Brutal Gang-Rape of American Tourist in Brazil

A 21-year-old female American student was brutally gang-raped in a six-hour attack on a bus in the famous tourist Copacabana beach tourist section of Rio de Janeiro over the weekend.

After the attackers forced other riders off the bus, they drove it to various locations, beating and repeatedly raping the woman and severely beating her male French boyfriend, who they handcuffed and forced to watch the woman being assaulted. Then the Brazilian attackers -- police have identified three males, who were also implicated in a gang-rape of a Brazilian student two weeks ago -- drove around to various ATMs and forced the couple to withdraw cash before dumping the victims 30 miles from Copacabana.

Here's a news link.

The incident was the latest brutal sex assault by local males on a female tourist traveling abroad and, as the Associated Press reports, it "paralleled other gruesome gang rapes against women and tourists in developing countries."

Let me make a little point right here. In Brazil, there is always a loud cry that Brazil is not a "developing country" but rather has evolved into a first-world country, where safety and justice prevail. That questionable assertion underlies the triumph Brazil had in securing the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2014 World Cup, despite grave concerns about street crime and air-travel safety, not to mention the proclivity in Brazil for reacting to any criticism with cries that it must reflect dark imperialist conspiracies generated by "North Americans" and others.

Is Brazil a modern, developed country, as its booming economy would indicate? Or does that top-level economic veneer merely layer over third-world squalor and political malfeasance in a dystopia where crime is out of control, where "cover your ass" is the default official response, where local media rush to blame foreign victims, where xenophobia defines responses to outside criticism, where foreigners expressing concerns about crime are lectured -- totally falsely -- that crime rates are as high in U.S. cities?

The jury (all irony fully intended, from someone who's had some experience here) is out.

But the evidence about gang rape in Brazil is deeply troublesome. As the Times reports today, the same men identified in the weekend attack were implicated by a 21-year-old Brazilian woman who said they raped her after boarding a similar bus on March 23. She reported the attack to police but, according to the Times, "the authorities were said to have slowly investigated the claim. Two police officials in charge of investigating the March 23 case were abruptly removed from their posts on Monday."

The Times report continues: 

"Brazil has recently grappled with other high-profile cases of gang rape, including one episode in 2012 in Queimadas, a city in the northeast Paraíba State, in which six men were convicted of raping five women at a birthday party. Two of the women were killed after recognizing their attackers.

More broadly, reports of rape in Brazil have climbed significantly since 2009, when the nation’s criminal code was changed to expand the legal definition of rape to include crimes involving anal penetration. More than 5,300 people, about 90 percent of whom are women, registered cases of rape in the first six months of 2012, an increase of more than 150 percent since 2009."

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Meanwhile, international tourists need to pay very close attention to warnings about street crime in countries where crime is out of control, and especially in countries where all forms of street harassment against women, even just the verbal kind that prevails culturally in the Middle East and some Latin American countries, are routine. The U.S. based international group called Stop Street Harassment is helping to sponsor Anti-Street Harassment Week next week, by the way. Here's a link.

And here is a link to the current State Department travel warnings for countries where foreign travelers  are considered most at risk.

And following, in full, is the section on crime from the State Department's current travel advisory for Brazil. I've highlighted some sections in bold-face:

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CRIME: Brazilian police and media report that the crime rate remains high in most urban centers, including the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and is also growing in rural areas within those states. Brazil’s murder rate is more than four times higher than that of the United States, and rates for other crimes are similarly high.

