Excuse me? Did I hear the F-35 technology was hacked into by China? Where did I hear that first?

By MARK NICOL

PUBLISHED: 16:03 EST, 3 May 2014

UPDATED: 05:57 EST, 5 May 2014

...Defence Secretary Philip Hammond (click here) is committed to buying 48 of the jump-jet variants of the aircraft to fly from the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers from 2018, at an estimated total cost of £4.8 billion.

Until now the F-35’s invisibility – called ‘Very Low Observable’ or VLO stealth – had been achieved through its shape and paintwork, the formula for which is highly classified.

Stealth aircraft use flat surfaces and sharp edges to deflect radar signals and evade detection. The new threat  to the F-35 comes from a new system called AESA – Active Electronically Scanned Array – which works by emitting separate radio waves on different frequencies. 

By rapidly changing frequencies, the radar is more difficult  to fool. China has incorporated AESA into a new radar system which it is fitting to its latest warships. The system is apparently capable of locating a stealth aircraft within 220 miles....

And where exactly has American manufacturing outsourced jobs? Overseas? Really?

The outsourcing and the hacking occurred under the Bush White House. You'll excuse me and who has a brother that simply loves China more than any other country on Earth?


PRI's The World
Reporter Matthew Bell
May 19, 2014 · 5:15 PM EDT

In an unprecedented move, (click here) US prosecutors have charged five Chinese military officers with economic espionage and computer hacking.

The indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Monday names the men as officers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and it details specific allegations of illegal cyber spying against American companies for the benefit of Chinese companies, including state-owned enterprises.

“State actors who engage in economic espionage, even over the Internet from far away places, like offices in Shanghai, will be exposed for their criminal conduct and sought for apprehension and prosecution in an American court of law,” Attorney General Eric Holder said during a news conference announcing the charges.

“Enough is enough,” Holder said. “This case should serve as a wake up call to the seriousness of the ongoing threat.”

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, explained the implications of this very public move by the US Department of Justice....

And what US Secretary of the Treasury spent more time in China than the USA? What USA Secretary of the Treasury is now building wealth management firms in China? What exactly do Americans call national security these days? Treaties and Wall Street? That is national security ? Could have fooled me.

By Lewis Page

4 Sep 2007

Sources in Washington (click here) have indicated that the cyber attack last June which targeted the office of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was conducted by the Chinese military.

According to a report in the London Financial Times, "senior US officials" and "persons familiar with the event" have briefed that there is a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” within the Pentagon that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) carried out the June attack. That was seen as a particularly significant event, apparently, as it involved disruption of networks as well as passive snooping....

The Indictment included large USA industry leaders. (click here)

"SolarWorld" America's Largest Solar Manufacturer since 1975 (click here)

I have to wonder how much of American technology was stolen to build manufacturing in China with a cheap labor force? Is the Chinese brain trust able to actually develop the nation without spies and hackers?

North Dakota has a faux job boom. The oil coming out of North Dakota is with complete disregard to other industries.

Fracking (click here) has done some incredible things for North Dakota: It has the fastest-growing economy and lowest unemployment in the nation, and it is second only to Texas in churning out oil. But as with any gold rush, the boom comes with a human cost for those involved—illness, injury, and fatalities. (For a firsthand view of conditions in North Dakota's fracking fields, watch the video above, which we produced in 2012.)...

North Dakota is out of control and costing other industries in the country their incomes and will ultimately cause unemployment, including the car industry.

Our national infrastructure has served the country well until North Dakota has caused huge problems including an excessive amount of oil in the market and on the rails.

If the rest of the nation was being served by the railroads the way they have always been served by the railroads, North Dakota's oil job boom would be a joke.

Gasoline at the pump is as high as it has ever been. The North Dakota oil boom has done nothing to improve the cost at the pump.

OSHA is not doing it's job. Why?

This is a perfect opportunity to organize around working conditions.

North Dakota is out of control and causing hardship to families as well as other industries in the nation. Whey is this going to stop?

It is unfortunate the North Carolina legislature is incompetent.

The NC Legislators don't receive information from the McCrory Executive Branch they can't disregard the laws of the land? For real. McCrory doesn't have the expertise to advise the Legislature?

