Teenagers find a new, free, and fatal drug

Los Angeles, CA- It's called Angel's Trumpet. A flower that is common to grow in California. Yes, it is poisonous, but one fourteen year old says that students chew the flower to get a feeling of calm and relaxation. They're chewing this flower to get high.

Angel's Trumpet is a relative of Jimson Weed, another plant that teenagers use to covet. Right now, it is only in the L.A. School District that this is catching on. I have a hunch that other students from neighboring areas will catch on to this retardedness. Students in L.A. have already gone to their school's nurses office with stomach aches, nausea, delirium, and difficulty breathing!

I miss the good old days when children who were stupid, knew they were stupid. I'm surprised today's youth hasn't gone back to sniffing glue. So many household products that contain poisons are made by companies trying to push the "go green" ingredient products. Our environ-mental parents will give birth to idiot children who will sniff Eco-friendly glue.

However, could this "Angel's Trumpet" be the "organic" source of getting high? I don't know. I get a pretty good buzz eating my neighbors oleanders.


by: THRILL

SpecOp Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR)

SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMBAT ASSAULT RIFLE (SCAR)
The Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR), designed by FN Herstal (FNH), is within a modular assault rifle family. The Rifle was designed and manufactured responding to a United States special Operations Command requirement. The weapon won quick prize after capturing the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) development and production contract in November of 2004. The SCAR family of weapons includes the SCAR L (Light) 5.56 mm version, SCAR Heavy 7.62mm rifle, and Enhanced Grenade Launcher (EGLM) grenade launcher that is able to fire Fuse Programmable Ammunition.

SCAR L
SCAR L is set to replace the M4A1, Close Quarters Battle Rifle (CQBR) and Mk12 sometime in 2007. The CQBR and the Mk12 are currently under SOCOM use and service. The SCAR L is a 5.56 mm assault rifle whereas the SCAR H is a 7.62 mm assault rifle which will replace the Mk11 sniper rifle and M14. The SCAR L and the SCAR H variants share ninety percent (90%) commonality of parts and will have a choice of three distinct barrel dimensions. This feature will allow operators to tailer the SCAR for specific and unique operations, using a Close Quarters Combat (CQC), standard‚ or sniper barrel. Each change of barrel will directly relate to the lethal blow because of the direct affect on the velocity. The EGLM addition is a 40mm grenade launcher with a ballistic and target ranging solution for improved fire control and side opening breech to accelerate loading longer munitions.



SCAR H
Following the ultimate and final design review of the SOF Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR), FNH is finalizing the completion phase of full scale development and is currently preparing and undergoing full scale serial production of the new weapon. After a series of testing and design reviews with the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) and the United States Special Operation Command (USSOCOM) the SCAR appears to be ready for a modest and low rate initial production. The SOCOM contract calls for delivery of the first 1,000 of a total of 85,000 rifles by January of 2007. The military often keep deployment of weapons classified and we have yet to receive confirmation to whether the weapons are in SOCOM possession. The FN SCAR will be produced and manufactured at the FN Manufacturing LLC corporate headquarters and plant in Columbia, South Carolina.

The new family of SCAR rifles was specifically optimized for ergonomic availability, handling, reliability and maintainability. Parts interchangeability between the SCAR-H and SCAR-L will be further maximized to create a distinct and varied family of SCAR weapons. The SCAR's standard finish is a durable desert tan color, specifically selected by SOCOM. The SCAR is cable of lube les firing and is manufactured to be corrosion resistant. The interchangeability between all models is a requirement to improve the SOF operators ingrained emergency and operational procedure by reducing training time which will make responses easier during critical high stress situations.


SOCOM created a Joint Operational Requirements Document for the SCAR in order to specify the high reliability standards required of the rifle. The rifle is designed to meet three times the reliability standards of other assault rifles such as the M4.

At the Las Vegas SHOT show in Nevada, FNH headlined plans to bring to the consumer within two years, therefore around 2008, a semi-automatic variant of the SCAR modular rifle system. This system will be specifically designed for commercial markets and law enforcement.

