With the presidential candidates jetting around the nation today putting their final campaign touches on the Super Duper Tuesday, I thought “Jet City” voters might be interested in their transportation choices. Mitt Romney was spotted flying around the south on a Boeing 737-400 yesterday, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have chartered ATA Boeing 737-800s… and then there’s the familiar Ron Paul Blimp.
And what about that great American patriot, John McCain? He’s flying a French-built Airbus A320.
I’m just sayin’.
Heck, Bill even jaunts to Kazakhstan on an Merican Jet!
Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12.....inton.html
McCain could not care a poop less about this subject.
And on another Goldy issue (Kay Eye Are Oh), I listened as long as possible to Doriii Dolt Doofus Dumbass, who was eagerly blathering on about some crud about shopping carts. Sad. I made it about 90 seconds today, which is just about a record.
The shopping cart bill discussion comes very shortly after his hero Preznit submitted a $3.1T budget with a stated deficit of >$400B deficit NOT counting Iraq. (They have never had the guts to include Iraq, instead hiding behind supplemental budgets for the 2 ongoing occupations.)
That plus the Social Security funds makes a deficit of about $700B.
Good one, Dor.
Good one, KIRO. The folks would rather listen to the current crisis discussion on vagabond shopping carts.
how amusing that this is the only time that you will ever be heard to utter anything positive about anything american
hypocrisy thy name is goldstein……….
and this is all you have?
Wasn’t McCain one of the principle players who held up the Boeing tanker contract when they really needed it (right after 9/11, when airliners were cancelling orders right and left)? He said he didn’t like the lease deal. But that wasn’t Boeing’s fault, that was a Defense Dept. request, because it made Bush’s budget deficits from his tax cuts look better (less money up front, costs spread out longer, but more of them).
Finally Boeing got nailed when some of the former McDonald-Douglas guys Stonecypher brought with him improperly offered to hire the Air Force procurement officer who was making most of the decisions on the contract. The contract was cancelled, and ultimately sent out for re-bid (the Air Force is still evaluating between the airups parent company, EADS, plus Northrup, against another bid and Boeing).
But EADS/Northrup is promising to build plants in Alabama to build at least part of the tanker, if they get the contract. So McCaine may figure it’s more important for him to court the Alabama vote, since he’s unlikely to get much support from Boeing territory.
rhp @4,
Yup… that was McCain.
Don’t worry, when McCain’s done with his wars, we’ll own france.
“And what about that great American patriot, John McCain? He’s flying a French-built Airbus A320.”
He calls it his “Freedom Jet.”
especially since all the boeing workers spent all their time ONLINE during the “governor’s” race in washington shilling for gregoire.
gee…i wonder who logan will cheat for in LA? obama or hillary?
ah..fond memories…….
“I observed in King County on election night Sept. 14 2004. They were uploading results, and every 20 minutes or so would bring out the new results, signed by Dean Logan himself. Shortly after 9 pm. the GEMS server crashed. They brought it back up again in a few minutes, and continued uploading files and printing interim results reports.
They were having extreme problems with modeming results in, and also were having repeat failures at the GEMS console up until about 9-10 pm. About the time the server crashed, we were told that a decision had been made to bring all the memory cards in and upload them directly.
As of 2 am, they still had 80 precincts that they had been unable to upload at all. Everyone left, and went to an absentee ballot counting facility where people were working all night. I asked Dean Logan, on video, about the problems they were experiencing. He said there were no problems.
The next day I did a public records request for the audit log. When I got the log, it showed that all entries from shortly after 9 pm until after midnight had been deleted. I say “deleted” because the log covered a period of many months, and all activity appeared to be intact.
One of the items the log shows is each time they preview a results report and each time they print it. It shows the results reports being printed up until around 9 pm, and it shows the results reports after midnight, but ALL ENTRIES are missing from 9-12:30 or so.
Dean Logan was asked by Kathleen Wynne at a press conference why the audit log was blank. It couldn’t have been, you see, because WE HAD RESULTS REPORTS — a logged event — THROUGHOUT THE INTERIM BETWEEN 9 AND MIDNIGHT.