Gary D. Robertson
Associated Press
May 16, 2014
RALEIGH — A federal trial judge (click here) declined Thursday to side with North Carolina lawmakers who believe they are not required to provide documents to groups seeking answers about how a disputed elections-overhaul law was passed.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder upheld the March decision of a magistrate judge who told General Assembly members they didn't have absolute immunity from responding to subpoenas seeking such information....

US Republicans always assume coal, oil and gas exports are actually something Europe WANTS!

Singapore (Platts)--16May2014/715 am EDT/1115 GMT

Indonesian thermal coal prices (click here) were steady Friday amid reduced production and weak demand from China and India, sources said.

"Demand has been flat. There has been no real movement," an Indonesia-based trader said.

A Singapore-based trader said he has not seen any drop in thermal coal prices "which is a good thing", adding he had heard Indonesian miners were cutting output to combat low prices but believed it was not a general trend.

The Indonesia-based trader said one of its mines cut production of 4,200 kcal/kg GAR and has not done any deals for the grade recently....

Just another one of those upper latitude storms. Wyoming. This is not fiction.

Here is the time-lapse from our epic supercell structure in northeast Wyoming yesterday! (click here)

The petroleum industry is oppressing the USA economy to defeat "Green Industry Growth."

Oil Industry Blamed For Freight Rail Delays

by DAVID SCHAPER
May 19, 2014
4:57 AM ET

Many grain bins (click here) and silos remain full, long after last fall's harvest 
because the railroads are behind in shipping. A slowdown in rail service is 
delaying deliveries of other commodities too.

I TOLD YOU SO!

The petroleum industry in North Dakota overwhelmed the infrastructure. North
Dakota never, not one day, asked for the petroleum industry to be accountable
for it's production in relation to the infrastructure to transport it's product. Now,
the petroleum industry is MONOPOLIZING the rail transport industry and every
other commodity is placed on hold, including 'time sensitive' agricultural 
commodities. The ethanol industry is being closed out of transporting by rail.

In addition to hampering and crippling other industries, the increased danger

of the bitumen mixture has increased the occurrence of very dangerous 
explosions that cannot be determined to the cause simply because the fire melts 
and welds all the metal of the transport car into a lump of indistinguishable melt.

There is no clear indication as to whether the explosions happened before the
derailment or after. There is no clear evidence to point to the fact this petroleum
garbage should even be transported at all. How convenient. When an explosion 
gets finished with the 'cause' there is no determining the actual volatility in the 
railcar or pipeline. 

THAT REASON ALONE. The fact the danger of this petroleum garbage is so 
indistinguishable to any cause completely indicts the industry. All petroleum 
product containing naphtha should be barred from transportation until complete
understanding of it's dangers are known.

Oh, the defense of the industry will be, "Those environmentalists simply hate
us." Well, there is that, but, now we have evidence as to why we do.

I am checking out a bit of a phenomena now that the cold winds of the Polar Vortex is tamed by the encroachment of summer...

...it is the relationship between single women and their cars.

The entire phenomena came to visit me, I didn't go looking for it.

You are welcome to be a part of this observation in your own area.

Since Friday of last week I have repeatedly gone to the bayshore to check out the birds and any migration. The bays near us have been slow to spawn large amounts of fish. There may be a profound reason, but primarily because the ice and snow were covering the water so deeply and for an extended amount of time, the bate fish (little fish at the bottom of the food chain) are gone. Basically, they didn't survive the Polar Vortex. That may or may not have anything to do with women and cars, but, this is the issue.

While I have been surveying birds, and they are in far less numbers than I had expected. They are in far less species variety than I expected as well. They are primarily shorebirds and they dive for their food. So. There is a correlation between the species and the fish numbers. 

But, I really expect fishermen to be out on the bay catching dinner or whatever and on a rare occasion they'll actually have their wife or girlfriend. That is not my focus. What I am finding while doing my survey of birds is company. Women. Sitting along the waterfront. Alone. Sipping coffee or Smoothies or simply dangling their feet in the water.

During a day of up to three trips to the shoreline at the same place, without solicitation of any kind there is usually one other woman that joins me. They sometimes talk with me or simply sit a distance from me and enjoy the view. They sometimes walk along the shore or sit on the sand to read a book or simply breath the aire. They are peaceful and happy. They appear to be worry free. But, they also have a relationship with their car. They are relying on their cars to sustain their residence. 

