Saturday special!
Posted by Blue Eyed Buddhist on October 11th, 2008
What the heck… here’s a bonus post for you on Saturday. (UPDATED on Sunday!)
A few items for you today.
Here’s some quotes from Time Magazine’s article about the whole “Troopergate” mess in Alaska. For those not paying attention, the story boils down to this: Sarah Palin, while governor, and her husband Todd, made it a personal mission to get her sister’s ex-husband fired from his job as a state trooper. She (Palin) eventually fired the Public Safety Commissioner; he had refused to fire the trooper, despite over THREE DOZEN phone calls and contacts from Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, and some of Sarah Palin’s aides (all urging, of course, the firing of the trooper).
The Alaska State Legislature did an investigation and the report was issued on Friday, October 10th, late in the day in Alaska- the ultimate “take out the trash” time.
For those curious about the “take out the trash” reference… haven’t you ever noticed that a lot of stories that reflect poorly on someone, but simply must be released, wind up getting released late on Friday afternoon? The most excellent TV show “The West Wing” had a whole episode called “Take Out The Trash Day“, and in it, the Deputy Chief of Staff explains to his assistant what it’s all about. From Wikipedia:
The title refers to the Friday press briefing wherein the White House releases information about several sensitive stories, thereby preventing discussion and reducing any probable impact in the media.
Donna: What’s take out the trash day?
Josh: Friday.
Donna: I mean, what is it?
Josh: Any stories we have to give the press that we’re not wild about, we give all in a lump on Friday.
Donna: Why do you do it in a lump?
Josh: Instead of one at a time?
Donna: I’d think you’d want to spread them out.
Josh: They’ve got X column inches to fill, right? They’re going to fill them no matter what.
Donna: Yes.
Josh: So if we give them one story, that story’s X column inches.
Donna: And if we give them five stories …
Josh: They’re a fifth the size.
Donna: Why do you do it on Friday?
Josh: Because no one reads the paper on Saturday.
Donna: You guys are real populists, aren’t you?
So now that you know I’m a bit of a political nerd, getting back to the story… here’s the great quotes from Time magazine:
But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so.
[...]
A harsh verdict? Consider the report’s findings. Not only did people at almost every level of the Palin administration engage in repeated inappropriate contact with Walt Monegan and other high-ranking officials at the Department of Public Safety, but Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued — in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines.
[...]
Monegan consistently emerges as the adult in these conversations, while the Palin camp displays a childish impetuousness and sense of entitlement.
That, friends, is getting ssssssspanked in a national publication. And it only illustrates the bigger point of this whole mess. Yes, it might be entirely within Sarah Palin’s power to fire Monegan for whatever reason she wants. The firing itself is not illegal, although her attempts to use her power for a personal vendetta against the trooper actually ARE illegal.
But more importantly, it says a lot about Palin. She, and her husband, are just amateurs. Her much-discussed “executive experience”? As I pointed out before, if it’s bad, is it really something that the Republicans should be bragging about?
Even if you are a Palin fan and dismiss the report as being politically motivated (which is ridiculous on the face of it; the Legislature’s committee that authorized the investigation was two-thirds Republicans!) and blow off what she did, the reality is that she did a terrible, ham-fisted job of it.
On to other news. Who built Sarah and Todd Palin’s half-million dollar house? Nobody knows, because in Wasilla, you don’t have to have a building permit. (Some city, huh?) Todd Palin says he built it himself, with the help of some buddies who are contractors.
But, in news that should shock nobody… right at the same time as Todd was building the house, he and Sarah were awfully busy campaigning in her race for Lieutenant Governor.
Turns out that the local head of the Republican Party is a guy named Roy Burkhart; he’s often referred to as a “mentor” of Sarah Palin. Roy’s son, Blase Burkhart, got the architectural contract for the $12.5 million dollar Wasilla Sports Complex (which went well over budget and added immensely to the long-term debt of the small town under Palin’s leadership as mayor).
Roy Burkhart was a Palin campaign contributor. Blase Burkhart was on the contractor selection team for the sports complex, and they picked “Howdie, INC”, which was mostly a residential contractor. It’s owned by a guy named Howard Nugent- also a Palin campaign contributor.
The Palins’ house is just down the road from the sports complex. Many of the other subcontractors on the sports complex are tied in closely with Palin, such as Spenard Building Supply, who sponsors Todd Palin’s snowmobile racing team and who also hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide advertisement. Spenard supplied the materials for the Palins’ house and, here’s another shocker, Spenard did a lot of work and provided supplies for Senator Ted Stevens’ house- which is now a big part of the trial against Stevens for graft and accepting bribes.
