Is it just me, or does it seem that the NTSB is trying to do everything it can to spread blame around for the Comair flight 5191 crash in Kentucky last Sunday when it is perfectly clear that pilot error is to blame?
We're told that there was only one air traffic controller in the tower when there should have been two, and he only had two hours of sleep. The runway had just been resurfaced, the taxiway had been changed. It just seems to go on and on. The bottom line is that in the end, this was pilot error plain and simple.
Look, the tower correctly informed the pilots they were cleared for take off on runway 26 and these runways are purposely numbered to indicate bearing. If you line up for take-off on runway 26 and your compass doesn't indicate your bearing is 260ยบ, you're on the wrong runway. These pilots didn't do that and are therefore at fault. The rest is simply hysterics.
I understand that a complete investigation is necessary, but at this point it just seems to me that they are providing cover for the airline.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
David Broder
Ah, David Broder. I think it's safe to say the pasture Broder should have been put out to is long past green, hell it's long past snowed upon. Today, Broder writes that after coming back from a one week vacation he has learned the Democrats are changing their primary schedule. Pretty impressive, Hotline only reported as such on July 22nd, although the final official vote took place August 19th.
Anyway, in Broder's eyes the Dems "have gone and messed it up again." Why? Well, apparently Broder believes that the great unwashed masses that reside outside of New Hampshire do not possess the skill sets needed to pick the Democratic nominee to be the leader of the free world. From the Washington Post:
Well , we wouldn't want to mess with that, especially considering New Hampshire's track record. Since 1952, when the state became the nation's first primary, New Hampshire has picked exactly four Democratic presidents. Those four primary winners that went on to be president were an unopposed JFK, an unopposed LBJ, Jimmy Carter over political powerhouse Morris Udall, and a second term Bill Clinton (New Hampshire picked Paul Tsongas in Clinton's first run).
Some of the other "great" picks New Hampshire Democrats have picked include Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, Edmund Muskie, and C. Estes Kefauver (Twice!). I guess we should just cancel all other primaries and caucuses and just let New Hampshire pick our nominee.
Hell, Broder doesn't even seem to understand that the real reason for this shuffling of the primaries is to balance the field against Hillary's massive war chest. Time to move on old man.
Anyway, in Broder's eyes the Dems "have gone and messed it up again." Why? Well, apparently Broder believes that the great unwashed masses that reside outside of New Hampshire do not possess the skill sets needed to pick the Democratic nominee to be the leader of the free world. From the Washington Post:
What was lost in all this was any sense of public deliberation about the choice of the next president. In the general election, people have two months or more to evaluate two or maybe three candidates. In the early primaries, eight or 10 people may be vying. What is most needed is time -- and a place -- for them to be carefully examined.
Historically, New Hampshire has fulfilled that responsibility. Voters there -- in both parties and especially among the numerous independents who also vote in the primary -- take their role seriously. They turn up at town meetings and they ask probing questions. So do the interviewers at local papers and broadcast stations. So do high school students.
New Hampshire voters don't need -- or particularly want -- guidance from Iowa, and frequently they ignore the Iowa results. But they are stuck with Iowa. Now, thanks to the Democrats, they may be stuck with Nevada as well, and crowded from behind by South Carolina.
Well , we wouldn't want to mess with that, especially considering New Hampshire's track record. Since 1952, when the state became the nation's first primary, New Hampshire has picked exactly four Democratic presidents. Those four primary winners that went on to be president were an unopposed JFK, an unopposed LBJ, Jimmy Carter over political powerhouse Morris Udall, and a second term Bill Clinton (New Hampshire picked Paul Tsongas in Clinton's first run).
Some of the other "great" picks New Hampshire Democrats have picked include Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, Edmund Muskie, and C. Estes Kefauver (Twice!). I guess we should just cancel all other primaries and caucuses and just let New Hampshire pick our nominee.
Hell, Broder doesn't even seem to understand that the real reason for this shuffling of the primaries is to balance the field against Hillary's massive war chest. Time to move on old man.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Shaking My Head
The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran this bit of shoddy journalism a week ago Sunday. From the Plain Dealer:
Nathan Estruth is the President of Common Sense Ohio, a front group running ads on behalf on Ken Blackwell. Estruth and his wife have donated $20,000 personally to the Blackwell campaign.
