Putting up a website that can handle the load of every family in the country is difficult. The way to make it happen is let the contract to a company that has done such a website before. Anyone, except perhaps community organizers should know this.
Apparently Obama didn't know this, and gave the contract to some crony that has no industry rep. And, surprise, surprise, it doesn't work. That's the thing about contracting. You never know if the contractor is competent. But competent or incompetent, the contractor will spend all the money.
They should have given the job to someone like Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook. But they didn't.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Main Stream Media, do we care?
Everyone agrees,. the mainstream media is in the tank for Obama and the Democrats. But really? Sure, the NY Times , the WashPost, the traditional TV networks, the AP, and a lot of others are Democratic house organs. But, Fox News, the Wall St Journal, talk radio, and the blogosphere are Obama hostile. Fox News owns the airwaves (cable waves now-a-days), The Journal is distributed coast to coast and outsells the NY Times by 4:1. Rush Limbaugh still has a huge listener base. The blogosphere is rising in influence and importance. Obama was railing against "lobbyists and bloggers" just the other day. As a blogger I'm flattered to get a mention, and scared that Obama may sick the IRS (or worse) on me.
The Democrats have mass, but the Republicans hold the quality edge.
The Democrats have mass, but the Republicans hold the quality edge.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Congressional rules
We can all agree that Congress isn't getting anywhere these days. They cannot even vote appropriations to run the government.
Each House conducts business under an ancient, complicated, and little understood set of rules. In the house it is so bad that before each bill is voted on, they hold a separate vote on the rules to be used this time. That is rediculous, the rules ought to be the same everytime. The Senate conducts votes to decide whether a super majority is needed this time. Most of the votes taken are "procedural" votes, not votes on business. For every real vote cast to pass or reject a bill, they do dozens of "procedural" votes (nothing votes).
All this rules and procedure business serves to disguise what's really happening from the citizens. A day of motions and procedural votes and the real voter has no idea whether his rep is doing good or doing evil, or doing anything. It's gotten so bad my TV cable provider doesn't bother to carry C-span anymore. And nobody misses it.
At this rate, the Congress critters have escaped from voter control. They can do all sorts of things that the voters disapprove of (like shutdown) and the voter cannot figure out where his rep stood on any issue. Come election time, there is no voting record for the citizen to consult to decide if congressman So-and-So ought to be re elected.
So, let's clear the smoke and mirrors away. Here are my rules.
1. No procedural votes. Each bill gets one up or down vote. That's it.
2. No riders. A rider is a low speed bill that gets attached to a high speed bill. Pass the high speed bill and the rider passes. It's like hitching a ride on a freight train. No more. Your low speed bill needs to get votes on it own merits, no drafting.
3. Every bill treats ONE thing, that thing being in the title of the bill. No kitchen sink bills.
4. Every bill much be printed (ink on paper) and distributed to the press, the public and the Congress one week before a vote may be taken. No amendments, no extra pork rations, no nothing between printing and voting.
5. Every member gets to speak, once, on every bill. House members get five minutes plus what ever extra time the Speaker will grant them. Senators get one hour, no more.
6. Every member is entitled to file as many bills as he likes, and they all must come to the floor for a vote.
Each House conducts business under an ancient, complicated, and little understood set of rules. In the house it is so bad that before each bill is voted on, they hold a separate vote on the rules to be used this time. That is rediculous, the rules ought to be the same everytime. The Senate conducts votes to decide whether a super majority is needed this time. Most of the votes taken are "procedural" votes, not votes on business. For every real vote cast to pass or reject a bill, they do dozens of "procedural" votes (nothing votes).
All this rules and procedure business serves to disguise what's really happening from the citizens. A day of motions and procedural votes and the real voter has no idea whether his rep is doing good or doing evil, or doing anything. It's gotten so bad my TV cable provider doesn't bother to carry C-span anymore. And nobody misses it.
