Is everyone getting ready for the big Turkey Day? Congratulations to the Osbourn Eagles for another great win!
122 Thoughts to “Open Thread Saturday, November 20”
Comments are closed.
Archives
Categories
Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
All contents copyright Moonhowlings.net
Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
@Morris Davis
Apparently, some of the flag officers are also meeting with Gates to prevent the closing, saying that many functions can’t be moved.
@Morris Davis
Emma,
Do it loudly so that the other passengers will think to do the same.
If you like Jet Blue you should also give Virgin America a shot if you’re so inclined. Very similar business model (quality, focus on customer service). They have limited routes but it’s great for getting coast to coast – they can put you right into SFO or LAX direct (unlike Jet Blue where you land in Long Beach or Oakland).
I don’t follow the logic here. It’s like saying that if you disagree with the IRS and federal taxes that you shouldn’t also then take every deduction your legally able to.
I guess I could see your point if every state was taking an equal hit but this hit is centered on Virginia only… Now, if it’s a cut that makes sense and we can justify it – OK. But, I think the Virginian delegation was complaining that they were both blindsided by the announcement and that the logic behind it wasn’t disclosed. I think it’s fair for our elected officials to dig.
We’d have a bigger impact if we cut veteran retirement benefits, wouldn’t you agree?
Yes, that’s exactly the way it was – just awful. I figured JFK was a big airport so there would be plenty of shops and choices of places to eat, with a 3 hour layover starting around 4 PM in the evening. No such luck!
I’ve heard Virgin America is a great airline – one of these days will have to try them out if they have a route for wherever it is I’m going.
Just the random moderation “bug” – I’ve gotten bit by it before – no big deal! Maybe it doesn’t want to hear alternatives to TSA’s current approach and was programmed by someone high up at the TSA.
I saw an article (sent it to you actually) that the TSA workers don’t like the current procedures at all. I don’t envy them, they are just following orders and making the best of a very bad situation. The problem is the higher-ups at the TSA – they need to get out there and investigate other solutions, particularly as far as explosive trace detection electronic equipment. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get them to do something – we’ve had enough close calls. The ETD equipment would have detected the PETN in that cargo, the explosives in the “shoe bomber’s” shoes, and the list goes on and on and on!
Sorry about that the acronyms. SECDEF is Secretary of Defense Bob Gates. JFCOM (often called “Jif-Com” or “Jiffy-Com”) is Joint Forces Command.
There are 10 unified combatant commands (an operational command made up of more than 1 branch of the armed forces) in the Department of Defense. Some are based on geographic area of responsibility; for instance Pacific Command (PACOM) is responsible for (as the name implies) the Pacific region. Others are based on mission; for instance Strategic Command (STRATCOM) which has responsibility for strategic assets, most notably nuclear missiles and nuclear bombers. JFCOM is a mission-focused command based in the Norfolk area and it is responsible for refining joint (multiple branches of the armed forces working together) training, doctrine and planning. It started in the 90’s as a result of lessons learned in the first Gulf War where integrating Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, plus active duty, reserve and national guard assets, into a coherent war effort proved to be a huge challenge. For many years, each had pretty much done its own thing and when it came time to integrate all the segments into a single fighting force to liberate Kuwait it wasn’t smooth sailing, so JFCOM was created to focus on improving jointness so all the pieces mesh. Secretary Gates point is that for nearly a decade now we’ve been fighting 2 real wars and doing it jointly, so there is no longer a need for an infrastructure of several thousand people at a headquarters to do a mission that has been overtaken by progress in resolving the problem it was designed to remedy. Those on the other side argue that as threats evolve and the military changes having folks thinking about how to make the pieces work together is still a critical mission. I don’t know the issue well enough to have a strong opinion one way or the other, although generally I’m opposed to politicians trying to tell the Pentagon how best to run the military. For politicians it’s usually about what helps keep them in office, not what’s best in a military strategic sense. If they don’t want to touch JFCOM then where is a less painful area to cut (which will trigger the same reaction from the delegation in the area that’s impacted)?
On the issue of cutting defense contractor spending, you can’t stand on a street corner in Tysons Corner or Reston Town Center and swing a dead cat by the tail (I wonder where that expression originated) without hitting 3 defense contractor employees, so cuts would have a big impact in our area. Again, I don’t know the issue well enough to have a strong opinion. I would note, however, that while I was at CRS we did a report that observed for the first time we had more contractor employees in the war zone in Afghanistan than we had troops. I agree that you don’t need to recruit and train a GI to cook in the mess hall or service the latrines, and contracting out for those services makes sense, but we’re also contracting for a lot of functions that look a look like combat operations (what some would call mercenaries). Defense contracting has made a lot of people rich and it keeps a lot of money flowing in Northern Virginia. If, however, the top priority is to reduce the deficit, cut spending and lower taxes then Defense has to be included and the result will likely be felt in Virginia and if not here then somewhere else that will be equally upset and disadvantaged.
