After listening to the FAA official Mrs. Garvey on This Week, I learned that she knows nothing about computers and The FAA operations. The woman is completely clueless. They (the people in charge) don't even pretend. Wow! I just heard COkey complain that she ciould only get $60 out of the ATM machine and then she said she found that a little upsetting on the last week before X-mas. The this week crowd are have a discussion about Y2K and guess what? They are all GI's. They were mumbling back and forth to each other about gas and food and bank runs!!!! They did not believe A thing that Garvey said about the FAA being compliant. Even George Will is mumbling that the fed gov is not treating this Y2K issue seriously enough!

-- aNation (Of@knuckleHeaded.leaders), December 26, 1999

Answers

The only guy worse than Janey on that show was Fred Browne speaking for the hospital systems. I've seen guys like him before. Practiced liars (sorry Mr. Brown, but I think you're lying heavily). When asked if the dismal response rate of hospitals is any indication of their readiness, he responds that they deal with emergencies all the time and patient care is their number one responsibility/priority? If that was the case, then why aren't they at the forefront of readiness, a shining example to all?

Funnier still was Janey Garvey trying to shut up George Will on the fact that her plane is going to be the ONLY US Air flight that day. The only one. Public confidence in the FAA must be soaring to new heights.

It was good however to see talking heads actually asking some semi- hard questions. However boys and girls of the media, you blew it. Look for some signifigant backlash on why you abdicated your responsibility for investigative reporting in the face of blatant misinformation. Look for the public to ask why you trusted without verifying anything! You are part of the problem. Woodward and Bernstein have retired. You are to focussed on your stock options.

Best of luck in the new year.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), December 26, 1999.

In this morning's (12/26) SacBee.. but originally in the L.A. Times: Flight Trackers Likely to See Empty Skies as Nation Greets the New Year

Only one American Airlines flight originating in the continental United States will be aloft as the nation greets the year 2000. The rest of the continental flights of the world's second-largest carrier have been canceled, and that one might have been canceled too, if not for one particular passenger. Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey had booked the flight from Washington to Dallas-Fort Worth and on to San Francisco, and it would not be politic to ground the government's top airline regulator. So Garvey and a smattering of other passengers--mostly members of the news media--will have the lonely skies almost to themselves when midnight sweeps across the country on Dec. 31.

More... see link.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 26, 1999.