Cho-cho’s and Bull Crap

During the State of the Union PresBO spouted off about wanting more High Speed Rail lines built into the country. Not sure why, these are fundamentally wrong for the United States except for moving heavy freight, which happens right now on many sets of tracks. How many of those can one turn into a high speed passenger service? None.

This has come up again lately, the Vice-Dunce Biden rode his ole rail line back up to Philly yesterday to hold a presser on the federal government’s desire to pour $53 Billion dollars into more high speed rail lines. Who are they kidding, that kind of money won’t cover the cost overrun on a job of this scale.

Look I don’t care how these guys are selling it; profitable rail service does not work here in the US. Observe the map below: Yeah, that about tells the story. This country is way too big for affordable rail service. Just look at how much money we as taxpayers loose every year on AMTRACK ($5 Billion last year). They lose more than $20 bucks a passenger and on some routes it would be cheaper to run the train with no one on it at all since the conductor/ticket puncher would not be required. And this is not the Acella, word is that monetary loss is much higher on that service. The only reason AMTRACK stays open is the simple fact that it goes to Washington DC.

The sad fact is that the administration is clutching at straws for Job Creation. They aren’t cutting it. This whole idea is as flawed as the idea of renewable energy from the wind or solar. It would be better to burn wood at least you can grow that back and burn some more.

Much like the building of Wind Mills for electric production, most of the steel will come from off shore. Those large props that are used to capture the wind on those windmills come from Germany or Holland. They are not made here. Those large transmission gear assemblies that are used to steer the rotating props to the electric generator, yep made off shore. Even the generator for the most part comes from off shore.

The truth is we don’t have this technology here anymore. It is all imported.

Do you think it will be any different for building a Rail system? I don’t. The Steel Industry long ago fled this country and most of the steel used in rail lines today, even on AMTRAC come from Korea. The Passenger Cars, those fancy ones on the Acella line that hauls Bidens big ass around on come from Germany (Siemens AG). The only part of a massive Rail system that will be U.S. built may be just the locomotive. A GE locomotive would be getting my vote seeing as how they are in bed with the PresBO.

Not until the US congress straps on some Balls and passes a Buy America provision for any project that uses Taxpayer money there will be no Job creation. This should have been a stipulation of the many Stimulus projects. Instead, at the urging of the Administration the congress passed a Union worker provision. Proving once again it is who you sleep with that counts.

Sorry, Green Jobs, FAIL. Renewable energy, FAIL. Public Employee Unions, FAIL. Ownership of GM, FAIL. High Speed rail, FAIL.

This crew has no clue, all those Harvard, Yale and all the Ivy League schooling and they are still lost. Maybe, just maybe they should go out and get a real job to see what it is really like, own and operate a business to see just how jobs are created in this country. Not dreamed of on the black board in the cloistered halls of academia.

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.

Tanker Wars Update - Long Overdue

It’s has been awhile since I have said anything about the Air Force Tanker Competition or KC-X as it is known. Well, not that anything is going on right now but here is a quick and dirty summary of activity on this huge contract that I have been holding onto.

First, the proposals are in and the Air Force is busy studying and evaluating them. They received two, one from Boeing pitching their Next Gen Tanker (a modified KC-767 based on the version they are building for Italy and Japan) and another from EADS/Airbus.

The EADS offering is a KC-45 the A330-304 MRTT aircraft that they are selling to Australia and Germany. In fact, the German Air Force (the Luftwaffe) just recently took delivery of their first MRTT aircraft.

There was a proposal submission that was not accepted that has created some news. A California based company; US Aerospace Inc. threw in with the Russian aircraft manufacturer Antonov to propose an all new built aircraft tentatively named the AN-112-KC. This aircraft was going to be built to US Air Forces specifications, even though the USAF did not publish any, they wanted to buy something off the shelf, in the Ukraine and then flown to the U.S. for finally assembly. Story here and here if you wish to learn more, there is not much out there.

The US Aerospace Inc./Antonov proposal was 5 minutes late. It seems that the “courier” that was carrying the proposal to the Contracts desk at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base got lost after getting through the Main Gate delivering the proposal after the Bid Closing time. They have filed a protest with the GAO. (Story here.) Now I have been there dropping off a Bid Proposal for contracts of several thousand dollars, nothing like a $30 Billion aircraft manufacturing contract. I think I would have camped out in an RV right out in front of the Contracts Office. Shame on them. They feel so strongly in their position that they have submitted a second Protest, just to be sure they get heard. (That story here.) If they had shown this kind of attention to the original bidding process they would not have required all the legal activity now that only slows things down. The GAO is scheduled to rule on the Protests in early November however they have made a ruling on some of the claims made by US Aerospace Inc. Specifically, the GAO has dismissed the “bad faith or intentional agency misconduct” charges that US Aerospace made. Their claim was that the Gate Guard intentionally gave them bad directions from the main gate to the Bid submittal desk in the Contracts building. (Story here.) Can things get any more funny?

