Liberal and Loving It

Do we bail out Delta Airlines next?

Ok, I know as little about the U.S. car companies as most - ie most of the models they make are not worth considering - but that's it. Who's responsible for their disaster, can the present management & workers fix it, etc - no idea.

We are now hearing talk about some of the airlines coming to Washington next with their hand out and their tale of woe. Well here I do have a bit more info to impart as I fly quite a bit. And I think we need to take a close look at why in this case.

Generally I fly Frontier and they are great. Not perfect, but great. I think having an animal on the tail of the plane with each plane named for that animal improves employee morale. There's definitely something there. And the rest of the time I fly United which is good (no animal on the tail though).

But this past break we flew Delta and what a difference. I won't go into the items that can be laid to the fact that mistakes happen but rather discusses the systemic problems I saw.

1. We had reserved seats and the night before the flight my wife checked to see if we could get exit row seats. She found that our seat assignments had been dumped, and seats could not be reserved. She called Delta and they insisted she had not gotten seat assignments (she has the printout to prove she did) and that she could not get seats then - she had to do so at the airport.
   The problem here? Their computer system randomly drops seat assignments and is incapable at times of making seat assignments. This leads to more calls in (ie higher costs) and unhappy customers.
2. So we get our seats for Denver to Atlanta, but the computer still can't do seat reservations for Atlanta - Miami. Not even the gate agent can make it happen. But we discover why shortly...
3. In Atlanta we find that the flight is way overbooked, they are telling all stand-by passengers to go away and that anyone who did not check in at that gate 45 minutes before departure time may not get a seat. So for those connecting they gamed the system to insure that you could not claim a seat and if you were stuck in Atlanta overnight you were on your own.
   What we have here is the system operating as intended, but in a way that is guaranteed to piss off the majority of people flying in order to save a couple of bucks. Being last choice to fly is not a road to success.
4. They had a single gate agent and this guy was definitely not customer focused. So 2 first class passengers walk up and he tells them to get to the back of the boarding line. They explain that they are flying first class and he tells them he doesn't care. When I get on the flight I see the woman and her daughter and they look totally pissed. First class passengers are the profit, you nurture them, and these 2 are probably never going to fly Delta again.
5. Ok, so we get on the plane - all of us. Everyone is boarded and the stewardesses are talking in th aisle about how the flight is supposed to be full - but there are a boatload of empty seats. They count and run out to the gate agent to tell him that there are 22 empty seats. That's right, they pissed-off all their customers and told all the stand-by passengers to go away when it was totally unnecessary.
   This is a company wrecking level of software problems. (They did manage to fill all the seats except 2.)
6. We fly down with 2 of my daughters up in the bulkhead row. We get off and they are happy. Very very happy. The 1st class steward spent the flight hitting on them and giving them free booze. That included 2 margaritas for my 19 year old daughter. I don't know who has legal jurisdiction in the air but whoever it is would probably take a dim view of a steward getting and underage girl drunk.
7. We have a great vacation and it's time to go home. We check in fine but on both sides of us are people with major problems and 2 Delta employees working on each to try to figure out their ticket. This both upsets the passenger and adds significantly to Delta's cost as 2 employees spending 10 minutes to check in a passenger is expensive.
8. Get on the flight to Denver and arrive at 11:30 pm - and there's no gate available. Virtually no one's flying in or out of Denver at that time but they don't have a gate for 10 minutes.
9. So we go down to baggage claim and we wait, and wait, and wait. For 45 minutes everyone is waiting for any bags to show up - and the rest of the baggage area is empty. Our flight is it. But no bags forever. How do your baggage handlers do nothing for close to 45 minutes?
10. The bags come out and ours are not there. So we check with Delta and they say that our bags are still in Atlanta - the computer shows they did not make the flight. We're filling out the forms when my daughter glances back over at the carousel - and there's our bags.
    Once again, the computer system has no relation with reality. And Delta was about to add the expense of driving our bags to our home over an hour away by telling us that they hadn't arrived.
11. But that was better than the guy there next to us. They told him that the system had no record of his bag and therefore they had no idea where it is. When he asked what to do they just stared at him, then went to help the next person. They wouldn't tell him what to do.

Two big things strike me here. First is that if you are desperately trying to cut costs, you get the computer systems perfect. Why? Because the cost of a competent programming team getting the software right pays for itself a million times over. But Delta has computer systems that are broken in fundamental ways. Even in a good economy this will guarantee that Delta's cost or 20% or more higher than their competitors.