I mean, come on, the guy didn't even give a false name. How hard is it to check out the guy to see if he is a media plant? Or are reporters so naive as to believe there is no such thing?
Found via Buckeye State Blog
Clermont County- In a county that proudly paints itself political red, where about 70 percent of voters backed President Bush in 2004, Nathan Estruth showed up at a park Saturday morning to hear the blue people.
In particular, he wanted to listen to Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate for governor who, with U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, was headlining a three-day bus tour promoting the party's statewide ticket in some of Ohio's most Republican counties.
Estruth, a father of four who typically votes Republican, milled in the back of a partisan crowd of about 100, one of just a handful of people not wearing a shirt promoting a Democratic candidate. At the urging of a friend, he came to give the Democrats, who have been out of power in Ohio for more than a decade, a chance to win his vote.
[snip]
After the 40-minute rally, Estruth said he was not ready to vote Democratic. He was put off, he said, by their harsh rhetoric.
"I wanted to see if he was an executive with clear plans for fixing the state," he said about Strickland. "What I got was partisan talk. He confirmed my worst fears."
Nathan Estruth is the President of Common Sense Ohio, a front group running ads on behalf on Ken Blackwell. Estruth and his wife have donated $20,000 personally to the Blackwell campaign.
I mean, come on, the guy didn't even give a false name. How hard is it to check out the guy to see if he is a media plant? Or are reporters so naive as to believe there is no such thing?
Found via Buckeye State Blog
Upside Down World
How badly has the republicans election swagger deteriorated into a wobbly stagger? Consider this, the NRSC has spent at least $181,587.66 in Rhode Island to defeat a republican in a primary. Meanwhile, various GOP affiliated groups are providing money and manpower to elect a Democrat in Connecticut.
Your Tax Dollars At Work
A story today in the Washington Post isn't going to play very well for incumbents in the fly-over states. The three most prosperous counties in the United States are now all suburbs of Washington DC. From the Post:
Make no mistake about who lives in these counties. They are pretty much all living on your dime through the repeating cycle of money flowing from contractors to lobbyists to Congress critters campaign accounts, and sometimes their personal accounts, followed by a raid on the federal treasury though earmarks to send even larger sums back to the contractors.
I think these last few paragraphs sum up the situation pretty well. Again from the Post:
What do the kids in your neighborhood drive?
Oh, and I should also tell you the report that generated this story noted that a record number of American now live without access to health insurance. Hope you don't have a doctor's office appointment scheduled.
The three most prosperous large counties in the United States are in the Washington suburbs, according to census figures released yesterday, which show that the region has the second-highest income and the least poverty of any major metropolitan area in the country.
Rapidly growing Loudoun County has emerged as the wealthiest jurisdiction in the nation, with its households last year having a median income of more than $98,000. It is followed by Fairfax and Howard counties, with Montgomery County not far behind.
That accumulation of suburban wealth, local economists said, is a side effect of the enormous flow of federal money into the region through contracts for defense and homeland security work in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, coming after the local technology boom of the 1990s. "When you put that together . . . you have a recipe for heightened prosperity," said Anirban Basu, an economist at a Baltimore consulting firm.
Make no mistake about who lives in these counties. They are pretty much all living on your dime through the repeating cycle of money flowing from contractors to lobbyists to Congress critters campaign accounts, and sometimes their personal accounts, followed by a raid on the federal treasury though earmarks to send even larger sums back to the contractors.
I think these last few paragraphs sum up the situation pretty well. Again from the Post:
The suburban prosperity has been brought about by people such as Tony Dawood, 46, of Leesburg, who moved to Loudoun County from Pennsylvania to take a job as a civil engineer. He is paid about $130,000 a year and augments his income with business investments.
"The affluence is overwhelming," Dawood said. His 17-year-old son has developed an interest in golf, an expensive hobby given the cost of $50 to $100 to play on a public course, and drives a new Mitsubishi Montero. It would be considered a nice car for a teenager, except that one of his friends has a brand-new Hummer and another drives a new Cadillac.
"They pull up in my driveway and my jaw drops," Dawood said.
