DebateGate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army 1st Lt. Ashley White died on the front lines in southern Afghanistan last weekend, the first casualty in what the Army says is a new and vital wartime attempt to gain the trust of Afghan women.

White, like other female soldiers working with special operations teams, was brought in to do things that would be awkward or impossible for her male teammates. Frisking burqa-clad women, for example.

Her death, in a bomb explosion in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar, demonstrates the risks of placing women with elite U.S. special operations teams working in remote villages.

Military leaders and other female soldiers in the program say its rewards are great, even as it fuels debate over the roles of women in combat.

"We could do things that the males cannot do, and they are starting to realize that," says Sgt. Christine Baldwin, who like White was among the first groups of women deployed to Afghanistan this year as specially trained "cultural support" troops.

Male soldiers often cannot even speak to an Afghan woman because of the strict cultural norms that separate the sexes and the tradition of women remaining behind closed doors most of the time. Forcing the issue has yielded only resentment, military officials say, and has jeopardized the trust and cooperation of villagers. From the start of the war 10 years ago, Afghans have especially resented the practice of "night raids" in which male foreign soldiers enter and search homes, the traditional sanctum of women.

"We could search the female, find out the other half of the information," Baldwin said in an interview. "If you're missing half of the lay of the land, how effective are you in engaging the populace?"

That question was eight years in the making. It arose from the frustration of U.S. commanders who realized two years ago that as they tried to apply the principles of counterinsurgency — protect civilians and enlist them to reject insurgents and provide intelligence — they were not reaching the majority of the Afghan population.

Now, the first female soldiers are serving in commando units. They are trained to ferret out critical information not available to their male team members, to identify insurgents disguised as women and figure out when Afghan women are being used to hide weapons.

U.S. women have been on the front lines in Afghanistan since the war began, and over time they have been used to reach out to the Afghan population through health care initiatives and other programs. They have traveled with Army soldiers and Marines throughout the warfront, often to assist in development projects or as part of psychological operations, which now are called MISO, or military information support operations.

But as elite special operations teams fanned out across the country doing counterinsurgency "stability operations" in the small villages, they complained to their superiors that they were not reaching the women and children who comprise as much as 71 percent of the population.

"We waited too long to get to this," says Command Sgt. Maj. Ledford Stigall. "We had a lot of people focused on the kill and capture, and it really took someone to say, hey it's not about kill, capture, it's about developing a country that can take care of itself."

"Women have a voice," he said. "They can influence the men in their society."

In 2009, under pressure from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Gen. David Petraeus, then the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, the Army began to develop Cultural Support Teams.

Last November, the first group of women went through a grueling five-day assessment that tested their physical and military skills, their problem-solving and writing abilities and their psychological and mental fitness. Those that passed moved on to a six-week training program.

And in January, the first group of 28 women were deployed to Afghanistan with Army Rangers and Special Forces teams.

They went in two-woman teams as part of larger special operations units, usually numbering about a dozen. And they were designed to go out on patrols and into the villages with the special operators to help build relations with the communities by engaging with the Afghan women.

In the process, they also could glean valuable intelligence about the people in the region, information they might not be able to get from the men.

Capt. Adrienne Bryant was in the first group that deployed.

Down in Helmand Province with a team of Marine special operations forces, Bryant said, the initial response from the population was tepid.

On her first patrol, however, the team introduced her and her CST teammate to a village elder.

"He had been constantly abused by the Taliban, had been kidnapped and returned and he didn't want to work with coalition forces any more because of the fear the Taliban was going to retaliate," Bryant said in an interview.

Bryant and her teammate talked to him about what they could do for the women of his village, including the medical assistance and skills training, like sewing, they could bring. And he was interested.

"Helmand was a pretty conservative area, women aren't really seen out much, they don't shop. So we had to disguise our sewing program; we ran it in conjunction with our clinic," Bryant said. "In case the women were being scrutinized because they were coming to learn a skill from us, they had cover by coming on clinic days."

Baldwin was sent up north with an Army special operations team in Kunduz Province. The women they encountered were hesitant at first.

"We'd go out on patrol and be all kitted up and they were almost fearful, but once we took off that helmet, and put on the scarf, they would recognize that it was a female and the fear would be gone," she said.

Both Baldwin and Bryant said the Afghan women and children at their meetings grew from a few to dozens. Neither said they ever felt they were in immediate danger during their eight-month deployment, although they knew what was possible.

