported for training early in 1943, and in March of 1944 was commissioned as a 'Flight Officer.' He subsequently qualified in the P-39 Aircobra and the P-38 Lightning, and was promoted to second lieutenant. In August of 1944 Monti shipped out for India, where he was attached to the 126th Replacement Depot, in Karachi (now in Pakistan), awaiting assignment to a combat squadron."

Peacekeeping: Maintaining Order In Bedlam

Peacekeeping: Maintaining Order In Bedlam: "If only it were that simple. One big problem is that there is no longer one Somalia, there are four of them; Somaliland in the northwest, Puntland in the north, the Transitional Government in the center and al Shabaab in the south. These factions are each composed of more clan and warlord militias, which create still more internal strife. The Transitional Government is the weakest alliance, because its component clans and warlords are the most divided. The other three factions also have these, often violent, disagreements, but not to the extent of the Transitional Government.

The U.S. and European nations have showered the Transitional Government with millions in economic and military aid, only to see most of it stolen. The thousands of Somalis given military training by Western instructors in the last year, are of little use to the Transitional Government because of the corruption (Transitional Government leaders stealing money meant for food, equipment and payroll.) Somalis love to talk about "Somalia", but won't work together to make it happen. The guiding principle is to grab all you can for yourself and your family or clan. "

Firefighters dismantle police car to rescue kitten

"Firefighters and police finally struck paydirt after jacking up a police cruiser, then following the sound and tracing the wayward kitty to a small space inside the vehicle's floor panel. But it took half an hour of elbow grease before the critter was nabbed and taken to an animal shelter.
But not before having the last meow.
'It bit my finger!' said firefighter Franz Zehetmeier, who finally collared the cat."

FOXNews.com - Obama Missing Historic Boy Scout Jamboree for Fundraisers, 'View' Taping

"President Obama will make history as the first sitting president on a daytime talk show when he visits with the ladies of 'The View.' But he'll be missing out on another historic occasion -- the Boy Scouts' Jamboree marking the group's 100th anniversary, right in the president's backyard.
The Jamboree kicked off this week at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where organizers had invited the president to speak to the 45,000 scouts in attendance. All three of Obama's predecessors have made it to one Jamboree while in office."

Economy erodes election hope for Democrats | Reuters

"Only 34 percent approved of Obama's handling of the economy and jobs compared to 46 percent who deemed it unsatisfactory. This is a sharp decline from early 2009, shortly after he took office, when more than half of those surveyed approved of Obama's handling of the worst financial crisis in decades.
Overall, the July 22-25 national poll of 1,075 adults gave Obama an approval rating of 48 percent, a small decline from a June survey that had him at 50 percent approval."

France declares war against al-Qaida

"France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network's North African branch, after the terror network killed a French aid worker it took hostage in April.
The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism.
'We are at war with al-Qaida,' Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau.
The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and was later taken to Mali, officials said."

Oh No! We're Running Out of Oil!

"Salvador Cepriano, a shrimper who 'is one of the men searching for crude,' thinks he has narrowed it down: 'It's in between the bottom and the top of the water.'"

For Good Reason, Recruiting Misses Goal

"Both the Army and Air National Guard missed their recruiting goals for June, however, recruiting activities were adjusted and those goals were intentionally missed as a way to keep end-strength numbers within congressionally mandated limits, according to the National Guard Bureau.

Still, even with the June adjustments, the Army Guard met 94 percent of its monthly recruiting goals with 4,544 accessions out of a goal of 4,825. Additionally, high retention of soldiers already serving in the Guard contributed to the adjusted recruiting goals.

As of June 30, the Army Guard was just shy of 363,000 soldiers in its ranks, about 4,700 soldiers above its projected and congressionally mandated end-of-year end strength of 358,200.

However, end-strength numbers are authorized to be up to 3 percent above that mandated limit.

Meanwhile, the Air National Guard met 99 percent of its recruiting goal for June, with 501 accessions and a goal of 507.

Recruiting numbers in both the Army and Air Guard will continue to be adjusted through the remainder of the fiscal year to maintain authorized end strength, said Guard officials."

Information Warfare: The Cheonan Conspiracy

"South Korean and American conspiracy theory enthusiasts have persuaded the mass media to report accusations that the South Korean warship sunk by a North Korean torpedo four months ago, was sunk by some other means. One unlikely theory is that the warship ran aground, while others suggest a rogue naval mine or a sinister plot by the South Korean government to sink its own ship and blame it on the North Koreans. These conspiracy theories are quite popular, with about 20 percent of South Koreans believing this one. Meanwhile, many people believing that gangsters (or the CIA or whatever) killed president John Kennedy, that the CIA invented AIDS and that the United States destroyed the World Trade Center with explosives on September 11, 2001.
Back in the real world, it was only two months ago that South Korea confirmed that a North Korean torpedo sank the South Korean corvette Cheonan (and killed 46 of its crew) in March. North Korea denies any culpability, but the evidence against North Korea was pretty overwhelming. Once the entire ship (which broke in two after the explosion) was recovered, it was only a matter of time before the cause of the sinking was determined. That's because a lot of very smart people, make a big effort, to reconstruct the incident."

Afghanistan: The Enemies Within

"It's a perfect storm of perpetual violence. But it doesn't get reported that way, and most people don't get it. It's also difficult to get across the fact that Afghans, especially those with guns, are not as serious and practiced at what they do than Western troops. This includes both the Taliban and Afghan forces. There is a clash of cultures going on. Nothing new here, and these Afghan quirks were long ignored by Americans until Afghan support for international Islamic terrorism began killing Americans at home and overseas."

Attrition: How Stress Gets You High Before You Die

"More recently, Israeli researchers also found markers in the blood that indicate someone has PTSD. Other researchers found that patients suffering from PTSD, along with other forms of mental distress (substance abuse, depression, chronic pain) had different brain images (provided by CT scans) than those with just PTSD. Research is also showing that PTSD is a distinct form of mental distress. For example, research turned up the fact those who had killed someone in combat, were 40 percent more likely to show symptoms of PTSD, or similar symptoms found in those who suffered concussions from roadside bombs."

White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi | The Australian

"THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be 'far preferable' to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya. Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.
The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.
The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama's claim last week that all Americans were 'surprised, disappointed and angry' to learn of Megrahi's release.
Scottish ministers viewed the level of US resistance to compassionate release as 'half-hearted' and a sign it would be accepted.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.The US has tried to keep the letter secret, refusing to give permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future 'frank and open communications' with other governments."

