AirTran in Phoenix

Last year at this time, while traveling on AirTran from Phoenix to New York, my connecting flight out of Atlanta was canceled due to a problem with the airplane. Since it was the last flight of the evening, AirTran officials had to find overnight accommodations and rebook seats for the following day for a planeload of tired and disappointed travelers.

This meant I would miss the annual Scottish Sunday at my church, but hey, these things happen. The AirTran workers were unfailingly polite, patient and apologetic. And if that was not enough, when I got home, I received not one but two written expressions of regret. The first in an email, and the second an entirely unexpected certificate for a free flight on AirTran.

With AirTran poised to become part of Southwest I hope the big personality that is Southwest, plans to incorporate the great personality that is AirTran. That's my particularly heart-felt wish after the latest headline making antics of the anti-Airtran - jetBlue.

Bradley International Airport on a better day

To recap: For seven hours on Saturday, jetBlue Flight 504 - an A320 enroute from Ft. Lauderdale to New York - sat on the runway at Bradley International Airport where it and twenty-two other flights had diverted due to the freak Halloween snowstorm.  It is not clear yet why there was no overall plan to accommodate all these unexpected arrivals; Bradley is a frequently-used alternate for Boston and New York area airports. 

Nevertheless, passengers sat on airliners and in the case of Flight 504 the pilot in command was so concerned about the growing anger of his passengers, he asked air traffic control to send police officers to quell the unrest. Capt. Thompson also said he was worried about two specific passengers, a paraplegic and a diabetic who might need care.  The exchange between Capt. Thompson and controllers via ATC.net can be heard here.

A jetBlue pilot on his way to work

What's dis-heartening but totally in keeping with my experience with jetBlue is the poor captain's frustration with his employer. "We got more help from you guys than we got from our own people," he says at one point during the seven minute recording of his ground communication at Bradley. 

A pilot with another large U.S. carrier wrote to tell me that in cases like this,  "the crews are totally at the mercy of what they are told to do by their superiors who are 'managing' the situation, usually from afar."

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary communications and its pretty clear that jetBlue doesn't know how to handle ordinary times.

 In August 2010, when jetBlue flight attendant Steve Slater blew his top during a flight and wound up opening the emergency exit so that he could bolt from the plane before it was even parked at the gate, I could almost relate.   I've never had a timely response from jetBlue whether I've been in touch as a consumer or as a journalist, whether I've called, sent emails or written letters. 

jetBlue wasn't the only airline with diversions and unhappy travelers but it is the one taking the heat over this weekend's big chill. Just maybe this is an airline that has not paid enough attention to communication among its own employees or with the public.

jetBlue, take a tip from AirTran, that scrappy upstart that will soon be flying Southwest. "Its the communication stupid." But of course they'd never say it that way. They're much too good at what they do. 

Because, after all, what's scarier than Republicans on the loose?


As Herman Cain looks on, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney explain to Rick Perry that challenging his fellow candidates to a duel isn't a legitimate debating strategy.


The most light-hearted moment of the Las Vegas GOP debate was when Rick Perry regaled the audience with a story of the time he grabbed Rush Limbaugh's ass.


Despite their vastly different backgrounds in business and culture, both Herman Cain and Willard Romney have a special affinity knowing they're the two GOP candidates with the creepiest first names.


By far, the weirdest moment of the GOP debate in Las Vegas was when Governors Mitt Romney and Rick Perry began to inexplicably channel GI Joe action figures.


If Republicans pledged allegiance to what really matters most to them, their right hands would be firmly clamped over their wallets.


Revealing his desperation, Mitt Romney resorts to dirty tricks by singing the Bain Capital corporate anthem to Rick Perry in the hope of putting him to sleep.


On the heels of the Avengers movie is The Injustice League, which is led by the evil Jelly Bean Collector.

Last night, it was reported in Politico and elsewhere that frontrunning Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain had allegedly sexually harassed two women who'd worked under him at the National Restaurant Association. The Cain campaign vigorously denies the allegations despite being ignorant about an undisclosed payout that also came with a nondisclosure agreement. Among the allegations were the tactics that Mr. Cain used to harass the women. What were they?

10) "Take me to bed, bitch, and you won't have to wait 30 minutes!"

9) "Let's go up to my place so I can explain my 69-69-69 tax plan to ya."

8) "I'm up for anything, honey, except cunnilingus. I don't do anchovies."

7) "Sweetheart, I'm so good in bed, even Mark Block has to have a cigarette afterwards."

6) "I bet you never been Cained by a Georgia blacksnake before."

5) "Bitch, I'll make you an offer you can't refuse!"

4) "I'm Cain if you're Able, baby."

3) "Baby, I got me a pumpernickle bread stick you'll wanna tell your mama about!"

2) "I bet you never had white sauce like mine!"

1) "I got a riddle, baby: What do me and a Godfather's pizza have in common? We're both hot and come in a box!"

