Johnson County prosecutors charged a traveling salesman Tuesday for allegedly holding a Shawnee woman at her home at gunpoint and stealing from her.
Police said they are still investigating the mans claims that the womans armed husband forced the salesman to perform a sex act.
Alexander J. Gaviltta, 21, of Fresno, Calif., remains in jail today charged with kidnapping, theft, possessing drug paraphernalia and criminal property damage.
Police said the Shawnee woman returned home about 6 p.m. Monday and found an armed man in her house. He marched her around, told her he was in charge and left with the couples gun, credit cards, jewelry and a Rolex watch, according to police and court records.
Shawnee police said Gaviltta soon went to Overland Park police and told them the womans husband had invited him in, pulled a gun on him and demanded oral sex. Gaviltta told police, they said, that the husband passed out during the sex act, Gaviltta grabbed the gun and the woman returned home about then.
Posted by: Everday a Wildcat(KSU) ||
06/17/2009 15:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There are some stories that you just don't want to know the truth or anything else about. As far as I'm cocerned, what happens in Johnson County stays in Johnson County.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/17/2009 18:03 Comments ||
Top||
#1
better safe than sorry and invest in some gold...either sell it in retirement at a profit (we hope :) or be one of the lucky ones if things go south..either way it is not a bad investment..but at 30% markup i would not buy
if things do go south those without gold - guns and seeds will be in a whole world of hurt -- and most will be lilly willy liberals
Posted by: Dan ||
06/17/2009 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I've already got my stationary printed up for Frank G's Bartertown
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2009 19:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Frank G -- all you need now is a biomass generation plant and Thunderdome.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2009 20:46 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"If there's one thing I've learned from listening to talk radio it is that today is the perfect day to buy gold" - J. Lileks (paraphrased from memory)
The Election Commission will ask the Speaker to strip opposition BNP's Salauddin Quader Chowdhury of parliamentary membership for giving false information in his affidavit ahead of last December's elections, a senior election official said on Tuesday. The commission will write a letter to Speaker Abdul Hamid recommending that the senior leader stands disqualified as MP from Chittagong-2 in line with electoral law on submitting such false information and defying a court order to rectify it, commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told bdnews24.com.
The EC earlier collected the proof of his education qualifications from the parliament secretariat. Chowdhury's biodata for the second, seventh and eighth parliaments are preserved in the library.
According to section 12 of the Representation of People Order, an MP will lose membership if he provides false information in the affidavit during the nomination process, amounting to perjury. An EC official said Chowdhury has lost his eligibility though he was elected as MP.
Ashfaq Hamid, secretary of the parliament secretariat, told bdnews24.com on Tuesday: "We have supplied the commission necessary information."
An EC official told bdnews24.com on Monday that they had received conflicting sets of information about Chowdhury's educational qualifications. The MP mentioned in his affidavit ahead of the ninth parliamentary elections that he did not have any educational qualification. But the biographie preserved in parliament says that he passed his BA Honours.
Cheez, Joe Biden would never make it in B'desh ...
However, there are two separate accounts of his SSC exams. His second parliamentary bio says he passed his SSCs from St Placid School in Chittagong, HSCs from Notre Dame College and his BA Honours from Punjab University. He returned to the country while doing a course at the Lincoln's Inn in London because of the death of his father.
Another biography says he passed his matriculation (SSC equivalent) from Sadiq's School of Punjab and came back to the country while studying in a London school due to his father's death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
Two suspected cadres of an outlawed party were brutally murdered by rival party men inside a female dormitory of Islamic University (IU) in Kushtia early yesterday. The deceased, Sher Ali, 30, son of Ibrahim Mondol, and Abdul Awal, 32, son of Abu Taleb of Diknagar village under Sailkupa upazila in Jhenidah, were the cadres of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz.
Police suspected that the cadres of outlawed Jasod Gono Bahini killed the youths as police found a slip written by the party that claimed responsibility for the killings.
They'll be getting a visit from the RAB sometime soon ...
Sources said security guards of Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall saw the bodies inside the dormitory in the morning and informed the IU police station about it. Police later recovered the bodies and sent those to Kushtia general hospital for autopsy. Police said the murder might take place after midnight as the guards of the hall went to sleep around 12:30am.
IU Vice-Chancellor Prof M Alauddin and police officials of Kushtia and Jhenidah visited the spot. Police increased their patrol after the killings that created panic on the campus.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
inside a female dorm....? cherchez la femme....
YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- Leaders of the four largest emerging market economies discussed ways to reduce their reliance on the United States at their first formal summit meeting on Tuesday. But they concluded with only a cautious statement suggesting a move away from the dollar's role in global commerce and a call for greater representation of developing countries in global financial institutions.
By some predictions, the four nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, a group referred to as the BRIC group, will surpass the current leading economies by the middle of this century, a tectonic shift that by this reckoning will eventually nudge the United States and Western Europe away from the center of world productivity and power.
