Dear FAA Administrator … Have You Met Martha Stewart?
By Robert Mark on September 5th, 2007After the Koz Convention drew hundreds of political pundits to Chicago for a weekend’s blogging about the U.S. political climate last month, the Daily Koz, Markos Moulitsas’ blog of political intrigue and corruption, ran a piece about our favorite FAA administrator, Marion Blakey.
One of Koz’s contributors – the Blue-Eyed Buddhist – wrote a piece that made me realize there are plenty of other folks who think FAA gets away with much more than we know.
All the facts about a corrupt little deal at the agency were right in front of us last week and most of us simply failed to put them together the way BEB did. At least if anyone else did see them, I didn’t hear anyone else yelp, me included. I just have to get out more!
Blakey was recently appointed as new president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association and grabs the reins sometime in mid November. AIA is the trade organization representing dozens of major aerospace companies around the world.
I was happy to hear she’d found a good job – really.
At least she’ll be someplace where they’ll appreciate her talents as a deal maker, as long as she stays away from labor relations. Blakey did, of course, just ink the $1.8 billion deal with ITT to develop the new ADS-B system for FAA.
Hang on just a cottin pickin minute!
Isn’t ITT an AIA member, the same AIA that outgoing FAA administrator Blakey will soon be representing? 
The Blue-Eyed Buddhist seems to have made the point nicely.
Boeing pulled something like this in 2004 to win the tanker contract and people ended up in the slammer.
Does anyone happen to have Martha Stewart’s contact info? Marion might want it.
Technorati tags: FAA, blakey, AIA, Daily Koz, Markos Moulitsas, ITT, Aerospace Industries Association, Boeing, The Blue-Eyed Buddhist, Martha Stewart
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September 5th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Hey, thanks for the nice comments- I appreciate it. FWIW, I’m not a “columnist” on DailyKos; any registered user there can post a “diary”. Which is a nice way of saying I didn’t get paid for it. ;)
I also posted that entry on the main FAA blog that I write for, the FAA Follies. Stories of the revolving door between the highest level of FAA management and big corporations abound, and we’ve covered a few on the Follies.
The Flight Service Station fiasco was another similar story. I’m on the road right now but when I have a chance I’ll post a link to that.
Keep up the good work on your blog, many of our controllers read it and enjoy it.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
This situation has been going on for years, though this seems to be the most eggregious example that I am aware of. Nobody seems to care, or wants to do anything about it. The people impacted the most by all this is the American Taxpayer.
September 6th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
We all spend a lot of time complaining it seems like to me. Are we talking to the wrong people, are we not demanding anything or is it simply anger?
Anger alone is not enough.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I totally agree with you Robert. We waste our time complaining & we complain at wrong place to the wrong people.