Schools across the Northeast U.S. closed for a snow day after a record snowstorm hit the region over the Halloween weekend. The school closings were a result of what is reported to be one of the earliest and heaviest snowfalls for the month of October in at least 135 years. 

The snow after the storm, which reportedly went up to 30 inches in some areas, left millions without power and electricity and was reported to have caused the deaths of at least eight people. Emergency was declared in Massachusetts - which was worst hit by the snow - as well as New Jersey, Connecticut, and some parts of New York state.

Several public schools in the Portland and East Hampton areas of Connecticut were reported to be closed for all of Monday. The Worchester Telegraph reported that several schools districts in the area of Worchester, Massachusetts, were closed for all of Monday as well. A large number of schools in northern New Jersey (particularly in the counties of Essex and Morris) and dozens of schools in New York city are closed today.

Over six million people were initially estimated to have been without power after the snowstorm, but the Associated Press reported that the number had dropped below three million by late Sunday as utility companies continued to work to restore power in most areas. Connecticut, which had its power hit by Hurricane Irene as well, was reported to be badly hit again this time.

The heavy snow caused trees to fall and branches to break in the middle of the street, shutting down roads and transportation in some areas. In other areas, electricity lines were grounded, resulting in some sidewalks being deemed unsafe for walking, particularly in Connecticut. One man was killed in Springfield, Massachusetts, after stepping on a live electricity wire that had been downed by the snowstorm.

There are different ways to interpret this speech that easily rivals the worst days Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain ever had on the campaign trail:

There's the hypothesis that, just for shits and giggles, some practical joker in Perry's campaign hid his meds or slipped him a mickey just before this speech in New Hampshire last night. There's another that Perry somehow fell into a wormhole that ejaculated him out like a noxious ball of rancid semen into some alternate dimension in which right wing talking points reigned supreme (Oh, wait, we all fell into that alternate dimension. Never mind.).

My personal favorite is that this wasn't a campaign speech at all but an AA intervention and somewhere on the way, and overcome by grief by yet another World Series failure, Perry fell off the wagon. During the intervention, he was then possessed by the spirit of a conservative 13 year-old girl who happened to be in a giddy mood.

Really, that's the only way to fully explain Perry's performance in New Hampshire where he gushed about the state's motto of "Live free or die" and how Texans love apocalyptic bumper sticker slogans like that. He mentioned the "death tax" and how he would love to see that die before anyone. This is an edited video designed to make Perry look stupid (challenging as that would be, I know) but it comprises almost a third of his 25 minute-long speech. I mean, how much fucking context do you need?

He gestured, gesticulated and genuflected like a Pope with Parkinson's and ADHD, giggled and essentially did everything but put his index finger under his chin and curtsey before the Republican power brokers in attendance. I've always been an atheist but after reviewing Perry's performance last night, I started believing in God again and began my newfound faith by thanking Him for not making him my governor.

It's no wonder that Perry has all but decided to abandon the Republican campaign debate circuit in the reality series based on the DSM IV. He's using the tried-and-untrue Republican tactic, the Homer Simpson line, "Stupid (insert any noun or verb)!" when his ineptitude is called out by bloggers and the MSM. Palin had decided to essentially go into Mama Grizzly hibernation after her train wreck of an interview with Katie Couric (which was all her fault, doncha know?).

And when the strait jacket models of the GOP can make you look like some aging porno star who'd been pummeled senseless and dropped off by your captors at the front door of the debate, your entire body save for your penis tightly wrapped in duct tape, you know your campaign is sucking wind.

There's really not much to add to this campaign speech except to say if I was a Lone Star resident, this and the World Series would make me want to leave that national embarrassment aka Texas and take out a time share in Hell. And while anklebiters like Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann are merely cat hairs in the public eye, Rick Perry is the semi-chewed piece of hot dog in the nation's esophagus. And, despite his 6% support, I've a sick feeling Perry won't be fading away any time soon. After all, if I'd said before this summer that Michele Bachmann then Herman Cain would be leading in the GOP polls, you'd have thought I was as crazy as them.

Therefore, Rick Perry proves that we're going to be in some need of political Heimlich maneuvering before the GOP convention next summer.

Instead of Radiohead, maybe we should send Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters to every occupied city in America, which is to say all of them, and maybe they can blast the riot police away like they did four years years ago in their "The Pretender" video. The top and third pictures were taken at Occupy Denver yesterday and the third one, if it isn't an iconic photo of police brutality and repression, ought to be. That cop pointing a gun at the photographer comes screaming straight out of everyone's most paranoid Orwellian nightmares.


