I’ll spend it on this:
It’s been a long time coming. While Arthur C. Clarke’s satellites have taken to space, and James Bond’s futuristic mobile technology has become common place, still the dream of sustained personal flight has eluded us. But the future is here! Finally we can all take flight as Martin Aircraft in New Zealand releases the first commercially-available jet pack!
I’m just saying, “Who amongst us does not want a jet pack?”
Ummm….There are so many jokes here, but I’ll just note that since she’s shaved, we’ll never know if the carpet matches the drapes:
A Florida Highway Patrol officer has admitted his incredulity at a woman who pranged her car while shaving her privates.
Megan Mariah Barnes, 37, was driving her Thunderbird in Key West last week when she piled into the back of a Chevrolet pickup carrying four people. Or rather, although she was in the driver’s seat, it was actually her ex-hubby Charles Judy who was holding the wheel while she tidied herself up down below.
A Highway Patrol spokesman explained that the pair drove on for about a kilometre down the road before pulling the old driver/passenger switcheroo – unsurprising since Barnes was the day before “convicted and sentenced to nine months of probation for DUI and driving with a suspended licence”, deprived of her licence for five years and “ordered to get her car impounded”.
Just when I think that things can’t get any weirder, the weird turn pro.
One of the more significant forces for evil in the United States is that Texas Board of Education, because one of their roles is to approve text books for the state, and as such, because of the size of the market, if it’s approved there, the stupidity that they demand goes everywhere.
Well, the stupidest of the stupid motherf%$#er wingnuts, one Don McLeroy, who has argued that Joe McCarthy was vindicated, that evolution is a fraud, etc., just got beaten in the Republican primary:
The top conservative activist on the powerful Texas Board of Education, who rejects evolution and has pushed for a revisionist right-wing U.S. history curriculum, is on the way out, after a moderate candidate defeated him in a tight primary last week.
For months now, TPMmuckraker has been covering Don McLeroy as a major player in the battle over the drafting of nationally influential history textbook standards by the Texas board.
Note here, this is not the voters of Texas coming to their senses: This is the voters of Texas realizing, belatedly, that people were making fun of them and calling them stupid because of this guy, so they dumped him.
Well, if it passes, Rush Limbaugh says that he will leave the counrty:
“If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself?” a caller asked Limbaugh on his radio show Tuesday.
Story continues below…“I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica,” Limbaugh replied.
OK, I’m feeling a bit better about the Senate plan.
H/t Probably Bad News.
Only Homer Actually Votes ‘Phant
I think that, “the Democratic Establishment can kiss my DFH* a$$ too.”
She* muses on mad scramble to support Blanche Lincoln in her primary bid, despite the fact that she has absolutely no chance of winning in the general, most notably one William Jefferson Clinton:
Instead of working to support the current President against the Corporatist lies from the right what does Bill Clinton do? He throws his support behind one of President Obama’s chief roadblocks within his own party. Of course.
Note here that Blanche Lincoln has made a habit of lying through her teeth during the election, and then knifing those who supported her, as with labor and the EFCA, she lied about her support for the public option, and her reversals on abortion have been so blatant that one of the most establishment political organizations in the Women’s movement, Blanche Lincoln, has decided not to support her in the election, as evidenced by the following statement from the Chair of the organization:
As I travel around the country, I’ve been asked repeatedly about Senator Lincoln’s political troubles and what, if anything, EMILY’s List will be doing to help her win a third term in 2010.
My answer? Nothing.
In 1998, EMILY’s List helped elect Lincoln to the U.S. Senate. We believed her when she told us that that, if and when the Senate took up right-wing Senator Rick Santorum’s bill to ban what he called “partial birth” abortion, she would insist on a health exception that protects women.
Our members gave generously to her campaign, believing that she would steadfastly stand by the pledge she made to us to protect women’s reproductive freedom.
She took our members’ hard-earned money to get elected. Unfortunately, when the Santorum bill came up for a vote, Lincoln voted for it even though it provided no exception to protect women’s health.
