Month: September 2008

And in the World of Ineffective Abusive Security Techniques …..

No Comments

Mario Labbé, a frequent flying record executive in Montreal, has discovered that his name was erroneously on the no-fly list.

After many attempts to have this corrected, Mr. Labbechanged his name to François Mario Labbé, which ended his monthly harassment.

I’m not sure what concerns me more, that one can be put on the no-fly list with no recourse, or that you can fix it by tweaking your name.

So, I guess Osama bin Laden could fly around the United States as LeRoy Ricks, Professional Elvis Impersonator.*

*3 Shows a day in Vegas……Think about it. It’s the last place that anyone would look for bin Laden.

Sorry if it Seems All Palin, All the Time…..

No Comments

But each time someone turns over a rock, we see more evidence of corruption, self-dealing, etc.

It appears that Sarah Palin collected per diem payments for times when she was at home:

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official “duty station” is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor’s daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

I’ve done per Diem deductions, and if I did it that way, the IRS would take my house and throw me in jail.

Well, the WaPo Finally Talks About Junkie Cindy McCain

No Comments

It appears that the story was written, and the title put into the feed a few days early, so here it is.

The issue is not that she is* a junkie. The issue is that even though she had the ability to feed her need in a number of ways that would not have put people at risk, she forged other people’s names at her charity, etc. which placed them at risk through no fault of their own, and then she used her money, and McCain used his position, to protect her and to pursue vendettas against people who did the right thing, and went to the DEA.

Honor, my ass.

*Once someone is an alcoholic or junkie, they always are, the question is just whether they are recovering, or still doing whichever substance they have a problem with.

Republicans to Use Foreclosure Data in Black Neighborhoods to Suppress Votes

No Comments

Because, as we all know, the real motto of the Republican party is, “N*gg*rs should not be allowed to vote.

The thing is, this is illegal:

“You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”

Once again, the Republican’s cynicism exceeds my capacity to be cynical.

Paul R. La Monica is an Idiot

8 Comments

As I have said before, and will undoubtely say again, , the writer of CNNFN’s “The Buzz” column, Paul R. La Monica, is a complete Pratt.

Well, a few days back, La Monica claimed that the next bubble will be — get this — short selling.

This is the statement of someone who does not get the concept of a bubble beyond the fact that it’s an “in word” in the media.

A bubble is an artifact of an unreasonable optimism, and short selling is a manifestation of pessimism, but the clue train has not arrived to La Monicaville.

Norwegian and Dutch Fighter Competitions, SAAB Ups Gripen Ante

No Comments

Honestly, I think that both countries have alredy sunk so much money into the JSF, that it’s a lost cause, but you have to admire the dedication of the SAAB sales force.

First, SAAB is offering an “all inclusive” bid, including, “the 85 Gripen NGs, training, spares, simulators and support,” in addition to industrial offsets.

Additionally, they are claiming that the Gripen will will be billions cheaper over the life of the aircraft, which is likely true, as it weighs half as much.

Additionally, with the emphasis on remote austere basing, the Gripen probably wins in a COIN scenario like Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is actually their strongest case, that the US DoD and Lockheed-Martin will be nickel and diming the JSF customers throughout the program, in addition to still not having a hard and fast price or delivery schedule.

We also have some of the PowerPoint slides from L-M and SAAB:


LM Range Chart


SAAB Chart

Which appears to indicate that the Gripen has more range than the JSF, though I think that this is not an apples to apples comparison, as the Gripen is likely carrying external tanks for this.

In the meantime, it appears that reports of the Typhoon reentering the competition were greatly exaggerated, they still see it as a sucker’s game, though Boeing, and US Navy are offering the Super Hoenet with the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar.

One interesting monkey wrench thrown into the JSF’s path is that the Dutch Economics Ministry appears to be trying to extract more money from the Dutch industrial JSF partners, which would serve to raise costs of the aircraft to non-cloggie air forces.

Eclipse 500 Certification Cleared by FAA

No Comments

There have been allegations that the Eclipse 500 was given a pass on issues in the FAA certification process, and an independent review team has just given the cert a clean bill of health.

There have been some issues with the aircraft since certification, trim, flaps, displays, and stall speeds, but there is no evidence that these showed up during the certification process, and were then swept under the rug:

The review came a little more than a month after congressman James Oberstar asked the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General to investigate formal complaints that the aircraft was certified despite objections from FAA pilots and engineers working on the program, an allegation the review team did not find evidence of.

Of course, these problems still need to be addressed on some level, and Eclipse is still hemorrhaging money, so I’m firmly neutral on the future of the aircraft.