Northrop-Grumman out of control

[ChuckMK23]

Well our friends and beltway bandits Northrop Grumman are out of control - launching a PR campaign to have the US Government fund IR countermeasures for domestic airliners to counter a completely made up domestic MANPADS threat.

I don't know who's worse - the legistlators for buying into the arguments of the greedy bastards or the contractors for scaring the public. Uggh.

Read about it here:

http://www.dsd.es.northropgrumman.com/commercial_aircraft/index.html

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR01716.html

 

[Cornellianintel]

Well our friends and beltway bandits Northrop Grumman are out of control - launching a PR campaign to have the US Government fund IR countermeasures for domestic airliners to counter a completely made up domestic MANPADS threat.

I don't know who's worse - the legistlators for buying into the arguments of the greedy bastards or the contractors for scaring the public. Uggh.

Read about it here:

http://www.dsd.es.northropgrumman.com/commercial_aircraft/index.html

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR01716.html

I'm pretty much a hawk, but whenever I read stuff like this, I think of Eisenhower's farewell address...sigh.

 

[HeyJoe]

I'm pretty much a hawk, but whenever I read stuff like this, I think of Eisenhower's farewell address...sigh.

You mean the "military-industrial complex" and what future likely held?

 

[A4sForever]

It's actually kind funny when two of the most rabid, anti-gun Senators in Congress (Schumer & Boxer) --- who demagogue to a fault when the subject is anything dealing with the Second Amendment or personal self-protection; who do not trust the unwashed masses to "protect" themselves --- now buy into a highly dubious and extremely cost-ineffective plan to put antimissile defenses on commercial airliners.

Who's going to pay for all this preemptive largesse ??? The bankrupt carriers ??? The traveling public ??? Or Joe six-pack taxpayer ???

Schumer and Boxer. They don't want you to defend yourself on Mother Earth, but they will susbscribe to a "Wing and a Prayer" defensive plan in the heavens .... ???

I believe this is called .... "irony".

 

[Cornellianintel]

You mean the "military-industrial complex" and what future likely held?

That's exactly what I mean. It's not a perfect allusion, but the general gyst of what Eisenhower was saying still applies.

Best,
cac

 

[Cornellianintel]

It's actually kind funny when two of the most rabid, anti-gun Senators in Congress (Schumer & Boxer) --- who demagogue to a fault when the subject is anything dealing with the Second Amendment or personal self-protection; who do not trust the unwashed masses to "protect" themselves --- now buy into a highly dubious and extremely cost-ineffective plan to put antimissile defenses on commercial airliners.

Who's going to pay for all this preemptive largesse ??? The bankrupt carriers ??? The traveling public ??? Or Joe six-pack taxpayer ???

Of course you know the answer to that. The carriers can barely afford to fly the damned planes now. They can't jack up prices too dramatically without taking another hit in passenger through-put. So, that leaves door number three...In the name of homeland security.

Schumer and Boxer. They don't want you to defend yourself on Mother Earth, but they will susbscribe to a "Wing and a Prayer" defensive plan in the heavens .... ???



I believe this is called .... "irony".

I'll go ahead and hang my bias out there. If this was a perfectly ligitimate program, I'd probably oppose it because of those two jackels being the co-sponsors. I ran into Schumer a time or two when I interned on The Hill. He's as big a douchebag as you might imagine.

 

[ChuckMK23]

Consider the fact that Federal and state spending on transportation security (all transportation - ports, air, roads, bridges, TSA, etc.) comes to just shy of $4 billion annually.

Your good friends at NG and Sen. Schumer (who says you don't have the right to defend your family and home with a firearm) want to spend $11 billion equiping every domestic US airliner - and they are dead serious... "because MANPADS are pouring over the border", lol. Oh yeah and you folks who keep a shotgun at home are a public health threat, lol.

It's just funny and outright ludicrous at the same time to hear the rhetoric from Northrop...

...and here you guys can't fined the OPTAR to buy fuel so you can keep your instrument skills current. Hmmmm.

 

[Brett327]

Consider the fact that Federal and state spending on transportation security (all transportation - ports, air, roads, bridges, TSA, etc.) comes to just shy of $4 billion annually.

Your good friends at NG and Sen. Schumer (who says you don't have the right to defend your family and home with a firearm) want to spend $11 billion equiping every domestic US airliner - and they are dead serious... "because MANPADS are pouring over the border", lol. Oh yeah and you folks who keep a shotgun at home are a public health threat, lol.

It's just funny and outright ludicrous at the same time to hear the rhetoric from Northrop...

...and here you guys can't fined the OPTAR to buy fuel so you can keep your instrument skills current. Hmmmm.

Well, you can't really blame NG for lobbying in order to sell something - that's what corporations do, and as a stockholder, I would demand no less. It's up to responsible people in government who make the requirements decisions to sort out the details.

@ Chuck: You never cease to amaze me, good buddy. What's the matter - don't like "The Man?"


Brett

 

[HeyJoe]

Well, you can't really blame NG for lobbying in order to sell something - that's what corporations do, and as a stockholder, I would demand no less. It's up to responsible people in government who make the requirements decisions to sort out the details.

@ Chuck: You never cease to amaze me, good buddy. What's the matter - don't like "The Man?"


Brett

Grumman tried to use Congressional influence in case of F-14D years back and ended up getting production cancelled after 55 airframes and having SECDEF (Cheney) order all production tooling destroyed in a "in your face" to similar Congressional posturing. So this is just one round. If the requirement isn't there, expect to hear from McCain and other Congressional leaders who rail against what you are taking about. Democracy in action.

 

[ChuckMK23]

@ Chuck: You never cease to amaze me, good buddy. What's the matter - don't like "The Man?"


Brett

Ha!!!