Nomenclature: SCAR L SCAR H Operation principle Gas Operated, Rotating Bolt, Short Stroke Gas Piston Caliber 5.56x45 NATO 7.62x51 NATO / 7.62x39 M43 & others Max. Overall length 33" / 838 mm 40.2" / 1,021mm Minimum length 31.02" / 612 mm 38.7" / 798mm Barrel length 13.78" / 350 mm 19.70" / 500 mm Weight (unloaded) 6.8 lb / 3.08 kg 7.2 lb / 3.26 kg Rate of fire (auto) 550 RPM 550 RPM Magazine capacity 30 (M16 magazine) 20 (7.62x51) / 30 (7.62x39)

The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden

by: Mary Pilon




When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.

It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.

"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."

To be sure, Dr. Bisutti's case is extreme, and lenders say student-loan terms are clear and that they try to work with borrowers who get in trouble.

But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.

Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.

Yet many former students are trying. There is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding federal and private student-loan debt, says Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, a Web site that tracks financial-aid issues -- and only 40% of that debt is actively being repaid. The rest is in default, or in deferment, which means that payments and interest are halted, or in "forbearance," which means payments are halted while interest accrues.

Although Dr. Bisutti's debt load is unusual, her experience having problems repaying isn't. Emmanuel Tellez's mother is a laid-off factory worker, and $120 from her $300 unemployment checks is garnished to pay the federal PLUS student loan she took out for her son.

By the time Mr. Tellez graduated in 2008, he had $50,000 of his own debt in loans issued by SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, the largest private student lender. In December, he was laid off from his $29,000-a-year job in Boston and defaulted. Mr. Tellez says that when he signed up, the loan wasn't explained to him well, though he concedes he missed the fine print.

Loan terms, including interest rates, are disclosed "multiple times and in multiple ways," says Martha Holler, a spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, who says the company can't comment on individual accounts. Repayment tools and account information are accessible on Sallie Mae's Web site as well, she says.

Many borrowers say they are experiencing difficulties working out repayment and modification terms on their loans. Ms. Holler says that Sallie Mae works with borrowers individually to revamp loans. Although the U.S. Department of Education has expanded programs like income-based repayment, which effectively caps repayments for some borrowers, others might not qualify.

Heather Ehmke of Oakland, Calif., renegotiated the terms of her subprime mortgage after her home was foreclosed. But even after filing for bankruptcy, she says she couldn't get Sallie Mae, one of her lenders, to adjust the terms on her student loan. After 14 years with patches of deferment and forbearance, the loan has increased from $28,000 to more than $90,000. Her monthly payments jumped from $230 to $816. Last month, her petition for undue hardship on the loans was dismissed.

Sallie Mae supports reforms that would allow student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy for those who have made a good-faith effort to repay them, says Ms. Holler.

Dr. Bisutti says she loves her work, but regrets taking out so many student loans. She admits that she made mistakes in missing payments, deferring her loans and not being completely thorough with some of the paperwork, but was surprised at how quickly the debt spiraled.

She says she knew when she started medical school in 1999 that she would have to borrow heavily. But she reasoned that her future income as a doctor would make paying off the loans easy. While in school, her loans racked up interest with variable rates ranging from 3% to 11%.

She maxed out on federal loans, borrowing $152,000 over four years, and sought private loans from Sallie Mae to help make up the difference. She also took out two loans from Wells Fargo & Co. for $20,000 each. Each had a $2,000 origination fee. The total amount she borrowed at the time: $250,000.

In 2005, the bill for the Wells Fargo loans came due. Representatives from the bank called her father, Michael Bisutti, every day for two months demanding payment. Mr. Bisutti, who had co-signed on the loans, finally decided to cover the $550 monthly payments for a year.

Wells Fargo says it will stop calling consumers if they request it, says senior vice president Glen Herrick, who adds that the bank no longer imposes origination fees on its private loans.

Sallie Mae, meanwhile, called Mr. Bisutti's neighbor. The neighbor told Mr. Bisutti about the call. "Now they know [my dad's] daughter the doctor defaulted on her loans," Dr. Bisutti says.