Congressman: Stop horsing around with sports votes - Yahoo! News

"'It's an absolute embarrassment,' said Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, announcing on the House floor a vow to vote against all future sports resolutions.
He worried that there were kids in the visitors' gallery who would go back home and, asked whether Congress was talking about war or debt, reply: 'Oh no, they were honoring a race course.'
'It's terribly frustrating,' Chaffetz said.
The freshman Republican did appear to win a few converts: The bill passed by a mere 396-14, a high number of 'no' votes for the kind of commemorative resolutions that often pass unanimously.
Every week the House spends a couple of days churning out such non-controversial bills. Beyond honoring sports achievements, they name post offices, praise armed service members, mourn distinguished people who've died and recognize historic anniversaries. This year the House has come together to support national pollinator week, national dairy month and national train day.
Chaffetz, in an interview, said he's got nothing against recognizing worthwhile causes such as breast cancer awareness, 'but there are too many of them and they're just too frivolous.' He said he drew the line at sports bills because athletes already get 'more than their fair share of accolades.'"

Congress Spent $604,000 on Bottled Water, $397,000 on Catering

"large or small, industrial or retail, coffee companies make up a sizable chunk of house expenses. Part of this is because the top firm in this category, Joe Ragan's Coffee, also sells some office supplies, too. More full-service than Starbucks, it was responsible for a little more than half of all coffee-related expenditures.

$84,794 spent with coffee-centric companies

7,743 Pounds of coffee beans (at $10.95 each) could be bought with that much money

348,468 Cups of coffee (about 45 8-ounce cups per pound) could be brewed from that many beans

Which Party Is Hungrier?
Because we wanted to compare the two parties' equivalent offices, we left the speaker out of it. The Office of the Speaker did, however, spend $83,341, most of it with one catering company. But beyond Nancy Pelosi, here's how offices common to both parties -- majority and minority leaders and whips, as well as party caucuses -- spent money on food:

$298,734 Amount spent by the Democratic Party's largest offices -- the Democratic Caucus, the Office of the Majority Leader and the Office of the Majority Whip

$202,927 Amount spent by the Republican Party's largest offices -- the Republican Conference, the Office of the Minority Leader and the Office of the Minority Whip

What Democrats bought

Call it a Staffers' Binge. Beyond the already-mentioned weekend getaway to Williamsburg, Va. (which cost $114,925), three top staffers -- two for the Democratic Caucus and one for the majority whip -- were reimbursed as individuals for $87,611. Those four items alone account for $202,536 of the total -- or nearly what the GOP's main offices spent. Other details:

$985 The amount Democratic leadership spent on Chantilly Donuts

$2,362 The amount Democratic leadership spent at Corner Bakery Cafe

$4,543 The amount Democratic leadership spent with Coca-Cola Enterprises

What Republicans bought

Hard to say, as Most of it is hidden behind debit cards. The bulk of GOP reps' expenses -- around $144,146 -- was spent through Citibank, so there's no itemized data. Another $34,427, however, was spent with CapitolHost, by far the largest catering company they used. Other details:

$2,076 The amount GOP leadership spent on Chantilly Donuts

$9,374 The amount GOP leadership spent with coffee companies

$4,651 The amount GOP leadership spent with Coca-Cola Enterprises

To see what Congress shelled out in other spending categories, click here."

Intelligence: I'll Die First, And They Did

"The problem is that the NATO alliance was set up to fight a conventional war, and there are existing protocols for sharing high level information. But this was never extended down to tactical level data. Right now, the main obstacle is the lawyers (who draw up the agreements) and the politicians (who have to approve them). These two groups have not moved with much speed to solve the problems. For the troops, there are two main problems. One is the level of security assigned to many items of information. If the security level is too high (“above Top Secret”) it cannot be shared without a lot of military and political officials signing off on it. This takes a lot of time, and often the final approval never comes. Part of the problem is that the people who assign security levels to combat information often assign too high a security classification, just to cover themselves in case an item gets out that later causes them embarrassment. This is the CYA (cover your ass) problem that is common with most bureaucracies. But in this case, it gets people killed."

Procurement: The Hard Core Prefer Russian

"Pakistan already has over 80 Mi-17s, but is always looking for more. The reason for this is because over a hundred thousand Pakistani troops are at war with Pushtun tribesmen along the Afghan border. Helicopters are an important factor in the army's success in that fight. The Pakistani army has a fleet of over 300 helicopters, including 28 AH-1 gunships and 35 UH-1 transports. But the Mi-17 is a favorite, partly because Pakistan does not have the human or material resources required for U.S. helicopter maintenance operations."

China: Everyone Smiled

"In the last few weeks, the Chinese media has been uncharacteristically active in protesting naval exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. These training operations have been going on for decades, but since the 1990s China has been building up its naval forces. So the recent media campaign is a way of saying that Chinese naval power is strong enough to confront and intimidate naval forces of other nations. Normally this means neighbors, but in this case, it mainly means the United States, whose fleet contains about half the naval power on the planet. The Chinese media campaign, while alarming to foreigners, was mainly for domestic consumption, proclaiming that the Chinese navy is now a power to be reckoned with. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but China is telling its people that the time is now because it makes the government look good, and the people less angry at corruption and bureaucratic bungling.
China has found it to be much more important to control the spread of news about that thousands of anti-government demonstrations and riots that take place each year. Many corrupt Communist Party officials are still walking free, living like very wealthy men and seemingly unconcerned about being prosecuted and punished. This angers many Chinese, but as long as news of these guys can be kept quiet, another revolution is averted."

Bernanke Says Extending Bush's Tax Cuts Would Maintain Economic Stimulus - Bloomberg

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said extending at least some of the tax cuts set to expire this year would help strengthen a U.S. economy still in need of stimulus and urged offsetting the move with increased revenue or lower spending.
“In the short term I would believe that we ought to maintain a reasonable degree of fiscal support, stimulus for the economy,” Bernanke said yesterday under questioning from the House Financial Services Committee’s senior Republican. “There are many ways to do that. This is one way.”
While Democrats want to keep the 2001 and 2003 tax reductions passed during former President George W. Bush’s administration for families earning as much as $250,000, Republicans aim to continue the cuts for high-income people as well. Bernanke didn’t endorse either party’s position or recommend a time period for an extension."

North Korea Warns of Nuclear Response to Naval Exercises - Bloomberg

"North Korea said it would counter U.S. and South Korean joint naval exercises with “nuclear deterrence” after the Obama administration said the government in Pyongyang shouldn’t take any provocative steps.
North Korea will “legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces,” the National Defense Commission said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The maneuvers, which involve 20 vessels and 200 aircraft from the U.S. and South Korea, pose a threat to the country’s sovereignty and security, Ri Tong Il, an official with North Korea’s delegation to the Asean Security Forum, told reporters in Hanoi yesterday."

