President Obama Will Not Be Joining 3,000 Dignitaries At The 70th Anniversary Of The Liberation Of Auschwitz
[guest post by Dana]
This coming week marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Approximately 300 remaining survivors are expected to attend a commemoration ceremony on Tuesday. Due to most survivors being 90 years or older, it clearly marks the last major anniversary where such a significant number of survivors will be in attendance.
With that, the 300 survivors will be part of a larger group of 3,000 dignitaries attending the ceremony. This would also include heads of state and royalty:
A preliminary list of those attending includes President François Hollande of France, President Joachim Gauck of Germany and President Heinz Fischer of Austria, as well as King Philippe of Belgium, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Unfortunately, President Obama will not be in attendance to represent the United States as he is due to arrive in India on Sunday. Instead, representing the United States will be Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew.
It’s a shame that our president will once again not be representing the United States before the world at an historic occasion. This especially as the opportunity comes on the heels of the recent tone-deaf decision made by the White House not to have the president attend the unity march in Paris and publicly stand in solidarity with other world leaders supporting a traumatized France. Further, in light of increasing antisemitism sweeping across Europe and the large number of Jews leaving Paris and points beyond because they no longer feel safe, it would seem a most opportune moment for the President of the United States to personally express to the world America’s unwavering support of the Jewish people who have endured so much – both then and now. And not lost from view, this happens as the White House announces that neither the president nor John Kerry will be meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu when he is in Washington next month.
Anyway, how pressing is this trip to India? Well, Associated Press White House correspondent Julie Pace suggests maybe not that pressing:
“President Obama crosses into one of the indisputable stages of a lame duck presidency this week. That is the non-essential foreign travel stage,” Pace said on CNN. “He’s going to India basically for a parade and a visit to the Taj Mahal.
“Yes, there are strategic interests with India, and those will be on the agenda, but think about the timing of this. The president is going to India three days after his State of the Union Address. A period of time when he normally would be out trying to rally Congress and the public behind his agenda. I think this says all you need to know about the likelihood that anything he announces on Tuesday actually gets done.”
And some of what is on the agenda: climate change; counterterrorism cooperation; stability of the Asia-Pacific region and defense trade and technology.
–Dana
UPDATE: Commenter happyfeet notes that President Obama has decided to cut short his trip to India so that he can pay official respects to King Salman bin Abdulaziz and the family of late King Abdullah. Vice-President Biden was originally scheduled to make the trip.
It’s a bitter irony that the president has chosen to make the special trip to Saudi Arabia to pay our country’s respects, given the kingdom’s historical and continuing grim record on human rights violations and yet chose not to make the trip to Auschwitz to pay respects to the survivors and families who suffered some of the world’s most horrific human rights violations on record.
Hello.
Dana (8e74ce) — 1/23/2015 @ 10:17 pmYou have got to be kidding!!!!!!!
Robert C. J. Parry (a68543) — 1/23/2015 @ 10:21 pmPar for this traitor.
mg (31009b) — 1/23/2015 @ 10:25 pmStupid Obama, ensuring that nothing gets done in this Congressional session. Poor Congress! Stymied again.
Pox, meet two houses.
Leviticus (c1d138) — 1/23/2015 @ 10:50 pmnuke mecca- damn, that felt good typing that. nuke mecca, nuke mecca, nuke mecca, nuke mecca…. ahh…
mg (31009b) — 1/23/2015 @ 10:59 pmPresident Prom Queen essentially ignored India for his first four years, at a moment when a closer relationship with them might have helped contain Islamists in Pakistan, but now he suddenly wants a photo-op of an elephant ride and tea at the Taj. Unbelievable. He’s also given short-shrift to Australia, lecturing them about climate change during his visit last fall when they wanted to discuss the worldwide Islamist threat which has a strong foothold a few hundred miles away in Indonesia. Yet you won’t have any trouble finding lefties who claim that Obama is a foreign policy savant.
JVW (60ca93) — 1/23/2015 @ 10:59 pmmakes sense to me: an anti-Semite like him has no business being there.
except in chains, that is…
redc1c4 (b340a6) — 1/24/2015 @ 12:19 amAnyone else who attended services from a Jew-bashing preacher for 20 years would be tarred forever as an anti-Semite. Again, Barack Obama may finally put paid to the Democrats’ guaranteed Jewish vote the same way the GOP blew the black vote in the 60’s.
