Boeing Loses tanker contract – Out come the Lobbies!

It is all about a contract worth thirty-nine billion dollars in about 10 years. A consortium of Northrup Grunman and EADS (Airbus) beat Boeing in a sealed bid process. Analysts were surprised. Boeing has been making the tanker for decades. Boeing has even set up facilities across the world to feed parts back to California and Washington for the baseline production. Wall Street is outraged. Even the most adamant supporters of offshoring US jobs were outraged. Nancy Pelosi, Representative of California, announced an investigation. The big politician on the Appropriations Committee said, “We [in the committee] hold the purse strings. If we do not like it then it will not happen!”

Therefore, it is ok to rip apart the basic US infrastructures, allowing millions of jobs to transfer to countries that allow slave labor and unsafe working environments in the name of profits but touch Boeing’s project and the world is coming to an end.

Why would Ms. Pelosi be so concerned about one contract, and the purported loss of jobs, and not care when Boeing is moving most of its production facilities to China and Vietnam?

The new production of the 787 will be executed outside of the US only to be “assembled” by US workers. Just because Boeing is incorporated in the US does not mean that it is a US company yet the rhetoric coming out of Washington DC is that the US military is giving US jobs to a European company.

Boeing has a long history of paying off politicians. They have been convicted of this several times in the past. It is obvious that Boeing is now calling in its markers. Some politicians have gone so far to say that it is a question of national security. These individuals indicate that given Europe’s disagreement with the warmonger policies of the Bush Administration that European suppliers will slow down the production of certain pieces necessary to make the tankers. “America will no longer be master of its own destiny!” is their fear based rhetoric.

It could be valuable to remember that Boeing is under investigation for sharing sensitive technology with China and the basis of their new facilities in China is the sharing of technology.

Our question should be, “Do we prefer to share technology and work with countries that have interests similar to our own or do we want to continue to send technology and jobs to a country that has shown and continues to show that they are not our friends nor do they share common future goals?”

Boeing is no longer a US company. China is not our friend. Politicians are corrupt. The choice of Northrup Grunman over Boeing is the best solution.

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Veteran’s Day 2007

Veteran’s Day for some is a holiday. Some veterans prefer not to be reminded of their experience. Still, for others, it is a sad day to remember a father, brother or son (without forgetting all the women who have served). I am not a veteran. I cannot say that I have had any great loss in the family of soldiers who have died. Fortunately our family has been spared of the grief of war even though my father, grandfather, 7 uncles, 2 aunts, and a nephew have served. I watched the ceremonies with a grateful heart, knowing what terrible things can be experienced in a time of war.

I realized, these are not the times of my youth when soldiers in wheelchairs were spit upon as they returned to their homes. No respecting hotty would ever have been seen with a soldier, in or out of uniform. Today we all verbally express our appreciation for those men and women who risk their lives, leave their families and risk the mental sanity to serve our government’s bidding. Remember, like it or not, a government is the face of the people. Whether you agree with the wars or America’s foreign policy or not, our military serves and protects us. Seemingly, with all this lip service, our views of veterans have changed since I was a young whippersnapper.

Unfortunately, while our words to our veterans express appreciation and admiration, our actions speak otherwise. Veterans are the largest identifying group among the homeless. Companies do not hold jobs for veterans while serving. The government does everything it can to diminish the cost of caring for the physical and mental healthcare needs of veterans. In other words, “Thank you so much for serving instead of me. Let me shake the hand of the men and women who protect the American culture and my family. Dear veteran thank you for all you have done but now that you are no longer needed, get out of my face!”

I am amazed that our use and abuse attitude also applies to our citizens, our veterans. I get perturbed when I see politicians laying a reef on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier or visiting the Vietnam Wall. I get pissed when politicians use Veteran’s Day to talk up their personal agendas. I shout, “SHAME ON YOU, POLITICIANS! TAKE CARE OF OUR VETERANS. THEY ARE THE REASON YOU ARE ABLE TO GO AROUND FEELING SO IMPORTANT.”

To all those who serve or have served this country, Thank you for protecting my right to express my disdain for our politicians.

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International Labor Day and screwing the US citizen

Somehow it seems appropriate that national demonstrations would occur on May 1, International Labor Day. While this celebration is based on horrendous atrocities propagated by a former president of the US against the middle class workers, the rest of the world has adopted this day as an opportunity to express their desire for social change. Across the US illegal immigrants are protesting for their “rights” to be legalized through Amnesty since they were able to illegally enter the US without getting caught. It also seems appropriate that just as Grover Cleveland killed striking US workers in cold blood that this day would be used to kill the US worker by passing legislation to open up US borders to the floods of less fortunate from around the world.

In a time where the US economy is under performing the rest of the world our politicians want to guarantee an inexhaustible source of slave labor to corporate America. These same politicians and business leaders are proposing cutting or eliminating contractual benefits already paid for by the working American. They are also proposing cuts to healthcare for injured military personnel, otherwise we will have to raise taxes. We can subsidize corporate America, going to war to protect American interests (read business investments in unstable parts of the world), but we cannot raise taxes on the corporations to pay for the services they are receiving.

Screw the American worker, we can always replace him with an immigrant from another country! We should be demonstrating in the streets. Protesting against corrupt politicians. Protesting against collusion between Government and Business. This is our country. Today we vote and our vote needs to say that we will not allow these politicians to continue to go against the will of the American people. Vote against any politician supporting Amnesty. Vote against any politician not supporting securing our borders. Vote against any politician not actively working to free our border agents unjustly convicted for doing their job.

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Value of an Individual – Worth of a Soldier

I was listening to my weekend financial programs on FOX Business News. These are part of my weekly habits necessary for my job. I have long proposed that no CEO is worth more than $1 million a year. I am a CEO and have made pretty good money. The commentators, all proponents of Cowboy Capitalism, whose only measure of value is wealth, have long supported eliminating all regulation on companies with the usual, oh if people do not want to work there they can go elsewhere, etc. A comment caught my attention.

“Let’s face it, the CEO is not the same as the person stocking the shelves at WALMART or TARGET. He is worth $100 million a year while the employee should be happy that the company is giving him $15k year because, frankly, he is not worth it.”

They then proceeded to talk about how the US needed to bomb IRAN, send more soldiers into IRAQ, and generally move more soldiers into harms way to protect their investments around the world.

When a soldier is killed his family gets $100k. A CEO is worth $100 million a year. The soldier in the best case exposes himself to physical danger and his family to financial disaster and in the worst case is maimed or DEAD. What is he doing, protecting the international interested not of America, instead of Corporate America. He gives his life to protect the same people who value his entire life and the life of his family less than 1 day of a CEO.

I think we need to look at this differently. I value the life of a soldier more than I value the life of any CEO. Therefore we should increase the death or serious injury policy on every soldier to $10 million and triple the annual salary for all military personnel. This should be paid for with a 99% tax on all earnings over $1 million.

We talk about values here in the US. We talk about protecting life, we talk about individual’s rights. Perhaps it is time that we actually do something about it. I have earned over $1 million a year. I currently do not. It is very difficult to spend intelligently over $1 million a year. Let’s actually do something, not just lip service, to show that we do value life over other things. Lets pay for the life of a soldier just like we pay for a day in the life of a CEO.

We have allowed Corporate America to buddy into our political system. With tax deductible donations, Corporate America has bought control of the US political system. A legal entity is more important than flesh and blood. I am sorry, I just do not agree. The life of any soldier is worth more than the life of any CEO, including my own. I just make money. He/She protects my kids.

Tags: Politics Corporate America Walmart Minimum Wage War on the Middle Class CEO Compensation Military Iraq

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