Are The Lights Still On?

Okay okay, we admit we're not updating much at all, and for that we do truely suck. I think I, for one, am still astonished by the election. Whatever. So long as the Electoral College exists, we the American people are never going to get what we truely want, however I gotta give props to the old Bushwhacker, at least this time he got the popular vote along with the electoral one. Fair and square this time, I suppose. Not that it says much about the American people, but I disgress. This blog will get interesting as I am most definitively a Liberal and far as I can tell BoNzo is more a Conservative, though I don't think either of us really subscribe completely to either camp.

In any event, I'll just be happy to make it to 2008 without some country just getting sick of us and nuking us all to the stone ages. I can't help but notice that since the election Bush's Cabinet is heading for the lifeboats in wholesale fashion. It'd be interesting to see who's left. Can't say I'm sorry to see Ashcroft go, but I imagine Alberto Gonzales is probably going to grab the same constitutional plow that Ashcroft abandoned and go to work on your liberties. We shall see. I'm really not going to head for the border until I start seeing huge posters of Bush looking to the sky with a determined look on his face plastered across side of buildings. I'll give it 2:1 odds that by the end of this administration though we'll have no allies left. Look for 20 foot high fences and Constantino wire at a Canadian border crossing near you!

Speaking of Canada, word has it the Candian Immigration Website, a site that previous to the election saw roughly 30,000 hits a day, spiked to over 240,000 hits in the two days following the election results. Coincidence? You make the call.

Hey, at least my taxes won't go up.... Well, until the U.S. gets in such deep debt that the Peso has more strength then the dollar, which won't much matter, since if you want to keep your job, you'll have to head to India.

But, hey... I'm fine. You know, working for an airline has its perks. Of course, thanks to oil going to $fifty something a barrel I've started eyeing over the unemployment paperwork again, but HEY, no worries! The economy is getting stronger... Right?

Speaking of Unemployment... And Airlines... and being screwed... It looks like The Association of Flight Attendents has authorized a strike vote for every airline they represent, including the four linked previous who are in bankruptcy. This apparently is in response to US Airways' basically asking the Bankruptcy court to throw out their collective bargaining agreement. Here's the stitch, though. It won't just be the US Air attendents that strike. The call goes out for ALL Attendents at ALL airlines represented by the AFA to walk in the event ANY airline throws out a contract under Section 1113(c). For those keeping score at home, the airlines that are currently in bankruptcy are by no means MAKING MONEY, and in some cases are still bleeding money like a bank on fire, so basically for any labor group to hit the picket line would spell instant death for that airline. Now we're looking at United, US Air, Hawaiian and ATA, who are all in bankruptcy, and who's flight attendents are all represented by the AFA. I'm not even going to mention the 22 other airlines who's flight attendents are represented by the AFA. The industry as a whole isn't exactly a windfall of profits, so even healthy airlines could find themselves insta-screwed in the event of a walkout. Trouble is, the damage is sort of already done. Passengers aren't dumb. Many know what's going on with these airlines. Besides the passengers who simply wouldn't fly an airline in respect to the union action, most would simply avoid the airline on the premise that they don't want to see their flights cancelled because of a job action. No passengers, no revenue.

Anyway, if you've been following along, you'd notice that those airlines I mentioned above account for over a million jobs. I'm not even going to take a guess at how many other companies will suffer or outright fold up if these airlines collapse, but my guess is that it would be in excess of 3 million people, and that's IF Boeing survives. I can think of at least a dozen other regional carriers that would fold up like an oragami pet. If UAL, USA, ATA and Hawaiian go belly up, that's around 1000 jets heading for the desert of just about every fleet type Boeing currently builds. Why buy a new airplane when you can pick one off for a song and a dance from a bank that suddenly finds itself sandbagged with assets? I'd put Boeing's chance of collapse at about 1.3 to 1 unless the government steps in and effectively buys the company. Makes those 1,000,000 jobs lost in the last 4 years look like nothing but the opening pitch, eh George? If the airlines finally start to liquidate, the fallout could easily exceed the economies ability support the several million people suddenly looking to it for help. Can you say Great Depression version 2.0? I knew you could.

I really honestly can't blame the flight attendents. At this point, after all the pay cuts and dilution of the work pool, you could honestly make more per hour at McDonalds then you can working as a flight attendent, and with the shitheads flying on airplanes these days, you'd take a lot less abuse flipping burgers too. As it is, flight attendents who aren't married to spouses who make decent money are typically living in groups and on food stamps already. United wants to extract another $138 million from them. Granted United flight attendents aren't the lowest paid workers doing this job, but after this they're going to be getting awefully close.

Okay.. My head hurts... Gotta get back to Monster.com and see all the jobs I'm not qualified for.

A Summary Of The Week's Events