Procurement: The True Cost Of War

"The U.S. government has released updated data on the cost of current and past wars. This updated data (all costs in current dollars, adjusted for inflation) show that;
American Revolution (1776-83) cost $2.4 billion
War of 1812 (1812-15) cost $1.55 billion.
Mexican War (1846-49) cost $2.38 billion
Civil War (1861-65) cost $79.74 billion (75 percent for the Union forces)
Spanish American War (1898-99) cost $9.04 billion.
World War I (1917-21) cost $334 billion
World War II (1941-45 ) cost $4.1 trillion
Korean War (1950-53) cost $341 billion
Vietnam (1965-75) cost $738 billion
Persian Gulf War (1990-91) cost $102 billion
Afghanistan War and Other War-On-Terror Operations (2001-10) cost $321 billion
Iraq War (2003-10) cost $784 billion"

Information Warfare: Infantry Go Long With The Mesh

"The U.S. Army recently conducted a successful field test of their new Rifleman Radio (RR), a 1.1 kg/2.5 pound voice/data radio for individual infantrymen. By itself, the two watt RR has a range of up to five kilometers. But it can also automatically form a mesh network, where all RRs within range of each other can pass on voice or data information. During the field tests, this was done to a range of up to 50 kilometers. The RR can also make use of an aerostat, UAV or aircraft overhead carrying a RR to act as a communications booster (to other RRs or other networks.) The mesh network enables troops to sometimes eliminate carrying a longer range (and heavier) platoon radio for the platoon leader."

New Ammo Slashes Machine Gun Weight

"Army Engineers at the Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.-based Joint Service Small Arms Program office have been working for the last six years on a radical approach to ammunition and weapons that has the potential to cut the weight Soldiers carry by nearly 50 percent.
Researchers are using so-called 'cased telescoped' ammunition that does away with the propellant-holding brass shell and replaces it with a lightweight plastic case. So far the program, dubbed Lightweight Small Arms Technologies, has built three M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon-like machine guns and fired more than 10,000 of the lighter rounds with the same rate of fire and accuracy of a standard SAW."

Rangel charged with multiple ethics violations - Politics - Capitol Hill - msnbc.com

"A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, a blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and an election-year headache for Democrats.
The committee did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, but sources who could not discuss the allegations publicly said they include Rangel's misuse of official stationery, his use of rent-subsidized New York apartments and failure to publicly disclose financial information as required."

a few quick thoughts on Sherrod, Breitbart, Ackerman, and race (which, sadly, means that we have to stop thinking about critiques on government spending forever! Or at least, for the few minutes it takes to read this post)

"I’ll add now that if Breitbart’s point was, as some have since argued (including I believe Andrew himself), the NAACP audience reaction at the outset of Ms Sherrod’s story (the pre-”redemption” set-up, as it were), the text accompanying the video needed to specify that rather than intimate that what we were about to watch, in its edited form, was a federal official admitting to racial bias as a function of her (then) current job. [update: Sherrod does, however, show partisan political bias, which is equally as problematic coming from someone in her position.]"

DOE Nanny Scott Harris on Federal jurisdiction over your morning shower [Darleen Click]

"How nice of Big Government to decide what is “normal” American bathing habits."

The Scariest Unemployment Graph I've Seen Yet - Business - The Atlantic

The Scariest Unemployment Graph I've Seen Yet - Business - The Atlantic: "OK, you're saying, but what does this mean? Does it mean we must increase the duration of unemployment benefits to protect this new class of unemployed, or does it mean we need to stop subsidizing joblessness? Does it mean we need to expand federal retraining programs, or does it mean federal retraining programs aren't working? Does it mean we need more stimulus, more state aid, more infrastructure projects, more public works ... or does it mean it's time to stop everything, stand back and let business be business?

One of my first reactions to this graph was: Surely this is why we don't have to worry about inflation for a very, very long time. However, here's evidence that despite the historically inverse relationship between inflation and joblessness, "the long-term unemployed put less downward pressure on inflation." Ultimately, this is a graph that should humble policy makers more than it should scare them into confidently arguing they know exactly how to fix it."

State Dept. planning to field a small army in Iraq | McClatchy

"In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance.
Under the terms of a 2008 status of forces agreement, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, but they'll leave behind a sizable American civilian presence, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest in the world, and five consulate-like 'Enduring Presence Posts' in the Iraqi hinterlands.
Iraq remains a battle zone, and the American diplomats and other civilian government employees will need security. The U.S. military will be gone. Iraq's army and police, despite billions of dollars and years of American training, aren't yet capable of doing the job.
The State Department, better known for negotiating treaties and delivering diplomatic notes, will have to fend for itself in what remains an active danger zone."

Petraeus Sharpens Afghan Strategy - WSJ.com

"Gen. Petraeus is expected to make several more moves to retool the strategy, according to people familiar with the situation. Such moves are expected to include a greater focus on how Afghanistan's security forces are being trained and how to make the Afghan people feel safe, they said, without offering details.
Under Gen. Petraeus, the coming offensive in the southern city of Kandahar will remain the primary effort for international forces, military officials said. But he is also expected to highlight other operations that are showing success, particularly the campaign against the Haqqani terror network in eastern Afghanistan."

Congress Ranks Last in Confidence in Institutions

"Gallup's 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll finds Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year. Eleven percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress, down from 17% in 2009 and a percentage point lower than the previous low for Congress, recorded in 2008."

Information Warfare: The Battlefield Internet Sneaks Up On Everyone

"The major consumer of all this new bandwidth is the use is live video being generated by the increasing number of vidcams on the battlefield. These vids are being exchanged by the units cooperating in an operation. This huge growth in bandwidth began in the 1990s, when the U.S. armed forces moved to satellite communications in a big way. This made sense, especially where troops often have to set up shop in out of the way places and need a reliable way to keep in touch with nearby forces on land and sea as well as bases and headquarters back in the United States. At the time of the 1991 Gulf War, there was enough satellite military communications capacity (commonly known as 'bandwidth') in the Persian Gulf for about 1,300 simultaneous phone calls. Or, 12 megabytes per second. But while the military has a lot more satellite capacity now (the exact amount is a secret), demand has increased even faster. UAV reconnaissance aircraft use enormous amounts of satellite capacity. The Global Hawk needed 60 megabytes per second, and Predators about half as much. The major consumer of bandwidth is the live video."