With few exceptions, such as the police in Albany who defied Gov. Andrew Cuomo's and the Albany mayor's orders to arrest the protesters, the police who inexplicably defend the Powers That Be from peaceful protesters who are putting everything on the line for them and everyone else, have been justifiably given a collective black eye. This is no truer than in Oakland, where Scott Olsen, an Iraq War hero and former Marine, was almost killed by Oakland police (or one of the other law enforcement bodies assisting them) who fired indiscriminately and point blank into a crowd of Occupy Oakland protesters. Olsen's now out of danger but his troubles are just beginning since the tear gas canister that was shot into his face may have left him with permanent brain damage.

Jean Quan, the city's mayor, has proven to be just as clueless and inept as Rudy Giuliani had proven to be on September 11th. Quan had sided with the protesters in a carefully choreographed photo and PR op before siccing the Oakland police on them later that night (while she flew to the White House far from the scene of the crime), only to side with the protesters again when Scott Olsen was almost killed and certain people had a problem with that. Then she threw her new police chief and city manager under the bus by absolving herself of all responsibility. Then in a written address, she belatedly took responsibility. The rookie Quan also said that she'd love to meet with the Occupy Oakland crowd but was confused as to who their leader was.

Yes, she actually said that.

But Quan has proven to a symbol of the cluelessness of all leaders at the federal, state and municipal level. Until Occupy Oakland began setting up its tents mere feet from City Hall, Quan had enjoyed a reputation as "a progressive activist." But she's sending out mixed signals to the protesters and the police by agreeing not to evict them (for now) while promising to honor guidelines such as a ten o'clock curfew and a ban on tents in public areas.

Quan doesn't get it and neither do a lot of other leaders on both sides of the political spectrum. Quan, as with Michael Bloomberg and many other city, state and federal leaders, just don't understand that camping on public property while protesting corporate greed and political corruption is exactly what the Occupy movement is all about.

The Occupy Wall Street movement and its countless incarnations and analogs all over the world have proven to be quite an effective touchstone that tests the true mettle and allegiances of leaders across the political spectrum. And, almost without exception, even the so-called progressives such as Jean Quan have failed miserably.

This near-complete breakdown to address the concerns of the 99% (who are really just the other 1%, as Stan Banos at Reciprocity Failure informs us) betrays just how corrupt the political system truly is and how readily it seeks to address the peaceful exercise of first amendment rights with police thuggery not seen since the civil rights and antiwar protests of the 60's. The Occupy Movement reveals in the most vivid way the true allegiances of city, state and national leaders when their corporate benefactors are challenged and called on their unconscionable greed and arrogance. Who will they ultimately side with? What will they do if the protesters say that they'll never surrender?

Leaders such as Jean Quan have given us their answer.

Some Saturday night rocking' to the snow. Cold's "Stupid Girl", dedicated to Michele Bachmann, a woman who is to history and science what Jack the Ripper was to women's rights.

In light of Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan being "incensed" at mere verbal criticism of his bank stealing homes that don't belong to it, Wall Street has nothing to complain about. In light of the peaceful, genteel but largely symbolic occupation of Wall Street, they could have fared much worse. They could have gotten a taste of what Iraq and Afghanistan have received from American and coalition forces during their respective occupations. Imagine how incensed these coddled, jiggling plutocrats would've been at the wholesale slaughter of their own and their families and neighbors in the Adirondacks, the Hamptons and Martha's Vineyard, their palatial mansions turned into smoking rubble amidst a carnage consisting of human body parts and nine irons.

No, all things considered, they're getting off quite easily thus far. There are, however, several important distinctions between the "occupation" of Wall Street and our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan: Wall Street is guilty of very real crimes against humanity including countless acts of terrorism, including laundering money for Mexican drug cartels.

Big Finance muckraker Greg Palast, however, has uncovered the real reason behind Goldman Sachs withdrawing their $5000 to commemorate a small community bank's 25th anniversary and the implications behind this story are much, much more chilling. This is how Palast breaks it down:

In 2008, the US Treasury handed Goldman Sachs a check for $10bn from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (Tarp), the bailout funds given to desperate commercial banks. A few eyebrows were raised: Goldman was not desperate, and it certainly was not a commercial bank. Yet – abracadabra! – Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson transformed investment bank Goldman into a commercial bank overnight. (Paulson's prior post was chairman of Goldman Sachs. Just saying.)

But there was a catch: Goldman would have to return a chunk of the public's billions in the form of loans for low-income customers and members of its "community", as required by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. Problem: Goldman has, it seems, no low-income customers, nor a "community". Goldman was directed to find poor people and a community and hand over some cash.

That's right. Hank Paulson, ex Goldman CEO, after his "former" employer experienced a very rare and mild loss in that quarter, decided to engage in a little semantics to give Goldman $10 billion it neither needed nor even wanted. Despite the fact that Goldman Sachs was and still is an investment firm with no real bank accounts to offer and no branches, Paulson was bound and determined to force down the bottomless throats of one of the most successful Wall Street firms in American history $10 billion to "level the playing field." (To give you an idea of how desperately they needed the money, Goldman paid back their slice of the TARP bailout, with interest, in the least amount of time.)

