Arkansas Blog

I see this "access for rich-people" thing as a non-issue. Most anyone flying can come up with the annual fee if they felt it was worth it- and if you fly enough and it was in enough airports, it probably would be worth it. Look at it this way, if it cost $5 a year, would you do it to escape the long security lines? So now we're just haggling over the price.

The only thing this new system allows you to bypass is the LINE! You still have to show an ID. Still have to show your ticket. Still have to pass through the metal detector. So the money goes to the government but the people who are inconvenienced are the poor peons who can't afford the fee. The fair way to cut to the front of the line would be to negotiate with each of the persons in line ahead of you to move ahead of them. Some may allow you to pass for nothing, most would for around $5 a piece, others may want upwards of $100. Let the invisible hand of the market decide the price.

I like that line of thought, Rutrow.

...just another example of how life is improved for the "have's" vs. the "have not's".

Sorry, but Rutrow's idea won't work if I'm in line. I don't care how much money you offer. I got there first, that is, I "paid" for my spot by getting my act together earlier than the other guy. I hate to fly under any circumstances and refuse to if there is any alternative, so don't even think about approaching me and trying to make my trip any more of an endurance contest. Pay off every other person in line if you want, but you're not getting in front of me.

OH my yes; lets be fair, let's tell every body how to spend their money. If you got the extra money and are willing to pay to by pass the line tell me you would not do it!
I can hear the excvuses now: "But this is an emergency." " You don"t understand I need to get on that plane now."
Everyone of would use this option if we had the money so quit your whining. And we would use anyexcuse to justify what we do.
This is no affront to democracy.
Max you are no different than any other media reporter. When will the media just give us the news. No Bias just the facts.

Wes, might you have a favorite columnist? One whom you know has his head on straight, unlike the rest of us? I bet he just gives us the news, no bias, just the facts, right? Right?

Well I just quit flying around 2003 (except when planning vacation overseas and I plan that much less now than I used to.. not because of cost or fear of travel but because of horrific security treatment and awful airline/airport service).. and if one reads the airline news these days it would seem there are a lot of other folks who have quit flying too.

Treating everyone as a suspected terrorist until proven otherwise is fascism plain and simply. No matter how much money one has, we all need to be scrutinized by security at the same place, pace, and time by our government.

9-11 happened not due to just failed airport security... it happened due to failed Bush policy, failed intel /law enforcement scrutiny, and failed airport scrutiny. Muddying the waters by treating every individual like a terrorist is failed policy too, on many many levels.

RIch people funded those terrorists.. why oh why should the working poor pay for everything, in terms of liberty, blood, and treasure lost?

This entire new way of treating people in airports is about as un-American as it gets. Paid preferential treatment of the rich is just additional insult.

This is not preferential treatment of the rich, the rich don't stand in lines at the terminal, the rich don't fly on the airlines. The rich schedule their pilots to have the Gulfstream, Falcon, Hawker or whatever ready, fueled, & provisioned for the mission and step on board just before departure and are on their way without delay from the other side of the airport.

Doigotta; No, I do not have a favorite colomnist. I have yet to find a reporter who is not interested in swaying public opinion in his favor. I have instead found evidence that if a reporter is working for a liberal medium he/she will report news with a liberal twist. And the same goes for a conservative reporter. And I believe it to be called greed.