kscarbel2

Between Hillary Clinton and the Republican candidates, not a single person qualified to hold the office of President. Such was the case in 2000 with Bush and Gore, neither man qualified to be more than a state governor. The Republican clan starred a 71-year-old McCain in 2008, shockingly supported by a controversial Sarah Palin (At age 79, McCain is still in congress.......the aristocracy doesn't allow term limits). There actually was a proper candidate in 2012, for the first time in decades........Jon Huntsman. But the masses obediently remained tuned to the mainstream stars. .

A glimpse of how the aristocracy remains in power and wealth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hillary's chief of staff gave Clinton crony access to bilateral talks with China to promote his car dealerships there Associated Press / January 4, 2016 A former top aide to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state arranged for crucial access to Chinese officials so Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff could promote his private car dealership business to China. Cheryl Mills, Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department, arranged the visit between a Chinese delegation and Bill Clinton’s chief of staff Thomas 'Mack' McLarty at a State Department dinner. McLarty had asked for an invitation to the dinner, which occurred in the spring of 2011, because of 'our substantial family investment in the automotive sector. The revelation comes to light from just released emails from whene Clinton was secretary of state over the 2009 to 2013 period. McLarty followed up with an email thanking Mills, and said the dinner allowed him to connect with both Hillary Clinton and Chinese officials. The thank-you email was forwarded to Hillary Clinton. Clinton has been criticized on the campaign trail by Republicans who accuse her of cronyism and opportunism at the State Department, but the former secretary of state remains the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. McLarty is now a prominent Democratic fund-raiser and donor, having contributed at least $400,000 to Democratic political action committees as well as Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaigns as well as her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids McLarty says using connections in government was 'pretty standard' to promote his private business interests, and noted that he has also reached out to George W. Bush and Barack Obama's administrations. 'I know the Clintons — I know them — and Secretary Clinton was secretary of state, so it was a normal thing to reach out,' he said. 'I was simply making our interests — my interest — aware to the proper officials in the government, that we would like to participate if it were appropriate … and I’m sure there were a lot of other business people there.' Both Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Mills' lawyer refused to comment. News of McLarty's access was included in 5,552 pages of emails the State Department released on New Year's Eve as part of its compliance with a federal court order. Past emails have painted a similar portrait of Mills as an aide with powerful connections and access. McLarty owns a variety of car dealerships in foreign countries. His son Mark was running the family's Beijing company at the time of the Chinese dinner. The McLarty's later sold their Chinese dealerships for $305 million in 2012. McLarty approached Mills at a time when car business in China was booming, as sales in the country had grown by 30 percent in 2010. He emailed Mills on May 7, 2011 to inquire about a Strategic and Economic Dialogue event with the Chinese leaders scheduled for May 9 and May 10. 'If there is a reception or part of the SED meeting that appropriately includes members from the private sector, I would like to be appropriately considered,' McLarty wrote. Mills responded the next morning, inviting him instead to a separate SED dinner hosted by Clinton on the conference's opening night. 'I checked into our events on China. While I am given to understand we do not have any particular event that is engaging those from the private sector, the Secretary is hosting a dinner tomorrow evening at State that we would welcome you attending if that works with your schedule,' she wrote. Related reading - http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/hillary-clinton-cheryl-mills-mack-mclarty-217305

Ford Otosan Press Release / December 26, 2015 In its largest ever fleet order to date, Ford Motor Company’s global market heavy truck unit has received a 400 unit order from MSC Medlog Logistics. The order is for 1846T 4x2 tractors equipped with 460 horsepower Ford Ecotorq 10.3-liter engines paired with 12-speed ZF 12AS2130TD AMT transmissions. Ford Otosan says its Cargo heavy truck range continues to be the choice of leading logistics companies in Turkey. Ford Trucks’ 1846T tractor, developed under the One Ford plan, combines high performance with low fuel consumption. The rear air suspension system of the 1846T can be set to provide a 5th wheel height of either 940 mm or 960 mm, depending on the requirement. The 1846T offers the lowest 5th wheel height in the market while carrying 10 percent more cargo than similarly equipped competitors. .

SCAC - Series Charge Air Cooling

Thru at least 1988, the 2VH Maxidyne EM6-275L (1,800 rpm) and non-Maxidyne 2VH E6-350 (1,950 rpm) were respectively the standard and optional engines in the DMM-600.