But, as Palast says, with the rechristening came new mandated guidelines, namely that Goldman Sachs and any other bailed out bank had to give something back to the community under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 (Thank you, President Carter). The problem was, Goldman Sachs not only didn't have any account holders, they didn't have any poor customers so they had to go slumming.

That's when they set their sights on the Lower East Side Peoples Credit Union. The $5000 they'd recently yanked back on a string like the high finance pranksters that they are was not a generous donation to reward a small people-owned bank for their community service but the smallest possible token gesture toward discharging an onerous federally-mandated obligation.

Then the shit hit the fan when Blankfein's boys discovered to their corporate mortification that their five large was going to be used to fete Occupy Wall Street, their unsworn enemy that they'd otherwise officially ignored. They threatened Lower East Side Peoples bank with a lawsuit if they didn't hand back the $5000. Peoples refused so Goldman simply took back the money, anyway, and demanded their names be taken off any literature and invitations for the November 3rd event (Jamie Dimon's dimwits at Citigroup followed suit).

Goldman Sach's legal obligation to the community is something in the neighborhood of ten figures yet despite their pretenses of philanthropy, they've been doling out the money in dribs and drabs. Now they're using these tiny sums of money in order to wrest political control of the Wall Street debate back to their side. Potentially, this could have a very chilling effect on community activism in the future. If you need to have it summed up for you, here it is:

Goldman Sachs and other banks are using your taxpayer dollars to make and keep control of political speech. Again, this is not their money, but ours and they're using it against us. So how do we wrest back control of that debate? Well, as Occupy Wall Street suggests, you can start by removing your money from the big Wall Street banks and putting them in credit unions and small community banks.

Problem:

To combat a run on the big Wall Street banks, there's a national movement where if you try to close out your account, you'll be falsely imprisoned and arrested on the spot. Yes, Occupy Wall Street's best way to literally physically occupy Wall Street is simply to try to take out their money.

The thing one has to most love about Lower East Side Peoples Credit Union and those like them is that they're not merely encouraging low income residents to take their business to them: They want their community-based financial template to become the new norm that replaces the sociopathic, world-eating banks on Wall Street. It's a subdued albeit vitally important revolution that Wall Street is scared shitless will actually succeed: A paradigm shift in which banking will not be solely dedicated to printing money on the fly but one in which the community's needs will be paramount, including reasonable student and home loans that empower those who wish to elevate their status in life.

There are hundreds of billions at stake here and people like Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein are all too well aware of that.

So the occupation should only be the beginning. When we occupied Iraq, Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority essentially destroyed the Iraqi economy by making Iraq far less competitive in the global marketplace by fiddle fucking with tariffs, throwing people out of work by the hundreds of thousands and essentially co-opting their biggest export: Oil. We crippled the Iraqi economy in order to enrich defense contractors, petroleum giants and, yes, Wall Street banks.

This particular paradigm shift would be immensely more humane, geared not to impoverishing the common working man but empowering him, in making higher education and quality housing more accessible and affordable and making less usurious loans that the big banks refuse to make with their TARP blood money.

And an empowered proletariat with actual options is the last thing that Wall Street wants.

Female members of the Royal Family are to be specified parity with male in the laws of sequence to the throne, meaning if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first kid is a girl, she can turn into Queen even if following children are sons.

The historic legal modifications were approved collectively today by the 16 nations of which Queen Elizabeth II is ruler.

The 16 "kingdoms", counting the UK, Canada and Australia, also granted to scrap outdated regulations which forbid the spouse of a Roman Catholic from taking the throne.

The alterations were declared by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, attended by the Queen, in Perth, Australia.

Mr. Cameron said the momentous regulations were "at unusual with the prevailing states that we have become".

Declaring the future alterations, he said: "Put basically, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a little girl, that girl would one day be our queen."

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, greeted the modifications.

He said: “This will remove a point of unfair bias against Catholics and will be appreciated not only by Catholics but far more broadly.”

The alteration herald an end to more than 300 years of English legitimate custom under which the Crown approved to the oldest male successor.

Under the new laws of primogeniture, any male kid takes priority in the order of series over his sisters. That would have intended that any son born to Prince William would have become King even if he had an older sister.

Talking before the meeting in Perth, the Prime Minister said the laws are “obsolete and need to change”.

He said: “The idea that a younger son should become emperor instead of an elder daughter, just because he is a man just isn’t suitable any more. Nor does it make any wisdom that a potential Emperor can marry someone of any belief other than Catholic.

“The philosophy behind these regulations is false. That’s why people have been discussing about modification them for some time. We require getting on and do it.”

The Commonwealth summit was a “biggest instant to grab this issue and resolved it”, he said. “I’m very confident that we can go a contract in ethic and get on with altering these rules in all the states affected.”

The Queen, who reached in Australia this week, will attend next week’s Commonwealth meeting. Buckingham Palace has pointed out her endorsement for modifications in the succession regulations.

A Realms “working group” will now be recognized under the leadership of New Zealand to certify the essential legislation is acceptable to all countries and that the procedure is harmonized.

Mr. Cameron means to set up the legislation in the next meeting of Parliament.

The laws on the Royal succession are set down in numerous different pieces of legislation approved in the 17th and 18th Centuries, counting the Act of Settlement, the Bill of Rights, the Royal Marriages Act and Princess Sophia’s Precedence Act.

Samsung Electronics Co. left behind Apple Inc. (AAPL) in the last three months to become the world’s biggest smartphone seller amongst a broadening technology and lawful fight between the two firms.

Samsung shipped 27.8 million smartphones in the last quarter, taking 23.8% of the market, Milton Keynes, U.K.- based Strategy spectator said in an e-mailed message today. Apple’s 17.1 million consignments, containing 14.6% of the market, pressed the Cupertino, California-based company to second position. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) got its third place, it said.

Apple, which released its iPhone 4S this month, captured the high spot for only one quarter after removing Espoo, Finland- based Nokia past this year. Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, has turned to Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software to enhance sales of its Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers.

“Samsung has emerged with products that appeal to all the diverse form aspects and requirements out there,” said T.Z. Wong, a Beijing-based spectator at researcher IDC. “That is a policy they have implemented very well.”

Apple’s Spokesman, Natalie Kerris wasn’t instantly presented for remarks after usual business hours. Nam Ki Yung, a Seoul-based spokesman for Samsung, refused to remark on the research firm’s estimate.

SmartPhone Sale

 “Samsung’s climb has been determined by a merge of elegant hardware designs, renowned Android services, unforgettable sub-brands and widespread international distribution,” Strategy Analytics wrote. “Samsung has confirmed that it is possible, as a minimum in the short term, to discriminate and rose by utilizing the Android ecosystem.” 

The worldwide smartphone market jumped 44% from a year prior to 117 million units, Strategy Analytics said. Nokia fell to 14.4% from 32.7% a year past.

In the broader mobile-phone market that comprises lower-cost devices, Nokia keep its higher spot even after behind 5% points of share, the analytics said in a different statement. Its 27.3% kept it in front of Samsung’s 22.6%, with LG Electronics Inc. (066570) third.

Chinese phone maker ZTE Corp.’s inexpensive handsets assisted it take 4.7% and pass. Apple for 4^th position. International market consignments jumped 14% to 390 million units, according to the researcher.

Samsung, also the world’s biggest maker of televisions, today reported record profits from its phone department that assisted mask a fall in profits from computer- memory chips and panels.

Lawful campaign

Samsung climbed 2.3% to 945,000 succeeded at the close of trading in Seoul today. The shares have fallen down 0.4% this year, compared with a 25% climb for Apple.

Apple and Samsung have blamed each other of infringing copyrights for technology utilized in handsets and tablets, with court cases still awaiting in Milan and Sydney. Legal wars between the two rivals built up after Apple asserted in an April proceedings in the U.S. that Samsung’s Galaxy devices “slavishly” copied the iPhone and the iPad.

Apple’s earnings last quarter fail to spot analysts’ approximations for the first time in as a minimum six years after consumers postponed handset bought in expectation of its new phone. Sales of the latest model, iPhone 4S, exceeded 4 million in the first weekend of sales that started Oct. 14, peaking Apple’s earlier sales record for its handsets.

Samsung and Nokia also launched latest handsets this month as customers progressively more use mobile phones to surf the Internet, play videos and to contact social-networking sites.

Samsung and Google pit the talk-to-type technology of Android Ice Cream Sandwich against Apple’s Siri voice-command digital assistant. Nokia, which has an enterprise with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), this week disclosed its Windows-based handset called Lumia 800.

Well, with a great sigh of relief and a "our work here is done" my 16-year old son Joseph got his learning drivers permit at the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday. 

But it was dark by the time we turned onto the street where we live so that when Joseph asked if he could drive the rest of the way home, I had to weight the risk: reduced visibility, no sidewalks and pedestrians walking home from the train and his inexperience driving a manual transmission car. So I told him "no". Of course he was disappointed, but all my neighbors are still alive and so is he.

So why oh why, didn't the managers at Colgan Air do the same risk benefit analysis in deciding whether 47-year old Marvin Renslow was ready to be the pilot in command after a slew of performance evaluations showed less than stellar piloting skills? Oh wait. They did. Only in their case, as a series of internal company emails show, they cast those concerns aside.

Photo courtesy Hodgson Russ

The emails, were obtained by Hugh Russ, an attorney representing families of some of the 50 people  who died in the crash in Buffalo, New York on Colgan Air Continental Connection flight 3407 on February 12, 2009.  You can read the emails here. 