They are primarily young women. Twenty somethings. They are not interested in boyfriends or being accompanied by men. One was an aged woman who still drives. They are rarely minority. They are primarily single, young caucasian women.

The USA has a problem. It is a male identity problem.

The best way I can illustrate what I am finding is to recall the bar scene in Silver Linings Playbook when Jennifer Lawrence is sitting at the bar before her dance competition and a man offers to buy her a drink. He states he is a lawyer, litigator. Lawrence states, "Oh, the arguing guy." 

Get over it, because there are beautiful, wholesome, happy women perfectly content to live life without any of you. And they do it from the safety of their car in order to find a way into their own definition of their lives.

Men's biggest complaint about women's liberation movement in the 1960s is that women don't need men. It was a hideous ideation to oppress women. Well, guess what? Women don't need men and it is the men's fault.

You want to know what occurred with American marriages? It's the men.

To quote Jennifer, "You are not a stand up guy."

OMG, Microsoft 8.1 is a piece of garbage.

Three weeks. Three weeks of very light use and the entire system crashed on a brand new HP laptop.

OMG.

I love XP. Trouble free. Whenever I ran into problems it was usually a computer component of a custom built desktop. When it is used for such varied purposes and for the extent I used it, that was expected. But, this new system is garbage.

I don't like "Bing." It attaches itself to more commercial trash than a Brazilian prostitute when the US FBI is in town. I REPEATEDLY inserted "Google" as my front page. Google is clean and neat and I was never attracted to fat women wanting to kiss me.

But, "Bing" came back as if PTSD. No matter how many times I cleaned up Chrome, set Google as my home page BING came back over and over.

I hate Bing.

Right now I hate Microsoft and Bill Gates. I hate everything about the slimeball that robbed the base operating system from HP. I really do.

I love internet cafes. I love people and those I meet there that simply open their lives to me without much of an invitation. Bill Gates' 8.1 has interrupted my life and I'll never forgive him.

On a scale of 0 to 10 whereby Dick Cheney is 10, right now Bill Gates comes in about 8.1.

Have a good evening.

There are technical problems this evening.

Thank you for your interest.

Superstorm Sandy

Jim Kossin, a NOAA National Climatic Data Center scientist assigned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, and his colleagues discovered a poleward migration of storm intensity in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres after a thorough examination of three-decades worth of global historical tropical cyclone data.

May 14, 2014
Contact: Jim Kossin james.kossin@noaa.gov
608-265-5356 University of Wisconsin-Madison

MADISON, Wis. — The latitude at which tropical cyclones reach their greatest intensity is gradually shifting from the tropics toward the poles at rates of about 33 to 39 miles per decade, according to a study published today (May 14, 2014) in the journal Nature.

The new study was led by Jim Kossin, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center scientist stationed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. The research documents a poleward migration of storm intensity in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres through an analysis of 30 years of global historical tropical cyclone data. The term "tropical cyclone" describes a broad category of storms that includes hurricanes and typhoons, large and damaging storms that draw their energy from warm ocean waters.

The findings are important, says Kossin, because they suggest that some areas, including densely populated coastal cities, could experience changes in risk due to large storms and associated floods and storm surges. Regions closer to the equator, he notes, could experience a reduced risk, and places more distant from the equator could experience an increased risk. The trend observed by Kossin and his colleagues is particularly important given the devastating loss of life and property that can follow in the wake of a tropical cyclone....

How is the northeast USA doing? A little soggy? 

Why would storms being migrating northward? It is an interesting study which records the data, but, why would storms be migrating northward?

Melting ice caps provide water vapor to fuel storms.

To all aliens and natives alike, this is what it takes to continue to live in Earth.

Jane Kleeb on the farm in Ayr, Neb., that she is restoring with her husband. Credit Michael Friberg for The New York Times 

May 16, 2014
By Saul Elbein

...“Can we put [those cows] (click here) on trucks and send them to Canada?” suggested Max Nelson, a stooped retired rancher who raised his hand every 10 minutes to pose other hypothetical disasters: a spill polluting the water supply of West Omaha, say, or compromising the hydroelectric dams on the Platte River....

Hypothetical? You mean it has never happened?

May 15, 2014
By Steven Gorman and Selam Gebrekidan

(Reuters) - A faulty valve at a petroleum pipeline pump station ruptured (click here) early on Thursday in an industrial corner of Los Angeles, spewing crude oil 40 feet into the air, onto the roof of a strip club next door, and leaving four people sick from the fumes.

