The Captains Spyglass

Top acquisition official: Tanker acquisition top priority

2008-07-31T17:00:00.002-06:00

by Staff Sgt. Monique Randolph
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

7/21/2008 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Officials from the Government Accountability Office testified before Congress July 10 here about their decision to uphold Boeing's protests of the Air Force's selection of Northrop Grumman Corp. to produce 179 new tankers that would replace the aging KC-135 Stratotanker fleet.

In its report, GAO officials stated that errors had been made during the acquisition process that could have affected the outcome of the close competition between the two companies, but did not find evidence of intentional wrongdoing by Air Force officials.

"We didn't see an iota of evidence that there was intentional wrongdoing, no evidence of bias, no evidence of criminality," said Daniel I. Gordon, the deputy general counsel for the GAO during the hearing.

Following the Department of Defense's subsequent decision to reopen the bidding process, the Air Force's top acquisitions officer said she is optimistic the proposals will only get better, and both the taxpayer and warfighter will benefit from the new tanker.

"Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has made the tanker acquisition a top priority, and I applaud that," said Sue C. Payton, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition at the Pentagon. If we can get cooperation with all the parties, we should be able to award (the contract) in December or January."

Ms. Payton credits members of the Air Force acquisitions team with helping to build such strong proposals from both companies.

"Over the past two years, I saw the most honest, dedicated, hard-working individuals I've ever worked with in more than 30 years," she said. "We shared more information and opened the door for more questions from the offerors than ever before. Acquisitions have extensive regulations, legislative considerations and rules of fair play. It's extremely complex, very competitive and high stakes."

Of more than 100 issues raised in Boeing's protest, eight were sustained by the GAO, she said.

"When the GAO finds fault, it doesn't mean your (organization) is fatally flawed," Ms. Payton said.

The tanker is one of 35 major defense acquisition efforts currently in the works for the Air Force and Ms. Payton said she looks forward to leading those efforts.

"There is still much to accomplish," she said.

Sir Isaac and the Airbus

2008-07-31T14:29:00.001-06:00

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27688

Sir Isaac and the Airbus

by Jed Babbin

Newton's laws are immutable: so is the Airbus's unsuitability for the Air Force tanker mission.

Sir Isaac and the Airbus

Human Events

Jed Babbin

25 July 2008

Newtonian physics - which a professor of fond memory tried to teach me in freshman year of college - prescribes laws that are immutable. Dr. Fred Furst used to say, "The laws of physics are the same wherever you go, and bad things happen when you try to break them." For that reason alone, I'm confident neither Sir Isaac nor Prof. Furst would choose the Airbus 330 tanker for the US Air Force.

I never promised you there would be no math, but trust me: this won't be too bad. We've got to do a little math and a little physics.

Newton's Second Law of Motion defines the relationship between mass (roughly what something weighs), acceleration (not the speed of an object, but the rate at which an object gains speed) and the force required to move a mass at a rate of acceleration: Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. As Freddie Furst said over and over again, "F=mα." About which more in a moment.

The Air Force has a lot of guidelines, manuals and regulations. Pilots - at least those who live to ripe old age - usually go by the book. The book on air refueling operations requires that tanker aircraft be able to perform maneuvers called "breakaways" and "overruns" in just the way the Air Force specifies.

As I described on the Rush Limbaugh Show on July 17, a "breakaway" is a vital safety maneuver which is performed often in training and in flight operations. There's an imaginary envelope around the tanker "boom," the controlled crane-like device projecting from the rear of the tanker that pipes fuel into the receiving aircraft. If you go outside the envelope - say a gust of wind hits, or the fighter is going too fast, or even if it pitches or yaws, twisting away -- the "boomer" (the guy sitting in the back of the tanker who "flies" the boom), the receiving pilot or the tanker driver can call "breakaway," which is supposed to result in several near-simultaneous events.

The boomer pops the boom off the receiving aircraft which then decelerates rapidly and drops about 1000 feet of altitude. The tanker is supposed to be able to accelerate rapidly (to a specified higher speed that varies by type of receiving aircraft) and climb away from the receiver. So now we're back to F=mα.