Ms. Holler, the Sallie Mae spokeswoman, says that the company may contact a neighbor to verify an individual's address. But in those cases, she says, the details of the debt obligation aren't discussed.

Dr. Bisutti declined to authorize Sallie Mae to comment specifically on her case. "The overwhelming majority of medical-school graduates successfully repay their student loans," Ms. Holler says.

After completing her fellowship in 2007, Dr. Bisutti juggled other debts, including her credit-card balance, and was having trouble making her $1,000-a-month student-loan payments. That year, she defaulted on both her federal and private loans. That is when the "collection cost" fee of $53,870 was added on to her private loan.

Meanwhile, the variable interest rates continue to compound on her balance and fees. She recently applied for income-based repayment, but she still isn't sure if she will qualify. She makes $550-a-month payments to Wells Fargo for the two loans she hasn't defaulted on. By the time she is done, she will have paid the bank $128,000 -- over three times the $36,000 she received.

She recently entered a rehabilitation agreement on her defaulted federal loans, which now carry an additional $31,942 collection cost. She makes monthly payments on those loans -- now $209,399 -- for $990 a month, with only $100 of it going toward her original balance. The entire balance of her federal loans will be paid off in 351 months. Dr. Bisutti will be 70 years old.

The debt load keeps her up at night. Her damaged credit has prevented her from buying a home or a new car. She says she and her boyfriend of three years have put off marriage and having children because of the debt.

Dr. Bisutti told her 17-year-old niece the story of her debt as a cautionary tale "so the next generation of kids who want to get a higher education knows what they're getting into," she says. "I will likely have to deal with this debt for the rest of my life."

Bush Recession vs. Obama Recession

by: Glenn Beck


When you talk about the all time political spin jobs, I mean,
the best of the best spin job,
ABORTION has to top of the list.

If you just think about it, somehow the side who heirs on NOT killing a baby is the bad guy. There is currently a spin in play that is trying to rival that. It's been driving me out of my mind.
Obama and Jobs.
This is the guy who is the "Planned Parenthood" of jobs. His spin is saving him...
and I will show you how he's doing it next.

Now:
You may recall the phrase, "This president is the worst since Herbert Hoover!"
Yeah, yeah. It was a standard attack on George W. Bush, back in his first term as the election was drawing closer. Ofcourse, you may also recall that there was an event called September 11th, that kind of left the economy in shambles.

Nevermind that; The left were eager to blame Bush for all the job losses and paint him as "Herbert Hoover," the only president to proside under a total jobs lost, losing 8 million jobs. And they succeeded in painting him that. Bush was the big job killer. His peak job loss hit 1.8 million jobs between 2001 and 2003.

Now, when the economy rebounded, he had a net gain of jobs by the end of his first term. The media, and John Kerry, ofcourse, immediately apologized to Bush... or... they just completely ignored the whole Bush taxcut working thing and just moved on. It was one or the other, I can't really remember, but I'm pretty sure they apologized...

But what about now! President Obama's stimulus package has had a year to work it's magic. A year. And we have lost 4 million jobs since it passed. In the State of the Union the other day, he said, "We've lost 7 million jobs in the last two years."
Yes, 3 million under George W. Bush's last term,
and 4 million under your first year.

Four million jobs, a far cry from Bush's 1.8 million. Unemployement is now 10 percent. Yet somehow, this president is viewed as a savior. All firefighters would be canned if it weren't for the stimulus package. Teachers would be fired, leaving children with nothing to do.
And so, little schooless children would be forced to fight fires. Police would be fired. Anarchy/martial law would be a result and Barrack Obama would have to fly in with his cape and save the day.

It's amazing what a little R or a D next to a name can do.

But ofcourse, the real big lie- misdirection in all of this is that the president CAN create jobs. They don't. Reagan didn't create jobs. Clinton didn't create jobs.
Businesses create jobs.
But, let's just keep counting how many jobs we can save.