What do the kids in your neighborhood drive?
Oh, and I should also tell you the report that generated this story noted that a record number of American now live without access to health insurance. Hope you don't have a doctor's office appointment scheduled.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
And Then There Were Fourteen
Thirteen Senators and one witch left in the brew. The three most likely culprits are all still on the board. (Stevens, Byrd, Reid)
The Witch List Is Getting Lonely
In TPM Muckrakers effort to get an on the record statement from each Senator about which Senator put a "secret hold" on a transparency in government bill, the list of hold-outs is starting to get awfully lonely. Seventy Senators are now on the record with a no response.
I'm going to guess the culprit will be dropping the hold before it becomes a list of one.
I'm going to guess the culprit will be dropping the hold before it becomes a list of one.
Safety In Our Skies
Michael Chertoff has an Op-Ed in today’s Washington Post about what he calls a much-needed program to stop the next airline plot, the collection of PNR date on passengers flying internationally to the United States. Sure, that is probably helpful, but since we are likely going to be dealing with autonomous cells in the future, we are simply still playing a game of chance with airline security.
None of these spying programs likely would have broken up the recent plot by home grown British terrorists, that was achieved by a tip from someone in the plotters' community. That is a dice game we don’t need to be playing in the future. I’m not saying this program isn’t helpful, but we clearly need to do more, and Chertoff and the DHS are woefully neglecting the additional things we need to do to provide the best airline security in the world.
True airline security involves interdiction at the point of attack, and that interdiction breaks down into four categories. Those are cabin security, cockpit security, cargo security, and external threat security. Let’s take a look at what can be done in each of those areas.
Cabin Security
First of all, no liquids, gels, etc. should be allowed past the security gate. That is going to have to stay with us for the duration of our lives, I’m afraid. Each passenger should only be allowed to carry one carry-on bag. When you reach the gate, everything on your person must go into that carry-on including keys, wallet, medicine, and any personal electronic devices. That bag will then be zip-locked by gate personel. Upon boarding, all carry-ons are to be locked into the overhead baggage compartment for the duration of the flight. If you should need any essential medicines or baby formulas during the flight, the attendent can retrieve it for you.
This will effectively end internal cabin threats on commercial airlines. Yes, it will make for a boring flight, but I’m sure the airlines that most quickly solve this problem will thrive in the new environment. It’s also true that it will make work on the plane impossible, but to paraphrase a golfer I heard one time when a cell phone rang on the course, “ If that guy is that damn important, he ought to be in the office.”
Cockpit Security
Cockpit security is about a lot more than securing the cabin door. Remember, roughly two years before 9/11 a pilot ditched Egypt Air flight 990 into the ocean. We’ll never know if this was an act of terrorism or simply a suicide, but the result was that 217 people lost their lives. I’d like to see routine pre-flight pilot screening and periodic backround checks. This would not only help prevent acts of terrorism by pilots, it would certainly end the practice of pilots showing up drunk or hung over to perform their duties.
Also, I would like to see the end of the practice of allowing pilots to carry guns into the cockpit. With a secure cockpit door, one pilot can simply kill the other and then fly the plane into any target he chooses as long as he doesn’t meet any external force to stop him along the way.
Cargo Security
We simply don’t do enough at the present time in scanning the cargo that is on almost every commercial flight in the United States. A good start would be for Congress to pass HR 4373, the Safe Skies Cargo Inspection Act. This would require that all cargo carried on commercial airliners be inspected by the TSA. The fact that we don’t do this already is tantamount to criminal negligence. It is the easiest way to put a bomb on a plane.
External Threat Security
The final major threat to US commercial airliners comes not from within the plane itself, but from a should fired missile (MANPAD). As I wrote back in March the cost to retrofit the entire fleet of US airliners with defense measures is an embarrassingly small $10 billion (Can’t remember where I heard that number), and that someone manages to bring down an airliner with one, the next bailout of the airlines would likely cost double that, plus we would have to equip the fleet anyway to return passenger confidence in air travel.
This is the next threat, and how has the government responded to it? Congress at least appropriated over $200 million for studies over the last three years, but President Bush effectively cut that funding by only asking for $4.9 million this year for the program. Funding needs to be renews to previous levels with an implementation goal of 2010.