Logistics: Sucking Some Life Out Of The Dead

"The U.S. Army has also been using devices similar to the SPC, as well as similar folding solar panels (including small ones that can be draped over the back of your pack while on the move.) Batteries are a growing problem as troops receive more electronic equipment. The weight of batteries, and needed spares, continues to grow. Fuel cell batteries were to have solved the problem, but small fuel cells for infantry use have not shown up yet."

Afghanistan eyes 2014 security handover | Defense & Security News at DefenseTalk

From the "wishful thinking" department: "The international community on Tuesday endorsed sweeping Afghan government plans to take responsibility for security by 2014, forge peace to end nine years of war and take greater control of aid projects.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led about 80 organisations and countries at a key conference in Kabul aiming to put Afghanistan on the road to stability -- and allow foreign troops to draw down.
President Hamid Karzai is under intense Western pressure to crack down on corruption, make better use of billions of dollars of aid money and quell a virulent Taliban insurgency."

By contrast, South Korea has recenlty begged off on a plan to accept full responsibility for their own defense in 2012, 52 years after their war began.

Tribal elders complain Taliban breaking its own rules against abuse

"The shura brought together more than 100 elders representing Surri tribal areas across the Shin Kay district of Zabul province, and numerous provincial, district and police officials from the area. Five senior Hotek tribal leaders also attended.

During the gathering, Surri elders brought forward a local school teacher who had his ear cut off by insurgents for educating children.

'The Taliban's own code of conduct released last year says 'cutting noses, lips and ears of people is completely prohibited,' clearly they are not following their own supposed rules,' said ISAF Joint Command spokesperson Col Hans Bush."

Ethanol boost called vital to biofuel-carrying pipeline | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

"Ethanol giant Poet LLC is developing a pipeline project with Magellan Midstream Partners that is estimated to cost $3.6 billion, $700 million below the Energy Department's estimate. Poet spokesman Nathan Schock said the project would be viable without the increased demand the study says is needed but would require a federal loan guarantee.
In a joint statement, the companies said the study supports the idea that 'a large-scale pipeline project is feasible under certain conditions and that a federal loan guarantee is necessary to move forward.'"

House committee weighs cut of 20 percent in ethanol subsidy | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

80% too little: "A Ways and Means Committee spokesman said that a reduction of the tax credit from 45 cents to 36 cents per gallon was among ideas the panel was considering for a green-energy bill. The subsidy would be extended through next year."

Winning: Corrupting Influences

"To get a sense of who is winning, it's important to look at the Afghan war from both sides. The Western media concentrates on what is happening to NATO troops and the Afghan government forces. What's it like from the Taliban side? Here is one insight. Last month, NATO troops captured a copy of a five page letter from Taliban leader Mullah Omar, that was being delivered to the several dozen Taliban commanders throughout Afghanistan. The letter instructed the commanders to try and capture foreign troops and Afghan government employees. This is apparently to provide the Taliban with an opportunity to try and obtain the freedom of hundreds of imprisoned Taliban leaders and technical specialists. Mullah Omar also urged his men to fight to the death and avoid capture. Many more of these leaders have been captured this year. Over twenty of them were captured in the last month, along with over 300 of their followers, all in situations where the Taliban did not put up with a fight when surrounded. This apparently did not go over well with Mullah Omar, thus the letter reminding his guys that getting taken alive had no place in the Taliban playbook."

Murphy's Law: Gurkha Soldier Arrested For Battlefield Bravery

"In Afghanistan, a British Gurkha is facing court martial for beheading a dead Taliban gunman. The trouble began when the accused Gurkhas unit had been sent in pursuit of a group of Taliban believed to contain a local Taliban leader. When the Gurkhas caught up with the Taliban, a gun battle broke out and several of the enemy were killed. The Gurkhas were ordered to retrieve the bodies of the dead Taliban, to see if one of them was the wanted leader. But the Gurkhas were still under heavy fire, and the Gurkha who reached one body realized he could not drag it away without getting shot. Thinking fast, he cut off the dead Taliban's head and scampered away to safety. When senior British commanders heard of this, they had the Gurkha arrested (and sent back to Britain for trial), and apologized to the family of the dead Taliban. The head was returned, so that the entire body (as required by Islamic law) could be buried. The British are very sensitive about further angering pro-Taliban Afghans, and go out of their way to collect all body parts of dead Taliban (especially those hit with bombs), so that the body can be buried according to Islamic law. The Taliban use accusations of Western troops disrespecting Islam as a major part of their propaganda efforts. When there are no real cases of such disrespect, which is usually the case, they make it up."

Warplanes: Iraqi F-16 Pilots Begin Training

"Four months ago, Iraq ordered 18 F-16 Block 52 fighters. Starting this year, Iraqi ground troops have been training with F-16s providing support. American F-16s and ground controllers were used, giving Iraqi commanders experience in working with this kind of capability. Iraq ground controller will also be trained, and in a few years, Iraq will have their own F-16s, performing air defense and ground support missions.
Currently, the Iraqi Air Force consists of transports, helicopters and prop driven recon aircraft. No jet fighters, which are essential for defending the national air space. No nationwide air defense system (radars and missiles) either. The Iraqis are seeking to buy and install a radar system and some anti-aircraft missile batteries."

US Hunts Taliban Commander in Kunar

"Qari Zia Rahman is the Taliban's top regional commander as well as a member of al Qaeda. Rahman operates in Kunar and neighboring Nuristan provinces. He and also operates across the border in Pakistan's tribal agency of Bajaur. The Pakistani government claimed they killed Rahman in an airstrike earlier this year, but he spoke to the media and mocked Pakistan's interior minister for wrongly reporting his death.
Qari Zia is closely allied with Faqir Mohammed as well as with Osama bin Laden. Qari Zia's fighters are from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and various Arab nations. He commands a brigade in al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army, or the Lashkar al Zil, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal."

Iran: Dead Is Dead

"Iranian nuclear weapons scientist Shahram Amiri, who defected to the United States last year, changed his mind and went back to Iran. Amiri received $5 million from the CIA for the information he provided. But now the CIA leadership is split between thinking Amiri was a double agent or (more likely) deranged (which he appeared to be from the beginning.) Amiri is one of several Iranians the CIA has gotten out of Iran in the past year, often to save them from arrest and execution (for providing information to the U.S.). The CIA was able to double check most of Amiris revelations, and found him to be credible. To the Iranian government, Amiri is a deranged traitor, but they have decided to avoid embarrassment by claiming that he was kidnapped. Amiri can be quietly killed later, in a staged accident. He might get a hero's funeral, but dead is dead."

