OMFG - McCain's other possible choices

Meg Whitman - former CEO of eBay.
* I can see that one now. The IRS would be taking Paypal and ONLY Paypal. Military/government surplus? eBay would become the exclusive seller.

Carly Fiorina - of HP fame.
* She could make for less government, that's for sure. We could reduce the head-count at the FBI and hire a big team of pretexters to get information.

McCain-Palin - the "maverick" meets the loony right wing

This is what you need to know about the admittedly very telegenic Sarah Palin, the surprise candidate for republican VP. I don't always agree with some of the things that the MoveOn.org lobbyists send me but this one is worth re-distributing because I agree with it.

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

* She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.(1)
* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.(2)
* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. (3)
* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.(4)
* She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.(5)
* She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.(6)
* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position. (7)

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Citations:
1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=7

7. "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-3142163-phDl8qx&t=8

An open letter to T-Mobile USA

This communication is explicitly not a request to renew my contract. I intend to remain OUT of contract until T-Mobile corrects some serious deficiencies in its service and phone offerings.

I was amused to receive a marketing piece from T-mobile today offering me $49.99. This was described as a "free month of service." Hardly. My average bill with T-mobile is always over $100. The goal of the marketing piece was to get me to renew my contract - which I will not do.

I have no complaints with customer service - once I got your support organization to take me seriously they bent over backwards to get the problem fixed. I am generally a happy customer.

Why won't I renew my contract - especially for a paltry fifty bucks?! Every so often I go to the "upgrade phone" section of your site and I see that I already own the most "advanced" most expensive model on offer - the Wing.

T-mobile was "a day late and a dollar short" six months ago with regard to rolling out 3g coverage. It adds insult to injury that your company has chosen a frequency band designed to be incompatible with any other 3g device.

I will renew my contract...
- when there is 3g coverage in the Phoenix metro area and...
- when there are phones on the market that not only support the incompatible 1700 mHz AWS band but are usable to roam on 3g services abroad.

I have no intention of switching to AT&T. Alltel, Sprint, Verizon - forget it, CDMA phones are useless outside the USA. Looking at my usage history you'll see that more months than not I have internataional roaming or text messaging charges.

So, once 3g coverage is available in Phoenix and there are "business-class Windows Mobile or Android" 3g phones available (other than the few 3g feature-free toys available - targeted at high school kids and soccer moms) then I'll sign a contract. Until then, forget it. I'll pay my bill every month and stay contract free until T-Mobile USA catches up with the rest of the world.
(signature)

A copy of the same message was submitted verbatim to T-mobile's customer service. As soon as I publish this post I will take this $49.99 "voucher" and feed it to my paper shredder.

You can't make this s**t up!

In this morning's paper (along with other atrocities to the senses, see the earlier post) there was an article about a guy suing a restaurant in Chicago because he claims he was infected with a tapeworm parasite there.

After seeing the funeral pictures I was feeling... I don't know what, really.

The article said (in part)
"A man who contends he got a 9-foot tapeworm after eating undercooked fish has sued a Chicago restaurant.

In the lawsuit filed Monday, Anthony Franz said he ordered salmon salad for lunch from (name of very-well-known Chicago seafood restaurant) in 2006 and fell violently ill. He later passed the giant parasite, which a pathologist determined came from undercooked fish, such as salmon."

I could not help but comment. In the USA this could well be used (hell, even approved and marketed) as a weight loss product.

My comment read: "Now all the girls in North Scottsdale are gonna want one. It'll be the new botox. You go to your doctor's office, eat a special plate of sushi and blam-o you've got a little friend in your gut that allows you to eat all the nasty fast food you want and still stay thin. Every year afterwards you go back in for laparoscopic surgery to remove your KFC-buddy and in the recovery room, another plate of special sushi.

I can't wait to see how the drug reps market it and what kind of pretty name they give the worm. Imagine the TV commercials!"