The second thing is that the Delta employees just don't care anymore. They've given up and are putting nothing more than minimal effort into their job (clearly including their programmers). Not a single Delta employee we interacted with had any esprit-de-core.

Recessions are necessary to put companies like this out of business. This was a single trip but with a connecting flight both ways we saw and interacted with numerous employees and the Delta computer system multiple times at 3 airports. And it was consistently a mess.

When Delta goes out of business soon (and if they keep operating this way that is guaranteed to happen), it is rough on the employees there - but it is necessary because it is so horribly managed.

Lies, Damn Lies, & Statistics

Racism denigrates those of us that are white as well as those that are not. Sexism denigrates us men as well as women. Homophobia denigrates those of us that are straight as well as those who are gay. When we treat others unfairly because of some of their characteristics, we become mean spirited, small minded individuals. We need to address these issues not only because they are the right things to do, but because we are all better off if we treat our fellow wo/man equitably.

In trying to address this we face two major problems. Much of the discrimination is subconscious where all involved are not specifically discriminating. And in many cases, are indignant if the subject is brought up. Lets call this the "Empty Suit Syndrome." Everyone knows people who are terrible at the job they have, but look/speak/act like they are perfect for the job. Wayne Allard by any measure was useless as a Senator, but he came across as "Senatorial."

What happens with ESS is we make judgments that a given person is a good fit for a job - and those criteria, many of which are subconscious, can include that he is white. The shows on TV, the role models in politics, the fortune 100 CEOs, etc - all show the distinguished white male in the leadership role. If we don't think through why we find one person a good candidate and don't find another qualified, it may be that our vision of what central casting would send us is heavily influencing our decision.

We also face a second issue which brings us back to our title. In any given decision it is quite possible that the best candidates are all white males. Where you see if race & gender is effecting decisions is when you look at multiple decisions over time. If in all cases the finalists and selected candidate are all white males, then you can see that race and/or gender and/or sexual orientation and/or ... is impacting the decision.

Which brings us to the upcoming decision on who Governor Ritter will appoint to replace Senator Salazar. And in this case we do have a trend. In the recent selection for Secretary of State we had 3 finalists, all white & male. For the Senate appointment the conventional wisdom is that the 3 qualified finalists are 3 white males. With the deep bench we have of qualified women and minority candidates for both positions, this smells.

The criteria used to determine who is best qualified for the Senate seat appears designed to fit the 3 top candidates - as opposed to independently coming up with the criteria that matter and then selecting those that match that criteria. I'm not going to go into all of the criteria, but rather discuss one criteria that is over-emphasized and one that is important, but isn't even mentioned.

First let's look at "name recognition." This is listed by most as key to who is appointed. Yet it is not that critical. The Democratic party will be giving all federal attention in this state to two people - Betsy Markey and whoever is appointed to this seat. They will both be showered with every available opportunity to get their name out there attached to anything & everything good coming out of Washington. So name recognition today is a very minor issue. What is major is who can make best use of increasing their name recognition over the next 2 years with the advantage of a Senate seat. When looked at this way, virtually every politician in the state meets this criteria.

Second, lets look at the diversity of our leadership. Having someone up there who is "like me" makes a big difference. When one of my daughters had to do a biography in history she had no interest in FDR, but found Eleanor Roosevelt fascinating and wrote a great paper on her. People want someone who when they look at them, say that could be me. Whoppi Goldberg went into acting because she saw Lt. Uhura on Star Trek and saw that a black woman could have a role other than a maid or hooker. Most white males don't see this or understand it - because they have never been without role models like us. But to everyone else, this matters - a lot.

In politics, where we select those who leads us, we should have a diversity among our top leadership. To Colorado's credit, when we vote in an election, we do an outstanding job of selecting people from Ken Salazar to Cary Kennedy to Jared Polis who are role models for all of us. But when it comes to appointments, we appear to be stuck in the past.

Governor Ritter, please look very carefully and dispassionately at what criteria should matter, and how much each should matter, and base your selection on that. You also need to tell us what those criteria are and why you selected them. Because if we end up with every statewide position except treasurer held by a white male, a lot of the citizens of this state will be left wondering if they will always be found just a bit short in the requirements for any office.

Because if you appoint Ed Perlmutter, John Hickenlooper, or Andrew Romanoff merely because they are white & male - you are disrespecting them, and all of us.

BVSD - not insane

Continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results is a form of insanity.

We can look at Columbine Elementary many different ways. But the bottom line is it has been an abysmal failure. Yes it has a high proportion of poor students for whom English is a second language. The point remains, the school was not setting their students up for success.

Making small changes on the edges would have been continuing down the same path of ongoing failure. That would have been insane.