Several other subcontractors on the sports complex job have donated tens of thousands to Palin’s campaigns over the years.
The Palins’ house was completed just a month or two after the sports complex was completed- just up the road. But hey, I’m sure Todd did all the work himself, and there was absolutely no overlap or unethical work done by any of these people in all of this. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of thing that (barring admission by people directly involved) will never really be provable one way or the other.
And finally… remember yesterday’s post? Well, for those that might not have believed me, here’s what the race-baiting type of campaign leads to:
A guy brings a toy stuffed MONKEY to a McCain/Palin rally… and gee, it’s wearing an Obama sticker on it. He realizes he’s busted on video with the monkey, so he takes the sticker off of it and gives the toy to a kid in front of him.
(UPDATE: HERE’S ANOTHER VIDEO OF THE SAME GUY, ON HIS WAY IN… PROUD OF BEING A RACIST NITWIT!)
Look. Like I said yesterday, I don’t think that McCain is racist. I doubt that Palin is, either. And I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that most of the top folks in McCain’s campaign aren’t racist, either.
But something I didn’t point out yesterday- because I thought it was pretty obvious, but I’ll beat the dead horse a bit- is that these people are smart. They know politics. And they KNOW that the type of rhetoric they’ve been using and encouraging over the past week or two WILL LEAD TO RACIST JERKS coming out and getting more fired up.
Can you imagine bringing a monkey with an Obama sticker on it to a campaign rally? Odds are most folks reading this can’t, even those who wouldn’t vote for Obama in a million years. (I’d like to think that most of the Follies’ readers are good people.)
But if you knew that hammering on the “Obama pals around with terrorists” (as Palin has done) theme is going to lead to the racists coming out and displaying their shockingly stupid views at your rallies, if you KNEW that was going to happen, would you do it?
McCain and his campaign team knew perfectly well what would happen, and they did it anyway. I get the feeling that McCain would do just about anything to become President- and for that reason, more and more people are turning away from him.
It’s probably not fair to hold Monkey-Man’s conduct at the rally against McCain/Palin. They didn’t do it themselves. But the reality is that they are responsible for creating the environment where this kind of thing would be thought to be acceptable. They’re only now starting to speak out against it- after the news media has taken notice of the hate being spewed at these events. That’s pathetic.
And for those that respond “well, Obama’s campaign is making personal attacks against McCain- look at the KeatingEconomics.com website for an example!” I’d respond that it’s pretty simple: The attacks against Obama, over stuff like the fact he knows William Ayers, try to tie Obama with the bad acts of someone else (committed when Obama was 8 years old).
The attack against McCain in the Keating scandal was something that McCain himself did, as a Senator.
If you can’t see the difference between Ayer’s actions decades ago (and the fact that what Obama has done with Ayers now is work on grants to improve education in Chicago schools, funded in large part by money from Republican donors!) and McCain’s actions while in office, well, you should probably rethink all of this.
The reality- for the very few independent, undecided voters that might be out there- is that this gunk McCain is throwing out there is weak and leading to racists bringing “Obama Monkeys” to rallies. The stuff that Obama is saying- and it’s only part of his message, because a large part of Obama’s ad spending is still going to positive ads that talk about his plans and policies- is directly tied in to McCain himself.
Don’t fall for the race-baiting politics. Don’t fall for the “Willie Hortonization” of Obama. The reality is that Obama is every bit as much a true American story as any of us are; the child of an immigrant and a natural-born citizen, with all of the hopes and dreams of hard work, education, and a better life for one’s kids that we ALL share as Americans.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Here’s a question I like the moderator to ask to both candidates at the last debate:
What will you do to ensure that for at least one year in your administration the national debt does not go up?
In my opinion (and I may be a little pessimistic here) we’re broke. The national debt clock in Times Square ran out of room when it went to ten trillion dollars. Yet, we have Obama promising national health care, McCain promising to stay the course in Iraq, and nobody in the national press is talking about the fact that we are (as a country) up to our eyeballs in debt.
Every election, people expect their politicians to fork over their slice of the pie. Heck, many on this board are hoping for a big slice in the form of greater wages or a return to the 1998 contract. My question is: Where will the money come from? The Federal government is just like us. I’ll bet there is a HELOC on the White House and Uncle Sam has maxed out his Visa.
We as a nation have GOT to stand up and say “No more.” No more bridges to nowhere. No more $400B prescription drug program for the elderly (when they make up the wealthiest demographic in the US). No more “no bid” contracts. No more lies about Washington is going to solve our problems. They haven’t, and they won’t. They are just bankrupting us all.