"Any day that they're walking into a village and engaging with the population they are at the same risk as those Special Forces, SEALs, or special operators they're detailed to. So I would say it is not for the weak-kneed," said Michael Lumpkin, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for special operations. "These women are on the front lines in very austere locations."

Ashley White, 24, was among the 34 CST members to go to Afghanistan in the second group, and she was assigned to a Ranger unit. The Ohio native and two Rangers were killed when their assault force triggered a roadside bomb. In a press release Monday, U.S. Army Special Operations Command said White "played a crucial role as a member of a special operations strike force. Her efforts highlight both the importance and necessity of women on the battlefield today."

Lumpkin said that so far commanders agree the program has been a success. The third group of women is about to begin training, and the tentative plan is to have 25 permanent Army CST teams by 2016.

"When 71 percent of the population are women and children, you have to have buy-in from a greater number of people in the villages to really connect with them, and to understand really what's going on. Because of that female-to-female connection, that can be achieved," Lumpkin said.

He added, "We're coming late to the table, but we've recognized the value (of the program), and I think this will transcend beyond Afghanistan. ... I don't see them going away any time soon."

I wonder which takes more courage to be a Liberal or Conservative?

Personally I have seen time after time Liberals to be cowards.

What kind of courage does it take for a mob to overrun a bank or show up on a CEO's doorstep? Would one of these mob members act on his own without the backing of his mob?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2011/oct/24/michelle-obama-dominates-laura-bush-press/

A media research firm says Michelle Obama has gotten nearly 30,000 mentions in the press since her husband was elected president, more than tripling the attention paid her predecessor, Laura Bush, during the equivalent time.

HighBeam Research scoured the 6,500 publications it tracks to see how often each was mentioned from the time her husband was elected until Oct. 20 of the third year he was in office — 2003 in the case of Mrs. Bush, and 2011 for Mrs. Obama.

The current first lady steamrolled, garnering 29,634 mentions, compared to 8,707 for Mrs. Bush in the nearly three-year periods under review.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576649040250372076.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth


NBC Unable to Shake Slide in Ratings
By SAM SCHECHNER and LAUREN A.E. SCHUKER

NBC's downward slide is getting steeper.

Long a ratings laggard, the network has fallen further behind its competitors this fall, heightening the challenge facing its new owner Comcast Corp. as it works to mount a turnaround.

Through the first four weeks of the TV season ending Oct. 16, about 3.3 million adults under 50 years old have been watching prime-time TV shows on NBC, according to the latest figures from Nielsen Holdings NV. That is down 9.3% from the same period a year earlier. Much of the decline is concentrated in NBC's entertainment shows.

Leaving out National Football League games, which NBC airs on Sunday nights, the network's 18-to-49-year-old audience is 2.2 million—down 16% from a year earlier. That demographic is the audience group most valued by advertisers.

Among the shows demonstrating particularly severe declines are long-running programs like "Law & Order: SVU" and "The Biggest Loser," each of which lost one of its stars. The 18-to-49-year-old audiences for those shows have fallen 20% to 3.4 million and 23% to 3 million, respectively, this season compared to last season, according to Nielsen.

Competitors are faring better. Through four weeks, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC is down 5.8% among viewers 18-to-49 in prime-time, CBS Corp.'s eponymous network is down 2.3% and News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting is up 11%, according to the latest Nielsen data. (News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.)

Sliding ratings are nothing new for NBC, which was once dominant but has seen its prime-time lineup stuck mostly in fourth place since sitcom "Friends" left the air in 2004. Under General Electric Co., NBC executives for years cut costs in a race to keep up with their smaller audiences. But since Comcast purchased the network parent NBCUniversal earlier this year, its executives have said they aim to invest in a turnaround over the next three to five years.

To be sure, Comcast's main interest in NBCU was its stable of profitable cable channels, which contributed 85% of the unit's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, for the three months ended June 30. Ebitda is a commonly used measure of profitability.

By contrast, Comcast sees NBC as a turnaround opportunity. The network's prime-time lineup loses hundreds of millions of dollars per year, according to people familiar with its finances.

"No network has ever been as far behind financially as NBC is," Steve Burke, chief executive of NBCUniversal, said at an analyst conference last month. "But if we can turn the ratings," he said, "you can imagine hundreds of millions of dollars of Ebitda coming into the system that is NBC."