According to the General Accountability Office decision overturning the contract award to Northrop-Grumman/EADS for the Airbus 330 tanker, "...there is no documentation in the record setting forth an analysis of whether Northrop Grumman's proposed aircraft has sufficient operational airspeed when refueling the [deleted by GAO] to initiate an emergency breakaway procedure."

What the GAO is saying, in its lawyerly language, is that the facts show that the Airbus 330 cannot reach a sufficient speed to pull away from one or more aircraft it's supposed to refuel. And if it can't, there could be a mid-air collision. That may also mean that the huge weight of the Airbus isn't compensated by comparable engine power to enable it to accelerate fast enough to get out of the way. You need an awful lot of "F" to push that much "m" fast enough to get enough "α" for a breakaway, and the Airbus apparently just doesn't have it.

Another part of the Airbus' inability to perform the mission is the "overrun" problem. No, Virginia, we're not talking about cost overruns (those will come but only after the contract is begun). We're talking about how a tanker and a receiving aircraft join up.

Tankers usually orbit above a set position - flying a racetrack-shaped oval that may be thirty miles or more in length - waiting for whatever fly guys are coming by to gas up. When one or more do - say an F-16 - the tanker swings out of its orbit to theoretically come up ahead of the F-16 on the F-16's original course. But sometimes (according to the tanker guys, it's always the fighter jock's fault: you can imagine what the fighter jocks say) the tanker comes out behind.

At that point, the fighter is supposed to drop speed and altitude and - again, that old F=mα thing - the tanker is supposed to climb and accelerate past the fighter to get in position for the boomer to plug into the fighter's nose. But the Airbus weighs too much and apparently can't even go fast enough even if its engines could push it to the required speeds.

According to the GAO decision, despite the fact that the Air Force had told Northrop Grumman that the Airbus apparently couldn't accelerate quickly enough and reach the speed set by Air Force standards to perform an overrun, the Air Force disregarded its own mandatory guideline to keep the Airbus eligible for the contract. And, as the GAO decided, they had no reasonable basis to do so: "...the record does not establish that the [Air Force] had a reasonable basis for concluding that Northrop Grumman's proposed solution would allow its aircraft to obtain the requisite overrun airspeeds to satisfy this...requirement."

So not only can't it accelerate quickly enough, the Airbus apparently has too low a top-speed. Again, this is a problem that cannot be overlooked. Or, as the GAO put it, it was unreasonable for the Air Force to say that the Airbus 330 can refuel all USAF tanker-compatible aircraft in accordance with Air Force procedures.

The Airbus cannot be eligible for the contract award if it can't fly the mission. That's what the Air Force documents said and that's one of the big reasons GAO tossed out the contract award.

And there's a third problem. This one is simple geometry.

Most airfields don't have runways as wide as Dulles International. The NATO standard runway is 147.6 feet wide. When an aircraft breaks down, or if another aircraft has to take priority landing or taking off, a tanker will have to be able to be turned around on the runway.

To do that, one of those small tractors you see at airports is attached to the nose gear, the pilot turns the nose wheel all the way over, and the tractor pulls the bird around 180 degrees. According to Boeing, their 767 tanker can turn around in about 129 feet, which can be done fine on a 147-foot wide runway.

There is no public data we could find on the Airbus' turning radius but one source says that the Airbus website used to state that the turning radius of the A-330 was 143 feet. If the runway is a few feet narrower than the NATO standard, if the Airbus isn't lined up with its right wheels on the farthest edge of the runway and if a lot of other ifs, the U-turning Airbus gets its nose off the runway and probably gets stuck.

Which means you have a runway out of operation until - minutes or hours later - the too big, too heavy aircraft gets unstuck.

It's just like good old Freddie Furst used to say: the laws of physics are the same wherever you go. If F still equals mα (and it surely does) the Airbus 330 can't perform the Air Force tanker mission.

Towner for President, the only choice that makes sense

2008-07-18T23:57:00.000-06:00

Come see the latest Jib Jab

2008-07-18T17:42:00.000-06:00

This is a riot

The Captain

Maese is convicted in Doll House case

2008-07-12T00:33:00.000-06:00

Maese is convicted in Doll House case

By Linda Thomson and Lynn Wilde II
Deseret News

Published: Saturday, July 12, 2008 12:20 a.m. MDT

Prosecutors called him a modern-day "pimp." A jury agreed late Friday, convicting Santiago Steven Maese of five felonies in connection with his former Doll House escort service.