Street crime remains a problem for visitors and local residents alike. Foreign tourists, including U.S. citizens, are often targets, especially in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife. While the risk is greater during the evening and at night, street crime also occurs during the day, and safer areas of cities are not immune. Incidents of theft on city buses are frequent. You should keep a copy of your passport with you while in public and keep your passport in a hotel safe or other secure place. You should also carry proof of your health insurance with you.
The incidence of crime against tourists is greater in areas surrounding beaches, hotels, discotheques, bars, nightclubs, and other tourist destinations. It is especially prevalent prior to and during Carnival (Brazilian Mardi Gras), but also occurs throughout the year. Several Brazilian cities have established specialized tourist police units to patrol areas frequented by tourists.
Use caution when traveling through rural areas and satellite cities due to reported incidents of roadside robberies that randomly target passing vehicles. Robberies and “quicknappings” outside of banks and ATMs occur regularly. In a “quicknapping,” criminals abduct victims for a short time in order to receive a quick payoff from the family, business, or the victim’s ATM card. Some victims have been beaten and/or raped. You should also take precautions to avoid being carjacked, especially in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and other cities.
In airports, hotel lobbies, bus stations, and other public places, pick pocketing and the theft of hand-carried luggage and laptop computers is common. You should "dress down" when in public and avoid carrying valuables or wearing jewelry or expensive watches. "Good Samaritan" scams are common. If a tourist looks lost or seems to be having trouble communicating, a seemingly innocent bystander offering help may actually be a participant in a scam. Take care at and around banks and ATMs which accept U.S. credit or debit cards. Travelers using personal ATM or credit cards sometimes receive billing statements with unauthorized charges after returning from a visit to Brazil, or discover that their cards were cloned or duplicated without their knowledge. If you use such payment methods, carefully monitor your bank records for the duration of your visit.
While the ability of Brazilian police to help recover stolen property is limited, we strongly advise you to obtain a "boletim de ocorrencia" (police report) at a "delegacia" (police station) if any of your possessions are lost or stolen. This will facilitate your exit from Brazil and assist with insurance claims. Be aware, however, that the police in tourist areas are on the lookout for false reports of theft for purposes of insurance fraud.
Do not buy counterfeit and pirated goods, even if they are widely available. These goods are illegal in the United States, and if you purchase them you may also be breaking local law.
Brasilia: Brasilia has significant crime problems. Reports of residential burglaries continue to occur in the generally affluent residential sections of the city. Public transportation, hotel sectors, and tourist areas report the highest crime rates, but statistics show that these incidents can happen anywhere and at anytime. The “satellite cities” that surround Brasilia have per-capita crime rates comparable to much larger cities. Police reports indicate that rates of all types of crime, including “quicknappings,” have risen dramatically in Brasilia in the last two years. Brasilia’s Central Bus Station or “Rodoviaria” is a particularly dangerous area, especially at night. This location is known to have a large concentration of drug dealers and users. Illegal drugs such as crack cocaine and “oxi” (a derivative of cocaine base produced with cheaper chemicals) have become very common in the “Plano Piloto” area and satellite cities.
Rio de Janeiro: The city continues to experience high incidences of crime. Tourists are particularly vulnerable to street thefts and robberies in the evening and at night especially in areas adjacent to major tourist attractions. There have been attacks, including shootings, along trails leading to the famous Corcovado Mountain and in other parts of the Tijuca Forest. If robbed, do not attempt to resist or fight back, but rather relinquish your personal belongings. At all times, pay close attention to your surroundings and the behavior of those nearby. There have been reports of thieves and rapists slipping incapacitating drugs into drinks at bars, hotel rooms, and street parties. While crime occurs throughout the year, it is more frequent during Carnival and the weeks prior.
Choose lodging carefully considering location, security, and the availability of a safe to store valuables. Do not answer your hotel room door until you positively confirm who is on the other side. Look out the peephole or call the front desk to confirm the visitor. There have been several recent incidents where mass holdups of guests have occurred at hotels and hostels in the city. 
Rio de Janeiro’s favelas are a subject of curiosity for many U.S. travelers. A favela pacification program, instituted in 2008, installed police stations in some favelas, primarily in the Zona Sul area. However, most favelas exist outside the control of city officials and police. Travelers are urged to exercise caution when entering any “pacified” favelas and should not go into favelas that are not “pacified” by the state government. Even in some “pacified” favelas, the ability of police to provide assistance, especially at night, may be limited. Several local companies offer “favela jeep tours” targeted at foreign tourists. Be aware that neither the tour company nor the city police can guarantee your safety when entering favelas.
Be vigilant while on the roads, especially at night. There have been shootings and carjackings on the Linha Vermelha that links the airport to the Southern Zone of the city. In Rio de Janeiro, motorists should be especially vigilant at stoplights and when stuck in traffic. Carjackings and holdups can occur at intersections, especially at night.
Visitors should also remain alert to the possibility of manhole cover explosions. There have been multiple manhole cover explosions in Rio de Janeiro in the past few years, with a higher incidence in the Centro and Copacabana neighborhoods.
Report all incidents to Rio's tourist police (DEAT) at (21) 2332-2924. The tourist police have been very responsive to victims and cooperative with the U.S. Consulate General. 
Sao Paulo: All areas of Greater Sao Paulo have a high rate of armed robbery of pedestrians and drivers at stoplights and during rush hour traffic. The "red light districts" of Sao Paulo, located on Rua Augusta north of Avenida Paulista and the Estacao de Luz metro area, are especially dangerous. There are regular reports of young women slipping various drugs into men's drinks and robbing them of all their belongings while they are unconscious. Armed holdups of pedestrians and motorists by young men on motorcycles (“motoboys”) are a common occurrence in Sao Paulo. Criminals have also begun targeting restaurants throughout the city including, but not limited to, establishments in the upscale neighborhoods of Jardins, Itaim Bibi, Campo Belo, Morumbi and Moema. Victims who resist run the risk of violent attack. Laptop computers, other electronics, and luxury watches are the targets of choice for criminals in Sao Paulo.
Throughout 2012, armed groups in Sao Paulo targeted restaurants, robbing patrons during the peak business hours of 2100 to 2400. These criminal events are not isolated to one area of the city and target both rich and poor neighborhoods.
Efforts of incarcerated drug lords to exert their power outside of their jail cells have resulted in sporadic disruptions in the city, violence directed at the authorities, bus burnings, and vandalism at ATM machines, including the use of explosives. Be aware of your surroundings and exercise caution at all times. Respect police roadblocks and be aware that some municipal services may be disrupted. 
As in Rio de Janeiro, favela tours have recently become popular among foreign tourists in Sao Paulo. We advise you to avoid Sao Paulo’s favelas as neither the tour company nor the city police can guarantee your safety when entering favelas.
Recife: As in Rio de Janeiro, tourists in Recife should take special care while on the beaches, as robberies may occur in broad daylight. In the upscale Boa Viagem neighborhood, carjackings can occur at any time of the day or night.

