I think it's time the parties picked a new logo and ditched the donkey and elephant. My suggestion? Janus...
Posted on 11/16/2001 1:17:08 PM PST by freedomcrusader
Aviation Bill to Federalize Workers
Updated: Thu, Nov 15 11:54 AM EST
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - House and Senate negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday on legislation aimed at making the nation's airports and airplanes more secure. All airport screeners would become federal employees within two years.
"I think we have an agreement," the House Transportation Committee chairman, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said after an hourlong meeting of five negotiators from each chamber.
Young and other lawmakers declined to discuss specifics, but aides, speaking on background, said the negotiators had agreed to a phased-in system under which all airport baggage screeners would become federal workers.
Under the tentative deal, the government would take immediate responsibility for the oversight of screeners. Within two years all screeners would become employees of the federal government. However, individual airports that meet strict federal standards could opt out of the system and use local law enforcement officials or private security firms for screening functions.
The negotiators also agreed that passengers would pay a fee of $2.50 every time they get on a plane to finance increased security measures. There would be a maximum $5 charge per trip.
The House and Senate negotiators had been stuck for several weeks on the issue of screeners. The bill passed by the Senate would create a new federal work force of 28,000 screeners. The House bill would put screeners under the supervision of the federal government but left it to the administration to decide whether screeners would become civil servants or remain employees of private security firms.
With the holiday season approaching and Americans still shying away from flying because of post-Sept. 11 security concerns, President Bush on Tuesday urged Congress to work day and night to give him an aviation security bill.
"I plead with the conferees to quickly reach agreement," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., at a hearing of his Governmental Affairs Committee,where transportation officials outlined continuing security problems at airports since Sept. 11. "It will be truly outrageous if Congress leaves for Thanksgiving without passing aviation security legislation."
The two bills agree on most points, such as fortifying cockpit doors, increasing air marshals on flights and moving toward screening of all check-in bags. Differences remain on whether aviation security should be under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department or Transportation Department and on language in the House bill giving liability protection to building owners and others affected by the attacks on the World Trade Center.
But there was a consensus that the other parts would fall into place once the screener issue was settled. "The climate is there," said Sen. John Breaux, D-La., one of the negotiators.
Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead told the Senate Governmental Affairs hearing that numerous measures had been taken since Sept. 11 to bolster security. He cited reinforced cockpit doors, use of law enforcement officials and National Guard at airport checkpoints, background checks of airport personnel, use of FBI watch lists to identify suspicious passengers, and allowing only ticketed passengers beyond screening points.
But he said there were "still alarming lapses of security" and that steps taken would remain patchwork until Congress moves to enact fundamental changes.
Fewer than 10 percent of checked bags at the nation's airports are inspected for bombs and one overworked detection machine operator was found falling asleep on the job, Mead said.
He said that even those airports that have the $1 million machines often use them only sporadically. A survey by his office over the past weekend of 30 machines at nine airports found that 73 percent were not in continuous use.
Mead said checks over the past several weeks found some 90 security problems, including screeners missing dangerous items such as knives in carryon bags and airlines not carrying out random checks of passengers.
One of the big problems, those at the hearing said, was a lack of consistency. "You know something is wrong when screeners are confiscating thousands of nail clippers but allowing people with arsenals of weapons through," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
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The House bill is H.R. 3150
The Senate bill is S. 1447.
Did the gutless wonder from Mississippi, Sen. Trent "Caves Alott," bother to ask himself how many more union employees this government boondoggle is going to create -- all of them yearning to vote Democrat in every election?
I rank Sen. Lott's strength-of-character right up there with tippler Teddy Kennedy's, the only difference being Lott's better driving record with female passengers.
It is spending money like crazy, not offsetting the new necessary spending on national defense with cuts in the very bureaucracies it once promised to eliminate, like the Dept. of Educaion, and now it is going to vote to federalize a new bureaucracy.
The GOP constitutionalists and conservatives once supported is dead.
I think it's time the parties picked a new logo and ditched the donkey and elephant. My suggestion? Janus...
