[George M. Middius[_4_]]

Remember that plane crash in Buffalo a few months ago? The frenzy of
finger-pointing led to "introspection" by the airline industry. At least
that's what one of their reps said on the news. Can you picture the airlines'
bean-counters tearing their hair over a few dead bodies? The only things that
make those swine sit up is when their insurance goes up or when the
government steps in with new regs.

Speaking of the government, the U.S. Congress is about to lay down the law. A
new law, anyway. They're going to raise the minimum flight experience for
commercial pilots. The airlines are screaming bloody hell because now they'll
have to pay competitive salaries for experienced pilots. Under Bush,
"self-regulation" was the religion of oversight. Haven't we all heard that
tired refrain about letting "the market" take care of incompetent or
inefficient businesses? Yes, they do self-destruct because of their faults,
but in the case of airlines, they take a few planeloads of passengers with
them.

And then there's the debacle of epic incompetence in Detroit. When a bloated
carcass like GM collapses, it puts thousands of livelihoods at risk. Did you
hear what Rattner said about GM and Wagoner?

Barack Obama's former car czar says he had no choice but to
fire GM's Rick Wagoner. "Everyone knew Detroit's reputation
for insular, slow-moving cultures," Steven Rattner writes in an
essay for Fortune. "Even by that low standard, I was shocked
by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly
at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps
the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a
major company." Wagoner himself was “likable, dedicated, and
knowledgeable,” but he “set a tone of ‘friendly arrogance'" for
the company.

Rattner's team was "appalled by the lack of sound analysis" to
justify expenditures, and "cultural deficiencies were equally
stunning." Under Wagoner, executives worked behind “locked
and guarded glass doors,” Rattner writes, using private elevators
to get to private garages so as to never see their subordinates.
His team thought nothing of the fact that they had wasted
$21 billion in 2008 and $13 billion in the first quarter of 2009,
and they blamed everyone but themselves for their financial troubles.

http://www.newser.com/story/72246/rattner-why-i-fired-gms-wagoner.html


Anybody else wonder why such a ridiculously bad business stayed afloat for so
long? Back in the '80s, GM and Chrysler used to bitch and moan about the
Japanese invasion, but in reality they were being outclassed at every turn.
So did they clean up their own houses in order to compete? No, they trotted
out the chauvinism and the "buy American" ads.

I'd like to close my rant with a shout-out to Dumbya and Darth Vader, who
substituted flag lapel pins for leadership.

[Bret L]

On Oct 25, 7:11 pm, George M. Middius
wrote:
Remember that plane crash in Buffalo a few months ago? The frenzy of
finger-pointing led to "introspection" by the airline industry. At least
that's what one of their reps said on the news. Can you picture the airlines'
bean-counters tearing their hair over a few dead bodies? The only things that
make those swine sit up is when their insurance goes up or when the
government steps in with new regs.

Speaking of the government, the U.S. Congress is about to lay down the law. A
new law, anyway. They're going to raise the minimum flight experience for
commercial pilots.

I know a B-2 captain who was told he was not qualified to rent a
Beech Bonanza because he did not have enough total hours and "not
enough hours in a complex aircraft"-e.g. one with a constant speed
propeller. Out of his 1600 TT (they wanted 2000, it only takes 1500 to
get an ATP) he had only 60 behind propellers of any kind whatsoever.



Middiot, if you had as many hours flying anything as you do smoking
dicks you'd be a senior captain now.

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Oct 25, 7:11*pm, George M. Middius
wrote:

I'd like to close my rant with a shout-out to Dumbya and Darth Vader, who
substituted flag lapel pins for leadership.

bushie had that "vision thing" by the bushel. LOL!