NO-FLY? OK?

Just in case you have been waiting around for the ideal time to become an activist for peace and justice, let me tell you that your wait is over. I know it is hard to speak out. You never know if you will get audited by the IRS, become the subject of an FBI investigation, get spied on by the NSA or just what fun awaits you the minute you open your mouth and say something against the Bush Regime.

I know how you feel, really I do. I remember when I fixed my flag so I could hang it upside down and backwards right after the USSC appointed King George. Hey, I know distress when I see it. But, my son got all red faced and cringed. We live in a conservative enclave here in the Midwest, and he was mortified. He agreed, but he was not quite comfortable with my public statement. To his credit he did go to Kalamazoo with me early in George’s reign to protest his appointment.

But, I do digress. What I am talking here is the No-Fly list. I know, I know, that is yesterday’s news you say. Yeah, I know. Check this out, and this and this and even this.

Heard it!

Well, here is where it gets interesting. In Mother Jones this month Jim Morris and Frank Koughan write about the state of airlines inspections. Privatization and Bush laxity in regulations strike again! Safety in the skies looks to be more doubtful than any time before. Think recent mining accidents here. Think voluntary compliance with environmental regulations and heavy-handed treatment of the air traffic controllers. And, read the Mother Jones article.

If you need some snippets from that article to entice you here are a few that I found most intriguing:

“THE FAA INISISTS THAT the Swissair accident was an anomaly and has pressed on with plans to give the industry more power to self-regulate.”

The GAO has raised questions about the FAA’s ability to manage the 13,600 companies and individuals in the designee program. In an October 2004 report, GAO auditors found “inconsistent oversight” by the FAA, brought about by incomplete databases, heavy inspector workloads, and widely varying standards among field offices. And they found that “FAA offices do not always identify and remove inactive or poor performing designees expeditiously, which may be due to reluctance on the part of managers, engineers, and inspectors to take disciplinary action.”

“Do you really trust Boeing to have the integrity and the character and the sense of public stewardship to resist the schedule pressures of a program that is late, overbudget, overweight, or if there are serious technical issues that we don’t have solutions for?” asks Stan Sorscher, a Seattle-based representative of the Boeing engineers’ union. “All those problems exist in the 787 program. This is a time to be watching very carefully.”

Now, as I was saying. No-Fly lists... may not be such a bad thing.

-Mags


A LITTLE AFTERTHOUGHT: AIR MARSHALS HAVE QUOTAS TOO

They may not be nabbing terrorists or Al Qaida big-wigs, but Air Marshals have to justify their existence too. In fact, to get a raise or a bonus they have to report at least one schnook at month. Innocent, guilty, random... doesn't matter... SOMEONE MUST BE REPORTED!