Dean Logan claimed that the reason there were no events in the audit log is that there were not events during that time that are logged.”
even though obama seems to be ahead, what do you want to bet that if the hispanic “firewall” doesn’t get him, logan will?
Well, if you follow the corporate merger trail, McCain’s Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was sort of a Boeing product, and that plane ride didn’t go so well for him…
[unpatriotic troll-baiting excised…]
PC at 9: Gee, maybe that’s why McCain isn’t a Boeing fan?
Christmas ghost:
Wow.
1. Yup. Every single Boeing employee spends 100% of their time doing whatever it was you said. Whatever.
2. Yup. Dean Logan and everybody else is in on the giant conspiracy to make you do whatever they want. Pretty soon you’ll have to play Beatles’ records backwards and go out and buy Mars bars. Next stop: Ohio.
this seems to be the year of the rat alright.
bill clinton has finally become so obvious that even the very stupid on the left are saying “wow! i just never knew he was dishonest!” actually obama was one of the very naive people that said something similar. do i really want an idiot that hasn’t been paying attention running this country? NO.[hey even “fiddy” cent agrees with that] then how about a woman so stupid that she tried to convince the rest of us that she HAD NO IDEA bill was such a liar and cheat….and it must have been that vast rightwing conspiracy.and they wonder why she is losing the “women’s” vote?
and now, in the height of amusing karmic payback…what if dean logan derails obama?
neither of these “candidates” stands a chance in the general election….but obama would have a better chance. edwards was the one every republican was worried about. we know how you guys are fascinated [ala raccoons] with shiny objects. and his hair was so pretty too.let’s see….good speaker, pretty face and hair, and slimy liar.just like bill clinton. it would have been a cinch but you guys are so stupid that you put up the unelectable this time around [obama] and the forever unelectable [hillary]…..
thank you from the bottom of my conservative heart.
GO HILLARY!
jim…i guess you didn’t read the story about the voting machines not being delivered in LA?
satire, my friend…..get a grip on yourself……
The Ghost @ 8 is trying to change the subject again. The subject was why does McCain fly a french&German-built airliner which competes with American products? And Ghost wants to talk about the 2006 governor’s race again.
Give it a rest, Ghost. You got to challenge the election in court, you picked the county (which was the same as picking the judge), and you still lost – the judge actually subtracted from Rossi’s numbers, and awarded a few additional votes to Gregoire. Rossi didn’t appeal. End of story.
Ghost does it every time when the subject doesn’t suit him. Why doesn’t he just get his own blog, so he can blab about anyting he wants? Oh, that’s right. No traffic – nobody will want to hear his rambling.
rhp6033 says:
“2006 governor’s race again.”
??????????????????
really, need i say more?
Yep, that’s the typical Conservative mindset, bitch about the high cost of union labor then send the jobs overseas.
Then those dumb asses shop at Wal-Mart to support the double-digit growing economy in RED China and wonder why they’re standing in the unemployment line watching all the shit they bought on credit get repossesed.
There is no greater danger to the security of the United States of America than an asshole voting republican. Period.
No patriot would vote for any republican in 2008. Only back stabbing terrorists vote republican.
seattle jew….are you going to attend?
³The 8th Csaba Horváth Medal Award
Symposium ² taking place from April 14 15, 2008 in
Innsbruck/Austria. The
symposium will be jointly organized by the Horváth Laboratory of
Bioseparation Sciences (HLBS) at the Leopold Franzens University in
Innsbruck and the Connecticut Separation Science Council (CSSC), USA.”
i’m inviting you……..
2006 = Typo. I’ve been putting numbers into spreadsheets all day, comparing two-year budget cycles. Give it a break.
rhp6033…..granted…..your ‘break’.
ah…….spreadsheets….not my favorite thing to do.
