Well, essentially that is the state of the relationship between Wichita, Kansas and the Boeing aircraft company. That relationship began back in 1929 when Stearman Aircraft of Wichta, Kansas joined Boeing aircraft company. And that has been an ongoing relationship ever since. What is particularly gauling about this particular relationship is that Wichita and Kasas have invested heavily in this relationship. Wichita claims Boeing has received more that $600,000 million in tax breaks to keep their plant in Wichita. Beyond that, in the battle for Boeing to get the new Air Force tanker contract they relied heavily on the Kansas congressional delegation to lobby on their behalf. According to this evening’s news report a Boeing representative had even promised that if they won the contract for this new tanker it would be built in Witchita. Well, Boeing won the contract and now they say they are going to close their Witchita plant. Well South Carolina, let this be a lesson to you.

There are now not three big lies but four: 1. The check’s in the mail. 2. Of course I’ll respect you in the morning…..4. And for sure we’ll keep our plant here to build that plane. Wonder if Wichita at least got a kiss?

And for Boeing, friends come and go but enemies accumulate.

I changed the name of the blog from Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to the current appellation with the idea of expanding the focus of the things I post. The idea of making this change has been incubating for a couple weeks now but I want to acknowledge the inspiration for making this change, another blog,  Honey, have you seen my keys? Happened to stumble on it after finding an unintended link at the bottom of an email.  Because the email came from my buddy Jack I thought the link was to his blog. When I asked him though he did not even realize he had sent the link out. Initially we could not find out whose blog this was. After a little sleuthing we discovered the connection and many more of us have been rewarded with some good stories and an interesting blog. I hope this one turns out half as good.

Anyhow, with things picking up and the race soon to be on to election day November 2012 I’m sure I’ll find it cathartic to release my frustrations here. So off we go to Election 2012.

A Bloomberg National Poll conducted Oct. 24-26 finds that by a two-to-one margin, likely voters in the Nov. 2 midterm elections think taxes have gone up under the Obama administration, when in fact, Obama cut taxes by $240 billion since taking office.

Clearly, the problem Obama and this administration has is that it can’t sell the truth to the American people while his predecessor had little problem selling lies. Until this administration learns how to get its message out and convince Americans of the truth and get them to comprehend, it will make less progress and ultimately may be driven from office.
Rather than a Kumbayah moment with the Republicans, Obama needs to find a team and a means to forcefully get his message to the American people. At one point 69 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein played a role in the 9-11 attacks on our nation. If Bush and his cronies could get Americans to believe a lie Obama and his team need to find the way to get the American people to see the truth. Until Democrats resolve that dilemma they’ll spend more than a few years in the political wilderness.

The Daily Show: Obama’s Broken Promises

When Bill O’Reilly and others on the right are skewered by Stewart we cheer and yet when he does it to one of our own we are less than ready to acknowledge the Emperor wears no clothes. Obama is our guy in power and if he starts acting like he’s Bush 44 rather than Obama 44 I think it is only appropriate that we should be the ones to hold him to account. Stewart calls Obama on his stand on Habeas Corpus, Renditions, Warrant less Wiretaps, and Whistle blowers. If it were Bush in the White House we’d be tweeting about it, blogging, and looking for a candidate to support with the promise of changing this. That was our candidate. So when Obama falls back on these promises it stings doubly so. At least from Bush we did not expect a whole lot more.
This is not a case of Mom drunk or sober. No, if Mom’s a drunk we ought to be getting her help to dry out.

The survival of an independent [read U.S. -oriented] Government in South Viet Nam is so important to the security of Southeast Asia and to the free world that I can conceive of no alternative other than to take all measures within our capability to prevent a Communist victory.

If we don’t make a stand here not only will we lose Vietnam but the whole of Southeast Asia and quite probably our influence in the Pacific. In retrospect it is more than obvious the dire warnings were wrong and reflect the lack of an honest,critical analysis of that situation. And the dire warnings today no less reflect the lack of critical analysis of the Afghan situation and lessons learned from past experience.

Unless we want to be an occupying force in Afghanistan in perpetuity, the only way we are going to succeed in our endeavor is to win the hearts and minds of the Afghani peoples for their own government. At the moment that government is the one we placed in power and has not been able to win the hearts and minds of its own people for the past eight years. But we are now going to transform the perceptions of the Afghani people in a matter of less than two years. To assuage the suspicion of the myriad tribes of Afghanistan President Obama attempted to allay their concern by saying,

We have no interest in occupying your county… And we will seek a partnership with Afghanistan grounded in mutual respect -

Quite similarly back in March of 1965 President Lyndon Johnson issued some similar reassuring words,

The United States still seeks no wider war. We threaten no regime and covet no territory.

The similarites of the two struggles have so much in common, from a corrupt government propped up by the U.S. administration to our inability/unwillingness to recognize the extent of the insurgent shaddow government and the extent of its influence over the the majority of the country.

From the New York Times August 15th, 1964, “Control of an area can change overnight. In many parts of the country, American field workers complete a technical aid project, a bridge, a road, or a well, only to have the guerillas occupy the village the moment the Americans and their Vietnamese co-workers pull out.” (The War of the Fle, Robert Taber)

And likewise control of an area in Afghanistan, today can change overnight,

US forces have abandoned a small base in eastern Afghanistan that was the scene of an intense assault by Taleban fighters in which 9 US soldiers died. The base was quickly occupied by Taleban fighters after the departure of the US forces, according to local government officials.

Nato spokesmen confirmed that US forces pulled out of the base in Wanat village of Nuristan yesterday afternoon. TimesOnline

And so we abandon the country side and remote outposts to consolidate our forces in typical garrison style to minimize our exposure. The typical response to the typical dilemma of guerilla warfare, the War of the Flea. If we are no longer in the remote countryside of Afghanistan we have in effect turned over control of that area to the insurgents.

What happened in South Viet Nam recalled the experience of China, and in another hemisphere, of Cuba. The insurgents had established a competing economic and political system, dividing the national territory, and although the army might still go where it chose–but always in strong force–it coud not remain without spreading itself too thin to resist concentrated guerilla attacks. Thus the troops were increasingly restricted to their garrisons and in the larger towns and cities, and increasingly made impotent.”

Just a reminder, Mao Tse Tung in his uprising in China overcame the military force of the Kuomintang with a force numbering around 3 million 700 thousand strong. And in no country to date has an insurgent force lost. But we are going to change all of that with a force of a mere 100,000+ troops. The only thing is no one has told us just yet how they are going to do this. In the meantime, we continue to lose a few of our forces here and a few there and even after 8 years (and now one year of the Obama administration) we see no clear sign that we have found a way for the dog to take care of the fleas before he succumbs to a million bites.

Look But Don’t Touch
by Alexis

The door opens.
The room seems small to our party of five,
But holds the steel bed in the center.
It looks so small in the sparse, cold little room.
He looks asleep,
The blanket tucked up to his chin,
Eyes closed, his face still that earth-child tan.
I want to say,
“Ha ha, good joke,” or “C’mon, wake up so we can go home,”
But nothing is said.
Like an antique,
Or somethng otherworldly,
The rule remains:
Look, see, cry, speak in whispers.
Do not touch.

.
.
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Don’t Drink and Drive!

Republicans complaining about government spending when they are not the party in power is like a hooker advocating abstinence between tricks.

Verification measures aren’t always effective either. A House Oversight Committee investigation “reviewed six state Medicaid programs in 2007 and concluded that verification rules had cost the federal government an additional $8.3 million. They caught exactly eight illegal immigrants.” The Government Accountability Office has found that such requirements caused eligible U.S. citizens to lose Medicaid coverage.