Passenger Trains > Waiting is for Little People

Tommy Thompson of "Janesville Flyer" fame made the news.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26164-2002Feb17.html

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Gategate

By Al Kamen
Monday, February 18, 2002; Page A21

There were scores of passengers lined up to get through security Friday just after 4 p.m. at National Airport when a group of important people, including some folks with earpieces, showed up.

The earpiece crowd went around to the side to fill out paperwork -- probably the notifications about carrying firearms on board -- while the "principal," accompanied by an aide or two, went to the front of the line, right past passengers who'd been waiting up to 40 minutes.

The line-jumping enabled the important passenger to make it to Gate 31 in plenty of time for his 4:30 United Airlines Flight 625 bound for Chicago. The plane was still on the ground when our phone started ringing. An irate fellow traveler fingered our important flier as none other than Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson, hurrying to a Lincoln Day Dinner/GOP fundraiser in politically crucial DuPage County, Ill.

Apparently there is no government policy about important government officials zipping through security. Maybe, one Transportation Department official speculated, security officials post-9-11 don't like Cabinet types hanging about in lines. Thompson, we are told, follows his security detail's lead.

Some Cabinet members apparently don't jump ahead of regular people, even for fundraisers. And naturally, House and Senate members would deem it too dangerous to pull this for fear that some of the people in line might be constituents.

But Cabinet officials aren't up for reelection. And, fortunately for Thompson, this isn't Afghanistan.
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I think that Tommy Thompson and his FBI escort are probably very unlikely to hijack a plane and crash it into a building.

This just illustrates the absurdity of the current airline security situation. I'm a frequent flyer, and various airlines have 15 years of computerized records of my flights. I would seem about as likely as Tommy Thompson to be a hijacker, yet I (and lots of other frequent flyers) stand in line, take off our shoes, and have our pocket knives confiscated. Rather than complaining that "waiting is for little people", why don't we concentrate on trying to identify and search people who might actually be likely to do some damage, rather than inconveniencing those who have legitimate reasons to fly and no interest in mayhem?

rresor wrote:
>
> I think that Tommy Thompson and his FBI escort are probably
> very unlikely to hijack a plane and crash it into a building.
>
> Rather than
> complaining that "waiting is for little people", why don't we
> concentrate on trying to identify and search people who might
> actually be likely to do some damage, rather than
> inconveniencing those who have legitimate reasons to fly and no
> interest in mayhem?

Didn't the people who got to the airport before Tommy Thompson did and waited for their turn "have legitimate reasons to fly and no interest in mayhem" too?

"Let 'Em Eat Cake."

-Marie Antoinette, before she got her head chopped off, AND Tommy Thompson.

Better that he jump the line than waste taxpayers' money by flying a private military charter.

OK.

1) Blair hates Republicans, even those who support Amtrak
2) Blair is gay, as he chose after 9-11 to so adamently tell us.

Nobody cares, Blair. Nobody cares.

It's a train discussion board Blair, post things about trains. Please don't waste our time with this stuff.

You must not be aware that Tommy Thompson was chairman of Amtrak's board of directors.

http://www.amtrak.com/press/ATK-042299-58.html

Further, Friday's incident reveals a shocking lack of economic knowledge in America today. Clearly, desirable airplane seats are a scarce commodity. As evidence, we see that passengers assigned value to these seats by showing up at the airport early. In true government fashion, Thompson seized the commodity for himself, thus violating the tenets of a free market transaction. The scarce seats he and his entourage took went to one who bid less for them than others, and this transaction was enforce by government fiat. I was struck by his resemblance to the character "Wesley Mooch" in Ayn Rand's magnum opus "Atlas Shrugged."

I also wondered if he was traveling to his fund-raiser on the government rate, which is a violation of government ethics.

Economics is an interesting subject. You should try to take a course in it sometime. Is there a community college near you?

Blair

Can we throw in Kalmbach, Amtrak, Carstens, PENTREX, METROLINK, US Airways, American Airlines and maybe Morning Sun books into the fray for unreasonable and undrelated criticism and sophmoric diatribes. Oh and don't forget transgender disabled railfans. GOSH freedom of speech is a hoot and using bandwidth to boot

Ha, gotta love the Wesley Mooch reference!