That pretty much covers it, in a general overlay sense. I sincerely doubt you will see any of these ideas initiated any time soon. The republicans that currently control our government are too reactive, and not nearly proactive enough to solve problems that don’t yet have the blood of Americans already staining them.
None of these spying programs likely would have broken up the recent plot by home grown British terrorists, that was achieved by a tip from someone in the plotters' community. That is a dice game we don’t need to be playing in the future. I’m not saying this program isn’t helpful, but we clearly need to do more, and Chertoff and the DHS are woefully neglecting the additional things we need to do to provide the best airline security in the world.
True airline security involves interdiction at the point of attack, and that interdiction breaks down into four categories. Those are cabin security, cockpit security, cargo security, and external threat security. Let’s take a look at what can be done in each of those areas.
Cabin Security
First of all, no liquids, gels, etc. should be allowed past the security gate. That is going to have to stay with us for the duration of our lives, I’m afraid. Each passenger should only be allowed to carry one carry-on bag. When you reach the gate, everything on your person must go into that carry-on including keys, wallet, medicine, and any personal electronic devices. That bag will then be zip-locked by gate personel. Upon boarding, all carry-ons are to be locked into the overhead baggage compartment for the duration of the flight. If you should need any essential medicines or baby formulas during the flight, the attendent can retrieve it for you.
This will effectively end internal cabin threats on commercial airlines. Yes, it will make for a boring flight, but I’m sure the airlines that most quickly solve this problem will thrive in the new environment. It’s also true that it will make work on the plane impossible, but to paraphrase a golfer I heard one time when a cell phone rang on the course, “ If that guy is that damn important, he ought to be in the office.”
Cockpit Security
Cockpit security is about a lot more than securing the cabin door. Remember, roughly two years before 9/11 a pilot ditched Egypt Air flight 990 into the ocean. We’ll never know if this was an act of terrorism or simply a suicide, but the result was that 217 people lost their lives. I’d like to see routine pre-flight pilot screening and periodic backround checks. This would not only help prevent acts of terrorism by pilots, it would certainly end the practice of pilots showing up drunk or hung over to perform their duties.
Also, I would like to see the end of the practice of allowing pilots to carry guns into the cockpit. With a secure cockpit door, one pilot can simply kill the other and then fly the plane into any target he chooses as long as he doesn’t meet any external force to stop him along the way.
Cargo Security
We simply don’t do enough at the present time in scanning the cargo that is on almost every commercial flight in the United States. A good start would be for Congress to pass HR 4373, the Safe Skies Cargo Inspection Act. This would require that all cargo carried on commercial airliners be inspected by the TSA. The fact that we don’t do this already is tantamount to criminal negligence. It is the easiest way to put a bomb on a plane.
External Threat Security
The final major threat to US commercial airliners comes not from within the plane itself, but from a should fired missile (MANPAD). As I wrote back in March the cost to retrofit the entire fleet of US airliners with defense measures is an embarrassingly small $10 billion (Can’t remember where I heard that number), and that someone manages to bring down an airliner with one, the next bailout of the airlines would likely cost double that, plus we would have to equip the fleet anyway to return passenger confidence in air travel.
This is the next threat, and how has the government responded to it? Congress at least appropriated over $200 million for studies over the last three years, but President Bush effectively cut that funding by only asking for $4.9 million this year for the program. Funding needs to be renews to previous levels with an implementation goal of 2010.
That pretty much covers it, in a general overlay sense. I sincerely doubt you will see any of these ideas initiated any time soon. The republicans that currently control our government are too reactive, and not nearly proactive enough to solve problems that don’t yet have the blood of Americans already staining them.
Monday, August 28, 2006
A Horrible Anniversary
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, especially since I had a visitor today who has been working on the recovery since the early days of it. He quit last Friday.
The conditions he described today, one year after the storm sounded nothing less than post-apocalyptic. He told me that there is still so much destruction that it is too depressing to continue working there. He had to have some time away.
He also told me one other thing. The IRS has decided to discontinue the tax incentives that drew so many workers to the area to help with the rebuilding as of June 31. These incentives were one of the main factors drawing people to put up with living in the hell that is the reconstruction zone.