History will not be kind.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 12:51 amThank you for another informative website. The place
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food stamp is cutting short his visit to democratic india
to suck the toes of the corpse of a dead saudi royal pervert?
seriously?
america isn’t just pitifully debased it’s gross
like you have to wash your hands when you touch it
happyfeet (831175) — 1/24/2015 @ 2:47 amAnd all because the Israeli PM didn’t beg Obama to OK a call to Bawling Boehner.
cedars rebellion (e529b4) — 1/24/2015 @ 5:00 amThe incomparable Ramirez:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2015/01/20150123_SOTU.jpg
DNF (2ea9e1) — 1/24/2015 @ 5:14 amAha! I understand, he’s not a dignitary now. (Was he ever?)
htom (4ca1fa) — 1/24/2015 @ 5:23 amA preliminary list of those attending includes President François Hollande of France, President Joachim Gauck of Germany and President Heinz Fischer of Austria, as well as King Philippe of Belgium, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Err, these guys represent countries who cheerfully loaded the boxcars. They better be there. And Hollande is the only one whose position is not mainly ceremonial.
Perry, Auschwitz practiced diversity and inclusiveness. There probably were Muslims there from across all Europe, for suspicion of being in the resistance or, better, because they had an enemy in the local collaborationist government who accused them as such for a piece of chocolate.
nk (dbc370) — 1/24/2015 @ 5:25 amDidn’t his uncle liberate it? Remember that? or was it one of the other camps?
Willie Lee (713d40) — 1/24/2015 @ 6:11 amAnnounced this AM he’s blowing off the Taj to pay his respects and bow to the new Saudi King.
Bugg (3a2abd) — 1/24/2015 @ 6:57 amObama will find the time to insult India, which he has done repeatedly and which has cooled a growing relationship under Bush.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:08 amWhat should anyone expect from the guy who lied about his uncle liberating this place? Like everyone else in his life, unc was a useful stage prop when Obama wanted to pretend he wasn’t the American hating, Western civilization hating leftist his entire adult curriculum vitae shows hat he is. Damned Joooos! Like grandma you’ve outlived your utility. Get under that bus and stay there!
It is so 2008 to be against the slaughter of Jooos. Kinda like being against gay marriage.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396989/emerging-iranian-empire-charles-krauthammer
They f***ed up. They trusted us. But like I said times change, and now it’s time to cozy up to the animals who want to finish the job that Hitler only started at Auschwitz.
Like missing that Paris (weak and pathetic) protest march this slight is not a mistake. No more than announcing that his administration was withdrawing its support for the European ballistic missile defense shield on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland was an oversight.
I thought I’d mention the last bit for anyone (cough, cough, Johnny Scrum Half, cough) laboring under the delusion that Obama’s refusal to link Islam to terrorism stems from some overwhelming regard for the niceties of diplomacy.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:12 amUnfortunately, President Obama will not be in attendance to represent the United States
Is it really unfortunate? The current occupant of the White House is like the crazy aunt in the attic, so perhaps it’s best that the less is seen and heard from her, the better.
Mark (c160ec) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:13 amRelease teh Mechajamestaylor, time for “Steamroller”…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:16 amWhat happens when you elect a black marxist for President. Quote me on it.
Patrick in Michigan (db7042) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:16 amI guess I don’t need to see what kind of tongue bath Prom Queen gave to Rasheed Khalidi that’s on that video the LAT keeps locked in its vault.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:21 amPentagon will scrap A-10 Warthogs, will fund development of new Mechajamestaylor …
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:25 amhttp://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/012315-736183-air-force-a10-may-be-scrapped.htm
A-10s are useful for killing America’s enemies, Coronello.
Obama wants us to cut that s*** out.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:27 amPerhaps a Jewish Republican members of Congress should attend.
Oh that’s right, there aren’t any
Leigh King Fawcett (0200a8) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:30 amAnd don’t bring up drone strikes, Obamabots. That will go the way of GITMO when TFG is done.
In fact, he’s only doing drone strikes to avoid sending people to GITMO. Dead men don’t talk.
Much better to empty GITMO and replenish an enemy in the field, an enemy that’s a huge fan of the doings at Auschwitz, than to restock it.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:30 amRegardless of one’s political orientation, I’m always leery of anyone who is a poor judge of the good and bad in both people and situations. It originally never dawned on me (in my youth) that since people of the left are notoriously weak in that area, they’re therefore more likely to be just the opposite of their ideals or of the stereotype (at least a positive one) associated with liberalism.
Understanding this is quite an epiphany and has been illustrated innumerable times over the past few decades.
BTW, a shout out to the astonishing bigotry of the US’s devout liberal presidents, namely Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Bill “N-word” Clinton (and his notorious spouting off to Ted Kennedy that Barry in the past would have been the one serving lunch to folks like them), and, of course, ass-backwards Obama.
