Links and Minifeatures 01 23 Tuesday

RINO Sightings Eric did a wonderful job via Salvador Dali (Not Quite Safe For Work, if your boss doesn't understand that it's Art) Recommended: Digger's Realm (illegal immigrant sex offenses, but I seem to recall that includes some truly insignificant crimes as well, such as public urination), Web Economy BS Generator

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Ship from 8th Century Found in Mediterranean



I didn't know where Dor Beach was; search engine results led me to believe it's Israel. The period in question would correspond to the Byzantine navy dominating that area. On the other hand, I also found a "Cala d'Or" in Majorca, which, given the political situation in the Western Mediterranean, could also be it. I find it difficult to accept that they've only found one wreck from that period in the eastern Med, but would find it much more credible pertaining to the Western portion, where my best understanding has maritime traffic much lower at that point in time, both due to the Vikings and the general state of the world. On the other hand, 'twas the Israelis at Haifa studying it. Fascinating article, though.



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If his lawyers wanted a strategy guaranteed to backfire and harm their client, and keep on doing so even if he does get acquitted despite those lawyer's best efforts, it would be hard to beat this: Lawyers Paint Libby As Sacrificial Lamb

Top White House officials tried to blame vice presidential aide "Scooter" Libby for the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity to protect President Bush's political strategist, Karl Rove, Libby's defense attorney said Tuesday as his perjury trial began.

Say what? He's on trial for perjury for lying to investigators under oath, as even the article mentions:

Rove was one of two sources for Novak's story. The other was then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Nobody, including Rove and Armitage, has been charged with the leak. Libby is accused of lying to investigators and obstructing the probe into the leak.

Now if Richard Armitage was charged, I might believe they were protecting Rove. But the power structure in Washington won't stand for charging Richard Armitage, who is a powerful insider with ties to both sides of the aisle, and FitzGerald

didn't charge him, despite him being the only one possibly guilty of a primary offense.

Fitzgerald said Libby learned from five people - from Cheney to members of the CIA and State Department - that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Libby discussed that fact to reporters and others in the White House, Fitzgerald said.



"But when the FBI and grand jury asked about what the defendant did," Fitzgerald said, "he made up a story."

Whoops. What does the "I was set up" thing have to do with this, unless he was instructed to lie by his superiors? Even if he was instructed to lie, and Vice President Cheney bears this out in his testimony, Libby is still guilty. Nor will he be in a position to ask for or receive clemency after this trial tactic. Furthermore, he'll never get another job offer, ever again, either in Washington (either party) or the corporate world. All that's left is a book deal. Meantime, he's a convicted felon. He could have pulled the Bill Clinton defense and likely gotten away with it, or he could have just fought it straightforward, on the evidence, and had an excellent chance of clemency, even on the chance he was convicted.



I am not a lawyer. But If I were "Scooter" Libby, I'd be looking for another one.



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I wasn't there, but as the father of two young children, I've got to say it looks like the airline got it right. Toddler's Temper Ousts Family From Plane

"The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family," AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said.

and

She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, Graham-Weaver said.

In other words, the parents couldn't or wouldn't control her. The rules and regs are hardwired and the airline doesn't have a choice about whether it's going to comply.



The mother's excuse?

Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly.



"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

They had at least fifteen minutes, in addition to whatever time before boarding they should have needed. Nor would it have hurt her to be belted in to her seat. Yes, she would have cried. Sometimes you have to let them. I'm sorry for the surrounding passengers, but that's the least bad alternative if the child is going on that flight. But the parents weren't willing to do that. What is the airline supposed to do? Delay the flight and everyone else on it for as long as it takes, be liable for costs incurred by those people and the resulting bad will, delay the folks waiting for the plane's next flight, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?



If I thought I had to, I'd drive across the country and back to prevent this sort of thing with my girls. Or whatever else needed to happen. But when you engage in communal transportation, you are making the statement that you believe that you can comply with the rules set down for it, and if you can't, you have no gripe coming when the carrier deals with the situation appropriately. It was not even vaguely reasonable to expect a planeload of other folks to wait however long it took, as well as forcing the airline to eat major delays and possibly be on the hook for payments to everyone else. At the very least, I'd voluntarily take the next flight to give me a chance to get her calmed down. Blaming the airline is avoiding the issue, which is that it was the parent's fault for not prepping the child, plus not being willing to deal with the necessities of the situation.

The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day.



They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.

Far beyond the call of duty, in my book, in addition to delaying the entire flight fifteen minutes to give them the opportunity to do what they should have done in the first place. The airline bent over backwards, at the expense of their other passengers, and the parents spat in their outstretched hands.



Yes, I complain about bad customer service when it really is bad customer service. But this isn't a customer service issue, except from the point of view of the other passengers, who also paid for their tickets on the flight, and the passengers who were waiting for that plane's next flight, etcetera. This is just plain rudeness on the part of the parents, who should have had some understanding of the situation they were putting the airline and the other passengers into. I went into my regular barbershop the other day, and people were stacked up so that I would have missed a meeting if I took my turn. It would not have been reasonable to expect to be accommodated ahead of others already waiting; instead I told the owner it was not his fault and that I'd be back in a few days when I had another chance. Any other response would have shifted the responsibility for the situation from where it belonged: on my shoulders. Nor is this any special virtue; it's just an acknowledgement of the fact that the conditions weren't right for what I hoped for: a quick haircut in time for my meeting.



I would like to ask these folks one question: Are there any other people on the planet they come from, or just two-legged anthropoid puppets that move around and get in their way?



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I'd drop the last two letters: Clinton says spouse will be an 'asset'

If elected president, Hillary Rodham Clinton says her spouse and former Oval Office occupant will be a "tremendous asset," but she's the decider.

Why is it so bad when Bush is the decider, but worthy of writing in glowing terms when the candidate is one the writer approves of?



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Excellent article: Retirees up against debt

Seniors in and approaching retirement -- such as the oldest baby boomers -- are carrying "debt loads that their parents would not have considered," says Sally Hurme of AARP, the advocacy group for people 50 and older. "This does not bode well for financial health."

The one and only measure of wealth that makes sense is "How long can you live without any income from outside sources?"



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The Speech George Bush Should Make Tonight



(via Tinkerty Tonk)



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INDC Journal is in Iraq, and contributing such reports as this one (concerning corruption and rooting it out).