This blog posts about aviation, automobiles, electronics, programming, politics and such other subjects as catch my interest. The blog is based in northern New Hampshire, USA
Monday, December 29, 2008
Why does Hamas want Israel to bomb Gaza?
Hamas has got to know that firing rockets into Israel is always going to provoke Israeli retaliation. That means that Hamas wants Israel to bomb them. But why? Surely the Gaza strip population is as radicalized as they are ever going to get, they don't need another sirstrike to get them psyched up. Unless Hamas is stuck on stupid (really stuck hard) they know Gaza can't beat Israel in any kind of fight. The Israelis out number them and the Israeli population is highly educated, highly motivated, well organized and well armed. Picking a fight with Israel means certain defeat for Gaza and Hamas.
Can Hamas be stupid enough to think that Israeli airstrikes will get other Arab countries, Eygpt, Saudi, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan to come to their aid? Or the Europeans? Do they crave expressions of international sympathy enough to take casualties? Do they think the incoming Obama administration, already up to its ass in alligators, is going to take their side?
So what is really going on?
Flash, Bang, Zap, and the lights go out
PSNH finally shows up after an hour. Pole is still burning on top. They get the juice off, and for extra safety the linemen connect a shorting cable across all three hot wires, before they take the cherry picker up. The linemen borrow a fire extinquisher from the firemen and put the pole fire out. By this time it has burned the pole halfway in two, below the top set of cross arms.
They don't have a replacement pole, that's handled by Fairpoint Communications (the telephone company). So, since the pole is only burned at the top, they decide to just lower all the crossarms below the burned spot. Cause of fire, one of the hot wires came loose from the insulator and touched the pole and arced to ground.
Four hours later we get the juice back on. That does put some life into a Monday.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Trust
From the introduction of "China, A new History" by John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, copyright 2006.
After displaying such a balanced view of their own society, what spin are they going to place on a foriegn society? (I haven't read far enough yet to judge) Both authors are Harvard professors. With flakes like this on the faculty I wonder what kind of education Harvard students get these days?
Global Warming returns to Cannon
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Save Money, Shut down the SEC
Since it doesn't work, harms the economy, and costs $1 billion dollars a year to operate, let's just shut it down.
While we are at it, we could shut down the CIA too. They don't work,they failed to warn of 9/11, claimed that Saddam had nukes, and have harmed the war on terror thru a series of treasonous leaks. And attempted to destabilize the Bush Administration thru the Valerie Plame affair. All the real intel comes from NSA any how. Why do we keep funding those losers?
Stimulate the economy, fund fusion research
Now two small projects, the Polywell project and the Fusion General project might produce workable fusion reactors. Both projects are small and cheap. A few million dollars of funding would accelerate both projects.
With the rewards so great, and the costs so small, the funding is worthwhile, even if the odds of success are unknown. It's a better use of taxpayer money than bailing out brain dead banks and auto makers.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The "Don't talk about it in public" issues
Global Warming brings 2 feet of snow to Cannon
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Vista causes Great Depression II
You can beleive as much that as you like
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Real Political Issues vs Hot Button Issues
If issues are the coin of the realm, Republicans need to distinguish between real political issues, foreign policy, financial regulations, immigration law, energy supply, taxes and spending, copyright revision versus "hot button" (aka social) issues ( abortion and gays). Sensible voters are concerned about steering the country safely thru a dangerous world, protecting the homeland from attack, and growing the economy. Although there are a bunch of voters attracted by the hot button issues, there are an equal number of voters driven away by them. For example, abortion isn't a winning issue, half the country is for it and the other half is against it. Plus the issue is moot, the Supreme Court has made it legal and there isn't much you can say after that.
The crucial independent voters care more about real issues and are often repelled by the hot button issues. Republicans need not repudiate their anti abortion and anti gay marriage stands but surely they don't need to talk about them all the time. Do like Sarah Palin did, although she is clearly against abortion, she never talked about it on the campaign trail.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Bush Caves to Detroit
Thursday, December 18, 2008
GM was building yet another plant.