BVSD has stepped up and made a drastic change. It may make the school a lot better. It may make it a lot worse. But it absolutely won't remain the same. And since what we had was failure, the downside risk of this change is actually pretty small.

Now we watch closely to see if BVSD can do better. If they do bring about substantial improvement, then we need to support the BVSD administration and encourage them to bring about that improvement across the district. And if they make a bigger mess, then we need to replace them.

Kudos to BVSD for doing this - it's a very brave action politically.

My coffee with Secretary Coffman

What's the term for a political nerd? Whatever it is, that's what Mike Coffman is. He came alive when he was discussing diving into exactly what problems should be addressed and how legislation should be crafted to do so. I think he is going to love the House - he'll be frustrated and upset and stymied at times - but he'll love it.

We started a bit late because he was up in Ft. Collins at a Republican meeting of a group put together by Bob Schaffer. We talked first about C.U. - it turns out we both went to school there at the same time.

He then talked quite a bit about our geopolitical position in the world, the mistakes the administration made in Iraq, and the issues we face needing to buy oil from people like Hugo Chavez. I don't know if his military background and time in Iraq is responsible for this, but he is definitely willing to speak to the mistakes made by our Republican president. Representative Coffman is not going to be one of those who claims the Republicans are always doing a great job - and the GOP will be better for his acknowledgment of their mistakes.

We then got into what the Colorado GOP needs to do to survive. He believes that we are in a cycle where the Democrats are doing better and the Republicans worse due to both the natural political cycle and the fact that the GOP in Washington, and especially the President, did a horrible job which made it even harder for Republicans running.

So put him in the category of Republicans don't need to become more conservative, don't need to become less conservative, they just need to not sell and and also need to ride out the storm. Interestingly enough, that also describes how Mike Coffman himself comes across - he's clearly a conservative but he's not a wing-nut and he's in a good position to ride out the storm.

Changing the subject for a second - I've interviewed Jared Polis, Betsy Markey, & Mike Coffman - all 3 of our freshman Representatives. Clearly all 3 are very excited to go to Washington to help our country. And all 3 are very focused on what they should be doing to effect that improvement. It is clearly what is driving them.

Now I don't think Colorado is unique (although we are the best) in the type of people we send. So what is it about the system that we send individuals to Congress that want to make the world a better place, yet the sausage factory that is Congress then produces so much dreck and pork and crap - and so little that is well crafted legislation? There's a systemic problem there.

Ok, back to Mike. He talked about his upcoming work in the house and did discuss the fact that as one of 435 reps, you have to concentrate and 1 or 2 specific things that you are going to accomplish. On most issues in front of the house you get to vote, but that's it. And he said that what he works on will depend on what committees he is appointed to.

He wants armed services - and as a vet has a good shot at it. And I think that also is illustrative of Mike, we have no large military base here so his first preference is not for something that helps him politically, but rather it is where his prime interests lie. And because he would be there for the strategic, and not the local, he would probably be a good selection for the committee (and also probably won't get it for that same reason).

Most of his conversation centered around national security and energy security - and he sees those as totally intertwined. He has very strong big picture views of this. He sees the need for alternative energy (and includes nuclear in that list - logically so) but is opposed to cap & trade (which is a disaster) and is opposed to a carbon tax. But nothing about how to get industry to convert to alternatives without the economic incentives of some kind of carbon cost. Maybe he has an answer to this (I should have asked a follow-up question) but I think while what he wants all sounds good - there's no way to both not touch the marketplace and yet switch from coal & gas to alternatives.

He also talked about the present market disaster and said that while he does see the need to get the financial markets back to health, he does not want to see the government putting money into other segments. He discussed this in terms of general approach to the economy and he clearly has a fundamental belief that the government should touch the market as little as possible.

It then ended with a sort of weird direction. He asked Tancredo's office to give him a list of the issues they see on immigration, and specifically with how they relate to homeland security. And he is going to try and move a couple of them forward, primarily a different approach to bringing in agricultural immigrant labor. When I asked he did say that this was partially because it was work Tancredo's office had done and he was taking over this district. At the same time, he also stated that he did not agree with many of Tancredo's on immigration.

So what do we get with Mike Coffman? Well only time will tell. But I think we have someone who is going to dive into the details of problems, listen to others who can discuss the history of the issue and what has and has not worked in the past, and will then attempt to come up with well-written legislation to address the issue. And if he ends up working with a couple of other Representatives, both Democratic and Republican, on these issues - they may craft bills where they never discuss what the Republican or Democratic view is - they'll just work together to write a good bill.

