• Feed RSS
There was an error in this gadget
Of course the humorless Republitards won't get this because their
brand of humor is dark, dank and an abomination to civil society.

Let's put a gun sight target on Sarah Palins kids whereabouts and see
how she likes it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJNBctddBSM

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.








 

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/02/intelligence_committee_chair_c.html

Intelligence Committee chair: China-based cyber attacks against U.S. companies are getting 'exponentially' worse

Published: Friday, February 10, 2012, 7:35 PM     Updated: Friday, February 10, 2012, 7:44 PM

By Garret Ellison | gellison@mlive.com
File PhotoMike Rogers, R-Brighton, said Chinese cyber warfare against the government and U.S. companies is the country's greatest national security threat while speaking at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids on Friday. Rogers is chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

GRAND RAPIDS — The growing threat of cyber attacks against the federal government and United States-based companies by China is the country's greatest national security challenge moving forward, says Congressman Mike Rogers.

"I have never seen in my lifetime a nation state that invests its intelligence and military services in the organized theft of intellectual property like the Chinese have done and are doing," said Rogers, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

"It is exponentially worse this year, and will be exponentially worse next year because of their growing capability."

Rogers, R-Brighton, spoke to a private group of people invited by the Seidman College of Business on Friday morning at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids.

A former FBI agent, Rogers touched briefly on a wide-range of national security threats he's privy to as chair of the 20-person committee with oversight of the executive branch's intelligence services and their collective $80 billion annual budget.

From nuclear proliferation concerns in North Korea to "organized crime gangs on steroids" roving through northern Mexican states, "the world is still a very dangerous place," said Rogers, who advocated for renewed investment in the intelligence community and a return to space missions scrapped with the shuttle program.

"One of my concerns is this notion that we can just kind of hunker down and build up fences and everything is going to be fine," he said.

"That world is gone — if it were ever here. We need to engage."

He criticized the Afghanistan drawdown timetable for transitioning American troops from a combat role to a "training, assist and advice" role by late 2013 as "not only wrong but dangerous" because it gives the Taliban a date to rally around.

"We have done a horrible thing by telling the Iranians, 'you're winning the region, we're losing, we're packing up,'" he said, calling Iran a proxy in Iraq who have become emboldened enough in recent years to plot the assignation of a Saudi ambassador by blowing up a Washington D.C. restaurant, an attack foiled last year.

Rogers also criticized the Obama Administration's policy on Israel as "rattling our relationship" with the Jewish state after the president's May '1967 borders' speech, where Obama declared the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war should be the basis of a deal to break the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stalemate.

Rogers warned that a "catastrophic cyber-attack in the United States" was being foretold by the intelligence community before the end of 2013, which could have devastating effects on our financial and manufacturing sectors as well as our infrastructure grid.

"It's coming. Are we ready for it? I can tell you we are not."

Rogers, who in November launched an investigation into possible threats posed by Chinese-owned telecommunications companies working in the United States, said he's sponsoring a bill that would allow the government to share the "secret sauce" with the private sector when they see malicious code coming, by creating a way for companies to get security clearances so the government could share certain information.

The National Security Agency knows about threats "that they cannot share with us because they've collected (that information) in a classified manner," he said. "We think this gives us a fighting chance on some of the malicious code we know is out there and not being used today."

Rogers said there are more than 100,000 attempted cyber-attacks against the Central Intelligence Agency computer network every day and that's just one intelligence service out of about a dozen in the federal government.

"Imagine if they want your intellectual property," he said. "Name an IT person in the world in the private sector, at a small, medium or large sized company, that can withstand attempts like that every single day."

"Something is going to get through," he said. "That's the problem."

He suggested the value of intellectual property being stolen every year by Chinese-based cyber theft as high as $1 trillion. He said China is "actively pursuing" intellectual property on all American, European and Asian allies networks. They lurk on a network for years until something looks ready to steal, he said, and then reap the rewards.

"We will have an artificial competitor that invested not one dime in research and development, but has all the benefit of that innovation that they can apply to the marketplace," he said.

Email Garret Ellison or follow him on Twitter.



 


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.


