In three quarters, Delta already has surpassed its total baggage fee revenue from 2009. Delta has made $733 million so far this year. In all of 2009, it made $481 million.
Revenue from baggage fees has been skyrocketing since 2007, when the total revenue was $464 million, one-fifth of what's been made in three quarters in 2010.
Similarly, revenue from cancellation and change fees has nearly doubled since 2007, adding up to about $1.7 billion in three quarters this year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In 2007, fees totaled $915 million, though 2010's numbers actually fell 3.8 percent in the third quarter from the same time last year.
Former Bush White House strategist Karl Rove likely is playing a leading role in the effort to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a source with ties to the justice community tells Legal Schnauzer.
That Assange's legal troubles would originate in Sweden probably is not a coincidence, our source says. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has been called "the Ronald Reagan of Europe," and he has a friendship with Rove that dates back at least 10 years, to the George W. Bush campaign for president in 2000. Reinfeldt reportedly asked Rove to help with his 2010 re-election in Sweden.
Why would Rove be interested in corralling Julian Assange? To help protect the Bush legacy, our source says. "The very guy who has released the documents that damage the Bushes the most is also the guy that the Bush's number one operative can control by being the Swedish prime minister's brain and intelligence and economic advisor."I put nothing, I say again nothing past Turdblossom.
Could Rove also be trying to protect himself? What if WikiLeaks has documents--or Rove thinks it could get documents--that prove "Turd Blossom's" role in criminal activity during the Bush years? What if someone with a conscience from the Bush administration--if such a person exists--provided WikiLeaks with documents that show Rove's role in political prosecutions, the unlawful firings of U.S. attorneys, and more? Could Rove be trying to save his own doughy butt?
Some economist asks a couple of questions:
I wonder to what extent UI benefits discourage migration. North Dakota could use some workers. Nevada has too few jobs. Yet we're paying people in Nevada whether they have a job or not. I doubt many would move to North Dakota anyway. Paying them not to makes it less likely. But how much less likely?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with the UI benefits programs. I'm asking a question. I don't know the research here. How many workers would move from high unemployment rate states (like Nevada) to low unemployment rate states (like North Dakota) in the absence of or with less generous UI programs?
No guessing. I'm asking for research. My quick search revealed more about the EU than the US.
That quick search must have been on Facebook or his favorite porn site, because my quick search found that there are about 300K workers in North Dakota, and about 1.2 million in Nevada. Nevada's unemployment rate is 14.2%. That's 170K workers, or well over half of the workforce of the entire state of North Dakota. If North Dakota, which has an unemployment rate of 2.8%, could absorb, say, 3% more workers, that's 9,000 jobs, which would bring Nevada's unemployment rate to around 14%. Before asking how many workers would move, how about asking how many could move? The answer is, clearly, not enough to make much difference.
Also, why does North Dakota have such a low unemployment rate?
There's a magazine called "The Economist". I don't have "a joint appointment with the Department of Health Policy and Management at Boston University's (BU's) School of Public Health and Health Care Financing & Economics (HCFE) at the Boston VA Healthcare System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs", but I'm pretty sure that it's about Economics. When I searched for North Dakota on that site, I found this article explaining that North Dakota is having an energy boom.
These kinds of vaporous questions get a link from Sully,
###
Inspired by the example set by his colleague in the House, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will propose a new rule to permit 'Spontaneous Blubbering' on the Senate floor.
###
Call a Wahhhh-mbulance "To Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's suggestion that the Senate come back the week after Christmas isn't just a way to complete a busy lame duck agenda -- but an attack on people of the Christian faith. ... "It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out," Kyl said today, "frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff." ... To be clear, Reid was suggesting the Senate come back for votes after Christmas and before this Congress ends on Jan. 4."
###
###
Steve Benen finds Roger Simon whining about Democrats' engaged in "class warfare":
The rich are different from you and me. They are swine.
Here's the thing….I suspect that Simon himself is rich. Most name pundits are.
I have an idea: from now on, whenever a pundit bitches about "class warfare", he should give an estimate of his own income and assets. That law professor from U of Chicago who said he'd go Galt if his marginal rates when it up 2% is an asshole and probably a sociopath, but at least he gave enough information that one could estimate his income.
Simon should do the same if he's going to carry on like that.
###
The branch of the U.S. military responsible for flying some (but certainly not all!) planes has come up with the greatest idea ever to stop Wikileaks and the 10 billion news websites that have posted stuff from the Wikileaks: Just ban all those websites! This is a one-billion-percent foolproof plan, and now any Air Force personnel (known as "seamen") will magically not know about any Wikileaks information they may have encountered during the past several weeks of constant Wikileaks coverage.
The New York Times — which is now an official "banned by the USAF" website — just posted this invisible story on the Internet:
WASHINGTON — The Air Force is barring its personnel from using work computers to view the Web sites of The New York Times and more than 25 other news organizations and blogs that have posted secret cables obtained by WikiLeaks, Air Force officials said Tuesday.
