Careful What You Wish For

Protesters took the streets to confront security forces loyal to the government. Beating and killings go on for several days while the security forces try to put down the riots and protests spread. The Protesters coordinate their activity via twitter, email and they broadcast what they see over You Tube and Facebook. This was the news in 2009 coming out of Iran. To get control of the ground game the Iranian government shut down the internet and the phone system. (Story here.) This killed the movement that could have brought real reforms to this tyrannical government. But they had the ” Internet Kill Switch” and they used it.

Today, the news is same but over in Egypt. Mass riots and protests over the sitting regime. These protests started out small but news and coordination between protesters was conducted via the internet. This allowed the protesters to mass their forces against the Riot Police and security forces arrayed against them. Well, until the Egyptian government shut it all down. Again, they had the “Internet Kill Switch” and they used it.

So here we have the US Senate considering giving the President the same thing. How is this not an outright violation of the First Amendment? Why are they even contemplating this? Are they not satisfied taking over GM, Health Care, the Financial System and the Corn Crop?

I think this is as much a push to control the masses as all those other bills that are coached in helping the people. There can be no good to come from giving the Government control of this modern equivalent of the printing press.

Tyranny in any name is Liberty denied. Even by our own Government.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Tanker Wars - Update

Time for some KC-X Tanker news. The original a time frame for the award of this long awaited program has slipped into February however; this could slip as well since the Senate took up hearings on the program.

Specifically the Senate is looking at the inadvertent release of proprietary cost data from one bidder to another. So, no telling how much this meddling will cost the program. Now, that is not to play down the seriousness of a release of this nature but to keep the wheels on this apple cart you have to find out if the data actually caused comprise. A forensic examination of the computer system used by an EADS Administrative employee was conducted by the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center. They determined that a single page in one document was opened for 3 minutes. EADS claims that the people only looked at the data for about 15 seconds and claim no harm no foul. But they did move this person to another area not related to the KC-45 program which is the aircraft in their offer to the Air Force. Boeing testified that they did not open their set of data which was supposed to go to EADS. It seems their Administrative employee was smart enough to look at the labeling on the CD’s and see that it was proprietary to EADS and stopped. Bigger story here if you want.

In other news Boeing bowed out of the Indian Indigenous Tanker competition claiming they wanted to focus on the USAF KC-X program. Yeah, maybe they don’t want to get into another pissing contest over the size ambiguity in these requests for Tanker aircraft. The two aircraft the KC-767 and the KC-45 (based on an Airbus A330) are nowhere near the same size standard and since Airbus had so much help funding the building of the baseline aircraft it is very hard for Boeing to compete. I can understand that, if you are given the airframe for free you undercut anyone else trying to bid against you that had to pay for their fuselage out of their own pocket, and since no one seems willing to penalize Airbus for these illegal subsidies (to the tune of $200 Billion dollars, per the WTO) then you should walk. (WTO Story here)

Over in EADS land they had some interesting news. During a test of their A330 MRTT aircraft their much vaunted advanced Boom fell off. While in contact with an Spanish Air Force F-16. Both aircraft sustained damage and both returned safely to mother earth. I am sure the flight suit in one aircraft had to be changed, when you see that huge boom apparatus falling on you while you are at 15,000 feet I am sure you leave spots in the poopy suit. From Flightglobal is the big story but here is a quote from airbus:

”The boom detached at the root of the structural mast," says Airbus Military, responding to questions from Flightglobal. "There is no damage to the boom attachment, nor is there any significant damage to the [aircraft's] fuselage," it adds.

Photo from Airbus/EADS.

Meanwhile later in the month: “The Airbus Military A330 MRTT successfully passed fuel to receiver aircraft using the Fuselage Refueling Unit (FRU) for the first time.” (Source is Flightglobal, again) The FRU is the hose and drogue unit that is mounted on the aircrafts fuselage centerline (it is also equipped with wing mounted hose and drogue units). This is good news; Airbus had been having a lot of trouble getting the FRU to work. I guess getting that pesky Boom thingie out of the way really helped.

Well, I am sure Lawyers are circling just waiting to be called in and for Protest fire support in both camps. Even with an award today this program is far from over.