To manage the turnaround, Comcast brought in Bob Greenblatt, former creative chief of CBS Corp.'s Showtime. He spent the summer retooling the network's staff, bringing in new heads of scripted programming, marketing, comedy and publicity. He also worked to improve several of the new shows slated for fall, which had been initiated under the network's previous chiefs.

The network punched up the plot of "The Playboy Club," for instance, but the show ended up being canceled anyway.

"We should expect it's going to be difficult because it's going to be difficult," said Mr. Greenblatt, the network's entertainment chairman, in an interview this summer, ahead of the fall launch.

Much of NBC's focus now is on next season, for which Mr. Greenblatt's new team is buying scripts as part of the yearly cycle of developing new TV shows, according to the people familiar with the network.

That lineup will be the first that entirely bears Mr. Greenblatt's imprimatur.

NBC executives have been saying for months that they have "realistic" expectations for the fall lineup, and expected a tough slog to 2012, when NBC will air the Super Bowl, and bring back popular reality competition show "The Voice."

Some executives last week professed no surprise at the rate of decline. But another person familiar with their thinking added: "It's even less pretty than we had thought it would be."

Ad buyers also say their expectations were already low, but one buyer said that the network could see its share of ad dollars continue to decline along with its ratings.

Adding to NBC's prime-time woes is the potential ripple effect on other parts of its schedule. In late-night this season, NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" trails news show "Nightline," on ABC among adult viewers under the age of 50 during the half-hour they air head-to-head, according to Nielsen.

Part of NBC's problem: Its biggest hits, such as "The Office," are aging. There are some signs of life this fall with a pair of new comedies, "Whitney" and "Up All Night," but those shows are pulling in few viewers compared to new comedies like Fox sitcom "New Girl" and "Two Broke Girls" on CBS, and rank at Nos. 42 and 44, respectively, this season among viewers between 18 and 49 years old.

Poor ratings can be a vicious cycle: Fewer viewers watching NBC means fewer who could sample new shows, making it increasingly difficult to create hits.

To help combat the slide, NBC also has been bulking up with news, one of the few areas where it is still dominant, notably with "Today" and "NBC Nightly News." Next week, the network will launch a new prime-time news magazine called "Rock Center With Brian Williams."
—Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article.

Based on Obama's recent move up in polls I suggest on Nov. 1 2012 he kill Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He might be able to pull off a win.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/21/cain-tops-field-again-nevada-gop-straw-poll/

LAS VEGAS — The good news continued for Herman Cain Friday, as the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO won the Western Republican Leadership Conference straw poll of GOP presidential contenders, edging out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — and leaving Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a distant fifth place.

Mr. Cain, whose longshot campaign got a major boost by winning a major Florida straw poll last month, received nearly 31 percent of the vote and Mr. Romney pulled in nearly 29 percent of the vote. Mr. Gingrich, who has also risen in recent national polls after his campaign’s shaky start, secured more than 20 percent of the vote. Texas Rep. Ron Paul finished with about 10 percent, Mr. Perry received almost 4 percent, and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota received just 1 percent.

The results follow Mr. Cain’s surprise victory in the so-called Presidency 5 straw poll in Orlando last month, which was seen as a big blow to Mr. Perry’s front-runner status at the time.

Since then, the former businessman and Atlanta radio talk-show host has surged in the polls, stealing a lot of the conservative and tea party support that helped Mr. Perry leapfrog to the front of the GOP presidential field shortly after he entered the race in August.

Mr. Romney, meanwhile, has consistently stayed near or at the front of the pack in national polls as Mr. Perry has faded.

The victory closed out the four-day Western Republican Leadership Conference, which featured the most intense debate of the Republican race so far here, with Mr. Romney and Mr. Perry trading rhetorical haymakers over their conservative credentials, their respective records on jobs and their stances on immigration. Reflecting his rising prominence, Mr. Cain also came under fire here from his GOP rivals for his “9-9-9” tax reform plan and for his stands on social issues such as abortion.

David Mansdoerfer, of Citizen Outreach, the poll sponsor, said the results aren’t surprising. “Herman Cain has spent a lot of time in Nevada and it shows,” he said. “You can see people reacting to his message about the economy and job creation”

He also said that Mr. Romney’s second-place finish reflects the fact that the party sees him as the one candidate who can beat President Obama in a general election.