Afghanistan: The Evil Eight Percenters

"The NGOs are a particular problem for the Afghan government. First, the NGOs control most of the aid money, which is a way to prevent the money being stolen by corrupt officials. The Afghan government wants more control of the aid money, officially so that it can be spent on things Afghans are more in need of, but mainly so that greedy officials can steal more of the cash. But another problem is the desire of NGOs to change the way Afghans live. Many Afghans resent being told they should stop beating their wives and letting their daughters get more than a primary school education. Some Afghans feel very strongly about banning some aspects of foreign culture (television and Indian or Pakistani movies). Afghans have handled these disputes in the past mainly by not trying to impose their customs on others. The Taliban broke this rule, and are hated by most Afghans as a result."

Mass. may join effort to bypass Electoral College - Local News Updates - MetroDesk - The Boston Globe

From the "We thought it looked good on paper" department: "The state Legislature is poised to give final approval this week to a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

Under the proposed law, all 12 of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.

Supporters are waging a state-by-state campaign to try to get such bills enacted. Once states possessing a majority of the electoral votes (or 270 of 538) have enacted the laws, the candidate winning the most votes nationally would be assured a majority of the Electoral College votes, no matter how the other states vote and how their electoral votes are distributed.

Illinois, New Jersey, Hawaii, Maryland, and Washington have already adopted the legislation, according to the National Popular Vote campaign's website."

When all those electoral votes go to Sarah Palin or Jeb Bush, they'll be scrambling to undo it.

Infantry: I'll Raise You A Nasty Surprise

"Israel recently released aerial photos of Hezbollah military preparations in southern Lebanon. The photos showed villages being fortified and weapons and rockets being stored near and in schools and hospitals. Hezbollah has organized an armed militia there, of about 20,000 men. Nearly a third of them have been to Iran for military training. There is a lot of open terrain in southern Lebanon, but the 40,000 rockets are mostly stored, and ready to be launched from, these fortified villages. The Hezbollah preparations are similar to those used by Hamas, and encountered by Israeli troops during the brief war in Gaza 19 months ago. Hezbollah provides Hamas with military advisers, and Iranian weapons."

Murphy's Law: It's The Stress, Stupid

"The army and marines quickly rediscovered what they had learned in World War I and II; combat troops, and even support troops, wear out pretty quick in a combat zone. It's the stress. Even Iraq and Afghanistan were not a unique experience. During the Vietnam war, it was noted that troops who did two tours (13 months each) with only a year off in between, tended to get stressed out. It was something of a cliché among the troops, but to the medical professionals, the pattern was clear.
In Vietnam, a lot of U.S. troops didn't show up until 1965, when the force there went from 23,310 at the end of 1964 to 184,000 at the end of 1965. It kept increasing (385,000, 485,000) until it peaked at 536,000 at the end of 1968. Then the force shrank each year (484,000, 336,000, 158,000) until, at the end of 1972, there were only 24,000 trainers and advisers there. In Iraq, an invasion force of 150,000 was there for most of 2003, then it shrank for a year or so, before growing again and peaking at 171,000 in late 2007. That's when the Sunni Arab terrorists were crushed (but not completely eliminated). That left the enemy weak enough for the new Iraqi security forces to deal with. So the U.S. force began shrinking (to 142,000 in early 2009, 98,000 in early 2010 and 50,000 in August 2010)."

Winning: When Reality Gets Too Close

"But after the Taliban got their truce in the tribal territories, they proceeded to persecute the people they controlled to such a horrific extent that most Pakistanis were truly horrified. This despite the fact that the Taliban were acting just like the Afghan Taliban did in the 1990s, and the Iranian Islamic dictatorship has been doing for decades. Something snapped among Pakistanis, and now approval of the Taliban is under ten percent. Many Pakistanis (perhaps a quarter) still back the application of Islamic law to solve the country’s problems, but the actual use of these Islamic radical ideas is much less popular. Nothing like seeing this stuff in action (stoning women to death, banning video, music and dancing) to change your attitudes."

Life returns to Tangye thanks to Afghan and UK troops

"Motorcycle and car parts, personal possessions and household goods, are strewn in the streets in front of crumbling shop fronts with bent and twisted shutters, implying the people of Tangye left in a hurry.
But thanks to the presence of British, and now American, boots on the ground, and a very strong Afghan National Police presence, people are beginning to trickle back to Tangye.

There's a bakery in town again. For the moment it only has two families as customers but it is selling to the Afghan National Police and the ISAF troops too.

“We’ve told ourselves we’ll give it a year. It’s fine for the moment. No one bothers us,” says the baker, Mohammed Bilal, as he kneads bread on a broken wooden door.

The local police chief, Haji Faizullah, is the reason the baker can be so optimistic."

Artillerymen in Afghanistan use innovation to reduce collateral damage

"Embracing the current rules of engagement, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team’s 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment (Task Force King) has begun using less-explosive training shells during the 'adjustment phase' of fire support. That means the first, and possibly subsequent rounds fired while getting on target, won't cause nearly the level of damage that high-explosive rounds would. After the artillerymen ensure they're on target, the gloves come off, and they quickly transitioning to the high-explosive, lethal rounds.
The immediate result is fewer live rounds being fired, fewer chances for an errant round to cause unintentional injury or damage, and no decrease in effect of the support to ground units.

“The insurgents are choosing to fight among the people, employing them as human shields; this amounts to an avoidance strategy,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Dennis Woods, Task Force King's senior enlisted man. “Our enemy knows when we use artillery in a conventional firefight, there's a possibility of unintended collateral damage. In our efforts to avoid that, commanders have previously been far less inclined to use artillery. The enemy has been using this assumption to avoid our fire support advantage … until now.”"

Here is Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern!

"From the cover of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, here is your first look at Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern! Here's a clip from EW's article:
Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot who becomes a ring-wearing intergalactic superhero in this massive sci-fi epic from director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). Though Reynolds has prior experience in the superhero realm from his role as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, playing Green Lantern involved some major challenges, like getting hurled through the air on a wire at up to 60 feet per second to create the illusion of flight. “The first time you do it, you’re seriously considering an adult diaper,” Reynolds says. Still, he couldn’t resist the chance to play the beloved DC Comics hero, whose power ring can conjure virtually anything he can dream up. “Will and imagination are his superpowers,” Reynolds says. “We need a circus of Timothy Learys to think of things Hal would invent with his ring.”"

New Photo: The Gods of Thor

"The Los Angeles Times has revealed this new photo from Marvel Studios' Thor featuring Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Chris Hemsworth as Thor with his hammer. The article also confirms that both Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger will be released in 3D. More on that below the pic!"

