The TV newsies are having great fun asking Republicans "Knowing what we know now, would you have attacked Iraq?". The newsies love this one. No matter which way the candidate answers this one, it makes him look bad. We haven't had as good a question since "have you stopped beating your wife" made the rounds.
No Republican wants to say Bush was wrong going into Iraq. Everyone knows it was the threat of an Iraqi nuclear program that convinced Bush and the Congress to declare war on Iraq. Back in the day, our noble intelligence services produced evidence of a Saddam Hussein bomb program strong enough to convince even Colin Powell, an experienced and respected man who most of us trusted. After the invasion, no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program was discovered, and to the credit of the Bush administration, no attempt to fabricate evidence was attempted. Today, knowing that Saddam didn't have nukes, and wasn't anywhere close to having nukes, nobody would have invaded Iraq. Everyone knows that, and there is little to be gained in asking the question, other than embarrassing Republicans, something which the average TV newsie loves to do.
Better questions to ask all candidates.
1. What will you do about ISIS?
2. What will you do to prevent Iran from getting nukes?
3. What will you do to get US economic growth back up to 3%?
4. What job killing regulations will you repeal?
Monday, May 18, 2015
Fox News is being kind to the Pentagon
A crash in Hawaii of a V22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was described as a helicopter crash. It killed one marine, and injured about 20 more. The Osprey program, while producing a revolutionary aircraft, has had a good share of crashes, and the Pentagon must be more than happy to call this latest one a helicopter crash. And, to soften things a bit more, the incident was described as a "hard landing", even as the video showed a column of black smoke, laced with flames, reaching into the sky. Right, a very hard landing.
The tilt-rotor Osprey combines the vertical takeoff and landing of a helicopter with the forward speed of a turboprop transport like a C-130. It's been in development for 20 years or more, and now in service. It costs a bundle. An argument could be made (has been made) that ordinary helicopters like the Jolly Green are cheaper, more dependable, their range could be extended by the use of air-to-air refueling, to give the same airlift for less money. The Marines like the Osprey and backed it all the way thru the various hurdles set up by the Pentagon to kill the program. Without the steadfast support of the Marine Corps, Osprey would never have made it to production.
I'm sure the Marine Corps is giving thanks to Fox New's support today.
The tilt-rotor Osprey combines the vertical takeoff and landing of a helicopter with the forward speed of a turboprop transport like a C-130. It's been in development for 20 years or more, and now in service. It costs a bundle. An argument could be made (has been made) that ordinary helicopters like the Jolly Green are cheaper, more dependable, their range could be extended by the use of air-to-air refueling, to give the same airlift for less money. The Marines like the Osprey and backed it all the way thru the various hurdles set up by the Pentagon to kill the program. Without the steadfast support of the Marine Corps, Osprey would never have made it to production.
I'm sure the Marine Corps is giving thanks to Fox New's support today.
Rumble in Waco Texas
Sounds like the boys really went to town, 9 dead, coupla hundred arrests. NHPR this morning had some reporter speculating about a "motive". Right. You don't need a motive for a gang rumble.
You get a bunch of gang members together, be they motorcycle gangs or just plain gangs, and some gang member will take offense at something, and pretty quick the fight is on. No motive involved, just a bunch of touchy gang members bumping into each other. Sounds like that NHPR reporter went to a nice tame suburban school and never had to lay low in the lunch room when the gang kids turned up.
You get a bunch of gang members together, be they motorcycle gangs or just plain gangs, and some gang member will take offense at something, and pretty quick the fight is on. No motive involved, just a bunch of touchy gang members bumping into each other. Sounds like that NHPR reporter went to a nice tame suburban school and never had to lay low in the lunch room when the gang kids turned up.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Airbus A400M crashes in Spain
A production Airbus A400M turboprop military transport crashed during flight testing in Spain. This is gonna hurt Airbus, the A400M project is late, over budget, and customers have threatened to bail out of the program and buy C-130's from the US.
What's more embarrasing, preliminary inspection shows that the computer engine control system screwed up and shut off fuel to the engines for no good reason.
Aviation Week has a write up here.
