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The Obama administration is consumed with categorizing everything it does as “historic” and “unprecedented”. Both are technically true: Obama’s policies are creating ruinations never before imaginable, and there certainly is no precedent for any of the administration’s unconstitutional power grabs. Obama has yet again accomplished what once would have seemed utterly impossible: making Norman Mineta seem conscious; but only by comparison to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Janet Napolitano. Former Transportation Secretary, Norman Mineta was a holdover from the Clinton administration. President Bush had a terrifying inclination to pursue “bipartisanship” and kept some of the dregs from the Clinton...

The U.S. has built nine navigation systems for Mexico and Canada under the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in an apparent first step toward establishing the satellite infrastructure needed to create a North American air traffic control system. The defining vision for North American air traffic control was articulated by then-Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta in a Sept. 27, 2004, statement announcing, "We must make flying throughout North America as seamless as possible if we are to truly reap the rewards of the expanding global economy."

Former transportation secretary and San Jose mayor Norm Mineta joins the likes of Ronald Reagan, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other well-known leaders Friday when President Bush bestows on him the nation's highest civilian award. At a White House ceremony, Mineta and nine other luminaries will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- an award to honor those who have made an ``especially meritorious contribution'' to the security or national interest of the United States, to world peace or to other significant cultural endeavors. According to a news release issued by the White House, Mineta ``worked to improve...

Ordinarily, the changing of the guard at the Department of Transportation is not an occasion for reconsidering matters of national security. But the retirement of Secretary Norman Mineta, and the nomination of Mary Peters to succeed him, might afford an opportunity to rethink and improve how we fight on one front in the war on terror. As everybody knows, the recent arrest of more than 20 alleged jihadists in Great Britain jolted airport security procedures. The would-be terrorists had planned to detonate explosives on as many as 10 U.S.-bound passenger jets in mid-August using chemicals found in common household products....

President Bush still hasn't decided whom to nominate as transportation secretary to succeed Norman Mineta, who left the job July 7 after six years on the job. Meanwhile, Washington is showing how it loves to fill an empty Cabinet seat with speculation. A Cabinet secretary, two federal transportation officials, a White House budget aide and a former governor are said to be under consideration. "As soon as he has a nominee to announce he will," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "Secretary Mineta left the Cabinet only a few weeks ago, and a decision on a nominee will be made...

Mineta to Quit As Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the Only Democrat in President Bush's Cabinet, to Resign As Transportation Secy. By JENNIFER LOVEN The Associated Press WASHINGTON - Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the only Democrat in President Bush's Cabinet, will step down next month. Mineta's resignation is effective July 17, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday.Mineta, 74, was plagued with back problems during his tenure as transportation secretary and spent months working from home and the hospital. But he has since recovered, and Snow offered no explanation for why he has decided to leave now.Asked why Mineta...

Just heard Tony Snow say it. May be of interest to some. Norm Mineta submitted his resignation to President Bush

Transportation Secretary Mineta resigns Friday, June 23, 2006; Posted: 11:49 a.m. EDT (15:49 GMT) Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is resigning, effective July 17, the White House said Friday. Norman Mineta Transportation Security Administration White House or Create Your Own Manage Alerts | What Is This? WASHINGTON (AP) -- Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the only Democrat in President Bush's Cabinet, will step down next month. Mineta's resignation is effective July 17, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday. Mineta, 74, was plagued with back problems during his tenure as transportation secretary and spent months working from home and the hospital....

<p>Bush Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, a Clinton appointee inexplicably retained by President Bush, is on tv now with Larry King on CNN. This incompetent hack and fraud relates to Larry, in proof that he is qualified, his vast experience and preparation for this job: "I am familiar with the [anti-terrorism] technology" giving as the prime example of his expertise, the "biomedic" face recognition technology.</p>

Feds Give Santa OK To Make Christmas Rounds WASHINGTON -- The federal government is trying to make Santa Claus' job a little easier and safer when he makes the rounds this Christmas Eve. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said an open skies agreement with the North Pole gives Santa the go-ahead to deliver Christmas presents without having to worry about government paperwork. Santa's reindeer will be allowed to legally land on the roofs of homes throughout America. Mineta said the agreement also gives Santa more time to check his list without having to worry about Uncle Sam.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta Thursday blamed the Federal Emergency Management Agency for holding up his department's efforts to move individuals out of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Mineta said his department had rounded up hundreds of privately operated buses at FEMA's request and brought them to a designated highway stop near New Orleans. There they sat, because FEMA did not give them orders to move, Mineta told a House Appropriations subcommittee. [snip] House Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Knollenberg, R- Mich., asked Mineta to assess how well FEMA performed during the disaster. "Not well," said...