Shame on the DOD and USAF for doing such a lousy job all around on this program. Like the vampire that it has been it is almost time to put a steak into it and end all the misery.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Thanks to http://www.alert5.com/ Great site for up to the minute aerospace and military aviation news.

China Relations: "Will You Kiss Me?"

So, the President of China is in town. No doubt looking over the collateral for those massive 890 BILLION dollars of notes they hold on us.

Our PresBO is holding a "working" private dinner with the US Banker and I hope he stays to the completion of the meal.

This brings this very funny SNL Skit to mind. Still appropriate after more than a year, funny how the items important to PresBO and the Left is still on their agenda today. Too bad for the Left as the Chinese can completely ignore us as it is we that owe them and they could if they want collapse our economy. So we have to play nice.

Or at least buy them Dinner and a Movie! Enjoy the video, it is so funny.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Height of Hypocrisy Part 2: MSM and Tucson Shooting

Ok, I’ve tried to avoid this as long as I can. I have the full body condom on to protect me from all the crap flying around and there is plenty to go around folks.

First: whatever happened to the ole axiom of “Look before you Leap”? No, none of that folks, let’s just start shooting off at the mouth regarding why a lunatic unleashed himself at a political rally. And when the facts start coming out, despite all evidence to the contrary stay with your story line and prove the other old axiom “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” So there is no doubt that the MSM (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc., and this smacked ass Paul Krugman) are fools.

The true hypocrisy is the raw number of examples of Left Wing loonies that have either spoken violence on their political opponents or have actually done violence (great summary here). But the MSM blames Sarah Palin? What is up with that?

Ok, they think Sarah is the most dangerous person (man or woman) on the right so they have to destroy her. And boy oh boy are they really working overtime to do that. They are not even slowing down to connect the dots. They think all of us out here are just as deranged as they are to see connections between this loner nut job and Sarah Palin’s target map of vulnerable Democrat congressional races.

Opos, not this map, this is the map put out by the Democrats of vulnerable Republicans, but you get the idea, you know crosshairs and a bullseye have the same meaning.

Hyppo’s!

Second, why is that Paul Krugman guy not in jail for his part of the Enron business? Oh no, they give him a Pulitzer prize and I guess his crap don’t stink. That prize I guess, is like a “Get-out-of-Jail-Free” card which allows you to say anything without fear of retribution by your peers. Oh well, that whole “Peer Review” think is all a big scam anyway after the ClimateGate affair. So, you help run a company into the ground, loose tens of thousands of people their lives fortune and you get a Pulitzer Prize. Same as that Nobel Prize, which has now been degraded to do nothing or lie about what do do and you get the Peace Prize. What a joke.

Lastly, the only thing that makes sense here is what I call the “rope-a-dope”: what is going on that they don’t want you to notice? Yeah, while we are all wagging about this nonsense no one is watching the store. So what else is happening that we really should be paying attention to?

Let’s have a look at headlines that we missed while the Left had its collective head up its Ass (and all of us on the Right just stood around pointing and laughing at them):

- Barrel of oil is over $90 bucks a pop and the Gallon of gas at the pump is over $3.00: what no outcry, by the MSM? No nashing of teeth by those Lefty Elitist that want to nationalize the oil companies? When will they start their bitching, when gas gets to $5.00 a gallon?

- Jobless Claims go up. That little dip in the unemployment rate was just a blip. Yeah, keep telling us things are getting better we live out here where we see this stuff first hand.

- Foreclosures still going up, more on the horizon. Yeah, hand in hand with high unemployment is the fact that housing construction is a major job producer but with the foreclosures at depression era levels, you have those record jobless rates.

- Half of all states now are suing to STOP Obamacare. Yeah, with the changes in State Houses in November last in places like Oklahoma, Ohio, Maine and Wisconsin joining in the lawsuits looking to end the this monstrosity!

- Tastykake in financial trouble – say it ain’t so. The Keystone States beloved sugary snacks may go the way of the DoDo. Yes, the Tasty Baking Company that puts out the best baby cakes known to mankind are swimming in red ink. All thanks to going Green. And I am not talking Eagles Green either folks, I am talking they drank the cool aide and converter their massive plant to a “Green” plant and you guessed it folks, it’s not working out. They are losing money hand over fist. Can’t a diabetic get a break here!! When I go off the sugar wagon I don’t want to settle for anything but the best.

