Free Republic

When Barak Obama broke onto the scene to a firestorm of liberal adoration and a hyperventilating, awe-struck press, the world was rapt. They cried in heavenly bliss, “At last! At last we have the one! The black man who can lead all of America (and the world, to listen to them) to the Promised Land.” Well, at least most of the world. Some, however, were and remain unimpressed. We conservatives were not taken in by his lofty gaze-we knew it for arrogance, not vision. We were not beguiled when we heard his soaring words, we knew them for empty rhetoric,...

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $14 million contract extension to integrate its Common Link Integration Processing (CLIP) system on B-1B and B-52 aircraft, providing aircrews with enhanced battlefield awareness, communications capabilities and weapons management. Under the 17-month contract extension, Northrop Grumman will support software integration, ground and flight tests, and Air Force and joint interoperability certifications. All 66 aircraft in the B-1 bomber fleet and 94 aircraft in the B-52 fleet will be CLIP enabled. CLIP is a software package that allows existing platforms without a tactical data link, as well as platforms with different...

.: Northrop Grumman Corporation has begun flight testing the new computing hardware and communications infrastructure that will eventually allow the B-2 stealth bomber to send and receive battlefield information by satellite more than 100 times faster than today. Since Sept. 1, the company has conducted a series of test flights using a B-2 test aircraft stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight test program is part of Increment 1 of the U.S. Air Force's B-2 extremely high frequency (EHF) satellite communications program. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor for the B-2 Spirit, the flagship of the...

Why does your freedom matter to you? This may seem like a silly question, with self-evident answers. But part of the reason why freedom continues to be eroded in America is that for many people, it is something that is abstract, unseen, and is taken very much for granted... even while it slips away. In a struggle between the more tangible and the less tangible, the tangible has the distinct advantage. If we want to turn the tide and begin to increase freedom in America, we need to make our freedom, and what it means to each of us individually,...

SNIPPET: "ARRL Field Day is June 26-27, 2010 ARRL Field Day is the largest on-the-air operating event in Amateur Radio. It draws tens of thousands to the airwaves each year, bringing new and experienced hams together for a weekend of fun!" SNIPPET: "ARRL Field Day Overview ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. Each year over 35,000 amateurs gather with their clubs, friends or simply by themselves to operate. ARRL Field Day is not a fully adjudicated contest, which explains much of its popularity. It is a time where many...

Airmen from the 566th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron completed work on extending the service life of the first of 16 Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft June 15. The E-6Bs are flown by members of the Strategic Communications Wing ONE, whose primary mission is airborne communication with Navy submarines. It also serves as an airborne command post for U.S. Strategic Command. Officials said the maintenance process had its share of ups and downs as the first aircraft warranted more attention than usual, but mechanics don't anticipate that to be the case for the remaining 15 aircraft. "We really aggressively pursued and accomplished success...

In the event that the catastrophe takes place which we all are thinking about and talking about in these days under this regime, whether it be a global financial shut-down (see this scenario: http://www.grandpappy.info/honehour.htm), a military strike somewhere, or some such dire event unleashes sudden freeze-up of our society: How do citizens communicate? CB? Short wave? Our lifeblood is communication. What are our options to maintain this link to patriots across the country?

This is pretty scary stuff. The Federal government is ready to seize control of private company networks in order to "protect" us in the event of a hacker attack.

Every now and again someone raises a stern warning about the amount of space junk orbiting Earth. Those warnings are usually met with general indifference, as very few of us own satellites or travel regularly to low Earth orbit. But the DoD's assessment of the space junk problem finds that perhaps we should be paying attention: space junk has reached a critical tipping point that could result in a cataclysmic chain reaction that brings everyday life on Earth to a grinding halt. Our reliance on satellites goes beyond the obvious. We depend on them for television signals, the evening weather...

The US Air Force is moving forward with a major new upgrade for the half-century-old Boeing B-52H fleet, focused on replacing the bomber's radar, which is roughly 30 years old. The Northrop Grumman APQ-166 strategic radar is nearing the end of its useful life and will be replaced on 76 B-52Hs, the USAF says in a request for information issued to industry. The new system will perform all of the mission functions now performed by the APQ-166 mechanically scanned array, but provide "new and enhanced capabilities", the air force says. Although active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology is now available...

