The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Layover in Long Beach

Posted on | October 21, 2011 | 14 Comments

LONG BEACH, Calif.
The airport terminal here is a low-tech, low-budget affair — a single-story building with two large, bare waiting areas and a sort of vestibule where the TSA has its security-screening operation. The restrooms are located in a couple of temporary-looking out buildings.

There are none of those covered gangways to or exit the planes. Instead, upon arrival at Long Beach, you descend down a stairway and walk across the tarmac to the terminal.

So far as I can tell, Jet Blue is the only “major” airline operating out of Long Beach, with departures to maybe a dozen destinations. This low-budget airport and its low-budget airline, then, seems to function mainly to provide low-budget transportation out of Southern California, and thus relieve pressure at eternally congested LAX.

Via Memeorandum, the news upon my arrival here was: “Protesters storm campus after Cantor cancels visit.” Evidently, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had been scheduled to give a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. A bunch of left-wing protesters — “Occupy [Fill in the Blank]” types — had planned a big disruption, so Cantor canceled the lecture and the mob ran amok.

The good news: No “Occupy Long Beach Airport” demonstrations have yet been announced, although the passengers here are clearly victims of social injustice.

Hit the freaking tip jar!


Category: Fear and Smitty in Vegas

Comments

14 Responses to “Layover in Long Beach”

  1. Anonymous
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 12:15 am

    Not much of a coincidence that Slow Joe took his motorcade to Penn on Tuesday with 2-4 hr. complete shut down of traffic and no open doors for the public or OWS peoples at Joe’s closed event.  I figure Joe whispered to Amy Gutman (president of Penn) “Hey babe, you know Eric  Cantor?  He’s one of your kind right, I mean Jewish and all…  Why dont you invite the OWS crowd to his speech on Friday? ”

    Amy, EVER the one to please the Administration (after hiring Rahm’s brother Ezkiel Emmanuel to a big endowed profesorship) said, “Wood eye, wood eye” and Joe said, Thanks!  Wait till I tell the big man….

    who run barter town?
    Say it Loud!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgq4w4dqKsU

  2. Anonymous
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 12:31 am

    Well over half the signs were nocuts.org. Reading the comments most seemed to be either Cantor favorable or anti disruption, kinda surprising for a college campus.

  3. Adjoran
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 2:12 am

    Off topic, but in case we hadn’t heard, at the WRLC Straw Poll it was Cain 31%, Romney 29, Gingrich 20, Paul 10, Perry 4, Bachmann 1. 

  4. Finrod Felagund
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 3:23 am

    I remember seeing a list one time of the five worst (regularly-scheduled) airline flights.  Most of them were pretty obvious (e.g. Chicago to Orlando, packed with kids that haven’t gotten to Disney World yet or have just been taken away from there); the one relevant to this was the Las Vegas to Baltimore red-eye, because it was the cheapest flight from Vegas back to the East Coast, so it’d be packed with gamblers that couldn’t afford a better flight.

  5. Anonymous
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 7:53 am

    I don’t know about LAX- BWI, but LAX-IAD was packed to the gunwales. I don’t think there was an empty seat anywhere on that flight, even back in the galley jump seats. 🙁

  6. Joe
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 9:39 am

    Cantor should have given his talk and let them disrupt it. 

  7. Joe
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 9:40 am

    Good news for Cain, but ouch for Perry. 

  8. Joe
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 12:01 pm

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/21/cain-tops-field-again-nevada-gop-straw-poll/

    Remember this is Nevada.  Ouch for Romney too. 

  9. richard mcenroe
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 12:47 pm

    Actually, the Long Beach Airport is quite historic, the hub of what used to be the CA aviation industry.  There actually IS a second floor, with a nice little restaurant overlooking the runways and a series of historical displays. See what you miss when you keep your nose stuck to the laptop?

  10. Anonymous
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 2:10 pm

    That’s all blocked off at the moment. Everything’s being done out of a bunch of “temporary” trailers which will probably remain in place until ten years after the renovations were supposed to be finished.

  11. Adjoran
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 2:36 pm

    Government projects that come in on time and on budget are like intelligent Obama voters:  you know there must be some somewhere, but you never seem to actually find one.

  12. richard mcenroe
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 3:35 pm

    They must have shut it down post-Xmas, that’s the last time I went through.

  13. Joe
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 5:05 pm

    Cain is now double digits leading Romney in Iowa.  Ouch. 

    But Romney has Christine O’Donnell pulling for him.  http://hotair.com/archives/2011/10/22/latest-romney-backer-is-christine-odonnell/

  14. Polly
    October 22nd, 2011 @ 9:24 pm

    In addition to JetBlue, Delta, Alaska, Frontier, and US Airways also fly out of LGB.  It’s the best airport in So Cal to fly out of and in to.  I hope it stays a bit of a secret.