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unhappycamper

unhappycamper's Journal
unhappycamper's Journal
April 11, 2013

Pentagon budget steers $5.5 billion to Evergreen State for military construction, new jets

http://blog.thenewstribune.com/military/2013/04/10/pentagon-budget-steers-billions-to-evergreen-state-for-military-construction-new-jets/



The Pentagon’s 2014 budget request includes $3.7 billion for the production of Navy P-8A jets. Boeing finishes the jets in Renton and at Boeing Field before delivering them to the military.

Pentagon budget steers $5.5 billion to Evergreen State for military construction, new jets
Post by Adam Ashton / The News Tribune on April 10, 2013 at 3:20 pm

~snip~

The proposed budget sets aside $324 million for new work at military bases in the region, down from $581 million last year.

The request includes $144 million for air field improvements that would benefit a new Army helicopter brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and another $85 million to help the Navy prepare to move 28 Boeing-made submarine-hunting jets to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

The budget also continues funding for two Puget Sound-made Boeing projects, the Air Force refueling tanker known as the KC-46A and the Whidbey Island-bound Navy P-8 Poseidon.

The tanker, to be manufactured in Everett, would receive about $1.6 billion next year, down from $1.8 billion this year.
April 11, 2013

(Tacoma) Local military spending would go down under new budget

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/04/10/2552021/local-military-spending-would.html



AH-64 Apache helicopters taxi at their new home at Gray Army Airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The 16th Combat Aviation Brigade welcomed them as part of the relocation of the 1st Battalion, 229th Aviation Brigade to JBLM.

Local military spending would go down under new budget
ADAM ASHTON; Staff writer
Published: April 10, 2013 at 7:56 p.m. PDT — Updated: April 11, 2013 at 2:26 a.m. PDT

Spending on military construction in Washington would slow under the Defense Department’s 2014 budget request released Wednesday, but it would continue to steer hundreds of millions of dollars toward projects around the Puget Sound.

The proposed budget sets aside $324 million for new work at military bases in the region, down from $581 million last year.

For Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the request includes $144 million for airfield improvements that would benefit an Army helicopter brigade. That’s less than half the amount of new spending secured by Lewis-McChord for each of the last two years.

Another $85 million in 2014 would help the Navy prepare to move 28 Boeing-made submarine-hunting jets to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
April 11, 2013

Bell Unveils V-280 Valor Tiltrotor For Future Vertical Lift Program

http://defense.aol.com/2013/04/10/bell-unveils-v-280-valor-tiltrotor-for-future-vertical-lift-prog/



Bell Unveils V-280 Valor Tiltrotor For Future Vertical Lift Program
By Colin Clark
Published: April 10, 2013

Bell Helicopter has unveiled what may become what everyone hoped the V-22 Osprey would be, a tiltrotor able to operate at high altitudes for long ranges and with easily managed downwash.

The new aircraft, to be known as the V-280 Valor, is the company's offering for the Army's Future Vertical Lift technology demonstration program. FVL is a science and technology program to develop four classes of advanced aircraft – light, medium, heavy and ultra -- that can take off and land vertically. The first of the four to be built would be a medium-lift aircraft known as the Joint Multirole, a vehicle that could be adapted for various missions. The Valor is aimed at the Joint Multirole offering.

This would the fourth generation tilt rotor, as our colleague Rick Whittle pointed out in an email. Here's the sequence: XV-3, XV-15, V-22, V-280.

Bell unveiled the new bird at the big helicopter show, the Army Aviation Association of America's annual conference in Fort Worth.



unhappycamper comment: Whoever dreamed up that name should not be allowed on committees that name stuff.
April 11, 2013

The Army Has It Worst 2.0: Readiness Shortchanged $13.7 Billion

http://defense.aol.com/2013/04/10/army-sequester-war-funding-readiness-13.7-billion/



The Army Has It Worst 2.0: Readiness Shortchanged $13.7 Billion
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: April 10, 2013

PENTAGON: "Army Has Biggest Problem." That's it. Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale's official briefing slides for today's big budget roll-out couldn't be blunter. Hale has made this point before, but in case anyone imagined Congress rescued the Army when it passed a belated 2013 spending bill last month, the budget presentation today made clear the biggest service is still deepest in the hole -- specifically, about $13.7 billion deep.