It was total through-the-looking-glass-after-having-seen-a-pimped-out-dead-body-before-breakfast fiction. Sounded funny at the time but who knew the response it would get... A woman wrote me and confirmed that while it may not be on the open market, it's already available. Read on:

By (kept anonymous) ".... (my username on the site deleted): They already do such a thing. It's pretty underground but you can buy the parasite overseas and use it. I've seen the delivery of such parasite and then seen it be used and then watched as HE daily ate like a pig and lost weight. Then went to the doctor, said he had visited a foreign country and got a pill to get rid of it. And it was a man, not a woman who did it. Gross."

Holy shit. I suppose it's one of those coincidences like "I have the same birthday!" that another human being could imagine and actually act upon using a parasite as a weight loss tool. I think it was 25 minutes at least before I stopped laughing at the response.

USA funerals, ghetto-style

I cannot in good conscience post the pictures seen in the paper. It would be disrespect for the dead and I'd rather leave that on AP's collective karma!

A google search for "san juan wake standing up" will probably locate the pictures. If you're reading on your lunch hour - eat first, eat after or (god help you if you can) eat DURING.

The dude is propped up in the corner of his mom's living room in a stylized NY Yankees hat, Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses, layered T-shirts and jeans. His body had been found "under a bridge," as the local version of the article says.

I feel for the family's loss, from the heart. However, I don't know what they were thinking when they let the press take pictures. The poor guy will be (indelibly) remembered by millions.

jesus freak funeral protestors turned away at the Canadian border - but supposedly not all of them :( ...

I won't mention the website name that these idiots from Topeka run. I hope the second group get their asses kicked, then charged, then deported. This is a sad footnote to a gruesome story that got little press in the USA.

In short, an innocent "nice guy" was beheaded by a crazy guy on a Greyhound bus in the province of Manitoba. For the geographically challenged, Manitoba is above northwest Minnesota and North Dakota.

Google it for more details - it's too disgusting and depressing.

Beheading victim protesters stopped
Winnipeggers urge action against U.S. sect planning McLean funeral picket
By SIMON FULLER, SUN MEDIA
The Winnipeg Sun

Members of a controversial U.S.-based church hoping to picket the funeral of beheading victim Tim McLean Jr. were turned away at the Canadian border by officials yesterday.

The Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan., announced Wednesday it planned to protest the funeral, to be held tomorrow afternoon at Westwood Community Church. But church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of church pastor Fred Phelps, confirmed last night one "team" of pickets were turned away at the Canadian border yesterday.

However, she said a second team was "on course" to arrive in Winnipeg in time for tomorrow's funeral.

"The only way they won't get through is if they are strip-searched and they find Westboro Baptist Church tattoos on their butts," said Phelps-Roper, who previously told the Winnipeg Sun McLean's "filthy ways" brought wrath upon his head.

If they do make it across the border, angry Winnipeggers are ready to confront them. Several Winnipeggers outraged by news the funeral for McLean, who was beheaded and partially eaten on a Greyhound bus west of Portage la Prairie last week, are planning to block the group from getting anywhere close to funeral-goers.

By early last night, a Facebook group devoted to the idea had swelled to almost 200 people.

"Everything they say is bizarre and off the wall and it's totally disrespectful to invade a funeral," said Winnipeg student Amalia Slobogian, 26, who joined the group after reading about the church's plans.

"When I first heard this, I was very angry. Freedom of speech is one thing, but imposing this at a funeral is totally inappropriate."

Pat Martin, the NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre, agreed.

"These guys are lunatics," said Martin.

"They're not baptists -- Tommy Douglas was a baptist."

Martin said there could be an "absolute melee at the church" if the picket goes ahead. If so, the folks from Kansas should be prepared for some "northern hospitality," he said.

Speaking from Ottawa, Martin said yesterday afternoon he had urged Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to block the church's passage into Canada.

"They treated my concerns with absolute decency and respect," he said. "This is not a partisan issue and it goes beyond political stripes -- it's about common decency."

Slobogian said the controversial church -- whose members believe God is punishing people and nations who accept homosexuality -- is just trying to get publicity.