Until the Russians implode demographically and the Chinese fall apart into several warring states.
Russia's president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said the main point of the meeting was to show that "the BRIC should create conditions for a more just world order."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets President Lee Myung-bak with a hug yesterday before their talks at Blair House, the guest house of the White House.
Picture at Headline Link Hope the president still has his wallet That's one ugly pantsuit ...
A daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il attended a public elementary school in Bern, Switzerland, near the public middle school that Kim's youngest son and heir apparent Jong Un went to, a leading Japanese daily said yesterday.
Citing diplomatic sources familiar with North Korean intelligence, the Mainichi Shimbun said, "Records on the daughter's attendance remain at the elementary school," adding, "Brother and sister seem to have studied in Bern while living there together."
Mainichi reported the daughter's name as "Ye Jong," but said South Korean sources know her as "Yeong Sun." Kenji Fujimoto, who was once the North Korean leader's personal chef, identified her as "Yeo Jong."
Nothing is known about the daughter except that her mother was Kim's third wife Ko Young Hee, who also bore her elder brother Jong Un, 26, and that the daughter was born in 1987. Academic records at the Bern elementary school said the daughter registered for classes under the name "Jong Sun" and using the birth date Jan. 1, 1988.
The North Korean Embassy in Bern performed the necessary procedures for her entrance. She first attended a German-language class for foreigners in April 1996 before starting the third grade in August 1997.
Mainichi said the elementary school has her academic records up to the fifth grade, but that the document section when she left remains blank.
Diplomatic sources said she left the school in late 2000 while in sixth grade. A teacher at the school told Mainichi at that time, "She was known to be a North Korean diplomat's daughter. Several women took turns in escorting her and she seemed overly protected."
On the Mainichi report that Kim Jong Un attended the public school Liebefeld-Steinhölzli in Bern, the school told a recent news conference that it cannot confirm whether he was Kim Jong Il's son."
A high-ranking official at the school said, "A student with North Korean nationality did attend our school from August 1998 to fall 2000. Since the student was registered as the son of a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy, we cannot determine if he was Kim Jong Il's son."
School principal Peter Burri, who was a math teacher back then, said, "That student quickly adapted to school life and was hardworking and full of aspiration," adding, "He loved basketball."
In addition, Kim Jong Il's second son Jong Chol, 28, also reportedly studied at the International School in Berne from 1994 to 1996.
SPEED DEMON: East Japan Railway unveils the next-generation bullet train to the Press at its rolling stock laboratory center in Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan on June 17 2009. The new bullet train is expecting to provide services between Tokyo and Aomori, northern Japan in 2011 with a maximum speed of 320 kph. - AFP Picture at the link
#2
For a country like Japan it make sense. It literally takes up less composite land than an airport or even highways. They couldn't handle the congestion of such a congested country. Plus high speed rail is city center-to-city center and is more competitive with air at 300-400 miles which pretty much includes all the major Japanese cities. Think about your drive to your nearest airport, your time to clear ticketing, security etc. Then your wait to board, clear for taxi, takeoff, landing, exiting, renting a car or grabbing a taxi or bus and the trip to where you are actually headed. Compare to city center/city center rail. No comparison, really.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 11:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Based on the headline, I thought maybe Kimmie was announcing he set a world record in the 100 yard dash...
I had a business trip from Chicago to Toronto a little while back. It's a nine hour drive, door to door, or seven hours by air door to door, with all the waiting built in.
No contest: I drove it and had a very pleasant ride through southern Ontario.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 12:59 Comments ||
Top||
#5
That is on seriously fugly train.
Posted by: O ||
06/17/2009 13:52 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The airlines are not profitable at current fuel prices. They are doomed to be a niche market in the next 10-20 years, no matter what else happens. I would be happy if the US "upgraded" its passenger rail service to the standards it enjoyed in 1927. Then fast passenger trains went 100 mph. The "masses of land & steel" are nowhere near as hard to come by as jet fuel, motor fuel and highway maintenance costs. And trains can run on nuke power (i.e., electricity).
#7
The trains in Japan, Western Europe and the eastern US were originally built to carry passengers, so the railroad right-of-ways are close to residential and go through metropolitan areas. West of Pennsylvania, with a few exceptions in large cities, the trains were originally built to carry freight. Without a huge infrastructure change to get the terminals to where the people actually need to be 'delivered', it will not be as easy to convince the general US population to utilize trains as the 'preferred' mode of inter-city long distance transportation.