Mark (c160ec) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:34 amPerry is back. Or some other mouth breather who hallucinates “Identity politics uber alles.”
Here’s a thought; howzabout a non-Jewish GOP dignitary attend a ceremony that commemorates the principle that killing Jooooz isn’t a nice thing to do?
Meanwhile, Obama can huddle with Al Sharpton and run down the “donors” that are preventing Obama from bringing peace to the world. And Ferguson. You know, those rich financiers that Sharpton clashed with at Freddie’s Fashion Mart and Crown Heights and are currently buying influence in Congress to prevent Obama from making a deal with Iran?
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:39 amOh that’s right, there aren’t any
Me. Lee Zeldin is a Jewish Republican in the house of the representatives
you can tell cause of he’s:
a.) Jewish
(&)
b.) Republican
so Israel has at least one friend in congress thank the pickle gods
happyfeet (831175) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:41 amoops.
*Mr.* Lee Zeldin is what that’s supposed to say
happyfeet (831175) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:42 amI am not a nice person, Mr. feets. I keep forgetting I’m supposed to vote to prove I’m not a racist or against people with vaginas. I also don’t keep track of who is and who isn’t black or Jewish, unlike those nice inclusive non-racists at places like MSNBC who think of nothing else but race and class and gender. And Jooooz.
What nice people!
Although now I’m told that thinking of people with vaginas as women is bad, too. Because some women don’t have vaginas yet but want one through the miracle of Obamacare, and some people who have vaginas think of themselves as men and want Obamacare to get rid of that damned vagina that somebody apparently very mean made them be born with.
I’m so confuzzled. I don’t know what to think. Apparently, I’m not supposed to. I really wish somebody would email the current truth to me so I’d know what I’m supposed to be saying in 2015 that’s different from what was OK for me to say in 2005.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:54 am“What should anyone expect from the guy who lied about his uncle liberating this place?”
Steve, maybe he did have an uncle in the Soviet army. Ever think of that ? 🙂
Mike K (90dfdc) — 1/24/2015 @ 7:58 amAge of Obama
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:00 amTeh Virtual Vagina
is both King and Queen
you’re nice enough
happyfeet (831175) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:01 amErnie Banks, RIP
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:02 amActually, Mike, I never doubted it for a minute.
It just wasn’t the uncle he was lying about. The one who came back to the US and spent six months in the attic recovering from the trauma.
I figured the uncle he was thinking of was Uncle Joe in Moscow.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:03 amI’ve updated the post:
Dana (8e74ce) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:08 amISIS sh*theels execute one of the two Japanese prisoners
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:14 ampay official respects to King Salman bin Abdulaziz
BTW, wasn’t the king of Saudi Arabia the same person bowed down in front of — like a servant to his master — by the US’s wonderful president a few years ago?
Yea, I know there are photos of George W Bush giving a peck on the cheek to that same member of Saudi royalty, but both the setting and manner of what Obama did seemed more grotesquely calculated, at a whole different, purposefully debased (ie, towards the “imperialist” West) level.
Mark (c160ec) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:16 amMr. feets @35, thanks. I think of myself as pretty nice even though I refuse to evolve on issues like gay marriage or genocide. I’m just never going to be OK with either, and that doesn’t mean I hate Germans or gays.
In appreciation, here’s a slow cooker recipe that’s perfect for cold winter days.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lbs cubed stew meat
1 large white onion, diced
3 large carrots, sliced thin
4 stalks of celery, diced
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
2 16 oz packages of beef stock (I prefer low sodium- I like to add my own salt)
1 package rotini or egg noodles
salt, pepper to taste
1.In a large stock pot, heat olive oil on medium high until shimmery.
2.Add in ½ beef (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan- no more), and brown, tossing occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
3.When beef is browned, remove from pan and set aside. Do not drain off fat.
4.Add second half of steak cubes into pot and brown as well.
5.Remove and set aside with other stew meat.
6.Add diced onions, carrots, celery and garlic in pan, and cook until soft and slightly browned- stirring occasionally- about 8 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
7.Add beef back in pot, fill with beef stock.
8.Bring soup to a boil, then back off the heat to low and let simmer 40 minutes.
9.Minute before serving, add noodles into bowl and let cook until soft.
See, I was thinking of this because I have a fruit tree in the yard that’s misbehaving. We had a windstorm a while back that broke one of the boughs off of it. And I didn’t notice until all the leaves dropped, which due to global warming didn’t happen until late last year. So I was going through the garage looking for tools to deal with it and I thought the Ryobi power head with the pole saw attachment would be perfect. And it would be, except some idiot put it away without running the thing until all the fuel in the carb was used up.
