GE Trying to Resuscitate F-35 Alternative Engine

The Politico newspaper last week ran an article detailing the last-ditch efforts that GE is making in its attempt to save the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's proposed "alternative engine".
The Obama Administration and Secretary of Defense Gates have targeted this second engine for elimination, but GE is fighting hard to save it in the upcoming conference committees.
The Obama Administration has already succeeded in ending the production of F-22 Raptors, one of the key cuts that Secretary Gates announced earlier this year. The JSF second engine was also on Gates's list, backed up by a threatened veto by President Obama.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25838.html

CAGW Hammers F-35 Second Engine

Citizens Against Government Waste has been strongly critical of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter "alternative engine", running ads against its $7.2 B cost. You can see the ad--and sign CAGW's petition, at this link:
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=jsf_engine#petition

New IPS Report: Global Warming & Our Security

My friend Miriam Pemberton at the Institute for Policy Studies has just released an excellent and important new study, comparing expenditures on climate change reduction to funding for other security threats. Here's the link:
http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/military_vs_climate_security_mapping_the_shift_from_the_bush_years_to_the_obama_era
Ms. Pemberton's report draws a set of important conclusions:
The public interest would be served by closing the enormous gap between federal expenditures on military as opposed to climate security. The grounds for this are:
*It will make the balance of our security resources more consistent with the relative magnitudes of the threats faced by the nation and the world.
*In a time of rising unemployment, this shift will create more jobs than the current balance of spending on military and climate security.
*It will redirect the jobs base toward work the country needs doing.
Paul Rosenberg over on OpenLeft.com has a related piece, pointing out that in recent years the Pentagon itself has realized that climate change is a huge threat to our near-term security.
The logical result would be, as the IPS research suggests, to reorient our military spending to put more funding into U.S./worldwide carbon dioxide reduction and poverty mitigation planning, with less spent on continuing to defend against non-existent Cold War threats.
This would be a worthy, smart game plan for the Obama Administration, imho...

F-35 alternative engine struck in Senate

The fight is not yet over, because the House has not yet agreed to follow President Obama's lead on this issue, but the Senate did eliminate funding for the second, "alternative" engine proposed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
http://thehill.com/business--lobby/senators-nix-funding-for-second-joint-strike-fighter-engine-2009-07-23.html

Where Does Military Money Go?

Long-time activists Bill Goodfellow & Bob Edgar talk about where our military dollars go...
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/05/where_our_defense_money_goes/

Imperial Over-reach?

Another insightful Chalmers Johnson post about our over-extended military bases...
http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/news/2009-08-04-12-18-34-news.php

military purchases out of whack

Here's some graphic evidence from the NY Times showing how our military spending is out of control, particularly when contrasted with the health of the regular economy--note the wide separation opening up during the Bush/Cheney years.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/07/31/business/20090801_CHARTS_GRAPHIC.html