More brain dead GM management. Here is a company with about twice as many plants as they need, yet they are building a brand new one? Dumb move.
Here is a company pinning its hopes on the new hybrid Chevy Volt, a technological first for GM, cutting edge battery, all new electric drive design. This is a high risk project, there is a good chance something won't work, or something breaks after they sell them. So, rather than picking an existing engine already in production, a low risk strategy, they were gonna use a brand new engine built in a brand new plant. And if anything were to go wrong with the new engine or the new plant, the entire Chevy Volt project is jeopardized. Only a brain dead project manager would make that decision.
First thing the GM bankruptcy judge should do is replace ALL of GM management.
They shut down theplants, but the UAW still gets paid
Except, the workers still get paid during shutdown. Nice deal and all, but with the auto companies broke and begging for Federal bailouts, it seems a little much to give the work force a month of paid vacation.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Will any amount of "stimulus" improve the economy?
Until the economy looks less scary sales are gonna be in tank, no matter how much stimulus is thrown around.
And, while on the subject of Detroit
Don't Bailout Detroit
Put them into chapter 11, rewrite their labor contracts to $50 an hour like the transplants, reduce the number of car models to something reasonable, replace their senior management and boards of directors, write off their debt, and close excess car plants. Reduce executive salaries to $250,000 max. Require that dividends and bonuses be paid out of profits after taxes. No profit, no dividends or bonuses. And clean up their books. Last year GM "wrote off" $35 billion of phantom assets they had been carrying on their books for years. What other scams are still hidden by the big three accountants?
Chrysler has a parent company, Cerberus, which has plenty of money to keep Chrysler afloat. I see no reason why us taxpayers should subsidize Cerberus.
GM is too big to be profitable ever. Break it up into four companies, Corvette, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC). Ford might be able to make it on their own. Don't merge Chrysler and GM. Tying two troubled firms together merely assures that they both sink together. Leave them independent, there is chance that one might float by itself.
Monday, December 15, 2008
How Fannie and Freddie caused the 2nd Great Depression
Things came unglued in 2006 when the gullible investors discovered that the price of houses had dropped so much that the mortgages were worth more than the houses. All of a sudden the "mortgage backed" part of the securities began to look risky. The gullible investors wised up and stopped buying them. Leaving the brokerage houses with barrels of "securities" that no one would buy. "Illiquid" is the Wall St jargon for "so crummy no one will touch it".
Why did the price of houses fall in 2006? A better question is why did the price of houses rise the rapidly in the previous decade? Answer, the price of houses went up because the banks were willing do higher loans on the properties. Remember a mortgage is a simple deal, I loan you money, you pay it back or I take the house. This only works if the house is worth MORE than the mortgage. Successful banks are good at assessing property values and would not do mortgages that exceeded their idea of what the property was really worth.
But then, a horde of eager stock brokers descended upon the banks offering to buy the bank's mortgages for cash. So they could turn them into "mortgage backed securities". Such a deal. Once sold, the bank was free of risk, if the mortgage defaulted the gullible buyer had a problem, not the issuing bank. The bank gets to keep the closing fees, points, and perhaps a markup, and hustles out to do more mortgages.
Now that the bank can sell mortgages, it ceased to care that much about the quality of the mortgage. Do a low quality mortgage, offer to finance a little more than the property is worth, offer to waive the down payment. Sell the result before something goes wrong. Result, price of housing goes up, 'cause the bank is willing to loan more money on the same old property.
Why were the brokerage houses so willing to do mortgage backed securities? Simple, Fannie and Freddie were willing to buy enormous quantities of them. They had the money (borrowed on the credit of the United States) and the returns promised by the brokerage houses looked sooo good.
