– News reports on Laura Ruderman have stated that she’s running for the 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by Jay Inslee, however in her FEC Statement of Organization filing, she left the district field blank. On June 28, the FEC sent her a letter asking her to specify which district she plans to run in.
– Remember those Hitler-loving teenage twins who started a band called Prussian Blue? Well, they’ve changed quite a bit since then…
– Scott Morgan writes about the myth that support for marijuana law reform is political suicide. This actually reminded me of an incident recently at Drinking Liberally in Burien. A certain city council candidate for a city just outside of Seattle showed up with his campaign manager on a night when I came by to collect signatures for I-1149. The candidate himself was very forthright with me that not only did he think marijuana should be legal, but that we should even look at different ways of dealing with harder drugs. But his campaign manager (both men were probably in their 50s) sternly advised him not to sign my petition. He was convinced that if it became public that he signed a petition to legalize marijuana, it would wreck his chances in the campaign.
I found that to be laughable and said that in the greater Seattle area today, the opposite is almost true. Failing to support the legalization of marijuana could actually hurt you politically. Not to mention that Ron Paul, who’s been on record supporting the legalization of marijuana for over twenty years, keeps getting re-elected in the one of most conservative parts of the country. But this is how many folks in the political establishment still think. The taboo that marijuana represented long ago still lives on in the minds of political consultants, even though the political risks to supporting reform are non-existent today.
Later on at that Drinking Liberally event, though, State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon – one of the youngest, if not the youngest, member of the state legislature – signed my I-1149 petition as that same campaign manager tried to warn him not to.
– Seattle has become the first city in the state to move forward with a plan for regulating medical marijuana establishments. Under the parts of the bill that escaped the governor’s veto pen, it’s now legal for a group of up to 10 authorized patients to band together and form a “collective garden”. And there’s nothing in the new law that prevents someone from opening up a storefront and making it the shared access point for a large number of those collective gardens (Seattle alone probably has more than 20,000 authorized patients, meaning the city could have over 2,000 collective gardens). The city of Seattle has an interest in controlling where those access points will be located and have them pay business taxes just like any other establishment.
But now, attorney Douglas Hiatt is threatening to sue the city over the regulations. I’ve worked with Douglas a lot for I-1149 and I’m frankly baffled by what he’s doing. When I emailed him about why he was planning to sue, he told me that it’s because marijuana is illegal at the state level still, so the city can’t regulate it. After re-reading the actual language of SB 5073 that passed, I don’t think that’s true, but that’s actually beside the point. These are regulations that will allow for Seattle to have a system of access for medical marijuana that’s above-ground and – while still an administrative mess (thanks governor!) – better for patients. And the relevant local law enforcement figures are perfectly ok with it. The only entity I would expect to nitpick the legality of all this in order to shut it down is the DEA, not someone with a well-earned reputation for defending the state’s medical marijuana patients in court.
What in SB 5073 makes you think that Douglas is mistaken?
I don’t understand what he means. The presentation at City Hall last week listed the following regulations that affect businesses:
* Business License, B&O Taxes, SMC Title 5
* Land Use, SMC Title 23
* Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation, Noise, SMC Title 25
* Building & Technical Codes, SMC Title 22
* Food‐Service, No Smoking, SMC Title 10
* Street and Sidewalk Use, SMC Title 15
* Chronic Public Nuisance, No Open Use
I’m not aware of anything that relieves an entity that engages in unlawful behavior from the requirement that it comply with any of those. In fact, it’s unclear to me what the ordinance Seattle City Council passed this week does. Aren’t the medical cannabis access points that exist now already subject to these regulations?
important information. It’s really useful. Thanks
Whoa! (Cough! Hack!) Dude!
http://www.bellinghamherald.co.....osion.html
Stoner Lee et al. Smart people.
@ 3
What I find amusing about that is the fact that, in the making of real hashish, no heat is required, and this individual is obviously an idiot. Some people just shouldn’t be messing around with industrial processes that they cannot understand.
@4, you refer to the low tech traditional method. The resin can also be concentrated by using alcohol to extract it from the plant then evaporating off the alcohol. The alcohol fumes are of course both extremely flammable and toxic.
@1
What in SB 5073 makes you think that Douglas is mistaken?
I think the language in Section 403 clearly makes collective gardens legal enough so that any person who opens a store location and follows the language of that section to the letter is operating a legal business.
Aren’t the medical cannabis access points that exist now already subject to these regulations?
Probably. I know that a few of the old dispensaries (even ones outside of Seattle) registered as business and paid B&O taxes.
