Oh my!  Laptops?

http://cbs4denver.com/national/flight.overshoots.airport.2.1271420.html

Two Northwest Airlines pilots told federal investigators that they were going over scheduling using their laptop computers while their plane overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles.

National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Monday that the pilots said in interviews that they were not fatigued and didn't fall asleep, as many aviation safety experts have said was likely.

The board said pilots Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer, and Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., told investigators the first officer was instructing the captain on monthly flight crew scheduling. Cole and Cheney told investigators that they both had their laptops out while the first officer, who had more experience with scheduling, instructed the captain on monthly flight crew scheduling.

t r u t h o u t | Health Care for All
Truthout: "We at Truthout don’t think health care should be so confusing. We believe it is a human right and should be available to everyone. We also believe the same level of care should be available across the board, regardless of ability to pay for treatment. What if the fire department decided to not send its newest equipment to a particular house because the homeowner didn't have 'Cadillac' insurance?"
Read the Article

According to several reports, the recorders only recorded the last  30 minutes of the flight.  That also makes no sense.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091024/ap_on_go_ot/us_northwest_airport_overflown

Unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder may not tell the tale.

New recorders retain as much as two hours of cockpit conversation and other noise, but the older model aboard Northwest's Flight 188 includes just the last 30 minutes — only the very end of Wednesday night's flight after the pilots realized their error over Wisconsin and were heading back to Minneapolis.

stopped by to say...YES!!!! (fist pump)...to today's news (Harry Reid on public option/opt out)...the equivalent to a Kirk Gibson homerun imo. These little yellow cards I'm getting signed for single payer in Vt. will have the needed support hopefully. Once Vt. does it can you say dominos...and I ain't talking pizza.

Phil...did take a break and got some fishing in a few days ago. Small 28" pike and a lunker that got off after a few lathargic powerfull head shakes...never had it hooked good as I thought I had bottom and didn't set the hook well...me dummy!

I'm fired up a bit now...I'll be working an event that Bernie Sanders is hosting with Jim Hightower in Brattleboro this Friday. The workercenter group wanted me to help with their table at the event but Bernie requested our help so I said yes but I don't know doing what yet...lol

Is that light I see at the end of the tunnel?

http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/10/self-jiving-nation.html#more

I should preface this with what I responded to a gracious post by Phil last week. I'm a great fan of Obama the man, and his family; not so much of his policies, and his actions, or lack thereof.

Obama was not a boomer, not one of "us," so I had expectations that he'd rise above the fog of wishful thinking. But he begins to look more like Millard Fillmore and less like an earlier president from Illinois who got elected on the eve of a terrible national political convulsion.

If you think we have been in a crisis of finance and economy for the past year or so, consider that we have also been sunk in a comprehensive crisis of leadership.  Nobody in authority is willing to face the truth, state the truth, and offer a reality-based idea about how to meet the truth, 

Americans look around and see nobody standing up for their interests.  Their greatest interest is a vision of a fruitful society that they can help build and be a part of beyond the current wreckage of revolving-debt consumerism.  It will have to be a vision based on fewer resources and on new arrangements for daily living.  It will have to recognize losses frankly, and enable us to let go of things whose time is over.

only 10% of Americans will be eligible for the so-called PO.  That's about what Obama said in his speech weeks ago and today he said he was pleased.

This is a disaster.  Perhaps we can get 50% covered if it includes a trigger.  Reid is also a disaster.  Ånd why wait till 2013?  Oh, yes, the 2012 *election* (bought and paid for and brought to you by the CMWs) can lean on that.

Primary challenge, anyone?

And yes, we have a crisis of leadership; for some years now.  Thanks for the realism, Hu Jo.

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I don't think they both fell asleep, but anything's possible.  

Everything is upside down.

That was still a pretty awesome job that he did, good for him.

Been lurking mostly between out of town company, who left this afternoon.  Not much to add at the moment as I've hardly even read much of the news the past couple of days.  We were up and down the coast, exploring Haight Street (she'd never been), and went to Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit concert which was really, really well done this year.  Best performance, IMO, went to Sheryl Crow, followed by Chris Martin of Coldplay and then No Doubt.  That's after Neil, of course.  What a heart he and his wife have.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/26-0

War Is a Hate Crime

by Chris Hedges

Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is wrong. So is violence against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in the bizarre culture of identity politics, there are no alliances among the oppressed. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first major federal civil rights law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, passed last week, was attached to a $680-billion measure outlining the Pentagon’s budget, which includes $130 billion for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Democratic majority in Congress, under the cover of protecting some innocents, authorized massive acts of violence against other innocents.

http://hannah.smith-family.com/?p=3460

How I wish dems would get behind this man or any person like him who has stones...or stonettes. :-)

“Every thinking person wants to take a stand against hate crimes, but isn’t war the most offensive of hate crimes?” asked Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who did not vote for the bill, when I spoke to him by phone. “To have people have to make a choice, or contemplate the hierarchy of hate crimes, is cynical. I don’t vote to fund wars. If you are opposed to war, you don’t vote to authorize or appropriate money. Congress, historically and constitutionally, has the power to fund or defund a war. The more Congress participates in authorizing spending for war, the more likely it is that we will be there for a long, long time. This reflects an even larger question. All the attention is paid to what President Obama is going to do right now with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth is the Democratic Congress could have ended the war when it took control just after 2006. We were given control of the Congress by the American people in November 2006 specifically to end the war. It did not happen. The funding continues. And while the attention is on the president, Congress clearly has the authority at any time to stop the funding. And yet it doesn’t. Worse yet, it finds other ways to garner votes for bills that authorize funding for war. The spending juggernaut moves forward, a companion to the inconscient force of war itself.”

 

Pres. Obama Remarks to Service Men and Women Monday, October 26, 2009 President Obama made remarks to service men and women during a visit to Naval Air Station Jacksonville ...

Pres. Obama Jacksonville (4\4) Naval Air Station

Health Care

The President's Plan

Watch the new "Obama Plan in Four Minutes" video to get the basics down:

Cut through the rhetoric on health insurance reform. Read the essentials of the President’s plan, and watch a video with highlights of his speech to Congress.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care

Good night, because if it is 11PM here

it is 12PM on the reef!

sorry I missed ya!

♥