Congress at its best

Let there be no doubt, I’ve got issues with the airlines, as everyone who has scheduled a flight for me is well aware. My dictates are do not book me on United or anything owned by them and under no circumstances route me through Chicago, even if means another 48 hours is added to my travel time.

As much as I have enjoyed the truly,truly, wonderful people at Southwest Airlines, on my return trip from Oakland, CA, in September – it took only one flight attendant who must have mistook my features for one of her Pacific Rim relatives – and made the mistake of treating me as she would an ex-husband, if she were able to find someone interested in a woman with a classically miserable disposition, who wears makeup like one of the early French Queens who wore the same makeup their entire life – adding layer after layer, but never removing it.

The flight attendant did her level best to taunt me into a situation that would have resulted in my expulsion from the plane. The flight attendant in charge turned out to be a bigger liar than Obama – which was easily verified when I asked an unsuspecting Southwest employee at the terminal when I changed flights. And Missy, the customer service person I spoke to in Dallas, was without question, the most offensive, ignorant, poorly educated, and patently poor example of professionalism I have ever in my lifetime experienced. I will now take my complaint is Jim Ruppert, the Vice President of Customer Relations for Southwest Airlines, and failing to get satisfaction on his level my next stop is board of directors and a national campaign to isolate and identify hostile airline environments.

Without question my experience was rivaled as the worst two experiences of my adult life – one when the night desk employee at the Ramada Inn in Perrysville, Ohio – drew a knife in denying my son and I lodging in a near empty hotel, for no other reason than the color of our skin. The other nightmarish experience in my life that I can compare it to was the election of Obama.

I’ve shared my experience and my efforts to get satisfaction sans the introduction of my attorneys. My efforts are made on my own time, at my own expense, and for valid reasons. But, if I were United States senator, and was upset over the inconvenience of not having enough room the overhead bins because of increased carry-on – I’d simply have my staff write legislation for me to introduce, that would mandate airlines offer one checked bag for free.

And that is exactly Democrat senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Benjamin Cardin of Maryland did. Of course rather than being truthful and saying the legislation is about their being personally inconvenienced, they claim it’s about an altruistic concern for passengers.

Of course they paraded out the obligatory props to prove validation for their actions – a businessman who works in Washington, D.C. and lives in California, complained that unless you are one of the first boarders, the overhead bins will be full. Janet Napolitano, the same woman who told us the borders were safer than at anytime in history – right up until we found out America border agents were being murdered by Mexican drug cartels with guns her department surely had to be aware were coming from Fast and Furious – claimed checked bags were declining but the volume and cost associated with screening carry-on bags was increasing.

It must be nice to simply write a bill for anything you deem an inconvenience and/or a bother. But, that’s not my understanding of why we send people to Washington. My understanding is they are elected to represent our interests to the fullest of their capabilities. That said, how does writing frivolous self-serving legislation accomplish that? I am a demonstrative opponent in the condemnation of steroids and/or performance enhancing drugs – but was it the business of Congress to get involved in how major league baseball handled it? The Sandusky child molestation case at Penn State is horrific and demands to be addressed. But is it the job of Congress, or the job of the NCAA, the schools themselves and the State and local authorities?

Is it necessary for me to point out that Congress has accomplished less then nothing, and the Senate under Democrat control since Bush, has accomplished even less than that. Congress has been unable to address the least of our concerns, but Landrieu and Cardin think it is imperative to address legislatively persons with carry-on bags.

You may be thinking that Congress has other more important things to address – I’m thinking that this is emblematic of Congressional meddling that has contributed to destroying our economy, undermining our ability to raise our families without government interference, pushed homosexuality on elementary school students, subverted the Constitution, and eroded our traditional value systems. I’m thinking that this validates our Founding Fathers understanding that limited government was essential. Not the bloated, intrusive, do nothing leviathan we have today that is hellbent and determined to control over facet of our lives.