I guess Ghost would prefer our tax money for national defense go to pay French union workers, rather than American union workers??????
rhp6033……..just how do you think our tax money is going to french union workers rather than american union workers? hmm? you can’t blame this stupid comment on spreadsheets now can you?
besides….union is union is union.
i don’t support most unions period. the only people that should be organized are those people in dangerous jobs I.E miners etc.the rest of the unions are chock a block full of lazy parasites that want to have a safety net so they can’t lose their jobs no matter how lazy and incompetent they are. think boeing here……..
and will you still love boeing when they move everything out of washington state? because they are going to……
Roger Rabbit is sick and can’t attend DL tonight. But don’t get your hopes up, wingnuts … I ain’t dead yet.
“especially since all the boeing workers spent all their time ONLINE during the “governor’s” race in washington shilling for gregoire.”
That is the most patently absurd statement I’ve heard in a long time. I’d ask for facts to prove it, but I wouldn’t even waste my time to do that.
Anybody who has spent any time at Boeing, either as an employee, contractor, vendor, airline representative, or government official, knows that Boeing employees represent a pretty good cross-section of the electorate, including Democrats as well as Republicans. Where there are TVs or radios turned on, you can hear the spectrum of political opinion, from Fox News, CNBC, Limbaugh, or Dave Ross, or many others.
If the union workers want to support Gregoire, because they think its in their best interests to do so, then they have that right. I’m sure none of it was done on Boeing time.
Oh, and I don’t work for Boeing. I do, however, work as a liason WITH Boeing.
Why do Republicans have such disdain for American-made products? Is it because their corporate masters want all manufacturing jobs sent outside the country to boost corporate revenues? Perhaps McCain’s use of the Airbus is sending a signal to his corporate sponsors–see, I’m on your team.
christmasghost @ 21
unions are chock a block full of lazy parasites that want to have a safety net so they can’t lose their jobs no matter how lazy and incompetent they are. think boeing here……..
and will you still love boeing when they move everything out of washington state? because they are going to……
First of all, it’s the conservative corporate mindset that is willing to take good paying AMERICAN jobs and farm them overseas to other nations. Can you explain why that’s good for America’s financial future?
Second, who the Hell do you think built Boeing???? Where do you think that Boeing technology comes from?? Non-union burger flippers at Burger King?!?! A thought buble from the corporate board room?!?!
Sheeez, the reason everyone glosses over your comments is because they lack logic, reason, and/or any truth.
Do you get paid to troll around the internet spreading the RNC lying points?
8 (yawn….)
12, 13 (ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz….)
Presumably, the McCain no longer supports the vilification of France, and might even declare that nation part of the “new Europe”. After all, they’re now led by a conservative president with a beautiful wife. McCain can certainly relate: having accomplished half of that, he desires the other.
CG @ 19: Thanks.
CG @ 21 said: “just how do you think our tax money is going to french union workers rather than american union workers? hmm?”
Okay, listen carefully, and comprehend. I thought it was obvious, but I will explain it to you, since you asked.
The Air Force needs new tankers. Those tankers will probably be used by the air force for the next 30+ years. Our national defense depends upon us having reliable tanker aircraft to refuel our bombers, fighters, AWACs, etc. in the air, so they don’t have to rely upon questionable allies, or the security risks caused by landings on foreign soil, or because they just have to remain in the air for a really, really, long time.
Only two companies in the world are currently qualified to build refueling tankers at anywhere near a reasonable costs: (a) Boeing (an American company) and (b) EADS (a European consortium and parent of Airbus, with final assembly mostly in France).
The tankers are going to be paid for by American taxpayer money. That money will come out of the Defense Dept. Budget. That’s money that will be collected form both you and me.
Whether that money goes to pay for Boeing union workers to build the airplanes, or French union workers to build the airplanes, depends upon who gets awarded the contract.
Boeing will build it’s plane using the existing 767 line in Everett, then will probably fly the plane to Wichita to be converted into a tanker. So – 85% of final assembly in Puget Sound, 15% in Kansas.
Airbus has said it will have final assembly in Alabama, but from what I hear the Airbus entry will actually be built in France (that’s what they are promising the French government), then flown to Alabama for the dedicated fuel tanks to be installed. They will keep the U.S. built portion at the minimum possible level. The only reason they are doing it at all is that they wanted to curry favor with the Republican Senators from Alabama, in the hopes they would put pressure on the Pentagon in favor of the Airbus proposal, and so they can argue that it is an “American-built” product.
