I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." ---Grover Norquist, presidential adviser and conservative strategist, close business and political ally of Jack Abramhoff
Tonight's headline:
FAA: Air Traffic Control Understaffed During Comair Crash
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged Tuesday that the Blue Grass Airport traffic control tower was not in compliance with an FAA mandate that all airports be monitored by at least two controllers at all times...
...After clearing Comair Flight 5191 for takeoff on Sunday, he turned his back to perform administrative duties, according to NTSB member Debbie Hersman.
Experts say that, if two controllers had been in the tower, the crash, which killed 49 people, might not have happened.
The controller was asked to perform at least two jobs, including radar and ground control. The flight controllers union said Tuesday that was too much to ask....
As we noted almost a year ago: Fix the bridges and the dams:
The day after Katrina hit, I told Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, "A right-wing government that strangles public expenditures for public works is largely responsible for what happened in New Orleans." (Katrina Compounded, Sept. 1, 2005)
Of course, I was referencing Grover Norquist's infamous, and modestly shocking, assertion that he wanted to "shrink government down to the point where it can be strangled in a bathtub." The surprise was not Norquist's candor. The shock was to millions of voters who discovered the implications one stormy day.