pacino wrote:Hezbollah has drones. looks like we aint the only ones. oh, and China, and every other nation.

GO DRONES

North Korean drone...

TenuredVulture wrote:Over and over again, the courts have mostly sided with the schools on these issues. The reality is that students don't have first amendment rights. I think it's Tinker-Des Moines that's the only notable exception.

Easton PA -- Save The Boobies.

Houshphandzadeh wrote:

GDub1 rocking the socks

So much to like about this picture.

Kind of hoping that people get pissed off about the air traffic control sequester thing. Democrats really fucked this up. The ads write themselves. "While our veterans are denied the benefits they earned defending our nation, Republicans worked to make sure they and their lobbyist friends didn't have to wait too long in the first class lounge to fly to their next golf outing."

Or the alternative, that federal departments have intentionally allocated cuts to enact the most pain on the american people, as opposed to cutting more nonessential positions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... ns_opinion

Well, air traffic controllers aren't government employees (almost all ATC services are contracted out, IIRC to Lockheed Martin), so maybe that had something to do with it.

Werthless wrote:Or the alternative, that federal departments have intentionally allocated cuts to enact the most pain on the american people, as opposed to cutting more nonessential positions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... ns_opinion

You mean like my local burghers, who, when we vote down their budgets, trim library hours. An old, tried, and true budgetary gambit.

Too bad they can't impose budgetary pain on the representatives of the american people. Like cut off Rx coverage for some of the fat impotent congressional fucks, so we could really listen to 'em howl

How does a nonprofit corporation "tap capital markets?"

JFLNYC wrote:How does a nonprofit corporation "tap capital markets?"

when a bug-eyed WSJ editorialist is approaching a frenzied climax, best not to question his/her 'technique' in the moment:

A nonprofit corporation funded by user fees would make better cost-benefit decisions, tap capital markets, replace old-fashioned technology in a timely way and discipline high labor costs.

discipline !! there's imagery for any eager consumer of WSJ editorials to beat off to

if only they ever got so hard imagining disciplining big-time goldbrickers like unindicted felon Jamie Dimon & his "high labor costs"....

note how the rhetoric cools after that turgid passage....

Phan In Phlorida wrote:Well, air traffic controllers aren't government employees (almost all ATC services are contracted out, IIRC to Lockheed Martin), so maybe that had something to do with it.

Rich people fly

pacino wrote:

Phan In Phlorida wrote:Well, air traffic controllers aren't government employees (almost all ATC services are contracted out, IIRC to Lockheed Martin), so maybe that had something to do with it.

Rich people fly

I was thinking maybe the contractor cut back air traffic controllers, not the FAA itself. I don't know how their contract is structured... a percentage of the FAA budget, flat fee, provisions linked to the FAA budget, etc.

I guess I also wanted to point out that a lot of federal agencies (like the FAA) contract out most of their stuff. The FAA itself employs some pencil pushers, crash site investigators, etc. while most everything else is contracted out. So in a sense it's kinda "privatized" already, with a lot of taxpayer monies going to private corporations. The contractor (Lockheed Martin, IIRC) essentially owns the skies.

this struck me as odd, so i did some googling. it does seem that there is a smal(?) portion of ATC work- at less busy locations- that is contracted out to a company called SERCO, but all other sources seem to concur that most ATCs are direct federal employees.

Here's a link which discusses SERCO and the Federal Contract Tower (FCT) program.

check out his video. It's 2 minutes. It's a spoof of a movie trailer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2 ... ewis-video

S&P sets record high, NASDAQ at highest in 12 years. We gon end economic stagnation? We gon grow?

5 years ago the god dajafi wrote:

Maybe I'm naive, and I'm sure at least some would try, but I really have trouble imaging the Republicans could gin up the same kind of visceral loathing for Obama that they have for Clinton.

I'm reading a lot of old threads today. I called out sick.

BuddyGroom

Also, the test balloons of his middle name being Hussein and the nut-job theory that he's a Manchurian candidate for Islam have already had their runs and gained no traction.

viewtopic.php_f=8&t=4108&start=20.html

lol

Bucky wrote:this struck me as odd, so i did some googling. it does seem that there is a smal(?) portion of ATC work- at less busy locations- that is contracted out to a company called SERCO, but all other sources seem to concur that most ATCs are direct federal employees.

Here's a link which discusses SERCO and the Federal Contract Tower (FCT) program.

I was recalling what I heard or read somewhere. And I remembered where. My wife has an "internet friend" who's husband is/was an ATC at a major hub. I asked her to see if she can get some straight poop from them. If we hear back, I'll pass along anything pertinent.

Not to belabor this, but now I'm frikkin curious about it.

Youseff wrote:...

I'm reading a lot of old threads today. I called out sick.

Which is the cause and which is the effect?

(lollerz)

He could still be a Manchurian candidate for Islam, so let's not completely discount that possibility. They may be waiting for some grand finale. Maybe Obama will tear off a mask revealing that he's really Osama Bin Laden before he hits the big red button and destroy's us all.