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Take Me Out Of the Ballgame

A couple of weeks ago, I went with my wife and son and his girlfriend to a spring training baseball game in Tucson between the San Diego Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It will be my last game. Not my last spring training game; not my last game between the Padres and the Diamondbacks.

My last professional baseball game. Let me elaborate.

My father took me to first game at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia in the 1950s. My last game was two weeks ago, at the ridiculously named Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson (formerly the also inelegantly named Tucson Electric Park).

Why am I out? Let me count the ways:

1. Class inequity. A visit to a major league ballpark these days has become an exercise in rank status-stratifying, with corporate fat-cats who grab the best season seats (and often write off the costs as business expenses) treated like top-luxury five-star hotel guests, while the rest of the fans are treated like Motel 6 clientele. In the Wall Street Journal on Friday (alas, blocked by paywall), an op-ed piece by Mark Yost, a Journal sports editor, described how he and his 14-year-old son are in the midst of a long odyssey to visit all 30 major league ballparks by the time the boy graduates from high school in 2016, but the joy seems to be going. While ticket prices are soaring even for the cheap seats (and in most cases, you can’t even purchase the best seats if you want because they’re all scarfed up in advance by corporations), a normal fan’s trip to a ballpark these days is like an international flight on an airplane nine-across in the back of coach. “…Even after you’ve shelled out for decent seats – but not the top-of-the-line ones – you’re constantly reminded by the host team that you’re a second-class fan,” Yost writes. Many ballparks are strictly segregated by class, with exclusivity enforced for those  with “premium seating.” In many ballparks, the unwashed majority can’t even set foot in the swanky concourses reserved for those with premium seats.

2.  Racketeering. Professional baseball has become a nasty racket whose sole purpose is to shake obscene amounts of money out of the pockets of the  fans, while treating most of them like marks at a carnival bunko booth. The Yankees payroll for this season is $230.4 million, which is the best example of the astonishing dough that defines baseball, and the vig that the fans need to pony up to keep this racket solvent: The Yankees’ star third baseman Alex Rodriguez, currently in year five of a $275 million 10-year contract that is the most lucrative in the history of sports – a contract that was partly negotiated with the assistance of executives from … uh, Goldman Sachs. Rodriguez is currently injured, and his role this season is uncertain.  Oh, a few months ago, as reported in the Times yesterday, “ Rodriguez’s name surfaced in connection with an anti-aging clinic in South Florida that was suspected of supplying Rodriguez and other players with performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez, through a publicist, denied the allegation.”  Another example, same city: Mets pitcher Johan Santana is out for this season with a shoulder injury, though the Mets  will pay him $25.5 million  for this year,  the last year in his monumental six-year $137.7 million contract. Santana also missed the entire 2011 season with an injury.  Closer  to home for me, the fans at the game in Tucson a few weeks ago ( one of only two spring training games played this spring in Tucson, which used to have an full spring-training season with multiple teams), unaccountably seemed to be cheering for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the game with the Padres, the home team because the Padres minor league team plays in Tucson. They cheered even though  the Diamondbacks had skulked out of town two years ago to take a better deal to play their spring training games in the Phoenix area – leaving Tucson stuck with the bill for  a beautiful $38 million stadium built by the taxpayers expressly because of the vibrant spring-training season that no longer exists in town. [By the way, Major League Baseball is also tanking big-time in the TV ratings. Here.http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2013-03-28/news/the-screwball-economics-of-major-league-baseball/]