EMILY’s List members are deeply committed to electing pro-choice Democratic women whom we trust to stand up for our rights, treat us honestly, and make us proud. Our candidates fight for us every day. Blanche Lincoln failed to hold up her end of the bargain.
Since she wasn’t there for us, we won’t be there for her.
You know, she has a charismatic primary challenger, and Emily’s List dumped her, and right now she’s polling horribly, so I guess that it sucks to be her.
Of course, it sucks worse to be represented by her, which is why she is losing right now.
And then while we’re at it, the DSCC is continues to do their best to discourage candidates who actually inspire people, such as Rodney Glassman in Arizona, even though there appears no other Dem interested in running right now, because, I guess no one actually knows him, even though the Arizona Democratic Party chairman asked him to run.
As MoT notes, the imperative in the Democratic Party establishment is, “PUNCH THE HIPPIES.”
</rant>
*Dirty F%$#ing Hippy
[on edit]My bad, MOT is a he, not a she. No offense was intended.
Last week, I wrote about California State Senator Roy Ashburn, who was caught driving drunk as he left a gay bar.
Well, in what is a refreshing change for Republicans,* he has admitted that he is gay:
“I’m gay,” State Senator Roy Ashburn told a radio host from his central California district in an interview this morning. “Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.”
Ashburn, a divorced father of four, said that his many votes against gay rights were efforts to represent the conservative views of his constituents.
This is the most evil bit of nastiness that I’ve heard in a while.
We all harbor our own prejudices, and the best that one can hope for is to recognize them for what they are, understand that they are wrong, and not act on them.
While I understand how people can hate for irrational reasons, it’s worse to hate for a rational reason.
This man did not have an irrational hatred and fear of gays, but he led anti-gay rallies.
He did so for the most prosaic of reasons: He wanted to hold elected office.
*But not outed Democrats, see McGreevy, James.
Their official statement is here, and I have a full quote after the break.
So, Northrop Grumman does not think it worth their while to bid. There is a possibility that EADS might bid for the contract on their own, but given their current cash flow issues (A380, A400M, and upcoming needs for developing the A350), I don’t see it happening, particularly when their chances are essentially nil without the fig leaf of some American “partner”.
So, Boeing will get he bid, and they know that they have no competitors, so the taxpayer is going to be done without lube.
Statement From Northrop Grumman on U.S. Air Force Aerial Refueling Tanker Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 8, 2010 – The following is a statement from Wes Bush, Chief Executive Officer and President of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC), concerning the U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tanker program.
“After a comprehensive analysis of the final RFP, Northrop Grumman has determined that it will not submit a bid to the Department of Defense for the KC-X program. We reached this conclusion based on the structure of the source selection methodology defined in the RFP, which clearly favors Boeing’s smaller refueling tanker and does not provide adequate value recognition of the added capability of a larger tanker, precluding us from any competitive opportunity.
“Northrop Grumman fully respects the Department’s responsibility to determine the military requirements for the new tanker. In the previous competition, Northrop Grumman was selected by the Air Force as offering the most capable tanker for the warfighter at the best value for the taxpayer. However, the Northrop Grumman and EADS team is very disappointed that the revised source selection methodology now dramatically favors Boeing’s smaller refueling tanker. We agree that the fundamental military requirements for the new tanker have not changed since the last competition, but the Department’s new evaluation methodology now clearly favors the smaller tanker.
“We continue to believe that Northrop Grumman’s tanker represents the best value for the military and taxpayer – a belief supported by the selection of the A330 tanker design over the Boeing design in the last five consecutive tanker competitions around the globe. Regrettably, this means that the U.S. Air Force will be operating a less capable tanker than many of our Allies in this vital mission area.
“Our prior selection by the Air Force, our firm belief that we provide the best value offering, and the hard work and commitment of the many individuals and communities on our team over many years made this a difficult decision for our company. But we have a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders to prudently invest our corporate resources, as do our more than 200 tanker team suppliers across the United States. Investing further resources to submit a bid would not be acting responsibly.