The bottom line is that for all intents and purposes without these incentives the reconstruction will likely slow dramatically. The federal government needs to step in to re-instate them immediately. Not doing so is the first step in giving up.
The conditions he described today, one year after the storm sounded nothing less than post-apocalyptic. He told me that there is still so much destruction that it is too depressing to continue working there. He had to have some time away.
He also told me one other thing. The IRS has decided to discontinue the tax incentives that drew so many workers to the area to help with the rebuilding as of June 31. These incentives were one of the main factors drawing people to put up with living in the hell that is the reconstruction zone.
The bottom line is that for all intents and purposes without these incentives the reconstruction will likely slow dramatically. The federal government needs to step in to re-instate them immediately. Not doing so is the first step in giving up.
Doesn't Match, Never Added Up
In an oh so surprising development, Mark Karr's DNA does not match that found at the crime scene in the Jon Benet Ramsey case. I thought pretty early on that this guy was just trying to play his way out of a Thai prison. I wonder if we'll send him back?
It's no wonder we have trouble catching terrorists when fools like this guy baffle both the FBI and of course the media.
Update: They let this asshole just walk right out the door.
It's no wonder we have trouble catching terrorists when fools like this guy baffle both the FBI and of course the media.
Update: They let this asshole just walk right out the door.
I Love A Good Witch Hunt
Both the right and left blogosphere are smelling blood in the water and are feverishly trying to smoke out the Senator who put a secret hold on a bill that would require transparency in government spending. It would require a internet database to be created that would be searchable online.
My money is on Ted Stevens of Alaska, the porkiest porker in the Senate. Plus, he probably doesn't want you clogging up the series of tubes that is the internets with dump truck loads of searches, thus delaying the internets he receives in his office.
My money is on Ted Stevens of Alaska, the porkiest porker in the Senate. Plus, he probably doesn't want you clogging up the series of tubes that is the internets with dump truck loads of searches, thus delaying the internets he receives in his office.
Deb Pryce Runs Away From Deb Pryce
I saw my first Deb Pryce television ad over the weekend, and after sitting there in shock for a brief moment, I rolled around on the floor laughing. It had to be the most disingenuous ad I've ever seen in my life.
In it Pryce does everything but announce she is leaving the republican party, and the word republican doesn't even appear in the ad. She touts her independence and all the times she has had to go against her party.
Umm Deb, You're in the freaking leadership of the House republicans!!! You hold the number three position in your caucus, Speaker excluded. Now you're trying to run away from an agenda you helped to shape? You've got to be kidding me. If you're saying the republican leadership needs to be challenged, you're saying you need to be challenged.
Move On should just start running fifteen second ads that simply say Deb Pryce....... Republican.
In it Pryce does everything but announce she is leaving the republican party, and the word republican doesn't even appear in the ad. She touts her independence and all the times she has had to go against her party.
Umm Deb, You're in the freaking leadership of the House republicans!!! You hold the number three position in your caucus, Speaker excluded. Now you're trying to run away from an agenda you helped to shape? You've got to be kidding me. If you're saying the republican leadership needs to be challenged, you're saying you need to be challenged.
Move On should just start running fifteen second ads that simply say Deb Pryce....... Republican.
More Polling
Rasmussen has some new Ohio numbers out as well with Ted Strickland leading Ken Blackwell 57% - 32%. and Sherrod Brown leading Mike DeWine 44% - 42% among likely voters. Both polls have a 4.5% margin of error.
Given the closer proximity to this poll to some other polls I've seen, I think that Blackwell's merry group of right wing nutjobs might be gaming the Zogby poll. It requires you to register with Zogby Polling, (Note: I am a registered member and take part in these polls) and I have to guess there must be some coordinated effort by The Ohio Reformation Project or some other group to get all their members registered to push Blackwell's numbers higher than they actually are. I'm also not sure which type of voters Zogby is considering.
One thing for sure, this poll is among likely voters and this would at least tend to show greater enthusiasm among Strickland voters than Blackwell voters. I should also be noted that Rasmussen in general seems to favor republicans across the board.
