Ask…
Share your views on hot topics
Are new security screenings affecting your decision to fly?
Stepped-up security screening at airports in the wake of foiled terrorism plots has provoked an outcry from airline pilots and travelers, including parents of children who say they are too intrusive.
Industry officials, travelers and pilots have complained bitterly to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about new full-body scanners and more rigorous patdown checks begun recent weeks.
Security officials have defended the measures as necessary after foiled plots by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has tried to hide bombs in clothing and parcels that have made it aboard a U.S. passenger airliner and two cargo planes.
With the busiest holiday travel season nearing, fliers face long security lines and new rigorous patdown checks aimed at discovering hidden explosives. As a result, some travelers are questioning whether to fly at all.
Are you less likely to fly because of stepped-up security procedures such as full-body scans and patdowns?
- Yes - I will make alternate travel plans to avoid intrusive security scans and patdowns
- No - It is a necessary procedure to ensure terror plots are thwarted
- Undecided
Share your airline travel woes
Most would agree that the days of stress-free air travel are over. As the airline industry grapples with unprecedented oil prices that have almost doubled in the past year, carriers are now eking out profits any way they can, including adding fuel surcharges, cutting back services and eliminating flights.
The moves have left passengers complaining about cramped, crowded and frequently delayed flights, and worse.
Everyone has a horror story – what is yours?
American Airlines sucks because: American squeezed in two more rows in coach by placing rows closer together, using thinner seat padding. HOW CAN THEY BE PROUD OF THIS ?
To dig or not to dig? The crude question
President Bush is urging Congress to end a decades-old ban on offshore oil drilling in response to consumer anxiety over record-high gas prices.
“Every American who drives to work, purchases food or ships a product has felt the effect. And families across our country are looking to Washington for a response,” Bush said.
The push by Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain to lift the ban could find plenty of support. About 60 percent of Americans surveyed in a Reuters/Zogby poll said they would favor government efforts to boost domestic drilling and refinery construction.
Roughly the same amount said they would back efforts to reduce domestic demand through tougher fuel-efficiency standards.
Do you favor more U.S. oil drilling?
For more on the rising cost of oil, click here.
For your consideration here are some real:
Oil Facts
Sources U.S Geo Survey – U.S Energy Info Admin – Bureau of Land Mang – Dept of inter Oil & Gas Journal
Saudi Arabia holds the world’s largest oil reserve. The U.S holds the world’s 12th largest oil reserve but we are the world’s 3rd largest producer of oil. We produce about 8 million barrels a day. The U.S is the world’s largest consumer of oil, China is the second largest. We consume about 20 million barrels a day. The U.S appetite for oil is so huge that it dwarfs China’s consumption. Even with China’s massive 1.3 billion person population they consume a modest 7.2 millions barrels a day.
What are we doing with all this oil? 69% is used for transportation, 24% is used by Industry, 5% is used by residential and commercial and 2% is used for electrical power.
Where do we get the oil we use? Canada is our largest provider of oil, next is Saudi Arabia then Mexico.
There are only two places in the U.S where we are not allowed to drill; the first is about half of the Eastern Great Basin (the area of concern is half of Nevada & most of Utah). We are not allowed to drill on about half of it because some of the Native American tribes who call it home object to it. The second is Alaska’s North coast – we actually do drill there but most of it is protected as a National Wildlife Refuge.
As of 2006 we had over 500,000 oil wells pumping 24/7 for us and that number has increased since then.
So why is the price of oil so high? That depends on who you talk to. A very simple answer is supply and demand; Fox news loves this meaningless response. Personally, I would look at the commodity traders. Remember what they did with electricity in California in 2000 – 2001. Remember Enron. Don’t be sad
Buck Up!
Feeling sad about the price of oil? Don’t worry we’ve weathered these gas storms before, every decade or so we get pummeled by a new one, but sooner or later fuel prices will begin to fall and then they will stabilize —- and when they do I’m buying the biggest, fattest Hummer you ever did saw!
Yea Haw!!
I’m only kiddin about that last part – I know that people who rely on transportation for their living are really hurting and that is a shame. I just don’t think that drilling for more oil is really going to help. Remember, we are currently the world’s 3rd largest producer of oil and it’s barely enough to supply 1/3 of our demand. I believe that the only real solution is to decrease our dependency on oil.
Let’s not fall back into the old oil trap.
Take Heart.
We are the biggest, toughest and most forward thinking country in the whole world, the solutions can not be as impossible as we are making them out to be. One man who has some great ideas is Billionaire Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens. Do an internet search and see what he says. Heck, even the Exxon Mobil heirs, The Rockefellers, believe that we should turn away from fossil fuels and create a cleaner, more dependable source of energy.
Impossible you say—Nothing is impossible for the greatest nation on earth!!!
Good Luck and God Bless
Vacation plans dropped on fuel
Americans in dire need of a break are canceling their vacation plans — from air travel to road trips — because of soaring fuel prices.
In a Reuters/Zogby poll, nearly 39 percent of Americans surveyed said they were reconsidering their vacation plans due to record-high oil prices.
In another survey, 82 percent of Americans said they were opting to stay home this July 4th weekend due to economic concerns.
Have oil prices affected your vacation plans?
For more results from the Reuters/Zogby poll, click here .
How to endure flight cancellation chaos
About 100,000 passengers have been affected after American Airlines canceled over 1,000 flights. Travelers will endure more pain as the airline says it expects over 900 more cancellations on Thursday. Watch this video on the travel chaos.
Cancellations angered travelers at several airports but Dallas was the hardest hit, followed by Chicago’s O’Hare.
Angry bloggers weighed in. “This must be the single biggest aerial traffic disruption since 9/11, right? And it’s created by whom — American private enterprise and federal regulators,” writes Bruce Sterling.
In additional airline news, United Airlines raised some of its fares.
What do you do to get through the airline and airport delays? Share your tips with the thousands waiting at U.S. airports today.
On one news show I heard a passenger complain that because of the canceled flights she’d have to wait in Chicago overnight to get to Detroit the next day. Duh… Why not just rent charter busses to carry the passengers short distances like Chicago-Detroit rather than make them wait days in the airport? Bus would only take 5 or 6 hours to make the trip. Much more sensible. A lot cheaper for the airline than making the passenger wait and fly later, and better for the passenger who gets there a lot quicker.
-
Resident Ask... Expert
-
In March 2011 I drove ~1,800 miles for work to avoid the TSA body scanners and intrusive patdowns.
This cost me Time and Money. I prefer to fly. It is cheaper, faster, and safer, but I prefer even more to not be molested and not have a digital image of my body saved or seen.
I plan to avoid flying until the body scanners are not used and the intrusive patdowns are eliminated.
To be legal, the TSA must have a warrant or probable cause and arrest the suspect before a patdown. Currently the TSA is operating illegally.
It is clear the TSA efforts are not about making the USA safer. Janet Napolitano said the US-Mexico border is secure, which it is no.
I can only pray for God’s help and for good elected officials who will correct the problems and wrong doings in the TSA. Protect The People from the TSA.