Hino Trucks Press Release / January 3, 2016 Prologue run is cancelled mid-way due to an accident in the Cars category. January 2, Dakar Rally 2016 kicked off in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two HINO 500 Series trucks entered by HINO TEAM SUGAWARA made it off to a good start on the opening day of 14 days intense competition. This day, a starting ceremony was held at the Technopolis exhibition hall in the outskirts of Buenos Aires―the same venue where vehicle inspections were carried out―during which each of the entering vehicles were introduced and started off from a ramped podium. The roster of entrants this year consisted of 136 bikes, 45 quads, 111 cars, and 55 trucks for a total of 347 vehicles. This represented a roughly 20 percent decrease from the previous 406. This decrease is believed to be partly due to Chile and Peru bowing out from hosting the rally over concerns regarding disaster response. And while the Trucks category saw 8 fewer entrants than last year's 63, the challenges faced by HINO TEAM SUGAWARA were expected to be no different from previous years as the list of tough, top tier regulars remained the same. With the intense South American summer sun shining down, the weather this day was clear but muggy. As the podium would not be able to bear the trucks' weight, they started off from beside the podium as is usual practice. In response to the crowd's applause as they were introduced by the organizer, the Hino trucks blew their horns before starting off in good form. This year, a short timed segment coined the "prologue run" was set 171km north of the starting point. The finish rankings in this segment were to be used to determine the starting order for the next day (SS for January 3), but an accident occurred in the Cars category, where a car veered off course, injuring a group of spectators. Due to this accident, this timed section was canceled and the trucks ran the entire section as a liaison segment heading out to Rosario. Tomorrow, January 3, will be a restart for the team as the Cars and Trucks categories face a 258km SS between Rosario and Villa Carlos Paz. The two HINO 500 Series trucks were serviced by team mechanics at their bivouac in Rosario and were ready to take on the race in good shape. Yoshimasa Sugawara: The truck is doing exceptionally well, which goes without saying as there was no competition today. I will be refocusing on tomorrow's SS. Mitsugu Takahashi: This is the first Dakar Rally for me, but I've navigated for Yoshimasa Sugawara on many occasions in the Rally Mongolia, so I was able to finish the day without getting overly nervous. To be honest, there was a part of me that was relieved to hear that the competition run was cancelled. Teruhito Sugawara: I was a bit disappointed at the prologue run being cancelled. That said, even though the first part of the SS tomorrow (January 3) will feature agricultural roads similar to what we had today, I don't see us being at a disadvantage later in the segment as we will be going through twisty intermountain roads. This will be a restart for us and I will be giving it my best. Hiroyuki Sugiura: We were looking forward to the prologue run, if only to compare our potential against our competitors', but there's nothing we can do about that now. The course for tomorrow will be one that we've driven on in the past, and since the roads are a bit narrow for trucks, we may be able to leverage the strengths of the HINO 500 Series, which are relatively more compact. Photo gallery - http://www.hino-global.com/dakar/latest_news/PD16-11.html

