You can't go to Cleveland...

After spending the weekend with old college friends at a wedding reception, completely obvious to reality, I ended up on a tiny plane in Grand Rapids, Michigan, headed for a connecting flight in Cleveland. My seatmate informed me as soon as I sat down that she had bet her office mate that Bush's Cleveland trip would produce travel delays. Waah? Bush? Cleveland?

I made a sound that is basically swearing without using consonants, as I had only a 45-minute layover, and then apologized, in case she was one of the two supporters that Bush had left. She said, no worries, I feel the same way. She, like Bush, was headed to a sales conference in Cleveland, and no planes were allowed to fly into or leave Cleveland until "The President" departed.

Because Bush was elected via voter fraud, twice, I do not refer to him as President... I say either Bush, or "The President," in quotes, and I think of it as a metaphor, like Springsteen is "The Boss" or Elvis was "The King." Of course, as far as I know, neither one of their titles enabled them to ground thousands of passengers in the middle of a business day with a rumored snowstorm on the way.

Every 20 minutes the pilot would let us know that they had not received clearance, thanking us in advance for our "patience." When someone thanks you in advance for your patience, they are not apologizing, but putting the onus back on you, to control YOUR reaction to other people's crap.

At one point we moved to the (I kid you not)"holding pen" to await word. At least they didn't come right out and call us cattle. At one point I asked the flight attendant what the airline's policy was about holding the connecting flights after "The President" got up from his nap or whatever, and apparently, it didn't happen enough to have a policy. So, I prepared mentally to spend the night in Cleveland.

After sitting in the tiny hot plane, cooking enough to become pork rinds (maybe we would get some respect from "The President" then) we were finally allowed to spend 1/2 hour in the air to get to Cleveland. When we landed there were still 5 small black limousines on the tarmac, like calves who got cut off from the herd, wondering where their parents were.

The delay produced delays for connecting flight attendants and pilots as well, scheduled for the Cleveland to Phoenix flight, so no worries on making the connection. The 45-minute wait morphed into 2 hours.

Like all non-profits, the administration doesn't really have to perform or understand how things work in the real world to keep getting paid. Having a sales conference to sell a war is really for their side-jobs, and we all understand that. I just think they should do it on their own time.