No doubt just in time for the Obama administration to cut funding for them.

In recent test-blasts, researchers at Northrop Grumman managed to get its 105 kilowatts of power out of their laser -- past the "100kW threshold [that] has been viewed traditionally as a proof of principle for 'weapons grade' power levels for high-energy lasers," Northrop's vice president of directed energy systems, Dan Wildt, said in a statement.

That much power won't get you a Star Wars-style blaster. But it should be more than enough to zap the mortars and rockets that insurgents have used to pound American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, about lightsabers....

Posted by: DrewM at 06:25 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 114 words, total size 1 kb.

Bumped: This broke late last night/early this morning but it's a big story so I'm moving it up so everyone can see it.

Considering they are, you know, broke, 80% owned by the government and already have about 160 billion in taxpayer money, I'm not sure how this works but okay I guess.

The Treasury Department will order embattled insurance giant American International Group Inc. to repay U.S. taxpayers up to $165 million that the company is giving employees as bonuses, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said late Tuesday.

Acknowledging "considerable outrage" about the bonus payments, Geithner said AIG will pay the Treasury an amount equal to the payments, and the Treasury will deduct that amount from the $30 billion in government assistance that will soon go to the company.

"We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the Treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid," Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders.

So they are paying us back by taking less of our money to replace the money we gave them that they already handed out in bonuses? Isn't this the kind of accounting that created problems in the first place?

Okay, so it's a bit of a shell game but at least it will head off some dumb ass law aimed specifically at the people who got the money. It also shows that Obama may have wanted to stoke the populist flames on this but Republicans were likely having some success hitting him with the whole 'you either knew about it and did nothing or you were too stupid to have read the fine print' stick and he wanted it gone.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:21 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 305 words, total size 2 kb.

Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post has a column bemoaning a report that purports to show we tortured detainees or had it done at our behest. While the stories told are painful, we have no way of knowing their accuracy and even if taken at face value they may not even constitute torture.

That seems like a fair way to begin, let's see where she takes this.

Really now, no doubt? Perhaps the slightest inkling of an innocent until proven guilty? no? We just need to fill in the blanks and start frog-marching these American leaders off to jail. I wonder if she has a list of names? Clinton? Clinton? I kinda doubt that's who she has in mind, but don't forget for a second that he definitely led off the current round of the rendition express. But first let's look at this incontrovertible proof of criminal torture Ms. Applebaum cites.

OK let me get this one, a writer for a book review publishes excerpts from a supposed to be confidential report by a non-governmental agency and this erases all doubt that a criminal conspiracy existed. More likely it proves that a criminal-like conspiracy to expose secrets of the US government exists among the media. But obviously this un-impeachable article in the NY Review of Books about a Red Cross report that is excerpted, previously-confidential and based on sources whose testimony cannot be doubted gets it's "facts" from.....

So this whole indictment of America is based on the
supposed testimony excerpted from a confidential, I mean formerly
confidential, report put together by the Red Cross and consists of the
stories of 14 terrorists? Well there you go. For a second I thought
this might be BS, but al Qaeda members are certainly not well-known for
training their members to lie about mistreatment precisely because the
Applebaum's of the world will usefully idiot their tales. Of course
not, terrorists say they were tortured and thus they were post ipso
crapto.

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 05:19 AM | Comments (2)
Post contains 1229 words, total size 8 kb.

President Obama has nominated U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton for the vacancy in the Seventh Circuit. The media immediately lauded the pick as "moderate." They must have been reading that off of JournoList, because he is no moderate.

He was a fundraiser for ACORN and vice president for litigation at the Indiana ACLU, where he also was a board member, before becoming a judge. There's the time (a mere seven years) he held up an abortion waiting period and was firmly rapped by the Circuit he is nominated to join:

For seven years Indiana has been prevented from enforcing a statute materially identical to a law held valid by the Supreme Court in Casey, by this court in Karlin, and by the fifth circuit in Barnes. No court anywhere in the country (other than one district judge in Indiana [i.e., Hamilton]) has held any similar law invalid in the years since Casey. Although Salerno does not foreclose all pre-enforcement challenges to abortion laws, it is an abuse of discretion for a district judge to issue a pre-enforcement injunction while the effects of the law (and reasons for those effects) are open to debate.