What's the moral of the story? Simple, shut down the entire secondary mortgage market, force the banks to risk their own depositor's money. To a large extent this has happened, the market for "mortgage backed securities" has dried up, no one will touch them any more. When the bank risks it's own money, it will be more careful. Just to make sure the secondary mortgage market stays closed, close down Fannie and Freddie for good.
And, remember that Barnie Frank and Chris Dodd defeated all attempts to limit Fannie and Freddie's borrowing power, leaving us taxpayers stuck with the horrendous losses they racked up.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Great Ice Storm of 2008
Down south, the ice put a lot of people in the dark. It also messed up our cable TV. Most cable channels froze up, leaving a frozen image and no sound. Channels 2 thru 13 and the Weather Channel stayed alive. Dunno how they managed that, I would have thought that dead channels would go dark rather than freezing up. The didn't get the cable working until just a few minutes ago.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
What's in Concord for 2009?
2009-H-0022-L establishing a state income tax to adequately fund public education.
Sponsors: (Prime) Delmar D Burridge
2009-H-0557-L establishing a flat rate income tax and relative to a statewide enhanced education tax and certain other taxes.
Sponsors: (Prime) Jessie L Osborne
2009-H-0571-R relative to establishing number plates supporting New Hampshire public higher education.
Sponsors: (Prime) Sarah A Hutz
2009-H-0036-R relating to funding of public education. Providing that the legislature shall define standards for education, determine the level of state funding thereof, establish standards of accountability, and allocate state funds in a manner that mitigates disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity, provided that a reasonable share of state funds shall be distributed on a per pupil basis
Sponsors: (Prime) David W Hess Sherman A Packard Shawn N Jasper W. Douglas Scamman
2009-H-0044-L establishing the cost of an adequate education. Sponsors: (Prime) David W Hess
2009-H-0072-R relating to public education. Providing that: the recognition of local control of education in the New Hampshire constitution is reestablished. Sponsors: (Prime) Daniel C Itse
Robert H Rowe
We have two representatives proposing a state income tax to fund education. We have one representative who thinks we can raise enough money from vanity license plates fund education. Lots of luck on that one. We have one bill to take control of education away from local school boards and give it to the state. We have one bill to set the cost of education by law.
The last bill proposes a constitutional amendment to make grade school and high school education a city and town responsibility, the way it was before the State Supreme Court messed things up years ago. This is the best solution. It restores "The Pledge". If the state doesn't fund education, the justification for an income tax is removed. No one wants a state income tax, except maybe the teachers. Local school boards, who have to meet their taxpayers face to face, can make better decisions about educational costs and quality than bureaucrats in Concord can.
Crummy camera work drives off Extreme Trains
Too bad the cameraman couldn't hold his camera steady long enough to watch this fine big hunk of iron rolling along. He panned, he scanned, he zoomed, he cut from one view to another. The camera never stood still long enough to actually see the train. As soon as my eye steadied in on the train, the cameraman would move the viewpoint and throw my eye off. It got so bad I finally turned the show off.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Chicago Tribune goes Chapter 11 & no one knows why
The reason newspapers are in trouble all over the country is the ad revenue that used to fund them is going to the internet, to Vehix, to Craiglist, and to Google. All that ad revenue that powers Google came from competitors, like newspapers. Newspapers used to make money selling classified ads to sell cars and houses. Not any more. Cars and houses are advertised on the internet in the 21st century. Lot of their other advertising has gone the same way.
Surprising that three experienced newsies know so little about the economics of their business.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Public Radio, standing up for federal bureaucrats
Then this morning Public Radio came to the defense of the suffering bureacrats at the EPA. They are demoralized and unhappy because the Bush administration wouldn't accept their scientific evidence and allow them to shut down nearly everything in sight. The show opined that the incoming admistration has a mighty task to rebuild the EPA into the tower of obstructionism that it deserves to be.
Bailout or green car mandate?
