MORE DELAYS FOR THE DREAMLINER
Boeing just can’t get it right. Airbus is reeling over poor orders, especially the A380 and Boeings order book is overflowing with firm orders for 737-800’s, 777’s and 787’s yet it cannot get itself into gear. The 787 has been delayed for five more weeks because they can’t fuse the aluminum wings to the body which is made of composite materials. The part that does the job is called a shear tie and Boeing engineers have discovered the wings might separate from the fuselage if exposed to extreme hot or cold temperatures. The jet is already two and half years behind schedule. They still cannot determine what the fix is. Just about every airline in the world has orders into Boeing for the 787 and just as well the recession is working in Boeing’s favor. I am sure there are a few carriers breathing a sigh of relief that they don’t have to take delivery right now and as the delays grow longer the greater the penalties Boeing has to cough up with. It is a great deal for the airlines but a savage blow to Boeing’s reputation.
Good news is Boeing is ramping up 737-800 production another 10% and 777 orders are holding firm. Airbus have been experiencing cancellation in orders and options. For years the European Union and especially France has been propping up Airbus. With the financial crisis enveloping Europe, Airbus might have to start selling their aircraft based upon the real costs of production. This bodes well for Boeing as over the past month the Euiro has devalued nearly 25% against the greenback. The only way Airbus was able to outsell Boeing over the last ten years has been government subsidies have allowed them to have better pricing.
Boeing is a story of outsourcing gone crazy. Much of the blame for production delays is suppliers have either not been able to deliver on time or their parts did not meet up to specification or quality. So much of the stuff should have been manufactured by Boeing-owned factories where quality and production could be controlled from within. This would have avoided Boeing having to fork out $billions in penalties to airlines for delays in delivery. Ever since Boeing moved “mahogany row” from the Everett manufacturing complex to Chicago, their once smooth manufacturing process has gone to hell in a hand-basket.
CII BUYING MORE X-RAY SCREENING EQUIPMENT
Ever since the Department of Home Security set up the TSA arm we have been most cognizant over its power to implement its programs and the need for us to stay absolutely abreast of the rules and regulations. We have had two people employed solely on our own program and I believe we are the first forwarder to employ staff exclusively for inspection of freight. For us the way we tackled security was all about survival rather than studying any possible commercial advantage over our competition. We thought the industry as a whole would embrace security just as we have, but over the last few months we have learned that this is not the case. Many were under the belief they TSA would wilt under the pressure of so many forwarders not yet being ready to meet the deadlines that they would delay the implementation.
Sadly for those forwarders that have sat on their hands, they literally have three months to prepare themselves for 100% screening or their businesses could face dire circumstances. Small forwarders especially may have to hand their customers over to friendly competitors and become commission agents. Others will have to sub-contract handling and security out to third parties. Last week one of the largest multi-national transportation companies in the world approached us asking if we could take over their handling and screening. The cost for them to set up another division such as we have within our own small company was simply too great. We are just awaiting approval from TSA that our program designed to handle this freight will absolutely comply with their regulations. Once we are given the green light we will this corporation will sign the contract and freight will immediately start being delivered to our Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York terminals.
If we were asked the question three years ago that there was a commercial opportunity by investing staff and equipment to screen freight, we would have said the airlines will probably throw in screening for nothing. By their actions only large forwarders that could present freight in ULD’s would exercise the option to handle their own screening. How wrong we were holding this view. Airlines don’t really want a bar of it unless it is at a commercial rate and even then they are well aware their terminals are not designed for holding and inspecting freight. If a multi-national sees only costs and ongoing problems a company such as ours with its commitment by way of specially trained staff and adequate equipment there must be opportunity. Thanks to Peter Lamy, Zachary Zemby and Jeremy Vergara we have a wonderful chance to have a division which will add dollars to our bottom line instead of being a cost center. The new machines we have just purchased from Rapiscan will allow us to handle mega-tons per day in all three terminals. Roll along August 1st; we are ready!
PRESIDENTS OBAMA AND KARZAI
Last week’s meeting in Washington between Presidents Obama and Karzai brought home to me the hypocrisy of modern day politics and diplomacy. On his own turf Karzai has acted with the same zealousness in his condemnation of America as that psycho idiot from Iran, Ahmadinejad. What has Afghanistan got what we need? Poppies? Bin Laden? At least Iran has oil and is supplying our greatest enemy, China. It is also now a nuclear power. If there is one country we should closely follow and attempt to destabilize at every opportunity, it is Iran. We are aware that the country is teetering on another revolution to bring it back out of the dark ages and the student unrest there is leading the confrontation against with the religious establishment. Just like we have done with Central and South America, we could fund and arm the antagonists in Iran and Ahmadinejad would be racing to France for asylum in no time at all. The result would be great for Middle East peace and once again we would have our traditional source of oil supply returned to us. It is a win/win.