In late February, Army budgeteers were talking about an $18 billion shortfall in readiness funding for '13 that they nicknamed "6-6-6": a $6 billion cut from sequestration, another $6 billion hit from higher than projected costs for the war in Afghanistan, and a final $6 billion problem from money the Army had but couldn't spend because of the curious strictures of the Continuing Resolution then funding the federal government.

The spending bill Congress passed late last month got rid of the "CR" six -- the $6 billion the Army had but couldn't spend. The other two sixes, though, are not only still with us, one of them has actually grown.

The sequester's $6 billion blow to readiness remains as it was. (Strictly speaking, it's $4.6 billion from sequestration proper and $1.3 billion imposed by the appropriations bill). The service is still "working through (that) and determining where we will take our reductions," the Army's budget director, Maj. Gen. Karen Dyson, told reporters this afternoon. Significant cutbacks in combat training have already begun.
April 11, 2013

Navy Budget Share Grows, Boosted By Pacific Strategy Shift

http://defense.aol.com/2013/04/10/navy-budget-share-grows-boosted-by-pacific-strategy-shift/



Each carrier costs about $1.5 billion dollars a year in maintenance, gas, bombs, missiles, aircraft, guns and people

Navy Budget Share Grows, Boosted By Pacific Strategy Shift
By Otto Kreisher
Published: April 10, 2013

PENTAGON: The Navy would get the largest budget share among the three military services in the 2014 budget submitted Wednesday, but would still see a drop in total funding from what Congress provided for this year in the final version of the continuing resolution.

The $155.8 billion requested for the Navy Department in the president's proposed defense budget of $526.6 billion is level with the president's 2013 request but is $11.4 billion above the request for the Air Force and $26.1 billion larger than that for the Army.

The request, however, is $4.1 billion below its current funding, mainly because the budget did not include Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds, which provided $14 billion for Navy and Marine operations connected with the conflict in Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials said the OCO request was delayed because President Barack Obama has not decided on how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan after the planned cut of 34,000 this year. The Navy will get about $14 billion in OCO funds this fiscal year.
April 11, 2013

The Pentagon's 'Lost Year;' Time To Clear The Rubble

http://defense.aol.com/2013/04/10/the-pentagons-lost-year-time-to-clear-the-rubble/



The Pentagon's 'Lost Year;' Time To Clear The Rubble
By David Berteau
Published: April 10, 2013


2013 is a lost year for the defense budget. Political paralysis from the election, the fiscal cliff, sequestration and the debt ceiling doomed 2013 from the beginning. The FY2014 budget request is already under duress and is unlikely to fare better.

Despite the two month delay in its release, the new budget request fails to recognize the 2013 appropriations just passed and it exceeds the budget caps in the Budget Control Act. With an erroneous baseline and disregard for the BCA caps, the president's request not only endangers the 2014 spending levels, but sets DoD on a path to plan for higher budgets over the entire Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), compromising the planning process.

Some hope might be found in the fact that both the House and Senate passed budget resolutions for the first time since 2009 (albeit under threat of having their pay withheld if they failed). But like the president's request, both budget resolutions exceed the statutory budget caps and once again the government has put itself in the position of needing to resolve much larger issues in order to get defense authorization and appropriations for next year.

Congress needs to change the caps and then appropriate at one of the existing budget levels (House Budget Resolution, Senate Budget Resolution, or the president's budget request) or they need to adopt a concurrent budget resolution at the cap level. If they cannot do one of these two things, there will be another CR, another sequester, and the vicious cycle will continue.
April 11, 2013

As VA Backlog Grows, "Baffled" Veteran Allies Begin to Turn On President

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/08/as-va-backlog-grows-baffled-veteran-allies-begin-to-turn-on-president.html

As VA Backlog Grows, "Baffled" Veteran Allies Begin to Turn On President
by Jamie Reno Apr 8, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

As the benefits system for veterans has bogged down on Obama's watch, in spite of his promises to fix it, advocates who had been allies are running out of patience with the president, reports Jamie Reno.

America's 23 million veterans are facing an unprecedented crisis as the backlog of disability claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has grown to nearly 1 million - more than double what it was when President Obama took office.

The situation has reached a tipping point. Newspaper editorial boards and magazines call it a "national disgrace" and insist VA Secretary Eric Shinseki should resign. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is calling for the resignation of Allison Hickey, the VA's head of benefits.

