Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] FAA news

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 3 Apr 2008, Vern Green wrote:

> > Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota
> > Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon
> > Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Illinois
> >
> > Don't Republicans want to protect us from reckless corporations? 
> > Maybe not -- and I really mean that.
>
> Don't be ridiculous. There are 283 other democrats in the House of 
> Representatives and the Senate, would you also say that they do not care 
> to protect us since they are not on this list?

The list might be all Democrats because they are the majority party, but 
the problems with Republicans run much deeper.  You should see what the 
NTSB (led by Republican appointee) is doing to cover up the mistakes that 
led to the bridge collapse up here.  Did you know that NTSB announced 
confidently on January 15 that the collapse was completely unique and due 
to a very strange design flaw that would not be found elsewhere?  Did you 
know that a bridge in St. Cloud -- just 75 miles away from the other 
bridge -- was shut down (permanently) a couple of weeks ago because of 
exactly the same problem?  Did you know that we have a Republican governor 
who refused to fund bridge repairs?  We have the Republican convention 
here in a few months and NTSB will be sure not to finish their report 
(which might end up being fine) until after the election is over, not just 
the primary.  What's taking them so long?  It's politically convenient. 
The NTSB leadership (Mark Rosenker, specifically) is purely political and 
they don't care about us.

For a few years now the Republican thing has been to promise to protect us 
from terrorism.  But protect us from corporations?  No.  They have only 
worked to reduce protective regulations of all kinds.  Can you name one 
thing that Republicans have led that would protect us from corporations 
that would pollute our water or air, for example?  Or protect us from any 
other harmful thing that a corporation might do?  I don't think so.

Have they even protected us against terrorist attacks?  Certainly not 
abroad.  In this country?  Well, it's hard to say because such attacks 
have always occurred very infrequently.  If we look at attacks by 
Islamists, we have the 1993 attack, then the 2001 attack, so I guess we 
could say that we are due for another Islamic terrorist attack on US soil 
in 2009 and that no attacks were expected in the past 7 years.  So maybe 
the net effect of Republican governance was to do nothing on the home 
front, to increase terrorism abroad, and to waste hundreds of billions or 
trillions of dollars on a useless war that has led to nothing good.

Mike

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