Month: January 2012

Obama’s Assassination Catch-22

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If you are targeted by this administration for assassination, then only you can challenge this in court, but the Obama administration will sniff out your communications with your lawyers in order to find and kill you:

On Saturday in Somalia, the U.S. fired missiles from a drone and killed the 27-year-old Lebanon-born, ex-British citizen Bilal el-Berjawi. His wife had given birth 24 hours earlier and the speculation is that the U.S. located him when his wife called to give him the news. Roughly one year ago, El-Berjawi was stripped of his British citizenship, obtained when his family moved to that country when he was an infant, through the use of a 2006 British anti-Terrorism law — passed after the London subway bombing — that the current government is using with increasing frequency to strip alleged Terrorists with dual nationality of their British citizenship (while providing no explanation for that act). El-Berjawi’s family vehemently denies that he is involved with Terrorism, but he was never able to appeal the decree against him for this reason:

Berjawi is understood to have sought to appeal against the order, but lawyers representing his family were unable to take instructions from him amid concerns that any telephone contact could precipitate a drone attack.

Obviously, those concerns were valid. So first the U.S. tries to assassinate people, then it causes legal rulings against them to be issued because the individuals, fearing for their life, are unable to defend themselves. Meanwhile, no explanation or evidence is provided for either the adverse government act or the assassination: it is simply secretly decreed and thus shall it be.

Exactly the same thing happened with U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki. When the ACLU and CCR, representing Awlaki’s father, sued President Obama asking a federal court to enjoin the President from killing his American son without a trial, the Obama DOJ insisted (and the court ultimately accepted) that Awlaki himself must sue on his own behalf. Obviously, that was impossible given that the Obama administration was admittedly trying to kill him and surely would have done so the minute he stuck his head up to contact lawyers (indeed, the U.S. tried to kill him each time they thought they had located him, and then finally succeeded). So again in the Awlaki case: the U.S. targets someone for death, and then their inability to defend themselves is used as a weapon to deny their legal rights.

This is deeply repulsive, and, unfortunately, it is the new normal, and the next president, whether it be in 2012 or 2016, will accept this and extend these policies, just as Obama has, and things will get worse again.

Roberts Court Gets One Right

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They have ruled by 9-0 that a warrant is required to plant a GPS tracker on someone’s car.

The the majority opinion was that  the physical installation of a tracker was a trespass, and hence required a warrant, while 4 justices, Alito, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan argued more broadly that it “impinged on the expectation of privacy.”

This is not a distinction without a difference.  The former position leaves issues like, for example, tracking a cell phone, unclear, and you can be sure that lazy members of the law enforcement community will exploit this ambiguity.

Motherf%$#er

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Jake Burris, the campaign manager for Ken Aden’s (D) had his cat beaten to death by some teabagger scum:

Police were investigating Monday after a cat belonging to the family of a Democrat’s campaign manager was beaten to death and the word “liberal” scrawled across its side.

The cat belonged to the family of Jake Burris, who manages Democrat Ken Aden’s bid for Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District.

Burris was returning to his Russellville home with his four children when he found the cat on his doorstep Sunday night, the Aden campaign said in a press release.

The mixed-breed Siamese cat had one side of its head bashed in to “the point the cat’s eyeball was barely hanging from its socket,” the release said.

Aden told Reuters that the event was “horrible, to say the least.”

If we find out who did this, I would hope that the US Attorney finds a way to treat this as terrorism, and go full Patriot Act on his ass.

Why the USAF Should Be Abolished, Part MLXVII

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The US Army has real and current needs for transport, and the USAF response to addressing those needs is to do their beat to ensure that they are not met: (paid subscription required)

………

Apparently, this sentiment does not apply to the interservice skirmishes at the Pentagon. The U.S. Army and Air Force are in the final throes of hashing out an updated agreement on the time-sensitive, direct-support airlift mission, the latest chapter in a years-long saga over how to ship supplies to remote soldiers despite two wars and one stunted buy of Alenia’s C-27J.

The agreement is being made between the chiefs of staff of both services. At issue is how the time-sensitive airlift mission will be handled; this includes the shuttling of small loads of supplies to forward Army units in the field.

………

The last installment of this tug-of-war took place in 2005 when, during his first major speech to the Air Force Association, the then Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, announced he wanted a new light cargo aircraft. This was considered odd as the Army was in the midst of setting up its future cargo aircraft program, which was then crafted to replace old C-23 Sherpas and provide more immediate access to commanders for cargo support. At the time, the Army moved ahead with its own program because it felt that it had lackluster support by the Air Force to properly back its needs.