My thoughts, anyway.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/17/2009 16:08 Comments ||
Top||
#8
it will not be as easy to convince the general US population to utilize trains as the 'preferred' mode of inter-city long distance transportation. I think $6/gal motor fuel (or rationed fuel) will do that quite nicely. I am not referring to a government-mandated supply, either. Just do the math. Last week the US imported 9.1 million barrels crude/day while its domestic production was only 5.3 million barrels/day. The US is borrowing at least $1.5 billion/day from foreigners (and probably a lot more with the MOAB). These sorts of numbers cannot continue forever. The era of Happy Motoring will end, just when I can't say. We can prepare by using what time & resources we have, or we can just passively let things happen and hope for a miracle. Maybe we can harness the power of Obama's rhetoric to fuel our current way of life.
#9
I would like to see trains in the US take on a bit of a Ferry mentality. That is drive your car on the thing at one end, and off at the other. That way you could even take your dog with you and no worries about rental cars. Yeah loading and unloading would be a pain but nothing is perfect.
BEIJING (AP) -- China has imposed a requirement for its stimulus projects to use domestically made goods - a move that could strain ties with trading partners after Beijing criticized Washington's "Buy American" stimulus provisions. Projects must obtain official permission to use imported goods, said an order issued by China's main planning agency and eight other government bodies.
Even before the order, business groups worried that foreign companies might be excluded from construction and other projects financed by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus. Foreign makers of wind turbines complain they have been shut out of bidding on a $5 billion stimulus-financed power project.
"Government investment projects should buy domestically made products unless products or services cannot be obtained in reasonable commercial conditions in China," says the order, dated June 1 and reported this week by state media. "Projects that really need to buy imports should be approved by the relevant government departments before purchasing activity starts."
Continued on Page 49
#1
The only products China imports are those that they can't make themselves. This is just posturing.
Besides, nobody gets rich from government contracts in China. Too many idiot government officials, no rule of law to fall back onto, and screwing foreigners is considered patriotic and the correct thing for Chinese people to do.
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE [econ]RISE OF CHINA'S SOUTHWEST [Five provinces = approxi 250Milyuhn people]; + CHINA LOOKS TO REGIONAL INTEGRATION [inter-provicial]FOR NEW GROWTH POINT. No more province-specific/preferred or "separate but equal" econ policies amongst the PRC's provinces, at least for a while. DA WORD OF THE BIRD IS CLOSER PRO-DEV PRO-MODERNZ TRANS/MULTI- COOPERATION, PARTNERSHIP, + INTEGRATIONISM, ETC. AMAP ASAP ALAP.
ht - - free republic
(From a senior level Chrysler person)
Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor at the Univ. of Michigan. You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or referred to in the auto industry news lately.
Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+ year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero engineering experience, tell them how to run their business.
Mr Cole's favorite story is as follows:
There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer, automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some website.
Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them from...
The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) "These laws of physics? Who's rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to fix these sort of issues".
My guess would be that this can be filed under apocrypha -- though I've no doubt there are enough blockheads among B.O.'s Best and Britest to make it not beyond the realm of possibility.
Posted by: Everday a Wildcat(KSU) ||
06/17/2009 15:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This showed up on Snopes.com a few days ago. They said it was false. Of course, snopes is apparently a fairly leftwing group, so who knows for sure.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/17/2009 17:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
ION RENSE > MANHATTAN FLOODS, CHICAGO HEATWAVES, AND WITHERING CALIFORNIA VINES: HOW SCIENTISTS SEE THE USA IN 75 YEARS!?
* PRAVDA > seems the World's "OIL AGE" will end in 42 = 50 Years???
Via InstaPundit
A decision by China to reduce its US Treasury holdings suggests concern about the US attitude towards its economic woes, Chinese economists were quoted as saying in state media Wednesday.
The remarks, coming after US data showed a modest decline in Chinese investments in US government bonds, were in contrast to an earlier statement in Beijing which had said the recent sell-off was a routine transaction.
"China is implying to the US, more or less, that it should adopt a more pragmatic and responsible attitude to maintain the stability of the dollar," He Maochun, a political scientist at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
According to US Treasury data issued Monday, Beijing owned 763.5 billion dollars in US securities in April, down from 767.9 billion dollars in March. It was the first month since June 2008 that Beijing failed to purchase more US T-bills.
Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China's move showed a more cautious attitude. "It is unclear whether the reduction will continue because the amount is so small. But the cut signals caution of governments or institutions toward US Treasury bonds," Zhang told Xinhua news agency.
China's foreign ministry said Tuesday that its purchases of US Treasuries remained based on "security, liquidity and value preservation".
For Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the Finance and Securities Research Institute of People's University, China may have reduced its holding of US Treasuries simply because it needed the money.
Zhao said the sell-off could have been in order to pay for its own economic stimulus package. "The reduction was a result of composite factors, such as the investment need and the market change," Zhao told Global Times. Perhaps Americans will show similar concern over deficits and raise tariffs. Gradually of course.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 13:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Perhaps Americans will show similar concern over deficits and raise tariffs. Gradually of course.