Isnt Virgin American significantly more expensive?
I would have to be a TSA agent. They get a bum rap in my opinion. People seem to forget what used to be in airports.
@Moon-howler
Not really, their coach prices are comparable to Jet Blue, but they offer more classes of service (upgraded coach, business, first) so they have more variable pricing. It all depends on where you’re going, for travel to NYC or Boston or Orlando Jet Blue is awesome, but if I’m going to LA or SF it’s Virgin America.
RE; TSA agents. Imagine having to go to work knowing that you’re going to have to feel the privates of every sweaty, obese, and smelly Tom Dick and Harry that wants to opt out. Gee, where do I sign up.
That sort of makes a prison job look like a bonus.
Posted at 10:50 AM ET, 11/24/2010
On airport security, do we really want to be like Israel?
By Joel Dreyfuss
I hope we get over our romanticism about Israel’s airport security protocols in a hurry. I flew out of Ben Gurion International Airport in 2005, and it was one of the most unpleasant experiences I ever had as a traveler. The fuss over airport security pat-downs in the United States has renewed attention to Israel’s approach. The Jewish state, long accustomed to the theorist threat, has implemented a much-admired security protocol whose best advertisement is a lack of successful terrorist acts on planes arriving or leaving Israel.
Skeptics have already pointed out that Israel has just two airports and 50 flights a day, and that its thorough security process could never be scaled up for the hundreds of airports and thousands of daily flights in the United States. But for all its vaunted sophistication, Israel’s approach boils down to a lot of profiling and political intrusion.
I went to Israel five years ago as editor-in-chief of Red Herring, a technology finance publication based in Silicon Valley, to participate in a venture capital conference. Like many first-time visitors, I couldn’t help but notice the extent of security measures: metal detectors at restaurants and hotel entrances, the ubiquitous presence of armed guards, and the number of Israelis who bore arms. I got used to being asked at security checkpoints, “Are you carrying a weapon?” and watching Israelis pull out guns and check them at certain events like we hand over coats and umbrellas.
But it was my departure that put me in close proximity to the vaunted security system.
I knew I was in for an unpleasant time when the young security man looked at my U.S. passport, looked me up and down and asked, “What kind of name is Dreyfuss?” “Jewish,” I told him, “one of the most famous Jewish names in the world.” I was somewhat shocked that he didn’t know. What were they teaching kids in Israel these days? But I kept those thoughts to myself.
“Are you Jewish?” he asked. I told him no, but that my grandfather had been. I didn’t think it would be helpful to explain I was born into a racially-diverse family in Haiti and that I was Catholic. I had already noticed that the combination of my tan complexion and short mustache frequently drew suspicious looks during my stay, but I assumed my body language tagged me as a foreigner. On the flight back, when I raised the issue with a seatmate, she said, “Well, you look like you might be Arab.”
Apparently, my security screener had the same impression. The next thing I knew, I was being directed to a very long line. Almost all the people on my line were Arabs or Africans. The much shorter, fast-moving line consisted mostly of white Americans and Europeans. Everyone on my queue was asked to open their luggage for inspection. When the security team got to me, they went through the books and magazines I had packed. A booklet from the Peres Center for Peace, which I had visited at the request of my publisher, seemed to raise alarm. The man searching my bag called a supervisor, who called his boss over. They asked me why I had visited the Peres center. “Because I’m a journalist,” I replied. I must have said the magic word. “Journalist?” the boss repeated. Suddenly, my books were put back, my suitcase was snapped shut, and I was on my way home.
If Americans adopt Israel’s approach to security, they should be prepared for racial and ethnic profiling, questions about their religious preferences, and careful examination of their reading material. Maybe full-body scans are a less intrusive after all. I suspect the real reason for the outrage over body scanners and pat-downs is that the majority of Americans are finally experiencing the kind of discomfiting scrutiny that has long been routine for those who are repeatedly profiled and humiliated. As long as it was someone else, it didn’t matter.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/11/on_arirport_security_do_we_rea.html
I wonder which turkey President Obama pardoned?
Rangel or Maxine Waters?
@Cargosquid
Well, my guess would be Waters, looks like her issues are only getting worse…
Since neither of them has been convicted of anything there is nothing to pardon. Former Speaker of the House Tom “The Hammer” DeLay, on the other hand, is a convicted felon, so he’s eligible. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/politics/25delay.html
That made me laugh out loud! Good one!
I wanted to make sure and get this in early before there’s any chance of me slipping into a turkey induced coma and forgetting … I hope you all enjoy a very nice Thanksgiving.
Same here, I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving with their family and friends.
@Morris Davis
You don’t need to be convicted to be pardoned. Just ask that turkey, Richard Nixon.
Ford never lived that down either.