………

Moseley’s push, along with his similar and later move to take over the Army’s burgeoning UAV force, was seen as an abrupt roles-and-missions grab by the Air Force in the midst of these two wars. In the case of the cargo aircraft role, the USAF won.

At the direction of then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in 2009 the Air Force took over authority for the C-27J buy and control of the direct-support mission; service officials said they would combine the use of C-27Js and C-130s to provide cargo lift for the Army (though Army officials had long complained that C-130 support was inefficient owing to underloading of these larger aircraft).

Army officials say that in actuality, the CH-47 Chinook fleet has been unduly burdened in providing timely support because the helicopters are used to shuttle goods from C-130s that land at hubs to the remote locales where soldiers are stationed.

“The major rub to us is responsiveness and not efficiency,” says one Army official who requests anonymity. “When a part is needed at the front line, it flies” and shouldn’t have to wait for enough requests to fill a C-130, the official adds. “We are more about effectiveness than efficiency, and [the Air Force is] more about efficiency than effectiveness.”

……………

Two C-27Js were deployed to Afghanistan in late July 2011 and quickly started flying operational direct support missions, Gen. Raymond Johns said last fall. The C-27Js are apportioned to Army officials there via Tacon (tactical control), although USAF pilots fly the missions, but the C-130s are not. This means the C-27Js are specifically set aside only for intratheater/direct-support missions under Army authority. Though C-130s are used for this mission, they can be reassigned elsewhere in the area, if needed, Johns said.

Army officials are less than satisfied with the Air Force’s delays in delivering C-27Js to the field. At least six were to be in Afghanistan by now, and why they have not been deployed is the “golden question,” the anonymous Army official said.

One industry official says the Army is “trying to hold the Air Force’s feet to the fire to do what they signed up for” in the 2009 pact.

Alenia has delivered 13 of 21 C-27Js on contract. Originally, Alenia officials projected the U.S. market for the C-27J (including Army/Air Force buys) to support as many as 125 aircraft. Tierney said that in 2005, the Army’s projections set a low risk of handling the mission with a fleet of 78 C-27Js and a moderate risk at 54. When Gates shifted the C-27J program from Army control to the Air Force, the buy shrank to 38 aircraft.

So basically, the army has a real and current need, and the USAF’s response is to hijack it, sabotage the purchases, and not deliver it.

The creation of an independent air force from the U.S. Army Air Forces has not shown itself to be a step forward in military efficiency.

FWIW, there are historical precedents.  During the Vietnam war, the Air Force took over the operation of smaller cargo aircraft, (the Otter/Caribou if I recall) and promptly decided that they could only fly into air strips that were capable of handling the much larger C-130, eliminating much of their utility.

Quote of the Day

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Courtesy of the The Rude Pundit:

You got that? The whore who fronts for an industry owned by multinational megacorporations like NewsCorp, Sony, and Viacom is actually attacking BoingBoing.net owners Happy Mutants LLC for using the internet for some evil agenda to steal Chipmunk movies just because they went on a one-day strike. That’s a bit like Ted Bundy accusing a student nurse of having a messy dorm room just before bludgeoning her to death.

He is, of course, describing former Senator Chris Dodd’s pimping for big media in has capacity as chief lobbyist for the MPAA.

Crap! I Was Hoping for a Cain/Colbert Victory

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Pass the Popcorn!

Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary by a large margin:

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich scored an easy victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary, blowing a hole in Mitt Romney’s aura of inevitability.

The 14-point win represented a swift and extraordinary turnaround in Gingrich’s fortunes — thanks largely to strong performances in two debates. In those forums, he issued a stirring appeal to the state’s strident conservatism, convinced its voters he would be a formidable opponent against President Obama and threw Romney off his stride.

I don’t think that Newt can win.

First, he really doesn’t have a campaign organization.

Second, he won South Carolina for blatant and explicit appeals to racism, because many, if not most, of the Republicans in South Carolina are unrepentant racists who give Gingrich props for, “putting Mr. Juan Williams in his place.”

He has a knack for the basest parts of the Republican id, but there are a lot of racists, outside of South Carolina anyway, who find such blatant appeals to racism to be excessive.

This is Called Circling the Drain

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It looks like yet another capability is being removed being removed from the JSF (Paid subscription required):

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, long touted as the follow-on to the EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, is no longer heir-apparent as the king of nonkinetic warfare.