Boeing KC-X News:

Boeing is bidding the KC-767 that they had bid previously, but it appears they are changing the cockpit design but details are scarce. The rumor is that some format of the all new and state of the are cockpit that is being put into the new 787 Dreamliner will be put into the NextGen Tanker. The question really is how much of it will go into the KC-767, all or a portion thereof. (Story here.) This would be an interesting blend considering the need to install a fair amount of Military equipment that the civilian market does not worry about, like UHF radios, TACAN’s, PAR ILS systems and of course secure encryptions for the voice and data communications. They are answering most of these issues on the Navy’s P-8 aircraft which is a military configured 737 that will see service as an ASW aircraft (replacing the P-3). Time will tell.

Here is a story about how Boeing is out talking up having their ability to reduce it’s currently Bid price on the Tanker package if the USAF puts out a “Best and Final Offer” to the two bidders. They have left themselves some room to move their offer lower putting pressure on EADS/Airbus. Since the EADS/Airbus is a much larger aircraft, and presumably much more expensive to build the pressure is in forcing the issue to lower pricing. So the Boeing PR machine is out talking this up in hopes of getting the USAF to issue a BAFO.

EADS/Airbus responded that they have room in their bid to trim some of their pricing too. (Story here.) But right away Congressman and Senators sensitive to the Boeing bid complained that EADS/Airbus would be “dumping” their aircraft in order to gain the contract. This is the policy of bidding at a price well below of what it costs to build. EADS/Airbus has responded by stating they will not build the USAF tanker under the actual cost that it takes to produce (that story here) saying that they have a lot of cost capacity because of them building these aircraft for other countries.

Sometimes a manufacturer will do that in order to win the contract and then they nickel and dime the government for cost increases. This is known in these parts as the Lockheed Business Model and I refer you to the F-22 and F-35 programs for how well that works, which it does but surely leaves a bad taste. Especially if you are the taxpayer!

EADS/Airbus News:

Besides the above story on EADS/Airbus not spiking their pricing on their Tanker offering is this bit of unusual news. The UK’s Parliaments’ Public Accounts Committee criticized the UK’s Ministry of Defense for signing a $16 Billion dollar deal to lease Airbus A330 tankers from a consortium that was formed to specifically sell and lease A330 tankers to European military organizations. Ouch, that’s got to hurt. (Story here.) The deal was for 14 of the Airbus tankers over a 10 year period but the committee complained that the deal was not good for the UK because the aircraft will not have the protective equipment necessary for taking any aircraft into a war zone (you know like Afghanistan). Now you make that aircraft huge like an Airbus A330 and you got yourself a nice fat target so I would guess they are going to need a lot of extra’s on that bad boy and none of this is factored into the $16 billion cost. Oh well, live and learn. I once leased a car a long time ago and that was the last time I’ll do that. Must really hurt when you lease an aircraft!!

And if the above is was unwelcome news there is more for EADS/Airbus to contemplate. The WTO has ruled that both companies have received what they are calling “illegal” subsides. In the case of EADS/Airbus the subsides came in the form of “Launch Aid” which is money given to Airbus from the various sponsoring governments in the EU that prop up Airbus. Launch aid is money given to Airbus when they overrun the development of their aircraft which apparently happens on every aircraft they have built. The running total is a whopping $200 Billion dollars. (Story here.)

Meanwhile, the WTO ruled Boeing has been receiving “preferential” treatment by the U.S. Government which they translate into a prohibited “subsidies” to the tune of $24 billion dollars. (That story here.) The WTO claim is that contracts with the U.S. Government and even the tax breaks given to the many Boeing Plants around the country by both local and State governments has translated into “aid”. Maybe so.

But there is in my mind several critical differences between the two which I don’t think the EU leaning WTO understands, first of these is the issue of Launch Aid. When Boeing runs out of money when trying to bring a new aircraft to market they go back to their investors and raise the cash they need privately. In Europe, Airbus runs out of money they go back to the sponsoring governments and request however much they think they need and that is what they get. This is a big difference and continues even with their latest aircraft the A400M (which is a military cargo aircraft) and the new XWB-A350 commercial airliner (which is to compete against the Boeing 787). So they don’t feel the pain like Boeing does since Airbus has no “skin in the game” so to speak, Boeing wagers stocks in the company and their own profitability. Not so Airbus.

Another difference is that any defense work Boeing wins in this country is done in a robust competitive market. That is not true in Europe where a lot of competitions are open only to European companies or if an American company is bidding they must have some kind of European company participation (called an offset). I am working a job that has a contract with a European Government and there is a 40% offset requirement meaning, my company has to spend 40% of the total value of the contract with companies in Europe. We don’t require that here in America, in fact the only “Buy America” provision passed by congress is for Fasteners (screws, nuts, bolts and rivets) and Electrical connectors. Oh, and by the way, Allies of the U.S. are exempt from this requirement so only U.S. manufactures such as Boeing have to buy American made fasteners and connectors while Airbus can populate their aircraft with parts made in China. Nothing like shooting ourselves in the foot but that’s what we get with our Congress.

