Air Rights

Interesting story out of Minnesota. Continental Airlines passengers diverted to Rochester, Minnesota in the middle of the night "were kept waiting nearly six hours inside the cramped regional airliner amid wailing babies and a smelly toilet even though they were only 50 yards from a terminal." Despite repeated pleas from the captain of the flight, employees of another airline in the terminal, Mesaba, refused to open it to the stranded passengers. Continental was fined $50,000 and the other airline, Mesaba, was fined $75,000 by the Department of Transportation, a first for the Department.

I hope the FAA starts handing out these fines like Snickers on Halloween. How is it that airlines believe they have some superior right to imprison people in a titanium tube for as long as they want? Oh, wait, that thinking is coming from the same geniuses who ran those companies into the ground (no pun intended). If it's the result of goofy FAA regulations, then those regulations must be fixed.

At any rate, and despite industry moaning, an airline passengers bill of rights undoubtedly is long overdue and necessary. I'd suggest we reach out to our own Frank Wolf, a member of the House Transportation Subcommittee, to lead the charge. He only has one of the nation's largest airports in his district, for Pete's sake. In the meantime, I sure wouldn't fly Mesaba.

Mangi-NO

Putting aside, for a moment, petty distractions like the health care debate and the floundering economy, I'd like to focus on something of utmost importance - college football. And, more specifically, let's focus on this big tub of goo. I normally try to avoid personal attacks, but Mark Mangino deserves everything anyone throws at him.

His personal attacks on his players (like telling players they would end up back in the ghetto from whence they came or that one player would end up a drunk like his father) are unforgivable. And he doesn't deny saying those things either, claiming that he was set up by people simply seeking fame.

Keep in mind that these are teenage college students, struggling to make better lives for themselves. Granted, football coaches are traditionally tough on players to "take them down before building them up," but Mangino's actions crossed the line - by a long shot. Remarks like those do nothing to motivate a player, unless you want to count motivating a player to ring his fat neck.

Kansas should fire the jerk immediately - and "for cause" so he forfeits any buy-out clause. Let's see how it responds.

Lou Dobbs for Senate?

I can't bring myself to even write that he would run for president. Not that I don't like the guy, I'm just tired of people with no political experience running the White House. I do like the idea of a Senate run, though. He has the name recognition and a strong conservative following. More on it here

Help Wanted

Governor-elect McDonnell's transition team has created a website for those interested in serving the Commonwealth under a McDonnell administration. Let's hope the new administration can attract some talented people to lead us out of this economic malaise.

Oba-Wow!

How apt is it that the most socialist president in American history is now the darling of the Chinese Communist establishment? Love this article on how much the Chinese are afraid of offending the President. Or is it that the President if afraid of exactly this reaction back home and has asked his buddies in Bejing to shut it down?

Civilian Trial for Yamamoto?

Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941, died before the war was over when his plane was shot down by an American fighter. Had he survived the war, do you think he would have been tried for terrorism in a San Francisco CIVILIAN court by a CIVILIAN judge and jury? Of course not, yet that's exaclty what the Obama administration is doing with respect to the admitted mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Ron Jeremy . . . uh, . . . I mean Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. As one of the family members of a victim aptly put it, ""We have a president who doesn't know we're at war."

Can you imagine what his attorneys will come up with? Among the most likely defenses: (a) post-partum depression; (b) it was another Ron Jeremy look alike; and, my favorite (c) it's all a big misunderstanding - he was just trying to sell a screenplay.

Indeciderer in Chief

President Obama "ponders" what to do in Afghanistan. Wonderful. What "more information" could he possible need? What is it that the generals could not have told him already? How many more troops will die while he delays? It is simiply a pathetic ruse for indecision and cowardice.