Ok, that is plenty for now. Get back to watching the Republic go to hell in the handbasket!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Height of Hypocrisy Part 1: The Two Faces of Nancy

Height of Hypocrisy Part 1: The Two faces of Nancy

That would be Nancy Pelosi the old and last Speaker of the House. Here she spews on about how the Republicans plans to repeal the Obama-Care Bill would do “violence to the public debt and deficit”. (Story - Video below)

She also claimed that reducing the deficit was always a priority while she was speaker “It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go” she is quoted as saying in her last official presser as Speaker (story here).

Here is video:

Oh yeah, the Democrats were watching out for the deficit and keeping their spending under control – NOT! They were spending money faster than you can actually burn money in fire pits!!

And none of it was our money, all of it borrowed!

Here is a smattering of their efforts during the “Nancy Years”:

National debt on 4 January 2007 was a mere $8,670,596,242,973.04 (that’s 8.6 trillion dollars)

National debt on 22 December 2010 (last day of the 111 congress):$13,858,529,371,601.09 (or 13.8 trillion)

Increase during the Pelosi term: 5.2 trillion

And as far as “Pay-as-you-Go” is concerned here is a quote from Paul Ryan (Republican member of the House Budget Committee) the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi “have violated pay-as-you-go rules by nearly $1 trillion dollars” over the past three years. And this was in May of 2010, plenty of time for the Democrats to spend into oblivion.

At the end of fiscal year 2010 the budget was busted by $1.6 trillion dollars.
Yeah, she was watching out for us while she was running the “Peoples House”. She was watching our money go down the drain.

And the final insult may well be how she spent her last weekend as the House Speaker, she was on vacation in a $10,000 a day resort.

Your tax dollars at work.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Hiding from the Truth with Tough Talk

Hiding from the Truth with Tough Talk – the Sunday talk show circuit was filled with Democrats bitching, whining, complaining and decrying the legislative agenda that the newly installed Republicans plan, first and foremost is the repeal of the Obama-Care act.

The talking heads all reading from the same set of talking points pushed forth the idea that the “people” want no going back to redress laws already passed, that they would look badly on the waste of time if the Republicans spend too much time “witch” hunting and that the “peoples” agenda was now jobs and that is what the new majority should focus on instead. The Senate Democrat leadership even sent the House a letter admonishing them not to go down the path of trying to repeal Obama-care.

This is all political theatre, posturing and pandering writ large. Now everyone knows that Bills do not become law unless they are passed in both houses of congress and signed by the President. So, knowing that the Senate will in no way bring up a Bill repealing Obama-care means this is never going to see the light of day, the House efforts to repeal Obama-care will fail.

So, why the exercise?

I don’t know why the Democrats are hanging on so tightly to something that is so horribly ugly. To say that Obama-care is not popular is an understatement and it has not even kicked-in yet. We are not yet to the point where hospital services, drugs and materials are being rationed and that is on the way folks, you can be sure. Just ask anyone under the care of the Indian Health Service. They know it first hand and live by the idea that you don’t get sick after June because that last fiscal quarter there is no more money to pay for all those services. No matter how important.

I guess the Democrats don’t want to lose their handhold on that Social Utopia they all want for us here in the U.S.A.

Meanwhile the Republicans I think are simply trying to put the Dem’s on the record – again. Getting House members to vote puts them in the position of having to take sides. Only those in protected congressional districts can vote against repeal without worry of voter retribution. The others who have to actually work to keep their jobs will have to pick a side. How many will that be?

But a Bill once passed by one House does not die unless it is voted down by the other House and I think this Bill will sit there on the Books of the 112th Congress waiting for opportunity. Who knows if there will be a power shift in the Senate, attrition or retirement of a few key Democrats and that house changes hands and right there sitting waiting for a real leader will be this repeal Bill. One could only hope.

The truly amazing thing here is that the Democrats have completely forgotten that the elections back a mere 2 months ago were all about stopping this maniacal agenda they are on. The voter’s message any way you measure it was for exactly what the Republicans are doing. How is it they don’t see that?

I guess being a Liberal in these days and age is what it would be like to be in a persistent vegetative state. A political coma as it were.

BT: Jimmy T sends.