The often-delayed Lockheed Martin JSF program is being more narrowly focused on its conventional attack role. Jamming is no longer a priority for the stealthy fighter. The airframes expected to carry the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) are conventional-signature unmanned aerial systems and will be followed by stealthy unmanned designs.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, long touted as the follow-on to the EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, is no longer heir-apparent as the king of nonkinetic warfare.

The often-delayed Lockheed Martin JSF program is being more narrowly focused on its conventional attack role. Jamming is no longer a priority for the stealthy fighter. The airframes expected to carry the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) are conventional-signature unmanned aerial systems and will be followed by stealthy unmanned designs.

One of the sales pitches for the JSF was that it’s engine, because it carried a lot of extra hardware to drive the lift fan, which would have allowed for it to be a stealthy platform with a few dozen megawatts of capability.

The can’t make the program work, so they are removing bits to ease the cost, weight, and schedule issues.

It will eventually enter service, but it’s going to be a lot less capable than it has been billed.

Ghod What a Geekfest!

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From Halloween 2010

Charlie, my son, is going to his first cubing competition, the River Hill Winter 2012, and I am his escort / videographer. (I won’t be posting the videos, Charlie will, on his Youtube™ channel, PostalCode74.)

He’s in hog heaven, and I’m using the local WiFi to go online. We brought my laptop so that we could unload the camera’s memory card if needed.

The venue had to move at the last minute, the high school they were using got closed due to snow and freezing rain, but thankfully, there are plenty of little community centers in the Columbia area.

He showed up in his Rubik’s Cube Halloween costume, which was well received, but he is taking it off to compete.

A couple of his fellow partners in crime offered to solve him.

Defense.gov News Article: Panetta Lifts F-35 Fighter Variant Probation

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In a move that surprised no one, SecDef Leon Panetta has lifted the probation for the F-35B variant:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ushered the F-35B out of the penalty box, after the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) version of the stealthy fighter was sidelined for poor performance for more than a year by prior Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Standing in a hangar in front of BF-4, one of two F-35Bs to conduct testing on the USS Wasp amphibious ship last fall, Panetta spoke to a small audience of government and industry workers on the Joint Strike Fighter test team.

“We now believe that because of your work the Stovl variant is demonstrating the kind of performance and maturity that is in line with the other two variants of JSF,” Panetta said here Jan. 20. “The Stovl variant has made — I believe and all of us believe — sufficient progress so that as of today I am lifting the Stovl probation.”

……………

George Little, Panetta’s spokesman, said the secretary’s decision to lift the probation was underpinned by improvements in five key areas: structural shortcomings in the Stovl bulkhead, flutter in the auxiliary inlet door, problems in the lift-fan clutch, unexpected wear and tear on the drive shaft, and heating on the roll-post actuator.

The writer also notes that, “Thus far, the F-35B has been flown to Mach 1.4,” which must have been before one of the “A” model test articles flew to Mach 1.6, and suffered significant damage, and the entire fleet was prohibited from supersonic flight.

The fact is that the real reason for the probation, and the one that Panetta and the Pentagon have neglected to mention, is that the F-35C is still significantly over weight, and for an STOVL aircraft, that doesn’t just mean a few percent drop in performance, it means that it cannot perform its allotted missions, because it cannot make a vertical landing.

This was why the British, before switching to the catapult launched and arrested recovery F-35C, were looking at a Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing at about 100 km/h forward speed.  They were afraid that the lack of performance would require aircraft to jettison (multimillion dollar) munitions before landing.

Those problems are still there

Full Pentagon press release after the break:

Panetta Lifts F-35 Fighter Variant Probation

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md., Jan. 20, 2012 – Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced today he’s lifted probation from the Short Takeoff, Vertical Landing variant of the fifth generation F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter which is absolutely vital to maintaining air superiority.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland look at the cockpit of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with Navy Capt. Erik “Rock” Etz on Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., Jan. 20, 2012. Panetta and Hoyer toured several facilities related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is in its test phases at the base. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.!

Speaking during a town hall-style meeting here, the defense secretary discussed the latest development in the progress of the joint strike fighter program as service members, politicians and the civilian workforce listened.

“Early in 2011 DOD was compelled to put [the Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing] … on probation,” he said.

“Over the course of last year, you here at Pax River helped make an incredible difference by completing tremendous amounts of STOVL testing,” Panetta noted. “You demonstrated that we’ve made real progress towards fixing some of the known problems that we had with STOVL.”

