Comments on The Morning News

boeing employees pissed? pfffff......we should be pissed. more foreign outsourcing? 40 billion dollars leaving our country? i'm pissed at both boeing and the airforce.

Yeah that air bus stuff is BULLSHIT. Where's our President that's supposed to protect us and bring money IN not OUT? Wtf.

Don't be pissed @ the USAF, Bush, or anyone other than Boeing. The best they had to offer was a much smaller, POS 767. If you make an inferior product, you deserve to lose the bid.

@3 how much smaller?

I know, right?

How many other countries' governments have chosen Boeing? Tons.

Get over yourself, Boeing employees.

"Can You Spot the Glaring Omission?"

Before looking, I'm going to have to guess Afghanistan.... or the United States.

Hot damn, it's us!

Airbus: 193'L x 57'H x 18.5'W, max takeoff weight 230 tons.
Boeing: 159'L x 17'9"H x 16'6"W, max takeoff weight 157 tons.

@5 how many other countries build their own jumbo jets? no, really?

I dunno, I thought the glaring omission was Canada. aren't they the biggest supplier of pot now or something?

Are we gonna get the real story behind the Ethics & Professional Responsibility Office? Like, does this office have any teeth or is it truly just "feel-good"

I accept the fact that we have a stupid, bloated "defense" budget. But the least they can do is build their unneeded crap in the USA.

But on the other hand, the more we outsource military stuff the better. Then, the next time we get a stupid idea in our head that every normal nation is appalled by, they can cut us off.

And I suppose it's better for the region in the long run that Boeing doesn't get all the defense contracts. We've seen what a disaster that is before.

Um, they are going to build them in the USA, in Mobile, Alabama. The bid was a joint offer between Northrup, a US company, and EADS, a European multinational. Most of the money stays in the US, as wages, or is distributed across the globe as parts and subcontractors, just like Boeing would have. Boeing's HQ isn't in Seattle, either, remember.

The Boeing bid was hampered, as Elvis points out, by being a much smaller 25-year-old design -- and I'm sure the head start EADS got due to the ridiculous Boeing scandal that cost them the bid in the first place didn't help. If you really want to blame someone, blame Phil Condit.

There's also the consideration that the US government wants to expand their choices, which will force more competitive bids in the future, and save the taxpayers money.

Yeah, that drug-producing list leaves off the US and Canada -- and other countries, like Mexico, are major transshipment countries (because they are adjacent to the #1 consumer, duh), but not really very high on the producer list. Also the Dominican Republic, which doesn't produce ANY drugs of its own to speak of.

I don't expect the Bush administration to be putting out a list of the Major Drug-Consuming Countries anytime soon.

Well, duh. I guess I should have read the story instead of depending on the rather hysterical news coverage about it this morning.

Mobile's OK with me. As long as working class people in the US are getting paid for this stupid project.

And yes, well I remember that Boeing isn't based out of here anymore. And I realize this isn't 1973 anymore, when Boeing was the only company in town, so to speak. I just want to see the manufacturing base that is still here have a mix of products they are working on, so we aren't dependent exclusively on the whims of the defense department.

Yep, Fnarf, the numbers I've seen are that 60% of that money will stay in the US, which is realistically probably pretty close to what would have happened if Boeing won. BEAUTIFUL day here (78° at 10:15 AM), I'm loving it.

@10

Think of it this way, if the new office of ethics and professionalism were able to do anything substantiative, it would have to be approved by the police guild.

As I understand it, if implemented per the PARP recommendations, it only exists to analyze trends, advise the chief, be a resource for officers interested in ethical policing issues, and make training recommendations.

So, as I understand it, the office can't actually DO anything, just advise on what could be done.

Am I the only person here who reads that post @7 - 230 TONS! - and just about loses it? Jesus, that's a lot of weight.

A quote from that Sydney Pride story:

Gay troops marched for the first time under an officially endorsed Defense Department banner...

And this in a macho, hawkish nation.