An estimated 10,000 gallons of oil gushed from the pipeline before it was shut down and the spill was halted, soaking an area about a half-block long, Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Jaime Moore said.

The company that runs the pipeline, Plains All American Pipeline LP, a unit of Plains Pipeline LP, put the volume of the spill at "less than 450 barrels (18,900 gallons)" based on current field inspections....

Well, that was an interesting hypothetical. The great thing about hypotheticals is that no one gets sick, there is no risk of cancer and it doesn't cost homeland security or insurance companies any money.

How much surface area is covered by one gallon of spilled oil?

How thick is an oil spill? From top to bottom, what is the depth of an oil spill on land? One millimeter? Two? A quarter of an inch? 

A standard-size barrel filled with the most common oils (petroleum oil, crude oil or diesel fuel oils) weighs between 125 and 140 pounds. However, the weight of a barrel of oil varies based on the type of oil in the barrel and the size of the barrel. 

The bitumen mixture with naphtha would not weigh anything similar to oil. Bitumen weighs 156.5 kilograms or 345 pounds per barrel. But, in order to travel through a pipeline without rupturing it, there needs to be a 50/50 mixture with naphtha.

A standard-size barrel holds 42 U.S. gallons. If one fills a standard-size barrel with petroleum oil that has a density of 881 kg/m3, then that barrel weighs about 140 kilograms. If one fills the same barrel with crude oil with a density of 790 kg/m3, that barrel weighs about 125 kg. In order to get a metric tonne of oil, one would need about 7.33 barrels of oil.

Volume and Capacity Conversion Tables for Petroleum Products (click here)



Taking one barrel of bitumen (345.6 pounds) and one barrel of naphtha (252 pounds = 42 US gallons X 6 US pounds) and mixing them creates two barrels. The two barrels would weigh 597.6  pounds total or 298.8 pounds each. 

To the left is what a metric ton of CO2 looks like. A metric ton is the 'cubed' size of the weight of the substance. So, in the case of CO2 this is what a metric ton looks like. 

Visualizing a Metric Ton of Carbon Dioxide

A cube of CO2 would be nearly 30 feet tall and weigh over 2,000 pounds. As a point of reference, the average height for Americans age 20 and over is about 5' 8" for males and 5' 3" for females, according to a 2008 source.

There is one other illustration that will help put it into perspective. Now, the standard for a ton is 2000 pounds. A metric ton is actually a little bigger than a standard ton. A metric ton is 1.102 tons. That is 2204 pounds. But, for demonstration purposes it is best not to confuse the issue and I'll use 2000 pounds for metric ton.

Any cubic measurement is always ^3. So a meter cubed is 1 meter ^3. That is what the illustrations seek to portray. They are a measurement cubed or ^3. Six sided with three dimensions. So, it takes a weight measurement and turns it into a three dimensional object of length X width X depth.

So, we want to know the surface area a gallon of spilled oil, actually bitumen mixture.

I have already determined a barrel of the mixture weighs 298.8 pounds. And we know a barrel is 42 gallons. So, the weight of the bitumen mixture per gallon is 7.09 pounds. We know that a metric ton is 2000 pounds which means there are 282 gallons per metric ton of the bitumen mixture.

But, to keep it simple what is the surface area of one gallon of spilled bitumen mixture? Basically, meter^3 per gallon. 

The legal measurement of a US gallon is 231 cubic inches (231 in^3).

One (1) cubic inch = 16,387 cubic millimeters

231 cubic inches is equal to 3,785,397 millimeters cubed (mm^3) or one gallon or 7.09 pounds of bitumen.

One meter cubed is one meter (1000 millimeters (mm) wide by one meter high (1000 millimeters (mm) by one meter (1000 millimeters (mm) thick. If a bitumen oil spill is 10 millimeters thick how large is the spill of one gallon of the bitumen mixture?

1000 mm X 1000 mm = 1,000,000 mm^2 (one million millimeters squared)

1,000,000 mm^2 X 1000 mm = 1,000,000,000 mm^3 (one billion millimeters cubed)

1 inch by 1 inch = 1 inch ^2 (one inch squared)

1 inch = 25.4 millimeters 

25.4 mm X 25.4 mm = 645.16 mm^2 

3,785,397 mm^3 = 10 mm x 378,539.7 mm^2

The square root of 378,539.7 mm^2 = 615.255 or 615.26 mm

Therefore, a gallon of oil spilled with a thickness of 10 mm is 615.26 mm by 615.26 mm.