So I rebuilt the carb. And you have to be very careful when you do that because Ryobi doesn’t make rebuild kits for those throwaway carbs. So I carefully rebuilt the carb and the thing ran like a champ. For a few minutes, because I put the fuel lines on wrong. And when I was switching the fuel lines around I accidentally pulled out one of the press-in tubes the fuel lines hook up to. And no amount of lock-tite or any automotive adhesive I have on hand will keep the damned thing in place.
So now I either have to break down and buy the $20 something replacement carb or go to Home Depot and buy the $59 10 amp plug in power head. Which would be a set back because the whole idea behind the gas-powered power head besides annoying Al Gore was to free myself from extension cords.
But I wouldn’t ever have to replace a carburetor again. But then I don’t mind playing with carburetors. That’s one of my favorite things about my ’71 El Camino and my ’76 Scout. On the other hand, I like being able to use a tool the minute I feel like using it. Which is one of the reasons I ditched my battery-powered Makita drill in favor of the Milwaukee plug-in drill.
It’s a conundrum. In the meantime I have to deal with the tree and I’m going to have to use hand tools. So it’ll be an all day job, and it’s cold out.
Hence the recipe.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:31 amIs it really unfortunate? The current occupant of the White House is like the crazy aunt in the attic
This. He’d probably pal around with the Germans and commiserate with them about those difficult Jews.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:37 amIf it’s not clear, that’s the outside the slow cooker prep. After you get everything just right, you throw the whole mess into a slow cooker and go out to wrangle trees.
Also, I forgot to add I’ll be trading the ’71 El Camino with a contractor I know for an HVAC system and some other work. I also plan on selling the house and the Scout and moving into a shipping container and getting an ox.
The election of Barack Obama has opened my eyes to the future. If you have more s*** than you can pack into a 16 foot canoe you have too much s***.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:40 amHe already has. At least with the French preezy, about one particular difficult and chickens*** Jooo, at least.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:41 amPentagon will scrap A-10 Warthog
To save money, but will use the $135 million F-35 supersonic stealth air superiority fighter for close in air support (until one gets shot down or crashes into a hill).
This is beyond stupid.*
(*Beyond Stupid® is a registered trademark of The Obama Presidential Library, Inc)
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:45 am®
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:46 amIn case anybody is taking it wrong, when I misspell Jew as Jooo it isn’t out of lack of respect for Jews. It’s because of my contempt for the Jooo haters who see the hands of the Joooz behind everything.
Like Barack Obama, who passive aggressively accuses Senators of opposing his Iran policy because of the Joooz.
Or as he puts it, he “understands” that because of influence of “donors” they oppose him.
F***ing Jooo h8er. He and Sharpton deserve each other.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:47 amSo, the Saudis demand that Obama kiss the ring, and off he goes.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:49 ami think i can do that next weekend Mr. 57 I’m a bookmark it
not going to the store til next saturday
happyfeet (831175) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:52 amBTW, my upset at the bowing has to do with the established rule that the US flag is never dipped to royalty, a rule that has persisted since 1908:
The flag is not dipped and the President does not bow.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:54 amplus today’s not even cold really
i think next weekend though we’ll be back to something more like a right proper winter
happyfeet (831175) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:54 amWell, the F-35 will have a gun. Which the driver will be able to use eventually once it gets upgraded software. And that upgraded software is supposed to be developed only a few short years after the plane itself achieves IOC.
I sit here in stunned amazement. Not that the Pentagon will saddle the military with an aircraft that doesn’t have a useable gun. They did that with the F-4 years ago, and the Rhino was a good plane (a triumph of thrust over aerodynamics). And the F-35 will have other weapons, and prolly even gun pods like the gunless F-4.
No, I’m stunned and amazed that the Pentagon is saddling the military with an aircraft that needs software in order to use the internal gun.
Also, the LCS is going to be a frigate. Because after a decade of explaining why the LCS wasn’t a frigate, the Pentagon has decided, you know what? Let’s just call it a frigate.
Why the hell not. If tomorrow Bill can show up to work and announce he’s a woman, testicles and Y chromosome and all, Why the hell can’t we call the LCS a frigate?
Seriously, does anybody have the email with 2015’s current truth laid out?
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:56 amSorry. link for #50:
http://www.johnubacon.com/2012/07/why-tonights-u-s-flagbearer-will-not-dip-the-banner/
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:57 amThe F-4 was proof that with enough thrust you can make a brick fly.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 8:57 amAnyone who has trouble making any sense out of Obama’s foreign policy decisions, simply has to understand that if it’s good for Islamists, he’s for it. Once you understand that, constant “mistakes”, which leave crazed Islamists in charge, become understandable.