And then there's the time he ruled that Indiana legislators could not begin their sessions with an "overtly Christian" prayer. This is part of an ongoing Lefty assault on the idea that standing requires more than a speculative injury. He was, again, overruled by the Seventh Circuit (PDF) because the people in whose name the American Civil Liberties Union had brought the suit lacked standing. They couldn't show that they had been injured by the praying.

Other infamous rulings now coming to light include a recent decision that police use of drug-sniffing dogs outside of a residence without a warrant is a Fourth Amendment violation. He declared unconstitutional (under the U.S. constitution) an Indiana constitutional amendment requiring the registration of convicted sex offenders.

This is not a moderate judge. If he joins the Seventh Circuit we can expect more of the same radical rulings on constitutional issues like standing, abortion, and Christianity he made as a district court judge.

By the way: For you guys who blog or send tips our way, I found that top link up there through Twitter. It's becoming quite a resource.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:42 AM | Comments (2)
Post contains 393 words, total size 3 kb.

One of these days.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:58 AM | Comments (2)
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

LetÂ’s have a moment of silence please for the dearly departed Seattle P-I. Followed by several hours of ecstatic screams of joy, running drunkenly naked through the streets and whatever other debauchery you can conjure up. (And I know you guys well by nowÂ…you can conjure up some really twisted shit)

Not really much to add. TheyÂ’ve posted their own online obituary so youÂ’re more than welcome to go pay your respects. For their last publication as an actual newspaper they put out a 20-page section full of self-pity/congratulations today. They even got some noted celebrities such as Rep. Jim McDermott to pay some respects in a column. (Wherein he channels Bob Dylan nonsensically)

Per AceÂ’s instructions, videos are supposed to be posted below the fold since they fuck up traffic and slow down the blog. But this is a special occasion. The P-I deserves a proper sendoff. I mean besides setting their remaining newspaper boxes on fire. DonÂ’t do that though. It would be unsporting of you chaps.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:28 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 251 words, total size 2 kb.

Not content to lace only the President's speeches with "umms", "uhhs," and "distractions", Obama's teleprompter has gone rogue, savagely striking out at a foreign statesman:

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given. [...]

But Cowen was 20 seconds into his second address when it dawned on him that he was giving word for word the speech that Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.

Ah, but the Chucklehead-in-Chief recovered gracefully:

Obama laughed and returned to the podium to offer what might have been Cowen's remarks. In doing so, President Obama thanked President Obama for inviting everyone over. He then told the guests to try the veal and tip their waitresses.

This guy can't catch a break with foreign leaders.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:30 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 166 words, total size 1 kb.

Because Lord knows, we wouldn't want to create or save any jobs in an industry that actually employs Americans, what with this whole recession thingy going on.

Thank goodness Secretary Gates is marshalling all his credibility, getting ready to take on the apparently very difficult job of helping Obama overcome criticism.

As a former CIA director with strong Republican credentials, Gates is prepared to use his credibility to help Obama overcome the expected outcry from conservatives. And after a lifetime in the national security arena, working in eight administrations, the 65-year-old Gates is also ready to counter the defense companies and throngs of retired generals and other lobbyists who are gearing up to protect their pet projects.

Tough job for a tough guy.

For a palate cleanser, how about a little war porn, for old times sake?

Pic courtesy of Kevlarchick, who, knowing this is a very smart military blog, sent a few links to more, here, and here. I've seen some of em, not all of em.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:10 PM | Comments (3)
Post contains 197 words, total size 2 kb.

Genius.

As was asked when this issue was debated -- and resolved, we thought -- "If you don't trust a pilot to carry a gun, what the fuck are you doing allowing him at the controls of a plane carrying 300 people?"

Nah, he's not a hard-core ideologue or anything. He just wants practical, common-sense solutions.

Posted by: Ace at 03:42 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

Remember when the Democrats called the filibuster a critical tool for democracy? And the media endorsed that?

Yeah, seems they've all changed their minds.

Posted by: Ace at 02:19 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.