...The leading current proposal, promoted by environmental groups and Congressional Democrats, would raise the standard to 40 mpg by 2010 from 27.5 mpg today. This might save gas, but we know for sure it will cost lives. That's because a primary way auto companies meet CAFE standards is to reduce the weight of their cars. Auto weight fell by about 500 pounds per vehicle after CAFE rules were introduced in 1975. Research has consistently confirmed that the lighter the vehicle the more dangerous it is in a crash because there is less survival space and less physical structure to absorb...

Children's literature is full of bad-tempered railway engines that get overheated, blow their tops and make angry whooshing sounds -- only to get their comeuppance in the end. Amtrak President David Gunn just did his best imitation of a huffy little engine, lashing out at Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta for saying that the railroad should become more efficient. All Mr. Mineta did was agree with a report by his independent inspector-general, who found Amtrak could save $1.2 billion in operating and capital spending over five years by eliminating costly sleeping cars and modifying food and beverage service. The splenetic Mr....

Ronald Reagan once described Amtrak as a "mobile money burning machine." Since then another $15 billion of taxpayer subsidies have gone up in smoke. Now the allegedly tight-fisted Republicans in Congress are poised to toss Amtrak its seventh emergency bailout, this time $1.2 billion to keep the trains running next year. ...All of this money for a train service that doesn't reduce traffic congestion, doesn't cut pollution levels, doesn't save energy, and isn't integral to inter-city travel, because so few people ride the trains. We're not against trains; they can be a great way to see America. But Amtrak has...

<p>Sen. Chuck Schumer's weekly Sunday press conferences often seem designed more to promote Chuck Schumer than to shed light on any truly dire situation in need of urgent attention.</p> <p>Last weekend's briefing, though, was notably different.</p> <p>Following a number of stories in The Post last week that highlighted the porous nature of small-airport security, Schumer called for heightened federal scrutiny over small airports.</p>

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)3-16-05 -- A bill making it a third degree felony to aim a laser beam at an operating plane, train or car was approved today by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. The bill is inspired by the recent incidents of pilots reporting lasers being aimed into cockpits over other states. Pointing a laser at a car would be a third degree felony and carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. It would be a second degree felony if someone is injured and a first degree felony if someone is killed. National Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta...

CHICAGO – U.S. Sen. Barack Obama suggests the Bush Administration is headed in the wrong direction on funding Amtrak. Just a few blocks east of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta’s news conference defending proposed cuts for Amtrak, Obama was suggesting the White House is on the wrong track, again. The proposal has been made before. Ideologically, Obama says, the Bush White House is simply opposed to federal subsidies for rail systems. But, at a time when the U.S. is trying to reduce its dependency on foreign oil, Obama says Amtrak’s passenger rail system should be getting more White House support, not...

Please pause a moment, reflect back, and take the following multiple choice test. The events are actual cuts from past history. They actually happened! Do you remember? In 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by: ...a. Superman ...b. Jay Lenno ...c. Harry Potter ...d. Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40 In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by: ... a. Olga Corbett ...b. Sitting Bull ... c. Arnold Schwarzenegger ...d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40 In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over...

San Francisco International Airport authorities said Thursday they'll tighten rules for law enforcement exercises in a shuttered terminal after firefighters left behind three mock grenades and a replica handgun during a recent training. SFO spokesman Mike McCarron said there was no security risk posed by the simulated weapons, because a janitor found them Wednesday in a locked room in the former international terminal that is closed to the public. San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Pete Howes said members of a hazardous material team accidentally left behind the devices last month while training on how to handle suspicious devices discovered at...

India and America enter into new Open Skies agreement that will allow private airlines of India to fly to US bringing travel price down rapidly India and US signed a historic open sky agreement that will have remarkable impact on civil aviation between the two countries. US Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel negotiated the Open Skies aviation pact. This pact replaces a fifty-year-old pact and according to US officials will create many aviation jobs in both India and America. Open Skies agreement provides freedom to the airlines of both the countries from all restrictions...