John McCain thinks so little of the political process of electing a president that he chooses as a running mate someone he only met once and because she is a woman.
The only reason he chose her is to ‘reach out’ to the disenfranchised Hillary followers. Which in itself shows how little importance he puts in people’s core political beliefs. He thinks that a female voter will vote for any party’s nominee as long as that nominee is a woman, regardless of political leanings.
Alaska Governor Sarah “Barracuda” Palin matches his pro-life belief and has also been branded a “maverick”, a term which he desperately wants to hang on to in spite of being a Bush clone.
McCain passed over several unquestioningly more qualified individuals with much more political experience. Tom Ridge, a decorated combat hero, a Cabinet secretary and the former two-term governor of the large, complex state of Pennsylvania. Mitt Romney, who has shown clear leadership skills in running a big state, Massachusetts; a big company, Bain Capital; and a big event, the Olympics.
He passed over Joe Lieberman, who matches his views on the Iraq War; Rob Portman, former congressman, trade negotiator and budget director; and Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas.
McCain’s followers were counting on his judgment and experience to win this election. They have now been shown some insight into what to expect if he becomes president. He is willing to plunge this country into near anarchy, in the event of his death, by leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being in that position. The presidency of the United States is the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.
This brings up the issue of ethics. She is considered strongly ethical. As governor, she won praise for backing tough ethical standards for politicians. During the first legislative session after her election, her administration passed a state ethics law overhaul. Yet a legislative investigation is looking into allegations that Palin fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper. She denied wrongdoing.
But she lacks experience on national political issues, foreign policy and homeland security.
As badly as ethical change is needed in Washington politics, this single issue cannot be enough upon which voters should place their confidence. Our votes are worth much more than that.
Does John McCain have the best interests of this country at heart? I think the final answer has to be, no, he does not. He is focused on slowing down his opponents campaign, still high on this weeks Obama-fest in Denver, and he has chosen a woman running mate toward that end.
The presidential race is so much more prestigious than a popularity contest, and yet this latest decision shows McCain is more concerned with ‘winning votes’ than with winning voter confidence to become president.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Megan’s Law not enforced in Pennsylvania
A sexual deviant, by the name of George Feigley, was released from a Pennsylvania prison Friday but won't be required to register as a sex offender.
He was convicted in 1975 on charges including statutory rape, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of minors. Authorities, at the time, thought this was enough bad behavior to put him behind bars, but evidently they now think it is not bad enough behavior to keep an eye on him, as the law dictates.
Feigley set up a religious group, the Neo American Church, which authorities have called a sex cult, operated a school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that police said was a front for sexual activity. And he still believes in the church’s manifesto: “We hold that the changes called creation and procreation are divine and that human sexuality is to humans the most available expression of that function of divinity," according to community activist Scott Portzline, who has researched Feigley's history and that of the group. "Sexual activity is the greatest act a human can do."
Activities that were brought up during his trial included beating children for letting anyone but fellow cult members see them, and their genitals were pierced with a lock to be controlled by Feigley, who called himself "The Light of the World." Children also were photographed in graphic sexual poses.
Prison authorities said he was attempting to direct sexual activity involving children by telephone from prison which means a prison term did little to nothing to curb his deviant appetite nor did it convince him that what he did was inhuman. In 1976, Feigley escaped from a Pennsylvania prison and was free for two years before being found living in West Virginia but escaped again from a local jail and was recaptured by the FBI. After all of this, Pennsylvania did not see any reason to extend his prison term. Now that he is free of prison, free of parole constraints, and free of legal surveillance of any kind, he can freely go back to his old ways, which there is every indication that this is exactly what he is going to do.
Feigley "never admitted what he did was wrong," said John Goshert of the Dauphin County district attorney's office, who interviewed him last week as part of a pre-release program.
Neighbors organized a protest against Pennsylvania’s leniency in front of Feigley’s Harrisburg home and the church headquarters, where is wife Sandra still lives. She was convicted in 1975 on one count of corrupting the morals of minors. She served a brief prison sentence, according to the Patriot-News and since then has operated a Web site ostensibly aimed at benefiting state, local and federal prison inmates. The site has a lengthy section with articles discussing sex in prison and elsewhere. Some of them are written by George Feigley, using his own name and some of his aliases.
Here is some of the trash that these people espouse: “Thanks to the Christian crazies who were and are so influential in this country, America has criminalized more sexual conduct than any other Western nation," says an article on the site, which does not name an author. "It's a neurosis. As a result, there are a lot of 'sexual offenses.' " Another article bearing George Feigley's alias of G.G. Stoctay, Ph.D., and included in Portzline's research says, "There is nothing injurious to sexuality. It's good and pleasant, not an evil. Children exposed to it are simply not injured."
Okay, there is nothing injurious to sexuality, in and of itself, and sex is good and pleasant, but these two twists have taken human sexuality between consenting adults and morphed it into something evil to be used to control children.
Megan’s Law, also known as Sexual Offender Act of 1994, requires persons convicted of sex crimes against children to notify local law enforcement of any change of address or employment after release from custody (prison, psychiatric facility). The notification requirement may be imposed for a fixed period of time - usually at least ten years - or permanently. However, Pennsylvania feels that any sexual offender convicted prior to the enactment of this law should not have to suffer under its rule.
According to Wikipedia, this law was amended May 17, 1996 to include provisions requiring community notification. Authored by Congressman Dick Zimmer, it required every state to develop a procedure for notifying the public when a person convicted of certain crimes is released near their homes. The law has been amended several times since the original bill, and different states have different procedures for making the required disclosures.
The letter of this law is clear. Pennsylvania, for some unknown reason, has taken the morally reprehensible action to ignore the intents and purposes of it and have wiped their hands clean of any responsibility for this subhuman.
Dauphin County Pennsylvania should be ashamed of itself for its actions, or rather lack of action in this case. Neighbors fear for their children’s safety, so, clearly the public is upset about this, and still Pennsylvania does nothing.
He was convicted in 1975 on charges including statutory rape, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of minors. Authorities, at the time, thought this was enough bad behavior to put him behind bars, but evidently they now think it is not bad enough behavior to keep an eye on him, as the law dictates.Feigley set up a religious group, the Neo American Church, which authorities have called a sex cult, operated a school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that police said was a front for sexual activity. And he still believes in the church’s manifesto: “We hold that the changes called creation and procreation are divine and that human sexuality is to humans the most available expression of that function of divinity," according to community activist Scott Portzline, who has researched Feigley's history and that of the group. "Sexual activity is the greatest act a human can do."
Activities that were brought up during his trial included beating children for letting anyone but fellow cult members see them, and their genitals were pierced with a lock to be controlled by Feigley, who called himself "The Light of the World." Children also were photographed in graphic sexual poses.