There is a movement afoot to force the USAF to take into consideration the WTO rulings on the EADS/Airbus offering (that story here) but my guess is that this will be challenged and further delay the awarding of this contract. All the while the USAF racks up huge costs in flying this very old aircraft. In 2002 the cost of maintenance per flight hour was $11,000 per hour on this aircraft and with a 6.2% increase per year for that you can only imagine what it costs today to fly and operate this aircraft. So any delay in replacing this aircraft is a huge cost to the USAF. (Numbers come from this report.)

It’s time for the US to adopt a Buy American provision that covers something like this even if it means there is only one bidder. It is time for the FTC to stop these big defense companies from buy each other out, which is why we are down to the one company that builds large fuselage sized aircraft in this country from 4 or 5 we had back 20 years ago.

Anyway, folks, that it for this version of the Tanker Wars update. A little long but there is a lot here.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Stray Voltage – Part 2

More stray thoughts to contemplate if you have the time.

Government Motors – the Volt

I heard today that a Camel is a horse designed by a committee, well the Volt is the Green Car designed by the ruling Political Class!! It has virtually no redeeming value except to slow down the flushing action occurring in the once great state of Michigan. A state run by Democrats and Unions I'd like to point out. The Volt at a mere $41K is way more expensive than the Nissan Leaf ($33K) but less than half as much as the Tesla all electric car (at $100,000 bucks) so it fills a vital niche. Of course don't go factoring in all the subsidies and bailout money that GM required to stay on its feet long enough to put this beast out. Those costs factored in and this is one expensive vehicle. Rumor is that GM will only make 10,000 of them and considers this as a kind of prototype-production run. They have a lot of work to do, the range is horrible, the cost is way out of line and of course the styling and its interior layout leads a lot to be desired. But what do you expect from the Motor Company run mainly by Government Bureaucrats and Union leaders. We only have ourselves to blame for giving government this kind of power.

Social Security

Almost no one is talking about this, but I found this interesting article in the New York Times of all places. I don't know when the last time it is that they complained about the Social Security issues facing the nation but my guess is that it has been a long time. They had an interest in getting Democrats elected and bringing up Social Security during the election process would have complicated that effort. Now with the die case towards the Republicans taking over congress or at the very least control of the House, the Social Security problem becomes their problem and it is now time to beat on them with it. Had they been on board 4 or 5 years ago when Bush wanted to privatize a portion of total as a test case we could be looking at maybe a real definitive way to save this benefit for future generations. But instead, the liberals running the MSM helped bury the issue and now we have it rotting out under us. Who will be getting benefits payments remains to be seen. This is one program that is in dire straits. I don't know that it can be saved.

Working for the Man – The Leftist Man

Some cross-posting between different Blogs regarding a Washington Post article about the Bush Tax Cuts, that article Five Myths about the Bush Tax Cuts. Bruce McQuain takes it apart point by point here. The smartest point to be made is in the Legal Insurrection posting by William A. Jacobson and I'll quote "These Democratic talking points reflect the fundamental disconnect: It is not your money. I think the American people understand that point. The government works for us, not the other way around. You either believe it, or you don't. The Democrat Party doesn't."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Two Americas in Congress

There's a "dual standard, one for most members and one for African-Americans," said one member of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaking on the condition of anonymity. This is in response to ethics charges being brought up against Charlie Rangle and Maxine Waters. Couldn't happen to two more deserving members of the house except maybe that ass-bandit Barney Frank or that Winer guy from New York (you would think the two of them would hook up or something eh). Oh hell, there are a bunch of them that need to be drowned in that swamp Nancy Pelosi promised to drain. I guess that's a hard job with so many of her fellow Dem's clogging the drain.

Read more: Here

That's all for now!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Speak Up and Remove All Doubt

Watch this video and remember that this guy, Hank Johnson is a Congressman.


Yeah, the Honorable Hank Johnson from Georgia’s 4th Congressional District. He thinks pacific islands actually float around on the ocean and are subject to tipping over and capsizing. You see this all the time it’s just never reported by the MSM I guess.

ALL you people living in the Dekalb and Rockdale counties of Georgia (Atlanta and surrounding area) are genuinely screwed with a dope like this sitting as your representative in Congress. This guy voted for the ObamaCare Health Care Reform bill and is the kind of person who would sit on those non-existent “Death Panels” that are now being formalized with funding out of the Stimulus Bill.

There are a lot of people out there, about 50% of the general population that think the Government is the solution to all that ails our society. But the reality is that this is the kind of person that surfaces within the Government and is why nothing and I mean NOTHING the government does is on time, on budget and delivers exactly what the public needs.

Remember that when next you step into the Voting Booth. And you guys in Georgia’s 4th Congressional District, the jokes on you!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.