"They're just a tiny sect looking for attention and notoriety. It would torture them if people didn't hit their website," she said.

Slobogian said the anticipated protesters will not be met with violence or placards, just a human barricade to separate them from funeral guests.

A Winnipeg police spokeswoman said the protest would not violate any hate laws, but officers have the ability to lay charges depending on what happens tomorrow.

She said charges can be laid under the provincial Cemeteries Act if anyone wilfully and unlawfully disturbs people assembled "for the purpose of burying a body."

Vince Weiguang Li has been charged with second-degree murder in McLean's death. He is currently undergoing a psychiatric assessment to determine if he is fit to stand trial and is scheduled to appear in court again on Sept. 8.

---

WHAT IS WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH?

WHO: Westboro Baptist Church

WHAT: Headed by disbarred lawyer Fred Phelps, the church has 71 members, 60 of whom are reportedly related to Phelps through blood, marriage or both. It is not associated with any known Baptist conventions or associations.

WHERE: Based in Topeka, Kan.

WHEN: First public service was held on Nov. 27, 1955.

WHY: Followers believe God views homosexuality as the ultimate sin. As a result, any community or nation accepting of the "homosexual agenda" is hated by God, and bad things that happen to its citizens are signs of His work.

LOWLIGHTS: Members have picketed funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and the memorial for victims of the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia ... Members have praised such things as AIDS and the 9/11 terror attacks ... Made several racial and anti-Semitic statements.

NBC coverage of olympic opening ceremonies disses Uruguay...

The Uruguayan delegation got THREE seconds of coverage on American TV during the parade of nations. THREE! Pitiful. I had to rewind on my PVR and then pause it to see what their athletes were wearing.

It was disappointing to see just a "flash" of the athletes from a place that I consider to be something of a second home. The McCain for president (Yecch - a vote for McCain is a vote for more of the same B.S. from Washington) commercial that followed not long afterwards was ten times longer.

DirecTV vs. over-the-air HD / olympics opening ceremonies

There is no comparison. Both are supposedly 1080i. Both my receivers are personal video recorders, both receive HD, but one has an over-the-air tuner.

The picture quality through the satellite service looks like garbage. I get an occasional freeze-up of the over-the-air picture but it's worth it. I don't watch a hell of a lot of olympics coverage every four years but I will probably re-aim the little outdoor UHF antenna to get it pointed more perfectly.

www.antennaweb.org is the place to go to find out how, where and what type of antenna to aim. If you live in the core of whatever city you're in, you probably have high enough signal strength that you can bypass your cable or satellite. The improvement in quality is well worth it!

GSM in Canada - Robbers Communications (er, Rogers)

I visited a friend in Canada this past weekend. GSM in Canada is like a large percentage of the supermarket business in Uruguay - the "appearance" that there are competitors but they are all the same company.

Cellular service - especially anything having to do with data - was absolute RAPE! It was actually cheaper for me to send a text message ROAMING than it was for my friend and the per-kilobyte data charge ROAMING was less than what the locals pay UNDER CONTRACT. Canadian media is a mafia tightly controlled out of Ottawa and there are really only... five companies and the government in the media business. Your GSM phone showed two networks "Fido" and "Rogers" - except about five years ago Rogers (referred to universally by the locals as Robbers) - bought Fido. Fido had been reasonably priced but they were not in the good graces of Ottawa - and the market is so small in terms of users and the territory so large its hard for a smaller company to make a profit. Most of the cellular plans will sell you 150 minutes for the same price Americans pay for 1000. But that's not really the final price...

Robbers charges a CDN$6.50 "system access fee" which is not included in the plan price either. They also CHARGE EXTRA for "features" like caller ID and voicemail. Oh, and the concept of "long distance" still applies although they will hit you with a charge for "unlimited Canadian long distance." Robbers' coverage is OK, I didn't use GSM very much because I was "on vacation." It'll be interesting to see what I get charged for a couple of uses of Exchange push email and a random MMS message I received.