1 mm = 0.0393701 inch or 0.0394 inch 

To convert 615.26 mm to inches it is multiplied by 0.0394 and results in a product of 24.24 inches.

So, one gallon of spilled oil is 24.24 inch by 24.24 inches by 0.4 inch. 

Surface area is expressed in a cubed measurement, but, to look down at one gallon of spilled oil, it would cover over 2 feet by 2 feet of area.

In the spill yesterday in Los Angeles was 18,900 gallons. Get the picture?

2 feet X 2 feet is 4 square feet (ft^2).

4 ft.^2 X 18,900 gallons is 75,600 square feet, but with a depth of 4/10 inches (0.03 foot) the width and length would be slightly less.

The building to the left is the new elementary school for Clarkson, Kentucky. It is 75,600 square feet.

Not cubic feet, but, square feet. Length and width. 

The oil spill in Los Angeles yesterday would have covered the footprint of this elementary school.

Now take this elementary school and put it on the Kleeb farm and realize the entirely unusable land a ruptured oil pipe could deliver. How many of those ruptures could the Kleebs occur before they would have no agricultural land? How are the Kleebs going to eat when the lawsuit to the oil company is paid, but, there is still no land to grow food?

Below is a laughing baby supervised by the person taking the picture. The toddler takes a three dimensional glass of water (pipeline) and turns it into a two dimensional spill. 

Americans never liked being told what to do socially.

The Black Eyed Susan, the Maryland state flower.

Maryland (click here) designated the black-eyed susan as the official state floral emblem in 1918. The black-eyed susan is a daisy-like wildflower with yellow petals and a dark brown center that grows in dry places. A member of the sunflower family and native to the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, black-eyed susans are common in Maryland fields and roadsides

...Pimlico (click here) even survived the anti-gambling movement of the early 1900s. While horse racing was banned throughout most of the nation, Maryland (and Kentucky) escaped the restriction....

May 16, 2014
Tim Wilkin

...He has gotten the best food money can buy (click here) ... for a horse. He has been given the softest straw to stand and sleep on. His water bucket is always full. Someone is watching him 24/7.
California Chrome's support staff will take some time off early Saturday evening. That's when Pimlico Race Course presents the 139th running of the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes. It's California Chrome's second date with thoroughbred history in two weeks. A win at Pimlico would vault the colt to the June 7 Belmont Stakes with the chance to become the sport's first Triple Crown winner since 1978.
Saturday, it's all on him.

Everything is Obamacare's fault.

Did you know that everything that goes wrong with anyone's health care is Obamacare's fault? I didn't know that until this morning.

Went to a local coffee house this morning. There was a woman next to me and I looked in her direction and wished her a good morning. I said, "So, how are things today?" She said, "Not so great, but, should be better in a week." 

I said, "A week? Why a week?"

She said, "That is when I finally get my gall bladder out." 

So, she went on to tell me the war stories about how she was misdiagnosed at a medi-emerg center with an intestinal flu and how she called her own MD in the AM and was then referred to a surgeon. Then the surgeon stated he would perform the needed removal of the diseased organ in a week and if he had an opening sooner she would be taken care of.

I empathized and told her the nightmare story of my 19 year old when he had a severely diseased gall bladder and his pain and how two emergency rooms on Christmas Day stated, "See your GI specialist in the morning." Then I told her once we were home how EMTs showed up after my son called 911 while I was in the shower. I stated when I heard the noise I threw on a bathrobe to find my son on a stretcher headed to the ER and one EMT stated, "What kind of mother are you!"

I told her I went to the ER to see my son on a normal saline drip while nurses administered demerol and phenergan and was told he was going to surgery as soon as possible, probably within the hour. I was grateful finally a physician made the correct call and at the same time worried because surgery was no minor matter even for a 19 year old. 

I told her my son was in surgery for three hours and when the surgeon came to me in the waiting room he looked like he just saw a ghost. See, my son was so healthy his serum tests never showed what was happening in his gut. He had peritonitis and could have died without emergent surgery. He then spent the next three days taking pain medication with IV antibiotics on a medical floor in the hospital. When he was discharged he still was sore and pale, but, he was going to be alright. 