Mike Giles (b8b724) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:00 amObama is an unserious man in Very Serious Times.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:01 amObama is very serious but about all the wrong things, Coronello.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:02 amGreetings:
I heard that President Obama was going to India to either curry some favor or to favor some curry. Honest Indian…
11B40 (844d04) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:02 amObama is not the American flag. Take out the “l” and you get warmer.
nk (dbc370) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:03 amI would not be surprised to see the A-10 retirement decision made just to get back at Martha McSally for taking Gaby Giffords’ old House seat. McSally commanded a squadron of A-10s in the Iraq war and was an advocate. It also punishes her district, where the A10s are based.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:05 amMr. Giles, if it’s good for America, he’s against it. It isn’t that he’s in favor of whatever the Islamists are in favor of. He is, but they’re just one subset of anti-Americans he thinks have been right all along.
Like Castro in Cuba, for instance.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:05 amnk,
The President, traveling abroad, is The United States as much as Elizabeth is Britain.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:06 amHas anyone noticed that the Caliphate continues to grow? Heck of a job, Barry.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:08 amNot bad for a JV team, eh, Kevin?
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:09 amThere is no bigger racket than military procurement. Obama is at fault in this area for not taking a page from Stalin. But then, so is every previous President dating back to Abraham Lincoln.
nk (dbc370) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:09 amCan we get odds on whether The One bows to his own beloved dear leader, the new Saudi king?
Bugg (3a2abd) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:13 amBugg, the real odds are whether a photo will be taken.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:21 amJust in case you haven’t figured it out PrezBarry doesn’t like Jews.
f1guyus (9cbd15) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:29 amnk, military procurement may be a racket, but in the past it was a racket that produced the F-14 and the Spruance destroyer. Genuinely useful equipment.
Under Obama a trend that he isn’t entirely responsible for has grown much, much worse. Take carrier aviation. As a threat to the carrier grows, the carrier needs to be able to operate further offshore. Yet the air wing of the present and future ties it closer and closer to the shore. Again, Obama didn’t start this. The retirement of the F-14 without a successor (and no even the Super Hornet and buddy stores can’t replace the Tomcat) illustrates this trend. But it’s gotten worse. Under Obama the replacement for the C-2 Greyhound Carrier On-Board Delivery (COD) aircraft being bandied about is a cargo version of the V-22 Osprey.
This is a horrible idea. The Osprey can not fly as fast, as far, as high, under any conditions as the Greyhound. Put a load in them and the situation grows worse. I’m not going to go into the boring details unless someone is really interested, but there are loads that the Greyhound routinely hauls several thousand miles that would limit the Osprey to 500 at most. There are cargoes the Greyhound hauls that the Osprey would have to carry slung, increasing drag and further decreasing range. Really, if the Osprey is to be the next COD aircraft you might as well say “f*** it” and pull into port.
And, here’s the cherry on top. The Greyhound is currentl set to be retired in the 2020s. So the threat will be even worse than it is today, and the tether that ties the carrier to shore will be even shorter. It’s already short enough, what with the strike aircraft not having the range to hit targets that the older aircraft let the carrier stand off and hit. Now the logistics aircraft aren’t going to have the legs they once had?
Clearly, Obama meant it when he said that he wasn’t going to change just our Iraq policy but the “bad habits” that lead to our thinking about Iraq. And having a viable military is one of those “bad habits.” It’s a tool that must be rendered unusable.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:30 amI was thinking of the $900.00 toilet seat, but the Osprey is a better example. I would execute everyone in the chain of command that had a hand in that death trap from the clerk-typists to the Secretary of the Navy.
nk (dbc370) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:34 amVery happy for Jack Lew. As a descendant of European Jewry, this will hold great meaning for him.
Steve Stein (5afaca) — 1/24/2015 @ 9:36 amnk, the $900 toilet seat is an interesting example of what’s wrong with the military procurement system. And it generally isn’t what people think is wrong with it.
If somebody gets a contract to build toilet seats for example for the p-8 Poseidon, for instance, what happens? All it is is a military variant of the Boeing 737, after all.
That toilet seat will have to be tested in Alaska in winter and Death Valley in Summer. It will be thrown out of an aircraft at 30k feet and then checked to see if it’s still useable.
Ever check the prices on renting a jumbo jet so you could throw a toilet seat out of it?
All of a sudden the toilet seats that were good enough for 737s for the past few decades are no longer good enough. They will cost more.