The big three CEO's were on TV Friday. They didn't make all that much sense to this taxpayer. Plus the Congressmen did most of the talking. Several things did come thru. Apparently the car dealers have to pay the factory for the cars on their lots. They call this "floorplanning". Dealers borrow the necessary money from the finance arms (GMAC etc) of the automakers. And then customers borrow from the same place to pay for the cars. GMAC got stupid last year and lost a bundle of money playing in the sub prime mortgage market. All three of the car company finance operations are running out of money to loan to car buyers and car dealers to buy cars. It might be reasonable to call these finance operations "banks" and give them the same access to the Federal Reserve money as conventional banks get.
Friday, November 28, 2008
DoD Linux?
The only way for DoD to keep anything secret on a computer, is use something other than Windows. Linux anyone? DoD could create it's own version. In fact, should this happen, they ought to offer it free to us civilians. "DoD Linux" would be a sure fire seller to anyone wanting to use computers and not give away everything on them to his competitors.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
How many bean counters can dance on the head of pin?
The entire defense budget is around $500 billion. At least half of that ought to be things that are not contract, like pay for the troops. So we have 9720 bean counters slowing work on maybe $250 billion worth of contracts. Each bean counter only has $25 million worth of contracts to "oversee" (hinder is a better word). With fighter planes going for $100 million each, that yields four bean counters per aircraft produced.
Used to work in the aerospace/defense business. The huge building had two floors. On the ground floor was the productive stuff, engineering, manufacturing shops, drafting, the stockroom and so on. Upstairs, using just as much floor space, and more people, were the bean counters who complied with the oceans of gov'ment paperwork. For every productive person on the program, Raytheon had one non productive bean counter.
We would get a lot more defense for the buck if we dropped the paperwork and got on with the job.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Stress Reliever
Only, up here, we get to relief our stress every time we haul our recycling down to the town dump, excuse me "transfer station". You just stand at the bin for glass and hurl your beer bottles against the concrete backstop. They shatter beautifully. It will be beer bottles, beer is about the only thing still packaged in glass these days. If we all gave up our beer drinking, it would reduce the glass recycling to nearly zero.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Las Vegas vs Wall St. Is there a difference?
Some ordinary activities such as trading in stocks and bonds, do serve the economy. Some activities such as "securitizing" sub prime mortgages, and "credit default swaps" have ruined the economy.
The incoming administration should plan to discourage the distructive Wall St operations while encouraging the constructive ones. Was it me, I would clamp down on securitization of all types. If a company wants to borrow money, let it issue bonds in its own name. Stock market futures trading does not channel money into economic investment, it is a roulette game. "Credit default swaps" merely encourage buying risky securities, and when the market crashes the swap issuers lack the money to actually pay off. Gullable investors think the swaps insulate them from risk, in actual fact the deal merely costs the investor money and offers no additional security.
Friday, November 21, 2008
What do Republicans beleive in?
The recent campaign did sound bites, vague generalities and character assassination spreading heat but not light.
It comes to me that Republicans believe in free enterprise. This means freedom for anyone to enter any business that pleases them. Licenses should not be required for such ordinary occupations as cutting hair or teaching school. Licensing merely makes it difficult to enter those fields, and serves merely as a means to limit competition. Licenses restrict our freedom.
Free enterprise means the business should be free to offer any products it pleases, of any quality and for any price. Government should not set freight rates, airline ticket prices or the sale price of kitchen appliances. One perfectly legitimate business is buying and selling products from abroad. Over the long run exports have to equal imports. Each import is paid for with an export. Attempts to "protect" domestic industries and workers by taxing foreign trade may help the protected industries, but they hurt the majority of us who don't work in the protected industry. America has been in favor of free trade since WWII.
Free enterprise means no subsidies for farmers, oil companies, solar panels, battery powered cars, and other "worthy" things. The farmers, oil companies, solar power firms, and battery car makers must compete in the marketplace. If their products fill a real need and are priced right they will sell. If not, good riddance to them.