Prison authorities said he was attempting to direct sexual activity involving children by telephone from prison which means a prison term did little to nothing to curb his deviant appetite nor did it convince him that what he did was inhuman. In 1976, Feigley escaped from a Pennsylvania prison and was free for two years before being found living in West Virginia but escaped again from a local jail and was recaptured by the FBI. After all of this, Pennsylvania did not see any reason to extend his prison term. Now that he is free of prison, free of parole constraints, and free of legal surveillance of any kind, he can freely go back to his old ways, which there is every indication that this is exactly what he is going to do.
Feigley "never admitted what he did was wrong," said John Goshert of the Dauphin County district attorney's office, who interviewed him last week as part of a pre-release program.
Neighbors organized a protest against Pennsylvania’s leniency in front of Feigley’s Harrisburg home and the church headquarters, where is wife Sandra still lives. She was convicted in 1975 on one count of corrupting the morals of minors. She served a brief prison sentence, according to the Patriot-News and since then has operated a Web site ostensibly aimed at benefiting state, local and federal prison inmates. The site has a lengthy section with articles discussing sex in prison and elsewhere. Some of them are written by George Feigley, using his own name and some of his aliases.
Here is some of the trash that these people espouse: “Thanks to the Christian crazies who were and are so influential in this country, America has criminalized more sexual conduct than any other Western nation," says an article on the site, which does not name an author. "It's a neurosis. As a result, there are a lot of 'sexual offenses.' " Another article bearing George Feigley's alias of G.G. Stoctay, Ph.D., and included in Portzline's research says, "There is nothing injurious to sexuality. It's good and pleasant, not an evil. Children exposed to it are simply not injured."
Okay, there is nothing injurious to sexuality, in and of itself, and sex is good and pleasant, but these two twists have taken human sexuality between consenting adults and morphed it into something evil to be used to control children.
Megan’s Law, also known as Sexual Offender Act of 1994, requires persons convicted of sex crimes against children to notify local law enforcement of any change of address or employment after release from custody (prison, psychiatric facility). The notification requirement may be imposed for a fixed period of time - usually at least ten years - or permanently. However, Pennsylvania feels that any sexual offender convicted prior to the enactment of this law should not have to suffer under its rule.
According to Wikipedia, this law was amended May 17, 1996 to include provisions requiring community notification. Authored by Congressman Dick Zimmer, it required every state to develop a procedure for notifying the public when a person convicted of certain crimes is released near their homes. The law has been amended several times since the original bill, and different states have different procedures for making the required disclosures.
The letter of this law is clear. Pennsylvania, for some unknown reason, has taken the morally reprehensible action to ignore the intents and purposes of it and have wiped their hands clean of any responsibility for this subhuman.
Dauphin County Pennsylvania should be ashamed of itself for its actions, or rather lack of action in this case. Neighbors fear for their children’s safety, so, clearly the public is upset about this, and still Pennsylvania does nothing.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
John McCain’s Blatant BS
John McCain recently ran a campaign ad featuring a windmill, projecting the idea that he is in favor of alternative energy. The ad claims he stood up against Bush and has a realistic plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and protect our environment.
He has had eight opportunities to vote on the renewable energy bill that would have extended the investment tax credit for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems. These credits, which expire in December of this year, help these industries to remain competitive with fossil fuel industries. And, he has missed all eight opportunites. Which effectively is a ‘No’ vote.
He is courting oil companies and is taking every nickel, dime and hundred dollar bill they are throwing at him.
What can we derive from these three facts? John McCain thinks Americans are too stupid to see him as he really is. Another political stooge bought and paid for by other oil company stooges (lobbyists) who don’t give a damn about the future of clean alternative energy or the environment.
A recent article in Scientific American laid out a grand plan to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 using technology we have currently available.
Some of the world’s largest solar projects in the country, the Arizona desert, in the Mojave Desert, and elsewhere in California, are going to have to resign themselves to the fact that alternative energy in this country is a pipe dream. We have the consensus, the desire and the technological ability to begin cleaning up our environment and making ourselves energy independent but our leaders prefer to remain lapdogs of the oil industry.
And in doing so we are being forced to subjugate ourselves to king oil’s whims.
leaders of this country refuse to abandone their financially lucrative associations with big oil and instead continue to forsake the future health of their fellow citizens and the environment.
Running out of fossil fuels would probably be the best thing to happen for this planet. It is the only way the U.S. is going to adopt clean alternative fuels. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.
He has had eight opportunities to vote on the renewable energy bill that would have extended the investment tax credit for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems. These credits, which expire in December of this year, help these industries to remain competitive with fossil fuel industries. And, he has missed all eight opportunites. Which effectively is a ‘No’ vote.
He is courting oil companies and is taking every nickel, dime and hundred dollar bill they are throwing at him.
What can we derive from these three facts? John McCain thinks Americans are too stupid to see him as he really is. Another political stooge bought and paid for by other oil company stooges (lobbyists) who don’t give a damn about the future of clean alternative energy or the environment.
A recent article in Scientific American laid out a grand plan to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 using technology we have currently available.
Some of the world’s largest solar projects in the country, the Arizona desert, in the Mojave Desert, and elsewhere in California, are going to have to resign themselves to the fact that alternative energy in this country is a pipe dream. We have the consensus, the desire and the technological ability to begin cleaning up our environment and making ourselves energy independent but our leaders prefer to remain lapdogs of the oil industry.
And in doing so we are being forced to subjugate ourselves to king oil’s whims.
Despite all of the toxic pollutants we have seen dumped around oil wells fouling the surrounding land and waterways,
despite all of the disruption we have witnessed with wildlife habitat,
despite all the pollution that have been proven to result from burning fossil fuels,
despite the proven benefits to our nation and the world to be had from converting to clean alternative energy,
despite scientists warning that we need to offset greenhouse gas emissions,
despite the positive effect that pushing a new clean energy would have on stimulating our economy,
despite falling behind Germany in an industry that we could easily regain, producing and installing of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells,
despite the general public’s outcry to pursue clean alternative energy and wean ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels,
leaders of this country refuse to abandone their financially lucrative associations with big oil and instead continue to forsake the future health of their fellow citizens and the environment.
Running out of fossil fuels would probably be the best thing to happen for this planet. It is the only way the U.S. is going to adopt clean alternative fuels. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
American Oil ‘Shortage’ Created by American Oil Companies
The reason Bush likes to place the cause of America’s high gas prices on increased demand from India and China is because American oil companies are shipping U.S. oil to those countries for a bigger profit than what they can get here. So, if they were not willing to pay more for the oil than American’s pay, then, according to George Bush’s profit-polluted logic, there would not be a shortage here and we would not be paying higher pump prices. Now, look here to see who is consuming the most oil.
We are exporting 1.6 million barrels of U.S. refined oil products a day and are being lead to believe that we need to open up more sources here because there is a shortage. We are creating our shortage ourselves. Is this the ‘shortage’ that oil corporations refer to when they say we don’t have enough U.S. oil to address America’s needs? Is this the real reason oil companies and their political supporters want to open up offshore oil drilling?
