FAA Administrator - Obama's Next "Screw Up!!!"
Bill Mulcahy
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/newsletter510.htm
Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter
#510...........................................................................................February
8, 2009 Past newsletters can be accessed at:
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm If you want to get this
bi-weekly newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill
Mulcahy rock...@prodigy.net
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Quote of the Week: "Word is that Randy Babbitt was a registered lobbyist for
the city of Phoenix and Sky Harbor Airport for a number of years. Last thing
the FAA needs is an Administrator with close lobbying ties or a political
agenda" from a Wall Street Journal blog site talking about the next FAA
Administrator
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FAA Administrator - Obama's Next "Screw Up!!!"
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As Bill Sees It (Editorial): FAA Administrator Job: Herbert and Woerth Out,
But Who Is In? First we hear that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is
pushing a crony to Obama as the next FAA Administrator and nex "our" new
president promoted to head an ex-congressman whose wife not only is a head
lobbyist for the airline industry, but actually worked as a deputy FAA
Administrator!!! Is this the kind of "hope" for a clean government that
Obama billed himself as being the leader of? The hiring of industry-friendly
political cronies to head federal agencies, along with giving billions of
taxpayer dollars to bail out greedy banker con men, shows that Obama may not
only be as bad as his predecessor, but may be actually worse!!! It looks
more like the same corrupt, politics that we have all come to know and
loath. Fortunately Obama was smart enough to dump Daschle ( like Daschel's
constituents did a little more than four years ago). However, that still
leaves the top FAA post open. Who Obama picks for it will say a lot about
his commitment to American's health and our quality of life.
Aviation Industry Lobbyist Latest Candidate For FAA Administrator Job -
Obama's Next Screw Up? The latest buzz is that former pilot union president
Duane Woerth. and longtime Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid crony Robert
Herbert, are out and Randy Babbitt, an aviation consultant and also a
former head of the Air Line Pilots Association is now being talked about.
This may make the pilots and air traffic controllers happy, but what about
the millions of aviation victims on the ground impacted by the vicious,
unjust, racist flight patterns and the ever increasing aviation noise and
air pollution? According to one web site Babbitt Randy Babbitt was a
registered lobbyist for the city of Phoenix and Sky Harbor Airport for a
number of years. He is also president of Eclat Consulting, a aviation
consulting firm. That's funny I didn't see any concern about the health
impacts of aviation on the millions of victims on the ground in Babbitt's
biography. I don't know who is advising Obama on his appointments, but he
should be out looking for a job!!! I don't think that aviation pollution
victims and activists are going to put up with another aviation pollution
expansionist in the 5-year tenured FAA Administrator's job. This is not the
kind of "CHANGE" that we voted for and donated to. Obama better look at
Babbitt's taxes VERY carefully before deciding to appoint him. A Quiet
Monorail:
My Idea For A "Stimulus" Project: am outraged that democrats are using
America's economic crisis (which they help cause) is now being used to fund
every liberal, pork-barrel, jobs for their friends, program they can fit in
it. I "thought" it was going to be used to provide jobs for people, not
greedy financial institutions like Citi Bank. Why not fund the construction
of a quiet monorail from New York to Washington, DC to relieve some local
airport communities from some of the noisy, polluting "regional" jet traffic
destroying their quality of life? The government could mandate the use of
American steel, technology and workers for its construction. Of course, that
would take some vision, not to mention common sense, something that so far
hasn't seemed to "change" with a new president. It would cost a lot of money
but would create a lot of jobs. The silence of a high speed monorail could
go a long way in reducing regional airport traffic and revive the train
industry. Once America was the place where new, innovative technological
projects like this use to happen. It could be again, but that would take
vision and leadership, not business as usual.
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Jane Garvey Pushing Former Pilot Union Boss As FAA Administrator? The naming
of a new FAA Administrator by the Obama administration was once thought to
be a formality for former pilot union president Duane Woerth. Then, longtime
Senate aide Robert Herbert came highly recommended by his boss, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports the
administration has the FBI vetting Randy Babbitt, an aviation consultant and
also a former head of the Air Line Pilots Association.The Journal quotes
"people familiar with the matter" in reporting that former FAA chief Jane
Garvey is in line to get the number-two job at the Department of
Transportation, and wants Babbitt at the FAA. While all three candidates are
accomplished aviators and appear otherwise qualified, union old-timers
remember Babbitt for his role in battling management at Eastern Airlines
back in the day, and industry insiders say he has more support than Woerth.