New post on Scotty Starnes's Blog

Red Eye Takes On Media Matters/George Soros with Robot Theater (Video)

by Scotty Starnes

This comes from an investigative report, by the Daily Caller, that reveals Media Matter, the liberal news media, and the White House working together in order to control/spin information. Goebbels would be proud of this brand of propaganda.

Red Eye is one of the best shows on cable. Fox should move it out of the 3 a.m. time slot.

 

Scotty Starnes | February 14, 2012 at 8:24 PM | Tags: George Soros, Media Matters, Red Eye | Categories: Political Issues | URL: http://wp.me/pvnFC-6CQ

Comment    See all comments

Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
http://scottystarnes.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/red-eye-takes-on-media-mattersgeorge-soros-with-robot-theater-video/

Thanks for flying with WordPress.com



--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
Romney: he's the only candidate right or left who has used the word
"tragedy" to describe the economic mess millions of people are going
through.
He's absolutely correct, and unlike all others, used the correct words
to describe it.

Santorum: At a rally where his lemming supporters repeated the phrase
to OWS supporters; "get a job"... (how original, what geniuses in that
crowd!...although I bet not one of them in that crowd was hiring
anyone!) told the crowd;

"You realize that there is a group in society that is being left
behind. There's a group, about one in three Americans don't graduate
from high school, and almost all of them, over three quarters of them,
will end up in poverty at some point in time in this country," said
Santorum. "We've got to provide an opportunity for them, instead of
standing here yelling at somebody, to go out and get a job and work
for a living."

He's absolutely correct. Yelling at someone to do something they've
been unable to do, is neither productive nor a solution.
Instead of meaningless ideological catch phrases, he's actually
focusing on the meat and potatoes of the issue and basically telling
his audience to stfu.

Newt: did a ok job when he was in congress. He helped make the 1990's
a economic peak decade for America.

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
0


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Travis <twmccoy@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 9:25 PM
Subject: WWII Aircraft facts
To: Travis McCoy <baconlard@gmail.com>






 

 

 

Below is a summary of the effort required in WWII. It focuses on the American side of things, but the British, Germans and Japanese expended comparable energy and experienced similar costs. Just one example for the Luftwaffe; about 1/3 of the Bf109s built were lost in non-combat crashes. After Midway, the Japanese experience level declined markedly, with the loss of so many higher-time naval pilots. This piece is worth saving in hard copy.


Most Americans who were not adults during WWII have no understanding of the magnitude of it.
This listing of some of the aircraft facts gives a bit of insight to it. 
276,000 aircraft manufactured in the US ..
43,000 planes lost overseas, including 23,000 in combat. 
14,000 lost in the continental U.S. 

The US civilian population maintained a dedicated effort for four years, many working long hours seven days per week and often also volunteering for other work.

WWII was the largest human effort in history.
Statistics from Flight Journal magazine.

THE PRICE OF VICTORY (cost of an aircraft in WWII dollars)
B-17       $204,370.     P-40       $44,892.
B-24       $215,516.     P-47       $85,578.
B-25       $142,194.     P-51       $51,572.
B-26       $192,426.     C-47       $88,574.
B-29       $605,360.     PT-17     $15,052.
P-38         $97,147.     AT-6       $22,952.

PLANES A DAY  WORLDWIDE 
>From Germany's invasion of Poland Sept. 1, 1939 and ending with Japan 's surrender Sept. 2, 1945 --- 2,433 days
From 1942 onward, America averaged 170 planes lost a day.

How many is a 1,000  planes?  B-17 production (12,731) wingtip to wingtip would extend 250 miles.  1,000 B-17s carried
2.5 million gallons of high octane fuel and required 10,000 airmen to fly and fight them.

THE NUMBERS GAME
9.7 billion gallons of gasoline consumed, 1942-1945.
107.8 million hours flown, 1943-1945.
459.7 billion rounds of aircraft ammo fired overseas, 1942-1945.
7.9 million bombs dropped  overseas, 1943-1945.
2.3 million combat sorties, 1941-1945 (one sortie = one takeoff).
299,230 aircraft accepted, 1940-1945.
808,471 aircraft engines accepted, 1940-1945.
799,972 propellers accepted, 1940-1945.

