http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/02/olympics.2016/index.html
Those of us who live in or near ORD's Class B already have to contend with plenty of flight restrictions, and TFRs when POTUS is in town.
I, for one, was not looking forward to the disruption an activity like this causes, despite the fact that it opened the door for a number of interesting possibilities for CAP.
When the boss is in Boston, the TFR ends about a mile or so SE of the place I skydive at. *whew*
However, when he comes to Portsmouth and Pease ANGB, the poor guys at Skydive New England are out of luck. Same thing when President Bush would visit Dad @ Kennebunkport. (they finally got the Secret Service to allow them to fly, but they had to have some sort of a law enforcement officer in the co-pilot seat (with the attendant loss of per-jumper revenue.. it was flaky)
Those mobile/pop-up TFRs are no joke, neither.
This is a clear snapshot of how the world is viewing the Obama presidency so far. That is.. that while he is a very eloquent orator, he is a complete and total failure as a leader. For example, ending the Iraq war, closing Guantanamo, passing nationalized health care, easing race relations (the professor / "stupid" cop / beer incident), passing spending bills that have done nothing to stimulate the economy, 9.8% and rising unemployment, declining job approval polls, and now the failure to get the olympics in 2016. All of this with huge majorities in the house and senate, so claiming Republican obstructionism is out. Obama was a great campaigner but he's proving he can't get the job done when it counts. I know he's still in year 1 but he better start leading before the 2010 elections come up or he's done for.
???
You do know the POTUS has no authority over the International Olympic Committee, right?
I would say this is more likely at least partially an issue of the demographics of the committee. North America is at a decided disadvantage in simple voting numbers.
As I recall from a radio story yesterday, Asia has the highest numbers with Europe #2. The gist was that if everyone just votes "home team" Chicago was not going to win. And they didn't.
Chicago versus Rio? Are you kidding? Have you been to Chicago? The homicide rate in Chi-town is higher than Iraq, and I have been wondering when the new administration will develop an "exit strategy" to get the U.S. out of Chicago! (Too many of our young people have died to try and make Chicago free....) Obama thought that his new status as President of the New World Order would guarantee the slot? What incredible hubris!
Remember all the corruption surrounding the Olympic Committee in Utah? When it comes to corruption, Utah can hang its head in shame when compared to the world-class, Al Capone, Daly crime family, corruption levels of Chicago. Only New Orleans can beat them in the prestigious "Graft Olympics"!
As far as I know, every city that has ever hosted the Olympics has come out swimming in red ink, so maybe the plan is to create yet another bail-out plan for his core constituents. I doubt that they would let CAP play anyway.
Major Lord
Quote from: dwb on October 02, 2009, 06:31:42 PM
???
You do know the POTUS has no authority over the International Olympic Committee, right?
Of course I realize Obama has no authority over the IOC, but he went to the IOC in order to persuade them to choose Chicago right? In so much as the current POTUS' ability to persuade anything right now, the IOC, public opinion, congress, etc.. he's completely failed.
I would like to see what the expense of this fiasco comes out to with all of the jets and personnel involved.
25 min with the general could have been accomplished with a secure line or even just a SIPRNET e-mail.
Should the cost be defrayed from his own wallet (not mine)?
And CAP participates in the Olympics how? Dow we have a team?
Quote from: Spike on October 02, 2009, 08:25:19 PM
And CAP participates in the Olympics how? Dow we have a team?
CAP provided aerial surveillance and photography services to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and the local discussions and assumptions were that similar services would be provided here on a larger scale.
Another hope was that the senor pod initiative would be successful and by 2016 mature enough to be a fairly routine part of operations that could be used during these activities.
Quote from: sandman on October 02, 2009, 08:19:42 PM
25 min with the general could have been accomplished with a secure line or even just a SIPRNET e-mail.
It looks like the general saved money by showing up for a meeting with the President in a field uniform instead of something respectable.
Believe me, I'm all about wearing the comfortable uniform, but if for some reason I was going to meet with the President about CAP I would be in service dress.
Quote from: RiverAux on October 02, 2009, 08:35:47 PM
Quote from: sandman on October 02, 2009, 08:19:42 PM
25 min with the general could have been accomplished with a secure line or even just a SIPRNET e-mail.
It looks like the general saved money by showing up for a meeting with the President in a field uniform instead of something respectable.
Believe me, I'm all about wearing the comfortable uniform, but if for some reason I was going to meet with the President about CAP I would be in service dress.
I'm all about comfort too. I do think the Army has relaxed a bit too much with this ACU.
Having seen the Army from the inside and the other-side no doubt that it has become "ghetto" (in respect to public presentation / i.e. uniforms).
Sometimes I wish I stayed Navy just to be able to wear a good looking and respectable uniform.
No idea how this degraded to uniforms, again, but my understanding was that the standard duty uniform
for the Army was ACU's as a recognition of the war.
The additional nation-wide security exposure of an event like this is just not worth the risk in the current environment. Chicago has spent MILLIONS of dollars so far to try and snag this even, but the true security and infrastructure costs will be passed along to the US taxpayers, not IL or Chicago, which will almost certainly go upside down on the event anyway. CAP volunteer costs notwithstanding. Now to go back to the real important things: Was B. Hussein a member of the Congressional Squadron? If so, its time for a form 50 review!
Admittedly, a large scale event like this would be ideal for CAP, since everyone would know the dates in advance, and we could (almost) guarantee staffing levels.
Major Lord
Quote from: Major Lord on October 02, 2009, 10:21:53 PM
Admittedly, a large scale event like this would be ideal for CAP, since everyone would know the dates in advance, and we could (almost) guarantee staffing levels.
Major Lord
This would have been a pretty good event for CAP - if SLC was an indicator, we would have been flying surveillance of the "out site" venues along with critical infrastructure. Would have been a great mission.
As far as choosing Rio . . . the IOC stands to make a great deal more money there than in Chicago. Not as an organization, but individually in graft. Anything south of the Rio Grande is all about greasing the palm of the decision makers. The folks on the committee is going to make MILLIONS each! As bad as Chicago is, they didn't have a chance. Rio has world class corruption and graft and it makes the Chicago machine look like pikers.
The IOC is crooked as they come and there's no "Olympic altruism" to be found. SLC was going down the tubes because of the IOC demanding "this and that." It wasn't until Mitt Romney came along to turn it around was the success secured. Who was going to do that in Chicago? Mayor Dailey? ;D [/drift] [/politics]
I was elated to see Chicago get dumped in the first round. :clap: I was not looking foward to my kids and grandkids having to pay for that thing for years to come.
Now we just have to pay for the Starcom 21 system the state purchased in hopes of getting the Olympics.
The cost to Brazil was estimated at $14,000,000,000 to construct all the venues and infrastructure to host the olympics. If Chicago had hosted it, it most likely would have been more. Remember that after all these outlays of TAX money, all the revenues goe to the IOC, and the city, county, and state (I'm sure President Obama would have had federal money in there), is paid off over the next 30-50 years through bonds. In most areas government bonds are never paid off, they are instead extended to pay for repairs or other things to keep the project alive.
^ All true, but there's also a few billion in revenue to area business, permanent infrastructure, and years of jobs leading up to the activity.
Its called the "city that works" for a reason - things get done the old school way, and generally the only people who complain are the ones not part of the gravy train.
There would have been graft, traffic, monumental construction projects, huge cost over runs, and in the end it would have gone off with little excitement, and been a smashing success.
Afterwards it would have kept the underprivileged prosecutors and defense lawyers in the whole region busy through to the next century.
relevance to CAP and Emergency services & Operations specifically?