[Peetwo]

Secura fulsit.

Or, is it fulashit? I never know. Sorry I’m late – been busy

Well; that’s a first. Darts practice – CASA on the big screen – and the conversation never stopped, - nary once. Diu Noctuque. Strange and wonderful that is; not an ear pricked up, not a ribald comment; not even a muttered Bollocks. Not even the fly Scots git copped a Fur Ducks Sake – mind you, practice ceased while the ‘salute’ was delivered when it sat it’s sorry self down on the left hand of St Carmody (Aleck’s own). Remarkable really.

There is a temptation to actually ‘like’ Carmody; no idea why – except he manages to appear genuine. He ain’t of course. Mind you, he is smart enough to recognize that CASA has a tiny image problem and the ‘minister’ wishes to have that resolved. The dopey miniscule has actually swallowed the bait and believes that a couple of soft sessions at Estimates will make it all go away. WRONG. The miniscule needs to explain why all the ‘big guns’ effectively boycotted the ASA, ATSB and CASA sessions; and, why are Calm-Mode and O’Obfuscation almost drooling over each other when they meet? Ducking Fistucting is wot it is. Yuk.

Old Machiavelli (a 'real' realist) understood folk such as Carmody very well indeed:

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

Behind the smiling Carmody façade we find Aleck and Crawford; these are Carmody’s front line storm troops. No smiling assassin this man, no Sir – he hires it done while he has tea and scones wiv Bazza – his mate.

Carmody is certainly clever enough to very neatly avoided the important points Patrick not only missed; but then telegraphed the wrong point; then fumbled it, then failed to make; then let O’Obfuscation steal the ball and roll it neatly into touch. To wit – the ICC’s telling comment.

["[the] complex procedures CASA specify are often not complied with".

But then Patrick has (again) dropped the ball (if he ever had a firm grasp) – the ALAEA failed to brief him properly, Patrick never got a match to the fuse, and BoS tapped it into touch just as the whistle blew.  Failed Senators – failed. Definitely no Choc Frogs for that piss poor effort.

For practical men, under pressure to get a flight ‘out’ – off the stand, the ‘risk’ associated and procedures involved are too bloody silly for words. That tyre was (a) acceptable or; (b) too bad to be used. End of. Enter the political dragon, armed with excuses and back door passes.

Primarily - the ALAEA plot back-fired. O Sofullame couldn’t keep his trap shut, distracted Patrick; and then, not only aided but abetted an easy exit for the Kool Aid team. Then peace, understanding and fellowship prevailed. Hallelujah and praise the gods of get out of jail free cards. Indeed, I am all astonishment.

But, let’s call it for what it was; a marginal tyre (routine). Not some silly Americanism ‘line ball’ call. The tyre was marginal – fact. The LAME had but two options (i) ground the aircraft or; (ii) release the aircraft to service. The original cleft stick. Accident; the company would throw him under the next bus in a heart beat. Delay the flight and the company would kick the crap out of him. Fail to meet every one of the complex, draconian requirements of the regulation – CASA would pull his ticket, prosecute and probably jail him. The rule of the lesser of the three weevils prevails, pick one, then, cover your arse.. The LAME exercised his judgement; the pilots accepted that judgement and the arse covering commenced. One of the reasons Qantas have built and operate a heavy maintenance facility overseas is to remove the company from the lunacy surrounding maintenance regulation in Australia – well, that and to save a fortune.

But the ICC nailed it –

The bloody rules are just  too complex (and dangerous) to allow ‘discretion’ and ‘experience’ to make a judgement call against jail time. But it’s all good; O’Sofullame and Calm-Mode have a rapport. Move along – the CASA good PR machine is hard at work – for your safety. BOLLOCKS………..

Then, we have the little sidebar Patrick dredged up regarding TCAS highlights another problem – listen again as the story of a dud TCAS was only reported at the completion of the flight series. WTD?

And so, the CASA session ended without anyone noticing , the bar crew turned on some soothing background music, the ale flowed, darts practice continued and apart from some ribald comment, taking the piss out of the Scots git – and the odd guffaw, Estimates passed into insignificance as O’Obfusctaion raced off to a dinner engagement – leaving it all tucked up neatly and put to bed; while the big guns stayed away in droves.

Aye well, that’s why we pay the big bucks – I mean why would a Budget Estimates committee ever ask CASA to explain why it needed $189,000,000 next year; or when the endless ‘roll-out’ of complex, costly, punitive, unconstitutional regulation was going to cease, when there’s  a marginal tyre to discus. Pathetic. Totally, completely and utterly PATHETIC.

Toot- Bring back Bill - toot…

Chair O'Obfuscation top-cover for ATSB & CASA cont/-

To further highlight this 'passing strange' disconnection with what I would of thought is the primary purpose for Budget Estimates, this from the ATSB MH370 thread today:

MH370: OI search ends & 'he said, she said' wars heat up -    


While the OI search wraps up the MH370 theorists once again (yawn -   ) fire up debate on end of flight and the pilot did, err..didn't do it - FDS!   

---

P2 comment - Putting aside all this tedious 'he said, she said' palaver, I still can't fathom how a Senate committee at Budget Estimates did not ask the simple questions like:

Q/ Based on all the available evidence provided to the ATSB/CSIRO/DSTG to define the 2x high priority search (125k sq km & now 25k sq km) areas, how come not one bit of physical piece of debris/evidence has been found in those areas? 

Q/ Does this indicate that the 'Bayesian methods' used to help define these high priority areas was indeed a flawed and limited approach?     

Q/ Why was Fugro the best value tender choice given that OI have covered so much territory in less than 3 months under a potential $70 million 'no find, no fee' contract? 

 
From the tail end of the ATSB MH370 questioning it becomes pretty damn obvious (much like the total PelAir cover-up cost) that O'Obfuscastion has effectively put the MH370 'wet lettuce' inquisition to bed - 

Next this quote from "K" above:

"..Estimates passed into insignificance as O’Obfusctaion raced off to a dinner engagement – leaving it all tucked up neatly and put to bed; while the big guns stayed away in droves...

...Aye well, that’s why we pay the big bucks – I mean why would a Budget Estimates committee ever ask CASA to explain why it needed $189,000,000 next year; or when the endless ‘roll-out’ of complex, costly, punitive, unconstitutional regulation was going to cease, when there’s  a marginal tyre to discuss..." 

To again highlight this 'passing strange' disconnection where not one solid question pertaining to the CASA's budget was transgressed, the following segment highlights in my mind the obvious cozy relationship BO has with SC and his endeavour to disregard a small minority of IOS whinging about the justified injustices still being inflicted by the Iron Ring 'Big R-egulator' -  

MTF...P2        

Ps Will supplement post with Hansard when it becomes available...