Bit late for that, I'm afraid. China is as welded on to the US as its manufacturing sector as the South was as its slavery sector. It would take a civil war to disengage.
#2
Zhao said the sell-off could have been in order to pay for its own economic stimulus package.
Unlikely. This would require that they sell dollars for yuan, which would accelerate the rise in their currency. The stimulus is being paid for by lending and government spending.
More likely the decrease is due to allocating dollars to raw material purchases.
#3
Unlikely. This would require that they sell dollars for yuan, which would accelerate the rise in their currency
Not really Dodo, the dollars can be laundered through the UK and the Carib FC.
Graph #1 is the Japanese carry trade year. Graph #2 is the collapse of global finances year. Note that London funneled massive amounts of foreign money into the US. Now, it is flowing the other way. And Japan funneled most of its international funny money which was denominated in dollars, to Europe in 2006-2007 while a year later, the flow switches suddenly from Europe straight to the US.
China is the ball at the top and the US flow to China was big in 2006 and then, this money flowed to the pirate islands in the Caribbean which is the ball near the bottom. OPEC is the ball at the very bottom of the graph. Notice that the Chinese money flowed from the pirate coves back into the US. Now, the OPEC nations are using euros so money is flowing from Europe to OPEC while money is flowing OUT of the US to the PIRATES [thanks to Bernanke and Geithner bailing out all these criminals!] and this money is flowing to CHINA!!!
There are many mechanisms for laundering money, but regardless of how it's done selling dollars reduces their value relative to other currencies and buying yuan increases its value relative to other currencies. China still has an export oriented economy, and like other asian economies is still trying to depress the value of its currency relative to the dollar. It is the basic conundrum that China faces and is trying to manage at the moment.
when you take out a big enough loan, you own the bank
Only until the bank decides you're never going to pay it back. After that its throwing good money after bad. China is already there; they're just trying to figure out how to keep their own economy going without making the problem worse. Hence their treasury holdings haven't grown.
#7
A far amount of China's growth was fueled by the US going into debt in a manner that is proving to have been quite insane. Our economic crisis is also China's.
#8
...and China's too. Their refusal to float the yuan against the dollar also precipitated this. Had the yuan rose against the dollar for the last 10 years, their exports would have been lower and the amount of Treasuries they gathered would have been fewer. Had the system been allowed to operate without the interference, their position would be more stable in the long run on those points, but they bet on an unending growth cycle and maximized internal development through exporting which is now headed for a very sharp decline. They are short of being able to replace America as the engine for the world economy. Now we're all on a ride 'in interesting times'. The Chinese could still opt for severe losses and trash the dollar hoping that in the end they'll end up in the better position when it all settles. If the idgits in the Beltway keep ignoring their warnings, they may just take that up. Think dumping the holdings to the IMF which in turn would then leverage Washington the way they leverage any other third world kleptocracry.
Ten large U.S. banks are planning to repay the government about $68 billion in bailout money Wednesday, a pair of industry officials say. Wednesday is the first day the banks are eligible to repay the money. The banks repaying TARP are some of the industry's largest, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., American Express Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
The Treasury Department last week gave the 10 banks permission to repay the funds, which they received under the $700 billion bailout plan, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That effort to unfreeze credit markets launched as global markets seized up last October.
#2
Quite a few banks have been wanting to return the money for months (one exec wanted to write a check at a meeting with Teh One), but a) there was no process to do that at the Fed, and b) the White House wasn't keen on the idea.
Interesting speculation at the Christian Science Monitor.
Airbus responds: "Non, non, certainement pas!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Oh, yeah? I write little one-page homilies with a quality theme for my employer. Here's a piece of one that seems relevant:
In 2006, a near-miss lead to B-2 crews discovering the pitot tubes malfunctioned due to condensation. They also discovered that turning on the 500-degree pitot heat would quickly evaporate the water and the flight computer would receive normal readings.
But crews and maintainers never documented the procedure to use the pitot tube heaters to calibrate air pressure sensors. Some crews knew about the procedure, but on the day of the crash, calibration of the sensors did not include using the heaters. Three of the 24 air pressure sensors on the Spirit of Kansas fed distorted information into the flight control computer. When the aircraft reached 130 knots, the computer thought it was at the 140-knot takeoff speed and lifted off the runway for takeoff.
Not so bad, at that point, because aircraft are typically a full power on takeoff, but the sensors also indicated the bomber was in a nose-down attitude so it commanded a rapid climb that reached 30 degrees before the pilots could stop the climb about 80 feet off the runway. By this time, the low takeoff speed and high angle of attack caused the aircraft to stall. It rolled slightly to the left, and its left wing tip struck the ground. At that point the pilots ejected and survived with minimal injuries, but I fear their flying careers are over.
Ill bet you dollars to doughnuts that the B-2 takeoff checklist now includes an item about turning on the pitot tube heaters. Most rules are written in blood, or billions of dollars.