At this rate, the Congress critters have escaped from voter control. They can do all sorts of things that the voters disapprove of (like shutdown) and the voter cannot figure out where his rep stood on any issue. Come election time, there is no voting record for the citizen to consult to decide if congressman So-and-So ought to be re elected.
So, let's clear the smoke and mirrors away. Here are my rules.
1. No procedural votes. Each bill gets one up or down vote. That's it.
2. No riders. A rider is a low speed bill that gets attached to a high speed bill. Pass the high speed bill and the rider passes. It's like hitching a ride on a freight train. No more. Your low speed bill needs to get votes on it own merits, no drafting.
3. Every bill treats ONE thing, that thing being in the title of the bill. No kitchen sink bills.
4. Every bill much be printed (ink on paper) and distributed to the press, the public and the Congress one week before a vote may be taken. No amendments, no extra pork rations, no nothing between printing and voting.
5. Every member gets to speak, once, on every bill. House members get five minutes plus what ever extra time the Speaker will grant them. Senators get one hour, no more.
6. Every member is entitled to file as many bills as he likes, and they all must come to the floor for a vote.
Internet Problems? Selective outage?
Cannot contact some favorite websites, Instapundit and Photobucket for two. Other sites are up and running. Is this a selective internet outage? NSA shutting down some enemies? Sites down for weekend maintenance?
Friday, October 18, 2013
A lawyer to run Homeland Security
Obama has nominated Jeh Johnson to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Johnson has served as the Pentagon's top lawyer. AN official said that during his tenure at the Defense Department,
Johnson exhibited "sound judgment" and provided "prior legal review and
approval of every military operation approved by the president and
secretary of Defense."
A Combat lawyer. Just what we need.
Sorry, but I want a soldier or a cop to run Homeland Security. Someone who thinks about security rather than thinking about ways to get guilty defendants off.
A Combat lawyer. Just what we need.
Sorry, but I want a soldier or a cop to run Homeland Security. Someone who thinks about security rather than thinking about ways to get guilty defendants off.
Shutdown Scorecard. Who won?
Hard to tell. I haven't seen any real post shutdown polls yet. Democrats say the Republicans lost, Republicans say the Democrats lost. Objectively they kicked the can down the road two or three months. Right now, the Republicans re opened the government with a two month time limit and boosted the debt ceiling enough to get thru Christmas. The budget was referred to a committee, standard Washington ploy to sweep something under the rug. The Republicans didn't get any relief on Obamacare. So for this round, the Republicans didn't get anything and the Democrats didn't give up anything.
Will the fight continue after Christmas? Who knows. The Republicans certainly are not satisfied with the status quo. The Democrats like things just the way they are. The real issue is next year's election. This whole shutdown/debt ceiling brouhaha was run off in order to influence the voters for next year. And Obama wanted it just as much as the Republicans. If either side thinks renewing the fight will do 'em good in the election, they will. If both sides figure the public is sick of the squabbling, they won't.
Obama certainly looked ineffective. Congress did all the headline grabbing. By crying "Default" Obama spooked the international currency markets and weakened T-bills. He did this because without a debt ceiling hike, he would have to chop $1 trillion a year out of federal spending. A lot of people are feeding off the federal gravy train, and shutting off the flow of gravy would cause a lot of angry takers, who would mostly blame Obama.
The shutdown didn't have much effect outside the Beltway. Up here we hardly noticed. Son reports North Dakota did just fine. Thoughtful taxpayers ought to be wondering if we could solve the spending problem by just closing stuff down. Thoughtful civil servants ought to be scared. The monument closings were an attempt to make the shutdown more painful, so people would care more about re opening government. It sparked outrage and civil disobedience, but not much political support.
I'm beginning to think the only group hurt by the shutdown were the civil servants who missed paychecks. And they are all democrats anyhow. And they will get back pay for 16 days off. The government contractors will probably play catchup as they accomplish the work that didn't get done for 16 days.
