Category: Stupid

Bachmann-Turnoff Overdrive

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I make no apologies for the pun.

What’s more, I call out all the Liberal Blogosphere….This one was pretty obvious.

Well, Michele Bachmann, the lady who started her political career keeping the Disney Movie Alladin out of town, “feeling that it endorsed magic/witchcraft and promoted paganism” is still experiencing blow-back from her outrageous and un-American outburst on Chris Matthews’ show, where she accused most of the country of being “anti-American”

It now appears that her primary opponent, Aubrey Immelman, will run a write-in campaign against her, because, as he states, “We cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism in our midst.”

Good for him, and bad for her. She has now generated something north of $700K in donations for Elwyn Tinklenberg, her Democratic Opponent, who has a real chance of pulling this out now, particularly now that the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) has stopped funding their ads for her.

Bummer of a birth mark, Miche.

*I know that it’s not nice to make fun of someone’s name, but his name still sounds like a character from Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegone.

Stop Jenny McCarthy

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There is a website about Jenny McCarthy, and the lies that she spreads regarding conditions on the Autism spectrum.

I have a child on the Autism Spectrum (Aspergers), and my wife noted signs at birth, and had specific concerns about a condition on the spectrum before he turned 3, but my anecdote is no more valid than McCarthy’s where she claims that vaccines cause autism, and that her son “recovered”.

Neither happen in Autism. The data is clear: there is no correlation between Autism Spectrum disorders and vaccines.

While correlation does not prove causation, lack of correlation does prove lack of causation, and this has been proved dozens of times.

As to “curing” people on the spectrum, you can’t, as is the case with children “recovering” from Autism. They aren’t broken, they are different, and so they need to learn how to bridge the gap with the rest of the world.

It Was Only a Matter of Time

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As the Minnesota Independent so eloquently stated, “putting Bachmann in front of a live microphone is like handing an excitable 15-year-old a bottle of gin and a loaded gun. The only question is when something unspeakable is going to happen.”

Heh….In any case, if you’ve followed her career, and things like accusations of attempted lesbian kidnapping, secret plans to give Iraq to Iran, and lord know what else that I’ve missed, we now see this missive:

On Friday, Bachmann, R-Minn., told MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews she thought Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle “may have anti-American views” and said the media should investigate whether members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America.”

Seriously, this woman is flat out nuts, and within 24 hours of her latest deranged outburst, her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg* got more than $450,000.00 in campaign contributions in the next 24 hours.

Heh.

*I know that it’s not nice to make fun of someone’s name, but he sounds like a character from Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegone.

U.S. Senate Votes to Make Nonproliferation a Joke

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To quote Crooks and Liars on the U.S. Senate voting 86 to 13 to approve the nuclear arms deal with India.

Needless to say, this is one of the few diplomatic accomplishments of this administration, wiping their ass on the non-proliferation regime studiously created over the past 40 years so that US nuclear companies can make a few bucks.

This makes the single most dangerous issue in the world, fully militarized nuclear warheads on delivery systems in Pakistan and India even worse.

I’d say “mission accomplished”, but Condoleeza “The Worst Secretary of State Ever” Rice has managed to screw up even this. She visited India after the Senate’s approval, and could not sign it because of unspecified bureaucratic issues.

I guess someone forgot to pay the service contract on the State Department copying machines.

The JSF is Less Capable and More Expensive Than Previously Admitted

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Well, we now have reports of Israel signing a contract to buy F-35 JSFs for $15.2 billion (see also here).

As Bill Sweetman notes this means that the JSF costs about $200 million a plane, well over the $80m claimed for the aircraft, and more than the fly away cost of the F-22.

As I’ve noted earlier, there was a Rand study modeling the F-35 against an upgraded Su-27, and it was allegedly clubbed like a baby seal (here and here).

This is unsurprising: with a thrust to weight ratio of about 0.85:1 in air to air configuration, and a wing loading of 108 lbs/sq ft, similar to the F-105 Thunderchief (aka the “Lead Sled”), this will not be a particularly agile aircraft, even with a state of the art flight control system.

It appears now that the USAF and Lochkeed Martin are claiming that Maneuvering is Irrelevant, as the fighter will have the Distributed Aperture System (DAS), a system of multiple wide angle sensors that will create a 360° view around the aircraft, and so it will be able to fly through at high speed and launch a, “high-off-boresight, lock-on-after-launch (LOAL) missile shot with any datalink-equipped missile.”

They said that the missiles would do all the work before Viet Nam too, and the USAF and the Navy had to start training their pilots to dogfight again.

BTW, Bill Sweetman (again), in writing about the 360 degree attack, notes that there was a precedent, the Boulton-Paul Defiant, and notes:

If the Germans had had an expression for “clubbed like baby seals” in 1940, the Luftwaffe would have used it.

My thoughts exactly.

Worst Political Commentary Ever

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You can almost visualize Rich Lowry masturbating to the debates:

A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It’s one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O’Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.

And them, I guess, he cleaned off his keyboard.

I’m thoroughly squicked by this.

Russia Has a Clue on the Ukraine

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It appears that they are offering major shipbuilding contracts to the Ukraine, including the construction of their carriers, in order to better relations.

Unfortunately, it appears that Vladimir Putin is clueless on the Ukraine, or he got a severe attack of the stupids, because he just accused Ukraine of assisting Georgia in the war.