What's more embarrasing, preliminary inspection shows that the computer engine control system screwed up and shut off fuel to the engines for no good reason.
Aviation Week has a write up here.
Amtrak Crash.
It's been on the news ever since it happened Wednesday night. My deepest sympathies for the dead and injured.
Looks like the engineer is the cause of the crash. He departs DC on time, and 11 minutes after pulling out of the station, the train is up to 106 mph going into a 50 mph curve. He applied the brakes just as the train entered the curve and left the track. Either the engineer fell asleep (in 11 minutes?), or suffered some kind of seizure, but after opening the throttle to get the train moving, he never backed it off to a cruise position.
News have never mentioned the size of the train crew. Looks like it was just one man in the locomotive. Airliners always have two qualified pilots in the cockpit. Railroads had a two man crew for a long time.
Lot of talk about a magic automatic braking system that would have prevented the crash. I'd never heard of that one before, and I am a train fan, read the magazines, build model trains. I'm thinking a two man engine crew would have prevented the crash as well.
Looks like the engineer is the cause of the crash. He departs DC on time, and 11 minutes after pulling out of the station, the train is up to 106 mph going into a 50 mph curve. He applied the brakes just as the train entered the curve and left the track. Either the engineer fell asleep (in 11 minutes?), or suffered some kind of seizure, but after opening the throttle to get the train moving, he never backed it off to a cruise position.
News have never mentioned the size of the train crew. Looks like it was just one man in the locomotive. Airliners always have two qualified pilots in the cockpit. Railroads had a two man crew for a long time.
Lot of talk about a magic automatic braking system that would have prevented the crash. I'd never heard of that one before, and I am a train fan, read the magazines, build model trains. I'm thinking a two man engine crew would have prevented the crash as well.
Coming Home
So, after visiting daughter and son-in-law in DC for a couple a days, it came time to drive home to NH. I took the standard route, right up I95, over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, up the Jersey Turnpike, over the Geo Washington bridge, CrossBronx expressway, I91 from New Haven CT to Wells River VT. 650 miles, 10 hours. I didn't stop much. Had a nice view of the new Freedom Tower on the way into New York. That looked good. Eastbound on the GW Bridge was moving right along, much better than some past years. West bound was a mess, solid trailer trucks, bumper to bumper, not moving much, all the way back to the Whitestone bridge. It was noon, I would have expected east and west traffic to be about the same.
I toyed with the idea of breaking the trip, taking a motel and doing some sightseeing. But as I got closer to home, pressing on, and getting home seemed more attractive.
I'm about to make a resolution to not answer the cell phone in flight. Three times some robo caller hit me. I cannot read the dinky little display in sunlight and with my driving glasses. I ain't gonna switch to my reading glasses at 75 mph. Clever human factors design located the on-off button right in the way, it's hard to fish the phone out of my shirt pocket without hitting on-off, which confuses the easily confused phone software.
And the virus/flu/common cold is still alive and well. I picked up a case somehow. Resolution #2, don't leave the ceiling fan running when going to sleep. A shot of Nyquil and nasal spray fixed things up well enough get to sleep.
So that is May's adventure in traveling.
I toyed with the idea of breaking the trip, taking a motel and doing some sightseeing. But as I got closer to home, pressing on, and getting home seemed more attractive.
I'm about to make a resolution to not answer the cell phone in flight. Three times some robo caller hit me. I cannot read the dinky little display in sunlight and with my driving glasses. I ain't gonna switch to my reading glasses at 75 mph. Clever human factors design located the on-off button right in the way, it's hard to fish the phone out of my shirt pocket without hitting on-off, which confuses the easily confused phone software.
And the virus/flu/common cold is still alive and well. I picked up a case somehow. Resolution #2, don't leave the ceiling fan running when going to sleep. A shot of Nyquil and nasal spray fixed things up well enough get to sleep.
So that is May's adventure in traveling.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Food Desert
DC could be one. I set out on an errand this morning, some 9 miles thru DC traffic. Did not see a single supermarket. Plenty of CVS's, gas stations, and the like. but no food stores. When I get back I had to two miles down H st before I found a Giant built into the bottom of an apartment building. At leastt they had parking.
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