MOH Hero Vernon Baker Dies at Age 90

"Vernon Baker, a black soldier who belatedly received the Medal of Honor for his role in World War II, has died at his home in Idaho. He was 90.
The Benewah County coroner says Baker died Tuesday of complications of brain cancer.
Then-President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest award for battlefield valor to Baker in 1997. He was one of just seven black soldiers to receive it and the only living recipient.
In 1944, 2nd Lt. Baker was sent to Italy with a full platoon of 54 men. On April 5, he and his soldiers found themselves behind enemy lines near Viareggio, Italy. Under concentrated enemy fire Baker and his platoon crawled to several machine gun nests, destroying them and killing 26 Germans."

USERRA Case Heads for Supreme Court

"Now a USERRA case involving a reservist who claims he was fired because of his military service is slated to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Army Reserve Sgt. Vincent Staub sued his former employer, Proctor Hospital of Peoria, Ill., in 2004 after being fired from his job. He claims he was let go after fellow employees, bitter or resentful over his taking time off for military service, conspired to damage his job performance. Staub won in district court in Illinois but had the verdict overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2009."

Attrition: The War On IEDs

"About $1.5 billion worth of special equipment is arriving in Afghanistan this year, doubling the amount of specialized gear used for detecting IEDs, and identifying the personnel making, placing and setting off the bombs. Another thousand specialists are arriving to operate the special detection and intelligence programs.
As a result, the proportion of combat deaths caused by IEDs has already declined this year, from 60 percent of all deaths, to closer to 50 percent. The anti-IED effort is expected to continue reducing the deaths from bombs. The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan has been going up because there are more foreign troops in Afghanistan, and more of them are out looking for Taliban gunmen and drug gang operations. Both these endeavors often lead to gun battles."

Submarines: American SSGNs Prowl The Pacific

"Two years ago, the U.S. Navy completed the conversion of the last of four Ohio class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), to cruise missile submarines (SSGN). Each of these boats now carries 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and provides space (for living, working and training) for 66 commandos (usually SEALs) and their equipment.
The idea of converting ballistic missile subs, that would have to be scrapped to fulfill disarmament agreements, has been bouncing around since the 1990s. After September 11, 2001, the idea got some traction. The navy submariners love this one, because they lost a lot of their reason for being, with the end of the Cold War. The United States had built a powerful nuclear submarine force during the Cold War, but with the rapid disappearance of the Soviet Navy in the 1990s, there was little reason to keep over a hundred U.S. nuclear subs in commission. These boats are expensive, costing over a billion each to build and over a million dollars a week to operate. The four Ohio class SSBN being converted each have at least twenty years of life left in them. The conversions weren't cheap, each one cost over $400 million."

Information Warfare: Smart Phones Go To War

"A military version of the smart phone, able to operate on a closed military network, would be a big help in the combat zone. At first it was believed that the military procurement system, which often takes more than a decade to get new gear into the hands of the troops, could never deliver a military smart phone. This has made a lot of senior officers angry, and some of the senior commanders proceeded to prove their subordinates wrong. Within two years of the iPhones release, the U.S. Army was soliciting iPhone and Android apps for military use. Now some of these apps are being used by troops in basic training, and more advanced operations as well. On a test basis, some troops are being issued smart phones.
The troops also want combat ready cell phones. In the last decade, a generation has come of age that expects to carry around a phone, and stay connected 24/7. Their elders have also picked up on this convenience, to the point where the U.S. Army is actively trying to figure out how to make this happen. While it may take a while to make that happen (there are a lot of technical problems, including encryption and anti-jamming), the army is already issuing more and more of its training, operations and maintenance manuals as pdf files that can be viewed on smart phones (or Ipod Touch and iPad devices). The troops have long sought this feature, and have often just gone ahead and done it themselves."

Afghanistan: Everything Is For Sale

"These bombs killed over a thousand civilians in the first half of 2010. While the Taliban spend a lot of money and effort (intimidation of journalists) to keep this out of local media, people know. Thus adult men are reluctant to get involved in the bombing operation, and be tagged as a murderer by other Afghans. Same with the other big Taliban activity; terrorizing tribal leaders and government officials. The Taliban is popular mainly with the dumb, desperate and despicable. Not exactly the A-Team. The most respectable jobs in the Taliban involve producing and moving heroin. This is also where the money is. The primary weapon is the bribe, as violence tends to disrupt business. The growing unpopularity of the Taliban has led to more people willing to report terrorist activities. This has led to more Taliban leaders, couriers and key personnel being identified, and captured. This despite increased security measures used by the Taliban."

Marine gets blown up, walks away unfazed

"“I can just barely remember the boom,” Garst said. “I remember the start of a loud noise and then I blacked out.”

Since Garst's improbable run-in with the IED, his tale has spread through the rest of the battalion, and as often happens in combat units, the story mutates, the tale becoming more and more extraordinary about what happened next: He held onto his rifle the whole time … He actually landed on his feet … He remained unmoved, absorbing the impact like he was muffling a fart in a crowded elevator …

What really happened even eludes Garst."

Leadership: The Past Bites The U.S. Army In The Ass

"The main problem with COIN is that the American armed forces takes it for granted. U.S. troops have been defeating guerilla movements for centuries. Through all that time, COIN has been the most frequent form of warfare American troops have been involved with. But COIN has always been viewed as a minor, secondary, military role. It never got any respect. Even the U.S. Marine Corps, after half a century of COIN operations, were glad to put that behind them in the late 1930s. All that remained of that experience was a classic book, 'The Small Wars Manual,' written by some marine officers on the eve of World War II. That book, which is still in print, contained timeless wisdom and techniques on how to deal with COIN operations, and 'small wars' in general. Much of the work the army has done in the last five years, to revise their manuals, could have been done just by consulting the Small Wars Manual. In some cases, that's exactly what was done.
The basic truth is that COIN tactics and techniques have not changed for thousands of years. What has also not changed is the professional soldiers disdain for COIN operations. This sort of thing has never been considered 'real soldiering.' But the U.S. Army and Marines have finally come to accept that COIN is a major job, something that U.S. troops have always been good at, and something that you have to pay attention to. So when you see more news stories about the COIN manual, keep in mind the history of that kind of warfare, and how long, and successfully, Americans have been doing it."

Weapons: SCAR Sort Of Scrapped

"SCAR was part of several recent attempts to develop a replacement for the M-16, if only because the M-16 has been in use longer (nearly half a century) than any other American infantry weapon. What advocates for a new rifle, and critics of the M-16/4 fail to take into account is that the rifle has undergone numerous tweaks and improvements since the 1960s. Most telling, surveys of combat users report that the weapon works, and that they are satisfied it. Sure, the troops would like something new and exciting, but not at the expense of ruggedness and reliability. That's what hurt SCAR, where combat use revealed some unforeseen quirks. This happened while in the hands of a lot of troops who had used M-16s in combat, and now wanted them back. Combat troops tend to be very wary of new technology, especially if it's supposed to replace something that, well, works. It's a matter of self-preservation. New is nice, but not if it gets you killed."