Here’s how it works, China and India want more oil, U.S. oil companies see a chance to make more money by shipping our oil to them instead of keeping it here in the U.S. and by doing so they create a shortage here resulting in American’s paying a higher price at the pumps. This is what is known as a win-win, for the oil companies.
Go ahead, someone try to convince me that we need more offshore oil drilling. Only the oil companies need access to more oil. Because of their need for more profit. The need of the struggling American family to keep gas prices low does not enter into the equation, except as a byproduct American oil makes even more profit off of us. I have presented facts on this very blog that the U.S. government experts have said those new oil wells will not help at the pump. This is just a mere drop in the bucket. Here we have oil companies selling oil products to foreign countries while our politicians, the oil company stooges, are trying to convince the American public that by opening up those oil fields we will have lower prices at the pump. I really, truly want to know how many people are actually buying this load of crap.
And did anyone pickup on the fact that the oil tanker that crashed in New Orleans a few weeks back was loaded with biofuel headed for foreign ports? If we have such a fuel shortage here in the U.S., enough that our fuel prices are being raised, then why the hell are we sending our fuel overseas? Oh right, they pay a higher price for it. One can only assume that if we do allow more offshore oil wells then this oil will also go to foreign ports. Why? Repeat after me, “because they pay more for it”.
What is the true reason behind the federal government throwing subsidies at farmers to convert more corn fields into biofuels? To ship it over seas because they pay more for it. They have too quickly adopted the manufacture of an alternative fuel that offers very little reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because it brings a higher profit for themselves than investing in solar, wind, hydrogen, or wave power. Plus, the increased production of biofuels is worsening world hunger. Only after we stop sabotaging alternative energy progress, because it disrupts profit streams of current technology, can we truly begin our quest to break free of foreign oil dependence. Are all of you people who complain about high gas prices and just accept the governments reason for it beginning to see what is really happening here?
Oil companies and other profiteers are willing to destroy the natural beauty and wildlife habitat of such places as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Rocky Mountain area. They are willing to deal a final blow to an already struggling coastal economy, still reeling from the hurricanes of 2005, to extract oil that we Americans will most likely not even get to use because oil companies are keeping it away from the American people so they can make more profit from it overseas. What we really need to do is to turn the management of these American oil companies over to someone who actually has America’s best interest at heart. Because it is clear the oil company executives do not.
Four dollar a gallon gas is still cheaper than what many other countries are paying, and we will adjust to it. But using our dependence on foreign oil as a rally cry to put more profit in big oil’s pockets is the usual short-sighted policy decisions based solely on profit and only serves profiteers. And by doing so further disrupts our national treasures which will in the long run be extremely detrimental to the health and well being of all of us and the planet. If American oil companies insist on selling American oil to foreign countries let them do it after we get our share while developing alternative energy industries. Our dependence on foreign oil undermines our national security. But dependence on any fossil fuel is a danger to world health. We must develop alternative energy sources. If we decide on using biofuel then don’t use food crops.
What is further disappointing about this issue is that both presidential candidates, McCain and Obama, are shifting their earlier stances to now be in favor of offshore drilling. Well, actually McCain could flip again tomorrow, who knows where he will be come election day. Can this flip toward big oil be a sign that these guys are being paid off by big oil? Or is it the result of selling out their beliefs in their disgusting pursuit of votes?
Further reading:
OPEC president says no demand for more oil
Committee Against Oil Exploration (presents a very strong case against further drilling)
Clean Ocean Action
Hydrogen: Hope or Hype?
Progress of Wind Energy
The Technology That Will Save Humanity
Wave Power Scientist Enthused by Green Energy
We are exporting 1.6 million barrels of U.S. refined oil products a day and are being lead to believe that we need to open up more sources here because there is a shortage. We are creating our shortage ourselves. Is this the ‘shortage’ that oil corporations refer to when they say we don’t have enough U.S. oil to address America’s needs? Is this the real reason oil companies and their political supporters want to open up offshore oil drilling?
Here’s how it works, China and India want more oil, U.S. oil companies see a chance to make more money by shipping our oil to them instead of keeping it here in the U.S. and by doing so they create a shortage here resulting in American’s paying a higher price at the pumps. This is what is known as a win-win, for the oil companies.
Go ahead, someone try to convince me that we need more offshore oil drilling. Only the oil companies need access to more oil. Because of their need for more profit. The need of the struggling American family to keep gas prices low does not enter into the equation, except as a byproduct American oil makes even more profit off of us. I have presented facts on this very blog that the U.S. government experts have said those new oil wells will not help at the pump. This is just a mere drop in the bucket. Here we have oil companies selling oil products to foreign countries while our politicians, the oil company stooges, are trying to convince the American public that by opening up those oil fields we will have lower prices at the pump. I really, truly want to know how many people are actually buying this load of crap.
And did anyone pickup on the fact that the oil tanker that crashed in New Orleans a few weeks back was loaded with biofuel headed for foreign ports? If we have such a fuel shortage here in the U.S., enough that our fuel prices are being raised, then why the hell are we sending our fuel overseas? Oh right, they pay a higher price for it. One can only assume that if we do allow more offshore oil wells then this oil will also go to foreign ports. Why? Repeat after me, “because they pay more for it”.
What is the true reason behind the federal government throwing subsidies at farmers to convert more corn fields into biofuels? To ship it over seas because they pay more for it. They have too quickly adopted the manufacture of an alternative fuel that offers very little reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because it brings a higher profit for themselves than investing in solar, wind, hydrogen, or wave power. Plus, the increased production of biofuels is worsening world hunger. Only after we stop sabotaging alternative energy progress, because it disrupts profit streams of current technology, can we truly begin our quest to break free of foreign oil dependence. Are all of you people who complain about high gas prices and just accept the governments reason for it beginning to see what is really happening here?
Oil companies and other profiteers are willing to destroy the natural beauty and wildlife habitat of such places as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Rocky Mountain area. They are willing to deal a final blow to an already struggling coastal economy, still reeling from the hurricanes of 2005, to extract oil that we Americans will most likely not even get to use because oil companies are keeping it away from the American people so they can make more profit from it overseas. What we really need to do is to turn the management of these American oil companies over to someone who actually has America’s best interest at heart. Because it is clear the oil company executives do not.
Four dollar a gallon gas is still cheaper than what many other countries are paying, and we will adjust to it. But using our dependence on foreign oil as a rally cry to put more profit in big oil’s pockets is the usual short-sighted policy decisions based solely on profit and only serves profiteers. And by doing so further disrupts our national treasures which will in the long run be extremely detrimental to the health and well being of all of us and the planet. If American oil companies insist on selling American oil to foreign countries let them do it after we get our share while developing alternative energy industries. Our dependence on foreign oil undermines our national security. But dependence on any fossil fuel is a danger to world health. We must develop alternative energy sources. If we decide on using biofuel then don’t use food crops.