When Air Force personnel on the service's computer network try to view the Web sites of The Times, the British newspaper The Guardian, the German magazine Der Spiegel, the Spanish newspaper El País and the French newspaper Le Monde, as well as other sites that posted full confidential cables, the screen says "Access Denied: Internet usage is logged and monitored."
And then you can go back to playing World of Warcraft or whatever it is U.S. military personnel do. (God knows it's not "win wars.") [New York Times]
###
Could Willard Romney be even more detestible if he worked harder at it?
What Willard the Fudge-Packer wants to do is to eliminate unemployment insurance entirely and make the tax cuts for the rich permanent. So if you get laid off, fine, lose your home, starve to death, see if Willard cares.
Just so long as Willard and his buddies don't have to pay taxes, everything will be fine.
So, if you voted for Republicans and you've been laid off from your job, remember this: The people you voted for hate you and want you to die soon.
Have a nice day.
###
###
Only right wing news, it seems, is news
Could it be that the mainstream media's own hostility toward the rise of right wing extremism is actually helping the far right advance its plans to take over the country?
That thought occurred to me last summer as I watched the wall-to-wall coverage of Glenn Beck's self-indulgent "Restoring Honor" ego-fest on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August, while a progressive rally held the same day drew perfunctory media attention, at best, as did the Stewart/Colbert "Rally to Restore Sanity" later in October.
Along these same lines, something Kevin Drum wrote the other day won't get out of my head. Drum was pondering why it was that none of the major networks - not ABC, CBS or NBC - saw fit to even mention the fact that Republicans had just filibustered a bill to create a $7 billion fund for 9/11 first responders who were experiencing health problems as a result of their work.
http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/7248/only-right-wing-noise-it-seems-is-news
###
###
We think this guy and his kid are more in need of help than criminal charges "Kansas City police arrested a man Monday night after he abandoned his 6-year-old son at a bus stop in freezing temperatures. ... A woman saw the boy get out of a pickup truck near 91st Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard about 4:15 p.m. She then saw the truck drive away. ... She immediately contacted the boy and told him he could sit in her vehicle. She then drove to a nearby school and called police. ... The boy told police his father could no longer take care of him, so he was supposed to go live with his mother in California. The boy said he packed his belongings, including clothes and his toothbrush. His father dropped him off at a bench and handed him some papers. The father reportedly said the papers were his "ticket" but the papers actually were unemployment documents, according to police reports."
###
"Prepare to believe."
Wasn't that one of the punch lines for a paranoia drenched science fiction television show in the 90s? Just asking.
PZ Meyers: We visited the Creation "Museum" last Friday.
I'm careful to put the title in quotes, because it is not a museum in any respectable sense of the word. I knew this ahead of time; I had no expectation of any kind of credible presentation in this place, but what impressed me most is how far it failed to meet even my low hopes. They clearly want to ape a real museum, but they can't — their mission is the antithesis of open inquiry. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/08/the_creation_museum_1.php
###
War in Afghanistan still terrible and pointless
###
###
Jesus' kick ass weaponry
William Tapley, the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse and Co-Prophet of the End Times, tells us "Jesus will use Mary's Rosary and Scapular as weapons to defeat the Antichrist." I don't doubt it. As I recall, Mary's Rosary comes with 451 stamina, 327 agility, 275 haste, and adds almost 300 points to Jesus' hit rating. Add the 2,476 spell power provided by Mary's Scapular, and you know, that cat, Jesus, is one bad mother...[SHUT YOUR MOUTH!]...Hey, I'm talkin' 'bout Jesus...[THEN, WE CAN DIG IT!].
Apocalyptic Third Eagle Tapley also warns us that as a Co-Prophet of the End Times, he understands how to unleashed the secret powers locked within the comma, semicolon, and the other more powerful marks of punctuation. Woe be unto anyone who raises an ellipsis against him.
Here's the video.
###
###
###
Who wouldn't want to spend a fun-filled day with the kids at Chernobylworld?
Ukraine says it will lift restrictions on tourism in the zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2011, formally opening the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident to visitors.
A limited number of visitors already are allowed into the 30-kilometer (19-mile) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which exploded and burned in 1986. The Ukrainian government will present a detailed plan for lifting the remaining restrictions on travel to the area December 21, said Viktor Baloga, the former Soviet republic's emergency situations minister.
###
Glenn Beck's "Favorite Things" Christmas list. Yes, he admits to buying his friends and family members "food storage" for the holidays. Food storage. The Becks bought their loved ones something that ought come with free tinfoil hats and a space alien anal probe kit.
http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2010/12/crazy_beck_clip.html
###
###
Mona's eyes
I love hearing about discoveries like this.
Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece has long been steeped in mystery, and even today the true identity of the woman with the alluring smile still far from certain.
Now members of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa's eyes letters and numbers can be seen.
In the right eye appear to be the letters LV which could well stand for his name Leonardo Da Vinci while in the left eye there are also symbols but they are not as defined.
And they said Dan Brown's DaVinci Code was fiction. Fools.
As for what my La Giosarah illustration has to do with this story…not much, but I had been working on a post a while back on Palin the media whore which I never finished. The Mona Lisa story was a close enough fit for the pic.