3. Rampant jingoism. I love the tradition of standing for the Star Spangled Banner right before the home-plate umpire hollers “Play ball!”--  with that beautiful flag whipping in the breeze at center field. It can still seem grand in Tucson, where they have a terrific barbershop quartet sing the anthem, not some caterwauling reality-TV wannabe with a merely casual acquaintance with the notion of musical pitch. But why, two weeks ago, was there hissing in the stands at a few fans who decided to sit down right after the Star Spangled Banner, rather than continuing to stand at attention while some sad-sack “honor guard” from the U.S. Border Patrol (the Border Patrol!) slowly marched off the field like some platoon in a comic opera?  Even worse, there is the practice, which spread in ballparks in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, of requiring everyone to stand at attention during the traditional 7th Inning Stretch, and sing along with a loud recording of that execrable, cynical lardbucket Kate Smith bellowing "God Bless America." Decades earlier, it had been bad enough, actually, when the traditional 7th Inning Stretch became the occasion for the standing and mass singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” back in the 1970s  (the same decade those irritating mascots started showing up, dancing on the dugouts and otherwise annoying those who wanted to watch baseball).  But “God Bless America” bellowed by the late unlamented Kate Smith, with all in the stadium expected to remove caps, stand at attention and join in? It’s like those infernal flag-pins that politicians now have to always have stuck on  their lapels – once you start that stuff you can’t pull it back, because the right-wing loons will scream about a war on patriotism or the flag or God. And they enforce the 7th Inning Stretch jingoism, too. A few years ago at Yankee Stadium, New York cops grabbed and ejected a man who attempted to walk to the men’s room while the holy song was being belted out in the stands. (A lawsuit followed, and the NYPD agreed not to physically restrain anyone from moving about during the sacred singing.). Since then, some ballparks have backed off the forced singalong, but it’s still fairly common, along with the fan pressure to stand at attention with hats doffed -- as if this is the way baseball has always been played.

“God Bless America!” blasting forth at ear-pounding volume! Yo, baseball fans, it’s a ballgame, not at a religious revival!

It is not. There’s a reason we commonly say ballpark, in a pastoral evocation, even when the official name is “stadium.”

Hey, I’m a veteran. I salute the flag! But I’m not inclined to salute the Border Patrol -- and I won’t stand for Kate Smith. Incidentally, Kate Smith and that Irving Berlin bit of jingoism originally infiltrated sports in my hometown in the 1970s when the aging 300-pound songbird hooked up with one of the ugliest, nastiest teams in modern sports history, the brawling Philadelphia Flyers hockey team of those years. In fact, the phrase “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings” derives not from a wry comment on opera (as is often assumed) but from the Philadelphia Flyers home games of that era, when Kate Smith bellowed out “God Bless America” as a good luck gesture that began to be played at the end, as well as the start, of the hockey games.

Anyway, that’s it between baseball and me, after an admittedly wonderful half-century fling that started in Philly, in the ballpark, Connie Mack Stadium, in the years when the great pitcher Robin Roberts routinely won 20 games, many by a single little run, in seasons when the Phillies were averaging only about 60 total wins. In an era when the great Richie Ashburn, so persistent at fouling off third strikes in maddening succession that he once fouled off a strike that hit a lady in the third-base stands and, still at bat a few pitches later, fouled off another one that hit the same woman as she was being carried out of the stands.  In the years when you could see Willie Mays on the visiting Giants rear back and fire a long arcing throw from deep center, back toward the 447-foot mark, that could nail a runner headed to the plate on one single bounce, no cutoff man required.

But that was a long time ago, that was before Kate Smith and the dancing mascots and the $25 million a year contracts, and the socially stratified ballparks – or, I should say stadiums.

For baseball and me these days, in fact on what we used to look forward to with such a thrill as Opening Day, it’s three strikes, and I’m out.

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Packing for the Airport (Cont'd)

If it's Friday, it must be time for the weekly report from the TSA on guns and other weapons that people bring to airports and get caught trying to carry onto planes.

A typical week: TSA screeners found 32 guns, 27 of them loaded, five with rounds chambered.

Here's the TSA blog post.

And here's the gun tally:

Newtown Killer's Gun Stockpile: Whose Weapons Were They Really?

Media narratives die hard, as in the case of the homicidal maniac who massacred those children and teachers in Newtown, Conn., in December. The narrative: This was the spontaneous act of a lone killer who snapped.

Adam Lanza was a deeply disturbed young man, obviously. But what about the role of his mother, whom he also murdered that awful day? In a few media accounts, which much of the mainstream media has chosen to ignore or at least not to pursue, Nancy Lanza was described by people who knew her -- including her sister in law -- as a well-armed "prepper," who was preparing herself (and presumably her son) for a social and economic meltdown that members of the paranoid survivalist movement believe is coming soon in America.

