RAND SIMBERG: The Senate Launch System.
Archive for 2011
March 31, 2011
PETER WEHNER: The Obama Administration’s Ineptness. “Mrs. Clinton could simply have said her previous comments were wrong and she was revising them. Instead we get a response that no one believes. . . . But what is truly disquieting is what our secretary of state said in the first place. It raises the question: Was she even remotely familiar with Syria’s record under Assad?” These people are above having to actually know things.
March 30, 2011
PRIORITIES: Obama issues veto threat over union measure in FAA bill.
UPDATE: A reader emails: So let’s look at how one of those union employees performed recently. “Seriously, a unionized air traffic controller literally asleep in the tower at the main airport for the federal capitol? And now the president threatens to veto a bill that slightly curtails the power of the union protecting that guy? Remember these ATC union types say they’re all about safety but c’mon. The campaign ad writes itself.” Heh.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader responds:
Just a quick correction to an update from a reader that you published. As an update to Obama issues veto threat over union measure in FAA bill. on March 30, you published a link from a reader regarding the supervisor (not air traffic controller) that fell asleep on the mid shift at DCA. Supervisors are not union members, at least not at the FAA. If you want to see what union controllers are doing, might I recommend http://www.natca.org/ULWSiteResources/natcaweb/Resources/file/Conferences/2011ArchieLeaguebooklet.pdf ?
It’s easy to demonize people without knowing the underlying facts. For Federal air traffic controllers, our pay scales were cut 30% in 2006. No such cut was enacted for FAA management (or any other FAA employees, for that matter.) When you see someone in Congress (or air traffic’s good friend, Robert Poole) point at the outrageous level of compensation received by controllers, you can be virtually assured that the salary they are using for comparison is that of a supervisor, not a controller. It does pay well, but not nearly as well as management, and that pay comes at a substantial physical and mental cost.
The FAA Reauthorization Bill would allow us to have a concrete budget for maintenance, staffing, and technological improvements. We’ve been working under a series of continuing resolutions for several years now. Parts of the system are to the point where just treading water is becoming difficult to impossible. For example, our Runway Incursion Device (RID) system is now several years past the end of its service life. (It provides a visual and aural warning regarding a closed or occupied runway.) We have been advised that replacement parts are no longer available, so when it breaks, it will stay broken. The deployment schedule for its replacement is based on getting an actual authorization bill passed, not the multi-year series of continuing resolutions we’ve seen. We’ve got efficiency and safety improvements pending for the air traffic system that will save us all billions of dollars as consumers. Yes, it may cost us some actual money as taxpayers, but the resulting savings for us as consumers will be several times greater. If we could get our overlords in Congress to stop using FAA Reauthorization as a vehicle for pork or political grandstanding, we might be able to enact some of the improvements that are currently in a holding pattern. Instead, we’ll probably see these improvements continue to be held hostage to whatever “flavor of the month” the Dems and Repubs think will score them the most brownie points with their respective bases.
When politics makes the air traffic system less efficient than it can be, we all end up paying for it in higher ticket prices and cost of goods. (If I’ve got a line of 6 air carriers at a runway and have to delay the first one for a minute, that’s actually 6 minutes of fuel, crew costs, engine life, value of time for 900 people, etc. that just got added to the cost of the commercial aviation system.)
There is also an automatic assumption that “privatizing” air traffic will somehow always be more cost effective than what we are already doing. It’s an article of faith, much like Socialists/Communists always seem to think that their system will work (despite a century of mass graves, economic failure, and oppression) if only the right people were running things. The world already has a wide variety of air traffic control systems in use. There are public, private, and public/private air traffic systems all around the world. The US system has the lowest cost per operation in the developed world. We also have the safest system, while running more traffic than the rest of the world combined. Rather than automatically demonizing people that are trying to improve what is already the safest, busiest, and most cost-effective air traffic system in the world, I’d ask your readers to find the working business model out there in the world that will out-perform what we are doing now. Not just an automatic assumption that a private enterprise just has to be more efficient, but a system in use somewhere else. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but I am from Missouri on this. Show me. Or should we just assume that it will be more efficient if the right people are running it?
If you chose to publish any portion of this, please do not include my name or contact information. Thanks!
Well, Canada has privatized air traffic control. But I suppose we can’t expect to become as hardcore free-market as them.
CHANGE: In Case You Missed It: Democrats Waving White Flag on Taking Back House in 2012. “I would add that, if we take this as evidence of demoralization and disarray in Democrat ranks — combining it with Obama’s sagging poll numbers – this provides a strong argument against GOP leaders rolling over easy on the budget showdown.”
WISCONSIN: WSEU CIRCULATING BOYCOTT LETTERS:
Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.
If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”
What’ll they do if people boycott ’em back — by not paying taxes?
S.E. CUPP: For all too many women, the joys of motherhood are gone.