@6: I’m not asking if they’re complying with regulations, I’m asking if the law (pre-C.B.-117229) requires them to do so. I’m curious why the City doesn’t just start enforcing those regulations. Need we pass a separate ordinance for each type of business that says those businesses are required to follow all the regulations that every other area business is required to follow?
Since it’s an open thread….
Last week I visited the doctor’s office. I forgot to bring my book in from the car, so I perused my choice of magazines while I waited. Since I wasn’t particularly interested in Field & Stream, Golf, or Ladies Home Journal, I picked up the large-print edition of the May 2011 issue of Readers Digest, and opened it up to a randam page.
What I found was an extremely interesting article by someone who works at writing papers for college students. He didn’t apologize for the ethics of his profession, he simply explained how the business worked, the types of students requesting the papers, the fees that were charged, and the types of papers he wrote. It turns out he writes just about everything, from two-page reports to master’s thesis, on just about every subject under the sun. An average paper might cost $1,500 to $2,000, and he can usually do it in a week or so (while working on other projects as well). He makes about $60K a year, splitting the fees with the referral service.
Among the things which stood out to me was his short description of the types of students who used his service: (a) the foreign student who had difficulty with the English language; (b) the “lazy rich”, and (c) the “incurably deficient”.
He goes into more detail to describe the “lazy rich”. He points out that not every rich person is lazy, but also that not every rich person is smart or industrious. But what sets the rich people apart in college is that college is particularly well-suited for ensuring their success in life.
Because for someone who is not rich, they may work very hard and get good grades, and think that this will ensure them success in life. This is a false lesson – learning a work ethic might help them in life, but it hardly ensures success. Luck, contacts, and family wealth have far more to do with eventual professional success than does hard work.
What the “lazy rich” learn, however, is exactly what they need to know to get ahead. They learn how to use their money to get other people to do their work for them. Then they spend their free time solidifying their social and future business contacts in fraternity activities, College Republican meetings, etc.
Of course, this is a paraphrase from my memory, I checked the Readers Digest website and I wasn’t able to find the article itself. But it sure rings true.
@7
I’m not sure I know the answer to that. Someone with more knowledge about municipal codes needs to weigh in.
By the way, did anyone pick up on Danny Westneat’s article in Sunday’s edition of the Seattle Times, entitled “One Rich Guy’s War on Light Rail”? He points out that Eyman’s Initiative 1125, advertised as being to prohibit tolls without a popular vote, also prohibits the use of I-90 for light rail.
Initiative 1125 is being funded almost entirely by Kemper Freeman Jr. The purpose is to overturn a decision made multiple times, at the ballot box and by elected representatives, for the use of light rail as a mass transit alternative for the Puget Sound region.
Which just goes to show how the initiative process is being subverted by wealthy individuals and business interests to frustrate the will of the community – exactly the reverse of what the initiative process was designed to do.
A couple of things struck me in the article. It already contains a time-bomb which they are hoping gets ignored in the discussion over the tax/tolls issue – the prohibition of using I-90 for light rail. This would, in effect, kill light rail as an effective transit option between most of the east side of lake Washington and Seattle.
But Westneat’s article hinted at an even bigger time-bomb. He said:
“The section would bar the state from allowing highway lanes built with any gas-tax money to be used for mass transit.”
Is this a correct reading? Would the initiative force Metro buses off all state roads? After all, they are “mass transit” also, are they not? Or did Westneat simply make a too-broad generalization of the effect of the initiative?
GOP Bribery Scandal Erupts
We already know George W. Bush presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in American history.
Now, a lawsuit has exposed a major Iraq War contracting scandal. It involves a billionaire GOP fundraiser and donor who paid millions of dollars to the Jordanian government to give him a monopoly over a transport route for delivering fuel to U.S. forces in Iraq — then used his stranglehold over the supply line to gouge the Pentagon, costing U.S. taxpayers millions.
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.c.....es-in-iraq
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This criminal conduct was brought to you by the same political party that now claims we can’t afford granny’s Social Security or Medicaid for sick kids.
Meanwhile, closer to home:
“Political forces from throughout the state began Tuesday to craft a plan for making billions of dollars of improvements in transportation in the next decade — and getting voters to agree next year to pay for them all.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43.....verett_wa/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This shows how disconnected our leaders — of both parties — are from the citizenry. You can’t ask the unemployed, one-parent families, low-wage workers, or the beleaugered middle class to pony up additional billions of dollars for public works projects. You simply can’t. We’ve reached the point in our state where we either have to fundamentally reform the tax structure or do without public services. For decades, the rich and big business have been allowed to pay almost nothing, while those least able to pay are asked to shoulder an unending stream of — for them — tax increases. This model simply doesn’t work and has reached its limits. Tim Eyman’s success at passing anti-tax initiatives is the only evidence you need.
correction @12: “unending stream of — for them — unaffordable tax increases”
Serb War Criminal Caught
The last major fugitive from the Bosnian genocide wanted by the United Nations has been arrested.