From now on when it comes to firing the sluggardly, incompetent, time-wasting, break-stretching, surly, and otherwise nincompooply workers - you won't just be able to march up to the offending boob and say "You're Fired, get your stuff and leave,... NOW!"
Instead, you'll have to minutely document the alleged infractions (date, time, cirumstances, previous supervisory actions, previous required counseling given, etc.) and then establish a "re-training plan" that stretches out to a year or so that permits the worthless slug to "rehabilitate" him/herself. During that time, he/she has plenty of time to call in the sexual harassment or EEOC police and the Union on you and management to break the chain so he/she can continue on merrily in his/her slovenly ways unobstructed. Or, he/she can perform minimally enough to pass and then start the long chain all over again. And he/she does all this in the same job all the while, of course.
That's the way it happens in real life, folks.
Goodbye, major airlines. Consider yourself the new equivilant of the Post Office or Motor Vehicle Office. You won't get many willing customers in that climate. Somebody smarter will figure a way around this newly constipated system and leave you in permanent bankruptcy, just like the railroads.
(Note to self: Dump major airline stocks, NOW!)
If I were a current screener, I'd be more than a little ticked off with the comments of some of the senators. They basically blamed the 9/11 attack on the incompetence of the current security workers, which is absolute idiocy, since there would have been no reason for the current screeners to keep the terrorists from getting on the planes.
I like to refer to the Senate as the "Graveyard of Freedom", with this bill being just the latest example of their treachery.
Give it to Mikey. He'll sign anything...
And Trent Lott probably thinks that he pulled a fast one with that tricky little exception, but watch the Dems find loopholes to get around that(just like with redistricting, Jeffords, elections, et. al.) But hey, with a spineless idiot as a leader, and moderate turncoats(who consider "straight talk" simply a marketing ploy) looking for every chance to appease the media("they like me, they really like me")what do you expect. (regardless of intentions) Moderates=Enablers of Evil
Yes, I put the blame squarely on the man who leads the revolts against GOP success, that slimy rat-bastard John McCain. How long will he use his "war hero" status as an excuse to block any attempts to stop our country from crumbling under the weight of excess and idiocy? You McCainiacs should be ashamed of yourselves, can you yet recognize the destruction your wobbliness is wreaking, your alliance with the unscrupulous liars theives, and cons? Probably not, I'm sure you've already searched the thesaurus of victimology to find some excuse, no you were just reacting to some greater invisible threat(why if we let the conservatives win on airline security, they might just be stronger in the next election, and then we might see more pro-life laws. GASP! Yep, better for a million to die of a terrorist nuke, than to restrict abortion ANY.) Just look at your shoes, one step at a time, irregardless of where it leads. Avoids difficult decisions right now.
Shame, shame, shame. Moderates=Enablers of Evil.
We will now have airport security employees on the same par as the IRS, INS, and EPA. Ought to be real interesting.
The failure on 9/11 was the INS, FBI, and the CIA; not the baggage screeners for pete's sake!! Ugggghhhh...I get so mad at this. And now they say they will do it in 2 years? What the h**l? This should send a red flag to everyone that even the bozos in Congress know it is not the baggage screeners fault. They are just playing politics, pure and simple, and it stinks.
In his 1995 book, Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea, Kristol announced what it (neo-conservatism) means to him:
Neoconservatives even proudly admit their takeover of the word "conservative." In his 1996 book entitled The Essential Neoconservative Reader, editor Mark Gerson jubilantly observed:
From Bush on down, the neo-conservative agenda reigns ... and is being implemented. That's bad enough. But it's compounded by the fact that the rank-and-file/grassroots Republicans think they have voted for conservative leadership.
Afraid not folks. You didn't get the real thing ... so don't expect your idea of conservatism to be representated by elected "conservatives." Perhaps next election, you'll look a little bit closer at the candidates ... and just not jump at the first one who labels himself "conservative."
P.s this tells me AA587 was probably a terrorist act, no wonder the GOP caved in ASAP.
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