The politicians in Washington are there for one purpose: to get re-elected so they can enjoy all the perks that our Representatives, Senators, and Presidents can soak up day in, and day out.
I wish this blog had the vomiting emoticon.
October 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
FAAGUY,
I dont want a big slice of pie. I dont want back pay (although it would be nice). I want the following, (most all of which would be free).
Respect
The return to the “Contract” in regards to dress code
Respect
The ability to leave a facility, to make a chow run, the ability to help write a schedule, that management approved anyways.
Respect
A return to allowing me to get a presidental raise every year that EVERY OTHER FEDERAL EMPLOYEE INCLUDING THE FLMS AND ALL OTHERS THAN CONTROLLERS GET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CIC Pay restored, since FLeMs make so much more than we as controllers do, it must be at least 10% more important to be CIC.
Did I mention RESPECT?
By the way, respect would solve about 75% of the problems. I remmeber when NATCA reps were allowed to attend meetings dealing with USERS, construction, airspace, emergency plans, new equipment, mold, and on and on. NATCA is now not consulted, involved, or even asked our opinion for 90% of such meetings now. Thats right, the people dealing with LIVE air traffic, dealing with the pilots, maintenance, electritions, engineers, Airport ops, emergency teams, etc, are not even consulted with before more and more bizarre rules are made up.
Respect. You earn it, it is not a gift.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
FAAGuy…
Good comment. You’re right- we’re in deep doo-doo when it comes to the budget. However, it *is* doable; President Clinton proved that the budget could be balanced, that the federal workforce could be handled smaller and smarter (without massive layoffs, I might add- the vast majority of the Clinton/Gore government workforce size reductions were done mainly through attrition) and that the tax rates required to start running a surplus would NOT tank the economy.
That’s one thing that simply befuddles me about the so-called “fiscal conservatives” of the Republican Party. There’s absolutely no denying that the economy did quite well for several years after the 1993 budget deal that Clinton engineered (and which cost a lot of Democrats in Congress their jobs in the 94 midterm elections). What’s more, the budget deal allowed the United States to turn its deficit into a surplus.
What’s so amazing to me is that they were so upset and ready to throw that out the window! I know, I know- they’ll yammer on that under W, federal revenues continued to climb, and they’ll credit the tax cuts, which supposedly revved up the economy even more.
Well, I think we’re seeing how THAT worked out.
Most states have to run a balanced budget, and many (including my home state of Washington) have it set up where they’ll set aside money into a “rainy day” fund. Here in Washington, that fund is pretty important right now; with the economy tanking and revenues expected to produce a shortfall in the next budget cycle, they have some rainy day fund to fall back on. Why can’t the federal budget do that?
Getting out of Iraq will be a huge relief for the budget. Even if McCain wins, we’ll eventually get out; the public will demand it, plain and simple. (And the odds are that if McCain somehow wins, he’ll be faced with an extremely hostile Congress; the Democrats could conceivably have a 100-seat advantage in the House, and 58 to 61 votes in the Senate.)
Also, I think people underestimate just what a national healthcare plan would do for their own checkbooks. The news just came out a while ago about the FEHB premiums, zooming up more than twice the inflation rate, yet again. Well, a LOT of that money goes to pay for people who don’t have healthcare; we pay higher premiums because those non-covered people have to get their healthcare delivered in emergency rooms, which is the most expensive manner to do that, and then the hospitals pass the charges on to the people who DO pay… which is us, through insurance.
Get the non-covered under a plan, so they can get preventative care (ie, CHEAPER care) earlier and the hospitals’ overhead goes way down. Get that down, and our costs go down. Our costs go down, and we have more money to spend on jetskis and booze and hookers (or whatever your “toys” are… um, not that those are mine) and the economy picks up- and the govt gets MORE money in revenue, which helps pay for that national healthcare plan.
Or so the theory goes, anyway.
As far as the ATC/FAA workforce goes, we just want to return to something reasonable. I’ve taken a LOT of heat inside of NATCA for expressing the opinion that had the FAA come to us a few years ago, in contract neogtiations, and said “look, fellas, your pay has been going up MUCH faster than inflation. It’s even been more than inflation plus the old step increases that federal workers would get every year or two or three. We’re at war. How about we freeze the pay levels where they’re at right now, you keep pace with inflation, and you get the equivalent of the old step increases every third year?”