Tatra Trucks Press Release / January 3, 2016 The 38th year of the most challenging long-distance rally in the world - the Dakar Rally - officially started on January 2 from the "podium" in Buenos Aires. Having been at the first start of TATRA vehicles in this competition together with Karel Loprais in 1986, Josef Kalina will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the participation of TATRA vehicles at the Rally. A total of 59 trucks have started this year, including the following 6 Tatra trucks: TATRA 815 "Fat Boy" and TATRA PHOENIX ride in the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team, three TATRA 163 JAMAL trucks ride in the BONVER DAKAR PROJECT team, and one TATRA PHOENIX goes with the Dutch crew of Gert Huizink. On another continent, Africa, the Africa Eco Race is underway, leading along the footsteps of the original Dakar race, from Morocco to Senegal, where it will end on January 10 at the Lac Rose (Pink Lake). Tomas Tomeček will defend the Czech colours and the Koprivnice truck maker's colours and you can watch his fortunes at the TOM RACING Team website www.tomastomecek.cz. TATRA BUGGYRA RACING trucks TATRA 815 "Fat Boy" with the starting number 505 – piloted by Martin Kolomý with the Kilians brothers within one crew. This racing truck is equipped with a 12.5-litre, 900 hp Gyrtech Rally Power MK14-3EC engine with a torque of 3800 Nm, maximum speed 150 kph (due to a speed limiter). The drive is complemented with a 16-speed ZF/Gyrtech manual transmission. The Tatra-concept chassis was supplemented with a new front axle with disc brakes. TATRA PHOENIX MX-11 with the starting number 533 – piloted by Jaroslav Valtr with Josef Kalina and Jiri Stross within the crew. The type designation of the team news is TATRA 158-8P0R21.43 4x4.1, fitted with the same assembly as "Fat Boy", from which, however, it differs in several ways - new cab from the series trucks of TATRA PHOENIX Euro 6, MX-11 type, and especially in the chassis part, where the overall concept has undergone major evolutionary changes. This vehicle features disc brakes and air suspension on both axles, of course in combination with Reiger shock absorbers and torsion stabilizer on the front axle. The wheels are fitted with Michelle 14.00R20 tires with aluminum Hutchinson discs and central inflating system, controlled from the technician's seat in the cab. Start of a new racing PHOENIX at the 2016 DAKAR Rally, corresponding with the new TATRA PHOENIX Euro 6 range, represents a certain symbolism and follows the 30th anniversary of the start of the first Tatra truck at the most challenging world's long-distance rally in 1986. The mission of the new special TATRA PHOENIX truck will be to fully complement a teammate Martin Kolomý driving the truck TATRA 815 and jointly support the efforts of the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team for the best possible finishing position. The fleet of the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team supplemented with, among others, three accompanying Tatra trucks: TATRA PHOENIX 8x8 with a 12.9-litre 340 kW Paccar MX 13 engine and a full-crew cab, where a chassis with extended wheelbase must have been used, so the total length is 8,710 mm. The vehicle serves as a service truck. Another truck is TATRA PHOENIX Euro 6, 6x6 with a 10.9-litter 320 kW Paccar MX-11 E6 engine, serving as a logistical escort vehicle. A cage to transport tires is mounted on Contsystem´s Multilift XR hook loader, as a considerable quantity of tires is need due to the daily exchange of both racing specials. The last accompanying vehicle is Tatra 815 6x6 with a 19-litre 235 kW TATRA engine. The BONVER DAKAR PROJECT sets off with proven "Jamal" trucks, equipped with 12.9-litre 920 hp Renault DXi 13 engines with maximum torque of 4,500 Nm at 1,200 rpm. A Tatra chassis is suspended with air bellows combined with coil springs, and drum brakes used on the axles. The crew of Tomas Vratny, Jaroslav Miskolc and Milan Holan starts with the number 513, Artur Ardavicus, Ignat Falkov and Filip Skrobanek stars with the number 515 and a special truck adapted to manual steering due to Albert Llovera's handicap, with Gotlib Charli and Jaromir Martinec on board starts with the number 521. Please cheer also for the Tatra truck of the Dutch team manned Gert Huizink, Rob Buursen and Gerrit Schooneveld racing with number 524. For regular information visit www.tatradakar.com, www.buggyra.com, www.bonverdakarproject.com and of course the official Rally website www.dakar.com. Cheer with us also on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram – we will reward best comments, insights, observations or images with TATRA BUGGYRA RACING T-shirts and caps. Cheer with us! TATRA starring The 38th year of the DAKAR Rally will also symbolically close the upcoming book mapping the three decades of TATRA vehicles' involvement in the toughest rally in the world. Not only genuine racing trucks, but also accompanying and customized vehicles have regularly undergone this off-road torture for over thirty years at the beginning of each year, to leverage their experience in heavy duty series production. The Tatra truck maker has always deployed or supported the use of the latest technology in Dakar races, based on the famous "Tatra truck concept". Thirty years ago, the TATRA brand entered into "battle" Dakar field with the latest vehicle in its production, T 815. Today, still faithful to our beliefs and strategies, even after thirty years of Dakar we again deploy the newest and most modern units to this race: genuine racing version of TATRA PHOENIX. The book from the writing duo Radomir Smolka & Milan Olšanský, with TATRA as the main character, will bring a lot from the development of Tatra's Dakar trucks and much more - even undreamt of. Photo gallery - http://www.tatratrucks.com/about-the-company/press-and-media/news/dakar-2016-has-started/

This could only have been better if Newman appeared at the end in an even cooler iconic American car and was granted permission by the guard to take the President out for coffee. Video - http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/president-barack-obama-just-tell-him-you-re-the-president

The article.............https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/23/what-it-takes-to-be-a-real-american-according-to-real-americans/ .

