Free Republic

I am clueless on the economy. But I'm hoping some of the financial wizards here at FR can help me understand something pressing: 1. Is there any way that America can protect herself from the economic sabotage/terrorism that George Soros has done in other countries? If so, what? 2. What caused the electronic run on the bank in Sept 2007? Could the entire world economy collapse in a 24-hour time period, as the financial gurus allegedly told Congress in their private session with them? If that happened, how would life change for normal people? Here's the description of Soros' past...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sometimes there's no going back. JetBlue Airways says that there will be no second exits for famed flight attendant Steven Slater - who captured the nation's imagination with his profanity-laced loudspeaker tirade and jump down a plane's emergency chute, beer in hand. Spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said Saturday that Slater is no longer employed by the airline. She said the airline won't release further details out of respect for Slater's privacy. Slater's lawyer had said he loved flying and wanted to return to work, and Slater's folk-hero status among tens of thousands of online fans had led...

WEST PALM BEACH — The FBI is investigating Monday evening's bomb threat at Palm Beach International Airport, which shut down part of the airport for an hour and prompted the search of a New York-bound JetBlue plane.

Steven Slater, the flight attendant who slid from an airplane to fame last week, now employs the services of one of Hollywood's top public relations representatives. Howard Bragman, Chairman of media and public relations agency Fifteen Minutes, confirmed to CNN that he is now representing Slater and will help him assess offers to appear in proposed television programs inspired by Slater's dramatic exit from a JetBlue plane at New York's Kennedy Airport after he cursed a passenger over the public address system and deployed the emergency slide. "There are probably 25 reality show offers on the table at this point,"...

A Brooklyn couple who pre-boarded JetBlue Flight 1052 on Monday said flight attendant Steven Slater's forehead was bleeding before all but one other passenger was allowed on the plane. Their account is the most recent to cast doubt on the flight attendant's version of the events that led to his now-famous exit via the plane's emergency chute. Marta and Rudyard Crichlow, who were returning from visiting family in Pittsburgh, were allowed on the flight early because they were traveling with their 20-month-old daughter, Grace. Ms. Crichlow said the plane was "empty' save one other passenger, a curly-haired man wearing eyeglasses....

An internal memo from JetBlue’s chief operating officer to the airline’s staff and board of directors explicitly rebukes the actions taken by flight attendant Steven Slater as “unacceptable.” The document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, offers the first timeline of events following Monday’s now-famous airplane exit by Slater, in which the apparently enraged flight attendant uttered expletives over the public address system, deployed the emergency chute and slid down to the tarmac with two beers in hand. But the memo also reveals that even at the highest levels of JetBlue, officials are still trying to determine what...

Investigators probing the circumstances surrounding a JetBlue flight attendant's outburst and exit from a plane at Kennedy Airport are beginning to question the narrative that he was provoked by an injury suffered during a confrontation with an unruly passenger, according to Port Authority officials with knowledge of the investigation. The officials said Steven Slater's assertion that he was hit in the head by luggage or an overhead bin door while trying to assist an abusive passenger with her oversize bag isn't being corroborated by other passengers. Investigators believe such a passenger may not exist and that he could have received...

Disgruntled flight attendant Steven Slater might not be the working class hero we've declared him, or so say witnesses to the ordeal. Passengers on board Monday's JetBlue flight where Slater made his infamous emergency exit say that it was Slater who instigated the fight with a passenger, cursing at her after she asked where her bag was stowed, The Wall Street Journal reported today One passenger explained that while exiting the plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport, she overheard a young woman asking Slater where she could find her luggage before the interaction took a nasty turn. "I didn't...

“For 20 years, I thought about it,” he said in an interview on Wednesday morning. That is how long he’s been in the industry. “But you never think you’re going to do it.” On Monday, on a full flight that had just landed from Pittsburgh, he did. ... Following his arraignment on Tuesday, his court-appointed lawyer said that Mr. Slater had intervened in an altercation involving a female passenger before the flight left Pittsburgh for Kennedy International Airport. The woman had been squabbling with another passenger over access to the overhead luggage bins. Her identity remains unknown. A document submitted...