Goran Hadzic, who was able to evade arrest for years with the help of Serbian officials, is on his way to The Hague to face trial for ordering the murders of hundreds of non-Serb Croats. Hadzic also was involved in mafia-style underworld business deals.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43.....ws-europe/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I believe it’s possible to create a world free from tyranny, war, and genocide. But for that to happen, the world’s civilized nations must develop effective mechanisms to bring tyrants, warmongers, and killers to justice. Too often, governments have found it more convenient to let them go scot-free. That has to stop. The clear and unvarying message to people like Hadzic — and wannabes — must be that if you do these things, you will stretch a rope or spend the rest of your days in a concrete cage. The duty of civilized governments to humanity is making that a sure thing.
Notice I didn’t accuse the U.S. government of harboring war criminals, or suggest handing Dick Cheney over to The Hague or any other court, even though indictments have been issued against him. I’ll let you mull over that one.
Oh, and if you are following the news, American Airlines, which has flown Boeing jets for the past 20 years or so, has decided to split a huge order of narrow-body jets between Airbus and Boeing, with Airbus getting the larger share.
It appears that the issue is the more fuel-efficient next generation of A320’s and 737’s. American Airlines doesn’t want to wait until 2018 or 2020 to receive them, which is what Boeing estimates it needs to produce an entirely new version of the 737. It looks like American is forcing Boeing’s decision – they are being forced to make a re-engined 737, instead of an entirely new aircraft.
As I’ve mentioned before (in several posts), Boeing’s problems right now with the 737 can be traced back to one man – Harry Stonecipher, the former McDonnel-Douglas head who set Boeing’s direction in the late 1990’s and first half of the 2000’s. His decision to delay new aircraft programs, and dismantel Boeing’s parts-production capability, meant that Boeing has spent the rest of the decade struggling to catch up.
The attempts to work-around Stonecipher’s vision of Boeing being only the company which slaps on the final name-plate, plus the accellerated catch-up schedule, forced the decision to out-source both design and production of major assemblies. But this, in turn, led to the almost three-year delay in the delivery of the aircraft due to severe quality problems, delays at the vendor, and Boeing being unable to modify vendor’s drawings.
Airbus’ decision to go ahead with the re-engined A320 (A320 NEO) put Boeing in a real bind. Because the 737 sits closer to the ground than the A320, it can’t just hang a bigger engine from the wing – it has to re-design substantial portions of the aircraft to do so (wing, landing gear, landing gear bay, etc.), which means moving everything else to make room in the process. The better option might be for Boeing to build an entirely new airplane, but that’s going to take a lot longer. And most importantly, Boeing’s engineering and financial resources are already stretched to the limits with the existing 787-8 program, the 747-8 and 747-I programs, and the need for new variations of the 787 in the near future (787-9 and 787-10).
Jim Albaugh (head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes) was quoted recently, Boeing isn’t going to try to design and build prototypes of two aircraft types simultaneously again in the near future. But American Airlines – and Airbus and the rest of the industry – is forcing them to do just that.
So within the next six years or so, Boeing will have to complete the re-work on the design and building of the 787-8 (freighter version) and 747-7 and 747-I (passenger version), but at the same time design and build either a re-engined 737 or a replacement for the 737 entirely. In the meantime, the 777 will become dated and subject to poaching of orders by the longer versions of the A350XWB, so a re-design of that aircraft should already be in the early stages. And I’ve always thought the 747-8 and 747-I were interim solutions, Boeing will need to design and build another “heavy”, probably looking out about ten years or so.
@16 When I flew to a family funeral via American airlines recently, with one plane change in each direction, three of my four flights were delayed for an hour or longer because of mechanical problems, and two of the four planes had to be pulled from service and replaced with airplanes flown in from other cities.
American is flying a fleet of junk aircraft. They had no choice about replacing these planes. This airline was rapidly getting to the point where it wouldn’t be able to get off the ground — or was going to have an accident that killed 200 passengers.
Michele Bachmann Suffers from ‘Terrible’ Migraines
In an unusual bid to stunt Michele Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign, her former colleagues tell The Daily Caller that Bachmann’s “terrible migraine headaches” make her unfit for the presidency. “They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” a former adviser to Bachmann during her 2010 congressional campaign tells the conservative website. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.” The former colleagues say they’re speaking to the press because they fear that Bachmann’s migraines could make her unable to serve the country as president and the amount of pills she needs to take to combat the migraines is troubling.
