All Permanent Residents Pilots ... stand up and say hello!

Having seen the disgraceful display at the convention today, in which
AOPA's Phil Boyer described Mr. Stone (TSA Administrator) as a friend
to general aviation, expressed his support for him keeping his job as
long as possible, provided him with a public platform and finally
orchestrated a standing ovation for him, I think it's fair to assume
that AOPA has shown that it is a paper tiger that won't even embarrass
- never mind actively oppose - the unelected official responsible for
the biggest successful regulatory attack on general aviation in living
memory. With AOPA unwilling to make a fuss and FAA mysteriously
entirely absent from the debate, it will now be perfectly clear to TSA
that there will be no effective opposition to any other lunacy it
chooses to implement - and certainly there will be nothing stopping
TSA from making the lives of resident alien pilots miserable or
impossible.

All of this follows yesterday's slap in the face by TSA, which only
partially postponed the implementation of the rule, and continues the
distinction between resident aliens (who have already been thoroughly
vetted by DHS) and natural born U.S. Citizens (who generally have
not). With friends like Mr. Stone, general aviation hardly needs
enemies.

I'm afraid AOPA has "gone native" in Washington.

It's sad.