FUBAR – When Duct Tape and WD40 are not Enough - An open letter to US AIRWAYS

FUBAR – When Duct Tape and WD40 are not Enough

An open letter to US AIRWAYS

RE:  US Airways June 13, 2012 Flight 430

There comes a point when a plane is beyond gate repair, and this flight was one of those occasions. 

This was a flight from Philadelphia to Las Vegas - On this plane for over 5 hours. 

Never mind that when I was trying to buy up to my preferred status during the scheduling process, there was no "grace period";

Never mind that the flight was delayed on my first segment;

Never mind that FLT430 was delayed because of mechanical reasons;

Never mind that in an effort to be transparent, the pilot scared the passengers, we had to let terrified people off the plane, and I had to sit next to a panic stricken woman holding her hand because she thought the engine, that had been worked on while we were on the plane, might fail while we were in the air;

Never mind that the bathroom in first class was inoperable. 

THERE WAS NO RUNNING WATER ON THE PLANE, AND THE PREVIOUS CREW KNEW IT. 

The Big IF…..

·         If the flight had been shorter

·         if we did not have to sit on the plane while they tried to fix the engine

·         if it hadn't have been a full flight

I may have been able to manage through the situation.  However, it was the longest most UNSANITARY conditions that I have ever experienced on flight in the developed world.  My boyfriend, who was traveling with me, a Captain in the Marine Corp, said it was the worst flight conditions he had ever experienced, and he fought in Iraq during Enduring Freedom. 

The reason why this is inexcusable is that US Air had every opportunity to change out the equipment, but in an effort to get that plane in the air, at any cost, US Air failed to provide a safe environment INSIDE the plane for the passengers.   I was totally disgusted, and unfortunately disappointed with US Air, and was further disgusted that there was no back up plan for the plane for this process, to ensure sanitary travel conditions in the event of water failure, like wet wipes. 

BUT WHAT IS TRUELY INEXCUSABLE IS THAT THIS UNSANITARY TRAVEL CONDITION ON A LONG FULL FLIGHT WAS TOTALLY AVOIDABLE. 

US Air had previous knowledge that the plane had no working water, and since we were stuck at the gate, and then on the tarmac, while they were trying to manually start the 2nd engine, the plane instead should have been swapped out, and at the very least, some wet wipes given to the flight attendants to put in the facilities.  

This is not the customer experience that I have come to expect from US Airways.  But I want to make one thing very clear, sometimes, a silo-ed approach to the cost analysis to swap out a plane, is not a good process to continue in the future.  The health and welfare of your passengers should always in your decision process.  Please advise of what will be the process improvement plan for this use case, as well as how US Airways is planning to compensate the passengers for failing to provide the minimum standard of care.

Tanya Anne Callaway

Modern Day Castrato – Today’s GOP Men

Modern Day Castrato – Today’s GOP Men

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. – I Corinthians 13:1

For a while I have been silent, as I have watched so many things that were great vision become muddied and sad in the execution.  I have had a growing number of sleepless nights, and with a heavy heart, I write this plea to my fellow conservatives and moderates in the GOP. 

I am an American.  I am a born again Christian since I was child.  I have been a Republican as long as I can remember.  I am a fiscal conservative.  A Reagan Alumni.  I was one of the small group of people who were on the first Tea Party conference call.  So I want to be clear, that I am not speaking against any fellow Republican, but against the current temperature in the political atmosphere.

…and I am a woman...

I since I was very young studied opera, as a coloratura soprano, and the only way I hope I can break through to change to the dialogue is to provide an analogy that maybe the men can understand.   The way that the men are behaving as it relates to Women’s issues, is as if they would rather castrate themselves, to play a role that God, has no intention of them playing… The role of a woman.

By trying to be the voice of the conservative women, and having no compassion or charity, our men voices have become irritatingly high pitched and as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.  We have already abandoned the Reagan rule of 80%, and speaking ill of our fellow Republicans.  Now we attempt to castrate ourselves by speaking on behalf of women?  Let us not forget the 5W’s – When Women Work We Win.

We stand for FREEDOM.  Freedom to make a decision, Freedom to speak.  We even have the freedom to be an ignorant idiot.

But what I like most about America, is that we have the FREEDOM to SUCCEED and to WIN.

I don’t know about you, but I want to win in 2012.  So can we please put down the scalpels, and stop castrating ourselves and our mission?

You know we women know how to sing our own parts…. Can women have the freedom to be our own voice?

You men, modern day castrati, are singing in the wrong key! 

Big 'ole Bubbles, in Our Economy and Our Memories...

Okay, I took a break from politics for a while, some might say I fell off the edge of the earth, but I must say something....

I am watching Face the Nation, and I am sick of folks saying how good it was during Clinton's years in the WH. We were all paper rich. We were all getting paid in options. Then I seem to recall a "little something" called the Telecom and Internet bomb. Stocks were inflated, people bought stuff against their portfolio, just like the real estate game, and then the bubble burst. Hourly margin calls, business models falling apart, layoffs by the thousands, and stock values tumbling. I lost a cool million from my portfolio in two days...