Locally, it’s hard to gauge the impact of the American order for re-engined 737’s. Boeing apparantly has the option of supplying either re-engined 737’s or an entirely new airplane, but the delivery schedule makes an entirely new airplane very iffy.
If Boeing CAN pull it off, it has the possibility of tempting American to NOT exercise it’s options for 352 other Airbus aircraft – they could simply order the Boeing offering instead. But given recent history, I expect American would insist on seeing actual performance from Boeing – commercial delivery of the launch aircraft – before making such a commitment.
Locally, the issue is where those aircraft are going to be built. Boeing still has a big backlog of 737 NG orders to be built at Renton. Boeing previously said, about a month or so ago, that it wants to build an entirely new site for the replacement for the 737 NG, so that the Renton facility can be used to wrap up the 737 NG orders. But in the past, customers usually converted existing orders to new products, making the existing backlog vaporize rather quickly.
Where to build the new line? Under the American bid, that’s a big issue. There’s simply not much time to purchase, design, and build a new factory. Arlington or Moses Lake had been mentioned, I think the Arlington option makes more sense from a logistics standpoint, although recent development around the airport there makes expansion of that airfield difficult (Boeing will need to fly those new aircraft from the factory, somehow). Moses Lake has a big, long runway, and lots of room for buidling a big factory, but it’s a bit far from the labor base here in the Puget Sound region.
All those factors seem to favor other locations – Charleston, Mobile, etc. But the issue is the available labor force. In the Puget Sound region Boeing can pull from all sorts of people who have worked for Boeing at one time or another. Training a new labor base has proven difficult at Charleston, as a lot of the early 737 problems originated with Vought, Alenia, and Global Aeronautica facilities there (which have subsequently been purchased by Boeing). They are catching up, but it is taking a while. And Boeing is finding out that simply transfering workers from Puget Sound to Charleston doesn’t work well – the IAM contract prohibits mandatory transfers (except for very short periods). Expect that to be a big sticking point in next year’s IAM contract negotiations. Boeing is trying to get around that by having more of their work force being “temp” guys who aren’t part of the IAM, another potential sticking point in future negotiations. (Some on the factory floor are complaining that the best workers are being denied permanant jobs at Boeing so they could be kept on temp/contract status indefinately).
Clock Ticks Down On Hate Killer
Barring a last-minute reprieve by Gov. Rick Perry, who is preoccupied with thinking about running for president, the State of Texas is going to kill a man this afternoon (at 4 p.m. our time) — just five hours from now.
It’s hard to make a case for saving Mark Stroman’s life, even if you’re a bleeding heart liberal who believes nobody should be executed, ever, no matter what they’ve done.
Stroman has a long criminal history with convictions for burglary, armed robbery, and theft. He’s a white supremacist and claims he once belonged to a prison gang called “the Aryan Brotherhood.” But Stroman’s main claim to infamy — and the reason he’s on death row — is because in the aftermath of the 9/11/01 attacks, he decided to take vengeance into his own hands and used a .44-magnum pistol to gun down three men of foreign descent: One a Pakistani, another an Eastern Indian, the third a Bangladeshi. Two of them died. At his murder trial, Stroman gestured with his middle finger to the relatives of one of the victims.
Stroman now says he’s sorry he did it. I say let him feel even sorrier at one minute before 4 p.m. — just before his lights go out.
# 17: It’s a problem with the entire U.S. airfleet. U.S. airlines struggled to remain profitable during the late 1990’s, then just as they were recovering were hit by 9/11, and then just as they were recovering again they were hit by high fuel prices in early 2008, then the financial crisis, and now higher fuel prices again.
So the deferred purchasing aircraft for a long time. The exceptions were Alaska and Southwest, who were buying the single-aisle 737’s. But up in Everett, where the wide-bodies are being built, you haven’t seen the tail fin of a U.S. carrier in a very long time.
In the meantime, the failure to order new aircraft is costing them in the long run, as maintenance costs rise and they are flying less fuel-efficient models. Here in the U.S., it doesn’t bother them as much since most of their competitors are in the same boat. But internationally, the U.S. carriers are losing ground every year to foreign carriers who are flying newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft with lower maintenance costs.
Of course, it doesn’t help that most foreign carries offer far superior service than do U.S. carriers. In Asia the flight attendants are courtious, young, and gorgious, a throw-back to the days of Pan Am stewerdesses and air travel as being a exotic luxory. You get great food, sometimes complimentary wine, a spotless cabin, etc. But on U.S. airlines you get only a marginally better service level than you get here domestically. The flight attendants like international flights so they use their seniority to get those routes – visitors from Japan comment on how the fight attendants look like their grandmothers.