“We have decided that Northrop Grumman will not protest. While we feel we have substantial grounds to support a GAO or court ruling to overturn this revised source selection process, America’s service men and women have been forced to wait too long for new tankers. We feel a deep responsibility to their safety and to their ability to fulfill the missions our nation calls upon them to perform. Taking actions that would further delay the introduction of this urgent capability would also not be acting responsibly.
“We recognize that our decision likely creates a sole-source outcome for Boeing. We call on the Department to keep in mind the economic conclusions of the prior round of bidding as it takes actions to protect the taxpayer when defining the sole-source procurement contract. In the previous round, the Air Force, through a rigorous assessment of our proposal, determined that it would pay a unit flyaway cost of approximately $184 million per tanker for the first 68 tankers, including the non-recurring development costs. With the Department’s decision to procure a much smaller, less capable design, the taxpayer should certainly expect the bill to be much less.”
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.
CONTACT: Randy Belote
(703) 875-8525
randy.belote@ngc.com
Dan Froomkin completely destroys Rahm Emanuel and the Washington Post writers who do his bidding, and deservedly so:
Rahm was simply their chief of staff. And now, this hypercompetitive bantam rooster is attempting to blame others for what went wrong. That’s evidently so important to him that he’s trying to take a victory lap around the wreckage of what was once such a promising presidency.
Go read the rest.
It’s brutal, in a good way.
And by overwhelmingly, I mean that the vote against the referendum was 93.2 percent, with about 1% of the votes being spoiled.
As Dean Baker so profoundly notes, the entire bailout is predicated on the idea that bankers can, and should, be allowed to gamble and that the rest of us should be left on the hook:
It should also point out how the Iceland makes a mockery of anyone who claims to support leaving financial activities to the market. In almost all cases, actors in financial markets assume that governments will stand behind banks at the end of the day. Therefore when they say want the government to leave things to the market they are lying. They just want to be able to take risks with taxpayers money, without being fettered by regulations limiting the extent of these risks. In short, the finance boys want a free lunch, not a free market.
In the case of Iceland, this hook is about about €13,000 for every man, woman child on the small island.
We need our bankers, and stockbrokers to be stupid and dull again, because these smart guys are killing us.
EADS will get another €3½ Billion to make the aircraft, with €2 billion being pure bailout, and €1½ billion being recouped on export sales.
Note that the original budget was for €20 billion, and I’m sure that this is not the last of the cost escalations.
But can she type?
It appears to be based on a 767-200 design, though the wings appear longer, perhaps to ameliorate the problems that have occurred on the Japanese and Italian 767 tankers,
Additionally, the boom looks to be a significant departure from their last proposal, probably because a higher fuel flow rate is required under the KC-X contract.
Still no word as to whether or not Northrop Grumman/EADS, or just EADS alone, will bid on the program.
The big news is that, notwithstanding the assertions of the Pentagon and Lockheed-Martin, delays continue apace, with the Pentagon Comptroller saying that the aircraft purchase will have to be cut if the cost continues to escalate, (File that under, “Well, Duh!”) as well as concerns that the 13-month schedule slip is overly optimistic.
It should be noted that this is confirmed by reports in the Startlegram*, which, being the home town paper for the F-35 assembly line, is both in a position to be in the know, and not inclined to come out against Fort Worth’s biggest employer.
We also have Bill Sweetman noticing in the DOD press release that full rate production is delayed to 2016, about a year after where it would start with the claimed 13-month slip.
We are also seeing reports that the Israeli Air Force is extremely concerned about the delays.
You can see a report of the bald-faced lying by Lockheed and the Pentagon, where they claim that everything is hunky dory, but it makes one inclined to invoke Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction, “Does Marsellus Wallace look like,” because they are seriously f%$#ing with us.
