When Michelle Obama worked in Mayor Daley's City Hall in the early 1990s, she was "distressed" by how a small group of "white Irish Catholic" families -- the Daleys, the Hynes and the Madigans -- "locked up" power in Illinois.
And as she prepared to become first lady, Mrs. Obama naively wanted to delay a move into the White House for six months, so her daughters could finish the school year. Her initial thought was to "commute" to the White House from her South Side home.
And Marty Nesbitt, one of President Obama's best friends, had been recruited to run for Chicago mayor by African-American leaders -- but never ended up challenging Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff who went on to win City Hall.
Details about Mrs. Obama's initial reluctance to embrace her new life, her time in City Hall, the influence she has in the White House, tensions between Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, Emanuel and former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs -- are in a new book about the first couple by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor.
#2
Wookies, like Moochelle 0bama, the spousal-unit of Pharaoh 0bama, were placed on Earth to facilitate the likes of Harrison Ford and the STAR WARS franchise, etc. So just how did this "pair" come to gain the power that they now have? Don't make me go there. I refuse to go there. But the answer makes about as much sense as anything else does these days; with the exception of Jesus Christ, of course. Our submission to and confessed belief in Christ, will give us peace of mind and center our thinking in a world that's spinning out of control. Please think about this. Please keep it simple.
Posted by: Slomp Oppressor of the Faeries1490 ||
01/08/2012 20:40 Comments ||
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Hawker Beechcraft, which has been excluded by the U.S. Air Force from competing for a contract to supply a new light attack aircraft, is fighting mad and fighting back.
The Wichita-based manufacturer of business jets and turboprops filed suit yesterday with the Court of Federal Claims following notification that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) declined to review its protest of the Air Force decision, which was made public in November.
The companys AT-6 light attack variant of the T-6 turboprop trainer was previously considered a front-runner in the competition for a contract valued at nearly $1 billion, and Hawker Beechcraft and its partners in the AT-6 say they have invested more than $100 million preparing for the competition.
The company says it has built more than 725 T-6 trainers for six allied air forces worldwide, further noting that the graduation to the AT-6 light attack airplane would be a natural progression.
We are disappointed in the GAOs decision as we were relying on their investigation to provide transparency into what has been a bidding process of inconsistent, irregular and constantly changing requirements, said Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO Bill Boisture.
Some analysts believe the GAO decision leaves the Super Tucano from Brazils Embraer as the most likely winner, but Hawker Beechcraft asserts that the AT-6s benefits far outweigh those of the competitions offerings, citing the following advantages: The AT-6 is designed and manufactured in the U.S. to be used by the U.S. and its allies; the AT-6 is the sum of the U.S. Air Forces proven T-6, A-10C mission system and mc-12W sensor suite, which offers the Department of Defense logistics and cost efficiencies that no other aircraft in the competition can match; and the weapons and avionics systems included on the AT-6 are familiar to NATO allies and have proved effective on many continents and in other NATO aircraft.
As a U.S. company, we believe we deserve a fair chance at this contract, said Boisture.
There's some data out there that the Brazilian company, Embraer, is being investigated by the SEC for paying bribes to officials in other countries. If true that would preclude them from any US government contracts. But it's no surprise to me that Bambi is steering a defense procurement contract to them. I wonder if George Soros has a stake in Embraer somehow?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2012 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
besides, the beech CEO donated to the wrong party and has not spent enough to atone.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
01/08/2012 0:42 Comments ||
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#2
For them to be excluded there must have been some specification changes the AT-6 did not meet. Anyone know where they failed to meet spec?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2012 12:17 Comments ||
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#3
This link will provide some answers:
http://www.saveamericafoundation.com/2012/01/02/american-companies-excluded-from-u-s-airforce-contract-by-obama-administration/
Yes, there are indications of bribery.
Yes, there is an indication that Soros is tied to that company.
#4
When whatshisname is finally out of office, the corruption will make the teapot dome scandal and Boss Tweed look like a toddler's birthday party.
Can you imagine, with a bizzillion percent unemployment, the Gov would even consider giving the contract to a foreign manufacturer? What ever happened to the buy american provisions of FAR?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/08/2012 13:57 Comments ||
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#5
Lula is another commie like Obama. Why be surprised when he gets some work thrown his way?
#6
I have heard, in passing, that the changes made to the airplane--larger engine, weapon systems, some needed beef-up of the airframe, etc-- made the airplane much heavier than the spec. had asked for and that also meant that it wouldn't meet the structural integrity at max gross wt. That said, I am surprised that Hawker-Beechcraft still didn't get the contract since they are moving a lot of their stuff to Mexico and suspending some operations in the US--and the administration loves that kind of stuff. Look at GE!
