VP Biden says stay off airplanes...?!?
 

One of the “moderators” closed a thread about VP Biden’s remarks telling people not to get on an aircraft or a subway, saying the thread was political and not relevant to aviation. However you will let a 30 page rant continue aimlessly out of control in the regional forums about whose crappy regional airline is better than who’s…. Or who’s a scab or not when there was never a strike. Well what Biden said did directly affect our aviation industry! Here is a copy of the letter that the CEO of the world’s largest airline sent to the White House because those remarks were relevant to aviation.

Richard H. Anderson
Chief Executive Officer

April 30, 2009

The Honorable Joseph “Joe” Biden, Jr.
Vice President of the United States
Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg.
1650 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20501

Dear Mr. Vice President:

Delta’s employees have rallied through this financial crisis to build the world’s largest airline. Despite a difficult economic environment, Delta has succeeded without any frontline, involuntary employee layoffs. Our goal is to weather this economy without layoffs. There has been no interruption in employee pension benefit plan contributions, shared reward payments, pay raises have continued and there have been no increases to employee health care premiums.

We are proud of what we’ve accomplished, but amid this difficult economic situation your suggestion that air travel is unsafe due to the H1N1 flu outbreak is harmful and threatens to have a negative impact on the airline industry at this critical time. We would respectfully request that government and industry follow the professional direction of the CDC, as we are doing.
Obviously, if one is feeling sick they should not go to work, attend school or travel. But for those who are feeling well, it is important for you and the White House to reassure travelers that there is no reason to be concerned.
Our employees have met the challenge posed by this flu outbreak to ensure that our aircraft are clean and that operations of our airline pose no health risk to our customers or employees.

While Secretary Napolitano and other administration officials have affirmed that public transportation is safe, we ask that you further clarify your remarks to reassure the public that commercial air travel is safe and that there is no need for unnecessary panic and the unneeded economic disruption that would inevitably follow. We support and appreciated the administration's leadership on the Stimulus Package and do not want the economic recovery it will stimulate to be dwarfed by this event.

Sincerely,
Richard H. Anderson

cc: Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to the President
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President
Honorable Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation

I agree that the thread closure was not in the interest of a forum designed for airline pilots. Most of the discussion was responsible, relevant, and without political attack. Yes, there were a few questionable posts, but these could have been easily deleted by the mods.

I find it interesting that ... no where can I find "do not discuss politics" in the Terms and Conditions.

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So, does this mean my thread is back open?

Only one way to find out :)

Hopefully the flying public listens to Biden like Wall Street. DAL is up this morning as well as the Airline Index.

The media has blown "swine" flu way outta proportion. According to the CDC 36,000 people die every year in the USA alone from seasonal flu...
CDC - Influenza (Flu) | Q & A: Questions and Answers Regarding Estimating Deaths from Influenza in the United States

Airplanes are safe, so are subways, just don't lick the floors or seats....

Excerpt from the APC TOS:



Topics Not for Discussion

There are currently NO forums that provide a venue for discussing politics or religion. While DreamLaunch Media Ltd. and Airline Pilot Central embrace the diversity the world has to offer, these subjects often are very emotional and there are many different views. In our experience the wide range of views and emotions rarely contribute to a harmonious online community or beneficial contributions to the piloting profession.

TOS excerpt:

"Topics Not for Discussion

There are currently NO forums that provide a venue for discussing politics or religion. While DreamLaunch Media Ltd. and Airline Pilot Central embrace
the diversity the world has to offer, these subjects often are very emotional and there are many different views. In our experience the wide range of
views and emotions rarely contribute to a harmonious online community or beneficial contributions to the piloting profession."

Mods just enforce the rules. The thread was closed because of political bashing. Further comments about the TOS or how the site is run should be directed to the admins, that would be HSLD or Freight Dog. I think this subject can be discussed in a way that doesn't violate the site TOS. It's up to you guys to make that happen. Have at it....

Like this is going to 'fly':cool:

Talking politics, "without" talking politics.....give me a break!!

The 500 lb elephant sitting right in the middle of the room that no one is allowed to speak of....who wants to be the first to fire.:rolleyes:

Moderator must be a Obamaite. Wonder if the same standard would apply if Dick Cheney said it.

Can you provide a link to where that is stated? When I read the Terms and Conditions, that is not there.

Let's face it. On any other forum, the political discussions are never discussions, they are shouting matches. Someone will say "President Jones (republican) did so and so and they stink". Then someone will say "Yeah but President Smith (democrat) did so and so and they stink more." Mix, shake, repeat. Every thread about politics follows this same discourse. I like that this forum avoids these pointless shouting matches. I have my own political views (which are 100% correct by the way :)) but you don't really care what they are. You are not going to change my political views and I am not going to change yours, at least not on this forum. So why bother?