But that strategy may not be working out so well for them, since the Republican senators from Alabama don’t have the same amount of pull they did a year ago.
Does that answer your question?
@8 Let me get this straight — you’re saying that if the polls and the results disagree that something fishy is going on?
But but McCain is the Republican LIBERALS LOVE to praise. How dare you change the script!
McCain’s got problems on the left and on the right. It’s easy to see why the left doesn’t like him. After all, he’s a Republcan. And he’s in favor of an indefinate committment of American troops to Iraq.
But his biggest critics are on the far right. They absolutely hate him. I’m still not sure what it is about him they find so obnoxious that it creats such an extreme reaction. Perhaps its the McCaine-Finegold campaign reform bill. Perhaps it’s because he had the gall to challenge Bush in 2000, rather than go along with the inevitable corronation. But they are the ones who have been running the party mostly since 1994, and it’s hard to imagine McCaine putting together a working coalition within the party without their support.
John McCain is just absolutely Con-Tankerous!
To me, there is only one plane, other than the sitting president campaigning using a VC-25(747-200B) in a certain, unique paintjob, that candidates should fly in if it is a chartered plane. The Boeing 727, then again, I am partial to that plane because my father worked at Boeing in the mid-1960s, building the wings for that particular plane. Since most of the particular ones he built(the early model) have been retired, I am partial now to the 737. Too bad they cannot use the forgotten version(most of them are being retired), the 737-200ADV, with the special mods for landing on Gravel. Alaska Airlines retired their last of that model a few years ago, when the last airfield they flew into that was not paved, had finally been paved.(The airstrip at the Red Dog Mine). Oh, well. Then again, if the community does not have a paved runway, I doubt they would have too much influence on the delegate vote.
rhp6033 @29……..”depends upon who gets awarded the contract.”
it also depends on the quality of the work too, doesn’t it? so if boeing puts in the best bid and they have quality planes……what are you worried about?
and they do have quality planes.
i find it terribly amusing that here you guys are attacking anything french. why now? it affects you in the puget sound area? when the french were verbally attacking the US you thought they were swell, now they have a conservative president and a good airplane and now they are bad bad bad?
that’s what i call classic……..
and two dogs@30……….that was a joke you foolio….
cg @ 35:
“it also depends on the quality of the work too, doesn’t it? so if boeing puts in the best bid and they have quality planes……what are you worried about?
and they do have quality planes.”
Uh, you are the one who brought up the subject, in your rant about Boeing workers who belong to unions. You said: “the rest of the unions are chock a block full of lazy parasites that want to have a safety net so they can’t lose their jobs no matter how lazy and incompetent they are. think boeing here…….” It’s union workers building those quality planes.
“i find it terribly amusing that here you guys are attacking anything french.”
Nobody was is attacking the French here. Are you engaging in another conversation, and confusing the too? I just said that I would prefer American taxpayer money to support American jobs, rather than French jobs. If it’s local jobs (Puget Sound area), so much the better.
If the French decide to use their tax money to buy Boeing tankers for their air force, then that’s up to them. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
As it is, it looks like this contract will indeed be decided on the merits, primarily based upon the size of the airplane, the costs of acquisition, and the ongoing operating costs. There’s too much attention focused on this contract for anything to be done under the table. That being said, I think the Pentagon is hoping Boeing wins the contract. They don’t like the possibility of being dependent upon a foreign manufacturer owned in large part by a foreign government.
rhp6033…sorry, toots, but during the governor’s “race” in washington state i had to keep running into one boeing worker after another online shilling for gregoire…….
they bragged about it, the unions would protect them blah blah blah…….
what? and you think i don’t know people who work there too? get real….
If all you libbies are up in arms over the plane used by McCain (rhp6033 has spelling issues), then why are all of you giving a pass to the foreign cars these “American Union Workers” are purchasing? Ever drive past a Boeing plant during the day? Take a gander at the parking lot sometime.
Why do Boeing workers want Americans to fly American but they can drive American?
Hmmm…?
Where is Boeing Bob on this issue?