High School Article Causes Uproar in Local Community

by: THRILL

Vista, CA- High school student Hannah Brenzel wrote an article that is upsetting several conservatives in her local community. In the January 2010 print of her school newspaper, The Eagle Flyer, her article titled, "Presidential Critique: Argument just for argument's sake?" contains several statements that reek foul.

It is obvious from her article that Brenzel sides with the Obama Administration. That is fine. What is bothersome is the misjudgement of those who do not side, or support, our President. This article is one of many that gets printed on a day by day bases, written by a liberal mindset, which inevitably deteriorates our fabric of the American society.

Brenzel begins her article explaining how negative it is for a child to accept the political views of their parents. Her incorporation of Socrates, though very wise, is used to support the modern day, morally declined secular view- which is our youth disobeying most of our rules as leading parents. But when it comes to politics, Brenzel encourages YOU to lean on YOUR OWN understanding.

It's every parents' duty to train up a child in the way they should go. Why am I wrong of a parent if I train my child to become a Christian Conservative? Shouldn't a child be able to trust the decisions of their own parent? Hannah Brenzel doesn't think so. Infact, she goes on to point out that some students chose to make statements that are inaccurate about our president- the students that don't agree with Obama.

But what about her and those like her? Is it not true they are doing the same? I see it all the time. People praise Obama's "political platform" all the time based on what... Because everyone else is doing it? I see more people praising Obama based on NO FACTS than I do people bashing Obama based on NO FACTS as well.

Yet it's the same old song and dance. I find it EVIDENT that so many liberals praise Obama because of... hmmm.... why do liberals praise Obama? Yet there is so much good reason for a realist, or truth seeker, to conclude that Obama is bad for this country. Brenzel's article makes it clear that I'm not respecting Obama because I disagree with him. This is ludicrous. I'm not throwing tomatoes at him.

If I have solid reason, and I do, to form my own political view on Obama, just as Brenzel encourages me to do in her article, which is that I do not agree with his agenda as president, how am I being disrespectful? It is obvious: Hannah Brenzel is like the majority of Obama supporters. She's closed-minded towards truth, and open-minded towards liberalism.

Her calvanistic approach at Romans chapter thirteen blinds our Christian youth into believing that God ordained this president into office. I can't buy that. I wont teach that to my youth. There is a key agent that she's leaving out. Most Calvanists also forget...

the element of our own free will. Our free will allows us to make choices and desicions. There are consequences to the wrong decisions we make. Obama is a result of a majority making a wrong decision. God didn't put Obama in office. We the people did. (We the people who voted for him, not we the people of the entire United States)

Another American offended by Brenzel's article, is Mario De Maria. Now you all know of Mario De Maria because I've brought him up before in past blogs and articles of my own. What's amazing about Mario is that he's a dying breed. Though only in his 20s, he grasps the threat we as God fearing Americans are facing. The plague of liberalism: a true mental disorder.

Mario De Maria understands that the enemy to our American way of life is biased news articles like the one Brenzel posted in The Eagle Flyer.

"But so what!" You might add,"Hannah Brenzel is harming nobody with her article! Why should we care or not about what our high schoolers post in their school paper?"

Because our youth is leaning on to their own understanding, not towards righteousness and truth. Brenzel's article is definite proof of this. Mario De Maria recognizes the severity of this situation. As an American patriot, who is not stubborn with his old age, and can lead our next generation of children, Mario De Maria made it very clear that Hannah Brenzel's article is an abortion.

I look foward to hearing and reading what Mario De Maria has to say in response to "Presidential Critique: Argument just for argument's sake?"

Well, Mario, what say you?

Lindsay Lohan's Controversial Cover Photo

by: Lindsay Robertson


Lindsay Lohan is never one to shy away from controversy and the attention that comes with it (remember her less-than-chaste Marilyn Monroe-esque photos in New York Magazine? Her very public spats with on-again, off-again girlfriend Samantha Ronson?). Now her cover for the French magazine, Purple, is drawing the contempt of some Christian critics.

