The Air Force will hang on to its F-22 tooling at Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga., production plant even after it stops making the fifth generation fighter jet in 2012, according to Flight International's Stephen Trimble. Though the Air Force has said in the past the goal would be to provide a long-time service plan for the jets, the decision also implicitly preserves the option to restart production if future administrations decide that the USAF needs more than 186 F-22s, Trimble writes.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/02/2010 17:38 Comments ||
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#2
Something I always wondered, who owns the tooling in this- and similar- cases? This says it´s the AF, but I would think it´s the company, and why on earth would they destroy it, unless the were told to, and what would be the point of that?
Posted by: Grunter in Lima ||
08/02/2010 20:22 Comments ||
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#3
who owns the tooling
depends on the contract
why on earth would they destroy it
to be able to charge the govt if they need to rebuild it and to save storage charges if they don't. Stuff like tools don't store well unless maintained. We ain't talking jigs. And that costs money.
I smell a job opening for a Dust Czar.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations.
The letter dated July 23 to the EPA states, "If approved, would establish the most stringent and unparalleled regulation of dust in our nation's history." It further states, "We respect efforts for a clean and healthy environment, but not at the expense of common sense. These identified levels will be extremely burdensome for farmers and livestock producers to attain. Whether its livestock kicking up dust, soybeans being combined on a dry day in the fall, or driving a car down the gravel road, dust is a naturally occurring event."
Many in the Oklahoma farming industry are opposed to the EPA's consideration. One farmer said the possible regulations are ridiculous.
"It's plain common sense, we don't want to do anything detrimental," said farmer Curtis Roberts. "If the dust is detrimental to us, it's going to be to everybody. We're not going to do anything to hurt ourselves or our farm."
Roberts, a fourth generation farmer and rancher in Arcadia, said regulating dust in rural areas will hurt farmers' harvest, cultivation and livelihood.
"Anytime you work ground, you're going to have dust. I don't know how they'll regulate it," Roberts said. "The regulations are going to put us down and keep us from doing things we need to be doing because of the EPA."
Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling said the rules could be detrimental to farmers across the Sooner State.
"We as an organization do not feel dust is a pollutant," Spradling said. "It would almost be impossible to comply with what's being addressed now from the EPA as in agriculture. We're doing everything we possibly can."
"It's just common sense, we don't like dust in the morning but it's something we got to live with," Roberts said.
#5
Hey, I've got a great idea! Why not just shut down agriculture? Yeah, a lot of people would starve, but that is just a side benefit.
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/02/2010 18:37 Comments ||
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#6
During the Dust Bowl, dust was indeed a serious health issue. However, I've heard no reports to indicate those conditions currently obtain. Perhaps the officious asses should show their data, Climategate style.
It is claimed that the rate of housemaids running away from their sponsors usually increases as the holy month of Ramadan approaches.
They escape as they are often able to command larger salaries of around SR2,500 per month, particularly because many Saudi families find it difficult to manage without a house help during the fasting month.
The pressing need for housemaids during Ramadan drives some families to employ illegal foreign maids, particularly in larger cities such as Jeddah, Riyadh and Makkah.
However, a housemaid who successfully escapes often gives her original sponsor the headache of having to recruit a replacement, which may cost as much as SR10,000 in addition to residence fees. Moreover, the maid might steal from the house before running away.
Citizen Muslih Al-Rifae said it was noticeable that a growing number of housemaids usually flee from their sponsors when Ramadan nears searching for better pay.
The housemaids will continue to run away even if their sponsors are regularly paying them their monthly salaries, he said.
Al-Rifae said many brokers from their native lands encourage the housemaids to escape for better payment during Ramadan. Most of these brokers hang around malls and supermarkets hunting for easy prey.
The brokers will offer a housemaid or driver a monthly salary of around SR2,500, in addition to accommodation and food. They then take around SR500 a month in commission.
Faisal Al-Matrafi called for crackdowns near malls and supermarkets to arrest runaway housemaids as well as the brokers.
Fawziyah G. said a possible solution was to install iron bars as well as electric curtains on windows and hide the apartment key away from the housemaids.
Cameras may also be planted in various areas of the house to observe the movements of the housemaid 24/7, she suggested.
Recruitment office owner Muhammad Al-Subhi said he was embarrassed whenever a housemaid ran away from her sponsor, especially as he has paid a lot of money to recruit her.