So I stated, "Will you please tell me what the heck it is with gall bladders that the medical profession just doesn't get?"

She stated, "Well it is Obamacare that is the problem. The receptionist in the surgeon's office told me all about it. She said the government is watching the insurance companies very closely and they are afraid to even approve surgery. So, we are all in danger because of stupid Obamacare."

I just smiled and went back to reading my paper. What I didn't tell her is that incident with a gall bladder happened 14 years ago as my son is now 33. But, what the heck, let's just blame it on Obamacare anyway. 

Everyone is an arsonist.

California is caught in a weather system spanning more than a decade. There is no reason to believe there was a particular arsonist intent on burning down cities. There are such people as arsonists, but, the conditions in California today can be the only reason fires ignite. 

Throwing cigarettes or used matches out a car window. Dumping burning embers from a charcoal grill at the back of the yard can blow them into a dry area and begin a fire. Basically, there are reasons for every citizen to be vigilant to prevent fires.  

May 15, 2014
Doyle Rice
USA Today

Today, (click here) for the first time this century, the entire state of California is in a severe drought -- or worse.
That's according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website that has tracked drought across the country since 2000.
The level of drought in California is "unprecedented" during the 14-year-history of the monitor, according to climatologist Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb.
The three worst levels of drought are severe, extreme and exceptional: 100% of the state is now in one of those three categories: (23.31% severe, 51.92.% extreme and 24.77% exceptional.)
Exceptional drought encompasses central parts of the state, including the entire San Francisco Bay Area. San Diego and Los Angeles -- where wildfires have scorched 14 square miles this week -- are both under "extreme" drought conditions.

While it is admirable for federal state legislators look for reassurances of their veterans, it would be a mistake to create vast changes in the VA.

May 16, 2014
By Jennifer Emert
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS)

South Carolina's Congressional (click here) representatives talked with Dorn VA Administrators about face to face audits, among prolonged delays in care at Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide.
After meeting with Dorn administrators about issues of delays both Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Joe Wilson told us they don't believe the issues seen in Phoenix with the secret wait lists are an issue here at Dorn, but they both believe there are issues to address.
Both have continued to hear complaints about delays in care, but they attributed some of that today to a lack of physicians not only here in Columbia but at clinics in Florence. They talked some about the pay rate for physicians. Wilson told us he believes Dorn has already made improvements from when he was here in January, but there needs to be accountability for the VA's medical directors....

There have been changes implemented that cost real money. The computer network of the VA has yet to be completed and it's link to the US DOD is still in the works. When the VA has an internet system that actually works there may be far more efficiency.

Audits by computer will be far easier and can be performed more quickly. If there is standardized software throughout the VA there cannot be manipulation of the waiting time for treatment. A centralized processing of treatment to be sure the more acute cases are receiving priority. 

November 13, 2013
Far fewer veterans (click here) are facing long waits for disability compensation after the Department of Veterans Affairs spent the past six months focusing on the backlog, including mandating case worker overtime and rolling out a new computer system.
The progress came amid a torrent of public pressure that followed a March report from The Center for Investigative Reporting. 
Internal VA documents, obtained by CIR, revealed the agency’s ability to provide earned benefits quickly had virtually collapsed under President Barack Obama, with the number of veterans waiting more than a year for compensation increasing by more than 2,000 percent, to 256,000 in March....

There are a lot of ideas circulating around, but, the idea there has to be more money spent is not prudent. This isn't about a general problem that is systematic. This is about a few individuals that disregarded the law. There isn't any amount of money able to fix that. 

I heard the suggestion Tricare should be the only veterans insurance. Tricare is very different than the services provided by the Veterans' Administration. There is more care and coverage though the VA. When veterans reach age 62 they are also eligible for Medicare.

Tricare is through the DOD. There is the ability to have Tricare for Life, but, it doesn't simply translate into benefits as if it were a private healthcare insurance provider.

 Tricare for Life Benefits: (click here)

• For services payable by both Medicare and TFL, Medicare pays first, any other health insurance pays second, and the remaining beneficiary liability may be paid by TFL.
• For services received from a civilian provider, the provider first files claims with Medicare. Medicare pays its portion and electronically forwards the claim to TFL for processing. TFL sends its payment for the remaining beneficiary liability directly to the provider, and beneficiaries receive a Medicare summary notice (from Medicare) and a TFL explanation of benefits (EOB) that indicates the amount paid to the provider.