After 4 1/2 hours of deliberation, the three-woman, five-man jury delivered unanimous verdicts on four counts of exploiting a prostitute, a third-degree felony, and one count of a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony. He was found not guilty of money laundering, a second-degree felony.

Following the verdict, 3rd District Judge Randall Skanchy ordered a pre-sentence report and set a sentencing hearing for Sept. 8. Skanchy did not order that Maese be taken into custody, citing his clean criminal record and faithful attendance at court hearings.

Maese showed no reaction as the verdict was read and said he plans to appeal. Prosecutor Chad Platt referred to the verdict as a "victory for the rule of law."

Platt said in closing arguments Friday that despite Maese's sleek businesslike exterior, he is actually a pimp at heart — controlling, demanding and vengeful.

The prosecutor said it was naive to think that Tiffany French Curtis, Maese's former girlfriend and the co-owner of the Doll House escort service, ran the whole show and Maese knew nothing about sex-for-money.

Utah Outlook: S.L. GOP member has charges dismissed

2008-07-11T00:26:00.000-06:00

Utah Outlook: S.L. GOP member has charges dismissed

Prosecutors: Maese was The Doll House 'pimp'

2008-07-10T16:57:00.001-06:00

By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 07/10/2008 03:41:28 PM MDT

Posted: 2:59 PM- Steven Santiago Maese has grabbed headlines recently for hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller.
Veteran prosecutor Kent Morgan was fired in March by Miller for allegedly leaking confidential information to Maese about his pending criminal case.
In April, state House candidate Kelly Ann Booth broke off her engagement to Maese and dropped from the race after learning Maese had owned The Doll House escort service.
But on Thursday, a 3rd District Court jury was focused solely on the issue of whether Maese used the escort service as a cover for a prostitution ring.
Maese, 31, is charged with four counts of exploitation of prostitution, third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
He is also charged with engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity and money laundering, second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Former Doll House escorts are expected to testify that between July 2004 and April 2006, they were encouraged by Maese to have sex with customers, and that they paid a portion of their earnings to Maese and co-defendant Tiffany French Curtis.
Curtis, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges, is also slated to testify against Maese.

In a separate case, Maese is charged with third-degree felony witness tampering and stalking for allegedly following Curtis around the Salt Lake Valley in April, and on one day swerved his car in front of her vehicle three times on Interstate 15.
During opening statements, prosecutor Michael Colby called Curtis "The Doll House madam" and said Maese was the "pimp."
But defense attorney Gilbert Athay told jurors that while Doll House escorts performed "sex acts of all kinds ... they did it of their own choice."
He said The Doll House had a policy and procedures manual that prohibited sex acts and allowed the girls only to dance and do specific touching such as backrubs.
Athay also emphasized that all the women who would be testifying against Maese "worked as prostitutes."
He also said that almost all would testify about deals made by law enforcement and prosecutors to get them to testify. Most were getting their charges dismissed or had received pleas in abeyance, Athay said.

Yankees A-Rod Quote of a Lifetime

2008-07-07T18:14:00.003-06:00

A reporter asked A-Rod what he did to keep in shape. He said exercise, exercise, and more exercise. When asked about what food he eats he said he only eats healthy foods that are on a very strict list. When asked what food would he say was the worst possible thing he could eat that might affect his career, he replied straight faced and said wedding cake.

A-Rod was recently served divorce court documents alleging he was exercising with too many other woman other than his wife.

Former escort service owner claims prostitution prosecutors on 'vendetta'

2008-07-07T16:58:00.003-06:00

Seeks delay in Thursday trial

Former escort service owner claims prostitution prosecutors on 'vendetta'

By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 07/07/2008 02:26:30 PM MDT

A former escort service owner charged with running a prostitution ring wants a judge to delay his Thursday trial.

