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Flap will sleep a little better tonight after the Missile Defense Agency announced a successful test of an interceptor missile fired up the road from Flap at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Here is the press release from the Missile Defense Agency:

The Missile Defense Agency announced today it has completed an important exercise and flight test involving a successful intercept by a ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack. The flight test results will help to further refine the performance of numerous Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) elements able to provide a defense against the type of long-range ballistic missile that could be used to attack the nation with a weapon of mass destruction.

For this exercise, a threat-representative target missile was launched from Kodiak, Alaska at 3:04pm (EST). This long-range ballistic target was tracked by several land- and sea-based radars, which sent targeting information to the interceptor missile. At 3:23pm (EST)the Ground-Based Interceptor was launched from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle was carried into the target’s predicted trajectory in space, maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination, and intercepted the threat warhead.

This was the first time an operational crew located at the alternate fire control center at Ft. Greely, Alaska remotely launched the interceptor from Vandenberg AFB. In previous interceptor launches from Vandenberg, military crews at the fire control center at Schriever AFB, Colo. remotely launched the interceptor.
The target was successfully tracked by a transportable AN/TPY-2 radar located in Juneau, Alaska, a U.S. Navy Aegis BMD ship with SPY-1 radar, the Upgraded Early Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., and the Sea-Based X-band radar. Each sensor sent information to the fire control system, which integrated the data together to provide the most accurate target trajectory for the interceptor.

The interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle is the component that collides directly with a target warhead in space to perform a “hit to kill” intercept using only the force of the collision to totally destroy the target warhead.

Initial indications are that all components performed as designed. Program officials will evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test.

This was the 37th successful hit-to-kill intercept out of 47 attempts against missiles of all ranges since 2001. Operational Ground-Based Interceptors are currently deployed at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg AFB, protecting the nation, our friends, and allies against ballistic missile attack.

Flap will have video of the test intercept when it is available.

Now, what were the Democrats in the Congress saying about the failure of the missile defense system ever working?

Flap leaves you with Michael Ramirez’s famous cartoon about how President Reagan was ridiculed about “Star Wars.”

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The Missile Defense Archive

As my readers know, Flap has been on Twitter (@Flap) for some time now and micro-blogs on the platform.

Now, Michael Leahy (@michaelpleahy) has developed Top Conservatives on Twitter, a website for conservatives and a work for conservative political action in progress.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Michael yesterday and you can read about the site and its plans for conservative action in the future.

So, Flap says get on Twitter, Follow Flap (or read the right sidebar ———->) and join Top Conservatives on Twitter.

Oh Yes, you ask, what does Flap use for a Twitter client? Twhirl and Tweetdeck – Windows.

Join the conversation.

Barack Obama has not even been inaugurated and the first of 2012 GOP Presidential polls are up.

• Mike Huckabee – 34%
• Sarah Palin – 32%
• Mitt Romney – 28%
• New Gingrich – 27%
• Rudy Giuliani – 23%
• Bobby Jindahl – 19%
• Charlie Crist – 7%

The survey size was 460 Republicans and the survey’s sampling error was 4.5%.

Some interesting notes:

“It might come as a surprise to some that Palin does better than Huckabee among GOP men but that Huckabee beats Palin among Republican women,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Palin’s strength is also concentrated among older Republicans, but Huckabee may have a slight edge among conservative Republicans.”

Among voters who consider themselves born again or evangelical, Huckabee draws more support than Palin, with a 9 point edge. Meanwhile, Palin holds a 7-point advantage among non-born again or evangelical voters.

It is way early but is there any reason why Mike Huckabee (with a smile) has been dumping on Palin lately?

Stay tuned…..

California will be out of cash in February unless the Democrats and Republicans can repair the state budget.

California is on track to run out of cash in February or March and faces a $15 billion cash shortage by the end of its fiscal year in June unless officials plug an $11.2 billion budget gap, according to the state’s budget director.

Additionally, if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers fail to close the current fiscal year’s budget shortfall soon, California, the most populous U.S. state, may in March delay payments to its vendors or hand them notes promising payment, according to a Dec. 1 letter to top lawmakers from the director of the Department of Finance, Michael Genest.

The Democrats in the California Legislature refuse to cut spending and the Republicans refuse ANY tax increases. Governor Arnold proposes some spending cuts, a sales tax increase and perhaps a motor vehicle registation fee hike.

Stalemate.

When will there be a deal?

Flap bets when the state runs out of money and government offices are forced to close – but not before.

Senator Norm Coleman wins by 192 vote margin.

Except for 133 missing ballots from Minneapolis, the recounting of votes from the U.S. Senate race is over. According to the Star Tribune’s tabulations, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has a 192-vote advantage over Democrat Al Franken, pending the resolution of those Minneapolis ballots and of thousands of ballot challenges.

When the recount began, Coleman held a 215-vote edge.

Now comes the hard part – the challenged ballots. The Minnesota Canvassing Boad plans to meet on December the 16th to review the recount and challenged ballots.

Coleman challenged 3,376 and Franken 3,281 ballots.

Stay tuned…….

Now, it is Joe Biden’s turn to pay off Mark Penn and retire Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt.