Tag: Politics
Court Rejects New York’s Airline Passenger Bill of Rights
by Michael Yessis | 03.26.08 | 11:09 AM ET
Sponsors of the bill say they’ll “consider crafting new legislation in Albany and pushing for a federal law protecting passengers,” according to the New York Times. Federal legislators have already advanced pieces of a national passenger bill of rights through the House of Representatives.
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Yahoo! BuzzMashing Up Washington D.C.‘s Sex Scandals
by Julia Ross | 03.13.08 | 12:03 PM ET
It didn’t take long for camera-toting tourists to ferret out Room 871 at Washington D.C.‘s Mayflower Hotel. The site of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s call girl tryst is the latest in a long list of sex scandal locales dotting the capital. For those interested in mapping out their own tour, Slate helpfully provides an annotated Google mash-up.
China to Bjork: You Hurt Our Feelings
by Jim Benning | 03.10.08 | 4:00 PM ET
It’s official: Bjork “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” when she shouted “Tibet! Tibet!” at the end of a recent concert in Shanghai. That’s the word from the Ministry of Culture. The outburst came following the Icelandic singer’s performance of her song “Declare Independence.” Reports Reuters: “The performance ‘not only broke Chinese laws and regulations and hurt the feelings of Chinese people, but also went against the professional code of an artist,’ the ministry said in a statement quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.”
Traveling While Texan
by Sophia Dembling | 02.05.08 | 12:53 PM ET
Photo: iStockphoto. Sophia Dembling hears a lot about her home state while she's on the road, particularly from other travelers intent on steering clear of the land of George W. Bush, Jasper and big hair. Her response: Get over it.
How Barack Obama Just Might Improve Your Vacation
by Joanna Kakissis | 01.24.08 | 12:39 PM ET
I’ve lived in Greece since 2004 and have watched foreign contempt for George W. Bush reach epic proportions. As an American (albeit one of Greek descent), I’ve repeatedly faced angry cross-examinations about Bush’s foreign policy and the war in Iraq. But since the 2008 presidential race started making international headlines a couple of months ago, including here in Greece, I’ve noticed those angry interrogations are increasingly being replaced with enthusiastic pronouncements about how much the Greeks I encounter love Barack Obama. It’s a startling shift. Could it be a sign that more American travelers will be greeted with warmer welcomes around the globe in 2008? I sure hope so.
Air Travelers For Barack Obama!
by Michael Yessis | 01.08.08 | 3:43 PM ET
The Air Travelers Association has endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. President. Association president David Stempler said in a press release that the endorsement is based on the belief that Obama can “quickly get in place a new, GPS-based, next generation, air traffic control system, called ‘NextGen.’” What? He wasn’t simply swayed by Obama’s four-and-a-half Air Force Ones rating in World Hum’s U.S. Presidential Candidate Travel Scorecard? (via Los Angeles Times Daily Deal)
The 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates Travel Scorecard
by Julia Ross | 01.01.08 | 8:14 AM ET
What travel guide best suits John McCain? Where's Hillary Clinton's dream destination? Julia Ross examines how the White House contenders stack up as global travelers.
President Bush: Passenger Strandings ‘Just Not Right’
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.07 | 6:45 PM ET
The issue of airline passenger strandings now has the attention of the White House. According to the AP, President George W. Bush said today that “endless hours sitting in an airplane on a runway with no communication between a pilot and the airport is just not right,” and he asked Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to meet with airlines to try to solve the problem.
Kate Hanni: ‘The Ralph Nader of the Skies’
by Michael Yessis | 09.20.07 | 6:05 PM ET
Kate Hanni (pictured) is the founder of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, and she’s so committed to federal legislation in support of air travelers that she quit her job and took out a $200,000 line of credit on the California home she owns with her husband to spearhead the fight, according to a new profile of her by Joe Sharkey for Portfolio.com. She did so after being stuck in an American Airlines plane on the tarmac in Austin, Texas, for nine hours last December in one of several well-publicized stranding incidents.