Search warrants released today show that a veritable arsenal of guns and ammunition and other weapons were in the Lanza home -- which the media accounts all seem to refer to as the "killer's home." Like this one.

Actually, in the interests of accuracy and perhaps a more clear-eyed understanding of how this horrific massacre was able (or enabled) to happen, the home was the killer's mother's home. The guns belonged not to the 20-year-old murderer, but to the boy's evidently also-troubled mother.

A gun safe, where some weapons were stored (not including the four he took with him to the elementary school for his massacre rampage), was found in Adam Lanza's bedroom, along with more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition. The police also found the killer's membership card to the National Rifle Association.

All of the guns were legally owned by the mother.


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Fewer Passengers, More-Crowded Airplanes

Here are the key passenger-misery metrics from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics report on airline traffic in 2012 released today: Number of domestic and international passengers on U.S. airlines, up 0.8 percent. Number of flights down 2.0 percent. Available seats down 0.2 percent. Load factor (the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers) up 1.7 percentage points, to a record 81.5 percent.

 

Overall, U.S. airlines carried 736.6 million passengers in 2012 (measured by enplanements, or the number of passengers boarding individual flights, including connecting flights) -- up from 730.8 in 2011.

 

 

Table 1: Scheduled System (Domestic and International) Airline Travel on U.S. Airlines 

	Monthly			Year-to-Date
	Dec 2011	Dec 2012	Change %	2011	2012	Change %
Passengers (in millions)	59.1	58.9	-0.3	730.8	736.6	0.8
Flights (in thousands)	770.8	740.2	-4.0	9,478.2	9,283.9	-2.0
Revenue Passenger Miles (in billions)	65.5	65.9	0.6	814.4	823.2	1.1
Available Seat-Miles (in billions)	81.1	80.9	-0.3	992.7	994.5	0.2
Load Factor*	80.8	81.5	0.7	82.0	82.8	0.8
Flight Stage Length**	750.0	768.5	2.5	742.9	755.2	1.7
Passenger Trip Length***	1,108.9	1,119.7	1.0	1,114.3	1,117.5	0.3

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, T-100 Market and Segment 

*Change in load factor points

'Fast and Furious' Was Botched -- in Arizona

Many of the usual suspects in the media are fully invested in the accepted narrative of the "Fast and Furious" gun-sting mess that centered on an incident in which a Border Patrol agent was murdered in 2010 with a gun that had been part of the federal weapons-tracking operation that went very wrong. That accepted narrative is that the blame could be laid directly on the Obama administration (and specifically Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security and Eric Holder at Justice).

But for some time, it's been clear that the accepted narrative, and variations on same flogged by right-wing propagandists, is a little more complicated. Several previous reports, ignored or badly downplayed in the major media, have indicated that complicated gun-politics in Phoenix, where the investigation was centered, had a whole lot to do with what went so wrong.

A new, detailed report today from the Inspector General office at Homeland Security reiterates that more complicated view of 'Fast and Furious.' The basic errors began in and were mainly confined to operations in Phoenix, where a disinclination to upset the gun lobby was strong. Arizona-based agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, collaborating with a Homeland Security investigator working on the Arizona-Mexico border, and in touch with the federal prosecutor in Phoenix, are singled out again.  Homeland Security officials in Washington learned about 'Fast and Furious" only after the Border Patrol agent was killed.

Rather than depending on half-baked media accounts, including any spin from the likes of the right wing radicals' hysteric handmaiden Drudge, read the full report here.

Last September, the Justice Department's inspector general issued a report on the operation that had much more detail about the roles of the ATF Phoenix field office and the U.S. Attorney General's office in Phoenix. 

Last June, a groundbreaking report in Fortune by Katherine Eban laid out facts on how this particular egg got scrambled. That article is definitely worth reading. Here.

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'Sequester' Bites at FAA

As threatened, the F.A.A. plans to shut 149 small-scale air control towers beginning April 7 as part of the agency’s sequestration implementation plan. These are airports at which air traffic control is managed by workers under contract to the F.A.A.


"We heard from communities across the country about the importance of their towers and these were very tough decisions,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts under sequestration."

Flight operations will still be able to continue at these airports, but pilots will need to manage takeoffs and landings by radio among themselves. .

Here's a link to the list.

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It's Always Somethin' ...

News item: Unexpected surge in demand in U.S. housing market. But there's a downside, I guess ...

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Screening Hysterical Media

I've been AWOL from the post, so to speak, for about a month. Back on duty now.

Let's spend a little time, shall we, looking at the media and the T.S.A. -- particularly at nearly hysterical media accounts that portray the T.S.A. as a collection of ham-brained dopes.