While I don't think it will happen, if the most recent Dispatch poll and this poll more correctly show the situation on the ground in Ohio, republicans must be freaking out because Blackwell is starting to sink into de-listing territory for the party.
Given the closer proximity to this poll to some other polls I've seen, I think that Blackwell's merry group of right wing nutjobs might be gaming the Zogby poll. It requires you to register with Zogby Polling, (Note: I am a registered member and take part in these polls) and I have to guess there must be some coordinated effort by The Ohio Reformation Project or some other group to get all their members registered to push Blackwell's numbers higher than they actually are. I'm also not sure which type of voters Zogby is considering.
One thing for sure, this poll is among likely voters and this would at least tend to show greater enthusiasm among Strickland voters than Blackwell voters. I should also be noted that Rasmussen in general seems to favor republicans across the board.
While I don't think it will happen, if the most recent Dispatch poll and this poll more correctly show the situation on the ground in Ohio, republicans must be freaking out because Blackwell is starting to sink into de-listing territory for the party.
Subodh Chandra
Subodh Chandra, one of the best political speakers I've heard in a while, has an Op-Ed in the American Prospect where he takes on George Allen's recent remarks. It's pretty good, go read it here.
Beta Blogger
If you checked in yesterday, you noticed some changes in the appearance of this blog which have since disappeared. I had to revert to the old version because beta blogger doesn't allow for the raw editing of html yet, thus I couldn't reinstall my site meter. (At least I couldn't figure it out.)
So the look will stay the same and I can't use labeling yet. I only have one complaint about beta blogger, in the old version the view blog link opened in a new window, in beta it doesn't. Please change this!
BTW, if I could label this post, the label would be "Geeky Meta Shit You Certainly Don't Give A Damn About."
So the look will stay the same and I can't use labeling yet. I only have one complaint about beta blogger, in the old version the view blog link opened in a new window, in beta it doesn't. Please change this!
BTW, if I could label this post, the label would be "Geeky Meta Shit You Certainly Don't Give A Damn About."
Latest Zogby Polls
Fresh off the press this morning is the latest polling results from the Zogby / WSJ Interactive Poll. In Ohio, Ted Strickland lead Ken Blackwell 49.7% - 41.4% and Sherrod Brown holds an eight and half point lead 47.2% - 38.7%.
Also in somewhat of a surprise, Jim Webb now has surged ahead and leads George Allen in Virginia by a very slight margin.
Also in somewhat of a surprise, Jim Webb now has surged ahead and leads George Allen in Virginia by a very slight margin.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
The Great Capitulator
Joe Lieberman has an Op-Ed in today's Hartford Courant in which he proclaims himself "a team player." Really? In baseball, a player such as Lieberman is called something else, a clubhouse cancer.
This paragraph from the piece shows perfectly that Joe doesn't get it. From the Courant:
Of course nobody likes polarization in politics, but moderation and bipartisanship can only occur when the majority party allows it to occur. Snuggling up to the majority party when it supports a radical agenda is not bipartisanship, it's capitulation.
Joe goes on to write this:
When exactly was the last time the republican majority ran with any major Democratic initiatives? Not lately, thats for sure. Yet when Lieberman supports the republicans agenda, he does so at the expense of the moderation he seeks by giving the majority party cover.
This paragraph from the piece shows perfectly that Joe doesn't get it. From the Courant:
Like many of you, I am fed up with the partisanship and polarization that is blocking us from addressing the issues that matter most to Connecticut families. And that is precisely why I am continuing my campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate as an independent Democrat.
Of course nobody likes polarization in politics, but moderation and bipartisanship can only occur when the majority party allows it to occur. Snuggling up to the majority party when it supports a radical agenda is not bipartisanship, it's capitulation.
Joe goes on to write this:
None of these problems can or will be solved by one party in Washington. And no party has a copyright on good ideas. Progress will only happen if we take the best ideas from across the ideological spectrum, follow the example of Team Connecticut in saving the New London sub base and put the interests of our state and nation first.
When exactly was the last time the republican majority ran with any major Democratic initiatives? Not lately, thats for sure. Yet when Lieberman supports the republicans agenda, he does so at the expense of the moderation he seeks by giving the majority party cover.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)