I think people would happily move to moses lake to work at a boeing plant…better weather, lower cost of living, less traffic, no nutty seattle/king county politics to deal with, etc…….
The main issue I have with the death penalty is that if you kill the wrong guy, “I’m sorry” just does not seem to cut it.
@21 As remuneration for three (out of four) delayed flights, American gave me a coupon worth $100 … good only on American. As if they think a $100 discount will get me to fly on their airline again.
# 22: Some would probably move, taking advantage of the lower land costs. It might result in a big residential building boom in the area – but I don’t know how well the area infrastructure would support it (roads, sewers, water supplies, electrical, internet access, cable TV, etc.). And if Boeing decides later to transfer to Charleston or Mobile instead, you might have a ghost town with workers stuck in houses they can’t sell.
But most Boeing workers I’ve talked to would stay here. They don’t like the hotter summer weather (or snowier winters) of central Washington, and they prefer to live near the Puget Sound where they can hike & fish (many own boats). They belong to churches and clubs here, many grew up in the area, and they have their extended families here (parents, sons & daughters, etc.). They simply don’t want to move. And many of them prefer the politics here. All of which are factors which makes it very difficult for Boeing to convince Puget-Sound-area workers to relocate dot Charleston or Texas right now.
New Perspectives On Wisconsin Recall Races
Wisconsin Democrats are claiming today that yesterday’s 2-to-1 victory over a GOP challenger in the first of that state’s nine state senate recall elections shows Democrats have “momentum” and are “surging,” but a Wisconsin political scientist disagreed, saying that election was merely a case of an incumbent soundly beating an extraordinarily weak opponent.
I agree with the political scientist. The Republicans’ preferred candidate, a GOP state reprsentative, fell short of enough signatures to get on the ballot. Thus, the GOP challenger was a screwball with a history of petty criminal convictions that even the Republican Party wouldn’t support. He had to run against a well-funded and popular incumbent without money, name recognition, or party backing. Not surprisingly, he got his ass kicked. I don’t think that tells us anything about what will happen in the remaining 8 races.
Because yesterday’s election involving defending a Democratic seat, Democrats still have to defend their 2 remaining seats up for recall and wrest at least 3 of the 6 GOP seats up for recall away from the Republicans in order to take control of the state senate.
Wisconsin Democrats wre talking up their prospects yesterday, saying both of the remaining GOP challengers are “flawed” candidates and that all 6 of the GOP senators are vulnerable. Some of this has basis, some is happy talk, and some is professional optimism.
Let’s start with the 2 Democrats senators still facing recall. Being as objective as I can, the Democrats are right when they say both GOP challengers are flawed candidates. In the 12th District in northern Wisconsin, GOP candidate Kim Simac has a seamy divorce to explain to her “family values” base, she’s a Tea Party extremist whose positions won’t appeal to independent voters, and the Democratic incumbent likely will outspend her. But that district is conservative and the Democrat won his last election with only 51% of the vote. This seat could flip despite the Democrats’ best efforts to retain it.
In the 22nd District, in extreme southeast Wisconsin on the border of Illinois, the 37-year-old GOP challenger is a corporate attorney who works for a Chicago law firm — and his main campaign theme is criticizing his opponent for going to Illinois during the union-stripping bill imbroglio. Well, this guy goes to Illinois every day. In fact, he’s far more familiar with Illinois than he is with Wisconsin. He’s not even really a Wisconsite, it’s just a technicality that he happens to live in a commuter suburb a few blocks over the Wisconsin side of the state line. The 22nd is a competitive district, but the Democrat has represened this district since 1996, is popular with voters, and we probably don’t have to worry about holding onto that seat.
It’s harder to get an accurate read on the 6 GOP seats at risk. All of them will learn their fate 20 days from now, on August 9. I’ll be very surprised if the GOPers survive that election unscathed, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect Democrats to win all 6 of those seats. Possible, but unlikely. Republicans won’t get much vote-suppression benefit from their new voter-ID law, because photo IDs don’t become mandatory in Wisconsin until next year. Right now, voters are being asked for ID but can’t be turned away if they don’t have it. I think winning the 3 seats needed for Senate control is doable but not a sure thing. Tens of millions of dollars will be spent by both sides and it may come down to a hair-thin margin in one race — so expect to see the kind of ballot-counting shenanigans that occurred in Wisconsin’s recent supreme court election once again.
Boeing needs to take a good, hard look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, rather than focusing on where.
@17 That’s beginning to sound almost as bad as Eastern in its horrendous last days.
Welcome to Third World Airlines
We hope you enjoy your delays
Ekim @ # 18: I just had another thought about Bachman’s migrains.
I can recall only one other American leader of significance who had migraine headaches. He was Confederate general Braxton Bragg.
