How do we fire Mineta?
 

"Thanks to this legislation, Americans who travel to celebrate with their loved ones will do so in greater security," Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta said.

This is from the guy responsible for today's (pre and post 9/11) security mess. He is still completely lying to the American Public.

Why isn't Bush firing him / demanding his resignation??? This is ludicrous and dangerous.

[Edited to add source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6/MN163246.DTL]

[This message has been edited by hillrider (edited 11-16-2001).]

can you please specifically detail your grievances with the legislation? i haven't read/analyzed it yet but i'd be interested to know what you think the problems with it are.

The next time he flies commercially, sneak a corkscrew into his bag.

What is your complaint with him specifically?

I don't actually think he should be fired. I do think that is doing exactly as any other politician recently. The same as McCain, Gephardt et all. He is actually maybe been coopted by his staff. The transportation bureaucrats would obviously love gaining direct control of security. More responsibility means a bigger budget and more staff. I am disgusted by the thought process of all of the politicians that think passing the law has solved the problem. McCains quote yesterday was unbelievable. He said that passing the law would immediately make flying safe as soon as it is signed. That is not true, it is actually a lie since nothing substantive will have changed. Even the big boogy man of Argenbright is being allowed to still run the system in Mass. after being fired.

I am guessing that is the complaint.

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Robert

I haven't seen John McCain's statement yesterday but comparing him to Norm Mineta is like comparing Tommy Thompson to George Patton.

I haven't seen John McCain's statement yesterday but comparing him to Norm Mineta is like comparing Tommy Thompson to George Patton.

Senator McCain's only initiative, campaign reform, is down the toilet. General Paton's indiscretions got him into a lot of trouble.

Perhaps Mr. Mineta is taking a lesson from the good General.

Secretary Thompson seems to be doing a good job of allaying the bio fears of the public.

I still don't understand what the complaint is regarding him.

The job of securing the screening and all that should have gone to the Coast Guard, IMHO.

Let's stop wasting our time with US politicians and government officials. Instead, let's get some people from some European airports where (1) security is tighter but more efficient and (2) where they still have private employees doing the work.

Our solutions have sucked for years and will continue to do so. Throwing more taxpayer or FF money at the problem isn't going to solve it.

d

Worse yet, San Jose named its airport after him. Mineta San Jose International Airport. When someone suggested that airports should be named after someone who is dead, he responded that he was not willing to make that sacrifice. Maybe after he (and his buddies) are dead, SJ can un-name the airport back to the way it was...

And he has had his own indiscretions...he is currently married to one of them.

Allaying the fears of the public on bio terror?

Let's review the facts:

-Tommy says the first Florida anthrax might have come from drinking in a stream. Or maybe the tooth fairy.

-Tommy says he won't threaten the Bayer Cipro patent since we need the profit motive to drive research.

-Two days later, Tommy leans on Bayer with threats regarding patent so Bayer agrees to sell Cipro in large quantities to US Gov't at $.95 instead of $1.75 a dose.

-Two days later, Bayer competitors say they have cheaper alternatives to Cipro with fewer side effects. But Tommy's order for Cipro stands.

Tommy can you can hear me?

Thompson has no health, science or medical background. Rather, he came to Washington to shrink Health and Human Services, selected in large measure because Milwaukee has a working school voucher system and he was Governor of Wisconsin. He has struggled to get in front of this crisis and hopefully now with a couple of weeks of no new bad news (prior to the Leahy letter), maybe he has done that.

This isn't a political point. Imagine if Frederico Pena was still Transportation Secretary. YIKES! But we gotta judge performance on real, not political terms. If Thompson has provided folks with comfort, I'm glad. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

The Bush foreign team couldn't be stronger, and we're lucky to have them. Let's hope they figure our a way to bolster the obvious weak sticks on the domestic side. I don't care if they fire Mineta, as long as airline safety is handled well.

There's a lot of wild talk bouncing around here. As benoit asks, "What is your complaint with him specifically?" and I guess "What do you want him to do?"

As for Secretary Thompson having no science background, most Cabinet members were politicians or executives in their prior lives. Lincoln had no executive training but he turned out to be our greatest Chief Executive ever.

As for the virtues of European airport security, remember that European countries have only a handful of airports at most, not the thousand as we have here, each feeding into others.


[This message has been edited by VicOsaki (edited 11-18-2001).]

What's that got to do with anything??? An excellent system is an excellent system - not that I would say Europe has an excellent system, merely a good one, versus the U.S., which has a poor one - and the number of small airports has nothing to do with it.

When you design a system properly, it will not matter how big it is, scale is secondary.

And you won't get into the secure area of an airport in Germany by running through an unguarded exit, by the way.


[This message has been edited by msn (edited 11-18-2001).]

Isn't it self evident that anything that grows larger and more diverse becomes more complex and difficult to manage?

More to the point, we have a large number of small airports that may service a couple of flights each day. Security people at these airports will by definition be less trained and a more diverse group, yet the passengers from these airports will be delivered and will blend into the secured areas of major airports. This is just one example of a problem that the Europeans don't face.

If you have all your eggs in one basket, it's obviously easier to keep an eye on them.

Failed the Citizens of the United States in his duty of overseeing security at the airports.

I don't mean on 9-11; I mean all the information that came to light about how security was run at airports under his watch.

A CFO will go down if it's found that the books were cooked and therefore failed on his duty to shareholders. Mineta should go on the same basis.

How long had it been between when he was confirmed and the islamic terrorist attacks? Did he make some bad change, or was it just that he didn't change things in time on his watch? Did he have the power to make necessary changes? I don't understand if there is something specific he did that upsets you.

I think your anger is misdirected at Mineta and should be more focused on Congress. Anything Mineta could have done to tick you off so much is weird as he has only held that position for the last 10 months. Keep in mind that no one in Congress ever publically derided airport and airline safety and demanded new security measures in the years before 9/11.

I am disappointed at the complete lack of accountability.

Did Mineta make a change in the Standard Operating procedure at teh DOT in his previous 10 months? W hat has changed in airport security since before january of 2001? (I mean besides the stupid moves made post 9/11 to soothe the public?)

Scotty00 has the right idea-look to Congress and not just Mineta.

However, in this case it is a distiction without a difference. Mineta was on the House Transportation Committee for 21 years and was Chairman for eight years prior to his being named Transportation Secretary.

I strongly believe that members of Congress who have been on the various intelligence committees should resign and give others a chance. Will others do better? I don't know but they can't do worse and at least we won't have incumbents justifying their ineffective efforts of the past.

Get real everybody.
If we really want to be safe at the airports and in the skies, we need the US Military to do the job right.
An added benefit...it could even reduce unemployment; just think, the Army might actually be able to meet it's enlistment quota. And it really will be safer, because the security people will be trained and totally focused on their jobs. The US is behind the rest of the world here.