AIG

All right, I have to spout off on the AIG debacle. The AIG bonuses were a contractual obligation, as much as we might hate to say it. Congress must have known about it because there was a closed door session where the provision was included to allow all contractual payouts that were agreed before Feb 11, 2009. AIG (or someone else?) obviously wanted it in there. Because of the circumstances involved in the closed door session and the date, either Congress is trying to backdoor the American public or they had no clue what the bill said. Either way, we have a major problem in Congress.
Sorry, its not ATC related, but a blog is all about therapy, right?

Safety at KDEN, D84, and ZDV

A recent FAA memo from the acting manager at ZDV emphasized the need for care because of inexperience, mainly at D84. You can read and download the memo from John Carr's blog http://themainbang.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/more-evidence-of-faailure.html.
Someone leaked the story to Denver's CBS affiliate who ran with it. You can read it here: http://cbs4denver.com/investigates/dia.faa.delays.2.960876.html.
One comment in particular is glaring and further emphasized the utter lack of regard or understanding that high level FAA management has for safety culture:
"As the letter is written, I would agree with you it sounds alarming," said Kathryn Vernon, the FAAs Director of Western Terminal Operations. "And I understand the letter makes it look like we had a situation we had to get under control. I would disagree with that," said the FAA official. "There is not a safety issue in the Denver airspace and Colorado airspace."
The FAA's proverbial catch phrase: safety was never compromised......