WWII MOST-PRODUCED COMBAT AIRCRAFT
Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmovik                                  36,183


Yakolev Yak-1,-3,-7, -9                               31,000+


Messerschmitt Bf-109                                  30,480

Focke-Wulf Fw-190                                      29,001

Supermarine Spitfire/Seafire                        20,351

Convair B-24/PB4Y Liberator/Privateer       18,482

Republic P-47 Thunderbolt                          15,686

North American P-51 Mustang                     15,875

Junkers Ju-88                                              15,000

Hawker Hurricane                                        14,533

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk                                 13,738

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress                         12,731

Vought F4U Corsair                                      12,571

Grumman F6F Hellcat                                  12,275

Petlyakov Pe-2                                             11,400

Lockheed P-38 Lightning                              10,037

Mitsubishi A6M Zero                                    10,449

North American B-25 Mitchell                        9,984

Lavochkin LaGG-5                                         9,920

Note: The LaGG-5 was produced with both water-cooled (top) and air-cooled (bottom) engines.

Grumman TBM Avenger                                9,837

Bell P-39 Airacobra                                        9,584

Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar                                    5,919

DeHavilland Mosquito                                   7,780

Avro Lancaster                                              7,377

Heinkel He-111                                              6,508

Handley-Page Halifax                                       6,176

Messerschmitt Bf-110                                    6,150

Lavochkin LaGG-7                                         5,753

Boeing B-29 Superfortress                            3,970

Short Stirling                                                     2,383


Sources:  Rene Francillon,  Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific war; Cajus Bekker, The Luftwaffe Diaries;  Ray Wagner, American Combat Planes; Wikipedia.
 
  
According to the AAF Statistical Digest, in less than four years (December 1941- August 1945), the US Army Air Forces lost 14,903 pilots, aircrew and assorted personnel plus 13,873 airplanes ---
inside the continental United States.  They were the result of 52,651 aircraft accidents (6,039 involving fatalities) in 45 months.

Think about those numbers. They average 1,170 aircraft accidents per month---- nearly 40 a day.  (Less than one accident in four resulted in totaled aircraft, however.)
It gets worse.....
Almost 1,000 Army planes disappeared en route from the US to foreign climes.  But an eye-watering 43,581 aircraft were lost overseas including 22,948 on combat missions (18,418 against the Western Axis) and 20,633 attributed to non-combat causes overseas.

In a single 376 plane raid in August 1943, 60 B-17s were shot down. That was a 16 percent loss rate and meant 600 empty bunks in England .  In 1942-43 it was statistically impossible for bomber crews to complete a 25-mission tour in Europe .
Pacific theatre losses were far less (4,530 in combat) owing to smaller forces committed.  The worst B-29 mission, against Tokyo on May 25, 1945, cost 26 Superfortresses, 5.6 percent of the 464 dispatched from the Marianas .
On  average, 6,600 American servicemen died per month during WWII, about 220 a day. By the end of the war, over 40,000 airmen were killed in combat theatres and another 18,000 wounded.  Some 12,000 missing men were declared dead, including a number "liberated" by the Soviets but never returned.  More than 41,000 were captured, half of the 5,400 held by the Japanese died in captivity, compared with one-tenth in German hands.   Total combat casualties were pegged at 121,867.

US manpower made up the deficit.  The AAF's peak strength was reached in 1944 with 2,372,000 personnel, nearly twice the previous year's figure.
The losses were huge---but so were production totals.  From 1941 through 1945, American industry delivered more than 276,000 military aircraft. That number was enough not only for US Army, Navy and Marine Corps, but for allies as diverse as Britain , Australia , China and Russia .  In fact, from 1943 onward, America produced more planes than Britain and Russia combined.  And more than Germany and Japan together 1941-45.
However, our enemies took massive losses.  Through much of 1944, the Luftwaffe sustained uncontrolled hemorrhaging, reaching 25 percent of aircrews and 40 planes a month.  And in late 1944 into 1945, nearly half the pilots in Japanese squadrons had flown fewer than 200 hours.  The disparity of two years before had been completely reversed.
 