Posted by: Billy ||
01/08/2012 22:28 Comments ||
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As President Obama stood on the podium in the Pentagon briefing room Thursday to outline the nation's defense priorities, the military stood with him. Loyally stood with their Commander in Chief, not with Obama.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose beloved Army will face a significant troop reduction under Obama's plan, was at the president's side. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos, whose service will also shrink, stood just behind him. And over Obama's right shoulder loomed Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the former commander in Iraq who is now chief of staff of the Army. Their primary audience was a few miles across the Potomac River -- in Congress.
"Many of us met repeatedly -- asking tough questions, challenging our assumptions, making hard choices," Obama said. "And we've come together today around an approach that will keep our nation safe and our military the finest in the world." I wonder why he can't perform similar miracles with other aspects of the budget. I thought this dude was supposed to be smart.
For a president correctly and regularly denounced by Republican rivals as a weak and irresponsible commander in chief, the show of military support represented a political windfall for Obama as he begins campaigning in earnest for a second term. To the desperate Obamanauts at the WaPo, this was front-page news.
But it also marked an evolution in Obama's practice of Washington politics. It is evidence that, after being outmaneuvered by congressional Republicans several times, he does not intend to make the same mistakes in an election year. Funny. I haven't read anything about The One being outmaneuvered...
By enlisting the military's help in defining its strategic priorities, Obama has sought to ensure that he has the military's support when his defense budget goes before Congress, including the committees led by some of his toughest Republican critics. Military leaders, in turn, now have the slimmest of hopes reason to believe that Obama will not agree to more cuts.
The eight-page strategy document outlines the country's changing military priorities after a decade of war and enshrines as policy the previously illegal and immoral drone killings and other methods that Obama has relied on during his term. More than any speech he has delivered, the review places Obama's distinctive mark on the direction of the military. I trust they will kill some of the expensive new programs the military does not want, in addition to cutting pay, benefits, and retirements.
The document -- and the process that created it -- also sends an unmistakable message to Congress as the threat of automatic budget cuts looms: Obama and the military leadership agree on the size, scope and mission of the armed forces in a new age of austerity.
The White House wasted no time in turning the spotlight on Congress, using Chicago-way polite language that amounted to a dare. "The challenge will be on Capitol Hill," said Thomas E. Donilon, Obama's national security adviser. "It will be challenging to maintain the unified nature of the strategy through the congressional budget process."
Under the Budget Control Act, signed by Obama in August as part of a hard-won deal with Congress to lift the borrowing limit, the Pentagon budget must be reduced by about $487 billion in the next decade, a roughly 8 percent decrease. As a minimum. Perhaps the Generals think this is pereferable to the next step --
But under a old plan process known as sequestration, that figure could double if Obama and Congress fail by the end of the year to cut an additional $1.2 trillion in government spending in the next decade.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and military commanders have warned in apocalyptic terms that such reductions would gut the armed forces. Obama has cast himself as a fully committed ally, behaving as if the worst-case scenario does not exist. Also part of the long-range plan, setting up a future disaster to take advantage of...
"The executive branch is totally ignoring sequestration," said a senior administration official concerned about the military's predicament who was not authorized to speak for attribution. "We are making no preparations at all." Somehow, the magical unicorns will avoid it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/08/2012 10:10 ||
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#1
You mean the political generals? Just like the one's, no longer on duty, who criticized the Surge[tm]?
If you want to gauge real support, discreetly ask those of the commissioned and non-commissioned middle ranks. They're the ones who will bleed along with those they lead.
#2
Obama uses the military folks as props. During Obama's speech the props didn't look very happy.
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili ||
01/08/2012 13:15 Comments ||
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#3
Cincinnatus,
Yep, the body language at the announcement was anything but support.
The WaPo is just a democratic campaign rag now. This administration may be the death of print journalism. When you read and comprehend the disconnect betweeen what the fishwrap says and what is going on in your own life, you understand the lie.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/08/2012 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
The WaPo is just a democratic campaign rag now.
#5
Funny. I haven't read anything about The One being outmaneuvered...
Obama and his administration reminds me of the old joke about a football team getting its ass beat badly, when suddenly a nearby train blew a whistle making the opposing team leave the field thinking the game was over.
#8
Must agree wid #3 - although their comments were supportive of the proposed plan, they did not appear or look happy at all. IMO it looked like the Top Eggs were actually straining to keep a proper/straight face.