Doll House owner Steven Santiago Maese claims the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office should be disqualified because DA Lohra Miller has a "personal and political vendetta" against him.
Third District Judge Randall Skanchy said he would review the issue, but warned Maese, and his attorney, Gilbert Athay, he would likely rule against them.
Athay argued that Miller still has hard feelings toward Maese for supporting and assisting recently fired prosecutor Kent Morgan in his failed battle against Miller for the Republican nomination for DA in April 2007. Morgan was fired in March for allegedly leaking confidential information about the Doll House to Maese and is appealing the firing to county officials.
Last week, Athay said today, Miller injected herself into the case by ordering prosecutor Chad Platt to refuse Maese any plea deal offers.

The Political Spyglass: 7/7/2008 4:36:00 PM

No Quarter Offered, No Quarter Given. Doll House owner Steven Santiago Maese is a total slime ball and tried to ruin Lohra Miller's reputation by attacking her private family life, along with a nutcase neighbor. DO NOT GIVE AN INCH on this case Lohra, go for it all and make this jerk pay for his actions and exploiting these women "escorts" prostitutes. I wish they still allowed public floggings. I hope he ends up "escorting" a few inmates down at the point of the mountain.

The Captain

There Will be Blood, Mascaro says Utah GOP leaders 'stoop low' He is blaming them for a leak about female intern

2008-07-04T00:32:00.002-06:00

Like I said in an earlier post, There will be Blood and the garbage is just beginning to fly

By Bob Bernick Jr.
Deseret News

Published: Friday, July 4, 2008 12:09 a.m. MDT

A state legislator who signed a bipartisan ethics complaint against one of his GOP House colleagues is now finding himself in the public eye — and blaming retribution by his own party leaders for it.

Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, says he did nothing wrong when he tried to console an upset female intern during the 2008 Legislature.

"I can't believe that the (leaders of the Republican Party) would stoop this low" as to leak the incident involving him to the news media. The Deseret News is not identifying sources who told the newspaper about the incident, but Mascaro said he believes he knows who has talked about it.

Top 10 Replies by Programmers when their programs do not work:

2008-07-03T09:35:00.000-06:00

Top 10 Replies by Programmers when their programs do not work:

10. "I can't test everything!"
9. "THIS can't be the source of THAT."
8. "It works, but it hasn't been tested."
7. "Somebody must have changed my code."
6. "Did you check for a virus on your system?"
5. "Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?"
4. "You can't use that version on your system."
3. "Why do you want to do it that way?"
2. "Where were you when the program blew up?"
1. "I thought I fixed that."

The Cap'n!

2008-07-02T18:21:00.001-06:00

Some men and women are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any scalawag who stands between them and unlimited power. You never met a man - or woman - you couldn't eviscerate. You are the definitive Man of Action, the CEO of the Seven Seas, Lee Iacocca in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. You're mission-oriented, and if anyone gets in the way, that's his problem, now isn't? Your buckle was swashed long ago and you have never been so sure of anything as your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off his head if he shows any sign of taking you on or backing down. If one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

If you think $4.00 gas is expensive, look at Europe $10.00 per gallon

2008-06-30T22:39:00.004-06:00

I was wondering if gas in the US is hovering around $4.00 per gallon, what must be happening in the rest of the world. I checked and the price for gas now in Europe is $9-10 per gallon. So if we think things are hard here in the US, can you imagine diesel trucks at $10 per gallon. This is a global problem, and if it does not get fixed real soon, it won;t be just the US economy that will be going into the tank.

2008-06-30T08:53:00.001-06:00

How Gun Control Lost

Posted: 29 Jun 2008 01:50 AM CDT

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, pessimistically, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." He would probably not have been surprised to see the...

Words of Wisdom

2008-06-27T06:12:00.001-06:00

Words of Wisdom

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” Samuel Adams, 1780

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

“God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.” Thomas Jefferson

“The time is near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own…The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army…Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.” George Washington

“In our age there is no such thing as keeping out of politics. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” George Orwell

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln

“What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles.” George Hegel

“The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.” John Gardner

“But to expend millions … is unworthy the charge, and is using posterity with the utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs from which they derive no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy a man of honor, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and a peddling politician.” Thomas Paine

“The scope of government must be limited, and the power dispersed.” Milton Friedman

“The function of government must be to favor no small group at the expense of its duty to protect the rights of personal freedom and of private property of all its citizens.” Franklin Roosevelt