(Although I definitely had a mental image of someone else as the real life WM.)

Sure, if Tommy Thompson, or Elaine Chao, or any other government official wants to bring 5 heavily armed G-men and women on my plane, let 'em!

I'd even make an announcement

"Folks, this is the captain speaking. We have a distinguished visitor on board, HHS Secretary Thompson. He has an entourage of heavily armed people with him, so I know you'll feel safer. I sure will." And, then send him a free drink.

I'm not a pilot, but I'd be pleased as punch to hear that message!

Lackawanna484 wrote:
>
> "Folks, this is the captain speaking. We have a distinguished
> visitor on board, HHS Secretary Thompson. He has an entourage
> of heavily armed people with him, so I know you'll feel safer.
> I sure will." And, then send him a free drink.
>
> I'm not a pilot, but I'd be pleased as punch to hear that
> message!

Hmmmm. It does have an upside. Still, I'd prefer that they wait in line too.

Blair --

High profile individuals -- especially legislators, and elected or appointed governtment executives -- don't wait in line like the rest of us. This is is just the way it is. Partially, it's for their safety. Partially, it strokes their ego. Partially, the carrier believes it greases the company's glide path when regulatory or legislative hurdles are met with. And partially it may even help optimize the recipients' of such gilded treatments time -- hopefully, for our benefit?

I'm no fan of Tommy T. -- he did quite a number on services to the unemployed, homeless, and mentally ill in the state he formerly governed. I'm not sure if he intends to support a national passenger rail system, or help the Shrubistas hack it to shreds. But please don't be alarmed or waste outrage on him moving to the front of the line surrounded by the proverbial "men in black". To some degree, I'm almost impressed he has the guts to fly commercial air.

A side anecdote that may help illustrate the paradigm, courtesy of info from my wife, who was the legislative analyst covering the California Highway Patrol's budget during part of Willie Brown's reign atop the legislature in my state. During a time when the speed limit was 55mph Willie routinely "flew" his Porsche between Sacramento and 'Frisco at 90-110mph -- often after imbibing at the legendary Frank Fat's or other solon watering holes. He never got a speeding ticket or a DUI, and the CHP's budget grew fatter every year. 'Nuff said?

I rarely say this, but I think you're being too rough on Congress.

Many senators and HR members regularly take the train, and the plane from NY/NJ to DC. When I consulted in DC, I frequently saw Chuck Schumer, Lautenburg, Mr Rangel, Specter, Franks, etc on Thursday afternoons heading north. As far as I could tell, they didn't get any special treatment, other than an occasional upgrade. I sat next to Schumer once on a flight to LaGuardia (in coach).

If Amtrak employees really and truly want to make the business thrive, showing high quality service, running an ontime train with clean rest rooms, stocked cafe cars, wouldn't be a bad start with legislators. Ten Jersey HR, three senators (her majesty flies in a charter, military or govt plane), 15 downstate HR in NY, plus a fistful of PA reps, and they're on the way toward a good audience in the Congress.

rabbiteer wrote:
>
> Nobody cares, Blair. Nobody cares.

Well, nobody except rabbiteer. He has a fascination for worrying about Blair:

rabbiteer wrote:
>
> I don't know guys. Blair claims he's gay.
>
> He, himself, might come to YOUR door as a gay police officer.
> Then what would you do? Think about it.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=2&amp;i=46110&amp;t=46087

I wouldn't have a problem with it, but then I'm not worried like rabbiteer. He sure loves to publicly pay attention to sexual orientation for some odd reason. Whatever message he's trying to send the board, it's not coming out clear to me. Homophobia, maybe?

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=2&amp;i=46118&amp;t=46087

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=2&amp;i=60510&amp;t=60469

Being confused is a habit with rabbiteer, too:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=4&amp;i=36715&amp;t=36617

beefburrito wrote:
>
> rabbiteer wrote:
> >
> > Nobody cares, Blair. Nobody cares.
>
> Well, nobody except rabbiteer. He has a fascination for
> worrying about Blair:

Maybe he's just a softy at heart.

Bwahahahahahahahaha.