Free enterprise means the best thing society can do for it's poorer members is to provide them with jobs. A job is better than any amount of unemployment insurance, welfare, health care, day care, and other social welfare goodies. With a job, the worker has money and can buy all these services, without a job life is miserable. Business provides jobs, therefore the Government should encourage business, rather than treat business as robber barons.
Free enterprise is more efficient at providing goods and services. Compare US Postal Service with Fedex and UPS. If you want your Christmas presents to get there before Christmas, sent them Fedex, not Parcel Post. Things that can be provided by private enterprise, rather than civil servants, should be.
Free enterprise means business is owned by stockholders, not the government. The government has enough control over us poor citizens thru the law and the courts, the IRS, and the welfare agencies. We don't want to give the government control of the companies at which we work. Face it, your boss has a good deal of control over your life. You don't want your boss to be the government, 'cause then Uncle Sam has got you coming and going.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Skiers over come Bicknell's Thrush
The need for a climb will limit the Mittersill skiers to the more energetic, but it will ease the crowds on the Cannon slopes. A trip "over the Saddle" and back takes an hour, compared to maybe 10 minutes to run down Upper Cannon to Avalanche and catch the tram again.
One of these days, when money becomes available, a double chairlift at Mittersill is planned, running up the old Baron's Chairlift line.
It's only taken 3 years that I know of to get the paper work thru the Forest Service.
The conservation community has attempted to block the skiers thru the device of Bicknell's Thrush. This bird nests about 1200 feet in wood lot with cleared land such as ski trails, nearby. Bicknell's thrush was declared to be a species only in 1995. Prior to 1995 it was just another thrush. Shortly after being invented, Bicknell's Thrush was declared endangered, and entitled to protection under the Endangered Species Act. Fearing that passing skiers would disturb the nesting Bicknell's Thrush, the Forest Service held up the paperwork.
Upon learning that Bicknell's Thrush goes south for the winter and that sking doesn't happen in the nesting season, the Forest Service relented and did the deal.
Lawyers for Capt Jack Sparrow
Wow. The entire world has been emasculated by those with law school degrees.
Far as I am concerned, pirates taken red handed can be brought before a court martial and then hung from the yard arm. If the ship lacks a yard arm, firing squad will do. Any warship's captain can convene a court martial, right on the foredeck, and pass sentence then and there. Case closed.
Or do what the Indians did, sink the pirate vessel. They didn't have to worry about legal proceeding after that.
And, in this day and age of radar equipped patrol aircraft, it should not be that hard to spot the pirates at sea and deal with them. And, then we can clean out the harbors from which the pirates operate.
Evidently, dispite lots of TV coverage, the pirate problem isn't yet severe enough to cause real steps to be taken against them.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Dodging the issue
None of them mentioned the $75 an hour, plush medical and cushy retirements the UAW workers enjoy, and how Toyota, Honda, and BMW pay $25 and hour less. No one mentioned the fact that Detroit's Caliber, Focus, and Cobalt don't sell as well, and don't sell for as much money as Corolla and Civic. Detroit's designs are less desirable, and it's reputation for quality has still not recovered. No one, not even the Congressmen running the hearing, dared to say a harsh word about brain dead management and overpaid workers, the real problem in Detroit.
This taxpayer was left with the impression that another $25 billion would just stave off the inevitable bankruptcy for a matter of months. The domestic car makers cannot survive with more expensive labor and less desirable products. Why waste $25 billion? Do the bankruptcy, get the labor costs down to what Toyota and Honda pay, lay off the suits, drop the poor selling models, dump the excess dealers, cancel the golden parachutes, and get some decent cars into production.
The reason the Detroit suits are begging for my money is simple. The banks won't lend to them any more 'cause the banks figure they are headed for Chapter 11, which means the loans don't get paid back. I think the banks have it right.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Has CAFE killed GM?
Unfortunately, those little econo boxes make up the bulk of the cars on the road as I drive to work each day. That swirling mass of Rt 128 traffic is three quarters small sedans, like Corolla. The real volume sellers aren't pickups and SUV's, it's econo boxes. For GM to stay in business, it has to compete in the volume market, or go out of business. Unfortunately the GM suits still don't understand this, and so they whine about CAFE making them build the type of car that most people buy.
