2 Feb
Weekly Open Thread
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Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 pm | 692 views
Stats
This is the typical look I give people right before I start removing sensitive body parts (preferably theirs, but I have been know to err) in the most painful manner I can think of.
Here are some weapons of mass distraction.
The new Russian-Indian joint fighter program gets its first prototype flight. There will be at least two versions, one with Russian electronics and one with electronics from India. The Russians claim this is a stealth aircraft although this prototype is probably is lacking all except the basic components to fly. It’s called the T-50 Pak Fa, not to be confused with the Japanese training aircraft also known as the T-50.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDm8YjLeKA
On the other end of the military spectrum is the Embrear 314 Super Tucano by Brazil. Yes it’s a prop plane, but it not only has modern electronics it has been a proven FARC killer (2,000 lbs worth of bombs, plus rocket attacks then strafing runs with twin .50 cals tends to wake any survivors up). Even though it has been around for awhile, it has became a U.S. national economic threat according to at least 9 U.S. congress members. Since it costs about twice as much as a predator (yet doesn’t crash nearly as often), flies slow (but twice as fast as an Apache helicopter), can loiter for 6 hours (about twice that of a jet fighter while doing it at 1/6 the fuel cost for a 6 hour flight) and can still deliver a decent payload day or night while using runways jets dare not use, it has been deemed a great plane for Iraq, Afghanistan and other COIN operations. Aim chair generals think the Iraq and Afghan air forces should get some. There lies the national economic threat. These congress members think the U.S should be creating prop fighters for COIN operations which would be sold or given to other countries. Therefore these senators are trying to keep Afghanistan and Iraq from having these planes until the U.S. can compete in the prop fighter business. On a side note, the Osprey has no aircraft to give it air cover. Helicopters fly too slow and jets fly too fast. Would the U.S. military have to bring out prop planes to give it fighter escort? Some congressmember probably will think so as soon as an Osprey gets shot down.
Here is an old video of a CIA tracking a drug smuggler while a Super Tucano shoots down a drug smuggler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtRylXsNL_o
And when exactly did Nancy Pelosi grow feathers?
The Third Jihad
“We all know about terrorism. This is the war you don’t know about.”
This is an Open Thread so I thought I’d post this here.
The vid clip is 31:42 in length and just an extract.
From Beslan to Pakistan it is an eye opener.
This is what We are up against and not just in the US either.
Western Civilization as a whole is the target.
http://www.mzuhdijasser.com/3306/a-muslim-american
Are you lookin’ at me? Are YOU lookin at me? I don’t see nobody else here…
@Old Trooper:
Wake up indeed. Dr. Jazzer is a courageous man, hope nothing happens to him.
What a way to start my day. Woke up to Glenn Beck talking about the long march Progressivism has taken to take over this country and from another direction we have radical islam. If the Progressives take over, radical islam wins.
Have you heard the latest? Madame Pachauri has a steamy new book out.
no wonder he thought it was getting hot?
Speaking of books, I just read a new one which may be interesting to those who peruse this site. Here’s the authors’ website: http://www.aftershockeconomy.com/index.htm. I think they’re right on. It’s an easy 3 hour read or so, and gives some interesting insights. The authors did a nice job of predicting the stock market crunch and the housing crunch in 2006, before it actually happened. In short, they think that the real estate bubble/bank bubble were just the beginnings and the real crunch is going to come when the US debit bubble and then the dollar bubble are going to pop.
The good news is (sort of)…it doesn’t matter WHO in in office…
I have no commercial interest in these guys, but their argument is compelling.
Jim
Thanks so much to FloppingAces. I am flattered and honored that you guys posted my video the other day ["No Rules for Radicals"]. http://www.joedanmedia.com/No_Rules_for_Radicals.html
Very cool.