It's also very strange that they do business under a family name. There actually is a Ted Robbers, er, Rogers that owns the whole thing. I don't know of any other nation where the GSM carrier is so obviously family owned and so obviously politically connected.

Monday was a government holiday in Canada so most people had the day off. A Robbers telemarketer called my friend since he shares an account with his roommate. The telemarketer got SO shouted at when first of all he kept calling my friend "Catherine" even though DUH it was obviously a male voice on the line.... my friend just SNAPPED when he used a pushy sales tactic of ignoring the customer saying NO and trying to close the sale by saying "So can I ship you that new Nokia phone? We'll even waive the activation and shipping charges!" Such a deal. Activation and shipping charges on top of all the other nickels and dimes they ding their customers with. Besides, "Catherine" signed a contract a year ago - accepting the phone would add on two more years which is the goal. (There's talk in the Canadian press of another GSM carrier getting into the market and strangely enough it'll be Egyptian-held Orascom who might be backing it. I'll believe it when I see it....) The telemarketer stuck to his script and offered "Catherine" a "free analysis" of how she could "reduce" her bill. Want to know what it was? Reduce the number of minutes contracted. Duh. Of course the bill goes down - maybe. Might go way up when she goes over that tiny little pittance of minutes she changed to from the other tiny little pittance of minutes.

The other carriers smell blood in the water. One of them is running an ad campaign that says "Ditch that system access fee."

They're also in the cable TV business. The cable TV mafia in Canada is the same as the wired/wireless phone mafia. Robbers is not as bad as Shaw - at least they let you lease that soon-to-be-obsolete cable box. Shaw charges CDN$800 for the same Scientific Atlanta Explorer.

TiVo is the gold standard of personal video recorders. However, the only TiVo available in Canada is analog because.... it's the exact same platform and headend as in the USA, and there are "some" sets with cablecard/QAM tuning that make it into the CDN market - but no CDN cable company has implemented cablecard. That nifty dual cablecard TiVo available in the USA *could* work in Canada if the media mafia there decided to give their customers the option.

US Airways - nickel and diming customers

Dammit, if you want your flying experience to be like a phone bill - crammed with surprise charges - US Airways is your carrier.

They've just instituted a charge for beverages on top of a charge for checked baggage. It's two bucks for a diet coke or for juice! What a ripoff. It's bad enough that TSA enforces the ripoff prices charged inside airports for food and beverage then US Air nickel and dimes you for drinks on board their planes. Two bucks for a diet coke "correct CHANGE appreciated." (My emphasis is on the word change.)

This morning I tested their policy to see if they will accept change. Without a word I handed the flight attendant a $2 roll of nickels to pay for my beverage. Success!

I think everyone who flys US Airways should express their appreciation for this policy by having correct CHANGE for the flight attendant. Yeah, it's not their fault but the additional expense of coin handling should get their attention that its stupid marketing to so completely unbundle the cost of the flying experience.

TD Canada Trust - a/k/a Tittybank

I spent the weekend in Toronto. I have lots more to write about it but too tired now. This (or rather, these) had to see the light of day.

My friend banks at TD Canada Trust. After I saw their marketing material - they should change their name to Tittybank.

So we're standing in front of a teller and she's doing the transaction - and this marketing piece literally POPPED out at me. For shit's sake you can see the nipples!

I said to my friend, "Holy shit look at this, what bad taste! You know that these float in the hot tub or someone got bored with photoshop or something."

"I think its photoshop," he said.

"Mmmmm - I'm not so sure... whoever photoshopped it would have had to have left such definite nipples."

She asked if I was American. I admitted it ;) which I don't often do abroad. She said, I'm glad you think its gross - here, take the whole lot back to the states and get 'em out of my sight.

My friend was quite shocked when I giggled and put the whole STACK (hahah) 23 of them in my pocket. 21 made it back to Phoenix because he asked for two of 'em when we walked out of the bank.

Remember, you can click on the picture to make it (cough) larger.