DOT chief Ray LaHood reportedly told FAA officials he wasn't satisfied with
a choice between Woerth and Herbert. LaHood told Senators during his
confirmation hearing that settling the chronic conflict between the FAA and
the unions representing its employees would be an early priority. Given
recent turmoil regarding executive appointments in the Obama
administration... let's hope Babbitt is current on his taxes.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=57fbad2c-6ebc-48ea-b1ec-fbb9e0afda34
FAA To Loosen Fuel-Tank Safety Rules, Benefiting Boeing's 787: The Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) has quietly decided to loosen stringent
fuel-tank safety regulations written after the 1996 fuel-tank explosion that
destroyed flight TWA 800 (picture left) off the coast of New York state. The
FAA proposes to relax the safeguards for preventing sparks inside the fuel
tank during a lightning strike, standards the agency now calls "impractical"
and Boeing says its soon-to-fly 787 Dreamliner (pictured on right) cannot
meet. Instead of requiring three independent protection measures for any
feature that could cause sparking, the revised policy would allow some parts
to have just one safeguard. Boeing has worked closely with the FAA to make
the change in time for the 787 Dreamliner, whose airframe built of composite
plastic makes lightning protection a special challenge. But the move has
stirred intense opposition inside the local FAA office from the technical
specialists - most of them former Boeing engineers - responsible for
certifying new airplane designs. The national union representing about 190
Seattle-based FAA engineers this past Tuesday submitted a formal critique to
the agency, calling the new policy "an unjustified step backward in safety."
In a lightning storm, the critique said, the less stringent rules could
leave a commercial airliner "one failure away from catastrophe."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boeingaerospace/2008719843_lightning08.html
Airport Noise Jumps 3 Decibels, Complaints Increase By 5 Times!!! A Park
Ridge monitor used to measure the amount of noise generated by flights
approaching O'Hare International Airport shows some increase in the average
decibel level experienced since a new northern runway opened Nov. 20. A
report published by the city of Chicago Department of Aviation shows that
during December, the day-night average sound level (DNL) recorded by the
monitor at Prospect Avenue and Gillick Street in Park Ridge was 59.8. That
is three decibels above what the monitor recorded in November and 1.5
decibels above the average for October. December did not, however, average
the highest decibel level in 2008, as recorded by the monitor. Decibel
levels in that particular neighborhood of Park Ridge were higher in May
(65.2 DNL average) and August (62.3 DNL average). What did increase
significantly since the opening of the new runway, known as 9L/27R, is the
number of calls made by Park Ridge residents to the Department of Aviation's
noise-complaint hotline. In November, 188 calls from 108 Park Ridge callers
were reported. In December, the number of calls jumped to 991, made by 325
callers. Residents south of Touhy Avenue, however, have said the skies are
much louder since the new flight path was created over their homes. Some
residents believe the city's noise monitors do not accurately reflect the
actual noise experienced because the average DNL is calculated using data
for 24-hour periods. Because there tends to be less air traffic at night --
particularly for 9L/27R -- residents have said this skews the averages, and
some have called for the average DNL to be determined based on daytime or
peak-time noise only. Gilligan said DNL calculation is federally mandated.
The ONCC has, however, asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to
initiate new national aircraft-noise standards. In a Jan. 21 letter to USDOT
Acting Administrator Lynne Osmus, Arlington Heights Mayor and ONCC
Chairperson Arlene Mulder wrote: "The averaging of noise decibels throughout
the day does not account for the times of significant annoyance for people
living, working and attending schools beneath air traffic." Documentation of
"all nighttime events that occur after 10 p.m. on the new northern runway, 9
left, 27 right" has also been requested of the Federal Aviation
Administration by the ONCC. The ONCC's next regular monthly meeting will be
at 8 a.m. Feb. 6 at Rosewood Banquets, 9421 W. Higgins Road, Rosemont. It is
open to the public.
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/parkridge/news/1401460,pr-noisereport-012909-s1.article
Protesters Plan Film On Airport Noise: VOLUNTEERS are needed for a new
documentary about families who live in the flight-path of a major airport.
Campaigners PLANE Speaking wants to recruit people in Linwood, Inchinnan and
Kirklandneuk, in Renfrew, for a short film about Glasgow Airport. The group
opposes the expansion Glasgow and Edinburgh airports. Residents in parts of
Clydebank have long complained about aircraft noise. BAA Glasgow, however,
insists its noise-managing measures exceed statutory obligations.
Johnny Agnew, spokesman for PLANE Speaking, said: "This film will show
everyone what communities have to put up with living next to the airport.
"We hope that it will add to the growing sense that expansion of Glasgow is
nothing more than a flight of fancy, bad for business, bad for communities
and bad for the planet."
A community meeting about the film and the planned expansion of Glasgow
Airport will be held on February 2 at Linwood's Tweedie Hall at 7pm.
A second meeting will take place at Kirklandneuk Community Centre, in
Renfrew on February 4, at 6pm.