Scientists develop 'fake' genetically-engineered blood for use on the battlefield | Mail Online

"The blood is made by using hematopoietic cells taken from umbilical cords in a process called ‘pharming’ – using genetically engineered plants or animals to create mass quantities of useful substances.One umbilical cord can be turned into around 20 units of usable blood. A wounded soldier in the field will require an average of six units during treatment.Blood cells produced using this method are 'functionally indistinguishable from red blood cells in healthy circulation', the company claims.‘We’re basically mimicking bone marrow in a lab environment,' Arteriocyte boss Don Brown told Wired magazine.
‘Our model works, but we need to extrapolate our production abilities to make scale.’If approved it could revolutionise battlefields where a shortage of blood donors can hamper treatment of wounded soldiers."

First rig sails away over deep-water drilling ban | Business | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

"Devon is one of three companies that has cited the deep-water drilling ban in trying to ease out of contracts to lease Diamond rigs. Diamond, a drilling company, said it expects to make about $100 million from the deal, including a $31 million early termination fee it recovered from Devon.
Larry Dickerson, CEO of Houston-based Diamond, signaled that other of his company's rigs could be relocated, too.
'As a result of the uncertainties surrounding the offshore drilling moratorium, we are actively seeking international opportunities to keep our rigs fully employed,' Dickerson said. 'We greatly regret the loss of U.S. jobs that will result from this rig relocation.'
It was unclear how many U.S. jobs could leave with the Ocean Endeavor, but typically more than 100 workers are on the rig at any given time, doing everything from drilling to cooking meals. Onshore, a network of businesses supplies the rigs with groceries, equipment, uniforms and drilling materials."

Baghdad kills 58,000 stray dogs in 3-month span - Yahoo! News

"But officials said resident complaints have increased steadily in tandem with the rise in the stray population. In the capital, dogs have attacked children, in some cases killing them.
Efforts since the campaign was first announced in 2008 met with limited success because of a lack of funding and follow-through. There are not believed to be any dog shelters in Baghdad."

Historians locate King Arthur's Round Table - Telegraph

"Camelot historian Chris Gidlow said: “The first accounts of the Round Table show that it was nothing like a dining table but was a venue for upwards of 1,000 people at a time.
“We know that one of Arthur’s two main battles was fought at a town referred to as the City of Legions. There were only two places with this title. One was St Albans but the location of the other has remained a mystery.”
The recent discovery of an amphitheatre with an execution stone and wooden memorial to Christian martyrs, has led researchers to conclude that the other location is Chester."

PTSD: New regs will make it easier for war vets to get help - CSMonitor.com

"Changes to the bureaucratic process will be announced Monday by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, a retired Army general and former Army Chief of Staff who was twice wounded as a young officer in Vietnam. This streamlined system will apply to vets of earlier wars, including Vietnam.
In essence, vets will no longer have to document a specific traumatic event – witnessing violent death, for example, or coming under heavy enemy fire – in order to demonstrate that they should be treated or receive disability payments for PTSD.
As PTSD is better understood, what Secretary Shinseki calls “the hidden wounds of war” are being addressed in many ways by a growing number of communities, agencies, and organizations around the country."

Captain America Talks Costume

Captain America Talks Costume: "In comparison to his lithe, skin-tight Fantastic Four costume, Evans says: “[In the FF suit] …you could move around quite well. This is a little more cumbersome. It doesn’t exactly breathe the way the Fantastic Four costume breathed, but it’s the way it should be. Any type of World War II uniform would be a little chunky, and I think that’s what kind of gives it its character.”

Damn straight Captain, couldn’t agree with you more. Now let’s talk shields. What kind of kit can we expect here?

“We’ve been testing a lot of shields. Last time I was in London they had six shields and I had to hold each one, see if I was comfortable with each one, see which one we all thought had the right look. The thing is pretty heavy, so I’m not sure I can throw it that far! I’ll give it my best shot, but hopefully they’ll have some sort of stunt shield when it comes to actually chucking it!”"

Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis | TriCities

"The Veterans Affairs Department is making it easier for combat veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits.
The new regulation, which is expected to be announced Monday, would no longer require that veterans prove what might have triggered their illness. Instead, they would have to show that they served in combat in a job that could have contributed to their injury.
Veterans and advocates in Congress say that demanding a veteran find records of a firefight or bomb blast is sometimes impossible and ignores other causes of post-traumatic stress."

Al-Qaida Appoints New Afghan Commander

"Al Qaeda has named an Egyptian as its new commander for operations in Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan after its former leader was killed in a US Predator strike in North Waziristan in May 2010.

The terror group has appointed Sheikh Fateh al Masri as its emir, or leader, for Qaidat al-Jihad fi Khorasan, or the base of the jihad in the Khorasan, according to a report in the Asia Times. Several US military and intelligence officials said the report of al Masri's ascension to lead al Qaeda in Afghanistan is accurate.

The Khorasan is a region that encompasses large areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Iran. The Khorasan is considered by jihadis to be the place where they will inflict the first defeat against their enemies in the Muslim version of Armageddon. The final battle is to take place in the Levant - Israel, Syria, and Lebanon."

Army Looking for Three Camos | Kit Up!

"According to a new RFI posted on FedBizOpps, the Army is asking industry to provide the service with their ideas for three different camo schemes to cover woodland/jungle, desert and so-called “transitional” (which could mean a garrison UCP or urban scheme). The Army also wants to see ideas for a universal pattern for all body armor and other gear that a Joe would wear, presumably so Soldiers wouldn’t have to switch out their OTVs for each environment.

The Rangers have done well in the past with their Ranger Green gear and the Corps works well with their coyote brown stuff as well.

This is a huge deal and could mean the service has thrown its hands up and gone back to the idea of a spread of camos for different battlegrounds. But it also could mean the service looks at all these patterns and goes “let’s stick with just one.”"

Man Sentenced for Faulty Helo Bolts

"A judge has sentenced a San Diego County aircraft worker to two years in federal prison for selling the military defective bolts for its helicopters.

U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy says 57-year-old Joel H. Potter pleaded guilty and admitted he put troops at risk. He was sentenced Monday.

Duffy says the U.S. Department of Defense discovered the problem after a bolt's head broke off as it was being installed on a Sikorsky CH-53E helicopter, prompting a worldwide alert to the Navy and Marine Corps.