Here and there, T.S.A. screeners do some dumb things, and some of them occasionally act like asshats, to use a term that really ought to be more easily employed in the common rhetoric these days. But by and large, it seems to me, the T.S.A. does a good job under tough circumstances, many of which (hello, Congress, where the asshats truly rein) are not of its own doing.

Specifically, have a look at the latest flap, the supposed humiliation of a disabled Marine who was supposedly ordered to remove his artificial legs by thuggish screeners. The Arizona Republic  (another gem in the tinplate Gannett crown) flogged this one for a while. The video link to a report on KPNX-TV (a station also owned by Gannett and operated in close affiliation with the newspaper, which shares its Web site)  shows one of those terribly earnest, wide-eyed TV anchor wonderwomen revealing that the fury over the alleged incident "is going all the way to Congress" (when, actually, it  was a congressional office that started the ball rolling on this non-story). The Phoenix newspaper still seems to be equivocating and crouching into that famed "well, there are two sides to every story" media defense in its online update today, even though it and the other media outlets who jumped on this hype have been informed that the story is false. (As Chico Marx once said, in a line later reiterated by Pryor: "Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?")

From the wires: "...This time the agency faces allegations that it 'humiliated' a wounded 22-year-old Marine at a security checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.The controversy took hold after witnesses traveling with Cpl. Toran Gaal – the wounded Marine – contacted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to say TSA agents forced Gaal to remove his prosthetic legs and try to walk at the checkpoint."

From the Arizona Republic account, which is based on half-baked information from the office of a California Republican representative, Duncan Hunter: 

"Gaal was in a wheelchair carrying his military identification. Witnesses told Hunter's office the ordeal dragged on for at least 10 minutes.

"Gaal was directed to two screening stations, ordered to remove his prosthetic legs and at one point stand up for a second inspection. Other TSA agents sat and watched as he tried to stand painfully and as his wheelchair was checked for explosives, Hunter wrote Monday."

The Republic and other torch-carriers now at least are making note of the T.S.A.'s response to these charges, which is that they are not true. Says the newspaper: "Those accounts came from a man accompanying five San Diego-area Marines to a spring-training game as part of a volunteer effort to help wounded veterans with their recovery, Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said."

Rep. Duncan is himself a former Marine who perhaps ought to be keeping closer inspection on the stuff his office puts out.  

Actually, here's the T.S.A.'s account by its blogger, Bob Burns, which is even more notable because it states that the two screeners in question are themselves military veterans:

"There have been many reports about a U.S. Marine Wounded Warrior who was recently screened at Phoenix (PHX). Unfortunately, there has been a lot of misreporting. 

After reviewing TSA video (CCTV), interviewing and receiving written statements from all officers involved, we found that the soldier was not asked and did not remove his prosthetic legs. The screening was done by the book and lasted a total of 8 minutes from beginning to end.  By chance, the screening was conducted by two TSA Officers who were prior military. One was in the U.S. Air Force for 18 years, and the other was in the U.S. Marine Corps for 13 years.

Nevertheless, we strive to ensure that all veterans and individuals with medical concerns are treated with dignity and respect. 25 percent of TSA employees are prior military. Some are even still serving in the reserves and guard. I’m a veteran as well. We have the greatest respect for our men and women serving in the military and strive to screen them with the dignity they deserve. 

 
Through our Wounded Warrior Screening program, we strive to make the overall experience for 
wounded service members as simple and trouble-free as possible. In the coming days, we will expand the Wounded Warriors Screening program to offer TSA Pre✓™, or expedited screening, to this group of veterans.

TSA Officers at Phoenix (PHX) alone have screened and assisted 164 Wounded Warriors over the past year. We value the continued commitment of our veterans and active duty military employees to TSA’s mission, and to ensuring the safety of all Americans.  See some of TSA’s proud servicemen and women here."

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Merged AA-US Air Will Be in oneworld Alliance

It was widely anticipated, but US Airways CEO Doug Parker says in a letter to employees today that the newly merged American Airlines-US Airways will maintain American's membership in the oneworld global alliance.

Oneworld, while having a number of highly regarded airlines among its 11 members, is smaller than the 27-member Star Alliance, which US Airways  belongs to. Both alliances have a significant presence in Asia, rapidly emerging as the world's most important international market.

But American is the only oneworld member in North America, and leaving that alliance for Star could raise regulatory questions.

Parker is obviously optimistic that the merger will proceed quickly. He said today that he expected it to close in the third quarter of this year.

Oneworld's members besides American are Air Berlin, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 (a Russian carrier). Mexicana is in line to become a new member.

Star Alliance members are Adriatic, Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels, Cops, Croatia,  Egyptair, Ethopian, LOT, Lufthansa, Scandanavian, Shenzen, Singapore, South African, Swiss, TAM, TAP, Thai and United.

