I can usually manage with one suitcase and my laptop case when traveling and I can usually keep the suitcase small enough to carry on unless it’s a lengthy trip. So, the new rules won’t really impact me. Now as for others I know (taps wife on the shoulder and points to story) it’s a BIG deal.
American joins list of airlines charging for a second bag
American Airlines on Monday became the latest carrier to announce that it would require passengers to pack light, or pay up. The nation’s biggest airline said it must charge passengers $25 for checking a second bag to help offset rising fuel costs. The fee will apply to travelers who buy domestic economy-class tickets on or after May 12, American said. It will also affect passengers on [...]
Categories: Consumer · Economy
The President chatted with reporters today. I don’t think anybody expected any major news. And we didn’t get any. Other than just some Bush-Speak and another attempt at chastising Congress.
Blaming Congress For His Failures
With consumer confidence in him falling through the floor, Bush blamed Congress today for delaying help to consumers to deal with oil prices that have more than tripled during his time in office. With a straight face, he tells the gullible press corps that things would have been better if [...]
Categories: Congress · Economy
With the help of a defense contractor.
U.S. Military Contractor ‘Used Armored Cars To Transport Prostitutes’
Over at Muckraked, we get news that “a panel of whistleblowers” testifying before a Senate committee yesterday dropped a dime on their employer, military contractor DynCorp (among others). The most explosive part of the testimony involved a contract manager, a misappropriated armored car, and prostitutes: [...]
There’s more ugly stuff:
Former KBR employees say workers stole from Iraq, ‘melted down gold to make spurs.’
Yesterday, two former employees of embattled contract company KBR told a congressional panel that some of their coworkers frequently stole money and artwork from Iraq. One said that “some of her American colleagues doing construction work in Iraqi palaces and municipal buildings took woodcarvings, tapestries and crystal ‘and even melted down gold to make spurs [...]
Categories: Iraq War · Sex
Asking the obvious question: Is this any way to run an airline? For you youngsters, that question was used by National Airlines back in the 1960’s as an advertising slogan. The answer that followed: “You bet it is!” Where’s National now? Yup. Gone. Can American be far behind?
American Airlines Loses $3.3 Million Per Day
Just as the Boeing 737 started its initial approach into Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Gerard Arpey asked for my pen and pad. Arpey, the polished chief executive of American Airlines, was on his way from Dallas to brief FAA administrators about the maintenance issues that had recently grounded nearly half his fleet. But as the seatbelt sign went on, his mind turned to [...]
Categories: Economy
Great argument, but it sounds slightly out of whack. Seems to me Congress can investigation pretty darn much anything it wants, can’t it?
Cheney Lawyer Claims ‘Congress Lacks Constitutional Power’ To Investigate VP’s Role In Torture Approval
Earlier this month, British international lawyer Phillippe Sands revealed in his new book that Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington personally traveled to Guantanamo Bay in 2002, witnessed an interrogation, and sent approval back to Washington. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has requested that Addington “testify about his involvement in the approval of [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · Torture
I don’t see how this could be anything short of a HUGE security issue for the Diebold machines.
Diebold Accuvote Voting System Now on Sale at eBay!
Sure, Diebold voting systems have been easily hacked again and again. Sure, they use the same hotel mini-bar key for all of them. Sure, they posted the key online so folks could make their own at home. Sure, they leave their poorly written source code on the Internet for folks [...]
Categories: Electronic Voting Machines
Quite amazing. The New York Times turns to YouTube for a story. Talk about the ultimate “citizen journalism”!
The Lede: On YouTube, Decrepit Army Barracks
An unwelcoming situation for U.S. troops returning from war [...]
Categories: Military
It continues, out of control. Writing letters asking for investigations ain’t gonna cut it. Millions of Americans can’t simply park their cars, without SOME way of getting too and from work. In too many parts of the country, there simply isn’t a decent public transportation system. In rural areas, there’s nothing. As we’ve noted here often, the big problem with gas prices is they snowball throughout the economy.
Gasoline prices top concerns over jobs, health troubles
Paying for gasoline easily tops the list of economic woes facing families in the United States, according to a survey on how changes in the economy have affected people’s lives. About 44 percent of survey participants said paying for gasoline was a “serious problem [...]
Of course, this just really warms my heart, too..
Shell Profits Soar By 25% Thanks To Record Oil Prices
Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported a 25 percent rise in first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, crediting strong increases in oil prices. Europe’s largest oil company said its average selling price of crude oil leaped by [...]
Categories: Economy
Obama is upset. He’s not pleased with things his former pastor said Monday. In fact, he said he’s “outraged” by what he heard.
Obama Strongly Denounces Rev. Wright
Democrat Barack Obama says he was outraged by the comments of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and saddened by the spectacle of his appearance on Monday. Wright said Monday that [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Obama
Had one of those nights last night. You know the kind. You wake up halfway through the night and can’t get back to sleep. It doesn’t make for the best start to the day when the alarm finally does go off. I sometimes think I’d be better off just going ahead and getting up, rather than try to fight myself back to sleep. It just doesn’t work.
Found an interesting note about the situation in Iraq. It’s something I haven’t seen anywhere else and really does present a problematic situation.
An Urgent Memo to the SecDef
On May 13 about 70 percent of Iraq’s mobile telephone network will cease to operate. This will be a serious blow to the Iraqi economy, and many Iraqis will no longer be able to phone in tips on [...]
Categories: Iraq War