The picture depicts Lohan as a Christ-like figure, draped in a white robe, posing with her arms outstretched, Crucifixion-style. And just in case anyone misses the blatantly obvious, hit-you-over-the-head visual reference to Jesus on the cross, Lohan wears a crown of thorns atop her platinum-blond extensions.

As is often the case when religious figures are depicted in popular media, the French magazine cover is already drawing fire from Christian thought-leaders.

Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League, told Politics Daily: "Not only is the pose inappropriate, the timing is offensive." (Catholicism's most sacred season begins next Wednesday -- Ash Wednesday -- with the start of Lent, the annual period of pentinence and abstinence that leads up to the Easter celebration.)

Recently Lohan indirectly referred to Hinduism by Tweeting that she's "all about Karma...what goes around comes around."

"If she believes that, then it behooves her to apologize to Christians before it's too late," Donahue said, adding that she is "spiritually homeless" and "would benefit by converting to Christianity."

Others simply criticize the magazine cover as an obvious grab at attention that is supposed to show Lindsay Lohan is some sort of celebrity martyr.

The photo, which was taken by the irreverent photographer Terry Richardson (no stranger to controversy himself), appears on the spring-summer 2010 cover of the magazine.

R. Lee Ermey Lobbies for Bill Naming Marine Department

By: Roxana Tiron


The actor who played the drill sergeant in “Full Metal Jacket” is coming to Washington, D.C., next week to lobby Congress to pass a long-stalled bill.

R. Lee Ermey is the national spokesman for a growing grassroots effort behind legislation sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would rename the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.

Ermey, who was in the Marine Corps for 11 years, has been in over 100 movies, including “Apocalypse Now,” “Dead Man Walking” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” according to imdb.com.

Over the past decade, Jones has repeatedly pushed his colleagues to pass his bill. Jones’s bill has 367 co-sponsors. Roberts (R-Kan.), a Marine Corps veteran, introduced companion legislation last year.

The Marine Corps League, which is orchestrating the grassroots effort with Ermey, has started a petition-writing campaign and is bringing supporters of Jones’s legislation to Capitol Hill on Thursday.

“Marines have fought and died with their Navy brothers and sisters for more than 200 years,” said Michael Blum, Marine Corps League executive director in a statement. “It’s finally time to give the Marine Corps the recognition the branch has long deserved.”

Although the Marine Corps has been a separate service since the National Security Act of 1947, it does not get equal billing with the Navy, Air Force and Army, each of which has a Pentagon department named after it. Since the Marine Corps’s earliest days, it has operated under the Department of the Navy.

Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a former secretary of the Navy, was Jones’ biggest obstacle in the upper chamber. Year after year, Warner refused to back the change as part of the defense authorization bill.

But even after Warner’s retirement two years ago, Jones’s efforts gained little traction in the Senate.

Jones wants his bill to get a vote on the House floor and in the Senate. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) said he would help Jones bring up the bill as a standalone once he had 350 co-sponsors, Jones's spokeswoman said. It is unclear when the bill will hit the House floor.

The origins of the Marines date back to Nov. 10, 1775 when the Continental Congress called for the creation of two battalions to serve as landing forces with the fleet during the Revolutionary War. It was not until July 11, 1798 that Congress officially passed an act to establish the Marine Corps. On June 30, 1834, Congress passed another act placing the Marines under the umbrella of the Navy.

The Corps functions in war and peacetime as a separate branch in nearly every way. It has its own military command structure.

The running joke has been that the Marines constitute the “men’s department” of the Navy. Yet the issue of receiving recognition is no laughing matter to many who serve in the Marine Corps. The families of those who die in combat and are awarded service commendations receive letters from the secretary of the Navy, with no mention of the Marine Corps on the letterhead.

Families of those dying in combat also receive the condolence letters on Navy letterhead with no explicit mention of the Marine Corps anywhere in the letter, according to a sample of a letter posted by the Marine Corps League.

Supporters of changing the name are quick to note that the effort does not signal that the Marine Corps wants to break away from the Navy, nor would the change cost more than the immediate change in stationary sent to families. The name change also would not alter the responsibilities of the Navy secretary or how resources between the Navy and Marine Corps are allocated, the supporters argue.

