Contract Dispute Grounds Firefighting Planes

Human Events ^ | 09/07/2011 | Audrey Hudson

[Mortrey]

Nearly half of the federal government’s firefighting air tankers are siting idle at a California airport, grounded by the Obama administration...

[Mortrey]

Obstruction by Barry? More blood on it's hands?

[DesertRhino]

As Texas and California burn,,,, Is there ANYTHING Obastard doesn’t screw up? Is there ever a point where we get to say it’s deliberate?

[Army Air Corps]

Not surprised. Just more of the War on Texas. This is not the first time that the Feds have grounded fire fighting aircraft.

[Bigun]

He really, really HATES Texas and it shows!

[DesertRhino]

The fires in Texas are almost all on private land, not national forests. The state of Texas needs to immediately hire the planes. Screw Obama,,,

[texmexis best]

The company in question is nonunion which is the real story. As a plus for Zero, he gets to stiff Texas.

[texmexis best]

This, BTW, is a good argument for deunionizing the government.

[texmexis best]

This, BTW, is a good argument for deunionizing the government.

[texmexis best]

This, BTW, is a good argument for deunionizing the government.

[Red_Devil 232]

Sounds like the Governor of Texas needs to hire these tankers for the State. The forestry Service should have no say in the mater if the tankers will not be working on U.S. Forestry lands.

[Shannon]

I think the title of the article is misleading. I read the entire article and it's very interesting.

Basically the feds just dumped this company's contract to use seven firefighting Orion planes and wouldn't even agree to discuss the reasons so things could be worked out. The disagreement was over long range maintenance and even though the planes passed this years inspection the feds said adios. It's absolutely insane.

I hope Rush sees this article.

[muawiyah]

Actually, this is an orgasmic opportunity for Obama. He gets to emulate his hero Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Mayor who waited until almost too late to declare an evacuation emergency AND then left hundreds of school buses to get flooded and unable to haul folks out of danger.

[Young Werther]

Obama thinks, (he thinks?) that these are TREEmendous BUSH fires!

SNOT his business

[blueunicorn6]

Obama has mobilized The Democrat Snocone Squadron to fight these fires. Unfortunately, the Democrats haven’t figured out what ice is made from.

[TexasCajun]

Since you read the article, is there a union angle to Obamah shutting this company down?

[Lancey Howard]

Must be non-union.
Or, somebody else who is better connected is angling for the contract. Clinton travel office redux.
Either way it’s all about Ubama/Democrat corruption, make no mistake about it.

[barstoolblues]

If this is true, Perry should blast this out to the country in the debate.

[barstoolblues]

If this is true, Perry should blast this out to the country in the debate.

[Irenic]

More info...
7/29/11
Forest Service cancels air tanker contract

*snip*
Gourley said the FAA in April expressed some concerns about the company’s flying certificates, which he equated to a driver’s license, so Aero Union voluntarily grounded its fleet while the issue was sorted out. Soon after, the aircraft received permission to fly for the rest of the wildfire season.

His aircraft were last inspected six weeks ago, he said.

“And midseason, it was ‘Oops, we changed our mind,’” he said. “We’re kind of sitting here befuddled when everything has been approved.”

Gourley said he believes the termination of his company’s contract is part of a larger effort by the Forest Service to own a fleet of aircraft rather than rely on private contractors.

“So what they’re doing is precipitating a crisis. They’ve trumped up this maintenance issue, which doesn’t exist, and decided to use that against us,” he said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18580461?nclick_check=1

[Shannon]

Since you read the article, is there a union angle to Obamah shutting this company down?

No mention of unions in the article but judging by the comments below the article there may be a distinct non-union angle. Per the comments this company is non-union and not big DNC donors. Makes me think of think of the Gibson guitar company.

Perry should be screaming his head off about this. Maybe he is and I just haven't heard about it.