A famous statesman during our revolution once said, (roughly) “that the introduction of truth passes thru three stages,

1. Ridicule

2. Violent opposition

3. Acceptance as self-evident.

With FAA Reauthorization and the issue of privatization/contracting out we have already debunked our ridiculers and are now stuck somewhere between 2 and 3.  House Aviation subcommittee chairman John Mica among others have seen too many in the House and Senate, including many of his Republican colleagues, accept the truthfulness of our viewpoint.  He has now mutated his violent opposition into an overt and hypocritical “anything goes” strategy in his attempt to win the passage of the bill.

He says he has enough votes to pass the house (which is why he has refused to introduce the legislation right?) but is worried about a filibuster in the Senate.  So instead of respecting the will of his colleagues, he is now trying to exempt certain states that have Republican Senators and airports on the list.  Basically 30 of the 69 towers would be exempt in exchange for removal of that state delegation’s opposition.  Boy if that doesn’t have the pureness of the driven snow.  In exchange for favors to mostly Republican colleagues he will try and deliver as many towers as possible for profit to the contractors and come after the rest of us another day.

I don’t even know where to begin to express the depth of the seediness and dirty dealing stink this is permeated with.  I think I‘ll let John Carr do it with a newspaper quote below.  But their self-righteous claims of safety not being an issue appear to have once again fallen in to disingenuous political partisanship.

Folks if you’re not in the NATCA PAC you need to realize we are in the fight of our lives here and we need your help.  Grab your FacRep or area rep and tell them you need to start or increase your PAC contribution to help …. PLEASE. I also suspect we’ll be asking for your help with phone calls and emails soon.  I’m sorry if this causes any panic to non-PAC members. But if you find giving to the PAC inconvenient don’t worry.  It’s only your future livelihood at stake here.

I guess I’ll quit for now and go see what the cash meltdown for another computer will be.  Here are the promised quotes from John.

Excerpt from

BNA's Daily Report For Executives
Friday, October 17, 2003

Aviation

Mica Plan to Swap Towers for Senate Votes On FAA Bill Outrages Air Traffic Controllers

Mica's approach is a "a total outrage and an affront to the American flying public," Carr said. Mica wants to "cherry-pick" our National Airspace System to garner votes. "He wants to take federal air traffic control towers off the chopping block for privatization in exchange for votes from Republican members of Congress to pass privatization legislation that an overwhelming majority of his Congressional colleagues and the American public opposes, Carr said. "It's outrageous and it's bad public policy," Carr declared. The safety of the aviation system should never have to take a back seat to political gamesmanship, Carr added. "The skin of this onion has finally been peeled back," he said. "Now we can all see that Mica's proposal is not about the safety of the system, or efficiency and cost. It's about "dirty politics" and a dangerous political ideology.

According to Carr, Mica's proposal says that the country is okay with a two-class system of safety in the skies. If you are fortunate enough to live in a first class Republican district, you are safe to fly. But if you live in a second class Democratic district, all bets are off. Mica held a hearing just last month in which he argued that all towers are safe, including those that are privately run in this country. Carr said that theory is now blown apart by the proposal. "Clearly there is concern among his Republican colleagues about the safety of their hometown towers if they are privatized," Carr said.

"The political game playing which the nation has witnessed on this serious issue of safety has got to stop," Carr said. Aviation safety is neither a Republican nor Democratic issue and yet the political process has been undermined time and time again. Congress should not be forced to compromise on safety. "Let's stop the game playing and fix the conference report so the will of the Congress and the public is served," Carr urged.