It’s reassuring to know that other nations’ foreign policy can be as f%$#ed up as ours.

Incompetent Condi Rice STILL Can’t Manage Her Way Out of a Paper Bag — DPRK Edition

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Well, it appears, that once again Rice is more concerned with being a close confidant to the president than doing her job, and as a result, conflicts between the negotiators and the John Bolton clones in the arms control wing of the State Department have sabotaged the agreement on North Korean nuclear weapons.

Under the proposal, heavily influenced by the State Department’s arms control experts, the U.S. requested “full access to all materials” at sites that might have had a nuclear purpose in the past. It sought “full access to any site, facility or location” deemed relevant to the nuclear program, including military facilities, according to the four-page document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Investigators would be able to take photographs and make videos, remain on site as long as necessary, make repeated visits and collect and remove samples.

It’s essentially what they insisted on Iraq, only the Iraqis had already lost a war, and signed an agreement ceding much sovereignty in that area.

What’s more, we know who was pushing for a breakdown in the agreement:

“I am notifying Congress of my intent to rescind North Korea’s designation as a state sponsor of terror in 45 days,” Bush announced June 26. “The next 45 days will be an important period for North Korea to show its seriousness of its cooperation. We will work through the six-party talks to develop a comprehensive and rigorous verification protocol. And during this period, the United States will carefully observe North Korea’s actions — and act accordingly.”

But there was no written document linking North Korea’s performance on verification to its removal from the terror list, sources said. So when Bush let the 45 days pass without any action, North Korea denounced what it called “obviously a violation of the principle of ‘action for action’ essential for realizing denuclearization.”

The Bush administration does not want a deal. They see it as weakness, and besides, California and Hawaii, the likely targets of a missile attack, don’t vote Republican.

More Tanker Mishugas

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First, it appears that Northrop-Grumman is entitled to an as yet undetermined cancellation fee, which is yet another reason to think that the entire tanker process is completely fracked.

But here is the kicker, Northrop Grumman’s bid was $2.9 billion cheaper:

John Young, the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview at the Pentagon yesterday that under the tanker proposal from Northrop Grumman and its partner European Aeronautic Defence & Space, developing the first 68 aircraft would have cost $12.5 billion, compared with $15.4 billion under Boeing’s plan.

So, the tanker version of the A330 had longer range, greater fuel offload capability, the ability to tank and carry cargo, and it was $2.9 billion cheaper.

Let’s also note that it was already flying, as Australia’s A330 MRTT, as versus Boeing’s proposal, an as yet unconstructed model with, “767-200 airframe; over-wing exits from the -300; floors, doors and structurally enhanced wings from the -300F; a cockpit, and the tail section and flaps from the -400ER”.

Delightful.

Next Man Makes a Move, and the N*gg*r Gets It

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If you’ve ever seen Blazing Saddles,* you remember the scene where Cleavon Little, realizing that the citizens of Rick Ridge are about to lynch him, holds a gun to his own neck, and then holds himself hostage until he can extricate himself from the situation.

Well, it appears that EADS, parent company of Airbus has watched Blazing Saddles many, many times, because this is the stratagem that they are using to deal with the penalty clauses in their contracts for late delivery:

Aerospace giant EADS has threatened to freeze production of its Airbus subsidiary’s flagship military airlifter if clients do not drop penalty clauses for late delivery, a German news report said Sept. 20.
The A400M airlifter. (EADS)

Der Spiegel weekly, trailing its Sept. 22 publication, cited a letter sent by Louis Gallois, the French chief executive of both companies, to the governments of seven countries who have ordered the A400M plane.

Un-dirtyword-believable.

*If you’ve never seen Blazing Saddles, you need to rent it and watch it today.

The Seeds of the Next Crash Have Just Been Sown

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The Federal Reserve just eased regulations on minority ownership of banks, raising the percentage of stock ownership allowed to be raised without requiring registration as a bank holding company”

Key changes in the guidelines include allowing an investor to buy up to a 15 percent voting stake instead of the previous 9.9 percent limit. Investors can also buy up to 33 percent total equity interest, including voting and non-voting shares, instead of the 25 percent prior limit.

Allowing greater ownership before regulation, reminiscent of the S&L crisis, when many of these institutions were purchased by developers, who then lent to themselves at unrealistically attractive rates.

Of course, these days, it won’t be real estate developers, but private equity firms who can use this to exert influence over banks for capital.

Case in point, the founder of private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co., surprisingly enough a guy named J. Christopher Flowers, is buying the First National Bank of Cainesville in Missouri.

Not enough bullets.

H/T Calculated Risk.

Senator Bernie Sanders Calls Larry Kudlow a Socialist

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Considering the fact that Bernie Sanders is actually a card carrying socialist, just called Larry Kudlow a socialist:

Larry, if I ask you that the government should intervene like every other industrialized country does and provide health care for all people, you’d say ‘oh no!’ And if I ask you to support government intervention so that we don’t have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the world, you’d say ‘oh no!’ But when Wall Street screws up because of their greed, you say, ‘oh yes, it’s a great idea!’

PWN3D!

Does Kudlow need someone to cut his meat for him or something?

I wouldn’t want him around a plastic butter knife.