In the Middle of the Pouring Rain

Susan:

I am going to assume that you used a credit card to book your reservation..If you cannot get through to the airline,,,,just call your bank and have the charge declined. I guarantee that some person some place will call you! I have tried this approach several times and I get a response by phone or e-mail within 24 hours. You don't have to worry about a refund on money that goes back in your account. There may be a minor bank fee for doing this but is usually worth it to do it this way.

Seems that Estrich doesn't like being forced to pay for something she does not want now or may never use. It seems also that she would prefer to talk to her chosen expert on the extant matter that is ailing her. It further seems that she is absolutely not in favor of “who cares what your problem is or what you need, this is what you can have and when you can have it” automatons.
It seems odd therefore that all of the above is what she and her liberal ilk wish to illegally foist on the people of the US.
Her tale of woe and just complaint about her travails in rearranging travel plans is serviceable metaphor for the certain consequences of the unconstitutional monstrosity of Obamacare, its mandatory purchase of health insurance, its dispensation of consultation with the chosen expert, to wit, the personal physician and the institutionalization of treatment, its extent and when or if it will be provided by placing such decisions in the hands of government bureaucrats and similar automatons.

If Obama care more aptly named “Jackass care” (my apologies for my insult to jackasses everywhere) is not repealed in its entirely then we shall all be left out in the pouring rain be financially soaked by a statist oligarchy.

As usual, Susan (It's only ever about Susan) Estrich has no clue how things work. I always spend the $15 cancellation insurance. Millions of people are without jobs and all Susan cares about is that (whine) "no one will (snivel) talk to me (whimper) about MY problem."

Re: robert lipka
Further is not Lipka's advice not illustrative of how liberals in dishonest fashion will never take responsibility for their own actions. They would happily involve third parties that had no part in their decision making process, to wit, in this case a bank or credit card company, and would cause the bank or credit card company effort and expense rectifying their mistakes, which expense is then ultimately passed on to other innocents. Another metaphor for why liberalism and progressivism and the dishonest policies of Democrats has brought us all to where we are now.

Re: joseph wright
Wright,,,,,who attacks every post I make simply because I have repeatedly pointed out what a bigot he is, has responded this time like a typical Republican. Always worried about what it MIGHT cost them and never offering any solutions to a problem. . I note that Wright has not offered a solution as to how to respond when a phone call cannot get through to India (Where the Republicans sent all our phone bank jobs ) for help. As for the fee, the banks charge that directly to the customer who requests the denial service.

Re: robert lipka
Firstly before Lipka does it, I would like to give full credit to Obama for his masterful strategy of cutting short his Martha's Vineyard boondoggle for a photo op. which masterful strategy was clearly aimed at and directly caused the natural forces to weaken hurricane Irene to tropical storm. Would that Obama could equally weaken the tornado of spending and destruction that has been ripping through the US since 2009, to wit, low rent Michelle.
Lipka and his kind ( the liberals and weak minded souls predicted by Lennin that could be relied upon to be "useful idiots") have only one solution to every problem, which is to say, to spend other people's money. Lipka's first post simply illustrates the macro point on a micro issue such as airline tickets and phone calls. Estrich's entire piece illlustrates the typical liberal hypocrisy on macro issues (forced expenditure, loss of consultation, and institutional take over of personal matters) when personally confonted with micro issues involving similar principles.
As to cost, President Lincoln said it best " With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others the word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men's labors."
For me the meaning of liberty is rooted in the first alternative but for all liberals, re- distributionists, socialists, Democrats, progressives, "useful idiots" and their ilk who are content to give themselves up to tyranny or alternatively are themselves no more than "modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom" [Bruce Cockburn] it is falsely rooted in the second.