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Shitwrecked At Sea on a Carnival Cruise

Updating the post here from the other day on the behemoth Carnival cruise ship Triumph, which lost power after an engine fire in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, went adrift without electricity, and is now being slowly towed to a port assisted by two tugboats. Without power, the ship had drifted 90 miles north of the position where the fire occurred about 125 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula. It is being towed to port in Mobile, Ala., with arrival not expected till Thursday.

There are about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew on board in appalling conditions.


[UPDATED Feb. 14 -- In a splendid example of "Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?" some of the media that are finally paying attention to this mess are faithfully transcribing PR responses from Carnival, the gist of which are: "Reports of appalling conditions on board greatly exaggerated."

Hence we have reports quoting Gerry Cahill, CEO of Carnival (italics mine): "No one here from Carnival is happy about the conditions aboard the ship ... there is no question that conditions aboard are very challenging. Most of the public bathrooms -- there are 23 public bathrooms -- most of them are working," he said. There is also a "good section" of passenger cabins, in the forward and midship sections of the ship, that have working toilets.

I'm not real good at math, but 4,000-plus people divided into "most of" 23 plus "a good section" equals ... well, equals a misery shitstorm. Just wait till these people get into port tonight and start sounding off!]


With the fire and power loss, basic services on the ship, like toilets, became inoperable, and many remain out, with sewage all around.  The slow boat to Mobile was expected to dock late Thursday night, after another delay caused when a tug boat line broke.

Let's just update by posting some of the entries directly from passengers on this cruise from hell, via the excellent Web site devoted to cruise news, Cruisecritic.com:


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(Updated, 1:46 p.m. EST Tuesday) -- In its latest update, Carnival Cruise Line reported some basic services and hotel functionality have been restored to Carnival Triumph, which remains adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. The freshwater system, part of the sewage system, limited elevator service and some power in the Lido dining area are operational. But some family members of passengers on the ship are reporting the situation is still very uncomfortable.

Here's a sampling of what Cruise Critic members have heard from their friends and family on Carnival Triumph:

NTFF (February 12, 1:09 p.m.) – [Feces] and [urine] rolling across floor with every wave. People sick and throwing up every where.

NTFF (February 12, 1:47 a.m.) – My wife is aboard for her very first cruise. She and her best friend have a cabin just forward of the centerline of the ship. She has reported to me through texts, and 2 phone calls she managed to get out while the other ships were moving supplies aboard. She tells me she has not heard of or seen any functioning restrooms/etc. She said she not not seen anyone fighting for food, but she had seen that people waiting in very long lines were pileing up the food and (hoarding) taking it to their cabins as if there would be no more. She said the crew was assuring all that there was plenty of food, but many pax were ignoring this advice. At 16:29 CST she said that 1 of the tug boats was in site. And they they had been advised that they may not be into port until friday.
Wmiller86 (February 11, 10:14 p.m.) – I just rec'd a text from my wife. - NO POTTIES ARE WORKING! That was all it said.

LynnA (February 11, 4:28 p.m.) – We just got a text from daughter-in-law. She said she was miserable but no worries.

Dbogusch (February 11, 2:36 p.m.) – Another update from coworker. People are slowly being let into their cabins but its stifling hot below decks. The "hamburgers" being served are meatless. Very limited hot food. Only water to drink.

okiecruzer (February 11, 2:22 p.m.) – They [parents] said there is no power still, no toilets… , no meat. They slept on the deck last night (no tent, just open air) and will probably do so for the next two nights. They said they are doing this by choice – they booked an inner room without a window. They said there is no coffee or juice, only water. My dad said they were serving "hamburgers." He had one made just of cheese slices and another with only coleslaw, no meat on either. All alcohol service has been cut off.

Wmiller86 (February 11, 2:11 p.m.) – My wife and 3 of her girlfriends are on the Triumph… My wife was able to call me Sunday night for a few minutes while Elation was alongside. My wife told me that it was pretty scary during the fire evacuation… She said that they were allowed back down into the cabins after awhile, but it is so hot that you cannot sleep down there. So they had set up a makeshift tent over deck loungers to sleep in. At the time I spoke to here, there was no toilets. They were using little red bags. And no running water, no lights, except emergency lighting.

She said it was already pretty miserable. No hot food and no alcohol being served. There was still ice being served in soft drinks. None of the shops were open.

Dbogusch (February 11, 2:02 p.m.) – Just found out a coworker is on that ship. She texted her boss this afternoon. She said there are very long lines for food and bathrooms. Some rooms running out of toilet paper. She said the ship is hot and people are cranky. She expects to be home Thursday or Friday.

okiecruzer (February 11, 1:36 p.m.) – Just got word from my mom who is on Triumph. She said they would be back to Galveston Thursday or Friday.

