Bipartisan Report on Detainee Abuse Blames Rumsfeld, Other Top Bush Officials
Author: Matthew G. Saroff
As Strange as this Sounds, This Makes Me Feel Good
So, we have two stories from Wall Street where it appears that the principals are just plain crooks.
It makes me feel good, because, unlike what people are saying about the rest of that lot, willful blindness in pursuit of an obscene payday is not grounds for some sort of criminal investigation, this is clearly criminal, and the people involved are likely to go to jail.
In a real way, it reflects far more poorly on me than it does on them.
First we have Bernard L. Madoff arrested for operating a Ponzi scheme that appears to exceed $50 billion dollars.
This guy is a big name, as he is, “a past chairman of the board of directors of the Nasdaq Stock Market as well as a member of the board of governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers,” which makes him a member of what could be described as the nobility of the financial system.
And then we have Mark Dryer, a high flying Wall Street lawyer accused of cheating his clients by selling false promissory notes, also arrested.
Some additional Schadenfreude comes from the fact that Henry Blodget, the smarmiest of the snake oil salesmen during the dotcom boom, got a haircut on this too.
Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Jim Bunning Gets Kicked Out of Michigan Sports Show
He was supposed to show up and sign bats and balls, but the owner of the show after the Republican Senator from Kentucky voted against the auto bailout.
Heh.
If it’s Friday, It Must Be Bank Closing (x2)
It always happens after I shut down on Friday.
Haven Trust Bank, Duluth, Georgia, and Sanderson State Bank, Sanderson, TX.
Boeing Delays 787 First Flight
The first flight has been been pushed back to 2Q 2009, and they are laying most of the blame on the strike, though my guess would be that they would have had this push-back with or without the machinists strike, as they still have fastener problems.
Son of HOTOL
When I was in college, I recall, reading about a British program called HOTOL (Horizontal Take-Off and Landing, click picture to be taken to a page on it) which was supposed to use a “liquid air” engine in order to more efficiently reach orbit.
A short description of the cycle was that it was fueled with LH2 and for much of the way up, it would use the cold liquid hydrogen to extract liquid oxygen out of the air.
It got canceled, or more accurately, when the program ended it was not taken to the next phase.
I kind of figured that technical issues, my guess at the time (which appears to be wrong) was getting the heat exchangers small enough and light enough.
The real problem appeared to be that the engine was heavy, and in an aft mounting configuration, maintaining the center of lift far enough aft compromised performance.
In any case, a company called Reaction Engines are having another go at the concept with the Skylon, (paid subscription required) , which uses the Sabre (Synergic Air-Breathing Engine).*
As is clear from the picture, they dealt with the CG issues by placing the heavy engines at the center of lift on the wing tips.
It’s supposed to function as an air-breather until it reaches 30km altitude and “around Mach 5”, and then function as a normal liquid fueled rocket the rest of the way up to orbit.
They are looking at testing a 9% scale precooler (left) in January on a test stand, using a RR Viper turbojet behind the cooler (left below)
There are two problems with Liquid Air Cycle Engines (LACE), hydrogen embrittlement of the heat exchanger, and condensation of water and CO2 on the heat exchanger, which will plug it up.
It solves these problems by not cooling the air to full liquid state, but instead having a high-pressure turbo compressor behind the air to liquefy it, and by using helium as an intermediate medium for the heat exchanger, along with an unspecified proprietary frost control technique. (bottom pic)
It’s a neat concept, but I’m dubious of any project that is not fully funded, or almost fully funded by government sources, and at this point, they are getting just a trickle from the British National Space Center and the the European Space Agency (ESA).
*Let me note here that the Brits come up with cool names.
Israel Tests Black Hawk Gunship
It looks like Israel is looking at an armed variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk demonstrator.
From the photo, it appears that they would be carrying an chain gun and a targeting turret, along with a fair number of ATGWs, something on the order of 16 Hellfire class missles, though, given that this is an Israeli developed project, Rafael’s Spike, or some variant thereof, would likely be the actual weapon deployed.
It’s kind of a return to the old UH-1 gunships developed in Vietnam.
Very Angry Swedes
The Norwegian decision to purchase the F-35 JSF should come as no surprise, but the folks at SAAB are hopping mad at the suggestion that the F-35 will be less expensive to own and operate.