It may be that making money in the small car business is harder than building big cars. People won't pay as much for a small car as a big car. But small cars are nearly as expensive to manufacture as big ones. Small cars have roughly the same number of parts as big ones. These parts have to be made or purchased, and assembled. Small parts cost about the same as big ones, and it takes the same amount of labor to install them. So your profit margin on small cars is always going to be tight, but plenty of companies (Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Volkswagen for example) have shown that it can be done.
The Detroit companies have to offer small cars as desirable as Civic and Corolla at competitive prices. Or go out of business.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Sarah
I think choosing Palin was the smartest move McCain made in the whole campaign. It wasn't enough, but it was the right move.
Obama doesn't like guns much
The NRA sent this interesting quote around by email.
/quote
This week, it became clear that the new administration's anti-gun agenda even infects the process of staffing the administration. A widely disseminated questionnaire for those applying for administration jobs asks:
"(59) Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or property damage."
/end quote
Hmm. Guess that disqualifies me from a job in the Obama administration. I have a few guns, all of which I've had for forty years or more, never registered them. Don't plan to either. Registration isn't required up here. Yet.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Paulson ubder the TARP
As my savings looses it value day by day, I find it hard to believe Paulson assertion that "the financial system" is getting better. Not unless he has some numbers to back up his arguments.
So then, Lehrer asks Paulson if the government should bail out GM. Good question. Paulson dodges it and makes a quibble that Congress didn't authorize a GM bailout in the TARP program.
Surely a guy like Paulson, ex Morgan Stanley CEO, has some opinion on the wisdom of handing billions of taxpayer dollars to a doomed company like GM. Why didn't he share them with us TV viewers? It's not like he needs the votes of UAW workers to get reelected.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Military Aircraft
The oldest warplane is the venerable B-52 which first flew in 1952. The newest is the EADS Mako, which is so new as to still be in the definition phase (hasn't flown yet).
Sunday, November 9, 2008
MY wishlist
"It's the economy stupid." The economy ought to come ahead of everything else, global warming, conservation, Iraq, public transportation,welfare, and pro union legislation.
We need to fix the real economy, the part that produces real stuff that people willingly buy with money. That's farming, manufacturing, mining, logging, transportation, utilities, communications, and entertainment. Financial services, health care, lawyers, government, and education are not part of the productive economy, they just consume money and don't produce anything one can sell.
The real economy is run by companies and corporations. Helping the real economy means helping companies and corporations do well and produce more. Democrats have a reflexive desire to bash companies and corporations. It's been said that democrats love employment, it's employers they cannot stand.
If the incoming democratic administration can surpress their gut level desire to bash business, here is what might be done.
1. Reduce the cost of health care. This will only happen when the patients know the doctor's bills are coming out of their pockets. Right now insured patients don't care what it costs, 'cause its all paid for. We can subsidize the patients in various ways, but the patients ought to be paying the bills. We are putting 16% of GNP into health care, and companies are the ones who pay it. Sixteen cent of every dollar in sales goes to workers health care.
2. Reduce the corporate tax. Right now it's 35% of profits. Drop that to 17% which is what the average taxpayer pays out. Clarify the accounting rules to make it harder to hide profits by cooking the corporate books. Insist that any profit reported to investors, is taxed. Right now various accounting scams allow businesses to show high profits to investors (potential stock buyers) and low profits to the tax man. That oughta stop.
3. Let the free market allocate economic resources. Don't use taxes or subsidies to favor one industry or product over another. The present market crash was caused by a policy of favoring single family home ownership over renting. Don't subsidize oil production, ethanol production, domestic sugar production, farming, road building, and all those other cushy little deals. Don't fix prices, and don't limit competition by licensing things.
4. Keep in mind that we want higher production. Higher production is better than higher wages or higher business profits.