Who's lying about Benghazi? 'Not me!' says Hillary Clinton Associated Press / December 31, 2015 Hillary Clinton insists that if anyone is lying about the aftermath of the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks that left four Americans dead, it's 'not me.' More than three years after the fires inside a U.S. diplomatic compound in the Libyan port city died down, the political heat is intensifying again – with Clinton facing tough questions along her road to the White House. At an editorial board meeting on Wednesday in New Hampshire, Columnist Tom McLaughlin recounted to Clinton the claims of the victims' family members who said she had told them a crude Internet video that mocked the Islamic faith was responsible for inciting the attackers who killed their loved ones. Clinton has denied making any such statement, despite the accounts of four people. One, the father of a slain CIA security contractor, took written notes of her words. 'Somebody is lying,' McLaughlin told her Wednesday. 'Who is it?' 'Not me, that's all I can tell you,' Clinton replied. Political fallout from Benghazi has centered on the question of whether the Obama administration sought to avoid admitting, just eight weeks before the president stood for re-election, that terrorists had attacked an American facility overseas. And Clinton, who ran the State Department at the time, has attracted as much incoming fire as Obama. In her first Capitol Hill testimony about the Benghazi attacks, she tamped down senators' inquiries into the nature of what happened, saying instead that the focus should be on doing 'everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.' 'We had four dead Americans,' she recalled. 'Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?' In the early days following the September 11, 2012 attacks, CIA officials scrubbed talking-point guidance prepared for other government officials, removing references to terrorism. Clinton made several public statements referring to the video, titled 'Innocence of Muslims,' suggesting that it sparked unrest in Benghazi the way it had in Cairo and elsewhere in the Arab world. In private correspondence, however, she conceded to family members and foreign leaders what Americans would learn later: The Benghazi compound was assaulted by militant jihadis in an al-Qaeda-linked group, who had pre-planned their attack. On September 14, 2012, she and President Obama attended a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where the bodies of the dead Americans, including Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, were returned to their families. On that same day, a State Department official in Tripoli, Libya, wrote to Washington to say that 'it is becoming increasingly clear that the series of events in Benghazi was much more terrorist attack than a protest which escalated into violence.' And while the inflammatory video had made waves outside of Libya, the writer added, 'we want to distinguish, not conflate, the events in other countries with this well-planned attack by militant extremists.' But Clinton, still secretary of state, told four different relatives of the fallen that the filmmaker would be held responsible, according to their public statements. Another week would pass before she publicly referred to Benghazi as a terrorist event. Charles Woods, whose son Ty Woods was a Benghazi casualty, said in October that he had written down Clinton's words, verbatim, in his notebook, as she spoke. Reading from it, he recalled what Clinton had told him: 'We are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of your son.' On Wednesday in New Hampshire, Hillary blurred and blunted questions about who had known what, and when. 'What happened is people were doing the best they could with information that was changing,' she told the editorial board. 'The CIA wrote and approved the talking points that were used. It was also true that from Egypt to Tunisia to Pakistan, the video was the primary spark that was sending people into protesting against our facilities. All of this was happening simultaneously.' Responding more directly to the family members' recollections, Clinton suggested their grief may have clouded their memories. 'I can't recite for you everything that was in a conversation where people were sobbing, where people were distraught, the president and the vice president, we were all making the rounds talking to people, listening to people,' she explained. 'I was in a very difficult position because [as of that moment] we have not yet said two of the four dead were CIA ... This was a part of the fog of war.'

While many European truckmakers have passed into the pages of history (e.g. Roman, DAC, Henschel, Pegaso, Steyr, Unic), KrAZ has worked hard to remain in the game. Tatra as well.

The heart of the matter is, why is our government ignoring/bypassing our immigration laws and procedures? Are these Latin Americans and Muslims better for America than the rest of the immigrant applicants around the world who, following procedure, have been patiently waiting in line for years? The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 granted amnesty to 2.8 million illegal immigrants who were, somehow, living in the United States. 541,000 Social Security numbers were given to illegal immigrants under President Obama’s original 2012 deportation amnesty for "Dreamers". And separately, Obama also wants to grant amnesty and work permits to up to 5 million illegal immigrants who are, somehow, living in the United States. I have a real problem with a government that constantly finds ways to ignore our laws and procedures.

FYI: The evolution of KrAZ cab design, pages 20-24 (http://www.autokraz.com.ua/EN/save/pdf/Steel_Eng5.pdf). KrAZ cabovers, pages 15-17 (http://www.autokraz.com.ua/EN/save/pdf/Steel_Eng4.pdf).

I think Americans are unaccustomed to global market COE design, simply because they never see them. But speaking as someone around them, the MAN TGX is a reasonable looking truck, and certainly far ahead of the US market trucks in terms of cutting edge design. The Western Star 5700 is a truck I'd term as "ugly as sin". No doubt Daimler hired the exterior designer responsible for creating the Griswold's Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon in the first Vacation movie. .