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah was said to have blocked the flow of information on military deployment in Lebanon. A retired U.S. Army general said Hizbullah has been monitoring and preventing communications between Lebanon and the outside world, particularly regarding the arrival of advanced weapons. The general, Paul Vallely, said Hizbullah has sought to keep secret the flow of conventional and nonconventional weapons received from Iran in 2010. "The Internet has been locked down, very tightly controlled," Vallely said. "Anyone associated with any Israeli will be assassinated." The retired U.S. general, an author and military analyst for the U.S.-based Fox News, said...

Israel's military has determined that Syria was producing its first solid-fuel rockets. Officials said the military and intelligence community said the regime of President Bashar Assad has been producing and deploying a variant of an Iranian long-range rocket. They identified the Iranian rocket as the Fateh-110, developed by Teheran nearly a decade ago and supplied to several countries as well as the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. "This certainly enhances the military capability of Syria from what it was even five years ago," an official said. Syria has taken the Fateh-110 and developed an enhanced variant. Officials said the upgraded weapon, termed M-600,...

Obama Lashes Out at New Media & iPods… Even Though He Gave the Queen One Last Year Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, May 9, 2010, 3:33 PM Spoken like a true tyrant… Barack Obama lashed out at (conservative) talk radio, (conservative) blogs, cable news (FOX), and new gadgets today during his commencement speech to graduates at Virginia’s Hampton University. He lambasted iPods, iPads Xboxes and PlayStations even though he gave the Queen one last year loaded with his favorite show tunes. Barack Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod last year. Suddenly, it’s a distraction. What he was...

Northrop Grumman Corporation technicians here have begun installing the first set of hardware for a B-2 stealth bomber upgrade that will eventually allow the jet to send and receive battlefield information up to 100 times faster than its current satellite communications system. The work is being done as part of Increment 1 of the U.S. Air Force's B-2 extremely high frequency (EHF) satellite communications program. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor for the B-2 Spirit, the flagship of the nation's long range strike arsenal, and one of the world's most survivable aircraft systems. The B-2 is the only...

This capability allows F-16 pilots to communicate using four geosynchronous satellites 22,300 miles above the equator. F-16 pilots can now converse beyond the line of sight to command and control agencies in Iraq. Previously, pilots were relied on line of sight radio capability to communicate. With that, a straight line between the transmitting and receiving end was needed for successful communication, and it was limited by range, mountains and other obstructions. Now with the satellite communication system high above the earth, the line of sight is no longer an issue. "The new capability allows us to communicate with joint-terminal air...

White House officials are retooling the administration's communications strategy to produce faster responses to political adversaries, a more disciplined focus on President Obama's call for "change" in Washington and an increasingly selective use of the president's time. The messaging adjustments are the result of an end-of-the-year analysis in which White House advisers said the president's communications team had not taken the initiative often enough and had allowed drawn-out debates in Congress, and relentless criticism by Republicans, to drown out his message. "It was clear that too often we didn't have the ball -- Congress had the ball in terms of...

This video reminds me of a joke I heard about a husband who was looking through the paper when he came upon a study that said women use more words than men? Well there was a married man who read in a magazine that, "Men use about 7000 words per day, but women use 20,000". Excited to prove to his wife that he had been right all along when he accused her of talking too much, he showed her the study results. The wife thought for a while, then finally she said to her husband, "It's because we have to...

White House honchos and others use the term “communication failure” to explain the inability of Congress to pass healthcare legislation and other key parts of President Obama’s agenda. Such reasoning assumes the bills deserve passage in their current forms. That, however, is another topic. This week’s topic looks at why, from a communication standpoint, some of politics’ brightest operatives failed to present a comprehensible message. To do this, we start with the basic communication model taught in high school: Message => Sender => Medium => Receiver Interpretation of the message and feedback complete the process. Any glitch along the way...

"Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory . . . Abandoned by his party, betrayed by his friends, stripped of his offices, whoever can command this power is still formidable." - Winston S. Churchill "(I) won a nickname, 'The Great Communicator.' But I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things." – Ronald Reagan "Don't tell me words don't matter! 'I have a dream'-- just words? 'We hold these truths...

This day was certain to come; what’s a bit surprising is how quickly it came. The Obama administration now has a “communication problem.” According to the Hill newspaper: The other misstep that has bogged down the administration on health care specifically is Obama’s inability to communicate effectively to the American people, [Professor Paul] Light said. While it is shocking to consider that Obama is anything less than one of the best communicators in modern political history, when it comes to health care, he simply has not been able to make the sell to people who do have health insurance. And...