V
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2484587.0.protesters_plan_film_on_airport_noise.php
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Important Aviation
News Stories This Week
Tom Daschle's tax issue is simply one facet of the corruption he and his
lobbyist wife have been involved in From LA Law Weekly six years ago.
"The national press corps didn't bother to tell you why Tom Daschle, the
Democrats' Senate leader, decided at the 11th hour not to run for president:
In the end, he calculated that he couldn't survive scrutiny of his
persistent service to the clients of his wife. Linda Daschle has been one of
the airline industry's top lobbyists for two decades - when she wasn't busy
running the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which explains why, just
11 days after the 911 attacks, her husband rushed through the Democratic
Senate, which he controlled, the $15 billion bailout for the airline
industry, a notorious taxpayer rip-off.
Right after then-Congressman Tom Daschle dumped his first wife for a
younger, prettier one, the former Miss Kansas Linda Daschle went to work as
chief lobbyist for the Air Transport Association, the airline industry's
main lobby; she then became the senior vice president of the American
Association of Airport Executives; and these days hangs her hat at the
pricey top Washington lawlobby shop Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell,
headed by former GOP Senate leader and ex-Reagan chief of staff Howard
Baker - where she peddles influence on behalf of a long list of lucrative
aviation clients. The clients for whom Linda lobbied brought more than $5.86
million into Baker, Donelson in one three-year period, including Northwest
Airlines ($870,000 from 1997 through 2001) and American Airlines ($1.26
million in fees). Northwest was already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy
even before 911. American, which has had six fatal crashes since 1994 (not
counting 911) and has been repeatedly fined by the FAA for a skein of safety
violations, had the reputation as the most unsafe major U.S. carrier.
Yet these two clients of Linda Daschle's got nearly $1 billion from the
airline bailout her husband pushed into law - thanks to which Northwest
(which was the second largest contributor to Senator Daschle's 1998
campaign, and which scooped up $404 million in government cash) actually
posted a $19 million profit in the third quarter after the twin-towers
attacks. And, as the lone senator to vote against the bailout, Illinois
GOPer Peter Fitzgerald, decried, "The only people who got bailed out were
the shareholders. The 1 million airline employees were left twisting in the
wind." So much for the populist noises that occasionally come from Senator
Daschle's mouth. The Daschles also made sure that the bailout exempted
American (which has consistently lobbied against tougher airline safety
standards) and other carriers with lousy safety records from any real
liability to lawsuits from the families of 911 victims. Moreover, the
General Accounting Office found that the airline industry's representations
to Congress to secure the bailout overstated its anticipated losses from 911
by as much as $5 billion.
Before 911, Senator Daschle pushed through the sleazy deal in the backrooms
of Capitol Hill that forced the FAA to buy defective baggage scanners from
one of Linda's other clients, L-3 International (from which Linda's firm
raked in $440,000 in the '97-'01 period). Under a provision Linda's husband
had slipped into the 2000 budget for the U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT), the FAA was required to buy one of L-3's scanners for every one it
purchased from the company's competitors. The L-3 scanners were found to be
substandard by DOT's inspector general; FAA tests of the scanners showed
high failure rates; and most have not yet been installed because of their
defects (the one at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport - another of Linda's
clients - leaked radiation), which is a major reason DOT says it won't be
able to screen all luggage for explosives for years to come.
In one of those corporate-coddling moves for which the Clinton
administration became infamous, President Bubba appointed Linda Daschle
deputy administrator of the FAA, putting her in charge of regulating her
once-and-future clients; and she wound up running the agency as acting
administrator. This, of course, significantly boosted the Daschle family
income by hyping the amount Linda could charge her clients when she left
government service. She didn't wait long to cash in. Example: While running
the FAA, she awarded Loral Space Technologies (a major Democratic
contributor that figured in the '96 campaign-finance scandals) a nearly $1
billion contract from the federal government; after Linda passed through the
revolving door to Baker, Donelson, Loral paid the lobby shop $740,000 in
2000-2001 for Linda's services. When the FAA was pondering making mandatory
a criminal-background check for all airport employees, Linda, who was then
running the agency, vigorously opposed this common-sense move - echoing the
position of the airline-industry lobby that had previously employed her.