The former employee of Mackenzie Aircraft Parts Inc. in Vista, Calif., from 2004 to 2008 sold more than 16,000 noncompliant aircraft parts to a supplier contracted by the Defense Department.

He also must pay $244,660 in restitution."

Living Soldier May Receive Medal of Honor

"U.S. officials say the military has sent the White House a recommendation to award the Medal of Honor to a Soldier for bravery in Afghanistan, which could make him the first living recipient since the Vietnam War.

The military says the Army Soldier ran through a hail of enemy fire to repel Taliban fighters in a 2007 battle, saving the lives of a half dozen other men. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to name the Soldier because he is still under consideration for the honor.

The nation's highest award for valor has been awarded only six times in the nine years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq - and all were awarded posthumously."

Charter – Oh Say, Can You See?

Free Webcams for Military and families.

Fish talk to each other, researcher finds

"Fish communicate with noises including grunts, chirps and pops, University of Auckland marine scientist Shahriman Ghazali has discovered according to newspaper reports Wednesday.
'All fish can hear, but not all can make sound -- pops and other sounds made by vibrating their swim bladder, a muscle they can contract,' Ghazali told the New Zealand Herald.
Fish are believed to communicate with each other for different reasons, including attracting mates, scaring off predators or orienting themselves.
The gurnard species has a wide vocal repertoire and keeps up a constant chatter, Ghazali found after studying different species of fish placed into tanks.
On the other hand, cod usually kept silent, except when they were spawning.
'The hyopothesis is that they are using sound as a synchronisation so that the male and female release their eggs at the same time for fertilisation,' he said."

Information Warfare: The New Nazis Recycle

"Palestinian media, both Fatah and Hamas controlled, have undertaken a media campaign to arouse popular anger against Israeli plans to destroy the al Aqsa mosque. The problem here is that there are no Israeli plans to destroy al Aqsa. This complex is built on the site of two Jewish temples. The last one was destroyed by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. Israel has always provided security for al Aqsa, but the Palestinians find it convenient to keep alive unfounded fears that Israel will, at any moment, destroy al Aqsa and rebuild their temple. This is what some religious extremists (Jewish and Christian) want, and one reason for the tight Israeli security around al Aqsa (which is otherwise controlled by Moslem religious authorities.) This fear mongering is a big deal among the Palestinians, but generally ignored, or simply unknown, outside Israel."

China: Sharing Is Forbidden

"Officially, China will not criticize North Korea for having one of its subs torpedo a South Korean corvette four months ago. China, is, however, very unhappy about this sort of reckless behavior. So China recently allowed a magazine to publish (on paper and the web) an article agreeing with the widely held view that Russia and North Korea were responsible for starting the Korean war (when the north invaded the south) sixty years ago. For decades, it was communist doctrine that South Korea had invaded first. But Russian documents made public in the early 1990s revealed that Russia and North Korea had planned the war (which Russia ordered). As soon as the Chinese article got some media attention, the government officially recalled it, and insisted that this business about Russia and North Korea starting the war was all a lie. But the message to North Korea was clear. China's patience with North Korea's misbehavior was wearing out."

Winning: Islamic Trend Setters Find The Real Enemy

"There is, for once, a positive trend in the Islamic world. It's that Islamic terrorism, and Palestinian terrorism, are no longer automatically supported. A growing number of Islamic clerics, some of them quite influential, are openly, and unequivocally, condemning Islamic terrorism. Not too long ago, some clerics would condemn terrorists killing Moslems, but allow that dead infidels were less of a problem. No more, and this is a big change. A decade ago, Moslem clerics inclined to condemn Islamic terrorism, had to consider the possibility of threats, or worse, from the militants. That's still a problem in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, but even there, clerics are speaking up against the violence."

Intelligence: I Can Do That, Dave

Intelligence: I Can Do That, Dave: "American computer firm IBM recently announced that it had developed a system (called Watson) that could be programmed to play the TV quiz game Jeopardy, and consistently win against the best human players. Watson uses the IBM Blue Gene supercomputer system to accomplish this. This has enormous military implications.

For intelligence professionals, this development is huge. For one thing, it means there is now a voice recognition system that can take a question, spoken by a human, understand it, and then have access to a data analysis system capable of quickly producing a spoken answer. This is important because, in the last decade, tools for capturing, storing and analyzing military intelligence data have grown more powerful and portable, as well as a lot cheaper. But to get at that data quickly and accurately, you have be an SQL (structured query language) ace. Actually, nearly everyone has been exposed to some SQL via using search engines like Google. But SQL itself is a much more powerful, and difficult to learn, beast. A system that allows intel officers, or commanders, to ask a series of spoken questions, and quickly get answers, provides a powerful tool for effectively using the mountains of data collected. Yet, for the military, systems like Watson are seen as part of a trend."

Jefferson changed 'subjects' to 'citizens' in Declaration of Independence

"Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.
Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word 'citizens.'
No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.
Scholars of the revolution have long speculated about the 'citizens' smear -- wondering whether the erased word was 'patriots' or 'residents' -- but now the Library of Congress has determined that the change was far more dramatic.
Using a modified version of the kind of spectral imaging technology developed for the military and for monitoring agriculture, research scientists teased apart the mystery and reconstructed the word that Jefferson banished in 1776."

SCOTUSblog » Everything you read about the Supreme Court is wrong (Updated)

"Start with the Court’s ideological divide. Although some cases are decided five to four, that’s less than twenty percent of the cases this Term. Roughly half the decisions are nine to zero. Only slightly more than one in ten cases involved the narrow liberal-conservative divide (fewer, if we don’t include cases in which we presume Justice Sotomayor would have voted with the left had she not been recused).
Though the Term ended (as it often does) with decisions decided along ideological lines, other five-to-four decisions that intuitively might have been decided on an ideological basis during the course of the Term were instead resolved by totally unpredictable alignments. For example, the Court in Dolan v. United States broadly read judges’ power to order restitution (a “conservative” outcome) by a majority of Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, and Sotomayor, over the dissent of Roberts, Stevens, Scalia, and Kennedy."

New discovery takes scientists a step closer to quantum computers - Oneindia News

"They also demonstrated the first full quantum control of qubit spin within very tiny colloidal nanostructures (a few nanometers)- a feat that brings them closer in efforts to create a quantum computer.

According to the authors and outside experts, the new findings further advance the promise these new nanostructures hold for quantum computing and for new, more efficient, energy generation technologies (such as photovoltaic cells), as well as for other technologies that are based on light-matter interactions like biomarkers."