Posted on 11/01/2001 4:28:54 PM PST by FairWitness
Edited on 05/11/2004 5:33:17 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House rejected a plan Thursday to turn airport screening operations over to federal employees, handing a major victory to the White House and its Republican allies.
The 218-214 vote to defeat the Senate-passed, Democratic-backed alternative set the stage for passing a GOP aviation security bill that would allow screening to be contracted out to private employers. A vote on the Republican bill was to come later Thursday evening.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
If you think that the federal government could - if the Senate bill had passed - field trained federal government employees to screen baggage before the holidays, I've got a nice bridge in NY that I'll sell you cheap.
Seems like you should pay a little more attention to what's going on in the world.
Results of today's votes can be viewed at:
Pull your head out of the sand for a minute. Terrorists gave us 5,000 dead people. TERROISTS! Would you blame rape on the victims? On the clothes? On the car a woman drives? Same logic.
The real blame belongs to terrorists.
If you want to play the blame game though, why not go to the root causes? Why not blame affirmative action? Thanks to affirmative action there are QUOTAS for hiring in airports- the more so because airports are NOT privately owned. They are city or county owned, with PC regulations out the wazoo and hiring quotas a big issue in the city councils. They are horribly inefficient. The buildings themselves are designed for political profiteering, not for genuine efficiency or security. The legal protections for workers amkes it difficult to even fire ground personnel who get caught STEAL ING items from the luggage! Firing people isn't easy- it sets you up for lawsuit after lawsuit, many of them based on accusations of racism.
Why not blame the cities?
The costs for operating in a system where cities levy HUGE taxes for landing privileges and such make the costs of operating an airline absolutely ridiculous. Some of these costs are for reasonable things relating to the industry but much of it is siphoned off for giveaways to local contractors, friends of the mayor and city council, make-work projects for voters, and light rail links to places where there is little demand for the services.
Why not blame lawyers and people who demand ridiculous amounts of damages?
Want to know what else makes airlines struggle so that they have little money to spare for security? Excessive rewards on lawsuits, frivolous lawsuits, etc. That raises the costs of operating airlines and essentially takes money from security.
Why not blame your own congressman? Chances are he thought the CIA shouldn't deal with scoundrels, and so cut back on their ability to infiltrate or spy on groups like Al-Qeada. Chances are, he thought retreating from Somalia with our tails between our legs was a good idea, and bringing our dead back in the middle of the night so the public wouldn't see was OK, since it kept Clinton from getting the blame he so richly deserved. Chances are your congressman thought the local military base was more important than buying essential spare parts for the military or more important than investing more effort into a terrorism problem that seemed so far away, or thought socialized health care and a study on waterflea sex habits was more important than improving communications and information between the INS and the FBI. Chances are he thought the INS was doing a bang-up job of screening immigrants and didn't care that no security checks were performed in the last decade on thousands and thousands of them. Chances are, your congressman thought diversity supercedes common sense, and passed much legislation that protected terrorist activity and fundraising in this country and ABROAD.
Why not blame the customers, since they don't want to pay for for non-smoking areas set aside in airports (now that was a bit of brilliant legislation, wasn't it?), inflated bidding on contracts, minority set asides in hiring personnel, public art in airport terminals, kissing up to the local politician's brother in law's construction company, excessive jet fuel taxes and surcharges, airport landing fees, EPA studies on aircraft noise and airport pollution, ergonomically designed computer keyboards for complaining employees, incredible insurance fees to cover excessivce and abusive litigation awards, form legal fees for all the people who slip on the boarding ramp, back pain experiences by baggage handlers, hurt feelings and hate crime lawsuits, to people killed in accidents whose families collect millions upon millions of dollars, etc. If we were only willing to pay for more of those overpriced tickets, the airlines would have loads of ticket sale business and be able to afford security.
i just cant trust them at this time and it's going to take quite a bit for me to get on an airplane again.
Think about this. You are in GREATER peril every time you drive to the store than you would be on an airliner, even if there was no security at all. You want to FEEL safe, and that FEELING is more important to you than the actual danger. You drive your car don't you? You are in incredible danger- that is a fact- by just driving to the store for a bottle of milk. Why are you still willing to drive? Would it be logical to give up your car and your driving privileges? Quit FEELING and start THINKING.
Federal screeners would have been an excellent first step.
Why don't we federalize YOUR job too. Why don't we just turn completely communist and federalize everyone, if you really think FEDERAL employment is the way to go. We're already getting close to it anyway. Do you want a the kind of people that worked for the census to screen people at airports? Do you want that numbskull at the patent office - one of the few government agencies that actually does a halfway decent job- to be your security chief at Dulles Airport when he spent two years hiding patent applications in the suspended ceiling to avoid the work and everyone knew about it but transferring him was easier than firing him because he was unionized and a minority? Every time they told him to work or threatened to fire him he screamed racism and his supervisors were afraid of him. So they let him botch and delay years of patent applications.
Oh, right- trust federal employees and expect QUALITY?
Why not trust the one in the pentagon who thought picture framing was more important than purchasing ammunition. Or the EPA which wants barnacles to be collected, rather than dropped back into the sea, because they are a biohazard- unless of course you scrape them while you are standing in the water, in which case it is OK for them to be left into the water. Your government in action...
He means he'll pull some partisan politics until someone else dies on a plane so he can blame Bush. Hey, politics first. So what if a few peasants die "for the good of the federal employee union votes."
. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., a chief sponsor of the Republican bill, said he was determined not to ``create the biggest bureaucracy in the history of a generation.''
Good man. Good job!!
``What a tragedy it would be, after seven weeks of delay, that we'd delay even more prior to the time we complete our work and ensure greater security and safety in airports all across this country,'' said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
Vote with the Republicans, and it will be fixed tomarrow. Why wait????
There was common agreement that Congress must act quickly to get leery Americans back on planes.
Vote Republican.
Gephardt said that could include private airport security companies that have been under fire for giving their employees poor pay and training.
No no no, let the taxpayers foot a higher pay, hey, the money grows on trees!
The Democrats would have imposed a $2.50 per flight fee to pay for increased security. The GOP fee would be $2.50 per trip, so passengers who take connecting flights don't pay twice.
Republicans, always looking out for the tax payer instead of federal union employee votes. What a good bunch of guys, eh?
Really? When was the last time you went to the DMV?
IRS ever owe YOU money? A year isn't that long to wait, really.
Did you support Hillary Health Care? Same idea!
When he was in the House, I actually respected Trent Lott. I think he has proven himself a spineless wimp time and again in the Senate. Worse than that, I guess that's who the GOP Senators want to lead them.
Say what you want about Daschle, he's one tough dude.
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