This is not surprising. The Gripen, even the heaver Gripen NG, is half the weight of the JSF, and cost and operating costs vary pretty directly with size.
What appears to have happened is that the Norwegians compared the purchase price of the Gripen that included, “included initial training, initial spares and all mission planning and support systems,” to unit flyaway costs for the American fighter, and even then, the cost quoted is about $20 million a pop less than what is bandied about in the media.
Bill Sweetman, talking to his sources, suggests that the Norwegians were concerned about the cost to them if the Gripen turned out to be a market failure.
If only 100 or so were sold, and that is a real possibility, or worse, that SAAB is taken down by the financial crisis, than upgrades throughout its life cycle would be very expensive, while there will be thousands of JSF’s produced, as there are already thousands of JSF’s on order by around a dozen nations, and the program is backed by the “full faith and credit of the United States”.
Their strong language appears to be all about mollifying left wing parties in the government.
SAAB’s full rebuttal is here (PDF), here are their bullet points:
- claims that Gripen does not meet the Norwegian air force’s demand rests on simulations containing incomplete or non-existent capacity information
- the alleged life cycle cost does not rest on experience of the Gripen system but hasbeen calculated by applying own assumptions and models of calculations.
- conditions underpinning the calculation are in parts radically altered and based on internal Norwegian assumptions.
Reports of Iran Buy of SA-20 Systems
Needless to say, this is something that would concern any country that might be considering an air strike at their nuclear facilities.
The S-300 (SA-20) is a very capable system, with the S-400 (SA-21), which is apparently on offer for export, with no orders yet, even more so.
I ran the numbers on detection ranges about a year ago, using nothing but my basic understanding of physics, and the presence of either the S-300 or S-400 would concern me if I were doing mission planning.
X-47 UAV Program Expanded
A few months back, it looked like that the Navy/Northrop-Grumman X-47 CUCAS-D (unmanned combat air system demonstration) was on the chopping block.
This is perhaps the most ambitious UAV currently in development, given that among other things, it’s supposed to make an arrested landing on a carrier deck.
It now appears that in addition to demonstrating combat capabilities and carrier ops, the program has been expanded to include autonomous air-to-air refueling, which will greatly improve the strike capability of the aircraft.
Autonomous refueling has been kind of a holy grail in the UAV community, and is really essential for any system that actually sees operational use.
Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing Aid Demonstrated
The folks at Quinetiq have demonstrated a landing aid for SRVL on the HMS Illustrious.
The idea behind shipborne rolling vertical landing is that an F-35 can return to deck in forward flight, with some of the lift coming from the wings, and some from the lift fan, which would allow for greater “bring” back in terms of weapons loads, and less wear and tear on the engine:
For the latest trial, a demonstration visual landing aid dubbed a “Bedford array” was installed in the port catwalk adjacent to Illustrious’s flight deck. Taking inputs from inertial references to stabilise against deck motions, this is combined with a ship-referenced velocity vector in a helmet-mounted display to enable a pilot to fly an accurate approach to the deck on a constant glidepath. A second lighting array was rigged on the carrier’s flight deck, and was used during a parallel evaluation of its visual acuity.
Me, I’m dubious.
The idea of making a rolling landing on an aircraft carrier with a 60,000 lb aircraft without an arrester hook seems to me to be a dicey proposition.
Israeli Missile Defense Target Pitched to US MDA
Because of developments in Iranian missile defense capability, the IDF commissioned Rafael to develop an improved (relatively) low cost target for testing missile defense systems, the Blue Sparrow missile warhead simulator.
Well, it now appears taht the the US Missile Defense Agency has expressed interest in the target, and may procure the target.
A decision is expected around 2010.
The Costs of Ending F-22 Production
Well, it appears that there some significant costs to canceling the F-22 at just 4 more aircraft, (paid subscription required) instead of the full 20.
If the US government does not buy the remaining 16, Lockheed could be due $147 million in cancellation fees.
Let’s see….16 additional aircraft, costing somewhere between $138 million (Air Force figures) and $300 million (critics figure), instead of paying a penalty of $147 million.
If you canceled the program, and put garlic in its mouth, and a stake through its heart, and burnt it, and took half that money and bought advanced F-16s with EASA radar, like we are selling to…well, anyone who wants one…You could have 20 F-16s.
