New Orleans, two years ago today.
Month: August 2007
Yes, It’s a Cheap Pun, but that’s a Weakeness of Mine
Well, it appears that the corrosive properties of pigeon excrement may have contributed to the Minneapolis bridge collapse.
To quote noted Internet wit Bladesmith, “Like I said elsewhere, it’s all fun and games till the shit hits the span”.
Sigh, someone else who writes better than I do.
The Bush War on Whistleblowers
Whistleblowers about fraud in Iraq subject to illegal detention and torture.
Where is America these days, we’ve lost it.
Impeach Dick Cheney todays, go zero tolerance on Haliburton’s corruption, and impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.
It’s Official, We Need to Abolish the Air Force
Or, as David Axe, of War is Boring puts it, Reason #817 Why the Air Force Sucks.
This a real quote from the real Air Combat Command chief Ronald Keys, “The hardest wars we fight are not on the battlefield, but the wars we fight in the halls of Congress. They are fought in the Pentagon, they are fought in these programs, to make sure the money is paid and eventually the program is operating.”
That’s our problem. The air force is not a bunch of soldiers, it’s a bunch of f&^%ing K-street lobbiests.
Go read Axe’s stuff…It has the some quotes from Air Force’s counter-insurgency manual that are so stupid, you would think that Alberto Gonzalez would remember them.
One quote from Axe:
The Air Force bailed out of the potentially revolutionary UCAS killer drone program in order to buy a big new fleet of big new manned bombers for much more money. The service wants to prepare for an imaginary high-tech air war with China instead of fighting the dirty, low-tech wars we’re actually in. Why? Because high-tech superpower showdowns are what the Air Force knows. They’re easy. The low-tech approach to warfare, by contrast, requires patience and smarts, two things today’s Air Force lacks.
The independent air force was a bad idea.
Ironically, I considered joining the USAF, despite my myopia after I left high school.
Another Guy Who Writes Better Than I Ever Will
It appears that Paperwhite is one such individual.A he said / he said misunderstanding? Seriously, that’s what Larry Craig (R-My Own Private Idaho) is saying?
LOL!!!! I wish I had thought of “My Own Private Idaho“.
Look, closeted gay self-hating Republicans, wouldn’t it just be easier if you could just lay it all out there, something like this:
I’m a rich white guy who has nothing but contempt for poor people, worships Mammon, knows that the babymaking apparatus means that women aren’t really full persons, and thinks that blowing shit up is the extent of foreign policy, so vote for me! Oh, and I’m really into other guys. Yes, in that way.
Word up. This guy can write.
A Very Interesting Point About Iraq
The folks at Think Progress ask the question is the prospect of withdrawal responsible for the modest security gains in Iraq?
They quote the following from the NIE:
Gearing a Coalition withdrawal, some tribal elements and Sunni groups probably will continue to seek accommodation with the Coalition to strengthen themselves for a post- Coalition security environment…
It’s a good point.
There are a lot of people in Iraq who would be preparing for what follows, and hence not blowing up our soldiers, if they believed that our exit, or at least our withdrawal from routine security operations, were imminent.
Another Corrupt Rat Leaving the Ship
Buh bye!
My guess is that given that it’s a competitive district, and Renzi is being investigated for crooked land deals, campaign law violations, and a significant roll in the US attorney firings, he though that it was time to get out of dodge.
On the brighter side, unlike some other people who have returned to private life *cough* Gonzalez *cough* Rumsfeld *cough* Bremer *cough*, he won’t have to worry about being hauled off to the Hague.
Corrupting the Military for Politics
Well, it looks like the Pentagon is setting up a propaganda office to sell their phony report.
I am so not surprised.
FWIW, a Pentagon propaganda operation directed at the American public is technically illegal, but that’s never stopped Bush and His Evil Minions&trade before.
Natalie’s First Day of School
My mother-in-law visited this weekend, and my Wife* had to drop her off at the train station this morning. She took Charlie with them, since his school does not start for a week, and I had to get Natalie on the bus to school.
She was hard to get started in the morning, and when the bus was a bit late (about 15 minutes), she got a bit weepy about the prospect of being late for school on her first day, but once the bus showed up, she was all smiles, though she had a legitimate complaint about the weight of her knapsack.
I was never that eager to go to school, nor that concerned about being on time.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
Schadenfreude, Closet Edition
The news about Senator Larry Craig is actually sad. No one should have to deny themselves to hold a political position.
What is more telling is how many closeted gays/bis there are at relatively high levels in the Republican party, Larry Craig, Lindsay Graham, Ken Mehlman, and persistent rumors about Karl Rove and Denny Hastert, for example.