I've been re-using this lesson recently, because of the recent crash, but first wrote about it almost a year ago, prompted by a Rantburg article and video.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/17/2009 7:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The pitot tube seems like the 2000s version of the square airliner window. Since pilots don't fly the plane any more, the sensor inputs are top priority. You get garbage input, and the computer happily flies the plane into a stall. This isn't the first time I've heard the word pitot tube and it's always in connection with an incident.
I got courtesy D's in math and chemistry in high school, and my eyes cross when I look at equations. So I am grateful to Rantburg U for explanations like these.
LE BOURGET, France -- Boeing said on Tuesday that it was prepared to go head to head with its European rival, EADS, to win a bitterly contested $35 billion contract from the Air Force by converting its 777 passenger plane -- a bigger aircraft than Airbus is offering -- into a refueling tanker.
In what will be the third effort in a decade to replace the Air Force's aging tanker fleet, the Department of Defense is expected to release soon a preliminary request for proposals, according to executives from both companies.
No military contract has stirred as much rancor between Boeing and Airbus as the refueling tanker. The contract, which was first let in the late 1990s, was awarded in February to a consortium of Northrup Grumman and the Airbus parent, European Aeronautic Defense and Space, only to be withdrawn in September after investigators called the selection process flawed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Will Airbus warranty their flight control system?
#2
Ah, great. We get to do it again because the result came out wrong. Never mind that Boeing was corrupt as hell and their product sucked, it's all about USA vs. Europe jingoism.
Let Airbus compete freely in the U.S. and Boeing freely in Europe.
Result: Best quality
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/17/2009 11:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Tornado, Eurofighter, A400M, NH90. Should I go on?
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 11:55 Comments ||
Top||
#5
You guys ever deal with the USAF procurement folks? I'm talking about the whole chain, from requirements to contracts. In my experience, they are nothing but screw ups, especially at the requirements end of the chain. While Boeing probably had their own set of issues, I am hesistant to place the blame squarley upon them.
#6
I agree with EC. If the Airbus is the better tanker then that's the one the USAF should buy.
It's the whole process of figuring out which one is 'better' (they're both going to do the job, we already know that) that is so sordid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 13:11 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Ed, the EADS tanker was much much better than the POS 767 Boeing originally offered. Stop being stupid.
Boeing is only now doing what it should have done to begin with: make a longer-legged, higher capacity, modern airframe, modern avionics tanker, based of the 777, in stead of trying to force the original POS 767 design on the USAF mainly in order to keep their 767 assembly lines open.
Ed, contrary to your ignorant snarks, the original Boeing offer was NOT what the USAF asked for, and it was not up to spec, nor did it conform to what the USAF needed operationally, The EADS tanker did - and would have been 45% American made parts from Grumman (engines, avionics primarily), and assembled in a plant in Alabama.
The good news is that Boeing *is* going to offer a competitive and possibly superior aircraft (IUt is a larger aircraft and will lift more, meaning it will probably win on merits).
Let the competition be fairly done and give our military the best aircraft we can get that fits the requirements.
The only reason this was such a CF in the previous iteration, was that Boeing management was too damned arrogant and thought they could force whatever THEY wanted onto the Airforce.
#8
No Oldspook. Sending $40 billion (or $22 billion if you like) to Europe when a perfectly good aircraft are made here is irresponsible. In addition, at least another $40 billion will be spent on parts for those aircraft. In addition to the addition, there are 600 tankers (another $100 billion + spares) that need to be replaced. Whoever gets this contract has the leg up for following purchases.
Whether you think the A330 or B767 is immaterial. The Air Force asked for a tanker to replace the KC-135. THAT was the requirement to meet. A larger cargo volume did not figure into the RFP. It was EADS/NG that cried late in the game, after the aircraft were submitted, that they would take their ball and go home unless the Air Force changed the requirements in favor of the larger A330, btw whose airframe is 33% more expensive, burns more fuel and is more expensive to operate.
That is what the GAO said violated procurement rules and voided the award. Now Boeing is going to do to EADS what they did EADS did. They are going to submit a plane even larger and higer performing than the A330, costs more and burns more fuel. Let's see the Air Force wiggle their way out of this.
As for being stupid, do you think weakening the only industrial sector that still shows a trade balance is stupid? Do you want to see the aircraft industry go the same way as cars, electronics, chemicals, medical equipment? Europe sure does not. That is why I mentioned those pan-European aircraft projects. Let's take the latest examples:
A400M - $200-225 million for 40% of the payload, less speed and range of the C-17 ($200M).
NH-90 - $25m for slightly less specs that the UH-60M ($12M).
Let's not mention the decade late Tornado and Eurofighter or a whole host of other European weapons that cost 2-3X for less performance but are bought because they are designed and made in Europe by Europeans. Remove the beam before we talk about the moat.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 13:54 Comments ||
Top||
#9
STICK TO THE TOPIC. If you want to talk helicopters, etc, go start another article.
