The FAA Follies

I’ve been on AL for a while, but this was so good that I’m blogging while being on vacation (thanks to those who emailed me this). We’ll close out this week (which has been a good one for us) with some… well, I’m going to gloat.

Jerry Lavey has outdone himself and we are obviously getting to the FAA. They’re tired of us pointing out how frequently they lie- which makes sense, nobody likes being called a liar and they like it even less when it’s proven with facts.

(You know, those things that the Administrator finds so inconvenient- like the fact that her new FAA funding plan, so critical for NGATS and the future of safe air travel, actually brings in LESS money than if we simply leave the present plan in place, which is more than sufficient to fund the agency’s needs.. Which makes her… well, you know.)

Here’s Jerry’s latest missive to the FAA employees:

Meantime, Back at the Ranch: Remember, as kids, when “liar, liar, pants on fire” was a cherished weapon in playground arguments? It didn’t win any arguments but it provided a visceral satisfaction and served as a wonderful diversionary tactic. And, that was the whole point, I suppose.

A new “adult” version of that has taken deep root in politics (capital “P” and lower-case “p”). The charge of lying seems to have gotten more prevalent. Are people lying more than they use to? Probably not. People do lie – and have been lying since Adam and Eve fell for that fateful fib in the garden. But, in this Swift-Boat era, you can simply make the charge of lying, whether there’s any basis for it or not. Just make the other person prove he or she is not a liar.

Actually, Jerry, you’re right; this blog routinely calls you and your PR flack cronies liars. And rather than make you prove that you’re NOT a liar, we prove on a regular basis that you ARE liars. We do this in the most simple way possible: We put up what you say, and then we put up the facts, with links to where those facts can be verified.

For example, in Monday’s post about the FAA’s big “we’re not having any problems hiring people” lie, we posted links to the FAA’s own job listings that prove the agency’s all screwed up in how it’s hiring people. In March 23′s post about your own lies, Jerry, we posted links to your own CONFESSION, hosted on the FAA’s web site, where you admitted your own lie.

In other words, you’re liars, and we prove it. You can bleat about how terribly unfair it is all you want, but the real reason you don’t try to disprove the lies is because… you can’t, because the facts show you to be lying.

Case in point are some of the blogs about FAA management. A couple of weeks ago, one came through that had the word “lie,” “liar,” or “lying” in it as many as 20 times. All the liars were managers, of course, and all the good guys were on the other side. There’s no gray area in this blog world. It’s all black and white. You’re either for us or against us. How neat and tidy a world that is. Too bad it doesn’t correspond to the real world we all actually live in. It’s not that management doesn’t give the other side plenty of ammunition. We do and when we do, we’re fair game and we deserve what we get. But, if criticism is done with too broad a brush, it becomes farce. Nobody in this real world has a corner on probity and moral rectitude, and it’s ludicrous for the blogs to divide the world that way. And, the irony of some of these blogs is that they often resort to the clumsiest of fabrications to demonize their supposed enemies on the other side. In one instance, a blog has the Administrator saying air traffic control is so easy, a caveman could do it. Liar, liar, indeed.

Okay, Jerry. A couple of things. We know you’re an old guy- you said so yourself, in that entry that you later went in and changed (you remember, where you bemoaned how all the “younger” people were retiring from the FAA.)

And we know that you old guys might not fully understand how these new-fangled internets work. It’s not a big truck; it’s a series of TUBES!

Whoops. Sorry, that was Senator Ted Stevens’ internets.

See, here on the REAL internet, on this blog, we have a thing called “comments”. In that comment section, anyone who reads the blog entry can put forth their own opinion about what’s written.

We notice that in your internet work, you do not have a comment section available. We can’t say we blame you; it’d be embarrassing for us to prove your lies right there on your own web site, so we have to do it here. It’s a shame you have to fear an open comments section; it must be a bummer to live in fear like that.

But in our comment sections, the readers of the blog can pretty much post what they want. We even have a couple of regular FAA management apologists that post here (perhaps they’re the suckups you were talking about a while ago), and other than occasionally editing for obscene content or outright personal slams that aren’t backed up with those gosh-darned inconvenient facts, they can post whatever they want.

Know why, Jerry? Because we’re not afraid of the TRUTH. We welcome comments, even those that disagree with us. We think that our content can stand up to an open comment section. Do you, Jerry?

What’s more, sometimes when people post a comment, they do so with something called sarcasm. When the commenter (not the bloggers, Jerry!) posted that the Administrator said that bit about the caveman, they were “sending up” the Administrator’s own dismissive attitudes towards controllers, and they were sending up a television ad that’s so popular they’re developing a new series on its premise (the caveman bit).

In other words, it’s a joke, Jerry. If you really really really ask nicely, we might get the WebMaster to highlight the jokes or something, so they’re easier for you to pick out.

We here to admit that at the Follies we’re all giggling, Jerry, at the thought of you sitting around counting how many times we used the word “lie” or “liar”. What’s even more amusing is that you’re right- we use it a lot, and about managers. Know why? Because we’re writing a blog about FAA managers, and they lie a LOT. (When they’re not doing stupid stuff like forcing air ambulances with critical patients to take the long way to the airport, that is.)

Wow, there’s a shock- that a blog about the stupidity and lies displayed by FAA managers is going to tell about a lot of FAA managers. Jerry, you have a talent for the obvious. (And that’s no lie.)

Some of these same voices are also trying to prop up “Chicken Little” for another run at scaring the traveling public into believing the sky is falling. That didn’t work the first time and it probably won’t this time either. An acorn is an acorn is an acorn. It always will be.

If you’re not concerned, why are you writing about it? Why did NATCA manage to pull 65% of the House of Representatives to vote its way in the last session, and why has the FAA’s own management been passing around a document detailing the offer they’re working on to try and get NATCA to back off?

If you’re sooooo right, Jerry, and NATCA (or ex-NATCA Presidents, or this blog, or anyone who’s critical of the FAA these days- which includes most of Congress, actually) isn’t getting anywhere, why are you guys even bothering to dispute it?

Answer: We’re getting the truth out there. We’re getting to you, and everyone knows it, and you just confirmed it with your piece. Thanks for the mention- we appreciate the advertising. We’re getting more hits in the past month than ever before and a healthy number of them are coming from FAA servers.

Keep lying, and we’ll have enough material for a half-dozen blogs.