What is further disappointing about this issue is that both presidential candidates, McCain and Obama, are shifting their earlier stances to now be in favor of offshore drilling. Well, actually McCain could flip again tomorrow, who knows where he will be come election day. Can this flip toward big oil be a sign that these guys are being paid off by big oil? Or is it the result of selling out their beliefs in their disgusting pursuit of votes?
Further reading:
OPEC president says no demand for more oil
Committee Against Oil Exploration (presents a very strong case against further drilling)
Clean Ocean Action
Hydrogen: Hope or Hype?
Progress of Wind Energy
The Technology That Will Save Humanity
Wave Power Scientist Enthused by Green Energy
Monday, August 11, 2008
Comcast Customer Relations is Way Out of Line
What the Hell is Going on with Comcast?
I just found this story through Digg about how a Comcast Tech got extremely rude with a paying customer after the tech disconnected the guys service. The situation can be better explained here and the tech was definitely in the wrong for actions and absolutely out of line for his verbal assault on the customer.
Periodically, I hear of horror stories from Comcast customers in the way they are treated so I decided to do some investigation of my own. I was appalled by what I learned. It just blows me away that this company is still in business.
Is their job so stressful that they cannot maintain a civil tongue? Do they hold their customers in such low esteem that they cannot afford basic simple courtesies to them?
Do they attend any type of seminar or training session that clearly identifies how Comcast employees are supposed to talk to their customers?
The list of atrocious behavior from Comcast is a long one covering the complete gamut from missed appointments, refusing to follow through on promises to return calls, to swearing at customers.
I am a Comcast customer only because I have no options concerning who I can deliver cable to my home. They say there is no monopoly in the cable service business but everywhere I have lived, since cable became popular in the 1970s, I have never had a second choice in service providers. If that is not a monopoly then I don’t know what is.
My horror story with them involved initial installation. When the installer showed up and did not do the complete install because his work order did not reflect everything I had specifically asked for (and verified with customer service the previous week) he told me it happens all the time. He did actually call his supervisor right then and set me up for another appointment the following week to finish the installation. I could not talk him into finishing in right then but he would do it saying he had other installs to do and was only allowed a certain amount of time. A lot of this sounded bogus but at least I didn’t have to deal with the dreaded customer service again.
Then I got to thinking about their television ads. The complete and utter lies they tell of how good it is to work there or how many satisfied customers they have, or how they make your life so much better for trusting them. They are the only ones you can go to.
I witnessed a very unusual event at my neighbors home. A Comcast installer arrived near the last minute of their scheduled appointment, as is usual for this company, and about twenty minutes later a second installer showed up. within thirty more minutes two other installers showed up. so now there are four installers to do this very simple installation. I know the installation was for hooking up three televisions and an internet connection. Anyway, the reason it took all of these guys to do this very standard and simple installation is because the neighbor is a 19 year thin very busty very pretty woman. Think about that for a moment. The secret to getting fast service is invite a beautiful young busty woman to be present and make sure the installer knows it. It still took them three hours to make this installation. Sometimes you just have to laugh at how shallow and dog-like men can be.
Every where I have worked all the employees are taught that the customer should be allowed to complain but you never, ever get into a shouting match with them or become disrespectful in any way.
Comcast clearly has the opinion that since they are the only providers of cable service than they can treat their customers any way they want.
We need to get someone who can penalize Comcast for their terrible customer service record. We hold politicians to account for their behavior, we hold police to account for their behavior, we hold every other company to account for their customer service but the difference with Comcast is that are indeed a monopoly and they bloody well take advantage of it.
Comcast does not restrict their distaste and lackadaisical treatment to customers of their television cable service. They also lie to internet customers as well. They claim they do not set bandwidth limits, but we have seen proof to the contrary. Check out this story as well, and here. These are just small examples of what Comcast actually does even though they try to convince the rest of us that they don’t so it.
How much longer is this corporation going to be allowed to get away with this treatment of its customers? Who can we complain to?
Or is this just a preview to the type of customer service we can expect from every business from now on?
More horror stories:
Comcast Must Die
Comcast and Congress Are Cozy Buddies
Comcast ads mislead customers abut FiOS
Comcast Censors Ad
Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic
I just found this story through Digg about how a Comcast Tech got extremely rude with a paying customer after the tech disconnected the guys service. The situation can be better explained here and the tech was definitely in the wrong for actions and absolutely out of line for his verbal assault on the customer.
Periodically, I hear of horror stories from Comcast customers in the way they are treated so I decided to do some investigation of my own. I was appalled by what I learned. It just blows me away that this company is still in business.
Is their job so stressful that they cannot maintain a civil tongue? Do they hold their customers in such low esteem that they cannot afford basic simple courtesies to them?
Do they attend any type of seminar or training session that clearly identifies how Comcast employees are supposed to talk to their customers?
The list of atrocious behavior from Comcast is a long one covering the complete gamut from missed appointments, refusing to follow through on promises to return calls, to swearing at customers.
I am a Comcast customer only because I have no options concerning who I can deliver cable to my home. They say there is no monopoly in the cable service business but everywhere I have lived, since cable became popular in the 1970s, I have never had a second choice in service providers. If that is not a monopoly then I don’t know what is.
My horror story with them involved initial installation. When the installer showed up and did not do the complete install because his work order did not reflect everything I had specifically asked for (and verified with customer service the previous week) he told me it happens all the time. He did actually call his supervisor right then and set me up for another appointment the following week to finish the installation. I could not talk him into finishing in right then but he would do it saying he had other installs to do and was only allowed a certain amount of time. A lot of this sounded bogus but at least I didn’t have to deal with the dreaded customer service again.
Then I got to thinking about their television ads. The complete and utter lies they tell of how good it is to work there or how many satisfied customers they have, or how they make your life so much better for trusting them. They are the only ones you can go to.
I witnessed a very unusual event at my neighbors home. A Comcast installer arrived near the last minute of their scheduled appointment, as is usual for this company, and about twenty minutes later a second installer showed up. within thirty more minutes two other installers showed up. so now there are four installers to do this very simple installation. I know the installation was for hooking up three televisions and an internet connection. Anyway, the reason it took all of these guys to do this very standard and simple installation is because the neighbor is a 19 year thin very busty very pretty woman. Think about that for a moment. The secret to getting fast service is invite a beautiful young busty woman to be present and make sure the installer knows it. It still took them three hours to make this installation. Sometimes you just have to laugh at how shallow and dog-like men can be.
Every where I have worked all the employees are taught that the customer should be allowed to complain but you never, ever get into a shouting match with them or become disrespectful in any way.
Comcast clearly has the opinion that since they are the only providers of cable service than they can treat their customers any way they want.