Whether they will cost $900 dollars, though, is doubtful. I was on the contractor side of the table for a while. The government is ridiculous. We had a new incoming director of an agency we dealt with decide to classify the unclassified cover name of a program that had been ongoing for over 20 years. We supplied computer systems that provided this agency with a capability that was central to its purpose in life.
Naturally, the computer system in no way resembled what had been originally contracted for. The government was constantly issuing new requirements, and technology provided capabilities that the original stake-holders could only dream of. But the classified cover name had remained the same.
Until some FNG decided he needed to put his own personal stamp on the agency he had just been put in charge of. So he pulled the idea of classifying the unclassified cover name. Thus demonstrating he had no clue whatsoever as to why things like unclassified cover names exist at all.
We had financial people, for instance, who didn’t have security clearances and didn’t need them. They didn’t need to know if we were supplying the government with computers and software or ’57 Chevys or lettuce. All they needed to know were the numbers. We had a financial relationship with a foreign company. Same thing; they just needed to know whether the program was a money maker or not. They didn’t need to know what the program was. Nor could we tell them. The security people were justifiably apoplectic over the possibility that we would be prosecuted for exporting national security information. Which we would have been, had we discussed anything other than the profit and loss data under anything other than the unclassified cover name.
We had documents associated with the program that did not need to be stored in a secure environment because they merely contained the unclassified cover name. Decades worth of documents, going back to the beginning of the program. We even had company polo shirts with the unclassified cover name embroidered on them. I still have one; it’s old and frayed but I wear it for yard work.
Then this clown comes in and decides we need to classify the unclassified cover name. Do you have any idea what that will do to the price of toilet seats, nk? Every single of those thousands if not millions of those documents at various locations across the country (and world) related to that program would have to have been reviewed, properly classified, and properly stored. We’re talking such volumes that storage would have had to have been built. And what do you do with all the people who didn’t have clearances who are now suddenly in possession of classified information? Kill them?
I transferred from that program before anything came of the idea, and as far as I know this bad idea was killed deader than dead. I’ve never had a piece of clothing that I could have been jailed over before. But not all these boneheaded ideas get killed. One change that was quite common is that the terms of the contract changes, and the changes apply retroactively. For instance, a contractor my not have been supplying items with a per-piece cost assigned to each item. Then, some FNG is put in charge on the government end of the contract and decides it will make a nice bullet on his resume to come up with a number for everything. So some contractor has to go back 20 years assign a price to every hammer or toilet seat they ever supplied the government.
Since it’s just a paperwork drill nobody puts much thought into it. Hence the $900 toilet seat or the $500 hammer. Nobody has any clue what that hammer really cost back then but they have hoops they have to jump through as quickly as possible to get them out of the way today.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:21 amSteve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:21 am
Steve57, I always check out who wrote a “wall-of-text” comment before investing any of my finite allotment-of-time reading it. I enjoyed yours thoroughly!
felipe (56556d) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:32 amHis denials of being a Muslim are appearing thinner than thin – anorexic, in the words of “Martin Riggs”.
askeptic (efcf22) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:36 amHere’s what’s wrong with military procurement.
http://archive.defensenews.com/article/20141120/DEFREG01/311200043/Aboard-Danish-Frigate-Clean-Lines-Room-Grow
We could have had twice the ship for half the money. But no, we have the Little Crappy Ship instead.
Notice how the writers at Defense News are working really hard to try and find s “but” in there somewhere. Notice what the “but” is.
Horrors! The Danes’ Iver Huitfeldt class frigates are built to commercial ship standards. Which means they won’t be as survivable in combat as a ship built to warship standards.
Thank gawd we didn’t follow their example.
Oh, wait! the LCS isn’t survivable in combat, either. It wasn’t built to be. It was designed to operate in the littoral in a permissable environment. The USG decided in its infinite wisdom that since most of the wars we’ve been fighting lately have exclusively involved low intensity combat, we should have a cheap, disposable boat designed just for that environment. With a modular design, so the ship can be outfitted quickly for different missions.
Except the LCS isn’t cheap. And it can’t be outfitted quickly for different missions. In fact, other than the surface warfare module the other mission modules are still the Navy’s wet dream. And the surface warfare module doesn’t include an anti-shipping missile! That portion got scrapped when the Army withdrew.
But thankfully we didn’t build a 6,000 ton frigate with missiles (lots of missiles) to inferior commercial ship standards when we had the opportunity to build a smaller (therefore with less room to absorb as yet unforeseen upgrades), less capable ship that isn’t intended to be a general purpose warship.
Except, now the Navy is calling it frigate.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:46 amThanks, felipe. I’m glad my wall o’text comments are worth wading through.
