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I think Jet Blue is taking too much blame for this tarmac debate in the media compared to American Airlines who got off easy. I am glad that the media is making a big circus out of this though because hopefully it will get a bill passed. Yes, I am sure it is the airports fault too and DFW, JFK, the Austin airport, and the Tulsa airports involved in these messes should have had better control of the situation… but the Airlines SHOULD have canceled ALL flights in these weather conditions in the first place. From now on if there is a tornado warning, lightning, or ice storm at the destination airport all flights should be canceled to that destination airport. Sorry but that’s the way it should be to avoid this mess again at least until some kind of federal bill gets passed to protect our rights.

Jet Blue is stepping up to the plate and created their own bill of rights which is going to cover all the people who were stranded. Jet Blue was still canceling flights yesterday and the CEO of Jet Blue was on the today show and said they just didn’t have enough employees to keep things running during the snow storm. I am glad he is stepping up with money back guarantees for sitting on the tarmac but they really should have anticipated what trouble the snow storm would have caused, after all their HUB is in New York and they do have snow there every year so I can understand weather delays. I just can’t understand loading people on a plane and holding them there for hours with no escape.

If you read down this story, you’ll note that Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Scarborough country was held hostage on the tarmac for nine hours.  I didn’t happen to catch his show tonight but it’ll be interesting to see if he has any more to say about that experience as things go along.  The article doesn’t specifically say, but from context a couple of paragraphs later, it sounds like it may have been American Airlines.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17145277/

There was also Jet Blue flight that a reporter from CNBC’s On the Money was stuck on for 9 hours on the tarmac.  This seems to be getting worse and worse without some kind of action from lawmakers.  Bad weather or not this is unacceptable behavior from Jetblue and American Airlines to leave passengers as prisoners for so many hours. 

Rep. Michael Thompson, a California Democrat, said on Thursday he planned to introduce a bill that would address delayed flights, time on the tarmac, cancellations, and lost or damaged luggage.

We are glad to see a lawmaker finally standing up for peoples rights who are stuck on an airplane.  I think as this thing gets more and more publicity and it happens to more of us we will be against the airlines attempt to fix this problem themselves.  They have failed so far and it will take lawsuits or federal laws to make sure this doesn’t happen again.  If you do not think we need something like this passed then I advise you to go sit on a plane headed to Australia and just look out the window and pretend you see the airport tarmac the entire time and also pretend there is no running water, overflowing bathrooms, screaming babies, and then breathe into a taco bell bag for the entire time for that horrible sense of smelly-stale air.

I am not sure whether to call it the Grammy’s or the Dixie Chicks Show because it was taken over by the country music superstars on Sunday night.  This was a welcome surprise that the Dixie Chicks took home so many Grammy’s.  Especially after they were shut out by the same people and shut out by their own music genre of Country.  Winning an award on this show normally increases your album sales as well so expect some big ka-ching coming the way of these musical girls.

I am also happy to see that Mary J. Blige took home three Grammy awards.  She just recovered from drug problems and has been through a lot the last few years.  I am glad to see her come back in full swing.  Her performance was kind of lame compared to how active she normally is though.  I like it when she gets more into the music and dances around more.

I was disappointed that other great artists like Hello Goodbye and Madonna who did not get any mentions or awards.  I feel the Grammy’s give too many awards to one group they pick every year and do not bother to spread things out more to everyone who deserves recognition.  This may be a reason we do not get the quality of music that we had once before.  I mean how many awards can John Mayer or Blunt win before everyone turns blue in the face?  It was especially evident this week on 60 minutes when Norah Jones commented about taking home so many awards that she felt “she showed up to a party and ate someone else’s birthday cake.”

Maybe the Grammy committee does not listen to enough music outside of their box.  I am not complaining that the Dixie Chicks took home so many awards but this happens every year and they need to broaden their scope.

President Bush showed up at a Democratic congressional retreat over the weekend and even cracked some jokes about how he was accused of occasionally mangling the English language from when he said the Democrat majority in his State of the Union in January.  He then joked around thanking everyone about inviting the head of the Republic Party.  That is one thing I love about Bush is he is a funny man that is for sure.

Yes, Bush learned long ago how to kiss the right butts.  That the current ones are Democratic may end up being very good for both the country and Bush.  I wouldn’t trust Bush any further than I could throw him.

It makes me like President Bush (a little) and dislike Cheney even more.  I hate the fact that Bush is so fake but it’s so entertaining to watch.  I cannot be disgusted with anymore more than Cheney.  His daughter is an insult to Lesbians (why cant she be more like Ellen) and Cheney is an insult to America.  The Daily show put together parts of Cheney’s interview with Wolf Blitzer and it just makes me sick that Cheney couldn’t even answer any of the questions asked or gave Wolf a evil look.  I hope nothing happens to Bush and we have some threat of him taking office.  Cheney needs to play the bad guy in movies he would do a great job — he is so bitter and mean.  I know he can’t run a company because he’s nobody anyone in the right mind would want to work for.  You think Google would hire that thing we have in office? My wish is to send mean, grumpy Cheney over to Iraq and have him on the front line.  I think Iraq would flee to another country with the thought of an unmasked Darth Vader coming after them.

Cheney is just a throwback.   I think he believes in the divine right of kings with only the modern spin on titles.  Cheney is Darth Vader he is certainly not cut out for democracy.

I wanted to give everyone an update on the American Airlines imprisonment of passengers story on December 29, 2006.  There are two flights from San Francisco area to the Texas area that had been reimbursed part of their flights on their credit card statements, vouchers sent out, and apologies written to the passengers.  This makes me feel much better about American Airlines.  I still think passengers need a bill of rights to protect us from being put on a tarmac for more than an hour (held like a prisoner).

This is certainly a step in the right direction to give out vouchers and credit card statement credits.  Some people over at  the flyertalk.com forums are still upset and some are pleased with the way the airline finally handled this problem.

There has been talk of a lawsuit against American Airlines for their handling of this just to bring up the fact that we need a passengers bill of rights.  I agree we need something done legally because the airlines have not stepped up to the plate to prevent us from sitting on a tarmac in future incidents.

You can now purchase “terror-free oil” at one gas station at least in the US.  A Coral Springs, Florida based company opened a station this week in Omaha, Nebraska that pledged to sell oil that is terror-free.  This gas station group plans to expand to other US cities while supplying its consumer’s oil bought from Sinclair Oil Corporation and oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The drawbacks to this are that some oil is mixed by suppliers and it could result in oil from the Middle East being mixed in with Canada oil for example.   This is definitely a great concept and consumer advantage to have a higher oil price over another gas station.  This would be similar to Wal-Mart selling organic products and mixing it in with their other vegetables but not completely like the real organic foods you would get at Whole Foods.  The concept is not 100% terror free from how I read into this.

I think the better way of doing business would be to offer other fuel alternatives besides “terror free oil”.  They should provide the real terror free oils which are ethanol, hydrogen cells, bio-diesel, and electricity hookups for those types of vehicles.  I will say at least this gas station group is trying to do something as opposed King Exxon.