A spokesman for Colgan says this is old news, that the airline informed the NTSB before the board came out with its finding of probable cause in February 2010. Whether it did or whether it didn't, it's important not to get bogged down with the shocking specifics of this particular revelation because it is just the latest of a series of alarm bells that have been going off concerning Colgan, its parent, Pinnacle and the regional airline industry as a whole.

Just last week, the Federal Aviation Administration fined Pinnacle $1 million for defying a government prohibition on allowing flight crew to perform maintenance work and flying a Canadair Regional Jet 40 hours past a mandatory engine inspection. What's 40 hours you might ask? Well, the inspection was to track the propagation of a crack, that did indeed grow while Pinnacle was heedlessly flying the airplane in passenger carrying service the last week of August 2010.

This is just a few months after the hearing into the Colgan crash where executives of Colgan insisted safety was their highest priority. The same airline who's safety director admitted during the hearing that he had never heard of James Reason, the grand-daddy of human factors and a legend among safety specialists.

Doing the rounds of the television networks after the emails went viral this week, attorney Russ told one interviewer, "Colgan sacrificed safety for profit." He's giving the airline credit by assuming it had safety practices to sacrifice. 

But lest this rant be perceived as solely focused on Colgan/Pinnacle, throughout 2009 and 2010, I wrote just some of a blizzard of articles that included the excellent Frontline report Flying Cheap, and a lengthy story in the Wall Street Journal. All delved into the many factors making regional airline operations so unsafe. (see my list of accidents since 2000 below) But the focus has narrowed to efforts to require minimum hours for pilots. I've not seen any indication that regional airlines and their relationship to large airlines has fundamentally changed.

Mr. Russ told the interviewers, his goal "is to change airline safety and only by bringing these emails to the light of day can we meet that goal."  Nice plan, but after this latest stunning news fades from view, he's got his work cut out for him keeping this story on the front burner.

List of regional airline accidents since 2000

1. Colgan Air 2.12.09 Fatalities 50 N200WQ (Continental Connection)
   
2. Pinnacle Airlines 11.13.08 Injuries no fatalities N8698A (Northwest Airlink)
3. Shuttle America 2.18.07 No fatalities N862RW (Delta Connection)
4. Comair 8.27.06 Fatalities 49 N431CA(Delta Connection)
   
5. Flying Boat Inc. 12.19.05 Fatalities 20 N2969 (Chalk's Ocean Airways)
6. Executive Airlines 5.9.04 No fatalities N438AT (American Eagle)
   
7. Corporate Airlines 10.19.2004 Fatalities 13 N875JX (American Connection)
8. Pinnacle Airlines 10.14.04 Fatalities 2 N8396A (Northwest Airlink)
9. Air Midwest Airlines 1.8.03 Fatalities 21 N233YV (USAirways Express)
   
10. Colgan Air 8.26.03 Fatalities 2 N240CJ (Ferry flight)
    
11. Peninsula Airways 10.10.01 Fatalities 9 N9530F

Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear anchor, has unveiled that he lifted an injunction interdiction the publication of features about his so-called affair with his ex-wife after the claims were outed online.

Last night Clarkson said the gagging order became "futile" when his name was connected with the charges on websites counting Twitter.

"Injunctions don't work," he told the Daily Mail. "You remove an injunction against anybody or some group and sooner news of that injunction and the people concerned and the report behind the injunction is in an official-free world on Twitter and the internet."

Clarkson said he was gone to lift the order after his mother and three children, Emily, Finlo and Katya, were disturbed by the online gossips.

"I dish the dirt out and I can take it. But why should my mother and children have to take it?" he told the Mail.

"There is also a guess of fault which goes hand in hand with an injunction."

Clarkson said he regretted his deeds from the day he took out the injunction, further that his mother was critically sick at the time he went to the High Court.

The broadcaster and newspaper columnist said his choice was also affected by the costs involved in the lawful procedure, which were "extremely luxurious".

"You utilized to be capable to take out an injunction and then just sit on it," he said. "But consequently of a newly court case you are now finally enforced by the courts to go to test."

Clarkson was arranged the gagging order last September after gossips surfaced that he was sleeping with his former wife, Alexandra Hall, in spite of being wedded to his present wife, Frances.

It prohibited the media from coverage “sexual or other confidential acts or dealings” between Clarkson and Ms Hall, in addition to the Top Gear celebrity's “personal thoughts and sentiments, his health and other financial issues”.

Clarkson was quoted to in court as only AMM, while Ms Hall was referred to as HXW.

But after effectively covering up his so-called unfaithfulness in the courts, his name started to surface online in relating to the unidentified injunction.

This provoked a series of baseless stories relating to Clarkson to several of glamorous super stars, as well as writer and campaigner Jemima Khan.

Previous this year, Mrs Hall featured secretly in a newspaper interview in which she assaulted the confidentially injunction contributed to her ex-husband, the Mail reports.