Re: joseph wright
Once again Wright's post is full of insults and irrelevant drivel and again does not offer any solution to Susan's problem.
The solution I proposed does not cost anyone else a single dime except for Susan's need to pay a credit card denial fee to her bank. It solves her problem with minimal cost.
Wright's incoherant ramblings drawing politics into an issue that is personal make no sense nor are they relevant. Obviously Wright is not a problem solver. That takes intelligence and forethought.
As to hix comment about the president and his smear of the first lady, I recall that AFTER Katrina hit New Orleans, George W. Bush went golfing and Sec. of State Condeleeza Rice went to a Broadway play that evening. The Bush Administration was totally asleep at the wheel........just as they were prior to 9/11 when the president's DAILY INTSUM (intelligence summary) contained clear warnings of potential danger from terrorists. Hundreds of people died in the Katrina disaster, many due to Bush administration incompetence Remember "Good Job Brownie" the Bush appointee whose prior work experience was as an Arabian horse breeder. This time, Fema, under the management of a director with experience managing seven prior hurricane responses, has acted very capably and co-ordinated the pre-storm preparation with the Governors of each of the affected states. All of those governors, both Democrats and Republicans have publically praised the actions of the Federal government in an effort that obviously saved many lives. Sometimes real leadership manifests itself through the correct appointment of department heads and aides who have the ability to do the job as opposed to political appointees who are just picked to fill a slot.

Re: robert lipka
It seems that Lipka actually and astonishingly believes that Estrich, a litigator and one accustomed to fleecing others out of their property was seeking a solution to her problem from him or any other reader and it also seems that the fool imagines that Estrich actually reads the comments. Maybe I missed the Dear Reader (especially Robert) I have a problem that needs your assistance predicate to the piece. LOL.

That said, this is so all easy. The right fly properly presented to a gullible trout brings the quarry to the surface for some sport. Like the liberal that trout he is, Lipka fell for the “ give Obama credit, Michelle low rent tornado fly” rose to it with gusto, was hooked by it and once again exposed his gleaming “it was all Bush's fault scales” as he thrashed around hopelessly. Incidentally, I hear that it was the same Bush's fault that caused the recent earth quake felt up the eastern states.

Now the facts about Katrina.
1. After forming on August 23, 2005 and after devastating the Gulf Coast, Katrina smashed into New Orleans Monday August 29, 2005 and generated such stresses that the levees failed.
2. Over 1500 people in New Orleans who should have been evacuated prior to Katrina arriving and who could readily have been so evacuated even after levees started to fail but were not died from the effects of debris or by drowning.
3. The real story of the tragedy surrounding Katrina is of incompetence at local government level by Democrats, of incompetence at state government level by Democrats and the history of financial state wide corruption by Democrats.
4. Louisiana and New Orleans were properly warned by the Federal Authorities prior to August 28 about the severity of Katrina. Not only did NOAA issue dire warning but President Bush issued disaster declaration before Katrina made landfall. The director of National Hurricane Center personally warned Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco that New Orleans should be evacuated.
5. New Orleans had a Comprehensive Emergency Plan (“CEP”) which detailed evacuation plans. The CEP was never implemented by Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin.
6. Blanco made no request for provision of assistance prior to the storm. This was her direct responsibility.
7. Nagin's incompetence was limitless. He was frozen into inaction. He did not assemble or deploy the city's hundreds of public buses or school buses and failed to return calls from Amtrak offering hundreds of seats on unscheduled trains.
8. The failure of the levees was directly due to system design flaws and monies not being expended upon maintenance or corruptly diverted elsewhere by a succession of Democratic local government politicos.
9. The congressional Report “A Failure of Initiative, the Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate Preparedness and Response to Katrina” concluded, inter alia that
Despite adequate warning 56 hours before landfall, Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin delayed ordering a mandatory evacuation in New Orleans until 19 hours before landfall.
The failure to order timely mandatory evacuations, Mayor Nagin's decision to shelter [later to become known as Nagin's folly] but not evacuate the remaining population led to an incomplete evacuation.
The incomplete pre-landfall evacuation led to deaths, thousands of dangerous rescues, and horrible
conditions for those who remained.
10. The responsibility for the death toll in New Orleans lies first and foremost with Mayor Nagin and then Governor Blanco. Indeed as Katrina bore down on New Orleans, Nagin, who should have been ordering evacuation on August 27, was meeting with city attorneys worried about legal ramifications from hotels that stood to lose considerable revenue when guests were forced out.

No, Bush's fault that immaginary fissure that causes all natural and economic disasters did not stretch to Louisiana.
As for 9/11 one only has to remember a Democrat stooge by the name of Jamie Gorelick and muse on the fact that the jackass Obama really knows how not to pick them.

It's not often that a person plays key roles in two trillion-dollar disasters (Obama is one) but Jamie Gorelick is another. She was instrumental in bringing us 9/11 and later in the virtual collapse of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and she was on the presidential short list to be the head of the FBI. God help us all.