Ge your facts straight about the issue at hand and stop your off topic whinging about other issues. IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE WE ARE DISCUSSING TANKERS - not helicopters for the president, etc. The issue HERE is TANKERS. And I am all about getting the best we can for people on the line. The EADS was it, the 767 was not. Can you get that into your thick skull past your blinders?
Don't blame the Euros for showing up with a better plane that met the USAF needs - blame Boeing for not showing up with a plane that could have done so easily to begin with.
"perfectly good aircraft are made here "
And there's your problem. The 767 was NOT "perfectly good". It would have forced the USAF into changing strategy and operations with its shorter legs and lesser capacity, it would have reduced the flexibility of the expeditionary air forces with its lower cargo capacity, and it was a much older design which means it was less efficient, and higher time/labor/cost to maintain.
So you completely missed the point: Had Boeing put the effort into a 777 instead of a 767 solution, the mess would never have happened. 777 bigger, better lift, better efficiency, better legs, better avionics, better (more modern) design than the 767. But its going to take Boeing a couple of years to fully flesh out the design to the point where they can produce it. EADS is less capable than the 777 but more than the 767, and is ready to go to production NOW. So we are stuck, and will likely have to split the contract - the current tanker fleet is falling apart.
Understand now? You're wrong about the original Boeing offer, for what seem to be idiotically blind jingoist reasons. Admit it, you were wrong, Boeing deserved to lose, and you move on to the 777 which is what should have been there all along. The problem is immediately obvious to juat about anyone willing to think: Boeing management blew this, and our Armed Forces will suffer due to delays cause by Boeings incompetence. And that's what has me pissed -- our armed forces are losing capability due to bungling by Boeing.
#10
STICK TO THE TOPIC. If you want to talk helicopters, etc, go start another article.
Ge your facts straight about the issue at hand and stop your off topic whinging about other issues. IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE WE ARE DISCUSSING TANKERS - not helicopters for the president, etc. The issue HERE is TANKERS. And I am all about getting the best we can for people on the line. The EADS was it, the 767 was not. Can you get that into your thick skull past your blinders?
Technological and economic patriotism too complex a topic for you? It's been part of the pan-European identity building process (as is fostering anti-Americanism, the external enemy). That Europeans will spend 2X for less capability in order to provide independence from America and export revenue too much to grasp? Don't respond to my comment then later claim I'm off topic. Want to see a real thick head? Look in the mirror.
Don't blame the Euros for showing up with a better plane that met the USAF needs - blame Boeing for not showing up with a plane that could have done so easily to begin with.
It isn't what the Air Force asked for. They asked for a straight replacement for the KC-135. There is very good reason they did that, which I will explain later. The B767 is that replacement, the A330 is not.
"perfectly good aircraft are made here "
And there's your problem. The 767 was NOT "perfectly good". It would have forced the USAF into changing strategy and operations with its shorter legs and lesser capacity, it would have reduced the flexibility of the expeditionary air forces with its lower cargo capacity, and it was a much older design which means it was less efficient, and higher time/labor/cost to maintain.
EXACTLY the opposite is true. The B767 profile matches the 135's within a few feet. It has about 10% greater payload, but being a widebody, more cargo volume. That means, like the KC-10, both the B767 and A330 can self deploy with their crew. No advantage either way. But because the A330 costs 1/3 more, for the same cost that means 4 B767s for every 3 A330s. That means fewer refueling probes in the air (very important). The A330s though do burn more fuel, the single biggest operations cost.
What the B767 can do, and the A330 can't, is use the current flightline profile and hangers. The A330 does not fit and will require new infrastructure like more tarmac and new hangers. You know those really big and really expensive buildings off the flight line will have to be replaced. That means fewer aircraft can be bought.
Tarmac space is also at a premium during overseas ops. Think Saudi 1991 or Bagram. That means fewer A330s can be deployed. (KEY) The most important factor in air refueling is the number of probes/drogues in the air. That determines the number of aircraft that can be refueled which determines the size of the strike packages that can be supported. Otherwise the Air Force would have been flying B747 refuelers for the last 30 years. The B767 win hands down both in cost, support and flightline requirements.
So you completely missed the point: Had Boeing put the effort into a 777 instead of a 767 solution, the mess would never have happened.
Not really. Boeing's been working on the B777 proposal all this time. The critical refueling gear directly transfers from the B767 program. The 777F requires much less airframe modification than the passenger A330. The critical factor in getting planes in the air was EADS/NG whinging that delayed the contract awarding for a year, then the cancellation for improprieties.
The Air Force RFP did not ask for a A330 or B777 size aircraft. The RFP asked for specs circumscribed by the KC-135. The B777 is TOO LARGE for a tanker and will decrease total air refueling capacity. The A330 less so. Boeing submitted the right plane the first time.