Lets stop talking about prosperity that was held together with soapy water, and full of hot air. Very much like the pundits and politicians I heard on the Sunday circuit today.

GULF AID (thejazzdiva) on Twitter

#didyouknow 69% of the domestic, shrimp are harvested in Gulf waters; help us clean up the #oilspill. Visit http://www.gulfaid.org today!

WSJ.com's Political Diary - How Scott Brown Changed Massachusetts

Two Party State

Massachusetts Democrats who thought the victory of Scott Brown in January was a fluke and represented no sign of a revived Republican Party in their state might want to think again.

This week saw a special election for the state senate seat that Mr. Brown gave up when he became a U.S. Senator. The suburban Boston district has been competitive, with Mr. Brown first winning it in a 2003 special election with only 51%.

This time it wasn't even close. GOP State Representative Richard Ross defeated Democrat Peter Smulowitz, an emergency-room physician, with 62% of the vote. Mr. Ross even won Needham, a liberal bastion in the district, by over 200 votes. "The Democratic machine is striking out in Massachusetts," claimed Jennifer Nassour, the state's GOP chairwoman.

Not quite. The highly competitive race for governor has seen Democratic Governor Deval Patrick rebound somewhat from his recent dismal poll numbers. He now leads Republican Charlie Baker, a protégé of former GOP Governor Bill Weld, and state Treasurer Tim Cahill, who left the Democratic Party to run as an independent last year. In a new Rasmussen poll, Mr. Patrick scores 45% support against 31% for his GOP opponent Mr. Baker.

But Mr. Patrick's improvement appears to be based largely on the faltering of Mr. Cahill, who has lately been the subject of GOP attack ads. Mr. Baker, a former health-care executive, is still having trouble putting together the coalition of economic and social conservatives that Mr. Brown assembled. Much of Mr. Cahill's 15% support in polls represents social conservatives who remain put off by Mr. Baker's failure to make overtures to them.

-- John Fund

WSJ.com's Political Diary - FAIR Tax vs OBAMACare

Show of Horrors

In the two special elections for the House being held next week, Democrats appear to have thrown in the towel in a Hawaii race where the presence of two Democrats on the ballot looks like it may hand the seat to a Republican.

But in the Pennsylvania coal-mining district once held by the late Jack Murtha, former Murtha aide Mark Critz appears to have made a comeback with a flurry of TV commercials accusing GOP businessman Tim Burns of wanting to raise taxes. A Democratic campaign committee ad accuses Mr. Burns of supporting "a 23% national sales tax" and "corporate tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas." The latest public poll shows Mr. Critz with a 45% to 40% lead.

Mr. Burns says his record has been distorted. He denies he wants to outsource jobs overseas. He also claims any quotes supporting a so-called FAIR tax reform were "taken out of context" and notes that Mr. Critz hasn't pointed out that advocates of a national sales tax want to completely replace the current federal income tax.

That may be, but Mr. Burns's plight shows just how tricky tax reform can be to raise in a hardscrabble blue-collar district where voters are deeply suspicious of change. Republicans have made progress in the race by calling for repeal of ObamaCare, which is viewed with hostility by many of the district's seniors. But the ads blasting Mr. Burns on a national sales tax have erased many of those gains.

Next week we will find out which set of attacks had the most resonance with voters and just how much the Obama health care bill will be a drag on Democratic prospects this fall.

-- John Fund

WSJ.com's Political Diary - Our Men in Baghdad

Our Men in Baghdad

When Barack Obama named Christopher Hill to be his ambassador to Iraq, he praised the diplomat for having "the pragmatism and skill that we need right now." Republican Sen. Sam Brownback strongly disagreed.

In a March 2009 letter to the President, the Kansas Republican slammed Mr. Hill for engaging in "evasive and unprofessional activities" as the U.S. representative to the Six Party Talks over North Korea. Mr. Brownback also noted that Mr. Hill spoke no Arabic and had never served in a diplomatic post in the Middle East. This was not, he wrote, "the time to appoint an ambassador who may need the equivalent of a crash course in Iraqi affairs."

Now the administration seems to have come around to Sen. Brownback's view. Word is that Mr. Hill will be leaving Baghdad after barely a year to become dean of the University of Denver's foreign service school. Supposedly, Mr. Hill took the job intent on spending only a year in Baghdad, but several sources tell me he had a particularly strained relationship with U.S. military commanders, including Gen. Ray Odierno. His lack of Arabic would also have made him poorly suited to play the role his predecessor Ryan Crocker did in easing tensions between Iraq's dueling political factions.

The good news is that Mr. Hill is to be replaced with Jim Jeffrey, currently the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Mr. Jeffrey, a Vietnam vet, has already done one tour of duty in the Baghdad embassy as former ambassador John Negroponte's deputy. He was also George W. Bush's deputy national security adviser. The ambassador gets good reviews from his erstwhile White House colleagues, who think the New Englander's easy manner, Middle East expertise and military background will serve him well. His nomination is another reminder that, when it comes to Iraq policy, Barack Obama's presidency is little more than an extension of his predecessor's.

-- Bret Stephens