The other thing, we managed to convince the Europeans and the rest of the world that the United States is coming unglued. That is a bad thing.
Will the fight continue after Christmas? Who knows. The Republicans certainly are not satisfied with the status quo. The Democrats like things just the way they are. The real issue is next year's election. This whole shutdown/debt ceiling brouhaha was run off in order to influence the voters for next year. And Obama wanted it just as much as the Republicans. If either side thinks renewing the fight will do 'em good in the election, they will. If both sides figure the public is sick of the squabbling, they won't.
Obama certainly looked ineffective. Congress did all the headline grabbing. By crying "Default" Obama spooked the international currency markets and weakened T-bills. He did this because without a debt ceiling hike, he would have to chop $1 trillion a year out of federal spending. A lot of people are feeding off the federal gravy train, and shutting off the flow of gravy would cause a lot of angry takers, who would mostly blame Obama.
The shutdown didn't have much effect outside the Beltway. Up here we hardly noticed. Son reports North Dakota did just fine. Thoughtful taxpayers ought to be wondering if we could solve the spending problem by just closing stuff down. Thoughtful civil servants ought to be scared. The monument closings were an attempt to make the shutdown more painful, so people would care more about re opening government. It sparked outrage and civil disobedience, but not much political support.
I'm beginning to think the only group hurt by the shutdown were the civil servants who missed paychecks. And they are all democrats anyhow. And they will get back pay for 16 days off. The government contractors will probably play catchup as they accomplish the work that didn't get done for 16 days.
The other thing, we managed to convince the Europeans and the rest of the world that the United States is coming unglued. That is a bad thing.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Advanced countries, jet airliner production.
Jet airliners, 70 seats and up. Anything less is a puddlejumper. Listing of production forecasts from Aviation Week.
Country Company Total Aircraft models
United States Boeing 7395 total airliners. 737, 787, 777,747 767
France/Germany Airbus 6949 total airliners A319.320,321,330-,340,350 380
Brazil Embraer 973 total airliners 170 175 190 195
Russia Antonov, Ilyushin, Sukhoi 438 total airliners 100, IL-96 MS21
Canada Bombardier 376 total airliners CRJ
China Comac Xian 297 total airliners MA60, ARJ21, C919
Japan Mitsubishi 285 total airliners MRJ
Boeing is ahead of Airbus by a nose, and not much more. Both Boeing and Airbus are miles ahead of everyone else. Brazil plans to build twice as many airliners as Russia. Canada plans to out produce China. The lower end producers are building smaller (100 seat) planes, where as the two leaders make a broad selection with top end aircraft seating 400 and up.
Viewed as an index of industrial and technological advancement, Brazil and Canada are higher up the food chain than one would expect. Britain sold out it's stake in Airbus and so doesn't appear at all, although Rolls Royce remains an important maker of jet engines.
Country Company Total Aircraft models
United States Boeing 7395 total airliners. 737, 787, 777,747 767
France/Germany Airbus 6949 total airliners A319.320,321,330-,340,350 380
Brazil Embraer 973 total airliners 170 175 190 195
Russia Antonov, Ilyushin, Sukhoi 438 total airliners 100, IL-96 MS21
Canada Bombardier 376 total airliners CRJ
China Comac Xian 297 total airliners MA60, ARJ21, C919
Japan Mitsubishi 285 total airliners MRJ
Boeing is ahead of Airbus by a nose, and not much more. Both Boeing and Airbus are miles ahead of everyone else. Brazil plans to build twice as many airliners as Russia. Canada plans to out produce China. The lower end producers are building smaller (100 seat) planes, where as the two leaders make a broad selection with top end aircraft seating 400 and up.
Viewed as an index of industrial and technological advancement, Brazil and Canada are higher up the food chain than one would expect. Britain sold out it's stake in Airbus and so doesn't appear at all, although Rolls Royce remains an important maker of jet engines.
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