Bragg was notorious for being difficult. When he was a regular officer in the U.S. army before the war, he once served dual duties as company commander and quartermaster (which wasn’t unusual). What has unusual was that the would submit a request as company commander, then deny the request as quartermaster, and then appeal the denial to the regimental commander. The regimental commander called him into his office, and stormed: “You’ve quarreled with every officer in this man’s army, and now you are quarreling with yourself!”
As commander of the AoT (Confederate Army of Tennessee) during the Civil War, he led the army during the Kentucky campaign, at the battle of Stones River/Murfreesburough, the Tullahoma campaign, the three-day battle of Chickamauga, and the Chattanooga series of battles (Lookout Mountain, Orchard Knob, Missionary Ridge).
Throughout the campaign, he earned the disgust and outright hatred of almost his entire senior staff, as well as the rank-and-file. He regularly blamed subordinates for his errors, and enforced strict discipline which included almost daily firing squads for relatively minor offensives. He put his army on half-rations for months, then ended up burning tens of thousands of rations in the warehouses as he retreated.
Most importantly, with respect to migraines, was that stress would incapacitate him at exactly the wrong times, and contributed to his depression and paranoia. He would frequently retire to the ambulance which served as his headquarters/sleeping chambers, just when his attention to affairs was most needed. Specific examples are too long for a post such as this, but just in the Chickamauga/Chattanooga campaigns, there are several occassions where his failure to attend to the important details of his job due to “incapacity” cost the AoT dearly.
I’m sure, the migrains didn’t help his temper or his ability to deal with his subordinates.
The ultimate result of Bragg’s command of the AoT was that the army was pushed out of Tennessee completely, leaving it to the occupation of federal forces and setting the stage for Sherman’s advance to Atlanta.
One thing hasn’t made the general news. The FAA re-authorization bill hasn’t been approved, there are significant discrepencies between the House and Senate versions, especially relating to how much airlines have to pay the FAA for it’s services (usually per-passenger charges). With the attention of both houses of Congress and the President on the debt ceiling wrangle, most participants say that there is no way that a re-authorization bill can be passed by Friday, when the current authorization expires.
Nobody really knows what that means. Will FAA towers and air-traffic control centers go unmanned as the clock ticks toward midnight Friday? Will inspection, certification, and enforcement actions grind to a halt?
Most agree that the airlines will get an unscheduled “vacation” from paying fees until the re-authorization bill is passed – meaning that the FAA has less money to do the work it needs to do – work which supports the airline industry as a whole.
Which shows the price being paid by the public as the Republicans continue their posturing over the debt ceiling.
30 – Ulysses Grant suffered from migraines too..
I guess it’s fitting that Bachmann suffers from migraines since the damage her style of politics causes is enough to give anyone a migraine.
@ 18
Perhaps Ms Bachmann is a junkie who is causing her own headaches with the drugs she’s taking.
It certainly would answer a lot of questions about her behavior.
I’d like to see Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz kick Rep. Allen West’s ass. In fact, I bet she could kick his ass and our street corner loon’s at the same time and fuck them both up real good. No, I wouldn’t recommend pissing off Debbie. But like our own loon, Rep. West doesn’t have a lick of fucking sense.
YLB @ 32: I didn’t know about Grant’s migraines. The usual subjects discussed about Grant personally were the rumors of heavy drinking, anti-semitism, and his aversion to eating meat unless it was so well done it was little more than charcoal.
Of course, if I saw that much carnage, and knew I bore some responsibility, I might have the same aversion. His anti-semetic tendencies were displayed only once (in an order barring Jewish suttlers and traders from his operations area). And he probably developed his reputation for drinking when he was stationed as a young lieutenant near Portland/Ft. Vancouver, and spent a year there far away from his new bride and under the critical eye of a martinet of a superior. He complained about the gloomy weather.
Bachman’s now playing with race-baiting. She wants to scuttle payments to black farmers who were discriminated against in government loan programs, as well as payments to Native American tribes under a court judgement which established that the U.S. had stolen most of the oil revenue it was holding in trust for the tribes. This article discusses the most recent issues – and then points out the long, sordid history of GOP race-bating over the last generation.
How Black Farmers Remain a GOP Punching Bag
The author could have gone back further, to point to Nixon’s “southern strategy” in 1968, and Ronald Reagan’s references to “Welfare Cadillac’s” in 1980, but chooses instead to start only with Willy Horton in 1988.
@23 I think the death penalty should go forward only in cases where guilt is not in doubt.
@various: How is it possible for a perfect vacuum to suffer migraines? Don’t migraines require organic tissue of some sort?