God bless
Joe Dan
JoeDanMedia.com
In other news, AGW house of cards fallen, but govt’s., push ahead, anyway.
http://www.climategate.com/the-dynamic-duo-james-delingpole-and-alex-jones
It no longer matters that AGW has been shown to be a lie, because it’s accomplished was intended, to launch the payload of more government control of our lives. That agenda proceeds unfazed. Like a booster rocket, it has separated from the payload, which continues on it’s trajectory. We are NOT out of the woods yet, by any means.
Osama and al-Gore on the same page.
@yonason:
Obama made a remark at the dodge and parry he did with the republicans when a question came up. Something to the effect of, the world still believes, na, na, na, na, na, na.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/29/holder-under-fire.aspx
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/30/AR2010013001411_pf.html
Gregory_Dittman, the old A-1 Skyraider had a great package or ordinance and the ability to loiter over the airspace. It’s successor, the A-10 although no longer in production, is a wonder to behold.
Close air support is vital in COIN Warfare but not in the budget for some odd reason. Hmmm…
Priorities…
@Wordsmith:
They go after Bush for what he did right, and ignore what he did wrong. This is a civil war with the Left as the aggressor, and so it’s one we need to fight, or we will lose.
“Scott Brown” caricature debuts on last night’s SNL and is pretty damn funny:
http://tinyurl.com/yews8jb
Also their parody of Obama’s SOTU:
http://tinyurl.com/yaesxxs
Old Trooper, when the F-15 was pitched to the air force the slogan was, “Not a pound for air-to-ground.” The air force has always hated CAS and it really only has one aircraft (which the brass hates and constantly wants to get rid of), the A-10. Some time around 2020, the F-35 is suppose to replace the A-10, but unless the F-35 uses expensive guided munitions, aimed from the ground, there is no way a F-35 can do CAS. According to Wiki, the loiter time for an A-10 is less than 2 hours including 10 minutes reserved for fighting. Even the A-10 would have to slow do under cruise speed to stay with the V-22. Due to paperwork issues, the army has been banned from using fixed winged aircraft even as spotters.
That doesn’t mean that the Afghanistan and Iraqi military can’t have CAS and COIN aircraft. Prop planes do have advantages over jets. They don’t need much of an infrastructure (able to take off and land on any flat ground rather than a modern runway), costs less in both the cost of the plane and the cost to fly and they tend to have less down time between flights. But if the U.S. government is doing the buying, obviously congressmembers would rather seek money for their own district than actually help out a host country. Iraq is set to get 36 AT-6B Texan II aircraft for light attack. The Super Tucano easily beats that aircraft in every stat except the AT-6B costs $1 million less although one Super Tucano could come close to matching 2 AT-6Bs as far as payload and range.
Obama Organizing in High Schools
Photo-copied pages of the internship book including the application are posted at the bottom of post:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/01/atlas-exclusive-obama-organizing-for-communism-and-youth-corps-in-the-public-school-1.html
In addition to filling out the app they are to answer essay questions, 100 words or less, such as:
Here’s the Internship Overview and application…..preface:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c60bf53ef0120a83335ad970b-popup
@Missy: I don’t really have a problem with them offering internships. I did plenty of political internships in my time and even got paid for some of them.
But what worries me is whether the students will be compelled by some overzealous teacher to participate.
Or, will students who opt to participate in non-political, or God forbid, conservative oriented internships be penalized when it comes to grading time?
Also, will any taxpayer funds be used to promote these Obama internships or print their materials for handout in class?
OT thanks for the film, it was powerful and enlightening.
We have a President who refuses to acknowledge the situation, who believes if we offer friendship, the Jihadi will come to love us. What an arrogant, naive, pathetic little man. Hopefully, we will have real leadership after November and someone will take the initiative to confront this cancerous plague, in our own country, before it is too late.
Thanks again for the film, I will do m best to distribute this message!
The Left is taking direct aim at the Tea Party movement prior to the November elections:
http://www.theteapartyisover.org/
I am reading stories about how there is tension within the movement over egos, and the current controversy about the fee for the Tea Party Convention, including Sarah Palin’s payment for appearing at such … and recently Michelle Bachmann’s withdrawing from the event.
