John McCain just lost the election

[jmowreader]

You do not send a $30 billion contract, that an American company could have easily fulfilled, to a foreign company if you want to be President.

And spare me the "Alabama assembly line" crap. This Alabama factory is going to be like the one Pilatus has in Colorado for finishing out the PC-12. You know how the PC-12s that factory works on arrive there? They're flown in, under their own power, from Switzerland where they're made, and the interiors are installed here. In the case of the Airbus tankers, their airframes will be assembled in Toulouse in the Airbus factory, flown to Alabama, and fitted with the tanker hardware and cargo handling equipment by non-union workers. They're only doing a hundred planes; building an entire Airbus assembly line in Alabama when they've already got one in France, to make 100 jets, makes no sense at all--especially when you consider almost all the big, hard-to-ship parts come from Europe anyway.

Bob Shrum could win this one.

[Diane R]

1. This contract is meant to punish Washington State for being blue, with Dem. Senators & Governor.

[ingac70]

2. Some of that work was to be in Kansas...

Had Boeing got the contract, so Washington state wasn't the only one effected.

[Zodiak]

8. But Kansas also has been going blue

Democratic governor, ya know.

[ingac70]

16. The Alabama legislature is currently held by Dems...

Democrats holding a 62-43 advantage in the House, and a 23-12 advantage in the Senate.

[crimsonblue]

17. Wichita was originally supposed to get the contract either way...

A year and a half ago (maybe a little longer.. my exact date recall is fuzzy) EADS looked into buying a large Boeing factory, in order to build these and other planes... The city was willing to give all sorts of concessions in the form of tax rebates (just plain giving them money), and just wanted all union workers. But EADS (and earlier Boeing, who shipped most of their plane assembly to non-union countries) walked away, and destroyed any hope Wichita had at economic recovery. Just 15-20 years ago, Wichita was the air capitol, but 80% of the aviation jobs have left... In summary, Wichita and the entire state desperately needed this, but I guess Bush's Alabama cronies are more important (at least 3 car companies are opening factories there, in addition to Airbus).

[ingac70]

3. From my understanding....

The work in Alabama only consists of avionics. Most of the work on them will be done in the UK.

[Swamp Rat]

4. No, he already won the election:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF5Kdm4Eu6w

[tom_paine]

10. Yep. People refuse to see because the truth is frightening and horrifying.

PLUS, it might (god forbid) force them to get up and do something about it if they wish for their descendants to remain free.

But they won't. The Kabuki Theater of the 2008 "election" is proceeding apace, as stage-managed and rigged as a Soviet "election", but with just a bit more "plausible deniability" worked into the scheme, the bare minimum to fool the sheep.

Yawn. I have seen this play before, and I know how it ends.

NOTE to anyone reading this: I am not advocating people not vote. I will be voting for the Democratic Nominee in November and I hope everyone else will, too. But have no illusions about the longshot of those votes being enough to overcome the Bushie Fraud Machine, especially when our own Democratic "Leaders" seem to be very content enabling and burying their crimes (Google Christine Jennings Florida for just one example of many). Illusions disarm us in the face of totalitarian monsters.

[Swamp Rat]

13. g'mornin' tom_paine

Unfortunately, many who are getting up and doing something are authoritarian types who are following the orders of their mind-slave masters.



NOTE to the person reading these words right now: Get off your ass and vote for the Democratic nominee in November or else we will have a permanently damaged SCOTUS that will not change for the better in your lifetime.

[OneBlueSky]

5. "It's not who votes that counts; it's who counts the votes." . . .

for proof/examples, see elections of 2000 and 2004 . . .

[SpiralHawk]

6. Why do republicons hate America's workers?

[blueknight]

7. they dont hate american workers

they just LOVE PROFITS MORE!

[unblock]

11. ... which is why they hate american workers

damn 'merkin workers think they're entitled to more than $0.50 a day

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. K&R...

Win? Lose? What about Diebold is this prediction of a loss?"

[1776Forever]

12. Sign the petition to redo the contract at Patty Murray site - Link

http://murray.senate.gov/tankers/index.cfm

[progressoid]

14. You put a lot of trust in the intelligence of the American people.

The last 7 yrs has shattered that idea IMO.

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. You should read a bit more before you

state some things as fact. It would have been ILLEGAL for the contract to go to Boeing.

"Air Force officials offered few details about why they choose the Northrop-EADS team over Boeing since they have yet to debrief the two companies. But Air Force Gen. Arthur Lichte said the larger size was key. "More passengers, more cargo, more fuel to offload," he said.

"It will be very hard for Boeing to overturn this decision because the Northrop plane seemed markedly superior" in the eyes of the Air Force, said Loren Thompson, a defense industry analyst with Lexington Institute, a policy think tank."

"Some analysts say the outcome should not have been a surprise. In a paper released Monday, Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson said that Northrop beat Boeing on virtually all points -- including capability, proposal risk, past performance, cost and ability to integrate with the rest of the air fleet.
Chart of BA
"So Northrop Grumman's victory was not a close outcome," Thompson commented. "Although both proposals satisfied all performance requirements, the reviewers concluded that if they funded the Northrop Grumman proposal they could have 49 superior tankers operating by 2013, whereas if they funded the Boeing proposal, they would have only 19 considerably less capable planes in that year."

"Secretary Michael Wynne told a congressional committee today the Airbus-Northrup Grumman plane will be less expensive and less risky than Boeing's 767 refueling plane."

And I will admit to being partial. I live in Mobile and am very pleased with all the new jobs this will bring to our area.

Many of the same ppl complaining about this contract will do so while driving Asian built cars and wearing clothes made by sweat shops in China. It just seems disingenuous to me.

[crimsonblue]

18. And you take them at their word?

These are the same people that gave a company a $74 mil contract for helmets just days before evidence of shoddy helmet construction were publicly exposed. So I, for one, am not going to believe them when they say the EADS plane was better.. A tanker is a tanker is a tanker.. it's nothing special. One last thing... sure the EADS contract is supposedly cheaper, but that's what happens when the labor force building the planes work in sweatshop conditions...