"I have no name. I have no voice," she said. "I am referred to as a set of preliminary. Who am I? I can't tell you, as if I do I could have a jail term for disdain of court. I am a nobody. I don't count."

Mrs. Hall said injunctions were a form of "harassment by the wealthy and powerful", acknowledging that she still had feelings for the man concerned at the time.

"My motive was completely therapeutic," she said. "The reality that I might be paid for it would have been a bonus. So far, here I was, with the risk of lockup hanging over my head because my 'ex' desired to keep his name out of the papers."

Mrs. Hall, an industrialist who has come out on Dragon's Den, said she was left "terrified, perplexed and angry" by the gagging order.

Alfredo Astiz, ex-Argentine naval officer has been sentenced for life time imprisonment for crimes against humankind during army regime in 1976-83. 

Astiz - recognize as the "Blond Angel of Death" - was found culpable of violence, killings and forced disappearance.

Amid his sufferers were two French nuns and the originators of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights group.

Eleven other past army and police officials were also awarded life time punishment for crimes against humanitarians.

Four others were locked up for between 18 and 25 years.

All served at the Naval Mechanical School in Buenos Aires - recognized as Esma - which was the largest hidden violence and killing centre established by the army during what became known as the "Dirty War".

Of the 5,000 or so detainees taken to Esma, 90% did not come out alive.

Some were murdered by firing squad while others were thrown from planes - drugged but still alive - into the Atlantic Ocean.

In excess of 70 of those who did make it out were amid the spectators in the 22-month investigation.

Astiz observed straight ahead and appeared no feelings as the punishment was read out.

Among the others given life terms are Jorge Acosta, Antonio Pernias and Ricardo Cavallo.

Human rights organizations had operated for years to bring the executors to justice, and there were celebrations as the punishment were read out.

"We opposed. We never committed a crime. This is why this is just. They committed crimes. They are jailed," said Esma survivor Ricardo Coquet.

Astiz, 59, is one of the most infamous signs of cruelty during army rule in Argentina.

As an immature naval intelligence officer he penetrated the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights organization, which was established to locate relatives kidnapped by the military forces.

He then managed the abduction and killing of its three founders - Azucena Villaflor, Esther Ballestrino and Maria Ponce.

He had by now been criminal in absentia in France for the murder of the French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, who lost in Argentina in 1977.

In his defense, Astiz said he had acted to protect Argentina from left-wing "terrorism", and he dismissed his investigation as an act of political retaliation.

Human rights groups say 30,000 people were murdered or made to left by the military forces in their operation against opposition protestors and left-wing rebels.

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.)



“Even if an alcoholic is powerless over alcohol once it enters his body, he still makes a choice to drink. And, even if someone is attracted to a person of the same sex, he or she still makes a choice to engage in sexual activity with someone of the same gender.” - Rick Perry, Fed Up

Many of us haven't even bought our obligatory Halloween candy, yet, and the 2012 GOP presidential field is already beginning to look like something that only Pirandello could have imagined. It's a Theater of the Absurd extravaganza that we can call Eight Characters in Search of an Offer. And the scariest part of all this Republican playacting is that one of them, by virtue of some half-hearted default that'd catapulted John McCain's pasty ass to the top of the heap in '08, has to win the Republican nomination.

But to employ a more contemporary and accessible context, the Republican wannabes are more like the political version of the Wedding Crashers. Wedding crashers typically are the most genteel moochers outside of Wall Street, looking not for potential marriage partners but free food, champagne and maybe some pussy on the side. The forced and overbearing ambiance of romance is lost on them. They're just there to eat cake and have it, too.

The Republicans in this Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World race, Willard, Herman and the rest, have proven to be so inept, clueless and just plain ludicrous as they pander to one extreme element or the other that one must conclude that if Obama gets re-elected by others outside of his own cultish base it'll also be victory by default. The disaffection with the Republican alternative that had gotten him elected President of the United States will get him re-elected.

And if he does, it'll be without the support of what is plainly a diluted Democratic Congress. In the last three or four Congresses, every noteworthy liberal Democrat on the Hill has been muzzled either by getting voted out (Max Cleland, Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold), death (Paul Wellstone and Ted Kennedy), resigning for greener pastures and later disgrace (John Edwards) or inexplicable silence (Barbara Boxer and John Conyers).

Herman Cain, a lunatic that only another pathetic lunatic from Smegma, Tennessee choking back his own bile-engorged racism could possibly find appealing, is certainly the strangest bird in the coop. Cain is a man who, thus far, has won just a Florida straw poll, derived his 9-9-9 tax plan from Sim City and the strangest campaign ads since Mike Gravel (including one featuring Fox B actor Nick Searcy who also thought it was a good idea to get people to vote for Cain by playing himself, a snotty, temperamental B actor who's incapable of remembering a two-word line such as "Get real.").