777 bigger, better lift, better efficiency, better legs, better avionics, better (more modern) design than the 767. But its going to take Boeing a couple of years to fully flesh out the design to the point where they can produce it.
Not really. Boeing been working on the B777 proposal all this time. The critical refueling gear directly transfers from the B767 program. The KC-135R fleet is good to 2040. The E's will have to be SLEP'd to R specs.
EADS is less capable than the 777 but more than the 767, and is ready to go to production NOW. So we are stuck, and will likely have to split the contract - the current tanker fleet is falling apart.
Understand now? You're wrong about the original Boeing offer,
You are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG about tanking, hence you do not understanding the basis for the original Air Force request. All 3 tankers can service the SAME number of receiving aircraft.
The A330 STILL hasn't off loaded any fuel. It's not ready for primetime.
for what seem to be idiotically blind jingoist reasons. Admit it, you were wrong, Boeing deserved to lose, and you move on to the 777 which is what should have been there all along. The problem is immediately obvious to juat about anyone willing to think: Boeing management blew this, and our Armed Forces will suffer due to delays cause by Boeings incompetence. And that's what has me pissed -- our armed forces are losing capability due to bungling by Boeing.
Wrong. It is Air Force bungling and political meddling that threw discipline and requirements out the window. EADS/NG bitching and maneuvering caused a year delay in awarding the contract. A year (now 3 or 4) that is lost. The B777 tanker is exactly the WRONG tanker because the number of refueling probes/drogues determines the air refueling capacity.
In the end, the Air Force will get B777 tankers that have twice the fuel/cargo capacity of the B767 but 1/2 the airframes (2X cost). That means effective air refueling capability is cut in half. Had the Air Force any balls to enforce the original RFP on the original timeline they could have B767 tankers in operation. Just like the Japanese and Italians.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 22:46 Comments ||
Top||
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed social welfare secretaries of all four provinces to conduct a survey for documenting the record of eunuchs across the country.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui was hearing a petition filed by Insaaf Welfare Trust Chairman Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki. The petitioner has asked the court to order a stop to violations of human rights of eunuchs. The court also directed that the status of eunuchs be determined and the court be told whether they were living with their heads (gurus) of their own accord or had they been forced to do so.
The petitioner said the eunuchs were neither treated as males nor females and no rights had been determined for them. He asked the court to provide justice to them and treat them as human beings. He said this segment of society did not even have the right to vote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
That is pretty ballsy of the Paki Supreme Court, if you ask me.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It'll be a eunuch experience, that's for sure.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2009 13:16 Comments ||
Top||
Muslim countries in the Middle East and north-central Africa lead the world in human trafficking, according to a new U.S. State Department report. Of the 17 countries that were given the "Tier 3" listing reserved for the worst offenders, nine were Muslim countries or countries with a large Muslim population from these two regions. Tier 3 countries are defined as those whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards" of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and "are not making significant efforts to do so.
The Middle Eastern countries with Tier 3 status are Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The north-central African countries are Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, Niger and Eritrea, all of which have very large Muslim populations.
Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Lebanon are on the Tier 2 Watchlist one step above Tier 3.
The data in the report indicates that Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa are continuing their centuries-old practice of human trafficking. Historians estimate that between 9 and 14 million black Africans were brought to the Americas in the Atlantic slave trade and between 11 and 18 million black African slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert between the Muslim conquests in the 7th century and 1900.
Iran: The report says that Iran is a source, transit, and destination for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced marriage. Iranian and Afghan children living in Iran are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced marriage, commercial sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers to pay debts, provide income, or support drug addiction of their families. Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation.
The State Department report noted that the Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so. Lack of access to Iran by U.S. Government officials impedes the collection of information on the countrys human trafficking problem and the governments efforts to curb it.
Saudi Arabia, the report says, is a destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of involuntary servitude and, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation. Men and women from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and many other countries voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude, including restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and non-payment of wages.
Some Saudi men have also used legally contracted temporary marriages in countries such as Mauritania, Yemen, and Indonesia as a means by which to sexually exploit migrant workers. Females as young as seven years old are led to believe they are being wed in earnest, but upon arrival in Saudi Arabia subsequently become their husbands sexual slaves, are forced into domestic labor and, in some cases, prostitution. The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making discernible efforts to do so.
Syria is principally a destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation. Women from Iraq, Eastern Europe, former Soviet states, Somalia, and Morocco are recruited as cabaret dancers and subsequently forced into prostitution after their employers confiscate their passports and confine them to their work premises. A significant number of women and children in the large Iraqi refugee community in Syria are forced into sexual exploitation by criminal gangs or, in some cases, their families. Some desperate Iraqi families reportedly abandon their girls at the border with the expectation that traffickers on the Syrian side would arrange forged documents for the children and work in a nightclub or brothel. Iraqi families arrange for young girls to work in clubs and to be married, often multiple times, to men for the sole purpose of prostitution.