“At this point, it looks like Romney and Cain are the two to beat in Nevada,” he said.

Obama caught laundering reelection money again

With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work.

"There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle," the car company's founder and namesake told ABC News. "They don't exist here."

Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money so far has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive.

"We're not in the business of failing; we're in the business of winning. So we make the right decision for the business," Fisker said. "That's why we went to Finland."

The loan to Fisker is part of a $1 billion bet the Energy Department has made in two politically connected California-based electric carmakers producing sporty -- and pricey -- cutting-edge autos. Fisker Automotive, backed by a powerhouse venture capital firm whose partners include former Vice President Al Gore, predicts it will eventually be churning out tens of thousands of electric sports sedans at the shuttered GM factory it bought in Delaware. And Tesla Motors, whose prime backers include PayPal mogul Elon Musk and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, says it will do the same in a massive facility tooling up in Silicon Valley.

For more on the Fisker and Tesla loans and the Obama administration's green auto loan program, watch "Good Morning America," "World News with Diane Sawyer," and "Nightline."

An investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News that will air on "Good Morning America" found that the DOE's bet carries risks for taxpayers, has raised concern among industry observers and government auditors, and adds to questions about the way billions of dollars in loans for smart cars and green energy companies have been awarded. Fisker is more than a year behind rolling out its $97,000 luxury vehicle bankrolled in part with DOE money. While more are promised soon, just 40 of its Karma cars (below) have been manufactured and only two delivered to customers' driveways, including one to movie star Leonardo DiCaprio. Tesla's SEC filings reveal the start-up has lost money every quarter. And while its federal funding is intended to help it mass produce a new $57,400 Model S sedan, the company has no experience in a project so vast.

There is intense scrutiny of the decisions made by the Department of Energy as it invests billions of taxpayer dollars in alternative energy. The questions come in the wake of the administration's failed $535 million investment in solar panel maker Solyndra. The company's collapse, bankruptcy and raid by FBI agents generated a litany of questions about how the Energy Department doles out billions in highly sought after green energy seed money.

A key question, experts and investigators say, is whether another Solyndra is in the offing.

In interviews, executives with Tesla and Fisker said comparisons to Solyndra are unfounded. Each said the government's investments will ultimately pay off by supporting a fleet of electric cars that will ease the nation's dependence on fuel and benefit the environment.

"It's absolutely a worthwhile risk," said Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president of corporate and business development for Tesla Motors. "I absolutely believe it was a good bet for American taxpayers." Tesla has said its mass production of the sedan will ultimately lead to profitability.

Henrik Fisker, the renowned auto designer who founded the car company that carries his name, said his company holds tremendous promise and has accumulated $600 million in private financing.

When asked directly by ABC News if taxpayers should worry about the more than $500 million in federal funds on the line, he was emphatic: "No, I don't think they need to worry about it," Fisker said. When asked if Fisker might be the next Solyndra, he said, "Absolutely not."

In a lengthy interview, Fisker said he apprised the Department of Energy of his decision to assemble the high-priced Karma in Finland after he could not find an American facility that could handle the work. They signed off, he said, so long as he did not spend the federal loan money in Finland -- something he says the company has taken care to avoid. He said the decision, ultimately, was to help prevent his company from following the path of Solyndra, which exhausted nearly all of its loan money on a high-tech solar manufacturing plant in Freemont, California.

"If you just start doing like what Solyndra did, making a factory in a place where it was too expensive to manufacture … [you] obviously fail," he said.

By some key measures, Tesla is ahead of Fisker. More than 2,000 of its first electric car, the Tesla Roadster, are on the road, while Fisker is just starting to get its first car into showrooms. And Tesla is further along in advancing a second, lower-cost car, the Model S. While both firms boast of big dollar private investments, Tesla's vulnerabilities are more publicly visible through its SEC filings, in contrast to the privately held Fisker.

Chelsea Sexton, a 20-year veteran of the electric car movement and an outspoken advocate for alternative fuel vehicles, said she can plainly see the risks, even though her husband works for Tesla.

"None of us with any experience in the industry think there's any sort of guarantee they'll make it," Sexton said of Tesla. "It looks pretty good right now, they're building out their plant, things seem to be on track, so we're all encouraged. But you know, we watched GM and Chrysler go bankrupt."