KrAZ Trucks Press Release / December 30, 2015 On the eve of the New Year, Ukranian truckmaker KrAZ has introduced an all new vocational chassis to its line-up, the twin-steer 8x4 model 7233С4. This new flagship of the company’s vocational range is targeted at tipper, mining and ready-mix operators. Powered by Euro-5 engines, the 72233C4 can be factory fitted with half-round dump bodies up to 20 cubic meters in size (26.2 cubic yards). The truck has a curb weight of 15.5 metric tons, load capacity of 26 tons and a maximum GVW of 41.5 tons. .

U.S. Truck Safety Regulators Abandon Earlier Proposal Today’s Truckiing / December 30, 2015 Due to the new U.S. highway funding law that recently took effect, the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has withdrawn a plan that would have amended haz-mat regulations on the transportation of “flammable liquid material in unprotected external product piping,” known commonly as wetlines, on tanker trucks. The proposal, which dates back to 2011, would have limited the amount of flammable liquid that could be carried in the unprotected loading/unloading wetlines of tankers. PHMSA had contended there was a risk that fuel held in wetlines could spill and ignite in an accident. However, tank carriers argued that the expense of installing pumps to empty the wetlines would far outweigh the benefits, especially given the added risk of explosion from welding retrofit pumps onto tank trailers. “Although PHMSA is withdrawing its rulemaking proposal, the agency will continue to consider methods to improve the safety of transporting flammable liquid by cargo tank motor vehicle,” stated the notice. PHMSA added that it will “continue to analyze current incident data and improve the collection of future incident data to assist in making an informed decision on methods to address this issue further, if warranted.”

U.S. Truck Safety Regulators Abandon Earlier Proposal Today’s Truckiing / December 30, 2015 The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has withdrawn a notice of proposed rulemaking that would have required a commercial motor vehicle to display a label attesting that it was compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) when it was manufactured. The proposal, issued just six months ago, would have required that the decal by applied by the vehicle manufacturer or a U.S. DOT-registered importer. The agency said it walked back the proposal because the comments it received made it apparent the rule would result in a redundant requirement. FMCSA said it ended the rulemaking process because commenters “raised substantive issues which have led the agency to conclude that it would be inappropriate to move forward with a final rule based on the proposal.” The agency noted that the FMVSSs that the decals would have attested to are cross-referenced in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) and that “FMCSA has determined that it can most effectively ensure that motor carriers maintain the safety equipment and features provided by the FMVSSs through enforcement of the FMCSRs, making an additional FMVSS certification labeling regulation unnecessary.”

Fleet Owner / December 28, 2015 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking public comment on the economic impact of its regulations. Required to do so by the Regulatory Flexibility Act, the agency is attempting to identify rules that may have a significant economic impact. NHTSA also is requesting comments on ways to make these regulations easier to read and understand. The focus of this notice is rules that specifically relate to trucks, buses, trailers, as well as passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, motorcycles, and motor vehicle equipment. The NHTSA will consider: (1) The continued need for the rule; (2) the nature of complaints or comments received from the public; (3) the complexity of the rule; (4) the extent to which the rule overlaps, duplicates, or conflicts with other federal rules or with state or local government rules; (5) the length of time since the rule has been evaluated or the degree to which technology, economic conditions, or other factors have changed in the area affected by the rule. Under the agency’s 10-year review plan, NHTSA reviews one of 10 groups of regulations each year. This year involves sections of 49 CFR 571.201 through 571.212. This includes such Motor Vehicle Safety Standards controlling windshields, door locks and retention, and occupant crash protection. Comments must be received by Docket Management not later than February 22, 2016. Those wishing to comment have multiple ways to do so, including electronically at www.regulations.gov. Use Docket Number NHTSA-2015-0100.

PHMSA pulls wetlines rulemaking Fleet Owner / December 30, 2015 10-year effort blocked by Congress The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has withdrawn a decade-old rulemaking proposal that would have stopped flammable liquids from being transported in unprotected product piping (generally referred to as “wetlines”) of new and existing cargo tankers. According to the announcement in Wednesday’s Federal Register, the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) “Hazardous Materials: Safety Requirements for External Product Piping on Cargo Tanks Transporting Flammable Liquids” is being pulled because of a mandate in the new highway bill, the FAST Act. The rule would have required the piping be protected against accident or bottom damages, or designed to be emptied of flammable liquid. PHMSA also issued this proposed requirement to fully address a long-standing National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Safety Recommendation. But the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report critical of the methodology and data used to support the rulemaking, and GOA noted that PHMSA's analysis had not adequately addressed the market uncertainty with regard to the technology to be used to address the safety hazard. In comments on the proposal, opponents contended that wetlines are not a safety risk, citing PHMSA's own statistics that the frequency of wetlines incidents is low and the frequency of incidents that lead to injury or death is extremely low. While PHMSA is withdrawing the rulemaking in accordance with the FAST Act, the agency will continue to examine this issue, particularly by monitoring flammable liquid wetlines incidents, “in consideration of any future actions,” the notice states. These likely future actions include “non-regulatory initiatives.”

