An open letter to the Red-State victors:

[rukatiger]

The following is from The Register but I think it worth posting the entire thing as text and not just a link.... enjoy

Comments

The Rest of It All

[crashska]

Ruka, I know our views are radically different, and I don't mean any personal affront, but I'm tired of apocalyptic speechifying and doomsday foretelling and the creation of fantasy situations where people get to have all their wants fulfilled and never have to pay anything for it, where someone else picks up the check. It's not real, it's a delusion. I know, I'm paying at the front end. In the hopes of a long-term satisfying career, I'm earning LESS than a dedicated McDonalds employee, all the while facing the prospect of administrative action from the FAA and now Federal prosecution from the TSA for interacting with foreign nationals who may want to blow up our country with a Cessna 152. I'm seeing the clumsy attempts of the TSA to recruit instructors as jackbooted thugs, and I hate it thorougly, but I'm not quitting and running away crying; we still have the freest aviation system in the world. No, I'm joining with groups in the industry that are fighting, through administrative and legal means, these regulations that I firmly believe overstep the bounds of security and do little or nothing to protect us. If you don't like the system, taking your ball and going home does nothing to change it. Participation and activism are the choices of real citizens, just like the participation of a true majority of the population who said "No, we don't want John Kerry as our leader."

So, again, if you find any of this to be a personal attack, I'm sorry that you do.

Re: The Rest of It All

[rukatiger]

I read a brief news clip about that the other day. WTF is up with that? Are you supposed to ask to see their passport and visa everytime they come for a lesson? Hello, isn't that what the visa application process is for?

Re: The Rest of It All

[crashska]

No, foreigners have to go through the "Pilot Candidate" program and be vetted by the State Dept. This is AFTER they get approved for a visa, and costs them even more money. So, if they're here getting trained, then they're OK- but it has to be to go to a specific school, not to just come here and get random training. Our chief said that if we were going to do sidework flying with a foreign national, we needed to get his help on the TSA regs so we don't get screwed. For US nationals, we need to check the birth cert., passport, or naturalization papers the first time we fly with them, make a logbook entry, and keep a copy of the papers for FIVE YEARS.