In Kuwait, the majority of trafficking victims are from among the over 500,000 foreign women recruited for domestic service work. Men and women migrate from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in search of work in the domestic and sanitation industries. Although they migrate willingly to Kuwait, upon arrival some are subjected to conditions of forced labor from their sponsors and labor agents, such as withholding of passports, confinement, physical sexual abuse and threats of such abuse or other serious harm, and non-payment of wages with the intent of compelling their continued service.
Adult female migrant workers are particularly vulnerable, and consequently are often victims of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution. There have been instances of domestic workers who have fled from their employers, lured by the promise of well-paying service industry jobs, and being coerced into prostitution. In other cases, the terms of employment in Kuwait are wholly different from those agreed to in their home countries. The Government of Kuwait does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making sufficient efforts to do so.
What Obama did not mention
The report has four tiers altogether: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watchlist and Tier 3. Israel is in Tier 2, the second-best listing. It should be noted, however, that statistics regarding trafficking in Israel are largely provided by powerful organizations inside Israel which have been accused of exaggerating the severity of the situation there for political reasons. 5ad%
U.S. President Barack Obama, himself a descendant of black Africans, did not mention the subject of Muslim human trafficking in his recent speech to the Arab world in Cairo. He did mention, however, that for centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation, but did so in the context of talking about Palestinian suffering.
The Australian Government has sent a team of officials to northern Sri Lanka to look at the camps where hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are being held by the Sri Lankan government.
More than 280,000 Tamils have been held in camps guarded by the Sri Lankan military ever since the military smashed the Tamil Tigers more than a month ago. Among the detainees are three Australian Tamils who the Sri Lankan government says must be screened like everybody else to see if they are members of the Tamil Tigers. The Australian detainees are a 62-year old man and two women aged 26 and 29.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian diplomats based in Sri Lanka have been trying to "obtain urgent access" to these people. Weeks have gone by, but they still have not managed to get to them.
That's going to be a problem; foreign nationals detained in a country are supposed to have access to counselor officials.
DFAT says it has heard nothing to suggest Australians are not safe and it is helping their families in Australia, but there is also puzzling uncertainty about their fate.
Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canberra, Senaka Walgampaya, says his government does not even know who they are or where they are. "They have so far not identified the persons and when they are identified and if in fact they are there, then they will have to be questioned as to what they were doing," he said.
The Australian head of the International Commission of Jurists, former New South Wales Supreme Court Judge and Attorney-General John Dowd, says the Australians are caught up in an increasingly worrying nightmare. "We can't wait for an interminable delay while the Sri Lankan Government works out who it says are combatants and who it says aren't," he said.
Several staff members from the Australian High Commission in the capital Colombo are visiting Sri Lanka's north to look at camp conditions, talk to the United Nations, aid groups and Sri Lankan government agencies. But the Sri Lankan government has banned independent observers who want regular access to the camps.
"What's going on, why can't the world be allowed in? There can only be things that the Sri Lankan Government doesn't want us to see and that's a real concern," Justice Dowd said.
The International Commission of Jurists says the conditions there are not the only worry.
Justice Dowd says the purpose of the camps may breach the convention against genocide. "The convention covers forced movement of people. These people are being forcibly moved from the areas where they surrendered to other parts of Sri Lanka," he said. "The real concern is that they're not going to be returned, that in fact they're going to move them, transfer the population, and put other people in."
Yesterday the deputy chief of Australia's Navy, Rear Admiral David Thomas, made an unannounced visit to Colombo to meet the chief of Sri Lanka's defence staff. The Defence Department says it was a goodwill visit to meet senior Sri Lankan defence officials to exchange views on regional security.
The Department of Foreign Affairs was more explicit. It says the two men discussed people smuggling.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's going to be a problem; foreign nationals detained in a country are supposed to have access to counselor officials.
If they're Sri Lanka nationals with double passports, they're out of luck. Sri Lanka considers them its citizens and that's it. They're lucky they're the wrong age for the draft.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Two suspected cadres of an outlawed party were brutally murdered by rival party men inside a female dormitory of Islamic University (IU) in Kushtia early yesterday. The deceased, Sher Ali, 30, son of Ibrahim Mondol, and Abdul Awal, 32, son of Abu Taleb of Diknagar village under Sailkupa upazila in Jhenidah, were the cadres of outlawed 
LE BOURGET, France -- Boeing said on Tuesday that it was prepared to go head to head with its European rival, EADS, to win a bitterly contested $35 billion contract from the Air Force by converting its 777 passenger plane -- a bigger aircraft than Airbus is offering -- into a refueling tanker.