We need to get someone who can penalize Comcast for their terrible customer service record. We hold politicians to account for their behavior, we hold police to account for their behavior, we hold every other company to account for their customer service but the difference with Comcast is that are indeed a monopoly and they bloody well take advantage of it.
Comcast does not restrict their distaste and lackadaisical treatment to customers of their television cable service. They also lie to internet customers as well. They claim they do not set bandwidth limits, but we have seen proof to the contrary. Check out this story as well, and here. These are just small examples of what Comcast actually does even though they try to convince the rest of us that they don’t so it.
How much longer is this corporation going to be allowed to get away with this treatment of its customers? Who can we complain to?
Or is this just a preview to the type of customer service we can expect from every business from now on?
More horror stories:
Comcast Must Die
Comcast and Congress Are Cozy Buddies
Comcast ads mislead customers abut FiOS
Comcast Censors Ad
Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Don't Cry for Georgia
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Georgia once again became a separate state. South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of the Georgian state but want to secede. Although independence has not been diplomatically recognized by any member of the United Nations, they still consider themselves to be separate and independent nations. Georgia considers them as part of Georgia and this is the basis for the ongoing conflict there.
Georgia insists on attempting to bring the region under Georgian constitutional control against the will of the people of South Ossetia. And to this end Georgia brutally attacked South Ossetia on August 7, 2008. Why? Is it a matter of maintaining a certain tally of the total amount of land mass? Or of population count? Is it an ego thing, Georgia doesn’t like to lose any part of its nation to Russia so they will use military force to impose their rule over these people? Basically, it is a matter of Georgia using this conflict as leverage to gain NATO membership, even though NATO had warned the Georgian leader against using military means to press the issue.
Russia has been granting citizenship to any South Ossetian who requests it which further ticked off Georgian officials. And when Georgia rolled its military artillery and armor across the border into South Ossetia and bombed civilian targets, Russian citizens were killed. Russia went to the U.N. Security Council asking for an immediate ceasefire between Georgia and South Ossetia. They did not like the way the resolution was worded so Russia went to the media to say that any Russian citizen injured in this aggression by the Georgian’s will be met with defending the “life and honor of Russian citizens, wherever they may be.” This brought Russian armor and artillery in to South Ossetia, and its aircraft began bombing Georgian positions. Now, Georgia is blaming Russia for the aggression.
It seems to me Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili is playing a very dangerous game here with world powers. He would be the bad guy here except that this matter is an internal affair and neither the U.S. nor Russia has the legal right to enter into it.
Russia is in it to punish Georgia for seeking alliance with the Western world. The U.S. cannot do anything more than verbally threaten Russia with risking “significant” and enduring damage to its relationship with the United States, as if that threat holds any sting. Further, as if to underscore the impotence of such a threat, Russia has escalated their aggression by deploying a naval squadron off the coast of Abkhazia and its jets have bombed the outskirts of the Georgian capital, Tblisi.
The lack of diplomatic and military response from the U.S. shows the Georgian President that just because you suck up to the U.S. doesn’t automatically mean we will be your attack dog. The only reason we are siding with Georgia is because Georgia provided troops with us in Iraq. Oh yeah, plus there is a sizable oil shipment facility in the Black Sea port city of Poti as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which carries Caspian crude to the West.
No, don’t think that poor little Georgia is the victim here. President Saakashvili is as corrupted a politician as you will find anywhere. He and his ex-blood brother defense minister Irakli Okruashvili had a falling out recently accusing each other of mafia connections and profiting from transporting and selling stolen goods. If both of them are accusing the other you know there has to be truth in it from both sides.
Georgia has devoted 70% of its budget to its military. Any regime that throws that sizable percentage of its entire budget at its military instead of its citizens has an agenda to fulfill. Disillusioned Georgian citizens rose up in mass demonstrations against Saakashvili over allegations of corruption, cronyism and election fraud last November. His ruthless security forces – trained, equipped and subsidized by the west – thrashed the protesters. Now, with this latest move to attack a small defenseless South Ossetia he has been able to get Georgian citizens to rally around him. His manipulative games are about to be the downfall of this very untrustworthy tyrant.
Georgia insists on attempting to bring the region under Georgian constitutional control against the will of the people of South Ossetia. And to this end Georgia brutally attacked South Ossetia on August 7, 2008. Why? Is it a matter of maintaining a certain tally of the total amount of land mass? Or of population count? Is it an ego thing, Georgia doesn’t like to lose any part of its nation to Russia so they will use military force to impose their rule over these people? Basically, it is a matter of Georgia using this conflict as leverage to gain NATO membership, even though NATO had warned the Georgian leader against using military means to press the issue.
Russia has been granting citizenship to any South Ossetian who requests it which further ticked off Georgian officials. And when Georgia rolled its military artillery and armor across the border into South Ossetia and bombed civilian targets, Russian citizens were killed. Russia went to the U.N. Security Council asking for an immediate ceasefire between Georgia and South Ossetia. They did not like the way the resolution was worded so Russia went to the media to say that any Russian citizen injured in this aggression by the Georgian’s will be met with defending the “life and honor of Russian citizens, wherever they may be.” This brought Russian armor and artillery in to South Ossetia, and its aircraft began bombing Georgian positions. Now, Georgia is blaming Russia for the aggression.
It seems to me Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili is playing a very dangerous game here with world powers. He would be the bad guy here except that this matter is an internal affair and neither the U.S. nor Russia has the legal right to enter into it.
Russia is in it to punish Georgia for seeking alliance with the Western world. The U.S. cannot do anything more than verbally threaten Russia with risking “significant” and enduring damage to its relationship with the United States, as if that threat holds any sting. Further, as if to underscore the impotence of such a threat, Russia has escalated their aggression by deploying a naval squadron off the coast of Abkhazia and its jets have bombed the outskirts of the Georgian capital, Tblisi.
The lack of diplomatic and military response from the U.S. shows the Georgian President that just because you suck up to the U.S. doesn’t automatically mean we will be your attack dog. The only reason we are siding with Georgia is because Georgia provided troops with us in Iraq. Oh yeah, plus there is a sizable oil shipment facility in the Black Sea port city of Poti as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which carries Caspian crude to the West.
No, don’t think that poor little Georgia is the victim here. President Saakashvili is as corrupted a politician as you will find anywhere. He and his ex-blood brother defense minister Irakli Okruashvili had a falling out recently accusing each other of mafia connections and profiting from transporting and selling stolen goods. If both of them are accusing the other you know there has to be truth in it from both sides.