Energy Department officials said such loans, by their nature, are risky because the department is financing innovative, potentially game-changing technologies that could deliver long-term benefits. They said neither firm has missed a loan payment, or sought help from the department to restructure their lending agreements.

"Two years ago, critics said we shouldn't be investing in American auto manufacturing at all because the industry wouldn't survive," said Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman. "They were wrong then and they're wrong today. From well-established names like Ford to innovative startups like Tesla and Fisker, America's auto industry is being reinvented. Continuing this turnaround demands more innovation, not defeatism. While supporting innovative technologies always carries a degree of risk, these investments deliver long-term benefits."

Yet an audit this year by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, criticized the Energy Department for not keeping close enough tabs on its fleet of auto loans -- including those to Fisker and Tesla -- to ensure they meet benchmarks. The funding was issued under the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, one piece of a giant umbrella of DOE loans and loan guarantees going out the door.

"DOE cannot be assured that the projects are on track to deliver the vehicles as agreed," said the GAO report examining the department's ATVM program. "It also means that U.S. taxpayers do not know whether they are getting what they paid for through the loans."

Tesla and Fisker stand in rare company in securing the ATVM loans. To date, records show, more than 95 percent of applicants are still awaiting approval or have been rejected from the loan pool.

Between them, Fisker, at $529 million, and Tesla, at $465 million, have secured nearly $1 billion to jump-start production of their cars. Combined, the companies have already drawn down more than $300 million, Federal Financing Bank records show.

Industry watchers question whether the Department of Energy had the auto industry know-how to make an informed choice, and they worry that another government-backed failure could damage the very industry the program intended to help.

"I think we'll absolutely end up having our version of Solyndra in the transport world based on the way the DOE has, and seems to still be executing its loan program without enough veteran diligence in the process," Sexton said.

The majority of the DOE funding for Fisker is earmarked for the company to develop a less costly, mass market sedan, called Project Nina. Energy officials issued the loans for a car that, even two years later, has not been publicly revealed.

"A half billion dollars for a car that no one has seen a picture of, in the Fisker Nina, was a bit more surprising to people," Sexton said.

Fisker said the mass market car Nina has been designed and built, but it remains under wraps to maintain a competitive edge.

Standing in a shuttered General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del., Vice President Biden proclaimed that a half-billion-dollar Department of Energy loan would transform the idled site into a production line for electric cars.

"Folks, we're making a bet," Biden said on Oct. 27, 2009. "We're making a bet on the future, we're making a bet on the American people, we're making a bet on the market, we're making a bet on innovation."

The announcement that the plant would re-open followed a heavy lobbying push by Delaware politicians from both parties, who cited the news as a sign of industry's turnaround. In September 2009, Republican Rep. Mike Castle wrote directly to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, saying the Fisker proposal had "great merit," and urging Chu to give the company "careful consideration" for the loan. The governor and state politicians took turns, along with Biden, to proclaim the project to cheering blue-collar workers clad in jeans, caps and jackets. They said it would produce thousands of jobs and have cars rolling off the line by next year. Fisker said he remains convinced those jobs will come. While he has hired marketing, design and engineering teams in the U.S., the auto plant jobs in Wilmington right now number about 100.

The Department of Energy loan to Fisker closed in April 2010, and again Biden took center stage in a department statement announcing the loan. "The story of Fisker is a story of ingenuity of an American company, a commitment to innovation by the U.S. government and the perseverance of the American auto industry," said the vice president.

ABC News sent questions to the White House Monday and requested an interview with the vice president. Biden was not made available, but an official in his office said "the Office of the Vice President did not encourage the Department of Energy to choose any particular company over any other but, like others in the Administration, supported the Department's loan program and the creation of car manufacturing jobs in the United States."

Energy Department officials have been steadfast that politics never entered the picture and each project was screened by professionals and secured on the merits. And executives from Tesla and Fisker said they won government support because their projects had the best shot at success. They said the involvement of well-connected figures in their companies should not suggest they attempted to use special influence to secure the loans.

Both companies have political heavyweights behind them. One of Fisker's biggest financial supporters, records show, is the California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The firm financially supports numerous green-tech firms, records show.

Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, a California billionaire who made a fortune investing in Google, hosted President Obama at a February dinner for high-tech executives at his secluded estate south of San Francisco. Doerr and Kleiner Perkins executives have contributed more than $1 million to federal political causes and campaigns over the last two decades, primarily supporting Democrats. Doerr serves on Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Doerr has not replied to interview requests since March.

