Defective Bumper Stickers Force Toyota Recall

An Obama bumper sticker in better days

Attorneys for Toyota fought bitterly to stop the recall, claiming that the bumper stickers were susceptible for detachment only at speeds above 40 M.P.H., a velocity most Prius models cannot reach.

But the government wasn’t buying and directed the Japanese automaker to install new decals using adhesive made from Crazy Glue on “all Prius models sold in the U.S before November 4, 2008.” The replacement stickers must be in place by November 6, 2012.

According to Rasmussen Reports, 65% of all Obama decals remained affixed to Prius models on Inauguration Day 2008. By March 18 that number had fallen to 55%, then shockingly, at the beginning of July, to less than half. Currently, only 43% of Obama stickers remained joined to Prius bumpers. Analysts called it the most dramatic drop in a bumper sticker line ever seen.

Most major media outlets jumped to Toyota’s defense, pointing out that Bush 2000 and Bush 2004 stickers were manufactured with glue made from Texas petroleum, which did not lose adhesiveness until John McCain secured the Republican nomination last year.

Answering Viewer Mail

I don’t often take the opportunity to answer viewer mail, but a recent comment from a reader proved too tempting to ignore. I get about 50 responses to my posts per day, most of them garbage. Things like “Hey, I like you writing. I plan to checking back often. Please click here for super pill male enhancement.” Though I’m flattered, I usually hit the delete button.

Last week, however, this one caught my eye:

Hey! You know this is the first site, which i really like GOOD!.
I am from Argentina and also now am reading in English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: “In these times he asks to nearly be an main other teacher, kardashian nose job.”

With best wishes :o, Joshua.

Believing that good efforts deserve praise, I wrote “Joshua” back. Here’s an excerpt of that posting for your enjoyment. Have a great week.

Dear Joshua,

Riff Raff Gregg

Just Another 9/11 Story

Eight years ago today, I stood in the control tower at Pittsburgh International when the phone rang. The supervisor answered it, spoke a few words, hung up and informed us that Cleveland Center controllers had lost touch with an aircraft within the horizontal confines of our airspace. That aircraft was headed directly for us.

At that point the World Trade Center and Pentagon were smoldering, and it was evident the country was under attack. We were ordered to evacuate. None of us had ever left a control position without relief before. We informed the few aircraft still flying and the bordering facilities that we were leaving, then we headed for the stairs.

The elevator is two flights below the tower but was stuck on the bottom floor, so all of us hiked down the stairs. When I reached the second level, where the handicapped employees worked, I noticed that Jeff, a wheelchair-bound co-worker was waiting for the elevator. Believing something was wrong with the elevator, a controller, Steve, and a staff member, Cliff, and I decided to carry Jeff in his chair down the last two flights of stairs. The moment we hoisted Jeff up, Steve, who has a history of back problems, groaned in obvious pain. I asked him if he was okay, and he responded yes. People were yelling to get out of the building and get clear, so we carried Jeff down the stairs and placed him in his van. Outside, we all sort of stood there looking skyward, wondering what was going to happen. My friend Kevin spotted the plane first, high overhead, heading southeast. It passed over and we were all ordered back into the building. In the meantime, Steve and another controller, Charlie, were escorted by a county vehicle to a temporary, mobile tower to re-establish contact with the aircraft trying to land at Pittsburgh.

When I got back inside, I headed for the elevator to get back to the tower and to Ground Two where I had been working. But before I could reach the hallway, I heard a desperate page for a radar controller, so I dashed into the radar room and was told to open Feeder Control. I got the frequencies up and running and started calling the aircraft that were displayed on the radar screen. A few answered, not all. The ones who did said they had been talking to Cleveland Center but had lost contact. At one point two targets merged about three hundred feet apart with a closure rate around 750 knots. Nobody was talking to either aircraft. Someone from the staff department walked into the radar room and informed us that the renegade flight, United 93, had crashed in Somerset.

Eventually all the controllers returned and I was sent back to the tower to reopen Ground Two. I was there only a short time when the unprecedented order came down to land all aircraft immediately. There were no complaints. A few aircraft landed, but less than we expected. A few hours later, with the skies cleared, most of us were sent home.

These and other memories of that day remain very clear to me. There seems a tendency, if not a wicked effort, to forget or at least minimize the events of 9/11/2001. The world is supposed to love us now, but I have a feeling it isn’t quite working out that way. It seems whatever driving forces were in place back then are every bit as prevelent 8 years later.

Many of the same people working that day at Pittsburgh are still working today, doing a fantastic job under always difficult conditions. Jeff is gone now. He was driving home from work one day when he suddenly cut into a gas station and brought his van to a stop. He slumped over and never woke up. He hurt nobody. For my part, I lost my medical clearance last year after being hit on the eye working a radar position. I miss the airplanes and my fellow controllers.

So today is a day to remember those who were lost and those who have been lost subsequently. And a day to remember the things we did, which at the time were the only things we could do.

A Kickstart from ReSTART

There’s now a website dedicated to kicking internet addictions. It’s a great site and I highly recommend it. You can spend hours there, even days, as I have. I can’t get enough of this site. I’m there constantly, even losing sleep. It’s totally worth it. Give it a try. A few hours, days or weeks there and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Cash For ATC Clunkers

Nothing says I love you like a little green, at least when the government is involved.

