Crap Throwing Monkey

I am !@#$ing amazed that you didn't sneak some snide remark in there about how lemmings don't shoot other lemmings in the face...

An SU-25 is NOT going to reach America. It's not even going to reach Tel Aviv. They're short-range low-altitude heavily armored aircraft. And yes, releasing a weapon successfully requires a plane fly within a given set of parameters defined for that weapon. It's not just "drop and pray", even with nukes. Even with suicide missions. The real world, in fact, is more complex than portrayed in "24".

In the Iran-Iraq war, they used them as ersatz AWACS. Supposedly, they've managed to retrofit I-Hawk SAMs (yes, SAMs) to them, but I have serious problems believing that report, for obvious reasons. Just because they're buying them, doesn't mean they have a specific mission in mind. Not everyone procures like the US did with the A-10, with a very specific combat situation envisioned. Hell, the US doesn't even do that anymore...look at the friggin' Raptor program. But anyway...with PGMs, they apparently have a creditable naval strike capability. The Russians designed a variant of the SU-25 for their carrier, at least... They have them, both purchased outright and ex-Iraqi planes flown to Iran during Desert Storm.

Ouch! You sure showed us...

I don't have time to read it now, so just tell me: are any of those lessons along the lines of "When a mandatory evacuation is declared, move your ass, idiots!"

I was watching the local FoxSnooze coverage of this last night. One of the features of their story was an interview with a B-more resident complaining about how her kids were going to be unsafe because we're "selling our ports" to the rag-heads. One of the other feature points was a bullet-point list of the UAE's "involvement" in 9/11: some of the money went through a UAE bank (news flash: ALL the money went through American banks...so what?), and one of the hijackers was from the UAE. And because of THAT, a company owned by the friggin' sand !@#$s can't be given maintenance contracts on US ports. There was virtually NO news in the story whatsoever, just bias. And yes...I typed "rag heads" and "sand !@#$s". Because let's characterize this story as what it actually is: straight-up, unadulterated xenophobic racism.

You have extensive experience in the federal competitive bid projects? I've been involved in five of them. I'm involved in two now. I've never seen one take any less than a year. One of the ones I'm invovled in now, despite being "competitive" bid, is being bid on by one company...and that's taking more than a year.

Any idea what the effective flight envelope for a combat-laden SU-25 is? Any idea what the flight paramaters are for dropping a first- or second-generation nuclear weapon? Any idea if the two coincide? Not all planes are created equal.

They still have quite a few - 40 or so. But they have no parts for them, so they have to keep cannibalizing some of them to keep others flying. I've heard that at any given time they can get roughly nine of them in the air. Just flying isn't enough, though. Combat worthiness is another matter. If they have any combat capability at all, it's got to be some weird kludged-together combination of different technologies.

Someone needs to ask this question: what functions, precisely, are being turned over in this sale?

And I'll say it AGAIN: This administration flat-out sucks at marketing.

Lots of them were repurchased in the Clinton administration. There's not THAT many still in circulation (there probably weren't that many to begin with...the ubiquity of the Stingers was less with the mujahaddin than it was with the media. I'd be surprised if any more than a few hundred were ever shipped to Afghanistan. Of course, it only takes a couple...) I'd be more worried about Russian man-portable SAMs like the SA-7 or SA-16. Russian arms seem to get around far more than US ones.

We don't. Port operations is not the same as managing and determining the content that moves in and out. As I rightly heard pointed out this morning: physical security in terms of shipping containers is still the responsibility of US Customs, people are still the responsiblity of Immigration.

I've come to the realization that Halliburton's not bad. Halliburton lives in a magical pixie land inhabited by elves and unicorns and competitive bids take the same amount of time as no-bid contracts.

You know, they missed one of the biggest ones: Jack Bauer can get anywhere in LA in ten minutes.

This is a joke, right? You must be kidding.

Well...if Cheney led the bird too much, then technically...

But freedom of speech in America should apply in Austria, since they both begin with "A"! And sound travels faster than light in space...doesn't it?

That was not a false quote. That was taken directly from one of your posts. Of course, it was out of context...but seeing as you've never had a problem with quotations taken out of context before, I didn't see why it would bother you now...

Ooooh...looks like I hit a nerve.

And I quote...

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "The VP was drunk when he shot Whittington in the face..."

It was an honest mistake, considering how suspiciously similar it to your posting style.

"Liberal"?

What the !@#$ is "ice dancing"?