See this film.

Christopher Orr 
May 16, 2014

...It’s an excellent start to the film, heavy with foreboding and punctuated by genuine loss. And sure enough, when Joe and Ford infiltrate the quarantine zone together, they find at its center a secret facility performing experiments on a giant, larval monster that feeds on nuclear radiation. Yes—it’s Godzilla!

Actually, no, it’s not Godzilla....

I saw it last night in 3D and it was one of the coolest films yet. If one likes mystical monster movies. This one could easily be named, "Mr. and Mrs. Muto vs Godzilla."

Ready? Godzilla swims with the US Navy!

Asking Secretary Shinseki to resign is the easy feel good answer. It won't solve the problem.

By Greg Jaffe and Josh Hicks

Published: May 15

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki stared, (click here) at times impassively, at a panel of senators who repeatedly hammered him Thursday over long waits for veterans seeking care and reports of coverups at VA medical centers.

When it was his turn to speak, Shinseki vowed to remain in office as long as he has President Obama’s support. He told the lawmakers that the allegations of impropriety made him “mad as hell.”...

...Phoenix and Fort Collins, Colo., used elaborate schemes to hide the records of patients who waited months for care....

Gen. George Weightman, the administrator at Walter Reed resigned when the scandal broke there. This issue in Pheonix and Fort Collins, Colorado is more than a scandal as there are allogations of 40 deaths of our veterans. There are people who made the decision to skirt their responsibilities and people died. They must be held responsible. At the very least it is reckless endangerment.

Secretary Shinseki is not the man who decided it was okay to put our veterans in danger by postponing their treatment. Secretary Shinseki was the one person most responsible for changing the system to decrease the 'wait time.' 

This episode in Phoenix and Fort Collins speaks more to the culture that permits this level of mismanagement. How is it the administrators of the VA actually thinks they don't have to actually carry out the law? Secretary Shinseki didn't make the decision to decrease waiting times for political purposes. The country was experiencing a sincere problem as we were losing veterans to suicide. There are also complaints by veterans they are not receiving timely cancer treatment.

It is all too easy and convenient to blame a Secretary that as a General actually stood up to Bush/Cheney when it came to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

So, everyone can go back to their corners and regroup to pursue the individuals who are actually the arrogant SOBs who thought veteran lives were as disposable as Bush/Cheney did on the battlefield.

This testimony was on February 25, 2003 and the die had been cast by Bush to invade Iraq which occurred on March 19-20, 2003; only 23 days later. General Shinseki's testimony was a matter of formality for Bush. He didn't care what his generals were saying. Hell, he didn't even care what the intelligence was until it was 'cooked up' by Cheney.

It is so very ironic that Bush circumvented his generals and would place his military priorities on Commanders on the ground. Heirarchy of command made no difference to Busy/Cheney. The smart guys who knew what they were doing always got in the administration's way. So. Listen to Shinseki? Never.

Secretary Shinseki has yet to neglect his responsibility to improve the outcomes of our veterans. The system is huge and evidently full of angry incompetents that simply aren't understood by Washington and have to strike out on their own even in the face of deaths.

General Shinseki was not or is he a lackey. He was the Army Chief of Staff at the time of this testimony and his words should have carried enormous weight. Unfortunately, he never played the right politics to win favor with Bush/Cheney by lying under oath to 'make it happen.' One might ask how "Curveball" ended up determining the invasion into Iraq rather than a General dedicated to the safety and successful deployment of his soldiers. The disrespect shown him then as now only proves the depraved nature of our political culture and media. Not much has changed since Iraq, has it?

The US Army took the greatest death toll in Iraq, followed by the US Marines. There were 4397 deaths in Iraq of which 60 percent were Army and 40 percent were Marines. Unless, Shinseki is speaking the words from a script they don't count.

Every wave to President Goodluck Jonathan as he leaves for a meeting while 300 girls are still waiting.

By Wale Odunsi
May 15, 2014

...Mr. Jonathan(click here) is also scheduled to travel to Paris, France, for a regional security summit where the Boko Haram insurgnecy will be discussed....



France should ban his arrival until the girls are home.