By contrast there is nothing but lose/lose courting Karzai and his bunch corrupt thugs. For me all this war has done has cost us valuable lives of brave young soldiers and lowered the street price of heroin to compete against crack as the drug of choice for addicts. We don’t really know who our enemy in Afghanistan is, as experts now tell us Al Qaeda jumped across the border to reside in Pakistan. At the beginning of the war it was all about flushing out bin Laden and his fellow cave dwellers. With this as the goal I was under the impression the Taliban came over to our side because the equal disdain for this mutual enemy. Today the Taliban is claiming responsibility for all sorts of acts of violence against our soldiers in Afghanistan.
The reason for Karzai’s visit was nothing short of a mission of blackmail. The sole purpose of his trip was to demand more cash and if he didn’t get it then he would be “forced” to surrender to the Taliban. This man is the best friend of the war lords who control Afghanistan’s only industry; black tar. Some knowledgeable individuals say Karzai and his family are the biggest traders of the drug to the western world and have been for decades. My argument is who cares about the Taliban? They are not international terrorists and it appears few Muslims outside of Afghanistan have ever supported their cause. Karzai, sorry mate, if I were the President of USA, I would immediately order the troops back home, let the civil war begin and may the best man win. Afghanistan is of no value whatsoever and as much as I hate the human rights that exist there, let the Europeans (Europe is all but a close neighbor) become advisors/policemen. I then would redirect all the drones into blowing the Pakistani border into oblivion so every last vestige of Al Qaeda is eradicated. Immediately after that I would quit and let that other arch enemy of ours, Pakistan pick up the pieces. Without Al Qaeda, Pakistan is no threat because they are so pre-occupied with the possibility of an attack from India.
I’ve said it before; America has to sort out who are our real enemies. It certainly is not North Korea or Iran; they are China, Russia and India in that order. They want to see an economically weak and universally unpopular America so they can wield their own influence upon the world. We are slowly being sucked into that web. It is called globalization. The sad thing is it is the American multinational corporations who are effectively sponsoring it. Unfortunately we do have traitors in our camp.
HEY GREENIES WHAT ABOUT NATURAL DISASTERS?
All eyes are on BP as they clean up the mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Just like the Exxon Valdez disaster, it will take years for the courts to process all the claims and probably at least a decade before insurance pays anything out. I personally believe the contractors Halliburton and Transocean are at fault, but America at long last can blame an overseas-owned corporation for polluting our waters. Man-made environmental disasters always capture the headlines and greenies milk those situations to death. While I agree we should be in harmony with nature and protect our planet for future generations, I have grown very tired of those bearded, sandal wearing intellectual male types, dressed in dark green corduroy trousers and dark brown hemp shirts and those bare footed, mustachioed, hairy-armed and legged women with unwashed long hair dressed in ankle length tie died cotton skirts telling us doomsday is upon us and it’s all our fault.
Well to all you smart-assed tree huggers how are you going to fix the disaster that has occurred in Iceland? You were the idiots who promoted this carbon emissions bullshit. You have held several conferences over the years, all of which ended up fiascos, with the left wing media swallowing up and publishing every word of your deceit and lies as though it were the gospel truth. I got a real laugh before the Copenhagen get together when confidential emails were published of a British professor (and a so-called expert on climate change) telling the recipient his views were nothing but a crock of shit with not a shred of fact/truth attached to his theories. For me that was the perfect and “credible” start for the world to be barraged by a week long series of lectures of how the sky was really going to fall in on Chicken Little’s head!
The ash from the Iceland volcanic eruption has already negated every single effort over the last five years to control CO 2 emissions. Not only that, this single act of God has added emissions to the earth estimated to be forty-two times more than can be corrected by the extreme human regulations proposed for annual reductions. Just look at the natural disasters we have faced in America over the last fifteen years culminating in Hurricane Katrina. It will take years for normality to be restored to the recently affected flooded areas of the Midwest and Southeast. The environmental loss is huge and cannot be measured in dollars. My point is this; can we have some intellectual integrity here? There should more doom and gloom attached to naturally occurring disasters by those who study the environment because man has to learn ways of how to repair what God occasionally deals to us. In most cases, governments just make temporary repairs to the devastated areas. Few are ever made good. Indonesia still has millions displaced by the Tsunami and thousands of square miles of what was once fertile land rendered useless for agriculture or planting back into forest. Haiti’s earthquake has assured us the population will only move into more abject poverty than before and New Orleans will remain a work in progress until another hurricane comes along.
So listen here you worthless, phony greenie wannabes, get you heads out of your asses, stop smoking dope and take a reality check. Your efforts are better utilized expending positive energy into correcting and fixing the aftermath of naturally occurring disasters than protesting by hugging a redwood tree in Oregon or organizing another summit where you can grandstand with the world’s big shots for a week.
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