Airport Patriotism

I'm sitting in the Charlotte airport, waiting on a departure home to LA, dealyed due to thunderstorms in my connection city of Dallas.

So, I'm taking this brief respite to wish you all a great holiday weekend, and I hope that you do something truly patriotic. Unfortunately, I know what kind of patriotic act our President has in store for us this weekend, and it's a whole different kind of fireworks.

As you've probably heard, Sandra Day O'Connor just resigned from the Supreme Court. With a moderate like O'Connor stepping down and a far-right like Bush making the nomination as early as Tuesday (therefore taking advantage of our blissful ignorance over the holiday weekend), the stakes couldn't be higher.

Whoever fills this spot will have a LIFETIME appointment to the Supreme Court. President Bush must take seriously the Constitution's "advise and consent" requirement and nominate a consensus candidate with broad bipartisan support. The Senate leadership must provide ample time for hearings and review of any nominee. And, the eventual nominee must fully disclose - and justify - his or her judicial philosophy, especially on key constitutional issues.

These are not radical ideas; they are common sense.

Bush is sure to play the religion card here, which many reputable, bipartisan faith-based organizations are monitoring carefully.

You can send an email directly to the White House, saying something along the lines of: "This vacancy on the high court represents an opportunity for you, Mr. President, to carry out in good faith, your constitutional obligation to consult with, and seek the advice of Senators from both parties to select a nominee who can achieve broad, bipartisan support. Such action on your part would contribute inestimably to relieving partisan tensions that are seriously compromising the whole democratic process and engaging the nation in a valuable debate about the direction of the Supreme Court."

MoveOn PAC has already started an emergency petition, and they're looking to get 250,000 signatures and comments to the Senate before Tuesday. For more information and to sign the petition, visit MoveOn's emergency petition website. As of this posting, only 9% of the petition's goal has been reached. This is an extremely important time for our senators to hear from us. They need to know that we are counting on them to stand up to President Bush and protect our rights.

Yet another activism website, the People For the American Way, has started a "10&10 Campaign", where you can donate ten dollars and sign up ten friends towards the cause.

Show your true colors this weekend by making your voice heard, and have a happy Fourth of July.

The Romance of Travel

Even though the Charlotte flight was delayed THREE hours, I was *assured* that, due to the "bad weather delays" at DFW, all of the flights were being pushed up, and that I'd still make my connection.

No matter that my two-hour originating flight left an hour before the connecting one in Dallas took off. Do the math.

Now, it would have been mildly understandable had I arrived at DFW in the pouring rain and found out I'd missed my flight. But no... it was sunny and clear, not a drop of rain on the ground.

And what's worse.... there were THREE additional flights to LAX coming up after I arrived -- and they hadn't booked me on ANY of them. This, after A.) checking in THREE hours ahead of my scheduled flight time in Charlotte (and being first or second on the First Class upgrade standby list for both legs), B.) being told for THREE MORE hours that our delay was known about at DFW and being accomodated for, and C.) having enough frequent flier points to choke a horse (I'm thiiiiis close to Platinum level).

So I wait ANOTHER two hours standby at DFW, grumpily munching a burrito while one LAX flight goes out full, then another, then another.

Finally, they get me a window seat (I prefer aisle). To Ontario. That gets in at midnight.

Here I sit, disgruntled in 29F, with a three-hour flight ahead of me and a one-hour shared ride van trip after that before I get to my car at LAX... which is still a 30 min drive home.

Did I mention that there's no guarantee that the AA baggage office at LAX will be open when I finally get there? Even IF my bag made it?

Drinks, please. NOW.