plane contract

[Teresa]

Just heard on NPR this morning that the Air Force has awarded the contract to replace all of their tanker planes to Airbus over Boeing. Airbus has taken on Northrup Grummond as a small subsidiary. NG will assemble the planes in the US but most of the manufacturing will be in France. The politicians are all making noise about it, but it's just another example of how our govt. beats the hell out of us from every angle.

Also in NJ Gov. Corzine has decided to help with the horrible budget deficit he's going to eliminate aid to towns under 5000 souls and cut aid to towns from 5-10,000 souls to force us to consolidate and become big towns. Of course, it's the big towns that have all the trouble that takes most of the services anyway.

  The other side of the coin is that EADS realizes that the dollar is weak, which means that labor is cheaper HERE.  With skilled labor costs going WAY up in Europe, they are actually moving more jobs stateside.  They have said they're going to move production of all a330s (not just the tankers) here.  I've also read that for pretty much the same $, the A330 holds about 30% more fuel...  Kinda hard for the USAF to ignore that, I'd think.  I also wonder if the two Boeing execs who got nailed for bribes had anything to do with it...  Who knows.

[W. Gray]

If anyone feels they need to protest the tanker award see the below Todd Tiahrt web site.

He makes a comment about an inferior product. The Air Force apparently does not agree with him and, anyway, there is no way he knows that until his own arm, the Government Accounting Office, takes a look. But, hey, he has to get elected every two years.

According to a figure mentioned on Fox, something like 27% of contracts that GAO looks at are questionable in some part from their point of view.

Just because GAO questions the contract, that does not mean the USAF has to back down if they still believe the product is better. But, they better be prepared for a Congressional hearing. I suspect if there should be a hearing one would hear a lot of high decibel noise from some politicians wanting camera time, but very little action on their part.


http://www.house.gov/tiahrt/tanker_survey.htm

[archeobabe]

It was the French losing the French-Indian War that hone the battle skills of our colonists to defeat the British so we can become a nation.

[W. Gray]

The French bankrolled the Revolution and a huge French fleet blockaded the harbor at Yorktown to bottle the British up and enable an American win.

A good part of the allied attacking force at Yorktown was French troops. When the British surrendered, the British commander's representative tried to present the British commander's sword to the French commander but the Frenchman directed him to Washington. It was an insult on the part of the British.

So, why were the French so generous?

Revenge against the British for their defeat during the French Indian War.

[frawin]

Waldo, I think America has paid that favor back a couple of times. The French would be saying Heil Hitler if not for the good old USA.
FRank