5. We need domestic energy. Sending $700 billion a year overseas just for fuel is an unbearable burden. Real energy comes from coal, oil, and uranium. Wind power goes off when the wind drops, solar power goes off when the sun sets. Real energy is energy available when you need it.
The PBS wishlist
They want to fund alternate energy, purge all Bush appointees from the civil service, do something about the methane emissions from dairy cows, sign the Kyoto treaty, support locally grown produce, you name it, it was there.
Not a word about Iraq or fixing the economy, these folk are out to save the planet and defeat global warming. Nothing about the price of heating oil or gasoline.
The program was a pastiche of stuff called in by listeners from all over the country. Of course the "non-partisan" NPR folk choose which citizens ideas get on the air. I guess NPR is firmly behind global warming (anti global warming)?
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Republicans ought to believe in free enterprize
Free enterprise also means no government price fixing. We abolished price fixing in railroads, trucking, airlines and retail. Those actions reduced prices to the consumers.
Republicans are looking to define their political creed. We could start by saying we favor free enterprise.
Bailout my Chevy from the levee?
On the other hand, management runs from poor to absolutely terrible. Product design sucks. The three of them offer 250 "different" models, of which only two are three are nice enough that I'd want to buy one. The 700,000 retiree pensions are such a drag as to sink anyone. They have more retirees drawing pensions than they have workers on the payroll. The health care costs both for active and retired workers are outta sight. Maybe it would be better to let them declare bankruptcy. The workers and retirees would all loose a lot of money, when the court cancels the union contracts and voids the pensions but they would come out of bankruptcy in a position to perhaps make a little money, and a goodly percentage of the workers would still have jobs. Why should my tax dollars go to propping up the ultra plush wages and retirements of autoworkers?
Good Idea
/begin received email
The next Chairman of the Republican National Committee will set the tone and direction of the party for years to come. The election in January provides an opportunity to elect a Chairman who will revitalize the party and bring us back to our roots. We can select a leader who embraces the status quo or we can select a reformer, a new chairman who is a young, energetic and articulate leader who can re-build our party from the ground up.
Join the Draft Sununu campaign in order to encourage Senator John Sununu to run for Chairman of the RNC.
/end received email
Good Idea
Join the Draft Sununu campaign in order to encourage Senator John Sununu to run for Chairman of the RNC.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Boeing Strike Settles
The terms of the strike settlement are unclear. Aviation Week says the new contract will go for four years, up from three. Pay hikes are 15% over four years. Pension contributions go up $83 a year.
The major work rule issue concerned Boeing's newly instituted practice of having suppliers deliver right to the shop floor. They used to deliver to the loading dock and Intnl Assn of Machinists workers would move the product from the dock to the line. Boeing is only doing this on the 787 line, but wants to make the practice general to the 737 and 747 lines. The compromise allows vendors to deliver to only a few spots on the line rather than everywhere. The machinists claim the jobs of 2920 union forklift operators were saved. Which is an astounishing number of fork lift operators. In USAF we only had a dozen forklifts for an entire Air Force base.
With the rest of the economy sliding down the tube, it's good to get Boeing back to work.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
So what went wrong?
But, while the memory is fresh (and painful) let me set down some causes of GOP defeat. Exhibit A, a photograph I took on the opening of GOP headquarters in Littleton. Group shot of all the local republicans in front of the storefront. "How come everyone in the picture is old and greyhaired?" asked my mother. Whereas Obama was running a children's crusade. Maybe if the GOP decided to legalize music downloads? Hollywood and the labels wouldn't like it, but they don't like the GOP anyhow, so what's to loose? A few campaign contributions?
There were a lot of specific things McCain should have said and didn't. On the other hand Obama said little or nothing of substance during the campaign, so maybe what you say on campaign doesn't matter?