Heavy Duty Trucking / December 30, 2015 In compliance with a provision on the new highway act, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has withdrawn a notice of proposed rulemaking that would have amended haz-mat regulations on the transportation of “flammable liquid material in unprotected external product piping,” a.k.a. wetlines, on DOT-spec tanker trucks. The withdrawal notice was published in the Federal Register for Dec. 30. The proposal, which dates back to 2011, would have limited the amount of flammable liquid that could be carried in the unprotected loading/unloading wetlines of tankers. PHMSA had contended there was a risk that fuel held in wetlines could spill and ignite in an accident. However, tank carriers argued that the expense of installing pumps to empty the wetlines would far outweigh the benefits, especially given the added risk of explosion from welding retrofit pumps onto tank trailers. According to Gordon Delcambre, Jr., PHMSA public affairs specialist, the notice’s withdrawal was mandated by Congress in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act highway bill that was signed into law by President Obama earlier this month. “Although PHMSA is withdrawing its rulemaking proposal, the agency will continue to consider methods to improve the safety of transporting flammable liquid by cargo tank motor vehicle,” stated the notice. PHMSA added that it will “continue to analyze current incident data and improve the collection of future incident data to assist in making an informed decision on methods to address this issue further, if warranted.”

Fleet Owner / December 29, 2015 The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has dropped its plans to require interstate carriers to display a label to document a vehicle’s compliance with all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) in effect as of the date of manufacture. In a notice to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register, FMCSA says it has withdrawn the June 17 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) because subsequently filed comments “raised substantive issues” that led the agency to conclude “it would be inappropriate to move forward” with a final rule based on the proposal. “Because the FMVSSs critical to the operational safety of CMVs are cross referenced in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), FMCSA has determined that it can most effectively ensure that motor carriers maintain the safety equipment and features provided by the FMVSSs through enforcement of the FMCSRs, making an additional FMVSS certification labeling regulation unnecessary,” the notice reads. Among the objections, commenters (including the American Trucking Assns., the Truckload Carriers Assn., the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn., the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Assn., and several carriers) noted that: - The rule would provide no safety benefits - FMVSS markings, particularly on trailers, are subject to damage, over-painting, and loss over the life of the vehicle. No certification marking is permanent - Many of the manufacturers have gone out of business, been purchased, or are overseas; obtaining a replacement certification or letter may not be possible - The proposal does not recognize the issues raised by interlining and other operational patterns; and - The rule would impose significant costs on carriers, which FMCSA has failed to estimate.

Fleet Owner / December 30, 2015 Staff Sgt. David Kirtland with the Louisiana National Guard chronicles the transportation of a 100 ft. long, 27.5 ft. high “controlled-burn chamber” from Oklahoma to Louisiana, where it will be used to safely dispose of 16 million lbs. of artillery propellant.