He also asked employers to be good to housemaids and treat them nicely.
There are some Saudis who mistreat their housemaids, compelling them to run away, he said.
Nasser Al-Subaie says he recruited a housemaid from Indonesia and paid a lot of money to cover her expenses. When she landed at King Abdulaziz International Airport immigration officials discovered that she could not enter the Kingdom as she had a criminal record.
She was sent back home and I lost the money I had spent on her recruitment, he said.
An official from the National Recruitment Committee at the Saudi Council of Chambers said Saudi embassies abroad would be connected to the same fingerprinting system currently in use at airports to prevent foreign recruits with criminal records from returning to the country.
Criminy. Even the Castros get it. When will Bambi?
Raul Castro said Sunday that his government will scale back controls on small businesses, lay off unnecessary workers and allow more self-employment -- significant steps in a country where the state dominates nearly every facet of the economy.
While the American administration is looking to stamp out self-employment ...
Cuba's president, however, squashed notions of a sweeping overhaul to the country's communist economic system in response to the financial crisis it faces. "With experience accumulated in more than 55 years of revolutionary struggle, it doesn't seem like we're doing too badly, nor that desperation or frustration have been our companions along the way," the president said.
Never mind all the boat people and the swimming Buicks ...
Castro spoke before parliament, which opened its biannual session without Fidel Castro, who has made a slew of recent public appearances of late but missed another chance to share a major public stage with his younger brother.
"Nurse, we need another colostomy bag!"
Instead, lawmakers got Raul, who said authorities will "update the Cuban economic model," suggesting reforms could be on the horizon. Cuban officials plan to reduce state control of small businesses, authorize more Cubans to become self-employed and build a new tax structure that will compel state employees to contribute more.
About 95 percent of all Cubans currently work for the government and Castro has suggested that as many as one in five state employees are redundant. He promised job cuts, calling for "the reduction of work forces that are considerably bloated in the state sector."
Castro said those left out of work would be retrained or reassigned so as not to stay unemployed, but also said warned that few sectors would be immune to job-cuts. While he offered no specifics, his comments on economic and employment reform could mean a lot in Cuba, where many had hoped the government of Raul Castro could embrace small economic openings after he took power from his brother, first temporarily, then permanently, in July 2006.
The 'update' has to be managed to keep the current political and military parasites in power. If the Cubans, a naturally industrious people, start to do things for themselves, sooner or later they will turn to their 'leaders' and ask the obvious question:
"Say, you guys are kinda stupid. Who put you in charge?"
At that point 'la revolucion' is over.
Communist China went through several such loosenings of power. Let's give Mr. Castro the Younger a little time before believing it will last.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/02/2010 00:00 ||
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BEIJING (Reuters) -- Thousands of tons of garbage washed down by recent torrential rain are threatening to jam the locks of China's massive Three Gorges Dam, and is in places so thick people can stand on it, state media said on Monday.
Chen Lei, a senior official at the China Three Gorges Corporation, told the China Daily that 3,000 tons of rubbish was being collected at the dam every day, but there was still not enough manpower to clean it all up. China does not have enough manpower?
"The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam," Chen said, referring to the gates of the locks which allow shipping to pass through the Yangtze River.
The river is a crucial commercial artery for the upstream city of Chongqing and other areas in China's less-developed western interior provinces.
Pictures showed a huge swathe of the waters by the dam crammed full of debris, with cranes brought in to fish out a tangled mess, including shoes, bottles, branches and Styrofoam.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/02/2010 19:27 Comments ||
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#3
I still recall TV film footage of CHINESE KIDDIES PLAYING, FROLICKING IN + AROUND MASSIVE MOUNDS OF RIVERBANK GARB-A-G-E + VARIABLY COLORED WATERS.
ION MSM-NET > Most recently in the PHILIPPINES, poverty-stricken Locals are repor building whole makeshift Villages = Tent Cities/Camps atop, within, andor alongside CEMETERY MAUSOLEUMS, etc. They repor are removing the entombed dead in order to make "living space" for their Families + personal wares???
TOMB OPENINGS + REMOVAL OF THE DEAD = "HOUSE-WARMING"???