Georgia has devoted 70% of its budget to its military. Any regime that throws that sizable percentage of its entire budget at its military instead of its citizens has an agenda to fulfill. Disillusioned Georgian citizens rose up in mass demonstrations against Saakashvili over allegations of corruption, cronyism and election fraud last November. His ruthless security forces – trained, equipped and subsidized by the west – thrashed the protesters. Now, with this latest move to attack a small defenseless South Ossetia he has been able to get Georgian citizens to rally around him. His manipulative games are about to be the downfall of this very untrustworthy tyrant.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Further Training for the Looming Police State
Narcotics officers and a Sheriff's Office SWAT Team in Prince George's County, Maryland violently stormed Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheya Calvo’s home and recovered a package containing 32 pounds of marijuana. When main stream media report a story in this fashion the majority of people who actually take the time to read or listen to the story believe immediately that the mayor is guilty. After all, why would the police fortify themselves with heavily armed SWAT team members if this guy wasn’t guilty? Why indeed.
The story takes on an even more “sensational” aspect (which media eats up like ‘crack’ candy) when they are able to report that officers also shot and killed Calvo's two black Labradors. Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies "apparently felt threatened" by the dogs, which is just a cavalier excuse that trigger happy police always use when they want to shoot something. They get away with this lie far too often. Calvo insists the dogs were not attacking, and as one of the dogs ran away a big bad policeman chased him down and killed it as it was cowering in a corner. Labrador retrievers are not known to be aggressive dogs. They may bark up a storm but they only attack when threatened. Unlike humans.
Calvo has not been charged and he, his wife and his mother-in-law are "persons of interest". Police say the investigation into how the drugs were in his home continues. Are they identifying these people as “persons of interest” out of bravado to avoid the embarrassment of obviously terrorizing the wrong family?
The raid occurred after Calvo returned from walking his dogs and discovered the package sitting on his doorstep addressed to his wife. As any husband would, he picked up the package and brought it into his home. This was the signal the overzealous police, hiding in wait, was hoping for. They unleashed their terror on this family, breaking in the front door, screaming for everyone to get on the floor, all with semi-automatic weapons pointing at the hapless, unsuspecting family. They feel they have the ‘legal right’ to commit this terror under a no-knock warrant which absolves them of all responsibility.
This article from Police Link does nothing to present the whole story and is meant to only cast this police action in a favorable light. This amounts to propaganda for the police state of which the vast majority of citizens don’t even realize they are under.
I was going through the comments that readers post on several different sites, each with their own version of the story, and I am once again appalled at the number of people who automatically assume the guilt of Mr. Calvo just because the police say so. This gullibility is one reason why people are so easily controlled by the people who control the media and an ever-increasing police fascist mentality that is taking over this country. Don’t get me wrong, there are good people out there who have joined their local police force for the purpose of ‘helping’ people by taking bad guys off the street. And we need them. The problem comes from those little dictator types who think that by putting on a police uniform they are given total and absolute control over any private citizen.
We have all run into these little racist Hitler wannabes. Unfortunately, there are more and more of them being accepted at police academies every year.
Sometimes it is just intuition that screams at you that identifies a story as having a false element. This story is one of those. After a little research I discovered that Mr. Calvo, besides being a very anti-drug Mayor, also is a director on the board of SEED, a national nonprofit that helps urban public boarding school students prepare for college. Based on this characterization of the man, it is looking more and more like this family is the recipient of someone’s idea of revenge.
There are several personality types that would have no problem in perpetrating just such a revenge. Someone who wants to see the mayor publicly humiliated and destroyed, or someone who wants to see the police humiliated, sends the package to get them busted. Perhaps by some drug dealer seeking revenge. Or, maybe a neighbor simply had the package delivered to this address, that is usually vacant during the day, and then snags the package before the residents get home. At any rate, this tragedy could have been avoided if the police had done some homework, notified the local police chief (who reported he had not been notified ahead of the raid) and not been so hopped up on the prospect of a gunfight in which they emerge the heroes for taking yet another despicable, murdering, gun-toting, crime lord out of commission for selling “marijuana?”.
The package was discovered to contain the marijuana in an Arizona shipping facility by drug sniffing dogs. There is no indication that the package had been opened in Arizona to verify the contents actually was marijuana. It is an assumption to think cops are that thorough. This gave police in Maryland time to organize the raid. It also gave them time to do a criminal background on the current occupants of this house. Had police actually conducted this research they would have discovered this address to be the home of the city’s mayor. They would have discovered the wife is not likely to have been involved in a major drug ring. But their mentality is such that they had an opportunity to take more illegal drugs off the street before they could be used to ‘destroy’ other families lives. If the Chief of Berwyn Heights Police Department has been notified of the impending raid he could have offered some insight into the occupants of this home.
Drug raids happen quite a lot across America, and due to the sheer number of them, there are bound to be “mistakes”. I’m saying that brain work needs to be undertaken to prevent this from happening again. And in the mean time, the Narcotics officers and the Sheriff's Office SWAT Team in Prince George's County, Maryland needs to apologize for their quick use of fascist tactics and their lack of proper preparation.
The bottom line here is that police are getting way out of hand in the exercising of their powers. They are given a lot of responsibility and are under a lot of pressure to enforce drug laws, as they should be, but they also need to do some thinking instead of first reaching for their weapons and automatically assuming they are busting a major dealer inside a fortress filled with drugs, guns and money. They had plenty of time to do so and chose not to.
The story takes on an even more “sensational” aspect (which media eats up like ‘crack’ candy) when they are able to report that officers also shot and killed Calvo's two black Labradors. Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies "apparently felt threatened" by the dogs, which is just a cavalier excuse that trigger happy police always use when they want to shoot something. They get away with this lie far too often. Calvo insists the dogs were not attacking, and as one of the dogs ran away a big bad policeman chased him down and killed it as it was cowering in a corner. Labrador retrievers are not known to be aggressive dogs. They may bark up a storm but they only attack when threatened. Unlike humans.
Calvo has not been charged and he, his wife and his mother-in-law are "persons of interest". Police say the investigation into how the drugs were in his home continues. Are they identifying these people as “persons of interest” out of bravado to avoid the embarrassment of obviously terrorizing the wrong family?
The raid occurred after Calvo returned from walking his dogs and discovered the package sitting on his doorstep addressed to his wife. As any husband would, he picked up the package and brought it into his home. This was the signal the overzealous police, hiding in wait, was hoping for. They unleashed their terror on this family, breaking in the front door, screaming for everyone to get on the floor, all with semi-automatic weapons pointing at the hapless, unsuspecting family. They feel they have the ‘legal right’ to commit this terror under a no-knock warrant which absolves them of all responsibility.
This article from Police Link does nothing to present the whole story and is meant to only cast this police action in a favorable light. This amounts to propaganda for the police state of which the vast majority of citizens don’t even realize they are under.
I was going through the comments that readers post on several different sites, each with their own version of the story, and I am once again appalled at the number of people who automatically assume the guilt of Mr. Calvo just because the police say so. This gullibility is one reason why people are so easily controlled by the people who control the media and an ever-increasing police fascist mentality that is taking over this country. Don’t get me wrong, there are good people out there who have joined their local police force for the purpose of ‘helping’ people by taking bad guys off the street. And we need them. The problem comes from those little dictator types who think that by putting on a police uniform they are given total and absolute control over any private citizen.