Panetta lauded the joint strike fighter’s workforce at NAS Patuxent River for their efforts to bring the STOVL variant up to the standards of the two other existing versions of the F-35, the Conventional Takeoff and Landing and Carrier Variant.

“We now believe that because of your work, that the STOVL variant is demonstrating the kind of performance and maturity that is in line with the other two variants of the JSF,” Panetta said.

“As a result of your hard work and the hard work of JSF’s government and industry team … the STOVL variant has made, I believe and all of us believe, sufficient progress so that as of today, I am lifting the STOVL probation,” he announced.

Panetta commended the crowd for their hard work, but cautioned that the JSF program still has more work to do. “We’ve got a long way to go with the JSF testing, and it’s obviously not out of the woods yet,” he said.

“But I am confident that if we continue to do the hard work necessary … that both the Carrier and the STOVL Variant are going to be ready for operations and are going to be ready for doing the work that they have to do, which is to help protect this country,” Panetta said.

“I want you all to know that as secretary of defense, my department is committed to the development of the F-35,” he said. “It’s absolutely critical … that we get it right. And that’s why you’re here. The developmental testing that’s going on here will ensure that we get this right.”

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos called Panetta’s decision to lift the probation of the F-35B “hard-earned.”

“Secretary Panetta’s decision to take the F-35B Lightning II Short Takeoff, Vertical Landing variant off probation was a hard-earned and rewarding announcement for the entire DOD/industry team that worked very hard last year,” he said.

“Successful F-35B performance ashore and at sea has very positively advanced the state of demonstrated capability in 2011,” Amos said. “The positive momentum generated during 2011 will continue as testing proceeds, production aircraft are delivered, and fleet training begins in 2012.”

Panetta said it is important that the U.S. military maintains its technological edge into the future.
“That’s where we have to be,” he said. “We’re going to have a strong defense; we have got to be there.”

Panetta praised the capabilities of Patuxent’s workforce.

“Because of you, because of the very unique testing and capabilities that are offered here, we are able to maintain that technological edge,” Panetta said. “And I want to thank you again for your dedication, for your commitment, for your great skills.”

Panetta lauded the Patuxent River installation calling it “a very unique facility” and “a national treasure” that is important to maintain.

“These are world-class facilities … that [are] important to our military, important to our men and women in uniform who have to put their lives on the line, and it’s important to our national security,” Panetta said.

“Please accept my deepest thanks for your work and dedication,” he said. “I couldn’t do it without you.”

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!!

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We now have the first bank closings of the year by the FDIC.

It’s a pretty busy week, 3 closings, but the last time that banks were closed was December 23, 4 weeks ago, so overall, it’s been pretty sparse, even with the holiday doldrums.

So far, it looks OK, but it’s not enough data to make any sort of projections.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. Central Florida State Bank, Belleview, FL
  2. The First State Bank, Stockbridge, FL
  3. American Eagle Savings Bank, Boothwyn, PA

Full FDIC list

So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):

And here is the detail, since it is early in the year:

Props to Obama

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He told the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to go Cheney themselves, and he approved a rule that requires employers to cover birth control in their insurance under almost all circumstances:

Today, in a huge victory for women’s health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception.

Opponents of contraception had lobbied hard for a broad exemption that would have allowed any religiously-affiliated employer to opt out of providing such coverage. Fortunately, the Obama administration rejected that push and decided to maintain the narrow religious exemption that it initially proposed. Only houses of worship and other religious nonprofits that primarily employ and serve people of the same faith will be exempt. Religiously-affiliated employers who do not qualify for the exemption and are not currently offering contraceptive coverage may apply for transitional relief for a one-year period to give them time to determine how to comply with the rule.

Twenty-eight states already require employers, including most religiously affiliated institutions, to cover contraception in their health plans. The only change is that now they must cover the full cost.

I’m truly shocked.

I expected them to split the baby yet again, and cave to the anti-abortion zealots.

I’m not sure if this is an outbreak of good policy making, or if it’s just because it’s an elections year, but I’ll take it.

Quote of the Day

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Warren and Brown are jockeying back and forth on the best method of keeping outside groups out of their race. Here’s a novel concept: Both candidates could just buy up all the television air time themselves. After all, based on their ludicrous fundraising pace, it looks like they’ll be able to afford it.