The B1 bomber - The under-appreciated workhorse of America’s air wars The Washington Pose / December 30, 2015 The huge swing-wing airplane is nothing if not flexible — canceled, revived, converted from nuclear strike plane to conventional bomber and then to flying arsenal for the GPS-guided bombs on which ground troops fighting for their lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Syria often rely. And if the U.S. Air Force’s supersonic B-1 bomber is one other thing, it’s misunderstood. It’s no secret that the B-1 bomber, officially called the Lancer but known to its four-man crews as the “Bone” (they proudly call themselves “Bone-drivers”), had a troubled early life. Canceled by President Jimmy Carter and revived by successor Ronald Reagan, the B-1 underwent sweeping redesigns before it reached Air Force crews in the mid-1980s — and even then, the revamped airplane suffered a string of high-profile malfunctions and crashes. Not until 1998, three decades after the distinctive swing-wing bomber was first designed, did the B-1 first drop bombs on enemy targets in Iraq. In public forums, the B-1 has often been a punch line. A glowing New York Times feature earlier this month on the B-1’s older, slower brother, the gangly B-52, highlighted the tribulations of the supersonic bomber’s development, comparing it unfavorably to the reliable B-52 of “Dr. Strangelove” fame, which has been in uninterrupted service since the 1950s. And during a Senate hearing last year, Sen. John McCain pushed back hard on Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James’s description of the B-1 as an effective airplane for “close air support,” or the delivery of precision-guided bombs in support of embattled ground troops. “That’s a remarkable statement,” McCain scoffed. “That doesn’t comport with any experience I’ve ever had, nor anyone I know has ever had.” What McCain didn’t seem to be aware of, and what the Times report failed to note, is the long third act of the B-1’s life. Converted in the 1990s from a Soviet-airspace-penetrating nuclear strike plane to a conventional bomber meant to pound the infrastructure and massed formations of an enemy army, the “Bone” converted again in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, into exactly what the Arizona senator found so hard to believe: not just a close air support plane, but, by all accounts, a hugely successful one. One need only watch this video below of a B-1 strike in Afghanistan’s ultra-violent Pech valley, and listen to the profanity-laden commentary of the ground troops doing the filming, to get a sense of the role the big bomber played supporting troops in contact in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In the video, originally uploaded to YouTube by a military spokesperson, troops at a remote firebase watch as three satellite-guided bombs from a B-1 strike mountainside targets almost simultaneously, followed seconds later by a fourth. The soldiers express their elation in not-safe-for-civilian-work terms. By the time of the airstrike depicted in the video, Bone-drivers had been flying their dark gray planes 20,000 feet over Afghanistan for years — since the opening night of the U.S.-led air war in October 2001, when five B-1s flying out of the Indian Ocean outpost of Diego Garcia joined ten B-52s and two B-2 stealth bombers in pummeling the Taliban regime’s few fixed-site targets. One pilot who flew B-1s in the early months of the Afghan war, Jordan Thomas, had been working at the Air Force’s B-1 training school the summer before the September 11 attacks when he fielded what seemed at the time like an odd inquiry from a Congressional staffer. (Part of the B-1 fleet was on the chopping block as a cost-cutting measure, making the bomber a subject of Congressional and media interest.) “This staffer asked whether it was true that the B-1 wasn’t able to fly over high mountains like in Afghanistan, which he’d read somewhere,” Thomas remembered. “I wrote back, ‘We can fly over the mountains of Afghanistan, but why on earth would we?’” Working with fellow Bone-drivers in the skies over those very mountains and back on Diego Garcia, Thomas helped the B-1 crews develop what would become their essential skill in the years ahead: coordinating with ground troops to drop firefight-ending bombs with lethal precision and accuracy. “We were given an opportunity in Afghanistan to prove what the B-1 could do,” Thomas said. The plane’s success aiding the ouster of the Taliban gained it a moment of appreciation, and saved the B-1 fleet from the cuts that defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a B-1 skeptic, had been pressing before the September 11 attacks. “Maligned B-1 Bomber Now Proving Its Worth,” a Los Angeles Times headline trumpeted two months into the bombing. Day-to-day coverage of the fall 2001 air campaign, though, emphasized the B-52. The B-1 was mentioned only occasionally, even though in fact, B-1s and B-52s were flying roughly equal numbers of missions — and the newer B-1s were actually outpacing their older siblings in numbers of bombs dropped, especially smart bombs. The misrepresentation bothered some of the Bone-drivers on Diego Garcia. Thomas had a theory about what was going on: because the B-52s flew mostly during daylight hours and the B-1s mostly at night, journalists accompanying the Northern Alliance troops on the ground could only see (and photograph) the B-52s, and mistakenly assumed the same planes were carrying out the night bombardments. In the years that followed, the B-1 became a mainstay of close air support and other strike missions over both Afghanistan and Iraq, where a B-1 kicked off the air war in 2003 with a string of bombs meant to kill Saddam Hussein in one of his Baghdad palaces (he wasn’t there). “We are using it in ways never conceived of previously,” secretary of the Air Force James Roche said of the B-1 later that year. Capable of flying in rougher weather than the B-52, cheaper to operate, and capable of carrying more bombs, in 2006 the B-1 displaced the B-52 and became the standard bomber deployed to support ground troops in the two wars, while the older aircraft played the traditional nuclear deterrent role. One unit whose veterans sing the B-1’s praises is the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, which, during 15 months in the Pech and adjoining Afghan