Given the breadth of the crisis, this widespread outrage isn't surprising. But perhaps what is surprising is that for the first time, several prominent veteran advocates who've been staunch supporters of Obama are now joining the chorus of critics who say the president has badly mishandled the VA.





unhappycamper comment: Shinseki is not the problem; the United States Congress is.
April 11, 2013

Three years after BP oil spill, new research finds massive die-off of Gulf ecosystem

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/09/1200324/-Three-years-after-BP-oil-spill-new-research-finds-massive-die-off-of-Gulf-ecosystem



Wrecked shell of the Transocean oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, as it burns and sinks into the ocean

Three years after BP oil spill, new research finds massive die-off of Gulf ecosystem
beach babe in fl for
Tue Apr 09, 2013 at 08:41 AM PDT

Three years after the worst environmental disaster in US history, new research from the University of South Florida (USF) finds that the oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster three years ago killed off millions of amoeba-like creatures that form the basis of the gulf's aquatic food chain.

The oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster three years ago killed off millions of amoeba-like creatures that form the basis of the gulf's aquatic food chain, according to scientists at the University of South Florida. The die-off of tiny foraminifera stretched through the mile-deep DeSoto Canyon and beyond, following the path of an underwater plume of oil that snaked out from the wellhead, said David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer with USF. "Everywhere the plume went, the die-off went," Hollander said.

The full implications of the die-off are yet to be seen. The foraminifera are consumed by clams and other creatures, who then provide food for the next step in the food chain, including the types of fish found with lesions. Because of the size of the spill, the way it was handled and the lack of baseline science in the gulf, there's little previous research to predict long-term effects.

BP had no clue as to how to clean up the unprecedented spill so they used a product called Corexit. Corexit was the most-used dispersant in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, with Corexit 9527 having been replaced by Corexit 9500 after the former was deemed unacceptably toxic. Oil that would normally rise to the surface of the water is broken up by the dispersant into small globules that can then remain suspended in the water. In 2012, a study found that Corexit used during the Gulf spill had increased the toxicity of the oil by up to 52 times.
April 11, 2013

Ex-regulator: All 104 nuclear reactors in US have a safety problem that can’t be fixed. They should

http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/04/09/ex-regulator-all-104-nuclear-reactors-in-us-have-a-safety-problem-that-cant-be-fixed-they-should-be-replaced/

Ex-regulator: All 104 nuclear reactors in US have a safety problem that can’t be fixed. They should be replaced.
Posted on April 9, 2013 at 12:55 pm by GottaLaff

I am a staunch non-fan of nuclear energy. Not only is it dangerous as hell, not only do I live relatively close to two reactors situated in earthquake country, but what really irks me is how we have no safe place to store all that extremely dangerous nuclear waste. Gregory B. Jaczko has a thing or two to say about a nuclear thing or two.

The NYY sez:

All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed and they should be replaced with newer technology, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Monday. Shutting them all down at once is not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than trying to extend their lives.(...)

(I)t is highly unusual for a former head of the nuclear commission to so bluntly criticize an industry whose safety he was previously in charge of ensuring.

Jaczko said he would have spoken up sooner, but he only just came to his conclusions “recently.” One of those conclusions is that we’ve been putting Band-Aids on major problems. Well, there’s that. Follow the link for more.
April 11, 2013

US now naming force-fed Guantanamo prisoners

http://news.yahoo.com/us-now-naming-force-fed-guantanamo-prisoners-193633133.html

US now naming force-fed Guantanamo prisoners
By BEN FOX | Associated Press – Mon, Apr 8, 2013

MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. government has begun notifying lawyers of Guantanamo Bay prisoners if the men they represent are being force-fed to prevent them from starving to death in a hunger strike that has dragged on for more than two months, though its extent remains in dispute.

Cori Crider, a lawyer for Yemeni prisoner Samir Mukbel, said she received notification from the Department of Justice late last week that her client was being force-fed and was permitted to speak with him by phone Monday to confirm the report.

Crider, who works for the British legal rights group Reprieve, said Mukbel told her he joined the hunger strike in February, has lost about 30 pounds and at one point fainted and had to be hospitalized at the prison on the U.S. base in Cuba. He described the feeding process as painful.

"Some people have gone through this a lot but he said he had never felt anything like it in his life," she said shortly after the call.

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