Experience Level:
Uncle Sam sent many of his sons to war with absolute minimums of training. Some fighter pilots entered combat in 1942 with less than one hour in their assigned aircraft.
The 357th Fighter Group (often known as The Yoxford Boys) went to England in late 1943 having trained on P-39s.  The group never saw a Mustang until shortly before its first combat mission. 
A high-time P-51 pilot had 30 hours in type.  Many had fewer than five hours.  Some had one hour.
With arrival of new aircraft, many combat units transitioned in combat.  The attitude was, "They all have a stick and a throttle.  Go fly `em." When the famed 4th Fighter Group converted from P-47s to P-51s in February 1944, there was no time to stand down for an orderly transition.   The Group commander, Col. Donald Blakeslee, said, "You can learn to fly `51s on the way to the target

A future P-47 ace said,
"I was sent to England to die."  He was not alone.  Some fighter pilots tucked their wheels in the well on their first combat mission with one previous flight in the aircraft.  Meanwhile, many bomber crews were still learning their trade: of Jimmy Doolittle's 15 pilots on the April 1942 Tokyo raid, only five had won their wings before 1941.  All but one of the 16 copilots were less than a year out of flight school.

In WWII flying safety took a back seat to combat.  The AAF's worst accident rate was recorded by the A-36 Invader version of the P-51: a staggering 274 accidents per 100,000 flying hours.  Next worst were the P-39 at 245, the P-40 at 188, and the P-38 at 139.  All were Allison powered.

Bomber wrecks were fewer but more expensive.  The B-17 and B-24 averaged 30 and 35 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, respectively-- a horrific figure considering that from 1980 to 2000 the Air Force's major mishap rate was less than 2.
The B-29 was even worse at 40; the world's most sophisticated, most capable and most expensive bomber was too urgently needed to stand down for mere safety reasons. The AAF set a reasonably high standard for B-29 pilots, but the desired figures were seldom attained. 
The original cadre of the 58th Bomb Wing was to have 400 hours of multi-engine time, but there were not enough experienced pilots to meet the criterion.  Only ten percent had overseas experience.  Conversely, when a $2.1 billion B-2 crashed in 2008, the Air Force initiated a two-month "safety pause" rather than declare a "stand down", let alone grounding.

The B-29 was no better for maintenance. Though the R3350 was known as a complicated, troublesome power-plant, no more than half the mechanics had previous experience with the Duplex Cyclone.  But they made it work.
Navigators:
Perhaps the greatest unsung success story of AAF training was Navigators.  The Army graduated some 50,000 during the War.  And many had never flown out of sight of land before leaving "Uncle Sugar" for a war zone.  Yet the huge majority found their way across oceans and continents without getting lost or running out of fuel --- a stirring tribute to the AAF's educational establishments.
Cadet To Colonel:
It was possible for a flying cadet at the time of Pearl Harbor to finish the war with eagles on his shoulders.  That was the record of John D. Landers, a 21-year-old Texan, who was commissioned a second lieutenant on December 12, 1941.  He joined his combat squadron with 209 hours total flight time, including 20 in P-40s.  He finished the war as a full colonel, commanding an 8th Air Force Group --- at age 24.
As the training pipeline filled up, however those low figures became exceptions. 
By early 1944, the average AAF fighter pilot entering combat had logged at least 450 hours, usually including 250 hours in training.  At the same time, many captains and first lieutenants claimed over 600 hours.
FACT:
At its height in mid-1944, the Army Air Forces had 2.6 million people and nearly 80,000 aircraft of all types. 
Today the US Air Force employs 327,000 active personnel (plus 170,000 civilians) with 5,500+ manned and perhaps 200 unmanned aircraft. 
The 2009 figures represent about 12 percent of the manpower and 7 percent of the airplanes of the WWII peak.
IN SUMMATION: 
Whether there will ever be another war like that experienced in 1940-45 is doubtful, as fighters and bombers have given way to helicopters and remotely-controlled drones over Afghanistan and Iraq .  But within living memory, men left the earth
in 1,000-plane formations and fought major battles five miles high, leaving a legacy that remains timeless.

 

 

 



--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.