The Tea Party needs to protect itself from within from those wanting to take it over and those wanting to take it down. I wouldn’t put it past these people to infiltrate the movement at all levels to gain negative publicity and to cause turmoil within the organization.
@Mike’s America:
We had young Republican and Democrat clubs way back when I went to high school, but by the time our kids hit the doors, political clubs were no longer allowed to function within the schools. Just checked the websites of our area high schools and it’s still the same.
My granddaughter in Colorado went to DC last summer for an internship, but it was for leadership, nothing political. I have a photo of her sitting at Salazar’s desk with a frown on her face, she was being a bit political, just for me.
I’m not comfortable with this at all.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/01/obama-youth-organizing-for-america.html
It appears that the OFA National Curriculum includes Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”
as suggested reading amongst other “lessons in Community Organizing”. I resent my tax dollars going to the indoctrination of young folks for any proposed rationale for school credit or otherwise.
This smells like some sort of thinly disguised attempt to insert radical values into young minds
for the achievement of political goals that are contrary to traditional American values. This is Not Community Service in any sense if the Curriculum is influenced by Saul Alinsky or Zack Exley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zack_Exley
Nowhere in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution is there any references to Social or Economic Justice. Period. OFA is the child of barack obama .com and I view it as a tool to perpetuate Obama’s failed philosophies on Domestic issues. Obama has OFA. Hitler had his “youth programs”, Stalin had his “Young Pioneers” as well. It ain’t the Boy Scouts folks.
Legitimate Internships have value. It is watching Government at work and being a part of that process. OFA appears to be just an effort to vigorously stir the Liberal pot and hope that some of it sticks.
*Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. – Winston Churchill
*You don’t make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. – Winston Churchill
*The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. – Winston Churchill
This not like sending your kids off to camp. Sorry but I can’t present a Sunday School version on this topic. Rules for Radicals…
“That’s what Barack Obama taught his ACORN followers in all his Community Agitator classes in Chicago. That slogan defines mob scapegoating, of course. It is an exact prescription for whipping up mobs — by race, by gender, by ethnicity, by religion. If you want to know how to whip a mob of Pakistani Taliban fascisti to whip a young girl for flirting with a young man in public, this is exactly what you do: Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personality It, and Polarize It.”
I can’t think of anything more divisive than that. Mob Scapegoating is not acceptable curriculum.
Now, let the rock throwing begin.
It’s been reported that the New York City Zoo will begin feed the Arctic Heart Eating Harpy an emergency diet of Liberal hearts since the supply of polar bear hearts has been seriously curtailed by the most recent wave of global warming. Another source was under consideration, but since we all know that Conservatives do not have hearts, this source was deemed unsuitable.
Davey, I’m not an organ donor anyway.
Hearing that Mike Pence was not running for senate here in indiana against evan bayh was a dissapointment… until i realized that I probably wouldnt have voted for him in the primary anyways. My old representative from my district has announced he is running for senate, John Hostettler, and I am really excited about this. He has an engineering degree so you know he’s good problem solver. Solid small government ideas and a strong faith.
http://www.johnhostettler.com
Maggie, look close at the SNL skit of the State of the Union. He claims that Ted Kennedy is dead, yet he is shown in the audience.
Here is something that hasn’t been in the news in awhile, the Freedom Tower. So how is it doing? They are starting to work on the iron frame work and are already working on the 6th floor. It’s suppose to be open 2011 instead of 2013. It is now known as the 1 World Trade Center (not One World Trade Center). On the economic front, it may be a disaster as the Dubai tower (officially the The Burj Khalifa skyscraper) and other real estate sits empty.
@Gregory_Dittman
[[Maggie, look close at the SNL skit of the State of the Union. He claims that Ted Kennedy is dead, yet he is shown in the audience.]]