Get out the garlic, rosewood, and torches.
To Good Not To Use on Friday
Oldest Ever Lolcat Found
It’s a picture postcard from 1905, and as the folks at Lolcat so ably note, “The differences are clear. Proper grammar and a more formal tone was in vogue back then. But the similarities to modern-day kitten struggles and lolcats are amazing. ALL CAPS is still cool, but most importantly, she also no can has cheezburger. More than a hundred years later, all that’s changed is the spelling.“
Of course in the days prior to high speed film, the aftermath was of dressing up a cat and putting it in a high chair can only be imagined.
The blood stains are probably gone now.
Auto Industry Update
GM is planning to GM to cut production by 250,000 by closing about 1/3 of its plants, and most of its assembly plants at some point in the firs quarter.
One wonders what this will do to the supply chain.
Also, it looks like GMAC is perilously close to defaulting. They are still trying to become a bank holding company, and if they fail, it is likely that thousands of dealerships will have no access to credit.
Economics Update
Well, retail sales numbers for November are grim, down 7.4% from November 2007, and that’s with an adjustment for a late Thanksgiving that is probably excessive, so it is likely worse.
Consumer sentiment rose, but is still at a pretty awful number.
We also saw wholesale prices fall, which can be either good news, moderating inflation, or bad news, deflation.
Overseas, we have the EU found agreement on an economic stimulus pack, with even Angela Merkel backing off Hoovernomics by a half step.
In Japan, a new economic stimulus package has been announced.
Russia, however, is being hammered by low oil prices, and senior officials are now saying that the nation is in recession.
As to currencies, the dollar was mixed, up versus the Pound, down a smidge versus the Euro, and at a 13 year low versus the Yen.
I’m not sure how much of this is all just a reaction to the Senate auto bailout follies, and the the same goes for the price of oil, which was down, but was likely driven by yesterday’s filibuster.
Additionally, retail gasoline is now below $2 a gallon in the lower 48, with New York State crossing that line today.
Election Update
Well, the canvassing board has ruled, and both the missing Minneapolis ballots and the wrongfully rejected absentee ballots, which may total in excess of 1500, will be counter.
It’s a big win for the Franken campaign.
Needless to say, Norm Coleman and His Evil Minions™ are freaking out over this, and they have gone to court to prevent counting the ballots, because they are good Republicans, and a good ‘Phant thinks that counting votes is communist.
When You Get Blasted as Know Nothing Ideologues by Dick Cheney…
It’s official we are bizarro world:
Bush personally lobbied recalcitrant Senate Republicans after Vice President Dick Cheney failed to round up support Wednesday during a contentious two-hour meeting.
“If we don’t do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever,” Cheney told them, according to a Senate Republican aide, evoking the president whose inaction is widely blamed for helping trigger the Great Depression in the early 1930s.
Dick Cheney was right…I can’t believe that I said that.
Did the Dems Punk Bush and the Republicans?
Because, after the failure of the filibuster fight over the bridge loans to the auto makers, Bush and His Evil Minions™ are saying that they will take steps to ensure that the Big 3 (Big 2½) continue to function until the next Congress.
In fact, they are pretty much flat out saying that they will use TARP money for the loans.
When you look at the sequence of events:
- Dems suggest that the TARP be used, and Bush says no, so they fold like overcooked broccoli.
- They want Senate approval for the “Car Czar”, and Bush says no, so they fold like overcooked broccoli.
- They want improved fuel economy standards, and Bush says no, so they fold like overcooked broccoli.
- They want automakers to drop lawsuits against California-Type emission standards, and Bush says no, so they fold like overcooked broccoli.
- The Republicans kill the bill that gave Bush everything that he asked for.
- Bush is forced to use the TARP money to keep the automakers going.
It could be that the Dems screwed up in reverse, and that this is all an accident, but it looks to me like that Bush and Paulson (and for that matter, Bernanke) were punk’d.
Additionally, now that this has gone down in defeat, it appears that constituencies for the Big 3 (Big 2½) are coming out of the woodwork.
It turns out that auto dealers, for example, are absolutely incensed at this, and these folks give lots of political money:
“I have never been as disappointed as I am today,” said Versailles [Kentucky] Ford dealer Jack Kain, who was chairman of the National Association of Automobile Dealers Association in 2005.