“That government is best which governs least.” Henry David Thoreau

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” James Madison

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton

“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” Thomas Paine

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Thomas Jefferson

“Those who came before us risked all of their property, their reputations, their freedom, and their lives to push the boundaries of democracy for us… What are you doing that is more worthy of your efforts than trying to establish the moral principles of fairness, justice, and equality for all in our America?.” Jim Hightower

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch." Benjamin Franklin

“Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans..” Barbara Jordan

“All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.” Frederick Douglass

“It is a common defect of men in fair weather to take no thought of storms.” Machiavelli

“The people need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they choose, they could blow the Party to pieces by tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it.” George Orwell

“In the beginning of change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated, and scorned.” Mark Twain

“The electorate is the source of strength for a revolutionary idea, because the people, en masse, will support an idea that makes sense, although unconventional, while the elites will support it only when they see they have no choice.” Jude Waniski

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” William Jennings Bryan

“The inside operation of Congress -- the deals, the compromises, the selling out, the co-opting, the unprincipled manipulating, the self-serving career-building -- is a story of such monumental decadence that I believe if people find out about it they will demand an end to it.” Bella Abzug

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Thomas Paine

Cannon was the first shot heard round the World 'Get Out of Our House'

2008-06-27T05:46:00.002-06:00

'Get Out of Our House'
Mission

GOOOH stands for 'Get Out of Our House' and is pronounced like the word 'go'. It is a NON-PARTISAN plan to evict the 435 career politicians in the U.S. House of Representatives and replace them with everyday Americans just like you.

GOOOH enables you to do four things you can't do today:

1. Run for Congress without raising millions of dollars
2. Truly participate in the selection of your Congressman
3. Replace career politicians with true representatives who will be held accountable
4. Eliminate the influence of special interest groups in the election process

The GOOOH process allows Americans of every political leaning to nominate themselves or someone they know to run for Congress. Through GOOOH's Candidate Selection Sessions you and your peers will select the candidate in your district who best represents your district's views. Even if you do not wish to become your district's representative you will want to participate in the process and have a direct say in who is chosen to represent your district. GOOOH will fund a national campaign for the 435 candidates (one from each district) who will run against the party politicians. Because GOOOH is a process for selecting representatives (not an agenda-based party platform) we expect a very liberal candidate to be selected in San Francisco and a very conservative one in Colorado Springs -- but it will be up to the GOOOH members in each district to decide.

For GOOOH to succeed we will need at least 500,000 participants. We will continue to build our base of supporters until we have the participation we need, at which time we will begin our effort to have the GOOOH party added to the ballot in the 50 states and to select our 435 nominees. There are many variables involved in reaching this level of support, and we hope you appreciate it will take time to do so, but we believe it is only a matter of time.

The most controversial part of GOOOH is that the founder, Tim Cox, has proposed excluding politicians, actively prosecuting attorneys, and individuals with family assets over $11.5 million (250 times the median income) from the process. They are excluded not because they are bad people, but because they are overly represented in government today and, generally speaking, no longer seem to represent the common man. It is not proposed that they be excluded from the two parties or from running as independents, just that they not be allowed to participate in this system initially, while we try to restore more balance to our House. Mr. Cox understands his view may be incorrect, and that excluding anyone may be the wrong approach, but he felt compelled to start with what he thought was the best way to effect the needed change, not what was politically correct. With this in mind, the members of GOOOH will soon be asked to vote and decide if anyone should be excluded or if we should allow each pool of ten to determine for themselves how they want to vote. There is a great debate going on in our forums on this topic, and you are invited to weigh in.

We hope you will join GOOOH today and help us take our House back from the politicians!

Why Oil Shale and not Coal?

2008-06-26T15:14:00.000-06:00

Why Oil Shale and not Coal? I have a hard time understanding why our Utah Federal Elected Officials seem hell bent on extracting Oil from Oil Shale (rock), when we could be generating liquid fuel directly from coal right now. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. We have 300-500 years of known reserves and the technology for converting coal directly to liquid fuel has been known since the Germans developed the technology 60 years ago. If the United states were to go on a war footing crash program and shift all diesel and jet fuel for truckers, transportation and airlines etc and fix the price for the next 10 years so that these folks would have a known energy price, just watch the price of OIL and gasoline drop like a rock. All it would take would be an executive order from the President and a directive to the Military and the department of Energy.