I don't think Lee Moak made an endorsement for President in 2012. He essentially said vote on the issues that matter to pilots.

http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/pre...12/2012-10.pdf

What other entity will fight for you? For the price of three Starbucks lattes a month you get into the Capital Club. Look at what the airlines pay for lobbying. If every ALPA member contributed $10/month we would have one of the largest voices on the hill. The apathy and resignation to defeat sadden and frighten me.

Glad our grandfathers didn't share your attitude. "Unless you guarantee me we will take that beach known as Omaha, I'm not getting off this boat!". Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Jerry,

I used Minot and Fargo and tongue-in-cheek examples. I don't expect the MEC to have meetings in either of those cities. However, I do believe if a hotel is good enough for pilots to stay in, then it's good enough for the MEC, as along as that facility meets requirements in terms of conference/meeting rooms.

So the MEC is meeting in Washington... We stay at a Hyatt Hotel close to Dulles (and close to Herndon, VA). According to the hotel's website they have over 9,000 square feet of flexible function space, with capacity for 10-600 guests.

To "satisfy my curiosity" (Shiz doesn't like "just for fun") I checked their own website for rates on the applicable dates $189/night.

Why isn't that good enough?

Be cause any gov. Official we want to address our MEC doesn't' t have the time in their day to go out to Herndon and back. They are scheduled very tight. I believe this is what ACL was alluding to for this meeting.

I dont think he is angry. He likes to point out (sometimes with "mucho" passion and to the point "gut-punch") what we might be missing or how we are blinded like the Madoff victims.

Take out his directness, put a little diplomacy and sugar coating on it and then you begin to see things.

TEN

From my experience, that's not necessarily true. Politicos spend A LOT of their time away from their offices. Golfing, lunches and Georgetown dinners are more frequent than actually voting on the chamber floor. They are enticed by "goodies," though. So nice hotels and eats are probably more attractive to them.

I agree, however, that our reps become more and more removed from the line....just like politicians lose touch with their constituency. As a dues paying member, I want my money spent wisely. I'll trust my leadership to handle that until I no longer trust them.

Oh crap. That's not good. I just flew that trip.

Just observing here, but gotta ask.... so the Kayak price doesn't apply to MEC functions because they negotiate a cheaper, much more beneficial rate with a lot included. But the rate for your purposes is what you see on Kayak?

Just listening to both sides, but if someone from the pro-ALPA point of view is going to argue that the numbers don't really mean what they say, and then another pro-ALPA guy adds what you just did, well, it tends to make me think things are being presented in a light that is not accurate, but is done purely to favor your side. Kind of like the claim the union isn't supporting democrats for president since Clinton, but then when someone has access to the actual facts we come to find the truth is different from what we're being told. I'm all for my union, but I would prefer the non-biased version of the truth.

This is on topic and if WE ignore the subject (gun control in this case but that's not the point to my post) and focus on what is being said it's somewhat entertaining and very enlightening about the current state of lobbying in DC:
So the question is, are politicos voting on principle now? Doubt it. There is a lot of slush in $3-$4T budgets.