We also have non-movement, basically heat but no light on the F136 alternate engine, with the Defense Department releasing a report saying that adding a 2nd engine was “cost neutral,” only the study did not address the value of:
The DoD wants to cancel the F136 because they want the plane in deployment before Congress realizes how expensive it is.
Another interesting note is that the Memorandum of Agreement specifically allows participating nations to choose the F136 engine.
One should note that the Pentagon’s estimate of development costs are twice that of GE/Rolls Royce’s, and this has led the Chairman and leadership of the House Armed Services Committee to call bullsh%$ on the report.
*The Fort Worth Star Telegram.
The Secretary of Defense decided to cancel it, the President agreed, and forwarded the termination onto Congress, which approved, and still the US Air Force is looking at ways to preserve F-22 production tooling:
Five months after the US Congress approved the cancellation of the Lockheed Martin F-22, the air force is still deciding whether to preserve or scrap the production tooling.
The options under discussion include preserving at least the core of Lockheed’s ability to build F-22 components and systems, although restarting production is not the USAF leadership’s intent, says acquisition chief Lt Gen Mark Shackelford.
Rather, USAF officials are considering the cost of preserving tooling to sustain the F-22, which could include a service life extension programme in several years. The same tooling could also be used to repair or replace damaged Raptors.
What part of, “Your bosses told you that the program was terminated don’t you get?”
You don’t get to build new aircraft, and your continued activities are insubordinate.
So, Eric Massa (D-NY-29) will resign Monday, following an ethics investigation regarding sexual harassment of a male staffer. He claims that it was simply, “Salty language,” and that the main reason was his diagnosis of Cancer, but this is decidedly odd.
One of the odd things here is that his resignation makes passing healthcare reform easier, because he is a conservative, though not officially a Blue Dog, Democrat, who voted against healthcare reform the first time around, so his exit removes a “no” vote.
Russia has cut a deal with the government in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia to build a military base, and NATO has condemned the action:
Russia has signed a deal to build a military base in the rebel Georgian territory of Abkhazia. NATO says the deal violates an existing agreement and has urged Moscow to reverse the decision.
Russia has signed a deal to set up a military base in the Georgian break-away region of Abkhazia. The agreement, which will give Russia a permanent presence in the region on the Black Sea, has been declared invalid by NATO.
Officials from the region said the base will provide a home to at least 3,000 Russian land troops which are already stationed in Abkhazia. As it stands, the deal would enable Russia to station personnel in Abkhazia for a period of at least 49 years.
I would like to see a resolution of these issues in Georgia, but so long as you have the increasingly unstable and anti-democratic Saakashvili in charge, and the west continues to support him, because, I guess he went to western schools, and speaks English well, we won’t.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
So the So, the trend line this week is largely unchanged.
Click for full size.
After bankrupting AIG, and nearly taking the world financial system, employees at AIG’s Financial Products division whined about the possibility that they would not get their lucrative bonuses for nearly destroying civilization:
During the national furor that erupted last year after American International Group paid more than $165 million in bonuses, the voices of those vilified for receiving the payments remained silent, at least in public.
But behind closed doors, employees at AIG’s Financial Products division — the very unit whose trading had hastened the insurance giant’s collapse — were defiant, saying they were merely getting what they were due, recoiling at public accusations that they were behind their capitalizing on the company’s massive taxpayer bailout.
“I will stand behind every action I have taken in this company from Day One,” one employee said, according to a newly obtained transcript of a conference call the division’s head held last March with some of his staff.
But it turns out that, they are getting obscene amounts money now:
Yet they did see that money, at least most of it. Last month, under a deal in which employees agreed to take a cut in their upcoming retention bonuses in return for an accelerated payment, AIG paid out about $100 million to employees at the firm. AIG is scheduled to pay the last of the bonuses this month.
Seriously, these arrested development, self absorbed frat boys will never do the right thing, and they should never, ever be allowed near other people’s money ever again.
And the non-farm payroll number fell by 36,000, much less than expected, and unemployment remained steady at 9.7%.
My quick take, it’s probably good, but with the snowpocalypse, who can tell?