...Port Authority police said it took jetBlue 25 minutes to report the incident, allowing Slater time to leave the scene. Cops found him in bed with his boyfriend when they arrived to arrest him at a beachfront home in the Rockaways with a porch overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, sources said.

Most of us will probably never pull a Steven Slater: curse out a customer, grab a drink and leave our place of employment in a blaze of glory. But let’s face it, we’ve all had the urge. Slater, a flight attendant on JetBlue, instantly became a folk hero in many people’s eyes Monday after he grabbed a microphone and ranted at a passenger who had refused to apologize for hitting Slater with some luggage. Slater then grabbed a beer from the galley and fled the plane via the emergency exit chute. “How many of us can honestly say we haven’t...

A New York City judge has granted bail for a flight attendant accused of cursing out a passenger on an airplane public-address system, grabbing some beer from the galley and exiting on an emergency slide. Steven Slater is charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing. Defense attorney Howard Turman asked a judge in Queens Tuesday to release him without bail. The judge instead set bail at $2,500. Slater smiled slightly as he was escorted into the courtroom.

A frustrated JetBlue flight attendant allegedly fled his plane via emergency chute -- beer in hand -- after getting into a fight with a passenger and then cursing out the entire cabin over a loudspeaker. The JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after noon. As the plane was taxiing to the gate, one of the passengers apparently got out of his seat to grab a bag from an overhead compartment. The flight attendant walked over to tell him he had to sit down. The two reportedly got into an argument and somehow...

NEW YORK (CBS 2) — A JetBlue flight attendant was arrested Monday following a bizarre incident onboard a flight incoming to John F. Kennedy Airport in which he allegedly inflated the emergency exit slide and rode it down to the tarmac after cursing out passengers over the plane’s intercom. CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez got a look at the inflatable emergency slide on Monday afternoon. It was to be towed away after aviation sources said JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater deployed it in a fit of rage just after the plane landed around noon. JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater JetBlue flight...

A flight attendant ran out of patience on a plane that just landed at JFK on Monday afternoon, so he allegedly cursed a blue streak over the p.a. system, grabbed some beers, pulled the emergency chute, slid down and ran from the plane, sources said. Jet Blue employee Steven Slater was working on Flight 1052 from Pittsburgh to Kennedy Airport, which landed at around 12 p.m., when he got into a verbal altercation with a passenger, law-enforcement sources said. Following a heated exchange, the flight attendant told off the entire plane on the public address system, activated an emergency chute...

A JetBlue flight attendant blew his top on an incoming flight at Kennedy Airport on Monday, dropped the F-bomb over the intercom and bolted down an emergency slide.

A Pawtucket man accused of trying to bring weapons on board an airliner in Puerto Rico is due in court Friday. Jose Pol was scheduled to go before a judge for a bail and defender hearing. Federal authorities say Pol, 59, tried to board a Boston-bound Jet Blue flight on Monday with the weapons . He was stopped at a security checkpoint; TSA officials said they found box cutters, a switchblade, and a stun gun in his carry-on luggage.

Domestic Dispute Results in Pilot Threatening to Crash Plane By David Parker Brown, on May 21st, 2010 at 11:00 am Ah, a fight with the significant other. Coming up with a good argument to prove your point is always key. Threatening to crash a plane you will be flying with people aboard is NOT ok. A JetBlue pilot flying out of Logan Airport in Boston was questioned by the FBI after he sent an email to his girlfriend threatening to crash his plane, if she would not reconcile their relationship. A search of his phone showed that he did send...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- U.S. authorities have charged a man with attempting to board a flight from Puerto Rico with weapons including a stun gun, a switchblade knife and four box cutters. ~ snip ~ Pol was scheduled to take a JetBlue flight to Boston when he was arrested on Monday. In addition to the knives agents found pepper spray and a flight simulator program in his luggage.