36 IIRC Grant was nursing a migraine when the word came in that Lee wanted to surrender.
# 39: It does require blood flow – the dilation of the blood vessels actually cause the pain, according to a doctor I heard on the radio this morning.
Which is why Dick Cheney didn’t complain of migrains.
Grant’s “migraines” may well have been what are more commonly referred to as “hangovers”. It’s strictly a matter of conjecture whether that’s also the case with Bachmann–closet alcoholism, drug addiction and other “peculiarities” seem to be a long-standing Republican tradition, as witnessed by our last “Preznit” whose behavior was often at odds with the frequent claim that he was a “reformed” alcoholic.
On the other hand, at present there’s no doubt whatsoever that the second in the statutory line of Presidential succession in case of dire emergency is a flat-out unrepentent lush.
YLB # 40: Come to think of it, you are right – Grant DID complain of a ‘terrific headache” which lasted about two days, if I remember correctly. But I’m not sure if it was a migrain. For one thing, I am not aware of any other reports of a migrain – they typically are not one-time events. Secondly, he said it was instantly gone when he read the message that Lee would meet with him to discuss surrender. A migrain headache might be activated or the intensity increased because of stress, but the removal of stress does not typically end the headache in such an immediate fashion.
So my best guess is that Grant had a stress-induced headache, but it wasn’t technically a migraine, which has it’s own unique physical attributes. In any event, it didn’t seem to have any impact on his performance, he was driving himself and his army pretty hard those last few days in an attempt to get forces ahead of Lee and cut him off from turning south accross the Appomatox River – Lee hoped that if he could do so, he would eventually meet up with A.S. Johnston in N. Carolina.
But Lee’s immediate problem was feeding his men, and he had been promised a trainload of rations at Appomatox station. But Union cavalry beat him to it, captureing the train and moving it down the track out of reach. Grant was able to support the cavalry with an infantry corps in short order, which made Lee’s intended attack to force the cavalry aside a fruitless gesture, so he canceled the attack at the last minute.
(A side note: while under a “cease fire” pending the results of Lee’s meeting with Grant, a young U.S. cavalry brig. general with exceptionally long hair demanded to pass through the lines to see Longstreet. Longstreet met with him, and the young general hautily demanded Longstreet’s immediate surrender, or he would order his men to attack. Longstreet was offended by the insolent manner of this young “pup”, and informed him that they were under a cease fire. The Union general insisted that he was aware of no such cease fire, and insisted that he would order his forces to attack anyway. Losing his temper, Longstreet informed the young officer that if that’s what he wanted to do, he was free to try, but if he knew what was good for him he would check with his superiors first. The cavalry officer spun on his heels and left. No attack ever came. That Union cavalry general was named Custer.
43 – Just googling around I see that R.E. Lee struggled with migraine too..
I get situational migraines that are triggered by excessive exposure to Republicans or their views. Treatment, fortunately, is easy–leave the situation or start bashing the childish pricks.
# 44: Lee??? I heard he had angina and a mild heart attack, and recurring digestive disorders resulting in severe diarrea, all hitting him during the last two years of the war. But I hadn’t heard about him suffering from migrains before. I’ll have to check that out.
His health condition got so bad in the summer of 1864 that he got very short and curt with his staff, something he never did otherwise. One staffer left his tent, almost in tears, exclaiming “That man is not fit to lead this army!” (referring to his health, not his other qualities). But if Lee went on sick leave, who could have replaced him?
During Grant’s Overland Campaign in 1864, Lee had a chance to strike a divided Union force on the march at the North Anna river if he moved quickly, but the attempt failed due to inexperienced subordinates (A.P. Hill was sick, Longstreet was recovering from wounds incurred at the Wilderness, etc.), and Lee himself was too sick to personally attend to the details of the attack. The fact that the initial attack was sent in piece-meal and stumbled into Union cavalry equiped with repeating rifles didn’t help, either. Fortunately for all concerned, it was quickly clear the opportunity was already lost, and further efforts were canceled.
I don’t know. I see a lot of references to Grant and Lee having migraine but no solid references to documentary evidence – doctor’s notes, diary entries, corroborating witnesses…
Strange..
climate science denying right wing idiots – it’s pretty freaking hot out there:
http://www.usatoday.com/weathe.....csp=34news
Yeah we’re in a nice pocket here. I wouldn’t move despite the crap economy.. Well the threat of catastrophic earthquakes might be a good reason..
@various: Michelle Bachmann is no U.S. Grant.
@48 hey wingers, how do you like this fucking ICE AGE we’re having?
Too bad for you humans that you don’t know how to dig. When it’s 140 degrees up where you are, it’ll be only 70 degrees down here where I am. We lagomorphs were here before you homos showed up and we’ll still be here after you’re all krispy kritters! When you’re gone, we rabbits will run this ball of fire, and I’ll be their king.