The bill is backed by FedEx founder Fred Smith, a former Marine and former secretary of the Navy Lawrence Garrett.

Child grilled over toy Lego gun

The Lego gun shot heard round the world.

Nine-year-old Patrick Timoney brought a little Lego man holding a tiny 2-inch firearm to his public school in South Beach on Staten Island, and nearly got booted from his fourth grade class.

"Me and my friends were at the lunch table, and we showed each other our Legos," he told WABC-TV, referring to a show-and-tell session Tuesday.

Principal Evelyn Matroianni was not amused, saying the toy violated Dept. of Education rules and that Patrick was looking at possible suspension.

"He's a really a good kid and the fact that he was this upset over something that needed to just be, 'Hey, don't bring that to school, just put it away in your bag.' And it would've been done," his mom, Laura Timoney, told Fox 5 News.

And what about the kid who had an action figure clutching an axe, she wondered.

"This isn't a safety issue," she told WABC. "This is a judgment issue. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? It could poke you in the eye?"

This is a true example of how our leadership (a public school principle) is overrun with ignorance and stupidity. The principle's action don't give her, or the school she's running, any respect. What it does is show how pathetic people are at when it comes to making sound judgements. One student can bring an action figure holding an axe, but her kid can't bring a Lego man holding a gun?

I hope our youth grows brains and grows up to over throw our corrupt, set-in-their-ways adults.

Our children need leaders, not grown up idiots.

Gates Tries to Get F-35 Program Back on Course

by: Christopher Drew
Article provided by:



The Joint Strike Fighter was supposed to be the program that broke the mold, proof that the Pentagon could build something affordable, dependable and without much drama.

But rather than being the Chevrolet of the skies, as it was once billed, the fighter plane, also called the F-35, has turned into the Pentagon’s biggest budget-buster. And with worries growing that the rise in costs could overwhelm other programs, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates fired the general in charge this week and said he would withhold $614 million in fees from the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin.

The decision was an embarrassment for Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest military contractor, which could eventually draw at least a quarter of its sales from the F-35. But Pentagon officials said they wanted to make sure they avoided the kind of death spiral that had caused so many other weapons programs to collapse.

The Air Force, the Navy and the Marines are planning to buy more than 2,400 of the planes. But any delays could force them to spend billions of dollars on less advanced fighters to avoid a shortfall. That, in turn, would reduce their orders for the F-35, driving up the price for each plane and forcing them to cut orders further.

The main problem, some analysts say, is that even with recent improvements in acquisition practices, the military persists in buying new weapons systems before all the kinks are worked out.

At the Pentagon’s behest, Lockheed Martin has already started building production models of the F-35, even though only 2 percent of the flight test program has been completed. “Unless they convert the program to a fly-before-you-buy approach, they will continue to have pain,” said Winslow T. Wheeler, an analyst for the Center for Defense Information in Washington.

But Pentagon officials said that given the rapid changes in technology, they could not afford to take such a gradual approach without systems becoming outdated before they rolled off the line. Lockheed Martin executives said that they had gotten the message about picking up the pace, and that they believed they would be able to start delivering the planes faster than the government now projects.

“They have been very clear that they intend to hold us to more aggressive standards, and we intend to perform to those,” Daniel J. Crowley, one of Lockheed Martin’s project managers, told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr. Crowley acknowledged that the program, which has been adjusted several times, was running six months behind the latest schedule. But he said that after building the first few planes, the company had been able to sharply reduce how much time and money each one required. And that has given it more confidence that it can get back on track.

Mr. Gates also said on Monday that he knew of “no insurmountable problems, technological or otherwise, with the F-35.” But he added a year to the development phase of the program, and slowed plans to increase production, to give the company a chance to catch up.

Still, that solution is basically a gamble that the company will do better. The program, which is by far the Pentagon’s largest, is expected to cost nearly $300 billion if all of the 2,456 planes are purchased in the next 25 years. Eight allied nations have also invested in the program and could buy hundreds of additional planes.