Cain has another ad that's out in which Cain Chief of Staff Mark Block calmly tells us why Herman Cain is the best alternative to Willard Romney then sucks on a cigarette as if in post-coital bliss, thereby making everyone forget about Cain and his alleged message.

Cain is leading every Republican contender by four points, garnering 25% support throughout Crazy Base World. One keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, which will be the day that Cain says to his staff, "OK, you all realize this is a joke campaign to fill my lonely hours, right? I mean, c'mon, I'm just Herman Cain, bitches! I ran a pizza company, for Christ's sake!"

The other Republicans are hardly any more appetizing, with real heartfelt appeal grudgingly given to bottom tier candidates Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman not for a strong message or real solutions but a conspicuous lack of shithouse rat-on-fire insanity (They could each adopt as a campaign slogan, "The Unbearable Lightness of Bugshit Craziness"). On the other end of the spectrum was last month's flavor of the day Rick "Gov. Goodhair" Perry, who wasted no time whatsoever immolating his campaign barely 24 hours after announcing his candidacy by suggesting we should execute Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Then there's the pesky issues of owning stock in a porno distributor, literally praying for rain to no effect and his questionable taste in hunting lodges.

Michele Bachmann, Jim Jones in drag and desperately looking for a cult, is saddled with a closeted husband whose antigay clinic received $137,000 in Medicaid dollars to Pray teh Gay Away and is willing to give women their choice regarding light bulbs but not their uteri. And don't even get me started on Rick "Please Stop Googling Me" Santorum and Mitt Romney, the world's scariest and most dangerous game show host and the only man alive who by conspicuous relief can give polymer organic appeal.

Until a couple of months ago, it was impossible to imagine that Sarah Palin could upstage at least half of these contenders in terms of erudition, articulateness, polish and a grasp of the issues but here we are.

Into this autocoprophagic melee steps Barack Obama, a man with identical approval and disapproval ratings according to the new NY Times-CBS poll (46 each, although the latest Rasmussen results shows only 19% polled "strongly approve" of the job the President is doing, with just a 43% total approval rating.).

If Barack Obama pulls off his re-election bid, he'll be the only President elected to two terms based on little else but fear of the opposition rather than actual achievement. Even though the nation is erupting in anti-government and anti-corruption outrage at its employers Wall Street, Obama has done nothing but give brief lip service to #OccupyWallStreet in spite of the fact that it's no longer a national phenomenon but a global one and unforgivably insulted the #OWS protesters by saying they were no different than the Tea Baggers.

Obama simply doesn't get it since his own tepid jobs plan (which would've emulated what's being done in Georgia, i.e. making poor unemployed work for corporations for free) got shot down faster than John McCain over Hanoi by the minority Senate Republicans who, amazingly, have even fewer ideas than the White House regarding job creation save for "Cut taxes!"

It would be a crying shame if we gave ourselves another four more years of this because we wanted to stretch out for another 48 months what is virtually inevitable: The Republican wet dream of hurling us back to the 19th century.

Oakland police arrested more than 100 people during a night of clashes with Occupy Oakland protesters on the streets of downtown Oakland.

The scene had finally cleared after midnight Wednesday, but police were on alert in case crowds returned.

Oakland Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said arrests were continuing and the total number might rise. Eight-five of those arrests were made early Tuesday, when officers raided the Occupy Oakland encampment on the plaza along with an annex in a park near Lake Merritt.

Jordan justified his department's use of tear gas.

"We were in a position where we had to deploy gas in order to stop the crowd and people from pelting us with bottles and rocks," he said.

Protesters had also thrown paint "and other agents" at officers, he said. The crowd reached about 1,000 at its peak, Jordan said, noting that police used bean bag rounds to disperse demonstrators. He said no rubber bullets were used -- a claim disputed by protesters.

Two officers were injured, Jordan said. He did not know how many demonstrators may have been hurt.

In an interview with KTVU-TV Channel 2, Officer David Carman said he had been hammered by paintballs and more.

"The crowd started throwing bottles, paints, beer, eggs at myself and the other officers," he said.

But some activists criticized the police tactics.

Kat Brooks, an Occupy Oakland activist and spokeswoman, said she took her young daughter home about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday because she did not want to expose her to the tear gas flooding downtown Oakland.

 PHOTOS: Occupy Oakland protesters

Protesters had marched from Frank Ogawa Plaza at City Hall to Snow Park, a swatch of green near Lake Merritt where an annex encampment had also been torn down by police this morning. They then returned to City Hall.

"We weren’t there but a minute before they started giving the dispersal order," Brooks said. "The first time they said five minutes, this time they said 'now.' They shot off the flash grenades and people scattered."

Brooks said her neighbors just returned home teargassed.

"This is the most disciplined I’ve ever seen Oakland be. There was no damage to property," she said. At one point, Brooks said, several officers were hit with paintballs, but she said they had come out swinging batons.

"From the way they came into the camp this morning to the way they acted tonight, they have gone beyond what was necessary," she said.