A particularly odiferous episode involved charges that the senator and his
wife had tried to sabotage safety inspections of an air-charter firm owned
by Murl Bellew, a Daschle family friend who taught Tom how to fly. The
scandal erupted and triggered an official investigation when a Bellew small
plane chartered by the Indian Health Service crashed in North Dakota,
killing the pilot and three doctors en route to an Indian-reservation
clinic. Forest Service inspectors had been arguing that Bellew's firm should
be banned from getting government contracts because the operation had been
unsafe for years. Senator Daschle obligingly pushed legislation taking the
Forest Service out of the business of inspecting small-plane carriers, and
senior FAA bureaucrats said Linda had also tried to submarine a proposal to
train Forest Service inspectors to conduct FAA investigations. An FAA
inspector reported a cover-up: Documents showing the Daschles' assiduous
efforts to minimize inspections of Bellew's planes were shredded by FAA
officials under Linda's thumb. While an I.G. report failed to find Linda
guilty of any lawbreaking, there's an old saying in Washington: The scandal
isn't what's illegal, the real scandal is what's legal."
Government Shill #2
wrote:
>The graphic (website) version of this newsletter can be accessed at:
>http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/newsletter510.htm
>
>Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter
>#510...........................................................................................February
>8, 2009 Past newsletters can be accessed at:
>http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm If you want to get this
>bi-weekly newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill
>Mulcahy rock...@prodigy.net
Hiya Bill,
How is the campaign going? Have you achieved anything from your Aviation
Conspiracy Newsletter in the, what, 10 years+, you've been doing it? Any
airports closed? Runways shutdown?
--
Shill #2
Great Tarverisms #5
The pitot tube was added to the first American jets to prevent the
kind of failures that killed an entire squadron off Florida. Without
P1 and T0 a jet will stall in fog.
Thanks to both of you for playing.
John
rec.aviation.military
11 August 2002
Bill Mulcahy
> How is the campaign going? Have you achieved anything from your Aviation
> Conspiracy Newsletter in the, what, 10 years+, you've been doing it? Any
> airports closed? Runways shutdown?
Thanks for replying my aptly named "government shill" friend.
I look at the struggle for aviation "peace" to be a long term effort that
will
go beyond my life. I measure success not in the number of airports closed
and runways shut down but ones that have been prevented from being
expanded and extended.
Bill Mulcahy
Government Shill #2
wrote:
>
>> How is the campaign going? Have you achieved anything from your Aviation
>> Conspiracy Newsletter in the, what, 10 years+, you've been doing it? Any
>> airports closed? Runways shutdown?
>
>Thanks for replying my aptly named "government shill" friend.
I was called a government shill so often during the TWA800 days at a.d.a
that it just stuck.
>I look at the struggle for aviation "peace" to be a long term effort that
>will
>go beyond my life. I measure success not in the number of airports closed
>and runways shut down but ones that have been prevented from being
>expanded and extended.
Oh? How long's that list?
--
Shill #2
Great Tarverisms #4
The clerk boy is practicly illiterate.
John
alt.disasters.aviation
10 November 2002
Scott M. Kozel
>
> "Bird Strike" Bill Mulcahy <rock...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
>>> How is the campaign going? Have you achieved anything from your Aviation
>>> Conspiracy Newsletter in the, what, 10 years+, you've been doing it? Any
>>> airports closed? Runways shutdown?
>> Thanks for replying my aptly named "government shill" friend.
>
> I was called a government shill so often during the TWA800 days at a.d.a
> that it just stuck.
Anybody who disagrees with the conspirowacko agenda, is a "government
shill". :-)
>> I look at the struggle for aviation "peace" to be a long term effort that
>> will
>> go beyond my life. I measure success not in the number of airports closed
>> and runways shut down but ones that have been prevented from being
>> expanded and extended.
>
> Oh? How long's that list?
I wonder when he is going to start lobbying for the closure of
expressways and railroads?
Government Shill #2
wrote:
>Government Shill #2 <gov....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> "Bird Strike" Bill Mulcahy <rock...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>>
>>>> How is the campaign going? Have you achieved anything from your Aviation
>>>> Conspiracy Newsletter in the, what, 10 years+, you've been doing it? Any
>>>> airports closed? Runways shutdown?
>>> Thanks for replying my aptly named "government shill" friend.
>>
>> I was called a government shill so often during the TWA800 days at a.d.a
>> that it just stuck.
>
>Anybody who disagrees with the conspirowacko agenda, is a "government
>shill". :-)
Yep. Was then. Still is now. I've had people say that calling myself a
government shill is proof positive that I do indeed work for "The"
government. Yeah, it's a rule. All of us shills have to state our shill
credentials in public.
>>> I look at the struggle for aviation "peace" to be a long term effort that
>>> will
>>> go beyond my life. I measure success not in the number of airports closed
>>> and runways shut down but ones that have been prevented from being
>>> expanded and extended.
>>
>> Oh? How long's that list?
>
>I wonder when he is going to start lobbying for the closure of
>expressways and railroads?
And those terribly noisy ships with their fog horns. TOOT!
--
Shill #2
Ears on the loon go round and round, round and round, round and round...
theobviousgcashman