We have all run into these little racist Hitler wannabes. Unfortunately, there are more and more of them being accepted at police academies every year.
Sometimes it is just intuition that screams at you that identifies a story as having a false element. This story is one of those. After a little research I discovered that Mr. Calvo, besides being a very anti-drug Mayor, also is a director on the board of SEED, a national nonprofit that helps urban public boarding school students prepare for college. Based on this characterization of the man, it is looking more and more like this family is the recipient of someone’s idea of revenge.
There are several personality types that would have no problem in perpetrating just such a revenge. Someone who wants to see the mayor publicly humiliated and destroyed, or someone who wants to see the police humiliated, sends the package to get them busted. Perhaps by some drug dealer seeking revenge. Or, maybe a neighbor simply had the package delivered to this address, that is usually vacant during the day, and then snags the package before the residents get home. At any rate, this tragedy could have been avoided if the police had done some homework, notified the local police chief (who reported he had not been notified ahead of the raid) and not been so hopped up on the prospect of a gunfight in which they emerge the heroes for taking yet another despicable, murdering, gun-toting, crime lord out of commission for selling “marijuana?”.
The package was discovered to contain the marijuana in an Arizona shipping facility by drug sniffing dogs. There is no indication that the package had been opened in Arizona to verify the contents actually was marijuana. It is an assumption to think cops are that thorough. This gave police in Maryland time to organize the raid. It also gave them time to do a criminal background on the current occupants of this house. Had police actually conducted this research they would have discovered this address to be the home of the city’s mayor. They would have discovered the wife is not likely to have been involved in a major drug ring. But their mentality is such that they had an opportunity to take more illegal drugs off the street before they could be used to ‘destroy’ other families lives. If the Chief of Berwyn Heights Police Department has been notified of the impending raid he could have offered some insight into the occupants of this home.
Drug raids happen quite a lot across America, and due to the sheer number of them, there are bound to be “mistakes”. I’m saying that brain work needs to be undertaken to prevent this from happening again. And in the mean time, the Narcotics officers and the Sheriff's Office SWAT Team in Prince George's County, Maryland needs to apologize for their quick use of fascist tactics and their lack of proper preparation.
The bottom line here is that police are getting way out of hand in the exercising of their powers. They are given a lot of responsibility and are under a lot of pressure to enforce drug laws, as they should be, but they also need to do some thinking instead of first reaching for their weapons and automatically assuming they are busting a major dealer inside a fortress filled with drugs, guns and money. They had plenty of time to do so and chose not to.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Offshore Drilling Will Not Help Struggling American Families
Republicans threaten to shut down the federal government in order to force a vote on lifting the ban on offshore drilling. They are using the plight of struggling American families to get this ban lifted. They are convinced that by allowing more offshore drilling would force prices at the gas pumps to go down. This of course is a fallacy by our own government's admission and is an abominable interpretation of supply and demand in America today.
Recent statistics show that by decreasing the number of miles that American's drive decreases the price at the pump. This is the effect of supply and demand in actual practice. Another side of economic politics is that by simply threatening to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling OPEC lowered their price for crude.
Opening up new drilling will take several years before we extract the first drop of oil, and given that the life expectancy of the oil fields is around 20 or 30 years we are looking at an average of 700 million barrels per year. It is expected that we will consume 7.45 billion barrels of oil this year, so 700 million is only about 9%. Not much chance of that amount affecting gas pump prices.
Opening up offshore drilling serves American oil companies by increasing their lucrative subsidies. The more oil they produce = the more subsidy they receive. Oil industry subsidies further our dangerous dependence on foreign oil supplies and burden taxpayers with unacceptable costs to human health, the environment, and the economy. This energy policy also discourages private investments in new, cleaner technologies such as electric vehicles. Furthermore, hidden subsidies waste taxpayer dollars by undermining government programs to promote fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, and environmental protection.
So, republicans want to throw a tantrum in order to grant more money for their oil buddies and are willing to hold the federal government as hostage in order to do so.
President Bush and his crew purposefully lifted the 26-year-old offshore drilling ban at a time when it was common knowledge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is refusing to vote on it, the House of Representatives would break for an August recess, and certain spending bills are coming up for vote by the end of the fiscal year which ends in September. This is political maneuvering at its most selfish level.
Now, republicans have called on Newt Gingrich to dust off his old tactics of political chicken, that he made famous in the late 1990's, to threaten a shutdown of the federal government if House republicans don't get their way.
They claim that lifting the ban leads to an environmentally sound domestic production of oil and natural gas, will improve energy efficiency and encourage the development of alternative energy technologies. This of course is all bogus as well. Oil and gas companies have seen alternative energy sources as a threat to their profits. See here and here. But some are slowly coming around to realize they can be a part of it, that is of course as long as there is profit to be made.
Lifting this ban is only a band-aid fix at best and cannot possibly meet all of the high expectations that backers claim. If they truly want to encourage the development of alternative energy technologies then vote to fund these technologies. Don't throw even more money at big oil to build more oil wells that hold no real promise of easing American families financial woes.
If you truly want to improve energy efficiency, then push legislation that will force American automakers to build more fuel efficient vehicles (under much stronger measures than the baby steps you recently took), enforce stricter vehicle and industrial emissions standards (you may have to replace EPA Chief Johnson to get this done), develop better mass transit systems, design an energy infrastructure based on alternative fuel use, and force American oil companies to spend their windfall subsidies and obscenely huge profits on alternative energy research. They don't have to lose their standings as providers of energy for America, it just should not be in pollution-generating fossil-fuel use.
We need leaders who will do something more than just talk about the need to improve our energy situation and pass band-aid legislation that provides little temporary relief at best.
If you truly cared about the financial situation of the American taxpayer, then you would stop buying oversized mansions (sometimes more than one) while many Americans live in humble homes or are losing them due to your lack of regulatory attention, you would stop flying around in energy inefficient private jets while Americans are herded and stuffed like cattle onto increasingly more expensive commercial airliners, you would stop buying gas guzzling houseboats and yachts while expecting us to conserve, and most important of all you would return all of that money from special interest groups that amounts to nothing more than blatant attempts to buy your favor for their pet projects that benefit themselves and do nothing about easing the plight of the struggling American family.
If I am painting a picture of you politicians growing out of touch with the American citizen then I have made my point.
Recent statistics show that by decreasing the number of miles that American's drive decreases the price at the pump. This is the effect of supply and demand in actual practice. Another side of economic politics is that by simply threatening to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling OPEC lowered their price for crude.
Opening up new drilling will take several years before we extract the first drop of oil, and given that the life expectancy of the oil fields is around 20 or 30 years we are looking at an average of 700 million barrels per year. It is expected that we will consume 7.45 billion barrels of oil this year, so 700 million is only about 9%. Not much chance of that amount affecting gas pump prices.