At the same time, he is clearly a Republican who wants to see the government have a light hand on the market and a light touch in the world. His first instinct in a slow-down is to reduce taxes, not increase spending. All in all, I think we have the potential for a really good Representative in Mike Coffman - even though I won't like how he votes a bunch of the time.

Where is our money going?

For those interested in where the Federal TARP funds have gone so far, here's the list courtesy of the GAO. And this does not include the special deals for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Citigroup.

Name of qualified financial institution (Location of qualified financial institution)	Fed Investment (in millions)	Company Assets (in millions)
Purchases on October 28, 2008
Bank of America Corp. (Charlotte, N.C.)	$15,000	$1,831,000
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (New York City, N.Y.)	3,000	268,000
Citigroup, Inc. (New York City, N.Y.)	25,000 a	2,050,000
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (New York City, N.Y.)	10,000	1,082,000b
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (New York City, N.Y.)	25,000	2,251,000
Morgan Stanley (New York City, N.Y.)	10,000	987,000c
State Street Corp. (Boston, Mass.)	2,000	286,000
Wells Fargo & Co. (San Francisco, Calif.)	25,000	1,371,000d
Subtotal	$115,000	$10,126,000
Purchases on November 14, 2008
Bank of Commerce Holdings (Redding, Calif.)	$17	$651
1st FS Corporation (Hendersonville, N.C.)	16	670
UCBH Holdings, Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.)	299	13,044
Northern Trust Corporation (Chicago, Ill.)	1,576	79,244
SunTrust Banks, Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.)	3,500	174,777
Broadway Financial Corporation (Los Angeles, Calif.)	9	404
Washington Federal Inc. (Seattle, Wash.)	200	11,795
BB&T Corp. (Winston-Salem, N.C.)	3,134	137
Provident Bancshares Corp. (Baltimore, Md.)	152	6,410
Umpqua Holdings Corp. (Portland, Ore.)	214	8,328
Comerica Inc. (Dallas, Tex.)	2,250	65,153
Regions Financial Corp. (Birmingham, Ala.)	3,500	144,292
Capital One Financial Corporation (McLean, Va,)	3,555	154,803
First Horizon National Corporation (Memphis, Tenn.)	867	32,804
Huntington Bancshares (Columbus, Ohio)	1,398	54,661
KeyCorp (Cleveland, Ohio)	2,500	101,290
Valley National Bancorp (Wayne, N.J.)	300	14,288
Zions Bancorporation (Salt Lake City, Utah)	1,400	53,974
Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (Milwaukee, Wisc.)	1.715	63,501
U.S. Bancorp (Minneapolis, Minn.)	6,599	247,055
TCF Financial Corporation (Wayzata, Minn.)	361	16,511
Subtotal	33,562	1,235,464
Purchases on November 21, 2008
Ameris Bancorp (Moultrie, Ga.)	52	2,258
Associated Banc-Corp (Green Bay, Wisc.)	525	22,487
Banner Corporation/Banner Bank (Walla Walla, Wash)	124	4,650
Boston Private Financial (Boston, Mass.)	154	7,022
Cascade Financial Corporation (Everett, Wash.)	39	1,552
Centerstate Banks Of Florida Inc. (Davenport, Fla.)	28	1,235
City National Corporation (Beverly Hills, Calif.)	400	16,331
Columbia Banking System, Inc. (Tacoma, Wash.)	77	3,105
First Community Bancshares Inc. (Bluefield, Va.)	42	1,967
First Community Corporation (Lexington, S.C.)	11	634
First Niagra Financial Group (Rockport, N.Y.)	184	9,008
First Pactrust Bancorp, Inc. (Chula Vista, Calif.)	19	846
Heritage Commerce Corp (San Jose, Calif.)	40	1,512
Heritage Financial Corporation (Olympia, Wash.)	24	905
Hf Financial Corp. (Sioux Falls, S. Dak.)	25	1,128
Nara Bancorp, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calf.)	67	2,598
Pacific Capital Bancorp (Santa Barbara, Calif.)	181	7,689
Porter Bancorp Inc (Louisville, Ky.)	35	1,596
Severn Bancorp, Inc. (Annalopis, Md.)	23	964
Taylor Capital Group (Rosemont, Ill.)	105	4,075
Trustmark Corporation (Jackson, Miss.)	215	9,086
Webster Financial Corporation (Waterbury, Conn.)	400	17,516
Western Alliance Bancorporation (Las Vegas, Nev.)	140	5,229
Subtotal	$2,910	$123,393
Grand Total	$151,472	$11,484,857