Yesterday, the arbitrators who officiated the bargaining process between air traffic controllers and the FAA released their judgement, and the result is…drum roll, please…wait for it…wait for it…a mixed bag.

Update 1)

Pay.
Everybody gets a 3% annual increase for the next three years. The administrator cannot stop this. The director of the ATO cannot stop this. The FAA cannot make it contingent upon you being error free. The FAA cannot make it contingent upon your rating. The FAA cannot make it contingent upon inflation. BOY, BUT WOULD THEY LOVE TO! If the FAA had their way, you would be getting nothing. In fact, most of you would see a pay cut due to reduced traffic counts since 9/11.

Result: the FAA will hate you more than ever.

Update 2)
More pay.
Everybody gets locality pay, which is a government computation and cannot be reduced or eliminated by the FAA. BOY, BUT WOULD THEY LOVE TO!

Result: no change to the contempt the FAA holds you in.

Update 3)
Even more pay.
No back pay was awarded, thus the arbitrators validated the pay freezes of the past 3 years. Controllers will not be able to gain sympathy, given this economy, that a three-year contract with guaranteed raises totaling around 12% is a bad deal. This is a blow to the union, who believed that a President Obama-approved arbitration panel would both make up for lost wages and guarantee future raises. The union got only the latter. This, more than anything else, led to three bitter years of relations between controllers and the FAA.

Result: case closed. The pay freezes were sustained. Controllers will remain bitter.

Update 4)
Sayonara, Pat.
Pat Forrey, according to my sources, took it upon himself - as the president of NATCA - to present the union’s position as regards pay. I think controllers posses great talents, but working airplanes and negotiating with the ANGELS OF SATAN are two different skills. Pat was voted out of office and will not participate in the next negotiation, which takes place in a mere three years. But what really irked me was that Pat signed on to a joint statement yesterday that spoke in glorious tones how NATCA and the FAA have entered a new era of cooperation and mutual respect. Give me a freaking break.

Result: Next negotiation 2012. Election year. Uncertainty abounds.

Update 5)
Inflation - The Joker in the deck.
The 2010 retiree COLA is projected to be zero because it is based on inflation, which for now doesn’t exist. The 2010 presidential pay raise for all government employees will likely be nominal for the same reason. Therefore, 3% is a good raise. For 2010. But what if, say, Congress starts spending money like it grows on trees and the Fed has to print up a bunch of greenbacks, and - presto - hyper-inflation? More than anything, that 3% raise in 2012 looks scary. If inflation roars back with a vengeance, and Obama gives federal employees a Carter-esque raise, controllers are excluded and will lose big. But, hey, not to worry. Everything’s fine. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Result: Roll the dice.

Bow to your Sensai. Bow to your Sensai!

Unless someone spills the beans, tomorrow’s the day. The arbitrators’ “award” will be announced, theoretically ending the labor dispute between air traffic controllers and the FAA. Someone is going to be elated and someone is going to be deflated.

So on the eve of the big announcement, a prediction: controllers are going to win. The lost cost-of-living adjustments will be restored. No back pay, though. The plight of the so-called “B-scale” controllers will improve dramatically, though their pay will still lag behind the old guys (and old girls). Otherwise a favorable contract - a remarkable turnaround in three years, which has seemed like eternity for controllers but is lightning quick for government.

In celebration, if celebration seems warranted, controllers should use the new dress code as a way of showing solidarity, patriotism and joy. Instead of jeans, I suggest wearing these:

These, of course, are the “bad boys” that Rex, founder of Rex Kwan Do in the movie Napoleon Dynamite (2004), wears in his studio…and, apparently, elsewhere.

As Rex says, “After one week with me in my dojo, you’ll be prepared to defend yourself with the STRENGTH of a grizzly, the reflexes of a PUMA, and the wisdom of a man.”

Properly attired, one could spout other Rex quotes as appropriate. One could say, “At NATCA, we use the buddy system. No more flying solo. You need somebody watching your back at all times.”

One could stand on a table in the breakroom and say, “Take a look at what I’m wearing, people. You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I’m wearing these bad boys?”

One could point to a member of the management team and say, “You think I got where I am today because I dressed like Peter Pan over here?”

The possibilities are endless.

Contract Day

"I'm placing those controllers on double secret probation."

That’s exactly what’s going to happen as early as today, perhaps tomorrow, definitely by next week, involving the double secret final decision on the controller/FAA contract dispute. Today, August 6, is the deadline for the arbitrators to complete their work. By all accounts, the work is finished, but the arbitrators plan to first brief the administration, certain members of the cabinet, and, lastly, select members of congress regarding the specifics of their decisions before dropping the whole enchilada on the rest of us.

I have no doubt that the details will leak out before the official unveiling. This is unfortunate. As I’ve said, the entire contract needs to be seen as a whole, not piecemeal. Still, this is a defining moment for the president, who pledged labor peace at the FAA, and the story will be big.

Much to look forward to here.

Stay tuned.

A Photoblog Worth Your Time

My good friend Brian has a photoblog up and running that’s worth viewing. Brian describes the site thusly:

The other things, of course, involve taking photos. Brian has a keen eye for settings and angles, and the resultant pictures, be they of people, buildings or both, are clear and unpretentious. Unlike the crap you see in the best museums.

The blog is new and contains only a handful of pictures to this point, but give this one a moment of your time. Enjoy.