UPDATE: Reader George Pepper emails:
What about the joys of being a kid? I teach guitar to a lot of youngsters, and for an alarming number of them, their parents have every hour of every day planned out for them. Not only do they seem stressed out, but they don’t have enough time to concentrate on any one thing that they may prefer to do over other activities. Are there any free range kids left? It would seem that this kind of hyper-parenting removes much joy from both parties.
Yes, it does.
STRIKING BACK AGAINST civil asset forfeiture in Georgia.
MARKDOWNS ON grilling accessories.
“SMART DIPLOMACY:” NATO Is All Over The Place On Arming Libyan Rebels.
GETTING DEFENSIVE: Judge Sumi Warns Attorneys About Criticisms.
PAR FOR THE COURSE: Jimmy Carter leaves Cuba without jailed US contractor.
Former President Jimmy Carter left Cuba on Wednesday without gaining the release of a U.S. government contractor jailed the past 16 months, a deflating end to what was otherwise a groundbreaking visit.
Carter spent hours talking about improving ties with brothers Raul and Fidel Castro, describing the latter as an “old friend.”
Jeez. And we probably have decades of similar stuff to look forward to once Barack Obama is an ex-president.
Much more on Carter’s beclownment here.
GUNWALKER: That ATF gun-running scandal explained.
KEYLOGGERS ON SAMSUNG LAPTOPS? “Samsung has gone one step further by actually preinstalling the monitoring software on its brand laptops. This is a déjà vu security incident with far reaching potential consequences.”
UPDATE: The report turns out to be bogus.
TOMORROW IN D.C.: The Tea Party Patriots’ Continuing Revolution Rally.
COULD DECLINING HOUSE PRICES spark the next taxpayer rebellion? “Something remarkable happened to property taxes in the U.S. while housing lost 31% of its value from 2006 to 2009: they went up by $100 billion (27%). . . . So though U.S. housing continues losing value–U.S. home prices declined in January, continuing a downward trend that began in August, with average U.S. home prices retreating to summer 2003 levels, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes–property tax revenues continue their inexorable rise. . . . As their properties continue sliding in value, devastating their net worth, do you reckon the average homeowner might start resenting the rapid rise of the taxes they pay for the privilege of owning real estate?”
SYRIA: President Assad vows to defeat ‘plot’. I hope he fails.
JUST WHAT YOU NEED FOR YOUR ZOMBIE-PREPARATION KIT: A crossbow that shoots machetes. “In the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse of the future, a machete-shooting crossbow will be as practical and everyday as a Leatherman is today. But right now, it is possibly the most dangerous contraption I have ever seen.”
REPORT: CIA already on the ground in Libya. “This is coming from US officials. Why? Why now? There is a war over the war-we’re-not-calling-a-war within the administration.”
HMM: U.C. Irvine Facilitates Secret Meeting With Hamas For Their Students. “Meanwhile, federal anti-Semitism complaints have been filed against two UC campuses — Berkeley and Santa Cruz. Is UCI next? Jerry Brown, are you listening?”
TOKYO HACKERSPACE mounts a DIY response to the earthquake/tsunami. Reader Brian Hepler writes: “It’s all about adapting to situation of a large scale disaster and how to fend for yourself and your community. Barely anywhere is there a mention of officials or authorities. These guys & gals self-organized across the planet to get useful & necessary technology to those in need. They’ve been making lanterns from cheap solar cells, LEDs, some circuit boards and glass mason jars. They designed & built their own Geiger counters for nog’s sake!”
Plus, from the article, this local color:
The nuclear meltdown was bad enough, but the rolling blackouts added even more uncertainty. You couldn’t be sure if you could make it home at night because the trains could stop at anytime. We had to give ourselves a margin of 2-3 hours for any type of travel because the train schedules were so uncertain.
At the same time, staple items like bottled water and dry goods disappeared from shelves within days of the earthquake. You had to literally race out to check store shelves because you weren’t sure how long the food runs would last. With a gasoline shortage going on at the same time, it was questionable how long shelves could stay stocked. The convenience store underneath my apartment was almost stripped bare of food.
Another reason why self-sufficiency is important, and why trains may not be so great as a substitute for cars.
TARP INSPECTOR GENERAL: Bank bailout mostly benefited banks. “Worse, Treasury apparently has chosen to ignore rather than support real efforts at reform, such as those advocated by Sheila Bair, the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to simplify or shrink the most complex financial institutions. In the final analysis, it has been Treasury’s broken promises that have turned TARP — which was instrumental in saving the financial system at a relatively modest cost to taxpayers — into a program commonly viewed as little more than a giveaway to Wall Street executives.”
Who could have seen that coming?
ISRAEL: THE THIRD NATION ON THE MOON? “If all goes according to plan, by December 2012 a team of three young Israeli scientists will have landed a tiny spacecraft on the moon, explored the lunar surface, and transmitted live video back to earth, thereby scooping up a $20 million prize (the Google Lunar X Prize), revolutionizing space exploration, and making the Jewish State the third nation (after the U.S. and Russia) to land a probe on the moon. And they’re doing it in their spare time.”