In the first substantive legal ruling on President Barack Obamas health care reform law, a federal judge has rejected the Justice Departments request to dismiss a lawsuit from Virginias state government challenging the reforms requirement that individuals purchase health insurance.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson ruled that enough factual issues were in dispute in the case to allow the suit, brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to go forward against the health care reform law, Obamas signature legislative accomplishment. At issue is whether the insurance mandate included in the reform exceeds the federal governments authority under the Constitution -- in particular, whether Congresss ability to regulate commerce allows the federal government to penalize those who decline to buy health insurance. The lawsuit is also based in part on a law passed in that state in March seeking to bar the federal government from imposing any mandate to purchase health insurance.
"Unquestionably, this regulation radically changes the landscape of health insurance coverage in America," Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision filed Monday morning. "Never before has the Commerce Clause...been extended this far." Hudson said there was no clear legal precedent allowing the federal government to impose such a rule, even under Congresss power to require individuals to pay taxes. However, he also conceded there was no clear precedent to the contrary.
Continued on Page 49
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Sunday that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has "the cojones" that President Obama "does not have" to take on illegal immigration. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Palin blasted Obama for suing Arizona to block the state's controversial new law without addressing "sanctuary cities" -- in which local law enforcement are prohibited from asking people about their immigration status. Zing!
#1
What part of "permanent majority strategy" does she not understand?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
08/02/2010 8:27 Comments ||
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#2
How many of those "permanent majority" are prepared to give, as Lincoln said, 'the last full measure of devotion'? Power from the ballot box is an illusion. 20th Century dictators had 'referendums' with 99% 'for'. The real test is when the population is asked to die for the 'system'. That's the problem the permanent party faced in Moscow twenty years ago, along with its little brothers throughout the Eastern Block.
it implies Obama wants to take on illegal immigration
I'm almost certain that Obama likes the immigration the way it is.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/02/2010 15:50 Comments ||
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#6
"Obama lacks 'the cojones' to tackle immigration"
FTFY
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2010 19:14 Comments ||
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#7
Beat me to it, Barbara. Looked at the heading and thought, last phrase, redundant.
Posted by: Grunter in Lima ||
08/02/2010 20:25 Comments ||
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#8
No kidding, Grunter.
Off topic, I'm presuming you're in the South American Lima, not the Ohio one - how's winter?
**she asks while preparing for another 100-degree day this week :-( **
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2010 20:30 Comments ||
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#9
Hi, Barbara. In one word, wierd. Windcheater cool, no more. But Lima (in Peru, yes) in winter has a perpetual fog or low cloud that picks up the lights at night and after a while is the dismal-est thing you ever saw. And if there is no wind, it has the worst air pollution imaginable. Luckily the air is moving a bit now.
Fantastic food, though...Friendly people.
Just posted a bit at the club about our doin´s.
Having a lot of fun. Cheers!
Posted by: Grunter in Lima ||
08/02/2010 21:06 Comments ||
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On July 20, 22 young illegal immigrants in caps and gowns entered the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., and began sit-ins in the offices of several senators. Twelve soon returned to the atrium, where they formed a circle around a banner reading "Undocumented and Unafraid." Refusing to be moved, the students were arrested by Capitol Police, as were nine others who had stayed put in the offices of Sen. John McCain and Majority Leader Harry Reid. Yeah. Arrested them, threw them in the paddy wagon, drove them far enough away that they would be tired after they walked back, and let them out is more like it.
Less than two miles away, a similar protest by a separate but allied group was taking place at Lafayette Square in front of the White House. These students went a step further. Openly announcing their immigration status and giving their full names just across the Mall from Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters, they forced a difficult choice upon ICE officials. Yeah, I'm sure. Do nothing or don't do anything.
Take no action, and ICE would undermine the law. But come down hard by deporting the students, many of them still teenagers, and it would risk drawing overwhelming public outcry. Uh, NO IT WOULDN'T. It would risk drawing the ire of the Obama regime.
These individualsplus several hundred more high school and college students of illegal statushad come to the capital to call for passage of the floundering Dream Act. Dream, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, co-sponsored by 36 senators, including Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) and Richard Lugar (R., Ind.), would offer temporary residency to students who arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors if they attend college. It would grant them permanent residency upon graduating. IOW: Citizenship would be the next step after that.