LOL! Yeah, I saw that too …
@ Gregory_Dittman
I worked on the A-10 for 4 years as an Avionics tech. It is very bad news for the enemy. I doesn’t need to hang around for two hours, it can pretty much take care of businesss in a few minutes. Plus, it has in-flight refueling capabilities. Since they ususally fly two ship formations, they’ll have one two ship formation on station while the other is refueling if necessary. I spent more time on Army bases conducting joint exercises while I worked on the A-10 than I did on Air Force bases. Damn Army pukes were up and running around the base at 5am interruputing out beauty sleep.
Ummm … Did I ever mention how much A-10s turn me on????!!!????
@Maggie: Not sure I really needed to know that
@ Maggie
They are hot! This is one of the ones I worked on. 76th Tactical Figher Squadron / 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing, England AFB in Alexandria, Louisiana. Now closed thanks to Congress. We had a pilot land one of these with half a wing missing and one of the horizontal stabilizers gone after two of them collided in a turn.
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/7/8/0/0772087.jpg
Grrrrrrrrrr, baby! “The hand of God” :
http://tinyurl.com/yg7k63s
A-10 sex toys:
http://tinyurl.com/yvxrpk
Government Flow Chart
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/
Aqua, the problem is that the Taliban already know that it takes about 30 to 40 minutes for aircraft to arrive on the scene from an airfield. So the Taliban fight for a little bit and then take off. The best way to reduce the attack time is to already have aircraft already in the area and that’s where the loiter time comes in handy. Craft that can loiter for awhile can also be used as patrol aircraft. They could use heavy thermal equipment spotting people crossing borders, walking on trails and hiding on mountain tops waiting to ambush somebody. The could cover more area at a time than a foot patrol. Drones could do some of the work but they have three problems. They tend to crash, they tend to have a poor payload and they haven’t been built for CAS.
@ Gregory_Dittman
I’m with ya. The A-10 has the ability to do that. The thing doesn’t stall until about 120 knots. But they do need constant tanker support. I can’t see the Air Force brass getting a prop plane to do that though. When I was in we had the O-2 and the OV-10 as forward observers. Pilots that were at the bottom of the fighter class flew those as a second chance to get into the big planes. O-2 Skymaster could take off in about 30 yards. Not much room for munitions though.
Maybe I am being tasteless, but does anyone else see the irony of John Murtha being hospitalized on Ground HOG day after surgery for removal of an organ that works to aid in dietary FAT metabolism?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2010/Feb/02/rep__john_murtha_hospitalized_in_intensive_care.html
Update re: Organizing for America. It was a high school gov’t teacher that distributed the material against school policy.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/03/ohio-high-school-accused-promoting-political-agenda-classroom/
Got this in my e-mail this morning, it’s a 911 call where a five year old girl is saving her daddy from a possible heart attack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDARfDJw80s&feature=player_embedded
That high school is maybe 1/2 hour from where I live. That area is pretty much known as the nation’s football capital. Baby boys born in their hospital have a football placed in the nursery crib with them after having their first diaper applied.
The fact that this was done to an AP Government class floors me even more. AP, in case someone isn’t aware, is advanced placement … honors. Both my older daughters were AP in all their classes, especially the maths and sciences, in our high school. My middle daughter in her senior year of h.s. had an honors history class where the damn teacher wore Birkenstocks year round (yes, socks in the winter months). The woman insisted on taking half of every class to slam Pres. George W. Bush, and lift up Bill Clinton, while trying to paint Pres. Reagan as an old neo-Nazi. My daughter observed most in the class were heads filled with molding clay. The rest were ‘wincers’ who knew the woman was an idiot but were afraid to counter her. My daughter took every opportunity to contradict the old hippie. She even began carrying books by Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity and the good books written about Bush to class and leaving them atop her stack for the teacher to see as she strolled about the room.
Then the 2004 election was at hand. Bush came through with his campaign tour and my daughter was at the railing and got to shake his hand … he actually backed-up and came back to her, stopping and chatting with her for a moment (think Taylor Swift). I snapped a picture and had it blown up for the cover of her history notebook. It drove the teacher nuts the rest of the year. My daugjhter never had to say a word to her. Just glare at the woman as she said things, and then seemed to wilt away. No indoctrinating.
