As Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) president elect Enrique Pena Nieto selects his transition team, and Partido de Revolucion Democratica (PRD) leader Jose de Jesus Zambrano Grijalva seeks to have the July 1st election results thrown out, Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) leaders and politicians prepare for their new role as a minor opposition party for the first time in 12 years.
Rantburg.com correspondent Chris Covert takes a peek at the path ahead for Mexico's PAN conservative party on Rantburg.com's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot.
Short story: fewer F-35C purchased, continued production of the F-18E/F, and development of 'truck'-like, not-so stealthy naval UAVs. The 35's escort and guide the payloads of the latter two; those operate more and more in stand-off mode. He thinks US carriers will have no more than one squadron of F-35s each. The cost savings are substantial.
Worth the read if you like this sort of thing, and Galrahn has a good grip on the issues.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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As per WAFF, the USDOD is already on the search for the "sixth generational fighter", so ya know the Navy will want in.
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I would take the author's comments one step further; I the the F-35 (all variants) as a sequel to the A-12 cost debacle, and would not be surprised to see the entire program terminated; however it will take several more years for that to happen and unlike the Avenger II, the Lightning II has flying prototypes.
The P8 is an excellent example of off the shelf utilization; it is being built in the same facility as the commercial 737's, although ITARS requires a separate line and other restrictions, the commonality is paying huge dividends.
[Dawn] THURSDAY morning's strike in Lahore reconfirmed fears about the intent of Death Eaters in the country and the expanse of their activities. This was the second incident of similar severity in the space of a few days in Punjab. On Monday, an army camp near Wazirabad had come under an atrocious attack. Six army personnel and a policeman were killed in that incident. Thursday's raid added nine unfortunate names to the list of victims. These nine were among the 30-odd police and prison staff lodged at a house in a busy city locality. The news that came out after the attack identified the victims as officials from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... who were in Lahore for training. According to one report, the local administration had been forewarned. Another spoke about the lax security at the targeted house and comparisons were made with the Wazirabad attack as the dominant question was whether the two strikes had been carried out by the same group. Amid this rush for quick explanations, a statement was flashed which said that the Taliban had taken responsibility for the brutal act.
Even before the gory incident, security on Lahore's roads appeared to have been beefed up. This would lend credence to the theory that the Punjab government's security apparatus had some inkling that something horrific was building up -- something that they might not be able to avert even if they bolstered safety measures. And if this is not enough proof of the inadequacy of the government's defence against the beturbanned goons, the police discourse post-attack reeked of an old desire to build false security covers around Punjab. That the victims belonged to the security departments of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa set a familiar tone for statements and discussion. Punjab, the leading shareholder in the federation, seemed once again in danger of looking on it as 'someone else's' problem instead of recognising the attack as a direct threat to its own peace. This is an extremely dangerous view, one which has been proven wrong time and again. A better policy would be to be prepared and willing to take on the beturbanned goons.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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Lee Smith of the Weekly Standard (source link) joins several others who see a pattern in the Syrian Dictator Assad's serial Massacres.
The theory is that they are designed to move Sunnis out of Alawite territory or intimidate Sunnis remaining in Alawite territory.
Another author who sees this same pattern is Harold Rhode of the Gatestone (formerly Hudson) Institute.
An author who sees Assad as trying and failing to achieve this is Jonathon Kay of Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/14/2012 00:00 ||
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Is this like ethnic cleansing or genocide? Seems like the Donks would jump on this since they say they are interested in human rights (as opposed to individual rights). Oh, I forgot, they don't really give a flip--they are trying to get the ONE, The Narcissist-In-Chief re-elected. They are too busy dredging up issues about Bain Capital and other horsepucky. They ARE desperate since they can't run on the ONE's record.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] THURSDAY morning's strike in Lahore reconfirmed fears about the intent of 