NATCA would have gone for that deal in a heartbeat. The FAA’s costs would have been level a bit longer, then gone DOWN, because all these old guys would be retiring and replaced by younger, cheaper-on-the-pay-scale employees. Oh, but since the old guys wouldn’t be driven out, we would have had a chance to get a bit ahead of the retirement tsunami, and we wouldn’t be racking up the massive overtime costs (in money and in wear/tear on our people) that we’re seeing today.
And here’s the thing… I think Obama gets it. I think he understands that kind of argument. And since he’s not terribly politically motivated, like the neo-con, “down the government in the bathtub, starve the beast” ideology drive W and his pals to, then I think we would have had a pretty good chance of pulling it off.
Now? Now the ATC workforce is just furious and unwilling/unlikely to go for a reasonable deal. People want a full return, plus backpay, to the Green Book- and to totally restart negotiations from that point. They probably won’t go for less than an actual (not just inflationary and step increase) wage. They want payback.
I think FAA management really underestimates the rage and hurt in the overall FAA workforce these days. The folks stuck on Core Comp aren’t any happier than the ATC workforce; for all those years, they got the impression from the FAA’s leaders that it’s those darned controllers taking all the money, and once that got fixed there’d be more for everyone else in the agency.
Then, guess what? Controllers’ wages cut 30% for the newbies, and for the rest of the FAA? Diddly-squat, just like before. All of a sudden it becomes clear; Blakey and Sturgell and those jerks were just playing them.
Ultimately, we CAN find a way through all of this. We CAN work out a reasonable prescription plan for the needy elderly, we CAN work out a national healthcare plan, we CAN get out of Iraq in a good way that helps the various Iraqi peoples (they don’t think of themselves as a single nation, you know) and keeps us secure. We CAN do these things, and I believe we WILL- or at least we’ll make a good stab at it.
Yes We Can!
October 11th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I believe that most of the voters who are still undecided are smart enough to realize what play has been called by McCain.
The problem McCain has is he can’t have his cake and eat it too. Look, if the “old man and the c” continue with the “who is Obama, really?” campaign they will lose most of the truly undecideds. If he does a 180, and tells his supporters that their wrong about Obama, the far right will be alienated.
I may be way off here, but I think I can hear some rocks coming loose way up on the mountain.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:07 am
FAA guy, then I assume you are for cutting the pay for FAA management as well? Can you justify a supervisor that actually has responsibility for airplanes 8 hours out of 160 making more than $150k? As a taxpayer I find it sickening. Pay was cut for controllers and it should be slashed for supervisors and management too.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:19 am
>FAA guy, then I assume you are for cutting the pay
>for FAA management as well?
Yes. I think we are all going to have to sacrifice or our great country is going to end. When we get to the point that people are less willing to lend to the US, we will have to raise our interest rates that we pay them in order to attract the capitol that it takes to fund all our federal programs. When we pay more interest on the debt, our available money for the other programs goes down.
What we need is a President that will look into the camera and say, “My fellow Americans, over the past decades both Republicans and Democrats alike have been irresponsible in the way they have handled your tax dollars. Because of this, we are going to have to sacrifice over the next 20 years or so to pay off our national debt. I know it won’t be easy, but this is more important to our country’s existence since World War Two.”
Doesn’t everyone see how the federal spending completely mirrors the pattern in the consumer lending market? People are borrowing, and borrowing, and borrowing. Sure, it feels good to get that new pool, or Lexus, or 60″ plasma. We’ll pay for it later. When the debt becomes too much, they declare bankruptcy, but only after going through all the stress and worry about how the bills are going to be paid. Which should I pay, the car loan or the electric bill?
I would also like to dispel the popular myth that there was a surplus during the Clinton years. The budget deficit did go down, but there was less federal taxes coming in than federal spending going out, unless you count Social Security premiums as federal tax revenues (which the US Treasury does not). Like any good Ponzi scheme, the SS premiums are to be directed to current and future recipients, not to building the B2 bomber. Here’s the national debt numbers (that get even worse under the Bush/Republicans team and are too depressing to post):
09/30/2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 4,692,749,910,013.32
09/30/1993 4,411,488,883,139.38
09/30/1992 4,064,620,655,521.66
Where’s the candidate that will put an end to the absurdity of federal spending on the Steam Train Hall of Fame or Amtrak subsidies or creating a four-lane divied highway where one wasn’t needed?
It has been said, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
“Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”
Where are we on this continuum?
October 12th, 2008 at 8:32 am
FAA guy says:
Great nations rise and fall…courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance…back again to bondage.