Walking Off the Karakoram Highway
by Jeffrey Tayler | 08.20.07 | 11:17 AM ET
On a winding route to Pakistan's Rama Lake, taunted and ignored, Jeffrey Tayler learns the truth of the saying, "All politics is local"
Take a Vacation. It’s Presidential.
by Ben Keene | 08.16.07 | 10:19 AM ET
Love him or hate him, our commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, can teach Americans at least one lesson: how to vacation. With only a few weeks of summer remaining, President Bush, like many other world leaders, is trading the stress of executive office for some rest and relaxation. And he’s leaving the majority of U.S. citizens in his Texas dust. Actually, if a survey conducted by a global human resources firm is accurate, even the average Finn, Israeli or Lithuanian would have a hard time keeping up with his seven-year vacation-time total. Because whatever President Bush may lack in creativity—he’s taken 65 trips to Crawford, Texas since entering office—he more than makes up for in number. According to the Houston Chronicle, G.W.B. is well on his way to claiming the White House record for time off, rapidly closing in on the 436 days Reagan racked up during two terms.
AP Editor: Kids on Planes More Controversial Than Hillary Clinton
by Jim Benning | 07.30.07 | 3:13 PM ET
Earlier this month, AP travel editor Beth Harpaz wrote a column suggesting there might be a growing backlash against traveling families, and specifically, kids on planes. She pointed to recent news reports of a nursing mother ordered off a plane and a mother and boy booted off a flight after the boy repeatedly said, “Bye, bye plane.” Wrote Harpaz: “Sure, I have heard kids babbling, singing songs and playing games on airplanes. Yes, I have heard them complaining or crying when their ears hurt or they are bored. But that’s OK. I don’t mind. A world without children and their sounds is not a world I want to live in.”
Al Gore, Are You Out to Destroy Travel Literature?
by Jim Benning | 07.17.07 | 10:46 AM ET
We know you’re out to save the planet, but have you given any thought to how your campaign to reduce emissions will affect travel literature? What’s that? You haven’t really considered it? Well writer Steve Coronella has. “[L]ately I’ve been wondering whether Al Gore has signaled the end of travel writing as we have come to know it,” Coronella writes in the Cape Cod Times. “Will the long-haul literary excursion become an indefensible extravagance in the face of global warming and the accompanying public outcry that we all need to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’ to combat it?”
Your Hotel Minibar Key: Unlocking Overpriced Snacks and Diebold Voting Machines
by Michael Yessis | 09.20.06 | 7:07 AM ET
A Princeton professor and graduate student say on their weblog they were able to open a Diebold voting machine using a key “used widely ... in hotel minibars.” Lovely.
‘The Power of Travel Must Be a Critical Element in our Public Diplomacy Efforts’
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.06 | 8:17 AM ET
I pulled that quote from the home page of the Discover America Partnership, a new organization of United States travel industry representatives that seeks to boost the levels of visitors to the country and to enlist Americans as “citizen diplomats.” As we wrote earlier this year, the dwindling number of visitors to the U.S.—the industry says the war in Iraq and security restrictions are the main contributors to the decline—has the domestic tourism industry in a panic.
How Corrupt is Your Country? Try Counting Your Diplomats’ Parking Tickets.
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.06 | 2:41 PM ET
That’s what economists Ray Fisman and Edward Miguel did. In what The Undercover Economist author Tim Harford called “a flash of inspiration,” Fisman and Miguel decided to see which countries’ diplomats at the United Nations in New York racked up the most parking tickets. They reasoned that, because diplomatic immunity put the diplomats in a consequence-free environment, it would be a great experiment to measure personal morality on a country-by-country basis.
Happy Bastille Day!
by Michael Yessis | 07.14.06 | 3:33 PM ET
I’ll be commemorating the beginning of the French Revolution tonight at a French restaurant here in D.C. with a three-course prix fixe meal that’s an excellent price for so many reasons. That price? $17.89.
France, Interrupted
by Terry Ward | 04.10.06 | 10:20 PM ET
Photo by Terry Ward. In a lake house near Rodez, the wine was flowing and party-goers were immersed in a rugby match on TV. Terry Ward was chatting with locals, enjoying the moment. Then the telephone call came from home.
Gilmore v. Gonzales: Should U.S. Airline Passengers Have to Show ID?
by Michael Yessis | 12.14.05 | 1:08 AM ET
Last week the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments in the Gilmore v. Gonzales case, in which San Francisco resident John Gilmore is challenging the requirement for air passengers to show identification before boarding a flight within the United States.
President Bush to Reporter: “Have You Ever Heard of Jet Lag?”
by Michael Yessis | 11.20.05 | 9:43 PM ET
U.S. President George W. Bush had an awkward moment this morning during a press session in Beijing, blaming a lackluster appearance with Chinese President Hu Jintao on jet lag.