The flip thing to do would be to suggest that people who hate themselves tend to be Republicans, but I think that it is something far more mundane. Closeted gays are non-threatening.
No matter how energetic they might be, or how devoted they might be to the cause, they are always going to be in subordinate positions, because if the try for the brass ring, they know that their fellow Republicans will destroy them.
Update on Delays on the 787
Boeing is now working on contingency plans because of delays in the 787.
I know that I’ve been harping on this a bit, but it’s because of the “sky is falling press” about the A-380. Both are in their own ways revolutionary aircraft, and schedule slippage is to be expected.
The difference is that Airbus has been far more upfront on the matter.
Heavily criticized plane is defunded
Finally, the graft supported DP-2 aircraft is to be defunded. Duncan hunter’s favors for campaign cash (he’s gotten $36K from Anthony duPont, president of duPont Aerospace, over the years) is at an end.
Now, I want to see investigations for wrongdoing.
Not This Moron Again
Well, it looks like Bob Kerrey is looking at running for the Nebraska Senate seat again.
While’s he not Joe Lieberman, he’s done a simply fab job of spewing Republican talking points, and while I understand that a Democrat from one of the big square states probably has to be right of party center, there is a difference between a conservative Democrat, and a disloyal one.
Low Cost Carriers Lower Fares
There has just been a study on the effect of Low Cost Carriers entering a market, in this case, Pittsburgh, and it shows that:
Fares in Pittsburgh dropped 27%, while the airport reported 360,000 additional passengers per year for a total economic impact of $1.8 billion, according to the study, written by Wilbur Smith Associates (WSA). Pittsburgh’s LCCs include AirTran, JetBlue, Southwest and USA3000.
In 2000, the average one-way fare to all destinations was nearly $192, one of the highest in the nation, said the report. “The expansion of low-fare service at Pittsburgh lowered this figure dramatically,” it said. “The average one-way fare decreased by 27% to $140 from 2000 to 2006, and fares to Pittsburgh’s top 15 destinations dropped 32% to $120.”
The people managing airports in Atlanta, Denver, and ESPECIALLY Dallas-Fort Worth, please take note. Being the bitch of the dominant airport in a region hurts air travel and the local economy.
Hamas Messes with Da Mouse…AGAIN
They are doomed….I’ve always said? If you ever want to survive, don’t f&&^ with the mouse?
Well, Hamas has done it again, this time they’ve done the “Lion King“.
I’d sooner stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting “All gods are bastards”,* than mess with the mouse.
*Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic
Debt Resellers Knew That They Were Buying and Selling Bad Paper
This should surpirse no one, that the big CDO (Collateral Debt Obligation) resellers knew that they were passing bad paper.
Why, you ask, would professional traders do this?
The answer is quite simple: DEAL FEES. I gotta keep buying collateral, in order to keep issuing these transactions as a CDO manager. Its my job: I gotta keep accumulating collateral, and I gotta issue the liability against that collateral.
Welcome to 3rd world Klepto-Capitalism, Wall Street style.
Fire Sale Begins
One thing that you can be sure of is that any news story on real estate will be mindlessly optimistic. There is too much ad money out there for it to be otherwise.
In this case, they talk about rising new home sales, but ignore the following:
- New Home sales are upon signing the contract, not closing, so you have cancellations that are not reported.
- The sales are up because home builders are starting to dump their inventory. This is the early stages of the slump, not the end.
We are still very early into this.
This Guy is Nuts!
I’m just saying.
He has to be hauling ass, because I don’t see flaps deployed.
A400M Progress
There has been significant A400M progress, so the EADS (Airbus) Military transport seems to be back on track.
I think that this will be a winner. It’s bigger and faster than the (way too small) C-130 Hercules, but smaller and cheaper than the hideously expensive C-17, which with its turbofan engines is a Hoover for FOD on the runway.
The An-70 needs too much seed money, and it’s too noisy and well…too Russian (yes, I know that Antonov is Ukrainian, but it’s perceptions). See a cool YouTube of it here
Bootnote: It appears that a lot of people end up at this post because they are doing google image searches on the A400. For defense and aviation related stuff, about 10% of my output, I would suggest using the following tags: Aviation, Defense, Defense Procurement, Engineerng, Military, Missile Defense, Missiles, NASA, NATO, Naval, Nuclear Weapons, technology, Transportation, and UAV.
More Regulatory Joy From the Bush Administration
This time, it involves mishandling nuclear fuel.
I think that we should move all nuclear fuel processing and waste storage to Crawford, TX.
For example:
The commission said there were two areas, the glovebox and an old elevator shaft, where the solution potentially could have collected in such a way to cause an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
In response to discoveries of the screwups, they’ve locked down documents.
Delightful.