I've gotten a bit tired of people talking about the United States being the last world superpower. We aren't. The only reason we make a bigger splash than China is that china is being careful as it dives into the water. The EU also has enough power to achieve the mythical "superpower" status, although I'm not sure they'll ever agree on anything long enough to throw their weight around. This little blip proves that what happens in China reverberates around the world. Isn't that the definition of a world power?

...that it can't be solved by making sure that nobody knows about it. Well, according to Bushco, anyway. Most of us learned while we were growing up that when you cover up a problem instead of dealing with it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and when it finally is exposed, you are in more trouble than you would have been if the problem had been dealt with when it was small. I wonder if Bush and Cheney's nannies read them fairy tales when they were little? I'm pretty sure they would have learned some valuable life lessons that they seem to have missed.

A group of people stuck on a runway for 5 hours. If it isn't 10 hours, the news isn't headlines. It was buried in the middle of an article about JetBlue flight cancellations. First 2 hours, delayed take-off time. Then they were supposed to go for deicing. Then the airline decided to cancel the flight because of stormy conditions at the destination. Apparently they were concerned that their air crew would be snowed in and unable to resume flights after the storm passed. Perfectly sensible decision, but it seems like it could have been made in less than 5 hours. I wonder just how common this is? We don't read about 3, 5, or 7 hour delays, but they do happen.

The airlines aren't going to fix this on their own. It has been happening for many years, and nobody has done anything. The problem seems to be getting worse, even, as airlines are forced pinch every penny in the name of making a profit and staying competitive on prices. Maybe it is time to re-regulate airlines. Maybe the lower fares post-deregulation aren't the best thing in the world for either the airline business or the passenger. I suspect that people will still fly when it's appropriate and necessary if fares go up a bit. We could institute "standyby" programs for people who simply can't afford normal fares (why should airline employees get all the breaks?). Some of the fares I've seen lately seem ridiculously low. I don't see how the airlines can even pay for fuel, much less the infrastructure that makes flying safe.

It would seem to me that being an ambassador requires very good judgment. I'm not sure that this gentleman showed very good judgment when he gave money to a group with absolutely no idea of how it would be spent and then refused to renounce this group when it used his money to spread what he believed to be lies about a man he considers "a hero". Perhaps the bush administration could find somebody a bit more honorable to represent the United States in it's international negotiations.

I often browse free republic to get an idea of the temperature for various issues on the extreme right (i.e. that they hate Giuliani, love Gingrich). I can't tell you how many times I've seen reports of regular, every day crimes posted prominently on their site. Since this is mostly a national site, I wondered why, then I noticed that these reports invariably highlighted criminal activity by an illegal alien, or sometimes simply a person with a Hispanic surname who was presumed to be an illegal alien. The comments tell the story - That America needs to be aware the illegal immigrants in particular and Mexican/Hispanic people in general are Dangerous. This does not differ even a little bit from what white supremacists post of their web sites.

When did anybody from the government get the right to "require" any reporter to do anything? When did it become standard for government to automatically be considered "anonymous" at all times, even when releasing public press releases? And why in hades are the media buying into this crap? What will the white house do, cut off Newsweek? The New York Times? If they do, will anybody actually lose anything worthwhile? The American media seem to have decided that they are dependent on the government for their stories, instead of the government being dependent on them to get the story out. This must stop. When you get to the point that the vice-president of the United States can hold a press conference, discussing what he thinks and what he said, and still be considered anonymous, it's just gone too far. There is no excuse for anonymity here. He certainly doesn't need protection for anything he is saying.