* TOPIX > OBAMA'S MILITARY MUNICH, i.e. the concessional pre-WW2 Confab that most Perts agree only expounded the road to war.
As indic by ....
* SAME, WORLD NEWS > CHINA WARNS US NOT TO BE "TROUBLEMAKER" WID NEW DEFENSE STRATEGY.
#4
One day I saw an unfortunate cat laying on the road, alive that had been struck. Its internal organs were exposed and it pawed at them as if they could be pushed back in. This is what the Republican and liberal media tools are good at. This is just more fuel added to the left assult upon any opposion of their ilk. Lets remind everybody again that "its Bushes fault". Perhaps Regan, Nixon, even Goldwater is mentioned from time to time. Problem noadays is the young don't know who your talking about anymore. Nor do they care. Just show me the money. Where do I vote and for... which one was that?.
#5
Diana West is right. Iraq cost us $1T and 5000 dead GI's. It deserves to be known as Bush's Folly. That $1T could have bought us the full complement of F-22's and F-35's. Instead, we frittered it away on fighting insurgents in Ramadi and dozens of other similar hellholes in Iraq. Fighting that war made it impossible for Bush to do any of the domestic budget cutting he had planned - he needed to shore up popular support for the war. Ultimately, Iraq got us Obamacare, by delivering large majorities in both houses to the Democrats, as well as radicalizing Democrats to the point that they chose Obama over Hillary for the presidency.
#6
ZF, what makes you think GWB would have cut the domestic budget, NCLF? Bush is a big gov't conservative and would have done little more than he did under any circs. Not to say he wasn't miles better than any of the Dimmi alternatives.
#7
Five thousand dead American troops prevented how many 9/11 attacks at 3,000 civilians per plus billions or hundreds of billions of dollars in business lost and rebuilding costs? Five thousand dead American troops gave us how many tens of thousands of dead jihadis in Iraq and the Af-Pak region alone, let alone in the less-heralded battle spaces? Five thousand dead American troops and the philosophers of jihad suddenly began rethinking their position, deciding that those engaged in terror to establish the caliphate were fasting themselves for the depths of the Muslim hell rather than paradise.
We didn,t start the war. But by God, we brought it to the attention of the Muslim world -- not to mention everyone else -- that picking a fight with us is a very, very bad idea, one that Allah will not step up to support.. At a trillion dollars, 5,000 dead, and a great many more wounded, we got off cheap.
#8
I considered a response to Zang Fei, but trying to remember an old saying about an animal in the genus Sus (within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates) combined with the formal process of deliberately transmitting the skill of producing sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small opening in one's lips, distracted me.
#9
ZF can't be educated in regards to the power of evil. He is part of the usefull idiot rah-raf section of evil.
Dollar Count Listening to a financial analyst who (correctly) estimated a year ago that a 17% increase in revenue would occur in 2011 by US publicly held companies. As in the years past that was supposed to increase the value of the stock market by 17% but did not. It increased by only 5%. WHY?? Becuase of Obama using the power of the US to support instability in Egypt, Lybia, etc, etc, which rattled investors, something they never saw the US do.
Body count Now that the US has pulled out of Iraq the body count of innocent people has sored in Iraq during the past three weeks, another bloody killing field that has just been created by Obama by pulling out the force that provided security there for the ME, and thus rapidly converting the ME into another breading ground for forces of darkness that will again strike at the heart of the US as in 9.11.11.
#10
Oh. And lets not talk about inflation that MSM has refused to bring to light. Gas prices have increased 100% since Obama took up residence in the White House and food at least 25%. And count on 2012 being REAL hyper in those areas....
#11
Consider how 5,000 american (or british) lives might have snuffed out Nazi expansionist ideas back in the 30's - and perhaps saved millions of lives later on. Prevented the holocast, etc...
Not to draw a direct comparison or saying that it actually did - nobody (outside of God) knows what would have been the result of we hadn't.
The folly comes in when Obama gets in and throws all that away - wasting the sacrifice of those 5,000. Very publically bowing to our enemies and insults our closest allies. Literally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq.
Locking us into an energy policy where we would never be independant.
#13
Some have forgotten the pre-Tea Party 'Porkbusters' who rose against the shift of the Trunks towards simply being Donks lite with 'spend spend spend' and the pre-Obamacare federal prescription program by which those same Trunks greased the arrival of Obamacare. Selling out the core of the party drove many away from the polls allowing the Donks to attain the power they did as much as anything about the war.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As President Obama stood on the podium in the Pentagon briefing room Thursday to outline the nation's defense priorities, the military stood with him. 
