TFR not right IMO

What I am really surprised about is how many pussy pilots there are out there.
I mean if there's 300,000 ish AOPA members out there, then that's an important
block of votes. That's got to be one of the biggest PAC's next to AARP.
My reasoning about why our community is so tolerant of this flagrant abuse
is that we are all so used to being afraid of the FAA and what they may do
to our our pilots licenses, that we've forgotten what it REALLY means to
be a citizen of the United States.

I guess if we want to have our society digress to some lame hybrid of
a communist monarchy then we can all just do what we're doing now; nothing.

I for one am ****ed, and I don't really care who knows.

Bart

Kevin McCue wrote:

Agree and Agree. While the AOPA represents "pilot" issues it is still
part of the "money buys influence" equation.
FYI the now "standard" ruling elite TFR consumes about 9900 Cubic NM of
airspace! The main problem with this whole thing is it really is becoming
the ruling/privledged elite and damn the rest. I don't argue that there
needs to be "security" for our leaders but it is waaaay out of hand.

--
Kevin McCue
KRYN
'47 Luscombe 8E
Rans S-17 (for sale)

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Bart wrote:

What I am really surprised about is how many pussy pilots there are out there.
I mean if there's 300,000 ish AOPA members out there, then that's an important
block of votes. That's got to be one of the biggest PAC's next to AARP.
My reasoning about why our community is so tolerant of this flagrant abuse
is that we are all so used to being afraid of the FAA and what they may do
to our our pilots licenses, that we've forgotten what it REALLY means to
be a citizen of the United States.

I guess if we want to have our society digress to some lame hybrid of
a communist monarchy then we can all just do what we're doing now; nothing.

I for one am ****ed, and I don't really care who knows.

Bart,

I think the root of the problem (as far as pilots go) is this:

Taken as a whole, I think it's fair to say that the pilot demographic probably
tends to be politically pretty conservative. We tend to be mostly white, male,
upper income, with a median age 40- or 50-something. Lots of ex-military and
law-enforcement veterans. Plenty of gun owners. Rugged individualists.

Generally speaking, this is a solidly Republican demographic. I would venture to
guess that pilots probably voted overwhelmingly for this president in 2000, and
the idea of voting for another political party is anathema to most.

Yet now it seems that all of aviation, and general aviation especially, is under
attack and more restricted and more threatened than it has ever been. The
administration has given us TFRs, ADIZs, and other restrictions with no end in
sight, plus an apparent unwillingness to even respond to basic questions about
when these restrictions might ever be lifted. And an unprecedented, very clear
push to privatize ATC services.

The dilemma, of course, is that the president who is presiding over this sorry
state of affairs is a Republican.

I guess the question comes down to this: at what point do pilots say enough is
enough, even if they supported this president last time around, that they cannot
in good conscience vote again for this president, given his record on aviation
issues?

Most of the pilots I know bitch about the administration's policies and agree
that they are doing serious damage to aviation, but just can't bring themselves
to consider voting for somebody else next time around. When I remind them that
the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting a different result, they just give me a dirty look. Most of these guys
could never vote against Bush, no matter what his administration does.

I will be watching AOPA carefully when they do their candidate endorsement for
the next presidential election. Given his record, I cannot imagine them
endorsing Bush again, but I bet they would take an incredible amount of heat from
the membership if they don't.

David H
Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WA

If the aviation community want's the administration to change the
policy, do what every other big group in the country is doing; buy the
prostitutes.. ahem I mean buy politicians, woops, ahem, I mean
dontate, donate to politicians. Yea.

Bart wrote:

I mean if there's 300,000 ish AOPA members out there, then that's an important
block of votes. That's got to be one of the biggest PAC's next to AARP.

AOPA is barely big enough to get on a Congresscritter's radar. NRA has over
ten times as many members, for example.

George Patterson
The optimist feels that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The
pessimist is afraid that he's correct.
James Branch Cavel

Out of that 300,000 pilots, probably only about 50,000 vote, and that group
votes all over the place. Thus this is a meaningless group of voters and
ignored by all political parties.


"Bart" wrote in message
...
What I am really surprised about is how many pussy pilots there are out
there.
I mean if there's 300,000 ish AOPA members out there, then that's an
important
block of votes. That's got to be one of the biggest PAC's next to AARP.
My reasoning about why our community is so tolerant of this flagrant abuse
is that we are all so used to being afraid of the FAA and what they may do
to our our pilots licenses, that we've forgotten what it REALLY means to
be a citizen of the United States.

[deleted ...]

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 19:29:25 -0800, Bart wrote
(in article ):

What I am really surprised about is how many pussy pilots there are out
there.
I mean if there's 300,000 ish AOPA members out there, then that's an
important
block of votes. That's got to be one of the biggest PAC's next to AARP.

Not really. It is tiny in terms of PACs. AARP has nearly 30 million members.
The National Education Association has 3 million members. So does the
National Rifle Association. And these are the small ones. Most of the other
big PACs and associations number their members in the many millions, too.

AOPA is a drop in the ocean.

AOPA members do not vote in a block. Most have other issues
that take a higher personal priority. For instance, a solid
pro-gun voter will not vote for an anti-gun candidate no
matter how well the AOPA rates that candidate.

The AOPA is effective because of a quality staff and an
active media and lobby effort. But there are more cars and
trucks in a smallish town and than in the whole nation.
Pilots are independent voters, and airspace and pilots are a
national [Federal issue] and airports are more local with
Federal over-sight. Daley is still mayor in Chicago.


"Christopher Campbell"
wrote in message
e.com...
| On Tue, 1 Jul 2003 19:29:25 -0800, Bart wrote
| (in article ):
|
| What I am really surprised about is how many pussy
pilots there are out
| there.
| I mean if there's 300,000 ish AOPA members out there,
then that's an
| important
| block of votes. That's got to be one of the biggest
PAC's next to AARP.
|
| Not really. It is tiny in terms of PACs. AARP has nearly
30 million members.
| The National Education Association has 3 million members.
So does the
| National Rifle Association. And these are the small ones.
Most of the other
| big PACs and associations number their members in the many
millions, too.
|
| AOPA is a drop in the ocean.
|