You think this sanctimonious hyperbole is really deep don’t you. This is the first “great nation” to actually achieve “liberty” so everything after the word “abundance” is complete conjecture.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Controllers are a small group and they have supported Obama and the dems through the PAC in a big way. It’s not that big a fix.
October 12th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Thank goodness the polls are showing a landslide victory for Obama. Most Americans are tired of republican failures. I know I am.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I just think how much courage it really does take to be the President of these United States, let alone the first Black President. Barrack has put his family and self in harms way. This idiot at the McCain rallies is just one of hundreds of thousands. Sometimes it’s just embarrassing to be an American. Truth, courage, justice, has McSame ever used these terms?
Angry Fokker
October 12th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
The really scary thing is how often Obama has been labeled “Kennedy-esqe” If FAAGUY will remember his history, things did not end well for Kennedy or this country after his tragically shortened presidency.
When you have the mindless neo-con republican faithful yelling kill Obama at their political rallys I am so ashamed as a American, and so personally ashamed of my past republican votes.
I will never shame myself by voting for that party again.
The neo-con’s hijacked all that was good about that party and left nothing but ashes. Ashes of the party, ashes of our once proud civil service, and ashes of our financial system.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I so agree with less than gruntled, I am embarrassed to have been a republican, and I am sick of “wedge” issues designed to foster hate- that’s what has been the GOP playbook for over a decade. Pick your prejudice, gays, abortion, drugs, religion, terror, guns, whatever. We had some elderly relatives from the south visit this last weekend, I was saddenned by thier absolute belief that Obama was an Arab, friends of terrorist’s, and all the other BS found in the neo-con backed “books” filled with lies and false assertions about Obama. Needless to say it was a long week-end, we tried to avoid politics but it isn’t easy living in a swing state with all the ads on TV…And to FAA guy, the day you give back all the extra pay and bonus’s that you have continued to receive since the IWR’s went into effect while the actual controller’s got zip is the day you can talk to me about sacrifice, until then STFU!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Dear Chillin’
The pool doesn’t seem to be working as well as your previous meds. Please seek professional help.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Now you see the real FAAGUY. Taking the extra piece of pie (his own words from the first post) but crying out poverty for the people who actually do the work.
I had controller friend who recently retired. He had worked up at headquarters for two years in upper management before he finally became so ashamed of strugling to find 30 minutes per day of meaningful work that he did a career “regression” taking paycuts to get back on the floor.
FAAGUY I imagine you know him. Can’t be many people with integrity like him where you work at your cubicle playing minesweeper. God knows you don’t have the personal morals to do what he did.
Maybe you are the guy who spelled “Inegrity” on all our motivational posters that came from headquarters? How much of a bonus of our money did you get for that little gem?
Maybe you are the guy who spelled “Inegrity” on all our motivational posters that came from headquarters? How much of a bonus of our money did you get for that little gem?
October 14th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
>Maybe you are the guy who spelled “Inegrity” on
>all our motivational posters that came from
>headquarters? How much of a bonus of our money
>did you get for that little gem?
>Maybe you are the guy who spelled “Inegrity” on
>all our motivational posters that came from
>headquarters? How much of a bonus of our money
>did you get for that little gem?
Dear Less Than,
Sorry, I not a poster designer. I have NO sense of style. One thing we can see from your post is how easy it is to make an unintentionl mistake. No big deal. I’m sure you and I have made a few spelling mistakes in life.
Please read down where I said that I was willing to take a pay cut in order to try to right the financial ship of this country. I think as Americans we are all going to have to. The only question is whether it is now, during a time of financial emergency, or later, during a period of economic insolvency.
As for my personal morals, I promise not to assess your personal morals (or lack of them) because I don’t know you. It’s a pretty big jump to conclude that someone doesn’t have integrity because your friend was in an un-needed job. FYI, I couldn’t even tell you if Minesweeper is loaded on my computer.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I guess the only difference between FAAGUY making a mistake and a controller is the body count.
If I let someone cross a runway during a takeoff and we have Tenerife all over again as our constant briefings from headquarters keep reminding us showing the twisted wreckage and burnt bodies. (Nice videos by the way, are you involved with that? Oh so motivating!!!) Not.
If you make a mistake, we just rebaseline it.
Everyone in your world still gets raises, bonuses and all the sheet cake that the FAA “Coral” (as Ventris says) can cram in their greedy mouths.
But how can you sleep at night?
I’d love to chat more but I’m off for my 16th 6 day week of overtime. Appreciate you guys canceling my prime time leave, I was supposed to be with my kids on fall break on the beach in Florida.
Thanks As*hats
January 17th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
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