@20 A quick check of the news headlines discloses that this guy has been dispatched and is now explaining his views on race and religion to the admissions clerk at the Pearly Gates.
The FAA re-authorization bill hasn’t been approved
Again it’s held hostage to right wing ideology over things like unions, i.e. it’s degenerated into a partisan battle..
Air traffic controllers are essential personnel and will continue to guide traffic but many FAA people will be furloughed and the government with the authorization cannot collect taxes from airlines to fund operations – so the whole thing is FUBAR..
Thanks again right wing dipshits!
52 – “without” the authorization, excuse me..
Just got a reply from Patty Murray. I emailed her about the lack of funding for cyclists and pedestrians in the current transportation bill making its way though the senate. Her reply contained nothing about cycling or pedestrians.
@48
Lmfao……..same old same old…
When its hotter than normal, we are told its because of globull worming…….when its colder than normal, we are told that “temperature is not climate”…..
The scam continues…….
07/21/2011 at 8:54 am
http://www.wunderground.com/bl.....trynum=200
Of course the max-imum dipshit knows waaaaaayyyyyy way waywaywayway more about the shit than THIS guy…
http://aoss.engin.umich.edu/fi.....Resume.pdf
Jusus-on-a-dipstick! We’re luckyduckies to have a greeeaaaaat mind like the max-imum dipshit here…aren’t we????
this is a test
lmfao.. We keep breaking heat record after heat record – not all that many cold records.. Bottom line is that the climate keeps getting more extreme and the majority of scientists believe it starts with the human race dumping at least 35 BILLION tons of CO2 and other more potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each and every year.
But some asshats just want to believe whatever makes them feel good.
YLB @ 52: Everytime Boeing gets ready to deliver an airplane to a customer, the aircraft has to receive a certification of airworthiness by the FAA. This usually means the FAA inspector reviews the documentation for the airplane and does a walk-through. If he’s not satisfied about something, he will withhold certification until it’s remedied.
Boeing currently delivers several aircraft a day, between the delivery center at Boeing Field and at Paine Field in Everett. If no FAA inspectors are available to issue the certification, deliveries will quickly grind to a halt. Since final payment for the airplane is due on delivery (about 1/3 of the total price), this means that Boeing will lose cash flow amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars every work day, without any chance to recoup interest on those funds. Obviously, the U.S. balance of trade will suffer, as most of those aircraft are being sold to overseas customers, including a hefty number to Chinese airlines.
In addition, the 787 test program will suffer. The 787 is only a few weeks shy of type certification, and testing for ETOPS certification is in full swing. The FAA inspectors are involved in every stage of that testing. If Boeing misses the third-quarter scheduled delivery date, they may have a vallid excuse in blaming the Republicans for shutting down the FAA.
Please do not shop at Macy’s, Target, Kohl’s and Walmart until they draw a line in the sand:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....03995.html
Talking about Chutzpah….
U.S. airlines are finally raking in the money, not on basic airfare, but in additional add-on fees. One of the things I’ve noted is that they create a problem, then charge you a fee to get out of it.
For example, they reduce capacity to the point where every flight is full, then charge for checked baggage. So now everyone brings their baggage on board as carry-on, whether it is suited for it or not. When passengers find the carry-on bins full, some airlines then charge a “gate-check” fee for loading the remaining bags as checked luggage – even if it is relatively small.
But the ultimate offense is pending: several airlines are planning on charging you a “delivery fee” if they lose their luggage and you don’t want to go back to the airport to reclaim it. They won’t do this immediately, they plan to do so gradually – first by charging an “expedite fee” if you want it delivered in less than two or three days, then gradually expanding the time for the non-charged delivery to the point where you have to pay if you want to see it anytime within the next year.
So here’s how it could, technically, work out. First, they make you “gate check” your bag, for an additional fee of $25.00 or so, plus the usual checked-bag fee of $75.00. Then they lose youre luggage, but they point out their “terms of carriage” say you aren’t entitled to a refund. Then when they recover your bag, they charge you a $50.00 “expedite fee” to return it to you in less than two days. You have to pay it, of course, because you had originally brought it on as carry-on because it included things you would need right away – medicine, meeting materials, etc. And if it arrives damaged in the process, well, good luck with that claim.
Heck, I once had Alaska lose my luggage on a direct flight from San Francisco to Seattle. How does one lose baggage on a direct flight, without any stops???? It boggles the imagination.
From now on, I’m going to fly on foreign carriers when I fly overseas. ANA, JAL, Singapore, KAL, etc. all provide the type of service we used to expect as a given here in the U.S.