I’ll try to cut down, but when the muse takes hold of me I can’t really promise anything.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:49 amOh, forgot to add the LCS isn’t crewed to be sustainable in combat, either. Since they weren’t supposed to have to do damage control or anything.
So you really can’t fix the LCS.
But, instead of fixing it, we’ll just close our eyes and say it’s a frigate.
And pray.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:52 amSteve, we’re working on our apple trees today, and we have similar issues. My Stihl pole saw is very handy and reliable, but some of our projects are beyond it’s reach. And you have to sharpen the chain fairly often, but that doesn’t take much time. I’ll look into the 10 amp power head to see if it has a longer reach. One thought, we live in a place where power outages are frequent, and have purchased portable gas generators to see us thru extended black outs. I could wheel one of them out to the trees. If an electric has a greater reach than the Stihl, it would be worth the effort. We bought a new battery-start generator from Costco this fall for around $800. 6500 Watts, no need to yank on that cord. Which reminds me, I better check that battery!
And thanks for the summary of the Navy’s coming problems. The A-10 issue should be taken up by the Army. It’s about time they were allowed to fly fixed wing combat aircraft. If that doesn’t work, I’d think the Marines would be licking their chops in anticipation of grabbing all those surplus A-10’s. It would be a better home for them than the AF in any case. I also like the idea of selling a couple of squadrons to Poland and maybe one or more to the Baltic States. I have a suspicion that they would put up a more determined defense of their homeland than NATO could muster.
bobathome (f208b6) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:57 amhttp://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/11/us-navy-new-frigate-littoral-combat-ships.aspx
For the Sailors, too.
I prolly shouldn’t let this bother me. After all, in this Obamanation of a country the military’s real purpose is to validate all the left’s social engineering schemes.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:59 amHomer Simpson designed this boat, didn’t he?
narciso (ee1f88) — 1/24/2015 @ 11:06 amThe 10 amp power head will not have longer reach. It is the same size and shape (roughly) as the two-stroke power head.
Interesting you mentioned the Stihl. I understand the Ryobi Expand-It attachments will work with the Stihl so I was thinking of getting one of those. Or an Echo, but I haven’t been able to figure out if my investment in attachments will go to waste.
I don’t think my Ryobi is quite the piece of crap that its detractors say it is. As long as I use fresh gas and keep it maintained it starts on the third pull. The problem is maintaining it. For instance, it doesn’t have a spark arrester that you can get to and clean out. It’s internal to the muffler. So if it starts to clog then you have to replace the muffler. That’s an $18 dollar part, plus shipping.
Which is why I’m thinking about replacing it as opposed to fixing it. For the price of a replacement carb and muffler it’s almost the same as buying a new power head.
What holds me back from going electric, besides the extension cord, is that there’s no guarantee that Ryobi electric motors are any great shakes, either.
Oh, Ryobi does make a 40v lithium battery-powered power head so you can go electric without the hassle of dragging an an extension cord all over hell’s creation, but those are pricey. Then, same worry.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 11:20 amThis is who the president has chosen to honor, from our own State Dept:
Dana (8e74ce) — 1/24/2015 @ 11:40 amIt’s not ironic at all that Obama prefers the company of muslims to that of Holocaust survivors. It’s who he is.
Besides, as with the Charlie demonstration in Paris, when there are too many heads of state in one place, he can’t appear to be Our Special Snowflake. Some of his prancing and preening might go unnoticed. He may as well be playing golf.
And he sent Jack Lew, who rhymes with “Jew” – what do you want? Can’t he just eat his waffle?
Estragon (ada867) — 1/24/2015 @ 12:03 pmWhat Dana wrote @82 is why I seriously doubt that Burmese woman the Saudis just beheaded for sexually abusing and then murdering her 7 y.o. “step-daughter” was actually the guilty party.
Just the most convenient scapegoat.
I put step-daughter in quotes because, other than the article about her beheading, I can find no information about her. But given her South East Asian background I suspect that she originally went to SA as a domestic.
There are reasons for this that have nothing to do with Islam just like ISIS slave markets have nothing to do with Islam. Let me quote the Quran for the relevant passage that has nothing to do with Islam:
http://quran.com/4/24
“Those your right hand possess” includes slave girls captured in war, natch. But it also can include domestic servants, particularly in SA. This is why Saudi royals keep getting in trouble when they go abroad with their domestic servants.
In SA domestic servants have historically been slaves. Hell, throughout the Islamic world domestic servants have historically been slaves. In fact, there’s a verse in the Quran in which Allah tells Muhammad that it’s OK to break a promise he made to his wives. They caught him screwing one of the domestic slave girls that caught his eye, Miriam the Copt. They got royally P.O.d and he promised not to do it again.
