End of Silence

This story is disappointing. I dig Southwest. I fly their airline. I watch their reality show on A&E and generally sympathize with them when they have to deal with some real whackos. However, they seem to have a real problem with consistently enforcing their policies. Their Contract Of Carriage clearly states under the first reason for Refusal of Travel that they’ll boot you if you’re wearing offensive clothing. That’s fine. What isn’t fine is that they’ll let you get on a plane, get you part of the way to your destination, and then enforce a policy that could result in you being booted. They did the same thing to me on a trip to NY. We flew with my son, who, at the time, was a year old. Since he was under two, he was a lap child and could fly for free. Since he had just turned a year old, we didn’t bring his birth certificate and we were not challenged on the flight to Islip. On our return trip, I got into a heated debate with the check-in agent because I didn’t have proof of age. Eventually, she capitulated, but she initially intended to charge us full fare for his return trip because we couldn’t prove that a child who was clearly not two and who had flown without incident several days before was, in fact, under two.

Enjoy your last free Paul Krugman op-ed. After this one, rumor has it that he and the other NY Times op-ed mavens will be hidden behind the lock and key of subscriptions. CNN.com saw the error of their ways and restored free access to video after trying to get people to pay for it. Here’s to hoping that the NY Times as the same revelation. I know the special seekret way to see archives of the Statesman via my public library account. I wonder if that’s the way around this too? Stay tuned…

Update: Sure enough, I can still get my Krugman fix via the Austin Public Library Reference Databases – Newspapers & Current Events page. From there, I just hit the Remote Access link for InfoTrac, entered my library card number and then searched for Krugman in articles dated since Aug. 31. I was presented with his latest editorial, “The Way It Is” at the top of the list. Hooray for Austin Public Library and TexShare.

Check out these numbers with plenty of footnotey goodness for sources.

I ran across this yesterday on dKos and decided it needed replicating here. What follows are quotes from the time when Clinton committed troops to Bosnia.

“You can support the troops but not the president.”
–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

“Well, I just think it’s a bad idea. What’s going to happen is they’re going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years.”
–Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

“Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?”
–Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

“[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation’s armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy.”
–Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

“American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy.”

–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

“If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy.”
–Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

“I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn’t think we had done enough in the diplomatic area.”
–Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today”
–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”
–Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

This article makes me want to go home, get in bed, turn out the lights and go fetal.

But nevermind that. Why worry about such weighty issues when I can find other people who think the new Daily Show set sucks ass and miss the couch? Can we track down the person who won the old couch in that contest they had a year or so ago?