Hey, it's Biden being Biden.

Off the cuff comments that affect an industry, from anyone of influence, is not gonna help.

Precisely.

It wasn't an argument about whose politics were better. It was a discussion about how the VP of the US went on TV and contradicted the Admin's policy regarding the H1NL Flu Virus. And in doing so, told the American public that they shouldn't be flying on airplanes because it wasn't safe.

The discussion was relevant and vital to airline pilots because the last thing we need right now is our passengers becoming afraid to go fly because of some reckless and uninformed comments.

Well said sir...

Regardless of who you voted for in the election, this affects all of us.

Well said.

I don't think anyone is trying to 'argue' the point of politics here. No matter if you find yourself on the left or right of the isle, I would believe that an irresponsible comment such as that could very well effect us all as airline pilots. It's no secret "Joe", the industry is already shakey at best.

In the end....let's just hope this pandemic passes as quick as it came about.

I wish I could have been in the first meeting at which POTUS was informed of the VP's comment about staying off the subways and airliners

"Dammit - who authorized (insert VP name) microphone to be on ............"


The POTUS is in the fight of his life to get some kind of spark to light the economical fires and the VP pees on the matches by telling everyone it's not even safe enough to use the nation's largest and most vital forms of transportation. Talk about undermining efforts.

Political Disclaimer: Actual names withheld to prevent the appearance of free speech.

Note the following is a non political comment. IT was not paid for or sponsored by anybody. It is not meant to sway, coerce, panhandle, or otherwise influence anybody or anything.

IN Biden we FINALLY have somebody who is approaching, possibly surpassing the speaking ability of a very former US President.

All I am saying is this topic does effect us as seen in Mr Anderson's letter. I also was pointing out that the moderators closed down that thread quick, but allow much more garabage to 30+ page on other threads often in the regional forums....

VP biden's Letter back to Mr. Anderson....

SPINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN that is not what he said

Politician...wouldn't expect anything more! And he's not even good at it yet LoL

OK, everybody got the word in, no more need for direct political references. There is more than enough imploding to go around. Everybody can have a heaping serving. Thanks.:)

YET?!?!?!? and he's only been doing it for 30 years. I guess by that metric he'll never be a good VP.

This pretty much sums it up....
Snoutbreak '09 - What to Call Swine Flu | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

In a congressional environment that is very anti-business did RA's letter, which I think was necessary and well said, just make Delta a target?

And before the moderators shut this threat down on account of me, I do think it matters. I don't want to be Ford right now if the government and UAW could possibly be getting 51% and 39% control (90% combined) of GM. I feel that when your competitor is owned by the regulators and auditors thats not good for you despite your politics. And any further down turn in the economy could see airlines being labeled too big to fail and therein nationalized to some degree like GM.

I mean say there is a crisis and lets say multiple airlines would go into Chapter 11 again, whats to say a favorite wouldn't be chosen out of the lot? Reuters had an article on today that said this: On the corporate front, the federal government's pumping of billions of dollars in bailout money into banks and auto companies has given Obama the power to force an overhaul in those industries, a remarkable intervention in capitalist industries by the state.

So say the chosen carrier is... United, a Chicago based airline. Then, you could have a situation in which UAL gets an unfair advantage, or a merger is forced upon CAL and the other carriers like DAL, AMR and SWA have stricter oversight while UAL gets less, etc. And the more you complain, the more life becomes difficult.

I am happy RA wrote the letter, I just wonder if we have a new and large D.C. based political dynamic to deal with out there that we haven't had to calculate into our industry before and so do you think its possible we could have a situation like GM occur to one of the Legacy carriers?

I respectfully disagree.

Under the Pilot's Lounge we here at APC have a "Union Talk" section.

This is clearly a venue for discussing politics.

99.5% of the candidates that alpa-pac (for instance) supports were/are democrats.

In Great Britain they call it the labour party.

Certainly our "Union Talk" section is a 'democrat' venue.


As to the topic:

Aviation has certainly taken it on the chin in the past 6 months.

We pilots should stand up and protect our livelihood.

And it's okay to disagree...that's what we Americans do.

233 years and still going strong!

By what metric(s)?

The thread has drifted into commentary and questions on APC policy. Debates about site policy don't belong at the forums, rather, questions and comments should be directed to the admins. That's HSLD or Freight Dog. Thread closed.