#1
Call their bluff. If they're here in good faith, that is if their intention is to contribute meaningfully to a strong nation, then they should be offered amnesty for some level of service to the nation upon graduation. For ex., draft them into the National Guard and send them to police the border.
#4
Scene from The Kentucky Fried Movie, which had all kinds of interesting trivia associated with it. That particular scene had the real martial artist Hapkido Master Bong Soo Han.
It also had George Lazenby (James Bond), Donald Sutherland, Henry Gibson, Bill Bixby, the infamous Uschi Digard, Forrest J Ackerman (king of sci-fi), director John Landis, Tina Louise, and barely registering on the credits, Leslie Nielsen.
#6
One problem is deportation is the only thing we do to them when we do something (and even then they get a free lunch). They broke a law. A law many Americans find to be a rather serious one. They should spend a bit of time in prison prior to being deported and the length should increase upon subsequent arrests. Three strikes and you're in jail for a year or so.
#7
...jail them AND bill their home country for the service. And while were at it start adding up the cost of education and health care services by country of origin and send out bills. Once Mexico stats re-imbursing 1st world healthcare costs those $ remittances won't look so great.
PESHAWAR: The death toll from devastating floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to 1,300, followed by the outbreak of waterborne disease that have added to the misery of the people affected by the flood.
A Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) official told Daily Times on Sunday that unofficial death report had risen to 1,300. He said the number of deaths confirmed so far had reached 730 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said 690 people had been killed in Charsadda, Nowshera, Peshawar, Mardan and Swabi. He said that 115 people were still missing since the torrential rains and flood hit the province.
Locals said thousands people were stranded in Nowshera and water level was gradually decreasing.
According to unofficial reports, the death toll in the worst hit districts of Swat and Shangla had reached 434 -- Swat 244 and Shangla 190.
The Pakistan Army is operating at full stretch continuously in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and had so far rescued over 28,000 people trapped in floodwater and moved them to safer places.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government declared all flood-hit districts "calamity-hit" and waived off all provincial taxes in these areas. The KP government called on the World Health Organisation to provide 50 kits for Diarrhea treatment and 50 kits for emergency treatment of the people affected by the floods.
About 17 mobile teams have been providing health facilities in Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera.
Meanwhile, efforts were still under way to rescue Chinese nationals stranded in Kohistan. Of over 200 Chinese nationals, 110 have been shifted to safer places.
"The government is facing a lot of difficulties to carry out rescue operations because of the collapse of bridges and roads in several areas," Shakil Qadir, PDMA director, told reporters in Peshawar.
In Punjab, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Bhakkar, Layyah and Muzaffargarh districts were put on a red alert due to "exceptionally high flood" expected to hit these areas anytime between Sunday night and Tuesday.
The Meteorological Department issued a warning on Sunday, saying a high tide was expected to pass through Taunsa Barrage between Sunday and Tuesday, putting southern Punjab districts at high risk.
In Taunsa Sharif, hundreds of villages had reportedly been submerged by floodwater.
The Met Department also forecast another spell of rainfall in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab during the next 48 hours. The chief meteorologist said rains would also spread across Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/02/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Allan is displeased. If we send relief helicopters will they be shot at?
#2
The S Asia Monsoon has been ferocious this year after many years of moderate to mild monsoons.
The locals are always unprepared for this and the lax building standards and flood control standards and lax enforcement of whatever standards exist make this kind of tragedy inevitable.
Of course, the locals will blame America, Israel, Britain, Genghis Khan, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/02/2010 10:09 Comments ||
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#4
ION NOT-NOAH'S-ARK, TIMES OF INDIA > MILITANTS POSE AS VICTIMS TO FISH IN PAK FLOOD WATERS, +
BTW also to SSSSSSSHHHHHHHH....CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC SNEAKEY-SNEAKILY CROSS THE BORDERS TO ENTER/PENETRATE INTO PESHAWAR FOR VARIOUS HARD/BAD BOYZ TERROR SHENNANIGANS.
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.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Sunday that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has "the cojones" that President Obama "does not have" to take on illegal immigration. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Palin blasted Obama for suing Arizona to block the state's controversial new law without addressing "sanctuary cities" -- in which local law enforcement are prohibited from asking people about their immigration status.
PESHAWAR: The death toll from devastating floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to 1,300, followed by the outbreak of waterborne disease that have added to the misery of the people affected by the flood.