Opening up offshore drilling serves American oil companies by increasing their lucrative subsidies. The more oil they produce = the more subsidy they receive. Oil industry subsidies further our dangerous dependence on foreign oil supplies and burden taxpayers with unacceptable costs to human health, the environment, and the economy. This energy policy also discourages private investments in new, cleaner technologies such as electric vehicles. Furthermore, hidden subsidies waste taxpayer dollars by undermining government programs to promote fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, and environmental protection.
So, republicans want to throw a tantrum in order to grant more money for their oil buddies and are willing to hold the federal government as hostage in order to do so.
President Bush and his crew purposefully lifted the 26-year-old offshore drilling ban at a time when it was common knowledge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is refusing to vote on it, the House of Representatives would break for an August recess, and certain spending bills are coming up for vote by the end of the fiscal year which ends in September. This is political maneuvering at its most selfish level.
Now, republicans have called on Newt Gingrich to dust off his old tactics of political chicken, that he made famous in the late 1990's, to threaten a shutdown of the federal government if House republicans don't get their way.
They claim that lifting the ban leads to an environmentally sound domestic production of oil and natural gas, will improve energy efficiency and encourage the development of alternative energy technologies. This of course is all bogus as well. Oil and gas companies have seen alternative energy sources as a threat to their profits. See here and here. But some are slowly coming around to realize they can be a part of it, that is of course as long as there is profit to be made.
Lifting this ban is only a band-aid fix at best and cannot possibly meet all of the high expectations that backers claim. If they truly want to encourage the development of alternative energy technologies then vote to fund these technologies. Don't throw even more money at big oil to build more oil wells that hold no real promise of easing American families financial woes.
If you truly want to improve energy efficiency, then push legislation that will force American automakers to build more fuel efficient vehicles (under much stronger measures than the baby steps you recently took), enforce stricter vehicle and industrial emissions standards (you may have to replace EPA Chief Johnson to get this done), develop better mass transit systems, design an energy infrastructure based on alternative fuel use, and force American oil companies to spend their windfall subsidies and obscenely huge profits on alternative energy research. They don't have to lose their standings as providers of energy for America, it just should not be in pollution-generating fossil-fuel use.
We need leaders who will do something more than just talk about the need to improve our energy situation and pass band-aid legislation that provides little temporary relief at best.
If you truly cared about the financial situation of the American taxpayer, then you would stop buying oversized mansions (sometimes more than one) while many Americans live in humble homes or are losing them due to your lack of regulatory attention, you would stop flying around in energy inefficient private jets while Americans are herded and stuffed like cattle onto increasingly more expensive commercial airliners, you would stop buying gas guzzling houseboats and yachts while expecting us to conserve, and most important of all you would return all of that money from special interest groups that amounts to nothing more than blatant attempts to buy your favor for their pet projects that benefit themselves and do nothing about easing the plight of the struggling American family.
If I am painting a picture of you politicians growing out of touch with the American citizen then I have made my point.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Presidential Ad Campaigns Are Not Very Presidential
The latest attacks and counterattacks in the race for president have taken on a sense of desperation. In attacking each other, Obama and McCain are displaying a form of unproductive leadership. Leadership should be a positive attribute for a president.
Attacking each other is trying to ensure the American people see the bad points in the other person. We all have bad points. What we want to know is what are your good points. If the best you can do is attack each other like schoolyard bullies then maybe neither of you are befitting of the office you are running for. Why don’t you guys focus on the positive aspects of your own campaigns and let us decide which one is better. Show us what you will be like as president. Just anybody can attack another person with negative slurs, but it takes a leader to rise above the dirt slinging and bring some much needed class back to the office.
McCain made the comment that “campaigns are tough”. I agree with this statement but I disagree with his obvious assessment that tough means “ugly” and “hostile”. This is where ethics comes into play. If the presidential candidate can keep himself above this type of negativity the American public will respect him for it. Trying to make yourself look better by making the other person look bad is not the basis we want to use for deciding a president. That decision should be based on actual substance and only the candidate can display that substance. Don’t force us to choose the lesser of two evils. We are tired of you guys thinking you have to lower the bar as if the office you guys are vying for is some local prize at the county fair.
Raise your expectations of us and we will follow. Show us that you are worthy of the office instead of how the other person is not worthy.
Take the initiative to show the leadership qualities that indicate you are capable of taking on the role of the leader of the free world. Don’t taint the position by resorting to the same low-level dirty politics that past unethical parties have used.
It is a truly sad day when a presidential candidate can put forth an ad comparing his opponent’s celebrity with the likes of Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears and hold his head up and declare “We’re proud of that commercial”. This gives a whole new perspective of that candidates expectations of himself and the American people.
We need debate on important issues such as energy, the environment, economics, and foreign policy. Instead, you are focused only on the prize and don’t seem to take into account the eroding away of the high class and dignity that goes with the office of President of the United States of America by tearing down your opponent. Each time you politicians attack one another you are chipping away at the high regard we Americans hold for this office and you lower the qualifications of the occupant to those of unethical and low-class individuals.
Attacking each other is trying to ensure the American people see the bad points in the other person. We all have bad points. What we want to know is what are your good points. If the best you can do is attack each other like schoolyard bullies then maybe neither of you are befitting of the office you are running for. Why don’t you guys focus on the positive aspects of your own campaigns and let us decide which one is better. Show us what you will be like as president. Just anybody can attack another person with negative slurs, but it takes a leader to rise above the dirt slinging and bring some much needed class back to the office.
McCain made the comment that “campaigns are tough”. I agree with this statement but I disagree with his obvious assessment that tough means “ugly” and “hostile”. This is where ethics comes into play. If the presidential candidate can keep himself above this type of negativity the American public will respect him for it. Trying to make yourself look better by making the other person look bad is not the basis we want to use for deciding a president. That decision should be based on actual substance and only the candidate can display that substance. Don’t force us to choose the lesser of two evils. We are tired of you guys thinking you have to lower the bar as if the office you guys are vying for is some local prize at the county fair.
Raise your expectations of us and we will follow. Show us that you are worthy of the office instead of how the other person is not worthy.
Take the initiative to show the leadership qualities that indicate you are capable of taking on the role of the leader of the free world. Don’t taint the position by resorting to the same low-level dirty politics that past unethical parties have used.
It is a truly sad day when a presidential candidate can put forth an ad comparing his opponent’s celebrity with the likes of Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears and hold his head up and declare “We’re proud of that commercial”. This gives a whole new perspective of that candidates expectations of himself and the American people.
We need debate on important issues such as energy, the environment, economics, and foreign policy. Instead, you are focused only on the prize and don’t seem to take into account the eroding away of the high class and dignity that goes with the office of President of the United States of America by tearing down your opponent. Each time you politicians attack one another you are chipping away at the high regard we Americans hold for this office and you lower the qualifications of the occupant to those of unethical and low-class individuals.
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