Morehouse14 (February 11, 1:28 p.m.) – Just received a text message from my wife. They are being served hamburgers and salad from another ship that is alongside. Lines are taking 2 plus hours to get through to get food and drink.

Morehouse14 (February 11, 8:47 a.m.) – I know four people on this cruise, one of which is my wife. I have been in contact with her and the others. The cruise line says they are running on emergency generators… there are no lights or running water on the ship. Cabins have no power. They have to use bags and/or the shower to go to the bathroom. It is hot with no air moving below deck. They want everyone to stay in the public or open areas of the ship.

jgomila198101 (February 10, 7:07 p.m.) – My sis just called. They have plenty of food; they are all fine but doesn't look like they will be back until Wednesday night. Said they are still having fun.

Clinty76 (February 10, 6:56 p.m.) – Here is the absolute most current update directly from my wife aboard the ship. "We are about to get supplies from another cruise ship and apparently the tug boats should be here tomorrow around noon. Who knows how long it will take to get back to Galveston. We have no power AT ALL, which means we can't use the toilets, wash our hands or take a shower."

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Habemus Papam! Er ... Duo Papum?

Whacking the old one on the noggin to prove he's dead before getting a new one

Sealing the dead one's bedroom

"Take this job and ..."

Dang, I wish now that I'd paid attention in Latin class. They told me I'd be glad to have it some day, and it turns out they were right.

[My wife, who grew up Episcopalian and is a lot smarter than I, informs me that the correct Latin to say that we have more than one pope is "Habemus Papas!" that being the accusative plural of the familiarly sounded cry, the accusative singular "Habemus Papam!" Heck, the only accusative I knew from high school Latin was the one in which the Latin teacher priest accused me of not studying and then punched me in the face. Oh well, at least he didn't invite me on camping trip.]

But I digress. The point is, dang, I am sorry to see the gnarly old German Pope retiring. As a long-ago Catholic, I always liked the rituals, and none were grander than getting a new pope when the old one died and joined the Choir Invisible.

In 1978, as a reporter for the old Philadelphia Bulletin, I once even went to Rome to cover the death of a pope (the sour old Paul VI) and the election of a new one, the smiley-faced one who everybody forgets about that lasted about a month till he suddenly died and was succeeded by that jovial Polish fellow. I still dine out on stories from that ancient adventure, including the way the cranky old cardinals beefed about not being able to find all the parts to the creaky Sistine Chapel stove that was supposed to send up the black or white smoke signals. (It kept puffing out gray). Not to mention the way the cardinals, men who are accustomed to living in princely splendor, griped about the dormitory-like accommodations that then prevailed in the Sistine Chapel during the secret conclave (where one cardinal, the guy from Washington D.C., annoyed the others by always playing his harmonica, on which he only knew one song, "Do Not Forsake Me O My Darling," from High Noon).


But mostly I miss it when the Vatican carmerlengo cardinal has to use a silver hammer to whack the old pope on the noggin to prove that he is really dead before they can get a new one.

Tradition! Ritual! Sic transit gloria mundi!

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More Cruise News: 5 in Crew Killed in Cruise Ship Safety Drill, While Off Mexico, a Carnival Cruise Ship Is Adrift and Without Power After Engine-Room Fire

Thomson Majestic

Five crew have been killed after a lifeboat they were in fell from the Thomson cruise ship Majesty while it was docked in the port of Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands.

The accident happened during a routine safety drill at about 12:00 GMT. Three others were also hurt as the lifeboat fell, says the BBC.

[UPDATE] Meanwhile, in other "I'd-sooner-take-a-brick-upside-the-head-than-get-on-a-cruise-ship" news, the Carnival behemoth Triumph was operating on emergency power after an engine-room fire off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Conditions on board were described as horrendous, says USA Today.

Other reports, including many from passengers on board, describe hideous conditions, such as toilets overflowing all over the ship. What fun cruising (or crossing, as the Cunard transAtlantic douches  call it) must be!

Carnival Triumph

The Triumph is expected to be hauled into a Mexican port sometime Wednesday.

 Cruisecritic.com, a very useful cruise Web site updating the situation today, reports:  "Update, February 11, 9:35 a.m. EST: According to an e-mail from Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard Brahm of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous arrived on the scene last night at 12:45 a.m. EST. As of 6 a.m. this morning, Carnival Triumph's freshwater system is back up and operational. Additionally, the sewage system has been restored to the forward section of the ship but is still down in the aft portion. Onboard engineers are continuing to work on the aft sewage system."

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