I told my daughter I wanted to go to the principle, who we were friends with as our older daughters were friends and on the volleyball team together. But my daughter begged me to let her fight this battle with the woman. It was tough for me. I did, however, approach the teacher at a parent teacher conference I’d set up. She was nervous as hell when I came into the classroom and introduced myself as Kate’s mother. She had nothing but praise for my daughter and even went so far as to say she wished all her students had the work ethic and dedication Kate had. I told her, ‘Yeah, I wish all your students had the ability to understand real history and not the revisionist crap (yep, I said crap to the teacher) she was pushing in the five hours a week they were unfortunate enough to spend with her and her liberal agenda.’ I did inform her that if she didn’t ease off her indoctrinating and open the classroom to vigorous debates from both sides I would go to the principle and then directly to the school board. I also warned that my daughter was at the very top of her class in GPA and if her grade slipped even the slightest bit in her class after this discussion that meeting would also take place. She insisted she wasn’t trying to indoctrinate the class, but I cornered her about why she suggested when the students turning 18 and about to register to vote were being coaxed into checking off the “D” instead of the “R”.
Perhaps I called the woman an idiot in my above comments. But she wasn’t stupid. She was a fool. And I told her she was. I told her she was a socialist fool that could not sink into the muddy ideology of socialism by herself, but had to drag otherwise immature minds and souls with her, and my daughter would not follow. The school would not teach religion, I told her, but I’d be damned if they tried to manipulate my daughter’s politics either.
Anyhow, thankfully, there are students in these classes that take this crap home to their parents and the teachers get busted. My daughter’s teacher was smart enough not to hand out anything that might be deemed evidence. Everything came out of her mouth to bored ears.
Aqua, I was thinking about the prop planes for the Afghanistan and Iraqi airforces. $18 billion would buy 1,000 Super Tucanos for the Iraqi air force and 1,000 Super Tucanos for the Afghanistan air force. Since the support is already there for the jets (the Super Tucanos can ever carry many of the same weapons as the jets just not as much. They can carry more than the Apaches and Cobras), add maybe $4 billion in shipping charges. So that’s $22 billion. That’s less than the cost the U.S. spends in Iraq every 2 months. Afghanistan could have 500 planes, with 375 tons of munitions, on patrol at any one time. That would wear down any force that couldn’t shoot back and the Taliban have had poor success at shooting down helicopters and even then it’s when they are hovering, landing or taking off.
Missy what a smart 5 year old beauty to try to protect her father also she is going far up with the fluent speach ability she have thank you for bringning that ,i took a chance to open it but i know my laptop always crash evry time so i dont do it to often but i could see the whole part this time ,bye
Maggie i admire you to keep track of what teacher give of their own personal sometimes dangerous influences to young kids even adolescent and teen ages who have not parent to care enough because they dont want to be bother we see the negative result often specialy as we open the door to radicalist program minded people from other countrys,thank you.
OMG! FA, this is awesome! You guys gotta post it. I have!
http://tinyurl.com/ylqucno
Background on the video here:
http://tinyurl.com/y8hhybz
With history a news topic I think things such as this are great motivating tools to get our youth tweaked to want to know more. I hope the producers make more and more.
Enjoy. I’ve listened a few times now. I also liked the original song before.
Dr. Jazzer’s film is an eye opener for many… but make no mistake, despite the warnings of “moderate” muslims like Dr. Jazzer, the Koran by its words indicate that the Islamic religion’s doctrine is a religion of hate and violence with an ultimate goal of world conquest.
Should a religion with such tenants be allowed to flourish in the United States? Will the 1st Amendment be our undoing? Wouldn’t it be prudent to amend the 1st Amendment to include words such as:
It is time to wake up. We need to realize as Dr Jazzer has pointed out that the goal of Islam at this point is to destroy us from within. At this time I would not deny those within this country that practice Islam the opportunity to do so, however, I would deny further immigration to the US by muslims and work to make the above change to our Constitution.