Former Vice President Al Gore is another Kleiner Perkins senior partner. Gore could not be reached for comment.

"Their major venture investor is Kleiner Perkins, who has Al Gore as a partner and is certainly politically connected in general," said industry observer Sexton. "Whether that played a role or not is up to the DOE to explain."

Tesla brings political pull, as well. A former Tesla board member, Steve Westly, is an Obama bundler who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president in 2008 and for his 2012 re-election campaign. His Westly Group was also a financial supporter of Tesla Motors until Tesla went public in 2010, and Westly continues to back the company. Westly has declined interview requests since February, but has appeared in multiple conferences, forums and TV interviews publicly praising Tesla Motors.

Tesla's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is a hearty political contributor who has primarily backed Democrats, including Obama. According to published reports, another Tesla investor is Nick Pritzker, a donor to Obama and a cousin of Penny Pritzker, the national finance chair of Obama's 2008 campaign.

Click Here to Sign Up for Breaking News and Investigation Alerts From The Brian Ross Investigative Unit

O'Connell, the Tesla executive, said political muscle played no role in the company's award of the $465 million in loans, noting that the initial application was filed under Bush -- though landed under Obama.

In Tesla's case, as in Fisker's, the government loan was broken into two parts.

The first chunk, for $365 million, is to finance a manufacturing facility for the Tesla Model S sedan, Tesla's lower-cost answer to its pricey Roadster.

The other $100 million funded a facility to manufacture battery packs and electric drive trains used by Teslas and other automakers, including the Smart For Two city car by Daimler. Tesla points to such partnerships - along with investments from Toyota and Panasonic - as signs that long established companies believe in its cars.

"We have a demonstrated track record on the financial side," O'Connell said, "that should give great comfort to the American taxpayer, as they think about a loan that's helped us to accelerate our business model."

Unlike Fisker, Tesla is a public company. Its SEC filings offer a more sober assessment of the obstacles it faces on the road to profitability.

Tesla has yet to turn a profit and suffered net losses in each quarter. "Since inception and through the three and six months ended June 30, 2011, we had accumulated net losses of $522.8 million," its most recent 10-K form shows.

It has no experience in high-volume manufacturing of electric cars, its filings say -- the very project it sees as the road toward profitability. Tesla said it encountered "significant delays" in launching the Roadster - and acknowledges that developing the Model S will be a more complex undertaking. The newer car is the project financed by DOE.

"We have no experience to date in high volume manufacturing of our electric vehicles," Tesla's SEC filings say. "Our future business depends in large part on our ability to execute on our plans to develop, manufacture, market and sell our planned Model S electric vehicle."

The Roadster was produced in small quantities with the body assembled by Lotus in the United Kingdom and final assembly by the company at its facility in Menlo Park, Calif. The Model S, by contrast, will have much greater volume and be manufactured in Fremont, Calif. The company said production will begin next year.

Industry observers say Tesla's grand plan to launch the Model S is fraught with challenges.

"They want to scale up production from 1,000 cars a year to 20,000 cars a year, [and] that's going to be a very hard trick for them to do," said Alex Taylor, a veteran auto industry analyst and writer. "They want to make most of their own parts; Detroit can't do that because it's too inefficient. And Tesla wants to own its own dealerships. Henry Ford tried that back in the 1920s and gave it up because it was too difficult."

O'Connell said the SEC filings present worst case scenarios. He said the company, and its major investors, believe the risk will reap rewards.

"It is a risky venture in the best heritage of some of the other great companies that have grown up in the Silicon Valley," he said. "This is a place where people propose ideas, finance those ideas, achieve milestones, attract a greater finance, and succeed along the way."

Mikey, Do you live in or around Toronto?

http://mrctv.org/videos/occupy-toronto-man-was-my-tent-sniffing-my-girlfriend%E2%80%99s-feet%E2%80%9D

A man is arrested at Occupy Toronto after allegedly smelling a woman's feet and trying to get other protesters to drink urine.

The Protester who uploaded this video also left this comment on it claiming his girlfriend was groped by this man as well:

"He was also groping her? but I failed to mention due to being a bit emotionally tied up. Evidently the cop and I cleared it up wish I could have reacted perfectly. If I didn`t get this evidence I feel those who were still in the tent would have discovered it."