Some senators sounded skeptical in questioning Mr. Gates at a hearing on Tuesday. “I’m still concerned about whether the services will get the J.S.F. when they need them,” said Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, referring to the plane.

Other senators criticized Mr. Gates, who promoted the coming of the F-35 as a reason to kill the more costly F-22 fighter program last summer, for not having a handle on the problems sooner.

Many of the concerns were outlined in a report by a special Pentagon assessment team in late 2008. Mr. Gates said at the hearing on Tuesday that he did not recall that report. He said he had intervened now to try to head off the dire projections in a similar assessment completed in the fall.

That study found that the development of the plane could be delayed by two and a half years and cost an extra $16.6 billion if no changes were made. Mr. Gates has also said that he replaced the head of the program, Maj. Gen. David R. Heinz of the Marine Corps, to show that officials would be held accountable “when things go wrong.”

When the Pentagon began thinking about the F-35 in the mid-1990s, the Pentagon was building the F-22, the world’s stealthiest fighter, for aerial dogfights, and it expected to buy 650 to 750 of them. The F-35, which also has stealth features to avoid radar, was meant to focus more on attacking ground targets. Creating three versions with a similar core — one each for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines — was supposed to make it more affordable.

But while delays and overruns pushed the cost of the F-22 so high that only 187 are being built, the projected costs of the F-35 program have also risen to $298.8 billion from an early estimate of about $200 billion.

Counting all the development costs, each F-35 is now projected to cost about $122 million compared with about $350 million for each F-22. Another concern is that additional problems often appear in flight testing. And a recent Navy study concluded that the F-35 could be significantly more expensive to operate than older fighters.

But Mr. Crowley, one of Lockheed Martin’s top managers on the project, said the company had greatly reduced the parts shortages that delayed the first planes. He said the company was talking to the Pentagon about adding another plane to the flight test program, and it was much closer to finishing sensitive systems, like the software that operates the plane and its sensors, than it was at a similar stage on the F-22.

He added that it was “our intent to outperform” projections for the program, enabling the government to buy more planes than it expected to over the next few years.

Other industry officials said they had heard that Mr. Gates was likely to name Vice Adm. David J. Venlet, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command, to succeed General Heinz in overseeing the program. And given that Mr. Gates has had to backtrack from his praise for the program, he now has even more on the line in holding it together.

Where All The White Women At!?!

By: THRILL



"Where all the white women at?"
I guess they're all on the cover of Vanity Fair's "New Hollywood" issue:



A staff member to Yahoo!'s Shine, Joanna Douglas, wrote an article titled, "Vanity Fair's 'New Hollywood' Issue Completely Lacks Diversity," where she claims Vanity Fair chose celebrities that are "extremely thin and very, very white." She also makes references to an August 2008 issue that was also a "white-girl-only" issue. I can't believe this writer is keeping track.


I can't believe that "diversity" is measured by a person's skin color. A person should be messured to be diverse, based solely on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.





In this artile of Douglas', after she squares off the description of these "white" celebrities, she claims Vanity Fair "should have been looking for a diverse group of women" instead.


How are these women NOT diverse? As a retired professional womanizer, I recognize that ALL these women are incredibly diverse, and have varrying talents. Just because a Vanity Fair's photographer lightened the contrast button on his computer, gives this columnist, Joanne Douglas, a right to say that these women are all "white" and non-diverse?


You have got to be kidding me!


Who is the real racist, Joanna? YOU ARE!


How many of your labeled "white women" have been on the cover of King's Magazine? Are you gonna write a similar article about how King's Magazine always has non-white women models?
Has King Magazine ever had a "white" woman pose on the cover?

It's journalists like you who are plaguing the minds of American readers everywhere. There are NOT "white women" in the picture below; there are "diverse" celebrities. Yes, they are diverse, stupid!

I don't see four white women. I see four women, who happen to be celebrities.

America is a nation where we should not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached that righteous lesson.

Joanna Douglas, you should study on what that means to you.... you current racist.