I would further issue this warning to Islam and reminder to those Christians who believe that we can “all just get along”…. Christ turned the other cheek, but He does not do so indefinitely. Eventually even Christ resorts to the sword.
@Maggie… I know numerous people that get a little “excited” when they find out the weapons platform came first and the airframe was designed around the “gun”. It makes for a much more pleasurable experience that way!
@Donald Bly -
Yes, I am primarily attracted by a Warthog’s ‘big gun’.
After unloading on its target it growls with great satisfaction and pleasure.
The fact that it can completely unload said big gun in one blast and lay complete waste to a fully armored tank in seconds is better than dinner, movie, flowers, candy, and a diamond ring over the stretch of an evening.
It is a purely physical attraction.
I am an A-10 `ho.
I am unashamed …
Maggie….I liked that video so much its up as the featured video. Fantastic find.
Bush Tax Cuts cited for fatal shark attack off the Florida Coast. Obama figures it will take longer than expected to turn everything around, in the mean time another stimulus will save 2 million jobs, while we expect to lose 5 million more. Obama figures sound financial strategy is the only thing that will save this country.
Gregory_Dittman, for over 30 years I have jumped out of “perfectly good airplanes” and received
less than impressive CAS. Quite frankly We will accept whatever We get and be very grateful.
Here is some Columbian CAS brought to you by a BT-67 (converted C-47) Fantasma gunship:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1d8_1255626332
FARC didn’t have a very good day.
The backstory of this mission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSFZNnjf9_Y
@Maggie:
Something similar went on in my youngest daughter’s government class when she was a senior during the Bush 41/Clinton election. She is an asthmatic and had to be tutored at home for most of her senior year. She was in class in September, most in her class were supporting Bush, was home throughout Oct, went back just before the election and the teacher had basically turned his classroom into a campaign for Clinton and most of the students had then swung over to supporting Clinton.
She has always been rather snippy and told him she felt he should keep his politics to himself while on the job. From that point on his attitude toward her went downhill and he was slow getting her lessons to her frustrated tutor, he got the material to her, but he drug his feet, thankfully we only had to deal with him for the rest of the semester.
She only managed to stay in school for a couple more weeks, wound up being tutored at home for the rest of the year. There was something in the school environment that she was allergic to that year only, she was fine during her first three years in that building, the Drs could never figure it out.
But, in a month’s time that teacher had managed to influence four students that were able to vote that year because they were 18. Who knows how many he snagged in his other classes.
@ilovebeeswarzone:
Beezy, thanks so much! I’m glad you were able to see the video. After watching it I thought that little five year old girl had better sense and functioned quite well under pressure, far better than what sits in the Oval Office right now.
@Old Trooper 2:
Ha! You’ve had many more take offs than landings. Are you still earning your jump pay? Without a doubt! I can’t remember how often the guys had to jump to maintain their pay back in the 60s at Bragg. My ex loved it so much that whenever he was home he tried to go up every chance he got.
We used to get to see the Golden Knights jump every once in awhile, they were amazing! did you know any of them? How about Squirrel Sprouse? He was legendary among the buddies, they never tired of telling tales of his very dangerous capers. Another name I remember is Batchelor, he was the son of the big guy’s driver, that made him important in the group for some reason.
Ft. Bragg was kind of a wild ride for me. McDonald, the doctor that murdered his family was in his group, then one of his master sgt’s ate one of his landlord’s dogs and was evicted, one ms got mad at his telephone, ripped it out of the wall, took it down to the phone company, threw it on a desk and walked out. Then, another would have us into his home for something new to us, clogging, his wife would counsel me on how and what to freeze, don’t remember their names, but will never forget them. There’s a couple other things I remember but I know better than to talk about it. Olden days of Bragg, probably wouldn’t recognize the place.
Heh,
http://trippstake.com/journal/2010/2/3/punxsutawney-owlgore.html
MISSY very funny a good way to sell a just cause bye