Party platforms. The NH GOP had a state party platform 20 pages long, written in lawyerly obfustication, making it useless as a campaign document. We streamlined it, boiled it down to a few simple statements in ordinary English and presented it to the state party convention. The convention turned down the new platform in favor of the old, the 20 pager that didn't really promise anything. Was that because they feared making even vague campaign promises?
McCain never promised the electorate anything you could put a word too. Hope and change worked well for Obama. Next time the GOP ought to at least promise prosperity and a 14000 Dow.
Trashing Ayres, Wright, Rezko and that Islamic fellow wasn't bad, but you can't win just by pointing out the the other guy has scumbag friends. You have to offer reasons to vote for you, not just reasons to vote against the other guy.
McCain wanted to equalize the tax treatment of helath care between the company workers and the self employed. He presented the plan, but neither he nor Palin explained that feature. The democrats attacked it saying McCain was going to tax health care benefits. The GOP never hit back saying it gives the self employed the same tax break on health care that the company workers enjoy.
Hope disappointed
Well, now that the democrats have Congress and the presidency, let them fix the economy, keep nuclear weapons out of Iranian hands, and keep the entire middle east out of Al Quada's hands. At least I no longer have to listen to inane TV talking heads endlessly rehashing the latest poll results.
Let us hope that the Obama administration improves the economy rather than kicking off Great Depression II.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
How to get a suntan in November
I nailed together totem poles of campaign signs, passed them out to volunteers. Weeks of telephone calls had rounded up enough volunteers to give sketchy coverage at all the polls.
Rose with the 6:50 alarm clock and rolled down to Franconia with my totem pole sticking out the window of the car. Arrived a few minutes after poll opening to find a few Republican volunteers already on the job. Weather was fine, clear sky and warm. Turnout was heavy, both voters and poll standers. Drove around to the other polling places to see how we were doing. Looked good everywhere. Sunset was shortly after four, it was pitch dark by 5. I finally hung it up after 5, leaving a few other volunteers to cover the last two hours.
GOP did clearly better than '06 where we only had one GOP pollstander in Franconia, and it snowed all day. This time we had 4 to 5 pollstanders all day, as many as the democrats, again unlike '06 when the democrats had us beat hands down.
We don't have any worthwhile election returns yet, but I remain hopeful of a McCain win.
Monday, November 3, 2008
GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out)
One has to wonder how senior management at AIG was gullible enough to beleive any kind of computer model could predict the default rate of mortgage backed securities. How can a computer program know the true value of the mortgaged property, keep up with the fluxuation of the real estate market, know the equity in the property and understand the borrower's ability and willingnes to make the monthly payments on time? Short answer, it cannot, and the managers that OK'ed the deals were totaly clueless. Probably all a bunch of MBA's.
If an arm is worth $10 million, what's a leg go for?
The drug maker has a point. They manufactured a product in accordance with all the rules, and there are plenty of rules. Should they, their employees, and their stockholders be penalized for doing the right thing? Only the Supreme Court can know.
It's terrible for a young woman to loose her arm, but does this justify taking money from a company that did everything the rules demanded?
It's almost over. Thank the good Lord for that
I think McCain can do it. The poll numbers show strength, and the difference between the two is less than the error in the polls for this January's NH primary. The polls projected an Obama win by 5%, actually Hillary won by 5% which means the polls were off by 10%. And surely Obama has to have scared a lot of voters by now. Think tax hikes, Iraq defeat, and turning a stock market crash into the second great depression.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Mastery of the trivia
Sununu spoke well, made good points and supported them. I gained a knowledge of what Sununu would do in office.
The rest of them were terrible. They used the statewide TV exposure for vague generalities, spectacular accusations of obscure misdeeds and platitudes. Republican Jennifer Horn failed to point out Paul Hode's complicity in the Fannie-Freddie disaster that caused first the housing market crash ans second the stock market crash. Shaheen sounded like she was campaigning against Bush, who isn't standing for re election, rather than for US Senator from New Hampshire. Hodes came across as a middle aged weasel. Shea Porter and Buckley did themselves no good.