—Reid Wilson upon observing that Elizabeth Warren had a 24-hour money bomb that raised over $1 million

Meh

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I just watched the Nightline interview with Marianne Gingrich, Newt’s 2nd wife, where she alleges that Newt, when caught in the affair, asked her to have an open marriage, and bedded future 3rd wife Callista in her (Marianne’s) bed:

Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage.

In her first television interview since the 1999 divorce, to be broadcast tonight on Nightline, Marianne Gingrich, a self-described conservative Republican, said she is coming forward now so voters can know what she knows about Gingrich.

In her most provocative comments, the ex-Mrs. Gingrich said Newt sought an “open marriage” arrangement so he could have a mistress and a wife.

I was hoping for a bit more. 

This is basically old news, and it wasn’t particularly squicky.

About the only thing that surprised me was that Gingrich wasn’t even man enough to deny it himself.  He peddled his daughters (by his first wife) to ABC to issue the denials.

In the short term, I expect it to help him in South Carolina, because the ‘wingers there will assume that it is an artifact of some sort of liberal conspiracy, as opposed to Newt just being a contemptible hypocrite.

Did the CFTC Just Call Louis Freeh’s Corrupt?

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Because this sounds a lot like them saying that he is either corrupt or criminally incompetent:

MF Global Inc. (MFGLQ) commodity customers must be paid before all other claimants, including the bankrupt parent company, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Court papers by the trustee for MF Global Holdings Ltd., Louis Freeh, contain “errors and misstatements of law” in arguing that commodity laws, which require that customers be “made whole” first, don’t apply to brokerage liquidations, the regulator said in a court filing today. Freeh, representing the parent company creditors, has said money due to them shouldn’t be “diverted” to customers.

If Freeh was right, “the senseless result would be to render inapplicable the key regulations of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the largest commodity broker bankruptcy in U.S. history,” the CFTC said. The result would “strip” customers of a remedy, after they entrusted their assets to the brokerage relying on rules for segregating customer money, it said.

What is going on here is that someone *cough* JP Morgan Chase *cough* looted customer accounts as MF Global as the company circled the drain, and they hired Freeh to cover up the theft.

Here’s an analogy about US law for former judge and FBI director Freeh:  If you buy a stolen car, you don’t get to keep it.

Am I the only one who thinks that not only is Freeh is being paid to cover up for the thieves who plundered this company in its final days, but that he’s being completely incompetent about covering their tracks.

H/t Atrios.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot??!!??!!??

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OK, I get the optics.

Having Obama give his nomination acceptance speech in a huge outdoor stadium, with a much louder and more enthusiastic crowd, as he did in 2008.

It gives his speech more excitement.

I get it.

But to give the speech in Bank of America Stadium?!?!?!?

First, he chooses an anti-union right to work state, and now he’s testifying in an edifice named after a bank?

And it’s not just a bank.  It’s one of the “too big to fail” banks that got billions (trillions?) in taxpayer bailouts.

Great googly moogly!

Jon Stewart is the Best Journalist in America

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Brilliant!

Stewart looks at Foxconn and what it does to its workers in order to make the iPhone.

He plays it for laughs, but he absolutely nails just how horrific the conditions are, and how little we actually save for the pain that we inflict.

He takes a complex issue, researches it, provides documentary evidence, and puts it all in context better than anyone in the news media today.

He is a national treasure.

So, the Keystone XL Pipeline Is On Hold

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The ‘Phants forced a decision in the payroll tax bill, and so he denied the application:

President Obama on Wednesday rejected, for now, the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, saying the $7 billion project could not be adequately reviewed within the 60-day deadline set by Congress. While the president’s action does not preclude later approval of the project, it sets up a baldly partisan fight over energy, jobs and regulation that will most likely persist through the November election.

The president said his hand had been forced by Republicans in Congress, who inserted a provision in the temporary payroll tax cut bill passed in December giving the administration only until Feb. 21 to decide the fate of the 1,700-mile pipeline, which would stretch from oil sands formations in Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

The State Department, which has authority over the project because it crosses an international border, said there was not enough time to draw a new route for the pipeline and assess the potential environmental harm to sensitive grasslands and aquifers along its path. The agency recommended that the permit be denied, and Mr. Obama concurred.

“As the State Department made clear last month,” the president said in a statement, “the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment.”

The Republicans think that they have an issue, but it will be long forgotten by election time.

As to the final outcome, it will be approved after the election, and Obama will tweak the route a bit, and claim some sort of post partisan victory, all while basically selling out to big oil.