Then Allah showed up and said, “I didn’t tell you to do that. I said ‘those your right hand possess’ are lawful to you and I meant it. You’re supposed to be the example of what it is to be a Muslim. Go tell your wives they can be replaced no problem and get back to raping your slave girls.”
In SA especially they do not draw a distinction between a domestic and a slave. A Filipino maid has no status beyond that of a slave. This is why they have those “particularly abusive employers” mentioned in Dana’s blurb to begin with. They don’t think anything of taking their passports and forcing them to work without pay. Neither does the government. And raping them is their right.
I realize that some people might think the Saudi government wouldn’t want to hang a murder on the wrong person. Like OJ they’d want to get the real killer. But the Burmese chick was accused of murdering a 7 y.o. girl. The kind of creature the Saudi morals police would force back inside a burning building if she tried to escape the blaze without first veiling herself. It isn’t like the victim of the crime was a full-fledged human being with any real worth.
It certainly wouldn’t be worth messing up a man’s life over. Especially when you can hang it on a Burmese sub-human. Problem solved.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 12:44 pmThe Saudi government view on those “particularly abusive employers” and trafficking in foreign women for labor and sex:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2318531/Two-women-rescued-Saudi-diplomats-home-raided-human-trafficking.html
It’s in favor of all of the above. To oppose it would be an insult to Muhammad.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 12:46 pmSteve57,
It’s not just immigrants that are held hostage and kept as slaves. Four of deceased King Abdullah’s daughters have been held under house arrest in squalid and perilous conditions for 13 years. It’s disgraceful to hear the president and other world leaders laud him.
Dana (8e74ce) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:16 pmMaybe if someone told him that yeah, most of the victims were just Jooooos, but homosexuals were also killed in the concentration camps, he’d go.
The Dana with wide open eyes (1b79fa) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:28 pmThat’s all you need to know.
I get what you’re saying (and if I’m not, pipe up). Saudi women are slaves. So it shouldn’t be surprising that women who come from other parts of the world to work for Saudi women (an important part of being a domestic) are also considered to be slaves.
To pour fuel on the fire, Islam is an Arab supremacist religion. Non-arabs are second-class Muslims.
I can back that up. But it will take several heavily foot-noted wall o’text comments. Which I’ll be happy to produce if everyone else has the stomach for it.
Not that it would do any good. Leviticus, for instance, plays soccer with Muslims who don’t have any visible tendencies to behead anybody. So all my years studying the Quran, the Ahadith, the Sira, and the commentaries on the Quran called the Tafsir have been wasted. I could have been playing soccer with the westernized Muslims who never read the Quran let alone anything else and are apparently the trusted source of the meaning of Islam.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:30 pmDana @87, nobody can tell him anything.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:31 pmthere is an alternate view
http://20committee.com/2015/01/21/the-west-islam-and-the-last-stand-of-the-weird/
narciso (ee1f88) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:33 pmLeigh King Fawcett (or is that faucet?) wrote:
Eric Cantor was Jewish, but he lost his primary election last year. But, given that American Jews are the second most loyal Democratic voting bloc, it’s not that much of a surprise that there are no Jewish Republicans in Congress today.
Then again, if any Democratic politician could turn American Jews into Republicans, Barack Hussein Obama ought to be the one who could do it.
The Republican Dana (1b79fa) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:36 pmHow about Obama send the two Muslim congressmen to the event?
patricia (5fc097) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:39 pmAgain I ask, why does the rep to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz need to be a Jooo?
I’d think even a goy would be acceptable since (I think) the point is supposed to be genocide is wrong.
Steve57 (fa06b0) — 1/24/2015 @ 1:40 pmWell, he could do that but…
Steve57 (a04df5) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:04 pm“What should anyone expect from the guy who lied about his uncle liberating this place?”
Obama probably mixed up – or more likely, never bothered to get straight – names of famous concentration camps. The only name he knew was Auschwitz.
http://americablog.com/2008/05/holocaust-museum-confirms-obamas-uncles-infantry-division-liberated-buchenwald.html
(The writer there either didn’t understand or wanted to ridicule as irrelevant the fact that Obama had no knowledge of the details of anything connected with that)
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 1/24/2015 @ 10:41 pmA rather unfortunate event , getting trapped in Auschwitz where your grandparents were killed
seeRpea (181740) — 1/29/2015 @ 1:12 pmbut I do understand the reaction of the police.
i’d be on tenterhooks about sabotage and the like that night as well.
http://www.grandrapidscity.com/newsworld/news/jewish-leader-trapped-and-arrested-inside-auschwitz