Re: Wright

In his never-ending zeal to defame Democrats, Wright blames every Democrat in sight while completely ignoring the incompetence of the Bush administration. Vice President Cheney's new book does the same blame game thing and that premise was openly laughed at on the Sunday morning talk shows.
As to blaming 9/11 on Jamie Gorelick,,,,,that is beyond belief.. The DAILY INTSUM was on Bush's desk many days prior to 9/11 and the vacationing president simply ignored the warning.......when the Intsum's contents came to light, many Bush officials tried desparately to cover this up or blame Jamie Gorelick, The spin did not work. The warning was in the intsum and Bush, the lackadasical president that he was either did not read it and thus was derelict in his job, or was too stupid to understand the warning in that document. The only thing the Bush administration could think to do was try to have the document surpressed on "national security" grounds. When that tactic failed they were left with the truth coming out. They have been scrambling and backfilling ever since. The public neeeds to read and reread that Daily Intelligence summary over and over again to see how incompetent George W. Bush was in the days leading up to 9/11. He had clear warning. Unfortunately, the thousands who died in the Twin Towers , at the Pentagon and on the Johnstown-Windber road in Western Pa did not have warning and they paid the ultimate price.

Mr. Wrong is the most tiresome voice on the web.

Re: robert lipka
Truth is never defamation and indeed truth is a perfect defence to any charge of defamation. Neither Lipka nor Cadbury can dent the truth of my comments above.

Finding the "truth" in Mr. Wrong's comments is a fool's errand. He turns every single piece by Susan Estrich, no matter how personal or apolitical into an opportunity to bash Obama and liberals. He represents everything that is truly awful about right-wing extremists who have no use for facts or, indeed, reality.

This all started because Wright brought up a corelation berween Estrich's weekend spent fighting the automotons of modern business and the coming human tragedy of sick people fighting the automotons of modern obamacized medicine. Estrich has been in favor of coerced healthcare, Wright is pointing out that the system will inherently mirror the problems she faced this weekend. There is nothing "awful" about making this point. Estrich and others should in fact heed it. She just looked into the future she promotes for all of us. We'll all be sitting there crying, just as she wanted to when faced with an uncaring beaurocratic beast. But lives will be at stake. Wright is consistent; He don't like Estrich. Estrich's prescription for statist healthcard is inconsistent with the theme of this article.

Re: Tom
Tom has seen and articulated in plain and simple terms the obvious hypocrisy inherent in Estrich's initial complaint and a coming monstrosity she would have foist upon us all.
This inconsistencey/ hypocricy, clear to those who are prepared to see it, is one that the self anointed "wizards of smart" Lipka and Cadbury (LOL) could never in million years recognize because of an inate inability of liberals and progressives to remain consistent when it comes to what they want and would have for themselves and what they would prescribe for others.
My thanks Tom for making clear to the "wizards" and others like them, that which they presently refuse to see or that to which they refuse to admit.

I refuse to let this woman trash talk a solid company just because she has been slightly inconvenienced.

I've been using Expedia (and Orbitz, and a couple of others) for years. They are "consolidaters" (that's a market terms, that Ms. Estrich is probably unaware of).

The downside of any consolidater is that if some difficulty arises, you need to contact the end points (i.e., in this case, the individual airlines) to deal with it. The upside is that you can (for instance) log on to AA, or Continental, or whomever to book a flight, and you may get far less than an optimal flight. I you use Orbitz, or Expedia ... they quite often get you a MUCH better flight (since they can choose from so many airlines to configure an itinerary).

Yes ... Travel Agents used to do this ... they still do ... and they add a cost FAR above anything Expedia or Orbitz does.

Listening to this woman bitch and whine (and almost "cry") because she couldn't manage to navigate through what was a clearly bizarre and anomolous event just makes me want to say ... er ... good grief, grow the hell up. It was a hurricane. Several thousand flights were canceled or delayed. Whether she had booked with Expedia or directly with an airline or with anyone else ... there STILL would have been trouble.

Stamp your feet and cry if you like little girl ... but don't trash talk a company that generally delivers a great service to business travelers just because you haven't yet learned how to do online travel.

Only a coddled liberal insulated from the realities of the real world can have a significant problem getting a refund for an airline ticket. And these are the elitist who believe they are superior to everyone else, and thus, have a duty to rule us and limit our freedom; for our own good.

I am not impressed.

LOL