valleys in 2007-8, became the most heavily decorated Army battalion of the post-September 11 wars. “Our favorite asset at the company level was the B-1,” said one of the unit’s company commanders, Lou Frketic. “They had more ordnance and longer loiter times, and they delivered ordnance to the desired location without trying to second-guess us with their own optics.” “What I loved about the B-1 was that it had such incredible payload capacity and such incredible time on station,” the battalion’s fire support officer, Jeffrey Pickler, agreed. “We dropped over a million pounds of Air Force bombs, and a lot of that was B-1s.” When insurgents attacked from rock formations high in the mountains, artillery and mortars would respond first, trying to get the enemy to take cover; then bombs from a B-1 or another airplane would smash the militants’ natural bunkers before attack helicopters arrived to pick off survivors. On one of the worst of many bad nights in the battalion’s deployment — Oct. 25, 2007, when a sharp firefight in the Korengal valley left two paratroopers dead and earned one wounded soldier the first Medal of Honor awarded to living recipient since Vietnam — it was a B-1 whose bombs shook the battle-scarred ridge, pounding the escaping insurgents. As with the AC-130 gunship that destroyed an international hospital in Afghanistan this fall, the B-1’s destructive power is a double-edged sword: if it strikes the wrong target, the damage to civilians or friendly forces can be severe. “It was like Judgment Day,” a survivor of an errant 2008 B-1 strike that killed dozens of civilians told Human Right Watch. And in June 2014, a B-1 dropped a bomb on a special operations team in Afghanistan, killing five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan. The latter error was chalked up to a misunderstanding by the bomber’s own crew of how far away the plane’s sensors could detect the ground troops’ identifying infrared strobe lights. When targeting pods with high-tech surveillance cameras were added to B-1s in 2008 (they were also fielded to the B-52), “It transformed the nature of the aircraft,” according to retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, an airpower advocate who flew both bombers while he was on active duty. Besides dropping bombs — which they could do with greater precision, hopefully helping to cut down on civilian casualties — Bone crews gained the ability able to watch over ground troops’ shoulders for potential threats, supplementing the stressed fleet of Predator and Reaper drones designed for that purpose. The first B-1 crew to drop bombs in America’s latest air campaign over Iraq got the call one day in August 2014. Already on the runway getting ready for a routine mission over Afghanistan, according to an Air Force Times report, the crew plugged in new coordinates and headed for the skies around Baghdad to support Iraqi ground forces. As the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State expanded, it became the focus of a full squadron of B-1s, aircraft from which, on 31 occasions during their deployment, “went Winchester,” dropping all the bombs they had on board. Of the missions where Bone-drivers dropped all their bombs, many took place over the northern Syrian city of Kobane. In an air campaign whose slow pace has drawn criticism, the four-month bombardment of Kobane stood out for its punishing tempo, and the B-1 was at the heart of it, dropping bombs at the direction of rear-area U.S. air controllers who relayed strike requests from Kurdish troops on the ground. By the time the Islamic State’s grip on Kobane broke last January, the B-1’s distinctive shape was a familiar sight in the sky above the city. The next B-1 squadron to deploy to the Middle East played a similar role supporting ground offensives by Iraqi troops in Tikrit this spring – “We kill bad people and we break their things, and we’re very good at it,” the squadron’s commander told a South Dakota journalist after the unit’s return home – and yet a third squadron’s B-1s were on hand during last month’s seizure of Sinjar, in between the Islamic State strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa, by Kurdish forces. “We focused first on northern Syria, then northeastern Iraq, then Sinjar,” the currently deployed B-1 squadron’s commander told the Washington Post. (Air Force spokespeople made the officer available on the condition that only his rank, lieutenant colonel, and first name, Joseph, be published.) “We have definitely gone Winchester many times.” The officer’s 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron has struck Islamic State command posts, training camps, and oil production facilities, he explained. But the most satisfying missions have been those in direct support of friendly ground troops in both countries, most recently around the embattled Iraqi city of Ramadi. That was where, in a particularly memorable recent mission, Iraqi troops requested that the squadron commander and his crew do something about small boats that Islamic State fighters were using for transport. Watching with their targeting pod, the crew waited until the boats clustered under a bridge, and then destroyed the bridge with satellite-guided bombs. “That was different,” the B-1 squadron commander said. “I never expected to be dropping ordnance on boats.” A single B-1 can drop as many bombs on Syrian and Iraqi targets as 40 attack jets flying off an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, noted retired Air Force general Deptula, making the bomber’s importance to the air campaign obvious. “The B-1 carries so much payload, and has so much endurance, its persistence can’t be matched by other platforms” like smaller attack jets and the B-52, he said. “It is both more effective and more efficient.” To Rep. Chris Stewart, a Congressman from Utah who was a Bone-driver before he was a politician and tries to stay up to date on his plane’s wartime employment, the prominent role B-1s play today in the campaign against the Islamic State comes as no surprise — notwithstanding the dismissal of the supersonic bomber in the recent New York Times paean to the B-52. “That article was so 1977,” Stewart joked. “Every airplane goes through a maturing process, but the B-1 has proven itself again and again, and for a long time. It’s the B-1 that’s the backbone of the bomber fleet.”